171 Chapter 171: At the Mountains of Madness (1/2)
”HUH?!” I blurted out, annoyed. ”You told me to dismiss Pegasus because they were too conspicuous, and you wanted us to sneak in and meld with the shadows while avoiding security cameras to prevent ourselves from getting caught, but now you want to just bust your way through the front door?! Are you kidding?!”
”It's a matter of timing,” Dad explained flippantly. ”If they saw us that far out and a while ago, they will have plenty of time to ready a defense and start evacuating the facility. But if we strike now, they'll be caught unawares and completely off guard. So let's not waste too much time arguing and hit them hard and fast before they know what's happening.”
He unleashed the torrent of flames that seared through the massive doors, his superheated fire melting the reinforced metal instantly.
Holy hell…Angel of Fire indeed.
”Let's go.”
I hurried after him, and we stepped into the vast facility beyond the molten doors, which continued to smolder glow red-hot from the intense heat. Taking care not to step or touch the warped, softening but scalding edges, I peered inside the facility.
”…where's everyone?”
There was no sign of panic, nothing. No panicking humans running around at the sudden attack. Not even a single sign of human life.
”Where did everyone go?” I asked dumbly.
”Sh!” Dad snapped at me. I fell silent, wondering why he was so on edge despite his usually cavalier attitude.
And then I sensed them.
There were things hiding in the shadows, staying just out of sight and lurking on the edge of our peripheral vision. I summoned Corvus and sent them to scout ahead, but something lashed out and smashed one of them into the ground. I instantly recalled the rest, feeling a cold jolt at the demise of the poor crow.
”What the hell is that?!”
Then I realized that there was no sign of human life, but…there was definitely something alive in here.
Something alive and overwhelmingly hostile.
”Stay back!”
Dad pushed me back as something whipped out from the shadows, piercing through the space where I had been occupying just a millisecond ago. Drawing his flaming sword, Dad cut whatever it was, and it shrieked and recoiled before withdrawing back into the darkness. I saw something drop down, a black appendage, but it disappeared fully before it could hit the ground.
”Angelica!”
The angel of fire materialized, illuminating the entire place with blinding crimson fire. I could see inhuman shapes scuttling at the edge of the shadows, where the light of the blazing flames couldn't quite reach, but the brief glimpse was enough to cause me to back away in horror.
Gritting my teeth, I immediately drew Gan Jiang and Mo Ye. Summoning a pride of Leo Minor and Leo, I held them back around me, not wanting to commit them just yet. The horrific memory of Corvus getting dashed to the ground, and the chill that jolted through me at the moment of contact…
If anything, Dad had everything well in hand. Angelica was incinerating the creatures in the shadows, her hands spread out as she sang some sort of siren's song and unleashing torrents of flames in all directions. Inhuman howls and screeches drowned out the roar of the flames, and beyond my vision, things scuttled away in a frenzy. Countless eyes blinked frantically as they stared from black, gelatinous bodies that crept away in a slime-like manner.
”Shaggrowths,” Dad hissed in a deadly tone. ”Be careful. If they capture you, they'll assimilate your biological structure into their own and digest you.”
”Shapeshifters?”
”Worse than that.” Dad grimaced. ”They become you, with your memories, personality, abilities, everything…and you become part of them. A horrific collective mind of agony where uncountable souls are forcefully melded together.”
His words horrified me.
”Then the…Dark Church people here…they all have…”
”Most likely.” Dad glanced around, and then turned to Angelica, who was still burning a few of the Shaggrowths into cinders. ”Angelica?”
”I don't detect any human life in the vicinity.”
”Well, Richie, you get to nuke the mountain, after all. We can't let these creatures get out, or they'll completely take over a city.”
I was reminded of an old horror movie from the 1980s about a shapeshifting alien that was found in Antarctica before it wiped out an entire human expedition. Drawing a deep breath, I nodded, and began casting my spell.
One of the Shaggrowths had crept up behind me, but one of my Leo Minors pounced on it and ripped it apart with his claws. Leo roared as he unleashed a brilliant burst of Regulus that scorched through another horde of Shaggrowths, slaying a few and forcing the others to scamper away. Unfortunately, they fled right into an inferno conjured by Angelica, and were wiped out.
Dad had rushed toward a computer terminal and switched it on. I gaped at him, puzzled.
”Dad? What are you doing? I thought you want me to nuke the place?”
”Yes, but give me some time. You need time to summon your soul beast, anyway, don't you? In the meantime, I'm going to download whatever data I can from here.” he glanced at me sharply. ”We need to know what happened…I'm guessing the Shaggrowths were summoned through an Emergence event, and they exceeded the Dark Church's control and slaughtered them. But I want to know why they were summoning such abominations. Their motives…and their next target. I also need to know where else they were conducting such experiments. Is this the only facility with Shaggrowths in them, or…?”