Chapter 230 Whispers Of Madness. Part 08.



Sam's command erased the strange thoughts from Ichigo's head. For a moment there, overwhelmed by the presence of whatever was looking down at her, she almost followed its order and deactivated her Transcendent Purge. n0velusB.C0m

If she had done that she would've been the first to receive an untimely end at the hands of that entity. Her ability stood between it and what it desired so it was only natural that she would be the first target.

Ichigo glanced up once more, trying to avoid looking directly at the eye at the same time. She saw the tentacles that seemed to have been purned after striking the dome forming the range of her ability.

Her Force Field has the ability to cleanse anything alien that could be harmful to a human's body. It worked best on really small things like microscopic viruses or harmful or radioactive materials, and, as confirmed by previous experiments, it can also remove particles drawn from other dimensions, although under some specific conditions.

Normally it wouldn't have an effect on something large enough to be fusible to the human eye, but it was able to block the tentacles despite their size, and that could only mean one thing. Whatever that thing was, its very existence was harmful to humans. No, to life in itself. It's like everything making it goes against the very concept of living, and though they didn't understand what it wanted to do, they all had a guess that it wasn't anything good.

The giant continued to stare down at Ichigo, but the Valkyrie refused to budge. Seemingly growing tired of the wait, its tentacles began moving once more, this time slamming against the pale red dome with much more speed and force.

The strike made a sound but it seemed to reverberate in the opposite direction. Another strike followed, and another one. Each time the dome seemed to leave a large burn mark on each of the tentacles, showing that no amount of force could get it inside no matter how much it tried.

Suddenly, a loud cry shook the whole region, a cry that added to the horror of everything that was happening. The sky above the airport began shimmering, splitting open in several locations from three more eyes appeared. The eyes stared down the humans, the Fallen and the Valkyries. Each one of them then moved toward the first one and stayed still for several moments.

Another wicked cry reverberated through the airport. Hundreds of tentacles appeared around the other eyes, wriggling around the dome and touching its surface only to retract upon making contact.

The four eyes seemed to look at each other for several seconds, then all turned to the pink haired Valkyrie, the pressure from all of their gazes coming down on her like the weight of the world itself.

Even though the otherworldly entities were ignoring their presence, Sam and the others still felt the overwhelming intensity of those beings. They could no longer look up at them so they lowered their heads and hoped that everything would come to an end very soon.

Unfortunately for them, The whole ordeal was just getting started. Another cry shook the airport. The fallen had gone silent for a while now. Even in their maddened state they seem to have recognized the horror they were in. The human survivors weren't doing any better. Most of them had lost consciousness the moment they looked up at the sky, and those who somehow managed to stay awake, they all succumbed to the whispers of madness, the horror they felt amplified a thousandfold until their minds could no longer take the burden. Being inside Ichigo's barrier, their horror was soon turned into pain, but despite that they kept their mouths shut and gritted their teeth. The eeriness of it all caused Sam to think that what they were facing was far worse than what he thinks.

"Doctor..."

Sam turned to Zero Five and met her gaze. She had a difficult expression on, but the way she spoke carried a lot of determination.

"I ask for your permission to engage." She said. "I'm unable to create new weapons while still inside Ichigo's rage, that's why..."

Ichigo's Purge erases materials drawn from other dimensions, which meant the Valkyries were incapable of using the Nameless Element to form new equipment. The ones they already had before weren't affected, since the particles making them had been transformed into normal materials, but all of them were made for melee combat and weren't suited for fighting an enemy of that magnitude.

Both Zero Three and Zero Five had experienced fighting the Ragnarok heralds. Though they were about the same size as the giant eyes peering down on them, something indicated to the two that the Calamities were far less dangerous in comparison.

Five was able to destroy Fafnir with a single slash of her sword, however she doubted that she would be able to do the same in this situation.

"... Be careful." Sam said after a long silence.

The only thing he could do was grit his teeth, cursing his inability to do anything.

He still had one choice left; to take his Valkyries and simply run away.

The situation was hopeless and no one would blame him for looking after his own people. In the first place, he had no obligation toward the humans of this world. He did everything in his power to help them live so far, even though they should've long since been dead. There was only so much he could do with what he had.

"I will go as well." CS spoke, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Those things really piss me off. Even if we're unable to kill them, surely we can destroy a few of those tentacles"

"Maybe if we hurt them enough they might decide to leave." Trenta said. "I'm sure a single blast of Balder's Light will scare them away."

Though she said it jokingly, using light beams was the most logical step when facing something that's basically a giant eye.

Looking at the three volunteers, Sam prepared to do the difficult thing of asking them to go out and fight an impossible foe. It was only recently that he became their Commander, and the times he had to send them out in desperate situations could be counted on a single hand.

He wondered if it would ever become easier for him to make such commands, and as he did, he realized that he had stopped suppressing his emotions at some point.

"Hey... something is happening..."

Venti's voice was tinged with horror. She was looking at the eyes, or rather, the tentacles they control. The long wriggly masses of ancient flesh slowly went down to the ground. Particles of light flickered at the end of each one, and in less than a second a series of Ruins formed creating a ring around each tentacle.

Stopping a few meters above the surface, a wave of smoke seemed to gather under each of the rings. Sam recognized the strange black material and the absolute despair he felt reached a new level.

In just a single moment, an army of giant stone monsters surrounded the abandoned airport. All of them stood still as the enormous tentacles retracted above, and as if to announce the purpose behind their creation, an ominous red light shined in the depths of the single hole in their heads.