The two flying monsters as big as an aircraft carrier grasped each other's claws and turned at a sonic speed. Tornadoes roared and a sonic boom exploded 4,000 meters above the ground.
The Garuda took advantage of its absolute speed to rip off the body of its opponent and puncture it. Scales rained down and blue fluid poured down like a waterfall. Verriere's tenacity and regenerative power were indeed overpowered. Its damaged tissues were restored in real-time, allowing it to strike back. Its claws and beak penetrated the plasma force field and struck and scratched Garuda's hide.
The claws struck and the beak bit off. It was typical melee combat of the birds of prey.
"Mu Ssang, you told me that meat became more tender when it was beaten up."
Garuda pummeled Verriere with its tail relentlessly.
"When are you going to finish it off?" Mu Ssang ran out of his patience and yelled.
Garuda enjoyed the sensation of hitting but Mu Ssang suddenly found himself on a supersonic amusement park ride. His ears were deafened and he felt dizzy.
"Shall we fry it?"
The fusion reactor raised its output. Blue electricity ran down its tail. The tail infused with two hundred billion volts wound around Verriere's neck. The high-voltage electricity fried the vast body. Verriere let out its final screech.
A life form based on carbon and oxygen could only be vulnerable to high voltage electricity. Verriere had its eyes rolled back and drooped like wet cotton.
Garuda activated a gravity field. The 250-ton object struck the ground like a shooting star. The bedrock exploded like a volcano and the vast body was buried deep in the granite. Verriere squirmed. The hard granite was crushed like tofu.
The Ortmicon's biological tissue adapted to the harsh outer space conditions was hardened and could withstand more tension. Even though it struck the rock at ten times the speed of sound, its form was unharmed.
Garuda stepped on the vast body and activated the gravity field. Thousand tons of gravity per square centimeter pressed down on it. The tremendous pressure crushed its body and the bedrock collapsed.
The low-speed ELF sliced open its heart like an electric chainsaw. A robustly throbbing energy organ was revealed. Garuda ripped it apart with a satisfied expression and swallowed it with a gulp. The struggling Verriere drooped.
Just as Garuda used the fusion reactor as the main power source and the ionic engine as auxiliary power, the Super Grendel had the energy organ as the main power source and the bionic battery as auxiliary. With its energy organ lost, Verriere was like a hybrid electric car whose fuel engine was broken.
Garuda tore Verriere's body into tiny pieces with its gigantic claws. In mere moments, the boned bionic tissues connected to each other. Garuda didn't give them time to heal and swallow each promptly.
"Yum!"
Garuda burped greasily and let out a cloud of dark smoke. The monster who could end the world disappeared, without leaving any trace behind but a viscous fluid.
"Humans are intelligent. Meat does become more tender when it's cooked and beaten up," Garuda muttered like a monk that was just enlightened.
"How horrible!"
Mu Ssang shook his head. Where had the pile of meat as big as a small mound gone?
"What about the smaller one?"
"I'll save it for later."
The high-level ELF punctured a deep cavity in the bedrock. Garuda hurled Oeilet locked up in a force field in the cavity and sealed it by melting rock with a laser.
"It's a lunchbox! Hahaha."
Garuda giggled like a human. Every animal including the human becomes more generous when they are sated. Artificial intelligence didn't differ.
"A wretch!"
Mu Ssang shuddered. The wide-eyed duckling that acted cute in front of the five sisters and Yeong-a was a real monster who preyed on monsters. It was a merciless, cold-blooded weapon of destruction.
"Let's go find Oparts."
"We have two flies left."
Garuda soared to an altitude of 5,000 meters. They could see the Gazelles heading for Kisangani and the Little Birds heading for Rwenzori. The Gazelle must be Sun Woo-hyun, heading for Kisangani which was closer than Kinshasa. The Little Bird was likely to house the controllers of Verriere and Oeilet.
* * *
"Ugh!"
Lamartin cut the connection as soon as the energy organ was wrenched out. More synchronization came with more shared damage. It didn't harm himself, but some dark energy stored in the avatar was lost.
The hidden intent of the previous generation's Betera proved right. The original Baphomet was indeed majestic. He empowered Betera and Ortmicon with his power, but it proved insufficient. His greed grew as soon as he saw how strong Baphomet was. Lamartin risked getting his own mind compromised and attempted to access the Baphomet's neural net.
"Come to me, Child!"
The dark thought wave infiltrated the artificial intelligence's neural net. Lamartin was elated. The thought wave buried deep like it was already familiar with the pathways. The flying UMA was indeed a Betera artificial life form that shared the same origin as him.
"I feel bad, Mu Ssang."
"You ate something bad."
Mu Ssang laughed. The science of the Concretus was indeed magnificent. Their artificial intelligence could feel emotion.
"Something is calling me. I don't feel good but it also feels familiar."
Garuda turned toward Rwenzori. Mu Ssang's thoughts felt kind and comfortable. The voice that called now was stern and oppressive. Garuda felt like it would face elimination if it didn't heed the call.
"You are supposed to go to Mambasa."
"Why am I like this?"
Garuda turned to Mambasa.
"Come, come to me!"
A familiar voice called again. Garuda turned to Rwenzori.
"Get it together, are you drugged?"
"Why am I like this? This I really eat something bad?"
Garuda wandered without being able to focus. Its central nervous system ordered its body to follow Mu Ssang's directive but its neural net functioned on its own. Even when the scouter was powered down, the unsettling order echoed in its head.
Garuda had fallen into a state of confusion despite its absolute connection with Black Mamba due to a phenomenon called quantum entanglement.
Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in which small particles like electrons retain a special connection to each other after interacting with each other regardless of time and space. A particular particle's location, momentum, and spin change determined the state of the particle that it shared a connection with in the past.
Quantum entanglement could be explained as a form of perturbation and the information is transferred regardless of the external circumstances. Garuda was a slave to the Concretus. Lamartin was perturbed about Garuda's neural net with the Concretus genes he inherited.
Garuda's artificial intelligence was stuck in a thought loop like a dog confused when reuniting with its old owner after finding a new owner. If Garuda was not bound by Black Mamba's chaos force, it would have ended up attacking him.
Garuda fell like a gunned-down duck. Its vast body sprawled on the ground without grace. With the signal transmission loop disturbed, the central nervous system lost its control of the body.
It was an unsightly scene for a planetary weapon, but destruction often stemmed from internal factors than external ones. The mighty elephant is defeated by viruses. An empire is fallen by some traitors' scheme.
"Is it hacked?"
Mu Ssang knew the situation was severe. Quantum intelligence was on a whole other level than the crude computer of the modern era but it was fundamentally a computer. As it had the ability to learn and make decisions on its own, one could access the main processing unit with resonance synchronization. The human brain could be implanted with false memories when certain conditions are met. He himself was brainwashed by Chui Do Shik in the same way.
"Get it together, Garuda!"
Resonance Wave delivered on Mu Ssang's thought wave shook up Garuda's nerves. His chaos force pushed away the dark force that had taken over its neural net. The dislodged subordination factors found their place.
"It's gone!"
Garuda regained its composure. The voice that occupied the neural net and kept assailing the central nervous system disappeared.
"Ugh!"
The original body of Lamartin in the Orangniki Valley coughed up blood. His avatar faded after receiving a shock.
"Fuck!"
The avatar ground his teeth. He almost took over the neural net but then the connection was cut off. It felt like catching a big fish and the fishing line snapped just at the moment of putting the fish into a basket.
"It is stronger than I think. Why was the connection severed?"
Lamartin couldn't figure out the cause. The more advanced and strong-willed the victim was, the more difficult the initial access proved to be. Whether the victim was a human or a predator or a machine, when the initial access was established, taking over the brain was easier.
"It must have acquired a strong ego."
Lamartin deduced. Baphomet's artificial intelligence was apparently evolved to a level where it could cleanse itself. He didn't know that the wretched monk's student Black Mamba was on board the Baphomet. So it was a rational deduction.
To gain control of the Baphomet, he needed to weaken its ego. A consistent attack was the only way to achieve it. The problem was that in order to weaken the Baphomet's central nervous system, it would take a considerable amount of his energy.
He was wary of the monk, so he was reluctant to summon Ramasu. He couldn't find any trace of him for the last 300 years but he was too great an enemy to assume to have perished.
"I should pay for it if I want a treasure."
The Baphomet's value was as enticing as to face any sacrifices. To capture Black Mamba who was suspected to be the monk's successor and strike the Baphomet, he needed the help of humans. Lamartin resolutely picked up the receiver. The force damage prevented him from using telepathy.
"Davis, activate DEFCON One and Gehenna."
"I understand if it were a striker squad from an aircraft carrier but if we involve the Predators of Area 51 and atomic cannon, the organization's identity will be revealed."
"Davis, when did you ever disobey me?"
Lamartin's voice was chilling.
"I apologize. Is our target Black Mamba?"
"Black Mamba and a flying Baphomet."
The Baphomet's value was as enticing as to face any sacrifice. He needed to unroot the seed that would grow to be a great nemesis.
"Give us the coordinates."
"The first point to be struck is the Alexandra peak's western slope in the rift valley west of Rwenzori. The second point is Black Mamba. Track him down and locate him. His destination is the camp. If you cannot locate him, you can strike the camp instead."
"I will prepare ATACMS and M65 field cannon."
"There is no time. Deploy the mechanic Haunter from Sector 7 right away."
"I see. For a great soul!"
Lamartin and Davis didn't mention anything about the thousands of military personnel and civilians that would be sacrificed if the camp were to be struck. They were Freemasons. If they could capture Black Mamba and retrieve Oparts, their sacrifice would not be in vain.
Lamartin designated the western slope of the Alexandra Peak as the first point to be struck because of the Baphomet with its ego grown. A hurt beast became fierce.
The angry Baphomet would track down the dark energy and would fly to Rwenzori to come and look for him. He needed to use Predators to immobilize it and subdue it with atomic bombs.
* * *
"Is there any problem, Chicken?"
"No."
"Don't make a mistake and catch the fly east!"
The accelerated particle cannon shot across space. The accelerated particle cannon was slow but was able to track down its target. A Little Bird flying 100 kilometers away exploded. Lieutenant Colonel Huey who fled from the monster fight had only 20 minutes more to live.
"There is no problem. Is it the one called Lamartin?"
Garuda seemed totally fine. He still felt bad. On the other side of the world, unimaginable things happened. Ghosts from 150 million years ago resided and monsters that could smash entire aircraft carriers thrived. The Buddha and Jesus could punch each other on the street.
"Where were we headed, Chicken?"
"A valley deeply rooted in the tall and perilous mountains."
The screen unfurled and a red dot appeared. It was a spot located deep within the Rwenzori Mountains. It was likely Lamartin's hideout that Matilda was about to mention.
"Mu Ssang, I feel bad and ashamed. I want to chew him alive."
He could feel Garuda's rage. It was the rage he felt before. It almost had its body stolen. It was no wonder that it was angry.
"Haha. He dares take over my child?"
Hurting someone's dog was sufficient to buy a lifetime of grudge. Garuda was indeed like his child since he carried its egg around for years. He gritted his teeth. The twig tried to stand still but the wind continued to shake it.
"Let's strike from behind."
He drew a lattice centered on Mambasa in the latitude and longitude both of 30 degrees.
"How many flies are there above 20,000 meters?"
"One right above us. Three in the range from 23,000 meters to 25,900 meters. Two hundred fifty in the range from 300 kilometers to 1,120 kilometers. Twelve in space above 35,000 kilometers. Nine thousand two hundred dead flies and their debris."
"Do they have that many military satellites?"
He never thought of it. The one directly above their head was the Black Eye. The mid altitudes were occupied by the Dragon Lady (U2) and Black Birds. The ones in orbit in the zone between 300 kilometers and 1,120 kilometers were mostly military satellites. Communication satellites and meteorological satellites were mostly in stationary orbit above 36,000 kilometers.
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