The Record of Unusual Creatures

Just as Vivian’s voice trailed off, a whistling sound of madness, entirely out of this world and capable of ripping the sky apart, suddenly came from afar. The seal and the cage were located in a spot covered by lava. Ripples began to form across the hot lava sea, while shadows centered on the lava lake started to spread into all directions.

The dark-red light column appeared again. This time, it corroded the sky of the alien dimension at an even faster rate than before.

“That’s not good!” Even Hao Ren was startled. He never thought that Nolan’s bombardment would fail to kill that thing. “What the hell is that? It could even survive the spacecraft’s firepower, which killed the First Born!”

“There is only one answer: regular weapons do not work on this thing,” the MDT said. “Or it is more powerful than the First Borns.”

“Nolan, prepare for the main gun!” Hao Ren had quickly contacted the main computer of the spacecraft. “Authorize to use the main gun.”

Nolan quickly reminded, “The main gun utilizes high-power psionic energy, which could destroy the alien dimensional structure, and also cause a slight leakage in the main material world. Please reconfirm your command.”

Hao Ren’s expression did not look good. His mind was racing, undecided. But eventually, he nodded. “Command reconfirmed. Initiate charging sequence, but do not fire—Oh wait, stop the charging sequence!”

He stopped Nolan as he saw something unusual at the bottom of the dark-red light column.

A giant black figure had got out from the lava and the shadows.

At first, he thought the thing was the same humanoid like that of the black tide. But soon he realized that the figure was a real creature of the main material world, a living person—used to, at least.

Darkness covered one-third of the figure. Some sinister forces had caused this person unrecognizable. Despite the distance, Hao Ren could see the twisted figure of the person. His body had grown many spur-like features, the left half of his body was twisted and swollen, his skin cracked and hot venom—not blood— oozed out from the wounds. His heart was exposed like an inflated basketball on the outside, and almost all the arteries were pulsating outside the skin.

After the distorted creature came out from the lava and shadows, more terrible mutations started to happen in him. Some invisible force was penetrating his body, which enlarged rapidly. I just a few seconds, the creature became a giant with a height of more than ten meters. A terrifying energy surge began to come out from his body.

When the giant completed the transformation, he turned his head and stared dead into Hao Ren’s direction. There was no reason and thinking in his swollen dark eyes. He looked up and roared in madness. The lava under his feet solidified instantly and then was torn into pieces.

Hesperides mumbled in a whisper, “Hercules…”

“Look!” Vivian hovered in the air and could see more clearly. Something on the dark giant caught her attention. “On the chest. Is that the wand?”

Hao Ren squinted. He also saw something on the dark giant’s chest. It was a twisted wand, inlaid in the flesh. The exposed part was dark, and a large red crystal was set on the tip. The red crystal was broken, and there seemed to some black stuff swelling inside.

Judging from the position of the wand, it was in Hercules’ chest. But now Hercules had transformed into a giant, and the wand looked like a tiny nail.

“Two centuries ago, we used a wand to nail Hercules to the seal stone at the bottom of the cage,” Hathaway said quickly. “He volunteered it to contain the power of the divine object.”

“It seems that he has been completely corrupted during the two centuries,” Vivian said, taking a breath. “Your seal is a joke!”

“The main gun is ready to fire,” Nolan said. “Captain, did you want to fire?”

The giant in the distance strode forward, behind him, a massive wall of black tide rose. He raised his right hand and roared. The roar had the lave retreating and the earth cracking. He used to be a hero, but now he had lost his humanity.

Hao Ren had no idea how Hercules survived the first strike from the spacecraft, but he was sure that the main gun would destroy him into oblivion. He once read the instructions manual and knew that the primary weapon and sub-gun were utterly two different classes of firepower. However, looking at the giant, he intuitively refrained from giving the firing order.

“Do not fire.” Hao Ren took a step forward. “Cover me.”

“What are you doing?” Vivian was stunned.

“Don’t you think there are a lot of secrets in this giant?” Hao Ren said. “The divine artifact, the boundary. We will not be able to know the truth of these things once we fire the gun. I have to bring back at least the celestial object.”

The black giant strode angrily toward the most striking persons in the world. The dark shadows on his body squirmed and swelled, burning like a flame. The swollen side of his body did not slow him down. The black venom dripping down from his cracked skin turned into little black devils, like an army charging forward with the giants.

This terrifying enemy staggered but moved quickly. The earth would shake with every step he took.

The belly of the Petrachelys closed. Another ejection port opened with a dozen silver-white unmanned attack craft rushed out of the mothership and started to fire at the enemies on the ground indiscriminately.

It was a smart decision to carry some armed drones, Hao Ren thought to himself.

A flash of bright lightning swept across a thousand meters before splitting into dozens of smaller forked lightning, engulfing the black giant. The black giant was stunned, but only slightly. He then continued to charge forward.

Hao Ren carried a plasma spear in one hand, and a gun in the other. Under the double cover of the drone and Vivian, he went up to meet the formidable opponent.

The giant by itself was only one of the problems. The legion that was expanding around the giant was another headache.

A broad swath of darkness appeared out of thin air. More monsters were emerging from the dark fissure—the boundary. It looked like the earlier black tide. Perhaps the strike from the spacecraft earlier had somewhat damaged the celestial object; the shadows did not spread as quickly as the black tide before. The monsters only gathered around the giant, and the armed drones in the sky could somewhat suppress them.

The giant marched forward with his swelling army of shadows. In the air, the armed drones used ariel firepower to suppress the dark army. Vivian started to try to hold back the giant with her storms of lightning and bat. Amid this chaos, suddenly there was a bust of a beam of blue light—Hao Ren had fired his pistol.

He figured that the firing distance was close enough. At this distance, the powerful gun was enough to cause a fatal blow to the enemy. And this was indeed the case. The shot had blown away the giant’s arm, most of the shoulders, and one-third of his head.

“Woof—”

But, losing one-third of his head did not stop the black giant, who looked up into the sky and roared before many shadows burst out from his wounds.

Subsequent development had Hao Ren’s eyes out on stalks.

The blown off body parts of the giant began to regenerate themselves. The flesh fell off his body was also turning into furious shadows.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

The self-propelled artillery of the drones was cleaning up the newly generated monsters, but they did not fire a single shot at the giant. These drones had brilliant AI, which had quickly learned from Hao Ren’s previous attack that attacking the giant would not kill him, but the giant would split into more new bodies.

The Steel Membrane Shield began to lit up. Hao Ren knew the dark energy of the giant had started to attack him. He quickly withdrew to a distance, using his pistol and spear, he launched a counterattack.

Fire another shot with a more extensive damage range to destroy the giant entirely? Or should he find the other weaknesses of the giant? Hao Ren calculated in his mind.

But he rejected all of those ideas. His eyes finally fell on the wand on the giant’s chest.

His best solution was to separate the wand from the giant.

But Hathaway said that the separation of the wand and Hercules would not stop the energy flow between them. But this was because Hathaway did not have more advanced isolation techniques.

What Hathaway lacked, Hao Ren had it all.