Chapter 51: Centerpiece
"What do you take me for? Of course I did."
The space around her arm distorted a little. Once it returned to normal, an intricate red bolt was laying there.
She extended it toward me.
Tentatively, I picked it up. The metal of the bolt felt oddly warm. I could feel it even through my glove. I traced my finger along the edges of its curling design, still in awe of it.
"So this is an artifact, huh?"
Song added somewhat smugly from the sides.
"Pretty exquisite, right? It’s a D rank artifact, causes a sizable explosion on impact, leaves severe burn damage too."
It was the centerpiece of our plans, the bullet that would down the predator. Well, not exactly down it, but it could cripple the beast badly enough to actually give us a winning shot.
I shot her an easy smile.
"Mind transferring it to me? I just want to check something real quick."
The girl’s face turned deadpan.
"Haha, very funny, peasant. Now hand it over."
"Worth a shot."
I could only shrug before passing it back to her. In all honesty, I didn’t need to. She could easily just unsummon it.
Space warped around her hand once more, and the bolt was gone. She gave a sigh before looking back at me.
"I’ve completed my end of the deal, both the bolt and the corpse. How confident are you in that error sense of yours?"
"Confident enough to have even proposed this plan in the first place."
There was only one more thing left to do before the actual hunt. Using my ability on the lesser Predator’s corpse.
Naturally, if I was able to find the weakest point in the lesser predator’s body, then I’d automatically know the weakest area in the main thing’s body. Hence, where to place my shot.
Of course, that area would likely be less vulnerable than its counterpart on the lesser predator’s body due to it being of a higher stage.
Even so, nothing short of a rank advancement would be able to completely erase that sort of weakness.
"Is the corpse down here?"
She shook her head, her forehead wrinkling in frustration.
"No, it’s on a different floor. When I asked that witch not to butcher the corpse, she demanded to be present for whatever I plan to do with it."
I couldn’t say I didn’t understand Racheal though. If I’d risked my life to kill such a monster, I would also be curious about what anyone planned on doing with it.
In the end I sighed.
"I can do it in front of her. It’s not like I’ve got much to hide about my power."
"Wow, how very lucky. If only a certain someone hadn’t claimed I was a seer, I’d have nothing to hide as well."
I gave her an understanding nod.
"It was a necessary sacrifice. Noble, even. The sort of thing true aristocrats absolutely love, Noblesse oblige and whatnot. Certainly not something for a peasant like myself."
The girl rolled her eyes exasperatedly before getting up from her seat.
"I think we’re done here."
I smiled as I followed her lead.
"I think so too."
She grumbled a bit before heading upward once again. I trailed closely behind.
It didn’t take long before we reached the top floor once again. There, it seemed something had happened, as the Maki that was supposed to be trying to eavesdrop on us stood somewhat protectively between Lily and Racheal.
I shot her a confused look. Instead of explaining it out loud, the girl sent a message.
[She’s trying to recruit Lily.]
’Right, should’ve expected that.’
Given the fact that Racheal still sat comfortably on her side of the flame, I could tell she wasn’t really making a serious effort at it.
I sent Maki a message.
[It’s fine, I think she’s just testing the waters here.]
The intense gaze the girl placed on me the moment I entered the room was enough to tell that the story was entirely different in my case.
Still, outwardly I feigned ignorance about the whole situation, trying to concern myself only with the warmth of the flame.
But of course, Song just had to open her mouth. Unfortunately, it seemed she too had realized what was going on.
"Racheal, seriously? What are you even planning on doing with a peasant like her, or do you really just recruit plebeians you come across?"
For some reason, Maki took offense for Lily on this one.
"If you’re so against ’peasants’ then why did you tell someone like Victor about your visions?"
"Hey, don’t bring me-"
Song interrupted me while wagging her finger.
"There is an obvious difference. As annoying as he is, Victor is a peasant with potential. Totally different thing, Lady Maki."
’Well, that’s the most backhanded compliment I’ve ever heard.’
Still, it did remind me that I was dealing with a petty minor villainess here. She’d been originally rather antagonistic towards the main heroines. Receiving memories hadn’t changed that all that much.
It was best to move this along before they went any further.
Clearing my throat, I cut in.
"Thank you, truly, for the kind words, Lady Song. This ’peasant’ really appreciates them. But I think we have more important things than bickering to do at the moment."
The girl shot me a look of betrayal at the sarcasm.
’Wait, did she actually think she was defending me?’
Ignoring her, I turned to face Racheal.
"I need to see the corpse."
The girl paused before nodding with narrowed eyes.
"That can be arranged, but I need to be there for whatever you plan on doing with it."
"No problems."
Maki chimed in too.
"Me too."
"That’s fine."
Lily also wordlessly joined the fray, as Racheal stood up from her seat, leading us out of the room.
But it was fine. I’d already told them about this bit of my power.
We were on the stairs again, but we stopped at the floor just below the top floor this time. This one seemed to have been a rather large corporate lounge, taking up the entirety of the floor.
What’s more, black bloodstains and burns covered the decimated furniture and damaged walls of the room.
A concentrated trail of blood led further into the room. Its size only increased the deeper we followed it. At the end of the bloody path lay a large, pale, and hairless corpse, resting in a pool of its own blood.
For the first time, I wasn’t the one in the group puking. I heard Lily retching behind me.
I was damned close to joining her too. The rancid metallic smell of blood and rot wasn’t doing my stomach any favors.
The corpse wasn’t exactly pretty either.
Its head and skull had been completely burned until they were an unidentifiable blackened lump. More burn marks and cuts covered the length of its body, though luckily none of them were as bad as its head.
’Racheal’s handiwork.’
Still, I could work with this. Ignoring its head, the internal structure didn’t seem too badly damaged. All six of its limbs remained intact too.
"So what do you wish to do with it?"
Racheal’s voice broke my train of thought.
I crouched, grimacing before stepping into the pool of blood to better observe the corpse.
"I haven’t told you of my ability, have I? I can detect weak points in monsters, structures, and basically anything of similar or close power level."
The girl fell silent in contemplation, while Maki gave me a curious look after supporting Lily back up.
"You plan on finding a weak point in that mutilated corpse?"
I gave a wry smile.
"I’ll manage."
While it would have been much better to do this with a more intact corpse, I couldn’t exactly blame Racheal for not going easy on a beast as dangerous as this.
Focusing my torch on the corpse, I properly scanned it.
Compared to all the other monsters I’d seen, this one by far had the most defined muscles. Probably much more than my malnourished body.
Its torso resembled a twisted, elongated human torso, sickly pale skin stretched tautly across the muscle-packed thing. Not only that, the damned thing was curved unnaturally, like it had the spine of a feline.
Given what I knew about these monsters, they probably did. They were designed after the spawns of the father of monstrosity.
One of the four harbingers.
Biology was their plaything.
As though to prove that point, the six limbs emerging from its torso were all made of multiple human arms. Twisted, jointed, and fused into the shape of feline limbs.
The paws were made of a dried, desiccated palm, with broken fingers and their jagged, exposed bones serving as claws.
The only nonhuman part was its tail, made of pale, defined muscles that ended in a bony spike.
"Haaaa... Okay."
I tried visualizing it, accounting for the burns and slashes whose positions I’d memorized.
I imagined, to the best of my ability, a stable beast, a beast that wouldn’t go down, that wouldn’t be hindered even if you blew off most of its parts.
That was perfection.
Then I activated [Error Sense].