I have never seen such a thing before.

The grotesque creatures look like a giant humanoid clad in some sort of black shell, which is itself covered with unknown markings that seem to creates a fine black mist. Its body is also distorted, I can see that its limbs are not straight, and its joints are weirdly placed. The way the creature turns around, like a broken doll, adds to its already evil aura.

Somehow, I think that this guy isn't here to invite us to get a coffee.

But the weirdest part of this creature is its head.

Or rather its heads.

The creature has two heads., Both looks like someone took a Goblin's head, enlarged it by order of magnitude, and melted it in a microwave for a couple of hours. I can even see some black bones here an there, and an eye socket of the creature is also empty.

There's also a pulsating red horn covered in large veins that seems to be between the two heads.

I have no idea what this abomination is, but it's officially the most terrifying thing I have ever seen.

A vile and repressive aura accompanies the horrible appearance of the abomination. It wasn't like with Beelzebub when his wild aura was enough to squash me. This one feels a lot more controlled and restrained, which is scary on its own since it probably means that this monster has complete control over the power it emits.

The ensuing panic also tells me that this thing's existence wasn't exactly public knowledge. So this creature is either a gigantic space demon who so happened to attack the Tower at the same time as us or, the more likely option, it's one of the aces of the Enforcers.

Either way, we'll have to FiGhT iT.

I react first, and two penetrators explode against the torso of the creature.

"Everyone, fire MH Shells!" I ask my companions who immediately obey. Torrents of mana mixes and swirls as the abomination stays perfectly still.

From my experience, it isn't a good sign.

And, as I feared, the creature turns around and look at us with its lifeless eyes.

"Fuck!" I shout as another volley of penetrators smashes against the creature, whose only response is a slight groan.

The dust dissipates again, and half the floor has been destroyed, even the bricks have crumbled. I notice that the material, which had a vivid blue color, is now dull and gray.

Maybe the power loss could explain the sudden fragility? Either way, I'm far from being an expert in enchanting so it could also be completely unrelated.

One of the heads does a full turn and glares at me, the body soon follows and randomly fire a massive beam of energy before I can even react.

I blink a few times and turn around, everything behind me has been completely erased from existence.

Holy shit.

The drooling creature stares at us and doesn't move. I use the opportunity to fire a couple of shells into its face, but the whirlpools of pure mana act as a light slap against the dangerous creature.

Fuck, this isn't good. The voice in my head is making my heart race as it revels in the gratuitous violence, it's clearly happy to fight such a strong enemy.

I, on the other hand, still have my survival instinct.

So I'm not exactly okay with this ordeal.

The creature suddenly roars, the shockwave is so strong that it almost flings me out of the Tower. My shield groans as multiple casings fly out of my Glove, and I'm getting pushed towards the gaping hole behind me. I glance towards my companions, they seem shaken, but they are still in one piece.

However, my breath stops for a moment when my eyes fall onto Krognar's limp body.

His shield wasn't strong enough to resist the impact, and his liquid armor uselessly changes shape around the Goblin's lifeless corpse.

I grit my teeth and freeze the timeline; I need time to think.

It's evident that we can't let the creature roar, or Krognar will die. The monster will probably kill the Goblin no matter what we do, so I need to find a way to protect the shopkeeper if I want this mission to succeed.

But it's easier said than done, I have no clue about if it's even possible to silence this monstrosity. The ideal plan would be to kill it but even my strongest weapon, the Hammer of Prometheus, cannot scratch it. I could order Mary to

attack it, but this mysterious creature hopelessly outclasses even the hybrid.

At this point, I don't think that I can even win this battle. This thing is simply not killable with our current arsenal, so I need to be CrEaTiVe.

We have to find a way to get rid of this thing. But first of all, I do a quick Rewind to resuscitate Krognar. I'm back to when the creature first appeared. Our first encounter showed that it had troubles finding us, so I need to exploit that opportunity.

What I noticed was that the Tower had lost a lot of its structural integrity. While it's not reassuring considering how high we are, it could be useful to get rid of the creature.

And there's no hArM iN tRyInG tHiNgS.

"Everyone, grab onto something!" I shout.

"Why?" Krognar asks while still grabbing onto the nearest wall fixture.

"You'll see!" I reply.

Now let's see how this bastard will fare when I make him DrOp.

I aim my laser pointer towards the feet of the creature and make the penetrators fire as fast as possible. The mana explodes and vaporizes the once sturdy material. The beast barely reacts as its support crumbles.

There have been other parts of the floor that has cracked and fallen, thus bringing down a couple of Goblins.

The death of these people doesn't bother me at all; they are part of the Enforcers, so they have to bad people. I walk towards the massive hole caused by the creature and fire a few shells into the hole to propel the beast faster towards its doom.

I look down, and the creature is already not visible into the seemingly infinite tunnel that the fall of the beast caused in the Tower.

Anyway, let's not get distracted.

"So where do we go from here?" I say as I turn toward the shopkeeper, who is clinging to his broken fixture like his life depended on it.

"I-I have no idea, but-" I stop hearing the shopkeeper when a rapid stomping noise comes from the hole. I don't even have time to understand what is happening since something pierces my chest.

The thing that attacked me barely has time to be disintegrated by my regeneration since the rest of its body soon emerges.

A large mass of broken flesh propelled by large tentacles made of intertwined muscle fibers sticking to the walls soon comes out from the hole.

I immediately recognize certain black shards embedded in the flesh, and I can't believe my eyes.

It's the fucking creature from earlier.

It somehow survived the fall and came all the way here in a few seconds.

Fuck me, that bastard is resilient... BuT wE aRe EtErNaL.

I cough some blood as I fiddle with the Rewinder. Time goes backward for a few seconds, and I dive down to avoid the disgusting tentacle that flies and stick to the wall.

The mass of flesh that once was the creature climbs towards the ceiling with its tentacles.

"W-What is this thing?" Cynthia shouts. Her nervousness makes her unload her weapon into the blob, but it absorbs the bullets. The EGBs are making the surface of the flesh bulges and bleed, but it seems to still be alive. The beast ejects large urchin-shaped pieces of metal.

Fuck, this is going to be harder than it needs to be. I endure another attack and grit my teeth, "Mary, unleash everything you can on that bastard!"

"With pleasure!" the woman replies and fire all her MH Shells before switching to her spells. Massive fireballs followed by beams of lava hit the creature.

I'll be honest, it kind of smells like grilled beef.

"The others, fire at will! Call for more ammo if you need to! I need continuous fire on that thing!" I shout before emptying magazine after magazine into the beast.

The creature flutters and a smaller tentacle hit Mary in the chest. The woman's lifeless body is thrown out of the Tower. I grit my teeth and Rewind. It takes a few attempts to get the timing and coordinates right, but I finally succeed and teleport just in front of Mary.

I endure the sudden surge of pain and force my head backward. I'm glad to see that the hybrid isn't hurt.

"Come on, keep pummeling that thing!" I say to the stunned hybrid, but a high-pitched shriek gets my attention. I see Cynthia on her knees, crying next to a pummeled body that once was Alex.

"For fuck's sake!" I mutter as I Rewind and repeat the same actions to save the Legionary.

The creature attempts to move but the continuous stream of bullets, which is now completed by the Hammer, stops it.

"Keep firing! We'll GeT that bastard!" I shout, and I switch to the shotgun.

...Mary's PoV...

What was that?

I use my ability to its fullest to fire on the creature and make sure that it doesn't hit me again. Even then, I can barely keep up with its movement and Prometheus had to save me.

It just shows how powerful he is, to be able to keep up with such a monstrosity.

But those accursed popping noises are back in full force. A dozen of them seem to appear before Prometheus teleports to save one of us from the creature.

Why does he feel the need to endure much for us? I can see his pained expression through his visor each time a tentacle attempts to pierce his invincible body. He doesn't seem to take any damage, but it clearly isn't a good experience for him.

My chest aches every time he teleports in front of someone to shield them with his body. I don't want him to suffer so much. Prometheus must have suffered so much already, but he's still doing everything he can to protect us.

I'm such a failure. I've been living in hiding for so long, persuaded that I was one of the strongest beings on the planet.

But Prometheus showed me how wrong I was.

I felt naturally compelled to follow him after he has beaten me, and I don't regret anything. I have seen another planet, another dimension and what the universe has to offer. There are people who are so much stronger than me, but Prometheus has beaten them with no problem.

Or at least that's what I first thought.

I now realize that even he struggles against certain beings, but he still put his life on the line for us and his cause.

This thing is beyond anything that I have ever seen, but I'm sure that we'll pull through no matter what.

This creature is horrifying; it can resist everything Prometheus throws at it. Even his Hammer, which was supposed to be our ace, has done nothing to it. The damage we've done is superficial, and the large chunks of flesh Prometheus tears apart are growing back almost instantly.

My spells, which should be able to raze entire cities, have done nothing at all.

I jump to avoid another tentacle, and the creature finally drops down when another penetrator tears the last appendage apart.

The mass of writhing flesh then fires tentacles towards all of us at once. I push my ability to its utmost limit, I feel a headache creep, but I power through the pain as hundreds of popping noises echoes. Prometheus goes through a portal to block an attack and fire his shotgun through another portal to destroy some tentacles.

I fire a spell to destroy the attack that was heading towards me and stop using my ability. My breath is ragged, I'm on my knees, and I feel very lightheaded.

"Are you alright?" I try to go towards Prometheus, but I can barely walk.

"Don't worry about me." He says with a weird voice. I glance towards him and what I see makes my heart skip a beat.

His eyes are wide open and bloodshot. A worrying grin is stuck on his face and the way he continually shifts his body is...

Prometheus isn't as strong-minded as I thought he was. It isn't surprising considering everything he had to go through, I haven't been with him for a long time and he had to fight incredible opponents in that short amount of time. So who knows what he had to face.

Who knows what he had to endure all alone.

And he keeps being all alone. He has a lot of people following him, but he's probably one of the loneliest existence in the world...

I know how he feels, my life has been exactly the same ever since my father saved me.

Maybe I can't help him, but I have to try. He doesn't have to endure everything alone. No, he must not bear so much pain alone, or it will warp his mind beyond recognition.

I don't want him to suffer so much. It brings tears to my eyes just to think about it. I said that I wanted to help him and his cause, but so far it has been the exact opposite.

"Prometheus, I-" He interrupts me with a glare.

"Don't." Prometheus looks ready to kill on anything that moves.

"But you have suffered so-" he glares at me again, and it silences me.

I want to say something, but his glare is enough to keep me on my knees. It's just like an enormous and invincible pressure is crushing me.

I take a deep breath and raise my head, just to be kicked by Prometheus.

What I see when I turn around freezes me in place. Large tentacles encircle Prometheus, they are mercilessly attacking him, and he can't even strike back.

But he isn't producing any pained groans. Instead, he laughs like a madman and power through the attacks like they aren't even there.

He finally reaches his shotgun and loads another Shell, before blasting the tentacles away.

"Die, die, DiE!" he shouts as he unloads every bullet he has on the mass of flesh, which had been bombarded by penetrators. The creature looks like it's losing its vitality, the intensity of the attacks is decreasing along with the size of the tentacles.

Prometheus approaches the mass of flesh, and it suddenly implodes.