Beast Gacha System: All Mine
Chapter 461: Task Complete
The limb flesh monster disintegrated.
It came undone, layer by layer, body by body, screaming mouth by screaming mouth. The blue fire spiraled inward like a vortex, consuming everything it touched with the hunger of a star.
Centuries of corruption, thousands of stolen bodies, all of it burned. All of it became ash and ember and then nothing at all. The fire roared as it fed, brighter and brighter, until the night around them was bleached to noon.
The core cracked when Cecilia’s mana reached it.
The dark pulse at the heart of the core stuttered, faltered, and the rift seed that had been twisted into something monstrous let out its final breath.
The blue fire spiraled inward one last time, collapsing into a single point of brilliant, blinding light, and then it burned out. The night rushed back in, until—
BLAAST!!!
The twin rifts glowed bright blue.
The jagged edges of the two tears began to shimmer and soften, pulling inward like wounds finally deciding to heal. The rifts constricted slowly at first, then faster, their circumferences shrinking as though invisible hands were drawing the fabric of reality back together, stitch by stitch.
GROOWL—
ROARRR!
The roars of everything else around them intensified.
The zombies still shambling in the darkness screamed, and the eye monster screamed loudest of all. It had been so close to the rift, and now the threshold was closing.
It surged forward, its hundreds of eyes rolling wildly, its mouths wailing in desperation, and its fingers scrabbling at the shrinking opening. It squeezed and oozed and melted and reformed, trying to force its massive bulk through a gap that was now too small, now even smaller, now barely a slit—
The rift sealed!
The eye monster’s small portion made it through, while the rest didn’t. What remained on this side, Eastiel immediately blasted it with his full lightning strike, letting it writhe and bake until it couldn’t move again.
The second rift closed a heartbeat later. The purple light vanished, and the blue glow faded. The night was just night again, dark and quiet, full of the lingering smell of smoke and filth.
Arkai let out a long breath. His wolf ears slowly lifted from where they’d been pinned flat against his head. His tail, which had been rigid with tension, gave a single exhausted wag.
Eastiel dropped to one knee, his claws still buried in the ruined asphalt, his shoulders heaving. Sweat dripped from his jaw. His lion ears swiveled forward, then back, scanning for threats. He allowed himself a weary smile.
Cecilia and Oathran floated down slowly. His wings carried them both in a controlled descent until her feet touched the scorched earth.
"Oh, for fuck’s sake!" Bunny cried, his eyes were still squeezed shut. Momo had stopped screaming but was still wrapped around him. Though, well, her hand was on the back of his head, stroking his hair gently.
Around them, the remaining zombies were still shambling and growling. They surely still looked dangerous. But in the distance, the sound of engines and howls and beating wings was growing louder. The hunters were coming.
Damon’s voice crackled through the comms in Arkai’s ear. "The rifts are closed, right? We just got visual confirmation. But just to be safe, nothing suspicious there, right?"
"Yeah, it’s done," Arkai answered.
"Alright. Get out of there now. Let the combined team handle the clean-up. The Saintess is en route too. She’ll purify the whole area thoroughly. You’ve done enough."
Arkai relayed the message with a nod, but Cecilia wasn’t listening.
She ran.
Her feet found purchase on the ground and pounded against the ruined road, her belly heavy but her stride sure, until she skidded to a stop in front of Bunny and Momo.
Her chest was heaving and her hair was a mess. Yet her eyes were wide with excitement.
"You saw everything, right?"
DING!
[You have succeeded in the Rank 6 task: Enter and close a Rift!]
[Reward Rank 6]
- [Get one free Return to Scenario Ticket for each Love Interest!]
DING!
[Unlock Rank 6 of all Love Interests’ Scenario to gain this reward!]
[Would you like to roll?]
Cecilia barely heard the System. Her eyes were locked on Momo’s face.
Momo smiled the same gentle, patient smile she had worn in the Hijet, in the graveyard, and in every moment since Cecilia had first seen her true face.
"Yes," she said. "We did."
***
"—report that the zombie rift has been successfully sealed. The Hunter Association is once again leading with direct and fast response. Casualties remain remarkably low thanks to the coordinated effort of the hunters, and the Saintess is expected to arrive within the hour for wide-area purification. In other news—"
Momo changed the channel.
Static hissed for half a second. Then a synth chord struck.
"Zankoku na tenshi no you ni, shounen yo, shinwa ni nare...!"
Bunny, who had been slumped in the truck bed, snapped upright. His head began to bob. Slowly at first, then with increasing conviction, the rhythm of the song took over his body.
"A Cruel Angel’s Thesis?!" Eastiel gasped. He was sitting beside him, crammed into the limited space of the truck bed with his knees practically touching his chin. His lion ears shot straight up and his tail thumping against the wheel well in excitement. "Wow... meeting fellow weebs in the wild is—"
"What do you mean weebs?" Bunny cut him off, his head banging. "We are cultural connoisseurs." He threw his head back and belted at the sky, "Aoi kaze ga ima mune no doa wo tataitemo—"
In the driver’s seat, Momo didn’t miss a beat. Her voice rose in perfect harmony, sweet and clear, "Watashi dake wo tada mitsumete, hohoenderu anata—"
Eastiel stared at them for exactly one stunned second. Then his face split into a grin so wide it nearly touched his ears. He threw his arm around Bunny’s shoulders and joined in, his voice cracking slightly on the high notes, "Sotto fureru mono, motomeru koto ni muchuu de—"
"Unmei sae, mada shiranai, itaike na hitomi...!"
"Dakedo itsuka kizuku deshou, sono senaka ni wa—"
[Haruka mirai mezasu tame no, hane ga aru koto...!]
Huh?!
Even the System joined in?!
Cecilia blinked, her head whipping around as though she might find the System floating somewhere in the cramped cabin. That same chirpy tone she had heard a thousand times before was... singing?! In Japanese?! With enthusiasm?!
The Hijet was, somehow, still intact. They had found it exactly where they’d left it. It was a miracle. Well, she should’ve known because this was gods’ vehicle. She was beginning to understand simply how things worked when she spent time with these two.
If the graveyard became a holy ground because of All-Oblivion’s tears, of course the Hijet who carried them around became a holy vehicle blessed with divine luck too. Perfect logic.
Eastiel had volunteered to accompany them. He sat squeezed in the truck bed beside Bunny, his lion tail draped over the side, his ears swiveling to catch every note of the song.
Someone needed to make sure they got through the remaining zombies safely, he’d said, to watch their backs. Cecilia hadn’t argued.
Arkai had peeled off to find Damon and return the comms, his wolf ears still twitching with residual adrenaline. He’d pressed a kiss to Cecilia’s forehead before he left and promised to check in as soon as the perimeter was secure.
Oathran had taken the air route, his white wings beating slow and steady above the treeline, his eyes tracking the Hijet’s painfully slow progress from above. Just making sure.
And Cecilia had told them about them.
Sort of.
"This is Momo," she’d said, her voice faltering slightly as she gestured toward the devastatingly beautiful woman after they closed the rift. "And this is Bunny." She gestured toward the broad-shouldered man. "They are... my friends?"
She’d winced even as she said it. It sounded weak. Like a non-explanation that should have prompted a thousand questions from three overprotective boyfriends who had just watched her close twin rifts in front of two mysterious strangers.
Both gods had simply given her a thumbs up.
And her boyfriends had just... accepted it. No follow-up questions. Showed how much they trusted her, perhaps.
The song reached its final chorus, and the Hijet became a rolling concert venue.
"Zan~koku na tenshi no tēze! Madobe kara yagate tobitatsu!"
"Hotobashiru atsui patosu de! Omoide wo uragiru nara!!!"
"Kono sora wo daite kagayaku! Shounen yo, shinwa ni nare!!!"
The last note hung in the air. Bunny, Momo and Eastiel threw their heads back and screamed it at the stars.
Eastiel laughed, breathless and giddy, his tail wagging hard. Even the System seemed to leave behind a faint resonance.
Momo steered the Hijet around a bend in the road, and the trees parted to reveal a barricade. Hunters in mixed forms patrolled the perimeter, and it was obvious they had reached the safe zone.
"Oh! Look, we made it." Momo said. "Looks like a lot of survivors too."
Bunny let out a long sigh. His head dropped back against the cab of the truck, his eyes closing in relief. "Ahhh... Finally there’s nothing scary anymore..."
The Hijet slowed as it approached the checkpoint. A hunter waved them through, her wereowl feathers catching the light as she gestured toward the medical tents.
Cecilia didn’t move.
She sat in the passenger seat, her hands folded over her belly, watching Momo’s profile against the glow of the barricade lights. The egg stirred faintly as though sensing her unease.
After this... how would she meet them again?