While Others Cultivate, I Use My Multiverse System

Chapter 188: Bad gun in Apex, great gun against monsters

Maere. It wasn't a word I was familiar with. Yet, it didn't mean I wasn't scared by the thing that appeared in front of me. On the other hand, the fact that the local populace had not only a name, but a clear history with this something was a clear indicator that there was a reason to be worried about it.

"What does it want?" Directing my question towards Arsha, I provoked her to turn her head towards me. Yet, rather than answering my question, she just allowed me to look at her terrified eyes.

"Does it want the core?" Taking a step back, I asked the question out in the open, not directed to anyone in particular.

"How in the hell do you expect us to know what it wants?!" Hearing the clear hints of panic in Longinus' voice, I finally realized just how dire this situation could be. The same man that didn't even flinch when he faced against me and Teria was now trembling in fear.

"Do you have any idea how to defeat it?" Taking another step back, I started to analyze the situation in the most pragmatic way possible. Should I leave those people be? As much as I wanted to be cold-hearted enough to do it, I knew that my morality wouldn't allow me to do so. They were willing to go and die for me, so how could I just let them die for no reason?

Fuck the morality. Fuck the consistency. Given how hard this mission was supposed to be according to my system, could I actually afford to ditch them?

"Defeat it? It's pointless." Falling to his knees, Longinus didn't look like himself. With tears flowing down from his terrified eyes,  he looked more like a lost child rather than a seasoned mercenary I believed so far he was. "All you can do is to fulfill its demands. And knowing the brass back at the capital, they set it off to kill us all."

With his head lowered and knees caving in, I didn't even need to use my witchcraft to sense how he lost his will to fight. Looking around, the same applied to literally everyone else, with Teria being the only exception.

But why? Why was she okay while everyone else was down?

"Should I just kill it?" Stepping forward, the winged girl pulled out her sword before pointing it at the two terrifying, faceless kids in front of us. "I don't know why you guys are all acting like cowards, but it won't be a problem if I kill it? Right?"

Once again, I didn't need to rely on my witchcraft to see what was the intention of the girl. With her smile widening as much as her facial muscles allowed, she took a step towards the Maere, then another one. And then, out of nowhere, she suddenly fell to her knees, shuddering in terror I saw only in the movies.

"What happened?" Not daring to use my witchcraft out of fear that the negativity of this being would overflood my mind, I could only ask.

"This thing…" Barely able to utter even those few words, Teria started to crawl back. As such, the only clue I had for solving the situation was now gone. But why was she able to act freely before, even though everyone was already bound by fear?

I was the first to succumb to this paralyzing fear only because I had my aura wide open. Then, all the wingless humans fell to it as well. But why was Teria the last one to be defeated? Why?

"…" All the while, this terrifying being just stood there, holding the hand of the female kid with his left, and extending his right towards me. It clearly wanted something, yet I wasn't willing to give it to him. That is if all it wanted was a core.

"Wait a moment…" Suddenly, I realized one thing. Ever since I closed my soul to those foreign emotions, it no longer influenced me. Only the residual fear born from what I saw in it still remained, pinning me down in fear. But that didn't mean it was still influencing me!

"Let's try something out." Standing up, I pulled my sword. And nothing changed. I made another step forward. Everyone around fell flat on the ground, burying their heads in the dirt of the forest we were in. Only Teria refused to pay her respects in this way.

I made another step. Teria's head fell forward as she buried her face in the dirt. Yet, for some reason, nothing happened to me at all. As if…

As if the only attack this being was capable of, was inducing fear and all those emotions entangled in it into others!

A smile appeared on my face.

"Okay then, let's cut this parade short." Taking three more steps forward, I kicked the extended hand of this being aside, before shoving my sword right into its faceless head. Regretfully, outside of everyone's from my group burying their heads even deeper into the ground, nothing happened.

"Strange… Just how the heck do I kill it?" Thinking about it, I still had many different stones on me. No matter what, if I were to use the recurring barrier, this thing would likely end up in the abyss of the void, where it would be trapped forever. But since I still didn't know the limits and reach of each part of this stone's effects, doing so could easily lead to the death of everyone around me as well.

"How about cutting its head?" Slashing my sword diagonally, the body of the Maere offered no resistance as my blade cut through its neck. Yet, when the momentum carried my weapon towards the body of the long-haired maere posing as a female kid, it suddenly jumped to the back.

:DIE:

Even with my aura and perception retracted, I could feel this emotion washing on my face. Yet, when compared to the feelings I was forced to go through by Ayda, it was absolutely nothing to be worried about. Yet, that didn't mean I was free to do what I wanted, as everyone around me suddenly picked their weapons.

Yet, they didn't lash at me. Longinus' sword aimed at his own stomach, so did Arsha's short staff. Everyone moved their weapons to a position where they would be free to deprive themselves of their own life. The only exception was the archer girl, who despite her utmost attempts, was unable to draw the bow in a way to point the arrow at herself.

"So you are using emotions to order others around?!" Only now did my mind finally snapped in place, allowing me to understand what should be obvious at this point. Yet, rather than enjoying this fact, I was close to despair. Because while I had my own means to deal with emotion-based attacks, actually enforcing those means would push me into opening my perception to the attack of the other party.

"Pull that order back, or I will kill the girl." Pointing my sword at the long-haired part of the Maere, I dropped it while using my left hand to pull out a simple gun. This time, I didn't go for flashy weapons. At such close distance, a simple pistol was more than enough.

For a moment, everything stopped. Not a single of my colleagues dared to make another move that would put their lives in danger. Yet, after just a single moment, a change appeared on this dark being face. As if the universe itself suddenly ruptured, a rift appeared in three points on the male kid's face. Two of the rifts oozing darkness and complete devastation appeared where their eyes should be, while one stretched into what was the darkest smile I ever saw in my life.

"Ha!" The voice of the maere was truly… average. Even though it was coming from what looked like a tight gate leading straight to a dark hell, the voice it produced actually fitted the body of the maere… That is if it had a normal face and was a normal boy about nine or ten of age!

"Oh? So you don't care about your sister? Well, you don't care for whether that young whore of yours will have her head go poof?" Putting a wide smile on my face, I couldn't hold myself back. Bringing the barrel of the gun in the direction of the girl, I switched the trigger to the automatic mode before pulling it all the way down.

Trattatatat.

The pistol I had was quite similar to one of the weakest guns in the popular Apex game I used to play before the apocalypse. With the mag containing just a few bullets short of twenty in it, it took less than two seconds to empty it all, right in the long-haired face of the monster.

And this time, it had an effect. That is, as long as splattering brain matter, blood, and flesh could be called a satisfactory effect.

Sadly, while the effects of its attack instantly faded away given how everyone dropped their weapons as if they were just pulled out of the boiled water, the short-haired part of the monster still managed to jump back. Yet, the rifts on its head that made up its face disappeared. Then its entire head disappeared as well, while the flesh of the long-haired head quickly started to regenerate.

But I wasn't going to wait. Putting the pistol back to its holster on my hip, I smiled before releasing the lock on my emotions. And despite Ayda's several warnings not to do it, I reached for the blob of taboo hidden deep within my soul.

It released its hold over the hostages just as it started to desperately regenerate the smashed watermelon of the long-haired head. And I wasn't going to miss that chance.