"And by the way, what's going on in that church down the street?" she asked, puzzled, turning her head in that direction.
Following her gaze, I even felt a flicker of relief. It seemed Carlos and Jill hadn't run ahead and ended up facing Nemesis alone—now unquestionably in his second stage. Excellent. We'd help those two out (which would surely confuse them, considering my monstrous appearance) and settle some old scores for past defeats. And most importantly… he had tentacles! I needed them. I still didn't know why, but I needed them!
One short but long leap, and I was already off the clinic ruins and onto the roadway. A quick dash down the street—just a couple of houses—and I burst into something halfway between a chapel and a church. I took the side entrance; the central one would have required circling around the cars that had formed a living barricade. Without slowing down, I literally smashed through the door with my body, covering my face with my hands just in case. I wasn't sure my face was as indestructible as the rest of me, and a splinter in the eye was definitely not a detail I needed.
Left turn. Along the wall with the puzzle paintings. Another door, and beyond it a corridor wrapped in webs. Yeah, the spiders here were truly impressive. Three monstrosities reared up on their hind legs and began swaying their front ones—tarantulas do that, I remembered. And these creatures didn't differ much from the same tarantulas in appearance, except that they were about ten times the size of a normal specimen.
A kick sent the nearest one flying into the wall, knocking the second aside. They burst beautifully against the stone—only their legs remained intact; the rest had literally turned into a single, pulpy mass. Yeah, I still needed to get used to this new strength.
A new problem arose, aside from the remaining giant spider. From the corpses of the first two, smaller spiders began crawling out—only about twice the size of tarantulas. Crushing them one by one would take too long, but ignoring them was dangerous—they were too many.
Ah, to hell with it! While I was stalling here, Nemesis would either kill those two humans or get blasted into yet another evolutionary stage with a bazooka.
Calming myself and building up speed, I ran along the wall of the curved corridor and burst into the next room, which turned out to be a hall littered with zombie corpses. The door opposite had been smashed in, and in a somewhat tighter space beyond that spacious hall, a fight with Nemesis was underway.
Hmm. I'd guessed right. Nemesis, expertly wielding the tentacles that had sprouted in his second form, kept trying to ensnare both of his opponents. When I appeared, he even managed to lash around Carlos's leg and hurl him into the nearest column. He couldn't close in to finish him off, though—Jill's freeze grenades kept him at bay. Would you look at that? I'd thought that kind of ammunition was just something the creators had made up. But whatever. I had more important things to deal with than figuring out the filling of grenade launcher rounds in a century that was, frankly, somewhat backward for it. Virology here had advanced beyond my world's level, hadn't it? So why couldn't they have taken the same path with weapon development?
I burst into the room and immediately caught a shot meant for the dodging Nemesis—right in the chest. And it would have been fine if it were an ordinary bullet. No! I'd just received a gift from Jill—one of her freeze grenades.
"Refreshing!" I said, watching frost crust over my skin here and there, the main wave of cold passing through to my back, as if a blast of winter had exhaled from within me. And for the first time since arriving in this world, I clearly felt… that I was damn cold! It was as if part of my insides had frozen, and my joints had taken a hit as well. But you couldn't see any of that on my ever-grinning face. Judging by Carlos—who was now aiming not at Nemesis but at me—and by Jill, who clearly couldn't decide who she should be defending against, I must have looked monstrous from the outside. And I very much hoped—cool.
What choice did I have? All I could do was radiate brutality. With this body and face, there wasn't much else I could radiate—unless it was terror or something like that.
"Whoa, no need to point your weapons at me! I'm skittish—I might just leave. And then you'll have to deal with this handsome fellow yourselves. Are you sure you've got enough ammo?" I sincerely hoped the sarcasm came through.
"You're saying you're going to help us?" Jill had to be given credit. Unlike the stunned Carlos, she quickly processed the fact that I was talking. Even while dodging Nemesis's tentacles, she managed to ask a question—and lace it with a hint of sarcasm of her own. Pity the effect was blurred by her heavy breathing, though that was hardly surprising. How long had they been jumping around in here?
"Yes. Just like last time." I decided to see how quickly Jill would put two and two together.
"Last time? Although… those pants. I've seen that cut somewhere before, only with the rest of the outfit… a special suit?! You're that suit tester!" the girl recalled our first meeting.
"Yep. Just not a suit. Didn't Umbrella mold a funny little beast out of me? Hate them! But that's beside the point. Get out of here. I've got unfinished business with this creature." I pointed toward the exit behind me.
I really did have a considerable score to settle with this thing called Nemesis. As for those two, Yamata—who had remained outside—would keep an eye on them. I'd been making rapid strides in mastering telepathy and had filled her in on the plan. I would definitely be able to find Yamata myself, and I partially remembered the canonical route. Whatever was about to happen here… it would be better if those two didn't see it.
(End of Chapter)
Hey! Don't forget, your support is very important.
Please donate power stones, write reviews, and leave comments. It will be a huge help!
🎁 Bonus chapter at 100 power stones!