Chapter 61 : The Echo of Sun: Birth of a Nightmare

At the moment when Mari, calling herself Santa, was sending a message to Siyeon,
in the middle of space on a spaceship utterly unrelated to seasonal changes or the festive atmosphere,
the Maker of the Monster Research and Development Lab was making a breakthrough.

Unlike his earlier pessimistic claim that creating a new monster within 20 setls was improbable,
progress was surprisingly swift.

There was no need to create a monster capable of withstanding the heat of the sun.

Instead, the key was to create a monster capable of possessing balanced abilities from top to bottom.

Even if the clone couldn’t surpass the original in battle,

just replicating it to a similar degree would already be a remarkable achievement.

After all, data on Sun’s combat was piling up to an overwhelming degree aboard the ship.

Now, it was simply a matter of synthesizing suitable organic materials gathered from across the universe and training them with the existing data.

“This one… and that one…”

Excited at how quickly progress was being made, he hummed while working joyfully,
his mechanical arm almost seeming to display emotion.

Then, with a hiss like escaping steam, the door to the Monster Research and Development Lab opened.
Who dared to interrupt his enjoyable work?

The Maker vowed to reprimand them if they were a monster of lower rank.

Turning around, he saw none other than Medic Tentacle.

Far from being of lower rank, Medic Tentacle was an equal in status and even a friend.

His anger, which had flared briefly, subsided just as quickly.

“How’s it going? Any progress?”

“You came at just the right time.”

Time was hard to measure, but within the span of a human day, Medic Tentacle came and went several times.

Ever since hearing that progress was being made, he had been visiting the lab frequently—nearly daily.

It was true that after negotiations with Sun, the workload in the recovery room had drastically decreased.

With the recovery devices functioning properly, there was virtually nothing to do;
such was the life of a recovery room officer.

As the Maker muttered complaints and envy inwardly,
he continued to fiddle with the organism in his hands, unaware that it was a seed of despair that would bring destruction to the ship.

Of course, the Maker had no idea that the organism he was holding
would become a blade meant to strike outward but twisted inward.

Not a single monster aboard the ship—including himself—could have imagined such an outcome.

“Alright, let’s begin the production immediately.

The synchronization rate with the data is nearly perfect, so it should come out looking very similar.”

“Hoho.”

At the Maker’s confident words, Medic Tentacle let out a short exclamation of admiration.

The transparent, massive metal cylinder where the synthesized monster would emerge stood before them.

The two monsters stopped in front of the cylinder to observe the final result.

The writhing organism began to clump together like gelatinous clay, taking on a humanoid shape.
Its body was entirely monochromatic, cold silver metal.

Unlike the Maker, who had never seen the original in person, Medic Tentacle had faced her before.

Aside from the lack of color, it was an exact replica of the woman who had once calmly declared she would kill him.

The uncanny resemblance sent shivers down Medic Tentacle’s spine,
making him momentarily feel as though she were standing right in front of him.

Shaking his head to dispel the dread creeping over him,
he opened his mouth to commend the Maker for the remarkable achievement unfolding before them.

“It’s a phenomenal result. Not only that, but you completed it much earlier than planned.”

“I didn’t expect it to be this easy either. We crammed every bit of data related to Sun aboard the ship into it… for a synthesized monster,

“It must be pretty powerful, wouldn’t it?”

Such confidence accompanies the maker’s explanation.

Medic Tentacle lightly stroked the cylinder containing her clone with one of its tentacles.

“…Hmm.”

At that moment, Medic Tentacle let out a brief groan, inwardly marveling at how eerily identical the clone looked.

Just then, her clone, as if reacting to some unfamiliar sound nearby, briefly flicked her closed eyelids open.

What revealed itself was a monotone retina, metallic in appearance, far from anything human.

Without any discernible pupils, the chilling sensation of those eyes piercing through Medic Tentacle made it question the situation and turn to the maker.

Though it didn’t appear so outwardly, there was no doubt that the clone’s eyes, rolling within the cylinder, were scanning the surroundings.

Feeling an ominous sensation crawling over its skin, Medic Tentacle instinctively took a step back.

No, it couldn’t be. Surely not.

Hoping against hope that the foreboding feeling was wrong, it glanced at the maker and cautiously asked,

“Maker, you said you uploaded all of Sun’s data onto the ship, right?”

“Of course. Not a single bit was left out.”

Not a single bit.

Hearing this response, Medic Tentacle felt a mix of certainty and the dawning weight of despair.

Its voice trembled as it opened its mouth again, desperate to deny the truth until the very end.

“Even the memory data… suspected to be antagonistic toward monsters?”

“Ah.”

At that moment, the maker’s short sigh reached Tentacle.

Memory data, suspected to be hostile toward monsters, from Sun’s perspective.

The maker, only now realizing the gravity of the situation through the stream of questions, belatedly turned their gaze toward the metallic cylinder.

The hollow eyes within rolled aimlessly before locking onto the two monsters.

Like a human encountering a predator and instinctively resisting the urge to run, the two monsters slowly began to step back, their gazes fixed on those empty eyes.

But this was merely a response born of the instincts of living creatures when facing a superior predator.

To something that had been thoroughly educated from a human-centered perspective, such an approach would not work.

“This is bad…”

With a sound of the metallic cylinder being violently crushed, the maker’s words were cut short as the cylinder was flattened against the wall, leaving a sticky smear behind.

The sheer brute force of it all happened in an instant.

At the same time, a resounding alarm, signaling despair, echoed throughout the ship.

Without even understanding what had happened, Medic Tentacle turned its gaze toward it.

The helplessly dangling tentacles revealed that this situation was entirely unexpected.

Its hollow eyes stared blankly for a moment before it abruptly threw a punch.

That was the last thing Medic Tentacle remembered.

“Hah!”

“Ugh!”

The two monsters awoke almost simultaneously in the recovery chamber.

The monsters in the recovery room tilted their heads in confusion.

These weren’t the two monsters that were headed to Earth, so why had they been forcefully transported into the recovery device and regained consciousness?

Had there been a fight among the officers?

Despite the confusion among the monsters in the recovery room, the two officers roared almost simultaneously.

“Prepare to broadcast to the entire ship! Now!”

“Hurry! If that thing gets here…!”

“Y-Yes, sir. Right away…”

The monsters in the recovery room had no idea what the two officers were about to announce. The urgency in their voices, as if heralding the end of the world, left them scrambling to adjust the system for an emergency broadcast to the entire ship.

“Attention all monsters in the fleet.”

The brief crackling of static on the ship’s intercom was followed by a short announcement. For the monsters who had temporarily forgotten the threat of Sun and were basking in fleeting moments of happiness, it was nothing short of a signal for despair.

“A copy of Magical Girl Sun, developed in the Monster Research and Development Lab, has escaped and is roaming the ship…”

As soon as the announcement was made, chaos erupted across the ship, loud enough to be heard even in the recovery room. Clattering noises, likely from monsters tumbling out of their beds, echoed in the background.

The monsters in the recovery room finally understood why the two officers were so visibly panicked. They exchanged wide-eyed glances.

“What?!”

“AAAAAAH!!!”

“Save me! Aaaargh!”

Screams of terror and the sounds of panicked monsters thrashing around reached the recovery room. Even Medic Tentacle couldn’t help but empathize with their fear. A part of him wanted to join in the chaos, to scream and flee the recovery room.

But if the recovery equipment in this room were destroyed, it would spell doom for the entire ship. After all, the only reason anyone had survived this long was thanks to the recovery equipment. Gathering his trembling tentacles, Medic Tentacle spoke calmly into the broadcast.

“Fellow monsters, it just came from the Monster Research and Development Lab. Lure it as far away from the recovery room as possible, even if it means becoming bait! If the recovery room loses its functionality, we’re all doomed!”

Boom, boom, boom—the heavy footsteps of something enormous echoed down the corridors. As long as the recovery equipment was operational, the monsters had a chance to survive. They weren’t just running to their deaths; they were struggling to stay alive.

Chaos erupted among the countless monsters on the ship, their movements tangled and frantic.

Some obediently followed the orders and returned to the recovery room as bait.

Thankfully, as this was the monsters’ stronghold, the sheer overwhelming numbers meant they didn’t have to endure the detailed torture recorded in Sun’s programming. The monsters could return to the frontlines relatively quickly.

But there was no such thing as an endless war. It was ultimately a battle of attrition.

“Maker, isn’t there any other way?”

With a heavy expression, Medic Tentacle turned to Maker, hoping the one responsible for creating this mess had some sort of solution.

“Even if the copy’s synchronization rate is high, it’s still hastily synthesized organic material… in that case…”

“In that case?”

“We just keep fighting it until it falls…”

“Damn it, that’s not a solution at all.”

With Medic Tentacle’s sigh, the ship endured tens of hours of a relentless, nightmarish battle, filled with countless monster deaths. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they succeeded in subduing and eliminating the copy of Sun.

The experience left scars that could have easily become trauma, but having resolved the situation, the monsters felt strangely emboldened. They started to believe they might even stand a chance against the original.

However, the wolf-headed monster, who had confronted Sun directly and kept his sanity, said this:

“Compared to the original, that thing was just a fake that mimicked only her strength.”

Author’s Note
[Bursts of Nightmare]
SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!
To be continued in the next episode