Voidworm, the Fused Beast

Vroom!

Rover and Lynae sped out of the academy on a motorcycle, the Voidworm in pursuit.

"Why are you here?!"

Lynae clearly hadn't expected Rover to appear beside her and carry her away from the Voidworm's attack.

"I was about to ask you the same thing."

Rover clearly hadn't expected Lynae to give up her chance to escape for her classmates' safety and stand in the monster's path.

"Haha. By the time I realized what was happening, my body had already moved..."

Lynae scratched her head on the back seat, looking sheepish.

"We need to lure the Voidworm to the defensive arrays."

Rover glanced at the monster close behind them, her expression resolute.

Before arriving in Lahai Luo, she'd had part of her frequency devoured by the Void Threnodian. That was why the Threnodian creation behind them was so fixated on her.

Now, though, that had become an opportunity.

It was thanks to that fixation that she'd managed to draw the giant's attention.

At the same time, Mo Bai raced along the Voidworm's trail.

But one thing was giving him trouble.

Speed.

His motorcycle had come from the academy, just like Lynae's, but it was nowhere near as fast.

"Tch. Who knew a delinquent student's ingenuity would come in handy at a time like this?" Mo Bai muttered with a frown.

If he'd understood how the motorcycle worked, he might have modified it and pumped in some Cursed Energy to make it faster.

But he had no time to teach himself now...

Vroom!

"Hm?"

Just as Mo Bai was fretting over it, the motorcycle beneath him picked up speed.

Beep~

Puzzled, Mo Bai followed the sudden chime to the motorcycle's display.

A pixel girl with pink hair waved at him from the screen, apparently cheering him on.

"Help from the academy? Perfect timing. Then while I've got the chance..."

Vroom!

Mo Bai twisted the throttle hard, pushing the motorcycle up another notch.

By then, Lynae and Rover had divided their tasks.

Lynae would keep the Voidworm occupied while Rover activated the defensive arrays in different locations.

"Tch. This equipment burns through more resonance power than I expected..."

Lynae caught her breath during a brief lull in her race against the Voidworm across the wasteland.

The academy's new equipment could indeed hurt the Voidworm, but the resonance power it consumed was enormous.

At this rate, Lynae felt she was on the verge of [Overclocking].

The Voidworm didn't care.

All it knew was that an enemy's weakest moment was the best time to strike.

"Roar!"

With a roar to the sky, it writhed toward Lynae at full speed.

Boom!

The enormous worm burst from the earth, bearing down on the girl as though it meant to repay every injury she'd dealt it twice over.

Whoosh!

"Divine Dogs! Nue! Eclipse of the Heavenly Dog!"

A familiar voice rang out from the distance. But something strange reached Lynae even faster.

It was a giant wolfhound the size of an adult, with wings and eagle talons in place of its front paws.

"Awooo!"

The creature slammed into the Voidworm with all its might.

Vroom! Vroom!

"Go!"

Mo Bai rode up beside Lynae and called for her to get clear.

"Right!"

Lynae didn't waste a moment. She rode alongside Mo Bai toward safety.

She had plenty of questions for him, but they would have to wait until the crisis was over.

Riiip!

Behind them, the fused Shikigami Mo Bai had summoned—part Divine Dogs, part Nue—was destroyed by the Voidworm.

"Mo Bai! Your summons..."

Lynae glanced back at the creature's destruction and hurried to warn him.

"It's fine!"

Mo Bai switched his motorcycle to autopilot, then formed the hand signs to summon Divine Dogs and Nue again.

Whoosh!

Another creature identical to the fused Shikigami sprang from the shadows and charged the Voidworm.

Mo Bai had come up with this way to hold the giant monster back while on the road.

It was an extension technique of the Ten Shadows Technique called [Eclipse of the Heavenly Dog].

The Ten Shadows Technique's original Shikigami disappeared for good once destroyed, but that rule didn't apply to the Shikigami Mo Bai fused himself.

He had combined traits from Nue and Divine Dogs to create a fused Shikigami with Nue's speed and ability to fly, along with the strength of Divine Dogs.

The advantage was that it couldn't be destroyed permanently. As long as he had enough Cursed Energy, Mo Bai could summon large numbers of them to keep an enemy occupied.

The drawback was...

Riiip!

As Lynae and Mo Bai headed to meet Rover, the Voidworm destroyed the fused Shikigami Mo Bai had just summoned.

Although Eclipse of the Heavenly Dog was a fused Shikigami, it was actually weaker than the original Shikigami.

For one thing, it had inherited neither Nue's lightning nor Divine Dogs' sense of smell.

"So how do we take down the big guy behind us?"

Mo Bai asked Lynae while holding the hand signs and focusing his Cursed Energy to summon more fused Shikigami.

He'd only just reached the battlefield, and without a Terminal to contact them, there was still a lot he didn't know.

Lynae gave him a quick rundown of the plan.

"Basically, once Rover activates the defensive arrays, we can finish that giant worm off while it's weakened and trapped!" Lynae said, keeping her eyes on the road.

With Mo Bai there, she felt they could pull it off.

"Got it!"

Once Mo Bai had summoned enough Shikigami to keep the Voidworm occupied, he and Lynae accelerated toward the last defensive array.

Behind them, the Voidworm seemed to decide the pests swarming around it were too numerous and irritating. It stopped conserving its energy.

"ROAR!!!"

Ignoring the Shikigami biting and attacking it, the Voidworm gathered energy in its mouth and aimed at Mo Bai and Lynae ahead.

"Tch! Block it!"

At Mo Bai's urgent command, the mass of Shikigami threw themselves in front of the Voidworm's mouth.

BOOM!!

The Shikigami blocked its energy blast, causing it to explode inside its mouth.

"ROAR!!"

The Voidworm howled in fury.

Mo Bai's fused Shikigami had all been wiped out by the attack, but the blast had dealt the Voidworm a serious blow too.

"That did a lot of damage. We could do the same when the time comes..."

Lynae seemed to draw inspiration from Mo Bai's command. After murmuring to herself, her expression hardened with resolve.