Ghost Car

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Ghost Cars inhabit underground spaces and particularly favor tunnels. They shelter part of their bodies inside trains, which gradually fuse with their flesh until separation becomes almost impossible 34.

According to Han Shu, the last reported encounter with a Ghost Car occurred eight years earlier. Four Nightwalker squads participated, but only three people survived; two lost their minds. The remaining survivor described the encounter without discovering the creature’s Will Cage 34.

Appearance

The encountered Ghost Car initially resembles a gigantic, soft-bodied crawler, broad at the front and narrow at the rear. Its dark-green body extends into several train carriages like a hermit crab occupying a shell 34.

• Fused corpses: Human bodies cling to its flesh beneath thin membranes, making the train’s passengers appear to have become part of the creature 34.
• Humanlike arms: More than a dozen immensely long arms line its sides, complete with fingernails. The flesh on its hands writhes like clustered maggots 34.
• Hidden head: No obvious head or eyes are visible externally 34.
• Abdominal mouth: Its mouth lies beneath its body and contains three concentric rows of sharp teeth 34.
• Luminous growths: Fleshy growths initially glow yellow. During mutation, they turn scarlet and split open to reveal red crystals 34 36.
• Mutated limbs: Its replacement legs are slender and insectlike; the foremost pair resemble red-hot scythes 36.

Abilities & Skills

Deflection Force Field

Diamond-shaped screens of light surround its original body and redirect approaching matter 35.

• Withstands nearly ten seconds of concentrated attacks from combat vehicles, Three-Dimensional Armaments, and Ascenders without serious injury 35.
• Does not prevent Han Shu and the other melee fighters from destroying its arms 36.
• Tianyang suspects it may interfere with Weakness Sense, but this is not confirmed. His ability becomes more useful after the mutated Ghost Car loses the field 36 37.

High-Heat Field

The red crystals exposed during mutation generate extreme heat and a protective field capable of stopping energy ammunition 36 38.

• Produces a wall of fire that catches two Ascenders, killing one and severely burning the other. During its transformation, the heat prevents fighters below Rank 4 from approaching 36.
• After shrinking, its surface temperature fluctuates between 150 and 180 degrees, while its abdominal underside remains in the thirties 37.
• Melts the ice created by Lida’s Withering, allowing it to break free 37.
• Destabilizes compressed star essence rounds from the Falling Star sniper cannon before they can penetrate the field 38.
• Can be temporarily suppressed by Withering, but heat rapidly returns inside its body cavity 38 39.

Strength and Mobility

Both forms can demolish buildings and military vehicles through direct physical attacks 34 35 37.

• Original form: Charges for over a kilometer, throws a Falcon combat vehicle more than ten meters, and swings its carriage-covered tail with enough force to kill an Ascender 35 36.
• Mutated form: Leaps nearly ten meters into the air, clings to buildings, and runs along their walls. Its smaller body and increased speed make ranged attacks harder to land 37.
• Scythe forelimbs: Cut through combat vehicles, bisect an ejecting pilot and his seat, and sever the sniper cannon’s barrel 37 38.

Consumption and Regurgitation

Its enormous mouth can swallow people, vehicles, and armaments whole 35 37.

• Devours Chen Liu together with his escape vehicle 35.
• Swallows the Fifth-Generation Heavy-Armored Model 37.
• Regurgitates black water and sludge containing undigested Wanderers. These emerge between Ghost Car and the Ascenders, forming a barrier before advancing toward the humans 36 37.

Will Cage and Vulnerabilities

Its concealed Will Cage is the decisive target needed to kill it 34 39.

• Tianyang first detects a faint red glow above the mouthparts, approximately one-third of the way up the body cavity 37.
• Numerous internal cocoons resemble Will Cages. At close range, Weakness Sense isolates the true target: a cocoon that opens to reveal an eyeball containing an eerie red glow 39.
• The underside provides an entry route through a gap in the heat field, but reaching the cage requires passing through the toothed mouth and enduring rapidly rising internal temperatures 38 39.
• Destruction of the cage causes its crystals to shatter and its flesh to rot and dissolve 39.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Attack on the Convoy

• Emerges from the rubble after the Star Marrow Pillar recovery and tunnel collapse, then charges the convoy’s defensive formation 34.
• Survives the initial bombardment and consumes Chen Liu when he attempts to flee 35.
• Han Shu leads an assault against its arms to cripple its mobility. The resulting damage prompts its transformation rather than ending the battle 35 36.

Destruction of the Will Cage

• Overwhelms the convoy’s firing position, destroys the Heavy-Armored Model and multiple vehicles, and escapes Lida’s first freezing attack 37.
• Resists the Falling Star sniper cannon, forcing the group to attempt an attack from inside its body 38.
• Lida freezes it again while leaving access to its mouth. Tianyang enters, locates the true Will Cage, and destroys it with his Particle Warblade 39.
• Tianyang escapes with severe burns; the weapon is damaged beyond repair 39 40.

Aftermath

• The battle kills more than half the convoy’s soldiers and seven Ascenders. The Nightwalkers hold a funeral for the fallen 40.
• Its enormous corpse remains incompletely decomposed after five days. Its smell deters lesser Children of Darkness, though Wanderers are an exception 40.
• Recovery personnel salvage valuable materials from its remains. Han Shu offers to seek some for a Material Weapon to replace Tianyang’s ruined warblade 40.
• Killing Ghost Car raises Tianyang’s ascension progress by 12 percentage points, bringing it to 40%. He notes that the victory required the combined efforts of many people and considerable luck 41.