Chapter 474: Color Calamity Smothered in Extreme Hues

Author's Preface

Allow me to introduce these crazy members!!

◇R-R◇

"Man, this is so unfair... you can't even participate if you aren't on the New Continent."

"We just started the game, what use would we even be?"

"Well yeah, but... hm?"

"What is that? Shaking..."

"No way, this is an extinct volca───"

A thunderous roar, a violent tremor. The Pioneers were blown away by super-heated steam accompanied by a shockwave, instantly wiped from the volcano.

"Folololololololo"

The former Red Dragon known to no one—the entity that had once been a dragon, sunk to the bottom of the crater lake acting as the volcano's lid—was blown to smithereens.
Though incomparable to the ocean, the crater lake which should have held a massive volume of water was now entirely evaporated, leaving a single Flame Butterfly at its center.

Receiving an even greater will, the "Red" butterfly awaited its enemies.

◇RB◇

"Brrrrroooooo......"

It wasn't burning its pale body, nor was it discharging electricity... it was simply walking.

"What in..."

"My maximum... HP... is being shaved away........."

"Wa—"

Merely by existing, death piled up along the path it walked.
With its mane of black mist flowing in the wind, the eyeless blue horse kept its head bowed low and continued to walk.

Ah, kill more, the source whispered. The "Blue" horse neighed as if mocking the lives that awaited on the path ahead.

◇R-B◇

"Phew, that was close! Thanks for the heal!"

"Huh? But I didn't use any healing magic..."

"Eh?"

"MrrrFFFffffffff......"

"Wh-What is that?!"

"A f-frog?"

"Wait, just how far is it restoring my health..."

"Gyaba!?"

"...Huh?"

A black, six-legged frog-like something bobbed through the air like a balloon. Bursting onto the scene right in the middle of the players' battle with a monster, it was healing wounds.

Healing wounds.

Healing wounds.

Even when there were no wounds left to heal, it kept healing.

In the end, it healed, and healed, and healed, and healed, and healed, and healed, and healed, until flesh burst apart from the excessive restorative power.........

Until the players met the exact same fate as the bear-type monster that had just popped like a balloon───

The "Black" frog squinted its eyes in delight, watching that spectacle unfold the entire time.

◇R-G◇

The Forest of Mythology—a mystical place bathed in sunlight, yet simultaneously a forest with poor visibility obstructed by countless trees... Within it, something was quietly making its move.

A unicorn drank water from a spring illuminated by sunlight filtering through the canopy, when the tree behind it began to move. A tree monster? No, it was a peacock disguised as a tree through extremely advanced mimicry.

If there was anything separating it from a real-life peacock, it would be its bizarrely long, ostrich-like legs... and the fact that its tail feathers—the very trademark of a peacock—were shaped like a cluster of oddly shaped fruits.

"Kyokyokyo"

Splash. Green liquid was hurled onto the unicorn's back.
Using its long neck and beak, it had deftly plucked one of the fruits growing on its tail feathers and thrown it; the fruit crushed against the unicorn's back, dirtying its fur with the liquid stored inside.
However, having survived the brutal struggle for existence up until now, the unicorn's life force wasn't so frail as to falter from an itch akin to a water balloon bursting against it.

Turning around to see what had happened, the unicorn noticed the peacock's wings spreading open with a rustle... and the moment it registered that each individual feather was vibrating to emit a sound reminiscent of a shriek, the anomaly occurred.

"...?, !!?, !!?!?!"

The green liquid seeped into the unicorn's body with the speed of water soaking into paper.

Requisition of magical power... Insufficient.

Requisition of physical strength... Insufficient.

Requisition of stamina... Insufficient.

Not enough, not enough, therefore pay with your body.

Subjected to such an utterly unreasonable forced bankruptcy, the unicorn screamed and writhed in agony... but that voice vanished into the forest without anyone ever noticing.

After a short while, the "Green" peacock... alongside the unicorn that had now been corrupted entirely into a solid green, disappeared into the trees in search of fresh prey.

The location changes, and so too does providence.

◆L-B◆

"Oi"

"Oii?"

Bursting out from beneath the earth, they were—in a single word—Cyclopes.
Looking around with the single eyeball that occupied the majority of their faces, they recognized the presence of others of their exact same kind.

"Oii"

"OiiiiIIIIIIIII!!!"

As if to say there was only one thing left to do, the fists of the muscular Cyclopes crossed in a cross-counter.

After a short while, a victor and a loser emerged.

One of the black, one-eyed ogres collapsed to the ground, its entire body pulverized.
The victorious one-eyed ogre stared at it, brought its face close to its fallen kin's neck...

And without an ounce of hesitation, it bit straight through its windpipe.

"OOOooooooo...!!!"

Devouring flesh, devouring flesh, devouring flesh.
Having no bones to speak of, the one-eyed ogre—constructed almost entirely out of muscle fibers—was being greedily eaten alive by none other than its own kind.
As this gruesome cannibalism continued, a change occurred in the body of the predator.

Its muscles hypertrophied even more robustly, its arm cracking and popping... the right arm that the one-eyed ogre heavily favored as its lethal weapon growing increasingly more vicious.

An overwhelmingly primal desire for strength; even if the ultimate consequence awaiting it was to be destroyed by its own physical power... the one-eyed ogre would not stop.

"Oooiiiiiii..."

Having devoured its kin without leaving a single scrap of meat behind, the one-eyed ogre—now physically larger—slowly stood up and began to walk in search of fresh prey.

Because the "Black" ogre could only fulfill its raison d'être by continuously claiming victory.

◆L-W◆

Punyon, punyon, punyon.

It was soft, it was fluid, and it was ravenous.
Swallowing trees, eating dirt, melting rocks. It had no mouth, no eyes, and not a single visible organ. Slithering its jelly-like fluid body with a punyon, the pure white slimes continued to move, endlessly repeating a cycle of multiplication and predation.

In ten seconds, one became two; in a minute, there were even more. Left unchecked, they would become unmanageable.
Before long, when a massive "hole" was formed in the wasteland, thousands... no, tens of thousands of slimes blanketed the earth.

Punyon, punyon, punyon.

It was impossible to read any emotion from the slimes. They mechanically consumed, multiplied, and now, massive numbers of slimes were throwing themselves into the very hole they had created.

The slimes that smashed against the bottom of the hole splattered and merged with the slimes following right behind them. Eventually, the slimes clinging to the hole became the "walls," they became the "floor," and the piled-up slimes became the "pillars," they became the "stairs"......... By the time the final slime contorted its body to become the "latch," a colossal, pure white "Tower" had been completed in the wasteland.

They remembered. The ones who had once set foot on these lands used to build things exactly like this, and... whenever they saw "this" which wasn't made by their own hands, they wouldn't be able to resist investigating it.

Therefore... all it had to do was open its mouth and wait.

The "White" fluids continued to wait for their visitors.

◆L-G◆

Insects were flying. But that wasn't exactly rare; search any sea of trees, and you could find as many bugs as you wanted.

Even if they happened to be larger than humans... given the nature of the New Continent, it was somewhat uncommon, but not entirely impossible.

But what if they were an eerily uniform shade of solid green?
What if they were far too highly coordinated, even taking into account that they were insects?
What if they captured their prey alive without killing it, and carried it off somewhere else?

But none of that was what truly mattered when describing them.

"L-Let go! Damn it, let go of me!!"

A pitiful victim—a Beastman—was being carried away, restrained as if being clung to by a bizarre giant winged insect that looked like a bee, a spider, a fly, or perhaps none of the above.

And then he saw it. An abhorrent "flower" rooted in the earth, its grotesquely fleshy, massive maw adorned with petals.
And seeing a chewed-up monster being thrown emotionlessly into it perfectly illustrated the fate that awaited him.

"S-Stop—"

A tongue shot out from the giant mouth—which even possessed lips—wrapping around the Beastman and dragging him inside.
Without even leaving him the time to utter his last words or a death cry, the flower swallowed him after chewing him down to a bloody pulp. It let out a burp laced with a sickly sweet stench of decay, and as if that was the signal, the insects scattered and flew off in all directions once more.

The "Green" insects and flower lamented; this wasn't nearly enough. They needed more, much more nutrition...

？？？

"Siegwurm... he passed on, did he."

There was no sky to look up at, yet a single sigh was exhaled by someone reminiscing about something.

"The time might be... gettin' real close, huh..."

O humans, O humans. An entity that uses its strength to challenge those living in the present... the oldest of the rabbits, without touching it or adding any kindling, lit the kiseru pipe held in his mouth.

A tiny fire flickered in the pitch-black space, illuminating it—which the rabbit was gazing up at—ever so slightly.

"...'Flower,' 'Wind,' and 'Moon'... they’re a spirited lot, ain't they? And looks like we found ourselves a damn fine 'Bird' to join 'em, too. Somethin' the likes of us—this old-timer included—could never manage back in the day... but lookin' at 'em now... well, it makes me want to start believin' in 'what-ifs' after all."

It was overwhelmingly massive, it was unspeakably ominous, and it was sleeping a deep, deep slumber.
Bound tightly by colossal chains that could easily crush a human flat, it was currently a slumbering white god.

"Just a little longer... wait for us, Master."

Along with the rabbit's figure, the fire of the kiseru pipe extinguished. The slumbering god was sealed within the darkness once more...

But only the immortal rabbit knew that its awakening was not far off at all.

Author's Afterword
That is all!!

The Crazed Ultramarine: "Eh"
Devouring Great Crimson Clad: "I'll be back"