Having lost its mobility, the Lobstrosity crashed to the ground, swinging its giant claws and emitting roars of impotent rage.
Its massive body spun in place like a top.
"Bang! Bang!"
Right then, two gunshots rang out.
The old lady, who had been waiting for an opening, finally seized the moment as the lobster turned.
The bullets accurately struck the Lobstrosity's bulging eyes, causing a burst of fluid.
"Hit it!"
The old lady pumped her fist in excitement, looking proud of herself. "Looks like my skills haven't rusted!"
Blinded and unable to move, the Lobstrosity spiraled into a state of total frenzy.
It swung its massive claws wildly, smashing everything in sight. At the same time, its mouth gaped open, spewing black fluid in every direction.
The others scrambled to dodge, terrified by the sight.
The teacher, Amanda, was currently struggling to climb a ladder, trying to reach a platform to shut off the power.
But just as she reached the midpoint, a stream of ink-like liquid swept across the top of the ladder.
The iron ladder snapped.
"Ah!!!"
Amanda let out a terrified scream, her hands clawing futilely at the air.
Falling from this height, even with corpses to break the fall, would be certain death.
Amanda's mind went blank as she instinctively closed her eyes.
Just before she hit the ground, two arms reached out from the darkness, steadily catching her falling body.
The expected pain never came.
Still shaken, Amanda opened her eyes to see a monster wearing a triangular iron helmet.
On the sides of the rusted helmet sat two cute little antlers.
Facing this unknown entity, Amanda didn't feel the slightest bit of fear.
Driven by an adrenaline rush and a certain indescribable feeling, she reached out as if possessed and gently touched the antlers on the helmet.
The figure vanished, and she landed hard on the ground. Though it hurt her backside, she had at least kept her life.
Up high, Alessa sat quietly on the edge of the platform, her legs dangling in mid-air, swinging them gently.
As soon as the Lobstrosity appeared below, Sephirot had quietly sent her out to watch over these fragile humans.
He had told her that only when these people faced fatal danger was she allowed to briefly pull them into Silent Hill.
Unless absolutely necessary, Sephirot didn't want these ordinary people to know about the existence of the Otherworld.
Once exposed, the subsequent cleanup was always a hassle.
After the Lobstrosity's mad spree of spitting, the venom gradually thinned, and the swings of its giant claws became sluggish.
Eventually, the monster seemed to have exhausted its strength, collapsing onto the wreckage-strewn floor, its massive frame rising and falling slightly with its breath.
Seeing that it had finally stopped its frenzy, Sephirot walked forward at a leisurely pace, Greatsword in hand.
He lined up his shot at the left claw embedded in the floor and brought the blade down like a bolt of lightning. Splat!
Foul-smelling liquid sprayed out as the Lobstrosity shrieked in pain, struggling to raise its sole remaining right claw in a desperate, final counterattack.
Its mouth gaped open again, its upper body writhing and squirming, but it couldn't spit out another drop of ink.
Sephirot backed away a short distance, continuing to watch it struggle.
Before long, having exhausted its final dregs of energy, the Lobstrosity slumped down once more.
He stepped forward again and swung the thunder sword, severing the other giant claw.
He tapped the pair of claws with the hilt of his sword; the hardness felt excellent. Perhaps Nico could make something out of them. For now, he'd just shove them into Silent Hill.
Deprived of its claws and its mobility, the Lobstrosity was now nothing more than a torso.
It feebly shook its head, completely out of options.
Sephirot had no desire to torture it further. Gripping the Greatsword with both hands, he leapt high into the air and took its head with a single stroke.
In his mind, the system notification chimed right on cue.
[Ding!]
[Killed Arachni-Lobster. Reward: 2000 points.]
[bloodline awakening degree increased to: 11%]
"You get points for killing monsters like this too?"
Sephirot stared at the message and found that his bloodline awakening degree had also increased by 1%. It was a pleasant surprise.
Behind him, however, there was only silence.
Andre, Amanda, and the others, even the old lady who seemed indifferent to life and death, wore frozen expressions.
Even though they had witnessed Sephirot's prowess back at the hardware store.
But now, this creature, three stories tall and capable of taking on an entire military unit, had been slaughtered by Sephirot alone with nothing but a sword?!
To these ordinary people who had hardly ever touched a gun, this display of transcendent power was even more shocking than the sight of the disgusting monsters.
Clancy stared at the footage captured on his camera, his face flushed and his whole body trembling.
Ignoring their reactions, Sephirot turned his gaze toward the humming pulse device.
He raised a hand and waved them back, signaling everyone to distance themselves to prevent any accidents.
Snapping out of it as if from a dream, the group scrambled to retreat, supporting one another as they went.
Sephirot took a deep breath, channeling his magic into the thunder sword.
The lightning dancing upon the blade flared violently, casting a glow that made him look like a god of thunder descended to earth.
Gripping the hilt with both hands, he brought the sword down upon the massive pulse device!
BOOM!
The pulse waves that had been emitting steadily from the front of the device surged out of control, accelerating wildly.
Then, the humming of the pulse stopped abruptly as violent energy exploded from within the machine!
The deafening blast echoed through the hollow underground space, making everyone's ears ring with pain.
Deprived of the energy maintaining it, the rift in the Subspace on the wall finally stopped expanding.
Under the self-repairing mechanisms of the world's laws, the edges of the rift began to slowly shrink inward.
Watching the crack leading to the unknown gradually grow smaller,
The tension on the faces of Amanda and the others finally softened. Despite their pallor, smiles of relief from surviving the disaster began to break through. Andre let out a long, heavy sigh of relief, collapsing against the wall as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Dammit, it's finally over..."
Suddenly, just as the rift was about to close, with only a two-meter gap remaining...
Snap!
A pair of slender, pale-gray claws thrust out from the rift, death-grip clutching the edges!
The space that had been on the verge of sealing began to show signs of being pried open again.
Sephirot's gaze sharpened, and the thunder sword he had just lowered was raised once more, overflowing with arcs of electricity.
A faceless head squeezed through the forced opening.
As if catching the scent of the living, its wrinkled, skin-covered head split open like a blooming sunflower.
Inside was a dense thicket of needle-like teeth, resembling a meat grinder.
"Screeech!!"
The creature let out a sharp, terrifying howl.
Watching this classic movement, a flicker of shock flashed through Sephirot's pupils.
A Demogorgon?!
Isn't this the monster from Stranger Things?
How did this thing manage to crawl out through a Subspace rift?
Surprise was one thing, but Sephirot's hands didn't hesitate for a second.
"I don't care what the hell you are, eat my blade!"
Taking advantage of the Demogorgon's body still being stuck in the rift.
Sephirot lunged forward, moving like a bolt of lightning as he drove the thunder sword deep into the Demogorgon's fully gaping petal-like mouth.
Puchi!
Lightning exploded within the Demogorgon's gullet, sending blood spraying.
Reeling from the blow, the Demogorgon's claws lost their grip on the rift's edge, and it was knocked back into the abyss.
With the final obstacle gone, the rift finally sealed shut for good.
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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TL NOTES — CROSSOVER GUIDE
Some references in this chapter come from source universes that may be unfamiliar to some readers. The notes below provide the context needed to understand them without leaving the page.
SOURCE UNIVERSES
Stranger Things — A science fiction horror series set in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s. The story centers on a group of kids, government experiments, and the existence of a parallel dimension called the Upside Down, a dark, decaying mirror of the real world inhabited by terrifying creatures. The series became a cultural phenomenon largely thanks to its monsters and its 80s nostalgia aesthetic.
CREATURES
Demogorgon — The primary monster of Stranger Things Season 1, named after the demon prince from Dungeons & Dragons by the kids in the show. It is a tall, humanoid predator with no face: its head is a flower-like arrangement of petals that split open to reveal rows of jagged teeth, exactly as described in this chapter. It originates from the Upside Down and can tear open rifts between dimensions to cross into the real world. Its arrival through the Subspace rift mirrors its ability in the series to pass between the Upside Down and the human world at will.