Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Meteors fell from the sky and slammed into the ground.

Luke’s eyes widened in shock as he watched one figure after another walk out of the pillars of light. They were all girls wearing strange white armor, with Radiance flickering behind them like wings. Before Luke could figure out what was going on, he saw a girl with golden shoulder‑length short hair jog over to him, cradling a gun in her arms, then salute.

”Hello, I’m Senju Natsuyo, Commander of the First Legion of Coordinators from the Heavenly Dao Palace. May I ask where the current ruler of this city is?”

”I am the Acting Lord.”

Luke hurriedly replied, staring blankly at the girl in front of him, momentarily at a loss for words.

”In that case, Lord, I’d like to ask about the current status of the city. Are there still people trapped?”

”Right now we’ve already evacuated most of the citizens to the shelters. As for the other units, I can’t get in touch with them... I’m sorry, I don’t have much intel...”

”I understand.”

Senju Natsuyo nodded, then turned around, and soon saw several girls run up to her side.

”Nobiru, Tina, Midori, you three take a squad. Use this City Hall as the center and wipe out the enemy as fast as possible, take back the lost ground.”

”What if there are people trapped?”

”Illya‑onee‑san and the others will handle that.”

As she said this, Senju Natsuyo looked toward the silver‑haired girl beside her.

”Illya‑onee‑san, I’ll have to trouble you to continue in charge of rear support.”

”No problem.”

After a series of battles and running‑in, the little girls now more or less had their own division of roles. The frontal battlefield was mainly held by Natsuse and the other Cursed Child‑modified Coordinators, responsible for head‑on clashes, while Illya and the Magical Girls took charge of enemy‑rear clean‑up and rescue work. After all, Magical Girls were relatively all‑rounders...

”Then Atalanta‑onee‑san, I’ll leave this place to you. Medea‑onee‑san, please come with us.”

”Mm, no problem yo.”

Medea, gripping her Magic Wand, smiled faintly and followed at Illya’s side — just in case, Fang Zheng had used the special properties of Illya’s Little Holy Grail to split off a portion of the Hall of Heroic Spirits’ authority to her. So Illya could now directly Summon Heroic Spirits from the Hall of Heroic Spirits to join the battle.

And the Heroic Spirits themselves were quite interested in going to explore an Alien Planet.

Meanwhile, the battle had already begun to push forward.

In fact, by the time the girls landed, most of them had already joined the front‑line fight. Raphtalia led the Undead Squad’s Knights as the spearhead and charged straight at the very front, while the other Coordinators followed close behind. The weapons in their hands weren’t ordinary gear either; at the very least, dealing with these Swarm‑like Creatures was absolutely no problem.

Not only that, even though the number of these Creatures was quite large, it didn’t mean the girls were out of options.

”Whaaa!!”

A pack of Creatures suddenly burst out of the ground, lunging at one of the squads from all directions. But very soon, Luke saw Natsuse in the center of the formation raise her hand and clench it hard. A Psionic Storm instantly spread outward from her as the core. In the blink of an eye, tornadoes roared up, thunder rolled, and all those unlucky Creatures were swiftly swallowed.

”ROOOOAR———!!”

A group of Creatures swung their four arms and launched an attack at distant targets. Their upper two arms each bore a sharp blade that looked like a scythe, while their lower two hands gripped weapons that seemed to be made from some sort of flesh, spewing a mad hail of bullets at the girls.

Yet Raphtalia and the Undead Knights at her head didn’t even bother to block, they simply charged straight into the hail of gunfire. Bullets failed to hit their bodies at all, meeting a transparent barrier about a meter out and getting bounced away. Raphtalia then tightened her grip on the Greatsword in her hand, rolled forward to close the distance with the Creatures, and swiftly darted under their bodies.

The two scythe‑arms of the Creature swept down in a hurry — only to be sliced clean in two along with its body by the flying Greatsword.

Behind Raphtalia and the others, the girls in Battle Armor clutched their guns and poured fire into the Creatures. Luke could clearly see that the hard carapaces of those Creatures were as fragile as plastic in front of the girls’ weapons; every bullet that struck the shell would inevitably blow out a big hole. Under the girls’ attacks, the originally frenzied, berserk Creatures even began to show faint signs of retreat.

”Hah ah ah ah!!!”

With a shout, Nobiru leaped high and then came crashing down behind everyone — at first glance it looked like she’d picked the wrong direction, but in reality, as Nobiru landed, the whole ground started trembling. The earth centered on Nobiru suddenly collapsed and sank, and then she kicked out hard. In the next instant, amid flying dust, a gigantic Worm‑Creature as large as a train burst out of the sand and soil, directly booted up into the sky. It screamed desperately and thrashed its curved, blade‑like limbs on either side of its body, but unfortunately, this Creature clearly hadn’t unlocked any flying Skills. While it twisted its body in hopeless instinctive struggle, Nobiru lifted her head, fixed her gaze on the Creature, and then sprang upward.

Right after that, the Creature was chopped cleanly in half at the middle and crashed to the ground.

At the same time, Fang Zheng was also receiving data on these Creatures from Natsuse.

”Mm, very similar to the Swarm...”

”Highly contaminating...”

”You can purify it with Holy Light? This thing is...... whatever, let’s not argue about whether it’s scientific or not for now...”

From Natsuse’s report, Fang Zheng had already done some research on this species and gained a certain understanding of it. Their combat units were very similar to the Swarm, but there were differences. These Creatures didn’t use Fungal Carpet to expand their territory; instead, they polluted every kind of matter. No matter what it was, even the microorganisms in the soil would be completely contaminated and twisted by them. There was no way to clean up this pollution using scientific means, but it could be purified by Holy Light———that was the result Illya and the others reported. As the logistics force, they rescued some trapped civilians during the mop-up, among whom there were people attacked and corroded by these Creatures. Afterwards, Medea treated them. The conclusion was that Medical Gel and healing Magic had no effect on this pollution, but Holy Light and curse-removal Spells could work on it.

So is this thing science, or is it Magic.

Fang Zheng flipped through the records while unable to hold back his urge to complain. But it was just a bit of complaining. After all, in that ”Alien invasion dog-food” instance before, Fang Zheng had also run into Subspace beings that looked every bit like Hell Demons yet insisted on flying the ”I’m totally scientific” banner......

But...... it really is very similar to the Swarm, huh?

Almost every squad’s report mentioned that ”it’s very similar to the Swarm” in their impressions. Looked like it really was. Fang Zheng also watched the videos they sent back and, sure enough, aside from those upright-walking, four-armed beings, the other units were very similar to the Swarm. And judging from Natsuse’s battle reports, those four-armed Creatures seemed to play a role similar to Brain Bugs within the Swarm. As long as you killed them, those low-level Creatures would immediately lose their strict discipline and collapse into a disorganized mob.

However...... if their basic framework is similar to the Swarm, then that means they also have some kind of clear main brain will?

Thinking of this, Fang Zheng closed his eyes and pondered for a moment.

Let’s give it a try.

After making his decision deep within, Fang Zheng once again looked at the screen.

”Iona.”

”Here, Commander.”

”Release Drop Pod No. 2134.”

”Understood.”

Soon, a huge, black, coffin-like drop pod shot downward, pierced through the atmosphere, then slammed heavily into the ground, quickly breaking apart into a pile of scrap metal.

But very quickly, from this pile of scrap metal, a group of pitch-black Aliens silently crawled out. They let out hissing cries and looked toward the city around them.

At the same time, Fang Zheng’s orders echoed in their minds.

”Find those Creatures. Kill them, devour them, assimilate them!”

”Hss———!”

In the next instant, the Aliens rapidly dispersed, disappearing into the ruined wasteland in the blink of an eye.

In the dark Shadows, the Aliens darted forward. They were like silent Assassins, moving on all fours through the rubble and arriving behind the front line. Here, those Creatures were desperately pushing forward, frantically slaughtering every living thing they saw. Yet even so, these Creatures didn’t notice the Aliens quietly slipping into their midst......

Well, maybe because they all look about the same?

Very soon, the Aliens locked onto a target.

It was a Creature that looked somewhat humanoid. It also had two arms, but unlike the other Creatures, it displayed more human traits. Its face and body were more human-like, and it even wore clothing similar to human dress instead of going naked like the other Creatures.

If it hadn’t shown up here, then this Creature would obviously just be taken as some kind of Alien Life. But seeing this guy swim so freely within the Creature horde, it was obvious it was one of them.

So special—just by looking you can tell it’s an Elite Unit.

Seeing this, the corner of Fang Zheng’s mouth curled up slightly. Then he guided the Aliens, clinging to the Shadows, to silently slip through the cracks of a nearby sewer, quietly circling around to the back of that Creature, while the Creature remained focused on directing the battle ahead, seemingly completely unaware of the deadly Shadow creeping up behind it.

Then Fang Zheng controlled the Alien to leap up.

At that exact moment, the Creature finally seemed to sense something, shouting as it turned its head. But in that split second when it turned, the Alien’s tail had already effortlessly pierced through its body, pinning it hard against the wall next to it.

”—————!!”

Hit by this sudden ambush, the Creature let out a scream. Then its tongue suddenly shot out, stabbing into the Alien’s body.

And right then, Fang Zheng sharply noticed that at the moment the Creature’s tongue pierced into the Alien, some kind of peculiar biological substance was also injected into the Alien’s body, starting to spread and infect at high speed!

Damn!

Realizing this, Fang Zheng was shocked.

I was planning to infect you, and you actually turned around and infected me?!

Interesting. Then let’s see which of us is more badass!!