Chapter 145 - Nuking Kulooloo
“That looks disgusting, especially the tentacles.”
Those were the first words that escaped Myrrh’s lips, her face twisting into a look of pure revulsion as her eyes locked onto the colossal dragon-like beast. Its massive body was lined with scales that shimmered faintly in the light, and where its head should have been was instead the slimy, writhing visage of a giant octopus, each tentacle curling and uncurling like living whips.
“That’s actually kind of cool. He looks like Cthulhu,” I said, my eyes sparkling with fascination at the sheer absurdity and terror of the creature.
“Oh yeah, I have heard about him. Kulooloo! Big sister Alicia told me about that monster during our bedtime story!” Fei replied with a goofy grin that completely clashed with the horror before us.
“It’s pronounced kuh-thoo-loo,” I corrected, narrowing my eyes at her. “Wait, who in their right mind tells Lovecraft as a bedtime story?”
“It’s full of weird gibberish that I couldn’t understand, so it helps us kids get bored and fall asleep!” Fei said, beaming as if she had just explained the most reasonable thing in the world.
“Hey, kids. Chitchat is over,” Agent Feena’s voice cut in sharply, her eyes fixed on the towering abomination. “We need to fight this thing. Battle stations!”
“R-right!” Fei’s cheerfulness faltered into a nervous nod as she revealed her morpher, the polished metal glinting in her hands.
Myrrh and the other WAIFUs followed suit, each producing their own morphers and raising them toward the sky in unison.
“Frame Unit, Awaken!”
The words rang out together like a battle hymn, echoing across the battlefield. From the heavens, radiant pillars of light crashed down, illuminating the clouds with brilliant colors. When the light finally dispersed, fifteen towering Frame Units stood at full height, each a gleaming twenty-meter titan brimming with power, their armor catching the wind like ancient war banners.
My support unit allies and I activated our WEEB System, the air filling with the hum of power as our displays lit up in vivid holographic blue. We were ready to back up our colossal Frame Unit partners in the battle that was about to erupt.
[Weaponry Enhancement Engineering Bios]
[Weapon of Mass Destruction Unlocked]
Without warning, the towering cosmic beast — which I decided to call Cthulhu — opened its massive, lidless crimson eyes. The moment those eyes glared at us, an unseen force rippled outward, slamming into the battlefield like a wrathful god’s breath.
A concussive shockwave exploded through the air, accompanied by a deafening sonic boom that rattled my teeth. The blast struck so hard and so fast that even the giant Frame Units staggered, their steel-plated feet grinding deep trenches into the sand as they were pushed back.
“Graaah!” I shouted as the force threw me down, my hands and knees scraping against the coarse gray sand.
I clung desperately to the jagged edge of a half-buried boulder, my fingers aching from the strain. For a few terrifying seconds I felt my grip slipping, until it finally gave way, sending me tumbling across the gritty shore toward the black, mercury-like waves.
Before I could be swallowed by the unnatural sea, a strong hand caught me by the back of my harness. My momentum stopped so abruptly that the air was knocked from my lungs.
“Whoa there,” my support unit senior said, pulling me upright with ease. His voice was calm, but his eyes stayed fixed on the monstrosity ahead. “Stay in the back, kid.”
“O-okay.” My knees still trembled as I forced myself upright, brushing sand from my arms and preparing to rejoin the line.
“All units, 3D Maneuver tactics!” Agent Feena’s command cut through the chaos, her voice sharp with urgency. The support units answered with synchronized nods, their expressions tightening in focus.
One after another, they activated their WEEB Systems, the holographic displays glowing to life in front of them. Each pressed the same weapon icons in perfect unison, their circuit-lined arms flaring with a bright, pulsing light as they pointed toward their respective WAIFUs.
“Grappling Hook, Booster Pack, Saw Blade, Equip!” the professional support units roared together, their voices blending into a single battle cry.
In the blink of an eye, the massive Frame Units received their upgrades. Wrist-mounted grappling hooks locked into place with metallic clicks, jet-powered booster packs unfolded along their armored backs, and sword-length chainsaws whirred to life in their hands, their teeth spinning with a shrill metallic snarl.
The ground shook as the titans engaged their boosters. Streams of fire and smoke burst from their packs, propelling them skyward in arcs that carried them nearly eighty meters above the battlefield. Mid-flight, they fired their grappling hooks, the steel cables streaking through the air before embedding deep into the thick, rubbery flesh of Cthulhu’s massive arms.
From there, the Frame Units twisted and spun in midair, pulling off breathtaking aerial maneuvers to evade the sweeping strikes of the beast’s colossal limbs. Cthulhu’s tentacle-like beard came alive, whipping upward with unnerving speed to snare them, but the pilots responded with lightning precision. Saw blades ripped through the writhing tendrils, severing them in sprays of black, oily blood that splattered against the gray sand below.
One Frame Unit managed to close the distance to Cthulhu’s nape. With a violent cross-cutting motion, its twin saw blades carved through layers of slick muscle and sinew. A grotesque chunk of flesh tore free, spinning into the air before crashing back to the earth in a steaming heap, its surface glistening with putrid, tar-like blood.
Another Frame Unit targeted the beast’s massive neck. The saw screeched as it bit into the flesh, cutting deep, but the creature’s sheer size meant the blade only managed to sever a third of its thickness before being forced back. A separate titan drove its weapon into the monster’s forehead, carving a jagged wound across its face. Others hacked at its wrists, severing ligaments and tendons, while one daring pilot dived straight for its chest, attempting to plunge the roaring chainsaw into the location where its monstrous heart might be.
“S-so this is how the professional WAIFUs do their job,” Fei muttered, her eyes wide with awe. “They are so cool.”
“As expected from KAWAII Agents and SENPAIs,” Myrrh said with a proud nod, her gaze following the graceful yet lethal maneuvers in the sky. “We’re better off not getting involved. If we try to help, we might just get in the way.”
But Cthulhu was far from finished. The monstrous being swung its colossal arms in a sweeping arc, its motions fluid yet filled with devastating force. In one swift motion, it caught two Frame Units in its grip, the sound of creaking metal echoing as the titans struggled. With a sickening crash, the beast hurled them down into the ground, the impact sending a violent tremor through the battlefield. Shards of armor plating were flung into the air like shrapnel, glittering for a moment before clattering to the sand.
“Shit! Rhea and Marie are down!” a support unit’s voice crackled over the comms, tight with panic.
“Zaft! Give me something long and big!” Agent Feena barked without missing a beat.
“This old hag is naughty,” I muttered with a smirk, quickly tapping my WEEB HUD to access my most destructive option. “Particle Cannon, Activate!”
Agent Feena’s pink and white Frame Unit responded instantly. Its mechanical right arm began to shift, heavy plates sliding apart to reveal gleaming inner components. Pistons extended, and the forearm folded open to form the massive barrel of a high-energy cannon. White particle streams coiled inward toward the weapon’s core, glowing brighter and brighter as the charge built.
Two seconds later, a blinding surge of energy erupted from the cannon’s maw. The beam roared across the battlefield, slicing through the air in a straight, unwavering line that connected directly with Cthulhu’s monstrous head. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs No(ᴠ)ᴇlFire.nᴇt
The surrounding Frame Units, still darting about like metallic hornets, broke formation to clear the path. The beam struck with annihilating precision, vaporizing the creature’s head, neck, and upper chest in a storm of dissolving particles. The massive torso crumbled away into nothingness, leaving only the lower body slumping forward, while its severed arms crashed into the surrounding rock formations with the force of falling buildings.
“Got him!” Agent Feena’s voice rang with triumph.
But her celebration was cut short. From the remains of Cthulhu’s obliterated body, a writhing mass of tentacles emerged, each one resembling a pulsating crimson vein. They coiled and twisted like serpents, and then, with a horrifying surge of motion, they anchored themselves into the ground.
From that grotesque foundation, a tree-like structure erupted upward, its bark glistening as if alive. Thick, fleshy branches intertwined, weaving themselves into the form of a torso, neck, and head. In moments, the beast’s upper body had fully regenerated, its crimson eyes burning with renewed hatred.
“Shit! It’s still alive!” one of the WAIFUs cried, disbelief breaking into her voice.
“Zaft, we will support Agent Feena!” Myrrh shouted, stepping forward with fierce resolve. She drew her weapon, her stance shifting into readiness. “Requesting support!”
“Me as well!” Fei said, moving to Myrrh’s side. Her expression had lost all traces of her earlier playfulness, replaced by determination.
“Got it,” I replied, my hands already moving. I switched my WEEB interface from the WMD loadout to standard weapons, tapping the Jetpack icon. “Jetpack, Equip!”
In a burst of blue-white light, jetpacks materialized on Myrrh and Fei’s Frame Units. The engines flared, and both shot upward, the force of their ascent kicking up a swirl of dust and sand around them as they streaked toward the regenerating monster.
If we were going to bring down this colossal, self-healing Cosmic Beast, we would need something more than precision strikes. It would take a blast powerful enough to erase it completely — a detonation on the scale of a nuclear weapon, amplified to twice its normal destructive force. My HUD flickered as I switched back to the WMD Series, my finger hovering for only a second before I pressed the first weapon in the list.
“Uranium Blade, Equip!”
Myrrh and Fei’s Frame Units manifested gigantic blades of glowing uranium-green along their forearms. The weapons pulsed with radioactive light, casting sickly emerald reflections across the gray battlefield. The two pilots engaged their boosters, spiraling upward in a coordinated maneuver, their contrails weaving together in a twisting helix that resembled a strand of DNA. The pattern disoriented Cthulhu, forcing its crimson eyes to track wildly in confusion.
With a deep, guttural bellow, the monster unleashed a barrage of laser beams from its burning eyes. Each beam streaked through the air like a lance of pure death, twisting and bending unnaturally to follow the two WAIFUs. The beams ignored the rules of physics entirely, curving mid-flight with a predator’s precision.
“They’re homing! You’ll never be able to shake them!” I shouted in alarm, already moving my hand to the necessary command. “Shadow Curtain, Activate!”
A ripple of darkness expanded from my control interface, enveloping Myrrh and Fei’s Frame Units in a shifting shadow-tint. The lasers struck both of them head-on, but instead of tearing through metal and flesh, the energy dissipated harmlessly into the black veil, leaving them untouched.
Closing in fast, Myrrh veered toward Cthulhu’s left shoulder while Fei took the right. In perfect synchronization, both raised their Uranium Blades high above their heads, the weapons crackling with unstable atomic energy.
“Yaaaaaaaah!” their voices rang out, fierce and unrelenting.
The blades came down in a devastating dual strike, severing both of Cthulhu’s shoulders and its massive head in a single blinding sweep. As the blades cut, the uranium cores triggered a chain reaction within the monster’s flesh. Two separate atomic detonations ignited at once, and the battlefield was consumed by a searing flash of white light. The shockwave ripped across the ground, followed by twin mushroom clouds that rose skyward, dwarfing the surrounding landscape.
“Regenerate from this, old fart!” Agent Feena’s voice cut through the fading roar of the explosions. Her pink-and-white Frame Unit’s right arm shifted once more into a colossal cannon, which hummed with compressed energy. She took aim directly at what remained of Cthulhu’s lower body, focusing on its groin.
A heartbeat later, a bluish-white particle beam erupted from the cannon, screaming through the air before slamming into the target. The resulting burst atomized the last remnants of Cthulhu, erasing it so completely that not even a single particle remained.