Chapter 147 - The Mannequin Goddess

The skies above this alien planet looked unreal, almost like a painting gone wrong. Thick gray clouds churned restlessly, their edges flashing with streaks of crimson lightning that split the heavens in jagged patterns. Each rumble echoed like the growl of some ancient beast. Below us stretched a barren gray wasteland, broken only by countless knife-edged rocks and jagged mountains that clawed toward the sky.

We had flown several kilometers from the battlefield where Cthulhu still raged, and a heavy, undeniable feeling told us that the final battle drew near.

“Look, over there!” Myrrh’s voice crackled sharply through the radio.

I turned toward her flight path, following her gaze, and then I saw it.

The Cosmic Tree.

It no longer resembled a sapling as it once had; now it stood fully grown, an impossible giant dominating the horizon. Its bark glistened in a dark, blood-like red, and its trunk sprawled across several square kilometers. Its leaves shimmered between deep red and burning yellow, as though the entire canopy had been set aflame. At its base, nestled against the massive roots, lay a gigantic woman curled into herself, her face hidden behind her arms as if shielding it from the world.

“Neil!” Fei’s synthetic voice rang through the comms.

“Where?” I asked, scanning the massive scene.

“I can’t see him yet, but I can feel him,” Fei replied, her voice trembling slightly. “It’s… like a faint tingling in the air. Almost like a red string of fate connecting us.”

I groaned. “I’m a man of science. I don’t believe in feng shui or that mystical nonsense. Give me something more concrete!”

“I can sense something inside that tree as well,” Myrrh added, her tone carrying a strange tension. “It feels like an analog signal… almost identical to the resonance of the KAWAII rings.”

I squinted toward the Cosmic Tree, my gaze tracing its blood-red bark and fiery canopy. “That’s probably Neil’s HUSBANDO abilities at work. He must be broadcasting some kind of SOS. What’s our move?”

“We go save Neil and take down the tree! Isn’t that why we came here?” Fei answered without hesitation.

“It’s a reckless plan… but you’re right,” I admitted. “Just make sure we circle around. We don’t want to wake up that creepy giant woman.”

“Understood,” Myrrh replied, angling her phoenix-shaped frame into a graceful leftward tilt, gliding in a wide arc around the Cosmic Tree.

As we drew within several hundred meters, I focused on the massive woman resting at the tree’s base. Up close, her stillness wasn’t absolute. She trembled faintly, as though chilled by an unseen wind. A slow, weary breath escaped her lips, followed by another. Then, a low, almost imperceptible sound, like quiet sobbing, reached my ears.

The sight sent an icy shiver down my spine. Relief only came when Myrrh guided us behind the colossal trunk, letting the vast bulk of the Cosmic Tree shield us from that unsettling figure.

I lifted my gaze, taking in the impossible sight above me. The Cosmic Tree loomed larger than ever, its colossal frame swelling with unnatural life. Its tallest branch now pierced the clouds, scratching at the very skin of the sky.

“Over there!” Fei’s voice rang sharply in my ear.

I followed her direction to the center of the Cosmic Tree, where a faintly glowing orb pulsed in a steady rhythm, like the beat of a colossal heart. Within its soft crimson light, I could just make out the shadow of a humanoid figure suspended inside. My chest tightened. It had to be Neil.

“Myrrh, release me!” Fei demanded.

Myrrh’s cybernetic talons loosened their grip, and Fei’s massive frame descended. Her transformation was fluid but heavy, shifting from sabertooth form to her towering humanoid Frame Unit. When her metal boots met the ground, the earth gave a reluctant shudder, sending a faint tremor through the air. I winced, worried that the giant woman at the tree’s base might stir.

But Fei’s determination outweighed her caution. Her urgency bled into every movement as she activated her DERE armor. In an instant, crimson plating snapped into place across her frame, forming angular lines of defense and power. A gleaming switchblade unfolded along her right arm, while her left arm reconfigured into a whirring gatling gun.

She leveled her gaze at the immense trunk, spread her stance, and extended her right arm.

“Yaaah!” Her cry echoed like a battle horn as the switchblade tore downward in a decisive arc, aimed to sever the tree’s prison and free Neil.

Instead of slicing through, the blade rebounded with a sharp metallic clang. A rippling distortion shimmered across the bark, like the surface of disturbed water. The force of her strike had been swallowed whole, nullified by an unseen barrier.

“Eeeei! Yaaah! Haaaaah!” Fei’s battle cries tore through the air as she slashed at the trunk again and again, her strikes ringing out in quick succession. But the unseen barrier drank in every ounce of force, leaving nothing but faint ripples across its surface.

Frustration boiled over. She spun her left arm forward, the barrels of her gatling gun whirring to life.

“Give me back my Neil!”

A roaring torrent of bullets erupted toward the Cosmic Tree. The rounds vanished against the invisible shield, their energy snuffed out like sparks in the ocean. Empty brass shells rained down onto the ashen soil with a metallic clatter, forming small golden piles at her feet. The Cosmic Tree stood untouched, its surface unmarked, almost mocking her efforts.

“It’s not working!” Fei shouted, her voice edged with desperation.

“Then we’ll use the Weapons of Mass Destruction!” I called back. “I’ll—”

The ground roared beneath us, cutting me short. A deep tremor rippled outward, shaking loose clouds of dust. With a sudden eruption of soil and rock, a colossal mannequin-like arm burst from the earth, its pale surface gleaming under the crimson-lit sky. It swung toward Fei in a devastating arc.

She leapt backward at the last possible second, the giant hand sweeping through the space she had just occupied.

“I WILL NEVER LET YOU TAKE AWAY MY SEED!” 

The words came as a synthetic scream, vibrating through the air with an icy resonance. The voice was cold enough to chill my blood, yet still familiar. 

I recognized it. Dianca.

Another massive arm broke through the ground, scattering chunks of stone. Then, slowly, something far worse emerged—a head, towering above us. It was shaped in Dianca’s image, but stripped of life, its expression fixed in an unnatural stillness. The surface resembled carved stone fused with machinery, and as it lifted its face fully into view, its huge eyes snapped open.

Brilliant green irises locked on to us, and the lifeless giant became something far more menacing.

As the giant mannequin woman strained to pull herself from the earth, Fei seized her chance. Her gatling gun roared to life, spitting a relentless stream of fire.

“Yaaaaaah!” Her voice rang with fury as round after round tore into the mannequin’s pristine porcelain surface. Tiny shards flaked away under the barrage, tumbling in slow arcs toward the ground.

The mannequin froze. Her massive head tilted ever so slightly, and an unsettling stillness washed over the battlefield. Then, without warning, her arms began to rise. The motion was deliberate at first, almost ritualistic, until, in a blink, the speed shifted to something inhuman.

Time itself seemed to shudder.

The air warped. The sound of Fei’s gunfire dulled into a muffled echo. Clouds above twisted like water circling a drain. Then came the rending—an invisible blade slicing open reality. Space cracked, forming jagged black fissures that bled light from some place beyond comprehension.

I barely had time to register the motion before the strike fell.

The arms descended in a blur that left afterimages burned into my vision. The rift followed their path like a seam being torn in the world, collapsing inward as it struck Fei’s Frame Unit.

There was no explosion. No debris. Just… absence.

The entire left half of her frame vanished in an instant, cleanly erased as though a cosmic hand had wiped her from existence. The other half sparked and trembled before toppling to the ground with a hollow metallic thud.

“Fei!” Myrrh and I screamed in unison.

But there was no answer. Half of her core was gone, and ice coiled in my gut.

“MY RESURRECTION IS INEVITABLE!” 

The mannequin’s voice cracked the still air, her laughter swelling until it filled the horizon. 

“I WILL BE FREE FROM THIS FRAGILE BODY, AND NOT EVEN YOU CAN STOP ME!”

In that moment, clarity hit me like a falling star. We weren’t just facing a construct. We were standing against the Cosmic Goddess herself.