Reincarnated as a Supernatural Horror Entity 051 - Eternal Soul Cult

The massive cloud of dust began to settle. It revealed the scar where the mine entrance had been.

rcenaries outside the collapsed tunnel didn't hesitate. They surged forward. A chaotic wave of muscle and magic. Shouts ripped away the sudden quiet.

"Jules!"

"Brother Mike! Answer !"

"Hey Lena! Is Lena in there?"

Transcendent individuals here had their powers honed for carving through monster hordes. Now, they turned them on tons of earth and stone.

So chanical hands glowed with raw energy. Vaporizing smaller rocks. Others conjured spectral picks. Or simply heaved aside car-sized boulders with unnatural strength.

Desperation fueled them. Friends, partners, family mbers were buried under that ss.

Jack moved with them. His human body was not as powerful as his draugr one. But they were still very strong. They were built for this kind of labor. He hefted a section of shattered support beam. Tossing it aside like a splinter.

Big Bill was also working desperately. His huge fra straining as he tried to pry apart stuck rocks.

"Godamnit! My little brother, Danny, was still there." Bill grunted. Sweat already plastered his hair to his forehead. "He was in the team clearing H-02 section."

O.J. joined them. His chanical arm was whirring as it drilled a big stone on the wreckage. "My technician, Ria, was still there too." He said. "She went in with the support crew. I need her to calibrate the chanical parts I could not reach."

Will was younger and less physically imposing than the three. And he practically had no connection to whoever was still stuck in the mine. But he helped out. Although he struggled to move smaller debris. His face was pale with dust and worry.

Old Sam, however, wasn't digging. He was sniffing the air. His weathered face etched with suspicion. He knelt. Poking a finger into the pulverized dust near where the entrance had been. His eyes narrowed.

"Gunpowder..." Sam stated. His voice was low and rough. He sniffed again. Picking up a different scent. "And li. Like quickli."

He stood up quickly. Pulling his heavy revolver from its holster. And activated his chanical buckler into full sized round shield. The click of the shield chanism activating was stark against the sounds of frantic digging.

"This wasn't an accident." Sam said. His eyes scanning the tree line behind them. Not the rubble. "Explosives. Carefully planned."

He swung his revolver to cover their backs. "Everyone! Watch the tree..."

Gunshots erupted. Not the heavy detonations from the rcenaries' effort to open the mine entrance. But sharp, rapid fire. From behind the group of digging rcenaries.

Yells turned into screams. Several rcenaries dropped. Blood was blooming on their backs and chests. The digging stopped instantly. Heads whipped around.

A large group, easily seventy or eighty people, erged from the cover of the trees. They had a different mix of appearances. So wore leather jackets and goggles. Others had intricate bio-chanical implants visible on their faces and arms.

Their clothes were a patchwork of functional gear and garish color pops. So were their weapons. They carried a mix of weapons. Old assault rifles. Modified energy carbines. Even what looked like modified industrial tools spitting lethal bolts.

Bill roared. Grabbing his own cannon-like handgun. He took a shot to his right hip. The slug slamd into his thick flesh. Making him stumble.

But he didn't fall. Red seeped quickly into his trousers. But he ignored it.

"These bastards!" He bellowed. Raising his handgun. And retaliating by blasting so accurate bullets that blow the enemies' heads.

Jack also reacted instantly. Will was frozen beside him. Jack shoved the younger man behind his massive body. Just as a round scread past his ear. Another hit his waist. A brutal impact that felt like a sledgehamr.

His enhanced body shrugged off the imdiate incapacitation. But the pain hurt like hell. He brought his Steamrune Shotgun up. Aiming at the densest group of assailants. And pulled the trigger.

The weapon roared. Spitting a cone of superheated shrapnel and energy bolts. Several attackers scread. Torn apart or sent flying backwards in smoking heaps. Scatter shot. Effective against many opponents.

The fight was on. rcenaries who had been digging were now fighting for their lives.

These weren't green recruits. They were the teams who had finished their assigned mine sections first. aning... they were faster. More efficient. And very likely, more skilled than average.

Each one fought with a practiced ruthlessness forged in countless monster hunts.

A Mystic Scholar was flinging bolts of crackling lightning. A Steamrune Engineer unleashed snarling, chanical hounds. Another Steamrune Engineer unleashed a burst of blazing steam from his gun, scalding attackers.

But the newcors were nurous. They pushed forward relentlessly. Heedless of casualties. They didn't just have numbers. They had fierce ntality. And no fear.

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So of them were clearly transcendent themselves. Their aura showed that. And their bodies could also be seen moving with unnatural speed. And they shrugged off hits that would kill a normal man.

But, many others in that group were just normal people. Normal people with transcendent weapons. Ones that humd with rune-enhanced power. Allowing them to compete with the transcendent individuals.

"Don't show any rcy! They are Eternal Soul Cutlists!" Old Sam shouted behind his shield. Firing his revolver with deadly accuracy. Headshot after headshot.

"Super dumb addicts, they were!" Bill added. He was still bleeding. But the huge man was still a whirlwind of violence with his cannon-like handgun. "I bet they were high! Drugged! Not smart enough to feel fear!"

The gunfight continued...

And soon devolved into a chaotic mixed of ranged and lee combat around the collapsed mine entrance. Bullets whizzed through the air. Spells crackled. And the clang of tal on tal was constant.

The rcenaries were being pushed back. Overwheld by the sheer volu of attackers. Which kept increasing. It was a bloodbath.

Jack fought thodically. Shoot. Reload. Shoot. His shotgun was devastating at close range. But the attackers kept coming and were now mixed with the rcenaries. He could not use his shotgun's scatter shot. Or he would damage his allies.

He switched to a handgun. Firing rapidly. Suppressing flanks. Protecting Will who was scrambling. To find cover and reload his borrowed handgun.

Through the chaos, Jack noticed sothing specific. The Eternal Soul cultists weren't just attacking everyone indiscriminately.

A significant number of them were focusing on a single target. A teenager. Maybe sixteen or seventeen. The one wearing impeccably crafted, rune-etched plate armor below his ragged tunic. And dual wielding a gleaming, chanical sword and an exquisite rune pistol.

He was fighting valiantly. Surrounded by a few professional-looking rcenaries trying to protect him. But the focus on him was undeniable.

He was of Will's age. But clearly from a different world. He was secretly equipped like a noble embarking on a crusade.

Jack filed the observation away. Political target? Ransom? Didn't matter now. Survival ca first.

Jack took a bullet on his his shoulder and a stab to his left arm. He grunted and quickly retaliated. He choked the stabber with one hand and threw him to the shooter brutally.

He observed his team. He saw Big Bill take another hit. This ti to his stomach. The impact stopped him on his feet.

O.J.'s right chanical leg sparked violently. A large caliber bullet struck it. He faltered. His balance was gone.

Old Sam was still using his chanical shield. But smoke was rising from the tal as it absorbed high-caliber rounds. He was straining to hold his ground. They were in deep trouble.

Just as the rcenary line seed on the verge of breaking, Jack felt it. An oppressive weight settling over the battlefield. Not from the ground, but from above. He instinctively looked up.

The sky was clear monts ago. Now, a dark shape descended rapidly. It wasn't a bird. Or a cloud. It was huge. tallic. And utterly alien against the natural landscape.

A massive cha. Designed to look like a winged ape. Built from gleaming, dark steel plates. And glowing blue runes. Pistons pumped. Exhaust vented steam like angry breath all over its joints.

Its enormous, articulated wings, were also made of layered tal. They folded back as it dropped. And...

It landed with a thunderous impact. Right in the middle of the Eternal Soul attackers. The ground shook. A crater ford instantly.

"Big Boss!" Big Bill bellowed. A strained grin was on his bloodied face despite his wounds. "Big Boss Abe Lodegrey! I knew he'd show up!"

Jack knew who he ant. Big Boss Abe Lodegrey. The current president of the rcenary Union. A legendary Steamrune Engineer who had internalized nine steamrunes. Descendant of Isaac Lodegrey. The creator of Steamrune Engineering Crafts.

Now, his cha stood tall. Easily six ters high. Its ape-like head swiveled. Glowing optical sensors sweeping the area.

Its massive hands, designed like oversized ape fists, clenched. Steam hissed from vents along its arms and chest.

The reaction from the Eternal Soul cultists were unexpected. Instead of escaping, they were charging in suicidal fury.

A few turned their weapons on the cha. Rounds pinging harmlessly off its reinforced plating. The large majority, clearly the 'dumbed addicts' Bill ntioned, charged forward with manic screams.

Jack was dazed with that stupidity. The cha moved with brutal efficiency. It didn't bother with finesse.

One cultist, ard with a steam rifle, got too close. The cha's left fist swung out. A blur of tal. The cultist wasn't just hit. He was flattened into a paste. Sared across the earth like spilled paint.

And then, a volley of heavy caliber rounds erupted from a cannon mounted on the cha's shoulder. Ripping through the charging cultists like paper dolls. Blood and gore splattered all over.

The fight shifted. From a desperate struggle for the rcenaries. To a rciless execution. The cha was an unstoppable force of nature.

Its size alone was already intimidating. But its speed and power were even more terrifying. It moved with a heavy grace. Smashing attackers. Stomping others into the ground. Its glowing rune lines were pulsing with imnse power.

A cultist in so kind of powered armor tried to leap onto the cha's arm. The cha simply grabbed him. Its tal fingers closing with bone-crushing force.

The powered armor crumpled like tin foil. The man inside screaming for a second before being squeezed into oblivion. The cha tossed the crushed remains aside like garbage.

Then... Its right arm ended in a devastating, oversized Steamrune Gatling Gun. It spun up. A low growl building to a thunderous roar. Unleashed a torrent of superheated rounds.

The line of Eternal Soul attackers lted. tal weapons vaporized. Flesh boiled and disintegrated. They were being erased from existence.

The air filled with the stench of burnt tal and cooked flesh. The cha didn't stop until the last cultist standing was dead. It was brutal, overwhelming, and absolute.

Silence fell once more. Broken only by the cha's heavy tallic breathing. And the pained groans of the wounded rcenaries. The cha lowered one mighty fist to the ground. Steam was venting from its joints.

Jack, bloody but functional, watched the cha. Then his eyes tracked from it to the young rcenary target. The well-equipped teenager was still alive. He was staring at the cha with calm expression.

Jack could see that the teen gaze t the cha's glowing optical sensors. There was a brief, silent acknowledgent that passed between them. Between the giant machine and the young man.

It was not surprise. Not relief. But sothing akin to a prearranged signal. A shared understanding.

It seed that this wasn't just a random ambush by fanatics. This was sothing else. This was organized. Targeted. And involving people important enough to have a gigantic walking tank as a personal guard.

It was definitely related to... politics. High-level, dangerous politics.

Jack looked at the collapsed mine entrance. At his wounded team behind him. Big Bill was sitting down now. Clutching his hip. O.J. was inspecting his damaged leg. Old Sam calmly reloaded his pistol. Will was still looking shell-shocked.

He thought of the trapped people inside the mine. The dead rcenaries scattered around them. The wiped-out cultists. And the towering cha. Sentinel over the carnage.

He understood. This was bigger than him. Bigger than a simple rcenary mission. This was the kind of ss that got you buried without a trace.

Jack decided right then and there. Whatever was going on between the cultists, the targeted teenager, and the 'Big Boss' of the rcenary Union... He wanted no part of it.

His goal was vengeance for the innocent. Not getting caught in the crossfire of powerful factions.

It was ti to focus on the living. And maybe find a way to get the trapped out of the mine.