Mythos Of Narcissus: Reborn As An NPC In A Horror VRMMO

This might had been the influence of the new special Calamity Object, but it seemed like my perceptive extension was quite disrupted to a great extent.

And seeing Verina and Lupina's subtle frowned expression, it seemed like this some sort of psychic disruption also affected them too.

The eerie hum of the neuromorphic network filled the observation dome, a near-constant whisper of data streaming in from all across the bastion. Rows of holographic screens hovered around me, each one displaying real-time footage from our drones and Duolos vessels, painting a fragmented yet intricate picture of our surroundings.

At the center of it all stood a Duolos vessel, her porcelain-pale frame almost statuesque against the glowing interfaces. She was now the direct conduit to the Duolos Hive Mind, a speaker for the many, relaying their observations with perfect precision.

I turned toward her, my fingers tapping lightly against the armrest of my chair. "Report."

The vessel inclined her head slightly. Her voice, devoid of emotion yet perfectly articulate, carried through the dome.

"The Forest of Fallacy's extension is vast," she stated. "A significant number of Duolos vessels that ventured ahead of the Landship have also been enveloped within its influence."

The holographic displays flickered, shifting to aerial footage from the scouting drones.

A labyrinthine expanse of twisted trees sprawled across the terrain, their colossal trunks stretching high into the abyssal sky. The Landship—once advancing with unwavering momentum—was now ensnared in an impossibility.

A cage of living, breathing wood.

A new set of feeds emerged on the screens—this time from five Duolos vessels that had managed to remain outside the forest's grasp. Their vantage point offered a clear view of the forest's entrance, a stark contrast between the normal barren landscape and the unnatural titanic woodland that now swallowed the bastion.

Viviane, standing just a few feet away, adjusted her spectacles as she surveyed the anomaly through her foresight, her expression betraying no emotion.

Her gaze drifted across the constantly updating measurements displayed on the holographic screens, the numbers shifting as new data streamed in from the Ordeal Intensity Prediction System. The digital overlays painted a complex, fluctuating image of the Forest of Fallacy, detailing its radius, density, and metaphysical properties in real time.

Her voice was calm but firm as she spoke. Experience new tales on My Virtual Library Empire

"Ten kilometers, within the units of your familiarity," she murmured, ensuring that her foresight aligned with the system's calculations. Then, with a thoughtful tilt of her head, she added, "Perhaps more."

She extended a single finger, adjusting the feed's scaling with a precise motion. The map of the surrounding terrain expanded, revealing that the unnatural growth of the forest had indeed reached further than initial projections had suggested.

"This forest's expansion was not gradual," she continued, her sharp eyes flickering with a deeper awareness. "It did not grow. It simply manifested—embedding itself into reality as if it had always been here. Well, not exactly as abnormal when it comes to a special Calamity Object."

I exhaled slowly, watching the screen as well.

The implications were clear.

It was one thing for a Calamity Object to warp the environment. Many anomalies we had encountered before had altered the fabric of reality through slow corruption, their influence bleeding into existence like an infection.

But this?

This was instantaneous replacement.

The land had not changed. It had been rewritten.

Viviane's ability to see beyond conventional perception had already confirmed what I had suspected. This was not a mere illusion—it was a shift in fundamental reality.

That meant two things.

One: We were dealing with something far more advanced than an ordinary special Calamity Object.

Two: If it could rewrite the world around us, there was no telling what else it could alter.

Because damn, the gimmick of this Calamity Object tells nothing. And whenever I asked Kuzunoha about what to do, she just nonchalantly shrugged and told me that she would have just flown away from this place and not bothered, which was something that we couldn't do as of now.

I might as well plan for some sort of a teleportation function for this Landship that didn't break the law of Carcosa. Though I didn't know if that was even possible.

The Duolos vessel beside me, still as ever, spoke next, her voice neutral and unwavering.

"Communication remains stable with most Duolos vessels inside the forest."

I narrowed my gaze slightly, picking up on the careful wording.

Most.

Not all.

"Most?" I echoed, my voice calm, yet carrying an unspoken demand for clarity.

A brief pause.

Then—

"Forty vessels have been disconnected from the Hive Mind."

The words landed like a quiet, controlled detonation within the observation dome.

An immediate silence followed, thick and heavy with the weight of understanding.

Disconnection from the Hive Mind was not a simple malfunction.

It was absolute.

The moment a Duolos vessel was severed from the network, there was only one explanation.

They were dead.

Viviane was the first to break the silence. Her expression remained composed, but the intensity in her voice sharpened.

"That's not a coincidence," she said, her tone laced with certainty. Her fingers glided over her console, quickly pulling up a data log of the lost connections. The timestamps aligned perfectly. A simultaneous loss. "A targeted elimination," she concluded, her voice unwavering.

I remained still, processing the implications.

The Forest of Fallacy had not merely trapped us—it had hunted us.

There was no hesitation. No scattered casualties.

Forty Duolos vessels—removed at once in such a quick timespan.

And then. A flicker on the screens.

The drones monitoring the outer perimeters adjusted their feeds. The angles zoomed in, refocusing on something within the thick canopy of trees.

A shadow shifted.

Something moved.

And then, for the first time—

We saw them.

The footage from one of the drones shifted, zooming in on a gargantuan tree near the outer layers of the forest. The image sharpened.

Something was watching.

A massive humanoid figure loomed from behind the twisted bark, its grotesque form peeking from the side of the enormous tree trunk. Its elongated limbs draped against the wood like a puppet suspended by invisible strings, its pale, corpse-like flesh barely distinguishable from the surrounding environment.

And then—another.

And another.

More inhuman figures revealed themselves, emerging one by one from the colossal trees. Their empty, socketless faces fixated toward the Landship, their heads tilted at unnatural angles.

My grip on the armrest tightened ever so slightly.

So, these were the Forest's children.

Before I could speak, the neuromorphic network surged with activity—a rapid escalation of alert signals cascading through every available channel.

And then, the Landship's defenses roared to life.

The automated turrets whirred, their targeting systems locking onto the emerging horrors before releasing devastating volleys of magneto-electric rounds.

From the distant hangars, waves of drones poured into the night, their forms streaking across the sky in coordinated formations, engaging in calculated assaults.

At the heart of it all—a single, titanic battle drone descended from its designated chamber. The Warpiece Drone.

The Landship's most powerful construct—a monolithic war machine equipped with Theotech-grade weaponry, immune to all conventional forms of destruction with its Somatech defenses.

Its massive frame hovered above the battlefield, its artillery systems shifting into full deployment mode, locking onto the monstrous entities that had begun their silent advance.

The observation dome trembled from the sheer force of the opening salvos.

The moment the first projectile was fired, the battle erupted.

From within the Landship's halls, the Heavenly Maids mobilized. Their movements were precise, controlled—each one spreading out into key defensive points, securing the perimeters of the bastion's interior.

The Bastioneers followed suit, activating their Prismforges with an electric pulse of energy. Their weapons shimmered, each one uniquely attuned to its wielder's combat preferences. And beyond the Landship, the Duolos vessels engaged.

Their perfect synchronization was a sight of eerie efficiency—a collective force that moved as one, striking, evading, retaliating without hesitation.

Yet—despite the overwhelming firepower, the Forest's children moved with intelligence.

They did not charge blindly.

They weaved through the onslaught, evading shots with unnatural reflexes, their elongated forms twisting and contorting in ways that defied anatomical logic.

One of the Warpiece Drone's Theotech shells finally landed a direct hit—the explosion consuming one of the humanoid horrors in a storm of energy.

But, it did not die.

Through the clearing smoke, the charred, twisted form of the entity remained standing, its body reforming as if reality itself refused to acknowledge its destruction.

It turned its head slowly, its hollow gaze locking onto the Landship.

Then, it moved.

In an instant, it crossed the battlefield in a single, sickening lurch, its body stretching in unnatural jerks of momentum.

I watched, my eyes narrowing.

These were not mindless creatures.

They were adaptable.

I closed my eyes for the briefest moment, expanding my awareness beyond the physical, reaching into the perceptive extension that allowed me to witness the battlefield in its purest, most unfiltered state as I could.

What I saw was chaos incarnate.

The Forest of Fallacy had not merely trapped us—it had unleashed a plague of horrors, each one tailored to combat intelligence.

These beings were not reacting like typical chaotic Calamity Objects.

They were learning.