Chapter 252: Matriarch-on-Matriarch Violence

It took the better part of twenty minutes before Alistair finally cleared out most of the Viccai, the surrounding space littered with floating corpses and viscera.

Turning, he noted the space around Riseth was tearing and distorting, vortexes and jagged rifts ripping through the remaining swarm as her Vortex and Realm Tear skills carved apart the creatures. At the same time, she danced among the beasts and rifts, Jack cutting through the Viccai, its psychic screams of glee echoing through space, reaching Alistair even from this distance.

With a burst of speed, he rushed toward her, adding his own Kinetic Strikes to the chaos as they worked to cull the last of their attackers.

"Well, that sucked," Riseth muttered once the final Viccai was torn asunder. "I didn’t even get a Slayer title."

Viv, still perched on Alistair’s shoulder, was meticulously grooming herself, her leg stretched high as she twisted in that impossibly flexible way only cats could manage. Her tongue flicked over her fur in rapid, deliberate strokes, ears twitching as if in mild irritation. Even though she had burned away or dispersed any viscera with her magic, she kept cleaning as if something had dared to cling to her fur anyway.

"I didn't get a title either," Alistair remarked, deliberately ignoring Viv as he scanned the debris-filled void. "Maybe we need to kill a broodmother? That worked with the Wendigos."

Riseth barely managed to suppress a snicker at their sight, her tail flicking back and forth in amusement as she watched Viv's shinanigans before turning her attention back to the matter at hand.

"If I had to bet, I’d say they nest in asteroids like most space fauna," she mused. "But searching an entire ring is going to take a while."

Alistair shrugged. "Not necessarily. We just need to look for life, and broodmothers or matriarchs tend to be big—that should limit where it could hide. If our sensors and senses fail to pick up on it, then we’ve got bigger problems."

"Good call," Riseth replied with a toothy grin as she resummoned the Artemis. "Let’s get this over with so we can move on to the fun part."

It didn’t take them long to locate the broodmother. The Artemis had tracked the incoming monsters, and its predictive algorithm quickly mapped out the route taken by the densest swarms. The trail led them to one of the largest asteroids within the belt encircling a nearby gas giant.

"Well, it's definitely in there," Alistair commented, his senses clearly picking up the beast inside the asteroid. He knew that for the title, they had to both fight the broodmother, which would make the battle trivial if they simply overwhelmed it together. Still, he hoped that taking on the swarm beforehand, combined with their True Slayer Bond, would be enough to qualify for the title.

"Alright," Riseth said as she got up from her chair, "Let's get this over with."

They disembarked once more, heading for one of the cracks leading deeper into the massive asteroid. As they approached, two powerful presences materialized ahead, their translucent forms distinct from their lower-tier brethren. Unlike the swarm creatures, these were high-tier variants—guardians, likely tasked with protecting the hive and its broodmother. Alistair’s Identify confirmed it: [Viccai Nest Guardian - lvl 180].

Though their bodies retained a ghostly transparency, their musculature was denser, a taut web of fibers shifting beneath their skin with each movement. Their heads and torsos were larger, built for raw strength.

Riseth let out a whistle. "Not sure how much stronger or more numerous these things have gotten since the trial ended, but I’ve no doubt we’d have had serious trouble if we’d jumped into this system back then."

Alistair nodded. "Definitely a tougher encounter, depending on their numbers. Some people are only just now reaching the kind of strength we had back then. I’m curious how they’re handling this new reality."

"Space fauna are almost always stronger than your average beasts. Anything in a nebula grows faster and stronger as a whole." Riseth waved a hand toward the two Viccai Guardians clinging to their asteroid, their hostility clear. "Most folks catching up now shouldn’t struggle too much—as long as they stick to worlds within their level range. If they’re bold enough to jump into nebulas, they’ll just need enough backup to handle critters like this."

Alistair hummed as he scanned the depths of the asteroid. The broodmother—matriarch, or whatever it was called—wasn't far behind its guardians, and he doubted it would stay put once the fight began. At least that makes things a little interesting. He twirled his poleaxe with a flick of his wrist before shifting into a ready stance, reactivating his boosting skills and Battle Spheres once more.

"Let's get some payback for the ship they wrecked," Riseth announced as she, too, shifted into her stance, drawing Jack, who practically vibrated with excitement.

"There are more?" Jack cackled. "Let me at 'em!"

Riseth didn’t hesitate to accommodate the request. They surged forward, closing the distance between them and the waiting beasts. The creatures unleashed beams of concentrated mana, which split mid-flight, arcing toward them with precise tracking. Alistair dodged, but the relentless assault forced him to activate Force Barrier, the shimmering field barely holding against the onslaught.

Viv, who had reluctantly agreed to participate in this final fight, absorbed a significant portion of the mana, sending a surge of energy into Alistair’s reserves. He capitalized on it immediately, lashing out with his poleaxe—only to find the weapon sinking barely a meter into the massive creature despite the sheer force behind the strike.

"Watch out—they're tough as nails!" Alistair warned through the Akashic Link, deflecting a retaliatory blow. Multiple spheres, charged to the brim with kinetic energy, sprang from his body in response.

Alistair flipped his poleaxe, racing for the horned head of the Viccai guardian. Taking out the brain was likely the best approach. He adjusted his grip, the hammerhead flashing in a bright arc as kinetic energy from the spheres thrummed through his weapon, ready to cave the beast’s skull in.

To his surprise, the creature summoned multiple layers of barriers, siphoning just enough force from his strike to keep its head intact—though one of its horns shattered, spiraling into the depths of space. Its tail lashed out in retaliation, but Kinetic Skinguard absorbed the impact with ease, nullifying the attack.

Alistair was already mid-swing when the beast’s maw opened, realizing it was its only remotely effective offense. Force Barrier, reinforced by Viv’s absorption, blocked the attack at its source. His hammerhead connected again—this time, the impact caved in the worm’s skull. Its body jerked violently, slamming into the rock with such force that the entire asteroid cracked.

Alistair’s moment of victory was short-lived as the [Viccai Matriarch - Lvl 197] burst from the asteroid, finalizing its destruction. The rock split apart, revealing the asteroid’s insides—a writhing mass of eggs, embedded gems, and streaks of metal. Not that he had time to take in the sight. The multithreaded monstrosity lunged, its massive jaws snapping shut around him. He blocked with his poleaxe, but the sheer force of the attack still drove him back. Even as he siphoned much of the momentum, the impact pushed him away from Riseth and the asteroid, keeping him locked in a struggle against the beast.

Through the shifting battlefield, he caught a glimpse of Riseth moving with sharp, controlled momentum, using the guardian’s own body as a path. Jack, shifting seamlessly in her grip, carved a spiraling trail of deep, brutal gashes down the creature’s length. Blue blood jetted into space—briefly—before the Viccai's thick hide clenched, slowing the bleeding. But not fast enough. The floating blood twisted unnaturally, drawn toward the other blade in Riseth’s offhand. Jack pulsed ominously, its red glow deepening as it fed.

Alistair barely had time to register the effect before the matriarch’s three remaining heads reared back, mana swelling in their maws. She’s going to try and fry me. Instinctively, he reached for Blink—only to feel his spatial magic clamp down, forcefully suppressed. His senses flared as he caught the telltale pulse of an active skill—she was locking him down.

A flicker of confidence surged from the matriarch, as if she knew she had him trapped.

Her moment of victory didn’t last long. A blood-red spatial distortion tore through her lower body, slicing her in half as Riseth struck from behind. At the same time, Alistair funneled all the siphoned energy into his telekinesis, supercharging it. With a brutal snap, he wrenched the matriarch’s three heads away from him with Telekinesis, breaking their necks just as the charged beams fired. The attacks veered wildly into the void, one slicing through the asteroid field and triggering a violent chain reaction—explosions and impacts cascading through the ring like dominos.

But Alistair wasn’t about to let her recover. Even as her shattered necks began to mend, he used his telekinesis to rapidly reposition himself, shifting above the head that had tried to crush him. With a sharp thrust, he drove the tip of his poleaxe down, the weapon crunching through bone and flesh, obliterating one of her four brains with a surge of kinetic energy that exploded her head.

He surged toward the next closest head, eyes flicking to Riseth as she carved through the matriarch’s main body. Jack all but drowned in delight, glutted on the sheer volume of blood he had absorbed—his power surging to what felt like that of a grade 7 weapon. The enhanced blade tore through the matriarch’s incredibly tough flesh with ease, severing vital arteries and obliterating multiple hearts in rapid succession.

Nearby, the guardian Riseth had fought earlier was nothing more than ribbons and floating chunks, its body shredded by the still-lingering spatial rifts she had left in her wake.

Not to be outdone, Alistair crashed through the next head while his kinetic strikes from his Battlesspheres finally broke through and obliterated another brain—leaving just one left. He seized it with the full force of his telekinesis, holding it in place as Riseth finished off the last of the matriarch’s hearts. Without missing a beat, she capitalized on Alistair’s restraint, vanishing in a blur. A flash of bone, blood, and spatial distortion marked her passing as she tore through the final head.

A satisfying series of chimes rang in Alistair’s mind—another level-up, a new title earned.

“Well, that was some serious matriarch-on-matriarch violence,” Alistair joked.

Riseth smirked. “To be fair, she went after my beloved patriarch. I can’t let that stand.”

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Titles:

Tier: [Rare]

Name: Viccai Slayer

Effect:

Grants a 10% bonus to [Senses] statistic and slightly increases resistance against spatial interference.

Origin: Acquired for slaying a large nest of Viccai and their matriarch.

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Alistair whistled in appreciation as he read the title's description. He had secretly hoped for a bonus to his Mental statistic—it was lagging far behind the others due to the scarcity of strong beasts with high mental attributes. The real issue was that such creatures often reached enlightenment outside of dungeons, making them rare prey. Worse, he hadn’t had any luck finding a themed dungeon specializing in magic-based beasts to help bridge the gap.

Distributing his points, Alistair felt the satisfying surge of power course through him. He now sat at level 166—still not quite where he wanted to be, but progress was progress. Their leveling growth had surged dramatically since joining the Beshin, and while a small part of him regretted that their primary path to strength came through bounty hunting and mercenary work, he had long since accepted that reality. Up to a point, he even enjoyed it—hunting down his enemies and growing stronger with each battle did have its appeal.

"Neat title," Riseth remarked, glancing at him. "The resistance against spatial interference—while minor—is actually pretty useful. Maybe we should hunt space fauna more often."

"Maybe," Alistair mused. "But for now, we need to reach the next grade. I cannot wait to evolve again."

"Same," Riseth agreed, a greedy glint in her eyes as she stored the matriarch's body. "But let's check that asteroid nest before we move on."

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