Ugly inside and out. That's the best description of Naiberg. No wonder the sex offender trench coat did not work on him. That guy probably sees something far more worse every time he steps into the bathroom. Anyway, now that I have been sent tumbling over the roof, it might be a bit late for second guessing. I can beat myself up once the crisis has been dealt with.

I activate the core and my body begins to execute a flip in order to break the fall once I make landfall. My feet hit the ground hard, causing a jolt of impact to travel up my spine and a spiderweb of cracks to spread across the asphalt. I quickly coil up to perform a roll, dissipating the remaining force of the drop and come face to face with the snarling horror that is still in the process of messily devouring its meal. Face to some of its faces at least. This is the first time I have seen something that had several faces growing out of its ass.

The ass faces squint and growl at me, but the beast is thankfully too preoccupied with chowing down to do anything else. Just as I am contemplating what to do next, the blare of klaxons sound throughout Charlie Mountain and the noise rapidly spreads throughout the entire City.

"Transmigrator, fall back while the Perfecta is distracted." The Voice instructs, "I have summoned the cab to retrieve you immediately."

I need no further urging and break into a run, dashing down the road leading away from the Grand Boulevard. In the distance, I see the black cab storming its way towards me, a stark contrast to almost every other vehicle desperately trying to get as far away as possible from the beast. From my back comes the blood curdling sound of chewing and the smacking of lips from the Perfecta. It must be really getting into its meal.

"The klaxons are your doing?" I hastily ask while sprinting towards the approaching cab.

"Yes." The Voice confirms, "I have used my control over the Sarcophagus's systems to identify the Perfecta as an Alpha One threat to The City. The klaxons are to rally all SOPO and ORPO forces to seal this district and eliminate the Perfecta using maximum force."

"That's great," I comment, "because I think the SOPO strike force sent against me is here." I gesture using my chin at the phalanx of cop cruisers in SOPO colors making their way towards the boulevard from the opposite side. As the cop cruisers approach the heaving mass that is the Perfecta, they begin to slow, as if the drivers cannot make up their mind between pursuing me or dealing with the abomination in front of them.

"Eliminating an Alpha One threat should take priority over any other orders." The Voice rasps as the cab brakes hard in front of me, allowing me to get in, "With luck we can escape from Charlie Mountain before the lock down while SOPO and ORPO engage the Perfecta."

I slam the door shut and the cab speeds off towards the district exit. Turning my head back, I breathe a sigh of relief as the SOPO officers have ceased their pursuit of me and are currently hacking off chunks of meat from the Perfecta with their sabers. The Perfecta bellows in anger from the assault and its core flares, healing the wounds inflicting by SOPO instantaneously. In retaliation, the limbs of the beast clumsily lash out in the direction of the SOPO officers. Most of the SOPO officers manage to dodge, but an unlucky few are taken by surprise at the Perfecta's sudden burst of speed and they are scooped up by the deformed hands pockmarking the monster's body.

With earsplitting wails of distress, the ensnared SOPO officers are shoved into the hungry maws of the Perfecta, their colleagues trying to cut them loose to no avail. As the officers slash furiously at the clawing hands of the Perfecta, the faces protruding from its bulk open their mouths and unleash geysers of pure spiritual energy, causing an expanding ring of white flame to erupt around the Perfecta's body. The SOPO officers immediately attempt to retreat at this sight, but the ring of fire spreads too quickly, trapping several officers within, vaporizing them utterly. The survivors retreat back to their cars and satisfy themselves with ineffectually taking potshots at the Perfecta with their guns.

"What if SOPO and ORPO cannot defeat the Perfecta?" I ask. Its a real concern. That SOPO strike team sent to deal with me is getting wrecked by the giant mutant.

The Voice rumbles as it guns the cab's engine, "Then Charlie Mountain will be depopulated. The Perfecta will devour everyone here in order to satisfy its hunger for spirit energy before its body fails completely."

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I grimace as the Perfecta charges the cop cars, shrugging off the gunfire the SOPO officers are subjected it to. Like an enraged mammoth, the Perfecta just tramples the SOPO officers underfoot before snatching up their broken bodies to feed its hunger.

"The Perfecta is going to massacre everyone at this rate." I observe, "Wouldn't that be a problem?"

"No." The Voice denies, "Remember, the only people who matter are the Hero and the Heroines, neither of whom are anywhere close to Charlie Mountain. The Perfecta is welcome to burn itself out in a fruitless struggle against SOPO and ORPO while we make our escape."

Before I can reply to The Voice, I am thrown against my seat by a sudden impact of something crashing on to the bonnet of the cab. That something being a wrinkled, naked old man bearing several sets of arms.

Naiberg. So he managed to catch up with me.

The nudist's core flares and several soul fragments break apart, unpacking into multiple different sets of legs that grow out of his waist like bizarre tumors. Like a demented sumo wrestler, Naiberg lifts his newly grown legs up and delivers a massive stomp into the cab's bonnet, crushing it underfoot as the cab's frame sags and distorts from the impact. The vehicle's engine makes a dying noise and various warning signals blink to life on the dashboard in front of me. Naiberg turns to face me and I get a full frontal view of his insane, leering face.

"Where do you think you're going?" the nudist shrieks, "The experiment is not yet over!"

Naiberg lifts his multitude of mismatched fists and brings them down on the cab's windscreen, smashing it apart. At the same moment, the glove compartment pops open, revealing the revolver, freshly spawned by The Voice and ready for action.

Ready to kill.

As Naiberg attempts to manhandle me out of the vehicle through the broken windscreen, I reach out to grab the revolver and fire blindly into the writhing mass of flesh that is Naiberg's body. The nudist's grip on me slackens and he tumbles off the bonnet, blood flowing freely from his wounds. I can't afford to relax though. As Naiberg had displayed earlier, fatal wounds won't stop him. He has countless lives banked in his spirit core that can be used to revive himself. Already I see another one of Naiberg's soul fragments disintegrating. He will be fully restored soon.

I need to get on the move, now. Before the district is locked down.

But as I am stumbling out of the cab, the Perfecta's charging mass careens into both Naiberg and myself, sending both of us sprawling down the road. The monstrosity towers over the two of us, as it roars angrily from its many faces. Naiberg loses his taunting expression and grows pale at the sight of his creation confronting him while I desperately attempt to crawl away unnoticed. The Perfecta wastes no time though and reaches out with its hands, as if we were snacks for eating.

A sudden inspiration hits me. The Perfecta needs souls. It ate its former comrades, then the SOPO officers. Instead of devouring the randos at the boulevard, the beast instead made a beeline for Naiberg and myself. There's a clear pattern here.

Seizing the initiative, I shut the artificial core down completely and strength immediately deserts my body. Naiberg glances at me in surprise but before he can react, the Perfecta snatches him up with its hands while ignoring me. I scoot away while Naiberg struggles fruitlessly against the Perfecta, going as far as to wedge his limbs into the mouths of the various faces trying to eat him. He flares his spirit core, reinforcing his limbs, while the Perfecta determinedly chews at his flesh, as if Naiberg was a particularly tough piece of jerky.

The Perfecta is a creature of instinct, seeking out the strongest cores to devour. Now that my core is shut off, Naiberg with his army of souls are like a beacon to the Perfecta, a walking buffet for the monster. Naiberg shouts curses at the Perfecta and boils form across the pulsing flesh of the beast before the spell is washed away by the Perfecta's pure spirituality.

With desperation in his eyes, Naiberg casts his eyes upwards and his core flares once more. "Sky's Judgment!" he shouts at the top of his voice. A vortex of energy begins to swirl among the clouds before erupting into a single bolt of lightning that slashes unerringly towards the Perfecta. The spell strikes with a blinding flash and the Perfecta screams in pain. The smell of ozone and burning skin fills the air.

But when the smoke clears, the Perfecta is completely unharmed and chewing away at Naiberg as if nothing had happened. Naiberg sacrifices another soul fragment to prevent the Perfecta from chewing through his limbs, but despair is all over his face. The nudist knows that he is just delaying the inevitable.

Then the monster abruptly stops chewing, and I hear a familiar noise coming somewhere from above. The shrieking of a howler monkey in heat. Naiberg's body also relaxes as he stops struggling and both he and the Perfecta slump to the ground, powerless. The nudist's additional limbs also disappear into the ether as the magic manifesting them dissipates. Casting my eyes upwards, I see a large transport helicopter equipped with a massive set of speakers buzzing above me.

The doors of the helicopter open and a length of rope extends downwards towards the Perfecta as three figures clad in commando gear step out from the helicopter's interior and prepare to rappel down. Squinting, I immediately recognize those pseudo commandos.

Shit. Its the Hero. Plus Magic Police Girl and Brocon. My guess is that the Idol is singing from the inside of the helicopter as well. Didn't The Voice say that these guys were nowhere near Charlie Mountain? What in the world is going on?

"Transmigrator." The Voice says those dreaded words, "A crisis situation has emerged. Your intervention is required."