By Zephyria Eldermilli Peninsula Block No. 112 – Northern Defense Line near Block No. 119.
This was a key point where a part of the company, led by Central Branch 6th Company Commander Dellua Rivera, was stationed, defending the path leading from Block 118, the main operation site, to the plains.
Here, Dellua and the members were confronting the swarming demon beast horde, protecting the Barrier Stone that was in standby mode.
“Don’t bother blocking the ones coming from the north one by one. Let them pass and prioritize protecting the Barrier Stone!”
“But Company Commander, there are so many that some of them are crawling this way after failing to pass. The Barrier Stone will be damaged if this continues!”
“Squads 9 through 12, which are capable of long-range attacks, follow me, and the rest maintain the defensive formation. The Barrier Stone must not be disrupted no matter what!”
After giving the orders quickly, Dellua immediately placed her hand on the ground. Then, she deployed a Magic Circle with a considerable radius and pulled out five or six golems, each 5-10m tall, from the ground at once.
She immediately jumped onto the shoulders of the tallest golem and directly charged into the middle of the demon beast wave, leading the combat personnel.
The golems, armed with bodies covered in hard rock, trampled on the monsters approaching the Barrier Stone and swept them away mercilessly with their arms. Meanwhile, some members flew into the sky and poured down long-range attacks from above, supporting Dellua.
Since the demon beasts were being helplessly defeated, it seemed at first glance that humans were dominant, but the number of them rushing in from afar, raising dust, was beyond imagination.
Dellua, who felt dizzy for a moment, wondered whether the operation would succeed even as she was eliminating the monsters.
‘Will we really be able to completely surround these monsters with the Barrier Stone? There are too many more than expected….’
Even if they succeeded in surrounding them, she was also worried whether they would be able to stop all the monsters that would try to escape outside immediately after the core was defeated.
If they couldn’t end it on this line, Marlene, who would be drawing the dividing line in the plains, would have to bear a heavy responsibility, and she had to prevent that situation at all costs. It was because she knew that Marlene’s condition was not good.
Various anxieties mixed with the demon beasts and rushed in. But Dellua shook her head as she looked at the members who were silently fighting around her.
The fact that the monsters were rushing south meant that those who had entered the core’s nest were successfully carrying out the operation. They too would be fighting inside at the risk of their lives, so for the sake of her comrades, it would be better to put aside negative thoughts and concentrate for now.
Having steeled her resolve, she pulled out three or four more golems, even pushing herself a little. She controlled almost ten golems at the same time and energetically led the troops so that the members would not lose morale.
Thanks to that, the monsters swarming near the Barrier Stone seemed to feel threatened and began to hesitate and change direction. Dellua swung her heavy arms even more strongly at those monsters, and just as she was finishing off the remaining ones,
Kukung―
At a similar timing, a vibration that rang out from somewhere in the south was transmitted heavily through the ground. Then, surprisingly, the fiercely rampaging demon beasts stopped moving all at once, as if they had made a promise.
The monsters raised their heads and stared intently at only one place, looking sharply alert. The members, who were puzzled by the behavior of those monsters, also stopped attacking and turned their heads to the opposite side.
Those who instinctively looked at Block 118 first immediately spotted a bizarre phenomenon.
“What… is that?”
“Why is there suddenly smoke….”
Black smoke billowed from the mountainside. The range of the rising smoke, as if there was a large fire, was unusual.
But that was only for a moment, and it could be seen that the bushes and trees in that area were gradually leaning in one direction due to some pressure. It was even rapidly expanding its radius towards this side, accompanied by a vast amount of dust.
Dellua’s eyes gradually widened as she blankly watched the scene for about 2 seconds. Soon, she stopped fighting the demon beasts and controlled the golem to rush out in the direction the strange phenomenon was approaching. She deployed a large Aura in front of the members and the Barrier Stone, and shouted as loudly as possible while staring straight ahead.
“Everyone, hold on tight and endure!”
Dellua, who was about to tell them to deploy the Aura, couldn’t continue her words and faced the destructive energy head-on. What covered her was a shockwave with tremendous power that uprooted all the nearby vegetation.
Thanks to the large golems absorbing the shock over a wide area, the members behind them suffered relatively less damage. However, the rock masses that had been gathered with Magic Power could not maintain their shape and scattered in all directions. As a result, Dellua, who lost her balance on the shoulder of the collapsing golem, was violently thrown out.
“Company Commander!”
“Company Commander―!”
Her body momentarily floated into the air, and she rolled around dizzily several times while entangled among the floating rocks before plummeting to the ground.
A piercing ringing in her ears rang loudly, as if to swallow her consciousness. As she grabbed her dizzy head and barely raised it, she saw several members in a state of panic rushing towards her through the swaying focus.
The approaching members immediately checked Dellua’s condition, grabbed her arms, and carefully helped her up.
“Company Commander, are you alright?”
Dellua, covered in dirt, leaned on them and barely stood on her own two feet, but her gaze, contorted in pain, was still fixed on the southern peak.
In her blurry vision, she caught sight of a grotesque creature raising its head from within the black smoke. She couldn’t even hear her subordinate’s voice due to the piercing High frequency noise, but the roar of the evil shadow, crawling out with its mouth wide open, was vividly felt throughout her body.
And the familiar Magic Power of two people mixed in it further heightened the encroaching sense of foreboding.
‘…That, no way.’
Dellua, staring at the monster with trembling eyes, immediately recalled what she had to do right now.
Soon, she lightly shook her head to shake off the dizziness, and shouted in a resolute voice to the members guarding the Barrier Stone.
“Immediately activate all the Barrier Stones on standby from D-3 to D-9! Then, ignite the beacon to inform the entire peninsula of the current situation! It’s an emergency!”
Rubble mixed with streaks of light fell at a terrifying speed. Charlotte, who was looking up at the blood-stained vision, immediately slung two fallen company members over her shoulders. Then, she shouted forward in a cracked voice as if screaming.
“Retreat, everyone retreat!”
Kwang― Kwaaaang―!
Some of the commanders, who barely regained their senses, launched attacks at the falling rock masses.
While they bought time for a moment, Hugo’s rapidly rising Aura combined with the ice that sprang from the wall to create a roof. But even that didn’t last long because the size and weight of the falling rocks were enormous.
The Queen’s nest, where all sorts of screams and cries were rampant, was a scene of utter chaos. Amidst the members who were flustered while taking care of the injured, the company commanders temporarily blocked the pouring weapons and issued an emergency retreat order.
Kkudeuk― Kkudeudeuk―
Meanwhile, new flesh was gradually growing on the back of the core, which had crawled out of the ceiling and curled up its body. Not only flesh, but also bizarre bones, as if human ribs had been cut in half and attached, broke through the skin and rose up.
The monster thinly covered it with regenerated flesh. Then, as if preparing for something, it stretched its body long and finely crushed the rock it was holding with its feet.
At that time, the core’s eyeballs, sensing a cold energy, instantly turned to the back.
The monster bent its twisted joints in half, put strength in its legs, and jumped upwards in an instant. No sooner had the giant leaped into the air and disappeared through the crack than something sparkling shot up at a rapid speed from inside the collapsing fortress. Five ice spears narrowly missed and disappeared into the clouds hanging over the mountain range in the blink of an eye.
At that moment, the Queen’s shriveled spine, which had been rearranging flesh and tissue all along, gradually widened. Before long, it spread out like a blooming flower and moved the bones and muscles connected to the body at regular intervals. Finally, the wings were completed.
The wings, which were much larger than the monster’s body length, had a heavy flapping motion that caused strong air resistance, making it easy to lift the heavy body.
Now that it had everything, it seemed like it would fly somewhere, but the ten fully restored eyeballs were already fixed on one human blocking its path.
「As expected, you’re the most troublesome one.」
Hugo narrowed his brow as he stared at the monster, hearing the core’s voice perfectly without interruption.
The monster was looking him straight in the eye, had senses as agile and sharp as a beast, and was intelligent enough to use complete sentences. Moreover, it had a body regeneration ability that even created parts that didn’t exist.
Hugo let out a silent sigh.
‘Is this when you use the word desperate?’
As if reading his inner thoughts, the monster, which had been flying in place, stretched its mouth wide to the sides as if mocking him. Then, looking at the Greatsword in Hugo’s hand, it sneered.
「That kind of thing doesn’t work on me anymore. You can’t stop me.」
As if trying to prove its own words, protrusions rose on the Queen’s skull and neck area as if goosebumps had appeared. They vibrated rapidly and spread out mysterious waves, causing an ominous sign.
A moment later, Hugo instinctively looked down when he suddenly heard the sound of the vast land ringing. Responding to the Queen’s call, a wave of black demon beasts was swirling in a spiral pattern around this Block 118 and rushing in.
He was momentarily flustered by the more overwhelming number than expected, but Hugo saw an opportunity in the fact that the monster’s control was still intact.
‘No, there’s still hope.’
He raised his right hand holding the Greatsword upwards and drew a circle with the tip of the sword towards the sky. Then, not only the clouds hanging over the mountain range but also the atmosphere surrounding the area gradually gathered to one point. Following that flow, the air in the area was sucked into the center, creating a majestic vortex large enough to cover the black wave on the ground.
The water vapor in the clouds froze, the surrounding temperature dropped sharply, and glittering ice fragments lurked menacingly everywhere. The crackling sound of the atmosphere contained a sharp Magic Power that seemed to spill blood if cut.
The core, directly realizing the power from the front, rolled its eyeballs at the shape of the giant storm hanging in the sky and distanced itself from Hugo.
Hugo, not missing the gap, aimed the tip of the sword he had raised at the core.
“You should know that you’re not the only one who’s been released from the seal.”
Blade-like ice rain poured down from the tip of the majestic vortex. The Queen, thinking there was nowhere to escape, immediately spread her wings in a straight line and charged to bite the caster in front of her.
However, as soon as it reached the prey in front of it with its mouth open, the figure disappeared without a trace. It hurriedly shook its protrusions to detect the airflow with Ultrasound, but the death spears falling from the sky were piercing its skin even faster than that.
Kwagwagwagwang―!
He hardened his wide wings to cover his entire body, enduring the barrage of Ice Spears. The pouring ice extended endlessly, plummeting down to the swarming wave of demon beasts below. Another shockwave spread widely from that area, and the rushing creatures were simultaneously slaughtered. The unified screams of the demon beasts echoed throughout the area.
Hugo, who was looking down at the scene from above, followed the form of the core that had disappeared into the hazy steam with his eyes.
He thought it would be easy to spot due to its massive size, but coming outside, the bizarre rocks, thickets, and the clouds created by the peninsula’s low pressure between the mountain ranges provided places for it to hide.
Moreover, there were not only demon beasts below but also many Council members, so even if he could use great magic, anything more would be akin to gambling.
As he searched for the creature’s traces with all sorts of worries, Hugo felt a presence behind him and quickly turned around, raising his Greatsword sharply.
Kiiiigigigik―
The giant claw of a monster, flying in silently, grazed the blade of the Greatsword by a hair’s breadth. Hugo endured the heavy weight with both arms amidst the sharp noise, quickly scanning the creature’s condition. Only the wing area was slightly torn, and even that was quickly regenerating.
Hugo, gritting his teeth, was about to launch an attack towards its blood-red eyeballs, but at that moment, the core struck him with great force, causing him to lose his balance and be pushed far away.
He quickly regained his stance and simultaneously deployed five Magic Circles, but the core’s movements as it looked down at him from the sky were ominous.
“I’ll have to return the favor.”
The creature’s strangely bent wings curled up like human hands concentrating Magic Power. Then, the destructive energy seething at its center gathered and was instantly fired at the members who were entrenched below.
Piiiiing―
Hugo, noticing the creature’s intention and turning to look behind him, felt his mind go blank for a moment. But without a moment to spare, he immediately used Teleport to move in the direction away from the members. Then, he combined the five Magic Circles in front of him into one, creating a super-large Aura in front once again.
The core’s pupils drew an arc as the troublesome creature voluntarily came within range.
“Humans are no different now than they were then.”
The monster mocked Hugo’s actions and drew out another Destruction Beam.
“That petty hypocrisy of hating the weak while trying to protect them is the downfall of you humans.”
Soon, two beams of light filled with intense energy flew straight towards Hugo.
Hugo coldly cooled the surface of the Aura while aiming the end of the vortex at the light beams. However, there were so many things to worry about right now that he wasn’t sure if he could properly protect the members or intercept the attack.
‘Is Leonardo not here yet?’
Hugo, bracing himself to withstand the impact with his arms outstretched, glanced at the mountainside of Peak 118, where thick black smoke was rising. But as the scorching energy that took his breath away covered him from the front, he had no time to look elsewhere.
Placed under immense responsibility, he steeled his heart to endure the creature’s attack entirely alone. Just as he firmly planted his feet in the air with the resolve not to be pushed back,
Suddenly, two familiar and reliable figures appeared on either side of him.
Charlotte, standing on the right, wrapped sticky threads around the super-large Aura to increase its durability. And it was Rainer, standing on the left, who hardened the surface of the Aura so that it could withstand any attack.