Chapter 185

Northern defense line near Peaks 112-119 of the Elder Millie Peninsula.

This was the position where some companies led by Delua Rivera, the 6th Battalion Commander of the Central Branch, were deployed. It was a strategic point defending the path leading from Peak 118, the main operation area, to the plains.

Here, Delua and her members were currently protecting the barrier stones that had entered standby activation state while confronting the swarms of monsters rushing in like a flood.

"Don't bother blocking every single one coming from the north. Let them pass and prioritize protecting the barrier stones!"

"But Battalion Commander, there are too many, and those that can't pass through are climbing up here. At this rate, the barrier stones will be damaged!"

"9th to 12th Platoons capable of ranged attacks, follow me. The rest, maintain defensive formation. No matter what happens, the barrier stones must not be disrupted!"

After swiftly giving orders, Delua immediately placed her hand on the ground. Then, deploying a magic circle with a fairly wide radius, she pulled out five or six golems, 5-10 meters tall, from the earth all at once.

Leaping onto the shoulder of the tallest golem in one breath, she immediately led the combat personnel and charged right into the midst of the monster wave.

The golems, their entire bodies armored with hard-quality rock, trampled under foot the creatures approaching the barrier stones and ruthlessly swept them away with both arms. Meanwhile, some members flew up into the air and provided support for Delua by pouring down ranged attacks from above.

At a glance, it seemed the humans had the upper hand as the monsters were helplessly overwhelmed, but the numbers surging in from afar, raising clouds of dust, were truly beyond imagination.

For a moment, Delua felt dizzy at the sight, and even as she dealt with the creatures, doubt about the success of the operation began to creep in.

'Can we really surround all these creatures with the barrier stones? There are too many...'

Even if they succeeded in surrounding them, she was also worried about whether they could stop all the creatures trying to break out immediately after the mother body was killed.

If they couldn't end it at this line, Marlen, who would be holding the dividing line in the plains, would bear a heavy responsibility, and that situation had to be prevented at all costs. She knew that Marlen's condition was not good at all.

Various anxieties swarmed in along with the monsters. However, Delua shook her head as she saw the members silently confronting them around her.

The fact that the creatures were rushing south meant that those who had entered the mother body's nest were successfully carrying out the operation. They too would be fighting for their lives inside, so for their comrades' sake, it seemed better to put aside negative thoughts and focus for now.

Having steeled her resolve, she pulled out three or four more golems, even pushing herself a bit. While simultaneously controlling nearly ten golems, she vigorously led from the front to ensure the members didn't lose morale.

Perhaps thanks to this, the creatures swarming near the barrier stones seemed to sense the threat and began to hesitate and change direction. As she was swinging her massive arms more forcefully at these creatures, finishing off the remaining ones, that's when it happened.

Kukung-

At about the same time, a vibration that rang out somewhere in the south was heavily transmitted through the ground. Surprisingly, the fiercely rampaging monsters all stopped moving at once, as if by agreement.

They raised their heads, on high alert, and stared at only one place. The members, finding the creatures' behavior strange, also all stopped their attacks and turned their heads in the opposite direction.

Those who instinctively looked at Peak 118 first immediately caught sight of a bizarre phenomenon.

"What is that?"

"Why is there suddenly smoke..."

Black smoke was billowing from the middle of the mountain. The rising range was extraordinary, as if a large fire had broken out.

But that was only for a moment; they could see the bushes and trees in that area gradually bending in one direction due to some pressure. Moreover, it was rapidly expanding its radius towards them, accompanied by vast amounts of dust.

Delua's eyes, which had been blankly staring at this scene for about 2 seconds, gradually widened. Eventually, she stopped dealing with the monsters and instantly leaped towards the direction of the strange phenomenon, controlling her golems. Spreading a large barrier in front of the members and barrier stones, she stared straight ahead and shouted as loudly as she could.

"Everyone hold on tight and endure!"

As she was about to continue, telling them to spread barriers, Delua couldn't finish her words and faced the destructive energy head-on. What hit her was a shockwave with such tremendous power that it could uproot all the vegetation in the vicinity.

Thanks to the bulky golems taking the brunt of the impact over a wide area, the members behind suffered relatively less damage. However, the rock masses formed with mana couldn't maintain their shape and scattered in all directions. Because of this, Delua, losing her balance on the shoulder of the crumbling golem, was violently thrown off.

"Battalion Commander!"

"Battalion Commander-!"

Her body momentarily floating in the air, she became entangled among the floating rocks, spinning wildly several times before plummeting to the ground.

An intense ringing sound of "piiii-" echoed loudly, threatening to swallow her consciousness. Clutching her dizzy head and barely raising it, she saw through her shaking focus several panic-stricken members rushing towards her.

The approaching members immediately checked Delua's condition, grasped both her arms, and carefully helped her to her feet.

"Battalion Commander, are you alright?"

Covered in dirt, Delua barely stood on her two feet, leaning on them, but her pained gaze remained fixed on the southern peak.

In her blurry vision, as she exhaled rough breaths, she caught sight of a monstrous life form raising its head from within the black smoke. Although she couldn't even hear her subordinates' voices due to the high-frequency noise piercing her ears, she vividly felt with her entire body the roar of the evil shadow crawling out with its maw wide open.

And the familiar mana of two people mixed within it heightened her sense of foreboding even more.

'...Could it be.'

Staring at the creature with trembling eyes, Delua recalled what she needed to do right now.

Soon, lightly shaking her head to shake off the dizziness, she shouted in a resolute voice towards the members guarding the barrier stones.

"Activate all standby barrier stones from sectors D-3 to D-9 immediately! Then light the signal fires to inform the entire peninsula of the current situation! This is an emergency!"

* * *

Piles of rocks mixed with beams of light were falling at a terrifying speed. Charlotte, who had been looking up at the blood-red view, immediately slung two fallen battalion members over her shoulders. Then she shouted towards the front with a voice cracked as if screaming.

"Retreat, everyone retreat!"

Bang-Kwaaang-!

Some commanders who had barely regained their senses launched attacks at the falling rock masses.

While they bought time, albeit briefly, Hugo's rapidly rising barrier combined with ice surging from the walls to form a roof. However, even this didn't last long due to the enormous size and weight of the falling rocks.

The queen's nest was in utter chaos, filled with all kinds of screams and wails. Amidst the members frantically tending to the injured, the battalion commanders temporarily blocked the falling deadly weapons while issuing urgent retreat orders.

Kkudeuk- Kkudeudeuk-

Meanwhile, new flesh was gradually growing on the back of the mother body, which had crawled out beyond the ceiling and curled its body into a ball. Not only flesh, but a grotesque skeleton that looked as if human ribs had been split in half and attached, rose up, splitting the hide.

The creature thinly covered it with regenerated flesh. Then, as if preparing for something, it elongated its body and finely crushed the grasped rocks with its feet.

At that moment, the mother body's eyeballs instantly turned to the back, sensing a chilling energy.

The creature bent its twisted joints in half and leaped upwards with strength in its legs. As soon as the massive body disappeared into the gap of the fissure as it jumped into the air, something glittering shot up at high speed from inside the collapsing fortress. Five ice spears passed by and vanished in the blink of an eye into the clouds hanging over the mountain range.

At that moment, the queen's shrunken spine, which had been rearranging flesh and tissues all along, gradually spread. Soon, it opened wide like a blooming flower and moved the bones and muscles connected to the body at regular intervals. The wings were finally complete.

The wings, much larger than the creature's body length, were heavy even in their flapping movement, but they created strong air resistance, easily lifting the massive body.

Now that it had everything, it should have flown somewhere, but the ten perfectly restored eyeballs were fixed on a human blocking its way.

"As expected, you're the most troublesome one."

Hugo furrowed his brow at the mother body's voice, which was heard perfectly without interruption.

The creature was making direct eye contact with him, possessed senses as keen and sharp as a beast's, and had intelligence high enough to use complete sentences. Moreover, it had the ability to regenerate its body, even creating parts that weren't there before.

Hugo let out a silent sigh.

'Is this when you use the word hopeless?'

As if reading his inner thoughts, the creature, hovering in place, tore its maw wide open on both sides as if mocking him. Then it sneered, looking at the greatsword in Hugo's hand.

"Such things no longer work on me. You can't stop me."

As if to prove its own words, protrusions rose on the queen's skull and around its nape as if goosebumps had formed. They vibrated rapidly, spreading mysterious waves and causing ominous signs.

A moment later, when the sound of the vast land rumbling suddenly came, Hugo instinctively looked down. A black wave of monsters, responding to the queen's call, was swarming in, forming a spiral vortex centered on this Peak 118.

Though momentarily taken aback by the overwhelming numbers beyond expectation, Hugo saw an opportunity in the fact that the creature's control was still intact.

'No, there's still hope.'

He raised his right hand holding the greatsword upwards and drew a circle in the air with the tip of the sword. Then, not only the clouds hanging over the mountain range but also the atmosphere surrounding the area gradually converged to a single 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.

As the water vapor in the clouds froze, the surrounding temperature dropped rapidly, and glittering ice shards savagely lurked everywhere. The friction sound of the atmosphere, "kurureung," was mixed with the energy of sharp mana that seemed as if it would make blood gush if cut.

The mother body, directly feeling that power from the front, rolled its eyeballs at the shape of the huge storm cloud looming in the sky and widened its distance from Hugo.

Not missing the opening, Hugo aimed the tip of the sword he had raised upwards at the mother body.

"You should know that you're not the only one liberated from the seal."

A rain of blade-like ice poured from the tip of the majestic vortex. The queen, perhaps thinking there was nowhere to escape, immediately spread its wings in a straight line and charged to bite the caster before it.

However, as soon as it reached its prey with its maw open, the human figure disappeared without a trace. It hurriedly shook its protrusions to detect air currents with ultrasonic waves, but the speed at which the spears of death falling from the sky pierced its hide was faster.

Kwagwagwagwang-!

The creature endured the slashing of the ice spears by hardening its flat wings and wrapping its entire body. The pouring ice extended endlessly, piercing even the wave of monsters writhing far below. Another shockwave spread widely from that area, and the creatures that had swarmed in were all killed at once. The unified roar of the monsters shook the area.

Hugo, looking down at that scene from above, traced with his eyes the shape of the mother body that had disappeared into the pale water vapor.

He thought it would be easily visible due to its massive size, but once outside, the bizarre rocks, vegetation, and clouds between the mountain ranges created by the peninsula's low pressure provided places for the creature to hide.

Moreover, not only monsters but also many Council members were below, so even if he could use large-scale magic, anything beyond this would be nothing short of a gamble.

As he was searching for traces of the creature with various concerns, Hugo sensed a presence behind him and quickly turned around, raising his greatsword sharply.

Kkigigigigik-

The monster's huge claws, which had flown in silently, grazed the blade of the greatsword by a hair's breadth. Amidst the sharp noise, Hugo endured the massive weight with both arms while quickly scanning the creature's condition. Only the wing area was slightly torn, but even that was already in the process of regenerating.

Hugo, gritting his teeth, was about to launch an attack towards the dark red eyeballs, but at that moment, the mother body struck him with strong force, causing him to momentarily lose balance and be pushed far away.

Just as he quickly regained his posture and deployed five magic circles simultaneously, the movement of the mother body looking down at him from mid-air seemed ominous.

"I should return the favor."

The creature's bizarrely bent wings shrank like a human's two hands concentrating mana. Then, destructive energy boiling at its center gathered and was instantly fired towards the members lined up below.

Piiiing-

Hugo, who had noticed the creature's intention and turned around, felt his mind go blank for a moment. But having no time to stop, he immediately used teleportation to move to a position with his back to the members. Then he merged the five magic circles in front of him into one, once again creating an extra-large barrier in front.

As the annoying one voluntarily entered its range, the mother body's pupils drew a parabola.

"Humans are no different now than they were before."

The monster, mocking Hugo's actions, drew out another destructive beam.

"That pitiful hypocrisy of despising the weak while trying to protect them is the downfall of you humans."

Soon, two beams containing intense energy flew towards Hugo's front.

Hugo cooled the surface of the barrier while aiming the tip of the vortex at the beams. However, with so many things to worry about at once, he wasn't sure if he could properly protect the members or intercept that attack.

'Is Leonardo not here yet?'

Hugo, preparing to endure the impact with both arms outstretched, glanced at the middle of Peak 118 where black smoke was rising. But as scorching energy that took his breath away bore down on him head-on, he had no time to look elsewhere.

Placed under this heavy responsibility, he steeled himself to endure the creature's attack entirely alone. Just as he firmly planted his feet in mid-air with the resolve not to yield no matter what,

Suddenly, two familiar and reassuring figures appeared on either side of him.

Charlotte, standing on his right, wrapped sticky threads around the extra-large barrier to increase its durability. And it was Liner, standing on his left, who firmly hardened the surface of the barrier to withstand any attack.