Chapter 57
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Intertwined (1)
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"This... This is impossible..."
His breath was ragged, his words trembling.
Having just awoken, his sense of reality still hazy, he had managed to run here as fast as he could.
'Still, I can finally catch my breath.'
He had barely managed to buy himself time to breathe and calm his heart.
He'd shaken off his pursuers, and now only silence surrounded him.
The place he had rushed to was a forest teeming with the Demon World's withered-looking trees.
'Hmph, if I awaken them, a few guards won't be a problem.'
He had fled in a frenzy, but not without a plan.
This place was a kind of seal.
A seal that imprisoned beings of the past, just like himself.
His intention was to awaken the forces slumbering here and replenish his own troops to counter the drastically changed era.
"Arise! You loyal dogs of the Demon King's army!"
He moved his demonic energy, using the incantation placed on the seal.
The spell activated as it should, beginning to glow.
He smiled faintly.
Those buried here were elites, renowned for their combat prowess.
They would surely become the strength he needed to find out what in the world was happening to this land.
"Good. With this, I can deal with those lowly traitors..."
He grinned as he watched the jet-black armor slowly materialize.
The summoned soldiers, of course, retained their appearances from the past.
"Huh?"
But at that moment.
Something tore through the air, grazing—no, 'shattering'—his horn as it passed.
"Aaargh!"
He clutched his broken horn in excruciating pain.
The sound of it ripping through the air reached him a moment later.
His face contorted, he spun around.
"You... you bastards! You lowly mongrels!"
The one who had shattered the horn of a high-ranking demon like him was the lowest of the low, an inferior demon beast he wouldn't even deign to acknowledge.
Beings known to some humans as Gnolls.
The problem was, these were the same ones who had tried to ambush him right after he awoke from his seal.
"Our name is Ashkrud."
"Wh-What..."
He was first shocked by the fact that the Gnolls had tailed him without him noticing, and then a second time by the fact that they could speak.
'What in the world?'
Only then did he examine their appearance more closely.
They were unmistakably Gnolls, just as he remembered.
But something was different. The equipment they wore, the wondrous weapons in their hands.
"No time to waste. Kill him already."
Just then, a particularly tall figure among the Gnolls threw back his hood.
The demon's face twisted in a bizarre grimace at the sight of the figure.
It was what humans called a Kobold, another equally inferior demon beast.
"Fire!"
At the Gnoll leader's command, a volley of bullets began to rain down.
Gritting his teeth, he manipulated his demonic energy to conjure a purple barrier in front of him.
The large, powerful bullets, capable of easily piercing a human's heavy tank, cracked the barrier but failed to break through.
"I, Karka, Legion Commander of the Demon King's army, will not fall to the likes of you!"
As his power exploded, his body levitated slightly, and his demonic energy began to blaze.
It was a power befitting the dignity of one who had once led his legion to conquer an entire continent.
[That kind of power is difficult to penetrate with conventional bullets. Use the beam weapons.]
"Beams."
The Gnolls received the command echoing in their heads.
The new weapons they had prepared took aim at his body, which was now wreathed in blazing demonic energy.
"Die, you insects!"
[...Hilarious. I wonder who the real insect is.]
As the demon Karka fired a massive fireball, a blue beam shot from the aimed muzzles.
Karka's eyes widened.
The beam disintegrated the fireball into pieces, shattered his barrier, and pierced straight through his astonished body.
"Easy."
That was the end of it. One of the Demon King's army legion commanders, awakened from a long slumber, was thus instantly and pathetically annihilated by the inferior demon beasts he had so disdained.
"Now, it's your turn."
"I know."
The Kobold snorted.
None of them paid any mind to Karka's corpse.
Even though, in the past, he was a high-ranking demon they would not have dared to even look at.
"Hmph... I see it now. So this is the spell of the Demon King's army? Nothing but this shoddy work. Just primitive, shallow incantations, ignorant of the true principles of this powerful magic."
A radiant power spread out, drawing complex patterns.
The Kobold who stepped forward stood before the hounds of the Demon King's army—unsealed, but yet to have a new commander—and in a single breath, successfully reverse-engineered and hacked the ancient spell.
"Now. Your new master is not the Demon King, but me."
The Kobold grinned, taking command of the troops that now obeyed his orders.
The name 'Demon King' was once absolute to the inhabitants of this land.
But not anymore. Now, they had beings far greater than the Demon King.
"Hmm. A waste to just throw it away?"
The Kobold sneered at Karka's pathetic corpse on the ground, then lifted the staff in his hand and poked it.
Simultaneously, the corpse's hand twitched and moved.
"Even as a rotting corpse, go ahead and fight for that precious Demon King of yours. Humans from another world have invaded with their legions, so go kill those who are disturbing the Demon World."
The corpse, now under a spell, writhed violently and rose to its feet.
It began to move along with the army of the past, which had started to march.
"Keep your promise."
"I know. It's an agreement between the Players. You think the likes of us can betray it?"
Just before they parted, the Kobold nodded as if exasperated by the Gnoll leader's words.
They were now scheduled to launch a joint attack on the Earth's allied forces.
Though Units were not meant to band together, it was a strategic choice to defeat a greater enemy.
*
"Isn't this a breach of contract? We were supposed to stay at the garrison and escort the researchers after the battle..."
"Technically, that place is a garrison too."
On the road, flattened and cleared by armored vehicles and tanks of the main force, Robert sighed, trying to quell his squad's complaints.
In truth, there wasn't much to protest. Their mission was to escort the researchers, and the researchers themselves were heading to the front lines with them.
"Won't it be dangerous?"
"I consider it a sort of calling."
The researcher, who had introduced himself as Antonif after I saved his life and we had grown closer, said that even if he was afraid, it had to be done.
"There's so much we can learn by studying and analyzing them. In fact, we've developed many countermeasures that way."
"That's true."
I couldn't deny it. It was a fact that thorough research and analysis had allowed them to counter the enemy more effectively so far.
The only thing that bothered me was that the enemy was no longer just ordinary demon beasts.
With my help, the Legion had undergone an evolution that defied common sense, even bringing down the Ruin Fungus, a far more ancient predecessor.
That very change and growth, which defied all logic, was the hallmark of a Unit and a Player.
"There have been a lot of strange things happening lately, but I'm sure we can figure it out."
I kept my mouth shut as I watched him cling to hope.
I tried to know my place. I was still just a civilian with a sliver of power.
Even if I wanted to do something, that was a job for capable people like the Player, Cha Ji-yeon.
Military vehicles were driving alongside us.
Government-affiliated researchers were also on the move.
"You don't have to worry."
"I'm not particularly worried..."
"We will be victorious. We were ambushed during transit, but our firepower is more than sufficient."
A commander with a half-bald head boasted, reassuring us.
It was probably true that their firepower was sufficient.
The problem was that firepower wasn't everything in this war.
"You know, when people talk like that, something always goes wrong. I heard our superiors already found and destroyed a separate enemy unit that was about to ambush us just before."
"Don't go raising strange flags."
I left Robert, who was getting chided by Cox, and entered our assigned barracks.
Then, I took out two items from my pocket.
In my left hand was the object that would tell me if a Unit or Player was nearby.
Thankfully, the ore wasn't glowing.
In my right hand was another offering the Legion had given me for my own protection.
This was purely for my safety.
"What's the Legion doing now?"
[Still engrossed in exploration. The digestion of the Great Hive Mind is not yet complete.]
"...What about reconnaissance?"
[The passage that creature is blocking with its body will only be revealed once it is fully digested.]
Calculating efficiency, the Legion decided against expending energy to dig a detour or physically dismember the Great Hive Mind.
Instead, they decided to use this downtime to explore other areas.
Aiding that decision was the terrain-sensing ability of the Demon World Mole Crickets.
[Now able to detect even the faintest currents within the earth using that ability, the Legion has discovered an anomaly inside a wall and has decided to dig into it.]
The Legion decided to excavate the area, mobilizing dozens of mining-type legionaries to quickly tunnel through.
"...Don't tell me it's a new labyrinth."
What was hidden there was a single cavity.
Another space, uncertain whether it connected to where we were or not.
"Kyaaak!"
A now-familiar Ruin Fungus-infected creature lunged at a legionary.
[Excellent. This is an opportunity to test if we can use the mental resonance ability, acquired from the Great Hive Mind, on its own kind.]
Of course, an ordinary Ruin Fungus posed little threat to us now.