Chapter 64
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: The Monster of the Abyss (3)
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"All children, get back! Hold them off!"
Orote, a burly warrior known as the strongest among them, effectively their charge commander.
He led his fellow warriors and charged into the city besieged by the monsters.
"You beast!"
At the very front, he leaped into the streets and swung his faintly glowing sword, bringing it down on a monster that was attacking the people.
"Kuk?!"
But his opponent was no mere beast.
This quadrupedal assault-type Legion unit—a medium-class model whose feline upper body and musculature had been pushed to the extreme through Legion modification—dodged his sword and swiped at him with a powerful foreleg.
Its weight and build surpassed that of any ordinary tiger.
He mustered all his strength to block the impact that erupted from its compressed muscles, barely managing to stay on his feet. But the blow was strong enough to crumple his shield.
"Aaaargh!"
He tossed the shield aside and plunged his sword into the brow of the Legion unit as it lunged, baring sharp, gleaming teeth with serrated edges.
The magic-infused blade shattered the creature's hard cranial armor, splitting its head wide open.
'What in the world is this?'
Orote gasped for breath. Though young, he was a veteran with considerable experience.
He had fought massive beasts in countless caves for the hunt. But the enemy he just faced, despite its bestial form, was different from any beast.
'It's chilling.'
A silence devoid of any cries or screams, even in the heat of battle, even at the moment of death. And gleaming eyes that knew no fear of death.
The thought that he was not fighting a normal opponent filled Orote with a primal fear.
"Orote! Help me over here!"
"Damn it! Ella!"
Panting, he heard a desperate cry for him and scrambled over.
"Rel is trapped!"
"Hold on. I'll get him out now."
Cursing under his breath, he heaved with all his might at the stones to rescue the child pinned beneath the collapsed debris.
Though one of the child's legs was crushed, his life was saved.
"This can't be..."
But they were quickly surrounded.
Medium-sized, spider-type Legion units, based on giant cave spiders, skittered on eight carapace-covered legs, their large, venomous fangs dripping poison as they clacked together.
They were spiders larger than humans, their bodies encased in crab-like armor.
'These things are the same.'
Orote gritted his teeth as he stared at their glowing red eyes.
He hid the woman and the injured child behind him.
"I will protect you."
He swung his sword with all his might at the charging spiders.
He hacked wildly at the legs that stabbed through the gaps in his defense and split open the mouths that tried to bite him.
"Aaaargh!"
Unleashing superhuman strength, he grabbed a leg that tried to crush him and threw the creature over his shoulder.
The massive spider was lifted into the air and slammed onto the ground, where it flailed.
'I can do this.'
The mark etched on his body was also glowing brightly.
The Divine Tree was with him. Everyone was with him.
He fought until he finally cut down the last spider.
"Kyaaaak! Orote!"
"Ella!"
But while he was locked in a desperate struggle with the spiders.
The talons of a bird of prey swooped down from the sky, snatching the woman and child whole.
"Ah... Aaaargh!"
Caught in the talons, she was carried across a sky already dominated by flying species.
A combat-type flying unit based on a giant hornet, possessing the talons of a raptor on its six long legs, held her fast and pierced her with the stinger on its coiled tail.
Though called a stinger, on a flying creature the size of an ox, it was no different from a spear.
"Guk... guh..."
The flying unit retracted the stinger, which had pierced through the child in her arms as well, and simply dropped the bodies to the ground.
The lifeless bodies fell and shattered against the stone ground in the middle of the chaotic battlefield. Orote's eyes followed the entire scene, and he despaired.
"Uwaaaah!"
He let out a roar of fury and charged at a nearby monster.
"What in the hell are you things?!"
Pushing off the ground, then a roof, he launched himself into the air and plunged his sword into the enemy's massive back.
With a momentary burst of transcendent power, he pierced straight through the head of a mining-type Legion unit larger than a dump truck. He held onto the hilt of the sword, which was buried up to his hand, bracing himself atop the staggering body until it collapsed completely, then pulled his weapon free.
"Quickly... run."
He spoke with difficulty to those who had been about to be attacked.
Watching them flee, he readied the sword he had pulled from the corpse. Then he looked down at his own body.
The mark was glowing brighter than ever before.
'Is this the growth Waite always spoke of? Was this what it meant to endure trials?'
He exhaled and slowly turned around.
A new enemy was there.
An erect spine, a slender yet agile and resilient body.
Four arms and a tail that moved with complete freedom.
"You use swords! You damn beasts!"
he roared, his anger erupting.
But the superior, all-purpose Legion unit that had come to face him moved with the sole purpose of killing him.
Four swords and one erratically moving tail struck simultaneously, aiming precisely for his vital points.
"Heuk..."
He blocked all four swords, but the curving tail pierced one of his legs.
'To be beaten by things like this.'
He gritted his teeth against the pain, held his ground, and swung his sword.
Or rather, he tried to. His body, defying his will, began to stiffen.
"Guh... ah..."
Black veins began to spread from his pierced leg.
The purification of the Divine Tree could block what was spread in the air, but it could not overcome what was injected directly into the body.
"Heh..."
But upon realizing the situation, he let out a grim smile.
He grabbed the Legion unit's arm.
"Did you think... I would die alone...?"
Even as the black veins spread to his face, he steadfastly held onto his consciousness.
At the same time, he used his magic to overload the mark on his body, causing it to run rampant.
"You must be... their commander..."
And his body exploded with a powerful shockwave—an impact strong enough to shatter the superior Legion unit's barrier.
The two figures were simultaneously blown to pieces, reduced to fragments of flesh.
"There are too many...!"
"At this rate... Aaargh!"
The moment the real clash began, the moonlight elves started to be pushed back.
They had shown more resilience than the Legion had calculated, but in the end, that was all.
This place, where only the screams and shouts of the elves could be heard, was where the man once called the strongest warrior had fought a desperate battle before self-destructing with a superior Legion unit.
And it was there that they set foot.
At least several dozen of them activated the power cores in their chests.
Their target was the Divine Tree in the center of the city.
Their objective was to bring down that place, protected by a special incantation.
'Destroy it.'
The order was given. Half of them, the ones without tails, spread the carapaces on their backs, revealing a pair of transparent wings, and took to the sky.
Using Form Power to twist the laws of physics, they could now fly despite their physical forms making it impossible.
The rest kicked off the ground and sprinted forward.
"They're... coming! Grand Chieftain!"
"Hold your positions. We are with the Divine Tree. That is the only way to protect our people."
The Grand Chieftain, sitting in meditation before the Divine Tree with the others, gripped the vajra in her hand.
For now, the only one with the talent to comprehend, decipher, and use even a fraction of their ancestors' long-lost spells was the old Grand Chieftain.
'They are a tidal wave, a plague, a disaster.'
Taking a deep breath, she slammed the vajra down.
Her targets were the ones currently hurtling through the sky, charging with long, spear-like weapons.
She had realized why the countless monsters ravaging the city had avoided attacking this place directly.
They were waiting for the ones who could break this spell. And those were the things now flying and running toward them.
"Die, you vile monsters of the abyss!"
The spell she activated erupted, firing concentrated magic like cannonballs.
The superior units stopped in mid-air, resonating their barriers to block the projectiles.
But thanks to that, the Grand Chieftain had bought some time. If she kept this up, they could hold out longer.
'Now, that is the only hope.'
She bit her lip.
Their last and only hope was at this very moment slipping out through a tiny bolt-hole.
It was going to ask for help from the only power that could aid them.
After all, saving their lives was what mattered most.
"Everyone! A little more strength. The humans of the surface will not stand for these hideous monsters!"
She encouraged those around her who were sharing their magic to bolster the spell.
This truly was their very last hope.
"Grand... Grand Chieftain..."
"Carlton..."
But that hope had just been shattered.
The Grand Chieftain turned, her eyes shaking violently.
A branch, bursting through the trunk of the Divine Tree, was writhing as it impaled the chest of one of the elders beside her.
[The Legion's infectious power. Plants are no exception.]
"Ah... ahh..."
Before her eyes, she saw the Divine Tree being crushed from the inside in real time, with sickening cracks and groans.
Bursting through the trunk of that Divine Tree was another, black and twisted, Divine Tree.