#47 United Front
#47 United Front
"......?"
A fair amount of time had passed, yet the end refused to come... why? I raised my head in bewilderment. A dreary black fog had already blanketed the jungle.
And standing guard at the front, as if holding a line — a single Wolf.
"Alpha (Jirisan Warg)...?"
Lee Eun-ha clapped a hand over her mouth the moment the words slipped out. But they must have been heard, because when the Wolf turned its head, she swallowed involuntarily.
—The enemy of her benefactor. The Wolf that had tried to kill her, Alpha (Jirisan Warg). She had sworn she would kill it, yet the instant she met those red eyes, she froze. When she saw herself reflected in pupils deep as an abyss, reaching down into the depths of her very soul, a shudder ran through her body.
[T-this vermin...!]
The voice that had been chanting erupted in fury upon spotting the Wolf. Yet whoever it was couldn't approach recklessly, as if they were wary of Alpha (Jirisan Warg). Above all, the Armored Monstrous Figure's raised arm dangled as though it might snap off at any moment.
"......!"
Black mana erupted from the Armored Monstrous Figure and surged forward like a tidal wave. To Lee Eun-ha's eyes, it looked like the churning Bam Sea. A terror that seemed poised to silence everything descended upon her — and yet, for some reason, she felt a strange tranquility.
'Why?'
...I don't know. Why?
[Fulgere intermitente și fulgere!]
When she saw the onrushing wave and the black lightning, she squeezed her eyes shut.
"......!"
—And when she opened them again, nothing had happened.
Only, the Wolf's mana-wreathed jaws were ablaze. Instinctively, she understood that Alpha (Jirisan Warg) had chewed up and swallowed the lightning that had been flying toward her.......
"......why, why......?"
When she caught the faint relief flickering in the Wolf's eyes as it glanced back at her,
Thump— thump— thump-thump——!
—Her heart began to pound furiously.
'......!'
Her reason desperately denied what her emotions, what her heart, already felt.
'That's impossible...'
—It's impossible. It has to be a lie.
Because you— you died back there, didn't you......?
'You're not... him, are you?'
Lee Eun-ha swallowed dryly. Her lips parted and closed several times. She reached a hand out, then drew it back. Her pulse, impossibly fast. When her heart screamed out once more, her mind went as blank as a fresh sheet of paper.
"......!"
—A different order of magnitude, but the same fundamental nature of mana.
Mana whose properties were so alike that it might as well have originated from herself. She wasn't so dense that she could fail to recognize it even while staring right at it. Her tangled thoughts unraveled thread by thread, and the knotted skein slowly began to loosen.
...My benefactor.
Because of you — because of you, I resolved to become a hunter again.
And... my enemy...?
—All this time, I've been trying to kill you, and yet...?
'Why? Why?'
Her head was a mess. She wanted to scream. Her pounding heart, her blank mind — neither would let her hold a coherent thought. As she reeled in confusion and contradiction,
"......Go."
—The Wolf delivered its verdict, quietly.
A solitary Wolf, holding back a tidal surge of mana and a barrage of spells with its back turned to her.
At that voice, Lee Eun-ha reflexively brushed her cheek and only then realized she was crying.
"Ah...?"
A single syllable slipped out.
Countless hypotheses flared to life and then evaporated, one after another. Hesitantly, the loosened threads began to weave a new truth into being.
"......!"
She forced the pieces together by sheer instinct, and when only one answer remained at last, her heart hammered harder than it ever had before.
—If everything I knew was an illusion.
If the one who survived at Beopgyesa that day wasn't the Warg but you... if every truth I'd held onto was actually false, and some other truth had been there all along...?
"I've been......"
What have I been doing all this time? Far from repaying the debt I owe......!
Thoom—! Thoom—! Thooom—!
As the Armored Monstrous Figure's footsteps grew louder, the Wolf standing guard ahead lowered its stance and snarled — as if to say there was no time left.
"......!"
There was no room for doubt anymore.......
Not an enemy. A benefactor. The one who had saved me... Tears streamed helplessly down her face. Once the truth was finally laid bare amid her long self-deception, something that had been knotted deep in her heart began to slowly melt away.
And in the very next moment, what surfaced in Lee Eun-ha's mind was how pathetic she was. Even now — even now, am I nothing but someone to be protected......? Her feelings aside, the situation forced a choice upon her. Move. Don't repeat the same mistake. There truly is no time left now.
...Those red eyes urged her on once again.
With her eyes red-rimmed, Lee Eun-ha wiped the tears streaming down her cheeks with her sleeve and moved her lips.
"......Don't die."
As she hoisted the team leader onto her back, she thought she heard the faint ghost of a hollow laugh somewhere.
[Where do you think you're going! I'm not letting a single one of you escape! You vermin—!]
A voice seething with rage, cutting through the moment like a shattered nerve. It was not a single voice. Spells chanted in countless layers — they rained down in numbers beyond counting, yet not a single one could pierce the black shroud that enveloped her.
"......!"
Drying her tears and gritting her teeth, Lee Eun-ha began to sprint with everything she had toward where the Assault Team was positioned.
***
'That took care of that.'
—Lee Eun-ha and Gu Jin-ha were saved. The moment I called up the Black Mist again, every advantage I'd gained through Stealth and ambush evaporated.
Juggernaut rolled its half-severed shoulder in a loose circle, confirmed it was still intact, and let out a thunderous roar.
"——————!"
I lifted my head briefly and looked up at the sky of the 2nd Sector. Then I recalled the stats I'd Insight-read off the thing earlier.
[Juggernaut (Juggarnaut)]
[Height 9.9m] [Weight 6.4t]
[STR 712] [AGI 554] [VIT 698]
[Skill List]
[False Immortality (B)] [High-Speed Regeneration (B)] [Tough Skin (E)]
—Juggernaut. A force you can't stop.
The ultimate Malice chimera — a product of the Magic Path and alchemy, woven, stitched, torn, and bound together by force out of unfinished flesh chunks. It might lack mana, but with stats and skills like those, it's practically an immortal god of despair.
To kill it, you'd need firepower on the scale of Grand Magic — and that's impossible now anyway. Because what lies inside it is the essence, the true body, of a former Archmage. Unless you could somehow summon the real Square Master, no magic you prepared would do a thing, no matter how brilliant or powerful.
An immortal monster that regenerates near-infinitely.
An Archmage who has honed the path of magic to its absolute extreme.
Each of them on their own might have a sliver of a chance to be brought down, but the two of them together are as close to invincible as you can get.
'—So.'
Step one is splitting them apart. The highest priority is dragging Chimmuk-haneun Ip out from wherever he's hidden inside Juggernaut's body.
'...It was near the heart, deep in the chest, wasn't it.'
If Perry said so, there's no room for doubt. When it comes to anything impure, she knows it by instinct better than anyone.
Watching the two monsters charge, the Wolf leaped without hesitation.
***
The near-infinite black mana was on a completely different order of magnitude from anything before. Because what was here was the real body — the true source. It's not the same as a puppet receiving mana through a medium and casting with it.
—Without the Black Mist that could devour mana, fighting this monster would have been impossible from the start.
Juggernaut's hand swept out to swat the leaping Wolf and instantly snatched and crushed it — but there was nothing there. As Juggernaut stared blankly at its palm, the Wolf was already racing upside-down along the back of its twisted hand.
[You, you piece of trash——!]
Mana churned violently from Chimmuk-haneun Ip, now fully enraged. Flames blazed along the Wolf's fog-wreathed steps. Black mana surged in waves — and unlike before, it was actually pushing the fog back.
"......!"
The nature of the fog hadn't changed.
The Black Mist still overwhelmingly devours mana. The compatibility hasn't shifted at all. The problem was output. The bastard was simply spewing such devastatingly vast amounts of mana that it could physically push the fog away. In response, the Wolf wrapped itself in wind.
A fierce gale blew in, and though it wasn't easy, the fog no longer gave ground against the mana. Ghost Flame (C) kindled along the Wolf's path, blackening Juggernaut's arm, and as the Wolf climbed up onto its shoulder, Juggernaut's other arm came crashing down.
But once again, it couldn't catch the Wolf that slipped into the shadows. Anytime Juggernaut reached out to grab the Wolf, a shadow would form right where its hand extended.
On ordinary terrain, maybe. But Juggernaut's near-immortal body wasn't something it could easily shatter even with its own strength. Its own might was tripping it up. The mage, grinding his teeth, chanted his spell.
[Fulger în formă de balaur—!]
A dragon of lightning beat its wings. Hiding in the shadows meant nothing against an attack forged of mana.
The Wolf shot out with Elasticity, leaped past the lightning dragon in one motion, kicked off a foothold, and launched itself higher.
[—Inversare]
A spell of Reversal. The dragon wheeled around and closed the gap in an instant — but it had already begun to fade. Even a three-verse spell struggles to endure for long inside the black fog. Just before it could reach the Wolf, the gale tore it to shreds and scattered it into nothing.
Bouncing from foothold to foothold, the Wolf rendered every one of Juggernaut's attacks pointless. The monster had Agility surpassing an A-class hunter, but its simple, repetitive attacks looked slow and lumbering to the Wolf's eyes.
—Just before landing, Juggernaut's massive hand came down to shield its head. As if it didn't matter in the slightest, the Wolf extended a Tentacle, secured it firmly between the fingers, and pulled.
A dazzling display of motion, like riding a wire. The Wolf's aerial combat had already reached its peak in the battle against Bicheonmang. It slipped past Juggernaut's head in a heartbeat — but the head was never the target to begin with.
The fog bored through the mana, but the magic that crashed in right behind it — even the Wolf didn't see that coming. As the lightning closed in, the Wolf opened its jaws and chewed the bolt down.
Evil Devouring consumes even mana and magic. It's got some mitigation factor, sure, but no damage at all isn't possible. Smoke kindled and wafted from its mouth. The Wolf formed a foothold at Juggernaut's rear, near where the heart would be, and extended a Tentacle.
But it was still a stretch. Ghost Flame (C) had ignited, yes, but Juggernaut's Regeneration and sheer Vitality shrugged off the damage like it was a joke.
—What's missing is one decisive blow.
I could evade and fight all day, but with stats this lacking, the Wolf had no way to pierce Juggernaut.
When I finally disengaged to recover some distance, Chimmuk-haneun Ip laughed scornfully. A sneer that practically reeked of arrogance — but the Wolf kept its composure.
—Because it was true, after all.
I had the ability to outmaneuver Juggernaut and evade Chimmuk-haneun Ip's spells. But I didn't have the firepower needed to put it down. The Wolf acknowledged that fact coolly.
In that case, all I need to do is bring in someone who does.
***
The Assault Team — no, the Suicide Squad who had stayed behind to secure their escape — had accepted the death of the Three Swordsmen and were using the time he had bought them to reorganize and prepare for what came next.
"Kyuuuu...!"
In the middle of that, hunters startled at the sudden appearance of a Fairy Dragon. Some reflexively drew their weapons, but Eun Ja-rim's hand stopped them.
—The Rear Unit Commander. There was no one among the Suicide Squad with higher rank and authority than her right now.
"...Eun Gong?"
Eun Ja-rim tilted her head. The dragon circled above the hunters' heads, and a shower of light powder drifted down. The hunters, who had been staring dazedly, felt their wounds begin to close the instant the light touched them. Eyes went wide all around.
"Th-the wounds...!"
They're healing. It's even superior to most recovery skills. Eun Ja-rim, who had received Perry's help during the night of the great battle, had known the powder had some such effect — but not to this degree.
A Lich. A medium created by a mage who had devoted an entire lifetime, and an afterlife, to the Magic Path. After devouring something so utterly impure, the Young Dragon had leaped forward several stages at once.
A dragon — not quite the original species, but unmistakably a dragon nonetheless.
Power befitting the greatest of all phantom beasts. Not every wound was healed, but the revitalizing energy was enough to make the hunters' eyes shine.
If we have this, we can fight again...!
"—Suicide Squad, all units, move out!"
At Eun Ja-rim's command, the hunters who had collapsed in exhaustion began to stir and rise once more.