107. Padix Kingdom (2)
107. Padix Kingdom (2)
The creatures that had devoured humans did not stop.
Even if they had eaten tens of thousands of humans, when considering each individual creature, at most they had only eaten two people.
Moreover, considering that the strong creatures had eaten far more humans, the ordinary creatures only ate the scraps of human flesh left by the strong ones, and because of that, they were still not full.
The creatures kept running to eat more humans.
"Kkuaaaaaaaaagh!"
"Someone save meeeee!"
"Noooo!"
"Uwaaaaaaagh!"
"Omma!!!"
"K-Knight Order! Where are the Knights!!!"
No matter how fast a human was, they could not escape the creatures, which fundamentally possessed powerful bodies.
Every time a creature caught and ate a human, a scream of despair echoed.
Every time a Ners' teeth tore off flesh, a scream spread.
The sound of Ners tearing people apart with its massive teeth, the sound of piercing people with sharp legs, the sound of flesh burning in acidic blood.
Sounds that even adventurers and knights had never heard before continuously echoed all around.
The Knights, the Holy Knights, and the Adventurers moved desperately to stop the creatures.
At least because they had information about the creatures, they could avoid meaningless deaths.
However, protecting all the citizens was nearly impossible.
No matter how strong the knights were, that was only enough to handle one or two Ners.
Of course, the knight order was not alone.
There were various units, and they had trained by coordinating with their squadmates.
A single squad of knights displayed tremendous power, enough to handle about twenty Ners.
Currently, the Ners released in the Padix Kingdom numbered approximately 10,000.
There are 8 knights in one squad. And the Padix Kingdom's knight order has 2,000 knights.
You might think, 'Only 2,000 knights in the kingdom?' but this is actually a considerable number.
If there are approximately 250 squads, the number of creatures the knight order can cover is only 5,000.
The problem is that even the Ners alone are 10,000 individuals, and other creatures are also pouring out of the Worm's stomach to eat humans.
The Knights, Holy Knights, and Adventurers struggled to block the creatures, but it was too difficult to stop all of the overwhelmingly numerous creatures.
They wanted to do something to draw the attention of the creatures rushing to eat the citizens, but it was impossible.
Even handling the creatures trying to eat them right in front was overwhelming.
==
At the very moment countless people were being eaten by creatures.
In the academy clubroom, another incident was unfolding.
"W-what the hell is that!"
The female student who had first raised her sword, unable to inflict even a scratch, breathed heavily and grumbled in frustration.
"Surely Charlotta-sunbaenim...!"
Another female student, looking at Leah who was in Charlotta's form, tried to voice her thoughts.
"Shut up! There's no way Charlotta-sunbae would ever be done in by a monster like that!"
"Heuheum~"
Leah licked her lips again, looking at the students who were stronger than she had expected.
Originally, she had planned to take them without damaging the ingredients as much as possible, but unexpectedly, the students were strong.
Though each individual's strength wasn't that great, the coordination they had developed from attending the academy together for so long, combined with Leah's desire to bring the tasty ingredients back as intact as possible, left her unable to launch strong attacks.
Leah wasn't particularly annoyed by this situation; rather, she was enjoying it.
But that enjoyment didn't last long.
"Uh?"
Because in the Hive Mind, a part that had been maintaining a large consciousness, distinct from the other consciousnesses, suddenly snapped off.
'Did Gluttony die...?'
Gluttony, an Overlord-class creature that possessed its own personality unlike other creatures, had disappeared from the Hive Mind.
Disappearing from the Hive Mind meant it was dead.
Pang! Chwaaaak!
Leah's tentacles, which had been trying not to inflict wounds until now, suddenly struck a female student's body hard.
The force was unbearable for a human, and her body exploded from the tentacle that emerged from Leah's form.
The burst flesh and organs splattered onto the nearby female students.
"Uh?"
"Eh?"
"Ueung...?"
The friend who had been fighting alongside them just moments ago had her entire body except her head explode in an instant.
Thud. Deogureureu.
The only remaining head fell to the floor.
The female student who died from her body exploding, perhaps not even realizing she was dead, had a blank expression on her remaining head.
"Kkaaaaaaaaagh!"
"T-this is insane-!"
"S-suddenly, how..."
Leah picked up the female student's head that had fallen to the floor and swallowed it whole.
Wageujak-
The teeth of a creature that was no longer human smoothly severed the student's head.
==
I never thought there would be a human in the Padix Kingdom capable of catching Gluttony.
Gluttony is currently the creature with the strongest combat power in the Legion.
Moreover, since Gluttony had been eating humans without limit, I thought it had become so strong that no human could ever defeat it.
But in an instant, Gluttony died.
Originally, if Gluttony faced a crisis of death, it would have immediately fled.
Since Gluttony had no separate main body, if even a small piece of its body survived, it could devour humans and resurrect.
And that Gluttony died?
'What human dares to kill my child?'
Actually, being this angry is ridiculous.
Even the number of creatures that have died so far exceeds 1,000.
But I am clearly furious right now.
Why is that? Because I cherished Gluttony?
I closed my eyes for a moment and suppressed the continuously boiling anger toward humans.
If I cannot control my anger and rush things without thinking, that task will surely fail.
This is something I learned when I was human.
Right now, I want to find the human who caught Gluttony and kill them, but killing Gluttony means that human is considerably—no, extremely strong.
First, information.
Having barely calmed the Queen's consciousness that was rampaging with madness and rage, I slowly opened my eyes.
The Queen's consciousness had raged so much that one of the humans I had been sparing to eat had its body exploded and died.
Ha...
But it's fine.
There are still plenty of tasty-looking ingredients left before my eyes.
But saying this, I've really changed a lot.
But so what.
Isn't this exactly why I was awakened as the Queen?
==
"Retreat...! Retreat!!!"
The Padix Kingdom Knight Commander bit his lip and shouted.
Realizing that continuing to fight like this would only lead to meaningless deaths, the Knight Commander issued the order to retreat.
He knew that even if he ordered a retreat here, there was nowhere further to retreat.
Because this place was none other than the Padix Kingdom, which must be protected above all.
But that doesn't mean they can throw away their lives uselessly.
Too many lives had already been lost.
The corpses of Padix Kingdom soldiers and knights formed mountains.
What's more frightening is that the mountain of corpses is not the end.
There are far more soldiers and knights who were crushed by the enormous Worm creature trying to destroy the kingdom, their bodies not even recoverable.
With its overwhelming mass, even a simple attack pierced through armor protected by steel and magic, exploding their bodies entirely.
The Worm was a problem, but the creatures continuously emerging from the Worm's body were also an issue.
"This isn't a National Despair Level... This is a World Emergency Level..."
World Emergency Level, meaning one nation cannot resolve it and all the world's forces must be gathered to solve it.
A World Emergency Level that had never been declared since the Demon King's invasion 100 years ago.
The Knight Commander believed that this moment was a World Emergency Level.
No, he thought it was even worse.
The monster appearing before his eyes looked like a monster that humans could never possibly resolve.
"Damn, so such things existed...!"
At the Knight Commander's order, the knights fled without looking back.
However, because the battlefield was covered with countless corpses, the soldiers had no choice but to trample their own comrades while fleeing.
They needed to subdue the Worm that was continuously spewing creatures, but the moment they attacked it, the resulting massive damage was too much to bear.
Dozens of soldiers died from a single movement, and even the kingdom's finest mages using magic showed no reaction from the Worm—there was no way to subdue it.
The knights were scrambling to flee, but the creatures began mercilessly devouring them.
Even the knights tripped their comrades beside them to survive a little longer.
The Knight Commander, to save even one more of those knights, did not flee and instead raised his sword to swing it, trying to eliminate as many creatures as possible.
"Danjang-nim!"
A knight shouted as he ran from afar.
"The Hero! The Hero Party has arrived!"
"The Hero Party has come here?!"
Upon hearing that the Hero had come, the Knight Commander reignited his fading hope.
The knights were the same.
The knights who had been trampling and shoving their comrades to flee, upon hearing the word 'Hero', raised their weapons that they had not let go even while running.
Towards the creatures.
"Hold out until the Hero arrives!!!"