Chapter 244
Chapter 244
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: Firefighter of the Frontlines
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In the Final Defense War, the role I always took on was the "firefighter of the frontlines."
Let me show you what that meant.
-Roooaaarrrgh!
The joy of our overwhelming victory in the preliminary skirmish was short-lived.
Soon after, tsunamis of monsters surged in from all directions simultaneously.
The sixtieth floor, the eightieth floor, the thirtieth floor—undead of varying heights shook the horizon with each step, going *thud*. There were even monsters that collided with each other, collapsed, mixed together, and collapsed again.
The terrain shifted in real time, with rock strata rippling like oil slicks in a chaotic melee.
With no order or formation whatsoever, the monsters simply overwhelmed the final defense line with their sheer mass and numbers.
"Hold the line! Don't fall back!"
"Don't look up at the sky, damn it! We told you that during training, but you just can't get it through your thick skulls—."
"Fire!"
At the moment of impact, a red wave surged.
It was blood from the awakeners manning the defense line.
At that instant, the petals spread by Sim A-ryeon's prayer fluttered like confetti, enveloping the awakeners.
An awakener whose body had been half-crushed by an undead the height of a forty-story apartment was instantly swept up in the floral breeze, their entire body restored.
Even if their abdomen was pierced, their limbs severed, or chunks of flesh torn away, Sim A-ryeon's petals gently wrapped around the skin, healing the humans.
"We can win! We can do this!"
"Uoooooh!"
"It doesn't hurt... Haha! We really won't die! This is easier than the simulations!"
And so, though the front lines seemed on the verge of collapse—seemed on the verge—they held firm in the end.
No, in some sectors, they even counterattacked and pushed back. Undead monsters were slaughtered, crashing down with *thuuuuds*.
Was this what a stalemate looked like?
While their mass was infinite, ours felt like it had infinite HP.
"Haaaaah! Charge! Charge!"
"Long live the Saintess! Long live the Saintess!"
"Goddamn it, those Eastern Holy Kingdom bastards were hoarding this amazing power all to themselves!"
A true undead army.
The human wave was pushing back the black tide composed of billions of monsters.
Watching the scene from the terrace, O Dok-seo murmured in awe.
"...Amazing. So this is A-ryeon unnie's true awakening..."
It was a daily sight in the Eastern Holy Kingdom, but even there, it never reached this scale.
Right now, Sim A-ryeon was drawing on her innate life force—equivalent to tapping into her congenital true energy, in wuxia terms.
Gazing at Sim A-ryeon, who knelt on the terrace floor with her eyes closed, praying silently, I thought to myself.
'Once she enters that mode, there's no turning back.'
The countdown had begun.
Sim A-ryeon had already surpassed the limit of returning to being human.
Humanity's feats on the final defense line were only possible by sacrificing the existence known as Sim A-ryeon.
'Sorry, A-ryeon. While you hold out, I'll tidy up the front lines as best I can.'
*Zzt-zzt-*
Noise crackled from the radio at my waist.
We had restricted its use out of concern for monster contamination, but now that full-scale combat had erupted, the ban was lifted.
-This is C3 point! Zzzt, this is C3 point! The undead is too massive! We can't hold any longer!
It was a spot I had already been keeping an eye on.
I turned to No Do-ha.
"Then, I'll leave command to you while I'm gone, Corps Commander. We don't know when monsters might rise from the coastline, so make sure to keep at least one Joker in reserve."
"I've heard that a hundred times over. Just go and come back...."
"Yes. In the worst case, rely on the Sword Marquis. I'll be off."
After exchanging glances with Dang Seo-rin, Cheon Yo-hwa, Lee Ha-yul, and O Dok-seo, I kicked off from the terrace and leaped into the air.
*Whiiiiiish—*
The unpleasant, tepid air in the sky clung to my cheeks. Even though it was just before early winter.
The air carried a sickly sweet scent. Ever since the sky had been painted red, even the texture of the air had changed.
*Tap, tap, tap—*
I swiftly moved toward the front line, stepping on the tops of streetlights lining the roads throughout the city. There was no need to waste aura on unnecessary mid-air steps.
In an instant, I arrived at the point where our allies had radioed for reinforcements.
"Th-that monster bastard is too tough!"
"Don't charge in! Keep your distance! That one's slow, so ignore it and focus on the small fry around it while falling back!"
-Roooaaarghhh!
The monster breaching this sector could be described in one word: "medieval knight."
Except it was enormous. Over a hundred meters tall and nearly three hundred meters wide. A moving fortress, you could say.
-Grraaaak, rooooar!
The "medieval knight" was covered head to toe in haphazardly plastered iron plates.
*Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle!*
Scarlet blood spurted endlessly from the gaps in its plate armor. Veins and muscles writhed in disarray.
Countless flags were densely embedded in the waist of this massive mobile fortress like needles. Each of the tens of thousands of flags bore unknown emblems.
But upon closer inspection, the flags were "tongues." They were alive and wriggling.
These tongues whipped in the wind, endlessly belching out eerie wails.
*Pheeeeeeee—*
A "chorus of flags" that sounded like a steam locomotive's whistle—or perhaps just mocking laughter—shook the front line.
Awakeners directly exposed to the noise had blood gushing from their eardrums all at once.
"Krraaaagh!"
"Uh, heok? Heok... Heok, puke...?"
It wasn't just their ears. Eyeballs rolled out on their own, teeth crumbled away, and blood refluxed from the holes in their faces.
Screams were swallowed up here and there.
If the Saintess of the North hadn't activated her wide-area healing, that single noise from the "medieval knight" would have annihilated an entire sector of the front.
But humanity still had Sim A-ryeon.
And I, the Undertaker, was here too.
"Ah, ah! Lord Undertaker! That's the one!"
The guild leader of the minor guild in charge of the sector gaped at me. He had just had one of his eyeballs restored thanks to Sim A-ryeon's power.
"Fall back."
*Thud.* I brushed past the guild leader and charged forward.
"Uh. Uh, be care—."
One step, two steps, three steps.
The guild leader's voice was instantly pushed behind me, out of earshot.
*Tap!* I kicked off the ground with my final step.
A light sense of flotation.
The frontal facade of the colossal "medieval knight," like an iron fortress, came into full view.
-Roooaaargh!
It saw me too.
Suddenly, sharp thorns protruded from the gaps in its iron plate armor.
Thorns shaped like the lances knights wielded in cavalry charges. Absurdly, they even had horse legs attached, clopping *clop clop clop*.
The thorns neighed like horses.
-Neighhhh!
There were roughly three thousand of these "thorn-lances."
Even a casual jab from it was equivalent to three thousand knights charging at once.
"―――."
I drew. I unsheathed Doha from the staff.
I concentrated my entire body's aura into the blade. Dark blue aura unraveled from my body like threads, sucked into the blade, forming a single layer of wave.
I unleashed the wave.
The dark blue wave surged forward.
*Kwaaaaang!*
The thorn-lances charging at me were swept up in the wave and snapped like toothpicks.
Yet my sword strike didn't vanish.
The wind howled. The wave from that single blow rushed in, slicing even the flags embedded in the "medieval knight's" lower back like porcupine quills.
-Ooooooooh!
The monster's scream.
Thousands of flag tendrils writhed, flicking their tongues in death throes. But with the flagpoles severed, the tongues couldn't reattach.
I planted my foot firmly and kicked the gargantuan monster's body.
*Thuuuud!*
A shockwave roared.
Those flags were key to the "medieval knight." As long as they remained, this iron-plated lump took no damage.
'Removing one flag just makes another grow back—it's a hellish condition requiring you to eliminate them all in one strike.'
But it was merely a difficult condition. Once cleared, a single kick could shatter the plate armor.
*Kwa-zuzuzut! Kwajik! Kwazut!*
The armor cracked like an eggshell.
Soon, the already severed tongues burst with final screams.
The monster spewed an enormous amount of blood as it died. I was drenched too. A sour, eggy fish stench assaulted my lips.
I turned back.
"All of you, reform your ranks!"
By now, the awakeners' sight and hearing had fully returned. They stared up at me in a daze.
I could read myriad emotions in their eyes.
Fear, shock, ecstasy, admiration, excitement, fervor.
It was warranted. In all the previous subjugation battles, I had never once revealed my full power.
The moment I unleashed everything was always the final battle. In this regression, it was right now.
"Don't lose hope!"
Ah―――.
As I bellowed at the warriors, Dang Seo-rin's singing voice echoed from the distant Babel Tower.
Song Enchantment. Fourth Melody, "Broadcast."
The effect was simple. It filmed a specific person designated by Dang Seo-rin and relayed live footage like a hologram across the entire battlefield.
"The Great Witch of Three Thousand Worlds sings for us! The Saintess of the Eastern Holy Kingdom prays for you all!"
-The Great Witch of Three Thousand Worlds sings for us! The Saintess of the Eastern Holy Kingdom prays for you all!
My voice spread across the entire final defense line.
Because the Undertaker in the relayed hologram footage projected throughout the battlefield struck the same pose and shouted with the same voice as me.
A warrior's field of vision in battle naturally narrows to extremes.
Fighting against an endless onslaught of monsters warps your sense of time and all perceptions.
What did warriors need at such times?
[I'm not fighting alone.]
[Allies are winning on other fronts.]
[In equally brutal battlefields, comrades are resisting, sacrificing themselves.]
Faith in their comrades.
Conviction that humanity stands together.
As long as this faith felt vividly real, the warriors never let go of their weapons.
This was why Dang Seo-rin expended one precious melody from her invaluable Song Enchantment just to broadcast the relay footage.
'Holograms might distract from combat focus—.'
But Sim A-ryeon's wide-area healing compensated for that.
It minimized the drawback of momentary distraction while maximally boosting morale across the theater.
I roared.
"We are humanity!"
-As long as you do not fall, humanity will not perish!
"So stand and fight together until the moment of annihilation! Comrades! Countrymen! Brothers-in-arms!"
-So stand and fight together until the moment of annihilation! Comrades! Countrymen! Brothers-in-arms....
Dang Seo-rin's a cappella rang out brilliantly. Petals danced in the battlefield sky.
The fact that the Great Witch, the Saintess, and the Undertaker stood with them all was a stark reality here.
"We are humanity!"
Thus, the awakeners shouted as one, without anyone leading.
-We are humanity!
I hurried to the next front line.
Outnumbered everywhere. Every sector was being subtly pushed back by the monster torrent. No deaths or injuries yet, but the enemies were simply too numerous.
Countless. Infinite.
"We are humanity!"
Yet whenever I arrived at a sector, the humanity alliance's final defense line pushed the monsters back—just a little, ever so slightly.
This front. Then that one. Next, the opposite side. Back to this one.
Before I knew it, a day had passed. Two days.
Thanks to Sim A-ryeon, awakeners could immerse themselves in battle without fatigue.
Mental strain was unavoidable, though, so the final defense line rotated vanguard and rearguard nonstop.
Even so, I didn't stop.
I unerringly rushed to the most critical fronts. Slew the most vicious monster leaders. The remaining small fry fell to the awakeners.
Overall, a deadlock.
We couldn't push back the monsters, but the "Monster Wave" couldn't breach the final defense line either.
A string of draws.
The waltz of slaughter seemed eternal.
-Mister!
Of course.
No endless ball lasts forever.
-From the sea! Battleships!
O Dok-seo shouted urgently over my radio.
At her words, I climbed to the top of a half-collapsed building and looked toward the coastline.
Sure enough, battleships were approaching, just as she said.
Except they weren't coming from the sea.
But from the sky.
Slicing through the clouds like white waves, millions of enormous "aerial battleships" were swarming toward the city.
Silhouettes like sky-soaring blue whales.
Angels of death descending to destroy humanity's last bastion.