Chapter 127
Chapter 127
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: Threshold of Contamination
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A little over two and a half hours after entering the hatching facility.
Was the core's position luckily close to the entry route?
But the structures visible from our current spot looked too much like outer areas for that to be the case.
‘According to plan, we should still be able to push further...’
I came to a judgment that was all but certain.
“Battalion commander!”
Amorf came running at my call.
“How are the soldiers holding up?”
“They're barely hanging on thanks to the decon gear. The ones with damaged armorsuits have already burned through a lot of it.”
The biggest issue was predictably the soldiers with damaged armorsuits.
Since the suits weren't performing their shielding properly, they had to crank the decon gear to max, which guzzled through reserves fast.
Could they hold out if we pushed deeper? ‘No chance.’
We were fine here, more or less.
But the deeper we went, the thicker the contamination got.
Decon gear consumption would spike even more, and any armorsuit damage would lead straight to infection and death.
“We stop the advance here.”
“It's too early.”
“Form up a defensive line. And... make sure to recover decon gear from the dead.”
“Yes, sir!”
The commander seemed to think we needed to push on even at the cost of lives—he looked unconvinced—but he moved to carry out the order anyway.
Even the Holy Warrior Order halted their advance, watching us.
Jang came over as their representative.
“The others can't push any further.” Jang agreed with my assessment.
It was based on the assumption that the soldiers could become dead weight if mishandled.
After some discussion, we decided to leave 200 soldiers and the 400 Holy Warriors who'd come with us right here.
That was when the real problems began.
The original plan had the superhumans and Holy Warriors stopping where the soldiers did.
The shielding on Holy Warrior or superhuman gear was only a notch above armorsuits with decon attachments, so further advance wasn't safe by any measure.
“Current penetration rate is about 80%.”
“Looks like one of the worst-case scenarios we anticipated has come true.”
Based on prior data, we should've hit 95%.
But contamination this intense already meant the Infection Monarch's power had grown that much stronger. ‘Named entities can evolve up to a certain level based on activity time.’
It was one of those lesser-known details.
The first observations of the Infection Monarch hadn't shown contamination this bad.
But that was ten years ago.
It being at peak evolution now wouldn't be surprising at all.
“If we go in just the two of us like this, failure's likely.”
“We can't stop here. The Holy Warriors are ready to press on, lives be damned.”
“......Hmm.” Sacrifice twenty Holy Warriors as an offering for mission success?
That wasn't a choice most could stomach.
They valued Paradisos that highly.
‘Losing twenty Holy Warriors is too steep a price...’
The Cross Federation was one of the more moderate factions toward the Human Alliance in this messed-up world.
For the future plans I had in mind, I needed them intact right up to the end.
Burning through twenty of their Holy Warriors here would make it tough for them to hold the line against aliens on their own.
But I had no way to interfere with their decision.
“We'll go too.”
“......What?” Then I heard Roze's voice.
I turned to see her with the other superhumans.
Nora smiled and continued. “Didn't you say you had a way to clear the contamination? We trust you.”
“But...”
“No buts! The Holy Warriors are going in—think we're just gonna sit here twiddling our thumbs? We've got pride!”
Shepin bellowed.
He didn't care that Jang, one of the Holy Warriors, was right there listening.
‘This is tricky...’
I'd half-expected it, but not that this moment would actually come.
I'd never dreamed I'd have to stake everything here before even reaching Paradisos.
“What's there to agonize over? Better to move now than waste time.”
“......Ugh, fine. Let's go.”
I might have command authority, but they weren't about to listen if I said no.
Hearing that, Shepin suddenly brimmed with courage and bellowed to rally morale.
“Let's go, go! They say if aliens kill you, your soul can't ascend—so keep your heads on straight!”
“Isn't that a risky thing to say? They're right here.”
“Oh... yeah?”
“It's fine. That rumor actually circulated among us once.”
“Really?”
Shepin nodded at Jang's explanation.
Leaving 600 soldiers behind, we resumed the advance.
Alien resistance grew fiercer by the minute, but the Holy Warriors and superhumans bulldozed through desperately.
“Left flank!”
“Ugh, mutants again!”
The enhanced specimens from the Infection Monarch I'd mentioned before showed up.
Their vitality was insane—Shepin's flames engulfed one, and it thrashed around for ages.
That wasn't all.
Even specimens without the ability formed barriers to block attacks.
The barriers seemed temporary, but guys who'd normally drop in one hit now tanked two or three, blocking our path.
“......Ngh! I'm out!”
Shepin, the esper, raised the white flag first.
Nora and Merdi were managing thanks to good load balancing, but they weren't unscathed.
Holy Warriors were starting to flag too.
On top of that, contamination levels shot up vertically, piercing shields and stressing our bodies.
“Damn...!”
This was the moment I started hating myself.
I'd never once joined the fight, protected by the group the whole time.
I'd raised my left hand to fire several times already but held back each one.
‘I have to hold out longer.’
Jang Werewolf was in the same boat.
He was conserving strength for what lay ahead.
His expressionless face made it hard to read emotions, but he was definitely enduring.
“......Gah!” Then one Holy Warrior took a wound from a sudden alien lunge.
His armorsuit tore long, splitting the skin on his side.
It wasn't deep.
But with shielding broken, contamination spread through the wound like wildfire.
“U, uwaaaaaah!!”
The Holy Warrior flailed as he felt his body mutate rapidly, but there was no stopping it.
When the corruption climbed from his torso to his neck and jaw, his face hardened, and he turned his holy weapon on himself.
“......Hmm.”
“Horrible.”
No one could hold back a groan.
Just a small wound, and that was the result.
The Holy Warrior's gruesome end served as a brutal wake-up call.
I seized the moment to speak up.
“We can't push anymore. Fall back.”
“Here?”
Roze shook her head, face twisted in protest.
Ignoring her deliberately, I signaled Jang.
We'd already had a casualty.
It felt a bit late, but we had to pull back now.
Luckily, they seemed to agree and started prepping to retreat.
But Roze snapped angrily.
“We can still do more!”
“Think about the retreat. If we burn all our stamina now, even mission success means failure.”
My words rang true.
Penetration was around 90% now.
Short of the 95% goal, but the piercing contamination was already sickening our bodies.
Soon, no one would move as they wanted.
The Holy Warrior who'd just died probably botched his response because of it.
I shook my head at Roze, her eyes red and bloodshot.
“That's an order. Fall back.”
“......Tch.”
“Nora senior. Lead everyone out.”
“Got it.”
Roze stomped and bit her lip.
I appreciated her concern, but that's exactly why I couldn't take her.
“If you get hurt, you're dead meat!”
“Yeah.”
I nodded, meeting her eyes.
After holding like that a while, Roze finally turned and walked away.
“Hey.”
“...Merdi?”
“If it looks bad, just run. Don't pull another reckless stunt and get hurt.”
“......Y-yeah.”
Merdi wobbled as she turned after saying that.
I reflexively moved to support her, but she waved me off.
“You okay?”
“I'm fine. Worry about yourself.”
She was worse off than I thought.
Now that I looked, blood streaked the inside of her open mouth as she spoke.
I worried if there'd be more casualties on the way back to where the soldiers held their line.
But as Merdi said, from here on, even that was a luxury—I had to focus on me.
I watched their backs as they reformed and retreated, then turned away.
“Just us two now.”
“Two's plenty. We're more than enough.”
Jang flashed a thick grin as he finished speaking.
His body had already partially transformed, emotions coming back with it. ‘He can do that much already?’
Jang Werewolf's original transform had no halfway state.
Just full transform or human form—nothing in between.
He couldn't control his power at all back then.
Training had given him some restraint even in transform state, but not to this degree. In the time we'd been apart, he'd clearly made huge strides.
“......Grrr. Quick and decisive. I'll take point.”
His voice deepened, speech pattern shifting.
Jang didn't wait for my reply—he bolted.
He swatted aliens aside with his hands and tail-whipped others, barreling straight ahead at insane speed.
I hurried after him, ordering R3D3.
“Only block flankers coming from the left!”
-Roger! I fended off the swarming aliens mindlessly, eyes locked on Jang's back.
His speed left no room for anything else.
Too fast—I might lose him any second.
“......Kuh!”
Jang accelerated more.
If I fell behind, I'd be isolated.
I'd volunteered because I thought I could keep up, but now it hit me—my abilities still fell short.
‘Not even full power, and he's this fast...!’
Jang Werewolf's physical specs were top in the setting—strongest in the world.
Pure physicality outclassed even Roze.
If Roze was a warrior who'd honed martial arts to the absolute limit, Jang was a beast wielding overwhelming physicality as raw violence.
Then Dread Knights appeared ahead.
Four of them.
The instant they entered view, Jang kicked off the ground, snatching one mid-leap like a tiger pouncing prey.
The others swung swords in unison, but he ignored them, crushing the head in his grip.
The barrier shattered instantly.
Bereft of defense, the Dread Knight's head and body parted ways.
RAAAAAWR!!
Jang's roar shook the interior violently.
Smoke rose from his wounds as his body swelled larger.
I blasted away the Dread Knight impaled in Jang's body, then yelled.
“Jang!!”
“Grrrrr!”
He couldn't lose reason yet.
Luckily, he recognized me.
He wasn't speaking—maybe lost the faculty—but he showed no sign of attacking.
Jang handled the two Dread Knights still clinging to him.
One he tail-grabbed and smashed, then stomped flat.
The other he chomped barrier and all with jaws full of vicious fangs.
The barrier didn't last.
He spat out a chunk of half-chewed Dread Knight head, finished the one on the ground, then charged and took out the last one I'd been handling.
Overwhelming force.
Even accounting for his fearless berserk style, against Dread Knights built to fight superhumans, it was jaw-dropping.
Even Roze couldn't match this.
‘Something's off.’ I definitely sensed Jang wasn't his usual self.
Like how aliens gained vigor in this contamination-thick zone, Jang was being influenced by the environment too.