Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 120
"Wh-what is that?"
"It's a monster!"
Terrified screams burst out from among the Sea Folk on the city walls who were seeing Dragon-Human Soldiers for the first time.
They looked like vanguards risen from hell itself.
But there was no time to be shocked by their appearance.
Whoooosh—
The leading group of Dragon-Human Soldiers was cutting through the outer sea currents, attempting to leap over the city walls.
Trying to break through rough ocean currents with their bare bodies and leap over the walls—it was an impossible feat that ordinary Sea Folk couldn't even imagine, but the Dragon-Human Soldiers' robust physiques made it possible.
"Th-they're coming!"
"They're going over the walls?"
Though the Sea Folk were terrified, the well-trained Temple Knights responded calmly according to protocol.
"Deploy the gravity field!"
At the Knight Commander's shout, the priests activated the magic circle carved into the walls.
Whoooosh—
When the gravity field activated, the seawater was pressed down forcefully, creating waterfall-like walls in the water.
Thud—
Due to the gravity field's attraction, the Dragon-Human Soldiers attempting to leap over the walls were slammed straight into the sandy bottom.
But they didn't stop.
The Dragon-Human Soldiers rose from their positions without hesitation, twisting their joints like zombies.
Crack— Crackle—
They overcame the gravity and stood up, then began climbing the walls by driving their sharp claws into the stone.
The sight was like a massive swarm of insects covering the walls, nauseating just to watch.
"Fire! Fire!"
"Roll the stones! Throw the harpoons!"
Desperate resistance began from atop the walls simultaneously with their climbing.
Sea Folk soldiers rolled massive boulders while stabbing at the climbing Dragon-Human Soldiers with long spears.
Several Dragon-Human Soldiers were knocked down by the boulders, but others continued climbing the walls behind them.
They seemed to feel neither pain nor fear.
Nam-gung Rin watched this entire scene while holding her breath.
"Die!"
At that moment, a young Sea Folk soldier in the distance screamed as he thrust his spear.
Thunk—
His spear tip pierced a Dragon-Human Soldier's shoulder, but the creature paid no heed and grabbed the spear, dragging the soldier down below the walls.
"Aaaahhh!"
The soldier fell among the Dragon-Human Soldiers dozens of meters below with a short scream, instantly torn apart by their hands.
Red blood spread like mist through the blue seawater.
Starting with this, Dragon-Human Soldiers began climbing onto the walls one by one and killing Sea Folk soldiers.
"Graaaahhh!"
"Save me!"
To these killing machines with massive builds, tremendous strength, and no knowledge of fear or terror, the frail Sea Folk were nothing but prey.
On the other side of the walls, Sword Scale Clan Chief Candra was fighting fiercely, wielding a saw-toothed sword made from giant shark teeth.
He cut down two or three Dragon-Human Soldiers charging at him with a single stroke, boosting his soldiers' morale.
"Hey, you gutless bastards! What are you scaly lizard pups so afraid of that you're trembling! Fight back!"
But the battle situation remained grim.
The Dragon-Human Soldiers kept coming like waves no matter how many times they were repelled.
The walls gradually became covered in blood and flesh, transforming into a scene of carnage.
"Uwaaaahhh!"
"Save me!"
Screams and shouts pounded against eardrums while the stench of blood and excrement stung nostrils.
"Th-this is..."
Nam-gung Rin's face turned pale.
Though she had experienced countless matches and martial contests at Haomun, this was her first time seeing anything like this.
This wasn't a fight to compete in martial arts mastery.
It was a brutal scene of slaughter where only survival mattered. Her entire body was overwhelmed by its weight.
'This is... war.'
She clenched her trembling hands tightly.
Nova had said the war would become a proxy battle between Dragon-Human Soldiers and skeletons, and that they only needed to shoot harpoons from atop the walls.
But the battle situation was completely different from his predictions.
Though the Sea Folk needed courage to face the truth and pay a minimum price for salvation... the sacrifice was too great.
Nam-gung Rin asked Leila standing beside her.
"High Priestess, it would be better to retreat from here."
The Dragon-Human Soldiers' momentum was extraordinary. It would be better to take shelter temporarily until Nova joined the battle.
But Leila clenched her fists and shook her head.
"No, I will hold this position."
Even if she couldn't fight and shed blood alongside them, she wouldn't flee alone and leave them behind.
That was the duty of the High Priestess who led Atlantis.
***
On the opposite side of the walls where battle raged fiercely, near the docks.
Putt-putt-putt—
Nam-gung Cheon's submarine arrived making sounds like a tractor.
Though slow, it was a stealth submarine that wouldn't be caught by sonar or mana detection.
After handing over the rescued hostages to safety, he immediately headed toward the temple.
'I need to hear it directly from him.'
Though he wanted to rush to the walls immediately to help in the fighting, hearing the plan from him came first.
Even when following orders, there shouldn't be a single point of doubt about them.
Nam-gung Cheon passed by the priests and strode down to the temple basement, soon arriving before the door of a massive workshop.
Whooooo—
Strange mana flows and the smell of blood seeping through the door cracks.
Gulp—
It seemed he was doing something extraordinary inside.
It would probably be better not to disturb him needlessly, but it was too late to turn back now.
Nam-gung Cheon swallowed his saliva and boldly opened the door.
Creeeeak—
The massive door opened, revealing a strange scene spread below his feet.
"..."
Even Nam-gung Cheon, who had been through countless battles, lost his words and stopped in place at this bizarre sight.
In the center of the huge cavity, a massive monster's skeleton reminiscent of dinosaur bone specimens seen in museums floated in the air.
But unlike museum bone specimens, this one was overwhelmingly massive.
Hundreds of skeletons were crawling over the giant skeleton like ants.
Clatter— Clatter—
Seo-jin's skeletons were connecting bone to bone with dark red mana threads, carefully layering muscle bundles and organs on top.
Whenever the mana neural network following the skeleton glowed blue, the massive body convulsed as if alive.
And at the center of all this work, on the altar, stood Seo-jin.
"Hey, you there. Be careful with that assembly. If you attach it wrong, the jaw won't close properly."
Clatter—
The skeletons nodded at Seo-jin as if understanding and diligently fitted the jawbone.
Like a maestro conducting an orchestra, he was giving commands to the skeletons with hand gestures.
Seo-jin, who had been continuing his work, spoke cheerfully without turning around, as if he had known of Nam-gung Cheon's arrival all along.
"You're here? Faster than I expected. Are the hostages safe?"
Nam-gung Cheon stared stupidly at this wondrous yet unholy scene, then came to his senses and strode toward Seo-jin.
"Explain. Everything."
In the past, he would have shouted while grabbing him by the collar, but Nam-gung Cheon had developed something called learning ability.
He knew that even when this guy occasionally did crazy things beyond common sense, he wasn't someone who would do senselessly evil acts.
So he planned to hear the plan first.
Seo-jin pointed at the massive monster skeleton floating in the air and began speaking.
"An explanation? It's nothing that grand. I'm making a biological weapon to defeat Leviathan."
"I can see that just by looking. That's not what I'm asking about. I heard roughly from Francesca. That you're helping Lunaria awaken that monster. What's the reason?"
Nam-gung Cheon asked again clearly, wanting a definite answer.
Seo-jin, feeling he couldn't play dumb any longer, shrugged his shoulders.
"Well. Its resurrection isn't particularly my goal. That's just one step in the process of solving the problem."
Seo-jin left the skeletons to assemble on their own and looked at Nam-gung Cheon, speaking calmly.
"Lunaria won't get what she wants from this war. As long as I'm here, she can't win the war, and even if she miraculously wins, Leviathan's revival will be impossible as long as the corporations remain intact."
Even if they won the war, the corporations would secretly steal away Leila to prevent Leviathan's revival.
Before his regression, Lunaria's side with the Dragon-Human Soldiers had won the war, but Leviathan never actually revived.
Without Seo-jin's intervention, the situation would unfold exactly as before.
Seo-jin continued.
"Of course, Lunaria anticipated even that case and prepared a backup plan."
"A backup plan?"
"Right. A method to artificially create a being with divine power comparable to Leila's."
She wasn't stupid either, so anticipating that the corporations wouldn't meekly help with the revival, she prepared her own insurance.
At this, Nam-gung Cheon furrowed his brow.
"Creating a being comparable to the High Priestess artificially?"
"Right. The Sea Folk weren't originally beings of the sea. Pontos mixed the blood of the twelve clans and granted them oceanic characteristics, and the Sea Folk inherited all those traits. That means the reverse process is also possible."
Seo-jin's explanation continued.
"If you gather the purest blood of the twelve clans—that is, the blood of each clan chief—and inject it into a being with extremely developed upper altar, you can temporarily create someone with abilities comparable to Leila of the Sea Folk royal bloodline, someone who can control the Tears of the Sea God. Though they would die shortly after manifesting that ability due to mana conflicts."
Only then did Nam-gung Cheon feel all the pieces coming together.
"Then the bag I gave to Francesca was..."
Seo-jin nodded.
"Right, the 'real' blood samples of the seven Atlantis clan chiefs."
The blood samples Lunaria currently possessed were fake samples that Francesca had obtained under corporate orders.
Initially, Lunaria had requested blood samples from each clan chief in exchange for cooperating with the corporations.
So when stealing the Tears of the Sea God, Lunaria believed Francesca had also infiltrated each clan chief's residence to extract blood, but those were fake.
Even if it was just a backup plan, the corporations had no need to let Lunaria's plan succeed.
This was why Lunaria failed to revive Leviathan despite having a backup plan.
At Seo-jin's explanation, Nam-gung Cheon thought to himself.
'The corporations' intelligence network must be beyond imagination.'
Just from the request for blood samples, they realized it was a backup plan for Leviathan's revival and handed over fakes.
Or perhaps they simply thought there was no need to properly fulfill the requests of mere natives and handed over fakes.
"Anyway, Lunaria would have tried to create a sacrifice using those fake samples. The target would have been Kshtra, who had the strongest life force among the twelve clans and the purest bloodline among the Sea Dragons. His transformation into a Dragon-Human Soldier due to drug overdose was also preliminary work for this plan."
"But he's now..."
"Right, you brought Kshtra here. In the end, even her final backup plan came to nothing."
A faint smile crossed Seo-jin's lips.
"With Kshtra gone, the most suitable sacrifice target is only Lunaria herself. Of course, she'll try to achieve Leviathan's revival even if it means burning her own body. And that exact point is the opportunity to negotiate with her."
"Negotiate?"
Seo-jin nodded.
"Right. I will propose a role to her in exchange for bringing about Leviathan's revival."
In the past, she won the war but lived as a corporate puppet.
She achieved none of what she wanted—neither Leviathan's revival, nor the Sea Dragon Tribe's reign, nor the resolution of inter-species conflicts.
Though her body might have been alive, her soul had already lost its light.
But this time would be different.
Though she would lose her life, she would achieve what she had longed for.
"Lunaria will not live as a queen of traitors, but die as a hero who saved her people from foreigners."
That was the only way he had found to break this chain of tedious tragedy.