Chapter 167
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 167
"I cannot."
Kurak’s refusal was flat and absolute.
For a moment, his eyes met Kaltum’s. Desperation was written all over the other Orc’s face. He was willing to cast aside his pride as a Great Orc to face reality, having concluded that retreat was their only option.
…Kaltum’s choice is the correct one.
Had their positions been reversed, Kurak would have made the same call. But as things stood, he couldn't retreat, even if it meant his death. There was a simple reason he had no other choice.
If he retreated, he would die.
That was the condition Swallow had imposed on him.
"We survive here," Kurak declared.
"Legion Commander! For the future of our race, I am casting aside my pride as a warrior to ask you this! How are we supposed to get out of this alive?!"
"..."
There was a way.
It was a contingency he had prepared in case the Pope tried to attack a weakened Nilkumbal after the war. For Kurak, it was a last resort, an irreversible choice he had desperately wanted to avoid. He’d hoped to never catch Swallow’s eye again.
"But now, we don't have the luxury of worrying about that."
Kurak flipped his axe, inverting it.
Kaltum stared, dumbfounded. He had never seen Kurak take such a stance, nor had he ever seen such a look in his commander’s eyes. A shiver coursed through his body.
The answer to their survival was reflected in Kurak’s gaze.
Boom!
He slammed the inverted axehead into the ground, and a massive shockwave rippled out in all directions.
For a brief instant, the shockwave swallowed all sound.
An instant later, a deafening roar erupted as if the earth were vomiting up every sound it had consumed. The ground itself began to tremble as the very axis of the world seemed to shake.
Squelch. Squelch.
The earth split open, and something enormous surged up from the depths.
A colossal insect, dozens of meters tall, rose into view. It was the boss of the Great Evil Cave, the Mother of Insects.
*
"This is a complete disaster."
Swallow let out a hollow laugh. He had only come to check on Hexabel, but instead, he’d stumbled upon the homunculi—something he was never meant to see.
He wasn't angry or flustered, just dumbfounded. He had no idea where to even begin cleaning up this mess, which sparked a vague urge to simply wipe Riaze off the map.
In any case, he had to deal with the task at hand first.
"Let's go."
At Swallow’s command, Azi Dahaka descended. It wasn't that Swallow was worried about the impact of a fall; he just wanted to avoid landing somewhere completely random.
"Boss, what should I do?" Patrick asked.
"I'm going to have a little chat with Hexabel. You handle the rest."
"By 'the rest,' do you mean Kurak? What do you want me to do with him?"
"Just kill him."
Leaving his subordinate with that curt reply, Swallow threw himself toward the ground, his black robe whipping wildly in the wind.
Patrick sighed at the reckless display. Swallow was probably the only being in existence who would so casually order his subordinate to kill a Great Evil Cave boss. He sighed again at the absurd command.
A tiny flicker of joy danced across his skull.
"If he orders it, I have to do it. What choice do I have?"
*
Splitting the earth, the colossal body of the insect, spanning dozens of meters, revealed itself.
The ominous energy radiating from its massive form instantly blanketed the entire battlefield.
One of the soldiers defending the northern wall dropped his weapon and slumped to the ground.
"This… this is a dream."
Normally, such an outburst would have shattered morale, but no one reprimanded him. The defense captain of the northern gate was also staring blankly at Hexabel—and besides, there was no morale left to lose.
"Why is a boss monster from a Great Evil Cave here…?" the defense captain groaned.
Although most of them were seeing the giant insect for the first time, they knew with absolute certainty what it was.
The monster before them was the 'Mother of Insects,' the 'Despair Coiling Around the Five Kingdoms.'
No other creature could possibly exude such an absurd aura from such a colossal frame.
While everyone was still frozen in shock, Hexabel let out a bizarre shriek and whipped her massive, dozens-of-meters-long body like a scourge.
*
Her colossal body was a devastating weapon in its own right. As Hexabel swung her long frame, a dozen homunculi charging toward the Orcs were slammed into the fortress wall.
The wall shook violently. Though it was sturdy enough to avoid collapsing, the homunculi were pulverized beyond recognition.
Purple blood soaked deep into the stone. Shreds of flesh were caught between the jagged protrusions covering Hexabel’s body.
"F-Fight! Fight! Stop it, no matter what!"
Only when the wall shook did the dazed humans snap to their senses. As the defense captain screamed his orders, the imperial defense forces poured boiling oil down on Hexabel.
"Pour it all! Catapults, ballistas! Use everything we have! Now!"
Boulders the size of ogres flew from all directions. In their panic, the soldiers unleashed a relentless barrage of giant arrows, each larger than a spear.
"I-it's not working!"
As if mocking their desperate struggle, Hexabel didn't even bother to dodge the oil or the smaller stones. The giant arrows struck her body, but their tips barely penetrated a few centimeters. It could hardly be called damage.
While the humans bought time, the homunculi rushed toward Hexabel. Hundreds of them swarmed her massive body, clinging on and tearing indiscriminately at her skin.
"Graaaaaaaaah!!"
Hexabel shrieked and spun her body, the sheer force sending more than half of the homunculi flying. Those that slammed into the wall burst hideously.
As she swatted away the homunculi, a human who hadn't managed to evacuate caught her eye.
"Ah… ugh… aaahhhhh!"
Hexabel thrust her head toward the citizen. The man fled desperately, but there was no escaping a worm dozens of meters long.
"Save me, save me! Aaaaargh!"
A massive mouth resembling a circular grinder swallowed the human whole. The sound of crunching bones echoed across the battlefield.
After swallowing him, Hexabel spoke, perfectly mimicking the voice of the man she had just devoured.
"O humans…"
She said nothing more, but the despair on the humans' faces deepened.
Hexabel seemed to savor their terror for a moment before several homunculi, having finished their engagement with the Orcs, rushed toward her. A few among them, with mana stones embedded in the backs of their hands, unleashed intermediate magic.
"Gaaaaaaaah!!"
Struck by the spells, Hexabel shrieked. A small amount of blood erupted from her seemingly impenetrable skin—a laughably insignificant wound compared to her massive size. To a human, it would be like a pinprick.
When Hexabel swung her massive body again, the homunculi, showing an ability to learn, managed to dodge the attack. Just as their mana stones began to glow again—
—just when they thought they were safe, Hexabel spewed a torrent of acid at them.
"Kieeeeeek!"
The homunculi drenched in acid shrieked frantically. Those that lost their wings plummeted to the ground, wailing as their bones and organs melted away completely.
Watching the scene, Garot shifted her gaze toward the Teleportation Hub.
"No…"
While Hexabel kept the homunculi occupied, the number of Orcs pouring through the hub was steadily increasing.
It wasn't that the homunculi were powerless. In fact, Garot could see they were slowly but surely accumulating damage on Hexabel. Of course, it would require immense sacrifices, and the homunculi alone could never defeat her, but in a prolonged battle, they could at least weaken her. If they could manage that, they might find a breakthrough.
The problem was that the wall might collapse before then.
As if sharing the same thought, Hexabel pulled her massive body back from the homunculi. The Orcs, who had reorganized their ranks in the meantime, surged forward to take her place, reigniting the life-and-death struggle.
Hexabel began burrowing into the ground again. Most of the humans, including Garot, knew exactly what that meant.
"No… we have to stop her…"
But there was no way to stop an enemy that was underground.
Ruuuumble!!
The wall shook violently. Soon, the entire southwestern section sank into the earth. Unable to destroy the wall through brute force, Hexabel had burrowed underneath to collapse the very ground it stood on.
"Hold onto something! Grab the wall, grab anything!"
As the ground gave way, parts of the sturdy wall crumbled. Soldiers atop the tilting ramparts fell one by one, and the Orcs rushed frantically toward the breach.
"Garot."
Only then did Uin speak her name.
"…I'm going."
Since the homunculi couldn't handle Hexabel, someone had to stop her.
If not for the battle on the Annun Plains, they could have combined the S-rank and A-rank Subjugation Squads and reorganized their troops. They might have been able to subjugate Hexabel with some certainty, despite the casualties.
But with morale at rock bottom and the Yusu Subjugation Squads scattered, uniting their strength was impossible. In a situation like this, the only one capable of stopping a Great Evil Cave boss was a Hero.
Sian hasn't returned yet.
He had his own mission. Garot had asked him to prioritize cleaning up the aftermath of the Pope’s death, so he was likely communicating with the Holy Kingdom via transmission tools. It was a crucial task to prevent the crusade the Pope had envisioned, and he wouldn't be able to return immediately.
Truly, the only one who could resolve this was Uin.
"Please don't die," Garot said.
Uin fastened the gauntlets on both her hands. Rashumer stood beside her as her escort. In truth, it was no different from them deploying together.
Though Garot didn't know the full story, Rashumer also had a bad history with the 'Sand Hell.' It wasn't a hatred deep enough to make him seek out a fight, but he couldn't ignore an enemy that appeared right before his eyes. Even Rashumer, who had repeatedly insisted, "I will only focus on Uin's training," drew his sword and walked toward the outer wall.
However.
"Please…"
This was supposed to be the final battle with the fate of the Empire on the line, yet Garot's mind was filled with a strange, foreign anxiety. This ominous feeling had been growing ever since Hexabel appeared, a throbbing in her head that was beyond unsettling. It felt as if someone were constantly stirring her brain.
Is it really okay to let her go?
Garot watched Uin’s retreating figure, her thoughts racing. She couldn't stop her—she had no logical reason for her anxiety—but a powerful premonition told her she shouldn't let Uin go.
Garot unconsciously reached a hand out toward her.
It was then.
Just as the Orcs were rushing the breach and Hexabel was battling the homunculi, there was a sudden jolt, as if the world itself had dropped.
A feeling? …No.
It wasn't an illusion. The air had actually grown heavy, making it difficult to breathe. Garot gasped, struggling to fill her lungs. Looking around, she saw the nearby soldiers were all groaning, clutching their chests.
And then.
"…Ah?"
A sudden, excruciating pain flared to life.
It was her right arm, the one Swallow had severed. Phantom pain radiated from the stump. Her body was suddenly remembering the agony. This hadn't happened once since the wound had healed… Why now?
To make matters worse, the ominous aura intensified. Unable to bear the dread, Garot screamed out to Uin.
Perhaps sensing the strange energy as well, Uin immediately turned at the sound of her voice.
At the exact moment Uin turned her head—
Crash!
Something plummeted from the sky at terrifying speed, crashing right into the middle of the battlefield.
For a moment, Garot’s heart stopped. The entity was still shrouded in smoke and dust, but just looking in its direction made her body tremble violently. Her very cells remembered the terror and were reacting on their own.
Ruuuumble…
The debris settled, and a silhouette began to take shape within the dust. Only then did the 'traces' covering the entity's entire body come into view.
"…It can't… be."
She had scanned the traces on that body just a few months ago, allowing her to instantly recognize the one who had just fallen from the sky.
"Run away! Run! Uin, come back right now!" Garot shrieked in her mind.
Her face contorted in pure terror.
Hexabel, Kurak… not even the dragon that had been watching from above, a creature radiating an even more ominous energy than Hexabel, mattered anymore.
"It's Swallow."
As the figure fully revealed itself from within the smoke, Garot thought again, her mental voice utterly powerless.
"…Swallow is here."