Chapter 248: Bread and Wine (2)
Chapter 248: Bread and Wine (2)
“Yes, Your Majesty. This is the regular report.”
A blunt yet lively voice reached my ears.
I didn’t know why I could hear this.
“Entity 1D-12 has begun to shed blood. No resonance phenomenon has been observed in Entity 1-10.”
What did that mean?
“Yes. So far, the situation is unfolding according to the stage setting. Captain Ronia is doing better than expected. I believe it would be fine to authorize the construction of the facility he requested. Ah, are you referring to the new Guardian Corps candidate?”
What on earth were they talking about?
And why was Ronia being mentioned all of a sudden?
“Hmm. Unfortunately, he is being swayed by the blood. Just in case... I request that you dispatch one more member of the Guardian Corps for suppression.”
….
“No, it’s not an Avatar-class. He’s still in the overwriting stage, after all. It’s simply to reduce the risk. Yes. Thank you. Then, I shall conclude the report.”
As she spoke, Lina quietly pulled her hand away from her ear and crossed her arms.
She looked down.
Against the backdrop of a black sky and crimson clouds.
Silently.
Toward that distant land that even I couldn’t see properly.
Then, after about three seconds.
She suddenly turned her head and looked somewhere.
Likely, right toward my gaze.
“Are you still there? The role of a spectator is all well and good, but it’s time for you to return to the stage.”
What are you talking about?
At her question, I felt as if a mouth had suddenly manifested, and I tried to speak.
But no voice came out.
“Hmm. Was I mistaken? Well, I’m not The Queen, so I can’t know everything. Regardless, it’s time to go back.”
Snap.
She flicked her fingers.
My vision was dyed crimson.
* * *
“Aaaaaaaah!”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The first sensation I felt upon regaining consciousness was the sound of someone in a frenzy.
And the pain of my entire body being enthusiastically pummeled.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the world shaking violently.
I wondered what was happening for a moment, but I quickly grasped the situation.
The pressure around my ankles.
The pain radiating from every part of my body.
“…Let go.”
“Aaaaaaaah!”
That guy certainly had a sturdy voice.
But seriously, let go.
Perhaps because I had woken up so abruptly, I didn’t feel a proper sense of reality even while being beaten.
Thud.
Soon, a specific impact made me realize exactly what was happening to my body.
I was slammed into the ground, and stones sprayed in all directions.
Then came the countless pains racking my body.
Connecting it with the pressure on my ankles...
It was clear that Par was holding me by the ankles and slamming me around like a ragdoll.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“I told you to let go.”
“Aaaaaah…. Cough….”
He wasn't listening.
He had been capable of something resembling speech before I lost consciousness, but it seemed he couldn't even manage that anymore.
I tried to move my body to escape the continuous collisions, but it wouldn't move properly, as if something was caught.
Thud.
Even then, the shocks shaking my body continued.
How many times had I been slammed into the ground? Just as my consciousness began to fade and my vision started to turn black again—
‘Will you come back again? If you wish, I’ll keep you company this time.’
I heard a voice from somewhere.
The voice I had heard in the sky earlier.
Lina’s voice.
I couldn't tell if it was a hallucination or if I had actually heard it, but the moment I did, my consciousness snapped back.
I immediately channeled mana into my body.
To force my unmoving body to move.
With my spine broken and refusing to regenerate, my body didn't respond properly even as mana surged through it.
No matter how many times I tried, my lower half remained paralyzed.
…Nothing else for it.
It’s going to hurt, but.
“Detonate.”
I spoke the word aloud.
It was an unnecessary action, but it was an expression of will to endure the loss of mana and flesh that would follow.
Bang.
A small explosion echoed through the crater, which had been dominated only by the thudding sounds and Brigadier General Par’s screams.
Due to that explosion, I flew into the air.
Unlike the flight of being swung around by Par’s hand.
I broke free from that movement and soared in the opposite direction.
“Aaaaaah! …Huh?”
Did they realize it?
Par’s endless screaming stopped.
Par stared at what was left in their hand with hollow eyes.
To be specific, they were looking at a tattered mess of meat consisting only of two legs and a waist.
“That’s probably going to explode soon.”
Leaving that gift behind, I traversed the air with only my upper body, trailing shattered vertebrae and entrails.
Boom!
An explosion, different yet similar to the sound of a person hitting stone, erupted from where Par stood.
What that explosion left behind was far from the flames, roar, and flash of a typical blast.
Bone, flesh, and tattered cloth.
They scattered due to the mana explosion that occurred from within.
Since it wasn't a chemical explosion, it was somewhat more subdued.
However, the mana explosion contained within half of my body was by no means weak.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
Par, who took the blast head-on, let out a scream.
Caught in the shockwave, I stopped falling from the sky and was flung through the air once more.
“…I’m seriously going to die.”
Par wasn't an opponent strong enough to push me this far.
I suppose taking that first hit without any defense really cost me.
By the way, I’m about to die—where the hell is Lina?
No matter how I looked at it, this had already devolved into a slaughter.
For some reason, the body regeneration I trusted wasn't working properly either.
Am I really going to die?
Just as I thought that and was about to plummet back to the ground.
I hit something stiff, and my fall stopped.
“Oh my goodness, what happened! Poyo!”
A voice that sounded familiar, yet was much higher in pitch, rang in my ears.
…The way of speaking sounded like Un-ho, but the voice wasn't his.
In my fading consciousness, something white ran through the air with me.
A long being with sharp white fur, larger than myself.
The creature had a snout as sharp as a spear and a wide, slit mouth.
With sharp teeth and long black eyes extending from its nose, it looked at me with white pupils.
It ran through the air on thin but long legs that seemed out of place.
“…What kind of monster is this now…?”
It looked like a weasel overall, but as if it had been forcibly stretched out and transformed into something out of a nightmare….
“Ah? Oh. Ah, I guess this is the first time you’ve seen my true form. It’s me! Un-ho!”
Don’t lie to me… if Un-ho looked like this, Baek Si-hyun and Han A-bin would have beaten him up, calling him a monster too….
“…You expect me to believe that?”
“That’s beside the point, what happened! Your legs are gone! Poyo!”
Hearing the "Poyo," it did seem to be Un-ho….
I glanced down at my missing lower half.
Not even my intestines were visible anymore.
…I guess they were torn away by the shockwave earlier.
As I thought that, something caught my eye.
The coarse white fur.
It had turned crimson. It must have been stained by my blood.
I felt like I had experienced a situation like this before.
Ah, right. Definitely.
It was in the past.
When I was injured and dying. Un-ho grabbed me and dragged me to a cave….
Back then... was it stained red like that too…?
…It must be Un-ho….
“Lower body paralysis due to spinal damage. Then I blew up my own lower half to escape after he grabbed my ankles….”
“…Are you an idiot?”
No, I thought I’d regenerate….
To be called an idiot by Un-ho.
It made me angry that I couldn't even argue back.
“I tried to regenerate….”
“Then why aren't you doing it?”
“I don't know. It’s just not working.”
“Poyo….”
Un-ho let out a strange sound, but there was something more important.
“More importantly, can you see Brigadier General Par down there?”
“Yes, they have some strange purple sludge on their back.”
Huh? Purple sludge?
Hearing that, I tried to bend my body to look, but I couldn't move properly.
Even if I could move, I felt like I’d fall off Un-ho’s back.
I’ll just take his word for it.
“What’s he doing now?”
“He’s just staring this way?”
That guy is staying that quiet?
The mystery deepens.
It’s a relief if he’s staying still, but….
“What about Al’shel?”
“Ah, don't worry about that. Poyo. The moment the Otherworld Erosion spread inside the crater, the adjutants panicked, so I ambushed them and successfully neutralized two of them!”
…So he did his job.
Now I just need to regenerate my body….
I focused my consciousness, trying to visualize my original form as Zess had told me and transform back.
But my body remained a tattered mess.
Now that even my internal organs were gone, it was a miracle I was still alive.
“Damn it. Regeneration isn't working.”
“Ah, then I’ll try. I pray, grant us healing.”
As Un-ho quickly offered a prayer in a high-pitched voice, a Pillar of Light descended from the sky.
Then, a winged egg popped out of the Pillar of Light and slammed into my solar plexus.
“Gah.”
Caught off guard by the unexpected assault, I spat out the remaining blood in my mouth and collapsed onto Un-ho’s back.
“…Are you okay? Poyo?”
A very worried voice reached my ears, but I couldn't bring myself to believe that concern.
Does this look okay to you…?
Un-ho, you bastard. To betray me at the last moment….
No wonder the chant was so damn short….
Thinking that, I tried to move my unmoving hand to cling to my flickering consciousness.
Flick.
…?
My arm lifted, quite naturally.
Surprised, I opened my closing eyes and raised my head.
“…I’m healed?”
A perfectly fine lower half had sprouted anew.
For some reason, complete with the Magical Girl outfit and boots.
“Uh…. It seems the Egg of Beginning was granted.”
“What’s the Egg of Beginning now…?”
“Um. It’s the egg from which our ancestors are said to have been born. Nothing hatches from it anymore, but it’s a legendary item that can revive a dead being if not much time has passed….”
I don't need the trivial details.
In short. That meant.
I could still fight.
“Un-ho.”
“Yes.”
“Can you still fight?”
“Well, the fight with the adjutants ended in a flash, so I still have plenty of strength left.”
“Is that so? Then follow me.”
Leaving only those words, I jumped off Un-ho’s back, which was stained red with my blood.
As I fell, Brigadier General Par’s gaze turned toward me.
Before I knew it, a purple mass of flesh had gathered on the spine on Par’s back, forming a human shape.
The moment that shape wavered slightly.
Matching that timing, I summoned The Hammer in my right hand and swung it down.
“Earlier….”
Clang!
The sensation of flesh and hammer colliding.
It was heavy, but not unbearable.
“I only lost because it was a surprise attack, you bastard!”
I immediately summoned a gauntlet on my remaining left hand and struck away Par’s right hand as it lunged for my ribs.
Crack.
However, the price was grim.
…They’re a bit too strong.
The Hammer could block The Enemy’s fist, but my left hand, which I used to block with only the gauntlet, was crushed along with the gauntlet itself.
Immediately after, Par’s deflected right hand came flying back.
But I didn't think to block it.
Crunch.
Because there was no need to block.
A giant ice spear blocked the path between me and Par’s left hand.
And a giant white Anomalous Entity landed on top of it.
“…Why is your hand smashed again? Poyo!”
“…I was wondering the same thing.”
I didn't know my hand would get smashed again less than two seconds after falling.
I wiggled my left hand to see if it still moved.
Immense pain surged, and a few fingers wouldn't bend, but I could at least form a fist.
That meant I could still hold The Hammer.
Without much emotion, I simply shook my hand to tear away the fragments of the broken gauntlet and small bits of bone, then looked at Par.
Par stood there blankly, looking at me with one eye.
And at Un-ho with the other.
“It’s two against one now. No complaints, right?”
I didn't think the current Par would understand my words, but since they weren't attacking, I figured I could say this much.
I didn't expect an answer from Par.
“…UN… Entity….”
With endless distorted noise and a broken voice, Par gave an answer.
“What?”
Surprised, I asked back.
“…The promise. I hope… you keep it.”
Par left only those words.
Boom!
They charged again.
Their left arm toward me.
Their right arm toward Un-ho.
Crash!
The Hammer and the left arm collided.
It was close, but I managed to deflect it.
Thud!
The Protective Barrier Un-ho created by extending his arm collided with the Multi-jointed Arm made of purple flesh.
Squelch.
Even as the flesh of the arm hitting the barrier distorted, Par’s fist did not stop.
Creak. Grrrind. Creak.
A barrage of punches that continued to push, even as they crushed their own arms.
“Ugh, how disgusting!”
Un-ho flinched in panic and took a slight step back.
Perhaps because of that.
K-ching.
With a sound like metal breaking, a crack appeared in the barrier.
“Ah, I’m screwed….”
Un-ho began to utter his last words as if realizing his mistake.
“Not on my watch.”
Boom!
Thanks to me immediately stepping in with my hammer, the mangled fist of flesh was sent flying into the air.
The battle continued.
Without either side being neutralized.