Chapter 42: Light of the Earth—23:59:59—
Chapter 42: Light of the Earth—23:59:59—
Giant crustaceans approached from far beyond the horizon.
This was the main force that had emerged from the depths of The Sea alongside the Leader Entity.
These specimens, dozens of times larger than the enemies that had previously assaulted the barrier, slowly marched toward The Wall, staining the world in shades of gray.
"They certainly are big."
When they were beside the Leader Entity—the Giant Monster—I had thought they were merely 'large,' but looking down at them from atop the barrier, their true scale became clear.
It was a gargantuan size that seemed to warp one's sense of perspective.
Perhaps fifty meters tall?
Honestly, they were so massive it made me wonder if this barrier was even doing anything.
If these things looked small next to the Leader Entity, then just how big was that monster?
Let’s see… one of its teeth was bigger than my entire body…
…I don't even know.
Regardless, if humanity wants to avoid extinction, we have to kill them all anyway, so what does size matter?
Break time is over.
I had been sitting around, lifting my shirt to scratch an itch, but it seemed it was time to wrap that up.
I’d already sent Un-ho back with the evacuation unit; I was the only one left on the barrier.
There were likely other comrades stationed at different sectors for the final phase of the operation, but in this immediate vicinity, I was alone.
"Green Green, huh."
Perhaps because I was alone, the words slipped out. A lament spoken only because there was no one to hear it.
Ever since I met her, countless thoughts had been swirling through my mind.
Heroes who chose justice in the face of the hardships before them.
They could have easily run away.
If they had abandoned the wounded and focused purely on escaping, no one could have blamed them.
The wounded would have been buried at that site, and the four Heroes would have kept their mouths shut to hide their mutual shame.
Even the crime of defying orders could have been excused as long as they returned to the secondary rallying point. Even if the excuse didn't fly, their sentence would have been light since they returned voluntarily.
Yet, they chose a different path.
They pushed the wounded into a safe place and used their own bodies as shields.
Believing they could save the injured, they threw their lives onto the front lines.
Why did they act that way?
That action shouldn't have been rewarded.
If I hadn't come to help, they would have vanished as mere bloodstains, and their sacrifice would have been a meaningless death.
And yet, they moved.
Just like the Heroes who protected humanity in the old days.
They weren't clowns.
They were Heroes who could shine at any moment.
If given a simple catalyst—if the choice to follow their own justice was thrown before them—they were beings capable of becoming true Heroes.
In that case, was my behavior wrong?
Boom!
I swung my hammer at a massive pincer descending toward me.
The Hammer, tracing a graceful arc, collided with the giant claw with a thunderous roar. The Enemy’s pincer couldn't withstand my strength and was knocked back.
Splash.
The giant crustacean flipped backward and sank into The Sea.
Since the pincer didn't shatter, it probably didn't die. It likely just fell over because it couldn't offset the force of the impact.
The moment that thought ended, a pincer of similar size swung at me.
Recognizing me as a dangerous opponent after that last strike, the giant entities began to concentrate their attacks on me.
Countless pincers battered me and the barrier, while smaller crustaceans climbed onto the backs of the giants to fire spikes at me.
The Wall, which had held back tens of thousands of crustaceans, was pulverized by a single pincer strike, and the resulting dust blanketed the area.
In that hazy battlefield, I swung my hammer reflexively.
I had no intention of killing them all right now. The current mission was to stall them. If their attention was focused on me, that was exactly what I wanted.
Instead of focusing entirely on the battle, I continued my train of thought.
Was my activity as the Black Marauder wrong?
Boom!
A pincer was repelled by my hammer. It wasn't a particularly threatening attack.
Had I failed to distinguish the seeds of Heroes and forced the mask of a 'clown' upon them based on my own narrow standards?
Green Green was the first victim.
A Hero whose limbs were broken beneath my feet.
I knew nothing of her skill, her career, or her personality.
All I remembered was the voice leaking from her lips begging for her life and her expression, frozen in terror.
Swept away by emotion and prejudice, I had swung my weapon at a future Hero.
My own arrogance in claiming to provide them with 'hardship' had nearly severed her future.
Cr-crack.
For the first time, a crack began to form on an enemy pincer that collided with my hammer.
I must have hit it dozens of times, and only now it cracks? Quite a sturdy shell.
As the battle grew more intense, my thoughts raced even faster.
No, was it because I provided the hardship that she was able to find herself as a Hero?
Because I swung my weapon?
Pop.
Did a pincer explode?
For a moment, I felt the sensation of a pincer bursting in my hand, but a quick glance showed the damage had simply been transferred.
The sound I heard was the smaller crustaceans exploding.
The Giant Entity's pincer was merely cracked; it continued to swing threateningly.
As the combat deepened, my thoughts flowed even more profoundly and rapidly.
If it were just Green Green, that might be the case.
Because she experienced hardship.
Because her limbs had been broken once before.
Because she felt a sense of kinship with them.
I couldn't deny the possibility that such things combined to make her a Hero.
Then what about the other three Heroes beside her?
I hadn't even attacked them. They hadn't received the baptism of hardship from me.
They had taken the seed of a Hero they already possessed, watered it with the hardship of the battlefield, and fertilized it with the choice to save the wounded, allowing the sprout of heroism to bloom.
Thump.
Two pincers swung simultaneously.
Idiots.
If you want to have a contest of strength with me, bring your leader.
Splash. Splash.
The sound of two giant entities falling backward into The Sea reached my ears.
The clear sound of splashing water.
The seawater, displaced by the massive bodies, surged upward and then fell back, continuing that clear sound.
Plop. Plop. Plop.
The high-soaring seawater fell back into the ocean, creating large ripples.
From those ripples, tiny droplets sprang up, creating even smaller ripples.
Watching that sight, I reached a realization.
Yes. There wasn't enough hardship.
Because a small pebble like the Black Marauder had fallen into society, the ripples hadn't been sufficient.
Look at that giant crustacean falling into The Sea. Did it not create countless droplets, which then fell to create new ripples?
What was needed was something else.
Not just my own solitary ripple.
Something massive enough to shake all of society.
A hardship grand enough to rattle humanity.
By imposing hardship on every Hero in the Management Bureau, that massive ordeal would spawn new hardships in turn.
If that happened, those who possessed the seeds of a Hero would sprout, just like this time.
And then, I would have to weed out the unnecessary ones. The rotten, festering fakes.
Not the Heroes who have no choice but to live as clowns because they've learned nothing else—but the true clowns.
Like that Hero who ran away and left the wounded behind. Trash unworthy of even bearing the name of a Hero.
"Yes. That's it. That was it."
I laughed.
Because I realized just how foolish and strange my actions had been.
Now then, let's make a plan.
A way to plunge this world into chaos once more.
A proper line where I can work the Heroes to the bone without humanity collapsing or civilians being harmed.
To remake the world… shouldn't it be broken once first?
* * *
Night returned once more.
A voice drifted from the communication magic Un-ho had left behind.
—Is everyone still alive?
"You think this is enough to kill me?"
—My thoughts exactly.
—Their attack power was so weak they couldn't even pierce my defense. Stupid crabs.
—Lord of Infinite Castles, shouldn't you try not to overdo it? Your back…
—I never sprained my back, you science geek!
Laughter-filled banter mixed into the channel; everyone seemed to be in high spirits.
Is it time?
The giant entities were incredibly durable, still swinging their pincers, but they hadn't managed to wound me.
Instead, the barrier had been demolished here and there, reduced to rags, but since we weren't going to use it anymore, it wasn't a big deal.
48 hours. The objective at the designated primary defense line had been achieved.
—Everyone is alive, I see.
—Why are you asking the obvious, Commander Macbeth?
—One grows more worrisome with age, brat.
—Does the geezer Lord of Infinite Castles even know what worry is?
—You want me to drive an H-beam into your house? It’d make a great decoration.
While the voices of the energetic fools echoed in my ear, Commander Macbeth ignored them and delivered the order.
—Everyone, retreat to your designated positions. Bombardment begins in two minutes.
—Copy.
"Copy."
This meant the attack I had advocated for was beginning.
I cut the communication, which had gone silent after the word 'copy,' and looked at the Gray Host looming before me.
Let's give them one last grand parting gift.
I gathered my mana and manifested a massive hammer. A gargantuan hammer slightly smaller than the giant entities before me.
"Get lost, you trash."
A single strike, swung with all my might.
Whoosh!
The massive hammer pulverized what remained of the barrier and swept through the Gray Host.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
Instead of the giant entities hit by The Hammer, the sound of countless smaller Gray Crustaceans exploding filled the air.
This was the result of their survival method—transferring damage to keep the colony alive.
The damage the enemies would actually take was bound to be meager compared to the power I put in, but I didn't really care.
The purpose of this attack was to pin them down, anyway.
The crustaceans that collided with The Hammer were sent flying into the depths of The Sea, and the space they vacated became a path.
I shrunk The Hammer and sprinted down the newly formed straight path.
"So long, idiots."
I have no intention of dying with you.
To witness their end, I turned my head back.
I saw dozens of flames etched into the dark night sky.
Some might mistake those twinkling lights for meteors, but I knew their true identity well.
The flames of the thermonuclear weapons I had requested.
Someone would surely complain about my request. Asking why I had brought out the sealed weapons of old.
Asking why I would reuse the ultimate weapons humanity had forged from minerals dug out of the earth.
The weapons of old humanity that had erased parts of Europe and created immeasurable suffering.
Asking why I would bring them out again and force those memories to resurface.
Questioning if there was any reason to drop dozens of those things on this battlefield when they used to be fired one at a time.
But we know.
It wasn't that the weapons were sealed because they were dangerous.
They were sealed because the people who used them were dangerous.
Someone like Macbeth or the Lord of Infinite Castles, who knows how to work an abacus, would understand.
That this is the solution to minimize sacrifice and end the war quickly.
Some might criticize the Management Bureau’s decision, but this is our answer.
Thermonuclear weapons.
Hydrogen bombs.
Nuclear Fusion bombs.
All names for this weapon.
The most powerful armament ever created by humanity in the past, before they knew of the Otherworld.
That weapon fell upon our battlefield.
Inside the Hydrogen Bomb dropped into the center of The Enemy, an Atomic Bomb detonated as a primer, and the material contained within the metal began to release its energy.
I quickly turned my face away.
Even though I turned away and closed my eyes, an overwhelming light source, blindingly bright, bloomed behind my back.
Intense heat enveloped my skin, and a shockwave powerful enough to lift my small body swept over me.
The light of the earth, created by the humanity that lives with its feet planted on this planet.
The Hammer wielded by the old powers in their final moments fell upon our enemies.
A mushroom cloud rose, and the waves created by the shockwave crashed over me.
As the light from the fusion bombs faded, I concentrated mana into my eyes to witness the scene of destruction.
Inside the mushroom cloud, I could see massive shadows flickering.
The giant entities were still moving slowly, refusing to fall, and the Leader Entity had finally appeared.
Vrooooooom.
The grand, ship-horn-like sound of their bellows echoed once more.
Were they mourning their comrades?
They let out a roar and moved their bodies.
"Tsk. Real monsters, aren't they."
Even an O-Rank Giant Monster would have been turned to mush after taking a few of those, yet they're still moving.
Even if they are specialized in tanking area-of-effect attacks, there should be a limit.
Except for the Leader Entity, their pincers were torn off and their carapaces were shattered, but the fact that they were moving at all was astonishing.
Still, the operation was a success.
At the very least, the small entities seemed to be almost entirely annihilated, as none were seen moving.
With this, the countless protective barriers shielding the Leader Entity had been dismantled.
All that remained were a few giant entities and the Leader Entity. There were likely surviving small entities as well, but they were no longer a major concern.
The light of humanity that illuminated The Sea had fulfilled its role.