Chapter 432: Tower Reaching the Sky (2)
Chapter 432: Tower Reaching the Sky (2)
With Ultimate joining in, the battle rapidly intensifies.
The Slim One, who had been waiting in the rear to cover for The Bulky One’s mistakes, has now abandoned his bystander attitude and is actively engaging in the fight.
The Bulky One has also focused entirely on the combat, sealing away his bizarre linguistic abilities. It is as if even the brief moment it takes to open his mouth would be a hindrance to the battle.
Pop.
A person explodes.
Pop.
A person explodes.
The sound repeats endlessly.
And for every time that sound rings out, an identical human is born. From the surrounding towers, from the ground, and even from the fallen corpses.
Since the enemies continue to regenerate, this action might seem utterly meaningless. There might be no limit to their regeneration, or perhaps it’s a case where specific conditions must be met to stop it.
However, one thing is clear.
This infinite "continue" trick isn't without its penalties.
In the beginning, even if they died, they reappeared with indifferent or even smiling faces. Now, they emerge with deep scowls, clutching their heads as if suffering from a migraine.
Does their personality and memory degrade every time they are replenished? Even if they go back to acting normally after a short while, such a minor change is a glimmer of hope for us.
I am used to ultra-long-term battles against bastards who won't die no matter what I do. If killing them hundreds of times isn't enough, I'll crush them for a month until they've reached death hundreds of thousands of times.
With that thought, I swing The Hammer.
Ultimate restrains them.
I finish them with The Hammer.
Pop.
The human form explodes, and the byproduct is burned away.
An endlessly repeating cycle.
Of course, those pieces of trash are using various methods to counter us, and some have actually been effective. For instance, they might emerge fused with an extremely reinforced body to resist Ultimate’s psychokinesis.
Though, it was a bit funny when that one was immediately paralyzed by an electric shock.
Aside from those slight variations, the battle was an infinite loop—until the repetition was broken by someone’s unexpected action.
“Agh, stop it already! Don’t you see this is all useless?”
The Bulky One, seemingly truly frustrated, stops attacking and stomps his feet.
Of course, just because The Enemy stopped attacking didn't mean I had any obligation to do the same.
Pop.
The Bulky One and The Slim One, who had just sprouted from the ground, were turned into minced meat, meeting death once again.
“Is it really so hard to have a conversation? You two must be curious about…”
Not interested. Die.
Pop.
Perhaps he was genuinely annoyed, because The Bulky One didn't even bother to hide where he would reappear. I immediately flew to the source of the voice and burst his head.
And just as I was about to fly toward the next target—
“…Let’s hear what they have to say.”
Along with Ultimate’s voice, a force field expanded around me. A translucent psychokinetic barrier blocked my charge.
Judging by its durability, breaking it wouldn't be difficult, but since the one who deployed it was a comrade fighting alongside me—
“I have nothing to say to these bastards!”
I snapped at him instead of breaking the barrier.
“…The more information we have, the better. Especially in a situation like this.”
Ultimate spoke in a cold voice and looked around. I followed his gaze and surveyed our surroundings.
I saw the situation that I hadn't perceived while focused on the fight.
The war is ongoing.
Flesh monsters continue to surge forth. The Defense Force is being continuously deployed to prevent them from escaping to the outside. The Lord of Infinite Castles is still running across the battlefield with his Concrete Colossus, but the colossus is starting to show fine cracks.
Seeing that sight, I relented.
“Fine. Do whatever you want.”
I calmly accepted Ultimate’s suggestion. As soon as I finished speaking—
“Right. Then, what do you want to know? You mediocre Awakened with absolutely no individuality?”
The Bulky One and The Slim One rose from the ground, clutching their heads as they taunted Ultimate.
However, Ultimate showed no emotion at the remark and spoke coldly.
“What is that linguistic ability?”
A short question.
“It is the Unified Language. The most fundamental method of communication residing within the inner self of every human.”
They smiled as they answered Ultimate’s brief query.
“…Does it have an adverse effect on us?”
“Ho-ho. You seem worried about mental manipulation. It has no such function. This is strictly a language. A power dormant in all of us that perfectly conveys what a person intends to say without distortion.”
They spat out the answer joyfully, as if they had been waiting to be asked. However, that joyful atmosphere had no effect on us.
“Why are you gathering flesh? What is that tower?”
Ultimate simply continued his cold questioning.
“I said I’d answer, but I never said I’d show you all my cards.”
The Bulky One smiled at that, then added, “However, I can tell you about the flesh.”
With an ominous smile, he continued.
“‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.’ As it says in the Bible, flesh and blood are the most powerful vessels to hold our strength. Did not even God dwell within the flesh and blood of man?”
At that answer—
“That is not what those words mean. Do not distort and defile them as you please.”
For the first time, Ultimate showed anger. I didn't know it, but I guess Ultimate is a believer. Maybe because he’s American.
Of course, I had zero interest in religion, so I just tapped my foot, waiting for this useless conversation to end.
“A single sentence can have countless interpretations. And in reality, human flesh and blood do contain immense power. Is there not someone right before your eyes who became strong by consuming it?”
The Bulky One dropped a bomb.
The words were so sudden and delivered through the Unified Language that I couldn't even process the situation.
“…Are you saying he committed cannibalism?”
Ultimate glanced at me, then shook his head slightly as if it were impossible, returning the question coldly.
“No, not in that sense. It’s a bit different from cannibalism. As part of an experiment, he… Hm? Wait.”
The Bulky One, who had been answering with a smile, suddenly cut himself off and began to mutter to himself.
“An Awakened of that grade doesn't know this? Why? Could it be…?”
The Bulky One’s muttering brushed past my ears as I dashed across the ground. I had to stop that mouth from spitting out any more information.
“Hahahaha. I see. You didn't know! Yes, he even hid it from his comrades!”
The Bulky One began to laugh maniacally. He looked truly, truly delighted.
“If you didn't know what we did to protect humanity, then I can understand why your evaluation of us is like this!”
The Doctor’s voice grew louder.
I have to shut that mouth.
With that thought, I charged toward The Bulky One, but The Enemy’s Unified Language conveyed everything to the other party even in the brief moment I was approaching.
“…I have a rough idea. Human experimentation. And drugs. It must be something like that.”
Ultimate muttered in a cold voice.
Yes, that’s enough.
The truth hidden in the Factory Deep Underground can be covered up with that. Even for someone seeking the truth, a reality that makes them turn away in horror is enough.
There is no need to see the true abyss residing within. There is no need to know the world's Original Sin that they created.
With that intent, I raised my hammer toward The Bulky One.
I strike. To shut that bastard’s mouth.
He might resurrect again, but in the meantime, I just need to persuade Ultimate not to listen to those words. He must not hear them.
The Original Sin of the past must not seep into the innocent new generation.
With those thoughts, The Hammer fell.
“We—”
Words that couldn't even be finished through the Unified Language.
The sensation traveled up through The Hammer and into my hands. The feeling of The Enemy being crushed, the sensation of an end.
Feeling all of it, I immediately looked at Ultimate and opened my mouth.
“You don't need to listen—”
However, my words were swallowed by a voice more desperate than any other language.
“Do you really think we only made drugs in such a massive laboratory?”
I heard a voice. It was the voice of The Bulky One, who had just been crushed by my hammer.
The voice came from The Slim One, who was standing far away.
The Bulky One’s face, sprouting from The Slim One’s shoulder, recounted the past.
“The drugs we created in the past were unstable, but they could awaken people. Are we not the living proof of that?”
I charge again.
I’ll crush them both.
Even as I ran across the battlefield, their voices echoed.
“There, we came up with an idea. Most subjects could not withstand the Otherworldly Power entering their bodies and developed anomalies. Then, what would happen if a stable being consumed fresh Otherworldly Power?”
Could words be this poisonous?
A voice clearer than the wind howling in my ears as I ran.
“Of course, they wouldn't have taken the medicine willingly. Thinking back on it now, it was suspicious as hell.”
I lift The Hammer.
I have to shut their mouths.
Even if it repeats infinitely, I will shut those mouths.
Arriving at the spot where the sound of the wind stopped, I swung my hammer, creating a new gust of wind to silence them.
The attack was a success.
However, there was one thing I overlooked.
Rather than reacting to my attack, they chose to finish what they were saying.
Their voices rang out.
“All the food supplied to the battlefield! The drugs injected into it! What they put in their mouths wasn't just food!”
Through the scattering bits of flesh, I saw a flickering mouth.
The mouth proclaimed:
“They were devouring their own comrades, Ultimate. That was the meal of every Awakened and soldier who ever stepped onto the battlefield, and it is their sin. Even if they were unaware of the fact.”
I don't know if those words reached Ultimate.
I didn't turn my head because I didn't want to know his reaction to those words.
I simply screamed right there.
“I told you, that was all meaningless!”
Yes, they didn't have even a speck of influence on us. That project was nothing more than a mad act to satisfy their twisted sadism.
I told A-bin at Nanjido. Consuming things imbued with Otherworldly Power does nothing to help one grow in strength. And that was proven through the Management Bureau’s experiments.
Therefore, we reached our heights through our own strength.
“Is that so? But statistics do not lie. After we intervened, the growth rate of you lot increased.”
A voice echoed from a massive Flesh Pillar.
“It’s just that we became accustomed to handling the power.”
It was a phenomenon that occurred as enemies grew stronger, survival rates increased, and interaction with others grew.
“Is that so? Then how do you explain the growth rate of the so-called new generation of Awakened dropping again after we disappeared?”
“Because they moved away from the battlefield.”
There is naturally a difference between war machines who rolled around the battlefield all day and fledglings who have never experienced real combat.
Yes, even I, who knows nothing about such things, can tell.
Those damn things talk about statistics, but there are far more external factors affecting us than the drugs they sprinkled in our supplies.
It’s a classic case of fake statistics. Data cherry-picked to insist that their absurd delusions are fact.
“Can you prove that?”
They raised their voices, insisting only they were right. In a language I had to hear, even if I didn't want to.
“…And can you prove your side?”
Grit.
I clench my teeth.
Part of the truth we had hidden was flowing out of their mouths like a joke. Ultimate was the only one who heard it, but it was a story even he shouldn't have heard.
“Proof? If it’s proof you want, we can use my daughter whom you kidnapped. Experiment C.”
Experiment C.
The name referring to Chloe.
Snap.
Something inside me snapped.
Power began to overflow. A torrent of uncontrollable emotion burned within me.
“You son of a bitch!”
Responding to my voice, The Hammer in my hand grew in power.
Endlessly, boundlessly.
Beyond limits, even if it was meaningless, I just—
I wanted to erase the piles of flesh they whispered from from this world.
Someone seemed to be trying to stop me, but I couldn't hear them.
I just swung The Hammer.
At the disgusting beings spitting out black truths.
Toward the high tower reaching for the sky.
BOOM.
A massive recoil flowed through my body.
However, the overflowing power erased it, allowing me to continue pouring strength into the strike.
“DIEEEEE!”
I screamed, twisting my body with everything I had.
Pop. Splat.
I heard the sounds.
The sound of flesh bursting, the sound of flesh hitting the earth.
The tower is falling.
The tower the enemies had erected in the center of the battlefield.
Struck by my blow, its base exploded, and it began to collapse.