Chapter 49: Red Forest
Chapter 49: Red Forest
Acceleration, then acceleration again.
Faster, and faster still.
The scorching air hammered against my body.
It was a perilous situation where a single mistake could result in my body melting away.
The tentacles, having multiplied to an astronomical number, lashed out in every direction, beginning to hedge me in.
It was a simple tactic: if they couldn't stop me with speed, they would stop me with sheer volume. But the effect was undeniable.
A red wall rose in the direction I was heading.
Front. Blocked. Right. Blocked.
Left!
Crash!
I shattered a foothold created in midair and pivoted to the left.
It was a platform Un-ho had manifested, instantly reading my movements. Our coordination was flawless, as if our thoughts were one, without a single hair's breadth of error.
I lunged to the left, but the surging mass of tentacles began to behave erratically, as if determined to catch me at any cost.
The surface of the tentacles bubbled and boiled before they suddenly detonated.
The exploding tentacles sprayed lava over a wide area, blanketing the sky.
Red sludge obstructed my path.
"Tsk."
I twisted my body mid-flight, shifting my posture. The sludge streaked past, narrowly singeing my hair.
The thought that I’d survived flashed through my mind, but I immediately realized my blunder.
Wasn't Un-ho on top of my head?
"Un-ho!"
"I'm alive! Keep running!"
The ferret’s voice cried out from near my ear; he must have scrambled to the side of my head for cover.
Following my partner's lead, I kicked off again just as countless tentacles slammed into the spot where I had been a moment before.
That was close.
I must be getting rusty, losing focus even for a second because I was worried Un-ho might be hurt.
As I sprinted across the earth, I looked up at the monster.
Its appearance had changed drastically since the start of the battle.
Its gray carapace was riddled with cracks, and the elegant claws on its arms were shattered, stained the color of molten rock by the Lava Tentacles.
Its numerous eyeballs were leaking fluid, crushed by my hammer.
Despite these extensive injuries, the Leader Entity had transformed into something even more dangerous.
The Lava Tentacles spewing from its wounds only grew in number as the damage increased. Now, the tentacles were a greater threat than the monster's actual physical strikes.
Lava Tentacles.
They weren't particularly fast, and their durability was low enough that they burst upon contact with my hammer, but they possessed a potent power that could melt me with a mere touch.
With such entities forming ranks and pushing in with overwhelming numbers, I had faced life-threatening moments more than once.
It’s the same.
I felt as if I had been transported back ten years.
The massive colony of tentacles that had appeared in the heart of Cheongju.
The Enemy of my story, which had destroyed a city and multiplied by feeding on human emotions.
Those tentacles, too, could not be blocked by any conventional means.
Because they devoured the very essence of humanity: emotion.
The tentacles that grew by eating emotions had caused tens of thousands of casualties before I finally eradicated them.
"Did I have it wrong?"
That these crustaceans were my enemies.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm wondering if my true enemies aren't those Lava Tentacles."
"Well, since your primary enemies were always anomalous entities and tentacles, that might be the case."
Right. Anomalous entities.
That’s why I thought these crustaceans were the enemies of my story.
They looked a bit too normal for the things that usually appear in my tales, but they were anomalous entities nonetheless.
Besides, they had even been designated as Public Enemies. However, as I fought these tentacles, a strange sensation welled up within me.
An exhilaration, as if I had finally met my arch-nemesis.
If that’s the case, what are those tentacles eating?
And what exactly are the Gray Crustaceans, then?
Something was wrong.
"Contact Headquarters for me. Tell them something is still lurking."
Having come this far, there was no turning back.
Even if the first move was a mistake, too many pieces were already on the board. It was too late to call for a do-over.
But I couldn't afford to be discouraged or give up. We just had to keep running forward.
I continued to swing my hammer, dodging the tentacles.
What’s so bad about the first move being wrong?
We never made a proper first move to begin with.
We’ve always protected humanity through failure and sacrifice.
Even if the path ahead is unknown, we must move forward.
Because while a story can be stopped, it can never be rewound.
*
—So! He said something is still lurking! Poyo!
The stupid report from that stupid ferret. The message from that brat with The Hammer was giving me a headache.
"What kind of nonsense is this?"
"It likely means The Enemy still has a trump card up its sleeve."
Macbeth was stroking his beard in the middle of all this, and the Librarian was tapping away at some strange calculator.
Neither of them was being helpful.
I didn't mind them acting like mages, but watching them behave like wizards out of some popular book like The Lord of the Nut Rings or whatever was just irritating.
"What do you think?"
"I'm not sure. There's too little information. I'll observe the situation for a moment."
This is why I can't stand those who only care about theory.
This is why the 'educated' ones are always late to respond.
If you want to read the future properly, shouldn't you feel it from the atmosphere of the battlefield?
Irritation flared, and I jerked my wheelchair forward.
I never liked this creaking, wobbling thing much, but today it was especially grating.
Damned piece of junk.
The state of it was pathetic, even after repairing it from whoever smashed it recently.
The moment I looked away, two of the wheels were stuck somewhere and the frame had been tossed into an architectural office.
Once I catch the culprit, whoever they are, I’ll tie concrete to their hands and feet and toss them into the ocean.
"Where are you going?"
"The brat said he felt something ominous, so there must be something."
I closed my eyes and summoned my psychic power.
Every inch of the Great Barrier's space entered my mind, and I selected my destination.
As a Pseudo-Otherworld expanded across the entire barrier, I controlled the space to leap through the gap, immediately closing the Pseudo-Otherworld to minimize the waste of power.
In an instant, I was transported from Headquarters to the top of The Wall.
A cacophony of sounds hammered against my sensitive eardrums, providing a sharp stimulus. My aging body reacted to the sensation, revealing the thrill of battle.
Hey, Old Man. Always stay calm on the battlefield. How many times have I told you?
I tapped my own thigh with my staff to suppress the physical excitement.
Excitement isn't good for the body. I need to live as long as possible to see these brats finally grow up properly, don't I?
With that thought, I opened my eyes, and the vista of the battlefield unfolded before me.
"They're fighting well. Fighting well indeed."
The brats were working hard for a change. Seeing them holding their ground better than expected made this Old Man's heart glad.
Though I’ll have to tear the limbs off the ones who ran away.
Those inexperienced runts probably think they weren't caught, but they're being tracked in real-time. It’ll be a treat to punish them later.
"Now then. Let's see."
With a slight wave of my staff, a ramp leading to the higher sections of The Wall formed, and I rolled my wheels up toward the top.
"Grandpa! Danger!"
Thump!
Concrete erupted from The Wall, and a gray pincer collided with it.
A trivial, common occurrence.
Some insignificant lobster's pincer had struck, but honestly, the brat who warned me was more annoying.
"Don't worry about a dying Old Man and do your jobs, you young punks!"
Instead of worrying about a geezer with one foot in the grave, they should mind their own heads. Who do they think they're meddling with?
When the young ones stared at me blankly after my outburst, I manifested a Concrete Golem to smack them on the back of their heads.
With a satisfying thwack, they snapped out of it and returned to the task of exterminating the pestilent crustaceans.
"Stupid brats."
Muttering about the youth, I looked down at the entire enemy force from my high vantage point.
Gray stones placed on a muddy board.
Our white stones were clustered in one spot, but their territory was vast. The gray ones were pushing forward even while taking losses.
"I see. It is strange."
As I thought, you have to feel the atmosphere of the front line yourself.
You can't feel this vibe from electronic boards or status screens.
Why are the gray stones pushing so hard despite the losses?
Why aren't they protecting their leader and instead continuing to commit pieces to this side?
Is it because they're confident they can break a wall that will never break? Or is it simply because they are beasts, as I first thought?
"No. That's not it."
The first offensive I felt was certainly the act of a beast.
Just a surging horde.
But there is wisdom in the way that giant, gray, hybrid lizard is placing its stones.
A single-stroke reversal, aiming for something.
No, is that not it either?
If it's aiming for a reversal, why is it throwing its stones away so recklessly?
Think, Lord of Infinite Castles. There's something here.
A suspicious scent tickled my nose. I couldn't quite grasp it yet, but it was a foul trap.
A filthy stench like something from an outhouse.
"Grandpa! It's dangerous here!"
"Si-hyun! Slow down a bit..."
Shouts that broke my concentration.
Brats again?
I turned my head to see a foolish-looking fellow with a cape fluttering in the wind and a light-pink-haired Hero panting as she climbed the tower.
Did they abandon their assigned sector? Because they were worried about an Old Man?
"Do your jobs instead of worrying about me. Get lost."
"Our side is all cleared up! We're on free-roam status!"
Are they more skilled than they look? I don't recognize their faces.
As I carefully scanned the young caped fellow, something caught my eye.
A Silver Hammer. A bizarre design that looked exactly like the weapon of that hammer brat.
"I heard Ha-ram took on disciples. I suppose you're the ones."
"You know our Master?"
The disciple leaned in the moment his Master was mentioned, obstructing my observation.
Even if he was The Hammer brat's disciple, there’s a limit to my patience.
"You're in the way, so get lo—"
"I can see the flow clearly from here. It was hard to see from below because of the crabs."
"Hmm?"
"Si-hyun, look over there. The flow is weird, right? Normally, there's no need to shove three crabs in there just to mess up the flow."
"Isn't it because three of them striking together makes the attack three times stronger? Since the energy is tripled, even a Hero acting as a tanker would collapse."
I should really get rid of this stupid caped brat.
"Hgyak!"
The caped fellow let out a strange yelp as I grabbed his cape with a concrete hand and tossed him backward.
"Si-hyun!"
"Ignore that stupid brat and speak. What do you see?"
"Pardon?"
"I'm asking how this battlefield looks to your eyes."
Let's start the interrogation.
"Uh... um? Who... are you?"
"I am the Lord of Infinite Castles, a Hero attached to Headquarters. Open your mouth."
"Um... is it okay if I'm wrong?"
Why does this young one have so little spirit? How does she expect to live through a bright future like this?
"Why do you have so little confidence for someone carrying the title of Hero? Be at least half as bold as your Master."
When I barked at her, her eyes shook violently for a moment before she seemed to steel herself and spoke.
"Basically, the flow itself is strange. During the first attack, it felt like they were following their instincts, but now it feels like a dam intentionally blocking the flow."
Her perspective is different from mine, but not bad. It’s worth giving her some time.
"Continue."
"The atmosphere around us is excited because we're winning, but it felt ominous to me. Like something was misaligned. The big crabs are slamming their pincers down, but it's like they're hitting with a hammer held in their pincers rather than the pincers themselves...? And even then, they're hitting in weird directions?"
I thought she’d gained some confidence, but she ended on a weak note.
Still, not bad.
She noticed the dissonance of the battlefield that even Macbeth missed.
"That was helpful."
"Ah? Yes? Thank you!"
Since she had been out on the battlefield longer than I had, she must have picked up more clues.
Using the words of the young disciple as a reference, I re-examined the battlefield.
The suspicious flow and the intentionally weak attacks being delivered.
And their locations.
It wasn't that the enemies were throwing their stones in the wrong places; what if they had been aiming for those spots from the very beginning?
The effects of Otherworld Erosion.
The special ability of the gray lobsters.
The information about the newly arrived tentacles.
My thoughts raced far ahead, and dozens of tactical patterns fell into place.
Those patterns stretched forward, completing a single blueprint.
"Dammit."
How did I miss this?
"Contact Headquarters!"
As the activation code was triggered, the white tattoo embedded below my ear glowed, initiating a direct link to Headquarters.
"Ah? Yes. Here's a radio."
"I don't need it!"
The Hammer’s disciple made the blunder of bringing me a radio, thinking I’d given an order, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
—What is it, Lord of Infinite Castles?
Even Macbeth’s calm voice was infinitely annoying right now.
"Put the Librarian on! You senile Commander!"
—What is the matter?
This fellow's calm tone was irritating too.
"Check the surrounding power concentration right now."
—If you mean the concentration of Otherworldly Power, it is stable.
"Not that. The 'Gray World,' the ability of those lobster bastards. Hurry."
—We don't have the tools to measure the exact values for that yet...
"Just give me an estimate! It's urgent!"
—It's not much different from the start of the battle. The minute values might vary...
Dammit. It’s the worst-case scenario.
"Put Macbeth back on."
Static.
The slight noise as the magic transferred to another person stretched out endlessly, making seconds feel like minutes.
Every moment was precious. The Enemy’s stones were still being thrown, and the end was drawing closer by the second.
—What is it? You asked to switch, then switch back.
"Withdraw the army immediately. At this rate, all the brats are going to die."
*
"Ha-ram-nim! Message from Headquarters! They said to slow down the attack for a moment."
"Slow down the attack? What are they talking about?"
I was barely holding onto the boss right now; they wanted me to let it go?
Of course, nothing would be better than having a moment to regroup.
"Did they find a way to stop the Leader Entity or something?"
"No, they said if we keep going like this, we'll lose this battle..."
Krrr-crack!
The moment Un-ho said those words, the sound of something shattering echoed in my ears.
What was that?
I immediately shifted my gaze from Un-ho back to the Leader Entity.
The source of the sound was easy to identify.
It was the sound of the Leader Entity's carapace crumbling. Countless cracks were spreading across that incredibly hard shell as it began to break apart.
The Lava Tentacles that had been chasing me also burrowed back into the Giant Entity's body.
"Collapse...?"
Why?
Within the gray-tinted world, countless gray fragments of shell scattered.
They gradually dissolved into the world, and the Gray World expanded in size.
*
—The Gray World is expanding!
"..."
The worst-case scenario I had feared unfolded before my eyes.
The corpses of the gray lobsters exploded, scattering their particles into the world.
I recalled the sentence of the Otherworld Erosion.
【The existence of The Sea shall be a single life.】
I thought it meant they shared the impact when attacked. To think the sentence itself had a literal meaning as well.
A single life.
Conversely, it meant that until the 'one' died, they wouldn't truly die even if they were corpses.
That was why the Gray World hadn't spread. Normally, the moment a corpse was created, it should have assimilated with the world and expanded its reach.
The final move of this invasion: to blanket the world through death.
With this, the gray forces had fulfilled their role.
"We had it wrong from the start."
Following my advice, the Heroes had begun to flee, but about half were still holding their positions.
The sky was being dyed gray.
The earth was being dyed gray.
Everything in sight was turning gray.
Color, scent, touch. Everything began to be painted over in gray.
I felt a mental attack striking my brain, as if trying to turn my very thoughts gray.
"Ugh... ah?"
The Hammer’s disciple, who had been standing beside me observing the front line, collapsed. He likely couldn't withstand the change in the world and his mind was being consumed.
"A-bin!"
That one is fine.
Does she have strong mental fortitude?
"Grandpa! What's wrong with A-bin?"
"...Take that fellow and run."
Because this battlefield is likely to collapse.
In the distance, I saw a red giant rising.
A red hydra that stood out vividly within the gray world.
Right. We had it wrong from the start.
From the beginning, we weren't just fighting one gray faction.
From the beginning, we were facing two opponents. We just hadn't realized it.
The second player... has placed a red stone.
*
The gray lizard exploded before my eyes.
Scattering gray flesh and gray carapace in every direction.
A new enemy appeared.
A hydra formed from the endless intertwining of Lava Tentacles. It used the lower body of the gray lizard as its base, but its form was extremely unnatural.
Should I... use it now?
The red hydra gathered its nine heads in one place and opened its mouths.
I felt a massive amount of Otherworldly Power accumulating, but I was still hesitating.
Is it okay to release the Limiter now?
Can I definitely end this?
Normally, I would have told Un-ho to release the Limiter immediately.
But something was bothering me.
『What is needed is a single strike at the necessary moment; if you wish to reach it, do not miss the timing of the two.』
Macbeth’s Prophecy.
Is now that time?
Is using it now the right thing to do?
When exactly is the 'timing of the two'?
And why 'two'?
The hydra turned its heads, its massive power fully gathered. Its target wasn't me, but The Wall where the Heroes lay fallen.
"Un-ho!"
"Yes!"
"Save the Limiter and make a platform!"
"Pardon?"
Un-ho questioned me as if my words were strange, but this must be right.
Not yet. I don't know the meaning of the prophecy, but it's not yet.
Though he looked bewildered, Un-ho followed my command perfectly.
Stepping on the platform, I soared into the sky. Before my eyes, the hydra also tilted its heads back, finishing its preparation to fire.
As I enlarged my hammer, the hydra unleashed its Otherworldly Power.
Something that could only be described as a lava breath.
Faced with that immense power, I too let go of my reason.
Following instinct, my body continued to swing The Hammer.
Rotation and strikes—the trajectory created a single defensive shield. A technique specialized in defense using a giant hammer.
Faster, wider.
The power contained within didn't matter.
It was fine if I got hurt.
Just block the lava heading for The Wall.
It’s my enemy.
I must block it with my sacrifice.
How much time passed?
The wave of lava, which felt like it would never end, finally ceased. Sensing the change, I stopped my hammer.
I smell something like cooked meat.
It’s probably my own skin and flesh being seared.
Haha...
"Get a hold of yourself! Ha-ram-nim!"
Un-ho is alive, and now... I just need to figure out the next move.
Ptui.
I heard the sound of someone spitting.
It was so trivial that it didn't even draw my gaze.
My exhaustion-wracked body reacted to it a beat too late.
No.
It was something truly minor.
A small lump of lava spat out by the hydra.
It was flying toward The Wall.
I'm too late.
A Hero... is going to die.