Chapter 84: East Asia Line Battle (2)
Chapter 84: East Asia Line Battle (2)
Rumble.
The sound of falling stones. The spreading of dust.
Just as a small hole can bring down an entire dam, every barrier in sight began to crumble.
Part of it was because the Idea of the Great Barrier had vanished, but even without the Idea, the Great Barrier—a structure as solid as any—collapsed because its very construction mirrored a magical formula.
As the massive edifice, where every part referred to another in a grand cycle, fell apart, the suppressed creatures were unleashed.
Shrouded by the darkness of night, the blackened entities of the Otherworld surged past the ruins of The Wall. They ran as if celebrating their liberation.
Shouts and roars echoed across the battlefield. Beneath them, the wailing sirens of the Management Bureau provided a constant drone. The combination of it all made me feel as though I had truly returned to the front lines.
The only difference was that this time, I was on the side of the Otherworld. Watching the Otherworldly Army, I spoke.
"Al’shel."
"Yes?"
"Tell Linshua to control the speed. They're moving too fast."
At this rate, they would catch up to the refugees who had been sent ahead.
"Was it not you, Lee Ha-ram, who said we were permitted to kill?"
"Do not forget our objective, Star Octopus."
At those words, the grinning Al’shel rotated his head 180 degrees to look at me.
So he could actually do that on his own.
"Did you just say... 'Star'?"
"I did."
The face I had been familiar with for so long shifted into an expression I had never seen before. His eyelids retracted to their limit, and mucus began to seep from every inch of his skin.
The slime flowed down and covered his eyes, yet he stared at me without so much as a blink. His eyeballs were fixed, devoid of even the slightest tremor.
"Where... did you hear that?"
Is this guy the Chief of Staff and he doesn't even know his own new recruits?
"I met one of your kin. She called herself a Star Maiden."
His skin tone changed. To purple.
A color I’d never seen on him before.
"Um... Lord Lee Ha-ram? If I may ask one thing... by any chance, is her name Sirin?"
The Octopus Head suddenly asked in an incredibly groveling voice.
"Yeah. Al’shirin. Someone you know...?"
Squelch.
An astonishingly large amount of mucus erupted from him. I didn't know if anyone was standing below us, but if some poor soul got covered in that, they’d be in a foul mood all day.
"Could it be... that the Mutant leading the refugees is... Sirin...?"
"It is her. Right now, she's probably glaring at us from the rear, watching like a hawk to see if we keep our promise."
"STOOOOOOOOOOP!"
The octopus let out a horrific roar and took to the sky.
He began frantically shouting orders, seemingly desperate to control the enraged horde.
Wouldn't it be faster to just contact Linshua? With that thought, I watched Al’shel’s retreating back with a cold gaze.
...I've gained some decent leverage.
I didn't know the exact nature of their relationship, but it seemed the two were acquainted.
Well, he wasn't in The Society because he liked humans, so if she—who actually had an affinity for them—joined him, they might make a good pair.
Since he was in charge of command, I was worried he might ruin the whole plan if left to his own devices, but things might turn out better than expected.
I shouted loudly toward the receding octopus.
"When do I go in?"
"I will call for you at the right moment! Until then, stay hidden!"
Watching him fly off, shouting because he didn't even have the presence of mind to use telepathy, I wrapped my wings around myself.
The black wings moved as naturally as if they had been part of me from the start. Like darkness given form, they coiled around me in a sphere.
And I vanished into the night.
* * *
"We have a visual!"
"Put it on the main screen, now!"
The Management Bureau’s Hokkaido Branch.
A place that should have been a peaceful rear base was exceptionally chaotic today.
The sirens blaring throughout the facility forced even those who had just finished their shifts and were heading to bed to arm themselves again, but no one complained.
For the first time since the branch's founding, the armory was empty and the radio room was packed.
Even Administrative Staff were issued suicide pistols, and the engineers—who were often teased for having an easy job—were frantically running up and down the towers to set explosives.
Normally, engineers would take up rifles and head to the front, but the fact that they were only now setting self-destruct charges was likely because even the commander couldn't believe the situation.
Beep.
The video feed appeared on the monitors of the command center, where the leadership had been hovering in a state of denial.
"Son of a..."
"This is insane..."
Curses that would normally be reprimanded flowed through the room, but no one spoke up. The footage on the screen was just that staggering.
The collapsed Great Barrier. The pouring tide of monsters.
The commander, sitting in the high seat and responsible for issuing orders to handle this crisis, merely gripped his armrests and stared at the screen with a pale face.
"Why... why now of all times?"
In just one month, he was scheduled for a transfer. To a high-ranking position within the Management Bureau.
Having been an officer in a military unit even before the Bureau was established, he had been treated as elite even after transferring to the Management Bureau Defense Force.
His assignment to the remote Hokkaido Branch was purely to pad his resume.
It was one of the major branches right next to the Great Barrier, yet it was a post where nothing ever happened. In other words, it was the perfect place to stack credentials.
Those who backed him had said the same. Spend a few years resting there, and his future would be guaranteed.
'I rotted in this boring place for years for that! So why now!'
The commander's thoughts began to race. Not toward a solution for the crisis, but toward a way to save his own skin.
'An incident this big, and there was no prophecy, no precursor. Doesn't that make it the responsibility of the Central Management Bureau? Maybe it's better to just abandon this place and run...'
The commander's face turned a sickly shade of blue, oblivious to the fact that everyone in the command center was watching him.
'But how? If I just abandon the branch, it'll be marked as a failure...'
Pointless thoughts. Only one path remained for him: to hold the branch at all costs and wait for reinforcements that might or might not come.
"Lieutenant Colonel."
How deep had he fallen into his thoughts? The commander didn't even notice he was being called, his eyes darting around frantically.
"Lieutenant Colonel!"
"W-What is it!"
When the Operations Officer finally snapped at him after several ignored calls, the commander finally turned his head.
"We've made contact with Headquarters."
The news everyone in the command center had been waiting for. The final hope: support from the main office.
It seemed the communication lines, which had been unstable due to the Otherworldly Power flooding in from the destroyed barrier, were finally connected.
"What about reinforcements? Do they understand the situation? How long will it take?"
Questions poured out of the commander's mouth. Disjointed, messy questions.
Seeing him in such a shambles, the Operations Officer clicked his tongue, abandoning his last shred of expectation for the man. However, the half-delirious commander didn't notice, and the Operations Officer spoke slowly.
"Twelve hours at minimum. They told us to hold out until then."
Twelve hours. It was essentially a death sentence.
The Communications Officer with a headset pressed to one ear, the administrator who had been trying to coordinate individual actions—everyone's face turned pale as they turned back to the monitors.
Even from an aerial perspective looking down, the ground was invisible, covered by the dense throng of enemies.
Twelve hours against that army?
It might be possible. If they sacrificed every Hero and every soldier they had.
And the Management Bureau would arrive to find nothing but corpses.
Though no one said it aloud, the thought was unanimous.
"Then we have to hold! It's only twelve hours! We can surely..."
Someone stood up with a burst of heroism and shouted, but it was clearly insufficient to reverse the despairing atmosphere of the command center.
Perhaps if there were Heroes present in the command center, the story would be different. If they had stepped forward with a solemn air to lead the charge—no, it didn't even have to be a Hero. If only the commander would stand up and speak like that.
"Tsk."
Watching the command staff, the one person in the room who still took pride in his work clicked his tongue.
The Operations Officer. He was the one who had contacted the Central Management Bureau as soon as the incident began and gathered the heads of each department.
"Discussing it like this is useless. Since the order from Central is twelve hours, we must hold for twelve hours."
"It's suicide! It would be better to give up on maintaining the line and head for The Sea..."
When the commander, who no longer had any intention of fulfilling his duty, spoke, many others agreed.
"Perhaps Central hasn't received all the information? Holding for twelve hours in this situation is impossible!"
"Let's protest again, saying it's impossible based on the situation on the ground. First, reconnect with Central and get new instructions..."
As the conversation continued, the opinion that Central had clearly issued a wrong order began to spread among the officers.
"What if we push the line back and retreat by ship? That way, we can at least claim we protected the branch..."
Slam!
The Operations Officer, who had been observing them with a look of pure contempt without saying a word, slammed his desk and roared.
"Then who is going to stay behind to hold? Someone has to stay and guard the line while we retreat!"
At that single sentence, the command center fell back into silence.
'Dammit. At this rate, we're just wasting time.'
The Operations Officer's thoughts raced. He regretted pushing them so hard that they lost their will to fight entirely.
It wasn't that they hadn't thought of that. They just wanted to turn their eyes away from that reality.
They weren't incompetent. As individuals managing a major Bureau stronghold, each was a capable human being. The only problem was that they weren't people prepared to face death.
The Management Bureau Defense Force.
Under the pretext of being a group established for the management and rights of Heroes, those recruited under the name of a "Defense Force" because they couldn't officially have an "Army" were complacent.
They chose this path because the treatment was good, the pay was high, and it carried social prestige.
'The person who should be controlling this is a military-born commander, but...'
A commander dispatched from the military along with soldiers to lead the Defense Force. Hoping he might have had a change of heart, the Operations Officer looked toward the commander's seat.
"Tsk."
The Operations Officer clicked his tongue yet again.
What he saw was a piece of refuse, having exhausted even his last bit of energy, slumped lifelessly in his chair.
The military commander's help was as good as non-existent. The Bureau personnel had lost their will to fight.
'It's just going to be a meaningless slaughter then.'
Just as the Operations Officer, the last one with any fight left in him, was about to give up—
Bam!
The doors to the command center burst open, and a Defense Force member carrying a radio set on his back rushed in.
"Emergency contact!"
Emergency contact? At this timing? Had the front line collapsed already? Or had the Management Bureau given up on the twelve-hour reinforcement? While everyone's thoughts spiraled into negativity—
"Make it quick. Just the essentials."
The Operations Officer, the only one still burning with resolve, stepped forward to meet him.
"My apologies. It's urgent."
"The essentials."
Unlike the dark atmosphere of the command center, the soldier had a bright expression, which made the contrast between the two men even more stark.
"Well, I'll tell you, but..."
Only then did the soldier realize the mood in the room was grim. He swallowed hard and paused.
"Civilian refugees have been discovered. They are currently requesting protection."
The words that followed were enough to shake the entire command center.
"Civilians? You're saying there were civilians left here?"
"You know, those... volunteer groups or whatever they were, beyond the Great Barrier."
"If it's them, they should have evacuated to the branch as soon as the situation started..."
"Then, are you saying there were people living in hiding somewhere?"
"Coming from the Contaminated Zone...?"
"Does that even make sense?"
As everyone voiced their opinions, the command center, which had gone quiet, heated up again.
Slam!
Someone struck the desk.
When everyone's attention turned toward the source of the loud noise, the man spoke.
"As commander, I propose a retreat. If there are civilians remaining, our doctrine dictates that protecting them is the highest priority."
A proposal that couldn't be refused flowed from the mouth of the commander, whose face had brightened instantly.
Heroism, self-preservation, and justification—his words contained them all.
"We can't! As I said before, someone has to guard the rear..."
'If the mood shifts toward retreat now, there's no turning back...'
The Operations Officer tried to speak up to shift the atmosphere back, but—
"Ah, you don't have to worry about that. There's one more piece of news."
His objection was ruthlessly torn down.
"This is the second contact... Heroes have appeared. I don't know their Hero names, but they're said to be a Hero who uses lightning and a Hero who uses black shadows. The two of them have stepped forward to guard the rear themselves."
The words came from the mouth of the reporting soldier.