The Legion Unleashed
Through the rift in space pried open by the Greatsword of Ruin, Simon threw himself in without a moment's hesitation.
Thud.
The sound of boots striking stone floor rippled outward. Dampness, heavy air, the mingled stench of mold and experimental chemicals.
This was a cavern. Black, red, and brown swirled together in a dizzying tapestry. The ground was hard and unyielding; jagged stalagmites jutted from the walls, and somewhere nearby came the idle trickle of flowing water.
"This place is……"
So this was the secret stronghold of The Society. But it was no mere indoor facility.
"It's a dungeon, isn't it?"
[Khehehe! So it is!]
Simon was followed in by Kajan, Serne, Lorraine, and General Amin, all of them staring around in astonishment.
"Kajan. So this place really is……"
"Yeah."
Kajan let out a quiet sigh.
"This has to be the legendary Gold Mine Dungeon that actually existed in Tarados decades ago."
"I guess those adventurers never actually destroyed it back in the day, huh."
"Seems not. The Society must have seized control of it and turned it into their personal laboratory."
Lorraine raised an arm and swept it to one side.
"Simon, look over there."
Water was flowing where she pointed. No—more precisely—
"It's all blood."
Splash splash splash splash!
Thin, watery blood gushed up from the earth and streamed through the dungeon like a river. Now and then something like a corpse drifted along with the current. Just looking at it was enough to turn the stomach.
'……'
As his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, more and more came into view.
The dungeon was vast. Human corpses hung from the ceiling, while massive experimental apparatus whirred and churned, wringing the last drops from bodies that were already dead. Corpses impaled on spits. Corpses burning in fire. Wherever his gaze turned, there was hell.
The thought that the residents of Tarados dragged here must all have died exactly like this made his nausea all the worse.
'How can a human being do this to other humans?!'
[Boy!]
Pier's voice rang out.
[Steady yourself! They're coming!]
Chuk— chuk— chuk— chuk—
The darkness ahead writhed and stirred. Undead soldiers were pouring into the chamber.
There were beyond comparison more of them than the pack they'd briefly fought outside the dungeon. In the rear, he could even make out mid-tier chimeras of grotesque form, a nightmarish medley of stitched-together beasts.
Shring!
The first to move was Lorraine. She slashed the air with the crimson dagger in her hand, and the lead undead soldiers were cleaved in two, collapsing to the floor.
But from the severed cross-sections, flesh quivered and welled back up.
"Just as I thought—same as the undead we fought outside."
Every single undead advancing on them now was part of an army of immortality. Simon nodded.
"And their regeneration looks even faster than the ones outside."
Everyone dropped into combat stances. Simon unfolded the map General Amin had given him.
"The plan's changed a little. It looks like this is going to be an all-out war from the very start, so let's divide up roles right now."
Simon turned his head.
"Serne, if you take the side passage, there's a staircase leading up to the upper floor. The captured townsfolk should be held there. I'd like you to rescue them."
Prisoner rescue was never a mission that could be accomplished by brute force alone. Of everyone here, Serne—with her specialization in mental magic—was the one best suited to pull it off.
Serne gave a shrug of her shoulders.
"Yes, yes~ It's a dull little errand, but I did agree to cooperate for two coupons, so I suppose I have no choice."
"It's not dull. It's people's lives on the line. I'm counting on you."
"Understood."
Serne winked, then strode off, her ivory hair streaming behind her. The feathers scattered around her sprang to life as summoned soldiers—her Feather Soldiers—and formed an escort around her.
"Kajan, you head to the laboratory on the second basement floor and secure 'Karl.' I think the Society is keeping this dungeon running because of Karl's ability."
"Got it."
"You can travel with us as far as the second basement level."
Securing Karl might just hold the key to destroying this dungeon and its army of immortality.
Simon handed back to Kajan the socket necklace that held Karl's fragment.
"And Lorraine—you break through to the third basement level with me. We'll capture Nirrti and find the dungeon's Dungeon Lord."
"Understood."
"And last, General Amin……"
Simon turned to look behind him. Amin's injuries hadn't fully healed yet, so Simon had intended to ask him to hold the rear and block the soldiers the Society sent after them.
But then—
'?!'
Beyond the open expanse of the dungeon, above the formation of allied tents, colossal monsters had appeared.
Simon sprinted out of the dungeon to see for himself.
Kuuung— Kuuung—
A battle was raging outside as well.
Ten colossal undead, each one larger than the high-rises of a major city, were bellowing war cries as they smashed through tents and trampled the bandits of the Ganes Guild and the regular soldiers to death.
Even from a distance, the sheer density of their Jet-Black aura made it clear just how terrifyingly powerful those things were.
"Those are the Society's too—?!"
[No.]
Pier's voice was grave.
[I don't know what in the world has happened, but I can feel it! Those undead belong to Magnus's Fifth Legion!]
"Magnus, you say?"
At the sudden appearance of that name, Simon's face went pale.
"Why is he in Tarados……?!"
If these were undead of Magnus's Legion, ordinary soldiers had no hope of holding them back. There might even be an Ancient Undead among them.
And in those tents were Lisa and her brother, and the coachman too.
'If this keeps up, they'll be wiped out without question.'
Cold sweat broke out across Simon's skin.
'What do I do? Do we fight Magnus's Legion today, and settle things with the Society at midnight tomorrow?'
"I'll go."
Just then, Lorraine slipped out of the dungeon to stand beside him.
"You deal with the Society as planned."
"But……!"
"Remember what your client told you? The moment the Society's experiments are complete, the entire continent falls into crisis. This is a matter of seconds."
"I'll help as well."
General Amin emerged from the dungeon behind her.
"These are soldiers I brought here, so the responsibility is mine. I will command them and see to it that not one enemy sets foot inside that dungeon!"
Simon bit his lip. He was worried—but for now, there was nothing to do but trust Lorraine and Amin and go.
"Come back safe, General Amin. You too, Lorraine."
"Simon?"
Kugugugugugu—!
Her crimson eyes rippled, and a colossal Jet-Black surged upward. Black hair fluttered about her like living flame.
"You haven't forgotten whose daughter I am, have you?"
Shuddering at the sheer power radiating from her, Simon nodded hard.
"Sorry for worrying over nothing. See you on the other side!"
Simon plunged back into the Gold Mine Dungeon.
Sometime in the last few minutes, the undead soldiers had advanced until they were right at the entrance.
Kajan cut down the fastest of the vanguard with long-range claw swipes, but they simply kept regenerating.
"Simon!"
"Yes. I'm done talking."
Simon walked over and stood before Kajan. The man raised his hand above Simon's head.
"From this point on, I'm holding nothing back. The Legion gives you everything it has."
Chweok!
Pier's skull, transformed into the shape of a helm, settled into his hand. He pressed it down onto his head, and bluish-black magic flickered to life in his eye sockets.
Chweok!
Chachachak!
Pier's bones magnetized to Simon's body, one after another. Simon drew his arm back, then tore it through the air in a long, splitting arc.
A colossal sub-space yawned open, and from within it, the countless dead of the 7th Legion began to crawl out.
-Uooooooooo!
-Kiririri!
Skeletons, zombies, corpse spiders, skullwings, and every manner of great and small undead Pier had collected besides.
More than a thousand undead came flooding out like a tidal wave, and in an instant the Legion matched the Society's army of immortality in sheer numbers—and then surpassed it.
[My lady, it has been far too long since I took the field alongside our Legion Commander.]
"I'm counting on you, Erze."
Erzsébet, commander of the spider corps, revealed herself at last.
Kwarururung!
A black bolt of lightning crashed down onto a single zombie, and from the smoke strode a crowned young lordling, the hem of his formal robes swirling.
[H-hey, Simon! You've got the stage set for my hidden card, right?]
Jabbing quick punches into empty air as he clowned around, that was Prince, commander of the zombie corps.
"Of course. I've laid out the whole board."
Simon and Prince bumped fists, light and easy.
The charge was ready. Finally, Simon drew in a long breath.
[Der König ist Zurück―!!]
A song flowed from Simon's lips. The death march spread through the entire Legion, and a bluish-black light flickered to life in the eyes of every undead.
-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
As the colossal dead, their morale blazing at its peak, let loose a furious roar, Erzsébet and Prince both whipped around to stare at him in shock.
[Legion Commander?]
[Wh-what was that? What did you just do?]
Simon only smiled, slow and easy.
Everything I learned at Kizen becomes my strength. My experience as a Legion Commander fuses with everything Kizen has forged in me.
He thrust the greatsword forward and roared.
[All forces—]
The Legion's dead crouched low, growling like beasts straining at the leash, hands pressed to the ground, ready to burst forward at any moment.
[—follow me.]
With an Absolute Order, Simon hurled himself ahead.
Erzsébet, Prince, and Kajan followed, and every last one of the dead surged forward with him.
-Kyaaaaaaak!
-Kiiiii!
A legion of thousands of undead and the army of immortality collided head-on. At the very front line, Simon swung the Greatsword of Ruin with everything he had.
CCRRRRAAAAAAANG!
A long line carved itself across the battlefield, and every immortal soldier it touched was bisected on the spot. Before they could even regenerate, the Legion's zombies came scrambling over each other to tear them apart.
-Kiririk!
-Kiri!
The corpse spiders flung webs onto the ceiling, launched themselves skyward, and rained down poison, webbing, and nets without pause.
Flap flap!
The skullwings swooped in, scattering feathers of curse, seized immortal soldiers in their talons, and dropped them into the river of blood.
[Keep pushing!]
Simon bellowed.
[Der König von Undead fiel hier nieder――!!]
Borrowing the power of the death march, an even mightier wide-range Absolute Order seeped into the Legion's dead.
With bolstered strength and speed, the Legion's dead began to unravel the immortal army's formations and punch forward like a spearhead.
The immortal soldiers—shattered and mid-regeneration—were neutralized by nothing more than being trampled underfoot as the Legion advanced. Even between two armies of the dead, the gap in quality was staggering.
[Khehehe! We've broken through, boy!]
In the blink of an eye, the Legion had torn through the encirclement the immortal soldiers had thrown up. Simon's party and the undead came flooding through in a surging tide.
Ahead lay the passage down to the first basement level.
"This is unreal."
Kajan swung his arms at the head of the column, a disbelieving grin tugging at his lips.
"So this is the power of a Legion."
[We shall not be outdone!]
Erzsébet spread her webs across the sky, and the immortal soldiers flying overhead were shredded to ribbons against them, scattering as tattered fragments.
[HIDDEN CARD PUNCH!]
Prince sprinted along the web and drove his fist forward—and with a thunderclap of displaced air, the army of immortality went flying in every direction.
Simon, too, at the very tip of the spearhead, whipped the Greatsword of Ruin around again and again, accelerating with every stride. Far ahead, in the dungeon's depths, the staircase descending into the underground levels came into view.
Bluish-black sparks crackled in his pupils, one after another.
'I'm coming down. Nirrti.'