Tartaros Marches on Tokyo
Crack!
The blue orb shattered.
"Master! The orb broke!"
"Looks like Japan ended up using the ticket after all."
Yulia silently turned on a song.
"Crushed by the disaster you brought upon yourself─!"
"This seems fitting, right?"
The sea agreed.
I've gotta think nicer thoughts.
But in the end, it just stirs up anger.
Checking the notification confirmed that Korea's Tartaros had appeared exactly where expected.
"Everyone, get ready to head out."
"Turtle face sighting!"
"First time crossing the sea!"
He activated Spatial Manipulation.
The destination was Jeju Island.
A sudden trial has been triggered.
Randomly selecting 3 countries.
Tartaros of Advance will be summoned to the infested zones of the following three countries.
Rewards and penalties will be given based on subjugation ranking and time.
The world was stunned.
A sudden trial? Another one besides status ailments?
The tower's whims are getting way too erratic lately.
The silver lining amid the misfortune was that the trial applied to only three countries.
But.
The moment they checked the list of selected countries, an even greater shock and confusion set in.
The three selected countries.
All of them were the most talked-about nations worldwide right now.
Shock, astonishment, chaos, excitement.
But the one feeling the greatest emotional turmoil was someone else entirely.
Nakayama.
He stared at the messages before him, his stomach churning.
Tartaros will be summoned to Japan's infested zone 'Yokohama'.
Tartaros will be summoned to Korea's infested zone 'Jeju Island'.
(...)
"Gweh!"
Unable to bear the pressure, Nakayama collapsed, vomiting on the floor.
"D-Director!"
"Are you okay?!"
His aides rushed to support him and check his condition, but Nakayama kept retching.
Chills wracked his body.
Cold sweat poured down.
'Yokohama...? Jeju Island...?'
How the hell did this happen?
His original prediction had been this:
The monster would spawn on Korea's mainland. Japan would get it on a remote island.
But now, before his eyes, the exact opposite had unfolded.
Jeju Island was an isolated island.
Yokohama, on the other hand, was on the mainland—right below Tokyo, no less.
Did this even make sense?
How could this be?
The odds of both cases happening simultaneously were less than 0.1 percent.
'Did that hitchhiker do something...?'
He shook his head, gasping for breath.
Of course, it was established fact that the guy possessed freakish power beyond imagination.
But this was a matter of system probability—no single Awakener could interfere with that.
His head spun.
Did Korea use some unknown tactical item? But they'd never ranked in the top three. Why would a randomly selected country...?
He grilled himself with questions in the short time he had, but no conclusions emerged.
Just.
"Gweh!"
Despair poured out of him.
"Medic! Call a medic!"
"Artillery squads, prepare for immediate deployment! Contact the Self-Defense Forces now!"
The command center descended into chaos.
Wall monitors displayed dozens of remote islands.
No sign of Tartaros.
But the next moment.
[Bwoooong──!]
Aerial drone footage from hastily scrambled units came online, linking across the monitors to form a massive panoramic view.
Infested zone, Yokohama.
Former Japan's largest port.
Tartaros was moving there.
Thud thud thud thud!
The reporter aboard the helicopter shouted in an agitated voice as she looked below.
"This is Reiko from Good Morning Japan! I'm currently airborne over Yokohama! Can you see this horrific sight? What's happening to Japan?!"
The live camera relentlessly panned the ground.
One subject dominated the frame.
Grooooar───!
Hundreds of meters tall.
A quadrupedal monster.
A massive volcano on its back, thick rock shell covering its entire body.
"A grotesque form unlike anything we've seen! If I had to compare it to a beast, maybe a wolf turtle—kyaa!"
A sudden gust rocked the helicopter.
Tartaros's foot slamming down had generated a shockwave.
Thoom──!
It lifted its foot, stepped forward.
Captured in slow motion.
Each movement was agonizingly slow, but the impact was tremendous.
Thooom──!
The earth shook with every step.
─Kiek! Kieeek!
─Grrr! Gruk!
Existing monsters were crushed or sent tumbling by the shockwaves as they fled.
And that wasn't the end.
Pew─!
Lava chunks erupted from the volcano, arcing in long parabolas to crash everywhere.
A disaster in the literal sense.
No word captured the current situation better.
Thud thud thud!
"Where is this monster heading?! No idea! Stay tuned, viewers!"
The Tartaros ticket was top secret.
Info from the world announcement was limited.
So from a general viewpoint, little was known about Tartaros.
Its purpose.
Its destination.
Effects beyond advancing.
Its slow speed made even guessing the path difficult for now.
One thing was clear.
Splatter!
"We'll keep broadcasting for n—kyaaak!"
Its mere existence was a threat.
A flying ember nearly shot down the helicopter.
The director said,
"Management Agency called! Shut down the broadcast and get out, or they'll shoot us down!"
"Probably best to pull back! Too dangerous anyway, and we've got the first-ever Tartaros footage!"
The helicopter turned and fled.
The camera went dark, but coverage of Tartaros didn't stop.
Bwoooong──!
Bwoooong──!
Personal drones popped up everywhere.
And.
"Got the silhouette!"
"Can't zoom more? Upload to NewTube anyway!"
"This camera's set!"
Outside Yokohama's zone, all sorts of groups filmed with telephoto gear.
No great sense of crisis yet.
Thanks to faith in their own country.
Japan had fumbled recently, but still held ranking 3 as a tower powerhouse.
Famous for the most high-level S-ranks per capita.
The government and agency would handle Tartaros somehow.
And at that moment.
Far-right communities were boiling.
The Japanese archipelago was in uproar.
And as if to quell those churning emotions.
Shwoooong───!
Japan's pride, the Air Self-Defense Force, appeared over Yokohama.
Mitsubishi F-32 squadrons, domestically developed and operated.
F-15w squadrons, bought in bulk from the US during economic boom times.
Dozens of fighters streaked across the sky, unleashing bombs on Tartaros.
Kaboom──! Kaaa-boom───!
Endless explosions.
Thick smoke billowing up.
But when the smoke cleared, the chats went dead silent.
Grooooar───!
Tartaros emerged unscathed.
Not a scratch on it.
If anything, enraged, it spewed lava chunks with fiercer momentum.
Shwoom! Kaboom!
Fighters, paths tangled in the chaos, got hit and plummeted.
Modern weapons useless.
The moment it was clear Tartaros was judged the same as tower monsters.
Something was going wrong.
Japan's spine chilled.
The only thing to trust? Awakener skills.
Next, S-rank artillery Awakeners arrived by helicopter, unleashing beams and rays.
Kaboom──! Kaaa-boom───!
This time, it worked.
Cracks formed in the thick rock shell.
But a tiny fraction of its massive body—nowhere near enough to stop it.
The highest helicopter.
Thud thud thud thud──!
"Director! We need to decide on a full Tokyo evacuation order now!"
"...I know."
Nakayama bit his lip hard.
Tartaros was supposed to spawn on a remote island and get isolated.
Awakeners on warships would bombard it from range in shifts, taking it down within a week.
But the plan was in tatters.
Thoom─! Thooom─!
The monster was on the move.
Toward? Japan's capital.
Politics, economy, industry, culture.
The center of everything: Tokyo.
Tartaros's mechanism was to nest in the nearest uninfested zone.
Thoom─! Thooom─!
Tartaros was slow, sure.
But it never stopped, not for a moment.
Worst of all, Yokohama to Tokyo was under 40km.
Straight line? Even less.
Calculations showed it'd reach Tokyo in under half a day.
If Tokyo fell... the astronomical damage was unimaginable.
How did it come to this?
I've only ever succeeded before.
Am I dreaming?
His stifled anguish led to one conclusion.
'Korea. And the hitchhiker.'
He ground his teeth until his gums bled, cursing them.
That vermin nation.
If not for that bastard.
I wouldn't be in this mess.
He wanted to tear them apart right then.
"D-Director, the decision...!"
"I said I know, how many times?!"
Slap!
The aide took a slap, teeth flying, slammed into the wall.
Not satisfied, Nakayama kept kicking.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"I! Said! I! Know! You! Fucking! Dog!"
He was an Awakener too.
Monstrous force in those kicks.
The aide wasn't breathing anymore, but Nakayama didn't care.
And.
Thud! Thud!
Too worked up, he hadn't noticed.
The chopper wobbling from the shaking.
The pilot saying something.
"Hoo, hoooh."
Calming down, Nakayama grabbed the radio, panting.
"Issue the evacuation or—."
The sentence never finished.
A massive lava chunk hurtled toward them.
Kaboom!
The helicopter, engulfed in flames, plummeted.
Nakayama's lungs cooked first.
About 6 hours and 35 minutes.
Time until Tartaros reached Tokyo's tower.
Reactions to Japan were ice cold.
Korea, on the other hand.
The situations were polar opposites.
Tartaros was lounging on a closed-off island.
Speculation on the trial.
Another post shot up in recommendations.
Another Tartaros.
Marching toward Beijing.
Cheers rained down worldwide.
And.
Not long after.
Kaaaa-boom!
Beijing's Great Wall crumbled.
A massive shadow loomed over the city.