The Maid
Halfway up the mountain that held the Eternal Gate, patches of green peeked through the blackened earth.
After the magic circle had vanished, grass had begun to push up here and there. But now the skeletons were trampling it underfoot, turning the ground back into Death's Land.
"No movement yet."
"Skeleton Princes, Knights, and Wizards all confirmed."
"Total count: ten thousand three hundred forty-one."
"The Maid from the city hall incident is there too."
The military had put reconnaissance drones in the air, and detailed intel was coming in. Footage from the drones played across the screen inside the vehicle.
In the forward command vehicle behind the front line sat me, Kayla, William Park, and the armored unit's colonel.
"Looks like they respawned after all, Lady Kayla."
William Park said it to Kayla. She had once floated a hopeful theory that the Maid and the rest of the undead army might not actually belong to the Eternal Gate. The Maid was clearly a being with free will, and nothing like that was supposed to exist inside a Gate. The same rule was said to apply to the Eternal Gate.
"...Unfortunately."
A hopeful theory was still just a hopeful theory. In the end, the Maid and her undead army had been confirmed as Eternal Gate natives. Respawn proved it. And that meant we would have to crush this army once a week.
"Do we sit and watch, or do we hit them first?"
The armored colonel asked William Park. William was the on-site commander. The two of them had fought side by side against skeletons in the last battle; they were comrades.
"Everything ready?"
"Yes. All ten tanks standing by."
The skeletons had come through the Eternal Gate ten minutes ago. In those ten minutes they had not moved at all, and in that window we had finished every combat preparation. Judging by the last fight, the skeletons might not move until someone poked them. Last time they had only started after Han Seongmin showed up.
"We go first. We have to kill them before we can even start thinking about a respawn countermeasure."
William Park's voice was as light as if he were heading out for a stroll in the hills behind his house. Given the force we had here, the reaction made sense.
Four S-class Keepers, Elena included. Thirty-five A-class Keepers. Kayla at B-class. Me — a D-class Keeper who fought like a C-class. Ten K-1 tanks. Two companies of regular infantry dug into fortified positions. Even ten thousand skeletons would melt in moments under that kind of firepower.
"All units, open fire simultaneously!"
A roar. One-hundred-five-millimeter muzzles spat shells. The rounds climbed against gravity and slammed straight into the skeleton formation on the mountainside.
A massive explosion shook the mountain. Even down here at the base we felt the vibration.
"Switch to Alpha armor-piercing. Everyone else, keep the high-explosive ready."
When the dust cloud that had blanked out the view settled a little, the enemy's condition came into focus. The first volley had erased about a third of the skeletons — a modest result for the size of the blast. The Wizards' defensive magic and the Knights' body-shielding had clearly cut the damage to the rank-and-file.
"Fire as planned!"
On the colonel's order the tank guns belched flame again. This time the shells were mixed. Armor-piercing, most likely. Two or three of them punched through Wizard barriers, split Knight shields, and kept flying. Even those powerful rounds managed only to shatter one of a Prince's arms. They never reached the Maid.
Both kinds of shell rained down on the skeletons. High-explosive blew ordinary skeletons apart; armor-piercing punched through the higher ranks. The skeleton numbers dropped fast. Three or four more minutes of this and every last one of them would be gone.
Of course that was never going to happen. If it had been that easy, only the army would have been here.
"Spatial transfer incoming! Position — on top of the tanks!"
Kayla shouted. She had drawn spatial-interference circles in advance, but she had no way to stop a transfer to a location that was already in plain sight.
Thuds. Skeleton Princes and hundreds of ordinary skeletons dropped onto the tanks mid-barrage.
"I'm going! Colonel, you have command!"
William Park, our strongest asset, threw open the top hatch and climbed out. The plan had been for the A-class Keepers to pin the Princes while the S-class finished them. Elena, already near the tanks, had locked weapons with the Maid.
"Skeletons at the Gate are spreading out."
"Infantry positions under skeleton attack."
"They're coming this way too!"
Timed with the spatial transfer, the skeletons on the mountainside fanned wide and charged. The infantry positions sat between the tank line and the mountainside; the teleported skeletons hit those positions as well. A few even came for our vehicle behind the tanks.
"Company commanders, attack as planned! Tanks, keep firing! Our vehicle falls farther back!"
William Park headed for the tanks and blasted the skeletons coming our way. After that, nothing else approached the vehicle.
"Skeleton force down to three thousand!"
"No tank damage!"
"Casualties mounting at the infantry positions! Requesting support!"
"Send one A-class Keeper! Now!"
Aside from a single Skeleton Prince that had broken into the infantry line, the overall situation was not bad. The descending skeleton force was being shredded helplessly by tank fire. The Princes attacking the tanks were half-cleared by the S-class Keepers. The infantry positions used magic-engineering tech to block Wizard spells and thinned the ordinary skeletons with rifles. Elena was holding the Maid well. No fatalities yet.
If time simply kept running, this would be our overwhelming victory.
Then the reason undead were undead revealed itself.
"Skeletons rising again on the mountainside!"
"Hundreds of skeletons spatial-transferring onto the infantry positions!"
"Skeleton Princes regenerating!"
We had been told that even undead struggled to regenerate once they were smashed to pieces. The pulverized skeletons rewound themselves like a reversed film and returned to their original forms. The Maid shifted briefly to the mountainside, gathered those skeletons, and teleported back onto the infantry positions.
The bigger problem was the Skeleton Princes' recovery. A Prince that had healed in an instant slammed a tank in the flank; the vehicle half-collapsed and its interior lay exposed.
"Jungmin..."
"I know. Elena — start now."
"Understood. By Lu's love."
The instant her answer came through the radio, I converted Essence into lust. My left arm turned blood-red at once. I reinforced my body with the amplified desire and opened a Gate on the spot. A blue circle the size of a fist appeared above my right hand.
"Elena, it's open! Ghk—!"
"Just hold on a little longer!"
My legs gave out. Kayla caught me as I crumpled. Convulsions racked me; my body flopped like a live fish while blood sprayed in every direction. Through the splitting headache I fought to keep the Gate open.
It hurt. I felt like I was dying. My whole body was coming apart. I had done this once before, but nothing about it felt familiar. If anything, it hurt worse.
"Jungmin, almost there! Just a little more, a little more..."
"...Show Your love in this place!"
⟨ Turn Undead ⟩
I had wanted to watch the cherry blossoms Elena raised properly this time, but my vision was too blurred to see them. A sudden spike of agony hit, and I vomited a massive amount of blood.
Cough. Cough.
Then the fang-like pain that had been stabbing me without pause vanished. My body was a wreck from the wounds the pain had torn open, but at least no new ones were forming.
"...Did it work?"
"Yeah. It's done. Rest a little."
"...I'm counting on you."
"Don't worry."
Listening to Kayla's voice, thick with certainty, I closed my eyes.
"Next time..."
I would stay conscious no matter what. Because Kayla got sad.
Kayla pulled out a potion and held it in her mouth. She covered Jungmin's blood-filled lips with her own and pushed the potion in. It was a special formula she had prepared for exactly this situation. The potion followed her mana into Jungmin's body and took effect at once.
"Haa... haa..."
His breathing eased, if only a little. Kayla smeared the remaining potion on his ears and nose and used mana to help it absorb. There were bloodstains on his cheeks as well — bloody tears that had run from his eyes. She wiped those marks away with her fingers too.
"How's the situation?"
"...Except for the Maid, every undead nearby has been annihilated."
"And the Maid?"
"Four S-class Keepers are ganging up on her."
"Tell them to finish her quickly. Give her an opening and the undead will probably come back."
When the undead had revived a moment ago, Kayla had sensed a massive transfer of power around the Maid. That power had almost certainly been what brought them back.
"Yes, ma'am!"
There was real force in the colonel's reply. Jungmin's sacrifice must have left an impression. Everyone here was risking their lives, but watching someone convulse and vomit blood right in front of you hit differently.
I hope this is the end of it...
Jungmin opening a Gate so Elena could cast Turn Undead had been this unit's final card. If the Maid had some other weapon, the casualties would be enormous. That was not what Jungmin wanted.
Powerless...
Kayla felt as if she had been thrown back to childhood, when she had first started learning magic. Not enough strength. Not enough knowledge. She still had not solved the energy continually leaking from her own body.
Master, there's still so much I need to learn...
"Maid disappearing! Partial undead regeneration in progress!"
At the soldier's report, Kayla swept the vehicle's screen. Fortunately it was only a few Princes regenerating. The skeletons that had already been reduced to powder had not all come back.
"Keepers engaging Princes. Clearing the descending skeleton horde."
An hour later, the battle was over.
Fatalities: zero. Wounded: one hundred eighteen. Tanks half-destroyed: one. Skeletons destroyed: ten thousand three hundred forty-one.
The results of a short fight.
When I opened my eyes, I saw canvas. I had expected a hospital ceiling, but apparently I was still in a field tent.
"You're awake."
"...Elena?"
"Yes, it's Elena. How do you feel?"
"I think I'm all right. What about you?"
"I'm fine too. Lady Kayla is unharmed as well. She's at a meeting right now."
Ah. That was why it had felt empty. Kayla wasn't here. She always used to be the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.
"How long was I out?"
"About half a day."
"What? Did you use recovery magic or something?"
"No. Lady Kayla's potion must have worked well."
Elena never used recovery magic on me when I was down. Without divinity, her healing spells burned through an absurd amount of mana. That would drain the mana sustaining her in an instant, and if I never woke up she would have no way to recharge and would simply vanish. In a true emergency she might have no choice — but I had forbidden it.
"That's a relief. What's the situation?"
"Everyone's safe. There are some wounded, but none in danger of dying. You took the worst of it, Jungmin. I heard you were spitting blood from your face..."
Why did that have to reach Elena's ears?
"I'm fine. Look — I recovered, didn't I?"
"No, even before this... All right. Pushing you only makes it harder for you. Next time... you'll do this again, won't you?"
Of course I would. But saying so would only make Elena sad.
"Next time I'll be strong enough that I don't collapse."
"...Me too."
The slight swelling under her resolute eyes made my own chest ache. I really did have to get stronger. And for that, I needed to resolve this situation quickly — including the energy still continually leaking from my left arm.
The tent flap rustled open and Kayla came in.
"You're up? I'd like to let you rest, but it looks like we go in tomorrow."
At last — entry into the Eternal Gate.