Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Undead at the Border
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The border wall blocking Tijuana in northern Mexico and San Diego in the United States had collapsed.
It was the work of five Undead-type Mutants.
The Governor of California had asked his own country's Mutants for help in this unprecedented crisis, but the only one who responded was the High Elf-type Mutant, Sia.
Sia let out a sigh as she gazed at the army before her. She wasn't here out of any sense of duty. She was simply honoring her agreement with the Governor of California.
Of course, the other Mutants who weren't bound by any such deal had quietly backed out. They had no intention of sacrificing themselves for the Governor, even if it killed them.
It wasn't an incomprehensible mindset.
The Governor of California had never been particularly friendly toward Mutants to begin with.
He had simply accepted Sia's proposal because of the vision she presented and the benefits it would bring to California.
Sia knew that much. She was well aware that her relationship with the Governor was purely business.
Perhaps that was why the other Mutants, who knew what kind of man he was, refused to help her.
Sia respected their decision.
Who would willingly go out of their way for a Governor who had rejected them?
If she herself hadn't been trying to sprout a World Tree in this world, she probably wouldn't have stayed here either.
She had come here of her own accord because she had her own goals.
However... this situation was giving her a massive headache in every way.
The Undead-type Mutants she had to face were incredibly powerful.
Liches that could raise corpses and preserve their full combat abilities.
Dullahans clad in armor of unknown material that shrugged off modern firepower, slaughtering the subjugation teams.
And there wasn't just one or two of them.
Two Liches and three Dullahans.
It was enough to terrify even the toughest Mutants.
Sia didn't show it, but she knew there was no chance of victory.
Even if she maximized her High Elf abilities, those things were specialized in stealing life itself.
They were natural counters to her plant-manipulating powers.
Still, San Diego wouldn't fall easily.
She could at least buy some time.
After all, San Diego was both a resort city and a military hub.
If they used heavy firepower to burn the corpses raised by the Liches, they could hold out for a while.
But that was the limit.
The subjugation teams had already proven it.
Ordinary weapons couldn't even scratch those monsters.
To take them down, they'd probably need to nuke them, but who would do that?
Using nukes on their own soil would create a post-blast cleanup nightmare.
Then again, who knew.
If things got too dire, they might launch one anyway.
The funny part was, even a nuke might not stop that army of the dead.
Sia sighed.
It was a headache-inducing mess all around.
She wanted to ask Seo-hyun for help, but what right did she have to make that request?
No, even if she did, someone in Korea right now couldn't just drop everything and come.
She had no choice but to hold out alone.
How long she could last was anyone's guess.
* * *
Liches and Dullahans.
Once known as Robert, Daniel, Christopher, Kevin, and Brian, they glared at San Diego in the distance.
Soon.
Soon, they could deliver a massive blow to the United States that had rejected them.
Ever since Mutants appeared in the world, they—as Undead-type Mutants—had faced nothing but rejection.
Other Mutants could at least blend into human society, but they had lost everything and endured the world's hatred-filled stares.
Even though they hadn't done anything wrong!
It was other Mutants causing incidents, so why were they the targets of hate?
They couldn't understand it.
It happened countless times.
Every time a Mutant crime occurred, they were treated as suspects despite their innocence.
How ridiculous was that?
Just because they were Undead, just because of their sudden mutation, they were suspects for crimes they didn't commit.
Each time, Robert wanted to tear everything apart.
His lover who abandoned him, his parents who abandoned him...
His four comrades were the same. They too had their lives stripped away.
They had been abandoned by everything and rejected by all.
Robert headed to Mexico with four other Mutants in similar straits.
Better to commit real crimes than suffer for ones they didn't do—might as well go out with a bang.
And so, in just a month, they seized a northern Mexico drug cartel.
It was only natural.
They were Undead.
Immortal beings.
Even if their bodies were shattered, regeneration didn't take long.
Modern firearms? Even if turned to ash, they came back.
Something like magical power, they figured.
Realizing that, Robert knew he had nothing left to fear.
Nuclear weapons? They could survive a direct hit, he was sure.
They raised corpses, built an army of the dead, and took over the cartel.
Their goal was simple: kill everyone who rejected them.
The indiscriminate chain of hatred had turned them into monsters.
They carved out what little humanity remained and tortured and tore apart subjugation teams in the most brutal ways.
And now.
They were ready to cross the Mexico border and invade the United States.
* * *
Sia looked at the soldiers spread out across San Diego.
All she could sense in their eyes was fear.
It was natural. The U.S. subjugation teams weren't ordinary forces.
If even they had been wiped out... it meant these soldiers were in danger too.
But Sia saw it all as their own doing.
Why had they indiscriminately projected their hatred onto innocent Mutants?
If they hadn't, at least this wouldn't have happened.
'People only regret when disaster strikes, huh? Exactly like that.'
Sia stood up.
She didn't know if she could stop them, but she had to try her best.
She couldn't bear to watch her World Tree trampled by these incarnations of hate.
She raised her hand. The natural elements that had heeded her call rose with intent.
Then, thousands of trees infused with will began intertwining.
Crunch-crunch-!
'...No guarantee this will hold them back.'
The tree roots twisted together, forming a colossal shape.
Root Giant.
The strongest force to protect the World Tree's proxy revealed itself at the border.
And the moment the giant appeared, the Liches and Dullahans moved.
* * *
Robert let out a hollow laugh at the sight of the enormous root giant in the middle of the border and the High Elf riding atop it.
He'd heard rumors before.
About a freak High Elf obsessively growing Giant Sequoias.
That Elf living in California had won people's favor with her striking appearance, apparently.
Probably living in luxury, unlike them, who were miserably rejected.
How absurd.
Just a difference in mutated appearance led to such treatment.
Robert couldn't accept that.
No matter how much the world ran on luck, this was too much.
His aimless rage intensified. His comrades' auras surged similarly.
The two Liches, Robert and Christopher, raised their hands.
Then, countless corpses—former northern Mexico residents and U.S. soldiers—gathered, forming a massive, grotesque shape.
A frame of human arms and legs, wings of human skin.
A head of human faces.
A being that inspired terror and revulsion just by looking at it finally took form.
Corpse Dragon.
The Corpse Dragon's mere breath melted the ground. Deadly corpse poison at a horrific level.
An ordinary human would melt away in seconds near it.
-Go.
Along with the Corpse Dragon, the Dullahans charged forward toward the root giant.
* * *
Sia felt at a loss. How the hell was she supposed to stop that?
No answer.
The monstrous Corpse Dragon was bad enough, but those mad Dullahans were worse.
The root giant wouldn't last long. Once it fell, her options would be limited.
Modern firepower didn't work on the Corpse Dragon either. Grenades, carpet bombing—nothing fazed it.
'What the hell is that? How many months mutated are those things?'
Honestly, in terms of threat level, they dwarfed the Demon-type Mutant that appeared in Korea.
What was the U.S. thinking, turning monsters like that into enemies?
Sia started feeling uneasy. She couldn't stop them.
And the moment she thought that, the root giant shattered under the corpse poison and Dullahan assault.
'We're screwed.'
The root giant was her strongest defense. The World Tree wasn't complete yet, limiting her power.
One wrong move, and she could die.
The Corpse Dragon drew closer. Sia shouted.
“Run!”
As she yelled and the U.S. soldiers scrambled to flee, the surroundings suddenly darkened.
“…Huh?”
Looking up at the sudden darkness, Sia could only gape.
There, incomparable to the crawling Corpse Dragon on the ground... was a real dragon.
Seo-hyun had finally arrived in the United States.
* * *
I saw the massive, repulsive fake dragon.
The moment I laid eyes on it, rage boiled up inside me.
It was made from human corpses.
Worse, those damn things had mimicked a dragon's form with that pile of bodies.
How dare they.
The thought came unbidden.
Racial pride or whatever—it urged me to clear that insult from my sight.
Without hesitation, I gathered the surging power within me.
Around my mouth in dragon form, an immense force amassed.
Judging it ready, I unleashed it all.
Rooooaaar-!
My maximum-output Breath blasted toward the corpse-made dragon.