Chapter 813: Aftermath Cleanup
“A little more to the left!”
The battlefield where a fierce battle had been fought.
That battle ended in the Legion’s victory.
And the Demon Realm that had floated in the sky returned to its own domain.
It was a result worth celebrating.
But there was no time to remain intoxicated by that result.
“All right!”
THUD......!
Following the signals of the Legion members, enormous debris was cleared away.
In the course of the battle, the city that had been nearby and the surrounding environment were literally devastated.
The fortress of tremendous size had been miserably shattered, and its fragments were scattered in every direction.
As the Lord of Gold lost control over his power, even the enormous energies that had spread through the atmosphere turned into fragments of gold and scattered.
Naturally, this entire area...... no.
The scenery throughout North Korea had become so miserable that it was difficult to describe in words.
Right now, the Legion was concentrating on cleaning up after that battle.
“At least it is fortunate that the survivors of North Korea had already been rescued.”
“Since we won’t have to clear away people’s corpses and hold funerals.”
Fortunately, that prince had already rescued every survivor in North Korea.
Although communication had been somewhat lacking, making them appear half-oppressed at the time.
They were now receiving treatment at the Legion’s main base in South Korea.
It was fortunate that the loss of life had not been great.
“......Bimana.”
“Hmm.”
The other damage was still quite severe for the Legion as well.
In particular...... the Legion soldiers frowned as they looked at the remains of the enormous fortress lying in the middle of the battlefield.
“Over there, around that spot, was the barracks where I lived. It disappeared without leaving even a trace.”
“The barracks and everything else were all smashed apart, so it can’t be helped. It’s a miracle that the inner fortress survived at all.”
“I sometimes thought it was a little troublesome to leave my valuables in Chuncheon whenever Bimana went out on deployment...... but seeing this, I’m really glad I did.”
The mobile fortress, Bimana, which had been one of the Legion’s main strongholds.
The fortress now looked bizarrely destroyed because even its original spatial distortion had been undone.
It was certainly a fortress with great power and potential.
But Bimana had not yet reached its maximum level.
As a result of being deployed in a war against a divinity before its potential had reached its peak, it had been shattered into pieces.
“But that thing...... can it be repaired?”
“Hmm.”
When several soldiers asked curiously.
One of the Legion’s greatest production-class awakened.
Engineer Squad Leader Lee Gongwoo cautiously opened his mouth.
“......It might be a little difficult.”
“......What? D-don’t tell me.”
“It isn’t technically impossible. Bimana’s core technology is located in the central inner fortress. If the inner fortress wasn’t destroyed, it’s possible to somehow repair the other sections.”
There was a reason why the inner fortress alone had remained intact even during that fierce battle.
As the most important location, the inner fortress had been built to be even sturdier than the outer fortress.
The problem was.
“We don’t have the materials.”
Corporal Lee Gongwoo said while scratching his head.
“Materials?”
“You should have said so if that was the issue. If there are materials we lack, we can quickly obtain them.......”
“No, the Legion has already secured enough of most ordinary materials. That isn’t what I’m talking about.”
Bimana was not a fortress created by the Legion members.
It was an object belonging to the ‘special privileges’ obtained as a result of succeeding in the first Conquest War among humanity.
And according to the Legion’s experience, those special privileges were.
“Objects from another world.”
They were not things of this world.
Bimana was the same.
Most of Bimana’s core components were objects from another world...... some world called Babylonia that had created Bimana.
Its nearly gray appearance looked similar to modern steel at a glance, but in reality, it was something entirely different.
“If only the outer wall had been destroyed, Bimana’s system might still have been able to restore it somehow...... but with it damaged this badly.”
The engineers already understood the blueprints needed for the repairs.
But because it was a fortress made from otherworldly materials, they had no materials with which to rebuild it.
“Ah.......”
“There is no substance in this world similar to the material used for Bimana’s outer wall...... which means we would have to create it ourselves.”
The skills of the Legion’s engineers were tremendous.
Corporal Lee Gongwoo had even succeeded in breaking through level 40 not long ago.
Even the Chinese awakened who had joined just before this could not hide their astonishment at the skills displayed by the Legion’s engineers.
But even for them.
“There’s no way it would be easy to create a new substance that doesn’t exist anywhere on Earth, and specifically only the exact substance we want.”
It was practically a task of creating something from nothing.
Such a thing was no different from impossible.
‘For Corporal Lee Gongwoo to go so far as to say that.’
One of the people closest to the highest level among all the soldiers of the Legion had declared it impossible.
There was no way anyone else could do it either.
If there was someone who might possibly be capable of such a thing.......
“That.”
Not only in the Legion, but across all of humanity.
There was probably only one person.......
“There might be a way.”
“Legion Commander?”
The Legion members thought.
***
While the Legion members were talking and cleaning up the battlefield.
The Legion Commander, who had been inspecting another site, approached the engineers.
“O-oh, you’re here!”
“You seemed busy, yet you came all the way over here.”
“Ah, I was talking with the awakened who came from China, so it took a while.”
And the soldiers could not help but widen their eyes as they looked at Sergeant Shin Youngjun approaching.
Most of the soldiers here were veterans.
Like Corporal Lee Gongwoo, some of them had been together with that Legion Commander since the unit in the mountains.
So they were not surprised by his appearance itself.
The reason they were surprised...... was nothing else.
‘Sergeant Shin.’
‘Was his atmosphere always like that......?’
They had seen him not long ago.
Even before Bimana’s deployment.
But when the battle against Avaritia actually began, he had been floating in the sky, making it difficult to see him from close by.
What in the world had happened during that battle?
‘......He has changed completely.’
His ordinary height, which had been neither short nor tall, had noticeably increased.
He had possessed a fair amount of muscle due to frequent battles, but even his otherwise ordinary skeletal structure had changed.
Even the shape of his face and his skin seemed far better than before.
‘Rather than simply becoming more handsome...... how should I put it.’
Looking at him overall, it was true that he had become more handsome than before.
But as the Legion members looked at him, they felt something beyond that.
‘A sense of wonder.......’
There were times when humans felt attraction while looking at an extremely rational form.
Those who felt attraction toward thoroughly practical tanks and weapons did so for the same reason.
The emotion the Legion members felt now was the same.
As a result of undergoing [Body Reformation].
Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s body had acquired the greatest possible rationality and practicality that could be achieved in human form.
“......Ah, wait. Don’t tell me.”
The soldiers had been staring blankly at him.
But they soon recalled the words Sergeant Shin Youngjun had spoken when he appeared and opened their mouths.
“Sergeant Shin, are you saying you can create Bimana’s materials?”
The conversation among those gathered here had been about repairing Bimana.
A situation where they could not make repairs because they lacked the materials.
Creating a substance that did not exist in this world.
It was impossible for Corporal Lee Gongwoo.
But.
‘The Legion Commander already.......’
‘Fed those zombies that needed to consume a substance that did not exist in this world.’
Perhaps, if it was Sergeant Shin Youngjun.
It might even be possible for him to create such a new substance.......
That thought occurred to them.
***
......And.
Looking at the unit members, who plainly seemed to be thinking something strange, I opened my mouth with an incredulous expression.
“Do you really think that would work?”
“What?”
I was grateful that they thought highly of my abilities.
But sometimes, these bastards placed absurd expectations on me.
Well, to be precise.
“It isn’t completely impossible.”
“S-so you’re saying it is possible!”
“......It would take far too much time and effort.”
When cooking that [Stat-Increasing Potion], I had even used pressure comparable to nuclear fusion...... so if I somehow struggled through it in that manner, it might be possible to create Bimana’s materials as well.
But it would only be possible.
It would not be an easy task even for me.
Above all.
“There’s an easier method, so is there any need to take the long way around?”
“......?”
The method I was talking about was nothing so difficult.
“Try using those.”
“Those are.”
When I pointed toward something.
The soldiers who saw it tilted their heads in confusion.
“Gold.......”
“Isn’t that something the lord left behind?”
Until not long ago, it had filled the atmosphere of this land, but now it had become mineral and was scattered everywhere.
It was Avaritia’s gold.
“It ended up like that now. But that is an object containing the power to manipulate laws.”
That was what had come out each time Avaritia breathed...... his power itself.
Because he had used that power so violently in the battle against us, there was also a tremendous amount of residue left behind.
Even we could not properly manipulate laws unless we raised the power of every awakened through cooking.
One awakened who was somewhere near the level of an incomplete god and a group of awakened slightly below that level gathered together and clumsily imitated a divinity.
But that was the pure power of a genuine divinity itself.
“You remember the sensation from when we manipulated our light, right?”
“.......”
“Try handling it while recalling that sensation. If you imagine the property you want...... this will take on that property.”
While giving them that advice.
I thought to myself.
‘The unit members will also need to learn the sensation of handling this power.’
The power to manipulate ‘laws,’ which even I could only use incompletely.
In the recent battle against Avaritia, I had used Mirinae’s formation to somehow utilize the unit members’ light.
Naturally, it would be better for every awakened to freely manipulate that power than to rely on a formation.
Originally, it would have been impossible for them to handle that power at this point, but we had gained that experience through a somewhat unusual method.
If they refined the sensation they had already experienced as much as possible, they would be able to display even greater power when the same kind of battle occurred later.
‘No matter how you look at it, I am still far from transcendence.’
Until then, I had to fight together with the Legion members.
If another battle involving the power of laws occurred like this one, the abilities of the Legion members would also be important.
Perhaps it should be called fortunate.
“Y-yes, certainly......!”
“This...... I think it will work!”
“No, beyond that...... if we use this, it might become a material far better than the original......!”
The awakened who had already handled that sensation quickly began to acquire the know-how.
Bimana, most of which had been shattered apart except for its foundation and inner fortress.
The original broken materials and fragments of gold began adhering to it, and the repairs commenced.
“Do you think the repairs will go well?”
“Yes!”
“This gold...... is almost as easy to handle as playing with clay.”
“If we use this...... Bimana also has an automatic repair function. No matter how enormous Bimana is, I think the repairs can be completed within a month.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
And while looking at them.
I cautiously opened my mouth.
“Sorry if it sounds like I’m rushing you...... but can you reduce that month to roughly three weeks?”
“What? Hmm...... if we hurry, it might be possible...... but why.”
“It’s nothing special.”
I closed my eyes and opened my vision.
The figures of the Legion members that had been visible before me disappeared.
And a slightly broader field of vision filled my mind.
A scorching desert, a cold glacier, beautiful plains, and a surging sea.
The scent of...... survivors still alive all across the world.
And...... there was one promise I had made to them.
“I think we need to get it airborne as quickly as possible.”
If they endured for just a little longer.
We would come for them.