Chapter 826: Coming to Meet Them
The group of awakened the Legion members had come to find. An enormous number of monsters blocked the path leading to them.
“What will you do?”
Looking at that sight, the Legion’s staff officers spoke.
“The place where the survivors are expected to be is a little farther north from here. Fortunately, it isn’t somewhere at the very edge of Russia, and all we need to do is keep advancing north from the Chinese territory where we are now.......”
“Even so, it will still be quite a distance. If we try to break through in the same way as we have until now, it will take a considerable amount of time.”
Moving an army was not easy. Even covering the same distance they had traveled so far had taken a considerable amount of time. It would probably be the same from here on.......
“No.”
Or so it seemed.
“If those things devour everything around them, doesn’t that mean all the territory occupied by those things has become flat ground?”
Monsters that devoured other matter, converted it into mana, and grew and divided through that mana. Thanks to that, the Russian border city that should originally have been here had disappeared without leaving even a trace.
“......That’s true.”
“The space packed with those monsters probably isn’t simply flat ground either. They must have eaten deep into the earth itself. Though since the strength of each individual monster isn’t quite that transcendent, they probably haven’t dug too deeply.”
“If that’s the case...... hmm.”
Corporal Jeon Gwangil pulled out the map he carried with him, then unfolded it and spoke.
“From here.”
The place where the Legion members were currently located.
“To here.”
The location where the awakened were presumed to have settled, based on Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s observations.
“Everything between them has been devoured by those monsters...... in other words.”
Corporal Jeon Gwangil connected the two points with a line. And, with a faint smile, he said.
“It’s a space with no variables whatsoever...... nothing but monsters.”
Moving an army was not easy. Because it was necessary to consider many variables, not merely advance forward. But not now.
“I was already getting a headache from holding meetings every time some variable came up.”
It was impossible to exterminate every last one of those monsters. But their immediate objective was not exterminating those monsters, but securing the awakened.
In that case.
“Now we just have to use our bodies.”
Simply advancing while fighting, without thinking about anything else. That was...... practically Corporal Jeon Gwangil’s specialty.
***
The being called the Witch of Snow. In her homeland, she had been a being who reigned from a considerably high position. Although she had fallen into an unfamiliar environment and her power had weakened, she was still able to wield a considerable portion of her abilities.
One of those abilities was being able to look around nearby places through the vision of snow.
And.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.......
“Someone...... is fighting.”
Something began to appear within that vision.
Very far away. Somewhere out there, there were people fighting against those endlessly multiplying monsters.
'Have those things finally spread beyond the territory of this land?'
At first, she thought those monsters had multiplied until they reached another country. She wondered whether the awakened who had survived beyond the barrier had also been attacked and a battle had broken out.
But that was not the case.
'......They weren’t attacked. They’re the ones advancing.'
The people fighting that battle were not holding the monsters back. They were killing the monsters and continuing to advance.
They must be able to see the endless numbers of those monsters as well. And yet there were people who had deliberately chosen to fight such an enormous number of monsters.
It was something she simply could not understand.
Then, she noticed one more thing.
'That direction is.'
For some reason, those people had picked a fight with those monsters.
But.
The more their artillery spewed flames, the clearer her vision of them became.
Her power became stronger the closer the target was.
Which meant.......
'They’re coming toward us......!'
Their advance was heading toward the place where she was.
“What are you looking at, Witch.......”
“Those people.”
The Witch of Snow. Originally, she had been nothing more than an outsider in this land. No matter how much she had traded with the humans of this land, in the end, she was a being who could never truly belong here.
But...... before they were betrayed by those demons. She had experienced something strange.
[You have awakened!]
At that time.
She had clearly seen it.
A translucent window that had suddenly appeared before her. Beyond that window.
A being holding a small knife, carving the laws of this world according to its own taste.
They did not look exactly the same.
“Those are the ones, little one.”
But the power she could feel from them.
Within it, there was unmistakably a trace of the being she had seen back then.
“The Legion is coming......!”
The Witch of Snow was certain that those people were connected to the one who had carved into that ‘System.’
“......!”
The eyes of the old man, Vasily, widened at those words.
Looking at him, the Witch shouted.
“But...... even if it’s them, it won’t be easy to defeat the monsters surrounding us...... so we’ll have to fight together as well. Hurry and prepare.......”
At her words.
Vasily lightly shook his head and said.
“There will be no need for that kind of preparation.”
“What? What are you talking about? You were the one who said we needed to tell the others something.......”
“We did reach this land for the sake of your recovery, Witch. But those monsters have always attacked us. They must be trying to devour us and pass through this land we are holding in order to swallow even more territory. Even now, our people are fighting outside.”
The old man lifted his enormous axe and grinned.
“There has never been a time when we were not prepared to fight.”
“......!”
BAM!
The old man roughly threw open the door and shouted as he stepped outside.
“Nikolai! Natalia! Viktor! Are you there!”
“Yes, Chairman!”
“We’re here!”
Answering the old man’s call, they immediately showed themselves.
They were the officers of Russia’s last awakened guild, [People’s Council].
“Tell every warrior. We are abandoning the defensive line here in Oymyakon and heading outside.”
“What? Don’t tell me...... we have to flee even farther to the rear?”
“No. The opposite.”
“By the opposite...... you mean you intend to advance forward!?”
“As expected, I like how quickly you understand.”
At Vasily’s words, the officers’ faces turned pale.
“T-That’s impossible! No matter how much stronger the power the Witch taught us has become in this place......!”
“It is impossible to break through them. Or perhaps...... has the Witch’s power fully recovered?”
“Unfortunately, no. According to the Witch, it seems she still hasn’t recovered even half of her original power.”
“T-Then why.......”
“The Legion is coming toward us.”
“......!”
The officers had been listening to Vasily in confusion.
Their faces filled with even greater shock than when they heard that they were abandoning this land and advancing forward.
“You haven’t forgotten the promise they carved into the System, have you.”
“......How could we forget? Whenever we use the System window, that phrase is always written in the corner.”
A phrase written in one corner of every awakened person’s System window.
A promise that someday...... the Legion would come to find them.
“It seems now is the time when they intend to keep that promise.”
“.......”
“They are coming to find us. But...... as all of you know, that path will never be an easy one. So.”
The face of the old man, somewhat exhausted from the long battle.
A wild smile appeared across it.
“Shouldn’t we go out to meet them as well?”
“Of course, the enemies are strong. Perhaps some of us may lose our lives and fall just before reaching them. So...... I want you to fight with me one more time, prepared to die. Can you do it?”
At those words.
The adjutants answered with faint smiles.
“Sure, let’s do it.”
“We would have died in the last battle anyway if it weren’t for the help of that light.”
“Betting our lives one more time shouldn’t be that difficult.”
The adjutants hurried away.
From those currently fighting on the front line to those waiting for the next combat rotation.
The order was quickly passed to every warrior belonging to [People’s Council].
Those who heard the order were confused by the sudden news, but the moment they heard the name Legion, a strange light appeared in their eyes.
“Open it!”
And soon.
The wall they had managed to build with great difficulty after desperately escaping through fierce battles.
“We’ll be the ones to go find the Legion first!”
That wall opened.
And instead of the Legion, it was the Council that began moving to find the Legion.
***
“Advance!”
“For the victory of the Legion!”
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.......
The endless battle continued amid fierce artillery fire.
The Legion members advanced while slaughtering the countless monsters blocking their path.
If there was a problem.
'The road ahead is too long.'
Their objective was to join the survivors somewhere beyond those monsters.
The distance to the village believed to be where the survivors were located was approximately 1,200 kilometers in a straight line.
The fact that the monsters had devoured all of the terrain between them, eliminating the need to take complicated detours, was an advantage, but the problem was that they still had to travel that distance while breaking through those monsters.
No matter how close to endless the Legion members’ stamina might be, there was no question that it would not be easy.
“These things fight pretty well, all things considered......!”
But even so.
“Maybe that’s why they seem to give a lot of experience too!”
“Exactly! With them coming endlessly like this, it’s almost like some kind of bonus stage!”
There was no fear or worry on the faces of the Legion members carrying out that operation.
If anything, they were delighted as they cut down the endless enemies and watched their experience increase explosively.
It was not because those monsters were weak.
Nor was it because this mission was easy.
'We’ve even fought something like Avaritia. This much is nothing.'
They had already fought enemies far more dangerous than these.
They knew that the enemies they were fighting now were also sufficiently strong and dangerous beings.
But the battles they had experienced were simply far too intense for them to be afraid of something at this level.
Securing supply routes and planning routes for a stable advance.
When they had to use their heads for tasks like that, there was no choice but to worry about all sorts of things.
There was also the pressure that the moment they failed and delayed the advance, people who could have been saved might die.
But...... if it was a situation where they did not have to worry about any of that and only had to fight, then it was a different story.
'Whatever crisis comes, it can’t be worse than that time.'
They were people who had even won a battle against a complete divinity.
The confidence that they would somehow be able to overcome any crisis had been firmly engraved in their hearts.
And perhaps because the monsters had sensed that there was something unusual about their momentum.
-GRAAAAAARGH!
“Hmm?”
The monsters that had been blocking their path.
Their movements suddenly began to change.
Until now, they had merely been standing in the way.
When attacked, they had responded mechanically, but even that had seemed to be nothing more than instinct.
Monsters had remained behind even after the Legion broke through and passed them, but the monsters farther away had not targeted them.
Not anymore.
“This is.......”
“It seems they’ve recognized us as enemies.”
The monsters changed their behavior and began actively attacking the Legion members.
Even the monsters in the distance came rushing over, filling the rear through which the Legion had passed.
The already enormous number of monsters surged toward them without leaving any gaps and pressed in around them.
Like white blood cells trying to eliminate a pathogen that had entered their body.
The monsters threw themselves at them without even caring about their own deaths.
As the resistance became fiercer, the Legion members’ advance inevitably slowed somewhat.
Just when it seemed their speed would be reduced like that...... at that very moment.
FWAAAAASH.......
Above the battlefield where the fierce battle was taking place.
Somewhere in the sky, a dark gray energy gathered together.
Because it was hidden by the haze created by the artillery fire, the monsters noticed the anomaly a little too late.
......Of course, even if they had noticed it earlier, it would not have changed anything.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
“......!”
The enormous mass of gathered energy spread outward at tremendous speed.
And when that wave of dark gray energy swept across the battlefield once.
“All those things.......”
“They’re gone.”
The monsters within the area covered by the energy disappeared without leaving even their forms behind.
The monsters that had filled an area several kilometers in radius had been erased in a single strike.
Among those currently belonging to the Continental Expeditionary Force, there was only one being capable of such a thing.......
“Prince!”
[Awakened : Parasite B-36S Aberrant Mutant Individual (5th Evolution)]
[Lv.69 Prince of Death]
A vessel capable of containing even the soul of a divinity.
And the zombies following him joined the battlefield.