Near the barrier stones where Hugo had lowered his altitude to approach, the cries of the members and the howls of the monsters intermingled.
The creatures crawling up the layered barriers fell to the ground in droves when struck by the golems’ blunt arms. But they quickly rose again, as if drawn by something, digging their claws into the wall and pressing their bodies tightly together.
Sensing something suspicious in their movement, Hugo signaled Delua, who was holding out, to retreat. As the golems that received the signal swiftly withdrew, he immediately pulled up an ice wall across the entire ground within a 1km radius.
As new ice walls suddenly rose with narrow gaps, the monsters clinging to the existing walls were crushed between them. Metallic sounds burst from their compressed vocal organs, and they spewed bodily fluids from their entire bodies as if being squeezed.
It seemed the most urgent ones were dealt with this way, but the real problem was only beginning.
Suddenly, a sharp wind whirled through the air, and a mysterious vibration came from beyond the ice wall. Following this, black waves appeared from all directions, instantly coloring the vast land—or rather, countless somethings surged toward them, raising clouds of dust.
Hugo’s eyes narrowed at this phenomenon, which felt like some kind of omen. Instinctively, the unbelievable sight he had seen with Leonardo on the ridge not long ago came to mind.
Four-legged monsters running madly—clearly a herd of Dermocas.
‘Did they come at the mother body’s call?’
During the meeting, opinions had been divided on whether the weakened mother body could control the Dermocas, but in the end, it had been a needless worry.
As the creatures beyond the wall rapidly approached, Hugo erected several layers of barriers there as well, creating obstacles they couldn’t easily overcome. Then, to eliminate them, he drew thick water snakes from the ground and sent cold air to the cloudy areas in the distance, making hailstones pour down.
However, the clever ones didn’t expose their bodies above ground. Instead, they burrowed underground to avoid the attacks falling from above. Eventually, they targeted the base supporting the massive barrier, toppling the ice walls erected at regular intervals like dominoes. The ice that teetered and fell shattered miserably, unable to withstand the impact.
Once a path was breached, what followed was swift and decisive. The creatures focused on forcing their way through the opening, charging toward the defense line protecting the barrier stones.
The momentum was so threatening that Hugo, who had been watching, rose again into the sky. Then, gauging the speed of the creatures, he aligned hundreds of ice spears on either side of himself.
The straight projectiles spread out to the left and right like crane wings. Hugo aimed their tips at the monsters, pointing the spear in his hand forward. As his arm lightly traced an arc from left to right, the ice crystals glittering in the light shot forward like machine-gun fire.
The ice, cutting through the wind, flew over the final barrier protecting the defense line and barrier stones, instantly piercing the heads of the Dermocas charging with fierce momentum. The savage burst of their bodily fluids soaked the ground and walls, filling the vicinity with the sizzling sound of boiling ice and earth.
Nero, arriving a beat later to face this scene, was quite surprised—though he didn’t show it.
‘He can cast magic simultaneously over such a wide range?’
He looked back and forth between the magic unfolding in the distance and Hugo, blinking once before extinguishing the flames he had formed in both hands. No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like help was needed.
Although the captain had asked him to assist the Commander, there was no reason to expose his own mana in front of someone who was single-handedly doing the work of a hundred—or more. At the same time, he couldn’t understand why the captain had looked so anxious about such a person.
However, Hugo’s condition was not as good as it appeared to Nero’s eyes. The damage and fatigue from the battle had significantly narrowed his field of vision, making him realize only belatedly that there was something strange about the monsters’ movements.
The creatures trapped inside the barrier stones were pointing their heads northward, while those outside were trying to cross to this side. This inconsistency gave Hugo pause.
‘Could it be...’
At first glance, the creatures seemed to be struggling to escape from this place, but in the end, not a single one had actually crossed the wall. The same was true for those beyond it. Despite charging so fiercely, none had actually come inside.
At that moment, Hugo’s eyes caught sight of the black waves beyond the opaque ice wall, gradually rising in level. The leaping Dermocas seemed to be clinging to the surface of the wall, pressing their bodies tightly together.
Alarmed by this suspicious movement, his gaze snapped downward. He saw that the massive clump of gathered monsters had already shifted from the foot of the mountain, expanding near the ice wall.
There was no need to think further. Hugo frowned and hurled the last ice spear he was holding with all his might toward the center of the creatures. However, before the vertically falling spear could embed itself, the monsters swarming near the impact point gathered like a whirlwind and surged upward. It looked as if they were trying to swallow the spear.
For a moment, the creatures sacrificing their bodies were pierced by the sharp tip, cushioning the impact. Then an ominous light leaked brightly from between the monsters. At the same time, as a hot wave swept down from the sky, Hugo’s eyelids flew wide as he looked between the Dermocas and the light.
“A detonator?”
Uttering the words as if in a trance, he instantly teleported near the ice wall.
Nero, who had been staring at the leaking light with a dumbfounded expression, also glanced around before moving toward the members, following him.
But by the time the two of them stood in front of the barrier stones and members to shield them, their vision had already been dyed completely white.
The glowing, destructive beam engulfed the area, and the solid ice wall—covered with monsters—was half-destroyed and blown away in an instant.
*****
Pas-s-s-s-
The sound of fine dust scattering and sweeping across the ground seemed particularly loud. Silence had settled all around, making the scene ravaged by the explosion even more miserable.
“Cough, cough-, ...gasp.”
Delua, lying face down in the ashes and coughing constantly, suddenly opened her eyes wide at the dull pain in her abdomen. She hurriedly took a breath and minimized her movements, but the spreading pain smothered her voice.
Even so, she managed to twist her upper body and roll onto her back, finding a position that minimized the pressure. Then she slowly felt along her stomach and side with an arm that seemed numb, as if it had bent the wrong way.
“Hiss, ugh....”
Soon, as something like a sharp thorn brushed her palm, her eyes—scrunched up in pain—squeezed shut. For a brief moment, she thought about staying like this, but leaving a wound untreated in a volcanic area full of heavy metals could lead to tetanus at best, and necrosis in severe cases.
Finally, her face strained with bulging veins, she gritted her teeth and grasped the rock fragment embedded in her stomach with all her might. Then, after moving her trembling hand up and down a few times, she yanked out the thorn-like, long fragment in one go.
Chwak-
“Uwaaaaagh!”
Her mouth opened involuntarily at the pain, so sharp it felt like it would roll her eyes back. Her own voice, sounding as if she might lose her breath, scraped harshly against her fear-filled ears.
The sensation of being instantly covered in blood—from her abdomen to her face—was beyond anything that could be called the worst.
Any thought of staying quiet because there might be monsters nearby flew completely {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} out the window. Her instinct screamed through the pain spreading uncontrollably: live. Her limbs, seized by the fear of death, flailed and scraped at the ground.
“Huu-hic... huu-ick....”
Rough sobs—unclear whether they were groans or cries—spilled from her lips. Delua, clutching her gushing stomach, couldn’t move from her spot for a while.
However, the situation didn’t allow her the luxury of sobbing. This was because an eerie movement was detected from far away, blurred by the vast dust cloud.
‘It,’ with its huge, massive body, raised its head amid the falling corpses.
After roaring fiercely at the world, it soon spread its wings wide and floated up into the sky. Then it slipped easily through the broken barrier and leisurely escaped the scene of the explosion.
Holding her breath, Delua’s eyes slowly widened as they followed the creature’s trajectory. At that moment, strength returned to her waist and abdomen, which hadn’t been moving, and she jerked her upper body up.
Covered in tears and sweat, she pulled an artifact from her pocket with trembling hands. What she urgently found inside was a teleportation magic tool.
Delua set the magic tool on the ground, then, as if in a trance, input the specific coordinates she had been memorizing all along. Anxiously chewing her lips, she created a temporary portal in front of her.
Struggling to rise and limping, she still leapt into the portal without looking back. All the while, only one person’s face kept circling in her mind.
‘Marlen...!’
