The sky was still bright.
Whether the world had ended or not, the scenery of the dense mountain range where our unit was stationed remained beautiful.
But.
Right there in the middle of that clear blue sky.
‘Something is there.’
I could not see ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) it.
It did not feel like it had a physical body either.
But.
[Your retained divine power detects an external presence.]
A something with an absurdly overwhelming presence was definitely looking down at this place.
“You...”
My hands and feet were shaking.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
“What the hell are you.”
Even though it was only looking down at this place from far away, my whole body screamed in terror.
It was only a short moment, but I could be sure.
Those worthy of being called gods, who destroyed Dasmur, who drove Miho to despair.
‘A being of the same kind as those.’
Something in such a far higher dimension that it could look down on humans like insects.
“Se-Sergeant Shin?”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
Was I the only one here who could sense that being?
The rest of the soldiers seemed merely flustered by the air that had suddenly changed.
They looked puzzled at the words I muttered.
But there was no leisure to answer that question.
‘Why did it appear up there? What is it trying to do?’
My gaze was stolen by the something that had appeared up there.
But a moment later.
[...]
I realized one thing.
In contrast to me being overwhelmed by that existence, that existence did not even think I was worth paying attention to.
Even though it would know that I noticed it, it ignored me as if I was not even worth its eyes. It did not spare even the smallest interest.
“Ha, haha.”
No matter how great it was, to be ignored this brazenly was insulting.
“That hurts my pride.”
Whether I was thinking that or not, the existence was simply impassive.
It looked down at the ground and carried out what it intended to do.
Srrrr...
“These bastards.”
“...Are they... growing old?”
The five [Demon Contractors] who had been subdued by us and had their faces shoved into the floor.
Among them were a young man, a middle-aged man who looked quite old, a woman, a man, but the skin of all of them rapidly lost its elasticity.
‘Aging.’
It was a grotesque sight.
The time of ordinary humans was rapidly speeding up.
From youth to middle age.
From middle age to old age.
As if their life was being brought forward in an instant.
As if they were burning up their life in a blink.
‘Figures.’
As if they were offering up their lives to the being above.
‘Demon. So this is it.’
There is only one being capable of doing something like this.
The one that had just been staring back at me.
The existence the Demon Contractors had summoned.
A being that craves human souls.
A greedy existence.
“What is this...”
The soldiers seemed flustered by the sudden phenomenon, backing away.
“Eyes front.”
“...Sir?”
Humans aging in an instant. There is no way that kind of aging was the phenomenon they wished for.
‘They would not have put on that whole act just because they wanted to grow old.’
This is probably the price paid to trigger the phenomenon he desired.
“Weapons up. Execute.”
If so, there is no room to let our guard down.
“...Yes!”
“Execute!”
Fortunately, our unit has been through every trial and tribulation.
The time they spent flustered was short.
The moment my order fell, the soldiers immediately steeled themselves and their eyes shifted to those befitting legionaries.
‘If they paid that much, it is not going to be something ordinary.’
My soldiers and I took up our respective weapons and guarded the surroundings.
And it was not long before.
Screeech...
“Holy...”
“What the hell is that now, damn it.”
Same as when the Spirit of Darkness appeared last time.
The surrounding light vanished and darkness settled.
“What do you think it is.”
The invisible something that had appeared in the air.
I could not clearly see it, but I could feel it opening its mouth.
Ptooey.
And spitting something out from inside it.
“An enemy.”
Thud.
What hit the ground was a monster in the form of a very large beast.
“Ha, haha...! Wail in despair!”
A man whose aging had progressed to the point his bones were showing shouted in a dry voice.
“The minion of the Great One has descended upon this land...!”
“Tsk.”
I did not like the man’s attitude, but I had no leisure to look his way.
I looked up at the sky.
The existence that had been exuding an overwhelming presence, the [Demon]’s presence could no longer be felt.
‘So it finished its business and has no interest in us.’
That megalomaniacal attitude annoyed me a bit, but there was nothing I could do right now.
The [Demon]’s presence had vanished entirely, but a monster radiating a tremendous presence in a different sense had appeared right in front of me.
‘It is huge.’
The mountain range where the 423rd Battalion was situated was thick with large trees.
However, the monster stood so towering that even those trees looked small.
Its pitch-black skin glistened with something like oily coal tar, and innumerable coarse, thorn-like growths jutted from its four massive legs.
Thoom...
When it took a single step, the surrounding trees toppled like grass.
‘So it has a physical body.’
It did have black skin like that [Spirit of Darkness], but unlike a spirit, it seemed to have a corporeal body.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Barghast]
[A beast dwelling in the demon’s domain, Hell.]
[Due to its extremely acrid nature it is not commonly favored as an ingredient, but in the case of certain races it is prized to the point that they cannot get enough.]
It was the first time facing an enemy that massive since the [Pope of the Deep Ones].
No. In sheer size, it looked far larger than the pope.
If we fought it while keeping our feet on the ground, at best I could probably reach its ankle.
But.
‘Our guild has not been idle in the meantime.’
From what I saw in the memories of the [Chef of Dasmur], the pope we fought was practically on the verge of death from old age.
Even so, it was a formidable foe that drove over a hundred of our guild members into crisis.
But if we were to redo that boss fight now, I am confident we could subdue that pope from back then without major losses.
We have grown that much.
By contrast, when viewed on the [Combat Power Meter] that beast was a very deep green.
‘If it were a bit stronger it might have shown up as blue.’
Be that as it may, green.
Our unit has already fought monsters of that level many times.
And.
“You all ate well, right?”
All of them ended up becoming my ingredients.
Comparing objective force, there is no way my soldiers lose.
“Let’s work, kids.”
“Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty!”
The instant the order was given, the soldiers pulled combat rations from their coats and ate.
A gigantic behemoth that had suddenly appeared from midair. They were cowed for only a moment at the sight.
“Heh heh... That is a body that looks worth pounding in for the first time in a while.”
“Kkhhh... Kieeeeeeeek!”
Soldiers brimming with courage. Each gripped their weapon, let out a war cry, and charged the enemy.
****
Thus the battle began.
And yet.
How much time passed after the battle commenced?
“...Tsk.”
Surveying the situation, I could not help but click my tongue.
‘By objective force this should have been a fight my soldiers could not lose.’
It occurred to me that thought might be a little wrong.
Slish.
A soldier of the [Swordsman] line swung his blade at the monster’s leg.
A sword forged by engineers and blacksmiths who poured their soul into it.
And it was not an ordinary swing.
A soldier who had learned B+ rank martial arts taught by Seohwan put his all into the strike.
“I cut it!”
The swordplay was very beautiful and precise.
ROOOOAR!
“Urgh!”
But the monster that took the blow stomped as if nothing had happened and counterattacked the soldier.
Slish.
The next to approach the enemy was none other than me.
After closing in on the monster, I swung the [Old-Pattern Sashimi Knife] and sliced off part of its leg.
A clean cut leveraging even the effect of [Martial Art — Food (食)].
However.
ROOOOOOOAR!!!
Just like with the soldier a moment ago, the monster bellowed as if nothing had happened.
“This is the problem!”
My specialty is [Dagger Mastery].
Naturally, all my combat is done with a dagger.
As the name suggests, no matter how long it is for a dagger, a dagger is short by nature.
‘Against something that massive, no matter how hard I slash, it is only at the level of a scratch.’
No matter how powerful a hammer blow is, if you swing it at a building, a little crack in the outer wall will not bring the building down.
Same reason.
My blade is too short and its strike zone too small, so it is hard to land a telling blow on something with that kind of bulk.
‘At least the warrior-class Awakened are a bit better off.’
Unlike me, there are combat-specialized classes. They plainly have techniques that deal great wounds even with a simple slash.
The problem is, I do not have any such skills worth a damn.
And that thing is not so weak that the other warriors alone can handle it.
“Should I have brought mages?”
The only reason I dropped by the 423rd Battalion was to supply these soldiers with gear.
I had not planned for a fight.
We did bring some combat-class soldiers for escort, but the number was by no means large.
‘The soldiers stationed at the 423rd are weaker than the ground units.’
There were a few mages among them, but their firepower was not enough.
They inevitably had that much less combat experience. It could not be helped.
Thanks to that, right now, here, we lacked combat personnel who could bring efficient, wide-area firepower to bear on that massive bulk.
“Damn it, this got annoying.”
As the fight turned out tougher than expected, I looked into the shadow and shouted.
“Kkamang!”
Krrng.
Thoom.
Answering my call, a steel forepaw burst out from the shadow.
Always kept with me in case of emergency, the bodyguard closest to me.
[Vein that Devours Steel]
Kkamang is a blue-grade monster in its own right.
Compared to its prime, that monster would not even be a match.
KRRNG!
Sadly, Kkamang right now was not in its prime.
It had transformed into a leopard the size of a bear and was sprinting at the monster.
‘Should have fed it a lot more.’
Since it is a monster by nature, the amount of ore provided to Kkamang is limited.
It is similar to the case of Minjae hyung subjugating Salmo-neus with [Electric Dominion].
If it becomes excessively strong, it could slip out of control.
At least once [Electric Dominion] is established, it exerts very firm control.
The [Vassal] relationship between me and Ariella is the same.
But Kkamang is different.
It is neither [Vassalization] nor [Dominion].
‘A very loose bond lured in by cooking.’
If I over-empowered it and it rampaged at some point, its very strength could pose a huge threat to our guild.
So I had put a cap on its meals.
‘It is too much to expect Kkamang alone to finish that thing off.’
Even so, it is true that bought us some breathing room.
I caught my breath and scanned the battle around us.
‘We are not going to lose. But nothing good comes from a prolonged fight.’
Same as when we were descending the mountains.
If a battle this flashy goes on too long, other monsters influenced by it could charge in.
Back when we could fight loudly in this sector, it was only because this whole area was the lizards’ territory.
Now that even those lizards are almost gone, it would not be strange for any kind of monster to hear the noise and come running.
‘If I mobilized the vampires we could wrap this up in an instant.’
But the fact that I use vampires is a secret from the troops. I cannot bring them in.
‘I thought it was a nothingburger of an enemy.’
As the struggle dragged on more than expected, I could not help but rub my head.
‘So this is type matchup.’
I had only thought we had simply grown stronger.
No matter what enemy showed up, that there would be no way our legion loses.
But seeing it like this, I think that was a bit complacent.
Objectively that monster is weaker than we are, and yet we are struggling like this.
‘Depending on matchup, a trivial enemy can become a tremendous threat.’
Only now can I guess what wish those humans, now stripped of all life and turning to dust, made to that massive being they just saw.
‘Something like: bring forth the most threatening existence to those soldiers.’
A viciously bad matchup. A perfect counter pick.
And therefore.
‘Thank goodness.’
I could not help but let out a sigh of relief inside.
If I had met this monster alone, the odds are high I would have been defeated after doing nothing but scratching that huge body with a short chef’s knife.
No. To be more precise.
‘If it had been me from not long ago.’
Heh.
With a small grin, I stopped slashing and backed a little away from the monster.
My dagger strikes against that massive beast were meaningless.
‘You all come back too.’
Same for the [Assistant Chef]s swooping around and attacking in midair.
Even at their largest, the tools they use are at best a pork-cutlet mallet.
I recalled every [Assistant Chef] that had been engaged.
“Sergeant Shin...!?”
“You are pulling the utensils, why, all of a sudden?”
At that, the soldiers, seeing it, shouted at me in dismay.
We did not have much leeway either in this fight.
In the middle of that, I had withdrawn a key component of our strength.
From the standpoint of soldiers fighting on the line, they would wonder what was going on.
And to their words, I...
“Just watch.”
With a light, wry laugh, I took one of the kitchen knives the [Assistant Chef]s had been using.
“Just watch.”
“What does that...”
“Ah, maybe you will not be able to see?”
Gripping the kitchen knife, I slowly ran my right hand over the back of the blade.
Then.
[Soul-Melting Poison — Nepenthes]
The tattoo settled on my right wrist.
From there a colorless, odorless liquid began to flow.
