PABABABABANG....
Red trajectories painted the sky.
To our Legion, they were familiar arcs.
After the day the world ended,
those trajectories had mostly pierced only the Legion’s enemies—
and despite the deafening noise, to the soldiers they were nothing but reassuring light.
But not now.
“Incoming bombardment!”
Because the target of that bombardment was us.
A modern army’s firepower is, quite literally, enough to flip a mountain over.
No matter how powerful an awakened person is, if you take a direct hit from that, you won’t walk away without serious injury.
“Prepare to intercept!!!”
[Command Order- ‘Intercept’ resounds.]
But—if you could call it luck—
we already had experience dealing with bombardment like this.
“Begin interception!”
Lights launched from the ground to meet those red arcs.
The mages and sharpshooters poured fire into the sky, intercepting shells raining down from above.
PABABABABANG....
Countless lights collided overhead,
and fragments scattered down across the ground.
Some fragments sprayed past right over our heads.
Others flew off nearby and shattered buildings.
There were shells that almost punched through the interception and reached us—
but even those—
SHKHK—
were dealt with by warrior-type awakened personnel stepping in.
‘Who knew our experience taking down an artillery battalion would come in handy.’
Fighting methods against human weaponry.
If this were the first time, we might’ve panicked.
But not now.
Most of the soldiers here were people who’d been with the unit since the earliest days.
They reproduced that experience exactly and held fast against the bombardment.
No—more accurately—
‘We’re better than back then.’
Back then, the best we could do was block the attack while pushing forward.
Now it was different.
Because our unit was stronger than it had been then.
“Jang Hongsu!”
“Yes! Private First Class Jang Hongsu.”
In the chaos of shell fragments whipping over our heads,
I grabbed one soldier and shouted.
“You saw where that shelling came from, right?”
“Yes! I remember it being the tops of those buildings, and the mountain farther out!”
“Fine, the far mountain can wait—but the closer rooftops, your magic can reach those, right?”
“...Yes, it can, but—”
I fixed his head toward the shelled rooftops and said,
“Then what are you waiting for? Prep and fire.”
“B-but, Sergeant Shin. Unless a gun battery moved on its own and fired at us... there’ll be artillerymen up there.”
“I know.”
I stared straight into his eyes.
“Even so, we have to.”
“......”
Private First Class Jang Hongsu looked at me with a pale face.
Then he nodded.
“I don’t know the exact reason... but if it’s your order, Sergeant Shin, then there must be a reason.”
PABABABABANG!!!
One by one, the artillery positions stationed across the rooftops began to be destroyed.
I didn’t need to see what happened to the artillerymen who had been holding those guns.
“...Over there—tanks are coming!”
“This is insane.”
Seoul’s counterattack didn’t end there.
Even as bombardment kept coming at us, their full-scale ground forces began to move.
‘Seoul’s roads were clean and well-maintained.’
Tanks and armored vehicles carrying armed soldiers.
It wouldn’t take them long to reach us.
“Everyone, prepare to engage.”
“......”
“Can’t you hear me? Weapons up, all of you!”
I ordered an engagement against the approaching Capital Defense Command soldiers.
But the soldiers’ expressions were grim.
‘Because of the direction I set for the unit.’
Our unit didn’t fight humans.
Even if we could come into conflict with other humans—
ultimately, our enemies were the monsters invading us.
Humans of the same species were people we would have to cooperate with someday.
That direction had become the unit’s values after the apocalypse,
and it was the reason they hesitated to attack humans now.
This time, it wasn’t even that they attacked us first—
and you could plainly see people riding inside over there.
Even I—
normally, I wouldn’t have given an order to attack humans.
No... more precisely, I should say I wouldn’t have been able to.
But even so.
The reason I could give this order was simple.
‘Those assassins I saw earlier.’
Repeating the same time again and again, we’d exchanged fire with them plenty of times.
And every time, Corporal Seo Suhyeok hadn’t hesitated to kill if it was necessary.
I remembered the faces of the enemies who died then with perfect clarity.
‘That person... before, Corporal Seo Suhyeok killed that bastard.’
And now I remembered it too—
in the next repeated time,
the people I’d been sure were dead were alive and moving again.
When time repeats,
the Seoul-side people I thought we’d killed came back as if nothing had happened.
If my guess was right, then—
‘They were probably... from the start....’
Kkrrk.
While that thought was still in my head—
“...Damn it, we don’t have a choice.”
“It’s Sergeant’s order. Fight!”
Beyond the artillery duel raging far away,
full-scale close-quarters combat between our soldiers and the Capital Defense Command began.
*****
TUDUDUDUDUNG....
TADANG....
KWAANG...!
“Keep firing!”
“Think back to the Blue House assault! Treat them like the monsters we fought then!”
On one side,
the Capital Defense Command poured gunfire into the Legion.
Our soldiers had already fought countless monsters.
They knew how to fight lifeforms beyond human limits.
And.
“Gunfire’s bearable, but... those ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) tanks are the problem.”
One soldier stared toward the cluster of Capital Defense Command troops—
then, as if making up their mind, adjusted the helmet covering their entire face and said,
“Squad.”
“Yes. Private Lee Byungmin.”
“I’m going to smash those tanks. Cover me from the rear.”
“Yes! All personnel, cover the squad leader!”
Amid the downpour of enemy fire,
a few high-level awakened personnel sprinted straight through the middle of it at a terrifying speed—
“Hup!”
[Martial Art - Hancheon Sword A+]
KWAAAANG!
“W-with one hit?”
“Even monsters can’t split a tank with one blow...!”
Not with guns—by swinging a blade,
they cleaved a tank built of thick plated armor clean in two.
Capital Defense Command soldiers screamed in shock at the sight.
“Multiple tanks approaching from the outer road!”
“Park Daewon, Lee Hanil! Take your squad and move! That road cannot be breached!”
“There seems to be an artillery unit up on that mountain too! It’s too far—our mages can’t handle it!”
“Lee Suyeon! Take your whole squad and destroy the guns!”
“On my way.”
In one position,
soldiers rushed back and forth, moving according to First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok’s orders.
“Anti-air positions 11, 14, and 15 have been destroyed as well!”
And in another position,
Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan and his officers frantically racked their brains, searching for a way to hunt the Legion.
“They’re taking this bombardment and acting like it’s nothing...!”
“Those bastards... they aren’t human. They’re monsters—no, they’re worse than monsters!”
“Don’t be afraid!”
The Legion soldiers looked so inhuman it was hard to believe they were the same species.
Some of the Capital Defense Command troops went pale—
but Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan shouted with a cold face.
“They’re destroying our gun emplacements first. If they were truly transcendent enemies, they wouldn’t need to bother destroying our guns like this.”
“Then that means—”
“The fact they’re destroying the guns means our shelling is a burden to them too!”
He pointed at the military map.
“Individual small arms won’t deal major damage, but bombardment is clearly a threat to them as well. And right now, the most effective strike is here.”
“The 3rd Artillery Battalion.”
Unlike the anti-air positions placed across rooftops,
a large-scale artillery battalion built into the mountains of the northwest.
The only artillery battalion positioned to shell them from where it stood.
“If the firepower from the 3rd continues to stack up, they won’t hold.”
It was the unit projecting overwhelming firepower at the Legion.
“Then they’ll be conscious of the 3rd’s firepower too.”
“We cannot lose the 3rd. If enemies are headed that way, stop them no matter what it takes!”
Piiiiiiing....
A Legion of one hundred awakened personnel.
A Capital Defense Command made of countless soldiers and armored forces, perhaps even stronger than its pre-apocalypse strength.
The fierce exchange between the two military forces continued without pause.
Guns and shells flew everywhere, and countering magic painted the sky.
Tanks and armored vehicles roared down roads, and soldiers with massive greatswords charged straight into those roads.
“Signal flare spotted from the west!”
“What kind of signal?”
“A black signal flare....”
And so.
How long had it been since the fighting began?
A single flare rose into the sky.
“It’s a fall signal.”
“...Where did it come from?”
A war between the Republic of Korea’s armed forces.
And the result of that battle was, astonishingly—
“The 3rd Artillery Battalion... the 3rd Battery....”
“......”
The [Steel Legion]’s advantage.
“No way. The 3rd Battery got suppressed already?”
“How far is that from their position...? And we sent maximum support there, didn’t we?”
No matter that they were non-awakened—
they were a heavily armed military force with pre-apocalypse weapons,
a real army with a clear command structure.
“A report came in from a soldier at a nearby anti-air position. A woman swinging a huge axe led about ten soldiers who broke into the battery... and all the guns were destroyed—....”
“......”
If the enemy had been ordinary awakened personnel,
the Capital Defense Command’s troops would’ve believed they could hold the advantage even against a larger number of awakened opponents.
“We thought if they were just awakened... we could treat them like monsters.”
Even if the enemy awakened were strong,
they were a powerful army with enough strength and experience not to be pushed back.
The problem was—
“So they aren’t ordinary awakened personnel.”
“......”
The enemies they were facing now were elite soldiers—only the strongest among the Legion.
Among them were even those staring at the wall of level 30....
Not merely strong.
Awakened personnel with overwhelming power.
“...I’m sorry.”
The man commanding the battle—
Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan lowered the loudspeaker and spoke in a voice that lacked confidence.
“I don’t think we can stop them.”
At that,
the man watching the battle opened his mouth.
“We’ve already called for reinforcements. Other armed groups in Seoul will be rushing here soon, so it’s too early to give up.”
“That’s true. But before then, the Capital Defense Command’s core forces will likely be wiped out. The northern region of Seoul we’ve worked so hard to protect will be reduced to ashes.”
A middle-aged general with a bitter smile.
“Calling it the Capital Defense Command sounds nice, but... we practically abducted men who didn’t want to listen, dragged them in, and said a war had broken out, so the reservists had to follow my orders—and forced a military into existence. Still, I thought I’d built it into a fairly satisfying level over the course of a year... but it seems it still wasn’t enough.”
“......”
“It’s a shame to lose the unit, but I can accept that it can’t be helped. What’s truly regrettable is... that I failed my mission to defend Seoul.”
He looked at the man who had silently listened to him.
Jang Youngwoong.
“That day, when you saved my life, you said it. That no one exists who could do this as well as I can. To be honest, I was curious how you could say that with such certainty.”
“That hasn’t changed.”
“Is that so? Then I’m sorry, but it seems I won’t be able to meet your expectations.”
At that,
Jang Youngwoong—who had been listening in silence as if lost in thought—shook his head.
“It isn’t your fault, General.”
“Kind words, but the responsibility for defeat lies with the commander.”
“That’s exactly why I’m saying it. In the end, I’m the one who gave this order.”
Kim Myeonghwan looked at Jang Youngwoong’s face—
but Jang Youngwoong, as if absorbed in thought, covered his face and muttered.
After saying that,
he reached into his coat and drew a pistol.
“It isn’t your fault, General, so don’t blame yourself. If we have to assign blame, it’s mine.”
He ran his fingers over the pistol.
Then he began to mutter to himself in a low voice.
“...Going wild like that before we even made contact. Did they figure out that assault was my doing?”
“...Hero? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“If that’s the case, then how did they figure it out? No... monsters aside, we sent our awakened over as assassins, so someone like First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok could notice it was our attack.... I got too fixated on removing Sergeant Shin Youngjun, and I may have done something too hasty.”
He muttered that far.
Then he nodded.
“I had a rough grasp on their strength, but it was my fault for creating a situation where we’d end up exchanging fire.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. And who is Sergeant Shin Youngjun? What do you mean, assassins?”
“It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it. Even if I explain—”
CHKLK.
“You’ll forget soon anyway.”
TAAANG....
*****
“Sergeant Shin! How long do we have to keep fighting?!”
Soldiers in the middle of the battle shouted at me.
The Legion hadn’t come as a whole—only one hundred elite troops had arrived.
“If this keeps up, they’ll get reinforcements!”
Meanwhile, Seoul’s forces weren’t limited to those Capital Defense Command troops.
All of Seoul’s scattered forces nearby were converging here.
“Hold as long as you can!”
“Hold how long—?! We can’t wipe them all out!”
“I know, you punk.”
From the start,
my goal wasn’t to annihilate them.
I looked over the battlefield.
Because of the fierce battle,
the nearby buildings were being destroyed even faster than when we were tearing them down ourselves.
‘As much as possible.’
What I wanted was for this fight to continue
so that as much damage as possible would accumulate on this land.
“But even if we’re fine for now, soon we’ll start taking casualties—!”
“Don’t worry about that.”
The problem was,
if the battle dragged on, no matter how strong the Legion’s elites were, they’d inevitably be picked off one by one.
But I wasn’t worried about that part.
“Probably. It’ll end before that.”
TAANG....
In the middle of the battle,
a single gunshot rang out from far away.
Not from the heart of the fighting,
but from the place where the enemy commander was stationed.
“This road can’t break! Stop them!”
With the battle raging,
the other soldiers seemed to have no idea what that gunshot meant.
But I knew.
KUGUGUGUGUGUNG....
“Huh?”
“What is this quake—?!”
Not long after the gunshot,
a massive earthquake began, as if the world itself were collapsing.
“...?”
“The enemy soldiers... vanished?”
The soldiers who had been attacking us just moments ago
disappeared without a trace in an instant.
“First Lieutenant Kim!!!”
“Y-yeah. I got it.”
And.
Watching that scene, I bit down on a strip of jerky.
“Remember everything that happened here!”
[Command Order - The memory.......]
*****
TAAK.
“This is Seoul.”
The moment my feet touched Seoul soil,
I ignored the headache surging into my skull
and urgently scanned my surroundings.
And then.
Looking at the scene in front of me, I thought,
“Mm... how should I put it.”
I hated it.
It pissed me off.
But the single method of attack that had surfaced in my head—
“Compared to old Seoul... it is destroyed in places.”
“Well, this still looks pretty intact to me.”
That method of attack was... apparently,
the correct answer.
