novelraw Chapter 141 : Mission 10: The Hunters of Old (14)
Chapter 141 : Mission 10: The Hunters of Old (14)
Deyana Ludens.
Once, the leader of the dragons that invaded Earth was a magnificent, crimson-scaled demon dragon.
But the creature that now appeared was a hideous thing, its scales a haphazard, discolored patchwork of gray and black.
Even so, Shin-woo recognized it at a glance. He couldn’t not recognize it.
It would have been stranger not to recognize the mortal enemy that had annihilated more than half of South Korea’s Awakened thirty years ago.
“I made certain you were dead.” Shin-woo ground his teeth. “How in the hell did you come back to life?”
Deyana Ludens smiled with its stitched-together jaw.
“Our species, too, sees this death-willed march as our last chance. Our world is also on the brink of annihilation. Only by winning this invasion… can we find a path to survival.”
“…!”
“So they gathered the pieces of my dead body and sacrificed the lives and flesh of one hundred of my kin to resurrect me.”
Undead.
Resurrected as a corpse dragon, Deyana Ludens’s presence was a far cry from its prime, but its class was still that of a Demon Lord.
“Even in these rags, I am not allowed to rest. To be forced onto the battlefield again for the sake of my species… The fate of a king is a cruel one.”
“Regardless, you’re weaker than you were back then, monster.”
“Are you not the same, human?”
Deyana Ludens let out a low laugh.
“You, too, appear to be in rags, body and soul. Why is it you who stands against me again? By your world’s standards, a great deal of time has passed. I would have thought one of your descendants would stand in your place.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Shin-woo’s bearded lips curled into a smirk. “It’s because I’m still the strongest.”
The Iron Knight’s Domain Break had already overtaken the area, transforming part of the world into his own landscape.
Twilight Fortress was a seaside landscape beneath a brilliant setting sun, a wave of endless castle walls.
Shin-woo stood atop one of the countless steel ramparts.
Deyana Ludens stared up silently at the old knight.
“I will stop you here.”
“Last time, it took the five of you combined to barely stop me. This time, you are alone?”
The Demon Lord chuckled.
“Where have all your precious comrades gone? Where did the heroes of old, who moved as one, disappear to? Why have you been left all alone?”
“…”
“Your appearance is the same, but you have grown old on the inside, old soldier. Have you not, perhaps, missed your chance to disappear?”
“The same could be said for you.”
With a beastly, mechanical groan, the fortress that had shimmered like a wall of waves began to rise as one.
“Memories are beautiful when they stay memories.”
The tactics he’d used against this monster thirty years ago came back to him, as clear as if it were yesterday.
Shin-woo snarled, “Let’s sink into memory together—one ancient ghost to another!”
The evil dragon laughed softly.
Its body, a great mountain range of stitched-together corpses, slowly began to rise.
***
Cheongnyangni Gate. Wastewater Treatment Room.
Jae-hee and his team were in the middle of prying information out of the captured Hunter.
“All this death-willed march nonsense is a real son of a bitch, you know? I’ve spent my whole life killing monsters, and I’ve never felt right about it.”
But they weren’t getting much value. At some point, the old soldier had stopped listing facts and started complaining about his life.
“But the other Knights just didn’t get it… ‘How can you feel pity for invaders who came to kill us?’ they’d say… That’s when I became an outcast. Dammit.”
The old soldier grumbled, knocking back the medicinal liquor spiked with truth serum.
Jae-hee tilted his head and asked, “Death-willed march?”
It was the same term Ghost had used.
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“The monsters are invading our world to survive, too,” the old soldier explained after wiping his mouth.
The monsters, he said, were the last deathsworn legion of a fallen world.
Their home was gone, so they invaded another. Slaughtering the natives, seizing the land, and raising a refuge from the ruins.
They were survivors. They were conquerors.
“And we who fight back are a deathsworn legion, too. We fight for survival… for our world.”
It was a clash of deathsworn legions, each species staking the fate of its world.
A Deathwilled March to Judgment.
And Earth was the battlefield.
“This old geezer’s something else,” Razor grumbled from across the room. “What kinda pity are you supposed to feel for monster bastards who break down your door with a sword and tell you to hand over the deed and get out?”
The old soldier shook his head. “It’s better if it never happens, but think about it. What if we lose this battle?”
“…?”
“What if we lose control of this land? What if, as you say, they take our deeds and kick us out? What do you think would happen?”
“Well?”
“We’d have to form our own deathsworn legion and invade another world. To build our own refuge.”
The monsters invading Earth now were species that had been caught up in their own last stand, lost their worlds, and were annihilated.
And if humanity were to lose this Gate War, they would be reduced to the same fate.
They would become wanderers, following the Gates to invade yet another world.
“One wrong step, and we’ll end up just like them. You think we’d be any different if the roles were reversed?”
Jae-hee’s mouth fell open slightly. “I’ve never heard any of this before!”
“It was common knowledge during the war thirty years ago. The Demon Lord shouted it loud and clear when it declared war on our world. Now, they keep it quiet. No need to know the enemy’s circumstances.”
Thanks to the medicinal liquor—and the truth serum mixed in—the old soldier was spilling things he hadn’t even been asked. He licked his empty cup, smacking his lips.
Status Window, sitting demurely beside him, refilled his cup.
“That must have been so hard for you desu. Here, have another drink desu.”
The old man sniffled. “Thank you, young man… Ahhh, that hits the spot!”
After downing more of the truth serum, the old soldier’s eyes went completely slack.
Status Window smoothly went on to ask, “So, enough with the boring lore dump. You got any useful info desu? Like a secret passage or something?”
“Secret passage? Of course, there are tons! This building is ancient, you know? It’s full of rat holes!”
The old soldier cackled and pointed to the area below the wastewater treatment facility.
“See that sewer tunnel at the very bottom over there?”
Outside the facility, where the first stage of purified wastewater fell.
Next to the septic tank where the thick, black sludge filtered from the water dripped and collected, a narrow tunnel was bored into the wall, visible only upon close inspection.
“Follow that all the way, and it connects directly to the main building’s sewer system.”
“The main building…”
“The core facility, where the Gate management systems are. It’s connected right to it. Not that it’s any less of a shithole over there!”
Razor, Status Window, and Jae-hee exchanged glances.
It was an unexpected windfall. An unexpected windfall, and yet…
“Even if we know about the secret passage, do we really have to go?”
“Can’t we just hang out here and wait it out desu?”
The place stank, but the risk of dying was low.
Outside this room, however, every step was fraught with peril. If they ran into the Knights, a fight would be unavoidable. Could they survive?
Besides, the main building was the enemy’s headquarters. There was no reason to stick their heads into the tiger’s gaping maw.
“…”
Logically, Jae-hee agreed, but for some reason…
His heart pounded.
An unknown stirring made his heart race, pulling at his instincts. Drawing him toward the heart of the facility. Toward the Gate connected to another world, beckoning him to come closer.
What should I do?
Just as Jae-hee was deliberating…
The faint sound of footsteps echoed from the distance.
CRASH!
SHATTER!
The windows on all sides of the room exploded inward as gun barrels were shoved through. Simultaneously, the locked door was blasted open, and several Knights rushed in.
They were Knights. They aimed their guns into the room and began bellowing.
“Freeze!”
“Everyone, hands behind your head! Get on the ground!”
The convicts were startled but acted on instinct.
Razor shoved their prisoner forward as a human shield, pressing the bone knife he’d drawn to the old soldier’s throat.
“Don’t come any closer! One more step and I’ll slit your rookie’s throat!”
The captured soldier just chuckled. “Hey… how many times do I have to tell you? I’m an outcast here, too. I’m worthless as a hostage.”
“Rookie!”
But the other soldiers didn’t seem to think so.
Their faces were tense, beads of sweat rolling down their temples as they stared anxiously at their captured comrade.
“Don’t worry, just stay calm! We’ll get you out!”
“Seniors?”
“Your signal cut out here, so we came to get you. Hey, you goddamn intruders, you put one scratch on our rookie, and you’re all dead!”
“B-but why would you try to save an outcast like me…”
“Don’t be an idiot, you useless punk! Who’s gonna run our errands if you’re gone?!”
“…!”
“Once we get you out of here, you’re on meal, laundry, dish, and cleaning duty for a week straight! So pull yourself together and stay sharp!”
Listening to this exchange, Status Window offered a warm smile.
“What do you know, he wasn’t an outcast after all. Hehe, I’m so relieved desu…”
“Now is not the time for a heartwarming moment, Window-kun.”
Jae-hee broke into a cold sweat and slowly scanned his surroundings.
They were completely surrounded. Besides the Hunters who had just stormed the room, if there were more reinforcements outside…
“These are veterans who’ve been beating down monsters for thirty years. Honestly, they’re much better fighters than we are,” Razor muttered. “A frontal assault is too risky.”
“Then we have to go that way,” Jae-hee said.
Into the sewer that led to the main building.
They had no other choice.
“Dammit, why is my life always like this…” Razor mumbled.
Then he yelled, “Supply item number four!”
Status Window pulled something from his pocket and hurled it to the floor.
A flashbang.
The old soldiers were taken by surprise.
“Cover your eyes!” one of them shouted, desperately turning away.
FLASH!
The instant the flashbang detonated, Razor yelled again.
“Jump!”
The entire Deck 1 team from the Black Parade leaped.
Into the sewer below, where black wastewater churned.
Jae-hee held his breath and pinched his nose.
Razor shrieked, “Why is it always sewers?!”
SPLASH!
***
Cheongnyangni Gate. South Watchtower.
Bathed in the morning sunlight pouring from the distant east, Ghost stared down at the main building of the Cheongnyangni Gate.
She pressed a hand over her pounding heart.
What is this stirring?
What in the world is happening at that Gate?
Just then.
“Ghost,” Puppeteer called, jutting his chin. “Look. There’s a commotion at the main gate.”
“…!”
“Is that the ‘signal’ the commander mentioned?”
Ghost looked, and Puppeteer was right.
A disturbance had broken out at the main gate to the north. External forces were approaching, and the Knights were firing warning shots to hold them back.
Ghost narrowed her eyes.
Faster than expected… The government is moving this quickly?
What exactly was going on?
With communications cut off, she had no way of knowing the situation. But it was the movement they had agreed upon, and it was their turn to act.
More importantly, something was already wrong.
It would be better to jump into the field and assess the situation firsthand.
“Deck 0 team, prepare.”
At Ghost’s call, the other convicts rose as one.
“We’re breaking into the main building—straight for the Cheongnyangni Gate management facility.”
Ghost surveyed the convicts under her command and stated dryly, “Let’s go end this.”