novelraw Chapter 34
Chapter 34
Chapter 34
“Regrettable. I truly mean it.”
Kim Cheol’s voice, faintly mixed with something like a sigh, did not seem like something fabricated in falsehood, but paradoxically, that very fact made it all the more deceptive.
“Keugh!”
“Kkeuuugh…….”
The Defense Force special-duty officers who had led the coup alongside her had all collapsed onto the floor without exception, gasping for breath.
And Satra herself was not in good condition either.
‘That adjutant… is he controlling gravity.’
The crushing gravity numbed her senses in an instant, and the blunt iron fragments scattered by the one who seemed to be the adjutant flew along its flow like daggers.
It was a sudden ambush that struck in the middle of their conversation—more precisely, the very moment the news that Creatures had invaded the colony was delivered.
She was the only one who managed to respond, however imperfectly.
“Hm, so the Quad Gear really wasn’t just for show. What a shame.”
Kim Cheol looked at her with what seemed like genuine admiration, but with the back of her head still throbbing, there was no way it could sound like praise.
Gritting her teeth, Satra steeled herself with the resolve to push her gear into overclock at any moment and shot back at him.
“Did you plan this from the start?”
“As if. We’re not like those bastard dogs of the Composite State who take promises and duties lightly. It’s just that, after hearing the word Creature, you didn’t look like you’d stay in your right minds. So…… you could say this was a kind of extreme prescription. The contract remains the same.”
True to his words, he had not killed her or the Defense Force special-duty officers.
But Satra was no fool.
There was no way she could fail to grasp their intentions.
“……So you were no different after all.”
With the colony’s outer wall breached, the colony had only a few hours of life left.
Because of that, instead of occupying Atla Colony as promised and relocating the residents to another safe planet, they would take only what they needed and abandon everyone else.
Crunch-.
Satra ground her teeth until they might shatter.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t imagined a situation like this, but the betrayal had come faster than expected, and it overlapped with the sudden Creature assault, leaving her no room to respond.
“It won’t be easy.”
Whether the situation had become tangled as they claimed, or whether it was merely a convenient justification layered on top, it didn’t matter.
The dice had already been cast.
There was only one choice left—somehow, to make the number on the dice larger.
Even if it was a game whose defeat had already been decided.
“Heh heh. Yes, that kind of spirit is exactly what a soldier should have.”
Perhaps her resolve pleased him.
Kim Cheol nodded in satisfaction and lightly rolled his neck forward, as if preparing to personally cross hands with her.
But then—
“Brigadier General.”
“Hm?”
The adjutant standing beside him whispered something quietly, and soon Kim Cheol slowly nodded before clicking his tongue.
“Tsk, is it that tight?”
“Yes.”
“Then it can’t be helped.”
He glanced at Satra, regret evident in his eyes.
“Unfortunately, time doesn’t permit it. Still, since they’re children I raised myself, they should keep you from feeling too lonely.”
Naturally, Satra had no intention of standing by and watching Kim Cheol—who had betrayed both her and the residents of Rermal Planet—walk away.
“Kim Cheol!”
Kwaaaaang!
She kicked off the ground and surged straight toward Kim Cheol.
However, her fist failed to reach even his vicinity, blocked instead by the special-duty officers of the Red Hand scattered through the air.
“Uaaaaaah!”
Her roar burst forth like an explosion, and soon a thunderous blast echoed through the hangar.
“Hm, what a waste.”
“It can’t be helped.”
Kim Cheol did not hide his regret even as he calmly ignored Satra’s curses and screams of rage coming from behind him.
But as the adjutant said, it truly could not be helped.
“According to insider data, her loyalty to the planet was high. If only we’d had enough time……”
“We’ve taken measures to capture her alive if possible.”
“Good. There’s no need for those in the same position to needlessly redden their faces.”
“Indeed.”
If Satra, who had been stabbed in the back, heard those words, she would have shouted at them to stop spouting nonsense, but the two of them truly believed what they said.
The adjutant nodded at Kim Cheol’s words and condensed the materials that internal agents had sent over time from a prepared device, handing them to him.
“The engineering battalion has already been deployed and is in the process of seizing the ships.”
“And the cadets?”
“Captain Ri’s company should be heading there by now.”
“Hm, that should be sufficient for an advance force.”
Though the number of special-duty officers was small, the entire company consisted of mechanized infantry wearing the latest reinforced exoskeletons smuggled in from the Free Planet Alliance.
With the situation already chaotic due to the Creatures and the coup, even just over two hundred would be more than enough to suppress cadets who hadn’t even killed a person yet.
Of course, given the importance of the matter, he intended to move personally as well.
“Moreover, Captain Ana has already moved on the technicians whose names we secured in advance.”
“Good. Handle it as you see fit.”
Though the words were muttered as if out of annoyance, knowing that trust lay within them, the adjutant nodded.
‘At most two hours. It has to be finished within that time.’
The colony’s size rivaled that of a major city, and with all kinds of chaos intermingled, bringing back more than a thousand cadets would not be easy.
But it was different if Brigadier General Kim Cheol moved.
He was none other than a special-duty officer who possessed a ‘Penta Gear’.
“Heh heh, in the end, people have to run around the field themselves. Right.”
Eventually, after passing through the corridor connected to the hangar and reaching the shattered bulkhead, Kim Cheol muttered as he curled the corners of his aged mouth upward.
-Kigik, kigigigik!
At the grotesque and chilling sound brushing past his ears, he lifted his head, and monsters scattered red- and violet-mixed gleams from their eyes.
Between their chattering sharp teeth and thick exoskeletons, it was clear they had already devoured no small number of humans—chunks of flesh that had been human until moments ago hung in pieces, mixed with blood.
-Kyaaaaaaah!
Their roars carried intense hunger and hostility.
There were easily hundreds of them.
Perhaps they had sensed the commotion from inside.
Or perhaps, after devouring all the humans outside, they had come searching for prey hiding within.
There was no way to know.
But one thing was certain.
What they were aiming for was the blood and flesh of the two of them.
“Shall I handle it?”
The adjutant asked as he floated a series of iron fragments from the bandolier slung behind his red uniform, but Kim Cheol shook his head.
The wrinkles on his aged face etched themselves even deeper, yet paradoxically, his thick body writhed as if it might tear the uniform apart at any moment.
“No, I’ll do it. Heh heh. I was curious anyway.”
He rolled up the end of the sleeve of his worn uniform.
Udeudeuk, he drove his fist into the ground and pulled it straight up.
“I wondered what their blood tastes like.”
The earth, split clean through, was swung along the trajectory of his fist, and the Creatures let out shrieks that were either excitement or terrified thrashing.
-Kyaaaaaah!
Quietly watching the scene, the adjutant mulled over a single thought.
‘That red uniform may well be dyed violet.’
That Brigadier General Kim Cheol had never once dyed his uniform red.
-Kyaaak!
Perhaps because from around the midpoint onward it was the path Lieutenant Lee Hana had guided them through before, they were able to reach the building where the cadets were without getting lost.
When they had walked it previously, it had taken nearly twenty minutes, but pushing the Triple Gear to its limits, it took less than two minutes.
-Y-you people, who are…… r-red uniforms?
-We came at the request of Captain Satra. All cadets are to cooperate with us!
The soldiers who had been guarding the entrance had already all been taken out, their blood scattered as they lay dead.
However, it seemed they were not entirely too late. From deeper inside the building, the bewildered voices of the cadets were intertwined with the coercive voices of those presumed to be the Red Hand.
‘Two at the entrance. They’re gathered in the lobby.’
They probably weren’t all of them.
Finish this as quickly as possible.
Was there a reason he had to kill them?
Of course there was.
‘They tried to kill me.’
What filled his mind was a foul sense of discomfort, fatigue, and rage.
It wasn’t clear whether that was entirely his own emotion, or the temperament of the real Jin Crow who had awakened after being injected with the Pentacle.
One thing alone was certain.
At this moment, he was half out of his mind.
Sreung-.
He drew his sword.
And as he stepped into the building, whose entrance was already half open, two soldiers standing guard in the lobby came into view.
“……!”
One of the two noticed him first and urgently aimed the railgun mounted on his reinforced exoskeleton arm at him, but—
Seogeok, tuk-.
Unfortunately for them, Jin Crow was faster.
With a single slash utterly devoid of technique, he severed the man’s neck in one stroke. Before the blood could even spray, he had already taken the back of the one standing beside him.
“S-s-spare—.”
Rare for a member of the Red Hand, he was someone who understood the value of his life, but unfortunately, his desperate wish was never fulfilled.
Chwaaaak!
“Keuk, kkeuuugh…….”
Blood erupted like a fountain along the thin line carved into his neck, and soon, having lost all strength, the man collapsed and grew cold.
“Huh?”
One of the cadets forcibly gathered in the lobby let out a shrill voice without even realizing it.
“A, a special-duty officer?”
“It’s an instructor! Everyone, prepare for combat!”
At the same time, the Red Hand soldiers who had spotted him hurriedly leveled their gun barrels and pulled the triggers.
But it didn’t take long for them to realize it was already too late.
“W, what the—!”
No matter how reinforced their exoskeletons were, no matter that they had firing-assist systems linked to their railguns, such things meant nothing in the face of overwhelming speed.
‘Right pillar. Two.’
Using a shattered chair in the lobby as cover, he reached them in two leaps, grabbed one by the face and slammed him into the floor until it burst, then severed the arm of the one beside him who was desperately trying to pull the trigger.
‘Behind, three.’
Was it because of the red droplets splashed across his face?
A thick scent of blood brushed past his nose.
Even so, he swung his sword without hesitation.
Ridiculously enough, at least in this moment, bodily overload had nothing to do with anything.
“Keugh!”
“Kkeuaaaak!”
By the time he had cut down every red uniform standing in the lobby, pain-filled screams reaching his ears snapped his consciousness awake.
“Hup, kuluk!”
More precisely, it would be accurate to say that the surging recoil had briefly left his mind blank before it returned.
Jin Crow bit down hard on his lip until blood flowed, then ran a hand through his hair, now soaked with sweat or blood he couldn’t tell, and thought.
‘If I die now, would it be in battle… or from overwork.’
Either way, it seemed more likely to be the latter.
Tuk, tuduk-.
Blood dripped from the tip of his jet-black sword, and his gaze soon turned toward the line of cadets trembling violently.
“Hik!”
“I-it’s us! We’re cadets from the Rermal Planet Defense Special Service Academy!”
“P-please spare us!”
They clearly knew he was Jin Crow, an instructor from the Top-tier Special Service Academy, yet overwhelmed by fear, they were all too busy proclaiming that they were on the same side.
It was only natural.
Anyone who saw the state of those he had just killed would react the same way.
‘C-crazy.’
The problem was his condition.
Even when they had met earlier in the cafeteria, his face hadn’t looked good, but now it was far worse.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Dark circles nearly covering his eyes.
Blood trailing down from a lower lip that had been chewed ragged, along with his jaw.
Even cold sweat flowing, mixed together with blood.
Even a stranger could tell at a glance that this wasn’t normal.
Because of that, among the trembling cadets, a fourth-year who had somewhat regained his composure tried to open his mouth to say something, but—
“Tsk, we’re fucked.”
“Yes?”
Jin Crow twisted his face into a deep scowl, then shouted toward the cadets gathered in the lobby.
“Get down!”
Without understanding why, the cadets were overwhelmed by his charisma and instinctively slammed their heads to the floor.
And at that very moment—
Kwagwagwagwagwagwagwagwang!
The dormitory building that had been covering their heads was blown away in an instant, leaving only the first-floor framework behind.
“U, uaaah!”
“W-what is this!”
The cadets screamed in terror and pressed themselves even harder against the floor, while Jin Crow slowly turned his head and fixed his eyes on the silhouette of a single person walking through the dust.
“Heh heh, so it’s you.”
Even from the voice alone, one could feel the weight of long experience.
Forcing his fading consciousness awake, he stared at the figure gradually emerging through the dust.
“Liberto, the one who killed that child.”
What finally revealed itself was a gigantic old man, drenched in blood where purple and green were mixed together, clad in a red uniform.