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Chapter 244: The Experimenter III

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My role in the final defense war was always that of the “firefighter on the front line.”

Let me show you what that entails.

U̴h̷e̴a̷o̴o̴o̷h̷h̸h̵hh̴o̷hh̴hh̵a̴aa̶h̸hh̷aaahh!

The joy of a decisive victory in the preliminary battle was short-lived.

Soon, waves of monsters came crashing in from all directions, like a relentless tsunami.

Corpses towering at various heights—60 floors, 80 floors, 30 floors—marched forward, each step shaking the horizon with a booming sound. They crashed into each other, fell apart, mixed, and reformed in a ceaseless frenzy.

The battlefield shifted in real time, with rock strata undulating like slick oil.

Without any semblance of order or formation, the monsters were advancing toward the final defense line with overwhelming mass and numbers.

"Hold them off! Don’t fall back!"

"I told you during training, don\'t look up at the sky! Are you even listening—?"

"Shoot!"

At the moment of collision, a red wave surged.

It was the blood of the awakened ones holding the defense line.

Then, the petals from Sim Aryeon’s prayer scattered like confetti, enveloping the awakened ones.

One of the awakened, whose body had been half-crushed by a 40-floor-high corpse, was instantly wrapped in the petal breeze and fully healed.

Even with pierced abdomens, severed limbs, and flesh torn away, Sim Aryeon\'s petals gently enveloped and healed their wounds.

“We can win! We’re going to win!”

"Uwooooh!"

“It doesn’t hurt... Hahaha! I’m not dying! This is easier than a simulation!”

And so, though it seemed the line might break—it didn’t. The awakened ones held their ground to the very end.

In fact, on some fronts, they even pushed back. The corpses of monsters toppled, one after another, with resounding thuds.

This was a deadlock.

It was as if, on their side, they had infinite mass, while on our side, we had infinite HP.

“Hyaaaaah! Charge! Charge!”

“Long live the Saintess! Long live the Saintess!”

“Damn, the Eastern Holy Kingdom was hoarding this incredible power for themselves?”

An army that was virtually immortal.

A black wave made up of hundreds of millions of monsters was being driven back by a wave of humans.

On the terrace, Oh Dokseo murmured in awe as she watched the scene.

"...Amazing. This is Aryeon unnie’s true awakening ability..."

Though similar scenes happened daily in the Eastern Holy Kingdom, even there, the scale wasn’t this grand.

Sim Aryeon was now tapping into her innate life force—the equivalent of wielding the innate energy of a martial artist.

Watching Sim Aryeon, who knelt on the terrace floor with her eyes closed, praying quietly, I thought,

‘Once she’s entered that mode, there’s no turning back.’

The countdown had begun.

Sim Aryeon had already crossed the threshold of what it meant to be human.

The remarkable performance humanity was displaying at the final defense line was only possible through Sim Aryeon’s sacrifice.

‘I’m sorry, Aryeon. I’ll clean up the front lines as best I can while you hold on.’

Bzzzzt.

The radio at my waist crackled with noise.

We had refrained from using it to prevent contamination by the monsters, but once the battle commenced in earnest, it was unlocked.

-This is Point C3! Bzzzt, this is Point C3! The corpses are enormous! We can’t hold out much longer!

It was an area I had already been monitoring closely.

I glanced at Noh Doha.

“Then I’ll leave the command to you while I’m gone. Chief, make sure to keep at least one trump card ready in case the monsters rise from the coast.”

“I’ve heard that a hundred times already. Just go….”

“Yes. In the worst case, rely on the Sword Maiden. I’m off.”

After exchanging brief glances with Tang Seorin, Cheon Yohwa, Lee Hayul, and Oh Dokseo, I pushed off the terrace and leapt into the air.

Whooosh—

The unpleasantly lukewarm air clung to my cheeks, even though it was just before winter.

The air smelled strangely sickly-sweet, and the sky, stained red, even altered its texture.

Taptaptap.

Leaping from the tops of street lamps positioned along the city roads, I moved swiftly toward the front line. There was no need to waste energy with unnecessary midair maneuvers.

In an instant, I arrived at the point where our allies had requested reinforcements over the radio.

"That… that monster’s too tough!"

"Don’t rush in! Keep your distance! It’s slow, so just focus on the smaller ones and keep retreating!"

U͘ghrr͘ugh͘ha͟g͘h͟uhrrg͟hrroor͟ugh!

The monster tearing through the front line here was, simply put, a “medieval knight.”

It was massive, reaching 100 meters in height and spanning nearly 300 meters across. It was like a moving fortress.

Grrro͘g͘kk͟roo͘ho͘o͟o͞oorrr!

The “medieval knight” was plastered all over with metal plates.

Drip-drip-drip!

Red blood spurted continuously from the gaps in its plated armor. Its veins and muscles were chaotically tangled together.

The monster’s waist was densely pierced with countless flags, like needles. Each flag bore unknown emblems.

But upon closer inspection, the flags were actually tongues. They were alive and writhing.

These tongues flapped violently in the wind, producing a strange wailing sound.

Piiiiooooooouuuu!

The eerie “chorus of flags” shook the front line, like a train horn—or perhaps mocking laughter.

The awakened exposed to that sound directly had blood spurting from their eardrums all at once.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Uh, ugh? Ugh. Hrk, argh...?”

Not just their ears—eyeballs popped from their sockets, teeth crumbled, and blood poured from the holes in their faces.

Screams were swallowed up everywhere.

If the Northern Saintess hadn’t activated her mass healing, this one noise attack from the “medieval knight” would have wiped out an entire section of the front.

But humanity still had Sim Aryeon.

And there was also me, Doctor Jang.

“There! That’s the one, Your Excellency Doctor Jang!”

The guild leader responsible for this section of the front looked at me with his mouth agape. His left eye had just been healed, thanks to Sim Aryeon’s power.

“Stand back.”

I brushed past the guild leader and ran forward.

“Oh. Oh, please be careful—!”

One step, two steps, three steps.

The guild leader’s voice faded quickly into the distance.

Tap!

My final step pushed off the ground.

A brief sensation of floating.

The massive, fortress-like front of the “medieval knight” filled my view.

U͘rgh͘ko͟go͞h͟ko͞ro͟rrroor!

It noticed me too.

Suddenly, sharp spikes sprouted from the gaps in its plated armor.

They resembled the lances that knights would carry into battle, only there were thousands of them. Oddly, they had horse legs attached to them, making clopping sounds.

The spikes even emitted horse whinnies.

Neigh-iihiii!

The number of these “lance spikes” was around three thousand.

With a single casual thrust, it was as if a three-thousand-strong cavalry charge was coming straight at me.

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“―――.”

Drawing my blade, I unsheathed Doha.

I channeled all the aura in my body into the blade. Threads of dark aura flowed from my body, absorbed by the blade, forming a wave.

I let the wave loose.

The dark wave surged forward.

Kaa-boom!

The lance spikes charging at me shattered like toothpicks in the wave.

Even after that, my sword wave continued its course.

Wind roared. In one sweeping motion, my attack severed even the flags, those tongue-like protrusions bristling along the “medieval knight’s” back.

Urrrgghhhooorrr!

A monstrous scream.

Thousands of writhing tongues emitted their dying cries, thrashing in agony. But with their bases severed, they couldn’t reattach.

With force in my heel, I delivered a powerful kick to the massive creature’s body.

Boom!

A shockwave blasted outward.

The banners were key to this "medieval knight." As long as those flags remained standing, this hunk of iron couldn\'t be harmed.

‘Even if I take down one flag, another will grow in its place. The brutal condition is that they all have to be destroyed in one strike.’

It was a challenging condition to fulfill, but once I cleared it, I could break through the plate armor with a single kick.

Crack! Smash! Shatter!

The "medieval knight\'s" armor shattered like an eggshell.

Soon, severed tongues, shrieking their final cries, burst apart.

The monster, dying, gushed out a torrent of blood, which drenched me. The sharp, eggy stench hit my lips.

I turned around.

"Everyone, reassemble the formation!"

By now, the other Awakened ones had regained their sight and hearing. They stared up at me, dazed.

I could see a multitude of emotions in their eyes.

Fear, astonishment, joy, admiration, excitement, and fervor.

It made sense. I\'d never revealed my full power in all the countless hunts until now, in this final battle of the current turn.

"Do not lose hope!"

Ah―――.

As I rallied the warriors, a melody filled the air from the distant Tower of Babel—the Song of Tang Seorin.

Divine Song, Fourth Melody: "Broadcast."

The effect was simple. Tang Seorin would select a specific person, broadcasting their image in real-time holograms across the entire battlefield.

"The Great Witch of the Three Thousand Realms sings for us! The Saintess of the Eastern Holy Kingdom prays for you all!"

- The Great Witch of the Three Thousand Realms sings for us! The Saintess of the Eastern Holy Kingdom prays for you all!

My voice echoed across the defensive front.

Doctor Jang, projected in the hologram across the battlefield, mirrored my stance, my words, and my voice exactly.

One\'s field of vision naturally narrows drastically in the heat of battle.

Facing the relentless onslaught of the monster horde, every sense—time itself—was skewed and broken.

What did the warriors need in moments like this?

[I\'m not fighting alone.]

[On other fronts, our allies are prevailing.]

[In battlefields as brutal as this one, our comrades fight and resist, sacrificing themselves.]

Belief in one\'s comrades.

Certainty that humanity stands together.

As long as they felt that faith vividly, the warriors would never loosen their grip on their weapons.

That was why Tang Seorin had used a precious melody from her Divine Song to project this "Broadcast."

Even if focus wavered slightly, it was compensated for by Sim Aryeon\'s wide-range healing.

They minimized the downside of a momentary lapse in concentration, and in return, they maximized morale across the entire front.

I roared.

"We are humanity!"

- As long as you stand strong, humanity will not perish!

"So, let us rise together and fight to the last breath! Comrades! Countrymen! Brothers-in-arms!"

- So, let us rise together and fight to the last breath! Comrades! Countrymen! Brothers-in-arms...

Tang Seorin\'s acapella voice resonated gloriously. Flower petals danced in the sky above the battlefield.

The Great Witch, the Saintess, and Doctor Jang stood united with everyone, a palpable, undeniable reality.

"We are humanity!"

And so, one by one, the Awakened ones shouted without prompting.

- We are humanity!

I raced swiftly toward the next front line.

Outnumbered. Every front was barely holding back the monstrous flood. No one had died or been seriously wounded yet, but there were simply too many enemies.

Countless and relentless.

"We are humanity!"

Yet, each time I arrived at a section of the front, the United Human Defense Line pushed back the monsters, even if just a little.

This front. Then the next. Then the one on the other side. And then back again.

Before I knew it, a day had passed. Then two.

Thanks to Sim Aryeon, the Awakened ones forgot their fatigue, pouring themselves into the battle.

But the mental toll couldn\'t be ignored, so the final defense line continuously rotated the vanguard and rearguard.

Even so, I never stopped.

I would rush to the most dire front and take down the fiercest monster leader. The remaining minions would fall to the Awakened ones.

Overall, it was a stalemate.

We couldn\'t completely drive back the monsters, but the "Monster Wave" couldn\'t break our final defense line either.

A perpetual series of draws.

The dance of slaughter seemed as if it would go on forever.

-Uncle!

Of course.

No dance could truly last forever.

-From the sea! Battleships!

From my communicator, Oh Dokseo shouted urgently.

Hearing her, I climbed to the top of a half-collapsed building and looked toward the coastline.

Indeed, just as Oh Dokseo had said, battleships were approaching.

Except, not from the sea.

They were coming from the sky.

Parting the white clouds like waves, hundreds of thousands of colossal "aerial battleships" bore down upon the city.

Their silhouettes resembled sky whales.

They were angels of death descending to destroy humanity\'s last bastion.

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