Chapter 51 - Breaking Through The Front (2)

"Myeong!"

I heard Daisy's somewhat fierce cry from my shoulder as I set fires everywhere.

An intense flame that melted everything it touched.

These flames flickered like waves and spread in all directions, sweeping away the surroundings.

It's definitely stronger than before.

Seeing this level of power just from setting fires, it would be right to say the attack power has become incomparably stronger than before.

I smiled brightly seeing the undead melt away, then lightly took a deep breath as I filled my mace with mana and Daisy's power.

Shall we start lightly with a point explosion?

Curious about how much stronger I had become, I filled my mace with as much power as possible, then brought it down on the ground.

Boom!

The moment I struck the ground with the mace, an intense explosion sound was heard, and massive flames began to burst out in all directions.

As I was smiling, seeing countless undead crumble helplessly from my single blow, Liana behind me spoke in a voice full of bewilderment, "This is a low-grade Expert...?"

If even Liana, an executive of the information guild, was astonished, it must mean the power I showed was far beyond common sense.

I nodded, confirming once again that the massive flames didn't burn our allies.

"To be precise, it's not my ability but Daisy's."

"Myam."

I patted the head of the proud Daisy, then looked at the undead gathering towards me and said, "Then I'll break through, so follow me well."

"Y-yes!"

Gathering power once again, I quickly advanced forward.

***

A small village on top of Pernoir Cliff.

As we arrived there, numerous emotions hit my sight.

Relief, hope, sadness, shock, gratitude.

Perhaps because I was the only hope that appeared in this crisis, I thought their gazes were quite favorable when in the distance, I saw Ruen and Dasoon shouting, "Ah!"

"D-Damian!"

"Hey! You! You came at a good time, damn it! The day has come when you're useful!"

The two quickly approached me, dragging along a young, dumbfounded holy knight, and started showering me with all sorts of praise.

"We saw a huge pillar of fire from afar... it was amazing! What on earth was that? I don't know what it was, but it was so incredible that cheers erupted the moment we saw it!"

"Wow, shit, that was awesome. But that was originally mine... no, nevermind. You saved us, so it's fine!"

They were so happy that the desperate crisis had been reversed that they couldn't contain their excited voices and their eyes shone.

Seeing their reactions, I didn't know how to respond and was smiling awkwardly when…

"Mya mya mya myeong!"

Suddenly, chubby Daisy on my shoulder thrust her bulging belly forward and said proudly, "Myeong!"

Judging by how she put her hand on her chest and spoke confidently, it seemed she wanted to be praised too.

So I held Daisy out in front of me, setting the stage for her to receive praise from others.

"Ah, is this the sun spirit? It looks so cute, but it's so strong!"

"Myhehe."

Daisy made a silly laughing sound, seemingly happy to be praised by Ruen.

As she was laughing with her chubby body, I thought she looked somewhat like a hamster.

This time, nearby holy knights crowded around and expressed their gratitude to me.

"T-thank you so much for coming! I don't know how to express this gratitude..."

"I'm not lying, I thought you were a saint. Wow, I've never felt this overwhelmed before."

"It's cold over there, so come this way quickly! It's a bit warmer here!"

I wasn't used to receiving such a warm welcome, so I was flustered and didn't know what to do when Liana, who was behind me, calmed the holy knights and shook her head.

"I understand your gratitude, but the situation is still not good, so let's save the celebration for after we finish everything."

Although the atmosphere had turned around, the undead army was still present, so it was unreasonable to think the situation had improved.

So Liana said it would be better to finish the situation first and semi-forcibly sent the holy knights away.

Just as I thought I could finally catch my breath, Liana smiled awkwardly and said to me, "Please understand. When people are pushed to the edge of a cliff, they tend to cling to something."

I nodded, knowing how they felt because I had been in that situation, too.

This time, Dasoon beside me explained the situation in a softer voice than usual, "To put it simply, it was fucked. Those shitty undead were tougher than expected and didn't die easily. Plus, their lifelines were damn tenacious, so there's no way to stop them unless we reduced them to a shit stain."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So, you know, we were about to be annihilated when you appeared just in time to save us. Phew. I was so fucking glad to see you."

I laughed hollowly listening to Dasoon's words, half of which were curses.

I remember that when talking to Elisia in the past, she used polite and formal language.

But since becoming Dasoon, it seemed the reins had come loose, as she kept spewing out curses.

Well, it doesn't matter.

Thinking it wasn't particularly important, I turned my gaze and said, "At this rate, it might be better to abandon this place and run away."

To those words, this time Ruen answered instead, "At first, we all tried to run away, but while we were fleeing, the undead swarmed from all directions... as we were pushed back, we ended up trapped."

It seemed they couldn't abandon this place not by choice but by force.

Well, what was important was the fact that they were trapped here and that everyone will die if we don't deal with these undead.

As I was nodding, recalling this fact again, Dasoon urgently opened her mouth, "Anyway, so I thought about it, and to somehow reverse this situation, it would be best to take out their boss."

Dasoon said she thought of it herself, but in fact, this was the method that appeared in the original work.

Because the number of enemies was so large, it was impossible to win with a frontal attack, so the plan was to form a small elite party and infiltrate the enemy headquarters to kill the Dullahan.

However, there was one point of concern.

"Isn't the number of enemies too large for that?"

Since there were more enemies than described in the original work, even if we could take down the Dullahan, it was uncertain whether those left in the village could hold out.

I pointed out this concern and expressed my doubt.

"...Ah, but! We don't have any other choice!"

Dasoon, having nothing to say, got unnecessarily angry and ended her words.

After pondering for a moment at those words, I smiled slightly and said, "What if there's a way?"

"Huh? There is?"

I nodded and said, "We can set fires."

At my words, Dasoon looked at me with a very surprised expression, and seeing that reaction, I smiled and said, "The fire Daisy creates isn't just ordinary fire."

Not ordinary fire, but the sun's fire.

It was an element mentioned in the original work and confirmed again when I used the point explosion earlier.

The power of the sun had the ability to “purify” undead and demon races, so unlike ordinary fire, it could melt them.

So if we create conditions for the sun's fire to catch well…

It meant we could eliminate many troops at once.

When I explained this, perhaps because of the pillar of fire they had seen earlier, everyone understood and offered various opinions.

"We don't have oil, but... we have things like straw or dried wood that catch fire easily, so wouldn't it be okay to throw those?"

"Hmm, or how about creating a wall of fire in front? The important thing is protecting the people here, so that might be better."

"Anyway, you're saying there's a way? Thank goodness... I thought we were doomed."

However, since the village was small, the materials we could procure were limited, so we concluded it would be better to compromise and protect the village.

With that, we brought up the plan again to protect the village while forming a small elite team to go after the Dullahan.

***

After gathering all the material resources in the village and setting up a wall,

We lit it with the sun's fire to prevent the undead from approaching.

"Since we don't have many resources, they say we can only hold out for about 3 to 4 hours at most."

Ruen looked at the clumsily piled wooden wall and announced the time limit in a worried voice.

I nodded to mean not to worry and was calmly turning my gaze when a small child holding a doll quickly approached me and handed me something.

"Here you go..."

A small flower that fit in one hand.

It seemed the child gave it to cheer me on, so I was about to express my gratitude when someone who looked like the child's father kept apologizing and quickly took the child away.

"I-I'm sorry for disturbing you."

"It's okay."

I was about to say thank you for the flower, but the child's father seemed to think this behavior was a disturbance to us and disappeared quickly as if fleeing.

I looked at the flower in my hand, pondered for a moment, then nodded and looked ahead.

Then we should depart right away.

Since time was not on our side, it would be right to leave immediately and focus all our efforts on taking down the Dullahan.

So, thinking not to waste time on unnecessary things, I called Daisy.

"Myeong."

"Can you set fire here? And if possible, make it burn as long as you can."

"Myeong!"

Daisy's eyes sparkled as if telling me to trust her, and she lit the flames.

After confirming that the wood had caught fire, I immediately turned my gaze and spoke to Ruen, Liana, and Dasoon who were waiting behind.

"Let's go."

Watching them nod simultaneously, I immediately moved forward.

The army of countless undead standing.

Looking at this, I filled my mace with mana and Daisy's power, then brought it down on the ground, causing a massive explosion.

Boom!

Huge flames engulfed the undead, melting all the surrounding undead.

I pointed to the direction that had suddenly become empty and shouted in a loud voice.

"Run!"

With my shout, we quickly ran forward and assessed the situation.

"Damn, it's endless. How many are there?"

Dasoon cursed, looking at the swarm of zombies tangled together.

Liana behind nodded as if agreeing and shouted loudly, "Just keep going straight ahead!"

I sighed lightly as I melted the swarming undead with fire.

Not only were there more than expected, but it was questionable whether we could catch the Dullahan within 4 hours.

We can only struggle as much as possible.

Once we had started, we couldn't turn back.

So, deciding to do our best, as we were running in the direction Liana was guiding, in the distance, I saw a black and white knight standing over 2 meters tall, holding a huge sword.

The mid-level undead Dullahan with its head separated.

I took out the hammer in my chest as I watched all the plants around quickly dying every time the Dullahan took a step forward.

It would be good to start by lightly throwing the hammer.

It would be good if it landed an effective hit, and even if it didn’t, it could create an opening, so it wasn’t bad.

As I was thinking this and about to throw it forward, filled with Daisy's power, Dasoon's surprised voice was heard from the side.

"...Isn't that a holy sword that bastard’s holding? It looks exactly the same as the one I'm holding now?"