Chapter 147
“That attack just now..!?”
A blue ray shot straight through the cyclops’s pupil. Immediately afterward, the cyclops’s body collapsed, bringing the building down with it.
From the gate opened high overhead, monsters were pouring out, using the standing cyclops as a ladder, but when it lay on the floor, the gate shifted downward and drove straight into the ground.
Since Yuchaerin was the closest to the cyclops’s main body, she could clearly feel the power of the attack that had just brought it down.
‘An overseas S-rank..?!’
Before I knew it, time had passed and 24 hours were nearly up. It wouldn’t be strange for support to come from overseas by then, but there was one thing that bothered me.
‘There probably isn’t one in the neighboring countries..?’
There was no hunter in any nearby country with long-range attack power strong enough to bring down an A+ ranked named entity in a single strike. They would have had to leave for Korea at least several hours earlier, but high-rank hunters go through an extremely strict entry-and-exit process.
Unless they had headed straight for Korea the moment the gate burst, it would have been impossible.
And that impression was shared by everyone except Yuchaerin.
* * * * *
Thirty minutes earlier.
“Warriors of the kingdom! Are you prepared to prove your loyalty with your lives!!”
ㅡClack!!
“B-but still, dying is sad, so if it hurts, make sure you come get treated right away…. Okay..?”
Seventy new golem soldiers had been created. This was basically a full military force, so if we just walked around together, we might even get arrested as coup plotters.
“Princess, let’s move quickly. I’ll accompany you.”
ㅡBeep-beep!!
“Y-yes!!! Please give me a lift.”
With Ophelia’s help, I got on the brand-new, sturdy, speedy griffon, grabbed the reins, and poured mana into it.
“Let’s go! Destination: Gasan Digital Complex! Super fast ㅡ !!!”
ㅡKWAaaaaaang!!!!
“Huek-huek.”
It didn’t quite have the polished, professional feel of Suri’s work, but after stuffing it full of mana, the new griffon became absurdly fast, and we raced to the Gasan Digital Complex battle zone.
I couldn’t properly open my eyes, but Ophelia was riding behind me, and in front of me I could feel Dangdang’s plump, squishy butt.
The wind was so strong it nearly snapped my neck backward, but since it was a griffon, it blocked the wind well enough to save me. Ophelia’s cushion helped too.
ㅡSwoooosh....
“S-so, what should we do when we get there?!”
“For now, the front line is holding. Route A is the section our soldiers are blocking off. Everyone’s taken severe damage, so they’re gradually getting worn down.”
“Then we should hurry over and relieve them!”
“That’s right.”
Ophelia was carrying on her shoulder a bag so absurdly heavy that it could hold the materials for a new super-powerful golem, brought along for emergencies.
The main material was our company’s specially made super-strong rare metal, but the most expensive part was still the top-grade one-kilogram mana stone.
Because it had the exact same specifications as the mana stone used to make Ophelia, plus another 400 grams.
ㅡKirik..!
Ophelia grabbed the griffon’s reins and picked up speed, then began circling the perimeter of the danger zone. The reason she wasn’t landing right away was that giant one-eyed monster over there. Not because of some “Get out of our village!!” thing or anything, but....
“You mean that thing has to stay still..?”!
“That’s right. It’ll soon be 24 hours since the gate appeared. As expected, that’s the turning point, so if it still hasn’t moved by then, the soldier golems should be enough.”
When I checked the time on my phone, it was exactly the same time as yesterday—the moment after lunch, when Teacher Baek Sangjun suddenly said something huge had happened and we bolted outside in a panic.
“Wow... it’s still standing there..!!”
The cyclops, which had ravaged downtown with a destruction beam, was still standing there with its eyes tightly shut. It was huge and hideously purple, so it was easy to spot even from far away.
I even wondered if we couldn’t just beat the hell out of it like a sandbag while it was standing there, but apparently some kind of magic shield surrounded its whole body and nullified everything.
Just then, Ophelia was expertly slowing the griffon’s incredible speed while looking for a place to land.
“T-that!! That bastard looks like he’s about to open his eyes?!!!”
“So it really is on a 24-hour cycle. Princess, the creature’s weak point is its eye.”
“Its eye?! Should we just go smash into it like this?!”
“That won’t do. The impact wouldn’t be strong enough, and it is absolutely forbidden for the Princess to be directly exposed to danger.”
“Then what do we do!?!”
There were probably tons of people fighting down below right now, and I couldn’t just sit here and watch. If that thing fired its destruction beam again, someone could really die. The last attack had been blocked by Grandpa Galahad, though..!“
“Princess, remember Bradamante. It’s the name.”
“A name..! Name-name-name-name-name..!!”
The purple eyelid split open in a disgusting, tearing motion, and a red magic circle appeared in front of the cyclops’s eye. Seriously, it was hideously ugly, but absurdly strong and rock-hard too..!
How does something with only one weakness even make sense..!
“We’re running out of time, Princess..! I’m going to land!”
“Uuuuuuu..!!”
My head was spinning. As Ophelia sharply slowed the griffon, it made an emergency landing on the rooftop of a building on the outskirts.
“Ughk..!”
ㅡBeep-beep..!!
The distance was still far too great. The cyclops was huge, so we could see it, but from here even Minyum’s grandpa wouldn’t be able to reach it in time.
“Why! Why didn’t you go farther?!”
“Princess, the most important thing is your safety. If we advanced any farther from here....”
“Aaaah!!!”
Ophelia quickly unzipped the bag that had fallen to the floor, spread it open, and dumped out the materials inside.
Every time I tried to piece the memory together, something inside my head kept going ding-ding. There was definitely a name I knew....
“Uu.... ttu-dya-dya....”
In my throbbing head, Dangdang came over to me carrying one of the griffon’s fallen feathers in its mouth.
ㅡBeep-beep-beep!!!!
“A feather..?”
A feather, a feather.... Where’s the feather....
“Atalante..?”
ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ !!!!!!!
Something flashed past me in a whoosh immediately after the summon. It had definitely been silent when fired, but afterward a huge sound like thunder rolling and lightning cracking came booming from far away.
And then, from behind me, the slow click-clack of high heels.
[The fragments of the fallen kingdom have been recalled. Temporarily summoning the archer captain, ‘Atalante’.]
“Meow~”
“Hooee...”
* * * * *
ㅡRumble....
A blue flash streaked by like lightning, and a beat later the impact sounded through the city. Right after the cyclops fell, reports began pouring in nonstop from both domestic and foreign outlets.
ㅡBreaking news. The Gasan Digital Complex gate break’s cyclops was struck down by an unidentified blow-
ㅡThe cyclops was instantly killed by an unknown strike.... The International Hunter Federation CHAD also responded, saying “There was no support”-
ㅡChinese S-rank hunter Liao Mangding, who had claimed “Korea is finished,” had his live broadcast cut off-
ㅡWith theories that an overseas high-rank hunter or a new weapon was deployed gaining traction-
ㅡHere is the image of the cyclops collapsed in front of a half-destroyed building. The Gasan-dong area is currently wrapped in a mysterious silence-
“Where on earth did it come from!? What happened?!”
“Either way, this is great news! Now’s our chance!”
The gate-break response team, which was stationed near Gasan Digital Complex, immediately contacted the resting hunters and began preparations for a full-scale offensive.
With the gate body having descended to the ground, direct attacks had become possible. The Hunter Management Association loaded the gate mana decomposition device that had been waiting near Guro Station onto a truck and raced off.
“W-what is that?!”
“We’ve got contact from the front line!”
Even the people watching the situation through drone cameras and the response team in contact with the hunters at the front line reacted at the same time.
“Monsters are pouring out of there..?!”
As soon as the cyclops stopped moving and the gate descended to the ground, massive monsters began pouring out like a tide. Compared to just moments ago, when about ten monsters a minute were slipping through the gate, it was nearly five times as many.
ㅡKwoooooo!!
As you’d expect from humanoid entities with high combat intelligence, the more of them there were, the harder they became to deal with. Along with a thunderous battle cry, the Grand General Minotaur thrust a massive greatsword forward, and the troll legion began pounding the ground with their fists, creating a resonating tremor.
“Where the hell did all these numbers come from out of nowhere..!”
“Damn it..!”
Yuchaerin desperately swung the powerful bramble she had created with her remaining mana, but because each monster carried so much weight, it wasn’t producing much effect.
Even Baek Sangjun’s rebar-and-concrete water stream lost its force after knocking down a dozen or so of them, and though Utaha’s sword strikes back on the battlefield were cutting them down one by one.
“We’re being pushed back. The front line is being pushed back..!”
The front line, which they had finally pushed to within sight of the gate, was being shoved backward again. As the line stretched and the area they had to cover widened, concentrating force in one spot became harder, and the hunters were losing badly.
ㅡFlap..!
A griffon flapped its wings through the low sky between shattered windows and broken buildings.
“All troops ㅡ !! Answer the princess’s call ㅡ !!”
A clear girl’s voice rang out through the concrete jungle. Immediately afterward, dozens of golems clad in white armor fell from the sky and crashed down onto the swarm of monsters.
ㅡKugugugugun!!!!
“Th-those golems are..?!“
In the sky, twenty of the Eve Project’s golem cavalry, which had only occasionally been seen until now, charged toward the ground and swept the monsters away with a huge gust of wind.
In front of them, the heavily armored infantry golems charged while smashing the monsters’ heads like a whack-a-mole game with heavy shields and vicious maces.
Soldier golems gripping greatswords tightly filled the gap between the two forces, beginning to carve through the monsters one by one.
“Suri! Charge!”
ㅡKWAaaaaaang!!!!
The massive Grand General Minotaur in the middle of the enemy ranks was utterly shattered with a huge shockwave, as if it had been hit by a meteor that had suddenly fallen from the sky.
“Kwa-hahahaha ㅡ !!!”
The spinning monster, with a shield in one hand and a flail in the other, also ground the troll legion to pulp like a blender.
In an instant, the equivalent combat power of seventy A-rank hunters had dropped into the middle of the battlefield. There was only one person who could make something like this happen.
“Eve..!”
“Utaha unnie!! Why are you here??!!!??!!!”
“I, I..!”
“It’s okay to fight, but don’t get hurt!!! Got it!!!!”
ㅡSwoooosh
Watching Eve disappear again on the griffon, Utaha gripped Kurenai tightly.
* * * * *
“Soldiers!!! You’ve all worked so hard!!!!”
ㅡClack!!!
“Oh my God. It’s all totally smashed to pieces!!!”
The veteran soldiers who had originally been fighting were in rough shape, with wounds all over them. Their metal bodies were tough, so nothing had actually broken, but they looked completely exhausted.
ㅡClack..!
“M-Minyum!”
ㅡBeep-beep-beep!!!
Minyum’s sword had broken too, so she was fighting with the enormous minotaur sword she’d stolen. It probably didn’t even fit her body..!
“Jeez! Hurry up and come over here! I’ll heal you! You guys get in line too!!”
ㅡClack!!
We took a little time to heal everyone on Route A, where our golems were fighting. The mana cost for healing was tiny, and everyone recovered almost immediately, so with only thirty people, I wrapped it up in a snap.
“You guys are going to pull back for a bit!”
ㅡClack?!
“Because I’m going to upgrade you! See those guys over there?! You’re the seniors, so I’ll make you even stronger than them!!”
Minyum, the soldiers, and the veteran cavalry were all super excited and bouncing around. Minyum even showed off a 500-times-amplified somersault moonwalk dance.
After I finished healing everyone, Ophelia, who had been carried princess-style in Atalante’s arms, hopped over and landed beside me.
“Gasp! Atalante! Ophelia!”
“Princess, Atalante has exhausted all of her mana.”
“Sniff, you’re already leaving..?”
There was a reason Atalante’s strike had been so overwhelmingly powerful. She had burned through 80 percent of the mana in that expensive top-grade mana stone in a single strike.
“Princess, I think I deserve some credit.”
“Y-yes! You were totally amazing!”
“Then.”
“You’ll hug me once, right?”
“Oh my God.”