[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Chapter 243: The Experimenter II
2
The pillars of smoke that filled the sky continued for half a day before gradually dissipating, one by one.
The farthest smoke column was the first to fade, signaling the complete destruction of a human city or base where the signal fires had been set.
One, two, three...
As quietly as a candle being snuffed out.
Eventually, when only five pillars of smoke remained in the sky—
“Grand Witch!”
A member of the Thousand Worlds Guild, who had been scouting from above on a broom, approached us.
Our leadership was gathered on the terrace of the National Road Management Headquarters, receiving the scout’s report.
“Yes. What is it?”
“A monster wave has been observed! It appears that Sejong City and Daejeon have already fallen!”
“I see. Good work. The scout teams from divisions one to five should return.”
“Yes!”
The guild member flew off again, disappearing beyond Busan. With the disappearance of the Saintess' [Telepathy], such reports had to be delivered manually.
There were also radios, but most of them could only be used once before becoming infected by the anomaly, so they were reserved for critical battles.
Soon, only four columns of smoke remained. It seemed that Jeonju had fallen as well.
“Everyone, take your final rest. Once the battle starts, you won’t have time to close your eyes.”
“...”
There wasn’t much response.
Most of them were extremely tense.
It was only natural.
To me, this was merely the 687th time facing the end of the world. But to the others, this was their first—and last—apocalypse.
Seoul had been reduced to ashes in mere seconds. Families and friends were dead. Human lives were treated like playthings. And yet, somehow, out of a desperate will to survive, we rebuilt the cities.
But even then, everyone had the same thought in the back of their minds: “How much longer can we survive?” “Is all of this just a futile struggle?”
The answer to those questions was now approaching from the sky. The smoke pillars marking humanity’s survival—those hands of the clock counting down from four to three, three to two, two to one.
And when it finally reached zero—
Doooong—
A bell rang out from the sky.
Dooooong— Doooong—
It wasn’t music created by a mage or some sound produced by a superhuman ability.
The bell itself was an anomaly.
When all human strongholds had fallen, and only one remained to face the final struggle, when the monster wave had reached the front lines, the “Bell” would appear without fail, ringing loudly across the sky.
Dooooong— Doooong—
Each time the invisible bell rang, the sky was stained with bright red paint.
As if a bucket of paint had been spilled.
The sky, no longer an empty void, had become a canvas. Before the bell tolled twelve times, the heavens were completely dyed red.
Dooooooong—
The bell tolled exactly thirteen times and then fell silent.
But the ringing had not merely painted the sky red.
Another witch who had been scouting high above rapidly descended.
“Grand Witch! Th-the Earth has flattened!”
In just the thirteen tolls of the bell, the very terrain of Earth—no, the laws of the solar system itself—had been distorted.
It was proof that humanity no longer had any power to assert logic or reason over the world.
I took a deep breath and shouted with all my might.
“Do not look up at the sky!”
CLANG!
“Do not let the sun, the moon, or the stars enter your sight! They are no longer celestial bodies! They are now part of the anomaly, mere void! Do not look at them!”
Though all survivors were already well aware of this, I reiterated it.
Humans had trained relentlessly up to this point. In the virtual world created through the collaboration of the Tutorial Fairies and the authors, [The Kingdom Project], a dreamlike simulation.
Even though the Saintess had perished, humanity still had a final ace up its sleeve.
No one was fumbling around in confusion, as they had during the early Ten Clans Hunt or the Meteor Shower Hunt. All of them were pseudo-regressors who had experienced death several times in the simulated world of dreams.
My army.
The product of all my regressions.
“They’re coming!”
The witches of the Thousand Worlds Guild, who were in charge of the army’s sensory organs and bloodstream, fired flares into the sky with a loud bang.
“The monster wave is here!”
The army of anomalies had swallowed the horizon.
3
The petals of those who had lost limbs were red, the petals of those with damaged internal organs were yellow, the petals of those with brain damage were blue, and the petals of those grieving for lost loved ones were pure white.
An explosion of a hundred flowers in full bloom.
This was the power of Sim Aryeon, the Saintess of the Eastern Holy Kingdom.
A large-area ability that endlessly healed any wounds of allies within her range of influence.
A garden that bloomed by feeding off malice.
In any battlefield where Sim Aryeon revealed her true power, flowers always bloomed, covering the sky in petals.
"Oooooh!"
"The Saintess is protecting us!"
"The Saintess has pierced the path of the wind, lighting the way forward for us! With the radiant glory of her mercy and the blessing of love, the whole world shall be saved!"
It was only natural that people would become intoxicated by the excessively enchanting sight, too beautiful for any mere human to have created.
"In the name of Christ the Savior!"
The 600 members of the Saintess's Guard let out a furious roar as they charged toward the undead.
The sight of paladins charging at a monstrosity at least 70 stories tall was so absurd that even Don Quixote charging at windmills would seem more rational.
But these paladins were far more competent than the knight of La Mancha.
Boom...!
The orderly charge of the Saintess's Guard literally crushed the nearest undead.
They hacked away at its flesh from both sides, and the gargantuan creature lost its balance and toppled over, causing the entire city of Busan to tremble.
"Exterminate them!"
"We too, let’s join in!"
"Uoooooh!"
Guild members who had evacuated from various parts of the Korean Peninsula joined the fray.
Blood spattered endlessly.
The massive monstrosity, which was enormous in size but little else, was quickly carved up by the blades of the seasoned Awakened warriors.
-Aaaaaaah.
-Please stop hurting our child!
-Mom! Dad! Mom! Dad! Mom! Dad!
-It hurts! It hurts! Please save me!
-Why are you doing this to us? Why are you trying to kill us? And you still call yourselves human?
The undead imitated human eyes, voices, and hands as they clung to the Awakened, their cries little more than curses. Even the most battle-hardened warriors flinched at the sight.
"A――ah――ah――."
But by then, Tang Seorin's voice, now in her third melody, was already scattering ‘mental fortification’ across the battlefield.
It was the result of one of our collaborations: a spell created through the fusion of Tang Seorin's magic and my magic, designed to fight against Goryo-ri.
The effect was simple. It constantly fed back specific memories and emotions.
The emotions that surged within the warriors were, "I will defeat the anomalies" and "I will show humanity's last stand."
"These damn monsters...!"
"Don't you dare imitate humans!"
The hesitation disappeared from the warriors' strikes. They slaughtered the anomalies as they had been trained.
But the anomalies did not go down without a fight.
The undead, composed of tens of thousands of corpses, clawed with their nails, bit with their teeth, and exploded their intestines like bombs.
Casualties were inevitable. The blood of both the undead and the living soaked the earth red.
"......"
But Sim Aryeon was there.
Silently, she prayed.
Repenting for the people she had hurt, reflecting on all her wrongdoings, and offering comfort to others in proportion to the wounds she had inflicted.
Even when the anomalies gouged out human flesh, flowers soon entwined the wounded arms, their petals blooming within seconds before wilting again.
And so, when the giant undead was finally slaughtered―
Under the crimson sky, in the area where the battle had taken place, a million flower petals flowed brightly.
Injuries: 0. Deaths: 0.
The skirmish was an overwhelming victory for humanity.
"Uoooooh!"
"Screw the anomalies! Bring them all on!"
"Long live the Three Thousand Worlds! Long live the Great Witch!"
Cheers erupted from all directions.
However, with my vision enhanced by aura, I could see the wave of monsters endlessly approaching from the horizon.
In terms of the overall force of the monster wave, the undead the Awakened had just defeated accounted for roughly... 1/10,000,000,000.
One ten-billionth.
"......"
Looking at Tang Seorin, who was still burning her life force as she sang, and Sim Aryeon, who was slowly nearing the state of a fallen one, I tightly gripped the hilt of Doha.
This was just the beginning.
[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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