< Final Chapter-007. >
In the far western region of Westraine, at the old Republican Army fortress.
This place, which still bore the raw scars of the war from five years ago, had beco a massive morial commorating the end of the war.
At the center of the underground city where the Secretary General had raised monsters stood a morial stone honoring the countless unnad soldiers who died in the war.
The one gazing at it with a complicated expression was Lieutenant Adinkov, an officer of the forr Republican Army.
“Kuhek…! K-Kheuk…!”
A blood-covered hand grabbed his ankle.
The Lieutenant’s eyes slowly looked down through his gas mask lenses.
“Mages really are different. You’re still breathing even in that state.”
The man was missing one leg, reduced to a near-corpse.
He was wearing the uniform of the Kalhyram Army Special Magical Power Unit.
“You damn rebel bastards…!”
“Rebels? That’s rather harsh.”
With those words, Adinkov lifted his foot and stomped on the man’s head.
Crunch-!
“If it weren’t for you invaders, I’d still be a proud mber of the Republican Army.”
Naturally, there was no response.
The heavy boot of his powered armor had crushed the man’s head, and without a head, the man could no longer speak.
“Lieutenant.”
At the voice calling him, Adinkov shifted his attention from the enemy’s corpse.
Soldiers stood in formation with resolute expressions.
They wore the sa forr Republican Army uniforms as himself.
“What about the remaining guards?”
“All taken care of. Additional personnel have entered the observation outpost, but…”
“That side failed. We have about 30 minutes left.”
Their discipline is impressive for a frontier guard unit.
Though it was an unexpected situation, Adinkov nodded with satisfaction.
“Things are going much better than expected.”
That man who now lay headless was one of the notorious Devils of Magic Bullets.
A four stroke imprint mage from the Special Magical Power Unit.
If he hadn’t been infected by the poison gas, it would have been Adinkov lying there instead.
But in the end, he won.
He had defeated the cursed Devils of Magic Bullets and survived.
“The poison gas has already spread throughout this entire sector. We’ve dealt with the mage who was their main combat strength, so there’s no one left who can stop us.”
By the ti reinforcents arrive from Viselgrad, we’ll be long gone with our objective.
This operation was as good as successful.
Clank-!
Growing impatient, Adinkov imdiately headed toward the Secretary General’s residence at the center of the underground city.
Unlike the clean upper levels, this space retained the raw scars of the old war.
After descending for quite so ti, what appeared before them was a battlefield horrifically lted away.
“Lieutenant. This place…”
“Eugene Lorentz.”
Looking at the site, Adinkov ground out the na through clenched teeth.
“This is where that detestable Imperial invader brutally murdered the Republic’s highest authority.”
The one who burned the Republic’s heart and planted the Empire’s flag in its place.
Forcefully suppressing his boiling indignation, Adinkov carefully searched for sothing among the collapsed ruins.
“Just as the intelligence said.”
After searching the scene for a while, what he found was a bookshelf set against one wall.
When he broke through the rotting wood, what appeared behind it was a massive steel door.
“A door too heavy for human strength to open. However…”
For soone wearing powered armor, it’s a different story.
With that murmur, Adinkov imdiately pushed the door open.
Rumble……!
With a heavy tallic sound, the interior of the old underground bunker revealed itself.
The bunker was filled with mana cores stockpiled by the Republican Army.
“Move them to the hideout. Hurry.”
“Yes!”
With a resounding response, the soldiers following him entered the bunker.
This amount would be enough to potentially create Armored Infantry units at a division scale.
“Just you wait, Eugene Lorentz.”
With these, we can keep fighting.
A dark smile blood across Adinkov’s face at that thought.
“The Republic hasn’t disappeared yet, so we’ll eventually…!”
Just as Adinkov was speaking while thinking of future plans.
“Wow, there really is a ton left here?”
From behind him ca an unfamiliar girl’s voice.
“?!”
Startled, he spun around to find a woman standing there.
‘The poison gas should have spread throughout the entire basent, yet she’s standing there in plain clothes? Without any effect?’
He hurriedly examined the woman… no, the girl’s appearance.
A black casual dress and eyes with a sowhat dull black sheen.
Though her appearance was beautiful, he wasn’t captivated by it.
Instead, what he felt was an uncanny valley sensation that didn’t feel human.
Though he possessed not a drop of magical power himself, Adinkov could tell what the girl standing before him was.
That thing wasn’t human.
“Kuh!”
BOOM—!
Hastily extending his hand, Adinkov unleashed every weapon equipped on his powered armor without hesitation.
The terror he felt the mont he saw the girl’s face.
In an instant, it had stripped away his reason.
Hisssss-!
The weapons glowed red-hot from overheating.
Just as he thought he had dealt with her, watching the girl shrouded in thick smoke.
Crack-!
A shadow leaped out from the smoke and instantly devoured his arm.
“Grgh!”
Along with it ca the terrible toxic energy commonly emitted by monsters.
If their escape route was blocked, they would be annihilated.
Thinking this, he imdiately turned to look at the soldiers who had entered the bunker.
“Operation cancelled! Everyone retreat! While I hold this thing back…!”
However, Adinkov’s teeth-gritting words were cut short.
“Ah, aah…!”
“Save …! Please… Please…!”
“Lieu…tenant…!”
What t his eyes as he turned around was the sight of his comrades being devoured by countless teeth sprouting from that black thing.
“Tch, tastes bad.”
When that spine-chilling comnt ca from the girl standing behind him, Adinkov squeezed his eyes shut.
It was already over.
That thing was a monster in human form.
There was no possibility of survival.
“Hey.”
“?!”
Adinkov’s face was filled with despair.
The girl looked at his expression and took a step closer, asking quietly.
“The war ended a long ti ago, so why are you still fighting?”
“…What?”
His brain couldn’t keep up with the situation.
What is this monster saying now?
First it suddenly appears and devours my arm and subordinates, and now it’s asking questions?
“Suddenly, what are you…!”
“The world Eugene created is a bit stifling, but I think it’s peaceful in its own way. They didn’t impose excessive plunder or war reparations on the defeated Republic, and instead sent reconstruction teams.”
A tone as if having a conversation with a human.
“Instead of fighting battles you can’t win under the na of resistance forces or whatever, wouldn’t it be better to use that strength and ability to build a new life?”
A question without a trace of malice.
The girl tilted her head and continued to prod at his nerves.
“Can’t you be happy in the world Eugene created?”
“Happy…?!”
Perhaps that innocent question had touched his sore spot.
“After destroying everything I had, how can you tell
to be happy-!”
As if his reason had flown away along with his fear, Adinkov ground his teeth and shouted at the girl.
“My holand, my city! My village!! How can you tell
to live in a world built by thoroughly destroying all of that!”
“……”
“In a world built on top of my comrades’ corpses. Peace that grew drinking my family’s blood! How can you expect
to accept that-!”
“Woow.”
A bored voice, as if hearing a distasteful joke.
Seeing that expression, Adinkov raised his remaining arm and charged at the girl.
Blood was streaming from his entire body, but it didn’t matter.
He felt like he could do anything if he could just shut that monster’s mouth.
“What would a monster who knows nothing understand…!”
However. At that mont.
“Really, it’s just like Eugene said.”
Squelch-!
With that brief comnt, the girl’s shadow pierced through his abdon.
Penetrating power that pierced through the powered armor’s alloy plating like tofu.
As if even spilling blood was a waste, teeth and tongues sprouting from the shadow were greedily devouring his body.
“Revenge for family, rebuilding a fallen nation, unrealized grand causes. So many emotions and determination that might even seem noble from certain perspectives.”
“…!”
“It’s so hard because you’re trying to suppress all of this alone.”
And you won’t even play with
because of it.
Grumbling thus, the girl, Irene, spread her palm toward the struggling Adinkov who had been pierced through.
And then.
Crack-!
The mont she clenched her fist, shadows extending from all directions completely devoured Adinkov’s body.
Crunch- Crunch-
Adinkov, ground up by the monster’s teeth without even being able to scream.
While horrific crushing sounds echoed from within the shadows, the monsters that erged from both her sides slowly bowed their heads toward Irene.
– My Queen.
As one being spoke, the other monsters lined up behind it spoke in unison.
– Take us to the Promised Land.
– To that place promised long ago.
“I know.”
Perhaps annoyed by the voices echoing from all directions?
Answering in a low voice, Irene raised her head to look up at the underground stairs she had descended.
The spiral staircase and intricately tangled steel frawork.
There, hundreds and thousands of monsters had already gathered, waiting for her command.
“This is annoying.”
The monsters’ collective will continued to press upon Irene.
Their massive collective consciousness was constantly demanding the prophesied destruction from her.
“So, I’ll just get rid of everything.”
Those who hate Eugene.
Those who love Eugene.
Everything that troubles Eugene and hurts him.
If I eliminate all of that, Eugene can be happy.
Thinking this, Irene slowly spread her arms.
Rumble-!
With an eerie sound, a black hole ford in the concrete floor of the underground bunker.
The contamination that leaked from the hole grew like a tree, enveloping the hole.
Eventually the hole beca a massive black sphere, and along with the contamination that had sprouted like branches, it began to rise upward.
Crack, crackle-!
As it rose higher, the sphere grew increasingly larger.
The contamination flowing from the hole made the branches more solid, and those extended branches began to take deep root in the Secretary General’s basent.
Deeper.
Even deeper.
While taking root, the mbrane sprouting from the branches wrapped around the black sphere layer by layer.
Carefully, and solidly.
Its completed form resembled a massive flower bud.
Completed in the deep basent, it rose relentlessly toward the surface.
“This is my gift to you, Eugene.”
Whoosh-!
From amidst the scars of the old war, the Black Rose blood, radiant with fissures and contamination.
[You are forever mine]
Recalling that flower language she had once read in a book, Irene gazed at her Great Rupture that had risen high into the sky.
“Heehee!”
Along with a bright smile filled with pure madness.
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