Chapter 98
Episode 98 - Evolution, Not Corruption (6)
"..."
Menas, including the executives of the Mage Academy, was urgently summoned to the council.
The atmosphere was utterly somber. Chairman Darque, Rozes who was carefully observing, and other councilors or conference leaders couldn't open their mouths.
The reason was simple. In Menas, a monster infiltrated, causing 356 civilian casualties, killing 46 knights and 12 mages, and escaping. It had been less than two days since the entire Southwest had suddenly lost contact.
"I can't believe it. Do you know how many requests for aid were urgently sent last night? Enough to overload the communication channels. Over 3,000 cases have been reported so far! That's about the same number of towns and villages attacked in the Southwest."
"How is this even possible?! What kind of beings could simultaneously strike over 3,000 locations?!"
Some councilors eventually erupted in anger. Most of their gazes were directed at one place.
Rozes flinched under their stares. Due to the gravity of the situation, Austin, who had gained recognition, provided the information once again, completely exposing Rozes' mistakes.
"Stealing magic, numbering in the tens of millions?! Their strength cannot even be compared to the Demons of Destruction that once ruled this world. All of this could have been stopped early, but the opportunity was squandered by Rozes! Is it true that this is your doing?!"
"Si-silence! I was just..."
"Everyone, quiet. You know this isn't the time for such nonsense."
Chairman Darque silenced Rozes, who had flared up. Although his intention was to protect Rozes, the other councilors flinched at Darque's unabashed intensity.
He had always been famous as a genius, but recently, the oppressive aura he exuded had become twice as strong.
"In this situation, although I was born after that era, some of you may know. The fierce days when we fought against the successors of the Dragonkin for control of the world. And I dare say, the situation we face now cannot be said to be better than back then."
"You're absolutely right."
Austin nodded grimly. They had fought desperately and, in the end, had to leave their hometown and pioneer a new world.
But now, it was different. Settling here in the first place was close to a miracle. They no longer had the capacity to leave for another place.
"We must fight and survive."
Above all, Chairman Darque could not retreat. The enemies were units, and the purpose of units was to stand at the pinnacle of the world.
In some places, units cooperated with others to kill rival units, but the problem was that Darque, who had held the continent's hegemony tightly from the beginning, had sought out and killed all other units early on.
Even if there were units that survived unnoticed by him, it seemed unlikely they could provide meaningful help.
"So, what do we do now? If an estimated hundreds of millions of monsters pour out simultaneously, we won't be able to withstand it!"
"Are you suggesting we just sit and take it? We must mobilize all our forces to stop them! For now, expand and hasten the evacuation order we're already implementing!"
Fortunately, even without Darque urging them, people declared their intent to unite and fight. As if they had drawn a last stand.
The overwhelming nature of the enemy left no room for idle thoughts.
'If we can stop them, that is.'
Both the sky and the underground were the enemy's playgrounds. Defending all of those areas would require astronomical power.
Darque coldly watched the other councilors discussing defense plans.
When the heat of the meeting subsided for a moment, Darque discreetly summoned someone.
"Chairman, why have you called me..."
"We must open the gate."
"The gate? Where should we open it?"
Marcus, the conference leader of the Ados Academy who handled the gate, flinched at Darque's words about opening the gate.
"Redrium."
"...What?"
And upon hearing Darque's words, he was shocked.
Redrium, their hometown, but now a hell they could no longer return to.
"If those dreadful lizards and abyssal creatures fight and kill each other, wouldn't that be our victory?"
"Th-that's impossible!"
The horrified Marcus shook his head vehemently. Having heard endlessly from his mentor about that place, Marcus knew it well.
One of the Ados Academy's greatest missions was to thoroughly manage the connection with Redrium, which had already formed, to prevent any cracks. That was their very purpose.
"Absolutely. Absolutely not."
The young conference leader Marcus was resolute. Darque didn't say much more after that, merely staring at him intently.
"Fine."
And he turned away cleanly.
Of course, his face, as he turned, was grimly twisted.
"Rozes. Come here for a moment."
Immediately after, he summoned Rozes. Having his weakness firmly grasped due to this incident, Rozes groaned and had no choice but to comply.
"What nonsense is this? Gather 1,000 healthy people?"
"You don't need to know the details. Just carry it out as I said."
"Kuh..."
Dragging Rozes to the corner, Darque openly glared. Rozes' eyes wavered as he saw Darque's protruding fangs.
"Don't act so frustratingly. You know it too, don't you?! This is a survival competition. A brutal struggle where only one apex survives! Do you think I'm doing this for power? I'm struggling to survive. And in the process, I'll save your people as a bonus! If you can't help, at least don't get in the way!"
"I... understand."
In a moment of emotional outburst, Darque grabbed the hesitant Rozes by the collar and shook him roughly.
His rough behavior revealed the extreme stress he was experiencing as a unit.
Although he had always been an arrogant and insidious figure, his current demeanor was vastly different from his past self, who never crossed the line.
"What, are you going to use the Assassination Authority, Vice Leader? Unfortunately, it won't work on me."
"I-I wasn't thinking of that."
"Then go and gather the people as I said. Since the Ados Academy leader won't cooperate, there's no choice but for me to devour that ability myself."
Without even hiding his killing intent anymore, he left the spot and returned to the meeting room.
Left alone, Rozes slid to the floor. Heaven Beyond Heaven, something he was feeling deeply these days.
*
"What's going on?!"
"Councilor! Right now, above the city's airspace... Ahh!"
At the moment when Darque was shaking Rozes by the collar.
The meeting room, no, the entire city of Menas, shook violently.
Rushing in with the other councilors, Austin looked up at the sky and was stunned.
The barrier was cracking as if it would shatter at any moment, with massive shockwaves rippling through it.
"There's another one coming!"
"A Magic Howitzer Cannon?! But how could it have such power?!"
Amidst the chaos, another flash of light streaked across the sky and struck the city once more.
The elderly conference leader named Seidel, who stood beside Austin, gaped in astonishment at the power of the magic.
"We must... respond..."
Seidel, an elder who always maintained composure, stuttered. Instinctively, he tried to come up with countermeasures, but he couldn't even grasp where the attack was coming from.
"Everyone, calm down! First, activate the Mage's Eye!"
Regaining his composure quickly, Austin commanded the mages.
The mages hurriedly gathered and cast the Mage's Eye, a spell that allowed them to observe distant locations.
Austin also lent a hand.
"That's..."
But what appeared in the vision conjured by the spell was a group of black entities floating in the distant sky.
Their appearance was eerily similar to the monsters currently plunging the entire continent into crisis.
Among them, a prominent figure with a staff, blonde hair flowing in the wind, began approaching this place after retracting a magic circle.
Realizing that its intent was to fire a direct-fire cannon at point-blank range, Austin clenched his teeth. It was clear they intended to fire at close range.
The beings raised their staffs in unison with precise movements, simultaneously manifesting magic circles.
"Those arrogant...!"
"How dare they!"
The mages, now able to see the black dots in the sky with their naked eyes, boiled over with rage and shouted.
It was an act that completely trampled on their already bruised pride.
"Reinforce the defense barrier!"
"Hurry! If we amplify it momentarily, we can block it!"
They hurriedly contacted the defense tower, urging them to push the defense to its limits, no matter the cost.
But the limits of the defense system, which had never faced such an intrusion, were not very high, no matter how much they pushed.
"Agh!"
In the end, the defense barrier of the Holy Continent's capital, Menas, shattered into pieces under the doubled power of the point-blank direct-fire cannon. The mages maintaining the defensive line collapsed, coughing up blood due to mana backlash.
"...Who are you?"
While others panicked and wandered aimlessly, Austin stared directly at 'it.'
It also looked at him. Austin's chest tightened as he sensed something from the blonde hair fluttering in the wind.
"It's a bombardment! Respond with counter-fire!"
"Direct, direct-fire is too far... kuhk."
The Enemies cast magic once more, initiating a massive bombardment.
A response was impossible. The opponent was too far for a direct-fire cannon. There was no time to calculate for indirect fire.
The bombardment, randomly exploding all over the city, showed neither mercy nor compassion, leaving the people with only two choices: scream and flee somehow, or burn to death where they stood.
Austin tightly shut his eyes. For some reason, he felt deep resentment emanating from the shells flying toward him.