Invincible
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#173
🕑 Added 2024-12-28 20:00:16 +0000 UTCSpirit Gate (4)
Bellen left the gathered survivors behind and moved alone. She swung her sword toward the location she suspected to be the enemy's core, occasionally gauging the situation through sparse reports from Neogyeon.
“There are still groups we haven't saved yet, but I can leave that to Mircel.”
Though a particularly tenacious parasite bothered her, she figured it would be fine. Mircel's path was solely focused on hunting the "Queen," as the High Spirit had mentioned.
“…Though young, he’s not foolish enough to take on an opponent he can't defeat.”
Bellen could tell Mircel had some plan in mind from his confidence. There was a good chance he could win, though that was only if he was dealing with the Queen's current strength.
“Some monsters hide their true power... grr…” After a brief concern, Bellen decided she had no choice but to trust Mircel, despite the risks. The oxygen was thinning, making it essential to quickly carve out the High Spirit's core and escape.
Crackle!
Suppressing the searing pain wracking her body, Bellen charged forward, covering herself in static electricity. Moving differently from before, she wielded her sword while running.
Slice!
Even without pausing, her blade cut swiftly through the entrails in her path. Pushing her muscles and joints to their limits, Bellen was nearly at her destination.
“Just break through here, and I’m there.”
Beyond the wall lay the enemy's core. She had no idea what awaited her, but there was no time to ponder. Without hesitation, Bellen swung her sword.
Slash!
***
“It’s back again!”
“Damn it, how many of them are there?”
Every path was swarming with mature parasites. If they’d emerged just before hitting the walls, they could be blocked with a barrier. But once they had already broken out, they had no choice but to fight.
“…We’ll break through quickly.”
They were being pursued by the Queen. Pausing occasionally as they dealt with the parasites blocking the way, Erucel could spot glimpses of the Queen in the distance, clearly targeting them.
“Is that Queen playing with us?” Erucel grumbled, slicing through a parasite’s neck.
“Not a comforting thought. If it's playing, it has intelligence.”
“You’re reading too much into it, Bellman. It’s just a parasite. It’ll probably lose interest soon and go elsewhere.”
Bellman secretly hoped that would be the case.
“Enough! Let’s get to the next wall, quickly!”
As Erucel swiftly cleared the way, Bellman created a tunnel through the wall with barrier magic.
“Hopefully, there won’t be any more parasites in the next area… If we could sprint even once without parasites popping out, we’d finally widen the distance between us and the Queen.”
Though the gap would likely close again soon, Bellman still prayed for this small chance.
Somewhere in here, not only students but also professors and Bellen are present. If they could join up with them, they might finally stop running and take down the Queen.
“Please, show up.” Trusting his luck, Bellman moved to the next section. The outcome was neither good nor bad.
“No one else here…”
As Bellman spoke while running, Leana offered some positive words.
“At least there are no parasites.”
Sila, who was ahead, turned and nodded in agreement with her words.
“Leana’s right. It’s not too bad, at least we’ve put some distance between us and the Queen…”
Then, her eyes began to widen in terror, sending a chill down Bellman’s spine. He immediately sensed that the Queen was right behind them. Just as he was about to order everyone to defend themselves—
Thud!
A sound like pounding meat echoed as something brushed against Bellman’s feet. Rolling on the ground was the head of a third-year senior who had been at the rear.
“What…?”
Another senior, still not understanding the situation, murmured, and the Queen disappeared from view. Once again, another thud resounded, and another head rolled.
Thunk!
It all happened so fast that it was nearly invisible. Only a few with exceptional reflexes, particularly the knight trainees, managed to follow it with their eyes. Despite the death of their peer, a senior managed to steady himself and speak calmly.
“Everyone, defend—”
But his head, too, fell to the ground. The group collectively paled. Three people had been killed in an instant, breaking their composure, and another third-year senior shouted at Bellman.
“What are you standing there for? Quickly, make a barrier along the wall—”
He, too, met the same fate as those before him. Now, four had fallen. Bellman raised a trembling finger to his lips, signaling for silence. He didn’t fully understand why. Sometimes the body reacts faster than the mind, usually when the subconscious has already reached a conclusion.
Thoughts filled Bellman’s mind.
‘There’s a pattern. They all made noise. If we stay silent, it might not attack. That would mean it has no sight.’
Thanks to Bellman’s signal, everyone held their breath, not even daring to breathe loudly. At that moment, the Queen slowly emerged, revealing itself as it walked forward. It stopped a few steps away, scanning the group with its black eyes.
‘Moving recklessly won’t work. For now, we’ll have to stand still… At this point, we have no choice but to rely on the hope that the professors will come to help.’
They had already waited long enough that it seemed likely they would encounter someone soon, and this fact offered some comfort.
Just as Bellman was about to alert the group with a glance, he heard an unsettling scraping noise. The Queen had begun walking toward Riamon with an eerie, heavy stride. Its black eyes locked onto Riamon’s form.
‘It can see?’ He had assumed it only sensed by sound, but this was wrong.
The Queen wasn’t simply using sound to locate them. Yet, even as it eyed them, it made no move to attack, merely watching with what seemed to be a mixture of curiosity or perhaps amusement at its prey.
‘It might only kill us on a whim.’
As Bellman anticipated, the Queen soon grew bored. Slowly, it raised a sharp claw toward Riamon’s eyes. As Riamon, drenched in cold sweat, instinctively pulled his head back, someone voluntarily broke the silence.
“What do you think you’re doing to my squad member? Just a lowly insect…”
It was Erucel.
The moment he spoke, the Queen vanished from sight. Everyone braced for the sound of tearing flesh, but this time, a dull metallic clang echoed.
Clang!
Erucel had blocked the Queen’s claw with his sword.
“Fast, sure, but not so fast I can’t react. Don’t worry about me; for now, everyone, get moving.”
Though he spoke as if unconcerned, an aura burned fiercely around him.
Clang!
At first glance, it seemed he stood a chance, having reacted to the Queen’s attack. But everyone present knew that this wouldn’t last.
‘He’s squeezing out every ounce of his strength.’
Though Erucel was showing his true power now that it was life or death, it was still nowhere near enough. Bellman swung his staff at the wall, opening a tunnel, and addressed everyone.
“I’ve created the tunnel. If the professors are in the next section, seek their help immediately.”
Erucel would die quickly on his own. Running away and leaving him behind would only delay the inevitable before they were caught. Ultimately, whether or not there were professors in the next section, the result would be the same.
But no one was eager to move recklessly.
"Let's send a minimum group to see if there are professors ahead," Leana suggested.
All the first-years drew their weapons. In the end, it was the seniors who took the initiative.
“We’ll be back soon, even if there aren’t any professors.”
“Don’t die on us.”
Bellman cast a barrier spell toward the Queen, who was battling Erucel. When it came to holding something in place, barrier magic was ideal, even if it would eventually tear through like paper.
“I’ve learned that one barrier isn’t enough.”
So he cast multiple barriers. Just as the Queen aimed her claws at Erucel’s neck, twelve barriers encircled her. As expected, they tore apart quickly, but her claws were stopped at a certain point. The barriers, which he thought wouldn’t hold at all, had momentarily blocked her attack.
Bellman felt a glimmer of hope.
"Only three barriers left. If I put everything into this..."
Bellman created another barrier and tightened his grip. The barrier surrounding the Queen shrank, limiting her movement. With her range of motion restricted, she wouldn’t be able to make wide, sweeping attacks.
“It’s a battle of time now. Either I’ll die from exhaustion, or the professors will arrive first.”
The Queen thrashed, trying to break free from the constricting barriers. Those watching felt a faint glimmer of relief in their previously tense expressions.
But in the blink of an eye, Bellman saw something that drained his optimism.
“What?”
A dense, sinister energy radiated from the Queen’s body, shattering the barriers.
“Bellman, get out of there!”
Erucel’s voice finally reached him.
There was no time for Bellman to experience his life flashing before his eyes. The Queen’s claws were already poised to pierce his forehead. He felt his body tense up, but just then, he heard a sharp crack.
Seconds passed, and surprisingly, he was still conscious. Bellman opened his eyes, expecting to see the Queen in front of him, but she was gone. Just as he wondered what had happened, a thunderous sound echoed throughout the space.
Boom!
Everyone’s gaze was fixed on a single point. Following their stares, Bellman turned his head and gasped like the others.
“Phew. Finally found you.”
There, with a sword embedded in the Queen’s chest as she slumped against the wall, was a young boy crackling with static electricity. His brother was the one who spoke his name.
“M-Mircel, that…?”
“Oh, this? What do you think? I finally learned it from Father.”
“Is that the Descent of Thunder?”
Mircel answered Erucel’s question nonchalantly, even in the Queen’s presence.
“What do you think I was doing this past year?”
“Don’t kid yourself. Last time I was at the estate, they said you still had a long way to go!”
“That was then. I learned it while you were at the Academy. I’m still not as good as Father, though.”
Bellman’s reaction was no different from Erucel’s. The Descent of Thunder, a technique symbolizing a person striking down like lightning, was a unique skill crafted by Aol von Tenest using the essence of their family’s martial arts. And this young boy, not yet even in his teens, had mastered it.
‘Now I understand why the Empire is so keen on Mircel.’
Steadying himself, Bellman turned to the Queen, who seemed to be barely clinging to life. She hadn’t moved an inch. Just as they thought she might finally be dead, her internal organs began to turn a sickly shade of gray.
“What now? What’s going to happen this time?”
Seeming to have an idea, Mircel responded.
“I think Great-Aunt took care of it.”
“What?”
“I used Neogyeon to keep track. She went to where the dark energy was densest and killed it.”
Bellman felt a wave of relief. The Queen was dead. And soon, the High Spirit would follow.
No one knew what might happen once they got outside, but just seeing the current events finally come to an end brought a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, the High Spirit ruined the moment with ominous words.
“Haha… oh, it hurts so much I’m laughing?”
From the fractured tone of her voice, she truly seemed on the verge of death.
“To be honest, I… I didn’t expect it to end this quickly. Still… I’m… satisfied.”
The laughter, along with the mention of “satisfaction,” made it impossible for them to relax.
“Though we didn’t buy much time… things can always be accelerated…”
Accelerate what, exactly? Everyone was fixated on his voice, caught off guard. Meanwhile, Bellman sensed a sharp change in the flow of energy. A vicious aura of mana and dark energy surged toward them, all converging on a single point: the Queen, whom they thought dead.
Bellman’s eyes widened at the Queen’s transformation. She had entered a cocoon-like state.
“Mircel! The Queen isn’t dead yet!”
At Bellman’s shout, Mircel quickly swung his sword, but only the dry, crackling sound of crushed leaves followed.
Crackle
“A shell?”
What they thought was a cocoon was merely an empty husk—the Queen’s true form had vanished.
***
Blood trickled from her heart. Merdilla glanced at the sword lodged in her chest and exhaled heavily. Bellen, the sword’s owner, spoke in a sympathetic voice.
“Aren’t spirits supposed to be the purest of beings? What on earth happened?”
Merdilla didn’t answer. She didn’t want to respond to a human’s questions, and the story was too long to tell. All she wanted now was to feel, with every fiber of her being, the parasite making its way out of her body.
‘Go on, leave. I’ve given you all the nutrients left in me.’
When the host’s death becomes inevitable, the Queen departs. It is her instinct to prioritize her survival, regardless of nearby threats. This also meant that she would soon move toward her next host.
‘Looks like it’s about halfway complete. Dordone’s body…’
The Queen had very strict criteria for selecting a host. From whether the body was large enough for survival to whether it offered a lifetime’s worth of high-quality nutrients, each condition had to be met. Though parasites were disturbing from a host’s perspective, there was an advantage to it: the stronger the host, the more advantageous it was for survival.
Upon entering a new habitat, the Queen invests most of her power into the host, who then enters a dormant state to grow stronger. The Queen herself remains as an egg, entering hibernation until the host matures—a kind of investment.
‘Sleep once again, Queen.’
Merdilla closed her eyes, hoping the Queen would transfer all her power to Dordone.
***
The siege battle in the middle of the battlefield surprised many, especially our allies rather than the spirits.
"How on earth did they manage to build a multi-fortress right in the middle of this place?"
"And it's made of steel, too. Damn, I’m jealous."
The difference between having a fortress and not was significant. Attacking from a high ground was ideal for sweeping away enemies. Although it was only the size of a two-story house, it was tall enough to be useful. While I was leisurely observing the battlefield from the second-story watchtower, Limberton asked.
"So, you’re telling me just to keep an eye on that bat?"
“For now.”
“…And what are you up to this time?”
I took out the Suppressor Armor from my coat. I’d borrowed it secretly from the professor’s office when I picked up the multi-fortress from storage. Thanks to the chaos, its owner let me "borrow" it without permission.
“If it looks like that creature is about to move, shoot it with arrows imbued with aura. Our job is to interfere every time it tries to do anything—annoy it enough that it can’t do a single thing in peace. And Aslay? I’m leaving this with you.”
Aslay took the Suppressor Armor. Specializing in grappling attacks, he was perfect for restraining the enemy.
“Listen up, everyone—our goal is to lure that bat into attacking the fortress.”
“But it’s not moving at all.”
“Don’t worry, Limberton. The battle’s flowing in our favor. Just sitting there will only harm it.”
We’d gathered every force within the fortress. And judging by the crumbling giant form, it seemed the slug hunt was a success. Whether it liked it or not, the bat would have no choice but to get involved. All we had to do was wait.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Limberton leaned out of the watchtower window.
"Did the bat move?"
"No, not that. Some kind of insect is flying… wow, it’s huge."
I didn’t think much of it, assuming it was just some spirit that looked like an insect. But Limberton’s next words made me snap to attention.
"But why is it flying in the opposite direction? It looks like it’s headed toward the Arcane Chamber."
The Arcane Chamber. The place where Ecok, who sought Dordone’s body, was hiding. And now an insect was flying toward it?
I quickly grabbed the telescope. In perfect timing, I witnessed the Arcane Chamber building exploding as if it had burst apart.
"Wha…what?"
I barely had a moment to process this when a deep, whale-like bellow echoed through the mountain range.
Gwooaaaaaaar!
