episode_0152

A flash of light swept through the safe zone and disappeared. The magical energy wave emitted from the Vision Prism brushed past the people around it, inflicting a mild mental shock.

“Ugh… my head… my head!”

“Ah… why am I so dizzy…”

The aftereffects of the magical energy wave were significant. The hunters, who had been in fierce combat with the monsters, suffered sudden paralysis, chills, and dizziness, putting their lives at risk.

Still, the problems they faced were relatively light compared to the Federal Army. This was because the Federal Army, positioned closest to the Vision Prism, was at the epicenter of the magical energy wave.

They encountered a situation unforeseen even by the Magnabyss researchers who had intended to activate the Vision Prism.

“Ugh… Aaaaah!”

The moment he was directly engulfed by the light emanating from the armored truck, Major Marius felt a terrible sensation, as if his mind was being scrambled.

‘Why? What is this? What is that, who was I again—’

After the last thoughts of his life flickered through his brain, Major Marius’s mind was filled with excruciating pain, as if being stirred with a skewer.

“What in the world is this… Kraaah!”

Starting with the Major, the Federal Army soldiers around him and a few unlucky hunters screamed and collapsed. With the sensation of his mind turning blank, the Major ceased to think.

“Kweaaah…”

People forgot themselves in their fits. All that remained in their emptied minds were instincts and fragmented memories.

After a short period of about a minute, people rose with hazy eyes, surveying their surroundings. Provoked by the commotion, they all picked up their weapons without hesitation.

The Major fumbled and drew his pistol. The semblance of humanity had vanished from his eyes.

**

Behind the barrier, I felt a brilliant flash.

“Ugh! What in the world was that?”

Behind the barrier, it was merely a strange light, but the Violets outside the barrier felt dizzy.

“I’m dizzy!”

It was a peculiar yet familiar sensation. I remembered being caught up in an experiment underground not long ago. It felt similar to that. Was it some kind of mind-manipulation magic?

“Where is the light emanating from?”

“Beyond the building!”

Judging by the location and visual information from other Violets, the Federal Army was located where the light had flashed.

The strange thing was that several small buildings stood between us and them.

To treat walls as if they weren’t there and penetrate through them, it clearly wasn’t an ordinary beam of light.

It was Lucian who cleared up my doubts. He seemed to sense something bad, looking around in alarm.

“What kind of magic is this…?”

“Magic?”

“Look! Over there!”

While I was bewildered, Daphne quickly explained.

“Didn’t you feel it? I sensed a strange flow of magical energy right before. So I deployed the barrier… Oh my.”

Daphne stopped speaking mid-explanation of what she had felt. The people outside the barrier were swaying disoriented, as if drunk.

“Aargh… what is it? What in the world…”

“I see my deceased father!”

There were even people jumping around in surprise. But up to this point, it was still manageable.

“Are you okay?”

“Ugh ugh ugh! Huh? Why was I doing this?”

As light green magical energy rained down over the heads of a few people closest to them, they sobered up as if waking from a drunken stupor.

The problem lay elsewhere.

“It’s the Federal Army!”

“Why are they like that?”

Several Federal Army soldiers were staggering toward us. I felt a sense of déjà vu at their appearance. Haven’t I seen that before?

Daphne, likewise, tried to heal them. The soldiers trembled violently.

“Huh…? Are you okay?”

“…Don’t go near them. Those guys are acting strange.”

Kalia winced at the sight of the soldier stiffly and grotesquely trembling like a broken doll. At that moment, one soldier abruptly raised his head.

“Eek! Look at them!”

“Ugh… ah…”

The groaning soldier’s eyes were unfocused. He drooled as he glanced our way, then let out a monstrous cry and aimed his gun.

“Those are ghouls!”

The Federal Army ghouls opened fire indiscriminately. Fortunately, the protective barrier remained active.

As bullets ricocheted, Irene struck the nearest ghoul with her spear, splitting it in two. The other ghouls nearby were immediately subdued by the hunters.

“They turned into ghouls…?”

Gunshots echoed throughout the outpost. For some unknown reason, the Federal soldiers who had turned into ghouls launched indiscriminate attacks!

“Kyaaah! The ghouls are shooting!”

At the same time, hordes of monsters surged out from underground, and the defensive line rapidly collapsed. Irene tugged at my clothes.

“It’s dangerous like this. Let’s evacuate quickly!”

“Where to?”

“This place is done for! Let’s move towards the back gate!”

My team members and I hastily ran towards the back gate. The hunters fighting the monsters also began to give up one by one and flee to the rear.

“Command! It’s an emergency! We need to deploy troops immediately!”

One hundred and fifty Violet company members were generated in the blink of an eye and rushed around. Even while evacuating, the people nearby buzzed with chatter.

“Where did those troops come from…”

“Who are you all!”

I vaguely replied as I ran.

“We are the Ariel Group!”

Everywhere was a mess.

The Federal soldiers, who were allies just moments ago, were now mostly ghouls, firing their guns, and the fanatics were rampaging both inside and outside the base.

The monsters were now roaming the safe zone as if it were their own backyard, attacking indiscriminately everything they saw. It was utter chaos!

“It must be because of the Vision Prism!”

“Message from Command! Allocate a portion of the company and send them over there. We need to assess the situation!”

“A platoon or two won’t be enough. It’s a complete mess over there!”

After some thought, I allocated about 75 troops.

“Violet, where are you going?”

“The Vision Prism!”

While part of the company safely evacuated with the team members, a portion of the troops split off and dispersed.

As I ran diligently, I unexpectedly encountered someone at the back gate again. Adela was evacuating with professors and young students. Everyone had sustained injuries, minor and major.

“Oh! Adela Unnie!”

I took off my mask in case she didn’t recognize me. I saw her eyes widen significantly.

“Violet! You were alive…!”

“Yes! I’m trying to evacuate for now!”

The brief reunion ended quickly as monsters could be seen surging like a wave, as if one side of the defensive line had collapsed.

“Good heavens… already the right defensive line too…”

Not only Adela and the students, but people were also being chased by monsters, running towards the base’s back gate. I analyzed the situation, observing the sheer number of monsters.

“This is too many, isn’t it?”

I was about to check the Vision Prism’s status, but a troublesome problem arose.

“At this rate, these monsters will quickly reach the main force!”

Where my team members are now is a wide avenue. It’s perfect for being surrounded. The best course of action is to evacuate to an advantageous position, replenish our magical energy, deploy properly, and then call for more troops to fight.

To do that, we needed to buy time. There was also a reason to cross beyond that horde of monsters.

The Violet unit deployed a shield wall. Adela, who was evacuating, looked our way and her face visibly paled.

“What are you doing now?”

I replied with a smile.

“We’re going to fight! There are too many monsters. We need to buy some time.”

“What does that mean…”

“It’s fine, no need to worry! Quickly take the students and evacuate! Everyone’s injured, right? If you go to our team members, you should be able to get treated!”

She looked at us with a horrified expression.

“It’s okay, Adela Unnie! I’m used to dying!”

After saying that, I drew my sword and charged into the monster horde with my unit members.

“Stop…!”

***

Adela watched. Violet and her escort unit, swords in hand, charged into the horde of monsters.

“Stop!”

A professor called out to her.

“Adela! You need to evacuate first!”

She looked once towards where Violet had disappeared, then once towards the students, then bit her lip and ran.

“Why…!”

***

The Violet squad moved through the monster horde like salmon swimming against a waterfall.

“Kyaaaang!”

While charging and cutting down monsters, Unit 67 was caught by the maw of an unknown monster and disappeared.

“Gah! My arm’s gone. I’ll go ahead!”

Even while dying, Unit 67 pulled out a bomb, attempting to take the enemy with him. But the bomb didn’t activate.

“Ugh! Why!”

“A dud?”

The problem wasn’t limited to just one bomb. All firearms, rockets, and grenades failed to fire. Simply put, all types of gunpowder weapons were neutralized.

At this point, the Violet unit’s firepower plummeted by more than half.

“It’s not the bullets! All guns are like this!”

Unit 332 frantically pulled a rifle from her inventory and cocked the loading handle. She tried changing bullets, and even pulled out another gun to fire.

While two platoons perished buying time, several Violets cleverly navigated past the monsters, ghoulified soldiers, and fanatics to reach the location of the Vision Prism.

The ghoul soldiers were, peculiarly, fighting the monster horde.

The area around the convoy where the Vision Prism was located was filled with the charred remains of Federal soldiers, fragmented monsters, and burning vehicles. In the center, the armored truck carrying the Prism was visible. The truck was unharmed.

“What are those guys!”

Around the truck were suspicious individuals I hadn’t seen before. Judging by their movements, they were far from being clan hunters or fanatics. Most importantly, they didn’t utter a single word.

Who in the world are they?

Unit 76 secretly hid behind a car and observed them.

They brought a very large drone. It was questionable whether it could even be called a drone.

When the drone arrived, they took the Vision Prism from the truck and loaded it onto it. The gigantic drone carrying the Prism ascended into the sky.

“Oh! They’re stealing the artifact!”

Indeed, it was good that we came here. Unit 76 pulled out a crossbow, intending to shoot it down.

“How dare they touch our artifact!”

Just as I aimed at the drone and was about to pull the trigger, a crashing sound was heard, and Noxterro appeared. The Slime Rider I had seen earlier was approaching with his subordinates.

A gigantic tentacle struck down the drone. The Vision Prism fell with a thump onto a makeshift building.

The suspicious individuals and fanatics began fighting, but they seemed too preoccupied to notice.

“Wait, this is…”

“It’s an opportunity!”

Command swiftly generated more clone units. Amidst the fierce battle, the Violets managed to move to the makeshift building and access the Vision Prism.

“Got it. Let’s run!”

We hoisted the Vision Prism and began to run. The artifact was incredibly heavy and much larger than a Violet. It couldn’t even be put into an inventory.

It was so large that, from the outside, it felt like stealing a cultural heritage monument. Still, with several people carrying it, it was manageable.

No matter how I thought about it, we couldn’t let those suspicious individuals have it.

“Run!”

The Violets ran, carrying the artifact.