Ch.120The Second Continent’s First City: Aparcart (3)

Dawn, five o’clock.

It was still too early for most people to be awake, yet despite having burned passionately through the night, my wife and I somehow had energy to spare, causing us to open our eyes at this early hour.

Rubbing our eyes and rising in this ambiguous bluish light—neither bright nor dark—we ordered simple room service: sandwiches and refreshing drinks to chase away our sleepiness.

Soon, sandwiches filled with ham, cheese, and finely chopped cabbage salad, along with grapefruit juice floating with ice cubes, were placed at our door. My wife brought them to the balcony where I was waiting.

“Waking up this early… it’s been quite a while.”

During my time living in Parcival, sleep was practically a luxury for me.

By reducing sleep time, I could use those hours to work and earn a few more coins.

But now, with money literally overflowing, there was no need for that anymore.

We stood on the balcony overlooking the cityscape of Aparcart, watching the slowly rising sun while eating our sandwiches and drinking juice. We were about to discuss what to do today when—

BOOM!

“What the—”

With the sudden explosion, several blocks in the city went dark with power outages.

BANG! KABOOM!

A series of explosions began at the coastline and gradually expanded inland, with the rising sun at their backs. This was clearly no random accident.

WAAAAAAIL!!!

As if to prove it, piercing siren sounds reached our balcony and began sweeping across the entire city.

“Master?”

My wife looked at me in confusion, and I frowned, gripping her shoulders as I spoke.

“Put on your armor and gather the party members!”

At my command, my wife, her face turning pale, quickly donned her armor and hurried out of the room.

I too put on my armor and was just grasping my greatsword when—

KABOOOOM!!!

“Ugh!”

Unlike before, this explosion was on a different scale—massive and close enough that even we on the top floor could feel its pressure.

I hastily peered over the balcony to see the hotel’s entrance transformed into a crater from the explosion, acrid smoke rising, and through the chaos, intruders attempting to infiltrate the hotel while security guards tried to stop them.

“Damn it!”

I put on my helmet and nearly broke the door as I flung it open. The party members were already gathered in the hallway. I grabbed one of the panicking staff members and said:

“Alert the hotel guests about the emergency and issue a high alert! Intruders are trying to break in through the first floor!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“The Iron Walker party will head down to the first floor to join the battle. Where are the emergency stairs?”

“At… at both ends of the corridor!”

I released the staff member as soon as I finished speaking, and they immediately began making urgent calls through the wall-mounted telephone.

Our Iron Walker party headed toward the emergency stairs at the end of the corridor to descend to the first floor. From the walls supporting the staircase, we could hear the sound of a malfunctioning elevator rapidly falling and the faint screams of those trapped inside.

*

After several minutes of descent, we finally reached the first floor.

As I had expected, the first floor was in complete chaos. Security guards were scrambling down the stairs, and where a female employee had been working at the counter until just moments ago, a mounted machine gun now stood, raining fire upon the intruders.

“Adventurers! The adventurers are here!”

When one of the guards shouted this, an employee changing the ammunition belt at the lobby counter looked our way.

“Sir! They’re apostles of the Sea God! Please help us! We’re losing ground!”

“Apostles of the Sea God?!”

The Sea God referred to the dark entities that had been driven to the depths of the ocean 350,000 years ago by Saburo’s solar ascension.

And their apostles were, naturally, extremely harmful to human society, but like all harmful things, they persisted despite all efforts to eradicate them.

I looked at the fallen apostles of the Sea God on the floor.

Their skin had grown suckers, their hair had merged with seaweed, and barnacles clung to their joints—this grotesque transformation was what they called the “blessing” of the Sea God.

I gritted my teeth and infused my sword with aura as the guard, who had just finished changing the ammunition belt, pointed behind him.

“The back! Help us at the underground parking entrance! The police and military are coming! We need to clear a path!”

“Understood!”

As I said this, I asked Simon to cast healing spells on those currently fighting.

Soon, as Simon waved his staff and chanted healing spells, the wounded who had been moments away from death with their livers pierced suddenly had their abdominal wounds sealed. With bewildered expressions, they once again took up their guns, bows, swords, and maces.

“Their flesh to our Master! The sea shall consume all!”

“Then let my arrow be consumed as well!”

THWACK!

THUNK!

“Gurrrk…”

With a gallant guard’s archery, one fanatic’s soul was dragged to the deep sea, and I continued clearing the path to the underground parking lot, leaving behind the sound of the machine gun’s continuous fire.

*

CRACK!

“Gurk! Grrrk!”

As my greatsword severed the cervical spine, an apostle whose face was covered in coral spewed blood and perished.

It didn’t feel like killing a person, but rather like preparing shellfish like oysters—a strange sensation…

Laisha seemed to feel it too, as she was putting more force than usual into her halberd.

“Lucia! Cassia! We need to open the main gate! Find the control device!”

“Got it!”

“Let’s go, Cassia!”

The main gate was firmly locked.

In hotels like this, there’s usually an attendant who opens the gate whenever cars or carriages arrive, but that attendant had now become fish food…

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

In the distance, the sound of arrows being fired had already begun, and we mercilessly cut down the half-fish, half-human creatures that were burrowing through the side entrance past the main gate.

“Hear the call of the deep sea!”

“No thanks.”

If they were going to receive a “blessing,” they could at least have their hair turned into salmon fillets like sushi or their backs turned blue like mackerel.

Why on earth would they choose barnacles and suckers and become so hideous? I truly couldn’t understand.

BANG! KABOOM!

I sliced the apostles charging in formation in half with my aura-infused sword.

Despite their grotesque appearance, a blessing was still a blessing. Watching these Sea God apostles, over two meters tall, leaping over with sergeant jumps was simply exasperating.

“Boss! Found the switch!”

In the distance, I could see Lucia holding the switch in the control room, with Cassia beside her, firing arrows at a machine-gun pace with frenzied hand movements.

“Open it!”

“If I open it now, they’ll all rush in!”

“We can kill them all, so open it! If you don’t open it now, we’ll never get another chance!”

“…Fine!”

Click.

Despite the distance, the sound of the switch being pressed was crystal clear.

CREEEEAK!

The massive iron gate began to part on both sides, and taking advantage of the gap, heretics with fish eyes began to seep into the underground parking entrance like water. But as Simon chanted a spell, they—no, those things—were instantly engulfed in flames and began turning into charcoal.

“Run! We need to secure an advantageous position!”

At Simon’s words, I gritted my teeth and advanced toward the main gate’s barrier, stomping on the heads of apostles clutching at my pant legs.

Cassia had already run out of arrows and had drawn her twin machetes for close combat. Seeing this, Lucia quickly took out her bow and began repelling the apostles charging at Cassia.

CLACK! CRUNCH!

“Can you not hear the sound of the towering waves? Our Master calls us! We shall head to where darkness and currents become one!”

“Until the day we take revenge on the Sun and Moon! Pull down the idols and burn the temples!”

“You… you…!!”

Blasphemous words too repulsive to even repeat were coming from the mouths of these things that had abandoned their humanity.

If mankind were to have a master, it should rightfully be Saburo, who drove away the beings of darkness and calmed the rough currents of the sea.

These heretics, following the evil spirits that fled to the deepest depths of the ocean in fear of the sun’s radiance and the moon’s frost, were daring to desecrate the sacred authority of the sun…

FZZZZZ….

Aura gathered in my sword.

From the depths of my soul, killing intent toward these creatures began to boil, and soon my body began to move to execute it.

“UNHOLY HERETICS—!!!!”

O Sun… grant me permission to hate…!

Grant me the power to punish these blasphemers who dare defile your name—to me, your believer, your disciple, your knight!

“THE SUN OF HUMANITY REJECTS YOU!!!!”