Ch.122Chapter 122 – Earth Dragon (2)

In the beginning, the desert that occupied one-fifth of hell was a vast solitude.

Under the scorching heat of the sun, no vegetation could survive properly, so the creatures living beneath the sand naturally sustained themselves by devouring one another. It was an especially harsh environment even within hell, where the principle of survival of the fittest was applied more distinctly as time passed.

Yet even in chaos, balance is eventually established. An ecosystem formed beneath the sand, creating distinctions between predators and prey. Various species evolved repeatedly to claim the position of predator. One of these was a monster called the Death Worm.

With a massive body stretching kilometers long and using its immense mass as a weapon, the Death Worm became the desert’s apex predator. Having to withstand the high-density magical energy and pressure underground, its outer skin was thick armor in itself.

Though it lacked reason, it possessed the instinct to devour anything that moved. Seeing how much seismic activity was caused by a single writhing motion, no one would dare mock this enormous predator as merely a worm.

A long time passed during the process of evolution. Species evolution often flows in unintended directions, and scientists attached the term “mutation” to this phenomenon. Such a variant was born among the Death Worms—a mutant with nine heads on a single body.

This mutant Death Worm, capable of devouring nine times more with each movement, grew rapidly in proportion to the calories it consumed. Nine times larger and nine times stronger than others. Since its thickness was nine times greater, its cross-sectional area was eighty-one times wider, and its volume occupied seven hundred and seventy-nine times more space.

The mutant Death Worm, having reached adulthood by voraciously consuming other demons, soon grew large enough to be called the king of the desert. It could truly be said to be the largest among all demons in hell, to the point where it was rumored that if you dug into the desert floor, there was a fifty percent chance of finding its body.

The tale of this ancient beast, which made the entire desert tremble with fear by merely writhing, eventually reached the ears of Beelzebub, one of the Four Kings. Upon finding this special Death Worm, Beelzebub implanted neural parasites into each of its nine heads to subjugate the powerful but mindless beast.

Afterward, this Death Worm contributed to expanding Beelzebub’s territory by swallowing entire armies of enemies on various battlefields. It took less than a year for this Death Worm to become Beelzebub’s most cherished servant. Beelzebub gladly bestowed a name upon his strongest servant, and thus Hydra, the terror of the desert and demon of instinct, was born.

***

Nine heads emerged from the gate, intertwined like snakes. Their form was so bizarre and horrific that their mere appearance captured everyone’s attention.

When the body, too massive to be contained by human sight, touched the ground, the foundation collapsed and an earthquake swept across the battlefield. It had merely been summoned, yet the effect was comparable to a meteor impact.

The battle temporarily halted from the aftermath. Both humans and demons alike lost their balance and staggered. The holy knights, positioned in platoon units, reflexively deployed defensive barriers, thinking it was an attack.

However, the newly summoned Hydra was merely coiling its nine heads while assessing the situation. Like a worm, Hydra had no eyes and detected the presence of living beings through vibrations. And now, having been dropped in an unfamiliar place by its master’s hand, it sensed a great many vibrations.

The hideous teeth at the end of its tentacles fell to the ground with terrifying force. Being devoid of reason, it was an uncontrollable monster. It devoured the demons writhing beneath its body by instinct.

“It’s eating its own kind…?”

A knight muttered in astonishment.

The personnel on the wall, furthest from the summoning site and thus least affected, were the first to regain their composure.

“Concentrate fire! Kill it before it reaches the wall!!!”

Even to the inhabitants of this fantasy world, this demon was truly mythical. It was hard to believe such a creature could exist. It had an appearance that belonged only in legends.

But they too had mythical weapons. The eyes of the statues all turned toward Hydra at once. Destructive beams of light scraped the earth’s crust as they concentrated on the massive target.

The hunters from Earth felt as if they had fallen into the middle of a monster movie. Wasn’t it a cliché? A giant monster of unknown origin appears in a city, and modern weapons concentrate firepower on it. Unfortunately, just like in monster movies, human weapons proved ineffective.

“What! Why isn’t it melting?”

“T-that can’t be! It’s not working?”

The light of annihilation, which could melt even high-ranking demons, hit Hydra’s body. However, Hydra’s flesh only showed slight scorch marks; the mana couldn’t penetrate. Having endured the high-density magical energy of the underground throughout its life, its mana resistance was astonishingly high.

Though unharmed, Hydra did not respond kindly to the hostility directed at it. Unlike regular Death Worms that lacked offensive abilities, this mutant was capable of basic magical energy discharge. Magical energy concentrated in its nine mouths…

Immediately after, a yellowish-brown breath surged from the terrifying orifices. At first glance, it might seem comical, like a worm spitting dirt, but reality was far from comedic. The earth dragon’s fury, comparable to a dragon’s breath, poured over the wall.

The defensive magic circles engraved on the wall deployed geometrically to block the nine streams of attack. Even for magic that had protected the wall for hundreds of years, this was unprecedented power. As cracks began to form throughout the magic circles, people’s faces hardened with fear.

“Good heavens. The magic circle that’s been intact for four hundred years? Impossible…”

“…This is the empire’s final day.”

“Light… protect us.”

The soldiers fell into panic. The magic circle, cracked like broken glass, was tattered all over; it was obvious that the breath would soon come through the shattered barrier. Some sat down in despair, some calmly sensed their impending doom, and others offered prayers.

Then there was light.

Was it in response to someone’s prayer? A bolt from the blue sky struck the Death Worm’s mouth. While the Death Worm’s mana resistance was high, like all demons, its resistance to holy power was low.

The breath was cut off. Feeling a stinging pain, the nine heads moved to find whoever had dared to touch it.

A single holy knight standing among the scattered demon corpses, holding a spear.

[That’s him! Your target! Bring that holy knight, that one to me-!!]

The master’s voice thundered in all nine consciousnesses. At that moment, Hydra’s instincts were suppressed and its priorities reversed—from devouring as much prey as possible to capturing that one small prey.

Nine mouths roared as they targeted their prey.

‘I’ve certainly drawn its aggro properly.’

Shin Jaehyuk frowned as he withstood the monstrous roar that threatened to burst his eardrums. He began to run. The creature’s body was too large, meaning there was a high risk of others getting caught in the fight. He needed to get as far away from the wall and people as possible.

Hydra has nine brains but isn’t intelligent. It never needed to evolve that way. So when Shin Jaehyuk lured Hydra, another demon might have countered by attacking the wall to draw him out, but Hydra followed Shin Jaehyuk’s intentions and chased after him.

Its nine heads burrowed into the ground. Like a worm, it was trying to move underground. Sensing the vibration, Shin Jaehyuk glanced back.

‘Good, it’s following.’

Shin Jaehyuk deliberately put more force into his feet, stomping the ground. It was a consideration to help it feel the vibrations better and follow him faithfully.

With each step creating small craters and making the ground rumble, Hydra couldn’t ignore him even if it wanted to. That massive body began to move beneath the ground.

Hydra’s movement was accompanied by earthquakes. With a thickness of hundreds of meters and a length of several kilometers, this enormous being following his footsteps felt like a natural disaster chasing him. It was truly a Lovecraftian horror.

Though the situation was going according to plan, he couldn’t be entirely pleased. That movement, that speed was not part of Shin Jaehyuk’s intention.

‘Shit, it’s so damn fast…!’

No matter how fast Shin Jaehyuk was, he couldn’t outpace a creature that had spent its entire life swimming through the earth. Catching up to Shin Jaehyuk, one of its mouths burst through the surface, attempting to devour him.

Shin Jaehyuk leaped to avoid the saw-like teeth and reinforced his mace.

“Light!”

The mace, dyed golden, struck down on the head. The head, having failed to catch Shin Jaehyuk, fell to the ground. The creature let out a roar filled with pain and regret. Like a mole being whacked, its head quickly retreated back into its burrow.

Though he had successfully repelled the surprise attack, Shin Jaehyuk’s expression wasn’t bright. He felt the handle of his mace.

‘No impact… The skin is too thick.’

He could make it retreat, but couldn’t inflict significant damage. Judging by the recoil traveling up his arm, the skin was so thick that even if he thrust his spear all the way in, it wouldn’t penetrate the muscle. The spear had been reduced to a mere toothpick in this situation.

‘Focus on spells!’

Having failed once with a single head, Hydra attacked more aggressively, sending six heads at once. When Shin Jaehyuk launched himself into the air as before, six mouths formed walls above, below, front, back, left, and right, blocking his escape.

“Radiance!”

Shin Jaehyuk created a holy explosion to push back the mouths that were like abysses. As soon as the pressure was released, he continued his incantation.

“Gather the firmament!”

Another lightning bolt struck down. Hydra hid its body underground again to avoid the thunderbolt. The lightning Shin Jaehyuk had summoned dissipated into the ground, as natural phenomena typically do.

A similar pattern repeated several times afterward. Since Shin Jaehyuk had no way to directly attack Hydra while it was hidden underground, he waited for it to emerge before counterattacking. But the damage was minimal.

‘Damn, with nine heads, even if I sear one with lightning, the remaining eight can recover while fighting…’

He needed a powerful technique. A technique that could completely sever all nine necks, each hundreds of meters thick. In Shin Jaehyuk’s mind, there was only one way…

***

The battle near the wall was almost over. While one brave holy knight lured away that terrifying and fearsome monster, Lord Frederick commanded the knights to surround the Demon King’s army. There was no need to worry whether the thin wall of knights deploying an encirclement formation could stop the Demon King’s army. Before there was time for concern, the light of the magical cannons tore the surrounded demons to shreds.

Victory was in sight, yet people’s expressions didn’t brighten. That demon, still appearing too large despite being sufficiently far away, showed no signs of being harmed even by the empire’s ultimate battle weapon. There seemed to be no future where that monster could be defeated.

Soldiers and civilians alike stood on the wall, watching that hopeless scene. With nowhere to flee anyway, they wanted to witness the sight with their own eyes, even if the empire fell.

Even from a distance, the monster’s writhing was vividly visible. Those scales, those teeth, those jaws. Details diluted by perspective were filled in by imagination, and the terror was further inflated. The mere act of beholding it was terrifyingly frightening.

And on the opposite side, they could see the holy knight fighting very bravely against that terror. Whenever Hydra’s heads emerged from beneath the surface like fish eyeing prey underwater, the holy knight called down lightning and emitted light to confront it.

But Hydra, unlike typical demons, remained too vivid despite being hit by holy attacks. People spoke with resigned hearts:

“Damn, it’s all over. How can one holy knight stop that?”

“Why is he fighting so hard? He’ll collapse from exhaustion soon anyway…”

There was no hope in sight. Holy power is finite. Even those esteemed archbishops would struggle with mana depletion after using a few spells. How could a mere holy knight stop that ancient monster?

In the end, everything would return to dust. And that monster, worm-like, would devour everything that returned to dust.

Yet despite people’s despair, the holy knight continued his struggle. Blocking the breath with a golden shield, evading the constricting body, he fought on without giving up. Even if he couldn’t defeat it, he didn’t yield. Not after one hour, not after two hours, not after three.

Emitting an intense golden light, the holy knight ultimately held the monster at bay.

It was a mythical battle.

A priest watching the scene as if entranced murmured:

“The incarnation of light…”

The sight of a mere human, whose lifespan wouldn’t reach a hundred years, fighting equally against an ancient evil that had existed for hundreds of millions of years in hell. It was a moment that defied the priest’s common sense. He knew what to call such a moment. A miracle.

A moment that could only be found in scripture. It was beyond devout; it was sacred. The priest personally participated in that sacredness. Without realizing it, he clasped his hands together and offered a fervent prayer.

“Incarnation of light, save us…”

Now, when everyone sensed their end, the wall was quieter than ever. The prayer of the priest, who had found hope alone, echoed on the wall silent with despair. The prayer reflected off the wall and pierced the ears of those in despair.

Ironically, hope is as contagious an emotion as despair. The priest’s prayer influenced the soldiers nearby. They too closed their eyes and clasped their hands. Earnestly, they prayed for salvation.

“Incarnation of light…”

“Save us…”

The procession of prayer spread in succession. The masses lined up on the wall all joined their hands and bowed their heads. Though it might have seemed out of place in a war situation, strangely, it didn’t feel awkward at all.

The hearts of the people praying toward the holy knight who alone could stand against the demon were filled with just one emotion.

Reverence.

It is the emotion humans feel when facing a god.

***

The soul is the subject that faces the world.

The soul sees the world as it wishes.

The soul’s perspective, called the origin, is the power that definitively determines a world full of chaos and possibilities.