Ch.125Chapter 125. Resurrection of the Devil (2)

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-!

The loud bell rang incessantly.

At the sound, numerous alliance soldiers who had been preparing to end their day began emerging from their tents one by one.

‘What’s going on? Why isn’t it stopping?’

In the northern continent, the bell sound meant only one thing.

Monster invasion.

Usually, the northern bell indicated the level of danger by the number of rings.

Three rings meant a light intrusion that the guards could handle.

Four rings meant the guards couldn’t handle it alone and reinforcements were needed.

Five rings meant a dangerous situation where everyone needed to prepare for battle.

The bell had already rung five times consecutively, and I was thinking ‘Why now of all times?’ but the bell continued to ring.

Kassis, who like me had spent a long time in the northern continent, seemed to recognize the severity of the situation.

After hearing the unending bell, his expression turned extremely serious as he ran urgently somewhere.

“Oh, brother!”

“You all go back to the tent for now!”

‘I need to check this out.’

As I watched Kassis running away, I was about to follow him to assess the situation.

“Ryu!”

Elaine grabbed my arm as I was about to dash out and stopped me with an urgent voice.

Elaine, along with Cynthia and Emily who were beside her, all had similar expressions.

Anxious and confused looks.

“If you’re going, I’m coming too!”

“Th-that’s right!”

‘Hmm.’

The bell ringing more than five times meant this was truly a serious situation.

I wondered if it was right to bring the kids along in such circumstances.

‘Well, they’re all part of the alliance forces anyway. We should assess the situation together.’

“Let’s hurry.”

I grabbed Elaine’s arm, which was holding mine to stop me, and ran forward.

The children immediately began running after me.

Despite their anxious expressions, their actions and judgment were quick.

Murmur murmur-

As we got closer to the wall, the sound of people murmuring grew louder.

After pushing through the crowd and finally climbing up the wall, I saw it.

Why the alliance soldiers were murmuring and everyone was surprised.

“Is that…?”

A scene contradicting everything I knew was unfolding before my eyes.

Looking from the wall toward the mountain range, the first thing visible wasn’t the calm, quiet forest.

Keeeeek-!

“How could monsters form an alliance…!”

Someone’s despairing mutter was heard beside me.

It was a sentence that accurately and concisely described the scene before us.

An alliance of monsters.

Kiiiiik-

Numerous types of monsters were gathered in one place, charging toward the alliance forces.

From relatively common monsters like kobolds, goblins, orcs, and trolls, to rare ones like giant spiders and wyverns.

Species that would normally be hostile to each other were all charging toward the alliance forces as one.

Even though they were blocked by a barrier quite far from the wall and couldn’t advance further, the cries of countless monsters could be heard.

‘What’s going on here?’

It was hard to believe what I was seeing with my own eyes.

Until now, people had been able to effectively block monsters coming from the northern continent largely because monsters weren’t very intelligent.

Even within the Northern Mountains, monsters killed and were hostile to each other.

Thanks to that, when they came down to where humans lived, it was usually just one species of monster.

Monsters that had lost territory after being defeated in fights with other monsters in the mountains, or those that were looking for food down below.

But now it was completely different.

Hundreds, thousands of various types of monsters gathered in one place and charged forward.

As if attacking the human alliance was their sole purpose.

“How could monsters that only follow instinct…”

Someone else muttered while watching the monsters relentlessly attacking the barrier.

I completely agreed.

‘How could this happen right after I arrived?’

I could only sigh deeply for many reasons.

Crack!

“Ah, aah! The barrier is breaking!!”

While I was inwardly sighing deeply, the battle scene before me changed.

The monsters that had been relentlessly attacking were finally causing cracks in the seemingly solid barrier.

Once the cracks started forming, everything happened in an instant.

Whether they knew instinctively or weren’t that stupid, the monsters concentrated their attacks precisely on the cracked areas.

Grrrr-!

With the punch of a muscular bull-shaped minotaur, a hole formed in the sturdy barrier.

“Ryu… sir.”

Led by the minotaur that had directly broken the barrier, monsters began pouring through the hole.

I had no time to pay attention to Elaine who was muttering while grabbing my arm beside me.

We needed to seal the hole in the barrier and stop the monster invasion as quickly as possible.

“Everyone prepare for battle!”

Hearing a familiar voice from afar, I turned my head to see Yuria already standing in the center of the wall.

Behind Yuria, alliance members who appeared to be mages were sitting and concentrating.

They were probably working on reinforcing the broken barrier.

With Yuria’s shout, the monsters that had broken through the barrier froze in an instant.

It was Yuria’s ice magic.

“Everyone, focus on intercepting those breaking through the barrier! If we hold out a little longer, we can reinforce the broken barrier and…”

‘Phew, alright. It should be fine for now.’

I was about to feel relieved for a moment as I watched Yuria calmly giving instructions to everyone.

Shiver-

Suddenly, goosebumps covered my body and a tingling sensation passed through me.

At the same time, I unconsciously looked up at the sky.

The source of the sharp gaze that made me shiver.

It was in the air.

‘What is that…?’

I couldn’t see clearly, but something was floating in the air.

At a glance, it didn’t look like a monster but rather a human form, though I couldn’t be sure from this distance.

However.

‘Something’s different.’

It was definitely emitting an aura of a different caliber than the monsters in front.

Just as I was about to teleport into the air.

‘It disappeared?’

In the blink of an eye, the dot-like presence floating in the air vanished as if it had never been there.

Grrrr-!

“Everyone, block them!”

Meanwhile, more and more monsters were charging in.

‘I need to stop this first.’

Some alliance members had already gone down below the wall and were engaging the monsters in close combat.

Swordsmen who couldn’t fight from a distance.

‘Something is definitely strange.’

An inexplicable anxiety was creeping up.

We would somehow manage to stop the current monster invasion, but I had a feeling this wasn’t all there was to it.

‘I need to talk to Yuria once the situation is under control.’

Grip-

I thought as I grasped the regular sword at my waist, not my main weapon, the Black Shadow Sword.

**

“Hmm.”

“As expected! You’re amazing!”

Arte couldn’t hide her excitement.

Countless monsters, regardless of species, had formed a single “army” and were charging toward humans.

It was a sight Arte couldn’t even imagine.

Monsters that would normally try to devour each other on sight were moving together for a single goal.

Arte was once again amazed by Satan’s ability to create this spectacle.

“They’ll break through the barrier soon!”

“They’re more disorganized than I thought.”

“Uh…”

Arte was excited when the monsters were about to destroy the barrier created by the alliance forces, but Satan was different.

Satan frowned as if something displeased him.

Arte quickly closed her mouth at the sight.

Satan, the nameless demon who had been resurrected from the Creator’s body, had acted without delay after hearing Arte’s explanation of the situation.

The first thing Satan did was, as he said, to satisfy his “hunger.”

The numerous types of monsters existing in the north.

Satan beheaded the leaders of each monster group and took their bodies and power.

As Satan reached out his hand, black mana rose and the monsters disappeared without leaving even bone dust behind.

The monsters who lost their leaders bowed their heads to Satan in fear.

“Compared to Satan’s power, they are nothing but insignificant creatures! But they follow Satan faithfully, so they will surely be helpful. Besides, look. Even these pathetic humans are struggling to deal with them…”

“Loyalty born from fear is not true loyalty.”

“Ah…”

Arte was at a loss for words at Satan’s firm tone.

“And the humans seem stronger.”

Arte looked down without responding.

She had thought the monsters would finally slaughter the humans after breaking through the barrier, but the situation was becoming the opposite.

The monsters were starting to be slaughtered by the humans instead.

From the air, the battlefield was even clearer to see.

The monsters had successfully destroyed the barrier, but after that, they were gradually being pushed back.

Satan was watching without taking any measures.

Rather, as if uninterested in the battlefield, Satan was staring intently at the alliance forces.

‘If this continues…’

Arte sensed the monsters’ defeat and cautiously looked up at Satan.

“Useless creatures.”

Gulp-

Arte unconsciously swallowed dry saliva at Satan’s cold words.

“We’re leaving.”

“Y-yes!”

Satan turned away as if he had no lingering attachment to the battlefield that looked complicated but was gradually being resolved.

“It would be better to create everything anew.”

With that final quiet mutter, Satan and Arte disappeared as if they had never been there.