Ch.152152. Invasion (3)

The Elven Kingdom’s one-of-a-kind amusement park, “Bacchus’s Garden,” was renowned as the kingdom’s premier entertainment facility.

Spanning an area equivalent to a small city, this establishment was constructed with the active involvement of High Elves. Thanks to their participation, various magical means were employed, making each attraction something that transcended the ages.

Of course, the costs required to maintain such facilities were by no means small, but the gold earned by “Bacchus’s Garden” was enormous, justifying its massive maintenance expenses.

Due to its unique status as the world’s only modern amusement park, it attracted not just tourists from within the Elven Kingdom but also wealthy individuals from around the world who brought their families for exotic experiences.

Thus, “Bacchus’s Garden,” which single-handedly supported over 30% of the Elven Kingdom’s tourism revenue, faithfully maintained its original concept as “a world beyond where dreams and hopes exist.”

However… at least for now, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“Bacchus’s Garden” uses a method of dimensionally separating its interior for internal security and magical facility operations, but the problem is that this dimensionally separated space has been seized by someone.

The barrier that merely separated the two sides into “different spaces” has been taken over, completely severing the inside and outside both physically and magically.

Even this alone could be considered a major terrorist act, but the problems that occurred weren’t limited to just this.

The dimensional gates installed throughout “Bacchus’s Garden” were corrupted by something, and subsequently connected to hell, turning them into hellish facilities that endlessly spewed forth demons.

Furthermore, the altered barrier emits unknown magical wavelengths at regular intervals, causing some living beings who come into contact with it to suddenly mutate and become monsters.

Of course, it wasn’t that “Bacchus’s Garden” lacked a security team.

The security team at “Bacchus’s Garden” is one of the most preferred jobs for retired Elven soldiers, which is why the vast majority of elves here boast long careers and high skill levels.

Especially since elves hardly age, their veteran soldiers don’t physically deteriorate, making them no weaker than young soldiers. As a result, the security team here is at a level that overwhelms the military of any small nation.

They may be called a security team, but they’re essentially regular military with slightly different equipment.

However, the situation happened to be bad.

Normally, the security team stays in the central security room, monitoring various parts of “Bacchus’s Garden” through shared vision, and when an incident occurs, they use one-way transfer devices—warp panels—to teleport to that location and attack the enemy.

“What’s going on here?”

“The w-warp panels aren’t working!”

In this situation, with the one-way transfer devices malfunctioning, they suddenly found themselves having to walk those long distances on foot.

“Communications are down! Something has taken control!”

“External connections have been cut off!”

“The security system has been destroyed! Manager, what are your orders?”

“Uh, um, well… that is, so…”

Moreover, at the main control room that manages the facilities of “Bacchus’s Garden,” all equipment was paralyzed, leaving them unable to do anything. Furthermore, some systems were destroyed or taken over, becoming tools of the enemy.

As “Bacchus’s Garden” continued to fall into endless chaos…

“Argh! I’ll go myself!”

After a moment of confusion in the seemingly unmanageable situation, the control room manager steeled himself and decided they would rush to the scene of the accident to handle the situation themselves.

One might wonder what difference it would make for people working in the main control room to intervene, but originally, all facilities in “Bacchus’s Garden” operate through magic.

Therefore, the staff of the main control room who oversee and manage these facilities are, in fact, mostly magic users of intermediate level or higher.

Rather, if one isn’t a magic user of this caliber, they couldn’t even touch “Bacchus’s Garden,” which is composed of thousands of magical elements.

Even if they lack combat experience, their magical abilities alone are top-tier among intermediate-level practitioners.

[Burn, flames!!]

[Flash and lightning, bloom forth as flowers of electricity!]

[Earth, ground, rise and surge upward!]

Dozens of intermediate magic users, elven mages who had devoted decades to magical research with abilities superior to humans, soared into the sky and unleashed flowers of destruction upon the ground.

Their magic was sharp and precise, each strike accurately targeting and annihilating the products of the cult.

With the overwhelming spatial dominance and extensive suppression capabilities derived from flight, the mere cult products on the ground had no way to counter them.

In “Bacchus’s Garden,” now turned into a battlefield, even though barely five minutes had passed since their appearance, they had already defeated more than half of the evil creatures and were dealing with demons that kept emerging without pause, but…

Despair, as always, reveals itself just when hope begins to sprout.

※ ※ ※

The real incident occurred when these mages had swept away more than half of the emerging demons.

“…!”

The control room manager, who was leading the magic users from the front while actively demonstrating his own abilities, suddenly sensed an image flashing through his mind and shouted with all his might in shock.

“Defend!! Quickly!!”

For someone of the manager’s position to suddenly blurt out such inexplicable words…

Even elves who would normally have ignored him, thinking he was acting strangely, felt the desperation in his voice and deployed protective magic with all their might.

And with this choice, the fate of the main control room mages changed.

-KWAAAAAANG─!!!!

-─KWAJIK KWAJIK KWAJIK KWAJIK KWAJIK!!!

With a tremendous roar, something flew into the protective magic deployed by the mages.

That “something,” imbued with incredible power, shattered all dozens of layers of protective barriers the mages had created, and then slammed the mages to the ground with just its rebound and shockwaves.

-PUEEEONG!!!

Just before hitting the ground, thanks to a “slow fall” spell cast by one of the mages, they were able to avoid being shattered by the laws of physics.

However, that doesn’t mean they were in good condition.

Having a limb or two broken would have been getting off lightly. Despite being intermediate-level, mages with relatively fragile bodies couldn’t withstand the attack, resulting in wounds that rendered them effectively incapacitated for combat, though they managed to survive.

And… before them, a “demon” revealed itself.

The “demon” was approaching the mages, riding a massive brass bull that exhaled steam-like breath.

Like other demons that had appeared in “Bacchus’s Garden,” this demon had skin the color of flayed human flesh and was a massive monster with a hulking body that must have been at least 8 meters tall.

Two pairs of horns protruding from its head made its skull-like face look even more hideous.

The rock-like muscles covering its entire body caused the surrounding air to be pushed away with each movement, creating a resonating sound.

The wings extending from its back resembled those of a dragon species but possessed an ugly appearance without their nobility.

The thick snake-like tail flowing between its reverse-jointed legs could only be described as a weapon.

In each of its hands, filled with red muscle, it held a flail with an iron ball at the end of chains wrapped around its arms, and a massive double-bladed axe.

Normally, these would have no practicality whatsoever, but when used by a “demon,” they become excellent tools of slaughter.

And most importantly, the level of the demon before them, perceived through the sensory abilities possessed by intermediate-level beings and above, was… none other than high-rank.

In other words, it was a strategic weapon of individual size.

In this world, the moment a being reaches the “high-rank” level, it possesses an influence that is both individual and beyond individual.

The reason is obvious: unless one is also of high-rank, there is simply no way to defeat a high-rank being.

Of course, beings who have reached the intermediate level are also incomparably stronger than those of low-rank, but intermediate levels have clear limitations.

No matter how strong an intermediate-rank knight is, they will eventually die if they fight against elite soldiers numbering in the thousands, and even an intermediate-rank mage who handles countless spells will naturally die if a bullet pierces their head.

But beings who have reached high-rank are monsters who have completely transcended even those limitations.

They are so powerful that victory is impossible unless one is also of high-rank, making high-rank beings, with a bit of exaggeration, the nuclear weapons of this era.

And… such a high-rank being now exists before them in the form of a demon.

They cannot win. Victory is impossible. As countless certainties arose in their minds, the demon, reading the mages’ fear, displayed a wicked smile on its smashed-looking face.

[Listen, fallen fairies. I am your death.]

Language that would normally have been inwardly mocked as “I’m-so-great disease” (the elven equivalent of chuunibyou) was impossible to even contemplate when uttered directly by a high-rank demon.

So as they watched the demon before them, having lost their will to fight, the demon approached them slowly with a smile of ecstasy and mockery on its lips, and…

“—Haah!”

-KWAAAAAANG─!!!

Despite the somewhat weak battle cry, a “white thing” that suddenly flew from beyond at a terrifying speed kicked the high-rank demon’s head with full force.