Ch.202Chapter 202. An Unexpected Reunion

Gorgon Zola.

Back when I was just an adventurer, he made me painfully aware of the vast difference between a calamity and a human.

The fear stemming from that past was slowly blooming in this moment as I sensed that presence.

Not just because it triggered past trauma, but because it was revealing an incomparably more overwhelming presence than before.

“Hu, hunn…”

Gorgon Zola, reappearing in such a form, opened his mouth and began to wail while staring at us.

“Hu, hungryyy…”

And then a thump! sound as one arm moved.

As his body advanced by the width of that arm, the surrounding hills collapsed with a rumble, transforming into a small landslide.

Was the lower body not visible because it couldn’t support the weight of the upper body?

But even now, flesh and bones were continuously condensing beneath the upper body, showing movements attempting to regenerate what should be there.

Just watching this endless process made one thing clear.

The regenerative power of this monster, with a body larger than a mountain, had reached a level that defied comparison with anything I’d encountered before.

“Hero, p-please give us orders…”

The sailors who witnessed this sight turned to me, trembling with fear.

Even warriors who would normally fight bravely were now only waiting for my instructions.

“Please give us orders! Quickly!”

Yes, there was no way to respond properly.

How could anyone summon courage against an entity that transcended monsters and disasters, deserving to be called a “calamity” in itself?

“Everyone, evacuate to the ark!”

After realizing this and giving the order, the sailors finally came to their senses and hurriedly began boarding the ark.

But those flashing eyes were still watching us.

“Will… eat…”

As if stimulated by our movement, the monster stopped moving its hand and grabbed the mass of flesh beneath its upper body.

Then it swung, sending chunks of flesh flying toward where we were.

“Bring them to meee…!”

Crack, splat!

Rotting chunks of flesh came crashing down on the sailors evacuating from the construction site.

Fortunately, no one took a direct hit, but the problem was that the flesh fragments that fell and broke apart were now wriggling.

-Gurgle, kyaak.

-Kiyaaaa!

The flesh that melted like porridge surged up, solidifying into humanoid forms that began to shriek.

Hideous forms without proper limb distinction or even proper joints.

But despite their malformed appearance, the teeth and mouths protruding from their bodies had distinct forms.

As if teaching us that their sole purpose was to devour us.

“Damn it, protect the sailors!”

As the Undead began their indiscriminate attack, combat personnel including myself drew our weapons and rushed in to protect the evacuees.

Though they simply charged like typical Undead, the ferocity they displayed was not to be taken lightly.

Their sharpness could cleanly cut through even metal armor, and throughout the confrontation, drool and horrific screams spewed from their gaping mouths.

-Kiyaoaa, aaaaaaaa!

These monsters that viewed us only as prey were eroding the morale of even trained combat personnel, stimulating fear just by their presence.

-Boom, thud!

And even now, the hurling of flesh chunks continued repeatedly.

The monsters created from them now outnumbered the combat personnel on the front line.

Though not impossible to defeat, the biggest problem was that not everyone here was a combatant.

“Aaaah! Help me!”

When I heard a terrified scream, my gaze quickly shifted in that direction while still engaged in combat.

There I saw a worker trapped under collapsed debris.

But the combat personnel were already struggling to maintain the battle line and couldn’t immediately go to his aid.

And to the Undead, an isolated individual was nothing but good prey.

-Kiyaaaaa!

“Oppa! Look out!”

“Damn it, move!!”

With Garam’s support, I barely managed to push back the Undead rushing from all directions.

But I lost the opportunity to throw my spear, and the Undead ultimately approached within close range of the isolated worker.

Damn it, am I just going to have to watch this happen?

-Shwaaak!

At that moment, a shadow rushed in front of the fallen evacuee.

As the figure unleashed magic with rough movements, tearing the Undead to shreds, the trapped worker’s face turned pale.

“Y-you are…?”

“Can you stand?”

The one who intervened was a different race… but not one I had personally invited onto the ark.

With sharp claws and pointed ears, he belonged to the race called the Demon Tribe.

It was surprising that someone who would never associate with humans had saved a human in danger with his own hands.

“Y-yeah. My foot is free now…”

“Then get inside immediately. We’ll buy you time.”

The member of the Demon Tribe spread his wings and raised his claws as he charged with a harsh voice.

As if taking this as a signal, other Demon Tribe members who had been waiting outside the ark began charging toward the Undead.

“Wipe them all out!!!”

“Uoooooooooo!”

The Undead were slaughtered by the magic unleashed with their battle cries.

The somewhat precarious battlefield opened up as they joined, allowing us to successfully create a path for evacuees to safely retreat into the ark.

But members of the Demon Tribe helping humans? Was such collective action even possible?

“Don’t worry. Those guys won’t betray us.”

Merilyn approached me quietly as I pondered this question.

Like me, she was watching the fighting Demon Tribe members, and her eyes reflected firm confidence.

“Is Merilyn controlling them?”

“No, I decided not to intervene except for introducing them to this place.”

Not intervening? That essentially meant this cooperation stemmed from their own will.

“It’s not strange. The Demon Tribe also needs somewhere to rely on until they grow enough to be self-sufficient. Naturally, after fleeing the Demon Lord’s army of their own accord, it’s only logical they’d want to protect what could become their new home.”

“…Are you saying they’d risk their lives to protect this ark?”

“Well, their lives might be… no, at this point, they probably would risk their lives.”

Merilyn chuckled as she watched the fighting Demon Tribe members.

As they slaughtered the Undead and opened a path, they seemed more filled with anger than enjoying the fight.

“Revenge is a kind of desire too. They probably think they need to do whatever it takes to put those who looked down on them in their place.”

“…That’s certainly a compelling reason.”

Of course, having been placed at the bottom of the Demon Lord’s army from birth and subjected to all kinds of mistreatment and disregard.

Given that, their desires would likely focus on “revenge,” and they would be prepared to risk even their lives for it.

“Evacuation complete! You guys come back to the ark too!”

We also needed escorts to protect the ark and evacuees.

Assuming they would cooperate, there was no one more suitable for this role than the Demon Tribe.

“…Thank you. For taking us in.”

As they boarded the ark one by one at my call, one Demon Tribe member greeted me.

Feeling the sincerity in his face, I smiled and patted his back as we entered the ark together.

“Is everyone on board? Then let’s depart!”

After all crew members, including the Demon Tribe, boarded the ark, the dwarves rushed to the helmsman’s position and reached for the modified control mechanism.

After more complex operations than before, they pulled the lever, causing the ark to vibrate violently as the front view dropped significantly.

The four legs supporting the ark bent, and wheels protruding from them began to roll.

“The shock absorption isn’t ready yet, so it’s going to be bumpy. Everyone hold onto something tight!”

-Clunk, clunk.

The ark began rolling on its wheels.

Though the vibrations were severe as we traversed unpaved hills, it was certainly superior in speed compared to walking on four legs.

But given the situation, even that seemed insufficient.

“Can’t we go any faster?”

“Don’t ask for the impossible! We couldn’t replace the engine yet because construction isn’t finished!!”

Sharing the same urgency, the dwarves raised their voices just before the subterranean people rushed through the ark’s ventilation ducts with an urgent report.

“Zeeee! Big trouble rezzi! The outpost says a giant monster is pursuing us rezzi!”

“This just keeps getting better!”

Right, boarding the ark didn’t mean everything was over.

As I hurriedly materialized a weapon and climbed to the top of the ark, Koko, the leader of the bird tribe who had come down from the outpost, delivered a tense message.

“That moving mountain is crawling with two arms. It’s fast—at this rate, it will catch up to us.”

As Koko said, the monster was planting both arms on the ground and pulling itself toward us.

Though its lower part was being scraped away, it was moving faster than when it was supporting itself on two arms, and the distance between it and the ark was noticeably shrinking.

-Kyaoaaa, kyaaaak!

And the flesh chunks spewing from it soared upward, transforming into winged corpses that glided down to land on top of the ark.

The bird tribe was fighting to protect the ark, but there were too many for them to handle alone.

“…The sky isn’t safe either. This is dangerous.”

“Activate the defense systems to slow its pursuit! Archers, get on top of the ark and clear out those things up there!!”

Bang, bang!

We fired the rear cannons at maximum capacity and shot volleys of arrows into the sky to shoot down the gliding Undead.

But the Undead kept coming endlessly, and given the monster’s overwhelming size compared to the ark, it was unrealistic to stop its advance with just a few explosions.

Even if damage accumulated and it collapsed, the parts hit by the cannons regenerated before new shells could be fired.

“Hu, hungryyy…”

The voice of this absurd monster echoed everywhere, asserting its presence.

“Hunn… hungryyyyy!”

Just feeling the malice directed at us made the hope we had built together seem to die.

As if teaching us that everything we had done so far was meaningless.

As if teaching us that everything we would do in the future would be meaningless, and that being devoured by this monster was the fate awaiting us.

“Why… to this extent…!”

If this was the fate determined by this world, wouldn’t accepting it be salvation?

As such resignation began to gnaw at my heart, Cheska, who was watching the situation with me, urgently pointed to the side.

“Master! Look over there!”

Could it be another despair descending upon us?

No, what I saw in that direction was a bluish light rising from the top of a ravine.

But it was too far away to clearly see what it was. Only those with good eyesight, like the bird tribe, could make it out.

“Koko, can you tell what’s over there?”

“Corpses. Corpses burning blue over there…”

Corpses burning blue? What could that be?

“Ugh, ugghhh…!!”

As I wondered about this, the monster, which had stopped crawling, turned its head toward the direction of the light.

Then its arms stretched toward the area where the blue light flickered.

“Will… eaaaat!!”

Boom, boom!

The massive body pulled itself toward the light.

As it increased the distance from us as if we were no longer of any concern, my companions and I looked at it in confusion.

What were those blue-glowing Undead that attracted such a monster?

“I’ve lured it away, so you should be fine for now if you distance yourselves.”

Startled by the sudden voice, I looked up.

There was a horse running through the sky, emitting blue flames.

No, more precisely, it was an undead in the form of a horse made of bones and rotting flesh.

“You are…”

Dropping from the horse and landing on top of the ark was an undead wrapped in an old straw mat.

Although his face was nothing but a bare skull without a shred of flesh, the blue energy flowing from his body gave me a considerable sense of familiarity.

Yes, I knew him.

“…Hyoseong Woo.”

And he remembered me too.

The name he uttered at this moment and the question that followed came from memories engraved in his empty skull.

“Do you remember me?”

The Azure Knight of Death. Commonly known as the Death Knight.

The moment I recognized him, both realization and wariness arose in my mind.

The realization that the blue light that lured the monster was his doing.

“…Why did you help us?”

And the question of why he, a close associate of the Lord of Corpses, would save us by luring away Gorgon, who was presumably connected to him.

“Let’s talk when we reach a safer place.”

In response to my question, the Death Knight moved his finger to the side, directing everyone’s attention there.

“Could you steer this structure toward that place?”

What could be seen in the distance was the faint shadow of a city on the horizon…

No, since all countries except the Empire had perished, even if there was a city, it would be nothing but ruins.

“…Hero.”

The crew members all showed wariness toward the Death Knight pointing to such a place.

After considering how to respond, I quietly swallowed and answered.

“Lead the way. To that place.”

Whatever this being’s intentions might be.

Taking comfort in the fact that he was nothing compared to that absurdly powerful monster.