Ch.219Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

The thick fog hangs heavily. Within the grayish mist, a dark red haze creeps up stealthily.

Leaning against a collapsed wall, I stared blankly at the dense fog.

“……”

Red eyeballs in the fog like a curtain.

The spider gleams with blood-red eyes.

Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

The spider moved.

Its legs, wrapped in hard crustacean-like shells, stretched out long. The extended legs rose high into the sky, then slashed through the air and rushed toward the ground.

-KUUUUNG!

An enormous roar tore through the silence. Mud entangled with snow exploded and scattered. The spider, having struck the ground, twisted its joints in a bizarre posture and moved its legs. Like someone crushing a discarded cigarette butt with their shoe.

The spider’s movements seemed playful, even ridiculous.

However, the problem was that this spider was easily taller than a three-story building, and the armored vehicle crushed under its leg could easily carry several people.

The Imperial armored vehicle crumpled like paper.

A large hole appeared in the armor, which was supposedly able to withstand machine gun fire. The armored vehicle that had been pushing back the corpse spider with firepower was now twisted and crushed beyond recognition.

Finally, as the spider’s leg pulled away, something sticky—whether oil or human remains—dripped down.

The giant spider, having cleared an armored vehicle in the blink of an eye, began to gleam its red eyes.

*

Silence enveloped the defense line.

The defensive position, once bustling with numerous soldiers and heavy equipment making all sorts of noise, now held nothing but a chilling stillness.

But the silence didn’t last long. It certainly didn’t last long.

-SHUAAAK!

The legs attached to the grotesque body began to move again.

“Oh, it’s coming, it’s falling!”

“Take cover!”

The Imperial soldiers scattered in all directions.

Some dove into trenches as if avoiding a downpour, while others dropped to the ground as if dodging a bombing.

It was the moment when the once-silent defense line filled with shouts and screams.

And just as the giant leg crashed into one of the fortified positions—

-KWANG—!

A tremendous boom followed by a terrible silence.

Both those evacuating and those caught in its path fell silent. The only sound echoing through the defense line was the noise of concrete-reinforced positions being smashed.

Under the cloudy winter sky, bizarre sounds spread through the fog-covered basin. Every time the spider’s body writhed, the mountains and forests trembled, and with each movement of its massive legs, chunks of concrete and steel beams fell outside the fortification.

Having demolished the position, the giant spider rolled its red eyes, searching for its next target.

Then,

-—!

An explosion erupted on the monster’s body.

A strange cry split the sky. The red eyeballs rolled in all directions, trying to find the enemy that had attacked it.

At the end of that red gaze was a tank.

Kurrrung! With a thunderous engine sound, the tank began to move. A heavy shell casing ejected from behind the turret.

The ground shook with each roll of the tracks. The tank, which had instantly abandoned its position and moved into the open space, fired its cannon at the monster.

The fired shell hit the spider’s body and exploded, and the tank ejected another shell casing.

Amidst the black exhaust and gunpowder smoke mixing into the fog, gunfire followed the cannon’s roar.

Tadadadadada! The tank commander grabbed the machine gun and fired at the monster. The machine gun mounted next to the main gun also spewed fire.

Two streams of tracer bullets cut through the air and quickly struck the monster, and the tank charged forward like a beast, shaking off the snow accumulated on its body.

That’s when it happened.

-CHWAAAAK—!

White lines shot through the gunpowder smoke.

Spider webs.

The webs that filled the sky cut through the acrid smoke and pounced on the tank. The movement of the tracks that had been shaking the ground suddenly stopped, and the tank’s movement was blocked.

The tank commander’s bewildered face, suddenly covered in spider webs, was clearly visible to me even through the fog.

But that was only for a moment.

The giant spider that had shot the webs rushed toward the tank at an incredible speed. With an agility unimaginable for its massive size.

Moving its many legs to approach the tank, the spider grabbed it with its shell-covered limbs. Then, firmly fixing its legs to the underside of the tank, it lowered its body and made a strange crying sound.

At that moment, the tank was lifted.

The tank that had been shaking the earth and firing shells just moments ago was now suspended in the air. Like a weightlifter lifting a heavy barbell, the spider used its multiple legs to raise the tank.

The tank flipped over in an instant.

The Imperial tank, boasting heavy armor and a powerful main gun, toppled like a domino and crashed into the mud. The engine that had been roaring, the tracks that had been crossing rough terrain, and the commander who had been directing the tank—all were sucked into the mud.

-WHEEEEEK!

The giant spider swept its legs, plowing through the area.

Infantry who had been sitting dazed and armored vehicles moving their turrets were swept away. The turret of an armored vehicle aiming its cannon spun around as if slapped, and red paint was splashed over the white snow field.

There were no living people left there now.

Above the defense line covered in acrid smoke and thick fog.

Beyond the horizon, in front of the swarm of corpse spiders.

Standing alone like a general leading an army, the spider roared as if to devour the sun.

*

I had no particular thoughts.

I was just scared and terrified.

The scene viewed through the collapsed building’s outer wall was utterly horrific.

The defense line was already surrounded. And part of it had been breached.

Even at this moment, a swarm of corpse spiders formed into an army was advancing toward the defense line. Their numbers were easily dozens of times greater than those we had encountered at the border outpost.

I recall the faces of people who were shocked after seeing the intelligence gathered by the Military Intelligence Bureau. Officials from the Ministry of Defense who made a fuss about where such monstrous tanks were developed, insisting that we too should develop new tanks.

That monstrous tank is now buried in the mud over there.

-—!

The main gun spewed fire.

A newly appeared tank fired a shell at the giant spider. Other tanks that had escaped from their positions also poured firepower to kill the monster.

However, the spider didn’t even blink.

The spider, puffed up like a blowfish, glared with its red eyes and spewed out spider webs. The widely spread webs cut through the air and pounced on the tanks.

What happened next was not much different from before.

The crew members, realizing that getting caught in the webs meant death, tried to move their tanks to avoid them, but unfortunately, some couldn’t escape. The webs covered the tanks. The spider then rammed into the tanks and flipped them over.

And so another tank disappeared into the mud.

“HUAAAAGH!”

“KYAAAAGH!”

The screams of countless people were clear.

Carried by the wind, the screams bounced off old trees and rock faces, spreading farther and farther.

“…Aah.”

A scene that wouldn’t even appear in a third-rate monster movie was unfolding before my eyes. A sight more ridiculous than the mass-produced Chinese company ads I’d seen countless times before subscribing to YouTube Premium was revealing itself before me.

Suddenly, I felt like laughing.

The defense line that had been holding up well until just a few minutes ago had collapsed. It’s strange enough that corpse spiders suddenly appeared. Now a monster the size of an apartment building is crushing tanks weighing dozens of tons. It’s strange that a creature of that size is here. It’s strange that no one noticed it approaching the defense line. It’s not like it was summoned out of nowhere with a “poof.”

I don’t understand.

All of this felt like a bad dream.

“Even novels would get criticized for writing like this…”

With a feeling of emptiness, I sat down in the ruins and looked at the burning defense line. Just then, an explosion occurred as fire spread to the oil leaking from an overturned armored vehicle.

Even as people were dying, I laughed like a mentally ill patient.

So I laughed.

“……”

Sitting in the ruins, looking at the burning world through the gaping wall, I pondered deeply. What could I do now?

Escape?

Of course I could. Having crossed a desert spanning hundreds of kilometers until nearly starving to death, what’s crossing one snowy mountain?

I can certainly take care of myself, and I can move with Camilla and Francesca too. Unlike me, they’re both mages, so it would be much easier.

Fight?

I could do this too.

But what could I accomplish by fighting here?

Although small, a hole has appeared in the defense line. The units defending the breach have formed a wide defensive line along the basin. If monsters pour through even one breach, the forces guarding other areas cannot retreat. Their escape routes would be cut off.

And the Imperial army is no match. If an armored unit can’t defeat one spider and gets destroyed, what can infantry do? If there were mages, it might be worth trying, but there are barely any mages left here. The combat mages requested from the division haven’t even arrived yet.

Beyond all that, this isn’t where I should be in the first place.

Why should I protect the lifeline feeding Imperial bastards? I’m not even part of the Imperial army. Dying here would be a meaningless death.

Various thoughts swirled in my head, but my heart had already leaned in one direction long ago. After mapping out a route to the nearest unit below the mountain range, I spoke to Camilla and Francesca.

“…Camilla, Francesca. If you can move, right now—”

“Let’s go.”

Camilla cut me off. Covered in dust and coughing, she had already gotten up and dusted herself off.

I looked at her with a surprised face, but Camilla silently met my gaze. As if she already knew what I was going to say.

I tried to say something, but Camilla spoke first before I could open my mouth. And she urged me.

“Let’s go.”

Her blue eyes looked out the window. Beyond the collapsed outer wall, toward the giant spider demolishing the defense line.

“It seems… that’s the problem…”

“……”

“If we just catch that Godzilla-like monster, everything will be solved, right?”

Red flames bloomed in the air.

With flames wrapped around her fist, Camilla stepped forward on the debris of the collapsed building.

She said:

“Francesca said it earlier. If we hold out a little longer, someone will come to help.”

“……”

“I believe it. That someone will help us. That someone will definitely come to help. So…”

Camilla, who had seemed like the most troublesome one, looked at me with the most serious eyes.

“Let’s go. Let’s go catch that monster.”