chapter_0054

Chapter 53 : Undead Chimera

The hideout of the Worst.

While Naila was handling some tasks there, she suddenly raised her head.

“Come to think of it, Leader.”

“Yeah?”

“By the way, is it possible for you to tell me what materials were used to create that Chimera?”

“Chimera? Ah, the creature we sent to catch the dragons this time?”

Naila, who had raised her head, asked Chain about the Chimera sent to drive away and kill the northern dragons.

The Chimera had been sent because the habitat of the northern dragons was needed.

Naila’s question about the materials used for that Chimera caused Chain to tilt his head and ask in return.

“Why are you asking about that all of a sudden? You know that the creation of artificial monsters isn’t your responsibility, right?”

“The collection of materials is my responsibility. I suspected that you must have used a lot of materials to create that Chimera…”

“…It’s a very strong creature, right? I was thinking of gathering the materials in advance if I could. I apologize if it was unnecessary, Leader.”

The Chimera sent to capture the dragons this time was, in Naila’s opinion, an exceptionally strong creature.

Even if Naila herself had five of her own, she wasn’t sure they could win easily.

Although it wouldn’t take long to kill the dragon horde, there was a chance that rumors could spread to nearby towns or villages, attracting mercenaries or useless soldiers.

Therefore, Naila asked about the Chimera’s materials, in case the strong creature was damaged or destroyed.

She wanted to be able to repair it if it broke.

But, upon hearing Naila’s question, Chain couldn’t help but laugh, as if finding something amusing.

“Hahaha! Ah… sorry, Naila. I didn’t mean to laugh. But to answer your question, you don’t need to worry about the Chimera’s materials. It didn’t use anything special, just high-quality corpses. Aside from that, it only had regular mercury and ordinary mana.”

“…Is that even possible? No matter how high-quality the corpses are, using ordinary materials like that wouldn’t make a great Chimera.”

“I didn’t want to spend much time on a Chimera in the first place. I just reused some leftovers from an experiment. That’s all.”

Naila sighed in disbelief, clearly surprised.

However, since Chain’s words were true, he momentarily recalled the past, specifically the time during the Demon-Human War.

He remembered wandering battlefields, gathering the bodies of demons and humans after battles had ended, as he researched the blood of demons.

As the Demon-Human War had ravaged half the continent, there were many high-quality corpses left on the battlefield, and Chain was able to collect those corpses before anyone else, as others had to clean up the battlefield.

As a result, Chain created monumental works of research by using the bodies of countless demons, humans, and other living beings as materials.

After many experiments, he thought about the corpses he no longer needed.

“It seems a waste to just throw them away, so I might as well use them if I can.”

This led to the creation of the Undead Chimera.

Chain didn’t have much talent in necromancy, so he didn’t want to spend too much effort making the Chimera. He used the standard structure of a Chimera.

By using mercury to draw a magic circle and infusing regular mana from the battlefield, he fused the bodies together to create an artificial undead Chimera.

Elite demon soldiers, elite human soldiers, demon lords’ subordinates, and the disciples of heroes, among others.

Chain gathered the best-quality corpses from the battlefield and created the Chimera.

If any necromancer had seen this scene, they would have been horrified.

How could someone create a Chimera with such ordinary methods using such high-quality corpses?!

If a necromancer had done this, they could have created a Chimera at least three times stronger, and they would have lamented how wasteful it was.

But Chain, the one actually using the Chimera, had no such thoughts.

After all, to him, the Chimera was nothing more than a disposable tool.

He regularly supplied it with mana and bodies, but without that, it would naturally collapse and disintegrate.

The maintenance cost increased exponentially with the strength of the Chimera, so it wasn’t something Chain intended to use for long-term plans.

Why bother putting too much effort into something that would just be used and discarded?

“I sent that Chimera because it was a strong one, but honestly, I didn’t have much use for it. Whether it lives or dies doesn’t concern me.”

“In fact, if it’s going to die, it’s better if it dies quietly.”

“Because it’s inconvenient if the city gets noisy… Is that the reason?”

“Yeah, you got it. When the cities get noisy, they increase security unnecessarily, and it becomes a hassle for us.”

It seemed that Chain truly didn’t care about the Chimera. He casually dismissed it as a strong creature and turned his attention back to his experiment.

However, just before fully focusing again, a thought crossed Chain’s mind, and he muttered softly.

“Hmm… But now that I think about it, I might have been able to use his disciples as useful tools.”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. Forget about it.”

Chain felt a slight regret as he thought about a few of the corpses he had used for the Chimera.

He considered that those bodies could have been useful if he had used them differently, but since the Chimera was already sent out, there was no point in dwelling on the past.

Rather than focusing on past events, Chain decided that it was better to plan for the future and put aside his thoughts. He began concentrating on his experiment again.

“Pretty soon, I’ll be able to begin.”

Looking forward to the grand festival soon to come.

“Oh, it’s finally here.”

After Elia took the potion, not long later, the position of the dragon horde afflicted by the potion came into focus.

Looking toward that direction, eight dragons could be seen flying toward them from afar.

Eight dragons covered in reddish-brown scales.

“Those are dragons…”

Elia mumbled as she watched the approaching dragons. I turned to Ruina, who was standing with a bow next to me.

“Ruina, can you divide those dragons?”

“Of course. That’s why I’ve got my bow ready. Should I divide them into two, one, and five?”

I asked Ruina to divide the dragons that were flying toward us into a predetermined number.

Zenre had two, Nella had one, and Elia had five.

I could also launch a slash to separate the dragons, but there was a lot of uncertainty.

Although I could control the slash, it was hard to be precise against flying targets at this distance, so if I made a mistake, I might end up cutting off a dragon’s wing.

That’s why the most suitable person to separate the dragons was Ruina with her archery.

Creak…

Ruina pulled back her bowstring, and three mana arrows were set in place.

Meanwhile, the dragons had already approached to within about 3 kilometers.

……………They seem to be flying a little fast, don’t they?’

Maybe it was just me, but they seemed faster than the dragons I knew.

Could it be that these dragons were particularly fast compared to others?

As I watched, thinking that, Ruina released the string, and the three arrows flew between the dragons with a sonic boom.

Boom!

-!!!

Ruina’s arrows, trailing like rays of light, sliced between the dragons.

“Kyaaaooo?!”

“Kraaaaah!!”

The dragons flying toward us scattered in surprise from the impact, and Ruina’s arrows slipped through the gaps without missing a beat.

Mana arrows, guided with Ruina’s wind magic.

The arrows that had sliced through the dragons looped back around and stirred their wings again.

“Groooo!!”

With the barrage of arrows from behind, the dragons had no choice but to approach us while remaining split apart.

Then, Ruina fired another dozen arrows, thoroughly splitting the dragons into three distinct groups.

With the dragon horde now perfectly divided into east, west, and south, Zenre and Nella made their move.

“Then I’ll go take care of that side, Master.”

With that short sentence and a gleam of anticipation, Zenre rushed toward two of the dragons.

Judging by the aura around her sword, which wasn’t just sword energy but full-on aura blade, she must’ve been itching for action after being stuck doing paperwork in the office due to her age.

It felt like watching those weirdos who’ve finished all the game content and start doing bizarre challenge runs.

And maybe thinking the same thing, Nella clicked her tongue lightly as she looked at Elia.

“Tsk, so frivolous… Anyway, little lady, the effect of that potion hasn’t even lasted ten minutes yet, so keep in mind that it might wear off mid-fight.

From what I saw earlier, I think you’re skilled enough to handle things even without it, but if your strength suddenly fades, you might panic, right?”

“Ah, yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Well then, I’ll be off too. I’ve been curious to see how the potion affects dragons.”

Leaving Elia with a light warning about the potion, Nella vanished via teleportation toward a dragon.

Despite clicking her tongue at Zenre, she wasn’t much different from her, talking casually about using a dragon as an experiment subject.

Once the two oddballs were gone, the only ones left were the five dragons flying straight at us, and Elia holding a sword.

“Phew… Then I’ll be back soon. Dad, Mom.”

“Alright, be careful.”

“Don’t get too overconfident, okay?”

Leaving us with those words, Elia began rushing toward the incoming dragons.

Her foot slammed against the ground with a roar, and she flew forward with incredible speed, her sword slashing at the eyelid of the leading dragon.

“Kraaagh!!”

A perfect execution of the combat techniques she had just reviewed.

As I watched Elia’s stable start to her battle, I suddenly sensed another presence through my energy detection.

“Hm?”

Far off in the direction the dragons had come from, I felt another presence.

Wondering if it was another dragon, I turned my head toward it.

“What the…?”

I could only mutter as I caught sight of it.

Even from several kilometers away, an eerie energy was clearly radiating.

To be more specific, it was a malevolent aura characteristic of the undead, narrowing my eyes instinctively.

As I got a clearer view of the thing approaching, I tilted my head and spoke.

“A chimera?”

Something was flying through the sky toward us.

Its grotesque form unmistakably identified it as a chimera.

But not just any chimera—an undead chimera sewn together from corpses was flying toward us.