Chapter 232

The incompetence of the Rumanus Republican Army, which was being exposed in real time, was an entirely predictable outcome. In a country where skill at corruption determined promotion, a properly functioning military would have been the real anomaly.

Those who collected larger bribes and funneled them upward were able to secure positions with greater authority. Within that structure, the system pushed real soldiers aside and transferred them to places with heavier workloads and no access to the core of power, even as their ranks rose. It was a human sieve that constantly filtered out the ones who were capable.

The incompetence on display wasn’t an act or an exaggeration but the accumulated result of that system operating exactly as designed. Even so, their incompetence and the Cult of Ruin’s all-out brutality remained two separate problems.

“Do-Jin! The Chimeras just keep coming over!” Theresa shouted to cut through the noise of the battlefield.

Just as she said, Humanoid Chimeras kept vaulting over the wall and hurling themselves into the fight, even as chaos spread on the other side. About a third of them were so poorly made that they collapsed and died on their own soon after entering the battlefield.

However, their sheer numbers still posed a real threat. Even the low-quality Chimeras had grown harder for the players to deal with because the quest had been scaling their levels as it progressed.

I need to break through. Do-Jin decided to end this with as few deaths as possible.

“Let’s go over!” he shouted, turning to face the wall.

“Wait, that’s too sudden—!” Theresa smashed aside an incoming threat with a heavy crash and followed immediately after him.

“Tanto, handle the Chimera here!” Do-Jin called out.

Tanto, who had been moving quickly to keep up, nodded silently and slipped into stealth.

While sprinting at full speed, Do-Jin summoned Anemone and told her to help Soso, who had no way of climbing the wall on her own. Then, he used Theresa as a foothold and launched himself upward.

“Hrk!”

“W-what the hell!”

The situation on top of the wall was something to behold. It looked like a fragging had taken place. A hole had been blown clean through the back of a middle-aged man’s head, and younger soldiers were already rummaging through his clothes and belongings. They were probably trying to steal their superior’s valuables to fund their escape.

“U-uaaagh!” One soldier, shaking with fear, screamed and swung his rifle toward Do-Jin.

Although a gunshot rang out, his target remained unharmed. The moment the soldier turned his weapon, a sharp shard of ice that Do-Jin had already formed pierced straight into the center of his forehead, and the bullet ended up being fired into the sky. After seeing that, the other soldiers threw down their guns and raised their hands all at once.

“W-we don’t want to fight!”

Anyone could tell what had happened. They had put a hole in their superior’s head and started looting his body because they wanted money to run, not because they wanted to keep fighting.

“Finish what you were doing.”

Do-Jin waved them off. Honestly, that was better than people who looked at those Chimeras and still chose to fight to the end. Do-Jin had no reason to judge what had happened between the subordinates and their leader here.

Not long after, Anemone climbed up with Soso on her back. One of the soldiers collapsed and wet himself at the sight of the massive wolf. Theresa climbed up as well, using the rope Do-Jin had lowered as soon as he reached the top of the wall.

By this point, Do-Jin had already jumped down to the other side of the wall. Anemone followed suit and Theresa dropped after them. Once they disappeared, the soldiers on top of the wall immediately returned to their frantic looting.

***

Because they only had to trace the route the Chimeras had taken in reverse, Do-Jin never had to worry about getting lost. The lack of a choice in direction, however, didn’t make the situation any easier. They had to fight the ones that were moving toward the battlefield, and they had no way to avoid skirmishes with the accompanying soldiers along the way.

While forcing her breathing back into rhythm after the relentless series of battles, Theresa muttered under her breath, “This feels like Hansel and Gretel or something...”

Do-Jin gave a short chuckle when he heard her. “Well, at least there were candies along their trail.”

Though the comparison wasn’t far off, their trail was made of indescribable monstrosities.

“Even a grim fairy tale wouldn’t go this far,” she fired back.

At the end of the trail, several large buildings came into view. There were structures that looked like warehouses, factories, or possibly even a prison complex.

It’s way too quiet, Do-Jin thought.

Just moments ago, Chimeras had poured out of this area, and soldiers had attacked from every direction. Pushing forward had felt like forcing their way through a monster wave. Now that they had reached this point, everything stopped.

Do-Jin stepped into one of the buildings, assuming there might be traps. He knew he would have to overcome whatever was waiting anyway. However, he found nothing inside except a woman lying collapsed in the center of the wide space.

“She’s still alive!” Theresa said, rushing forward to help when she saw the woman’s back rising and falling.

“No.” Do-Jin stopped her.

That woman was already dead, and Do-Jin could see mana that only appeared in the undead lingering around her body. It was the trace of magic that reanimated the dead.

“You’re not that gullible, huh?”

The woman twisted her neck at an unnatural angle and looked toward Do-Jin’s group. As she forced herself upright, her joints and muscles, already locked by rigor mortis, resisted the movement, some snapping with gruesome noises.

“Aah... This feels absolutely miserable. Does anyone understand how it feels to possess such a pathetic body?” The woman let out a long, exaggerated sigh.

Do-Jin clenched his jaw. The one possessing that body was almost certainly the person behind all of this. Hearing someone like that speak so casually made heat rise in his gut. Still, he couldn’t lash out.

They already left. The only thing still here is this one. She’s probably trying to mock me, but even if I have to play along, I need information.

With that in mind, Do-Jin spoke. “Was it you?”

“Sure it was.” The corners of the woman’s mouth split into a grin.

It was a truly disgusting smile. After twisting her face into that grotesque expression, the woman began to clap. The stiff corpse produced dull, heavy sounds with each clap.

“Congratulations. You succeeded in interfering with our work again. You’re truly impressive, you little underling of Bella. But...” The woman spread both arms wide. “From your point of view, can you really call this a victory? Rolling around under soft, cushy Bella, I mean. No, that’s wrong. You lost. We failed too, but you failed right along with us.”

At the same time, the surroundings wavered. As it turned out, an illusion had concealed the area. It didn’t cover everything. It only masked the space from the entrance to this point, which was enough to keep the truth out of sight.

It was a simple trick, using a minor spell to imitate the effect of large-scale magic. What that simple deception had concealed, however, was a horrific sight. The remains of those slaughtered there were heaped into a mound, and the chunks of flesh hanging from hooks like something in a meat-processing plant were, for the most part, human. The stench that had been hidden until then burst out and slammed into Do-Jin’s group.

“Hahahaha! Just look at your faces! Those expressions are more than enough as a farewell gift!” The woman burst into hysterical laughter.

“What’s your name?” Do-Jin asked in a cold tone.

“Name’s Palakia.”

The name meant nothing to Do-Jin. Of course, he didn’t know everything about the Six Saints, since some of them had never shown themselves in public. Now that he had heard it, though, it likely meant Palakia had been behind the Chimera atrocities in his previous life as well.

“I’ll remember this moment,” Do-Jin said.

“You should. I’ll remember you too. I’ll mix you in with the things over there. Of course, that’s only if you survive here—”

Before she could finish speaking, he erased the dead woman’s body with Flame Cannon. There was no point in forcing himself to keep talking. Someone like that wasn’t going to give up any more useful information. Right as he did so, Chimeras began crawling out from the piles of corpses in their vicinity.

“This is... honestly more than I’d like to deal with in one go,” Theresa spoke with a stiff expression.

Do-Jin was about to tell her that they could handle it when the Grimoire of Truth suddenly began to glow. A split second later, a deep magical resonance rumbled up from underground. Before he could fully register that something was below them, the floor ahead collapsed, and something forced its way up.

It was a monster made by grafting humans, animals, and insects into a massive plant. Flesh embedded in the writhing vegetation looked like grotesque flowers blooming from the stems.

What the fuck...

Whether in his previous life or now, they had no intention of ever becoming a tolerable memory. Do-Jin closed his eyes briefly as the Chimeras charged. The massive plant Chimera swung its vines in wide arcs, trying to sweep everything around it away.

When he reopened his eyes, the curse that lay dormant in him awakened. Sleeping Curse, which had been automatically applied to enemies within range, stripped their abilities and transferred them to Do-Jin.

On top of that, he activated Transcendence, which burned every part of him to its limit. After pushing every enhancement on him to its limit, Do-Jin released golden, black, and crimson mana. The sight resembled a sun blazing at close range. Then, he released freezing cold across the area and slowed down the Chimeras’ movements.

Startled by instinctive fear, they tried to recoil. Before they could retreat, however, five white points of light appeared over their heads. As Flash Lance marked each Chimera’s head and detonated one after another, more Chimeras appeared in rapid succession to take their place.

Do-Jin’s power, amplified over and over by stacked enhancement effects, had reached a terrifying level. Perhaps the plant Chimera sensed the approach of death, or maybe it was simply reacting to the overwhelming mana. Either way, dozens of thick vines lashed out, targeting their group indiscriminately.

Do-Jin tracked their movement, summoning blades of wind and bursts of flame that severed vine after vine. Even so, that defense had its limits.

“Theresa.”

The attacks that broke through Do-Jin’s barrage of spells were stopped by Theresa in the end. Vines slammed into her shield with a heavy crash and were flung back by the rebound.

Flame Cannon slammed into the plant Chimera in rapid succession. It endured with monstrous tenacity but Do-Jin’s attack intervals were terrifyingly short. Unable to escape the shock of continuous heavy damage, the corpse-flower that had writhed moments earlier was reduced to torn, withered remains.

They had won but there was no room to celebrate as too much of death surrounded them. The weight created by those who had already been dead and those who had only just been allowed to die erased any trace of victory from the air.

As the accumulated deaths caused by the Cult of Ruin crossed a certain threshold, Do-Jin’s power as an Apostle of the Star activated once again. A blue light appeared to guide the dead to the stars.

After waiting for the light to fade, Do-Jin turned and said, “Let’s go. We still need to finish this.”

The enemy’s retreat didn’t mean it was over. Embers still smoldered, and rest was a luxury that could wait until they were stamped out.