Chapter 153 – 1. Talos, and the Spear and Shield (7)
“Is that a lie…?”
Even though it was old, it was quite strong, and its body was full of goblins’ teeth and fingernail marks, and it was studded with goblin poison-stained needles, and there were several crudely made daggers or broken spearheads stuck in it.
Literally covered in blood, lying leaning against the wall like a blood, Merkin hadn’t even dreamed of it.
Know.
That Merkin’s chest wasn’t moving at all.
That the skin is cooling down without even a handful of warmth.
There was nothing special about him, but it didn’t seem like it was all that.
For the first time, when someone he knew appeared as a corpse like this, Er felt his blood run cold.
“…Ar and Ner?”
“This way…”
Following the guidance of the villagers, I came to the vicinity of a wooden fence that was just undergoing maintenance work. I couldn’t get out to the outside where monsters were fiercely passing by, but I found a corpse there, where I was collecting bodies that could be rectified somehow.
How to forget
He thought it was annoying, but he also thought it was cute.
Before he knew it, he was a kid who had grown up far beyond himself.
Even if his head was smashed so that his face could not be recognized, the clothes and equipment worn on the body. And its size.
And above all, the hairs mixed between the flesh were definitely Ar’s hair.
“Uh, ugh…”
Er, who was staggering, covered her mouth with one hand and struggled to hold back the rising vomit.
“What about Ner?”
“…Wouldn’t it be better not to see it?”
“What about Ner?”
At the words of Er, who had already made up his mind, the villagers eventually took Er to the place where the bodies of the dead villagers were collected.
And there, with his clothes torn to shreds and not as much as Merkin’s, Ner, who was completely soiled with nails and teeth marks all over his body, was lying on the cold bare floor covered in a pure white cloth.
Could it be that she couldn’t bear the shock of being humiliated, or did she bite her tongue? Seeing Ner’s face filled with blood bubbles in her mouth, Er unknowingly sat down and people covered Ner with cloth again to cover him.
“Arnim. When the day comes, can you burn the corpses with magic?”
“Oh, ah? Huh?”
“We have to leave this place quickly. The problem is not the monsters that have flocked in now, but the real thing that will come next is a bigger problem.”
Hearing the sound of the monsters running away, avoiding the village from side to side, still shaking the ground, Erre woke up with an ah.
Because I remembered why these monsters came here.
“If even the corpses are eaten and humiliated by the ants, please Er-sama cremate their corpses with magic and hold a joint funeral so that they can maintain at least their dignity.”
“…”
Er looked blankly at Ner covered in cloth and shuddered at the thought that even though this poor brother was already dead, he would be torn apart and eaten.
“Okay…”
* * *
While the villagers prepared to bury the monsters as soon as they left, Er took out a book containing information about the Crimson Ant that her mother had made for her from her backpack.
As promised by her mother, if she delivers this book to Yuria and Cashwyn, it will return to her mother.
But until then, at least helping the villagers evacuate would not break the promise.
No matter what, she opened the book, thinking that if she knew even a little more about Crimson Ant, she might be able to give the villagers a little advice.
Crimson Ant. It is one of the three families of Baal, the other two being the fly and the locust. The description of these two is omitted.
Although it is a member of the family, it is not that great. It is one of the three living plagues born by the power of Baal. Currently, flies and locusts will not appear again until Baal’s seal is lifted, so I will only deal with Crimson Ant.
Crimson Ant’s carapace is not uniform, but most of it has the strength of good quality steel, and depending on the part, it has the level of bronze or mithril alloy. Has (The thickness and strength of each part of the carapace will be described later.)
Its movement speed is not as fast as an untrained human can sprint, but it sprints at a speed that is required to continuously run for a long time.
…
Unlike normal ants, Crimson Ants reproduce asexually, and all ants are born as queen and soldier ants.
Crimson Ants that have ingested enough nutrients give birth to 4 to 6 ants the size of a normal dog. From the beginning, they are born as ants, not larvae.
…
The stomach, which can be said to be Crimson Ant’s weak point, is of course the part where important parts of the ant’s life activities are concentrated, but even if the stomach part is destroyed, Crimson Ant can do it for at least one day. It survives up to 15 days, and its combat power almost never drops until just before it dies.
In fact, the only way to lose combat power is to destroy the head or chest.
…
Crimson Ant’s weakness is cold.
As it gets colder, their behavior becomes slower, and when the temperature drops above a certain level, they stop their activities and fall into hibernation. It is to annihilate the Crimson Ants, who have become incapacitated by the
However, even if you become incapacitated by the cold and freeze, you will not die.
However, cold is definitely Crimson Ant’s weakness.
Not only does it not simply stop its activity, but the strength of the Crimson Ant’s shell when exposed to cold temperatures for a long time is considerably weakened, so in winter, even normal weapons of humans can break the Crimson Ant’s shell.
However, using cold magic is inefficient.
It is difficult to weaken their carapace or slow down their behavior with a brief cold.
“Um…”
After reading the book, although I don’t know much about it, I came to the idea that it’s no good as a weapon that my sister’s people are developing in the county right now.
Does that mean you have to catch them in the winter to actually beat them? Until then, by somehow running away or by stopping the advance at any cost?
How the hell did you beat them back then?
Er, who hadn’t finished reading the book yet, but saw that the dawn had risen before he knew it, he sighed and closed the book.
Because now is the time to appease the spirits of the dead here.
Now that there was no time to bury them individually, he had to arrange their funerals himself.
Er put her book back into her bag and hoped that the knowledge in this book would be of help to Yuria and Cashwyn, and she left the building.
Perhaps all the monsters had passed by, the surroundings were quiet, and their eyes were soaked with tiredness, as if everyone had stayed up all night in a different way from him.
In one place in the village, the bodies were piled up, and everyone gathered in the village was immersed in gloom as they looked at the pile of bodies.
Er, who quietly approached the pile of corpses, took out a staff from his waist and concentrated his magical energy.
Unlike humans, only dragons have the privilege.
A dragon is a dragon, no matter how half a dragon it is, and even if it is still young.
Er did not contain any words, but simply raised a very pure fire over the bodies of the victims of this incident.
Fire-!!
Bodies burning in the burning flames and becoming ashes…
And tears flowed from Er’s eyes as he thought of Merkin, Ar, and Ner who would be there together.
He has already made a promise to himself. He decided not to participate in this fight.
Protecting the village this time was only a possible expedient because the target was not Crimson Ant.
And it was because I hadn’t given this book to YuRia and Cashwin yet.
While looking blankly at the burning flames for a long time, she turned around when a hand tapped her on the shoulder.
Looking back, a soldier pointed to the back of the village, and there, seeing villagers and soldiers who had already prepared to retreat, formed an evacuation procession one by one, Er also quietly nodded his head and joined the procession. .
At that moment, Er remembered a story her mother had told her in the past.
It is said that humans always live in the gap between destruction and prosperity, and it is not strange to lean in either direction at any time.
Er, who had watched this village prosper so rapidly and dazzlingly with her sister YuRia, felt a bittersweet feeling as she saw the village that had fallen so horribly at this moment.
It was a village that managed to survive and revive even when those strange zombie-like things came, but to think that such a village would fall like this…
Of course, they said that they would leave for the Empire once the work here was finished, but even so, seeing what YuRia sister accomplished here was disappearing in vain made her heart feel tight.
It was as if the appearance of this village was saying that everything YuRia unnie had done in this world was futile and futile.
* * * * *
In the midst of the procession that trudged along, Er felt that they were like defeated soldiers.
Well, it wasn’t wrong.
The village, which had already been in danger of being destroyed once, lost many people, but was barely getting back on its feet.
In the meantime, close to half of the number of people and even a third of the troops supported by the Count family died, and now there are less than 100 left. If they are attacked by monsters again, will they be able to survive?
Of course, if Er himself actively stepped forward, he would endure it to some extent.
However, as before, as long as the monsters do not evade this group on their own due to the dragon’s energy, which is weakly felt in their own strength and power, the same luck as before will not happen again.
When I glanced around, I saw people all over the place wearing bandages that were stained with blood, and some of them lost some of their arms or legs and were struggling to walk.
Carriages and carts pulled by barely surviving horses, donkeys, and oxen were overflowing with piles of luggage and injured patients who could not walk on their own. Has been shown
In the end, one or two could not endure the arduous march and began to die, and Er simply closed his eyes and burned their bodies to the wind.
In the midst of an abbreviated funeral that did not even have proper mourning or formality, Er’s heart became more and more depressed.
Before reaching the first village, the group who left five more lives and arrived at the next village had no choice but to stand and stare blankly at the scene.
Truly, the village swept away by monsters had become a ruin where no human warmth could be found, giving off only a dreary atmosphere.
“This is what…”
I was taken aback for a moment by the miserable appearance, but soon I knew everything.
Where did the monsters that passed our village arrive next?
“…”
No one said anything, but as if they had reached the correct answer on their own, they just stared blankly at this scene.
This is because it was so clear that they would have become like this if Er had not come to them.
I hesitated for a while, but soon people started moving.
Fortunately, the temporary residence previously built on the outskirts of the village was uninhabited, and if not intact, it was left quite intact, and people hurriedly let the injured rest there and searched the village.
While looking here and there to find any survivors, replenish supplies, and check equipment here, I was able to miraculously rescue two surviving children.
The fact that only two children survived in this small, if not very large, town showed just how terrifying the disaster was.
“How do I do it?”
“It’s hard, but I’ll have to start as soon as the maintenance is over. Crimson Ant’s speed is neither fast nor slow.”
Surely…
That’s what happened in the book as well.
It was said to run at the speed of a normal human run.
A speed that is neither fast nor slow.
What was certain was that it was surely approaching faster than the speed at which we were moving.
At the thought of that, a chill went down Er’s spine.
When I thought that I was getting closer to Crimson End little by little, it felt like death was gradually approaching.
* * * * *
YuRia, who had been working on the new town for a while, began to feel inexpressible anxiety over the procession of refugees coming from far away.
Putting down the materials that were being processed while quietly floating in the air, Yuria ran over the castle wall at once toward the refugee procession trudging from far away.
And Yuria’s anxiety began to increase even more in the image of Er she discovered among them.
“Er!!”
Er, who was caught in the middle of YuRia’s shout, lifted her weakly lowered head and looked in the direction from which the sound came.
Seeing Yuria, who was about the same height as herself, with flowing blue hair, running away in a hurry, Er hurriedly ran to Yuria.
“Yu, Yuria unnie!!”
As they faced each other, the two hugged each other.
YuRia asked Er as her body trembled in her increasingly materialized anxiety.
“Er… What the hell happened…”
“Eh, the village… The village was ruined by a group of monsters who were running away from the Crimson Ent… That, and…”
“And…?”
Er, who hesitated for a moment, opened his mouth with a glance.
“Me, Uncle Merkin and Ar and Ner died in the attack of the monsters…”
At those words, Yuria had the feeling that her thoughts had stopped for a moment.
“Who, who died?”
“Uncle Merkin and Arwa Ner are dead…”
YuRia stumbled and collapsed at the death of the first people she had a deep connection with after coming to this world.
Mr. Merkin is already old, so he thought that the day he would leave would not be too far away, but she never imagined in her dreams that she would leave like this.
Arwa Nere died there?
Those little kids yet?
Even Yuria was shocked by the devastating news, but the shock she received was not the problem.
She should be like this, but what about Loa? What about Allen?
To Loa, Mr. Merkin was literally like a second father to her, and to Allen, Arwa Ner were like her own younger siblings.
How the hell am I supposed to break the news to you two?
Hey, why didn’t I see this part?
No, beyond foresight, why didn’t you foresee this situation?
If you knew anything about Crimson Ant.
And shouldn’t we have been able to predict that this could have happened if we knew the current state of the monster’s movement caused by the Crimson Ant?
What the hell, why am I…
“Sister… Sister! Wake up! Please wake up, sister!!”
“Ahhh…”
Really…
I couldn’t see anything in my eyes.
* * *
YuRia just blankly looked over the book Er had left behind and waited for Roa and Allen to arrive.
In order to bring this information to her, she had no choice but to promise her mother with her word, so Er had no choice but to leave her book and return to her house. Glancing at the information, she let out a sigh.
If this is true, all the defenses I have been doing so far have been useless.
Crimson Ant was more powerful than he could have imagined.
It wasn’t so powerful that I couldn’t use my hands, but even so, I couldn’t see the answer where to start using my hands.
I’m sorry my sons, but do we have to set off another nuclear explosion?
However, in this current situation, I have no idea how many times I will have to detonate nuclear explosions.
Above all, even if it is a nuclear explosion through nuclear fusion, the place where the nuclear explosion can be used is very limited, and the nuclear explosion that his two sons can use is sophisticated as if the two of them are one through the twins’ unique characteristics of being able to communicate with each other as if they were one body. It was an explosion created by manipulating deuterium molecules and colliding them as if clapping hands.
The power of the explosion that could be achieved in this way was eventually limited.
It was a stunt-like method achieved through the twins’ characteristics rather than proper technique.
It wasn’t necessarily successful every time I tried, and it wasn’t a feat worth trying so many times.
Above all, the world was not happy about a nuclear explosion happening in this era.
Perhaps, even if it is not because of the nuclear explosion that this Crimson Ant incident happened, the nuclear explosion had some effect on this happening.
That’s why it was difficult to solve it with a nuclear explosion if you thought that something more difficult might happen if you tried to solve it with a nuclear explosion again this time.
Even if I could do it, I was reluctant to ask the children to do another nuclear explosion.
“Do I have to rebuild… From scratch?”
