The mummy moving, and that mummy using magic, were surprising enough, but it was not as difficult to deal with as the former Master of the Magic Tower who had become undead.
The resurrected mummies were smashed apart by my attacks and those of the team members.
This time, the guns brought from Earth and the energy guns brought from Venus were effective.
Perhaps because they were dead, the mummies did not block the incoming attacks with magic, but took them all with their bodies.
Bang! Kwaang!
Their rigid bodies burst apart, and mummies that had lost limbs and torsos collapsed to the ground.
Even lying on the floor, the mummies tried to use magic, but those whose heads or more than half their bodies had been destroyed no longer moved.
As we dealt with the mummies charging at us like that, I realized something was strange.
No matter how many mummies we kept smashing, the number rushing at us did not decrease.
There was no need to confirm it with my senses separately.
“The mummies are being created endlessly!”
“Just how many people died here?”
At Sergeant Woo’s shout, Magreta asked me while swinging her whip.
It looked as if she was asking me, but in truth, she was asking Soph.
Soph answered.
[I heard that when the Demon King invaded this place, over a thousand followers fought against him.]
The unexpected number left me dumbfounded, but I told the group the truth.
“They say around a thousand.”
“What? A thousand?”
The others stared at me as if it were absurd, but I was not at fault.
I had only relayed Soph’s words exactly.
“Surely not all of those people are going to rise, right?”
Magreta asked with a sickened expression, but I did not know the answer to that either.
Instead, there was one thing I did know.
“Let’s fall back.”
That we had to fall back now.
The reason I said we should retreat was not because of the endlessly rising mummies.
What was rising now was not only human mummies.
I could see a massive bulk standing up among the mummies.
Like the human mummies, it was covered in mud that had hardened, but that thing was not human.
It looked like a white monster hauling itself up out of a swamp.
I had seen that form somewhere before.
The same was true for the team members.
“Good God, isn’t that the bastard we saw in the warehouse ruins?”
Just as Tom said, the things now rising from the mudflats resembled the fossilized Akjar scouts we had seen in the warehouse ruins.
“Wasn’t it only people that were being revived?”
It seemed the polluted energy created by the Demon King did not discriminate as long as something was dead.
Now the problem was no longer the thousand people buried in the mud.
The fact that those fossils were moving meant that all the Akjar monsters buried in these mudflats along with the people would be revived.
Those things could not be disposed of as easily as the mummies.
The same went for me. Right now, when I had no idea how many of them were in those mudflats, I could not fight them.
“Hurry! We’re falling back!”
At my command, the team members began running out of the basin.
I followed behind the group with my shield spread out.
The mummies were one thing, but perhaps because the newly appeared monsters were fossils as well, they could not move quickly.
Instead, magic flew after us, but all of those spells were blocked by the shield.
Once we had crossed more than half the basin like that, the corpses’ attacks stopped.
As we moved farther from the sanctuary, no more mummies or fossils rose.
The corpses that had been staggering after us also turned their bodies toward the mountain once the distance grew too great.
When the corpses stopped following, I kept the slowed team members moving, then examined the corpses further.
The mummies and fossils that had turned around did not go back into the mud.
Instead, they stood around the mountain and poured attacks toward the invisible shield.
Thud. Thud.
Magic flew, and hardened tentacles pounded against the shield.
The sight of close to a hundred mummies and several fossil monsters hammering at the invisible wall surrounding the gray mountain was utterly grotesque.
“Will that have any effect?”
Soph answered my question.
[It will be difficult. That shield may not be on the level of the Demon King’s seal, but it is also being supplied with energy from this planet. There is no way it will be breached like that.]
“Then why are they doing that? Are they just acting instinctively?”
Were those things trying to break the shield without thought, just as the other Akjar monsters instinctively sought the Demon King?
[Well, I do not know the exact reason either, but it seems that each time the mummies and fossils use magic and move their bodies, the polluted energy increases little by little. Is the Demon King trying to increase the polluted energy?]
Just as Soph said, the polluted energy that had formed in the mudflats was gradually growing stronger.
At first, I had only sensed it near the sanctuary, but as time passed, its range was spreading.
The rate of increase was slow, but it was definitely increasing.
“If he increases the polluted energy like that, he’ll be able to awaken all the corpses buried in the mudflats. And those corpses will all rush at the shield surrounding the mountain and try to break it……”
Even if it was fine now, if a thousand mummy mages and dozens of Akjar fossils attacked at the same time, there was no way the shield would remain intact.
[Furthermore, if the dark energy continues to be converted into polluted energy, the shield will weaken.]
A weakening shield and attacks that were steadily growing stronger.
If that happened, the seal would eventually have no choice but to break.
[I thought that even the Demon King would not be able to change the energy of the planet itself, but with ten thousand years, he manages it in the end.]
“And Shamara knew that.”
The former prophet must have known about this situation.
Since she had been a powerful prophet, she must have known when the seal she had created would break.
[……I suppose so.]
Soph agreed with me.
That was also why she had entrusted the Demon King to me and Hanna.
“I don’t know how much time is left.”
I could not tell whether the corpses outside would break the shield first, or whether all the dark energy would become polluted and release the Demon King first.
But whichever it was, there could not be much time left.
One of the reasons there was no time was the monster currently rushing toward us from outside the basin.
I aimed my spear past the group.
“Soph!”
With those words, I hurled the spear with all my strength.
Shwaaaak!
The spear passed over the heads of the running group.
The spear, flying in a straight line, lodged beside the half-destroyed tower.
Thunk!
The spear embedded itself in the body of the scout that had been charging toward us.
The scout’s body stiffened with a jolt.
[Explode!]
Soph’s spell rang through my head.
Booom!
The scout burst apart.
The team members were greatly startled by the exploding monster, but they all entered the half-destroyed tower according to my instructions.
After confirming that the team members had gone inside the tower, I picked up the spear and the black stone from the monster’s exploded body.
As I picked up the black stone, I clicked my tongue.
“If monsters keep coming like this, the seal will break much faster than expected.”
If controlled entities like this scout continued to flock here, it would become even harder for the shield to hold.
Even so, I could not stay here blocking the Akjar monsters.
Stopping the Akjar monsters would not make the shield recover.
It would merely buy a little more time.
If so, then during that time, I had to do other things, like prepare to kill the Demon King.
Once those preparations were complete, not only the team members but other people would have to come as well.
By then, in addition to the dead corpses, this place would be packed full of all kinds of monsters in the mudflats.
“At least there won’t be any shortage of hunting grounds then.”
When the team members and I fought the Demon King, the others would have to hold off the mummies and those monsters.
“Still, I think we’ll need to come before then and reduce their numbers……”
I had one weapon that could reduce the number of those mummies and monsters.
I did not know whether it would work on the Demon King, but it was a weapon that would work on corpses like those and on Akjar monsters.
Once enough monsters had gathered, I would have to try using that weapon.
One fortunate thing was that I had Hanna, someone who could tell me when the seal would break.
When she awakened, it would mean the true time had come.
For that time, I had to return now.
Before entering the tower, I looked back at the gray mountain one last time.
Now that polluted energy was rising around it, the gray mountain looked exceedingly ominous.
We used the spatial transfer device in the tower’s basement to return to the terraforming ruins.
***
Ten days had passed since Deputy Commander Hyeon returned from Earth.
As soon as he arrived on TRAPPIST, he had gone out exploring for several days, both alone and together with the exploration team members, and even afterward, though he did not go out on expeditions, he continued not to show himself to people.
For that reason, the people who had newly arrived on this planet could not help but find it strange when they saw the original members fear and respect Hyeon.
“If they end up going hunting with him even once, that question will disappear right away.”
At base administrator David’s words, Catherine shook her head.
“Hyeon has too much to do right now, so that’s not possible.”
At her answer, David frowned.
“It seems like he’s taking a break from exploration right now……”
It had not even been a week since Hyeon had returned from his expedition, but David did not think Deputy Commander Hyeon would rest for more than a day.
“Or is it because of the new settlement?”
There was a rumor that had been spreading through the terraforming base since a week ago.
A rumor that a safe, proper city where people could live was being built on this planet.
There was even talk that the food that had appeared this time had come from that city.
Since Catherine had allowed the rumors to circulate, they were spreading further by the day.
Naturally, David had heard the rumor as well, and furthermore, he knew a little more of the details.
That the rumor was not merely a rumor but the truth, and that the city was not in the process of being built, but had already been completed.
He even knew that there were people who had visited or were living in that city.
He was not talking about Deputy Commander Hyeon, Commander Catherine, or the exploration team members.
Over the past week, there had been people who disappeared from the terraforming base, or vanished briefly and returned with changed expressions.
Among those who disappeared was Kim Huiwon of the advance team, a fire ability user who worked with the blacksmith, and those who returned with changed expressions included the Korean Sergeant Kim and Carlo, who was close to him.
After returning, Sergeant Kim and Carlo had been moving with remarkable diligence, saying they had to bring their families to the city, and those who had disappeared seemed to have fallen for that city entirely and settled down there.
“It’s not because of the city…… David, would you like to go see it too?”
“No, thank you. I have work to do right now.”
At Catherine’s words, David shook his head.
He had a duty to protect the people dispatched to this planet.
Though that role had now been reduced to guarding the base, he did not think his responsibility had changed.
Unless everyone went to that city, he had to protect the people who remained.
Just as he was now making a new settlement here, at this lake.
Right now, Catherine and David had come with others to the lake where the first base had been.
It was to build an additional base, or settlement, beside this lake.
People kept coming over, and the terraforming ruins had already reached capacity.
Though the food problem had been solved, the oasis near the ruins did not have enough sleeping space for everyone.
The fact that a few people had gone to the city did not help much with solving the sleeping arrangements either.
That was why they had decided to build a new base at the lake where the forward base had once been.
Now that the monsters were nowhere to be seen, there was nothing strange about building a base beside a lake with abundant water.
Moreover, beside this lake, a single tree was growing.
Looking at that tree, it seemed that plentiful vegetation would be able to grow here in the future.
The work of bringing people from the terraforming ruins, pitching tents, and creating places to live continued.
Even amid all that busyness, David was curious about Deputy Commander Hyeon, who was nowhere to be seen.
“Hyeon isn’t far away, but……”
Just as Catherine, unlike herself, failed to give a clear answer—
Rrrrrrumble.
Suddenly, the lake heaved, and the ground shook.
“An earthquake?”
“Don’t tell me a monster came out?”
The people who had been digging the ground and pitching tents looked around in alarm, weapons in hand.
No monster was visible.
It was not an earthquake either. Nothing else was shaking at all.
While everyone looked around tensely, Catherine opened her mouth.
“You don’t need to be nervous. Hyeon is here.”
Along with her words, dirt shot up beside the lake.
Pwaaaak!
The earth burst apart as if a bomb had gone off, and a person leapt out from within.
It was Deputy Commander Hyeon.
Seeing Deputy Commander Hyeon emerge, Catherine said,
“We decided to build a base here, so Hyeon reconnected the underground ruins to the surface. That’s what he’s been busy doing all this time.”
He had dug a tunnel again from the underground ruins up to this surface.
Not long ago, while fighting the Akjar monsters, all the passages connected to the underground ruins had been submerged.
He had spent a week digging those submerged passages open again.
Catherine said it was because of the newly built base, but that was not the reason he had created the new passage.
The reason he had dug the passage was to move the nuclear missiles.
He had dug this passage so that the nuclear missiles would not be lost through spatial transfer.
The Approaching Destruction (1)