1.
There were people who compared the sight of people losing their lives in war to 'flowers blooming beautifully'. But I'm certain that those people have never been on the battlefield before.
-Ohhhh!
-Push the gate! Push it down!
-Krrng, krrk!
Countless sounds rushed into our ears like the buzzing of mosquitoes. Crack! Right beside us, a huge ax crushed an armored soldier.
The sound of flesh splitting. The screech of iron breaking. The moans and groans of the injured. On this battlefield, lives were extinguished like popping bubbles in a hot swamp.
"—Wait a minute. What's going on?"
The Black Dragon Master spoke with a shocked expression. She wasn't shocked because of the cruelty of the battlefield. She was shocked by the fact that we'd suddenly appeared in the center of one.
"Milady, what's going… She's gone. Did a quest window pop up for anyone?"
"It didn't."
"Same here!"
"How unkind."
The Black Dragon Master clicked her tongue.
"Is she telling us to figure out this situation on our own? Although his personality was a bit strange, [The Librarian] was a kind constellation… Hah. Everyone, let's fly up and check this war situation from the air. That should be better."
Taht, the Black Dragon Master tapped on the ground with her foot.
"Huh?"
However, her body didn't fly into the air.
The Black Dragon Master furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"…What's going on? I can't fly?"
It was as she said.
We were able to fly freely on the 31st and 32nd floors. This made it possible for us to observe everything from a bird's eye view. Maybe you could say it felt like we had transcended.
'The real fight starts now.'
I understood the meaning behind this surprising situation.
'Rather, this is pretty good. Regardless of whether it's a skill or an ability, if you grow too reliant on it, your skill as a hunter would deteriorate. Even if there are any accidents, in the worst case, I'll just go back in time.'
I looked around.
Currently, we were still invisible like before. The body parts and blood that flew through the air passed freely through our bodies. Naturally, it wasn't a pleasant experience to have someone's bloodied organs flying through our bodies, but—
"It's not just one or two races participating in this battle."
If we focused, it was easy for us to observe what was happening around us.
"The humans, elves, sprites… it's a multi-race alliance. They seem to be fighting against each other, but they also seem to be on the same side. Each race is in charge of a different army branch. The humans form a shield wall and take the position of infantry, while the elves are the archers… and the sprites are the cavalry."
I narrowed my eyes.
"The vampires are acting as aerial units. Mm. I can't see the mermaids, but it seems that all the races that were once enslaved by the snails are a part of this allied army."
"Then the enemy…"
"Yes."
I nodded.
"There's a nine out of ten chance that it's the snails."
Uohhh!
The allied army gradually pushed forward little by little. It was difficult to understand exactly how the battle was progressing because we were surrounded by soldiers, but we could tell that the situation was gradually changing.
"This won't do. If we stay here, we'll see nothing but corpses."
The Black Dragon Master grabbed my hand.
"I'll go scout with the Death King. It'll be hard to gather together if we all scatter, so you guys wait here. Is that fine with you, Death King?"
I realized what the Black Dragon Master wanted to do. Space Transfer Technique. The Black Dragon Master intended to scout using her special skill. This skill allowed her to transfer not only herself, but another party. The only limitation was that [the other party had to agree to use the skill].
"Yes."
"Good."
Black aura leaked from the Black Dragon Master's body and latched onto my wrist.
"Transfer!"
The next moment, we were in the air, looking down at the thousands of soldiers that crawled beneath us like a swarm of insects. When we began to be dragged down by gravity, the Black Dragon Master used her skill again.
"Transfer!"
And we stopped falling for a while.
"…you don't intend to use Space Transfer every time we're about to fall, do you?"
"We can't fly, so I don't have a choice. Transfer. During my long career as a Hunter, transfer, what I realized was, transfer, a skill is like a muscle, the more you use it, the easier it is. Transfer."
"Wow, that's really not cool…"
"Can being cool feed you? Transfer. I'm busy using my skill, so pay attention to the situation on the ground."
"Sure."
I quickly achieved a state of 'empty mind', and carefully observed the war below.
"Huh."
I was immediately struck by a sense of deja vu.
"This place seems familiar…"
"Right. I also felt like this place is familiar for some reason."
"This isn't a civil war, it's a siege."
As we expected, the ones fighting the snails were the allied forces. The snails had set up a fortified camp at the entrance of a large cave which seemed to only have a wall and a gate.
"…Isn't that Rimepolis?"
The city where the historic slave escape had occurred.
Now, the races that were no longer slaves were attacking.
2.
"They called it the Holy Land."
The Sword Saint said.
We all shared the information we collected.
"I heard the conversation of some soldiers in the humans' barracks. They said that they will definitely take the Holy Land in this expedition. Judging from the fact that they said [this] expedition, I don't think this is the first time they've attack Rimepolis."
"Ahh. From what I've heard, this is the 6th expedition."
The Venomous Snake raised his hand.
"The alliance army was formed hundreds of years ago to deal with the Rime Empire. Most of the empire has already been destroyed, and I heard that Rimepolis is the only base that has yet to fall."
"Holy Land… Another annoying phrase."
The Black Dragon Master pressed her palm to her forehead, her expression sour.
"If I had to pick the three words I hate to hear the most in the world, they would be terror, holy land, and heretic. Ahh. In the early days in the Tower, all kinds of heretics went around screaming [The Tower is the Holy Land! It is the Tower of Babel that God gave to us]…"
"It was the [Church of Neo-Babylonians]."
The Crusader folded her arms.
"In all honesty, they were just weaklings. I remembered the heretics going crazy and screaming [This place is R'lyeh(1)]."
I tilted my head to the side.
"R'lyeh? What's that?"
"I don't know the details either. Something about a city that appeared in a novel, but sank into the pacific ocean."
"The Tower isn't in the pacific ocean, is it?"
The Tower was everywhere and nowhere.
To put it simply, the tower that was seen from the outside world was more like a miracle.
Regardless of where you were, you would be able to see the shadow of the Tower on the horizon. Regardless of whether you were in Seoul or Busan, Korea or Chile, you could see the Tower anytime, anywhere.
As if it was seducing you to run to it.
"There are heretics who truly believed the novel. Don't expect them to think logically. Just so you know, many of those heretics are still active in the Ten Thousand Temple."
"Eh. Is that really okay? They're all psychopaths."
"Now you understand why we entrust the Ten Thousand Temple to the Heretic Questioner. Death King. The only one who can rule over crazy people is someone crazier than them." (TL: Pfft)
"Indeed…"
The Ten Thousand Temple was more impressive than I thought.
The Black Dragon Master sighed.
"The most efficient method was to leave all of those issues to the Heretic Questioner… I'm sure we suffered a loss by doing this. But in the end, they were useful, but unnecessary."
The battle paused for a while.
The battlefield, which was extremely fierce during the day, became quiet as the sun began to set. As a cool night breeze blew over, the multi-race alliance began to prepare their dinner.
"How could a place like this be considered a Holy Land..."
"It's only natural for it to be considered a Holy Land."
I concluded.
"This is the land where all the guardian deities of the seven races descended. It wouldn't make sense if they didn't regard this place as a holy land. From the snails to the humans, mermaids, sprites, and elves. This is a Holy Land for every race."
The Sword Saint nodded.
"The snails are trying to defend this place, and the other races are trying to capture it."
"More importantly, this is the only city that remains of the empire… This makes it difficult for either side to back down."
The multi-race alliance had a history of being oppressed as slaves by the snails. So faith, resentment, and politics were all mixed. This was something that could not be solved easily.
"Ugh."
The Black Dragon Master groaned.
"It's strange. I knew something like this would happen, so I constantly reminded those vampire kids. There is no god in this world, and even if there is a god, it's not me. Did they forget my teachings…?"
"Uh. I did something similar."
The Black Dragon Master's words caught my attention.
"What did you spend your points on Black Dragon Master?"
"[Race Evolution]."
Huh.
I was almost certain the Black Dragon Master would act like a squirrel and save all her points.
"You made a big investment. I'm surprised."
"..."
The Black Dragon Master stared at my face with a dumbfounded expression before letting out a sigh.
"…I overheard what item you were going to pick."
"Huh?"
"I said I decided to follow your choice. I'm not sure about it, but you chose it. I figured it must be a good item, so I chose the same thing."
"Eh. But aren't you copying me too much?"
"So noisy. There's nothing wrong with using other people for reference."
"Wow, I admire your shamelessness… Vampires are basically intelligent bats. I wonder how they changed after they evolved."
"I don't know. Maybe they'll only change a bit?"
"Shh."
The Crusader raised her hand and pointed to one side of the military camp.
"It's getting noisy over there."
We shut up immediately. As the Crusader said, there was a commotion in the allied army's camp. The soldiers, who were happily eating their dinner, quickly swallowed the rest of their bread before rushing over.
"Let's go too."
We quickly gathered around the Black Dragon Master as she prepared to transfer. "I feel like I've suddenly become a mama pig…" Although she complained, she knew this was the fastest method.
The entrance of the military camp.
Hundreds of warriors were lined up here. They were warriors of a race that didn't look like the mermaids, vampires, humans, sprites or elves.
The commander of the humans called out.
-Warriors of the Wet Lands. What brings you here? We are allies who made a sacred pact of past resentment. Do not invade this place with swords and spears.
-Ugor.
The leader of the warriors bowed his head slightly.
-I am Gerkesa, a Great Warrior ranked 73rd in the Fire River Council and the leader of this expedition. My ancestors are the ones who dug up rock salt in Rimepolis. You can rest assured, our swords have not yet been pointed at you.
They were goblins.
Riding atop a lion, the leader of the group approached the allied camp.
-Expedition? The people of the Wet Lands declared that they would not participate in this war.
-We said that we would not join your expedition.
The goblin warrior spoke calmly.
-Although a bit late, the council has decided to participate in this war.
-What did you say? War?
-Ugor. As one of the nobles representing the council, I came to inform you of this decision. Let it be known that we have no intention of betraying or surprising you.
Heh.
It was at that moment that I really felt that 600 years had passed.
'Their way of talking has become very sophisticated.'
Even in the previous stage, the unique pronunciations of the goblins remained the same. At the end of each sentence, they often said words like 'gork'. However, there were barely any traces of that in the warrior's speech. The pronunciation also became a bit fuller as 'gor' became closer to 'ugor'.
-No… Is the way they talk really the problem here…?
Bae Hu-ryeong muttered from behind me.
-These guys have really grown a lot!
He was right.
The goblins, who used to be as tall as dwarves, had nearly doubled in size. Now, they were as tall as or even taller than the humans.
'[Race Evolution] worked well.'
They were larger than humans but smaller than orcs.
-Krrr.
He even rode on a lion that was larger than him. The lion sniffed and glared at the human commander, causing him to take a step back.
-Don't worry.
The goblin patted the lion's mane.
-This child is a good friend. Relax.
-No… what do you mean by participating in a war? Do you mean that you intend to take the side of the snails and fight against our expedition? Make it clear. Are you the envoy who has come to declare war?!
-I swear on the names of Kekerkker and Gorke. I am not.
Even if he swore on Kekerkker, did he have to swear on Gorke too?
Little brat. It seems he became really successful.
-We are only here in the name of god to prevent evil crimes from being committed.
-Crimes…? Evil crimes?
-That's right. You are all making a mistake. The guardian gods never wanted us to destroy the snail race. In the era of the great escape, the guardians turned away from us when we tried to retaliate against the snails. The meaning of that is clear.
The goblin smiled fiercely.
-A war beyond this is no longer honorable, nor is it sacred. Just as it was wrong of the snails to whip us like that, it is also wrong of us to destroy the snails' last sanctuary.
-What…
-In other words, the vengeance for those who were bound in chains has already been dealt with.
The Great Warrior of the goblin race continued.
-Stop the fighting. We are here to end this old war.