LIGHT NOVEL Chapter 383
The pitch-black night sea burns in a crimson blaze.
The walls of the control room corridor are riddled with large and small holes, through which the outside scenery seeps in, so glaringly bright that one could believe it was midday.
The red and yellow flashes sneaking in stained the room chaotically.
Inside the control room, it was complete pandemonium. Signs of gunfire everywhere, debris scattered around, and clear marks of slashes on the walls and monitors.
Everywhere I looked, there were red streaks of blood. This was a horrific result of the Ariel Group’s repeated violent invasions.
“Ugh…”
“Get a grip! Breathe! You can survive!”
Even the control room was no longer a safe zone.
The groans of the injured and the frantic shouts of medical personnel echoed in Fegan’s ears.
Fegan carefully touched his left arm, wrapped in bandages. It was the wound left by a terrorist who had just ambushed them.
‘I almost died. No, I’m practically dead already.’
The Violets charged into the control room like a persistent bad spirit.
The Board of Directors was nearly annihilated.
Half of them were already no longer of this world. The majority of those present at the Board were mercilessly killed in the relentless assaults.
Main directors from the research department fell to bullets or were blown to pieces in explosions. Some met horrific ends, with heads and bodies separated.
A chilling thought crossed his mind—those outside were likely facing a similar fate.
Contact with other directors, including the Financial Director, was either severed or news of their bodies being discovered was flooding in.
Thus, only four directors remained.
[Enemy hacking tool, Central Record Storage terminal access. Upload in progress-]
[Block failed. Large amount of data is being transferred from the record storage server.]
With screens shattered and burned, the information barely coming through was signaling the Foundation’s complete downfall.
Every circumstance indicated the Foundation was falling in real-time, like precariously stepping closer to the brink.
The Secretary General suppressed a weighty bitterness and commanded Director 02.
“Director 02, the Board needs to withdraw now. The Convergence Corridor will soon open, so what are you waiting for? Move!”
Wiping the blood streaming from his head, Director 02 slowly turned his head.
“Not yet.”
The Secretary General, clearly fatigued, struggled to continue speaking.
“Can’t you see what’s happening, Quabna? It’s all over. We need to leave the continent. Even the relics have slipped from our grasp. We’ve lost.”
“Losing isn’t important right now, General! Hellman is still engaged in battle. And what about… the staff? Other agents? We can’t leave them behind!”
“It can’t be helped. The corridor is occupied by them too. A communication just came through stating they managed to secure a passage. This is our last chance.”
Director 02 barely held himself up on the desk, a look full of anguish directed at the remaining directors and the Secretary General, who were preparing to leave.
His eyes burned with deep anger.
“I will stay.”
“…Do as you wish.”
As Quabna watched the remaining directors exit the control room, he felt all his strength drain away.
Other staff who had remained rushed to his side to support his slumped form.
“…I will issue the evacuation order. After that, you all need to leave quickly.”
A staff member cautiously asked, “Where to?”
Quabna struggled to respond. “…The lifeboats and remaining aircraft. We need to deploy them to escape as quickly as possible. It’s buying us time.”
His eyes were fixed on the control room monitor, showing a massive monstrous entity glowing a bright yellow in the sky.
This area, where the core technology of the Foundation was condensed, was ablaze due to the fierce battle between the relic battleship and the terrorists.
Before long, even the record storage would fall into their hands.
Everything the Foundation had fought to protect was disappearing like a mirage in an instant.
Yet, people still remained.
“Send a command to cease all combat and ensure our escape. And—”
“Director? Hellman’s control…”
Quabna, issuing commands, noticed something.
The collapsing structures, descending containers. Amidst them, Hellman was rescuing terrorists and staff.
“No way, has the brainwashing lifted?”
For just a moment, a feeling that was unspeakably complicated pierced his heart.
If even that monster was saving lives, what were we doing right now?
“What the hell is going on—”
Before his self-deprecating sigh could finish, a tremendous explosion engulfed the entire control room.
**
Collective intelligence began calculating how to kill the enormous monster over the burning sea.
Though the ships had been shattered and destroyed multiple times, their power was truly terrifying.
With each blow, Violets were swept away like autumn leaves.
“Kyaaaa! It’s exploding!”
-Boom!
Hekatonkheires, what a fitting name indeed.
The hull of the ship, floating at low altitude, was covered in numerous turrets and strange weapons, resembling a monster with multiple heads.
Weapons hanging down poured all kinds of attacks mercilessly.
Laser beams that exploded on contact, gravitational manipulation techniques that suddenly compressed the surrounding gravity.
Even bizarre sound waves.
Each one was uniquely colorful.
“Ugh! It’s so damn strong!”
The Foundation troops had now lost their will to fight and were scattering in all directions as if fleeing.
It seemed a mandatory evacuation order was being sent from the command.
-Fzzzt!
Just then, a red flash shot towards the building housing the control room. With a deafening roar, the building was engulfed in flames and collapsed.
I vaguely remember the heads of the Foundation being inside there.
“Tch! What a waste! We should have handled it ourselves!”
Although it was disappointing, since they had that annoying erosion prevention measure in place, incorporating them into our Violets was impossible.
There’s a saying about car-fueled murder; maybe we should be satisfied with this.
Distracted by various thoughts, we focused all our attacks on that wretched ship.
The reason was clear. If it destroyed everything here, there would be nothing left for us to loot.
“Damn hunk of scrap! Keep your hands off our share!”
Even so, I couldn’t see us sinking it right now.
With a single hit from Enrique’s magic, some surviving Violets managed to take the opportunity and jumped onto the ship under a hail of fire.
Fortunately, since it was flying low, clinging to its hull wasn’t difficult.
As the ship thrashed about to shake us off, whipping its tentacles around, a surprise maneuver came flying in.
“The command center is relaying! We’re striking again!”
As the order was issued, we quickly ducked down or hid behind nearby walls.
Immediately after, a small sun rose. In the blink of an eye, a small sphere of light appeared and vanished abruptly.
Light, followed by flames, and finally a fierce storm.
-Boom!
The already chaotic naval platform was battered by the mighty storm, sweeping everything away.
Blinding flashes of light and bursts of energy filled the air. If there had been a radiation meter, it would have spiked to lethal levels momentarily.
As the storm passed, a little mushroom cloud billowed up.
As the smoke gradually cleared, some armor plating fell away, revealing a scorched relic battleship in a hideous state.
Given that it had endured two back-to-back bombings, the ship’s exterior surprisingly looked intact.
“Violet! We’re going to hit it again!”
Enrique’s voice echoed loud and clear over the radio.
“Alright! Let’s hit it one more time!”
Outside the vertical takeoff ramp, Enrique thrust her staff into the air, channeling magic once more.
A blue orb shot towards the staggering beast.
If we can smash that thing, it’ll be over!
Once again, a sphere filled with destruction flew swiftly towards its target.
-Splat!
In that instant, a strange barrier surrounded the ship.
Enrique’s magic collided with the shield and dissipated harmlessly.
“Huh? What the? My magic!”
After trying again with another magical ball but to no avail, the protective barrier around the relic simply bounced off our attacks.
Our collective intelligence calculated the cause.
“What the hell is that!”
Could it be adapting to our attacks?
“The magic hitting the barrier scatters upon impact! It’s deflecting our magic as a form of counter!”
Seeing it effortlessly ignore our spells and missiles while it seemed to struggle against Enrique’s attack proved this point.
The specifics were unclear, but that was the assumption.
“The enemy is evolving!”
The ship, now adapted to our deadly attacks, began to slowly turn its body.
As it exhaled smoke, parts of the ship opened up, revealing glowing red eyes that gleamed ominously.
The it’s sight appeared fixed on the sky where our attacks had come from. The ports were swiftly turning in that direction.
If this continued, it would definitely shoot us down, but no way.
-Clang!
Two glimmering dark remnants streaked through the light. The scholarship officer siblings leaped through the air, gracefully navigating through the rain of attacks thrown at them.
Following closely, a spear-wielding girl dashed ahead. A surging golden magical aura enveloped the Violet Airborne Squad and the two superhumans.
“Alright! Let’s do this!”
In a stormy world where chaos reigned, the two protagonists of this realm soared up like beams of black light.
The murderous bombardment and the onslaught of all manner of evil. The twisting space and flowing electricity persistently interfered with their path.
Yet, each time they leapt, slashed, and tore apart any obstacles in their way.
At the end of their fierce charge was the enemy ship.
Though the ship swung its tentacles that acted like whips in resistance, it was already too late.
-Kaang!
Flames erupted everywhere on the armored deck.
The two dashed like they were kicking off the air itself, mashing the beast’s body and cables with their weapons as they shot into the ship.
Witnessing this astonishing sight, my face mirrored equal parts horror and admiration along with Enrique and Irene.
“Wow, that’s amazing…”
“I knew their skills were formidable, but to this extent… Are they even human?”
“They probably are!”
Just two individuals, ravaging that enormous ship, still reeking of overwhelming size, even if some parts were torn off, with striking ferocity.
Meanwhile, a white lightning-flavored offense joined the fray. It was the sword wielder.
“Huh? Is that guy trying to intervene?”
No, instead he had silently joined in to vandalize the battleship.
As I stood there dumbfounded, my brain rebooted to reality.
“I can’t just watch anymore!”
I cranked my computing power back up to max.
My head was foggy enough that I couldn’t use my acceleration abilities, but my thought process sped up a little more than usual.
“Gather all the Vision Memories!”
Immediately, I signaled to the scholarship officer siblings. The two vaulted into the air, retreating.
At that moment, the Violet squad rushed in like the wind, unleashing a barrage of Melting Rays at the armor.
Scene after scene as the whips of their light flicked around, those clambering up and down from the sky and behind the armor began tearing it apart.
“Stick on! Tear it apart!”
After the relentless onslaught, the weaponry of the wobbling spaceship below finally disarmed.
Something that had been hidden beneath the armor revealed itself.
Oddly enough, a massive golden sphere of energy, radiating a similar vibe to Ether, pulsed underneath.
The moment I reached there, I put my hand on the sphere. I could feel something—definitely something.
Though distant from humanity, it somehow felt humanoid.
“What is this? Could it be a monster?”
It wasn’t a monster. Yet, there was an entity over there that resonated with our magic.
Throughout the struggle, I desperately attempted to connect with it.
-Crack!
Connected. An incomprehensible something flickered beyond.
An existence reminiscent of an Apostle but entirely different—far removed from human comprehension.
The network bent and swayed unsteadily.
“It’s resisting!”
The shell was coming off chaotically.
In the spiderweb of thoughts, the golden sphere of recognition finally cropped up on the network.
My network captured it like shackles, tightly binding it.
Outside, the battleship seemed to be making one last stand, wildly throwing storms and splattering killing beams around recklessly.
Other ‘me’s fell one after the other, meeting swift defeat.
Yet, I could do this. I must!
“Where is this?”
A bizarre sensation enveloped us like a bubble trapped in the air.
Reality was definitely out there.
The scholarship officer siblings took their crossbow and blew away the last turret, and our Violet squad clung onto the battleship, raging on in a life-or-death struggle.
Like an ant clinging to candy, they kept stabbing and gnawing at it, desperately trying to maintain their connection.
Then suddenly, a girl materialized right before my eyes.
She wore white clothing that could be mistaken for either a ceremonial outfit or a military uniform.
Her long blue hair cascaded down to her waist.
“You! You! This diabolical creature! It’s you! The accursed alien!”
As she cried out upon seeing me, she suddenly froze, gazing at her hands, examining her arms and clothes, and then screamed again.
“What is this! What’s this strange voice! My body! No! Why is it like this!”
I charged at her instead of responding to her screams.
The girl, floundering in the Human Swamp, waved her arms helplessly.
“Ugh! Ahhh! Let me go!”
“I don’t care, just break already, you hunk of junk!”
The girl who struggled in the Violet swamp soon slumped weakly.
At that moment, I was yanked back into reality. The ship’s light was fading away.
Turning my head, I saw the scholarship officer freeing his lance from the armor.
“Violet, no way…”
“Yeah! I did it!”
After answering the scholarship officer, we hurriedly leaped downwards.
The massive relic battleship shuddered, then ceased vibrating.
Then, it began to move slowly once again, returning to the ground it originally occupied. The ship was crashing down.
Tipping over, it landed with a crash onto the platform structures.
-Thud!
A massive shockwave shook the surrounding area for a brief moment. That was that.
Immediately after, good news started pouring in from afar.
“Relay from Command! Connection terminated!”
“Secured and neutralized data from the Central Record Storage!”
The successful conclusion of the noisy diversion operation had been reported.
Just then, all the ‘me’s felt a wave of relief.
Until a harsh and sharp noise came resonating from the wreckage.
-Snap!
Wreckage and remnants were suddenly lifted, and someone emerged.
“Violet. That guy isn’t dead yet.”
At Irene’s warning, we all aimed our weapons in unison.
It was Hellman, the sword user.
His armor was battered and broken, with my earlier inflicted wounds mingling with newer minor injuries, making him appear to be in a sorry state.
Yet, his presence was still menacingly intense.
Even surrounded by thousands of traps, his confidence didn’t falter in the slightest.
“Tch! What a disgusting sight.”
“Why the hell won’t that thing just die?”
However, now it was certain we could finish it off.
There were no reinforcements to aid him, and we had plenty of solid comrades.
‘Me’ in the network began heated discussions about how to deal the final blow to him.
There was no shortage of tools we could use at our disposal.
“Let’s erode it! Even if it’s encumbered with security, it’ll blow its head off, and if not, so what!”
“No! That guy doesn’t deserve our network’s blessing! Death penalty now!”
Before the discussion could wrap up, he suddenly spoke out.
“…Who are you?”
**
The first memory etched into his mind was war.
Screams erupting from all directions, chaotic disorder, constant explosions.
He was undoubtedly battling monsters at the forefront.
Fragments of his memory shifted constantly and varied wildly.
From trenches, deserts, cities, jungles to snowy fields; the scenes shuffled non-stop.
Like someone just waking from a deep sleep, the sword user’s mind was thoroughly muddled.
Then suddenly, the scenery before him morphed again. Groups of dark shapes resembling humans.
It was so difficult to ascertain that they were indeed human.
Only now did the memories resurface.
He recalled a clash that had once taken place in an incredibly convoluted interior resembling a cave.
Indeed, they reminded him of those grotesquely arrogant demons from another realm.
The unique magic emanating from them still lingered all over his body, proving the ominous aura.
“…Are you really human?”
At his question, two notably taller figures stepped forward from among the small soldiers.
They looked ready to pounce, lifelines taut like a bowstring.
Just before crashing together, a small soldier whispered something in their ears.
And then, one of the identical small soldiers with the same features stepped forward and replied.
“We are human!”
“How can a being with such dreadful power claim to be human? That sounds more like something those demons from another realm would use.”
Violet boldly retorted.
“I don’t know either. I’m not sure if I’m really human. Anyway, I’ll just think of myself as one.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the little soldier shot back again.
“Then who are you? Are you human?”
“…”
At that question, the sword user remained silent.
Another fragment of memory shot through his mind like lightning.
The coldness of sharp blades ripping through him.
A cold room filled with white-tiled walls, unwelcoming.
Cold drugs ruthlessly digging into his arms, the chill of lights above him on the operating table.
And fragments of alien information, echoing through history with a flood of hypnotic suggestions.
Because of the extreme pain and injuries, the brainwashing that had bound him began to loosen gradually.
The strength and mental willpower of the war hero awoke him brutally and vividly to the reality he faced.
Who he ‘really’ was, and where exactly he was.
It was becoming clear.
“…What you say might be true.”
That statement could indeed be right. He might no longer be human.
For he should have fallen in battle on that battlefield, merging with the earth long ago.
Turning into ash and dust, leaving not even a trace behind was the proper ending.
Now, an alien tossed far into the future, existing in this moment.
A lost child of time.
How could he be classified as a being of this era?
As that thought sank in, a wave of indescribable sadness washed over Hellman’s mind, catching him off guard.
He firmly believed himself to be ‘that’, yet reason shouted at him, insisting he was a fake, merely a puppet created.
For some unknown reason, cast into this distant future as a marionette only.
The feelings of self-hatred and detachment slowly devoured his soul like a swamp.
However, there remained something keeping him afloat, that fraction of ‘real’ emotion.
If he had lost that too, he might have given up on life long ago.
That something made him who he was, urging him to fight against the grim reality approaching.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“…?”
Hellman realized.
The enemy before him was, after a century, a truly captivatingly intense foe.
Fearsome adaptability, evolving in battle.
A reckless appearance as if completely devoid of fear and a mind for pain.
And an odd power similar to that of an Apostle.
His heart raced vigorously.
A worthy opponent, one that sparked challenger’s instincts.
Whether he was human or not? In this strange world where friends, comrades, and family had all vanished, such notions no longer mattered.
First and foremost, he was a soldier, a warrior.
The boiling instincts for strife melted every ounce of lament away like a furnace.
He hurled away his dented and shook-up helmet into the distance.
Amidst the swaying flames, his face, shrouded until now under the veil, began slowly to be revealed.
A middle-aged man’s face, notably classical, with impressive facial hair.
“What’s this?”
Violet tilted her head, feeling a bizarre sense of familiarity.
Then, she was startled by her friends’ reactions beside her.
Both Irene and the scholarship officer siblings’ expressions shifted from curiosity to astonishment, overwhelmed with shock and confusion.
“Scholarship officer. Is that the face that’s in our textbooks or statues?”
“Irene, what you just said is likely correct.”
Violet asked in an utterly bewildered expression.
“So, who exactly is that?”
The answer could surprisingly be heard from the opponent.
Hellman slowly stepped forward and tossed his gauntlet at Violet’s feet.
This was an unmistakable declaration of duel.
“Child wielding powers from another realm, it matters not who I am. After all, I possess a body that can’t possibly exist in this world.”
“What?”
The sword user calmly acknowledged.
The enemy surrounded them tightly, leaving no avenue for escape. His state of injuries was no longer a joke.
This place was literally a death trap.
However, penetrating that deadlock was his strength and skill.
Countless monstrous claws and teeth surging at him, bizarre phenomena of the Erosion Zone and Dungeon, and that vile magic of Aedos which twisted time and space, he had always broken through, slashed, and ultimately survived.
Until he gave up, no one could kill him.
“Yet if you truly wish to know, I will answer you.”
In fact, beyond trivial reasons, no longer did he need to pretend.
The being right before him was the first and last target he could seek truth from as a puppet once more granted life.
Hellman drew the spare sword hidden in his back and aimed it fiercely at the enemies.
The cutlass glinted red and yellow from the flames.
The general took a deep breath.
“My name is Emmanuel Ryx.”
He knew. He was not the true ‘that person.’
He was well aware of it.
Even if he was to be true ‘that’, he was merely a shadow crafted of malice, a puppet that couldn’t possibly exist in this era.
Yet the supreme being proclaimed loudly.
“I am a soldier sworn to the imperial realm of the Parmian Union and its people. I am the commander leading the Third Superhuman Division of the International Union, and the foremost hunter who swore to fight for humanity! Now, tell me what you are as you stand against me, the wielder of powers from another realm. Reveal your identity!”
No more doubts lingered. He had sacrificed everything throughout his lifetime for the world.
He had run non-stop until he fell down, exhausted.
Now, awakened at this precise moment, at this singular opportunity.
Let me dance freely, for the first and last time by my will.
Enthralled by a bizarre heat, Violet brandished her Zweihänder without a moment’s delay, shouting loudly.
“I am Violet!”
The scholarship officer siblings, about to interject, sensed the unusual fervor in Violet and quietly stepped back.
Irene also withdrew a distance behind Violet.
On top of the badly burned wreckage, a circular arena surrounded by humans unfolded.
A tense atmosphere stretched between the two as taut as a rope.
As silence shattered, the signal for commencement was shot forth.
-Boom!
The two shadows, black and white, charged like steeds off the ground.
Immediately after, numerous blade clashes drew brilliant arcs in the air, shimmering like a planet’s rings.
-Screech!
The past collided head-on with the present.
The greatest modern martial artist clashed against humanity’s youthful Apostle.