Chapter 218. Narsha Haram (5)
Dalgil’s loud shout rang in the area. However, nothing happened. The sky was calm, and the surroundings remained the same. What would Dalgil’s reaction be if the silence continued? Would he be embarrassed? Chi-Woo suddenly became curious.
However, Dalgil’s gaze remained fixated on the sky and didn’t move an inch. At that moment, a glimmer of light came from the edge of the field. It was very faint and kept flickering. However, as the flickering became more and more frequent, its brightness also increased. Soon after, all the expedition members had to narrow their eyes or use their hands as shields. Before they realized it, the light quickly grew in intensity and stopped flickering until it was like the sun.
“The token…!” Bogle shouted in a startled voice.
Chi-Woo hurriedly turned to the altar and widened his eyes. The surging dazzling light almost obscured the token completely as it slowly rose, and it suddenly burst and shot light in all directions. Their visions went blank for a moment. It was so intense that they became blind for a few seconds. After a while, everyone opened their tightly shut eyes, and they all looked puzzled. Nothing had changed in their surroundings.
“Uh—” But Bogle stumbled a little, and the ground suddenly began to shake. A violent vibration passed from the ground to the soles of their feet. Before someone could ask what was going on, the ground suddenly turned upside down from hundreds of meters away, and the same phenomenon occurred in more than one place.
Boom, boom, boom! The earth exploded one after another from the left, right, front, and back, and things that looked like giant caterpillars sprang up at the same time. They were the anguses that they saw a while ago.
Bang! An unusually loud explosion soon followed.
—Kiyaaaaaaaaaaaah!
A monster several times larger than an angus burst out of the ground and howled like a fierce beast. It had bright, yellow eyes, and it looked more like a snake than a caterpillar. It reminded Chi-Woo of a legendary basilisk.
“Botis…!” Dalgil gasped as he saw the basilisk.
“No way! He’s already here? This fast?” Bogle also screamed.
Chi-Woo roughly grasped the situation. Botis, the 17th great demon, had personally emerged with his army. They had no idea what had happened. It was a little strange. Even if there had been another group of anguses as Dalgil said, it would have taken them a long time to go back and report the situation. No matter how fast the snake was, it was strange for Botis to arrive in just two days. However, their opponent was not an ordinary snake, but a great demon. Above all, what was most important now was not what led up to this situation. The expedition members looked left and right with flustered expressions and gathered together with their backs together.
It was an understatement to say that the situation was not good. There were more than a couple thousand enemies. The sight of Botis rushing from the vanguard with thousands of legions was truly a terrifying sight to behold. The expedition members were quiet. Nobody said a word, so everyone’s rough breathing could be clearly heard.
“Ruahu…senior…” Ru Hiana spoke with a trembling voice. Chi-Woo could feel her shaking with his back against hers. He sneaked a glance at Philip, wondering if Philip had a way to overcome this sudden and unexpected situation. There was no one who was more of an expert in dealing with great demons than him.
—It’s been fun, kid.
Chi-Woo was dumbfounded by Philip’s calm statement. ‘Come on, why are you saying your goodbyes already?’
—Then what can I do? There are at least 10,000 opponents, but there’s only seven of you. What do you expect when the situation is like this?
Philip said flatly.
—It’s hard to reverse a situation like this unless an existence completely out of normal standards joins in. No matter how strong and brave Dalgil is to face 10,000 enemies alone, they have Botis on the other side.
Philip yawned until his mouth drooped, and he smacked his lips.
—Well, but don’t surrender or anything. Since the situation is like this, fighting to the end and dying is also a good—
‘Then what about a way to live?’
—What?
‘Not a way to victory, but survival.’
The indifferent look on Philip’s face slowly changed a little. Even when facing an intense crisis that seemed impossible to survive, Chi-Woo wasn’t flustered, and instead calmly tried to think of a way to live.
‘This punk.’ Philip grinned and spoke with a serious expression.
—Unlike the monospecies humankind, the Demon Empire is made up of great demons and demonic creatures. You may consider these two groups as having the same roots, but from different branches; great demons are demonic creatures that grew in strength by absorbing energy and evolving. That raises the question—if this is the case, what are the legions commanded by great demons?
Philip continued very quickly.
—Should we consider them great demons, or demonic creatures?
Chi-Woo tilted his head. He had never thought about this, and it was quite a complicated question to answer.
—The answer is great demons.
Chi-Woo, who was thinking that they might be demonic creatures, slightly gaped.
—Since each of the soldiers in a great demon’s legion are not born but created by their master, we can consider them to be part of the great demon. Killing a demon’s legion thus diminishes their power by the same margin. What about the reverse then?
Chi-Woo finally knew what Philip was trying to say.
—What about it? Can you see a path out now?
Philip grinned.
—Of course, extinguishing a great demon doesn’t mean that their legion will suddenly disappear. However, it’s structured in a way that the whole army will be severely damaged should its master disappear. The stronger the solidarity and ties between the great demon and their legion, the more likely you can expect the legion to self-destruct.
How do you shut down a huge, complicated device that was interconnected in one shot? The answer was simple—all one had to do was break the core of the device.
“Captain!” Chi-Woo shouted, “I suggest rushing towards Botis!”
Dalgil looked back. The Cassiubia League had fought numerous wars with the Demon Empire. Dalgil was a brave and experienced warrior who always fought at the forefront against the Demon Empire, and as a warrior who faced the legions of great demons several times, he instantly caught the intention behind Chi-Woo’s words. He didn’t even have the time to ask if Chi-Woo was confident in winning; their enemy was only a couple feet away.
“We’re moving forward!” Knowing it was the only option, Dalgil grabbed his club and hit the ground with all his might. The other expedition members followed his brave example.
—Remember, you need to do it properly.
Philip’s words were carried by the wind. Chi-Woo felt fearful as he saw the angus army rushing towards them like water, but he endured it and increased his exorcism mana. Chi-Woo tightly clutched his ghost-busting club and infused all of his exorcism mana into it. Since Chi-Woo and Botis were both rushing towards each other, their eyes met. Chi-Woo soared high and fell in a long parabolic trajectory. He didn’t do anything special; just like how he’d practiced thousands of times, he pulled back the club as soon as its tip touched Botis’ forehead. Then—
‘Ah?’ There wasn’t a sound of impact; he couldn’t even feel anything hitting the club and instead felt like he had hit only air. ‘No way?’ Did he improperly carry out the snapping technique? Chi-Woo hurriedly turned back as soon as he landed on the ground. Then his expression went blank. Botis wasn’t moving; he was paralyzed as if under a spell—no, the entire army was paralyzed.
Chi-Woo hadn’t been mistaken. Dalgil and all the other expedition members, who had been preparing for a fight, stopped in confusion. Even the space seemed flustered as the air began fluctuating.
“What—” When someone opened their mouth—
Shaaaaaaa— Botis and his legions began to disappear from head to toe like a handful of ash flying in the wind.
‘What is it?’ This was different from what Philip said. He said that it was very rare for a legion to disappear immediately after extinguishing its great demon. But…
—Now I understand.
Chi-Woo suddenly heard a voice.
—Why La Bella, who vowed to never get involved in human affairs, changed her mind.
The voice sounded thin and mysterious, and it was hard to tell if the speaker was female or male.
—But this is going too far. Even though it’s a ‘clone’ that cannot produce even one-sixth of the great demon’s original power, it still is a great demon. I didn’t think you could make a blow that would extinguish it in one shot…
Startled, Chi-Woo turned left and right. However, the speaker was nowhere to be seen; he only heard the voice.
—At this rate, the test that I prepared for my child won’t be fully established.
Chi-Woo’s eyes narrowed.
‘The test that you prepared for your child?’
—Originally, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but… It can’t be helped. For this test, your existence is basically a cheat. Thus, I’ll change the test even though I don’t want to.
With these last words, Mamiya’s voice disappeared. Chi-Woo, who had been blinking with a blank face, suddenly felt the light shining again. Botis and his legion disappeared and gathered to become Mamiya’s token. It shone again and grew in size in a flash. At first, it expanded widely into a round shape to the size of a stadium; then it began to grow like a tree. When the expedition members finally came to their senses, a tower emitting a dazzling light appeared in front of them, seemingly piercing the sky.
Dalgil looked up at the tower with a bewildered face and suddenly flinched. “What, what!?” It seemed as if someone was telling him something. “I-Is that really true!?” He opened his eyes wide and gaped. “Na…” He exclaimed in a tone of disbelief. “Narsha…! Narsha Haram!”
“W-what-!?” Bogle also gasped. “That is Narsha Haram? Are you sure?”
“Yeah! This tower is the legendary Narsha Haram!”
“H-how do you know that, Captain? Have you ever seen Narsha Haram?”
“God Mamiya just told me!” Dalgil shouted with a very excited tone.
“Does that mean you’ve received another oracle?”
“Yeah! God Mamiya has directly spoken to me to search the first floor of Narsha Haram to find a token!”
Bogle covered his mouth with both hands. If Dalgil’s words were true, this was truly an astounding event.
“God Mamiya! Thank you! I’ll make sure you won’t regret choosing me!” Dalgil spoke enthusiastically and rolled his arms. “We can’t stand still. All march in formation. We’re going to immediately head inside!”
“Calm down, Captain! Wait, wait a minute!” Bogle hurriedly stopped Daligil, who was heading to the door. “If what you said is true—!”
“Are you doubting me?”
“No, that’s not it!” Bogle fervently denied it. “I’m just saying it’d be better if you calm down a little! If this tower is really Narsha Haram, we don’t know what’s inside!” He quickly glanced around and continued, “And even if it’s for a short while, can’t we take a break? We’ve been getting pretty tired while staying guard, and my legs are shaking because of what just happened and…”
“For such measly reasons—”
“Airi’s condition is bad.”
Dalgil immediately stopped talking.
Bogle continued, “She hasn’t been talking for a while, so I checked up on her… Her whole body is hot. Her fever is extremely serious.”
Dalgil moved his gaze towards Airi. As Bogle said, Airi was lying in Ru Hiana’s arms as if she was dead, and it seemed difficult for her to even breathe. Her sky-blue fur looked almost red.
“I would also like to take a break before going in, if only for a little while.” Chi-Woo, who had been quietly watching the situation, supported Bogle. “I used up too much energy at once, and I need time to replenish.”
Dalgil wasn’t innately bad, but simply got too heated in the moment. After seeing Airi’s condition and hearing Chi-Woo, Dalgil realized his hastiness and nodded. “Come to think of it…yeah. You’re right. I’m sorry for getting carried away. Let’s rest here. Bogle, you take care of Airi.” Then he told Chi-Woo, “And once you’re ready, please tell me.”
The way Dalgil talked to Chi-Woo slightly changed. Dalgil knew that the sudden appearance of Botis had been part of Mamiya’s test, but even then, he was extremely impressed by Chi-Woo’s ability to extinguish their enemies with one blow. He judged that the rumor about Chi-Woo beating Vepar was the truth. Chi-Woo winked at Bogle, and Bogle, who was very worried, looked extremely grateful toward him.