Chapter 83 – Welcome (2)

The octopus monster approached while destroying roadside trees and low buildings with its tentacles, and the skeleton floating in front of it.

The scene we saw after dropping off Seo Eun and her husband midway and rushing to the northern edge of the safe zone wasn’t much different from before.

The only difference would be that the octopus monster had arrived right in front of the floating skeleton.

Of course, that meant the same as saying the octopus monster had arrived near the safe zone.

Climbing to the rooftop of the northernmost building, we could properly feel its size seeing the octopus monster up close.

Though it had destroyed buildings dozens of stories tall when first seen, the monster’s body alone looked bigger than a 10-story building, and its more than ten tentacles looked several times longer.

It looked like a giant monster from a Japanese monster movie had appeared in reality.

We weren’t the only ones surprised by its size.

Yerim asked us with a pale expression.

“Do monsters like that just roam around in your world? How do you live in such a scary place?”

We had told Yerim stories about our world whenever we had the chance.

One continent. A massive empire and small kingdoms.

Stories of humans who had fought magical beasts even before fighting the magical beasts and undead that occupied areas larger than where humans lived.

We had told Yerim that there were magical beasts as large as that octopus monster among magical beasts.

Yerim seemed to have taken our stories quite seriously.

She seemed to think giant magical beasts roamed the continent freely.

Hoffman shook his head at Yerim’s words.

“There are magical beasts that big, but they don’t just roam around freely. Even I who ran around the Northern Mountains like home had never seen a magical beast of that size before.”

The Demon King’s army made of undead was mostly composed of quantity-based units.

Ordinary(?) giant magical beasts could only be seen in deep valleys of the Northern Mountains or in the forbidden eastern seas.

“What about Sir Knight?”

“This is my first time seeing one up close too. Unless you’re in a kingdom’s knight order, free knights rarely see magical beasts of that size.”

Before fighting the Demon King’s army, I had seen a giant magical beast exactly once during my life as a free knight.

4 years ago, for unknown reasons, one giant magical beast from deep in the Northern Mountains had come down and turned southern territories into wasteland.

The kingdom the territory belonged to was thrown into chaos, troops from surrounding territories gathered, and the kingdom’s knight order mobilized to catch the magical beast.

I, who happened to be active as a free knight nearby, had also headed to the territory where the magical beast was causing havoc to support the kingdom’s army.

But arriving at the territory, I couldn’t charge at the giant magical beast.

I, who had only recently become a free knight, was scared seeing the scene of fighting the giant magical beast.

The sight of over a thousand soldiers and nearly a hundred knights charging at the giant magical beast was truly spectacular.

But what I saw moments later was the sight of soldiers and knights flying in all directions after being hit by the giant magical beast.

Seeing such scenes, I couldn’t dare think of charging in.

The pressure from the giant magical beast I saw then didn’t seem much different from the pressure of the approaching octopus monster.

Its destructive power probably wouldn’t be much different either.

Being undead, it would be even tougher.

However, despite feeling such pressure, I wasn’t scared like back then.

Because I had experienced even greater pressure many times through countless battles since then.

Having seen the Demon King directly, this level of pressure from a giant monster…

‘Plus, my skills have improved since then too.’

Though the giant monster had only felt vaguely scary then, I could somewhat gauge the power of the octopus monster before me now.

Of course, it was still ridiculously strong, but now I felt like I could at least save myself.

While thinking that, Zahina’s words were heard.

Yerim seemed to have asked Zahina too.

“That monster is big, but the Mother Trees are much bigger than that monster.”

Yerim sighed at Zahina’s answer.

“No, I’m not comparing with trees, I’m asking if there are monsters or beasts that big in sister’s world too.”

“That’s why I’m talking about the Mother Trees. Not all Mother Trees are good or on our side.”

Could it be that the trees in the elf world were moving trees?

The image of giant tree monsters walking while swaying their branches came to mind, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask Zahina about it.

Now wasn’t the time to ask about that either.

While we watched, the floating skeleton was moving its arms enthusiastically toward the octopus monster.

Following the arm movements, black energy, death energy, poured from the skeleton’s body creating black patterns in the sky above the octopus monster.

It was a giant magic circle spread with death mana, death energy.

When the black magic circle appeared, the octopus monster stopped moving.

And the lich’s words were heard. It wasn’t sound being heard.

Similar to how Zahina spoke, it was a kind of mental wave resonating inside our heads.

“You undead, do you know! All who belong to death are the Demon King’s limbs.”

It had been a while since hearing the lich’s words.

Perhaps because it wasn’t making sound, the voice resonating in our heads hadn’t changed at all from when last heard.

The lich’s voice wasn’t coming only to me.

Seeing the party members frowning, they must have been hearing the same voice as me.

Not just the party members.

Seeing the surrounding mana rippling, it seemed the voice had spread throughout the entire area.

Not just the undead and octopus monster outside the safe zone, but surely everyone inside the safe zone had heard it too.

Plus, being mental waves needing no translation, everyone would have understood what was said sufficiently.

“Since it’s not an attack, holy power can’t block telepathy.”

That was why we heard the voice even inside the safe zone.

Moving mana to wrap around our heads would block the lich’s telepathy magic, but that didn’t seem necessary.

Anyway, the lich hadn’t used mental wave magic to speak to us.

The voice we were hearing now was just the aftermath of magic the lich had used on the octopus monster.

“Undead born in death’s waters, you too belong to death, you too are merely a subject of our Demon King, the King of Death.”

The lich’s words continued. Simultaneously, death energy poured from the black magic circle and flowed into the octopus.

Even from here, we could tell what the lich was doing.

The lich planned to control that octopus monster.

“Though it won’t work, we can’t just watch like this, right?”

Zahina raised her gun at my words.

The gun she held now wasn’t the K2 rifle she usually carried.

The gun she now shouldered was a K3 light machine gun that looked too big and heavy for her to carry.

The K3 light machine gun was a machine gun I had temporarily given her after her gunfire was blocked by the lich’s mana barrier.

It was a machine gun used by the soldier who had guarded the armory, with its damaged barrel replaced with a spare barrel.

Though there were only grenade launcher rounds, this machine gun was the most powerful gun I had.

Honestly I didn’t want to give it to her, but there wasn’t time to find another gun right now.

Standing, Zahina shouldered the heavy machine gun and pulled the trigger.

Ratatatata.

As flames burst from the muzzle, the ammunition belt hanging to the floor shortened.

Simultaneously, sparks flew around the floating lich.

Bullets were ricocheting off the mana barrier.

“Of course, it wouldn’t just show itself normally.”

Though expected, I could only click my tongue seeing that sight.

Zahina had shown incredible skill imbuing mana into each rapidly fired machine gun bullet, but to block them all.

Though fully expected seeing the cowardly lich reveal itself, it was still frustrating.

“…You born in death’s waters, follow my words according to the Demon King’s will.”

Zahina’s best attack only made the lich pause briefly in its speech.

Plus, Zahina couldn’t even fire until the ammunition belt ran out.

Because the rounds had jammed midway through firing.

I clicked my tongue again.

This is why I didn’t want to give it to her.

Though I’d heard it wasn’t a problem with the K3 itself, looking at it, it wasn’t different from the rumors.

Zahina raised her eyebrows looking at the jammed machine gun, but I waved my hand to stop her from firing more.

There was no need to fire more anyway.

“Listen to my words! Stop! You’re dead too, so you must listen to me!”

Whether the magic failed because concentration was broken by the bullet shower, or whether the lich’s magic simply didn’t work on that beast to begin with,

Either way, the octopus monster ignored the lich’s magic and kept moving.

The octopus monster was coming straight toward the safe zone, toward me.

Boom boom.

As the octopus monster tried to collide, the lich hurriedly moved aside.

The panicking lich was quite funny, but we couldn’t laugh.

Because the octopus monster’s tentacles that had been approaching with huge strides stretched toward us.

Though there was still distance between us due to the forest in between, the extended tentacles hit the safe zone boundary.

Whoosh.

The moment they hit the boundary, the tentacles burst into flames.

The black tentacles burned in holy power.

Screech!

Though it had no mouth, a deafening huge scream was heard from the magical beast.

Then the burning tentacles hastily withdrew.

The tentacles pulled out of the safe zone in an instant.

The tentacles continued burning even after leaving the safe zone.

The magical beast thrashed its tentacles wildly.

Bang! Boom! Boom!

The ground shook and buildings crumbled.

The undead surrounding the safe zone flew in all directions.

The lich floating beside the magical beast fled frantically.

Even amid this chaos, the tentacles didn’t enter the safe zone. Because it knew they would burn again.

After causing havoc for a while, finally the holy power flames on the tentacles went out.

The octopus monster dangled its blackened tentacles and glared at the safe zone. Yerim, who had been watching the monster’s rampage with a tense face, sighed in relief.

“Thank goodness. Looks like this magical beast can’t enter the sanctuary either.”

Hearing her words, I recalled text I’d seen in my previous life.

What Yerim just said was like saying “We got him” – words that shouldn’t be used at times like this, not much different from the ultimate resurrection spell.

“I wish this wouldn’t go as expected…”

But the octopus monster enveloped its entire body in death energy and wrapped its tentacles in that energy.

It had coated its tentacles in black death energy.

Then the octopus monster swung its tentacles again.

This time it swung its tentacles toward the safe zone, toward us.

Boom!

This time the tentacles didn’t even enter the safe zone.

The tentacles struck the empty air as if the safe zone boundary was a wall.

Though it appeared to strike empty air, shockwaves spread in all directions with a tremendous sound.

Trees swayed and we nearly flew away in the wind.

And the safe zone’s holy power rippled.

Like when the Apostle was injured yesterday, the safe zone began to shake.

Seeing this sight, the octopus monster swung its tentacles again.

Boom!

As the roar spread and the tentacles struck, the safe zone crumbled bit by bit.