Chapter 143: Invaders (3)
“Uh, how…”
The woman who had fallen to the ground, holding the child’s hand, trembled at the sight of the corpse of the goblin-like legionnaire who had charged at her with a drawn knife.
“Is that important right now? Get up! And run!”
The one who had exploded the legionnaire’s head was an ordinary man reaching out with trembling hands.
The woman’s eyes flickered in disbelief that the blue flames erupting from his hands had killed the monster, but there was no time to argue over trivial matters now.
“Go! Run!”
[More of them are coming]
He shouted to evacuate those who were frozen in fear. At the same time, a voice ringing in his head informed him of the positions of enemies that he had yet to grasp.
“Damn…”
He took in the horrific scene of the city, now a hellscape, with a devastated look.
An unexpected invasion from monsters he had never seen before. And slaughter.
Terrible beasts pouring out from the bio-pods and the enormous spaceship that had crashed to the ground trampled and killed the visible humans indiscriminately.
[As always, the Player respected your choice. So think carefully.]
“I know. You tell the others to avoid danger. I’ll fight.”
He gritted his teeth. The choice to fight was his own, and the Player, who always cared for them, had withdrawn the plan to conceal their identity and allowed his choice.
He felt no regret. Although he had been avoiding fights with other units and hiding, he could not just stand by and watch the people of his homeland die in a situation like this.
‘Fairy of this world. Grant me strength.’
He charged at the four-legged beast with black armor the size of a tiger that was running towards him. The Player, who had only seen him once through the transmission device, had introduced herself as a fairy of water and ice, a woman of celestial beauty.
The power she had given wrapped around his body, and the blue flames engulfing him turned into sparkling ice that shot forward.
The beast that had charged with bared fangs was pierced in the skull by the ice spear lodged in its mouth.
But he had to unleash his power without a moment of rest, as he now faced the monsters swarming from all directions.
“Don’t think we’ll go down easily, you crazy monsters!”
He resisted desperately, throwing ice barriers around him, capable of holding up against medium-sized legionnaires to some extent.
But when a massive earth dragon, breaking through the ice wall with its head, opened its mouth wide, he once again stood in its way with all his might.
[So far, only one unit has been identified. It seems that the others have decided to hide.]
‘It seems similar to magic, but it doesn’t seem like magic. Rather, it resembles the spirit techniques used by the orcs of the demonic realm.’
Eve, observing the chaos created on the ground, analyzed the data she had acquired after seeing the remains of the unit trampled by the recently generated giant earth dragon.
‘Let’s recover it for now.’
Not stopping there, she ordered her small legionnaires to move and reclaim the corpse to the spaceship. She intended to dissect it, looking for any potential clues.
[So, did you find any shortcomings?]
‘I’m not sure. But there are definitely some weaknesses.’
Eve glanced at Shin Woo, who was fighting nearby with her avatar. He was too busy to concern himself with this.
‘In the end, even if this is a massacre, it’s merely a part of this vast world. I want to deal a more significant blow.’
[If you try to take over this place, it should be possible.]
‘But right now we are outnumbered compared to their total strength.’
Eve sought to address the shortcomings through this battle. Although it turned into a one-sided slaughter due to the enemy’s complacency, she was still managing real troops, executing operations, and identifying areas that needed improvement.
‘However, in my current data, there are no powerful races capable of efficiently striking the planet itself.’
Eve licked her lips. The site of the legion’s raid was a hell on earth, but still, it was merely part of this vast world.
Eve, wanting a more significant shock to rattle and topple her enemies, found the answer sheet she was seeking to cheat from, but unfortunately, it turned out to be a problem without answers.
‘For now, we’ll have to proceed as we are.’
Of course, that was just Eve’s perspective. The ones facing the legionnaires for the first time were experiencing a life-threatening crisis like never before.
While aerial support that could assist on-site was completely blocked by Reina in the atmosphere and the fort in space, the tanks that they had managed to pull over were utterly useless when the large and massive legionnaires charged in and overturned them.
Explosions were erupting everywhere, screams were incessant, and the legionnaires were savagely tasting the pleasure of slaughter with their teeth and claws.
With Eve able to sense all of this, she had no hint of hesitation in moving the legionnaires. Because, for her, this was a war driven by sheer necessity.
The purpose was to strike a significant blow to the central planet of the rebel alliance, Remun, buying time to stabilize her forces.
Thorough calculations and efficiency. That was all that mattered to Eve, and the lives of the countless humans perishing were just part of that equation.
[Yet, what were you looking for in his reaction?]
‘Shut up. It’s nothing. And I have the justification. From the history and knowledge I’ve acquired on Earth, I know I’m justified. Humans would do the same if they were in my situation.’
[If that’s how you think.]
At that moment, the observer did not press Eve for more words.
Even with hidden intentions, she was becoming a hero fighting to protect people on Earth, while on an entirely different planet, she was the hive mind of a monster legion slaughtering countless beings.
This double life was surely creating subtle gaps in Eve’s growing self.
“The enemy’s forces are steadily increasing. We’re facing about 340 missiles per minute. Approximately 200 UAVs… I can’t support this any longer with my computation power and firepower. Our ground forces are taking damage.”
While the massacre continued solely to create chaos.
Thanks to Reina, who was casting multiple spells simultaneously using computation power borrowed from the collective consciousness of the ships, the sky could still remain under the control of their legion.
But as the enemy’s concentrated fire intensified, Reina began to falter in the battle for air supremacy. To begin with, Eve hadn’t brought many aerial units for this surprise attack.
Moreover, reinforcements arriving continuously from space were pushing Eve back, and the fort began to take hits.
‘I should begin to withdraw soon. What a pity. If I had more time, I could have infiltrated this planet and taken all the coordinates of the key facilities.’
Eve clicked her tongue in frustration, preparing to withdraw her forces. In fact, she could have devised a more perfect plan.
If, amid the chaos created by the surprise attack, her infiltrated troops remembered the coordinates of the key facilities and then opened gates to wipe them all out, it would have been possible to temporarily shut down the entire planet.
It was simply a matter of not being able to do so due to a lack of time, and if another battle broke out, Eve was confident she would never lose.
‘Withdraw.’
Eve commanded her forces to pull back. During the withdrawal, she also recovered as many of her ally’s corpses as possible. This was to ensure minimal information was given to the enemy.
“What the hell! The enemy’s mobile fortress is descending in altitude!”
“What, what? This is insane! Stop it at once! If they crash that down…”
And that means of withdrawal was enough to make those fighting to drop the fortress widen their eyes in astonishment.
The invading fortress, surrounded and bombarded by fleets, began to descend rapidly toward the atmosphere along with other soldiers.
“If that massive thing hits the ground, one continent, no perhaps the entire surface…”
“Inform the ground. Activate the seismic wave dampening device even at the cost of casualties!”
The fleet commanders urgently pursued, but it was too late.
Entering the atmosphere, the fortress was using gravity and its own propulsion to enter the planet while blocking heat through its barrier.
‘I will warp immediately.’
However, Eve’s objective was not to induce an asteroid collision with the precious invading fortress.
As the fortress in the atmosphere approached, all the legionnaires scattered across the ground converged there.
At the moment the fortress was about to crash, the internal warp device activated. The range extended to the area covered by the fortress’s barrier.
Simultaneously, as the fortress’s barrier thinned, it expanded in size, growing large enough to envelop all the legionnaires.
‘Warp in.’
And they warped just like that.
On the map, it looked like someone had deliberately drilled a hole, revealing the bare earth where a once-prosperous city had been.
“Those insane bastards warped from the ground…”
One of the pursuing captains murmured in disbelief as he witnessed the shockwave generated from the large-scale warp pulverizing the nearby cities.
