Chapter 78: Invasion and Erosion (7)
‘Is there a problem?’
“Yeah. There is.”
Kang Do-yeon, with her mask removed, nodded with a grim expression.
This place was the Legion’s nest, situated in a destroyed village.
It served as a base of sorts, focused solely on digestion and decomposition, excluding absorption and analysis functions.
These base camps were crucial, as they decomposed the organisms fed to them into nutrients and supplied them to the Legionnaires.
“Why did you give me a stop order? You definitely told me to go fight!”
‘That’s right. But the situation has changed.’
“Situation?”
Kang Do-yeon, who was protesting, flinched in surprise.
‘It seemed he didn’t want you to fight.’
The Legion lifted the control of information, informing her about the events that had just unfolded.
Kang Do-yeon’s face shifted dramatically.
“Eve.”
‘You understand what that means.’
She murmured in a daze, frowning at the throbbing pain in her head. It was not the Legion but Shin Woo’s will that excluded her from the battle. The Legion had simply accepted that wish and complied.
In fact, the Legion was not pleased about removing her from the front lines.
‘Honestly, I can’t understand it. If you’re worried about getting hurt due to your weakness, then you should fight to get stronger instead of just hiding and fleeing. Running away means you’ll just be fleeing forever. But if that’s what he wants… I’ll comply.’
“Then what about my absence? There’s no being stronger than me.”
“We can create one.”
“..!”
Kang Do-yeon raised her head. The voice came from the trunk of the Sacred Tree used to create this base camp.
The Sacred Tree began to twist. It poured all the energy stored in this base into the cells, causing rapid mitosis to promote rapid growth.
In reality, such a production method was inefficient, akin to pouring water into a bottomless pit, but given the abundant food supply, it could be tolerated.
Soon, a human shape began to emerge from the tree trunk. A female body, with long black hair and embedded power engines.
“I will fight directly from now on. Managing the command entity will place a heavier burden on the Collective Consciousness, but it can’t be helped.”
Eve, who had created her physical body in an instant, broke off the now-dry Sacred Tree and landed, coldly murmuring at Kang Do-yeon.
“Ah…”
It was true that she was afraid and disgusted by the fight. It was also true that she felt repulsion towards the act of killing humans that looked just like her, regardless of whether they were from another world.
However, now that she was being excluded like this, Kang Do-yeon felt a pang in her heart for some reason.
“That’s strange. Why do I have these feelings?”
“…I don’t want to fall behind.”
Eve, being the Legion itself, instantly recognized the emotion of Kang Do-yeon, which was akin to a part of her being.
Knowing that, she did not hide her true feelings.
“You’re afraid and hesitant right now. But apart from that, you harbor a will and desire.”
“That’s right.”
“It’s contradictory. Human emotions, especially pureblood ones, are inefficient and worthless. They are complicated and audacious, leading to self-sabotage quite often.”
Eve leaned in, bringing her masked face close.
However, Kang Do-yeon did not avert her gaze.
“What you said is true. But I want to help my brother. I have wanted that since ten years ago. I don’t want to be powerless anymore. I want to grow strong and protect what’s precious to me… even if it means killing someone.”
“…”
The wavering heart stopped its turmoil at this moment. As if she was wearing a mask. But now, Kang Do-yeon was not wearing one.
Eve slowly turned her head. Simultaneously, she began calculating.
[Are you weighing his request against the intent of the involved party? What will you prioritize?]
“The answer has already come out.”
Eve quickly finished her calculation. In fact, from the Legion’s perspective, letting the one Submind sit back and do nothing was not appealing in the first place.
“Prove your will. Use the one useful power humans possess.”
“Prove it?”
“You said you would fight to protect. Then right now, move to that place. The enemy dares to attack our base, so Legion Commander, deploy immediately, kill them all, and protect our nest.”
Eve showed Kang Do-yeon a situation happening hundreds of kilometers away from where they currently were.
There was a base nest there as well. Now, a troop was heading toward that nest.
“B-but it’s too far! There’s not enough time!”
“I told you. Prove your will. Before you are his sister, you are mine. I will decide how you grow stronger.”
“Uugh!”
Eve moved her body and enveloped Kang Do-yeon.
She literally hugged her. This was not an act of affection at all.
“Ahh… Aahhh!”
With her eyes wide open, she could not bear the pain and screamed madly.
As Eve’s body, composed of universal cells, collapsed, it began to adhere tightly to Kang Do-yeon’s body, flowing into her.
The pain arising from the body reconstruction process was akin to an infectious germ torturing the victim’s nervous system.
‘If you endure, you will gain strength; if you cannot endure, you will be eliminated.’
Eve whispered into the mind of the writhing Do-yeon.
The Celestial Soul was currently the basic medium by which the Legion manifested Formancy using power engines, and that Celestial Soul operated with one’s will and soul’s essence.
No matter how many power engines were attached, if the user’s will was weak, its efficiency plummeted.
For Eve, the supersized proto-organism, it was no problem, but for Kang Do-yeon, it was a different story.
Anyway, she had to prove her qualifications to grow stronger.
‘What you overcame was you alone, but still, I offered you power that others could not obtain.’
The seemingly eternal pain came to an end. Left alone in the field, Kang Do-yeon rose with her modified body.
There was hardly any change in appearance.
However, the number of universal cells asleep within her increased nearly twofold. This meant that the power engine replacing her heart had also doubled in size, resulting in double the output.
“Huff…”
As she exhaled hot breaths and lowered her head, two massive wings wrapped in black feathers burst forth from her back at high speed.
The joints of the wings glimmered with a reddish-black ore.
‘The full proof of concept isn’t over yet. Go and block the enemies.’
In an instant, she soared into the sky. It wasn’t just wings attached; through the gaps created in the armor on her back, she expelled tremendous thrust at high speed.
“Time for choices.”
Gritting her teeth, she murmured to herself.
In this world, one cannot possess everything. Thus, one must always choose one thing.
“W-what is it!”
“To the sky… Aaah!”
Having arrived at the scene almost instantaneously, she did not slow down and landed straight on the ground.
The shockwave stirred up dust, and those approaching the base nest tumbled over. There were no Legionnaires near the nest.
Eve had drawn them all back. This place was solely a battleground for Kang Do-yeon.
‘These are my enemies, the enemies of the Legion.’
With her eyes stained black and a red glow shining through, she lifted her head and saw them panicking in shock.
“A woman…?”
“It’s a monster! Kill her!”
The startled individuals instinctively grabbed their weapons and charged.
She had also made her choice. She fully empathized with the notion of being called a monster.
‘I am the monster.’
In an instant, she swung her wings, which had become razor-thin like blades.
At that moment, the black-red aura enveloping her wings swung outward like a blade. Blood spurted from all directions.
“Uagh!”
Those fortunate enough to survive the strike, she snatched the neck of the soldier charging at her with a sword using her sharpened claws covered in armor.
And she exerted her strength.
“Ugh.”
With a crunching sound, the neck of the lifeless body drooped.
In that instant, she saw the face of the soldier with red cross eyes, who had tried to kill her being reduced to a mere blue suit, the limbs broken apart.
The pain and shock from that time still lingered vividly.
“Ugh, ugh…”
“Run away!”
Faced with the overwhelming scene, the remaining individuals turned and began to flee.
‘Hiding information is the basics of the basics.’
Eve naturally issued the order to kill everyone who had found the nest.
Kang Do-yeon gritted her teeth and kicked off the ground, leaping up.
With each movement she made, people fell, bleeding profusely. The mask that read her emotions repeatedly appeared and disappeared.
‘Sufficient. At the very least, I’ll make sure you can fight without issues to defend yourself.’
However, when she pierced her hand through the back of the last enemy who was trying to run away.
Eve smiled contentedly.
“Defend… when did I say that?”
‘It seems the enemies are finally beginning to gather earnestly.’
The Legion showed the data collected by the reconnaissance troops scattered all around to the panting Kang Do-yeon.
It had only been a day since the Legion’s identity was revealed.
In that time, the humans, who had been unable to respond properly and could only engage in localized rescue operations, began to gather quickly and summon an army.
‘Buy time, drag it out as long as possible. All capabilities are currently being used for erosion, digestion, and expansion of the nest, so you have to hold them off with only the forces produced in advance for now.’
The Legion decided to accept that challenge.
