Chapter 96 – Not Corruption, but Evolution (4)
When Kang Do-yeon started causing chaos.
Reina, her body restored by the power of the infection, ran wildly out of her seat.
‘Do you want revenge?’
‘On how to do it.’
‘I’ll show you right now.’
“Uuuugh… Aaaah!”
She screamed while clutching her head and shedding tears, her trembling legs unable to reject the powerful psychic interference directly slamming into her brain already under full control.
As she fled together with the others, she collapsed on the ground, convulsing and rolling her eyes.
At that moment, part of the Hive Mind of Eve, the leader of the Legion, was being shared with her. It was something Eve wouldn’t dare do to Kang Do-yeon since it was information the human brain couldn’t handle.
Although there was a risk her sense of self could be destroyed, Eve wanted to show her regardless.
“Haaak…”
Reina gasped as she barely regained consciousness. The people around her were still either fleeing or flailing about, not paying her any heed.
What she saw was a fragment of the Legion. Her face, trembling and pale, couldn’t keep still.
“No way, we can’t…win…”
Fear surged through her. The glimpse Eve provided through the collective consciousness included the full explosive power that the Legion could wield, turning even the furthest corners of the wasteland into nests.
The endless fields of nests, the countless Legionnaires…
‘Join us.’
At that moment, a fatal whisper reached her mind trembling with fear.
‘We know of your hatred.’
‘We also know your potential.’
‘And we know what you need.’
“What I…need?”
Reina tightly gripped the stone floor. Her pale, slender hand bore no wounds — the nails that had been torn out and broken had regenerated seamlessly.
‘All you need to have is the will and hatred we lack. With that, we can provide for all your other deficiencies.’
“Everything…”
Reina stood up again. Her heart continued to burn with a passion for the despicable beings that had crushed her last opportunity.
‘Hesitate no longer. This isn’t corruption. Now you can evolve, to show them what true magic cast by this grand neural entity truly is.’
The final words sealed the deal. Reina’s gaze, having lifted her head once more, no longer wavered.
She hastily moved out of the city, benefiting from the confusion that provided no impediment.
Then she hid nearby, observing the chaos in Menace until Kang Do-yeon came to pick her up.
“Idiots.”
She spat out the word earnestly, observing their feeble and helpless reactions after all the arrogance they’d shown her.
“Ahahah!”
She laughed with satisfaction as loud explosions and faint screams rang out. To her, they were no longer kin but enemies, unworthy failures who hadn’t even deserved their elimination.
Thus, even when Kang Do-yeon flew in, extending a grotesque hand, she was no longer afraid.
“Are you the same as me? Disappointed, angry, thus you have given up everything? That’s why you became as one?”
She muttered absently as she took the hand.
“Once, I was.”
Kang Do-yeon, only partially unmasking the lower part of her face, responded with just that as she lifted Reina and ascended into the sky at once.
—
“Welcome back.”
“It’s… impossible…”
It was late evening when Kang Do-yean returned with Reina. Reina was surprised twice—first by Kang Do-yeon’s maskless face, and then by the equally uncovered face of Eve, who was waiting patiently.
“You must already know all of it. See that pool? Enter it yourself. Once you do, you’ll merge with us into ‘one’ and be the vanguard that kills the mages.”
Eve pointed to a pool of slime on one side of the nest to the frozen Reina. Within that pool, the Legion’s omnipotent cells were being cultivated infinitely in order to deconstruct and reconstruct the body while preserving the self-awareness, making one a complete part of the Legion.
Reina’s eyes flickered. Though she didn’t fully understand, it felt like she was being asked to sacrifice her life.
“…I’ll do it.”
“Good.”
Eve curled her lips satisfactorily at the quivering voice. After all, this experiment only had meaning if she volunteered.
Reina undressed as instructed and began to immerse herself in the wobbling pool of slime.
“Ah, it’s…not so bad…?”
At the moment Reina turned around, startled by the odd sensation,
She lost her balance and fell headfirst into the pool.
“Ugh…”
Instinctively trying to thrash around, she was shocked to find that her legs submerged in the slime had vanished.
Ultimately, she was helplessly swallowed by the slime.
The trembling hands swinging through the air disappeared into the slime for the last time.
“We still have to digest it once, anyway.”
“…Could that happen to me too?”
At Eve’s casual words, Kang Do-yeon, pointing between herself and Reina, paled.
The pool Reina was in began to wiggle, the walls of flesh closing around it.
This formed into the same shape as a human womb, identical to the one Kang Do-yeon had torn herself out of.
“When the second Legion leader is born, that’s when we’ll execute the plan.”
“…If it survives the birth, that is.”
Kang Do-yeon frowned at the squirming pink walls. She was well aware, being a party to it, that becoming one with the Legion meant rebirth.
The alien sensation of each cell in her body being replaced was not an easy thing to endure.
If she couldn’t bear it, she’d go mad, collapsing her sense of self. That way, Eve wouldn’t get the Legion leader she wanted.
“That is why I, paradoxically, believe only humans can be our leaders. They have indomitable wills while being flexible about their existence, without excessive self-esteem.”
Eve murmured as she lightly traced the vibrating walls of flesh.
Eve believed Reina could endure it. Kang Do-yeon didn’t disagree, having known the strength of Reina’s spirit.
“Plans?”
“An all-out offensive.”
A map opened up in Eve’s mind, an aerial map drawn using flyers, detailing the way to Menace.
“621 cities of significant scale and over, 2800 large and small villages in the south-western area. The estimated population living there is over 150 million.”
Eve listed the calculated numbers. She visualized the shapes of the numerous cities already preparing defenses.
Of course, to Eve, those defensive preparations were laughably inadequate, to say the least.
“We attack all of them at once. For maximum efficiency, before support from other regions arrives, we resolve things swiftly.”
We possess overwhelming force and can control all this force at once.
That means there’s no reason to not operate it all simultaneously. Inhibit their ability to respond and swallow them all up in one go.
“You go first. I’ve already sent the detailed plans to your brain. Your subordinate will be deployed immediately upon completion. It’s feeling good. She’s growing wonderfully.”
“…Huh, right.”
With Yang-supplied nourishment and a fully recharged power source, Kang Do-yeon sighed quietly and stood up anew.
As long as the nourishment is available, the Legion never rests. They can march whenever and fight whenever.
The mission assigned to Kang Do-yeon was the capture of a city to be used as an intermediate base.
The troops given to her had been dispatched long ago.
“Once you establish the base nest there, allow some rest while guarding it.”
“…Thanks for the consideration. Was that your brother’s instruction?”
Just before she departed, Kang Do-yeon heard Eve’s words and smirked.
Eve affirmed with the collective consciousness. This special flesh composed of the Legion’s omnipotent cells did not know fatigue if supplied with nourishment. However, mental exhaustion was a separate issue.
It was Shin Woo, who had been continuously observing, who had guarded this fact, which Eve did not know.
—
*
“Mayor. This unrest is growing. How long must we remain on high alert because of these creatures we haven’t even seen?”
“I agree, but what can we do with such orders?”
In the mayor’s office, hearing the aide’s statement, the city mayor frowned.
Currently, the city was on full alert. The cause was the mysterious creatures nearby that were known to have raided the area.
The horrifying testimonies of the survivors who had escaped the creatures, which were only focused on slaughter, or the reports of the defense forces being wiped out, were indeed difficult to ignore.
However, since it had been days since the creatures disappeared and everything had been silent, dissatisfaction over the continued alert status was beginning to build.
“Mayor! We’ve received a message from the council!”
“Oh! What’s it say? Is it to lift the lockdown?!”
“No? Umm… they said to strengthen the vigilance and prepare for a response at the highest level possible, as if it were wartime!”
Another aide ran in, wide-eyed, and held out the crystal orb in his hand. Startled, the mayor instantly snatched the crystal orb and read the official message.
“Extremely dangerous and malicious creatures, believed to be reincarnations of the harbingers of ruin that climbed out of ancient labyrinths, are said to hail from the depths and the shadows. Thus, until central command dispatches troops, you must maintain the utmost defensive level appropriate for such creatures.”
The mayor’s hands trembled. The aides only exchanged glances.
“…Furthermore, these creatures can astonishingly use allied magic. Known spells include those from the Clawclaw and Stars Academies. What…?!”
The mayor stared blankly at the aides with his dead communication orb in hand.
The information the crystal orb had delivered a moment ago was hard to comprehend rationally.
“Mayor, how large could they be…?”
During this time, the aide who had delivered the crystal orb muttered cautiously. The testimony regarding the colossal species from the survivors and Austin were still hard to believe from their perspective.
“But… don’t worry. Even if they’re that huge, the walls of Harem are higher and stronger. Plus, there’s the boundary reinforced by magic…”
“Is this?! An earthquake?”
As the mayor was trying to regain his composure by wiping his cold sweat,
The ground began to shake violently. And the vibrations only intensified.
“…They’re coming.”
With a sudden intuition, the mayor sighed involuntarily.
Right toward their exact location. Something colossal and massive cleaving through the earth was approaching.
