Chapter 160: The Wall of Ti
The Allied Forces entered the southwestern reaches of Elvra. Instead of the scent of spring, the air was thick with the sll of rot. With every gust of wind, a fishy, mold-like stench was carried along, and with every footstep, dark crimson dust rose low from the ground.
"It's not like this is the first ti, yet it still chokes up every ti."
The dwarf Basim spat to the side and muttered.
Even so, the Mountain Rabbits moved swiftly. True to his words, they were people who had long navigated wastelands, and so they broke into groups and launched into search operations. They rummaged through ruins, dug through heaps of rubble, and clambered over collapsed walls.
There were not many survivors.
Most were Crusaders or soldiers, and even then, finding them was no easy task, as they had hidden themselves underground. Had it not been for Calix, half of them would have been passed over without notice.
"Over there—there's a presence beneath the ground."
Calix pointed toward a collapsed building site and continued speaking. An unreadable light stirred in his eyes. He had seen the flickering flas of life buried beneath the earth.
"Three below. Don't stop—dig a little deeper. Five…… No, eight."
"It's not like he's a mole—how can he possibly see sothing that isn't even visible……"
Several of the nobles muttered awkwardly among themselves, but reluctantly issued orders to the soldiers. As soon as the stone fragnts were lifted, the groans of people seeped out from within. Faces that flinched as though seeing light for the first ti. Their cheeks were sared with soot, and their wrists had been reduced to skin and bone from prolonged starvation.
These ones were civilians.
"……Goddess."
Ella stepped forward alongside the clergy who followed her. She reached out to lift a child into her arms—but those eyes were a strange shade of red.
"Lady Ella, these are symptoms of corruption."
The clergy hastily began to murmur holy hymns. A short while later, the red glow subsided, yet faint cracks still remained in the child's eyes.
The adults were worse. The veins on the back of a young man's hand had turned entirely black. And each ti his lips trembled, he let out a grotesque sound, as though whispering on behalf of soone else.
"Are you listening? The black stele, the Lord of Earth, is calling ……"
The soldiers' expressions hardened. So offered ladles of water; others gripped their scabbards. Whether to save them or cut them down—an unresolvable tension pressed down upon the space.
***
The rescued survivors sat leaning against one another. Ella moved between them, whispering prayers and stroking a child's hair. Yet every now and then, the flash of red in their eyes—those traces—sent a jolt of dread through the hearts of all who watched.
Just then, Sier Lagrin stepped forward. The weight of heavy responsibility rested visibly upon the shoulders above his priestly vestnts.
"Listen here, Sir Calix. No—Calix. Even they are already halfway corrupted."
His voice carried a mixture of compassion and resolve.
"That is precisely why we must retake the Sacred Ground first. If we light the beacon's fla, we can purify this entire region in one fell swoop."
Calix simply listened in silence. Both Sier and Ella each held their own convictions. Neither was wrong.
But he could not keep listening to the end.
"If we just push forward a little faster—"
Calix raised his fist, and Sier's words were cut off mid-sentence. The gazes of the Mountain Rabbits snapped toward him all at once. Even without a command, they knew sothing was wrong.
Rrrr, rrrrrr.
In the silence, the ground beneath their feet trembled faintly. The vibration spread in all directions in an instant. Geotric patterns flashed across the surface of the earth.
"Hadiya, tell the main force to halt in place! Volga, Adrian! Lead the cavalry and advance! Follow now!"
Calix issued the orders at once, leapt onto his horse, and charged forward. From beneath the ground ca the constant sound of creak, creak-creak—sothing endlessly moving. The sound of countless claws and fangs burrowing through the earth. Tunnel Worms were closing in.
He led hundreds of cavalry out into the open. Passing through the interior of the Allied Forces, he drew the enemy toward a wide open space. Nothing appeared in the Mountain Rabbits' field of vision, yet in Calix's eyes, dark crimson hues were clearly reflected.
‘The distance is about right.’
As he gradually slowed his speed, the earth's crust suddenly burst open like an explosion.
KRAKAKAKLANG!!
A massive, circular maw tore through the ground and erupted upward. Teeth like saw blades hung in clusters, and from deep within its belly, it disgorged wicked things.
At the sa mont, pale figures surged through the air. Yelayen rushed over from the direction of the main force and cried out urgently.
"Those are wraiths! They are the victims who fell to Verhas!"
Indeed, from their very appearance, they were different from the Corrupted. Their eyes glead a sickly green, and instead of weapons, they extended only their bare hands.
"Hold them back! Form ranks!"
There had been ample ti to prepare for the assault, yet the center of the Allied Forces quickly descended into chaos.
Two of the survivors who had been rescued began screaming and convulsing. Blood seeped from the corners of their eyes, and their forearms twisted and turned black.
"Uggghh, gaaaaaahhhh!"
A living person, corrupted right before their eyes. The soldiers went white in the face and stumbled backward. The one who suppressed that instinctive terror was none other than Sier.
"Do not be afraid! The goddess's protection is with us!"
With Sier's resolute cry, a surge of divine power extended outward. A soft golden barrier spread wide, and against it, the wraiths' grasping hands struck, scattering hideous sparks.
"Indeed—not a single one of us has fallen yet! Take courage, comrades!"
Gregor called back in kind, grabbing a soldier by the shoulder and steadying him. The cavalry that had drawn the enemy forward swung back around and ca at them from the flank.
The ambush had already half-failed. All that remained was retribution.
But at that mont, from beneath the earth, yet another cry tore free.
Larger, and deeper.
***
The Corrupted and the wraiths pour forth from the ground. Thousands—no. Tens of thousands. And from among them, a single shadow revealed itself.
Its form was unmistakably not human.
Its entire body was joined together with suture marks, and dozens of arms extended outward from its fra. Swords and spears, axes and shields were fused to its bones. Broken blades were embedded in its chest like ribs, and half-lted shields clung to its shoulders as though hanging there.
One step, then another. With each movent, the clashing of tal fragnts and the moans of wraiths rang out together.
Yelayen pointed toward it with the tip of his staff.
"……That is a grave of iron—known as the 'Sutured One'. A demon that follows the army commander Verhas."
"It looks genuinely horrifying."
At Volga's words, Gregor drew his sword and replied in kind.
"At least it must eat faster than anyone!"
There was no room to indulge in the joke. The Sutured One strode toward the Allied Forces' position.
The first clash.
"Hold the line!"
The commanders' shouts rang out, but screams soon echoed back. The Sutured One drove the long spear it held into the ground. The spearhead fractured the earth, and from those cracks, black hands surged upward and seized soldiers.
KRAAACK!
From there, stone pillars shot up across the ground and tore the formation apart.
It advanced without a word. It drove deep into the massed soldiers, swinging multiple arms simultaneously. With one arm it swept an axe and split open armor; with another it drove a broken blade inward; and with yet another it swung a flail and crushed skulls.
Without pause, it pressed toward the front line and carved a path through. Just one being—creating the illusion that it was fighting an entire order of knights.
"Out of the way! I'll handle this!"
Seizing the mont, Helmut Barben rode forward on his horse. Magical energy surged from his entire body, and Geomhwa coiled around the tip of his blade. He glanced briefly toward Calix, then charged at the enemy.
The force of a top-rank swordsman ca crashing straight down.
tal fragnts flew, and the wraiths' moans turned to screams. Yet the main body did not give ground. The Sutured One moved three or four arms simultaneously, gripping the blade driving into it.
It was not Helmut who had pressed in. On the contrary—it was the creature that had caged him.
"……!"
An axe gouged the flas, and a shield lted and seized his wrist. A broken spear hooked onto the sword's hilt, and then a volley of blades rained down toward exposed flesh.
Helmut swiftly swung his sword to shake off the enemy's weapons. The difference in speed allowed him to just barely pull himself free. But imdiately after, from the forearm that had made contact with the Sutured One, a red energy began to spread.
[External interference…… detected…… error……]
In that instant, a warning tone sounded in his ear from the Neural Accelerator. No further notification followed, but by instinct, he understood that his output had decreased.
The mont he noticed the anomaly, he drove the energy within his body into a fierce spin. His vision flickered briefly. In that split-second, an attack ca in from his blind spot.
He pulled his body away quickly, but it was just a beat too slow. The axe slamd into his side.
"Ugh!"
Helmut barely managed to keep his balance. He avoided the fate of falling from his horse, but blood poured from his mouth.
What washed over him was not relief at having escaped so narrowly, but disappointnt in himself.
‘This was not an opponent I should have underestimated from the start.’
The enemy before him bore the na 'The Sutured One'. A being that commanded an army nearly equal in scale to the Allied Forces. He had suffered trendous losses in just a single exchange.
Of course, it might not have been entirely his fault—but
With that, the ti allotted to him had co to an end.
Clop, clop.
As the sound of hoofbeats followed, a path opened within the Allied Forces' formation. Helmut turned his head back. His eyes t those of Sevi Belgrado. The Master had not moved even for a single mont.
Then the one who had drawn near to his side was—
"……Calix."
"Stand down."
At that response, Helmut's heart was torn in two, each half fighting the other. One side despised him, yet the other…… wished to be acknowledged. He himself did not know which ca first.
But one thing was clear—the gap between the two of them had, before he had noticed, grown far, far too wide.
Helmut stared at his back and gritted his teeth.
Tzzz, tzzzz.
Calix's body seed to tremble finely.
***
The mont Calix's vision flipped, the world ca to a halt in perfect silence. The sound of tal clashing against tal vanished entirely. A froth of blood began to rise, then stopped—fixed, as though suspended in place. The tremors, the scent of blood, the vibration of hooves—every last thing flowed with vivid clarity, yet stretched unnaturally slow.
[Reality Acceleration, 4.7x]
[Combat Facilitation on standby]
It had been a long ti since he had felt this shift. Since the battle with Kohtan, he had not once pushed himself to full capacity against anyone.
At that mont, a hot pulse surged from deep within his chest. The chaos energy bestowed by the Gatekeeper—that half-ford core—tested him with every passing mont. A single step past the line, and instead of lending him power, it would beco a starving beast.
And then, within that frozen world, the enemy's form was laid bare in all its horror.
He could see the scars where flesh and iron had been sewn together stitch by stitch. Wraiths extended their limbs all around it. It discarded a blade that had been entirely shattered and drew a fresh one from deep within its own chest.
Grotesque—yet not a ripple stirred in his heart.
He stepped down from his horse. As he moved forward, drawing his sword was left for later. He drew a long, deep breath.
And then, he stepped down into one layer deeper.
[Combat Facilitation, 4.9x]
[First threshold reached. Set foot upon the Path of the Sword.]
Calix faces an invisible wall. The wall called Master. Until now, his had been a human path—and what lay beyond, he had not known.
Yet he had clearly risen above it. This was simply the mont to confirm that small achievent.
That they stood in the sa space, and yet lived in different tilines.
That fact—
He had confird it.
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