Chapter 126

“You... you crazy bastard!!!”

As Rex trembled violently, blood gushing from his pierced throat, Marshel and Tarun hurriedly raised their swords and shouted.

“What did you put in this?”

“W-what?”

“Were you trying to turn me into one of those?”

Their faces twisted as Woojin pointed at the corpses.

“You took a job burying bodies? Who hired you? Those demon bastards?”

Their expressions finally froze.

“Shut up!!!”

Marshel raised his sword overhead and charged with all his might. He had looked the most capable of the three, and he closed the distance to Woojin in an instant.

WHOOSH!!!

His blade swept toward Woojin’s thigh.

“You bastards!!!”

THWACK!!

But at that moment, a pure-white sphere slammed into Marshel’s jaw.

“... Huh?”

He staggered. The moment he swayed off balance, dozens of spheres gleefully pummeled him.

“G-gah?!”

Parts of Marshel’s body caved inward as though struck with a blunt weapon, and he crumpled to the ground in agony.

“Huh?”

Was it because this was a different world? Her Phantasmal Barrage was far more powerful than anything Woojin had seen before. Even Setsuna herself seemed stunned by her power, her mouth hanging open and her arms still outstretched.

“Master, can’t we live here?”

“No. We can’t.”

Stepping over the unconscious Marshel, Woojin approached Tarun, whose face had gone deathly pale.

“Why did you target me?”

“Th-that’s none of your business!!!”

“My life is on the line, and you’re telling me it’s none of my business?”

SLASH!!

Woojin’s sword sheared through Tarun’s shoulder, taking his arm with it.

“Aaaaargh!!”

“Let’s see whether you’re just as uninterested when it’s your life on the line.”

“W-wait...!! Gah!!”

Flailing his remaining arm, Tarun sank to the ground and cried out pleadingly.

SHUNK!!!

Ignoring him, Woojin drove his sword into the stump of his severed shoulder once more.

“Aaaaaaargh!!”

Tarun writhed and shuddered in pain, but the more he struggled, the deeper Woojin’s sword sank.

“A-an Awakened hired us! I’ve never even seen a demon!!”

“... An Awakened? What’s that?”

Tarun looked at him as though wondering how he could possibly not know, but a twist of the blade left him no time to entertain that question.

“The Awakened... are people who’ve received demon blood.”

After the ninety-ninth floor, the tower had collapsed, and demons had suddenly poured out from somewhere. Apparently, they had conquered the central continent in no time and driven humanity into the Dark Forest.

That was the world they were in now: the surviving humans stood against the demons who ruled the continent.

“Humans fall into three groups. Laborers who do menial work, like us. The Awakened, who receive demon blood and become their underlings. And...”

Tarun bit his lip slightly.

“Those who fight the demons.”

There was a different tremor in his voice now.

Come to think of it, when Woojin had first overheard them, someone had said, [“Should we try going to that island of the Northern Wall, too?”] Apparently, that had been Tarun.

“What, having regrets now?”

Fighting demons. After what they had done here, the very idea was absurd.

Perhaps because blood kept pouring from his severed shoulder, Tarun’s consciousness was fading.

“Where is this Awakened who made you do this?”

“... He’ll be here soon.”

“What?”

“This is where the monsters he makes come to fill their bellies.”

THOOM!!!

At that moment, the ground shook.

[“Grrrr...”]

A shadow fell over Woojin. As he slowly turned his head—

[“GRAAAAAAH!!!”]

A huge monster picked up the fallen Marshel and began noisily chewing him up.

“...?!”

Marshel came to around the time the monster finished eating one of his legs. Startled awake, he screamed.

“S-save me...!!!!”

Before his scream was over, however, the monster bit off his head in a single mouthful.

CRUNCH.

With the sound of breaking bones, the monster folded his headless body in half, then folded it again.

CHOMP. CHOMP.

Burying its face in the folded body, it began to devour him ravenously.

“Wh-what is that...?”

Setsuna muttered, barely holding back her nausea.

The monster was grotesque. Its hind legs were enormously developed, like a kangaroo’s, while its forelegs were short. It stood upright as though walking on two legs like a human, with a long, demonlike tail sprouting from its backside. Wings stripped of skin, nothing but bone, twitched on its back.

[“Grr...?”]

But something else horrified them even more than its body.

The monster tearing into Marshel’s corpse had a human head.

“...!!!”

At that moment, a piece of information surfaced in Woojin’s mind.

[Failed Experiment No. 8701]

‘Wh-what?’

Was that the monster’s name? Woojin couldn’t help being bewildered by the information that had suddenly appeared.

“... Setsuna?”

Her eyes glowed as she watched the monster. It was the effect that appeared when she used [Focused Eyes].

‘Is that what’s doing this?’

But unlike in the game, the enemy’s stats didn’t appear. Instead, all that was being fed into his mind was its name and information he had no desire to know.

Materials Used: 130 humans, ogre flesh, a Gargoyle’s heart, manticore wings, lizardman teeth, and so on...

“This is insane...”

If a status window had appeared, Woojin would have preferred to believe he had misread it. But with the information fed directly into his mind, he couldn’t misread it even if he wanted to.

A monster made using 130 humans.

And he had seen the designation Failed Experiment before.

Yes. The monster before him was none other than a [Human Golem].

‘Why is a golem made by the alchemists here?’

The ones who had conducted those experiments had definitely been players.

“Ah...”

A low exclamation escaped Woojin before he knew it.

[“It won’t be easy. The forbidden alchemy they used must be connected to Juter.”]

Those were the words the great spirit Naiad had spoken to him.

‘She said the alchemists’ monster experiments weren’t actually just the players’ doing—an NPC was involved.’

In that case, it was hardly strange for those horrible golems to exist in this other world, too.

“E-eek... I-I have to run...”

At the monster’s appearance, Tarun tried to crawl away.

“Hey.”

Woojin grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

“Is the Awakened you mentioned called Juter, by any chance?”

“... Y-yes.”

Woojin slowly nodded at his answer.

“And you were going to throw me to that thing as food?”

SHUNK!!!

Without hesitation, he drove his sword into the back of the prone Tarun’s neck.

“Gah... gack...!!”

Pushing Tarun’s lifeless corpse aside, Woojin stood.

He was now eighty years in the future from the time in the game.

“Why do the bastards who ought to die live so damn long?”

There were far too many people to deal with.

[“Grrrr...”]

Scenting blood, the monster turned its head toward Woojin.

“Master... you’re going to fight, aren’t you?”

“If it doesn’t want to, I’m fine with that, too.”

[“GRAAAAAH!!!”]

“So am I...!! But I don’t think it agrees!!!”

THUD!! THUD-THUD-THUD!!!

Setsuna shouted as she unleashed a barrage at the charging monster.

[“Grr...! Guh...! Grrrrrk...!!”]

Dozens of projectiles began mercilessly battering its entire body. They carried tremendous power, enough to have knocked Marshel out in an instant, but—

[“KAAAAAH!!!”]

They seemed only to have enraged the monster. Shaking its head, the Human Golem glared at Setsuna and opened its mouth wide.

Then—

“Gah...?!”

With a deafening blast, the air around it exploded. A thunderous pressure wave, like a sonic boom, swept over them both.

Woojin hurriedly sheltered Setsuna against his chest and squeezed his eyes shut.

CRACK...! CRACKLE...!!

An opaque barrier appeared around him.

THUD!!!

The barrier shook violently.

THUD-THUD-THUD!!!

The waves pouring from the monster’s mouth hammered noisily against it like pounding fists.

HUMMM...!!

At the same time, green light enveloped his armor. Crouch, the effect on his [Azure Turtle Armor], had activated.

CRACK...! CRACK-CRACK...!

CRASH!!!

The cracking barrier shattered, and Woojin was hurled backward.

“... Cough!”

Thrown several meters, he could barely breathe through the pain, as though every inch of his body had been beaten.

“Master!! Are you all right?!”

[“KYAAAAH!!!”]

Flapping its skeletal wings, the monster began charging toward the fallen Woojin.

“S-stay away!!!!”

Setsuna thrust her hands toward it.

RUMBLE...! RRRUMBLE...!!

THWACK!!!!

The ground split open, and two enormous hands emerged, catching the monster between them as though clapping.

[“Grr...!! Grrr!!!!”]

Its human head grimaced as it struggled desperately to escape their grip.

“Master!!!!”

Her shout barely brought Woojin back to his senses, and he let out a ragged breath.

CLINK.

Fortunately, two high-grade potions remained in his pocket. He tipped one into his mouth, and only then did his labored breathing settle.

“Hah... hah...”

Woojin felt his side. The monster’s shock wave had cracked the Azure Turtle Armor he wore.

“This is insane...”

Its power was utterly unbelievable.

A chill ran through him. He felt like a fool for having regretted replacing his old armor because of effects like Valor and Spirit Channeling. If he hadn’t changed, that attack would certainly have killed him instantly.

[Failed Experiment No. 8701]

At that moment, Woojin recalled the monster’s name, which he had seen through [Focused Eyes]. Belatedly, he realized that even without seeing its stats, its name had contained one crucial piece of information.

The golem he had fought inside Kelduan’s stomach had been [Failed Experiment No. 1]. That meant this monster had been created after more than eight thousand further experiments.

From the very beginning, its name had warned him that it was a monster he couldn’t defeat.

BOOOOM!!

At that moment, the hands holding the monster shattered.

[“GRAAAAAH!!!”]

Seething with rage, it lunged toward them at tremendous speed.

“Damn it...!!”

He had grown a little stronger and let it go to his head... Had he forgotten what a horrifying place this was? Had hearing how much Ruen and Irurin had grown made him think he could reach their level, too?

He should have thrown it those three corpses and run...!

Regrets flooded through him, but it was already too late.

GRIND!!

Gritting his teeth, Woojin swung his sword at the monster with all his strength.

CLANG!! CLANG-CLANG!!!

But even his all-out strike failed to leave a single scratch.

“Aaaaaah!!!!”

Thirty whole years had passed... He had worked so hard to become stronger, never imagining that the gap would widen like this.

Would all his efforts in the game amount to nothing?

[“KAAAAAAH!!!!”]

The monster’s tail lashed toward Woojin.

“Master!!!!!!”

That was when it happened.

“...?!!”

Light burst from Setsuna’s dress, and space warped between Woojin and the monster.

“This way.”

A quiet voice reached his ears. A hand suddenly emerged from the warped space and pulled him by the arm.

Unlike the dying world around him, the scenery beyond the distortion was wonderfully clear and bright.

Forgetting even the battle, Woojin stared openmouthed at the owner of the hand holding him.

“... Nissen?”

The apprentice mage who would have died without being cured of mana chaos if not for Woojin.

This was eighty years in the future. Yet, astonishingly, his face was still exactly as it had been in the game.

At that moment, Woojin realized why the scenery beyond the rift looked so familiar.

It was the fairies’ forest.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

WHOOOOSH!!!

Woojin was sucked into the rift in space.