Episode 91: A Spear and a Shield, into the Eye of the Hurricane (6)
Each of the presences of the incoming superhumans felt like the rusty smell of blood. Smelling that settled his feelings that were running amok due to the sudden situation and immediately cooled down the Regressor’s mind.
Kuruk, kuruk…
Standing on top of the large dragon that was still gasping for breath, the Regressor thought to himself.
There was a multi-purpose warp station in Spratly Islands that was linked with Australia, and in the Paracel Islands was China’s military portal station.
The current fissure was around the centre of the two teleportation devices. It was approximately 500 kilometres away from either of those places and the aura he felt was what the superhumans scattered after teleporting to the respective warp stations.
He assumed that they would be wearing manufactured mobile suits intended for fighting against flying monsters, that could cover roughly 750 km per hour.
It would take them 45 minutes to get here.
Yu Jitae did not like the black dragon in front of him. Not because it shredded people to pieces or because it antagonised the Association.
He simply detested the black dragon race.
Them settling in completely unrelated worlds and leading those dimensions into ruin overlapped with the adult dragons who had destroyed his world countless times. After coming across 27 black dragons, that hatred deeply rooted itself in a corner of his emotions.
However, he was not foolish to the point of acting emotionally even after confirming the [Origin Fragment] that had a cracked [Will of the Ancient One].
If he could experiment and figure out how the [Emergency Summon] functioned with the black dragon’s heart, it would enable him to safely return the baby dragons of Unit 301 who had accidentally landed on Earth due to a dimensional disjoint back home.
As long as he could do that,
Their tremendously long Amusements will finally come to an end,
And Yu Jitae’s earnest desire would finally be fulfilled.
Because of that, he dissuaded himself from ripping the heart out.
He had to heal the black dragon and escape with it. The dragon heart after being poured with an elixir was enveloped with light as the wound slowly began to heal. Despite the immense recovery speed of dragons supplemented by the power of elixirs, the wound did not close that easily. It was because the wound had been inflicted by him.
Before long, the soldiers would rush in.
If they confirmed the existence of the dragon with their own eyes, Yu Jitae would have no justification to bring the dragon out. G12 alongside the Association and Australia, which had suffered the greatest losses, would isolate the dragon and attempt to analyse it.
There would be no room for his personal experiment.
‘The dimensions are separate and no eyes can reach us. How about you kill everyone that comes in and close the dimension, my lord.’
It was the suggestion of Clone 1, who shared his mind with Yu Jitae. Clone 1 was currently flying with the Last Squad of Humanity.
‘It would take around 2 hours to forcibly close that dimension, so in the meantime, I will stand at the entrance of the fissure and make sure no-one comes out alive.’
‘Waiting for your command, my lord.’
The clone was essentially suggesting that they used the fissure as a trap. Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration would have done that as it was the simplest and yet the most certain method to rely on.
However, Yu Jitae shook his head.
That would be a bad move.
The incoming soldiers were the top rankers of each nation – great, noble and powerful superhumans. They were the ones that would be protecting humanity throughout the Long Nights so he had to let as many of them survive instead of intentionally killing them.
Besides, the dragon’s rampage had crossed the line and in a situation like this, ‘that guy’ would most certainly show himself.
Even if he were to kill every single superhuman outside, he had to avoid killing ‘him’ no matter what.
The best option would be escaping it altogether with this large dragon.
Fortunately, he had the alternate dimension [Shallows of the Abyss (S)] and he just had to put Myu inside, but that wasn’t easy either. An adult dragon had a status exceedingly higher than even a catastrophe-ranked demon. In order to shove this into the [Shallows of the Abyss (S)], it at least had to be polymorphed into a human form to lower its status.
The problem however, was that this dragon did not look like it would wake up within the 45 minute time limit.
“Oi.”
Yu Jitae walked towards the neck of the dragon and kicked the chin of the large dragon.
“Wake up.”
He kicked again, but the fainted Myu did not show any signs of waking up. After some contemplation, he looked at the upside down scale beneath the dragon’s chin.
“…”
It was the reverse scale which was going in a different direction compared to the other scales. He would now touch the reverse scale that dragons hated the most, which was similar to how peeled cuticle skin felt for humans.
He grabbed the reverse scale by hand and pushed it up the other way. The scale and the flesh beneath was lifted but as expected, the dragon showed no response.
Its wounds were so severe that something at this level would naturally be ineffective.
Yu Jitae released the scale.
There was now only one thing that he could do.
[Dimensional Shutdown (S+)]
Yu Jitae activated one of the abilities he stole by killing a certain sovereign in the past. It was the ability that forced a fissure to a close but a 40-metre-wide large fissure would take 2 hours to close.
He had to block the entrance so that no-one could enter it for 1 hour and 15 minutes after the arrival of the superhumans. Once the entrance was closed, he simply had to wait for the black dragon to wake up, bash it into human form and follow [Shallows of the Abyss (S)] to escape the fissure.
After gazing at the powerless dragon on the ground, he turned around. Standing in front of the vertically cracked fissure, he gazed into the wide oceans of Earth that were on the other side of the fissure.
The situation felt quite paradoxical.
Until just then, he was pushing forth a spear to kill the black dragon and yet now he had to raise a shield to protect the same dragon. He had to now block the spears that others would be attacking with.
If someone were to have a frank conversation with him, they would ask this first.
What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?
But he would not be able to honestly answer that question.
His actions henceforth were things only he himself could comprehend. No matter what he gave as an explanation, no-one would empathise with his cause.
In other words, it meant that his actions contained insufficient public justification no matter who saw it.
Even if he were to be honest about it, no-one would listen to him.
Not a single person would understand or help him.
He was all alone on this Earth but this was something that still had to be done.
Fortunately, he had the power to push through with that unjustifiable paradox.
***
Soldiers unendingly flooded out from the warp station and threw glances at each other.
Despite the confusion due to Mexico’s sudden attack, G12 and the Association joined hands. In order to kill the common enemy, they gathered and stood together.
The number of superhumans gathered was 1,800.
They were the top rankers of the entire world, with most of them being affiliated under the [Last Squad of Humanity]. The deputy captain of that squad was the superhuman who was the most respected regardless of nationality.
The returnee, BM.
“We will now fly towards the fissure.”
Following his command, the soldiers floated above and moved.
The weapons in their hands gave off menacing auras. Swords, bows, guns and spears… the weapons were all top-level artifacts that belonged to the arsenal of their countries. Some of them were Level 3 artifacts with a few Level 4 mixed in between. They were simply carrying the weapons and yet it weighed down on the atmosphere and resonated with the surrounding mana.
Strategic weapons of each nation were in the hands of arguably the strongest superhumans of the world.
They flew in silence. It was a large number of them flying together and yet not a single one of them talked out of turn. They were drenched in either fury or excitement, but the well-trained soldiers instead became more poised and cool-headed.
SSS-rank large-type monster.
An enormous beast that was assumed to be of similar rank with the monster that began the East-Asian Great War and pushed humanity into fear was in the distance waiting for them.
Due to its appearance resembling a large gargoyle and its overall black colours that were revealed by a short footage, it was temporarily given the name [Black Dragon].
A monster that people wondered would exist but one that had never appeared in the world – dragon. Assigning that name to the mysterious beast was effective at raising the alarms and tension of the soldiers.
In the middle of the crowd, Clone 1 thought to himself.
‘Quite a lot of them in that short span of time.’
On the day of the Apocalypse.
A large crack had appeared in the sky as 60 or so dragons landed on Earth. They lost their sense of reasoning and indiscriminately attacked Earth.
Near the end of the 6th iteration, Yu Jitae had killed 10 dragons by himself as a result of 30 days of endless fights with not a single moment of rest.
‘These people alone should be enough to kill 2 dragons at least.’
Humanity retaliated and also killed around 10 dragons. They could only kill 10 dragons despite the occlusive ones like Oscar Brzenk, catastrophe-ranked demons, the Witch, Chaliovan and high rankers joining hands together.
That was the result despite tens of thousands of superhumans being allocated to each dragon.
A simple calculation based on the above facts meant that it was safe to assume that 20% of humanity’s strength was gathered here.
They proceeded on towards the fissure as a 40-metre-long vertically-split black entrance soon appeared in front of them.
Their hearts pulsed with scorching blood. They were excited at the thought of fighting against the large beast that was likely to be within the fissure.
Even if it cost their lives, they were willing to die so long as they could leave a dent on its scales. A few of the superhumans that were from Australia had to suppress their urge to ignore the commands and charge in.
Right before their intangible wills intertwined and exploded out,
At that moment,
An invisible aura created a ripple as it swept past them.
Every one of them froze on the spot.
“…”
“…”
Not a single one dared to move rashly and none of them were confused about why the people next to them were frozen stiff.
An ominous presence existed behind the dark veils of the fissure.
The deputy, BM, raised his sunglasses and gazed into the fissure.
From behind the widely-spread curtain of darkness, someone was blocking the road. Someone with a ridiculous presence.
“…Every men, on standby.”
BM reluctantly let those words out as his quiet command resonated across the troops.
The overwhelmingly immense presence carried with it an indescribable pressure that immediately snapped the fighting spirits of the soldiers that had been soaring through the skies.
They doubted.
What in the world was that?
How could such a thing exist in this world?
Such doubts spread like a plague.
“…”
BM who was standing at the centre of it all was unfathomably confused.
It was because he heard from Zhuge Haiyan that ‘Season’ had already left to fight the dragon. It was something which only Chaliovan, Zhuge Haiyan and himself knew about in the entire world.
BM long knew that Season was Yu Jitae. And that made him naturally guess that the one in front of him with such immense presence was none other than Yu Jitae. He knew he was powerful and extraordinary but the presence BM was feeling from inside the fissure was on a whole different league to what he had known.
It was just 1 person.
The unprecedented pressure that was being given off by just 1 person was suppressing 1,800 rankers.
However, BM knew that he couldn’t stop here.
He had no idea what Season was thinking about, but stopping others from entering the fissure for no reason in this situation was something unjustifiable and thus impossible to carry out.
Although he respected and feared him, the Last Squad of Humanity had to enter the fissure and even Yu Jitae could not stop them without any valid reasons.
After some contemplation, BM realised exactly what he had to do.
If he was stopping them, there must be a reason, and that reason would inevitably be in correlation with the continuance of humanity.
Yu Jitae just had to persuade the superhumans here with his reasons.
“I am the returnee of the Last Squad of Humanity, BM.”
BM opened his mouth as the representative of the squad. His words added even more tension. Jeanie Inssirem as well as Christoph gazed into the darkness of the fissure with frowns while average superhumans had trouble breathing.
“Judging from how you have attacked the black dragon, I am assuming that you have the same goal as us, and that you have fought against the monster for humanity.”
He chose his words carefully and did not label the mysterious being as an enemy.
“However, your laborious fight is not enough of a reason to stop us from facing the truth. As soldiers protecting humanity, we must confirm with our own eyes the truth behind this incident.”
Using objectively valid reasons, he provided reasons on why they should enter the fissure and asked the opponent for their cooperation.
“So the one inside the fissure, please do come out. Come out and reveal your identity, and let us know the truth of what happened to the large black dragon.
“Before we force our way in.”
It was a logically sound speech, thought BM as beads of sweat travelled down his cheeks.
He had no idea how Yu Jitae would react to this and could only hope that it wouldn’t escalate into a full-scale fight.
It was when they were nervously staring at the fissure. An inexpressible presence squeezed into their minds, making them feel as if their minds were connected to someone else’s.
In the midst of the ever-expanding tension from the immense suppression, the intangible being opened its mouth and spoke to them.
[Only those willing to sacrifice their lives may come in to face the truth.]
Immediately after those words, the suffocating pressure vanished.