Chapter 101
by lion“Oh no!” Tamarel couldn’t help but click his tongue as he watched the Chinese army suddenly descend into chaos and self-destruct before he could even react. As powerful as their weapons were, the damage they inflicted when turned on allies was beyond imagination. Tamarel’s mind raced, but he suddenly realized that the reason for their collapse was the naked women who had appeared from the wetlands. He turned to Errol, who was frowning beside him, and said, “Your Highness.”
“Yes.”
“I ask this of you.”
“Leave it to me.”
Errol nodded, took out the holy symbol, a necklace, from inside her armor, kissed it, and began to chant an ancient ode. “Geran Maras Obradis Nihel Sha…”
In contrast to the diminishing gunshots and explosions from the Chinese camp, the voices of the knights, chanting the ode after her lead, grew steadily louder. And finally, the moment their voices resounded as one, a faint silver spiritual energy began to spread from Errol, enveloping the entire knight order. It wasn’t because of their polished, gleaming silver armor. Nor was it because of their shining silver weapons. The silver spiritual energy that enveloped their bodies was the true reason this knight order was named the Silver Armored (Eun-jang).
This silver spiritual energy invoked the blessing of Nihel Sha, the national ancestral deity of Eshtalen, to imbue their bodies with courage and prevent evil energy from invading. This special ability was passed down only to women in the direct royal line of Eshtalen. Its name: Consecration of Silver Armor. This was the reason why Knight Commander Tamarel and the other knights couldn’t treat the young and inexperienced princess lightly, and even subtly revered her.
There was only one drawback: the consecration ritual took some time. This was why she couldn’t resist the Gaze of Fear that Jun-sang emitted, and the reason Tamarel could barely withstand Jun-sang’s gaze was thanks to the countless consecration rituals performed over a long period, which had fortified his mind.
When Errol’s consecration ritual was complete, Tamarel raised his sword high and shouted, “Glory to the shining silver sword!” Then, Errol and all the other knights raised their own silver-glowing weapons high and repeated his words, “Glory to the shining silver sword!”
Tamarel lowered his helmet’s visor, spurred his horse first, and galloped down the hill. As he led the way, the other knights, their weapons emitting a subtle light, also charged down the hill towards the naked women approaching the Chinese forces.
“Chaaat!” Tamarel’s sword swung once, and the woman’s neck, which had been sliding stiffly across the wetland without moving her legs, was instantly severed. The knights who followed were also not captivated by the women’s appearance or the strange, inaudible something, and swung their silver-glowing weapons.
However, some of the knights, including Tamarel, felt something strange the moment their attacks succeeded. “Why?” The human body is made of bones and flesh. Even disregarding the skin and muscles that make up the flesh, bones have considerable strength and are not easily cut as one might think. Novice knights like Errol, who had not yet experienced battle, had no time to feel such things, but seasoned knights like Tamarel, who had been on countless battlefields for many years, immediately realized that the sensation transmitted through their weapons was completely different from cutting an ordinary human.
‘It cuts too easily.’ That was the feeling when he cut the naked woman. A strange sensation, as if cutting a boneless mollusk. But Tamarel soon shook his head to clear such thoughts. He reminded himself that although they took human form, they were not human.
At any rate, the knights’ charge from the flank momentarily pulled the Chinese forces, who had fallen into pandemonium, back from the enemy’s influence. However, this did not mean they immediately returned to normal. The Chinese soldiers, freed from mental control, shuddered at the horrific corpses of their comrades strewn around them and were horrified that such a situation had occurred while they had briefly lost consciousness.
“Kyaaaah!” A woman’s piercing scream erupted, and simultaneously, something else, even more violent than mental domination, tore apart the fragile minds of the Chinese soldiers. From the start, they were not regular soldiers who had been trained for a long time. They had suddenly been swept into the unprecedented event called the ‘tutorial,’ and after enduring that hellish experience and returning, they were simply forcibly conscripted into the Chinese army and became soldiers. The very act of passing the tutorial meant they possessed one or more tough qualities than ordinary people, but they had been subjugated to the military organization and reduced to its components before they could even train such resilience themselves.
For them, only one sequence remained. Panic. That damned mental contamination instantly spread to the surviving soldiers, and with their commanders, who could have calmed them, also gone, the Chinese army immediately lost all functionality as a military force. All that remained was a rout.
“Tsk!” Tamarel couldn’t help but click his tongue as he watched the Chinese soldiers flee, abandoning their weapons and everything else, without looking back. But he was also not in a position to worry about others.
These strange entities in the form of women, when their necks were severed or their chests slashed, splattered bodily fluids and then disappeared into the water. The problem came right after. As the women’s forms disappeared, gigantic tentacles shot out from the murky water of the wetlands and began to lash at the knights like whips. Tamarel instantly cut down a tentacle flying towards him with his sword and shouted, “Continue forward and turn right! Hurry!”
But the moment he shouted those words, another tentacle suddenly burst out of the water and instantly wrapped around Tamarel’s horse, lifting it up.
“Aargh!” Although their speed had greatly diminished by plunging into the squishy wetlands, the impact of falling from a galloping horse was equivalent to being struck by a blunt hammer. Tamarel, disoriented, hastily rose. A naked woman with long, seaweed-like black hair dangling reached out and approached him.
“You monster!” Tamarel shrieked and swung his sword at the woman. The naked woman, whose section from shoulder to armpit was diagonally severed, then vanished into the water.
“Huff… huff…” He was completely disoriented from the impact of the fall, but thankfully, the Consecration of Silver Armor was still effective. Tamarel swung his sword, splitting a tentacle that shot up between his legs with a single strike, then saw Princess Errolomine’s horse being wrapped by a tentacle and lifted into the air.
“Your Highness!” She wasn’t the only one. Countless tentacles, rising from the water like weeds in a field, were instantly incapacitating the horses ridden by the knights. Fortunately, the damage from falling seemed not severe, but knights who lost their horses effectively had their combat power halved.
“Get to dry land! Hurry!” Tamarel shouted to the dismounted knights and rushed towards Princess Errolomine, who was being lifted by a tentacle.
“Hyaaah!” His shining silver sword instantly severed three or four tentacles, and Errol was fortunately rescued from danger.
“Th-thank you.”
“Please get to dry land quickly.”
“Yes.”
Errol was able to escape danger thanks to Tamarel, but not all knights were so fortunate.
“Aaagh!” A knight, wrapped in tentacles, rose into the air and was then torn limb from limb. One knight was dragged into the water as soon as he was entangled, and other knights, floundering in the swamp, sank into the women’s embrace the moment the Consecration of Silver Armor wore off.
“Damn it!” Tamarel did his best to save as many of the remaining knights as possible, but ultimately, about a third of them disappeared into the water, never to resurface. But the nightmare wasn’t over yet. Tentacles began to rise again from beneath the feet of the knights who had felt safe on dry land. Moreover, resurrected corpses were once again emerging from the water.
Just then, the squires who had been observing the battle from the hill quickly began to ride down, leading reserve horses. It was an attempt to save their knights, but unfortunately, it was futile. The naked women, appearing on land as suddenly as they had in the water, blocked their path. As red lips revealed their alluring depths from within the long, black, flowing hair, more than half of the squires, unprotected by the Consecration, fell from their horses in confusion and scattered. These dismounted squires were unlucky. Immediately, horse hooves fell upon their heads.
“Uwaaaaaah!” In an instant, more than half of the squires died without being able to do anything, and their bodies were enveloped by the women’s hands and disappeared beneath the ground. Errol, gasping for breath and swinging her sword, fell into despair.
“Ah… Nihel Sha!” She cried out the name of the national ancestral deity, but even at that moment, the knights were being killed one by one by the tentacles and the women’s hands. Tears began to stream from Errol’s eyes. The fate of those thrown into the midst of this wretched battlefield saddened her. Her own fate, having to witness such a destiny, tore at her heart.
As she sobbed silently and swung her sword, Tamarel suddenly appeared before her, leading a horse he had somehow acquired.
“Your Highness!”
“Yes, Commander!”
“Please mount this horse at once. I will hold the rear.”
“Th-that’s…”
Anyone could see that this battlefield was beyond hope. The ancestral deity’s blessing, named Consecration of Silver Armor, which had impressed even the enemy’s crown prince, could prevent the silent curse the women unleashed, but it could not stop the tentacles rising like spears from the ground or the yellow teeth of the resurrected corpses. To say he would hold the rear in such a situation? What else could that mean but certain death!
But Tamarel, with a stern expression, shouted at the princess whose face was streaked with tears, “Knight Errolomine Breeze Bahim Eshtalen!” At his solemn voice, Errol reflexively repeated, “Knight Errolomine Breeze Bahim Eshtalen, I… receive the order.” With her voice choked with sobs, Tamarel gave a wry smile and commanded, “You shall immediately withdraw from the battlefield and inform the main force of the situation here. This is a critical mission that will determine the fate of the nation, so please remember it.”
“I… receive the order.” Errol replied with a trembling voice and took the reins Tamarel offered her. As soon as she finished speaking, she immediately turned and watched Tamarel’s back as he ran towards the wetlands. Then she took out the holy symbol necklace from inside her armor, closed her eyes, kissed it, and said, “Nihel Sha. I earnestly pray here and now. Please… please save us.”
And as she kissed the holy symbol once more, the moment she opened her eyes, she saw a beam of light appear before her. The light soon transformed into a person’s form.
“Ah!” Errol recognized him at a glance. The nameless foreigner who had rendered her immobile with just a look. He had appeared with the light at this very moment!
“Tsk…” That very foreigner, Jun-sang, glanced around with an annoyed expression and first checked the quest information that appeared before his eyes.
Subdue the Calamity of the Wetlands.
: A calamity has appeared in the Silent Wetlands. Prevent this calamity from spreading to the land.
[This is a solo quest.]
(Hidden) Defeat Krollovagan. -> Incomplete.
(Hidden) Destroy the Diva (Gahi). (0/30) -> Incomplete.
(Hidden) Destroy the Tentacles. (0/30) -> Incomplete.
When Errol saw Jun-sang appear before her with the light, she believed her prayers had been answered. “P-please… save us!” But Jun-sang, whose face was completely covered in tears and wetland mud, did not recognize her as the woman he had met before. Then again, even if he had, his reaction wouldn’t have changed.
Jun-sang looked around once, then immediately moved towards the hill that offered a clear view of the battlefield. Errol tried to say something to Jun-sang, who wasn’t even listening to her, but she was dumbfounded when he suddenly dashed off somewhere.
“W-wait a minute!” Startled, she quickly mounted her horse and pursued Jun-sang.
As soon as Jun-sang reached the hill, he summoned Heness.
“Huh? Where is this?” Heness looked around and then her eyes widened in surprise as she saw the battle unfolding below.
Jun-sang picked up a nearby cavalry spear, tied the Flag of Blood and Chaos to it, and then firmly planted it into the ground. He then handed Heness a megaphone. Heness took it and nodded.
“You want me to insult them?” Jun-sang smiled wryly and replied, “Yes. And I’ll summon wolves for you, so don’t move from here, ever.”
“Okay.”
“When this is over, I’ll buy you a double serving of the steak you wanted to eat earlier.”
“You don’t have to… but thank you.” Even as she said that, Heness’s face brightened at Jun-sang’s words. Although they had been anxious when nothing happened for over an hour after the quest ended, prompting the two to seek out a nearby restaurant, they had to flee the restaurant as soon as they sat down because a new quest came in.
Anyway, as they were talking, Errol galloped up to them on her horse. She quickly dismounted and urgently clung to Jun-sang, shouting, “Help us! Please, I beg you!”
But Jun-sang brushed her hand away and said, “If you have something to say, say it to her.”
“Huh?” Errol looked bewildered, seeing the brown-haired girl who had somehow appeared beside Jun-sang. Where had this girl come from?
But before her question could be answered, Jun-sang, after summoning spirits and wolves to protect Heness, took out Rangdajal’s Wrath from his inventory and rushed down the hill.
“Th-there…” Errol tried to quickly follow Jun-sang, but Heness grabbed her shoulder. Heness smiled brightly at Errol and said, “If you have something to ask of him, you can tell me.”
“…”
“But… I have something to do first, so please wait a moment.”
For some reason, Errol didn’t know why, but she was overwhelmed by the strange pressure emanating from Heness’s smile and found herself nodding involuntarily.
Heness stood on the hill, megaphone in hand, and first cleared her throat.
“Ah, ah, mic test. One, two, three.” It was truly strange that once she held this megaphone, she couldn’t resist saying those words.
Heness cleared her throat again, then pressed the megaphone’s switch and shouted loudly, “You foolish dung beetles!” Immediately, the effect of her ‘Goblin Market Swear-Word Grandma’ combo was transmitted throughout the battlefield.
However, unfortunately, her insults had no effect on the enemy. The knights also had the remaining effects of the Consecration of Silver Armor, so no particular effect appeared on them. Instead, only the squires, who had gone to deliver messages and then been caught in the battle, were in danger, their bodies stiffening or falling into confusion.
“Oh, oh dear?” Heness looked flustered, realizing that the situation was somehow different from before. It seemed her insults had no effect on the enemies that had appeared this time.
“This isn’t right… what should I do?” As Heness was flustered, she suddenly noticed the wounded people lying on the ground. Although insults didn’t work, Heness still had something she could do. Realizing this, Heness pressed the megaphone’s switch again and shouted loudly, “Wounded soldiers, over here! Come over here!”
After shouting several times like that, she then shouted to Errol, who was staring blankly with an expression that said ‘what is she doing?’, “Don’t just stand there, go down and bring the wounded here! Quickly!”
“What? Oh, alright.” Errol hastily rode down, loaded the wounded and fallen onto her horse, and came back up. Then, the wounded who could still walk also began to gather on the hill.
“Phew… I really didn’t want to use this.” Heness sighed deeply and took out two whips that were hanging from her waist. And then she cracked the whip at a knight who was looking at her with an expression that seemed to say ‘what is she going to do?’
Crack! Crack!
The middle-aged knight, who had been lying there groaning and was suddenly whipped, turned bright red and burst out in anger.
“What in the… oh?” Then he realized. The wound on his chest, which had been stinging like a spear tip and burning as if seared by fire, was healing at an incredible rate. At this astonishing effect, the people looked at Heness with dumbfounded expressions.
Heness put her hand on her hip and said, “Alright, next patient!”
While Heness was healing the wounded on the hill, Jun-sang, with Rangdajal’s Wrath in hand, was crushing the naked women and tentacles that rushed towards him one by one.
“Hmm…” How many times had they burst with a thump, thump? When the two hidden quests, Destroy the Diva and Destroy the Tentacles, were completed, the number of tentacles rising from under his feet noticeably decreased. However, that did not mean the end of the battle. The ground suddenly began to vibrate violently, and Jun-sang frowned, quickly retreating. Then, something massive burst through the ground where he had been standing.
Jun-sang realized. Even if the tentacles were obvious, why the Diva was also an object of ‘destruction’. From the beginning, the naked women’s forms were not separate living beings. Like the tentacles, they were merely bait to lure and mesmerize other living creatures.
“Krollovagan…” As Jun-sang murmured that name, the massive monstrosity let out a shriek as if in response.
Author’s Note: