I soared through the sky.
Cutting the wind.
SHREEEEEEEEEEEE────!!!
At this speed, just moving was a weapon in itself.
Clad in full bone armor and wielding the Spear of Ankelenth, I streaked across the battlefield—and monsters I merely grazed were torn into bloody shreds.
SPLAAASH—!
FWOOSH!
I didn't stop.
Wings still spread; I dove—straight into the ground.
It felt... natural, like water flowing downhill.
RUMMMMMBLE!!!
I burrowed deep.
And began swimming through the earth.
To collapse it from below.
—
['Sand Collapse' has been activated.]
—
As I eroded the foundation from within, the ground began to cave.
KRUMBLEEEEE—!
Just as planned, the earth opened like a hungry maw and began devouring the monsters above.
KRKRKRKRKRKRK—!
Still, I moved.
Once the sinkhole had swallowed its fill, I burst back to the surface—and immediately unleashed Janus' newest ability.
The one earned by consuming Opacum's corrupted flesh.
Slither... hissss...
Bone tendrils sprouted.
One, two, three, four, five...
Dozens.
In moments, Janus and I were encased—like a living pincushion.
And then, the tendrils began glowing green.
As they trembled, the tips cracked open—like a volcano about to erupt.
—
['Death Spores' has been activated.]
—
With a sickening hiss, a torrent of green mist poured from the open bone tendrils.
It felt like it would cover the entire world.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH────!!
The battlefield turned green.
And within the cloud, monsters and beasts melted alive, screaming and vomiting blood.
[GYAAAAAAGH...]
[KH-KHAAARGH!]
I was literally spraying death.
'So that's Opacum's toxin ability.'
Of all its powers, the most devastating had always been the sheer scale of its biological attacks—plagues of rot and radiation hurled with every step.
So, devouring its blood and flesh had naturally granted me something similar.
["Um... Master?"]
"What."
["You doing okay...? They're... they're melting. Alive."]
Esther wasn't exaggerating.
Despite not wearing my gas mask, I didn't feel the slightest effect from the toxins.
'Could I have developed a resistance?'
I vaguely recalled the sensation of a bone needle pricking me earlier—probably Janus' doing.
A kind of... vaccine, maybe?
'That would've been a nightmare otherwise. Lucky break.'
Anyone who manipulates poison must know how to survive it.
Whether Janus had done it out of instinct or calculation didn't matter.
It worked.
Even with my toxin resistance traits and boosted serums, this kind of venom would've overwhelmed me otherwise.
'That reminds me... I should transfer this ability to Horus, too.'
Janus and Horus could share powers like nutrients—feeding each other abilities they gained.
While Ankelenth's full power was still beyond them, everything else was fair game.
'But more importantly...'
There were still things left to do.
But for now, the priority was clear:
End this wave.
No hesitation.
I moved again.
* * *
Lieutenant Colonel Banol couldn't believe his eyes.
When he saw the Rotting Body, Opacum approaching the Red Line, he feared the Red Line might suffer irreparable damage.
So, he did everything in his power to stop it. But in the end, before the Rotting Body, Opacum could even reach the Ark, it collapsed.
KUUUUNG!!
Even witnessing it firsthand, it was hard to believe.
And yet, it had happened.
At the center of the incident, of course, was a very familiar figure.
Carl Marcus.
The very man who had now become crucial to the Ark.
Carl Marcus didn't stop.
Flying straight at the fallen Opacum without hesitation, he began to unleash every ounce of firepower he had.
"That's impossible..."
Who could possibly get that close to a colossal monster like the Rotting Body, Opacum and launch such an onslaught?
To Lieutenant Colonel Banol's knowledge, the number of people in the entire Ark capable of something that reckless could be counted on one hand.
That should have been the case...
ZIIIIING────!
A red flash burst from Carl Marcus's hand, and then explosions large and small began erupting in all directions.
'At this rate, Opacum's going to wake up... does he have a plan to get away?'
Lieutenant Colonel Banol thought Carl Marcus would retreat soon.
But what actually happened was completely different.
'...He's not falling back?'
Carl Marcus didn't retreat.
Instead, he advanced even further toward Opacum.
'Just getting that close to Opacum is enough to get infected... Is he going to be okay?'
It hit him again—Carl Marcus was no longer just an elite mercenary for the Ark.
He was the bridge between Chronos and the Ark.
One could even say he held the position of a walking embassy.
'If something were to happen to Carl Marcus...'
Unfortunately, with the current strength of the Red Line, there was no way they could mount a rescue mission for him.
Most of their firepower had already been expended on the Decaying Flesh Opacum, and special forces units were scrambling just to make up for the shortfall.
'Get back here, now!'
The moment Lieutenant Colonel Banol shouted that inwardly—
───────────!!!
A single flash of light appeared.
And before anyone realized it, the light pierced straight through Opacum's head and body.
Lieutenant Colonel Banol saw it.
He saw that from the moment the light pierced through the Decaying Flesh Opacum, its convulsions ceased.
'No way...'
What that meant was crystal clear.
The Rotting Body, Opacum—the ruler of a once-hopeless region within the Ark—was dead.
"Unbelievable..."
Lieutenant Colonel Banol couldn't hide his shock.
Who was the Rotting Body, Opacum?
A monster that had played a pivotal role in the downfall of the Black Line, and now the absolute ruler of the swamps.
And that creature was now... dead?
And this easily?
To be fair, the Ark had indeed poured a massive amount of firepower into killing Opacum.
But still, this outcome was beyond belief.
And the strangeness didn't end there.
Even after defeating the Rotting Body, Opacum. Carl Marcus didn't leave the area as expected. He remained where he stood.
Banol couldn't make sense of it.
'What is he doing over there?'
He watched Carl Marcus vacantly, trying to figure it out, but there were no answers.
All he could do was watch as, after a brief pause, Carl Marcus activated his jetpack and charged once again into the swarm of monsters.
'Carl Marcus...'
Lieutenant Colonel Banol finally admitted it.
Whatever Carl Marcus's goal was, he had become someone utterly irreplaceable to the Ark in more ways than one.
Soon, Lieutenant Colonel Banol also realized they would need to reassess the reward credits for Carl Marcus's extraordinary achievements.
And then...
Not long after, Lieutenant Colonel Banol witnessed a strange phenomenon on the far side of the horizon.
KUGUGUGUGUGU───!
A Sand Subsidence.
It had begun to occur again near the Ark.
'That's...'
Sand Subsidence near the Ark were never a good sign, yet for some reason, Lieutenant Colonel Banol couldn't shake a strange feeling.
'They're targeting only the monster horde again.'
He had once thought it a coincidence.
But now, a sort of certainty began to settle in.
The subsidence was clearly targeting only beasts and monsters.
He didn't know why, but it was happening.
'And that direction is...'
The direction in which the Sand Subsidence was occurring aligned with the direction Carl Marcus had disappeared toward.
It had to be coincidence, of course—but Lieutenant Colonel Banol didn't feel like it was just coincidence.
And the bizarre phenomena didn't stop there.
'...What is that?'
A faint green smoke appeared on the horizon.
Whatever it was, one thing was certain—it wasn't ordinary smoke.
'Ever since that smoke appeared, no beasts or monsters have emerged from that area.'
That could only mean something was happening within that green smoke.
'Just what the hell is going on...?'
Lately, Lieutenant Colonel Banol felt like the number of inexplicable events had sharply increased.
If there was any silver lining, it was that these strange events seemed to be benefiting the Ark more than harming it.
'But I can't afford to let my guard down.'
After all, the fact remained that Sand Subsidence Phenomena were occurring near the Ark.
The need to track down the Sand Devourer had become paramount, not just for the Red Line, but for the entirety of the Ark.
With that tangled web of thoughts, Lieutenant Colonel Banol's heavy gaze turned to the front lines.
* * *
The battle—or rather, the war—continued.
Having consumed two monsters ranked outside the classification system, Janus had begun displaying overwhelming power on the battlefield.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAA──!!!
He collapsed the terrain, burying monsters alive in the sand, and spewed poison in all directions, melting his foes.
Of course, in the process, my body grew increasingly battered and my stamina dwindled, so I drank every last drop of the life water I'd prepared in my canteen.
["I still don't get how you can chug that stuff like it's delicious..."]
"Want a sip?"
["Ack! G-Get that away from me!"]
Since life water was essentially toxic to monsters, Esther recoiled in horror at the sight of the canteen.
It felt like I had gained yet another way to deal with ghost-types.
Meanwhile,
The battle continued on and on.
My limbs ached from the intensity of movement, but I didn't stop—I kept pushing forward.
'The Ark has already used up so many of its resources. I need to hold on as long as I can.'
Because that was the only way to ensure the Ark's survival.
BOOM───!
KRAAAANG!!!
Amid the relentless explosions, I finally pierced the charging beast's neck with the Spear of Enkelens.
When the last monster collapsed and no more rushed toward me, I realized the time had come.
"Finally..."
I dropped to the ground where I stood.
As the green smoke that had clouded my vision began to clear, the corpses of beasts and monsters around me came into view.
This long, exhausting war was finally at an end.
'I've done everything I needed to do.'
All that remained now was to mop up the remaining beasts and monsters in the Ark.
And then...
Some time passed as I sat there on the ground.
+
[You have cleared Red-10 stage!]
[Contribution points are accumulating.]
[+351,110 Contribution Points]
[You have led the battle to victory with incredible performance! Additional Contribution Points awarded.]
[+150,000 Contribution Points]
[Current Contribution Points: 1,323,964]
+
At long last, the tenth wave—which had felt like it would never end—was finally over.