Free Web NovelChapter 373: Survivor (2)
The survivors hurriedly tore into the meat and bread.
Yoo Honbi felt as if her heart was breaking at the sight of her homeland's people reduced to skin and bones.
When the meal settled down somewhat, she called the blood-drenched elder.
"Just how did it end up like this. Are you truly saying you are all that is left of the resistance?"
"……My Lord, at first we waged a desperate resistance, but the Outer God's creations were far too overwhelming."
The elder answered, swallowing tears of blood.
The earth rotted away, and all drinking water and food were contaminated. No matter how outstanding one's martial arts are, if they cannot eat, they die.
Most martial artists starved to death like that or were hunted like beasts by monsters in a famished state.
"Then where on earth were you heading just now? You wouldn't have been wandering aimlessly in this deadly land."
"That is…… we heard a rumor. A rumor that somewhere on this destroyed planet, a gathering place where humans live together still remains."
Yoo Honbi's head tilted.
"A human gathering place?"
"Yes. We heard there is uncontaminated drinking water and food there, and a sanctuary that even the Outer God's creations cannot easily approach."
Yoo Honbi's brow furrowed.
According to her common sense, it was an utterly impossible thing.
99% of this planet was devoured by the energy of the Outer God.
Avoiding the eyes of that terrible orc army and the apostle, a large-scale survivor gathering place is being maintained?
"Do you…… believe that?"
The elder smiled bitterly.
"Would we have completely believed it? We knew there was a high probability that nine times out of ten it was a trap they dug, or a false rumor. However…… whether we starve to death like this, or die while going there, it was the same either way."
The old man's voice trembled finely.
"With the feeling of trying to grab even the last rotten rope…… we were moving our steps relying solely on that single hope."
It was a despairing answer.
The desperation of the people walking the land of death because they had nowhere else to lean on, even knowing it was a trap.
Yoo Honbi gritted her teeth.
"Enough. You don't need to risk your lives on such false rumors anymore."
She pulled out a bundle of faintly glowing certificates from her embrace. They were the massive amount of sponsorship tickets and dimensional transfer tickets she had tenaciously saved up in Heavenly City District 1.
"I will send you to a safe place first. That place will be unfamiliar and rough, but it will be hundreds of times better than this hell at least. Now, everyone grab this and……."
Paat―!
It was the moment she injected mana to transfer the survivors to the Heavenly City.
[Warning! Space is extremely unstable due to an out-of-standard dimensional collision and the energy of the Outer God!]
[Due to the dimensional turbulence phenomenon, dimensional transfer and return of all targets are forcibly restricted for one week!]
"……!"
The light of the certificates crumbled and faded away in vain.
"Wh-what is this……."
The flustered Yoo Honbi blew in massive demonic energy again, but the result was the same. Only the system's bright red warning window ruthlessly hovered in the empty air.
"I told you earlier."
Kim Minwoo, who had been watching with his arms crossed from behind, sneered.
"That the dimension is twisted so no one can leave for a week. It's a spatial penalty applied to all lifeforms that have set foot on this planet."
"……Damn it!"
Yoo Honbi clenched her fist tightly.
She finally met her homeland's people, but she couldn't even evacuate them to the safe Heavenly City right away.
This meant they had to endure for a week with these frail survivors in this terrible debuff zone, avoiding the Outer God's army that could swarm in at any moment.
'This is driving me crazy.'
Enemies on all sides.
It was when nervousness clouded Yoo Honbi's pupils.
Kim Minwoo rubbed his chin and asked the elder.
"That neighborhood where you said humans gather. Which direction is it?"
"Uh? Th-that's, I heard it's a grand canyon about two days away to the northwest, but……."
Yoo Honbi turned her head and glared sharply at Kim Minwoo.
"Why are you asking about that place? Didn't I just say with my own mouth that there's a high probability it's a trap."
"Whether it's a trap or not, we have to check. We also need a massive base camp to hide in for a week."
The corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth drew an arc.
"And if it's really a trap there, we can just kill them all."
"……It's troublesome to draw attention."
"We've already drawn it anyway. While killing the orcs. And even if it's a trap, isn't it a good thing for you?"
"……?"
"It seems you want to save people. If it's a large-scale gathering place, at least some survivors would remain. Since they would be used as bait at least."
At those words, Yoo Honbi's pupils trembled minutely.
Bait. It was a cruel word, but in this terrible Outer God's territory, there was no more reasonable deduction than that.
What if the Outer God's creations dug a trap to gather the rat-like survivors left on the destroyed planet into one place?
Naturally, they would need bait to make that trap look real.
In other words, the probability was overwhelmingly high that her homeland's people, not yet devoured, were living and breathing in that grand canyon.
"……You have a point."
Yoo Honbi affirmed, biting her lower lip tightly.
Hesitation disappeared from her eyes.
At that time, the elder urgently intervened.
"That place is a distance that requires two full days of walking without rest even at the pace of an adult male. As you can see, we have many injured and also children. At this speed, it will be hard to arrive even if it takes five days. If our tails get stepped on by monsters in the meantime……."
The elder's words were realistic.
Right now, this group of barely 100 survivors was so physically exhausted that it wouldn't be strange if they collapsed on the spot.
However, Kim Minwoo snorted.
"Who said we're walking?"
"Yes?"
Kim Minwoo flicked his fingers toward the empty air.
Kugugugugung―!
The blood-red sky tore apart, and a massive bone dragon resembling a great mountain revealed its overwhelming majesty. Even though it was a deadly land heavily layered with the energy of the Outer God, Kim Minwoo's mana, having absorbed the divinity of the Death Lord, had no restrictions in summoning the ancient dragon.
"Hi, hiiiiik!"
"D-dragon! A dragon made of bones!"
The startled martial artists turned pale and plopped down on the ground. No matter how much they were martial artists who commanded the world, in the face of the deathly energy spewed by the overwhelming undead dragon, they were merely ordinary humans.
"Get on. I'll shoot you straight to the northwestern grand canyon on a direct flight."
Kim Minwoo pointed to Gleipnir's broad back with his chin. When the martial artists trembled and only looked at Yoo Honbi's expression, Yoo Honbi clicked her tongue and took the lead.
"Get on. It may look hideous, but it's quite a sturdy one."
Only after the Heavenly Demon's guarantee was given did the martial artists hesitantly begin to climb onto Gleipnir's back.
"Set off."
―Keurwaaaaa!
Gleipnir flapped its massive bone wings vigorously. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
As if carrying a hundred people was no burden at all, the massive bone dragon soared toward the northwest, tearing through the blood-red sky where the Outer God's energy stuck viscously in a single breath.
Thanks to Merhen's protective barrier, there was no strain on the passengers despite the immense speed.
The scenery of the martial arts dimension looking down from the sky was truly gruesome.
Endlessly continuing bone mounds and bizarrely soaring mucus tentacle forests. The massive pavilions that would have once boasted the majesty of the Nine Great Factions and One Union and the Five Great Families were all destroyed, turning into breeding grounds where the Outer God's creations built their nests.
Blood seeped from Yoo Honbi's two fists as she looked down at that tragedy.
'Wait. I will definitely, definitely repay this debt.'
About an hour had passed since they flew across the blood-red sky like that.
―Kkuu!
Hayangi, who was sitting on Kim Minwoo's shoulder, turned its head sharply and flapped its wings.
"Looks like we're here."
Kim Minwoo directed his gaze downward.
Far away, a massive grand canyon created by the earth splitting wide open entered his eyes.
"Uh……? Look over there!"
The elder riding on Gleipnir's back shouted, pointing down the canyon.
The deepest part of the canyon.
Surprisingly, a human encampment built with decent wooden palisades and watchtowers remained in an intact form there. There were even sights of humans standing guard on top of the watchtowers.
"It was real! A gathering place of humans really remained!"
"Oh heavens! You have not abandoned us!"
The survivors burst into cheers and wailed.
Everyone shed tears of relief at the fact that the last rope actually existed.
However…….
"……."
"……."
The faces of Kim Minwoo and Yoo Honbi, who had actually led them here, were coldly stiff.
'It stinks.'
Kim Minwoo's eyes narrowed.
To the eyes of ordinary martial artists, it might just look like a peaceful survivor encampment, but it was different to the eyes of Kim Minwoo, who possessed the divinity of the Death Lord.
A massive purple fog surrounding the encampment in a circle. It was closer to a kind of food preservation barrier, like covering meat placed on a cutting board so it wouldn't rot.
"Does that look like an intact sanctuary to your eyes?"
Yoo Honbi snapped coldly toward the elder.
The Heavenly Demon's sensory perception was also accurately reading the overwhelming bloody stench and disgusting energy wafting from there.
"Yes? My Lord, what does that……."
"That is a slaughterhouse."
At Yoo Honbi's chilling sentence, the survivors' cheers stopped as if poured with cold water.
Kim Minwoo let out a pishik laugh and casually rested Hell Rhapsody on his shoulder with a tuk.
"They put quite a lot of effort into it for a trap. Look at them setting up wooden palisades and even watchtowers to gather even one more person."
Those humans standing on the watchtowers probably weren't normal humans either.
It was highly probable that they were puppets controlled by the Outer God's energy or shells forged from hallucinations.
However, the corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth rather curled up deeply.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Since we needed a base camp to eat and hole up in anyway."
[Preparing skill, Descent (EX)!]
"If it's a house with an owner, I should knock first to tell them to empty the room."
Kim Minwoo threw his body straight into the empty air from Gleipnir's back.
Toward the massive slaughterhouse acting out a fake peace below the canyon. The pitch-black divinity of death began to lunge like a thunderbolt.
