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HELHEIM SCANS
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[One minute before activation stop]
[Detail Operation Registration: Lower Repair]
[We will provide the necessary materials for external activity to the operation personnel]
As the hull of Avalon gradually slowed down, a dull thud echoed inside.
A series of items fell from the ceiling.A black leather coat and a mask that could cover the entire face.
A small bag.
“No need to explain how to use these, right?”
“Of course.”
The two’ operation personnel’ selected by Noubelmag and the Hero skillfully gathered the materials.
The so-called, 3-piece set.
Masterpieces crafted with the utmost care by the technicians.
The coat was for protection, shielding the body from demonic energy contamination.
Of course, martial artists at a certain level could block demonic energy contamination with their energy, but only to a certain extent.
Going out unprotected in such dense demonic energy contamination would quickly deplete their energy.
This protective clothing made of new materials minimises energy consumption while being more durable than most armour.
Even if their energy was utterly exhausted, it would protect them from contamination for about thirty minutes.
The mask also had the ability to purify demonic energy contamination.
The filter, made from processed sacred stones, filtered and absorbed the demonic energy contamination in the air.
Its role was to minimise the demonic energy contamination accumulating in the body.
Lastly, the bag contained various medicines.
Anti-magic contamination agents, painkillers, energy boosters, stimulants, and so on.
It was packed with medicines to support both combat and recovery.
The most noticeable was a small potion with a black label.
“Five seconds to death.”
It was a suicide potion.
For when they were captured by the demons and faced a fate worse than death.
When they were mortally wounded beyond hope of survival.
Just before their minds broke from enchantment or contamination, etc.
It was a frequently reported item.
[Avalon, activation stop]
Finally.
Pshhhhh-
Avalon stopped with the sound of steam escaping.
As the sound of the power stones and the endless tracks stopped, the inside of the ship became eerily quiet.
Clomp-
Only the loud footsteps of the operation personnel heading towards the exit echoed in the silence.
Just before the hatch opened, they were given a brief moment to say goodbye to their loved ones.
Noubelmag reflexively looked for the black-haired girl.
Fortunately, Nyhill was not far away.
Right next to the exit.
Holding tightly to the dagger he had made for her, she looked at Noubelmag with trembling eyes.
The old man strolled towards her.
“…….”
Watching someone being selected for a dangerous mission was all too familiar to Nyhill.
She had been with her fellow shadwos since she was very young.
Each time the number 10 was called, it went up to 9, then 7, then 5, and eventually, she became number 3.
Looking back, there were those she could call friends among them.
Watching their backs as they left the dormitory at dawn, what did young Nyhill think?
What did she want to do?
Tap-
Nyhill took a step towards the approaching Noubelmag.
Her slow steps gradually quickened until she was running.
Noubelmag looked slightly surprised at the running Nyhill, then extended his arms and embraced her back.
Beyond the mask that covered her entire face.
The wrinkled corners of his eyes narrowed in satisfaction.
“Warm.”
“…Yes.”
“Who can call you a shadow now?”
Thud-
His thick palm tousled the girl’s hair and then left.
“I’ll be back.”
Noubelmag gathered the equipment on the ground and headed for the hatch.
Clomp-
Among the remaining operation personnel was Felson.
He approached his son.
“Ban.”
“Father.”
“Let’s shake hands, son.”
Ban slowly extended his hand.
He, too, was lost in the memories of his childhood.
“Ban, say goodbye to Dad.”
“No, I don’t want to.”
Felson was a knight.
Most of his life was spent on the battlefield, not at home.
At that time, Ban did not understand the situation well and felt a lot of resentment.
A heartless father who left his struggling mother and young self behind for the battlefield.
After his mother died at the hands of Enoch, the resentment grew even stronger.
Because Felson spent even less time at home, wandering the entire continent in search of the dream demon.
So, when he was a little older, Ban would lock himself in his room even on the days Felson went on expeditions.
Ignoring the faint sighs outside the door.
But as time passed, and he himself stood on the battlefield.
Ban finally understood his father.
The beliefs, honor, and duty that weighed on his father’s back at the time… the awkwardness and suffering.
What kind of image did his father hope to see in his son, standing alone at the door?
Ban felt he now knew the answer.
Clench-
Ban grasped Felson’s hand tightly and smiled broadly.
With pride and self-esteem.
“Complete your mission and come back safely!”
In response, Felson looked at Ban quietly before bursting into hearty laughter.
“I thought you were brave because you took after Jenny… but looking at you now, I see you take after me too.”
Then, extending his prosthetic hand, he gently caressed his son’s teary eyes.
“You’re such a crybaby.”
“…Dad.”
“Don’t cry in front of the girl you like.”
Felson clasped his son’s hand with both of his.
“I’ll be back.”
The last was Taylor.
She looked quietly at Felson and Noubelmag exchanging their farewells and smiled faintly.
Her husband, who had been in the support unit of the Dawn Knights, had long since passed away, and her closest squadmate, Iira, had recently fallen in battle.
Taylor exchanged brief eye contact with her fellow knights and headed straight for the hatch.
She was moving with the prosthetic leg Yussi had given her.
“…….”
Just when it seemed she would leave without hesitation, she stopped.
Then she looked at the Hero.
“You.”
“Yes.”
“If you were the real commander, what would you say to me now? You should know, right?”
The Hero nodded.
Taylor opened her mouth briefly but then shook her head and hand simultaneously.
“Never mind. Tell me when you get back.”
“I will.”
Hisssss-
The sound of the hatch opening was heavy and grand.
With the creaking noise of metal, the compressed air escaped with a sharp sound.
Soon, a low, deep vibration shook the hull as the hatch opened.
Before the swirling, sticky air of the magic realm.
Taylor, Felson, and Noubelmag stood in a line.
Felson raised his prosthetic hand to his eyebrow in a salute.
“We are deploying.”
.
.
.
The silhouettes of the three quickly disappeared into the thick black fog.
The hatch closed again, and silence fell for a moment.
The Hero’s stern voice echoed within the hull.
“Thirty minutes.”
“…….”
“We will defend the hull with all our strength.”
Even before he finished speaking, the distant howls of monsters cut through the air.
Sharp, scream-like cries, mixed with pain and anger.
The Demon King’s army, having noticed Avalon’s anomaly, was advancing again.
* * *
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Sss-
Noubelmag fumbled with the punctured fuel tank with his steel-gloved hand.
“It’s literally leaking.”
The steel tentacles, which were part of the mutated buildings, ravaged the fortress's lower part.
While it was hard to damage the upper part, tightly packed with barriers and armor, the lower part was different.
The lower part of the fortress was inevitably vulnerable.
It was concentrated with essential equipment like the mobility device, mana stones, and fuel storage, generating immense heat regularly.
The lower part had to adopt a relatively open structure to cool and ventilate.
Moreover, the complex magic circuits engraved there limited the enchantments for defensive spells.
‘Although I paid some attention to the outer walls…’
In the end, they succumbed to the tentacles’ attacks.
As Noubelmag examined the ruined lower part, his eyes widened.
Drip-drip-drip-
He spotted a point where red, blood-like magical liquid rapidly flowed out.
“Found the exact damage point! I’ll start repairs, cover me!”
“Got it, leave it to us!”
His comrades, in a combat stance on the ground.
Noubelmag’s focus returned to the fuel tank.
It was time to concentrate.
Felson and Taylor’s eyes also grew fiercer.
The distance between the repair point and the ground was about two meters.
Noubelmag was hanging from the ceiling like a cicada, using a metal hook on a pipe, while they stood on the ground.
If they missed even one tentacle emerging from the ground, Noubelmag would be in danger.
“They’re coming!”
Fwoosh-!
A massive amount of energy formed a net from Felson’s body, permeating the ground.
At the same time, Taylor grabbed her great bow and pulled the string with all her might.
In fact, they had already outlined how to deal with the tentacles attacking from underground.
‘It’s the optimal combination.’
First, Felson would detect the entire underground area and locate the tentacles.
“I’ll mark them!”
Next, he would control the energy used in detection to attach it to the tentacles.
There were a great many, but they had already spread out like a net.
For Felson, whose energy control was superhuman, it wasn’t too complicated a task.
“Good!”
Now it was Taylor’s turn.
Called the Divine Archer, she had reached a level where arrows were no longer necessary.
Crunch-!
As her fingers grasped the empty bowstring, mana from within her body condensed into the shape of arrows.
In the blink of an eye, five mana arrows appeared.
Although they seemed intangible, each one was more powerful than most destructive spells.
‘And most importantly, they can pass through obstacles since they don’t have a physical form.’
Whiz-!
Burrowing into the ground, the mana arrows tracked Felson’s mana and intercepted the approaching tentacles.
Taylor’s speed at drawing the bowstring was beyond imagination, and soon over fifty arrows had dug into the ground.
Boom-!
Explosions erupted deep underground.
The ground trembled slightly.
Felson, still pressing his palm to the ground, raised his voice.
“Good, they’re all annhillated.”
“They’ll come again soon, right?”
“Probably.”
“We have to keep this up for thirty minutes, so let’s conserve our energy.”
Felson nodded and stood up in response to Taylor’s words.
From above, where he was focused on repairs, Noubelmag spoke with satisfaction.
“It’s indeed you two.”
Taylor also chuckled.
“Hey, Noubelmag. It seems you like this collaboration of cripples?”
Felson couldn’t help but laugh at her words.
She was right.
Taylor had lost her leg fighting Theo’s undead army in the Great Forest, and Felson had lost his right arm in a battle with Yol three years ago.
Though they had trained as hard as possible with prosthetic limbs, their skills were inevitably far from their prime.
There wasn’t much difference when dealing with small fry, but they would be lacking in battles against great evils like Malekia or Theo in the deepest parts of the demonic realm.
“So, we volunteered.”
“It’s quite touching to become surplus personnel that can die at any time.”
“If we hadn’t been selected, you would’ve complained a lot, but now you’re just saying that.”
“… Don’t hit the mark like that.”
They giggled, looking at each other’s faces.
Taylor, who was once a pirate.
Felson, who came from a noble family.
Their backgrounds were so drastically different that they often clashed in the early days of their enlistment.
But such things had long since become meaningless.
“Here they come again, a lot more than before.”
The tentacles surged again.
The ground had turned into something resembling an enlarged mudflat.
A muddy land filled with holes from which mana seeped.
Traces of the tentacles’ path.
Bang-bang-bang-!
Taylor poured a barrage of arrows around the holes like a bombardment.
Felson also leaped, cutting down any tentacles she missed.
Despite their massive size and speed, the tentacles were sliced through like straws before Felson’s sword.
Wiping her sweat, Taylor looked at Felson.
“Has it been about twenty minutes now?”
“It seems easier than expected.”
“Thank goodness. I would have been upset if I had died alongside a gentleman.”
“I’m not into pirates either.”
“Of course, your type is your student.”
Felson, who had once had a relationship with a student while serving as a visiting professor, had no choice but to shut his mouth.
“…Anyway, I’m glad things are going well. Did I put on airs unnecessarily in front of Ban?”
Their biggest worry was that the Demon King’s army, keeping their distance, would approach Avalon and eventually reach the lower parts.
In that case, they would have to deal with tentacles and monsters simultaneously with their small numbers.
No matter how elite Felson and Taylor were, they wouldn’t be able to withstand such concentrated attacks in this confined space.
‘That was the biggest risk of this operation.’
But, perhaps because those above were holding out well, the Demon King’s army couldn’t easily approach.
Taylor also nodded.
“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like these mutated buildings are under ‘control.’”
“Right. If they were, there would be at least ten more holes in the fuel tank by now.”
‘Not under control.’
This meant no connection existed between the Demon King’s army and these special mutants.
Not all monsters followed the commands of the demonic beings.
For example, the rare monsters lived independently in the demonic realm.
To deal with an entirely new type of monster (if it could even be called that), a process of subjugation with overwhelming mana was necessary.
‘…It seems they don’t have the capacity for that.’
Relieved, Felson raised his voice.
“Noubelmag! How much longer?”
“Ten minutes!”
“Good! Hang in there!”
“…Leave it to me!”
Wiping off the mana fluid covering his face, Noubelmag focused again on the repairs.
His hands moved with precision, wielding shining tools.
The master craftsman’s movements were smooth and confident, filled with years of experience and skill.
“…Stop leaking, you bastards.”
He whispered, intensifying his concentration.
The damage to the lower part had been somewhat anticipated.
He had prepared a special sealant to stop the flow of the mana fluid.
This sealant would react with the mana fluid to form a stronger bond.
Clang-!
He attached metal plates around the area and carefully applied the sealant to the holes.
Sizzle-
Sparks flew as the sealant reacted with the mana fluid.
Finally, the flow of mana fluid began to decrease, and the old man’s expression brightened.
“…Five minutes!”
Clang-!
Noubelmag’s hammering hand gradually slowed.
“Five minutes left.”
…There was no response.
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HELHEIM SCANS
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