Chapter 727: Traitor (2)

FWAAAAASH!

The fierce battle taking place over the city.

An overwhelming mass of gray-black energy erupted in every direction.

It was an attack powerful enough that any ordinary living creature would be annihilated just by existing near it.

An endlessly pure energy of “death” burst out with enough force to destroy everything, but.

Crack......

Even when that attack grazed them.

The bodies of the zombies fighting in the sky did not suffer any major wounds.

-Minor loss.

The owner of the gray-black energy.

The five zombies opposing the prince.

-The occurrence of loss itself is a major disadvantage. Approach more carefully.

They had originally been individuals who had achieved the highest level of evolution among their own kind.

Powerful evolved forms ranked within the top ten among zombies.

On top of that, right now, they had used some method to strengthen that power to an extreme degree.

'A force almost too valuable for the current point in time.'

According to the law engraved in their genes.

It would have been normal for individuals strengthened to their level not to appear yet.

Because the evolution of the parasites called zombies in this land...... the Parasites, had been designed extremely systematically.

But now.

They had been reborn as individuals beyond the design engraved in their genes for one single reason.

-Eliminate the traitor.

A traitor that had appeared among their own kind.

To eliminate those beings who should not have existed in the first place.

To begin with.

They were nothing but insects that followed only the commands engraved in their genes.

The very fact that something called a traitor had appeared among them was something that should not have happened in the first place.

Furthermore.

-Strong.

At this point in time, it should have been normal for not even individuals of their own level to appear.

For some reason, that traitor possessed a strangely high level of strength.

And even.

-Even now.

They had been strengthened in order to eliminate that traitor.

Despite being a force expected to be more than sufficient.

The five of them still could not easily settle the matter.

CRUNCH!

The enormous energy continued to whirl and tear at the five of them.

The five zombies, too.

Were succeeding in gradually shaving away that gray-black energy, but.

-......Cause of strength. Impossible to determine.

-Impossible-to-determine power. Impossible to predict.

To begin with.

It was an existence that should normally have been incapable of possessing that level of power.

Since it possessed such power, it would not be strange for there to be more variables they could not predict.

-Eliminate as quickly as possible.

That was why.

They poured attacks toward that energy even faster.

An enemy that might possess some unknown variable.

If so, eliminating it before that variable appeared was the best option.

PAAAAANG.

CRUNCH!

Like that.

The fierce battle, where it would not be strange no matter which side won, continued on.

But then, at one moment.

Sssrk......

-!

The traitor fighting them.

A strange change occurred in the prince’s energy.

-Variable?

The five zombies sensed the change in its presence and strengthened their vigilance.

They had already assumed there would be variables they could not predict.

At that sudden change, they predicted that one of those variables was about to emerge.

However.

What happened after that...... was completely different from what they had expected.

FWAAAAASH!!!

Powerful energy burst out.

It was an attack that would inflict a major critical wound even on the five of them if it struck them directly.

However...... the place that energy headed toward was not the direction where the five of them were.

It was farther below.

The city on the ground.

-Again, our kin.

Toward their kin.

Who were fighting there.

-......Why?

By that powerful force.

An enormous number of their kin vanished.

However.

That part did not have a major effect on them.

This was an attack they had carried out knowing that many of their kin would die anyway.

The death of their kin did not stir their minds in the slightest.

Instead, what rose was doubt.

Why, here, had it launched an attack at a completely unrelated place?

And.......

-Opportunity.

They did not know why it had done such a thing.

But there was only the certainty that they could aim for the enormous opening created by that attack.

***

“What......!”

The battle taking place in the sky.

Although that battle was becoming one where those five were gradually shaving away the prince’s power as time passed.

The prince’s side still seemed to hold a slight advantage.

However.

'What just happened.'

In that crucial battle.

The prince suddenly did something that had absolutely nothing to do with that fight.

When even attacking those five would not have been enough, he had projected an attack toward the ground.

And.

Those five zombies were not foolish enough to miss the opening created by that.

Ripple......!

As the zombies’ attacks continued.

The enormous gray-black energy began to ripple unstably.

'The energy that had been stable became unstable in an instant.'

It had already been a fierce battle.

In that situation, even the smallest opening would act fatally.

The flow of the battle, which had seemed favorable to the prince, was reversed in an instant.

And.

That guy would not have been unaware that this situation would happen.

Even so, he had fired that attack toward the ground.

The change created by that attack was.......

'The building where the hostages were.'

The wave of zombies gathering around that building.

The army of zombies that had seemed about to sink their teeth into the hostages at any moment had been wiped out.

'......I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but!'

PAK!

The moment I realized that fact, I launched myself forward.

Originally.

No matter how fast I ran, it would have been impossible for me to arrive before those zombies harmed the hostages.

The monsters had already reached right in front of the building, and the awakened inside had been firing attacks to resist them.

But.

The zombies that had reached the area near that building had disappeared.

Since their numbers were enormous, that empty space would probably be filled again quickly.

-Krrk.......

“U-Uwaaaaaah......!”

In reality.

Other zombies instantly filled the gap that had disappeared because of the prince’s attack.

And tried to attack the awakened inside the building, but.

Slash—

The time it took for that attack to reach them.

Was very slightly slower than the time it took me to arrive.

-Human.

-A human is with the traitor.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve already heard that more than five times.”

The monsters rushed at me while spitting out the now-familiar sound.

I cut those monsters down and shouted toward the humans behind me.

“Run!”

“W-Who are you...... no, more importantly, run where.......”

“The kitchen knives will guide you where to run. So.......”

However.

-Krrk.......

The direction I had come from...... in other words.

The path leading toward where the unit members were.

Was being filled with zombies.

They probably had not blocked the route on purpose.

An enemy that had suddenly appeared.

In other words, it was probably only that monsters had filled even the path I had come from as a result of swarming in to surround me from every direction.

'There are a lot.'

I frowned as I thought that.

I had already fought those zombies several times.

But what I had fought so far had only ever been small numbers.

They had only been a portion of the zombie horde that had split into multiple branches while digging into the city.

But these were different.

'Are these the ones that could be called the main force?'

The main body of that enormous corpse tidal wave.

There were far too many of them to deal with lightly and move on.

Slash—

CRUNCH.

I repeated cutting and crushing them.

But there was no end in sight to their numbers.

“It might’ve been better if Minjae had come instead......!”

My job was chef.

I had built my strength through my own methods, and by now, I thought there was nowhere I would go and simply get beaten.

But as a chef, a production class, I still had no proper combat skills.

If I had been a mage instead, I could have gotten results with wide-area skills, but I had no technique capable of removing many enemies at once.

'Even if I try to link up with the place where the unit members are, the rear has already been occupied. It’ll be hard to break through with [Assistant Chefs] alone.'

If it were one or two, maybe.

But it would not be easy to break through that many monsters with only [Assistant Chefs] and send the hostages to where the unit members were.

Some of the unit members were probably following me.

But only some.

Most of them would already be leaving the city while protecting the hostages we had already rescued, so it would also take time for the remaining handful of unit members to break through those monsters and reach this side.

'They’re dying the moment they touch me, but they keep advancing without fear.'

If they had been ordinary monsters instead.

The moment they realized they would die the instant they approached me, their momentum would have weakened, and I could have used that.

But those bastards were different.

-Strong.

-Collaborator of the traitors. Must eliminate.

Even though they must have known they would die.

They rushed toward me without the slightest hesitation.

'Do I have to protect those awakened until the unit members arrive?'

The enemies were swarming in from every direction.

If there had been only one entrance, I would have been confident I could block it somehow and not let them break through.

But I was not confident I could kill every monster swarming toward those hostages from every direction without any casualties.

'A dish I can use.......'

Like that.

While I was worrying about what I should do.

“I, I will.......”

“......!?”

FWAAAAASH, and.

A huge red flash blazed and crossed the battlefield.

Thud, thud, thud......

Dozens of evolved zombies were sliced to pieces in an instant and collapsed to the ground.

And standing on top of the pile of fallen corpses.

“I will...... handle, this.”

“You......?”

“I said...... it.”

Was one shabby-looking goblin.

Holding a crude stone dagger, it moved forward and spoke.

“Promise...... keep.”

“.......”

“The prince...... guaranteed. The hostages’...... safety. In, that case.”

FWAAASH!

“I will...... keep it.”

When that goblin chancellor swung its blade again.

Sword energy shot out from that blade and cut down the enemies.

When I had seen it from far away before, I had only thought it was an impressive strike.

But seeing it from up close, I could tell.

'It’s practically a sword demon.......'

That was not sword energy that was strong only in raw power.

An incredible level of principle was contained in that lightly swung blade.

If judging only by the realization contained within it, it was enough to make me think of the martial artists of that Thousand Mountain Martial Hall.

The martial artists of the martial hall did not use daggers, so for someone who used the same kind of dagger, this bastard would be more worth using as a reference.

“I, I will...... handle, this. Take...... humans, and go.”

“Take them and go?”

At those words.

Even while cutting down the zombies, I asked in confusion.

“Weren’t you planning to use those hostages to make a deal with us?”

“Yes.”

“And yet you’re saying we can take them?”

“You...... misunderstand.”

It continued to swing its knife as it spoke.

“Not...... that you may take them.”

“......?”

“They...... were people who could go...... wherever they wanted, from the beginning.”

People who could go wherever they wanted......?

“What we tried to trade...... was their location. Hide it...... from you, and use it as...... a condition for a deal.”

“What is that supposed to—”

“But. Somehow...... you found out. Then. It has no meaning.”

I almost wondered what kind of nonsense it was spouting, so hard to understand......

But unfortunately.

There was one part that I could guess at, enough that I could not treat it as pure nonsense.

'Those hostages...... said they were locked up, but they weren’t bound by anything.'

The reason they had not escaped was not because they were physically restrained.

Whenever they tried to go outside, they felt those zombies’ gazes, and because of that fear, they could not go far.

In practice, there had been nothing actually locking them in, and there had even been cases where someone had gone outside the building and come back safely.

I had wondered about it from the moment I heard that story, but.......

“You...... never locked them up in the first place.”

“If, we meant to lock...... them up, when you took them, I would have stopped...... you.”

Just as I had suspected.

They had only brought the hostages scattered across various places and shoved them into one building.

They had not “locked them up.”