SWNOVELXO Chapter 102
The throaty shouts were deafening.
A look of weariness crossed Leverianz’s delicate face.
The army already assembled was more than enough to outnumber the bats, and now they were growing.
Scarlet once said to Leverianz, who looked down on the humans for their flightless, weak, and unable-to-live-alone habits,
‘One is weak, but together they are strong.’
[Individually they are weak, but together they are strong.] [We are the only race without limits set by the gods.]I didn’t realize it at the time, but it stuck with me now.
Once the embarrassment had subsided, Leverianz became expressionless and flapped his black wings as he scanned the dizzying battlefield at his feet.
“Regardless, there is one thing I must do.”‘That fact you’re harassing Mirania. That’s the only thing that matters.’
Leverianz led the bats to fly toward Mirania.
“Whoa! You’re a beast! Die!”A small army of humans spotted him and sent spears flying.
An archer fired an arrow.
“Ouch!”One of the clansmen was hit in the wing and crashed.
“Pathetic!”Even as he cursed, Leverianz spread his wings wide and headed toward the falling clan.
He managed to catch the clan just before they hit the ground, but human soldiers quickly surrounded them.
Giving up on the idea of flying straight up, he looked around at the iron-clad soldiers with an annoyed gaze.
“They’re like a swarm of ants attacking their prey.”Leverianz threw up his hands in disgust.
“Aaahhh!”Three soldiers flew backward, limbs flailing in the face of the intangible force.
“Load up. We’ll cover you.”Protected by his clan, Leverianz stepped forward.
The batsmen pushed forward, their wings moving like hands and feet as they swatted at the humans.
Despite their numbers, the soldiers were unable to stop the batsmen as they strode forward, only able to defend themselves.
They rode through the field like it was their home, and then they reached Mirania.
Thump! Thump!Until it appeared.
Thump—!Bewilderment flashed across Leverianz’s face as he looked up at the vibration beneath his feet.
“What is that monster?”Humans armed with armor and spears were coming from all directions.
Their numbers were staggering, but Leverianz’s gaze was drawn to a giant creature that parted them like the Red Sea.
A massive suit of armor, polished silver.
Where a face should be, it was covered by a helmet, but it was hard to imagine a human face within.
Red lights lit up in Leverianz’s head as the creature, which must have been twice as tall as the five-hundred-year-old oak, raised its fist.
It was almost instinctive to fling himself to the side.
Boom!Where the creature’s fist had landed, there was a pool of blood that one of the Batmen warriors had failed to dodge.
Leverianz’s face contorted in surprise, then anger.
His newest weapon shot out at the creature as it raised its fist once more.
“How dare you question my authority, you iron monster!”At the roar, Malandor, who had been dealing with the humans in the distance, shifted his gaze toward Leverianz and spotted the clashing armored beasts.
His face hardened.
Unlike Leverianz, who had seen the monster for the first time, he knew what it was.
“Bloody hell.” “Turn it off!”The human disappeared in a puff of black smoke from the death aura that sprayed from his nervously waving hand, scattering the Terminators.
Paying no attention to the human that had become his command, Malandor chuckled to himself, both in disbelief and embarrassment.
‘That thing appears here?’
Malandor knew the creature’s identity well.
Mirania had ‘mistaken’ him for someone younger than her for quite some time, but Malandor had lived for so long that it was difficult to count the years, so he could make a rough guess.
He could instinctively, by experience, or by intuition, guess at many things in the world, but he was particularly deeply interested in the nature of the thing.
It was a kind of natural enemy to him.
‘The Titan Golem!’
A magical creature that Adensha had tried to create long ago, but failed due to lack of skill.
It was a creature that even the great wizard Adensha had envisioned in theory, but was unable to realize due to environmental constraints.
Even the sturdy golem Adensha had created was a magical creature so strong that even a knight could not hold a candle to it, and that was a higher-level creature.
In fact, it would be a misnomer to call it a creature.
Adensha’s great magic makes inanimate objects come alive, and humans have labeled them creatures out of respect and awe, not because they are actually breathing creatures.
‘The Titan Golem has no source of life, and my powers do not work well with it. The humans have created something of a headache.’
A creature powered by magic instead of life force, or vitality. That was the identity of the Titan Golem, a magical creature.
It was lifeless, so it could not be called a living creature, and its magic was the opposite of life itself, an absolute power.
‘The best way to destroy it is physically.’
Malandor’s grim expression didn’t change even as he came up with a plan for the Titan Golem.
‘Very inefficient, to say the least.’
The Titan Golem was Adensha’s masterpiece.
It represents the culmination of over a thousand years of human science and technology combined with magic.
It was overkill for something that was meant to stop a race of less than two dozen mere mortals.
Not only that, but it was all in the name of the infamous Great Witch, but it had become a headache nonetheless.
Malandor clicked his tongue as he watched the Titan Golem pound away at the Leverianz and Bat folk warriors.
“Monsters, monsters…” “Hmm?”Malandor tore his gaze away from the Titan Golem.
Unlike Leverianz of the Batfolk, Malandor’s surroundings were suddenly empty of space as the soldiers swarmed over him like ants.
Their eyes were wide with terror as they backed away.
His hands clutched at his spear with such fervor that he could barely keep hold of it.
“You fiend, what are you doing?”There was not a living creature within a three-meter radius of Malandor. Except for what had been alive just moments ago.
He stamped his toe on the skeletons at his feet and shrugged.
“You, you monster!”The soldiers, who had lost dozens of their comrades in the blink of an eye, gritted their teeth, but none dared to step forward.
It was because he was completely exhausted.
Malandor held out his hand. A thick grayish smoke and ominous black smoke leaked from his palm and fingertips.
It was Malandor’s signature aura, Death. The charging soldiers were reduced to dust without a second thought.
Swoosh—When the smoke cleared, all that remained was white bone with dried flesh.
“…!”The sight of their comrade, who had just been bursting with vitality and fighting spirit, disappearing in a puff of strange smoke, unable to utter a sound, stirred the death-defying instinct hidden deep within the human soldiers.
It was the instinct for life, a need that no living creature could resist, a need that preceded honor or glory.
The soldiers were now convulsing like quivering withers.
The most primal instincts of life’s pursuit of life sounded a warning.
Malandor, the head of the Dark Realm, wielding the power of death as the opposite of life, was no longer interested in the humans.
His eyes were searching for Mirania.
‘I must find her and get out of here.’
Malandor blinked his heavy eyelids and thought.
Extreme fatigue weighed down his shoulders. He was in need of rest.
Killing a hundred humans was not a difficult task, but it had been a long time since he had left the Dark Realm, and traveling through the void so many times in such a short period had contributed to his extreme fatigue.
I need to return to the Dark Realm to replenish my drained energy, but that’s not possible right now.
‘Humans don’t care how many of them attack.’
I glanced at the Titan Golem.
The troublesome Titan Golem was being held at bay by the Leverianz’s.
Mirania was also fooling around with the mages.
Once he was sure she was safe, Malandor suddenly realized that Grecan was nowhere in sight.
‘He wouldn’t leave Mirania in this situation. Where is he?’