Chapter 309 : The Beginning of the Monster Wave
Chapter 309: The Beginning of the Monster Wave
Rain poured relentlessly.
My nose had long since grown accustomed to the unidentified, acrid stench, to the point that I could no longer distinguish what it even smelled like.
Raindrops fell onto my head before running down my back, chilling my entire body.
Despite it being summer, steam slowly rose from my shoulders due to the characteristic body heat generated by an Adapter.
[Airi, are you okay?]
[……Yeah.]
Airi answered her classmate's question in a heavy voice.
She stood in formation with a shield strapped to her back and a shotgun in one hand.
A scene much like one she had witnessed before unfolded before her eyes.
The massive wall protecting the city.
The dilapidated facilities of E Sector.
The Railgun turrets lined up along the top of the wall.
Of course, they were as quiet as the grave for now.
However, anyone with keen observation would immediately notice what was different today.
‘All the turrets are facing the same direction...’
Normally, each turret pointed toward a different area outside the city.
But today, like predators that had spotted prey in the distance, every single one had turned in exactly the same direction.
It meant the sensors linked to the turrets had detected hostile signals.
The Catastrophe was coming.
She had already been standing inside the wall in the pouring rain for two hours.
An Adapter's body would not tire from something like this.
Mental exhaustion, however, was another matter.
Standing in the same place, endlessly waiting behind a wall where the other side couldn't even be seen, wondering when the monsters would finally arrive...
It exhausted the mind far sooner than the body.
Airi wasn't the only one growing tired.
The other students were also becoming restless from the endless waiting.
Those who had experienced the Titan invasion last year feared another disaster of that scale.
Those with strong nerves who enjoyed fighting could barely contain their impatience.
Others chatted casually over the radio with their friends, wondering whether a Monster Wave was really going to happen at all.
Airi belonged to the first group.
The memories engraved into her mind made her instinctively shrink.
To be honest...
More than the monsters...
She was afraid of the other students standing behind her in formation, as though protecting her back.
-What if they shoot me from behind?
-What if they abandon me and run?
-What if they harbor ill intentions because I'm from the Fallen...!
‘No... They wouldn't.’
Shake. Shake.
Airi vigorously shook her head, forcing away those ominous thoughts.
Over the past year, she had experienced many things.
The lonely stray dog that once stood alone against the world had disappeared.
She no longer needed to be hated by everyone and spend her life running from both monsters and humans.
‘It's a little embarrassing to admit... but... I-I even have a fan club now...’
It was difficult to say aloud, but as Student Council President, her popularity wasn't bad.
At this point, there wouldn't be anyone who would stab her in the back simply because of where she came from.
‘If I'm going to be of help to the Chairman...’
‘I need to overcome even this kind of crisis with ease.’
Airi steeled herself once more.
How much time had passed?
At last...
The alarm sounded.
Woooooooooooooong—!
Together with the Code Red siren...
Something enormous slowly rose along the roadway separating E Sector from D Sector.
It was a gigantic wall.
It couldn't compare to the city's outer defensive wall, but it was still thick and sturdy.
A final defensive line built in case E Sector fell and monsters invaded the city.
It was a structure that hadn't properly been used for decades.
Its activation alone testified to the severity of the current situation.
At that moment...
A deafening roar echoed through the sky.
She frowned before looking upward.
A squadron of unmanned fighter aircraft tore through the rain at tremendous speed as they flew beyond the wall.
Several seconds later...
The sound of distant fireworks echoed across the horizon.
No.
It wasn't fireworks.
It was the sound announcing the beginning of war.
Murmur. Murmur.
The nervous students began talking among themselves, but their voices were soon drowned out by another sound.
Once again, meteor-like objects streaked across the sky, trailing flames as they all flew westward in formation.
They were probably ballistic missiles launched by the City Defense Force.
Watching them...
Someone muttered.
Their voice pierced through the rain, the sonic booms of fighter jets and missiles, and the students' chatter.
As though someone were delivering a sentence.
“It's begun...!”
He was right.
Kwooooooooom—!
An indescribable roar ripped through their ears.
The Railgun batteries atop the wall finally erupted in earnest.
Fifty-millimeter shells, traveling far faster than the speed of sound, began bombarding enemies still hidden beyond the horizon.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The earth trembled.
The sky shook.
The air tore apart.
Even sound itself disappeared.
The rain intensified further until visibility became almost nonexistent.
Then the students received their orders.
[This is Major Reynolds, commanding the battlefield. Effective immediately, under the New Valhalla City Security Act, all of you have been conscripted and will operate under the command of the City Defense Force. As previously announced, you will divide into your assigned platoons and carry out regional defense operations—]
Unlike last time...
The field commander sounded quite competent.
But none of his words reached Airi's ears.
Her attention remained fixed on the strange phenomenon unfolding beyond the wall.
Red.
Blue.
Yellow.
Unknown flames and shockwaves repeatedly slammed against the wall.
Each impact violently altered the direction of the rain.
Far in the distance, she could also see soldiers in Powered Armor bearing Militech's emblem heading beyond the wall.
Countless pieces of cutting-edge equipment loaded onto trucks began moving outside the city.
Beside them, Militech's highest-ranking Adapter agents leaped between buildings, surveying the battlefield.
As her attention drifted toward that sight...
[Airi! Airi Alicebell! Respond!]
A voice sharply calling her name.
Startled, Airi hurriedly answered the transmission.
[Y-Yes! Airi Alicebell speaking!]
[Why didn't you answer immediately!? Does this look like a joke to you!?]
[N-No, sir! I'm sorry!]
[Forget it! Move to your assigned platoon immediately! Get on the truck and move out!]
[Y-Yes, sir!]
Without even understanding what was happening, Airi ran forward and climbed aboard a truck.
The truck, carrying her and more than a dozen other students, immediately began driving along the defensive wall.
As it advanced...
The Railgun batteries atop the wall fired even more fiercely, apparently because the Mystics had drawn closer.
She could even see artillery shells streaking overhead.
Along the way...
The truck repeatedly stopped to drop students off at different locations.
Airi didn't disembark until nearly thirty minutes had passed.
She was the very last one.
“This is...?”
Her assigned location was a supply warehouse in the northern part of the city.
Several students stood in the middle of the loading area, looking around in confusion.
Nearby, androids busily carried supplies without sparing the students so much as a glance.
...Something felt wrong.
Tilting her head, Airi hurried over to the group.
The moment they recognized her, they greeted her enthusiastically.
“Ah, Student Council President! Perfect timing!”
“Please help us!”
“Y-Yes...?”
Airi blinked in confusion.
“Help you?”
“What are all of you doing just standing around here?”
“We don't know either!”
“They suddenly dropped us off here and told us to wait without explaining anything.”
“The field commander isn't here, and the androids completely ignore us, probably because of their programming...”
“Hasn't the City Defense Force sent any soldiers?”
“Not a single one.”
“No communication either.”
“Maybe there was some kind of administrative error...”
Then...
Kwooooooooom—!
A sudden explosion.
It came from the section where the warehouse bordered the defensive wall.
A shower of debris erupted from the wall, and the shockwave knocked the students off balance.
“W-What was that!?”
“Have the monsters already reached this far!?”
True to their training, everyone quickly regained their footing and assessed the situation.
Soon enough...
They realized what had caused the explosion.
-It's open! We finally broke through!
-Damn city bastards! You think only you get to survive!?
-Hell no!
A filthy crowd came flooding through the breach in the shattered wall.
One glance at their clothes and accents made it obvious.
They weren't city residents.
Every single one of them came from the Fallen.
Airi immediately understood what they had done.
“You lunatics!!”
They had blown apart the thinnest section of the wall with homemade explosives.
Most likely, once Code Red had been declared, every route into the city had been sealed.
They had simply been trying to get inside the wall to escape the monsters.
She understood that much.
Airi herself had come from the Fallen.
She could sympathize with their feelings.
If anything...
She was furious at the City Defense Force for ruthlessly sealing every entrance despite knowing full well there were still countless people outside the wall.
They were people too.
Of course they feared monsters.
Of course they feared death.
They were merely struggling to survive.
From their perspective, the best solution they could find had been...
"No matter what, break through the wall and get inside."
That much she understood.
The problem was...
“T-There...!”
One student pointed toward the breach.
It was too far away for an ordinary person to see.
But for an Adapter...
The wavering figures in the distance were unmistakably clear.
“Demons...!”
And not low-ranking Demons like Imps.
A massive force of at least middle- and upper-ranking Demons was advancing.
The Railgun turrets relentlessly bombarded them, but the attacks hardly seemed effective.
After all...
Defeating Demons wasn't as simple as firing artillery.
One needed specific materials or had to perform ritual procedures before attacks could truly harm them.
“You insane bastards!”
“The Demons are coming, and you blew up the wall!?”
“What are you going to do if they get inside!?”
“We have to seal the breach right now!”
“I'm sure some of those Fallen people have already been cursed!”
That was the Demons' way.
They planted seeds or magic inside people's bodies...
Then detonated them at the most devastating moment possible.
To begin with...
If Demons of that caliber had already reached this distance...
There was no way lower-ranking Demons hadn't entered the Fallen district first.
They had undoubtedly done something underhanded and despicable to the residents.
Some unknown magic capable of devastating the entire battlefield.
In other words...
Every single Fallen resident had become a living bomb.
One that would only harm their own side.
Then someone spoke.
“......We have to kill every one of them.”