The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 176

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Diver VIII

"Whaaaa?"

A scream echoed through the operations control room.

The main contributor to the scream was Seo Gyu. Unfortunately, he was still bent over, turning his life into a game of pinball.

Even disregarding such collateral damage, the gravitational acceleration that struck the Ark fleet was terrifying.

"Brother! The civilians won't hold out!"

Lee Hayul shouted as if she were screaming. More precisely, it was the voice of the maid who was kneeling beside her.

"They'll burst! Their whole bodies!"

"Got it!"

I immediately summoned my aura.

It felt as if the once seemingly bottomless energy reservoir had been halved instantly. It was a massive expenditure even for me, who prided myself on being an aura monster.

"If this continues, I won't have enough ammunition left to deal with Leviathan!"

In the end, it was impossible to protect all the civilians with just my aura. I urgently and carefully redistributed the auras being sent from the awakened ones on the twelve arks.

Most of the civilians had already fainted due to the intense movements of Leviathan.

There was no other choice. To lure the 'Great Disaster' monster precisely to Busan, having as many people as possible on the arks was necessary.

The most thriving bastion of humanity in East Asia at present.

- Grrrrrrrk!

As if proclaiming judgment on humanity's arrogance, the mythic Tyrant Dragon rampaged even more violently.

[Doctor Jang! The dragon is descending toward the sea surface again!]

Woo-woo-woo-woo!

The ark shook violently.

It was simply a phenomenon of falling from above to below.

Even so, the excessive drop and the excessive speed were, in themselves, acts of great violence. The ark trembled as if it were a piece of driftwood in the Pacific.

The sky and clouds outside the operation control room window flashed past like a revolving lantern in the blink of an eye.

We were plummeting.

From the sky back into the sea.

"Saintess! Let me know the timing!"

[Okay!]

Even the voice of the saintess, who could freely use time stop, carried urgency.

[Three seconds, two seconds, one―― careful!]

There was an impact.

Even though I squeezed out my aura to protect the ship as much as possible just before the collision with the water, I couldn’t completely neutralize the terrifying shock.

"Hic."

"……!"

Members in the operations control room started fainting one after another. Sim Aryeon and Noah, whose aura proficiency lagged behind the others, lost consciousness.

There was no need to mention the other containment zones. The awakened ones with immature auras foamed at the mouth and experienced blackouts one after another.

Leviathan had simply 'jumped once high into the air' like a dolphin and then 'splashed back' into the sea.

Even so, nearly half of the awakened ones on the ark were knocked out of the fight.

"Was it this intense! The monster of the Great Disaster!"

I clenched my teeth. The screams and the scent of blood from the arks were all being picked up by my heightened senses.

"Ah――ah――aaa――."

Tang Seorin's song spread.

It was an unplanned fifth verse.

Before the operation, we had agreed to only sing up to the fourth verse, but recognizing the enemy's immense power, Tang Seorin began to push herself.

The melody reinforced the strength of the ark itself. Thanks to that, the oppressive weight that my aura had been bearing was greatly alleviated.

- Grrrrrrrk!

However, the violence exerted by Leviathan wasn't simply due to its overwhelmingly massive body.

Pogrrrrr-.

Not long after Leviathan plunged into the sea, water began to flood into the operations control room.

It was another weapon Leviathan originally possessed, striking again.

"Ugh. Hayul!"

"Yes!"

Hayul quickly unbuckled her belt and grabbed a bucket. Then she started scooping out water.

"……! ……!"

Leviathan wasn’t swimming calmly at 30 knots during this time.

Even now, tens of thousands of puppet threads were strangling Leviathan's main body.

Its leather and flesh were being torn away, causing it to thrash in pain and rage. The waves rising from its struggles easily formed 20-meter-high tsunamis, devastating the city of Busan.

The most intact city in East Asia (where more than 80% of the residential structures were shantytowns) was being thoroughly cleaned out.

Lee Hayul stumbled several times inside the ship. She desperately swung the bucket while gulping down water.

"I'll help."

Tak.

Koyori grabbed Hayul's hand.

"……!"

"Heave-ho, heave-ho."

Instinctively, Hayul tried to pull her hand away, but Koyori's grip seemed stronger than expected. Unfazed, Koyori continued to move the bucket together.

Hayul looked at me.

What should I do, brother? Her eyes asked.

I nodded. Right now, we needed to borrow both the hands of cats and Koyori's.

"Saintess! How are the other areas?"

[They're fine. I'm currently controlling the constellations and giving detailed instructions. Don't worry about the other containment zones right now! Doctor Jang!]

That's right.

Even though situations that were nearly impossible for humans to endure kept coming at us, there was no room for crying or screaming. After all, hadn't the world always been harsh to us?

I was not an omnipotent time traveler. Originally, I was merely a supporter who took on the tasks Old Scho should have handled.

That's why I had gone through countless trials and errors to find a strategy to cultivate the 'party members.'

In this operation, the typhoon hunt, there was hardly anyone useless. (The reason I said 'hardly' was because of Seo Gyu, who was still unconscious and floating on the surface.)

[The water levels in all containment zones are stabilizing.]

[No drownings.]

[Some people are contaminated by water parasites, but it's okay. The awakened ones around them are handling it.]

[Those who lost consciousness due to the earlier impact with the water are quickly regaining their senses... Ah. Doctor Jang, the dragon is about to rise again!]

I cursed under my breath. Was this tyrant dragon planning to keep repeating this seesawing?

"It's not like I think I'll lose if this turns into a long battle."

The problem was the casualties on our side.

The 60,000 people aboard the Ark fleet weren’t just a '60,000' number that could be easily quantified.

The residents most strongly influenced by the National Highway Authority and the dominion of the Three Thousand Worlds. Warriors who willingly boarded the most dangerous of arks to save other regions.

In this apocalyptic era, where all resources have been tainted by the void poison, they were the last remaining human resources and the pillars of the future.

Their spirit. Their vitality. Their stance.

Is there even a single life that could be wasted carelessly?

“Should I cut the strings and let the remaining eleven arks escape? No, if I do that, the threads binding the Leviathan will become too thin. Will we end up losing it? Should we aim for the next summer, the next turn?”

It was then.

“Haaaaaaah!”

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

A shout that shook the heavens and the earth echoed from outside the ark, reaching all the way to the operations control room.

A roar that literally shook the horizon.

It was a lion’s roar, someone intentionally amplifying their aura to the breaking point. It was as if they were shouting for all those who had fallen into despair to hear.

My mind flashed. Even before the roar was over, I already knew whose voice it was.

“Yohwa!”

The student council president of Baekhwa Girls’ High School. The only necromancer on the Korean Peninsula. The shrine maiden who sealed the alien god in a sandglass.

Cheon Yohwa had arrived.

“Sink down!”

The Leviathan, which had just raised its head to soar once more into the sky, was struck down by a girl with orange hair who had once been the ace of the basketball team.

BOOM!

A tremendous impact struck the Leviathan. The beast, which had just lifted its head, was forced to bury it back into the sea.

CRASH!

The waves, caused by the Leviathan’s head slamming down, destroyed the beach and even reached the headquarters of the National Highway Authority, the last building still standing in Busan.

“ROOOOAAARRR!”

“Baekhwa Girls’ High! Jump! Jump down! Don’t cower in fear! No matter what happens, don’t let this serpent rise again!”

It was hard to fully grasp the situation through the operations control room’s window.

The saintess quickly spoke to me.

[I did it.]

“You, Saintess….”

[Yes. When communications were cut off, I requested reinforcements from Cheon Yohwa.]

[Both Sim Aryeon and Cheon Yohwa leaving their positions would make the northern front waver, but I judged that it was more important to defeat the Leviathan, even if it meant losing Pyongyang.]

[When persuading Cheon Yohwa, I pretended it was an order from Doctor Jang. I apologize for making such a unilateral decision.]

“No, you did well!”

[Yes.]

The saintess replied as if she knew I would forgive her. Her voice sounded much less urgent than before.

“How did Yohwa manage to stop the Leviathan just now?”

[Aerial bombardment.]

Aerial bombardment?

[Originally, members of the Three Thousand Worlds guild were scouting the Leviathan’s approach route, but now they’re carrying Baekhwa Girls’ High guild members on their broomsticks.]

[The members of the Three Thousand Worlds guild approach the dragon using flight magic, and then the Baekhwa Girls’ High guild members drop down from thousands of meters in the air to strike the dragon. They’re using their bodies as missiles.]

“……!”

[It was a tactic proposed by Cheon Yohwa herself.]

It was a brute-force method, but effective. The Leviathan itself used brute-force tactics, so they simply responded in kind.

Yoo Jiwon, who had maintained the most composure in the operations control room, also made a report.

“Your Excellency. Awakened individuals from Baekhwa Girls’ High appear on the minimap individually. Some of them are already presumed to be drifting on the sea.”

BOOM! BOOM, BOOM!

Starting with Cheon Yohwa, dozens, no, hundreds of impacts exploded on the battlefield.

It was hard to see through the window, but Baekhwa Girls’ High guild members were still bombarding the Leviathan, their entire bodies enveloped in aura.

“ROOOAAARRR!”

“TEACHER!”

Cheon Yohwa’s voice was heard. It sounded desperate somehow.

“We don’t have much time left! Before that happens!”

“……!”

I immediately jumped out of my seat and rushed out. I flung open the hatch prepared for diving.

A gust of wind blew in.

Only then did the full view of the battlefield enter my eyes, not just the confined square of the window’s frame.

The first thing I saw was the colossal body of the Leviathan, stretching out almost to the horizon.

“Teacher!”

And then, Cheon Yohwa’s struggle.

Amazingly, Cheon Yohwa was embedded in the Leviathan’s eye. Even while flailing her limbs, she fiercely unleashed her aura, tearing apart the monster’s eye.

Finally, I understood how Cheon Yohwa had grounded the Leviathan.

That crazy disciple had leapt from thousands of meters above and stabbed the Leviathan’s eyeball in one go!

“Yohwa!”

“Yes!”

“Well done!”

“Yes! Please save me!”

ROOOOAAARRR-!

The Leviathan was enraged, with a tiny mosquito sucking its blood inside its eyeball.

Tsunamis relentlessly pounded the Busan coastline. The headquarters of the National Highway Authority was starting to sway dangerously.

Noh Doha will be pleased that we’ve saved on urban redevelopment costs.

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]