I Became a Foreign Worker Loved by Transcendents

Chapter 111: Blight, White Knight Of Plague

Chapter 111: Blight, White Knight Of Plague

Big Game Hunter Im Tae-yang.

Im Tae-yang, who had focused on subjugating high-level (boss) enemies among the existing heroes, was ironically considered one of the lowest-ranked heroes when he first entered this world.

Even though he wielded the unprecedented ability of regression, the future he could change was limited to events happening right in front of him.

Moreover, the condition for his ability was death, a burden almost unbearable for the human mind.

Crossing the boundary of death repeatedly, even with the power of immortality, would inevitably lead one into such temptation.

‘If one faces death with all fingers extended, one could be free from all pain and fear.’

The first to worry about this were the ones who summoned the heroes to this world in the first place, aiming to prevent the despair of humanity’s extinction.

The consensus was that bearing the despair as the cost of such ability would not last long.

Kwaang!

The one who was overlooked by everyone was now dominating a great danger facing humanity.

Whoong! Kwang!!!

Every attack aimed at him, no matter how fast and powerful, never managed to land on his body.

He dodged incoming attacks and seized the opportunity to aim his blows at the opponent’s body, in a tense and precarious exchange.

At first glance, it might seem like that was all there was to the fight, but he had already experienced death dozens of times in order to mount such an onslaught.

Enduring the pain of being slashed while still alive, his heart stopping as his body suffered, and maintaining consciousness in the face of the brutal sensation of losing it all with a clear mind—these were experiences beyond any torture.

Kooong!!!

Nevertheless, he did not falter, swinging his blunt weapon and charging repeatedly.

There were no screams or cries of agony in the process.

Attacking silently, dying, dodging attacks, and counterattacking, he could truly be said to have transcended humanity.

“Argh! Aaaaah!!!”

Annabel, losing her sanity in the face of such a relentless onslaught, prepared to sweep the area with full force with her sword.

Facing an opponent who could do nothing but swing his weapon at close range, she believed that overwhelming him with power he couldn’t counter would be sufficient.

Sensing that power was gathering in her sword, Im Tae-yang silently gripped the club in his hands with all his might, preparing to counter the attack.

And then… Kwang!

Even though he swung his club for a counterattack, the enemy knight’s attack tore everything apart, even blowing away the barriers surrounding the area.

Naturally, his body within the range was also swept away by the surge of power, vanishing without a trace.

Kaaang!

With his death, time reversed once more.

Ten seconds rewound by the hands gripping the club.

Im Tae-yang, having gathered his magic power, did what he could by hurling the club he gripped in both hands toward her.

That was the best conclusion he had drawn from thirteen regressions.

Clang!

Caught off guard by that unexpected strike, her posture was disrupted for a moment, and she was quickly brought down by Im Tae-yang’s low kick as he closed the distance.

It was the moment when the disaster, known as the incarnation of war, knelt before a human.

Buzz!

And Im Tae-yang didn’t miss that opportunity.

To secure his victory, the light generated from his body was not mana but divine power.

This power, which freed beings from all afflictions and mental torment, even affected the regrets that were the essence of the undead.

In other words, it was a power that forcibly induced enlightenment, even against the will of the undead, making it the most lethal to them.

Bang!!!

When such divine force hit her head with full power, Annabel, who had been kneeling, finally collapsed to the ground.

It was an absurd event where the incarnation of war, a product of humanity’s madness, kneeled before a human for the first time since being resurrected from death.

Rumble! Bang!

But Im Tae-yang did not stop.

His opponent was stronger than any other he had faced before.

As it couldn’t end with just this, he must press on with the opportunity he had seized.

Bang, bang!!

Annabel’s mind, constantly bombarded by that relentless assault, felt itself slowly warping under the exposure to the divine force attempting to unravel her.

At that moment, she felt a forced release from the stubbornness that was the foundation of her power…

No, that time has not yet come.

For she was an anomaly among the undead, one who did not cling to her own regrets.

“…Annabel, do you remember that name?”

Thus, if she were to dissolve her regrets, she first needed to understand what those regrets were.

The foundational memory, a memory from before this moment that she had once experienced, began to slowly emerge in her mind.

“This is a request not as a sovereign, but as the mother who gave birth to you.”

Gwen Hwibar.

The leader of the once prosperous kingdom of Britannia and the most virtuous priestess who led a religious order.

“Annabel. After this battle ends, could you once again establish a bond with me as mother and daughter?”

The moment that promise surfaced in her mind, she felt the regret she had long ignored taking control of her.

The resolve to merely be a tool for the one who had resurrected her, connected with memories of the past, began to amplify its strength exponentially.

“A-ah… Mo… ther…”

Crack, creak.

As the ground split, Im Tae-yang stepped back and quietly observed his opponent.

A surge of magical power that defied comparison with before.

Though his posture was precarious, as if overwhelmed by that force, it was only momentary.

“Everything is… for my mother.”

“I will fulfill her mission, the destruction of humanity, with my own hands.”

Soon after, the trembling ceased, and her posture stabilized.

With fragments of memory, the voice of the calamity, having regained the power of her prime, began to quietly resonate in front of the hero.

And then…

“Legion Commander! You must evacuate!”

While three heroes were confronting the enemy knight at the eastern barrier, the interior of the garrison area was being rapidly overturned.

The reason was the invasion of another one of the Four Knights, equal in rank to the enemy knight.

However, contrary to the expectation that it would be an equal fight with the barriers, the interior of the garrison was unilaterally swept away by the enemy’s disruption.

“That can’t be! If I retreat from this position, who will command this place?”

“I understand your feelings, but you must retreat now! Force is of no use against those who have occupied this place! Staying will only increase the damage!”

He knew that in his head.

But despite his subordinate’s plea, Marcus, the commander, could not easily make the decision to leave his position.

If he failed to stop the enemies here, it would only be a matter of time before everyone present would be annihilated.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’

Looking at the outcome, it was no one’s fault.

Marcus made the best decision possible for humanity, and his soldiers followed him well.

If the enemy knight draws attention to the east, the enemies would invade from the north, where the dragon bones are being transported.

So, by concentrating the maximum forces on the northern barrier to block the diversionary operation and deploying heroes at the right moment to deal with the enemy’s leaders, he believed they could lead the war to victory.

“Did they really dig tunnels throughout the garrison area and ambush us there…? Was it their strategy all along to let us take over this place?”

Yes, they never intended to excavate the dragon’s remains with their own hands.

Sending the undead here in advance to dig tunnels was merely to prepare hiding spots for an ambush like this.

By digging tunnels deep outside the excavation site and waiting in hiding, they figured the humans would occupy this place and excavate the dragon’s bones for them upon detecting them.

“What needs to be done is to wait until that task is completed and then deploy troops at the right time… It’s a strategy unimaginable by anyone other than the undead.”

For nearly a month since joining this land, they had buried themselves without undergoing any physiological changes, waiting only for signals.

Wouldn’t it be an operation unimaginable to any living human?

“Cough, gasp!”

Moreover, another one of the Four Knights who invaded this place, though not as strong as the Red Knight, was a nightmare specialized in ‘mass slaughter’.

Even if only a small number of troops were deployed due to the nature of a covert ambush, the severity of the damage caused was evident just by looking down from the watch post.

“Hey, are you okay…?”

“Oh, don’t come. I’m already… Ugh!”

The vomited blood, like boiling acid, spilled out as if relieving a fever, rapidly changing the blood flowing through their bodies into acidic substances.

Thus, their melted bodies tangled wildly, transforming into ‘chimeras’ that lost their original forms.

“Everyone, get away from the bodies!! If you get close, you’ll be infected!”

“Ugh, gasp!”

With a painful moan, crack, and crunch, their bodies began to distort with eerie sounds.

Their bodies, after going through this process, would ultimately face death, forgetting their original forms as they were resurrected beyond death.

The discolored flesh turned into a hood covering their entire body, and the skin on their face tore apart, with protruding bones covering the transformed face like a mask.

“The White Knight of Plague…”

Marcus immediately realized that his subordinate, having transformed in such a way, had become one of the Four Knights, specifically representing the plague.

The White Knight of Plague - Blight.

True to his name, spreading plague, he specialized in annihilating unprepared armies and crowds with just a fraction of his power.

‘Why did it have to be you…?!’

Facing him, Marcus gritted his teeth and urgently shouted to his subordinates.

“Priests!! It might not be too late yet! Bring the priests!”

“One of the tunnels we were ambushed from was unfortunately located under the prayer room! The priests were the first to suffer massive casualties, making it difficult to manage the situation!”

It was a malicious act, targeting the priests first to deprive them of the chance to respond before the disease worsened.

Even if the priests somehow manage to recover and return to the front lines, it would be unrealistic to expect those already affected to solve the spreading plague on this land.

“Uh, ugh…”

Ultimately, the only immediate action was to keep distance from the soldiers dying from the infection.

On Marcus’s face, watching the terrible end of failing to respond to the ambush, a sense of helplessness and despair he had never felt before began to emerge.

Those who had transformed into grotesque forms like Blight.

“Oohyoo…?”

The sight of them making even stranger wailing noises.

The reality that all they could do was watch felt utterly devastating.

“Uh, oohyo. Oohyooo…..”

“Oohyooo~!”

But regretting the lack of preparation for such a situation was futile; it was impossible to revert the already infected soldiers.

Eventually, Marcus noticed the infected, who had wandered out of the danger zone, now tilting their heads as they faced each other.

“Oohyooo?”

“Oohyooo~~”

“Oohyooo~! Oohyooo~!!!!”

The area echoed with continuous sounds of joy and madness, wailing throughout the garrison area.

Not even the crows that flock to battlefields to feast on corpses could be this horrific.

To think that soldiers, deployed for the honor and duty of protecting humanity, would be turned into such jesting monsters without a shred of seriousness.

“This damn knight… What are you thinking, playing such a trick…?!”

“Ha! Calling it a prank, that’s a bit harsh!”

At the moment when Marcus’s body trembled with the rising sense of anger…

A voice was heard, and before he knew it, an infected person wearing a white hood and mask approached.

No, he was too conscious to be a regular infected.

“Blight! How did this bastard get here…?!”

Slash!

A subordinate, who noticed him and attempted to charge, had his head cut off in the blink of an eye.

With sharpened claws that severed his neck, Blight, giggling, began to close the distance with Marcus.

“Isn’t it too harsh to have no humor in this gloomy and desperate world? Let’s enjoy it while we can, my little brother~ Hahaha!!”

Snap.

Marcus, grinding his teeth, drew the sword at his waist.

His eyes, watching him, were ablaze with intense hatred.

“…You are not my brother.”

“Oh, why so cold? No matter how much my appearance has changed from before…”

Slash!!

Blight’s head was severed by the swinging sword.

“Stop desecrating my brother’s death, you damned fiend!!”

From him burst a roar of fury.

There was no respect left for his brother, who had been an esteemed scholar.