Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 222

222. When the Star Casts a Shadow (7)

Hyun-woo was speechless.

He stared at the ceiling, glared at the walls, sighed, and finally managed to open his mouth.

“I… I guess I should congratulate you?”

No matter what, if a new life is born, it’s right to congratulate it. But since Ha-hyun isn’t giving birth directly, it’s ambiguous to call it a new life.

Besides, is a younger sibling giving birth to an older sibling even a logically valid sentence?

‘Monstriel, that damn bitch.’

He imagined Monstriel laughing gleefully.

Hyun-woo felt a deep surge of anger towards Monstriel and sighed once more.

“Hey, Hyun-woo. It won’t significantly affect the fight, so don’t worry. I’ve rested well for a while, so I have plenty of spiders, and I have about 20% extra spiders in preparation for emergencies. That should be enough to cover it.”

Ha-hyun seemed to think he was worried that her reduced power would affect the fight. But Hyun-woo wasn’t worried about that.

Ha-hyun is a powerful force, but not a core one.

The problem was something else.

“Does that mean… Sang-hyun is coming back to life?”

“I wish….”

Ha-hyun muttered regretfully.

“All that’s left of Unni [older sister] is her skeleton. The newly born Sang-hyun will be based on my spiders, so her memories and abilities will follow me. She’ll look exactly like Unni, but I won’t be able to call her Unni.”

It was nothing more or less than a gift for Ha-hyun.

That meant, at least, that there wouldn’t be a situation where a ghost comes back to life and accuses a murderer.

Hyun-woo was relieved about that.

Of course, the murderer would have to live with the ghost’s face forever.

‘Damn it, it was a quest, what could I do? I had to do it unless I wanted to kill Ha-hyun.’

Hyun-woo cursed Monstriel inwardly. Judging from the current situation, it seemed like she was just trying to mess with him.

He didn’t expect the newly born Sang-hyun to become a powerful force.

“Besides that, did Monstriel send anything else? Is she just watching?”

“Well, I don’t know, except that there seem to be more spiders than usual.”

Hyun-woo almost got angry again, but he changed his mind. It was better for Monstriel to show weakness than to actively intervene right away.

They would fight among themselves if she seemed like no threat at all.

‘No, basically, I have to assume there’s no help at all.’

Self-reliance… no, it would be the end if he started relying on someone whose intentions he didn’t know.

Monstriel didn’t seem like she would harm him, but it was better to keep his distance unless he intended to become her subordinate.

“Okay. Let’s just wait and see.”

***

Curie and Lampel split the centurion in half, taking fifty men each.

Taking a hundred men along the same route at once was a waste of manpower. But it wasn’t a large number, so it was better to approach separately.

They couldn’t bring their prized warhorses into the underground because of the low ceiling. But that didn’t mean the narrow, low ceiling was disadvantageous to them.

No, it was actually advantageous.

“Halt!”

Curie stopped immediately and shouted when she heard the sound of footsteps splashing at the end of the sewer.

At her command, the Ironbloods formed ranks in perfect order.

Soon, ghouls appeared, running towards them without regard for the burning Ironbloods.

“Shields!”

At Curie’s shout, the Ironbloods in the front row simultaneously raised their shields. A steel barrier was erected, and the Ironbloods in the second row aimed their spears over the shields.

The ghouls stopped in confusion at the sudden appearance of the steel barrier.

They would rush if they saw even a little bit of food, but all they saw now was a wall.

But Curie had no intention of staying still just because they weren’t attacking.

“Advance!”

Thump, thump, thump.

The sound of footsteps advancing in a single line was oppressively overwhelming.

The ghouls hesitated, but they couldn’t retreat because they were being pushed from behind.

Before the spears could reach them, a wave of heat washed over them.

“Kieeee!”

The heat emitted by the fifty Ironbloods was enough to turn even the ceiling red. The narrow tunnel itself was like an oven.

Ordinary flesh was cooked in an instant. The ghouls writhed, burning before they could even fight.

Some couldn’t stand it and charged, but they only ended up sticking to the heated steel shields.

When an Ironblood slammed his shield down on the ground, a blackened ghoul fell to the floor and was trampled.

“Cut, cough!”

Gasts arrived while the ghouls were fleeing or scattered in disarray.

Gasts boasted equal or greater size than the Ironbloods, but they had no intelligence or unity to speak of.

One of the Gasts screamed and charged through the flames. Just as it seemed it would break through the shield wall and disrupt the formation, a spear suddenly shot out and stopped it in its tracks, piercing its head in an instant.

Starting with that, dozens of spears simultaneously tore apart major organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, and neck.

It was only a matter of time before the dismantled Gasts were trampled under the Ironbloods’ boots.

The combat power of the Ironbloods, controlled in perfect order like a single organism, was overwhelmingly powerful.

Soon, the Gasts and Ghouls began to retreat.

The moment the enemies flee is the time to achieve maximum results. The Ironbloods put strength into their legs, anticipating the carnage that would soon unfold.

“Halt!”

But despite the absolutely advantageous situation, Curie suddenly issued a halt order.

The Ironbloods, who had no desire other than to slaughter the enemy, were disappointed. But the orders of their superior were like the orders of God. They stopped immediately.

Curie’s eyes flashed as she looked ahead. Something felt strange. It was just a premonition, but she felt that she shouldn’t go forward recklessly.

“You, you. Go forward.”

Curie put two Ironbloods she had picked at the forefront. And she carefully followed behind them.

It was an ordinary sewer. There were no special sounds other than the bizarre moans of the ghouls fleeing.

That’s when it happened.

Curie spotted a faint greenish light flickering in front of her. She quickly shouted.

“Fall back!”

But her shout was too late. Teeth suddenly sprouted from the seemingly ordinary sewer and devoured the Ironbloods at the forefront in an instant.

One quickly escaped, but his right upper body was cut off as if it had been deleted.

“It’s a Deep Sea Angler! Archers!”

The Ironbloods holding huge steel longbows notched flaming arrows and drew their bowstrings.

With a sound like a battering ram, flesh was torn from various parts of the Deep Sea Angler’s body.

The Deep Sea Angler screamed and ran to the other side of the sewer. All that was left was an Ironblood who had lost his right arm.

There was no hope of rescuing the other Ironblood who had been at the forefront.

Curie supported the injured Ironblood and sent him to the rear.

The treatment could be done by the blacksmith in their unit. But he wouldn’t be able to fight for a while.

Curie felt uneasy.

‘Is it fortunate that we only suffered this much damage against a Deep Sea Angler?’

The Deep Sea Angler could camouflage itself as the entire sewer.

If she hadn’t been careful, she could have led 50 Ironbloods straight into its mouth.

But even the loss of one man was precious to Curie.

‘Overall, the starving Star’s vassals are no match for us. But….’

The problem was that their forces were steadily being worn down. She didn’t want to know what Lampel would look like, since even the cautious herself was losing them one by one.

‘Would it have been better to join up and go together?’

Then she might have been able to give Lampel a little warning.

But she couldn’t shake the thought that Lampel, who relied on quick decision-making and instinct, might be more advantageous in the current situation. The two of them had always supported each other in that way.

‘No, if only Al-Hugin were here, at least.’

Al-Hugin was an unlucky bastard, but he was still an apostle. Curie increasingly missed his presence.

‘If the Wailing Star gets involved here, it will be a complete mess.’

***

Clatter, clatter.

A tall man was walking on the subway tracks. Severed and charred corpses were scattered everywhere on the subway tracks.

The man in the trench coat and fedora stepped over the corpses, examining their condition or picking them up.

“Hmm, why is this already here…?”

The man furrowed his brow in puzzlement as he rummaged through the affected area of the corpse with his gloved hands.

But there was no one to answer his question.

The man took out a cigar from his pocket and lit it. It was pointless to smoke with his body, but he was satisfied with the act of smoking itself and moved on.

The procession of corpses continued endlessly. He didn’t know if he was going in the right direction, but the man wasn’t too worried.

Whether someone goes ahead or someone lags behind.

In the end, the master he serves will win.

Thump, thump.

The man heard loud footsteps echoing from the other side of the tunnel.

Soon, bright lights began to appear along the curve of the tracks. The man stopped for now.

A burning knight walking at the head with loud footsteps.

The man could immediately recognize his opponent. Lampel, the apostle of the Conquering Star.

Lampel and the Ironbloods also noticed the man standing in the middle of the tracks as they ran. Even the tall man looked small compared to the Ironbloods. Moreover, he was alone.

But Lampel immediately recognized who the strangely dressed man was.

“……Ivanov?”

“Lampel.”

The man called Ivanov opened his stark white jaw and replied.

His skeletal body had no lungs or oral structure. He was just moving his jaw as if he were making the magically created voice himself.

Ivanov flicked off the ashes of his cigar and scanned Lampel’s body.

“Looks like you’ve already had a fight.”

Lampel’s steel skin was covered in wounds. There didn’t seem to be any major damage, but there were quite a few traces of repairs made by a blacksmith.

Despite Ivanov’s relaxed attitude, Lampel looked quite tense.

“Why are you… then is the Wailing Star’s agent really moving too?”

“Hmm, why would you ask that?”

“Why? You’re the agent’s lackey… no, a secretary or something!”

It was impossible to know what emotions Ivanov felt at Lampel’s words. Because he was a skull with no facial muscles.

Instead, Ivanov pretended to suck on his cigar again. He had no lungs to inhale the smoke.

“No, I’m moving alone this time. The agent doesn’t need to step in for something like this.”

“Alone?”

Lampel looked around. As Ivanov said, there were no traces of other vassals.

But he couldn’t figure out what kind of guts this concept-obsessed pervert, who was a skeleton smoking a cigarette and carrying a gun that was useless against monsters, had to show up alone.

“……You seem quite confident.”

Lampel showed a burning smile. Ivanov was the agent’s attendant and was known to be quite strong, but he would have his limits if he was alone.

The Ironbloods noticed Lampel’s intentions and quickly formed ranks. But Ivanov still didn’t show any signs of tension.

“You seem to have forgotten your purpose. Lampel. Hunting me isn’t your purpose, is it?”

“In the end, it’s better to kill the apostles of other stars when you can.”

“Arrogant and arrogant. Foolish one. Are you offering death with that pathetic mouth?”

Ivanov flicked his cigar at Lampel. The cigar hit Lampel’s armor and fell to the floor.

Lampel’s flames burned even more fiercely.

“I’ll kill you.”

Lampel stuck his spear into his back and instead pulled out a huge greatsword.

It was a sword with flames burning taller than Lampel’s height.

Ivanov quietly raised his Thompson submachine gun.

Pity flashed in Lampel’s eyes. The agent was a weirdo, and he must have gone crazy from resembling him.

“To think you’d pathetically use a gun….”

In that instant, flames erupted from the muzzle of the Thompson submachine gun.

Lampel flinched without realizing it, but the bullets that were fired bounced off his armor and melted away helplessly.

The bullets didn’t do any damage to Lampel. But Lampel’s expression was stiff.

What he heard at the moment the bullets were fired wasn’t the sound of gunfire. It was the sound of terrible screams.

“The wails that call the dead always give me chills.”

Soon, eerie screams echoed throughout the tunnel.

It was the moans of countless monsters that he had just killed and slaughtered.

All the corpses that had heard the screams of the gunshots, the undead that had been smashed, and even some of the Ironbloods who had died in the fight with Itwaro, were reviving and standing up.

Lampel thought Ivanov smiled.

The skeleton was always smiling, though.

“With so many troops waiting for our master’s orders, is there really any need for me to bring my vassals?”