Return of the Apocalypse Knight

Chapter 21: Military Division (2)

I ran in the direction of the gunfire, and sure enough, there was an ammunition dump.

Behind the troops, at the bottom of a low hill, the ammunition dump had been dug out and lined with concrete walls, and it still looked very strong.

I halted the group at a distance from the ammo dump.

There was no way I was going to run into a place with bullets flying everywhere without checking it out.

The group hid behind a building that looked like a warehouse to get a look at the ammo dump.

It was tucked away at the bottom of a low hill to the north of an open field with no buildings around it like the other units.

It looked like an ordinary ammo dump, but the sturdy-looking door was open. In front of the door was a shallow, hastily constructed cover of sandbags.

In the clearing lay dozens of dead men heading for the ammo dump.

-Tut-tut-tut-tut!

The dead were being blown to bits by bullets fired from beyond the cover, in front of the ammo bay door.

A normal gun without mana in it wouldn’t have dropped the dead so easily, however the bullets fired now were not from rifles, but from machine guns.

The scattered bullets from the machine guns were literally grinding the dead into dust.

“Hahahahaha, die, die, die, die!”

A screaming yell cut through the machine gun fire.

It was a frantic yell.

With bullets flying everywhere, it wasn’t crazy, it was insane.

‘There’s only one man firing the machine gun, and there’s no sign of the others, so there’s only one crazy soldier left.’

I sighed as the bizarre laughter continued.

For the first time I’ve met someone alive, and this time it’s a madman.

“At least I should be thankful he’s not a demon.”

“A lone, insane soldier…….It’s been a while.”

Hoffman realized what was going on without me having to explain it to him.

He didn’t need me to explain it to him, because it wasn’t unusual for a man to go mad like that while fighting the demons and fighting the dead was just as hard.

Normal warfare was enough to cause PTSD, post-traumatic stress, but fighting the dead was many times worse.

Colleagues and friends you knew were dead and trying to kill you, with demons whispering in your ear, and a constant barrage of scams polluting your mind.

In fact, it was hard to say that Hoffman, the junkie, and I were sane.

“Can you take it back? I don’t think the holy water will work, because he’s not possessed by evil spirits, or tainted by death energy.”

I was thinking the same thing as Hoffman.

“Kakakaka, Sergeant Lee is here, Sergeant Choi is here, Sergeant Lee, die, Sergeant Choi, die!”

I’m sure there’s a death energy factor, but the soldier who was now grinding his machine gun on the dead was clearly overstressed, more than any external factor.

He needed more than holy water or a priest’s healing, he needed a long period of mental therapy and observation, but there was no time for that.

“That said, I won’t leave him behind…….”

This was the first otherworldly person I’d met, and it was hard to turn away.

Hoffman spoke up again at my words.

“But, wouldn’t it be hard for us to carry a madman around with us right now? With the weapon that soldier is firing right now, he looks unapproachable…….”

Hoffman was right. It was hard enough to move sane civilians around, much less a madman.

Plus, it’s not easy to jump into that firefight to save a crazy person…….

Furthermore, the sensations that made me stop the group were still warning me.

As I was contemplating this, I heard Zahina say.

“I may be able to cure the insanity.”

At Zahina’s quiet words, both Hoffman and I turned to look at her.

“If it’s not caused by a demon, I might be able to stabilize it somewhat as a nature magician.”

Being a nature magician sounded similar to what I knew of elementalism, so I wondered if she had a spirit or something.

I looked her up and down before agreeing with her.

“It seems possible enough.”

Zahina looked at me questioningly, but Hoffman nodded in agreement.

A soldier would be hard-pressed to stay awake at the sight of that pretty face.

No, he’d be more distracted.

Either way, I now had a good reason to save the crazy soldier.

Just in time, the gunfire stopped.

There were no more healthy zombies in the clearing in front of the ammo dump.

Even zombies couldn’t withstand the machine guns that rained down armor-piercing bullets even though they had no mana.

It would have been different if it were the Demon King’s army that had crushed this unit’s forces outside the camp, but the undead swarming in front of the ammunition depot were the dead of this unit’s soldiers.

No ordinary zombie could regenerate its shredded flesh.

“Well, let’s go meet the mad soldier, shall we?”

Seeing the clearing, Hoffman was about to take the lead, as usual.

“Wait.”

I halted him sharply.

Hoffman turned to look at me.

“Are there any more undead left?”

I shook my head at Hoffman’s question.

It wasn’t the prospect of more zombies that stopped me.

“Kakakaka, you see, you see, even if you’re revived, you can’t touch this body! You can bring a battalion commander, you can bring a division commander, it won’t matter!”

It wasn’t the mad soldier, who was still ranting, that stopped me.

It was my mana sense that stopped me.

The intense death energy of the clearing, strewn with flesh, bone and blood was a primal black energy, different from the death energy of the corpses and the death energy in the air, was rising upward.

Soon enough, others seemed to be able to sense it as well.

Zahina frowned, and Hoffman glared at the clearing and clicked his tongue.

“Shit, is that it?”

She nodded at his words.

“That’s right, big guy.”

“Damn it.”

Hoffman grumbled, sheathing his crossbow and pulling out his sword.

“Ah, the hulk. You mean the giant corpse?”

Zahina realized what we were talking about, even if only belatedly.

“They left a trap. One of the demon’s generals, a very nasty one, has passed through.”

Hoffman’s words made me jump to my feet.

Black aura, mana tainted with death energy, rose to the surface.

A mound of dirt rose up from the sea of flesh and blood.

Through the rising dirt, a black skeleton leapt out of the ground.

The black skeleton landed on the ground, sprayed with tainted mana.

At the same time, the blood, flesh, and bones that had been sprinkled across the clearing began to move.

Blood, bones, and flesh rushed toward the black skeleton.

-Kwagwagwagwag!

Other bones began to attach themselves to the black bone, filling it with flesh and blood.

It was as if time had been rewinded and the skeletal body had been revived.

We could only stare at the spectacle from outside the clearing.

“Damn, there’s no wizard, so we’re stuck with this.”

If we had a mage, we might have been able to interfere a bit with magic from afar.

However, a swordsman like me would have been caught up in the black mana and turned into undead flesh if I had approached it without caution.

It was the same for Hoffman.

Standing here, watching the flesh fill up, I felt like a villain watching a magical girl’s transformation.

As we watched, the flesh, bones, and blood that littered the vacant lot were no longer visible.

The flesh, bones, and blood had all become the ingredients for the new undead.

In the center of the clearing, a giant, over three meters tall, stood alone.

It was a giant bipedal monster, a jumbled mess of flesh, blood, and bone.

The vaguely humanoid creature raised its head and stared at the ammunition dump.

The creature was what the soldiers called a hulk, and the fools called a giant corpse.

It was a corpse golem, a giant formed from the bones of smashed corpses.

They were actually more like undead chimeras, but the name corpse golem was given to them after wizards protested that the word chimera could not be applied to the undead that were simply clumped together.

Looking at the finished undead, Hoffman muttered softly.

“Even with all the shattered materials, he’s still a sight to behold.”

As gruesome as it was, I had to agree with Hoffman.

The behemoth in front of me was a painful sight to behold, but I’d seen far worse in our world.

I remember seeing screaming human faces embedded in the skin, and tails with human limbs sticking out everywhere, however the hulk in front of me was just a plain gross undead.

As it turned out, the undead was a trap for the Demon Army, which we’d come across when clearing the battlefield and chasing down fleeing undead.

I can’t tell how many soldiers and knights have fallen to these traps while chasing down the demons and dealing with corpses.

As I clicked my tongue, I heard the shouting again from the armory.

“Kakaka, what kind of merged robot are you? You can’t go it alone, so you’re going in with a bunch of them, but no.”

-Tudadadadada.

The sound of machine gun fire was heard again along with the simultaneous explosion of flesh.

“Cackle, cackle, it’s the same!”

The laughter grew louder but the laughter quickly stopped.

Instead of spilling out onto the floor, the torn flesh and blood clung to the giant’s body.

“Hahaha, what was that?”

A gunshot followed the mocking voice, but it didn’t last long.

“Shit!”

The gunfire stopped, and white smoke rose from behind the cover of the sandbags.

“Hot!”

Apparently, the barrel of the machine gun had overheated.

There was no way the barrel was still intact after all that firing.

From the screams, it was clear that he had cut the barrel and touched it with his bare hands.

“No, no. Help me.”

And then there was crying.

What are you doing?

I sighed.

I know it’s a bad taste, but I can’t help but feel pathetic.

He should go into the ammo bay and get another weapon than spend his time crying.

If he could have thought of that, he wouldn’t have been crazy.

Instead, I was grateful that he got the behemoth’s attention.

I launched myself at the behemoth as it moved toward the ammo bay.