Episode 249: Interlude (Sunset Town 1)
That day, something felt different than usual.
Inside the chapel, the whispers that were usually faintly audible were completely silent today. Even the priest was clearly absent-minded, quickly chanting the prayers and dismissing everyone early.
There wasn’t any specific event that triggered it.
However, the residents were hurrying home as if being chased by something.
Lately, if you were to talk about recent events, everyone had noticed the unusual atmosphere, such as the crows increasing in number, or the appearance of a shining star in the morning and evening twilight.
Men came running from the northern road.
The Warrior Monks were the first to notice.
With a tense atmosphere, the Warrior Monks (Jechi) stood in their way.
“H-Help us!!”
However, they were not Assailants or anything of the sort, but a group of merchants who had set out early in the morning.
“…What’s wrong!”
After exchanging glances for a moment, the Warrior Monk relaxed slightly. They were familiar faces.
“Monsters! Monsters destroyed everything!”
“…!?”
The merchants, their employees, and the guards.
While they were called merchants, they were actually monitors under the control of the Holy Kingdom, but that’s beside the point.
After calming down the panicked men and listening to their story:
While traveling along the road in a carriage, a giant spider-like Monster suddenly chased after them. The speed at which it approached was too fast to escape with the carriage, and everyone panicked.
They ran as fast as they could, including the horses, but were quickly overtaken, and the carriage was crushed by its massive Legs. Blocked by the Spider Monster, they scattered and fled.
“What the hell was that…? I’ve never heard of such a Monster…!”
A new type of Monster? But this was the far east, almost the opposite side of the Demon Forest where Monsters reside. Even if a stray one wandered in, according to their story, the Monster seemed to have attacked from behind.
In other words, it appeared from the direction of this town.
However, naturally, there had been no eyewitness accounts or traces of such a giant Monster in this town or its surroundings—if they were to believe the men’s claims, it was larger than a house.
“I understand. Let’s go to the dormitory for now. You seem to have run quite a bit…”
“Ah… sorry, thank you… The horses and carriage are gone… I won’t be able to go anywhere for a while…”
And so, the Warrior Monks lent their shoulders to the exhausted men and began to walk back to the dormitory.
It was then that they finally noticed the sound.
“Hey, can you hear something?”
“Huh?”
“A rumbling, like an earth tremor… Can you hear it?”
A dull, rumbling sound. Such a low-frequency sound that they hadn’t realized it was even happening.
“Yeah, what’s this… It’s like an earth tremor…”
A low sound that sometimes occurs with ground tremors. But this sound seemed to be even clearer.
“I don’t know. But let’s report to the priest first. Something terrible seems to be happening…”
As he looked around, one of the Warrior Monks found it.
At the edge of the forest spreading near the town, birds were dancing in the sky.
Not just a few.
Probably hundreds of birds were flying.
“Hey, look at that! Something’s wrong, over there!”
“…!”
Clearly, a group of birds concentrated in one place. Something was beneath them.
The location was far away. The sky wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. There was a slight haze, and they couldn’t see very far.
“Damn, I don’t know what it is, but it’s bad! I have a bad feeling about this!”
The Warrior Monks (Jechi) chose to run with the men. They judged that the situation was urgent. The Warrior Monks, who could exert more than twice the strength of an adult male, apologized to the merchants they were supporting and began to run with them on their backs.
But.
In the distance, trees were blown away.
Literally, with the trunks still attached, the lush green leaves flew into the air as if exploding.
“…!!”
It started moving.
The men silently increased their running speed.
They arrived at the dormitory in just one minute, and the Warrior Monks dropped off the merchants and rushed to the chapel where the priest was.
Something huge was approaching the town.
That information spread throughout the town in an instant.
The rising earth and shattered trees confirmed that it was approaching.
“Please stay calm! We will protect the town, just return to your homes—!”
The Warrior Monks worked together to manage the situation. They ran around the town, shouting to prevent the residents from panicking.
However, it was all too late.
If they had let all the residents escape separately when the merchants appeared, perhaps some of the surviving residents could have reported to the next town.
Something jumped out of the forest.
Compared to the trees, its height was low.
But compared to humans, it was a size of despair.
It moved its long Legs busily and quickly surrounded the town.
Yes, it wasn’t just one. So many of them poured out of the forest that it was foolish to count.
“W-We’re surrounded…!”
It was a manifestation of an intense will to not let anyone escape.
Giant Spider Monsters were surrounding the entire perimeter of the town.
And.
The ground shook with a clattering sound. The cries of the birds gradually grew louder.
“What… what is that…!”
Something huge was approaching, destroying the forest. Several people hurriedly jumped onto the roof of the church.
They saw it. They had seen it.
It was much taller than the trees in the forest. More than anything, it was unbelievably huge.
The Spider Monsters surrounding the town were also huge, but there was no comparison.
A rumbling sound echoed.
The ground shook.
Eventually, that huge something appeared, blowing away the forest.
The trees growing in its path were torn up by the roots and shattered.
“Big…”
Someone muttered with a dazed expression. What had happened? What was going to happen?
Even though the distance was quite far, it was so large that they had to look up. The pure white giant was approaching like a wall.
Everyone was frozen. Paralyzed by the shock and the terror.
Some people collapsed and fell over.
The wall slowly stopped in front of them.
The residents cautiously peeked out of their houses. The Warrior Monks could do nothing but look up at it.
But some people noticed. Even though something so huge was approaching, the Spider Monsters surrounding the town weren’t moving at all. Even though they were right behind them, they didn’t budge.
That meant.
This incredibly huge thing and these Spider Monsters were moving together.
A part of the giant wall slowly lifted. Like a hinged window, but they moved on their own without anyone’s help.
From the opened window, small somethings, spider-like somethings, crawled out one after another.
“H-Hey… those, those are… Spider Monsters, they’re coming out…!!”
Small spiders.
No, that was a mistake.
That white wall was just too big.
Those that crawled out were the same size as the spiders surrounding the town. Countless numbers of those Monsters crawled out.
“U-Uwaaaaaaa!!”
The terror spread. A man, unable to bear it, screamed and ran away. Lured by him, the residents began to flee one after another. Some ran out in whatever they were wearing, others brought out carts to load their household goods.
All of those actions would be in vain.
The Spider Monsters that spilled out of the white wall rushed into the town one after another. Their bodies, far larger than humans, skillfully moved their six Legs and ran through the town at a much faster speed than humans.
A Warrior Monk (Jechi), remembering his duty, grabbed at the Monster with a desperate resolve.
He was easily swept away by its huge forearm.
Afterword
＜The Tree＞ forces bare their fangs. This time, we sent you the perspective from the locals. To be continued.
I’m thinking about the specs of the Multi-legged Tanks and Land Battleships, but I’m writing while imagining what it looks like from the outside. It’s fun!