Convict Unit: Black Parade-Chapter 140 : Mission 10: The Hunters of Old (13)

December 11, 2050, 7:00 AM.
Junkyard, Outskirts of the Cheongnyangni Gate.
The Knights Vice-Commander Chevalier’s personal squad.
vs.
The Black Parade’s combined Deck 2 and 3 team.
The battle had reached an unexpected stalemate.
With every flick of her fingertips, Jail Mojik, the Deck 2 leader, generated an endless stream of binding ropes that wrapped around Chevalier’s entire body.
“Hrk…!”
Chevalier was a warrior who combined the speed of a sports car with the power of a tank, but he was pinned before he could take a single step, his abilities completely neutralized.
“You think they call me the best containment specialist in the business for nothing?”
While Jail Mojik kept Chevalier flawlessly bound, the rest of the Knights were being handled by the Deck 3 leader, Cultist.
“Praise be!” Cultist cried in a rapturous voice. “Praise the Flying Tentacle God!”
“…”
“He alone shall save this world!”
As Cultist delivered his grand sermon, those mesmerized by his words listened intently to his litany of nonsense, their eyes glazed over.
“And I am His one and only Apostle! Follow my words, and you shall survive the apocalypse!”
Cultist threw his arms into the air and shouted, “Do you believe in the Flying Tentacle God?!”
“We believe!” the Hunters of the Knights roared in unison, all victims of Cultist’s ability, Crowd Control.
If the remaining convicts had been able to launch an attack while Jail Mojik and Cultist had their targets pinned, the Black Parade would have held a clear advantage.
The problem was… the rest of the convicts had
also
fallen for Cultist’s brainwashing and were now chanting praises to the Flying Tentacle God right alongside them.
Okay, seriously, what the hell is a Flying Tentacle God?
Jail Mojik had managed to avoid the brainwashing, thanks to the mental-barrier equipment she’d had made at the Workshop after the Rose Princess mission. It allowed her to watch the bizarre spectacle from a distance.
Time dragged on. For a good while, there was no fighting at all—just rope-tying and god-praising.
Fwoosh!
Then, something changed.
Just as the existing ropes loosened and Jail Mojik was weaving new ones to replace them, Chevalier seized the momentary gap, broke free, and lunged forward.
“Shit!”
Jail Mojik frantically tried to retarget and bind him again, but Chevalier was already moving, charging straight for the man who had brainwashed his subordinates.
He was going for Cultist.
“Cultist!” Jail Mojik yelled. “Look out!”
“…?!”
Seeing the warrior bearing down on him like a tank, Cultist knew instantly that he couldn’t dodge.
So, he opted for a shield.
“O loyal followers of the Tentacle God!” he commanded. “Protect me!”
“…”
The enthralled Awakened, friend and foe alike, rushed forward to defend him without a moment’s hesitation.
“Hmph!”
And Chevalier, seeing the human wall forming before him—
CRASH!
—smashed right through it.
He didn’t care who they were, if they were hurt, or if they died. He simply pulverized them with his armored body.
“That… that psycho!” Jail Mojik spat, horrified. Some of the bodies sent flying belonged to Chevalier’s own men.
But inside his full-face helmet, Chevalier didn’t even blink.
A Knight should be able to withstand a tackle like this.
It was
because
he trusted his comrades that he slammed into them at full force.
Having broken through the human wall, Chevalier was now face-to-face with Cultist.
“Die.”
“Eek?!”
Chevalier gripped his claymore and swung it in a wide, horizontal arc. Cultist desperately grabbed the person next to him and shoved them forward like a shield.
“Please, block it for me…!”
The person he thrust forward was the Deck 3 vice-leader, Bookworm.
Her eyes were as glazed over as the others’, but she activated her ability without a problem.
Wriggle!
Several massive, octopus-like tentacles erupted from a magic circle in the air, coalescing into a shield.
However…
SHRRRIIIP!
Chevalier’s sword tore through the tentacle shield in a single blow.
It didn’t just tear through it; the blade continued on, nearly slicing Bookworm in two.
“Ah…”
Mortally wounded, Bookworm collapsed, spewing blood.
The shockwave sent Cultist tumbling backward, and he rolled gracelessly across the ground.
At the same time, as if his concentration had been broken, the brainwashing effect vanished.
“Goddammit!”
Jail Mojik once again bound Chevalier in ropes, but it was too late.
One by one, the enthralled fighters came to their senses. The people who had just been chanting together in a mixed mob now scrambled away from each other, reforming their separate lines in horror.
“…”
Among them was the Deck 2 vice-leader, Powerbomb, who had just snapped out of it. He cautiously approached Bookworm, who lay on the ground gushing blood.
“Ugh, kagh. Agh, urk.”
“Hey… you okay?”
Despite asking, he already knew the answer.
It was a fatal wound. Her body was almost ripped in half. No human could survive that.
Lying on the ground, her small body trembling, Bookworm focused her gaze on Powerbomb. “Ah, Mr. Powerbomb…?”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
“I, um, have one last wish…”
“What is it?”
“I wanna touch your body…”
“…”
“Ever since I first saw you…”
It was still a perverted request, but how could he refuse a dying person’s last wish?
“…Fine. Do what you want.”
Powerbomb nodded, figuring he could at least grant her that.
A bright smile spread across Bookworm’s dying face, and her head lolled to the side.
She was dead.
With a somber expression, Powerbomb reached down to close her open eyes.
Then, he heard Bookworm’s voice.
“Really?”
“…?”
Startled, Powerbomb whipped his head around, searching for the source. Where was that coming from?
“You gave me permission, didn’t you?”
Finally, he found it.
The voice was coming from the tattered, leather-bound book Bookworm had dropped.
The next moment, the book’s cover split open down the middle, and a bright yellow eye rolled into view.
“No take-backsies, okay?”
“What…?”
Flash! Flash!
Magic circles suddenly materialized all around Powerbomb.
Countless wriggling tentacles shot out and snatched his body.
“Whoa-ah-ah-ah?!”
“I finally got permission! I’m so happy~!”
Powerbomb screamed as he was hoisted into the air, entangled in a mass of tentacles.
“What—what are you?! Who are you?! The girl who used this ability is dead…!”
“Oh~ ‘this’?”
One tentacle extended and touched the dead Bookworm. Her breath returned, and she casually opened her eyes and spoke.
“This is just my bio-terminal! I needed it to pretend to be human and live on this planet…”
“What.”
“So, the real me is over there~”
Bookworm’s hand pointed to the leather book, now floating in the air. The yellow eye at its center seemed to smile with satisfaction as it continued to summon an endless number of tentacles.
A certain Lord-level monster had descended ten years ago. It had vanished without a trace during the subjugation operation, successfully evading the Gate Defense Bureau’s pursuit ever since.
Its followers called it the Flying Tentacle God.
The Bookworm they knew was nothing more than a body the monster had stolen to live in disguise—a biological terminal.
Completely ensnared, Powerbomb muttered in despair, “I knew something was off about her from the start…”
The next moment, his muscular body was completely buried beneath the writhing mass of tentacles.
“Aha! Ahahaha! This is fun! So much fun!”
As the Flying Tentacle God played with Powerbomb’s body like a doll, Cultist picked himself up and cautiously asked, “Are you satisfied, Your Divine Grace?”
“Oh, Cult Leader!”
The leather book bobbed up and down as if nodding.
“Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Reading books that record human ecology is nice, and novels describing emotions are fun, but it’s way, waaay better to
connect
directly and do… this and that for real!”
“I see.”
“And this one’s body is so pretty! I’ve wanted it since I first saw it! Wowee, it feels so good!”
“I am glad you are pleased.”
“But I asked for permission this time! How was that, Cult Leader? I have good manners, right?”
“Impeccable manners. If you continue just like that, everything will be fine.”
“Humans are fragile! You have to ask their permission before you break them! I did just what you taught me! I’m a good girl! I’m a big girl!”
Ten years ago, in the back alleys of a city, a Lord-level monster that had barely escaped from Hunters met a penniless con man.
As if by fate, the two decided to use each other to survive.
One as a real, living evil god, the other as the cult leader who worshipped it.
“O great Tentacle God, are you not curious about the flesh of that armored knight as well?” Cultist asked with a benign smile, pointing toward Chevalier, who was once again tearing himself free from his bonds.
“Like a clam in its shell, there must be tender meat beneath that thick armor.”
“Ooh, I’m curious! Curious! Curious!”
“I am certain the texture will be exceptional.”
“I wanna touch it! I wanna touch it! I wanna touch it! I looooove humans!”
The Flying Tentacle God roared, shooting its tentacles out in every direction. It then called out to Chevalier in a voice of pure innocence.
“Excuse me, excuse me, Sir Knight!”
“…”
“I want to do all sorts of things with you, is that okay~?!”
The Lord-level monster, the Flying Tentacle God.
And its apostle, Cultist.
Chevalier clicked his tongue at the monsters who had revealed their true colors.
“What a fucking insane combination.”
Cultist chuckled, adjusting his glasses before snapping his fingers. “Shall we begin round two, Sir Knight…?”
While Jail Mojik, the Deck 2 convicts, and most of the Knights stood stunned by the scene, the members of the Glasses Society began to act.
As if this were routine, they all started casting their enhancement and blessing abilities on the Flying Tentacle God.
Chevalier, for his part, raised his claymore toward the Lord-level monster as if it were just another one of the countless beasts he’d faced in his life.
But just as a murderous aura began to saturate the junkyard…
THOOM!
“…?!”
“Huh?”
Everyone turned to look in the same direction.
Toward the heart of the Cheongnyangni Gate.
A horrifying, malevolent energy erupted, swirling out to fill the area with a foreboding atmosphere.
In the sudden, ominous silence, the Flying Tentacle God muttered uneasily,
“It seems someone… ‘higher up’ than me has arrived…?”
***
Cheongnyangni Gate, the Gate Room.
With his Domain Break deployed, Shin-woo had finished preparing to face the Demon Lord invading from beyond the Gate.
He had thought he could stop any monster that came through. Just as he’d boasted to his subordinates, even if he couldn’t kill it, he could certainly buy time.
Bring on any monster you want…
That’s what he had thought.
THOOM!
But when the enemy finally revealed itself, emerging from the violet Gate, Shin-woo could only stare in shock.
“…Impossible.”
The Demon Lord’s face was familiar.
The old knight’s voice trembled against his will.
“You’re… you died thirty years ago.”
“…”
“We cut off your head with our own hands.”
“…”
“We even took a goddamn commemorative photo over your corpse…!”
The Demon Lord pushed the rest of its body through the Gate and into the present world.
Its massive form took a long, deep breath.
“It has been a long time, Iron Knight.”
The Demon Lord that the Old Five Heroes had defeated thirty years ago was back.
Deyana Ludens laughed.
“Have you missed me?”