Chapter 165: Red system alarm

In the end, emptying out all the magazines with the bullets fitting the light machine gun in my hands took me barely a few minutes. With a single magazine capable of putting a huge dent at the lines of the monsters, I never had to worry about any danger when changing the clips with how the elite force of the human army would jump in to protect me whenever the sound of my shoots would die off. 

But I would have to be someone who reached a pinnacle of naivety to believe that I alone could put a huge change to the battlefield. That is, only by using hot weapons. With various stones still safely stored in my backpack, I knew that there were still some recurring ones that I didn't use back in Ayda's world. 

In theory, I could just start blasting them in the given directions, obliterating most of the mutant army. The one reason why I did not do so, was lack of any benefit in it. In the end, instead of striving for solidarity between humans, I had to put my own interest as the absolute priority. 

And with that in mind, completely devastating the attacking force was bad for several reasons.

"Shield me!" With all the bullets for my main weapon now gone, I forced a simple, explosion stone between the weapon's trigger and its protective casing, before reaching out with my arm to the back only to throw the weapon directly towards the enemies. 

At first, nothing happened. Repelled by a random set of long hands that appeared before the gun right before it could smash into the monsters, the gun fell down to the ground in front of the frontline of the monsters. 

And then, the trigger sprung up on the spring it was held by, forcefully pushing the activator of the stone inwards.

BOOM!

The huge explosion of this cheap and simple stone instantly swallowed the entire gun along with several mutants beside it. As a fighting weapon, I considered this simple "Boom" stone to be just a utility rather than a weapon proper. But right now, it was of great use, allowing me to get rid of this piece of hardware, preventing the local humans from researching it. 

I didn't do it because I was against the local humanity. I did it to make sure they wouldn't just rely on researching my weapons and would be forced to cooperate with me properly instead!

"Okay, I'm empty now." Turning around to the officer, I put my left hand into the pocket. WIth several barrier and boom stones still kept in there, I decided not to act on the naive belief in human nature here.

"What, you ran out of your weapons?" Pulling his attention away from observing the ongoing process of the battle, the officer looked at me with genuine surprise. 

'It seems that he was a bit too charmed by what those weapons can do…' Muttering in my thoughts, I grasped the familiar texture of the barrier stone a bit tighter before turning my head to the officer to look at him while speaking. 

"I ran out of weapons that could make a change on the battlefield. I still have some of my personal arms, but frankly speaking, this is not my fight in the first place." Shaking my arms, I could feel how the edges of the barrier stone dug deep into the flesh of my fingers, almost breaching through the barrier of my skin. 

But before I could push the topic towards the sacred core changing hands, a sudden feeling overwhelmed all my sense. 

A feeling of terror. 

Instantly turning my head towards the source of this strange, mental attack, I saw a silhouette hovering high above the battlefield. While the silhouette was obviously human, two huge, black triangles to the sides of his upper body quickly ascertained that no one would take that being for a human proper. 

"So they finally come… Well, in the end, it was only a matter of time!" With a devious smile appearing on the officer's lips, he raised his hand as high as he could. "Archers! Mages!" Shouting up, he somehow managed to transmit his voice loud and clear across the entire battlefield. 

Noticing the change, the strangely human monster in the skies twitched, before turning its body and diving downwards.  By the time the first salvo of projectiles and magic came its way, the being was already rushing forward barely a few meters above the ranks of its monsters.

Whenever a hail of arrows was about to pin it to the ground, the winged being would dive directly into its army below, allowing the hideous monsters all around to take a hit for it instead. In this way, before the fourth salvo could be fired, this winged being landed in the empty spot created by my previous spray.

"Who did this?" Looking around at the mass of fallen meat, the handsome face of this angel-like being twisted in surprise. 

"So you came, centurion. To think that one day I would have the luck to see one right in front of my eyes!" Ignoring the being's question, the officer that I made a deal with pulled his sword out, clearly intent on charing against this strangely civilised monster.

"No, you are not going anywhere." Instead of just watching how the situation would unfold, I instantly rushed to the man. Before his troops could react, I slid below their radar only to kick the front leg of the officer's horse, snapping it in half. 

"Wha?!" Instantly starting to jump around in pain, the horse released a pained neigh before falling to the side. With one of the four supports it had suddenly broken, it couldn't hold its stability for long.

As much as the pained whining of the poor animal scarred my heart, that was the only way in which I could stop the man's charge before it would be too late. 

"Don't you even think about it. Not before you fulfil your end of the deal." With three stones in my hand, I stared daggers at the man. Even though I had no idea of the full scope of this winged monster's ability, it was pretty clear to me that he was way stronger than anything that this officer could take on himself. 

"If I may, are you the one responsible for this place?" Noticing the situation, the winged centurion directed its deep eyes towards me. Even though he was dressed in fancy armour and wore an elaborately decorated sword on his hip, he didn't exude even a hint of hostile aura. 

"Responsible? Ah, I just was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But yeah, I have some kind of deal with the guy…" pointing my hand at the officer scrambling from underneath the shaking body of its horse, I smiled, "that is unless you can bring me the sacred core faster than he can."

There was no need for me to elaborate on the topic any further. While the winged man before ma was clearly strong, probably way more powerful than me if not taking all the tools I had into account, I couldn't really feel any worry. I saw what the recurring stone could do so there was hardly any reason for me to fear anything of this world at all. 

Or rather, that's how anyone else in my shoes might think. That's what anyone reading my accounts once I would become popular enough to have stories written about me might think. Because all those kinds of others, wouldn't risk their own damned health while standing on this hostile land!

"Sacred core? And what use you might have for it?" Clearly intrigued by my revelation, the winged being asked. On the other hand, even the officer that finally managed to get out from underneath its horse looked at me with curiosity.

"To be frank, I don't really have any idea. I'm just tasked with bringing it back when it belongs." 

As if lightning struck everyone around me when I said those words… or not. While I could see that everyone tensed up, it was most likely due to the expectation to hear something great in scale, rather than just some kind of mundane answer I provided them with. But there was one thing that I couldn't fail to notice. 

Both the officer and the winged man who clearly stood on opposing sides in the ongoing battle…

Both of them smiled as if they wished for the core to return where it belonged in the first place!

And then, my vision suddenly shook. Standing still on my legs straightened, it couldn't be just a random sway of my head. Looking around, I felt a strange force seeping into my mind and start to fry it, as if someone forcefully attempted to change my emotions despite informing me of the attempt beforehand.

*Warning. Presence potentially harmful to the system detected.*

*Please do not use any system features while the red alarm is on*

All at once, my vision suddenly darkened. No, after a moment I realised that it just turned so reddish that it appeared to turn dark. And then, another winged being landed on the ground, right beside me, without even a single sound of doing so. 

Not a single flutter of its wings, not a single twig snapped under the weight of its body. And then, I felt a coldness on my throat. 

"Bring back the sacred core where it belongs? And where does it belong in your opinion?" 

There was no denying it. Somehow, this damned winged being was not only so quick but also so silent, that it managed to put a blade to my throat. In such a situation, even erecting a barrier from the stone wouldn't do me any good, as it would likely envelop both of us at once, enclosing me with this hostile being rather than saving me from it.

"Would you believe it if I told you… That I honestly have no idea myself?"