Ubermensch – Chapter 90

Chapter 90

‘Can I pierce through the decomposition field?’

A tense moment.

Bzzt!

Mason’s incandescent body clashed with the decomposition field.

“Ugh…!”

At the same time Mason gritted his teeth, Deroa coughed up blood.

“Cough!”

Mason could feel it. The time Deroa could give him was almost up. The moment he panicked and tried to step back.

‘Don’t be scared, big guy!’

Deroa stepped forward instead and gritted her teeth.

‘Because I won’t back down either!’

Countless hearts followed her.

‘Let’s go!’

‘Break through!’

‘Finish it!’

Mason smiled fiercely.

“Raaaaaargh!”

Kaboom!

The moment Mason threw a punch containing all the energy in his body.

Crackle…

The decomposition field began to disappear.

Mason’s body, which had used all of its concentrated core energy, returned to normal.

He ripped through the surface of the Great Eater and went inside.

“…Humph.”

Thud.

Deroa collapsed on the spot.

The wind blew. The wind of the grasslands.

But even the pleasant breeze couldn’t fill the pain and emptiness of losing her core.

Still, Deroa smiled.

As she watched Mason’s back as he entered the Great Eater.

“Well, I guess I did all I could.”

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

The inside of the Great Eater was unexpectedly empty.

There were empty spaces connected by layers and walls of flesh.

‘Breathing is… impossible.’

It wasn’t particularly poison gas or harmful substances, but the atmospheric structure was not compatible with the human body.

Mason’s body automatically adapted and changed to a state where he could breathe.

Mason felt the wall.

A pulse was beating.

And a beating pulse meant… that blood, or a specific fluid similar to blood, was being sent somewhere.

That place was probably the Great Eater’s vital point.

Mason followed the pulse.

“Huff!”

He tore through walls and pierced through layers, moving deeper and deeper.

‘…What is this?’

He had a strange sense of déjà vu. He had never seen such an object made of flesh and blood, but the arrangement of this space was strangely familiar.

‘This is… like…’

A structure made of numerous bulkheads, as if to prepare for damage.

‘A ship?’

No…

‘…A spaceship?’

Mason finally realized the identity of the déjà vu he was feeling.

Although it was made of flesh and skin instead of metal and ceramic, this structure resembled a spaceship.

That’s right. This was a spaceship made of organic matter.

‘Then… the decomposition field covering the Great Eater…’

That decomposition field would be a kind of barrier to prevent damage from the atmosphere or outer space, rather than a weapon for combat.

Absorbing the destructive power and radiation of a nuclear bomb is also because energy and radiation are common in space.

‘If this is a spaceship…’

The beat was getting faster. It meant that they were getting closer to the center.

‘What was it made to transport, and where?’

Crrrrrack!

The moment he tore through the last bulkhead and entered.

Mason saw a luminous body larger than a human in front of him.

It was the core of the Great Eater, or in this case, what should be called the engine of the spaceship.

Mason grabbed the Lion’s Great Hammer.

He could end this fight with just one swing of the hammer.

“…”

But, only for a moment.

Mason put down the Lion’s Great Hammer and reached out to the engine.

“What is your purpose?”

At that moment, countless fragments of thoughts unfolded in Mason’s mind.

– The Great Eater growing infinitely.

– The flesh of the Great Eater covering the entire Earth.

– The changing atmosphere.

– Strange, but vibrant vegetation he had never seen before.

– And the strange-shaped aliens walking through it.

Mason realized.

“Were you trying to terraform?”

Gather energy and grow, and when fully grown, turn the Earth into an environment they desire.

A tree that creates a new world.

That was the Great Eater’s purpose and meaning of existence.

“Why did you come here?”

At that moment, fragments of thoughts flashed through his mind once again.

– A star with three moons and two suns, clearly not Earth.

– The stars that filled the sky began to disappear like extinguished candles, and the great disasters that were approaching them.

– A terrible hell where all the trees withered, all the water rotted, and all the air burned.

– Death. Death. Death. Death. Death.

– Endless death and despair.

– Aliens sending the World Tree beyond the portal with their last hope.

Mason looked around.

Then, the World Tree, as if to show him, shone a light on a bead attached to the wall.

A strange creature was contained in it.

Presumably, it seemed to be the larva of the aliens.

“…Were you trying to create a world for that child?”

Mason gritted his teeth.

“You didn’t have to take it away. You didn’t have to kill! We could have coexisted and lived together!”

Mason cried out in rage.

“We could have created a world for you! My world was possible!”

The only answer was silence.

“…Yeah, that’s right. You have nothing to say.”

Mason raised his hammer high.

Crack!

The Lion’s Great Hammer smashed into the engine, and the engine began to crack with a crackling sound.

The World Tree begged for its life.

With a desperate heart, it begged, saying it would give everything it could give.

It cried out, begging to be spared.

…The alien larva, not itself.

“If you know how to beg for mercy, why didn’t you show us that mercy!”

They didn’t try to talk. They didn’t try to deal or coexist. They only invaded and destroyed. The only reward for invaders and destroyers is retribution.

Mason’s eyes were filled with murderous intent and hatred as he looked towards the alien larva.

“…”

Yes, this was not revenge but retribution.

It was making the World Tree pay for what it had done to create a world for them…

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

The Great Eater’s whole body was vibrating finely.

All the troops it had pulled out stopped, and it didn’t care if its body was broken or not.

As if it wasn’t the time to worry about such trivial matters.

“…Is that… trembling?”

It wasn’t a meaningful vibration.

It was a reaction that every living creature has. A phenomenon where the body trembles due to fear.

The Great Eater was trembling.

It was trembling in fear.

That fact made everyone clench their fists.

‘Mason did it!’

Steve Queen muttered.

“…Kill it.”

Chong Daolong said, looking at the Great Eater.

“Finish it, Park hyung.”

Batkhishig shouted from his motorbike, firing his beam.

“Kill all the invaders!”

Orkhon clenched her fist and shouted.

“Revenge! Revenge!”

All the Mongolians cried out.

“For our families!”

“For our country’s revenge!”

It was anger, but righteous anger, and hatred, but justifiable hatred.

It was justice for those who had been invaded without sin to want the blood of the invaders, and it was right for those who had lost their families without fault to want the lives of their enemies.

It was also a natural right for those who had fought and bled to want the rewards of victory, and for those who had risked their lives to want the lives of their opponents.

Hatred and anger spread like wildfire.

It filled the sky, the earth, and the blue grasslands between them.

“Do it. Big guy.”

Deroa gave a bitter smile.

“Do what you have to do…”

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

At that moment, what flashed through Mason’s mind were Sung Kijun’s words.

<Remember the four words, ‘There are things that must be done.’>

Sung Kijun had said that day, at that place.

<The right thing is the right thing, no matter the cost, and the wrong thing is the wrong thing, no matter the benefit.>

He saw a lonely back with a deep sigh…

Mason gritted his teeth in pain.

‘It’s what everyone wants.’

It was what everyone wanted.

‘It’s something I can do.’

Revenge was justified.

‘It’s something I’m capable of.’

But…

“Sigh…”

Thud.

Mason let out a deep sigh and carefully picked up the alien larva.

“But, your sin is not this child’s sin…”

The collapsing engine of the World Tree sent images of relief and gratitude.

Clink!

At that moment, a piece of the engine fell at Mason’s feet.

A bead, too round and clear to be considered broken.

“…Humph.”

Mason picked up the bead.

Crack. Crackle…

Gooooooooo-

With its last death rattle, the World Tree began to scatter into particles of light.

The Mud Rhinoceros Beetles and Mud Ants also began to crumble and turn into a handful of dirt.

Leaving the scattering World Tree behind, Mason raised his fist high.

“Waaaaaaaaaaah!”

It was a roar of victory.

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

The first roar was Mason’s.

But the next moment.

“Waaaaaaaaaaah!”

That roar became everyone’s.

The roar of victory shook the Mongolian grasslands.

The Great Eater, breaking, scattering, and turning into a mist of light.

The Mongolian people, who had been as strong as steel, shed hot tears as they looked at the recovered horizon, and the allied forces smiled softly at their tearful faces.

People cheered as they saw Mason walking out with his back to the Great Eater.

Victory. It was a victory.

However, sometimes…

It was after victory that the real war began.

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

The base was in a festive mood.

People held whatever they could find, be it alcohol or water, and hugged and jumped around, regardless of whether the person next to them was male or female. Everyone celebrated the destruction of their enemy and the victory of the war in their own way.

Except for one place.

The command center.

Batkhishig saluted Mason without saying a word. His eyes were already reddish, as if he had been secretly shedding tears while no one was looking.

As the champion of a country fighting a losing war, he wouldn’t have been able to show his weakness to anyone for a long time.

This was probably the first time he had expressed his emotions so freely.

Chong Daolong, covered in blood and mud, bowed to Mason.

“Park hyung.”

“Chong Daolong.”

The two men looked at each other and grinned.

However, the peaceful conversation ended there.

“I sincerely congratulate you on the feat of defeating the Great Eater.”

Steve Queen smiled with his lips, but there wasn’t a shred of sincerity in his eyes.

His eyes, which had been burning with a champion’s sense of responsibility and a warrior’s fighting spirit, had now turned into the cold, calculating eyes of a businessman.

“By the way, don’t you have anything to tell us?”

As soon as Steve Queen finished speaking, Jean Bosung said with a stern expression.

“I think you have a lot to say about the creature in your hand.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Mason’s expression was grave.

“There’s a very long story to tell.”

Mason began to explain the information he had obtained.

“It seems like the Great Eater, no, the World Tree, was a spaceship sent from another world. An escape spaceship sent to another world from a dying world.”

“And the creature in your hand is Kal-El, is that it?”

Mason tilted his head at Steve Queen’s words.