Building a Safe Zone with My Harem In The Post-Apocalyptic World-Chapter 50: The Devourer’s Tail

"How about them then? You’re just going to leave them?" Daphne pointed toward the wounded, her voice tight with conflict.

Her eyes trembled in the direction where her grandfather had been last seen. Saving everyone mattered to her, but her heart was pulling her elsewhere.

"The longer we hesitate, the more of them die," Gideon replied firmly.

There was no softness in his tone now. No room for persuasion or comfort.

"If Henry is influencing the Devourer, cutting him off might force it to retreat."

"And what if he isn’t?" Jade shot back from the other vehicle, her voice sharp over the engine’s roar.

"What if he can control more than one aberrant? What if this isn’t the only thing tied to him? What’s your backup plan then?"

Gideon closed his eyes for a brief second. The weight of that possibility pressed hard against his thoughts. If she was right, splitting their forces could cost everything.

"Then you save the wounded," he said at last.

"I’ll deal with him alone. Don’t die on me. You guys are under the protection of the Pathmadre."

Jade let out a short, incredulous laugh. "You—"

"I don’t have time to argue."

He turned away and accessed the system without hesitation. This wasn’t the moment to hide anything anymore. The cost flashed before his eyes and he confirmed the purchase instantly.

A full-sized military-grade truck materialized in the desert beside him, armored, reinforced, built for war.

There was no time to explain it, no time to soften the reveal. Power was power, and survival came first.

He climbed into the driver’s seat just as someone grabbed the door before he could close it.

Freya.

Behind her, Delilah.

"I’m coming with you," Delilah said without hesitation. "I can handle the machine gun."

"I’ll support you however I can," Freya added, her expression steady despite the chaos around them.

Gideon exhaled through his nose. Part of him wanted to refuse, but he had seen how Delilah handled that weapon earlier.

These women were not fragile civilians. They had survived this world long before he entered it.

"Fine. Get in."

They moved quickly. The engine roared alive beneath them.

As the truck accelerated toward Henry’s position, Gideon spoke without looking away from the battlefield ahead.

"Delilah, once we’re close enough, don’t hesitate. Take them all out."

Her answer was calm. "Understood."

Freya reached over and squeezed his shoulder gently. "They’ll be fine. You made the right call."

He took a deep breath, forcing the spiraling thoughts into order. Jade’s warning lingered in the back of his mind.

If Henry truly had deeper control over aberrants, if this was only the beginning, then the wounded and Freebound could be in danger.

But they were seasoned survivors. Professionals. They had endured ten years in this world. He trusted that.

Right now, the only ones he needed to guarantee were himself, Delilah, and Freya.

Still, a darker thought crept in.

’What if Henry could summon something worse? Would the system shop be enough?’

The idea unsettled him, but Henry hadn’t demonstrated anything beyond arrogance and manipulation so far. If he had greater power, he likely would have flaunted it already.

Before Gideon could sink deeper into that spiral, Delilah rose behind him and grabbed the mounted machine gun.

Her movements were steady despite the truck bouncing over unstable sand. She opened fire without hesitation.

The chanting zealots fell one after another, bullets tearing through them before they could even process what was happening. Blood soaked into the desert ground, staining the sand dark.

From a distance, the Verdant Devourer roared.

The scent of fresh blood carried across the battlefield. The ground trembled as the creature reacted, shifting violently beneath the surface. It wanted to move toward them, but something held it back.

Gideon drove straight toward Henry and slammed the brakes hard enough to spray sand in every direction.

Henry stood there untouched, the same unsettling smile still resting on his face despite the bodies of his followers collapsing around him as if they were never anything more than disposable tools.

"So you decided to face me directly," Henry said calmly. "That’s disappointing. I thought you were smarter than this."

Gideon didn’t answer.

There was no time for posturing.

He pressed the accelerator down with full force, eyes locked on Henry’s figure as the armored truck lunged forward.

This ends now.

The thought repeated in his mind with growing intensity. Not from strategy. Not from calculation.

From instinct.

Henry could not be allowed to live.

However, just as the truck surged forward at full speed, the sand in front of them exploded upward.

A massive shape burst from beneath the ground, dark brown like aged bark, scales glinting under the desert sun. Gideon’s eyes widened immediately.

The Devourer’s tail

He yanked the steering wheel sharply. The truck swerved violently, barely missing the sweeping tail that lashed across their path.

Sand sprayed into the air, blinding and choking. The force of the sudden turn nearly threw everyone from their seats if not for the restraints and reinforced interior.

Delilah lost her footing and slammed onto the floor of the vehicle, grabbing onto whatever she could to steady herself as the truck screeched to a halt.

"What the hell?!" she shouted, scrambling up. "I tried to shoot him but not a single bullet pierced him!"

Henry’s laughter echoed over the chaos, taunting and sharp. "Is that all you’ve got? Come out and fight me properly."

Gideon clicked his tongue in annoyance and turned briefly to Freya. "Just stay here. I’ll handle him directly. If bullets don’t work, I’ll use something else."

"Gideon!" Freya reached for him, but he was already moving.

He stepped out of the vehicle without hesitation. The Unbreakable Sword materialized in his hand as he purchased and absorbed the Swordsmanship Scroll in the same motion, knowledge flooding into his mind like instinct sharpened into steel.

Now he stood face to face with Henry.

"Fight me with your own power," Gideon said coldly. "Stop hiding behind that monster."

Henry shrugged casually. "You’re using yours too. Don’t act righteous. Freebound doesn’t own trucks like that. Where did it come from? Did it appear out of thin air like that sword in your hand?"

"You talk like you’re the smartest man alive," Gideon replied flatly. "Figure it out yourself."

Henry chuckled. "Such a shame. We could’ve been allies. But we can’t and we will never be."

Gideon didn’t waste another second. He lunged forward, blade flashing toward Henry’s throat.

But the Devourer’s tail intercepted again, smashing between them. Steel collided with hardened scales. Sparks flew. This time, though, the Unbreakable Sword cut through.

Blue blood splattered across the sand.

The Devourer shrieked, its roar shaking the desert air. Each slash left deep wounds, something bullets had failed to do.

"Keep going, Gideon!" Delilah’s voice carried over the chaos. He glanced briefly and saw her watching through binoculars. "It stopped attacking the Freebound!"

He swung again, carving deeper into the tail. The creature thrashed violently, trying to knock him away.

The tail whipped across the ground, tearing trenches through the sand. Gideon leapt high, flipping the blade downward.

Gravity pulled him fast.

He drove the sword straight into the thick tail with everything he had and dragged it down in a brutal arc. The blade cut deep, ripping through muscle and scale.

"Separate already!" he shouted through clenched teeth, hanging onto the embedded sword as the tail whipped wildly, trying to shake him off.

CRASH!

The tail was finally severed.

Blue blood erupted like a fountain, splattering the sand and soaking into the desert floor.

The Devourer’s scream rose to a deafening pitch, shaking the very ground beneath them. Its massive body twisted and moved back directly toward him at terrifying speed.

Gideon dropped to the sand, pulling his sword free as he faced the oncoming S-rank aberrant.

He grinned.

"Yeah. Come on. Let’s finish this."