Became a tyrant of defense games - Episode 398
◈ 398. [Side Story] The bottom (2)
《Who is the real ‘you’??》
“…….”
《If you can't clearly define that, there's no reason to get out of here and go outside. Your own purpose, justice, and wishes will all fade away like a mirage..》
Salome shrugged and turned her body back..
《Even if you struggle to climb to the ground, there is only suffering outside anyway..》
“…….”
《Rather than that, come into my arms. At least I'll let you have happy dreams.》
Salome smiled and walked away..
《As we fell to the bottom together, we fell to the very end... … It might not be a bad ending?》
“…….”
《I'll be waiting. forever…….》
Salome disappeared, leaving behind only a faint laugh..
I snorted as I glared at him. Salome's suggestion was nonsense not worth listening to..
……but.
It was true that he read my memories. He knew exactly what I was thinking about..
I was afraid.
A long road lies ahead of me. The heavy burden I have to carry.
The remaining battles will be many and cruel, and I will have to continue to bear the deaths of my colleagues and subordinates. Just like it has been up to now, or even more..
“……Ugh.”
When I was carrying a load on the road, I was able to hold on through inertia. But now that I was pushed out of the way and collapsed, I couldn't bear to do anything..
can we do it again.
Will I be able to go to the end?.
- It's really 'your' wish?
Is what I was going to accomplish at the end of this long road really what I hoped for??
Just one chance, really one chance.
As Salome said, if that wish is different from mine now,.
If you give up that wish…….
There's no need to fight this hard, right??
- Breaking the flag is very difficult at first, but becomes very easy after the first time. Because it's already broken.
It was then.
Suddenly, Fairy Queen Skuld's words softly rang in my mind..
- Once you start compromising, you will bend endlessly. In the end, you will end up lying face down. like me.
“…….”
Gritting my teeth, I picked up the stone from the floor again and threw it back toward the sewer..
Taaak!
The stone that had missed significantly could not even enter the sewer and bounced out. Damn, I clicked my tongue..
***
10district, farm.
《need…….》
As he walked through his territory, Plague Corps Commander Raven growled in a boiling voice..
《A stronger poison, a more deadly plague, are needed.…….》
This place, which had been richly maintained by the owner just half a day ago, had now been transformed into a living hell..
The fruit trees that were bearing fruit, the grains that were growing ears, and the young livestock that were growing in the barn.…….
Everyone was dead and rotting..
The poison and plague unleashed by Raven devours my farm like a swarm of locusts. But even as he watched the farm disappear without even leaving behind ruins, Raven didn't know how to stop..
《It's not enough, this isn't enough. This isn't enough……!》
Raven stopped in front of the 'field' where she had sown the seeds of the plague..
In the meantime, the powerful and powerful people of all the races he had captured were rotting alive, becoming seedbeds for different plagues..
Churrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Raven stretched out her hand and absorbed all the plague..
but.
《I need more, more, more, more……!》
lack.
There is no way.
This is not enough. A stronger curse is needed, a stronger desecration is needed..
Raven let out a desperate yell..
《To kill him, we need more……!》
The Plague Legion is extremely powerful when dealing with large numbers of people..
The real plague that Raven's body emits, and the phantom pain that her clones emit..
The pain that spreads without any ability to distinguish between what is real and what is fake is more effective when the opponent is a large army. Death spreads, fear grows stronger, and the few survivors of that hell spread the plague to other humans again - anew..
endless chain of despair.
Among all the forces of hell revived in the Lake Kingdom, there is no monster as powerful against the masses as the Plague Legion..
However, the weaknesses are also clear..
Whether it's a plague or a phantom pain, it can't cut off the opponent's breath in one go. It can cause pain to the opponent for a long time by causing them to tremble, but it cannot cause immediate death..
Therefore, it is vulnerable to elites who are strong enough to withstand the plague..
Even during her lifetime, Raven's struggles were always limited to a small number of elite superhumans. Even though they were infected with the plague, they held on with potions and healing magic and rushed forward, and even though they ended up turning into a handful of blood, they often held their swords to Raven's throat..
After repeated incidents like this, Raven in her lifetime was finally subdued. to one human.
Raven, who was originally a doctor from the Lake Kingdom, was expelled from the kingdom after researching corruption and became a plague herself, sweeping the world..
And with great force, they invaded his hometown. He was planning to make an example of the handsome wizards who had been ignoring him..
And there was only one wizard who stood in his way..
The wizard was the head of the research center who led the research on 'Bando', an elixir of invulnerability to all diseases cultivated through research in the Lake Kingdom at the time. After eating the prototype of Bando, he stood alone in front of Raven..
And Raven broke down in front of him..
None of the poisons, pestilences, or curses he possessed could pierce the blessings that enveloped him..
Raven was the one who rotted and killed countless lives across the entire continent, but was unable to withstand just one human and had to disappear..
《What a pity! What a pity! What a pity! I feel sorry for you!》
Tears made of poison flowed from Raven's eyes as she recalled that time..
And as time passed - Raven was resurrected again in the darkness of the Lake Kingdom..
The revived Raven first looked into the elixir production route and found the farm. Although it was already a mess of ruins, many precious elixirs were still sleeping there..
Raven restored the farm. If you can recreate the elixir that defeated you from scratch, it will also be possible to find a way to overcome that immunity yourself..
So - Raven has been running the farm here, cultivating old elixirs and harvesting new plagues at the same time..
But what was the use of those hundreds of fucking years?.
Raven's plague was still unable to pierce the peach created by the Lake Kingdom's leading scholars and wizards after research - and that peach was absurdly stolen, and once again, one human was left to become a panacea..
《It can't be in vain.》
Raven muttered, still feeling thirsty even after harvesting all the life and plague on the farm..
《It can't be in vain, it can't be in vain, it can't be in vain - there's no way that I, this plague lord, can't overcome the research of wizards who died hundreds of years ago..》
I guess I'll have to show it to you.
The corrupt will of one individual can easily crush the noble collective intelligence..
The flame that sets the world on fire always, always begins with just one match..
《I, I have to prove it……!》
To cover the whole world with his plague.
So Raven decided to take a gamble..
Raven jerked her hand up. and,
Puuk!
I stuck it in my chest..
He held his spirit core in his hand, and-
Clang……!
By his own will, he shattered it into pieces..
Phuwak-!
Raven's body was scattered in all directions..
From the time he first became the Lord of the Plague, his entire body had rotted and rotted away, leaving no trace of his body. His body was nothing more than a mass of plague vectors centered around his own spiritual core and then processed into a magical shape..
And the spiritual core was shattered, and all the crows, bugs, field mice, fog, etc. that made up his body were scattered in all directions.…….
Immediately after, the agents rushed again..
They latched onto Raven's shattered spirit core and savagely ate it..
It was a spirit core scattered by one of the world's greatest incarnations of evil. The spirit was powerful, and the tiny creatures instinctively tried their best to consume it..
《eat.》
Raven's thoughts mumbled as her soul was eaten away by countless bugs..
《Eat, eat, eat - eat, then scatter even more..》
With a voice that gets weaker and weaker.
《……With this, I will transcend to the next level.…….》
Eventually, Raven's voice disappeared..
His spiritual core disappeared into the stomach of insects without leaving a trace..
Waves of black and murky abominations filled what was once a farm. Crows, bugs, rats, and fog began to swell, explode, and multiply endlessly..
and…….
***
I've been living here 'at the bottom' for a few days.
No, how many days is it? Is it a day? Or three days? or a week?
When you are in a place like this, your sense of time becomes dull. I didn't do anything but threw stones in front of the drain, wasting time so meaninglessly for several days anyway..
I was hungry, so I took out one of the fruits Salome had found earlier and tried to eat it..
“…….”
“…….”
I made eye contact with one of the residents of this bottom village..
He was a scruffy kid. Like everyone else in this village, he had long, messy hair and wore worn-out clothes..
The kid was staring at the fruit in my hand..
“Umm…….”
I'm not that shameless of a person to ignore it and just eat it. I cracked open the fruit..
“I want to eat?”
nod.
The kid nodded. I cut the soft fruit in half and threw half to the kid..
“eat.”
widely!
The kid who caught the fruit I threw swallowed it in one bite. no… … Well, chew on it. Chehala.
“There's more?”
The kid asked boldly. I laughed out loud.
“There is, but… … I can't give it to you for free.”
“There's nothing worth paying for in this town..”
“……Yes, it looks like it.”
It's a village so impoverished that it could be used for promotional purposes by some kind of overseas starving refugee relief foundation..
I gave up on getting paid and just tore the fruit into small pieces and threw them one by one. The kid took it well. He's skinny but he's also talented..
After feeding the kid some more fruit, I decided to just ask a question..
“What do you eat and live in a place like this??”
“I'm not going to eat.”
“what?”
“I can live without eating.”
I didn't understand the kid's answer and just blinked, so the kid explained further..
“Because the people of our village were also ‘cursed of eternal life’.”
“ah…….”
“Even if you don't eat, you won't die, if you don't sleep, you won't die, and if you don't breathe, you won't die. Just stay alive.”
“Well then, after the Lake Kingdom became like this... … I've been living here forever?”
“huh.”
The kid chuckled..
“Even though he looks like this, he's much older than you. You can call me brother.”
oh my god.
It's so absurd, this kid... … No, I asked while looking at the little brother blankly..
“If you are cursed with eternal life, you are all citizens of the Lake Kingdom.?”
“no. we are not the people.”
Little Brother shrugged his shoulders..
“Slave land.”
“…….”
“The Lake Kingdom had a three-level caste system. royalty. citizen. And, slave.”
A bitter smile appeared on the little brother's lips..
“Slaves are not people. Since you are not a person, you cannot become a citizen. We were called 'non-citizens'.”
“…….”
“Non-citizens have no name, they have no name, so they cannot leave anything behind..”
500The Lake Kingdom, the greatest magical nation of its time, was destroyed years ago..
What kind of deformed country was this? I swallowed dry saliva..
“We lived outside the civic district, doing odd jobs. All the dirty work that you noble citizens could not handle was our responsibility..”
“…….”
“Anyway, the inside of the Lake Kingdom was a nice place to live. The people in our village also worked hard because they wanted to get inside. Because I want to become a person. Because I want to get a name.”
The little brother said that and shrugged his shoulders..
“‘To obtain citizenship.”
“citizenship……?”
“It was the dream of non-citizens like us. There was a saying that if you offered a huge amount of gold coins, your status would be raised. So we all worked hard to save money together..”
Haha, little brother looked up with a dry smile..
“I wonder what use it is to come all the way to this yard?…….”
“…….”
“Still, the adults in the village are saving money. Even after falling to such a low point, he carefully holds the gold coins in his arms and collects them in the village treasury. I believe that if I become human, I can escape this hell..”
The little brother chuckled as he munched on the last piece of fruit I gave him..
“All those 'people' are having nightmares up there..”
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