Chapter 122) - Monster Army (6) |
TL/Editor: Rungir
Schedule: none
Illustrations: none
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“Kerrrrgh!”
A pained scream erupted from Horrible's mouth as his heart was shattered by Zion's sword in an instant.
Yet, even in desperate agony, the Monster King twisted his body, extracting Zion's Eclaxia and began to flee in a crazed panic.
“Aaaaah!”
Fear-filled screams spilled from him.
Having been born not long ago, he was true to his emotions and lacked any experience in restraining them.
Thus, facing a being stronger than himself for the first time, he was overwhelmed by fear, desperately wanting to escape the situation.
In the Monster King's mind, there was no longer any trace of arrogance or belief that he was the pinnacle of power.
Boom!
Using a partial eclipse to amplify the Heukseongha in his legs, Zion quickly caught up to Horrible.
Certainly, it was abnormal for the Monster King to still be moving despite his heart being crushed, but there was no doubt or confusion in Zion's eyes.
‘Horrible originally has two hearts.’
The Monster King Horrible possessed a real and a fake heart. The heart Zion had just destroyed was the fake one.
The real heart was hidden somewhere outside Horrible's body.
‘But that doesn’t mean I can't kill him here.’
Destroying over 80% of the body could sever its lifeline, even without finding and destroying the real heart.
The Hero in the chronicles had killed Horrible using this method.
Knowing this, Horrible must have decided to flee.
“Uaaaah!”
The Monster King, lashing out in desperation, aimed his attack at Zion, who was quickly following him.
His arm, imbued with the traits of dozens of monsters, aimed a more powerful attack than before at Zion.
But, crackle!
No matter how powerful the attack, Zion, who had not lost his composure, was not going to be hit.
He smashed Horrible's attack effortlessly and quickly closed in, swinging his previously withdrawn Eclaxia broadly.
Slash!
The regenerated leg was sliced again, and the Monster King tumbled to the ground.
Then, Zion's sword strikes began to rain down indiscriminately on the Monster King.
Swoosh!
Zion, without expressing a word and without any emotion in his eyes, continued his assault.
Horrible, trying to survive, intermittently screamed and resisted, but it was futile.
This was no longer a battle.
It was simply a slaughter.
Roar!
The surrounding monsters tried to come to their king's aid,
“Block them! Do not let them disturb His Highness Zion!”
But they were held back by the knights of the Balt Knight Order, and,
Screech!
By demons that had infiltrated the center.
‘I'm going to die, I'll really die like this!’
That was the thought filling Horrible's mind as more than half of his body was destroyed by Zion.
As his eyes dimmed of light, they met Zion's.
Horrible saw in Zion's eyes four distinct black stars swirling vividly, feeling an infinite terror.
To him, Zion seemed like an immense presence that reduced him to a firefly in front of the sun.
If not Zion, then who in the world could possibly be the pinnacle?
"Please, spare me!"
Realizing this, a desperate plea burst from Horrible's mouth.
"Spare my life! I will crawl on the ground if you ask. I will do anything you command!"
A cowardly cry, unbecoming of a king of monsters.
But Zion's sword strikes did not cease.
Crash!
They became even faster.
"Uaaaah! Please spare me! Pleaaase!"
Right before his lifeline was severed, a final, prideless cry escaped Horrible's lips.
Clank!
Zion's sword stopped right in front of him.
Along with it, the explosively amplified Heukseongha slowly began to recede.
"……?"
The Monster King, staring blankly at the Eclaxia stopped before his eyes, was filled with doubt, never having imagined Zion would actually stop.
"You begged for your life."
Zion smirked, as if pleased by Horrible's last desperate plea.
He had never intended to kill Horrible from the start.
The second reason Zion had specifically chosen the Monster Legion among the disasters was precisely because of Horrible.
"Why suddenly stop……."
"Should I have killed you?"
"No, not that!"
"Then first, stop the monsters."
"Understood!"
Confused, the Monster King nevertheless signaled to his surroundings.
At his command, the Seventh Legion and Liushina's Demon Hands, who were in the midst of chaotic battle, began to stop their movements.
"Cut off their ankles to stop their movements…… Huh?"
"Kill all those damn monster bastards……?"
Was it then that they sensed something was wrong amidst the sudden stillness of the monsters?
The soldiers, who had been intoxicated with the heat of battle, swinging their weapons at the monsters, began to look around with puzzled expressions.
And then, in their sight,
“……!”
In the center of the battlefield, the Monster King Horrible knelt with his head bowed, and Zion stood before him with a calm gaze.
"Ah……."
With that, the soldiers, no, everyone on the battlefield, gaped in stunned silence at the sight.
The emotion that slowly filled their eyes.
That emotion was none other than, Aaaaah!
The ecstasy of victory.
They laid down their weapons.
Embracing each other.
The soldiers, sitting down, screamed until their throats were hoarse.
Within their cheers lay the pent-up frustration of over a year, mourning for their fallen comrades, and amazement at this unbelievable miracle.
"Really... we actually won..."
Yornan's eyes trembled uncontrollably as he looked towards Zion and the Monster King.
Until a few days ago.
No, even until this morning before they set out, he couldn't have imagined witnessing such a scene.
Just two people.
It was only two more than the original legion.
Yet, those two had created this outcome.
A miracle, hard to believe even as he saw it!
"Ah... His Highness Zion."
Yornan's head slowly bowed towards the person who had made this miracle possible, filled with awe for Zion.
"Ha... it's a bit frustrating, but it can't be helped."
Unlike Yornan, Liushina, looking dissatisfied, called back her demons.
Normally, once she started a massacre, she would not stop until it was finished, but this time was an exception.
She remembered the words Zion said before the battle, even before arriving at the fortress.
Regretfully, but believing that such opportunities would come again if she waited by her master's side, Liushina consoled her disappointment.
She slowly walked towards Zion.
Along with her, Yornan and other knights also began to approach Zion.
"You said you would do anything, right?"
Zion, watching the people approaching him, spoke in a low voice, audible only to Horrible.
"……?"
"We'll talk about that later."
With those words from Zion, crack!
Horrible's vision plunged into complete darkness.
---
The secret branch of the criminal organization Ouroboros in the capital city, Hubris.
"This is annoying."
In the office, Sharin May, one of the Ouroboros executives, frowned deeply as she looked out the window.
"Are you thinking about that person again?"
Beside her, the snake-eyed demon Diral asked, sounding familiar with the subject.
Diral, who had once abruptly sought out Sharin, had since proven his abilities in various ways and had been staying by her side.
Of course, Sharin knew he was a demon, but she didn't mind.
The Ouroboros organization itself aimed for the destruction of humanity, and she was ready to join hands even with a devil if they were capable enough.
"Yes, still no trace of him."
Sharin was aware that her shadow intelligence network was one of the best in the capital.
Yet, it was incomprehensible to her that she was so blocked.
Now, it felt like a matter of pride to find out and crush that face.
"I had planned to set it off during this festival..."
But that became impossible when the grey-haired man took away two pieces of the Snow Queen's authority.
From Sharin's perspective, this was frustrating in many ways.
"Speaking of the Snow Queen's authority pieces, didn't you acquire another one after that?"
Diral asked, looking at her.
"I did find another one. But there's not much we can do with just that. We need at least three to deal any significant damage to Hubris."
"Why not use that piece to find him?"
"What?"
"The pieces. Weren't they originally part of a single artifact? There should be some resonance or attraction between them. Isn't there a way to amplify that?"
Sharin's eyes began to shine at Diral's suggestion.
"Not a bad idea. Why didn't I think of that? If that guy has a piece of the authority, we could find both."
"Well, it's hard to think of such things when you've only recently acquired a new piece."
Diral shrugged, but his words were already lost on Sharin.
"Call all the mages in the branch immediately."
Sharin ordered her subordinate standing in the back.
Her eyes were already filled with anticipation and murderous intent.
---
In the deepest part of the dungeons of the Steel Fortress.
Clank-
There, Horrible was fixed to the wall with dozens of restraints binding his entire body.
His eyes were already half-dead.
After all, having been defeated in war and captured by humans, his end was all too predictable.
"I... defeated..."
A voice of despair escaped from Horrible.
He still couldn't quite believe it.
That he had been pathetically beaten by humans and begged for his life.
But at the same time, the image of the human who had done this to him brought fear to Horrible's eyes.
'The man with grey hair.'
Despite having been defeated and humiliated in the war because of him, Horrible felt no anger or hatred.
Instead, he felt a sense of relief to be out of the situation where he had to confront that man.
Where did such a person come from?
The human woman who summoned legions alone was impressive, but compared to the intensity of that man, she was nothing.
Then, step, step.
Low footsteps reached Horrible's ears.
The pressure from those footsteps involuntarily turned his head.
And the Monster King saw.
"You, you are...!"
The man he had just been thinking of was slowly coming down the stairs, approaching him.
Along with him, fear surged again.
Whether he knew of Horrible's feelings or not, Zion stood impassively right in front of Horrible.
"The restraints suit you well."
"......"
The Monster King, unable to respond and seemingly finding it difficult to meet his eyes, lowered his head.
But then he raised it again at Zion's following words.
"You will be executed tomorrow morning."
"......!"
"You will be burned so that not even your corpse remains. Dozens of mages are scheduled to pour high-level fire magic on you."
Why would he come all this way to say this?
Did he come to enjoy the sight of him wailing in fear?
"Is that why you're here? To gloat?"
"Gloat?"
"…you mean?"
Horrible quickly changed his words, and Zion, watching him, chuckled before continuing.
"Don't you want to live?"
Horrible looked at him as if he had asked something obvious.
All that was left in him, after discarding his pride and everything else, was his survival instinct.
"…Of course, I do."
"Then I'll let you live."
Zion's voice, offering to spare the leader of the enemy they had fought mere hours ago, was utterly calm.
The Monster King's eyes widened greatly.
"Are, are you really...!"
"However."
Zion interrupted his question.
"You'll have to do as I say."
It was a continuation of the conversation they couldn't finish on the battlefield.
Part of the hunting plan Zion had prepared before coming here.
Of course, the prey was Utekan.
"What is it?"
Horrible had already committed on the battlefield to do anything if spared.
Thus, there was no hesitation in Horrible's question to Zion.
"The Giant Clusters."
A voice devoid of emotion flowed from Zion's mouth.
"Gather the monsters and head there. Rave around and wait for further instructions."
"Rave around… you say?"
Horrible asked, not understanding, but Zion did not answer.
As always, explaining the reason was not Zion's style.
"Oh, and."
Before turning around, Zion seemed to remember something he had almost forgotten and spoke to the Monster King.
"Before you leave, hand over your 'real heart' to me."
"!!!!!!"
It was said with a casualness like considering a stroll.
But to Horrible, it was far from casual.
How did he know about the 'real heart,' something he had never spoken of to another?
The Monster King couldn't understand what being stood before him.
"How did you..."
"I can't blindly trust you. I need collateral, don't I?"
With that, Zion smiled slyly and turned to leave the dungeon.
"Leave first thing tomorrow."
With those words, Zion completely disappeared from Horrible's sight.
But Horrible's eyes lingered for a long time on the spot where Zion had been.
The next morning.
The Monster King Horrible was officially executed in front of the entire Seventh Legion.
But that evening.
No one in the Steel Fortress noticed something slip away into the night.