◈ 484. [STAGE 23] Dark Cloud
‘Three Gorgon Sisters!’
I gritted my teeth at the contents of the urgent report from the Crossroads.
‘It’s quite a boss stage-class enemy! A monster like this attacked the Crossroads while I was gone?!’
no… Looking back, the Black Lake always spit out the worst monsters at the worst timing.
Perhaps, when I’m not there, it might be a natural thing to send out enemies that are difficult to deal with due to the current monster front’s troop composition… … !
‘I don’t know if even the system window works normally.’
I nervously opened and closed the system window in front of me.
Enemy information in the system window, which should have been updated a long time ago, was also not appearing on my side. That’s why my reaction was delayed.
‘Ader this bastard… … ! Are you slowing down? What are you doing?! Are you busy with anything? I don’t see you very often with Mumyung these days. What are you decorating?’
Blaming the director for not answering, I summoned all my men.
I want to lead all of the world defense front down, but it will take several weeks.
We have to go down quickly with only elite troops on the airship, the fastest means of transportation.
‘Three days from the ecliptic to the Crossroads by airship.’
After periodically landing on the ground, the machine needs to be inspected and recharged with mana, so no matter how quickly you look at it, three days is the limit.
‘This is too slow!’
Jeon Seo-eung had already spent several days on his way to the Hwangdo.
If I spend three more days here and go back, it wouldn’t be strange if something happened to the Crossroads.
time should be shortened. Is there any way… … .
“… I can’t help it.”
I thought of a method and clicked my tongue briefly.
“Also, the cute maknae needs to act a little aegyo to the beloved Obama.”
It was time to transform into a fiery filial piety boy once more.
***
Boom!
I kicked through the door of the palace that the emperor is using as a temporary office and entered.
The palace of thorns was completely blown away, and the emperor was currently staying in a small villa south of New Terra.
“Abama! Where are you!”
The knights guarding the entrance could not restrain me and were sweating profusely.
“Your Highness, Prince Hua!”
“It would be embarrassing if you suddenly came and did this!”
“You have to go through the official procedures before you come”,
etc., refreshingly ignoring the words and going inside, I shouted out loud.
“The youngest is here, Obama! This is an urgent matter!”
The emperor was sitting in his office.
The emperor, wearing magnifying glasses and handling a mountain of paperwork, glanced at me with tired eyes.
“… Are you Ash? As you can see Jim is busy. If you have any business, tell the officials outside.”
“I came here because I have an urgent request to make directly to Obama.”
“To Jim? directly?”
“yes. It’s a very serious matter. Much more than state affairs!”
“I am already afraid. What are you asking for?”
thud!
Walking in front of the emperor and placing my hands on the desk in the office, I told him about my business.
“Let’s go for a drive with your son!”
“… ?”
The emperor frowned and took off his glasses.
“drive?”
“Is there anything better than a drive to raise the level of intimacy between a father and a son who have been unfamiliar with each other?”
“Are you going to take a carriage and go out to the suburbs? It shouldn’t be bad, but… … .”
The emperor put his chin on his chin and was immersed in thought. But I waved my hands.
“Ah~ Obama Mama is also true. Their names are the emperor and prince of the Everblack Empire, but what is a carriage drive? I won’t live in form.”
“Then what should we go for a drive… for a moment. no way.”
The Emperor looked at me bitterly.
“You don’t mean to go out on an empty ship, do you?”
“Now you can talk a little bit. Let’s fly coolly on a flying ship!”
The emperor laughed at the absurdity and asked,
“Where?”
Without getting angry, I asked the place. Because this guy is a very funny person.
I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.
“I know a place with a good view and nice weather. There’s a crossroad at the southern end of that continent… … .”
Only then did the emperor, who slowly realized my intentions, let out a devastated breath.
“… So now. As you return to your frontlines, tell me, your father and leader of this empire… … Do you want me to be a non-empty driver?”
Not just the driver.
If it’s a normal airship, you have to land every certain flight time, recharge the magic furnace, and check the aircraft, but what if the emperor drives the airship himself?
The emperor’s own mana can be injected even while flying, and there is no need for maintenance.
Because the emperor uses the method of assimilating his consciousness into Alcatraz and driving it.
‘That’s why I want you to act not only as a driver but also as a mechanic and bio-battery!’
Do it!
give me more! no, give me everything!
“… You really are arrogant, Ash.”
After I explained the circumstances in detail.
The emperor shook his head.
“No matter how much the southern front is in crisis and you are the only son left to me, how are you trying to manipulate the emperor like this? About billions… … .”
“Don’t do that, can’t you help me just once, Dad?”
“… what?”
The emperor looked at me with a frightened face.
In front of such an emperor, I put my hands together and my eyes sparkled as much as I could.
“Dad, you really won’t listen to my cute youngest son’s request?”
“What the fuck.”
The emperor spat out a double curse. No, is it something to swear at to get hurt?
The emperor covered his eyes with both hands as if he had seen something he couldn’t see.
“It gives you goosebumps, so don’t do that again.”
“If you don’t listen, I will keep doing this, Dad!”
“Let’s deal with it quickly. Let’s go right now. So stop. please.”
Not only did he speak, the emperor immediately jumped out of his seat and stood up.
“Pick those who will go with you to Alcatraz. We leave immediately in an hour.”
I spread my arms out of my seat and jumped up.
“Hurray! dad the best! Excited! Drive with Dad!”
“Don’t you do it! Hwangmyeong, Hwangmyeong!”
The emperor, who was fed up with goosebumps, rubbed his forearm briskly and ran out of the office as if running away. It seems that he is going to repair Alcatraz.
I giggled as I watched the back of the emperor walking away. Please look at it kindly. I’m like this because I didn’t receive love and grew up.
Anyway, with this, the fastest way to return to the Crossroads was secured.
‘I’ll be there soon, guys.’
I turned my gaze to the southern sky. Towards my frontline in a faraway place.
‘Hold on a little longer… … !’
***
Night has come to Crossroads.
Most of the citizens had fled far away, but priests and other essential manpower for city management were waiting at a point not far from the city.
They returned to help with the maintenance now that the fighting had entered a lull.
The wounded were healed by the priest and the blacksmiths repaired the damaged equipment. Among the regular soldiers, veterans volunteered for the manned unit tomorrow.
A pot was hung in the barracks cafeteria and the soup boiled. There was smoke and the smell of grilling beef jerky. The exhausted people struggled to eat.
“… .”
Crouching at the entrance to the temple, Thorkell looked down at the scene.
Behind Thorkel, Zenith was using healing magic with a pale complexion.
“It’s fortunate that I have the ability to do it. If not, what were you doing?”
Zenith had the ability to break curses.
However, it was impossible to heal all those who were petrified today because it consumed too much divine power.
So, as soon as possible, only Thorkel’s petrified parts were being healed.
“… thank you.”
Thorkel rubbed the parts of his body where the petrification was released.
My limbs were still stiff, but I could feel the slow flow of blood through the numb extremities.
“This is just a stopgap. The subject of the curse… … As long as I don’t kill that monster, the aftereffects of petrification will remain.”
“… What if I kill that monster?”
“Then, not only the petrified parts but also the petrified people will be freed from the curse. Likewise, the aftereffects will be a bit severe, but… … .”
Janice, who was sitting next to Torquell, took another cigarette as if burning her stomach, and eh! He groaned and crumpled in his hands, then stomped on the floor.
It seemed that she still couldn’t smoke because she had to go back to her mother soon.
Thorkell glanced inside the temple and asked cautiously.
“Is Lily okay?”
“It is in a dangerous state. I shed too much blood and used up all my energy… … Passing out, waking up, repeating. What is the child rotting inside… … .”
“… .”
“Still, the end is in sight. Don’t worry. Because both the child and the mother will be saved.”
Silence passed.
To defend life against death.
The two men who fought hard on different battlefields sat quietly side by side on the ground for a moment. I looked down at the city stained with darkness.
Then Thorkel opened his mouth.
“Priest Zenith.”
“yes. I am listening.”
“Once upon a time, you called me a lost lamb. If you need a place to confess, come.”
Janice looked back at Thorkel and smiled.
“It did. Are you ready to say something now?”
“… I considered it a sin that I was born into the world.”
Thorkel touched the helmet that covered his face.
“Because of the sins I committed in my previous life, being born into this world is itself a sin. So he got leprosy. I believed so.”
“… .”
“But the former priest… The saintess said that there is no such sin. He just said that this world was originally this cruel.”
The figure of Marherita came to mind.
The noble face of the saintess who tied the bandage around her body with her bloodstained hands.
“So all we can do is struggle to the end in this cruel world. You said so.”
“… .”
“Priest Zenith… What do you think? Are the words of the saintess correct?”
Janice didn’t answer right or wrong.
Instead, he smiled and glanced at Thorkell.
“You must have had a difficult life because of that disease, Torkel?”
“… yes.”
Thorkell nodded.
“There was never a moment that wasn’t difficult.”
“Was this world only for you?”
“… I think it was.”
Thorkell affirmed once more.
“It was just pain… I think.”
I lived without dying.
All of his colleagues who suffered from the same disease died, and the saintess who prayed for him also died.
He, who survived alone in the city above the tomb, was struggling just as the saintess had said.
But- for what?
How long do I have to struggle like this?
Even when I closed my eyes, I could see people dying. The guilt of surviving alone was clearer than the pain of chapped skin.
Suffering like this in this cruel world… … What is real life?
“I was dispatched to various parts of the world as a priest of the Goddess Church. I once went to the western end of the world.”
“Sssssscha-” as she stood up, Janice opened her mouth.
“It’s a place where the weather is so damn good for some reason, but the neighborhood is covered with thick dark clouds all year round. There are only three weather. Cloudy or rainy or foggy.”
“… .”
“Perhaps because of the weather, all the people in the neighborhood were making gloomy faces. It was such a nasty neighborhood that was so dirty for missionary work… … .”
Janice smiled.
“Do you know what the natives of that neighborhood found more unbelievable than the existence of a goddess?”
“… I do not know. What is it?”
Janice raised her finger and pointed to the sky.
“sun.”
“yes?”
“The people of that village did not believe at all that the obvious fact that there was a dazzling sun that illuminated the whole world in the sky. It has to be. Because it was always a town with a sky full of dark clouds. It’s hard to believe in something you haven’t seen.”
Stepping into the temple, Zenith waved.
“To me, Torkel, you seem to be in a similar state to the villagers.”
“… .”
“But make sure you know. Even though I didn’t notice because there were always thick dark clouds… … That the sun is still beating down on your life.”
Zenith disappeared into the temple, leaving only the puzzling questions and answers of a religious person.
Thorkell, who had been staring blankly at the back, turned back to the city and was lost in thought. To retrace the meaning of Zenith’s words.
“… I thought confession would lighten my heart.”
A long sigh escaped from within the helmet.
“It only deepens my agony… .”
When I looked up at the sky, dark clouds were gathering.
It was a dark night without any moonlight.
***
And under the same moonlightless sky.
thump… … .
In the petrified nest of monsters built in the corner of the city.
Inside the huge egg made of rock, Medusa was chewing and swallowing the last piece of Euryale.
Kwadeuk Kwadeuk!
Meanwhile, huge wings sprouted from Medusa’s back, and the venomous snakes on her head became even more hideous.
Medusa’s body was getting bigger and bigger. The entire body was covered with rocky carapace like armor.
《… Don’t worry, Euryale sister.”
Medusa muttered as she lost her usual clarity and stared into the sky with blurred eyes.
“Because we will kill everyone together. Together… .”
“… .]
Standing behind his brother, Steno just watched.
Day 2 of the invasion soon.
more deaths… … It was going to flood the city here.
