Chapter 76: Pride of the King
“King!”
It was the druid, Gi Za, who called out to the king.
Kuzan was wide-eyed as the ogre lord tore apart the king’s body, and sent it flying to a wall.
“Tch… Save the king!” Gi Za yelled in a desperate voice, waking the rest of the goblins out of their stupor.
The chiefs of the four tribes and the goblins of the eastern village ran up to the ogre lord, while Kuzan and Gi Za rushed to the king’s side. It was a cruel and horrible sight.
His guts spilled out from his wounds, and from all the blood he bled, he was no doubt a dead man. In fact, his heart had already stopped beating.
The king had died.
That king who was to carry the goblins on his back, who was to save the tribe of Gordob, who was to cut open a path to the Lord of Decay – that very king was dying right before Kuzan’s eyes.
Kuzan was speechless. Gi Za stood up.
“…No.”
He flopped about, unable to stand straight, as his face went so pale it turned into a swarthy hue.
“…Bas-ta-rd…”
What left his lips was a voice that seemed to curse everything. Each word brimmed with so much hate it felt like it could turn the dead of hell into wandering ghosts. Without a care for anything else, he ran for the ogre lord.
It was a reckless charge with no regard for his life. The boulder-like axe descended, and it was the adherent of the Sword God, Gi Go Amatsuki, who covered him.
“How is the king!?” Gi Go asked to the now kneeling Gi Za, but he couldn’t say anything.
Gi Go understood, and he grudgingly said, “Enemy of the king, you will pay!”
That voice spread throughout the entire battlefield, and everyone froze upon hearing it.
“Ga Ga Ga… So, that was the king?” The ogre lord laughed. “That guy ran around pathetically, you know? He begged me for his life.”
Indignation filled the goblins.
“For the sin of humiliating our king, pay with your life!” Aluhaliha’s Naga Lance crackled with violet lightning.
“No matter what, I will pay back the savior of my village.” Gilmi and Narsa nocked their bows.
“Return to me… my defeat!” The Vidol Amulet sunk into Rashka’s skin. Rage filled him, and his muscles swelled. “…I should’ve been the one to defeat him!”
A crazed light gleamed from Gi Go Amatsuki’s eyes. There was a madness that came with the sword god’s blessing, and the only thing that kept him from it was his gratitude to the king. That madness connected with his past defeat, and it ate into his mind.
“I will––“ He unsheathed his blade. “Cut the king’s enemy…”
“Vengeance shall be paid.” The beast warrior Gi Gi, the stealthy Gi Ji. They knew they were powerless before the ogre lord, but still they pointed their blades at him.
“I won’t forgive. I absolutely won’t forgive you!” Gi Za cursed in a voice so full of hate it seemed it would awake the denizens of hell. He took a stone out from his chest, and crushed it.
Tornadoes sprouted up around him, and they took on the form of rampaging dragons.
“…You will pay!!!”
That signaled the start of the battle.
◇◆◇
Kuzan still couldn’t believe her eyes.
The ogre lord was strong. She knew that, yet it seemed that she had still looked down on it.
Gi Za’s dragon tempest was swept away with a swing. Raska’s black light and Aluhaliha’s spear couldn’t even scratch the ogre lord’s craggy flesh.
“Ga Ga Ga!”
The ogre lord only laughed at their attempts.
As if to say that they were too weak.
As if to say that the strong was always strong, and the weak always weak.
The ogre lord mocked them.
It was vexing.
She held the death crystal in her hands. If she uses it, then they might still have a chance at winning.
But the price for that is her life.
And if she dies, she will never again meet the Lord of Decay. She will never again hear his voice. That voice she loved so much to the point of madness. She will lose it forever.
But at this rate, everyone will die.
She looked at Yellow, her father.
His skin was white, and as a member of Gordob, he carried with him the sin of allowing the ogres to invade. Because the Gordob was weak, no one would listen to them. None of the four tribes would, and their prophecies only fell on deaf ears.
Because they’re weak, they can only walk toward death.
Her mother, her older sister… Everyone was born white; none was exempted. And eventually, they all died, leaving behind only Kuzan.
She wanted to run. Surely, the three tribes could hold out long enough. Long enough for her to run.
She stepped back.
“Master Kuzan?”
When she heard Yellow, she wanted to break down into tears.
She was “Kuzan”.
The head of the Gordob tribe. That name shackled her. If she were to run now, all of her brethren would surely die. Her older brothers and sisters who had given her food when she was young, and even her yet to be born siblings… None of them would be spared.
–––I’ll do it.
A look of surprise appeared on Yellow’s face. He knew full well what would happen if she were to use the treasure.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded to him as she filled the death crystal with her strength.
◇◆◇
My body is heavy. It’s as if I’m trudging through a pool of mud.
My eyes are heavy, and there’s a savage hunger gripping my guts. I can barely bear the pain.
“A a aAaA …”
Sounds that couldn’t be called words anymore left my lips.
I want to sleep.
If I sleep, then everything will cease.
I thought that to myself as I bore the pain that was strong enough to extinguish even my soul.
The dry wind of autumn that would ever scatter the dried leaves in its spell left through my hoarse throat.
“A a aAaAA…”
When I opened my eyes, a lake of fire appeared before me.
“A aaAa Aa.”
It was right under me.
–––What is… this?
Then when I looked up, I saw that the sky was red. It was literally a world wherein the land scorched hot and the sky burnt in anger.
–––Why are you showing me this?
Is this hell?
Then I began to fall. The erupting flames swirled into maelstorms, erecting pillars of fire, and I fell toward it.
Then just before I fell into the lake, darkness covered the whole world, and I fell into a world of darkness. It was dark like a cave. And in that darkness, I saw a sword buried into a rotten corpse.
A one-eyed snake was wrapped around that sword. That snake looked at me, and when our gazes met, images flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern playing.
“Ah–––”
–––I’m going to save the king! I’m going to save him!
Whose voice is that?
“–––Ah.”
–––It’s fine. Take all of me.
Who is this?
“ah–––”
–––But, you must fight! Fight with me, goblin king!!
“AhhH”
–––Ruler of the East, please save our village.
–––Fine. I’ll follow… for now.
–––Paradua will raise its spear for you.
–––We have no karma, but I beg of you, please save us.
“Aahh––”
–––Kill me. If you don’t, then one day, you will die by my hands.
“A, GAAaAAa!”
There is a woman crying. Why is she crying?
Memories of her overlapped with her mourns. It was a woman whose name I’d already forgotten.
I have to save her.
I want to wipe away her tears, and cut down the source of her sorrow. There’s no reason why. It’s just something I have to do as a man.
“Re, zhia…”
What did I tell her again when she asked me to kill her?
Fight. I told her to fight with her own will, didn’t I?
“Re, shia…”
So, what am I doing losing heart?
Standing before her and me is the will of a god.
But, even if… Even if I’m just a monster, isn’t there something I can do to save her!?
“Reshia!”
Out of my parched throat, I uttered her name, a name I’d forgotten, then before I knew it, I was standing before the sword around which the snake was coiled.
I stretched out my hand in the darkness, and I pulled out the sword.
◇◆◇
“GA, AaaA aAGAAaaA!”
As the death crystal emitted a faint light, the king’s body started convulsing. The king that should’ve died cried out in pain, and the pain seemed to be beyond anything any man could imagine.
His crushed right arm, his emboweled body, his creaking legs, sounds resounded from them as his body began to fix itself.
Yet the king continued to convulse even as his wounds finished healing.
His convulsing right arm reached out to the sky.
“GAaaUuuGAaAaA a.”
Drool flowed out of his mouth, and the pain that shook his body was so intense his eyes couldn’t focus. Then like a puppet pulled on string, his body stood up.
“GU, uRUuuAaGAaA.”
His eyes were like those of the dead. Tormented by pain, he was someone who was forcefully brought back from the land of the dead. There was no way he would come back with his sanity intact.
“GURUuuUaAaAA!”
The heavens and the earth trembled at his cry.
That was the wailing cry of the dead.
Kuzan knew what she had to do. The death crystal could resurrect the dead, but the resurrected would lose his sanity. It is only when the caster gives up his own life that the resurrected could walk a sane man again.
An unquenchable hunger torments the dead. They must feed off the life of a living lest they wish to find themselves dead once more.
Which is why they must eat the flesh of the one that resurrected them.
This spell has been passed down for generations. But, amongst the many generations of Kuzan, the first one to use it is the founder, and the second is the current Kuzan.
The now insane goblin that was resurrected was horrifying. Though that might actually be the true nature of goblins, but it was not the king that Kuzan knew.
She reached out her hands to convey her thoughts to the king.
“Take my soul and overcome death.”
Like a beast, the king bared his fangs at her.
“…O king of goblins.”
“GU, RUuuAGAa… I…”
The king was about to consume her flesh, but when she called out to him, he stopped.
“Who, am I…”
She couldn’t believe her eyes. Pangs of savage hunger tormented him, an unimaginable pain coursed through him, and yet, he was actually able to speak.
“…You are the king. The one who shall save us and rule the land. Now, come. Take my flesh and leave the land of the dead.”
“I am the king…? Tch!?”
As his body convulsed, he fell down on his knees. He forcefully stopped his body from trying to eat Kuzan.
“…If you hold it back, you will lose your sanity. Please give in to your desire.”
If he forces himself not to eat, he will lose his mind. That was the case when the founder used the spell.
“Do you, understand… What will, happen to you?
The price for using the death crystal is death. She used that knowing full well the consequences.
“You are the king. You are our king.”
“…If I, am the king, then I shouldn’t have to yield over something like this!!”
The small Kuzan was proud enough to sacrifice herself to save him.
And yet, he, the king, would actually try to eat her to escape death?
The pride of the king won’t forgive something like that.
“I am the king! I yield to no one! I am he who will rule the world! Yielding to something like this (pain), that’s unforgivable!!!”
The king howled. And as if to wring every bit of strength from his body, black flames spurted out of the snake coiled around his right arm.
“NUUuoOAOAAAaOOO!”
He forcefully pulled out ether from Verid.
“No way… Are you alright?”
“You should know, you resurrected me, right? I won’t sway anymore. I’ll show you just what sort of man your king is!”
The king was able to grasp the skill and ether that should’ve been sealed by the fortress.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
Level has risen
24 -> 72
[Skill] <<Insurgent Will>> to <<Defiant Soul>>.
–––Mental attacks greatly mitigated.
–––Damage and defense against higher races is greatly increased.
–––Can steal the power of the god you represent.
[Skill] <<Eyes of the Blue Snake>> and <<Red Snake’s Eye>> will become <<One-Eyed Snake’s Evil Eye>>.
–––You can read the status of people with classes lower than yours.
–––If the number on your side is greater than the enemy’s, then the enemy’s weakness will be revealed.
[Skill] <<Household of the Gods>> For having stolen the power of Verid, you will gain the power of the Household of the Gods.
–––Mental resistance against gods other than the goddess of the underworld will increase.
–––Resistance to the goddess of the underworld’s charm will decrease.
–––Charm toward members of the same race will greatly increase.
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