Chapter 136
Chapter 136
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 136
Chapter Title: Pumpkin Queen's Fall
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A shard of tooth slammed into the underside of Halloween Nightmare.
It punched straight through the top.
"W-What just happened?"
The Pumpkin Queen gaped at the massive hole that had opened up in the center of the city.
Bats screeched noisily in her ears.
"Pump Queen! The enemy's attack pierced right through the city!"
"Damage report! Fuel depot destroyed, engine room critically damaged, residential district partially wrecked, Shadow Hot Springs partially wrecked! Mud Spa destroyed..."
"Enough! What about our castle?"
"Unfortunately, it just grazed it, but the entire upper section..."
"No! My dresses and collection I worked so hard to gather!"
The Pumpkin Queen bit at her fluttering sleeves, her face crumpling in despair.
"What the hell was that enemy attack? What kind of skill was it?"
"We don't know! It was just a rock that came flying in incredibly fast and hit with insane force!"
Guuuuung...
Halloween Nightmare lurched violently, its balance thrown off.
"W-What is this?!"
"As I said, the engine room was critically damaged! Flight is no longer possible!"
A city flying through the sky with its engines blown out was bound to fall.
Smoke billowed from the hole, and the descent accelerated rapidly.
"Arrrgh! We're all gonna die!"
"Your Majesty!"
At her subordinates' screams, the Pumpkin Queen's staff slammed into the ground.
"Witches! Throw me your staffs! I'll handle this!"
Kakakak!
Her staff moved fluidly, etching a magic circle into the floor.
It was identical to the crest engraved in the heart of her unique city, Halloween Nightmare.
"City heart link!"
The red gem at the city's heart pulsed massively.
[Magic 'Pumpkin Fertilizer' engraved in Nightmare Heart activated!]
[A portion of the heart's mana flows to the Pumpkin Queen!]
Orange light and blue pumpkin vines erupted from the magic circle, binding the witches' staffs.
[The witches lend their power to the Pumpkin Queen's magic circle.]
[422-person combined magic 'Witches' Tea Party in the Pumpkin Patch (SS)' activated!]
[Mana and mental stats +100! Duration 17 seconds, S-C rank!]
[Avatar 'Deathbringer Jack O' Lantern (S)' final ability manifested!]
"Eyaaaaah~~!"
The Pumpkin Queen's staff, the S+++ grade treasure 'Frost Empress's Pumpkin Pupil,' shone blindingly.
[Additional mana 400%, range expanded!]
[SS-grade wide-area defense magic 'Welcome to the Pumpkin Citadel!' activated!]
[S++-grade shock absorption magic 'Squish a Pumpkin and Pumpkin Porridge Bursts Out!' activated!]
A translucent pumpkin enveloped the plummeting city, and at the crash site below, puffy-looking pumpkin cushions materialized.
Fwooooom!
The 10-kilometer city crashed into the pumpkin cushions, which squished and sprayed yellow pumpkin fountains from the gaps.
The shock fully absorbed, Halloween Nightmare landed safely on the ground.
"My god."
"As expected of the Great Witch, incredible!"
Ordinary hunters' magic skills didn't include diverse types like wide-area defense or shock absorption magic.
These were all new spells created by Pump Queen herself.
She was the only Earth hunter capable of creating S-rank or higher magic.
"Whew, that was exhausting."
She collapsed, clutching her staff.
Her subordinates rushed over, fanning her sweat-soaked form.
"Your Majesty, you did it."
"Yeah, I did good, didn't I? But..."
Pump Queen grimaced at the devastation of her half-destroyed city.
"What do we do now?"
"Niflheim is nearby. We should request aid, enter Deserto together, then inform Lord Skellington."
"Right, right."
She spotted Niflheim sliding toward them, turning the plains into a swamp.
Clutching her shaky legs, Pump Queen waved her staff.
"Lich King! Over here! Here! Take us with you!"
As if recognizing her gestures, Niflheim accelerated toward them.
"But isn't that thing coming too fast?"
"Yeah? Wait, this could be bad."
A few Halloween hunters rushed to the city's edge, shouting for it to stop and scrawling letters in the air with magic.
But Niflheim showed no signs of slowing.
"Fall back! Fall back!"
Kwaaaang!
The hunters at the edge were crushed flat against the city's surface.
The impact tilted Halloween Nightmare as if it might topple.
"Whoa, whoa. Can't have it tipping over."
From Halloween Nightmare's floor, Ju Gonghyeok lightly pressed a hand against the city to steady it.
With the strength of the giant god Atlas holding up the Earth, the tipping city regained its balance.
"You bastards! What the hell?!"
"Damn it, to go out so pathetically like this..."
The hunters couldn't recover from the sudden shock.
Black swamp and mist poured endlessly from Niflheim, which had collided with Halloween.
[Layer city Niflheim attempts fusion with floating city Halloween Nightmare.]
[Current corrosion rate 2.77%. Completion expected in 4 hours 14 minutes.]
It was city corrosion.
Just as it had absorbed Necropolis, Niflheim was now devouring Halloween.
"Arrrgh!"
"Y-You bastards, why us?!"
That wasn't all.
Niflheim's fanatics had crossed over, committing slaughter and pillage.
They stabbed with reverence, laughed maniacally as they looted, praising the Reaper's glory. Some even offered prayers of thanks over coins and items bubbling up from pools of blood.
It was behavior befitting the devout fanatics who had barely survived annihilation by Company.
"W-What the hell is this?"
Pump Queen stared in dazed horror at the final scenes of her crumbling Halloween.
An ominous shadow loomed behind her.
"When I said I had no interest in attacking refugees, you looked at me like I was an idiot."
A centuries-old hellhound gazed down at the pumpkin witch.
She saw its eyes glint.
As the Lich King appeared, elders dragged in freshly made undead.
"Lich King, this place has truly fine materials."
"Look at this Death Knight. Soul dirty and corrupted to perfection."
"Even the iffy ones—send them to the indoctrination chamber, and they'll make great converts. All blessings from the Reaper."
The Lich King glanced over them and nodded in satisfaction.
By swallowing Halloween, Niflheim would recover most of the forces it lost to Company.
The hellhound licked its chops at the trembling Pump Queen.
"Pumpkin Witch. It's true I had no interest in refugees. I only ever wanted to hit you."
"Hic!"
The pumpkin witch clutched her skirt and fell on her ass.
The Lich King grabbed her by the scruff and hauled her up.
"I'll devour you and your city."
At the declaration of her violation, the Pumpkin Queen shuddered.
"Lich King, I'm married, and my face is a pumpkin—I'm ugly! No need for me..."
"Ugly?"
Kwaduk!
The Lich King's fist smashed the pumpkin.
As it split, an innocent young face smeared with orange pumpkin flesh appeared inside.
"No way. This cute?"
"Then, isn't there an age gap? Hitting on me would violate child protection laws..."
"You're older than me. Old pumpkin. I'm barely early twenties."
"Old pumpkin!? I'm still in my twenties! Twenty-nine!"
"Figures. Immortal and ageless."
Ju Gonghyeok thoroughly admired her eternally youthful body while perfectly seizing the unique city Halloween Nightmare.
A clean house robbery while her husband was away.
- Stop that shameful crap in front of me!
Nathaniel covered his mouth with some handkerchief from who-knows-where and dry-heaved.
- Ugh, that low-dimensional physical communication. Not even for reproduction, but you wanna do that right in front of me, who's stuck with you 24/7?
= Puhahaha! Prissy angel! If you're gonna talk like that, don't strut around as a pretty boy! That little bro had some spirit, huh? From the fourth one on, the kid couldn't keep it together!
Zeus cleared his throat lightly at the exchange between Nathaniel and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.
= Ahem, that's nothing. Back in my day, this body handled seven fairies at once...
= Heh heh heh, we heard that wallet-scraping tale all the way in the Ra-Djehuty dimension. Shame you couldn't muster that volcanic energy for your wife.
= Hey, birdbrain. Let's not do this between fellow high gods.
The two gods, apparently bonded as fellow high deities, growled at each other.
= So, how'd you handle all seven at once?
The Progenitor blinked its large, transparent eyeball.
For reference, the Progenitor was an abstract entity: a dark orb with one big eyeball, no limbs, and especially no lower anatomy.
As Zeus gave it a pitying look,
= Snowball. There's a sad tale you'll never know.
"Really? Could you tell me more?"
The clear, bright voice answering Zeus wasn't the Progenitor's.
Azazel rested her chin on her hands, listening intently to Zeus's dirty talk.
- Azazel, I know your secret interests well, but please don't tune into that pathetic drivel here.
"Why~? It's fun. As the angel of war, it naturally connects to that side~"
- Then as the Archangel of Understanding, you must understand sex and positions, so it naturally connects too?
Azazel frowned at Nathaniel's retort.
Offended, she pouted and twirled her hair.
"Ah~ So that's why. No wonder after Nathaniel died, clearing out the secret room revealed a hundred pretty boys inside..."
- STOP!! Sorry, my bad! They were ornamental! No funny business!
"What's to be embarrassed about? Love angel Haniel hauls them around by the hundreds per room."
Nathaniel whispered to Ju Gonghyeok, who smirked.
- Why's your speech like that? Act with some angelic dignity in front of humans!
"Can't be rude to Lord Zeus, a high god. And that human's already seen all my ugly sides."
- Yeah, clinging to the human, bawling, raging, putting on every show...
"Stop there. Incoming memory violence strong enough to rip the blanket."
Azazel covered her eyes and turned away, unable to face that memory.
She took a deep breath and resumed casually.
"Your solution this time was fittingly brilliant. I half-expected you'd bring Niflheim and turn all the refugees into undead."
"I wouldn't use a dumb method like that."
Gonghyeok, quietly smoking, finally replied.
Back when he'd properly played the Lich King, he'd subjugated demons and turned half of humanity into undead, but this life was far from that deep-dark necromancer vibe.
Turning half of humanity into undead personally granted a pretty useful SSS-rank staff, but now his dark avatars were limited to the Progenitor (SS----), and the Spirit Summoner class didn't mesh with radiant high gods like Ra-Djehuty or Zeus.
"Ahem, anyway, my first quest after appointing you apostle is going well—I've saved face. Even Metatron praised me."
- Explains why your face is all loose today. Speech loosening up too.
"Remiel just kept opposing and griping, but as long as you keep performing like this, it's fine."
Ju Gonghyeok wiped down the pumpkin witch's sprawled body on the bed as he answered.
"Oh, really?"
"...Hey, human. What kind of answer is that?"
"I've heard your stance loud and clear."