Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Madness Devours the God
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"Shut the hell up."
The arrogant little serpent spawn's bellows scratched at his mind.
'This bastard talks way too damn much.'
Everything was irritating.
Something lodged deep in his chest clawed its way up his throat.
Just as his heart felt like it might burst.
Darcor's world drowned in red and black.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Warning: Hostile entity vastly transcending causality detected.] [Condition met: Madness Level has broken past the critical threshold.] [Unlocking second hidden skill.] The corner of Darcor's mouth twisted up in a sinister grin.
Something holding back his reason snapped in his head.
Tiiing.
"Die already! You Empire scum!"
The monster Arman roared.
A grotesque metallic screech as hundreds of vengeful spirits tangled and screamed.
Kugugugugu.
Jormungandr's maw and Arman's mouth gaped open in unison.
Within swirled a dark crimson light.
Space warped and twisted under the intense heat.
Soon, a flash of destruction lanced toward Darcor and his group.
Kwaaaaa!
The moment everyone sensed death.
Darcor stepped forward slowly.
His eyes, devoid of even a trace of white,
filled completely with unblemished scarlet—no gaps, no mercy.
No longer human eyes.
Exuding chilling madness in all directions.
"Hey. Snake head."
Darcor reached out toward the onrushing flash.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Madness Explosion [Devours incoming energy / No cooldown / Scales with Madness Level]
Space warped bizarrely around his palm.
Darkness erupted, rippled, and began devouring everything nearby.
Kwaaaaaang.
Arman's destructive flash struck Darcor's palm.
Whiiing.
The vortex of darkness swallowed the flash whole.
The light that seemed poised to destroy the world
vanished utterly into his palm.
Darcor smirked, staring down the dumbfounded Arman.
"Guhk."
"Th-this can't be!"
Arman's eyes bulged.
The attack fueled by Jormungandr's and his own souls.
The power of a god.
And some mere human blocked it barehanded?
"This can't happen... It's impossible!"
"Impossible? What the hell are you on about? Calm down."
Darcor grimaced and patted his stomach.
He clicked his tongue and said flatly,
"You give, I give back. That's manners. I'm not the type to just take."
Darcor's body blurred like mist and vanished in an instant.
"My turn now."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Paat.
"Wh-where'd this bastard go now?!"
As Arman whipped his head around searching for Darcor.
Darcor was already beside him.
Staring right at him.
"G-gahhh!"
Arman recoiled in terror, but
Jormungandr's massive fused body was too sluggish.
No escape.
Darcor eyed the fusion of Arman and snake with disgust.
A human torso mangled with serpentine scales.
Oozing pus and slime between.
"Hey, snake head."
His gaze flicked to Chloe below, then back to Arman.
"You're a real mess."
"Wh-what are you..."
"Fused so disgustingly. Too gross to even touch."
Darcor slowly raised his fist.
Dark crimson energy gathered around it.
"Ruined my appetite. What now?"
Pwaaak.
Darcor's fist smashed Arman's jaw.
A blow heavy enough to shatter his soul.
"Guwaaak!"
Arman's fused torso twisted at a grotesque angle, reeling back.
Wooduk.
Jawbone shattering.
"Can't even make snake stew like this."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Black haze rose from Darcor's back.
It swelled enormously, becoming a majestic form blotting out the sky.
An endless abyss.
A void devouring all.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Hidden skill linkage initiated.] [Target: Jormungandr.] "Uwaaa... N-no! Get away!"
Arman flailed in disbelief.
Thrashing Jormungandr's tail wildly,
unleashing rampaging mana in resistance.
"I'm a god! The god of this world! I can't die like this!"
His screams were utterly pathetic.
He'd achieved his lifelong dream.
Obtained a god's body.
Why lose to some shitty human?
"Shut up. Just vanish."
But Darcor waved dismissively, uninterested.
The moment his words ended.
Kuoooooo.
The rippling void behind him yawned wide, as if to swallow the world.
It engulfed Jormungandr and Arman whole.
"A-aa..."
Arman's mouth worked soundlessly.
No more noise.
Not even pain.
The power he'd devoted his life to.
The absolute existence he thought a god.
All erased so futilely.
'N-no... Can't end like...'
That was the end.
The void devoured even his final trace,
then silently closed.
Paat.
Jormungandr's world-shaking death cry.
Arman's wretched screams.
The monstrous body.
All ceased to exist.
Vanished into endless dark.
Swerrruk.
From the endless tail to the body to Arman's shocked face.
All scattered to dust the instant they touched the void.
Not a hair, not a scale left.
Complete annihilation.
As if never existed.
Erased clean.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The snowy sky cleared as if by magic.
The devouring blizzard,
the melting poison,
the sky-blanketing clouds.
All gone like lies.
The frozen lake held only sunlit snowballs gleaming white.
Darcor descended slowly from the air.
The bloody red madness faded from his eyes,
returning to black.
"Whew... Feels refreshing."
Darcor rolled his stiff neck, loosening up.
Madness Level plummeted to zero.
The mind-gnawing noise vanished.
Utter refreshment washed over him.
Like decades of indigestion flushed away.
His dazed comrades snapped out of it and approached.
"Whoa..."
Eris couldn't close her mouth.
She alternated between the clear sky and Darcor, eyes sparkling.
"Y-Your Majesty! The monster vanished without a trace! Y-you're amazing!"
But from the corner came a wail ruining the victory.
"Ughhuk... N-no... This can't be!"
Saintess Chloe.
Crawling on the ice, sobbing.
Like a citizen losing her nation.
"My bag... my shoes... my babies!"
She flailed empty hands, screaming.
"Gone... Nothing left! Not a tooth, not a scale!"
Not a hair, not a scale.
Complete annihilation.
Peace returned to the world.
But for Chloe, the greatest tragedy.
The chance for lifelong luxury evaporated before her eyes.
Darcor approached, barely holding back laughter.
He squatted and patted her heaving shoulder.
"Our Saintess. You're not crying over nothing left, are you?"
"...Huh?"
Chloe jerked her head up.
"N-no way!"
Tears and snot smeared her face, but
she switched to saintess mode instantly.
Her mode shifts were unmatched across the Empire—no, the continent.
Trembling, lips twitching, she forced a benevolent smile.
Tears of injustice still welled and dripped from her eyes.
"I-I'm just... so moved, tears are flowing. That evil being purified... True peace upon the world. Sniff... Too joyful... Can't help it."
"Really? Thought you were bummed about your bag and shoes flying off."
"N-no such thing! What do you take me for? I'm the Saintess, the Empire's Saintess... Not some material girl..."
Chloe bit her lip, drew the holy sign with shaking hands.
Darcor chuckled in disbelief.
'Our Saintess is so transparent. See right through her.'
Easy to handle.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Darcor rose slowly.
His gaze turned beyond the snowfield.
Daroa's border.
Beyond lay Daroa Empire's heartland.
'You started it...'
Their elite Tower Master and ancient disaster gone,
but not enough.
Weeds regrow if roots remain,
ruining the forest.
Don't leave embers.
'Gotta stomp 'em out.'
Darcor brushed snow from his uniform, eyes gleaming.
"Cleanup done. Warm-up over. Time to collect."
He beckoned his group.
Wind whipped his black uniform fiercely.
"Let's go. Meet Daroa's Empress."
Darcor's mouth twisted in a sinister grin.
The price for daring to touch me.
Not a single coin left. I'll strip you bare.