#31. Branches of Evolution
#31. Branches of Evolution
Above the fallen Tyrant, carrion-eaters wheeled. The flock of Coatl circling overhead seemed to confirm the Earth Serpent's death and slowly descended.
"Kraaak!"
With the Tyrant gone, they had nothing left to fear. They hadn't even glanced at the Black Wolf—the one they'd truly been wary of. When the White Deer stepped into their path, the lead Coatl snapped peevishly. The moment it warned him to clear out, it became a pincushion.
"Kraa—?!"
An incomprehensible death, sudden leaderless chaos. Stripped of command, the flock scattered in panic, unable to coordinate. A few beat their wings to flee; others bared their fangs and braced for a fight with the White Deer.
"Kraaak!"
—The Black Wolf turned its head.
The flock went rigid at the sight of those empty eye sockets brimming with demonic energy. Their own minds filled in the rest, freezing their bodies. They pictured a monstrous maw shoving into their faces. Imagined themselves dying a dozen times over. The fear and the terror only swelled.
"Ki, kiiiaak!"
The flock locked in place, paralyzed. Only when the monster finally turned away and sank its jaws into what had been the Tyrant did they flee like mad. They seared the Wolf's image, its presence, into their memory.
As yet another Tyrant they must never, ever fight.
***
[Tyrant: Subjugates those who feel fear.]
The description was as simple as the effect was straightforward. It had certainly worked on the Coatl flock.
'Fighting them would've been a hassle.'
I wouldn't have lost, but my magical power was scraping the bottom. I had no desire to push myself. So I'd used intimidation, and the result had exceeded all expectations. Watching the Coatl scatter in a headlong panic was almost satisfying.
'Seems like a straight upgrade from every title I've earned so far.'
The Tyrant of the Mountain and the Fear of Baemsagol had served me well, but the Tyrant title had no location restriction.
'Versatile.'
My already-effective intimidation had just become far more effective.
'A Tyrant, huh.'
The experience the Earth Serpent—the Tyrant—granted was staggering. I had to shut off my vision against the grotesque spill of flesh and viscera, and eating my way through a 400-ton hulk was no small task either.
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.29 → Lv.30]
Level 30. I'd worried the achievement condition might trip me up, but nothing happened. That settled any remaining doubt: the System wanted me to grow. If it had blocked me, that would've been a different story.
'...Still, I don't know.'
What even was the System? The System seemed wary of the Queen, and the Queen had said the System wasn't part of the Truth. I still had no clues on any front. No thread to pull. Some answers just don't come, no matter how long you think.
'A bit disappointed about the Karma, though.'
I clicked my tongue in regret. I'd killed the boss, but the dungeon hadn't collapsed.
'Probably get it once it stabilizes.'
This was the highest-level dungeon and the strongest boss I'd ever faced. Once it was cleared, I'd earn a hefty chunk of Karma.
'And.'
[Evil Devouring (D) Lv.9 proficiency at maximum. Evil Devouring (D) Lv.9 → Evil Devouring (D) Lv.10]
[Evil Devouring (D) Lv.10 has reached the maximum level. Evil Devouring (D) Lv.10 → Snatch Devour (C) Lv.1]
Evil Devouring had finally reached C-rank.
Snatch Devour (奪喰). I'd secretly been hoping for a skill that let me steal skills, but it wasn't that kind of cheat ability. A skill like that would never have been C-rank in the first place anyway.
'Still, it's useful.'
[Snatch Devour: By consuming a target, temporarily steals health and magical power.]
Energy drain. Simple, but I liked it.
'Would've been nice to get it a little sooner.'
Specifically, when I'd eaten the Dragon Turtle. Snatch Devour would've made that fight a lot easier.
"Impressive. I didn't think you'd truly devour the entire thing. Do you never tire of it?"
"Not really."
Baekrok looked at me with a weary expression. Probably because of the appetite. But taste aside, I couldn't remember ever feeling tired of eating. If anything, I never had enough.
'Well, my experience is capped for now.'
I'd reached Level 30, the requirement for evolution. My experience wouldn't rise any further.
'If evolution really does branch the way I think it will, I need to be careful.'
I wouldn't be able to go back, so I had to be deliberate. No lazy reasoning like, well, the System presented it, so it must know what it's doing. I didn't trust the System in the first place.
'.......'
If the System really was harboring Malice. If I took the wrong branch and couldn't turn back.
'...I want to keep the Dragon's Wasteland on hold for now.'
Dungeons that offered this much protein—no, experience—were hard to come by. My experience was capped, yes, but after evolution that would change. I mentioned this to Baekrok, and he nodded without hesitation.
"Do so. And thank you for your help."
I'd braced myself for him to shut me down, so his easy agreement took me by surprise.
"Stabilizing it means little—the real problem was that great serpent crawling the earth. You covered for my folly with your wits and skill. What more is there to say?"
"......."
The naked praise was a little hard to absorb. Baekrok continued.
"It's hardly fair repayment, but before you leave—meet the Child of the Third Winter."
"The Child of the Third Winter?"
"Yes. She's been lonely."
I'd been too preoccupied and let it slip my mind. The image surfaced of that clingy fairy who'd cried and begged me not to go.
'Ah.'
I remembered brushing her off when she'd asked if I'd return after a few Baams.
"She is the purest among the fairies. Full of affection. Please understand."
"...Alright."
It wasn't that I disliked fairies, but the thought of having to soothe her left me at a bit of a loss. I'd be at it for a while.
"This dungeon."
"I'll leave it be."
I gave a small nod. I walked back to the great battlefield alongside Baekrok. With Shrink Ground we'd have been quick, but Baekrok's leg was still injured, so there was no helping it. On the way, I worried aloud—wouldn't leaving the dungeon alone let monsters spill out? He said other phantom beasts would head there soon enough.
'He'll handle it.'
Baekrok was confident. No need to pry. He'd take care of it. As we walked, the fairy dragon stirred inside my skull. I thought she might be waking, but then came more soft, sighing breaths.
'Still needs more time, looks like.'
A faint worry gnawed at me—she'd fallen so deeply asleep that even her mana regeneration couldn't cover it.
'...Evolution first, though.'
I pushed the worry down and focused on the task at hand. Reaching Level 30 had opened both the Path of Illusions and the Path of Negation. I could evolve right now if I wanted. Just in case, I tried consulting the System for advice. Silence.
'It gets quieter and quieter.'
Back when I was a slime, it had a definite ego. We'd even exchanged jokes, to an extent. Now it only surfaced at critical junctures.
"Baekrok! Wolf!"
Lost in thought, I'd arrived at the battlefield. The fairy rushed up as if she'd been waiting and rubbed her cheek against me. Pressing against a rough skull couldn't have felt good, but she was all smiles.
"Why are you so late! I waited! I waited!"
I spent a while calming the noisy, fussing fairy. Smiling bashfully, she eventually spotted the fairy dragon and gasped.
"What happened to Perry?! Huh? Baekrok!"
Perry. Obviously a name drawn from "fairy." I let out a soft laugh.
'Now that I think about it.'
I realized I'd never given her a name, or ever even asked. Without her this time, things would've gone badly. Baekrok and I would both have ended up as the Earth Serpent's meal. Crossing the Dragon's Wasteland with her had really changed my thinking—compared to when I'd left her behind in the Illusion Realm.
'A name, though...'
The fairy tapped my nose, pulling me from my reverie.
"Woo! You're not listening to me!"
Hands on her hips, cheeks puffed out in frustration. What had she said? I glanced sideways at Baekrok. He tilted his head toward the emerald sea that had taken the sky's place.
"...Yeah. The Queen."
"As expected of Wolf! You were listening after all!"
Apparently, she was summoning me. The fairy lit up, fluttering her wings—Of course it's Wolf—as if I'd proved something.
"So when are you going to see the Queen? You're not leaving right away, right? Huh?"
I gave the flustered, fluttering thing a vague nod and thought.
The Queen's summons was something I wanted, too. The System and the Queen. They were the only ones who could give me answers to the unresolved questions. If the System wouldn't open its mouth, I had no choice but to ask the Queen. Besides, it seemed like I'd be stopping by the Illusion Realm often from now on.
After a brief moment to share sentiments, I climbed onto a Flame Butterfly as before. It carried me to the emerald sea, to the trees, to the door of the palace.
'Let's go in.'
I drew a breath and pushed open the palace door. The crowned fairy jolted in surprise, then threw up her arms and ran at me.
"Wah! Wolf! Wolf! Monster Wolf! You kept your promise! Did you come to play?!"
'Ah. Right.'
She'd asked me to come back, and I'd completely forgotten. Lucky I was a skull wolf with no expression to give me away. I let her fuss over me for a moment, and when she placed the crown atop my head—the world changed.
***
Lee Eun-ha grimaced, arms trembling violently.
"Ugh, a-are we almost done?"
"One more minute."
Her abs screaming, feeling as though her guts might tear, Eun-ha had no confidence left to endure. She tried talking to escape reality.
"A-a whole minute?"
"Sucks, doesn't it? Maybe you should've worked on your stamina sooner."
It wasn't special training. Just exercise. Conditioning. Even a mage needed at least a basic level of physical fitness—that was Hong Yuri's philosophy.
'Hmph.'
Truthfully, at first Hong Yuri hadn't expected Eun-ha to last more than a few days. Irritation at hearing all that nonsense about slimes had played a part. Talent and diligence didn't always go hand in hand. The slacker on Team 2 was proof of that. Not that she'd let Eun-ha quit just because she said she couldn't handle it.
'She's lasted longer than I thought...'
Ten sets of three-minute planks. At the start, her pathetic constitution couldn't even handle one minute. These last few days, though, she'd spiked noticeably. Still just barely above an ordinary person's level, but—
"I-it hasn't been a minute yet?!"
"?"
Hong Yuri noticed the timer had already hit zero a while ago and answered smoothly.
"Twenty seconds."
"Y-you're lying."
Face drained, Eun-ha held the position and collapsed the instant the twenty seconds passed. Her white, trembling lips said it all. Hong Yuri nodded to herself.
'She held longer than I expected.'
"Oi. Who told you to collapse? Start over. What, you crazy? You worm-brained bitch! Get it together!"
The words that came out of her mouth, of course, were the exact opposite. After the browbeating and hell-training came muscle spasms. Clear overwork, but that was fine. With Eun-ha's magical power, it would aid her recovery. She'd sleep it off and come back fresh tomorrow.
"That's it for today. And take the card you bought coffee with earlier."
"What?! That was my money?"
"You got a problem buying one drink for someone who's been drilling you all day? Huh?"
"Th-that's not—I mean, my pay cut's nowhere near over..."
Right, hadn't it been a six-month pay cut? As Eun-ha dithered, Hong Yuri scoffed.
"Not my problem. Get over here."
"A-again?"
In the end, Hong Yuri snapped her on the forehead with a decisive thwack and nodded, satisfied. Eun-ha clutched her forehead and sagged as her legs gave way beneath her.
'A few more months of grinding her down and she'll be usable.'
No matter how uncoordinated she was, if she just built some stamina, the picture Hong Yuri had in mind would take shape. She was mapping out the future when the door burst open and she scowled.
"Who the hell opens a door like that?"
"You're one to talk."
"Oh. You."
At the sight of Gu Jin-ha rushing in, Hong Yuri tilted her head.
"Hong Yuri. Why don't you ever answer your phone?"
"Didn't notice."
Silent mode. Now that she looked, she had missed calls. Unlike Hong Yuri's calm reply, Gu Jin-ha spoke with an edge of urgency.
"...Let's move somewhere else first. Eun-ha, good work."
"Ah, I'll step out!"
Stumbling but quick on the uptake, Eun-ha vacated the room. Hong Yuri frowned again.
"What's all the fuss about?"
"Anella. Word's come in."
"Anella?"
"Yes. Anella."
Hong Yuri didn't ask why. She'd already heard all about the deal between Gu Jin-ha and Anella—about the Night of Daejeon.
"Sooner than I thought. Already got dirt on those Gowon bastards, did she?"
***
That vast cosmos again. A desolate space without a single star. I stood there blankly in the all-consuming darkness when the familiar voice reached me.
【You've come, child. I've been waiting.】
—Unchanged. The Queen, still close to a vague image of a god, as though sculpted from starlight. I still hadn't gotten used to being called "child," but I let it be. Just as I studied her, she studied me, then nodded.
【Yes. You've grown so much sturdier. Have you thought about my question?】
The System is not part of the Truth. Think about it again. She had posed that question at our last meeting. Yet within me, the answer still hadn't formed. It remained as it was.
【Will you give me your answer now?】
A topic disguised as a question. Under the principle that the question must be answered, she was waiting for my reply. When I told her straight—that I had no answer—the Queen nodded calmly.
【I see.】
As if to say, if no answer came, then that itself was the end of it. She did not press further. No, perhaps she had accepted the very fact that I couldn't answer as an answer in itself. She seemed faintly disappointed, though.
"...So, was that why you summoned me? To hear my answer?"
Had the Queen's reason for calling me really been just that—wanting to hear an answer? She shook her head.
【To offer a small bit of help. The path you've been agonizing over. I can show you its branches.】
Path. Branches. Beyond any doubt, she meant to help me choose my evolution. Exactly what I'd been hoping for. But how would she show me? In that instant, the Queen swept her hand.
A cluster of light rippled, and slowly, a shape emerged. What appeared was a massive green Wolf.
"This is..."
【One of the paths before you.】
Instinctively, I knew it was the Path of Negation.
The house-sized, green-tinged Wolf sloughed with every step, droplets spattering onto the ground and endlessly dissolving the earth beneath it.
'.......'
What if I had been standing in front of that? Another illusion seeped into being, and before I knew it, an orc stood there holding a club. The orc was by no means small, but before the green Wolf it looked pathetic. Summoning every ounce of courage, the orc—
"Guoooooooh!"
—roared and swung its weapon. The blow sent the Wolf's body sloshing wildly, splashing liquid in all directions. And whatever the liquid touched sizzled and melted. A horrific acid. It burned for a long while, and then the orc that had been splashed began to slowly putrefy. A gruesome poison. The orc writhed in agony and then breathed its last.
"......."
As if that wasn't the end, dozens more orcs appeared. The green Wolf loosed a great roar at the charging horde, and across its entire body, dozens of eyes snapped open.
'—All of them evil eyes.'
Like the evil eye Aranea had possessed. Rooted in place, paralyzed, poisoned, melting. So many evil eyes I couldn't begin to count them. After that, it was a one-sided slaughter by the Wolf. The orcs were no weak monsters, but they were utterly outmatched by the green Wolf. When every last orc had vanished without a trace, the Wolf raised its head to the sky and howled.
【One who defiles. It is called the Defiler.】
Unformed, and unclean. The name Defiler etched itself into my mind. At last, the Defiler's image slowly faded, and what appeared next was another Wolf.
"This is...?"
I couldn't see it. More precisely, it had a form, but I couldn't perceive its shape. A slithering mantle of shadow concealed its appearance. This time, the enemies that manifested were dozens of Raptors. The moment the Running Raptors leaped for the Wolf, the Wolf vanished.
'Where did it—?'
The Wolf was gone. The moment the leaping Raptors touched back down, a shadow rippled. The Wolf burst from within it and tore into a Raptor. When the startled Raptors lunged again, a black mist—no, shadow—slowly spread. Soon the mist divided into multiple branches, writhing uncannily, and precisely pierced the Raptors' vital points. Then the Wolf faded from view along with the fallen Raptors' shadows. As if the shadows themselves served the Wolf.
【A Wolf that rules over shadows. It is called the Shadow Wolf.】
The Queen had shown me two branches of evolution.
The Defiler. And the Shadow Wolf. Both were beyond anything I had imagined. This was no vague "slime wolf" or "shadow wolf" I'd half-conceived in my head. The Defiler's profusion of evil eyes and the image of the Shadow Wolf commanding darkness seared themselves especially deep into my mind.
【Child, I hope this has helped your choice.】
"...Thank you."
This had been far more than "a small bit of help." Thanks to her, I could settle my mind on the branch of evolution I wanted. The Queen seemed to see straight through me—she smiled and saw me off. As I returned to the Illusion Realm, she whispered.
【Remember.】
【Destruction and The End are not the same.】
***
Even more than evolution, the Queen's final words tangled my head into knots.
'Looking back on it.'
The Queen had told me. I was simply too dull to realize. She'd hinted at it, hadn't she?
【Yes. I know. That soon, destruction—no, The End—will come to this place as well.】
That had been a hint. Why had I brushed past it without a second thought? It wasn't that there were no clues. I was the one who'd let the clue slip through my fingers. A phrase resurfaced in my mind and left me reeling. The End. I still didn't know exactly what it was. But one thing was certain.
[I died, and The World met The End. (完)]
'—This damned World was even more bleak than I'd ever imagined.'