Chapter 427: Joyful Friends Under the Sea! (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 427: Joyful Friends Under the Sea! (5)
An evil god.
One who grants wishes in a twisted manner.
The witch who snatched the princess away from the protagonist.
A god born from the densest malice in this world, one who loves more obsessively than any other, stood silently gazing at her creation.
It wasn’t bad.
Even at its current level, it wasn’t exactly poor, but the result—sleeping with eyes closed inside the seal—was missing a certain decisive element.
It was as if the sub-materials used to fill the “missing parts” couldn’t keep up with the main ingredient.
“Hmm, it’s not going as well as I thought. I hope the materials I find this time are better.”
— …What on earth are you making?
“I don’t really want to tell you. Every time I explain, you have a fit and then forget anyway, so why should I bother?”
Her tone was playful, as if teasing a friend, but to the original owner of the body—who had already lost most of her autonomy—that playfulness was nothing short of chilling.
“Fine, I’ll tell you, so cheer up. It’s nothing major. It’s just that a story has a Hero, but it’s a bit strange if there’s no Demon King, right?”
— Aren’t ‘we’ basically the Demon King already?
“Hmm, I’m the Wicked Witch. You’re the pathetic Princess who summoned a witch without knowing her place. We’re closer to the destination than the trial itself. We are the beings the Hero either brutally slaughters or rescues after overcoming hardships and adversity.”
— …What?
“To reach the tower where the witch resides, shouldn’t one have to defeat a forest of thorns, a swamp of poison, or an evil dragon?”
It sounded like something out of a fairy tale.
“The Calamities aren’t bad. They might suffice as a forest of thorns. They’ll provide him with a decent trial.”
However, even if the restraints binding the Calamities were released and they ran wild with all their might, they could not kill him.
“The Red Butler, our current strongest asset, is being held in check using the Laws, but ultimately, she isn’t on our side. In fact, you could even call her an enemy, couldn’t you?”
It was true.
The Red Butler wasn’t even a character she had originally created.
The Evil God had simply found her somewhere and was using her because she happened to be available.
“What if I summoned beings from the past, like Lee Yu-na? Well, that would certainly put him in a foul mood. But that’s about it, isn’t it?”
— …So, what are you planning to do?
“I have to make it. The dragon that will block the Prince and guard the front of our tower; the Demon King who will die by the Hero’s blade; the Wildcard who will gladly destroy the world itself for our sake.”
The Evil God, who had looked pleased until that point, suddenly scowled.
“The problem is that the materials are a bit more lacking than I expected. So, I played a few tricks to supplement what’s missing in a hurry.”
She had tampered with the seal in Gyeongju, which was originally supposed to be released much later, and even created a portal leading to R’lyeh near the Dragon Palace.
“It went according to plan up until he went to Jeju Island first, but even after absorbing all the madness and miasma of R’lyeh, it might still be a bit short.”
— You’ve already made a monster like this, what more are you trying to do?
“No, it’s not enough. At this rate, our precious Hero will just grow by leaps and bounds and eventually defeat it, won’t he?”
That would be problematic.
A Demon King had to be something more forced, more nonsensical, more of a mess—something that would force the Hero to exert every ounce of his strength.
This was her masterpiece, created to oppose a monster that grew infinitely stronger just by setting his mind to it.
A power that could bring everything to its knees just by existing.
Determined to complete it somehow, the Witch caressed her precious work.
“Right? Ha-neul.”
And the monster, a convergence of all the world’s malice, twitched slightly as if to answer her call.
* * *
With a final swing of my fist, Dagon’s head—which had been resisting desperately—finally exploded.
The Hero and his friends had defeated an Ancient God!
“…Is this right?”
However, Lilac, who had been standing there like a totem the whole time, tormenting Dagon and the Deep Ones with the light of the Holy Sword, had an uneasy expression.
It seemed he felt like he was getting a free ride, but unfortunately for him, Lilac had actually been more active than me today.
“What are you talking about, Lilac? You were the MVP of this dungeon raid.”
If he hadn’t cleared out the miasma and madness over such a wide area, the Deep Ones and Dagon would have been quite a nuisance.
They weren’t exactly difficult, but they were… annoying?
At the very least, it would have taken much longer.
…Now, all that’s left is to destroy that portal Dagon was trying so desperately to protect, and the incident will be resolved.
— Come. Closer.
“…’Come’ my ass, you crazy bastard. Why would I go there?”
A voice drifted out from the portal, beckoning me closer as if trying to seduce me.
It was a bizarre, distorted voice that felt like a child’s, an old man’s, and the unpleasant scraping of metal all at once.
The owner of that voice must be on the other side of that portal.
I checked to see if anyone had been mind-controlled, but Lilac was doing a great job as a totem, and perhaps because their resistance had increased from everything I’d fed them, no one seemed affected.
It was something I’d have to deal with eventually, but right now I had to rush to Gyeongju, so I couldn’t afford to waste time.
— This way. Hurry.
When its specialty, mental manipulation, failed to work, the creature spoke again with even more power, perhaps feeling its pride wounded. Of course, there was no way it would work.
But the moment I tried to stack Reinforcements to destroy the portal, the creature suddenly changed its tactics.
Giving up on controlling me, it decided to try deception instead, beginning to mimic something.
— Help me…
It was a familiar voice.
No, to be more precise, they were familiar voices.
One was Seo-ha’s.
It even created a plausible illusion, showing me Seo-ha dying from the miasma.
— My son…
Then it showed me my mother, covered in blood and on the verge of becoming fish food.
A truly cliché repertoire followed, showing my precious people dying one after another on the other side.
It was honestly ridiculous.
Who did it take me for? There was no way I’d fall for something like that now.
I knew perfectly well it was an illusion.
“Ha, wow. Do you really think I’d still fall for this? You pathetic piece of shit.”
“…So-hyun? Why are you trying to go through the portal while saying that?”
As I moved toward the portal, Cathy Noona approached with a worried face, but this was a misunderstanding.
I hadn’t been fooled by that stupid illusion.
“Huh? Oh, don’t worry. I wasn’t fooled, and I’m not going in to save them or to hurt myself.”
I answered with a bright smile, but for some reason, no one seemed to believe me.
“Then why are you trying to go?”
“…Well. Because I’m pissed?”
I mean, really.
Being fooled is one thing, but when someone is practically begging me to shorten their lifespan like that, I can’t just ignore them and walk away, can I?
If it was trying to deceive me, it failed. But if its plan was to provoke me into coming over, I’d have to praise it for a job well done.
How dare a shitty alien octopus bastard touch the people he touched.
“Hey! You’ve been fooled! Everyone, grab So-hyun…!”
“Aieee, I’m really fine. I’m just going to go in, kill it, and come right back.”
“That is not something a ‘fine’ person says!? Hey! Your eyes have totally flipped!”
Ha-ni and Ga-eul screamed in turn and tried to cling to me, but I was faster in crossing through the portal.
The moment I stepped into R’lyeh beyond the portal, a miasma that forbade the survival of ordinary creatures enveloped me, and a malformed space where the laws of physics did not apply began to torment me.
“Hey! So-hyun…!!!!!!!”
“What do we do about him!!!!”
So what?
My skin is tearing because of twisted physical laws, and I can’t breathe because of the miasma?
Blunt surfaces feel sharp, and lethal traps lurk where there is nothing?
Clones of Cthulhu crawl out from empty space, and a level of terror and madness that an average person couldn’t endure wedges itself into my mind?
I’ll say it again.
So what?
The light of Reinforcement erupted, illuminating the deep sea, and the clones of Cthulhu that had been crawling out began to recoil as if they were afraid even to touch that light.
“You think you’ll be fine if I hit you just because the laws of physics are twisted?”
As the Reinforcement stacks exceeded 15, and an increasingly intense light illuminated the surroundings, a massive form began to move as if realizing something was wrong, but it was already too late.
“Shall we test that?”
The moment my fist, condensed with Reinforcement, struck the flat ground, I suddenly felt something sharp where there had been nothing—but that was it.
If it was obliterated the moment it touched my fist, it didn’t matter if it was blunt or sharp.
It was a blow that could make even an Evil Dragon scream, a blow that had driven even Sun Wukong into the depths of hell.
It was a strike with the power to shatter stars, as guaranteed by Sun Wukong herself.
A place filled with madness and miasma, the greatest terror existing on Earth?
A legendary ancient city where the laws of physics are warped?
A seal where Great Beings slumber?
Endure it if you can.
If you’re harder than a star, maybe you’ll survive.
The moment my fist hit the ground, I felt something like a thin film snap, and simultaneously, I was able to strike the ‘real’ floor of R’lyeh.
And the moment that fist hit the floor, it was over.
Light flashed, the ground gave way, and the malformed structures all collapsed.
The barrier, unable to withstand the impact, shattered, and seawater came pouring in, while all sorts of monsters were wiped out.
If one were to shrink the destruction of the world, it would look like this.
Everything crumbled. The massive undersea ruins, which were called a city but were large enough to be a continent, lost their form and met their end from a single punch.
And when the aftermath of that strike ended.
The only being that had endured it all was the monster sealed in the ancient city—the one who had summoned me here.
A head that looked like a mix of a dragon and an octopus, attached to a massive torso.
The master of ancient Earth, of whom it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call the most famous of the Great Old Ones.
The Great Dreamer, the Lord of the Deep.
Cthulhu.
A being that reigned as a god even in fictional mythologies.
Except now.
“Yeah, I came because you told me to. You got something to say?”
That is, if a being trembling in fear can still be called a god.
* * *
Cthulhu, who should have been rejoicing at his release from the seal, was dazed—perhaps because R’lyeh, which was supposed to rise to the surface with him, had been pulverized—but he soon grasped the situation.
However, even as he understood the situation, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was still dreaming, given the bewildering fact that he was feeling fear.
He was always the one who instilled terror; the times he had felt it himself could be counted on one hand.
The ancient being, who spread harm just by existing, felt a presence from the small creature glaring at him that he had felt before.
A being resembling his father or grandfather, one who truly deserved the title of a god.
Hostility toward that thing was not a wise choice.
Yet, the Lord of the Deep swung his fist.
Because showing a human side—making rational judgments and calculating moves—wasn’t like ‘Cthulhu.’
A being that humans dared not even oppose.
A member of the Great Old Ones.
An Absurdity that defied common sense.
That was the role he was born with, the divinity he had to fulfill.
However, the moment his swinging fist was blocked by a massive wall of iron.
The Lord of the Deep, overcome by rising terror, ended up recoiling just like a human.
It was the moment a great Absurdity encountered an even greater Absurdity.