128. Contact (2)
128. Contact (2)
- 1 -
After the battle ended and a brief wait, one of the Jang-ssi's men approached me.
It was that 'Judge' dispatched from the Mammon Trading Company.
"That was an utterly overwhelming battle. Lady Libertas."
"I accept your praise gratefully. What is your name?"
"Deputy Head of the First Judgment Division of the Mammon Trading Company, Talaran Obersoz."
The man who identified himself as Talaran Obersoz was a demon with two thick horns prominently sprouting from his forehead.
Black hair, orange eyes, blazing magical patterns etched into his pupils, writhing muscles visible beneath his suit, and gray-brown skin.
Even tattoos drawn up to the wrist of the hand he extended for a handshake.
Though clad in a suit and thus somewhat restrained, he exuded a distinctly macho aura...
"You're a Balrog."
Balrog. In the tongue of the human world, a Balrog.
A demon subspecies possessing extremely outstanding capabilities in close-quarters combat.
Their magical abilities weren't particularly excellent, but they were berserkers who, once they got close and latched on, displayed combat prowess surpassing demons of the same grade.
"You recognized me at a glance."
"If one stops studying, one stagnates."
"An excellent mindset. Unlike that garbage."
The 2.5-meter giant, smiling with his eyes as he looked down at me, seemed to have taken quite a liking to me.
"Garbage, you say..."
"Those who are neither strong nor clever are indeed garbage. Lady Libertas. They aren't even worth associating with."
"I am a Necromancer. Talaran. To me, there aren't many worthless talents."
"Ah, I see. My apologies for the rudeness."
Talaran, who ran a hand through his hair and let out a hearty laugh, soon excused himself, saying he had to report on this battle.
Along with expressing a wish to definitely meet again next time.
I turned my gaze toward the prospective corpses of the Dungeon Lords.
"Heuk... Heuk..."
"Keok..."
The body that had become one, then split into two again—Zarkra and Melzeros—was not intact; each had lost half of its body.
Zarkra's lower half was gone, and Melzeros had lost one vertical half.
Ujik! Ppudeuk-ppudeuk...!
On the severed part of Zarkra's body, black eyeballs and tentacles were still continuously sprouting.
It was a sight that anyone could tell meant she couldn't be saved by conventional means.
The otherworldly creature was using the remains of her upper body, her soul, and her emotions as materials to multiply its numbers.
"Kill... I'll kill..."
Perhaps she had already lost her sight.
With eyes that reflected nothing, the troll lady kept turning her head in all directions, never forgetting to spit out her grudge.
Chwak!
"Keuk...!"
Receiving the sword from Evangeline, I personally swung it and severed Zarkra's head.
Before her head too was devoured by the outside force, and even her pure grudge and anger became tainted.
It eased my mind to deliver the final stroke with my own hands.
Even though it was a mess she had brought upon herself, that earnest love of hers was, after all, genuine.
If one has witnessed something beautiful, is it not necessary to pay the admission fee?
Though I could have saved her... she wouldn't have wanted that.
'Even if there is only torment in that place... may the road there at least be peaceful.'
Perhaps it wasn't a prayer fitting for one who had gifted her such a gruesome end, but prayers for the dead are originally for the sake of the living.
Whether what lay beyond death was Heaven, Hell, or Karma.
The only place a Dungeon Lord would go was surely Hell.
- « »...!
Not an outer plane where some unknown existence forcibly dragged one away like this.
"Do not touch her."
Tok.
- « »!!!
Chureureuk!
The black tentacle that had grown from somewhere in the void and headed toward her head shuddered greatly the moment it touched my fingertip, then recoiled back.
As if it had encountered something it feared.
Hook!
It stretched its body toward the floor, making something akin to a bow, then vanished just like that.
Leaving behind a single black slime.
It was a bewildering attitude.
When it disappeared, I could also see the original world it had existed in, but that world still didn't affect me.
I merely felt the very natural disgust one feels upon seeing something aesthetically repulsive.
"It's simply grotesque."
"Truly remarkable, Master."
"Don't give strange compliments. What's so remarkable about this."
My other close aides and subordinates couldn't peer beyond that veil either, as they were all turning their heads away.
The only one sharing my line of sight was Evangeline. Even she seemed tense, as though it weighed on her as well.
"Apologies, but is it closed now?"
"Yes. It's gone now."
I answered Ran's question and brought the tip of my wand to the slime that had remained on the floor.
Hwareuk!
Simply by raising a bit of power, it burned and disappeared.
A clear repulsion phenomenon of powers.
'I briefly wondered if I too might be an existence from the outer planes.'
Aren't outer plane entities quite famous even back on Earth?
As fictional deities.
Since I was so utterly unbothered seeing those things that had become real in this world, I thought perhaps I might be such an entity myself.
Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.
I was relieved that my original form wasn't that of a friend made of tentacles and eyeball clusters.
But it seemed the other friend who had been alive beside me was not so lucky.
- What... what kind of existence are you? That you can... so easily handle an otherworldly force fused with a demon.
The body of Melzeros, which had initially felt like grayish-white plaster, was now stained black and had unmistakably taken on the form of slime.
"You've been tainted too, I see."
Not only that, but countless things like black bubbles were rising from his body, forming into eyeball shapes that looked around before bursting.
This signified that his body was already ruined.
'His magic circuits are ruined too.'
The state of the circuits visible to my magical senses was the same.
- Indeed... it was too much for me.
"Too much for you."
- I thought it was the last move... but to think... that you would be such an existence.
"An existence?"
I felt a question at his words, as if he knew about my state, but he was already in no condition to answer my question.
- Save me too... save me. I don't want... to have my existence stolen by those things...
As death approached and his senses numbed, he had simply begun endlessly repeating only his own words.
"..."
- I thought of it... too lightly. Ahh. I... am being altered... Kihi, ki-hihihi...
Anyway, to properly recover at least his legacy, it was essential to halt the 'taint' at this point.
If left like this, the taint would ride his soul and even corrupt his dungeon core.
However, now that I had learned of a new possibility for myself, I merely wanted to try a different method.
Kkuuk...
I approached him and pressed what I assumed to be his head, along with the connected parts of his body, with the tip of my wand.
As I'd expected, that alone would be enough to slow the progress of the 'taint'.
- « » - !!
- Keuheok...!
Unlike Zarkra, he seemed to be in immense pain.
Perhaps it was because, while in Zarkra's case her senses were already dead, leaving no room even to perceive the agony, the senses in his body hadn't died so simply.
For a moment, the enraged fragments of the outer plane burrowed even more violently into his body.
- Aaaak... Euheok...!
To my eyes, which had drawn up mana, Melzeros's body and soul could be seen screaming simultaneously.
The otherworldly creature, heedless of his agony, kept trying to burrow in further.
"「Begone」."
But when I simply raised my power and spoke those words,
Meomchit.
The taint stopped.
- « »!!
This strange being let out a shriek in an indescribable voice, laden with its fear, and after a brief moment, another half of Melzeros's remaining body disappeared.
The outer plane existence had stopped its encroachment and returned to its own world.
It was a strange event.
Whether its encroachment on existence was driven by gluttony or mere instinct,
stopping it couldn't have been easy.
- Than... k. Thank...
It was already impossible to save the remaining body of Melzeros.
Through the severed parts of his body, a mass of mana—identifiable at a glance as his 'core'—was leaking with more than half of it shattered.
Even if I had saved him a bit faster, it would have been difficult to save him intact.
'Hmm.'
This had only ever been a courtesy to an enemy and an effort to secure proper spoils of war.
My impression of him was nothing special, so I felt no regret.
Ruthlessness was simply a tool to be employed only when necessary.
Tuk.
After blocking the mana from his body—where remnants of the outer plane might still linger—from being recovered by the dungeon core, I fell into brief contemplation.
There were still factors to consider.
'Though I am curious about the talk of my 'existence'...'
It wouldn't be difficult to sift through the memories of his soul.
But the problem was I had no way of knowing how intact or how distorted the memories of a soul tainted by an outside force would be, so I was reluctant.
Trying it once wouldn't be so bad, but...
'The origin of my existence... perhaps my parents... he said.'
I had no interest in such things.
Not enough to take on the risk and discomfort of digging through a soul twisted by an outside force.
In the end, I simply turned my body and began issuing orders for the highlight of the war.
"Shue, Sonia. You two cross over with Mire's platoon and recover Melzeros's core."
"Okay..."
"Yes!"
"Ran and Jin-kyung, together with the other platoons, rally the surrendering troops here and receive secrecy oaths from those who do not surrender."
"Leave it to us."
"Eve. Axe. Follow me. I want to personally recover Zarkra's core."
"Yes."
That highlight was, of course, the recovery of the spoils the defeated possessed.
- 2 -
Zarkra's dungeon was a jungle type, completely filled with greenery that matched the color of her skin.
Countless trees lined the cave walls.
The sky was obscured by thick vines, and the ground was thick with nameless grass and flowers that hindered one's steps.
Because each of those trees contained mana, one could tell it was a dungeon; otherwise, I would have suspected the gate had connected to somewhere strange.
"This woman is..."
Stepping on the shadows of the forest, I floated through the air and finally reached the end.
There, next to the dark green dungeon core, lay a legacy of Zarkra's I hadn't expected.
"... Who are you?"
Her child.
A troll woman about the height and build of a human adult female, with eyes shining intelligently.
She resembled her mother far more than her presumed father, possessing a humanly pretty appearance.
Only the color of her hair was red; the rest was an alluring aura that looked exactly like Zarkra's.
Also, despite being presumed young, the level and density of the mana dwelling within her body were so high that one could unmistakably tell she was a 'child of a Dungeon Lord'.
"Could they really have been a married couple?"
"That's probably not the case. If Zarkra had been formally married, she wouldn't have simply kept the husband as a summoned creature."
"... So he was a male concubine."
"Though the probability is high that she was in the process of truly falling for him with genuine feelings."
I nodded in agreement with Evangeline's speculation and swallowed a bitter feeling.
I had never imagined a Dungeon Lord could actually become a parent.
Even though I had already confirmed that Serica was someone's child, and even though I had confirmed that I myself might also have parents somewhere.
I hadn't imagined the reverse.
'That I might have a child in the future.'
Unconsciously stroking my stomach, I internally shook my head at the chill running down my spine.
An image of myself smiling while holding a child among my people had come to mind, but,
before even the question of whether such a thing was imaginable or not,
'It's disgusting.'
I, whose love was so twisted, I, who couldn't even separate feelings like affection from possessiveness right now.
Even if it were my own child, there was no way I could give it wholehearted love.
'There's no way a child growing up under such a person could grow up whole.'
That was a matter on a different dimension from simply accepting my own possessiveness.
I had no intention of bringing into this world another existence destined to grow up unhappy.
'What should I do.'
I stood at a crossroads of choice.
Even if her parents' relationship wasn't ordinary, I had, after all, killed both this woman's mother and father.
"I am the one who killed your parents."
"Ah..."
Bitter truth and sweet lies.
Among them, I chose the former.
Because she was not someone I was meant to protect, and could even become an entity whose protection was unnecessary.
In that case, a lie would only hinder her ability to survive.
"... I thought as much."
As expected, she was very calm.
It was only natural.
'With this level of mana, her cognitive ability would be no different from an adult's.'
The mana she possessed reached an advanced level by ordinary standards. For a Dungeon Lord, it was a level called low-rank or official.
A child born with such a dense talent for mana develops faster than other children her age.
Simply because she could do more than an ordinary child.
'It's less about being a genius and more just how it is.'
It was no different from being born, literally from infancy, with one or more extra invisible hands or feet; thus, perceiving and manipulating objects was far quicker.
Her actual age might be younger, but converted to human standards, she had to be seen as significantly older.
Both her body and her mind.
"I have no intention of passing the grudge between your parents and myself down to you. However..."
The choices presented before Zarkra's child were three.
If she still didn't know who I was, she might be able to leave this place with her body intact.
If she did know who I was,
'She dies just like this. Or she lives as if dead.'
"..."
I hadn't explained everything, but she seemed to understand what I was holding in my heart.
Looking up at me with eyes that held no light,
"Please..."
She lowered her body in a posture of submission anyone could recognize.
"... At least allow me to recover the bodies of my parents."
"Do you not resent me?"
"For demons and monsters, power and struggle are akin to life itself. I have no intention of directing any grudge toward you, Lady, the victim, for parents lost in a war they started first."
"You are mature."
A child possessing an adult's cognition is a completely different matter from actually 'becoming an adult'.
Was her mother an excellent person?
Or did her inborn nature simply excel?
In my eyes, she was sufficiently valuable.
Whether she was sharpening a knife of vengeance or speaking from the heart.
"What is your name?"
"It is Piera."
That was the moment what had been mere assumption became certainty.
Because it was a name that reminded me of 'Hwira Jul', whom I suspected might be her father.
But there would be no need to use that name henceforth.
"From now on, you shall call yourself Bergrisa."
"I receive this new name."
Bergrisa, or Bergrisar.
'Mountain Giant'.
That was her new name.