367. The Second Branch (3)
367. The Second Branch (3)
- 1 -
Peosuk!
Amakusa Genki collapsed to his knees.
It was as if all the strength had simply drained from his legs.
His face had gone pale, and his trembling lips moved.
"I-I'm sorry...! I never meant to deceive you, Lady Saya! The truth is...!"
His voice cracked with regret and despair, but it could not continue.
Kurrung—!!
"Kkeuk, rheuk...?!"
In an instant, golden mana began oozing viscously from Genki's body.
It seemed to tear through his skin and burst outward, flowing down like a thick, viscous liquid.
And it was not only happening to Genki.
The same mana burst simultaneously from every Cheoneungcheongu around him.
The strands of mana shot out like flashes of light, slicing through the air before tangling together.
"Keuk...! Aaaagh!"
"Kkeuheok...!"
Kwajik! Udeudeuk...!
The horrifying sounds of tearing flesh and twisting bone filled the entire summit along with their screams.
Their bodies began to bloat hideously and distort.
Feathers cascaded from their once-elegant wings.
Golden scales pushed up through the gaps, ripping away the skin.
Faces melted and warped, and their eyes glistened like those of beasts who had lost all reason.
Screams poured from their elongated mouths along with ragged, steaming breath.
A hellscape of monstrous cries and groans intertwined.
They were not monsters, nor were they Cheongu.
They were something exactly in between—an ambiguous and loathsome form.
Ruined existences, as if hatred itself had been given shape.
- 2 -
"This is not particularly pleasant."
I let out a low sigh as I watched the horrific scene.
The sight of the Cheongu transforming into monsters was revolting just to look at.
Yet seeing the consciousness faintly remaining within them stirred a certain sympathy as well.
"Remain calm, Saya. It is alright."
"...Thank you for your concern, Master."
Stabilizing Saya came first.
To me, it was merely unpleasant and irritating, but for Saya, who had come seeking her lost family, it had to be far worse.
"Ran. Stabilize their condition."
"Yes, my lord."
Ran replied in a gentle voice entirely unsuited to the situation, lightly raising one hand.
Though they were Saya's family, to Ran they were beings she held little attachment to.
As long as Saya herself was not grieving or in pain, that was all that mattered.
Until now, Ran had been the entity among our Set capable of the coldest and most rational judgment.
Hwaruk—
Mystical flames bloomed from the tips of Ran's seven tails.
Those flames, a mixture of violet and gold, scattered in all directions and then drifted down like petals, seeping into the bodies of the monsterized Cheongu.
"Keoheok...! Keuk!"
The writhing of the agonized Cheongu noticeably subsided.
The force of the bursting golden mana weakened, and their hideously twisted bodies halted, barely maintaining a humanoid form.
It was not a complete healing, but Ran's flames had forcibly suppressed their agonizing mutation like powerful shackles.
I quietly surveyed them.
"Splendid work."
"I have merely lived up to your expectations."
Leaving the bowing Ran behind me, I singled out the ones I had taken note of moments ago.
The women and children who seemed to have received an especially large amount of Gaap's mana.
And those who had looked up at me with eyes that held not only fear and awe but also something akin to 'resolve' and 'expectation.'
"Send the rest back, except for those. Together with Saya."
"Yes, my lord."
"We shall receive your command, Master."
Saya looked at the Cheongu with complicated emotions in her eyes, then swiftly moved to Ran's side.
The two of them, without my help, systematically lifted the Duke of Hatred's power.
As if dismantling a delicate machine, calmly and without a single mistake.
One by one, the Cheongu began to return to their original forms.
Even considering that the Demon Realm Archduke himself was not present, it was truly impressive skill.
"Now then..."
I carefully scrutinized the three women and children remaining before me, the ones who had shown the greatest change.
'Normally it was a simple enhancement ability, but that was not the end of it. A structure causing the user to mutate into a monster the more the power was used. Control was stripped away, and in the end, even the ego vanished...'
These Cheongu were not mere spies.
They were entities set up to become 'weapons' in and of themselves.
The reason for this was clear.
Gaap had assumed I would use them as military force.
"My lord. The matter is concluded."
Ran reported with a slight bow of her head.
I shifted my gaze to Genki, the one whose transformation had begun first.
Though he had been returned to his original form by Saya and Ran's power, he was still trembling, consumed by fear and confusion.
"Speak, Genki."
Now, it was time to hear the truth.
- 3 -
At my voice, Genki flinched and bowed his head deeply.
"What... what should I say..."
His voice was as heavy as a stone and quivered, drenched in fear.
- Kuoooo...!
At Keltarion's roar suddenly sounding in the distance, I turned my gaze that way.
What it held was a warning.
Kurrurung...
The dark clouds surrounding the island churned like waves.
Beneath them, a colossal power clashed with the dragon's mana, warping the world itself.
Gaap... it seemed the bastard had provoked the deep-sea monsters to attack this place.
'He seems to want to get a glimpse of the situation here somehow. Or perhaps he intends to scheme something further using this commotion as a pretext.'
I ignored that side for the moment and gave Genki another command.
"What you were trying to do. The tasks assigned by the Duke of Hatred. Tell me everything, in detail."
The confession that burst from Genki's lips, and what I gleaned from it, could be summarized as follows.
First, Gaap had intended to plant the Cheongu within my camp. As spies, or as military force.
Second, to induce their voluntary cooperation, he had thrown out the sweet lie that 'only Saya would be spared.'
Deceived by those words, Genki had been left with no choice but to cooperate in order to protect Saya.
Third, the rampage just now had been the 'last resort.'
To induce chaos and create confusion if I rejected the Cheongu or noticed the mutation.
Fourth, throughout that entire process, the plan was to evaluate my tendencies and response methods in order to design the next trap.
If I had failed to notice the bait and accepted them all.
Or, if I had intentionally filtered out only those with conspicuously strong mana.
He would have been satisfied with that alone.
Simply by having placed spies within my faction.
"Forgive me...! Forgive me!!"
When the confession ended, Genki cried out.
He insisted he had only followed to protect Saya and preserve the clan.
"Please, just kill me...!"
At that cry, Saya approached him with reddened eyes.
"Genki. Why do you wish to die? If you come with me, you... at the very least, you could survive as spies. They are completely unaware of our presence here...!"
"He has not yet said everything, Saya."
Ran quietly placed a hand on Saya's shoulder and restrained her.
"...."
Saya's expression hardened, and Genki bowed his head even lower.
His shoulders were trembling faintly.
"... That is how it came to be."
The truth he had wished to hide until the end was revealed.
The collateral-branch survivors still remaining in Gaap's camp.
Genki's son and daughter, and the families of the other Cheongu.
They were pledging loyalty to Gaap and seeking the clan's safety.
To prevent harm from reaching them... Genki had intended to sacrifice himself along with the Cheongu here.
"Did you think that if you died, the rest could live?"
At my rejoinder, Genki's eyes filled with despair.
"The Duke of Hatred is, literally, a being who feeds on 'hatred.' He would not have cared whether you died or returned. Rather, he would have used the now-useless Cheongu for his amusement. Making them suspect who was the traitor, who was the informer... hating each other, tearing each other apart, and being torn apart."
I recited the reality calmly, yet heavily.
"What you would have seen there was a hell where blood kin devour blood kin."
At those words, Genki completely crumbled.
"Ahh..."
A lament escaped him.
With no further excuses, the old man simply wept quietly, his shoulders shaking.
The other Cheongu around him also merely held their silence, waiting for judgment.
Only then did I make a decision.
Mercy and punishment come together like two sides of the same coin.
Now that I had confirmed their sincerity, they were worthy of my intervention.
"You were merely bait, so I shall let you live."
I pointed to those particularly strongly marked with Gaap's mana.
Kwachang!
The mana that shot from my fingertips became a key, unlocking the bindings upon their hearts.
The murky golden light was knocked away, and they returned to their original forms.
Their families rushed to them as they simply blinked, not understanding what had happened.
And then, next. The five who had looked up at me with different eyes.
Beyond the fear and awe, those whose gazes had been mixed with 'expectation' or 'resolve.'
They were the ones who had been truly loyal to Gaap and had been seeking an opportunity to turn their blades against me.
"I will deprive you of the freedom of life and death."
Along with my sentence, dozens of black tendrils shot out like lightning from the shadow behind me.
Chwarararak—!
"...Keok?!"
Not even a proper scream could escape them.
The five caught by the tendrils were dragged into the 'darkness' in the blink of an eye, their very existence replaced with something else.
Now they were no longer Cheongu.
They were merely faithful puppets following the will of my shadow.
And the remaining thirty-four.
Toward them, sunk in despair, I declared.
"And you... I shall save you."
At my words, they gave me puzzled looks.
They had probably expected a swift end.
Because it was not very common for a Dungeon Lord to value subordinates.
But to say 'save them,' no less.
Of course, the easiest method in this situation would have been to swallow them into the darkness like the five before them.
The darkness that swallows and mimics could certainly replace that existence and function as bait against Gaap.
However, I, who cherished Saya and even wished to possess the things Saya cherished, could not possibly do that.
'Thus, I had no choice but to take the slightly more cumbersome, difficult path.'
At my gesture, Skeletons rose from the shadow.
The lowest-grade undead, possessing neither intelligence nor ego, nor even the potential for either.
Tak!
With a snap of my fingers, the darkness spreading from the shadow instantly covered the Skeletons' gaunt frames.
The darkness writhed and began to precisely sculpt the forms of flesh and muscle, skin and feathers onto the Skeleton's bones.
A moment later, in that spot stood entities identical in appearance to the Cheongu when they were alive.
Down to a single strand of hair and the minute trembling of the eyes, perfectly replicated, yet instead of the warmth of life, there was only the chill of death emanating from these thirty-seven bodies of 'Undead Cheongu.'
It was the moment magnificent counterfeits were born.
"Heo-eok...!"
"Th-that is..."
Faced with undead identical to themselves, the Cheongu trembled.
"Bear it for a moment. This is for your sake."
Even before my words finished, the undead stood before the Cheongu.
The flesh covering their bodies—the 'darkness'—writhed and burrowed toward the Cheongu's hearts.
To tear out the golden mana residing there, the traces of Gaap.
"Heo-eok...!"
"Heueuk... Keok!"
All around, Cheongu collapsed.
The cause was mana depletion.
Since Gaap's mana had been so immense, a shock of this degree was unavoidable just from its removal.
"Saya. Ran."
"Yes, my lord."
"We answer your summons, Master."
At my call, the two women stepped forward and knelt.
I raised my hand and pointed to the sea across from the island.
- Kuuuuuu...
- Kyaaaaa—!!
The giant monsters rising from the deep sea.
The creatures were revealing themselves in earnest.
"Clean it up."
A short and concise command.
"Yes."
"Yes, my lord."
But the scene that followed would certainly not be simple.