Chapter 186: Greinif (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 186: Greinif (2)
Varnos was a small principality in the southern part of the continent, comprised of five territories.
While larger in area than the Grand Duchy of Luxible, most of its land was mountainous, preventing any significant industry from developing. It was a place that barely scraped by on its various coal mines.
Varnos Kinoer, the seventh king of this land, stared blankly ahead.
Spread out before his eyes was a scene of absolute carnage.
Soldiers and knights alike lay strewn about, their limbs torn from their bodies. Beyond the shattered walls of the inner castle, the capital city was engulfed in an inferno.
He saw the charred corpse of an old man.
The body of a child who had collapsed in a pool of blood.
The remains of a young man whose upper torso had been ripped away while trying to resist.
The corpses were mangled as if they had been attacked by monsters rather than humans. However, Kinoer knew better. He knew that the one who caused this tragedy was not a monster, but—
"See? It would have been better if you’d just listened to what I said."
—a sentient being.
Kinoer turned his trembling head to the side.
Before he knew it, a man had approached, standing right under his nose. He was a man with dark grey hair and grey eyes who looked infinitely cheerful.
"……."
Kinoer inadvertently swallowed hard. It wasn't because of the man's appearance. It was his eyes.
They looked as if they held nothing at all. Those eyes, entirely dark grey without even a hint of a pupil, seemed to scream that he was no ordinary person.
No—in truth, the being before him wasn't human. He certainly had a human form, but he was something else entirely.
"You... want us to... listen to you?"
"Yeah. You could have just left quietly, couldn't you? Then this wouldn't have happened to you."
"……You said you would kill everyone anyway!"
Kinoer barked, gritting his teeth. He knew that the man before him could snuff out his life as easily as stepping on a bug. Even so, Kinoer did not swallow his pride. No matter how small the principality, he was still a king.
Actually, to be precise, it wasn't pride. It was the desperate struggle of a man who had lost everything. He could struggle because he had nothing left to lose, having already plummeted to the bottom of the cliff. It was the piercing gaze of one who had transcended fear.
Yet, even in the face of such a gaze, the man let out a playful, mocking chuckle.
"But I told you I'd let you live, didn't I?"
"How can you even say that...!"
"Isn't it obvious? One's own life is more precious than the lives of others. Ah—no. Is it different in your case?"
The man grinned.
"Because without your title as king, you'd have nothing left."
"……!"
It was a blatant insult. Kinoer widened his eyes, preparing to protest, but—
Crunch!
Regrettably, he couldn't.
The moment he opened his lips, his head was already being devoured by a bizarre monster that had lunged out from the man's chest.
Munch, crunch! Snap!
The sound was skin-crawling. The monster devoured Kinoer's upper body in an instant. The man watched the scene calmly, then sat down on a fragment of the ruined kingdom and looked ahead.
Then, with a twisted smile, he whispered, "What a magnificent view."
He raised his index finger.
"Now then, shall we begin?"
A black droplet slowly formed at the tip of his finger. The droplet grew larger, like a bead of blood, until—
Drip.
It fell straight to the ground.
Whoosh!
With that, a black energy began to spread in all directions. Soon, the capital, which had been filled only with fire and corpses, grew dark as if the light had been stolen from it. At the same time, things that had been invisible until now began to appear.
Monsters as black as pitch. They were holding a banquet, feasting on the corpses.
Some monsters danced joyfully. Some focused entirely on gorging themselves. Others eyed the corpses being eaten by their peers.
It was a feast.
And he, one of the four major powers of Psychedelia and the Master of the Hungry Ghosts, muttered softly with a curl of his lip.
"Now, what should my next move be?"
* * *
It had been about three weeks since Alon left the Marquis of Lartania's estate.
"Will we reach Nail in about a week?"
"Hmm—I'd say so. From there, it'll take about three more days to enter Greinif, according to the information the Marquis gave us."
"I see."
As Alon gave a short nod, Blackie, who had been sitting on his lap, began to nudge his way into Alon's coat.
[Kyu—]
"No."
[Kyu…….]
Alon gently stopped him. Blackie's ears drooped so low they practically disappeared, making him look like a strange creature rather than a cat. Alon stroked the little guy's head and pulled an object out from inside his coat.
"Blackie seems to really like that thing, doesn't he?"
"It seems so."
The reason Blackie was trying to burrow into the coat was because of an item Alon had obtained from a labyrinth he visited a week ago while heading south.
The 'Gem of Oblivion.'
It emitted a red light similar to Yutia's eyes. While it seemed to have no practical value, it was incredibly important to Alon. It possessed the power to reset the usage time of 'Salvation of the Wanderer,' the artifact used to summon Basiliora.
‘……Of course, if I go to "that guy" who hasn't appeared yet, I could use Salvation of the Wanderer as long as I pay the price.’
The Gem of Oblivion was a single-use item, but it allowed him to use Salvation of the Wanderer immediately without any other cost. That was why Alon had gone out of his way to visit the labyrinth, just in case.
"But Marquis, you explained before that you'd use that to... what was it? Ah, to use the artifact that manifests Basiliora again, right?"
"That's right."
"But how does that gem work?"
Evan asked, his curiosity piqued. Alon gave him a simple explanation.
"It likely works on the principle of accelerating the time of the object it's used on."
"……Time acceleration?"
"Yes."
Alon nodded, digging through his past memories.
‘It definitely accelerated time. I believe it was ten years…… and three months.’
Alon even remembered the specific numbers.
‘If you collected 100 of them, you could reset a Constraint.’
The ring Alon had first obtained to set a Constraint had a setting that made one wonder why it even existed: it took a thousand years to reuse. Naturally, in Psychedelia, no matter how much one dragged out the game, the in-game time never exceeded ten years. In other words, a thousand-year cooldown was a useless setting since it could never be bypassed anyway.
However, after the fact that Constraints could be reset by collecting Gems of Oblivion spread through the community, people finally understood why such a useless setting existed and began searching for the gems. But that popularity faded instantly. The downside of having to find fragments scattered across the entire continent like Dragon Balls was far greater than the merit of resetting a Constraint.
Because of the overwhelming number required, it became "clickbait" content for streamers and YouTubers rather than something regular players pursued. Alon himself had rarely farmed Gems of Oblivion. Even if he had many uses for it now thanks to Basiliora, normally, one wouldn't use the gems to accelerate an artifact more than five times in an entire playthrough of Psychedelia.
"Then if you give that to Blackie, won't he grow huge?"
Evan's voice broke through Alon's thoughts.
"……Well, I'm not sure if it works on living beings, but if it's possible, I suppose he might."
[Kyu-!]
At Alon's affirmation, Blackie let out a determined cry, his face saying, 'I can do it!'
[No! You're going to give my chance to manifest again, even if briefly, as a mere snack?! Not a chance—!!!]
Basiliora popped out reactively and screamed at the top of his lungs, but—
[Wai— Wait! Kraaaagh! Stop it! I said stop it!!!]
The moment Basiliora started shouting, Blackie lunged with impeccable timing and began pummeling him with a flurry of cat punches.
"Yeah, that's it!"
Evan looked delighted as Blackie gave Basiliora a "true education." He even raised both hands in the air, seemingly in a great mood whenever Basiliora suffered.
Watching the chaos between the three of them, Alon quietly tucked the Gem of Oblivion back into his breast pocket.
‘I should probably collect a few more before "that guy" appears on the continent.’
* * *
Exactly a little over a week later.
After finishing their final preparations in Nail a few days prior, Alon traveled south by carriage for about three more days.
"I think we'll have to walk from here."
"It certainly looks that way."
They soon arrived at a region of dense forest.
"……Is this Elf territory from here on?"
"Yes, it seems so. You can tell just by the color of the grass."
"……This is quite fascinating."
There was a stark difference between the color of the grass where Alon stood and the grass inside the territory that appeared to be Greinif.
‘It’s dark on this side, but bright over there.’
Even though they were in the forest and covered in shadows, the plants emitted a strong azure glow as if radiating vitality. Alon looked at the sight with a fascinated expression.
"Then let's head inside."
"Yes, sir."
As he began to walk with Evan, Alon thought of Lecon.
‘First of all, seeing as the information up to this point is accurate…… it seems he wasn't lying. So, from now on, I just have to be careful not to get caught by the elves?’
Alon calmly recalled the instructions Lecon had given him.
‘Elves are extremely hostile toward humans, so immediately express that you have no intention of attacking and leave Greinif.’
Lecon had emphasized several times that elves were fundamentally very hostile toward humans. Recalling this, Alon entered the forest with a slightly tense expression. After walking for about two hours—
"It looks like we're almost out."
The end of the seemingly endless forest was in sight. Confirming this, Alon and Evan stepped out of the woods without hesitation.
And then.
"Oh—!"
"……!"
The moment they left the forest, Evan let out a startled exclamation, and Alon's eyes widened involuntarily.
A sight filled their vision. At least a hundred elves were standing there, facing them. It was as if they had known Alon and Evan would come here in advance.
‘This is bad—’
Alon felt the hair on his body stand on end as a million thoughts raced through his mind.
‘He said this was a side path, didn't he?’
Had Lecon deceived him? Or was this pure coincidence? Or had he taken the wrong path?
However, he quickly suppressed his racing thoughts and prepared to raise his hands. First, he needed to signal that he wasn't hostile.
"Wait—we didn't come to Greinif to fight—"
Just as Alon raised his hands to speak, someone grabbed him.
Grab!
An elf, who had been far away just a moment ago, was suddenly by Alon's side, holding his hand.
Then, the elf bowed politely.
"Welcome. We have been expecting you."
With a face tinged with a hint of joy, as if welcoming a long-awaited guest, the elf spoke.
"……Pardon?"
Alon could only gape in disbelief.