Chapter 280
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 280
Chapter Title: I've Made Preparations.
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Hermann was a sculptor.
The world's greatest sculptor, no less.
A position like that couldn't be earned through innate talent or hard work alone.
It demanded a madness bordering on obsession—a passion and tenacity that would sacrifice everything for one's craft.
That's why, when he failed the Sculpting Knife's trial...
Hermann was overjoyed instead.
He saw it as a stroke of fortune to have been granted the chance to create such a perfect sculpture.
But as his body gradually recovered...
And as he challenged the Sculpting Knife's trial again and again...
Failing each time...
The joy in his heart slowly twisted into anxiety and impatience.
When his health had been poor, he could console himself that illness had held him back from his true potential.
But thanks to the myriad elixirs from Maia, as his health returned with astonishing speed, his confidence plummeted just as fast.
Was his failure to pass the Sculpting Knife's trial really just because of his illness?
Or was it simply a lack of skill?
Maybe... he just didn't have the talent to complete this sculpture after all?
While lost in that growing unease...
Hermann received an opportunity.
Diego, who had been surveilling Quetzalcoatl headquarters in the form of a bug...
Had stumbled upon him agonizing over the sculpture and extended a chance that would change his fate.
Rumble, rumbllllle.
Was it the fickle weather typical of the rainforest?
Dark clouds had gathered without warning, their thunder rumbling as they deepened the already pitch-black night.
But Hermann paid no mind to any of it.
He merely opened his heavy mouth.
"Feel free to call it an excuse, but I never intended to accept the Liberation Brigade's offer."
He regarded Maia and Rimon—who had cured his illness—as his benefactors and felt genuine gratitude toward them.
Teaching Rimon sculpting techniques with utmost sincerity had been from the heart.
"I was determined to complete the sculpture with my own hands, no matter what."
That's why he had persisted.
He pushed Diego's offer from his mind—the promise that allying with him would secure a contract with a constellation, granting the skill needed to finish the sculpture.
He strove to create the ultimate masterpiece with his own two hands.
"But in the end... it proved impossible."
If only he'd had a little more time.
A few years, or even just a few months' reprieve.
Hermann might have passed the Sculpting Knife's trial through his own efforts.
But the grace period Diego had given expired when the Green Dragon Clan raided the Forest Guild's base.
Finishing an ideal sculpture in those mere days was impossible, even for the world's greatest sculptor.
After agonizing until the very end...
He made his choice.
"So you just forgot all about the favors and decided to stab us in the back?"
"That's right."
"And you're proud of it, you traitor?"
"I can't deny that I've committed an act of ingratitude."
Hermann spoke softly.
He wasn't so shameless as to be oblivious to kindness.
He had simply prioritized being a sculptor over remaining a man of conscience.
His lifelong obsession with sculpting outweighed everything else in the world.
Even if it meant betraying his benefactors.
"...I thought I'd contracted with a sculptor, but it turns out I just handed a slab of meat to a lunatic obsessed with his craft."
Rimon clicked his tongue.
If Hermann had been a sly fox...
If he'd betrayed them sooner...
Rimon would have spotted the suspicious signs early.
But he was a stubborn sculptor who knew nothing but his art.
He hadn't harbored thoughts of betrayal until the last moment, so Rimon hadn't sensed anything off.
"Why lament it? Humans are inherently ungrateful by nature—it's to be expected."
"That's exactly what I'm lamenting."
Rimon sighed at Maia's cold sneer.
He knew full well that human nature made it easy to abandon even the greatest favors—blinded by greed or fear of loss.
That wasn't why he lamented, though. Hermann's betrayal, from someone he'd known such a short time, wasn't a shock.
If anything, the opposite.
It was just that he was old enough to accept such things with a weary shrug.
But what could he do?
In life, you'd get discarded by a nation you'd protected for centuries, or forced to execute a betraying subordinate you'd taken hostage.
Compared to that, Hermann's betrayal was hardly bitter.
It was his own carelessness to blame.
What he couldn't understand, though, was one thing.
"By the way, Liberation Brigade's wraith—what's with the bravado?"
"...Bravado?"
"You finally swayed the sculptor and got your hands on a Seven Arc. You should've bolted—why show up here like this?"
"...!"
Diego's eyes widened.
Rimon casually mentioning Seven Arcs—Liberation Brigade's utmost secret—shocked him that much.
But only for a moment.
He soon nodded slowly.
"As I thought... you were the one who interfered with the Kaiser in London..."
"You knew?"
"I suspected. No matter how coincidental, you had too many connections to the Seven Arcs..."
The Liberation Brigade had been gathering intel on the Seven Arcs nonstop.
Especially on Rimon, who had played the Violin of Heart's Darkness and even handed Plato's Sculpting Knife to Hermann—they couldn't afford to drop their guard.
"That's why I've made preparations of my own..."
And so, Diego let out a phlegm-rattled chuckle.
He spread one arm to the side.
Shhhhk.
As if they'd been waiting for this moment...
The forest rippled like waves...
And from the darkness emerged colossal shadows.
Thirteen blood-red giants, each uniquely enormous—the ones that had clashed with Maia at the Forest Guild headquarters.
And the total number of giants, each boasting physical prowess rivaling high-level players...
About a thousand.
A monster horde that even the top ten guilds would struggle to muster—one that could annihilate all of Brazil.
It filled every direction.
"What do you think of our lord's final trump card...?"
"This is the Monster Lord's trump card?"
"Our lord is a cautious man... He ordered me to prepare 'troops' for any contingency..."
Of course, deploying these giants in war was a last resort even for Gula.
They could only attack targets.
Releasing mindless giants into downtown São Paulo would spark indiscriminate slaughter.
Gula had worried less about the casualties and more about how it would ruin his ambrosia drug trade—a very Gula-like concern.
Thanks to his overambition, he died without ever using this trump card.
For Gula, it might have been a mercy.
He perished without knowing his trusted aide had siphoned off the giants.
"Hah, really. Is backstabbing like this even allowed? I figured you lot matched that dog of a Monster Lord perfectly."
"...We don't take just anyone as comrades. Especially not vulgar scum like the lord."
"Oh, right."
How did one live to make a Liberation Brigade wraith pull a face like 'I wouldn't touch that guy with a ten-foot pole'?
Rimon was bemused by Gula's character.
But Diego had his reasons.
Though treated as a mad criminal syndicate, the Liberation Brigade had its own sense of justice.
Bringing in someone like Gula—who'd sell out the organization for personal gain—would only cause harm.
...Unless they gained overwhelming power that even controlled the lord.
"Besides, this was just the Monster Lord's preparation. I have my own..."
Thud.
Diego slammed his staff into the ground, and four silhouettes appeared behind him.
A bald man shouldering a greatsword.
A man in a black iron mask.
A woman with long flowing hair.
A scrawny man folding origami.
Smaller than the giants, but each exuded a distinct aura. Rimon narrowed his eyes at the four freaks.
"Your executives?"
"Indeed..."
"If memory serves, these guys were all wanted duke-level players."
"Impressive eye..."
"This much is basic."
Rimon replied indifferently.
Not grand duke-level, but duke-level players over level 80 were still top 0.01% among players.
Especially notorious wanted criminals—Rimon, formerly of the PAB, wouldn't forget them.
"But what are you gonna do with these punks?"
That's why Rimon looked skeptical.
Duke-level players were too low-tier for a trump card.
Especially now, surrounded by over a thousand giant bio-weapons.
"True, to you—who's gathered two Seven Arcs—they must seem insignificant... But what about this...?"
But right after...
Rimon’s eyes widened.
He had no choice.
『Constellation Descent α』
『Constellation Descent β』
『Constellation Descent γ』
『Constellation Descent δ』
Fwaaaaaah!
As the four voices overlapped...
The greatsword, mask, necklace, and bracelet emitted an eerie glow the instant they did...
Stars fell from the sky, seeping into them, their auras exploding outward. Rimon asked in disbelief.
"That Constellation Descent thing—is it something any mutt can use?"
"Heh heh heh... Asking that means you still don't grasp the true power of the Seven Arcs..."
Diego smiled meaningfully.
Rimon narrowed his eyes at him.
As far as he knew, only the Liberation Brigade's wraiths could use 『Constellation Descent』.
He'd never seen rank-and-file executives do it.
Yet these four could now, and Diego's words hinted at the reason.
"...So the Sculpting Knife's power lets people besides you wraiths use Constellation Descent."
The greatsword, mask, necklace, and bracelet the four executives wielded.
Each bore or was adorned with sculptures in a familiar style. Rimon clicked his tongue as Diego grinned delightedly.
"Half right..."
"What's the other half?"
"They're already half-wraiths themselves..."
It wasn't that wraiths could use Constellation Descent.
Only those who could use it became wraiths.
In that sense, these four had already qualified.
Diego boasted.
"Don't underestimate them, even if it's just half. I lack a 'hammer,' so I couldn't prepare a full Star Spirit Engine, but these four can rival the lord now..."
Rimon could tell.
It wasn't hyperbole.
Ryu Gangcheol, a mere Liberation Brigade foot soldier and duke-level player, had summoned 100 grand duke-level clones with Constellation Descent.
If these four matched that power?
Each executive might be more dangerous than the thousand giants here.
But most crucially...
"And they've received the blessing of the third Seven Arc—not just them..."
『Constellation Descent』 let even level 80-90 players rival or surpass a level 100 lord.
The most overpowered unique skill imaginable.
What if its effects stacked?
If Liberation Brigade wraiths—who could already use it—enhanced it further with the Sculpting Knife?
How strong could they get?
Diego answered the question not with words, but action.
『Constellation Descent VII』, Demon
Viiiing.
He struck the ground with his staff—carved with myriad insects—enveloping his body in mechanical armor mimicking bug carapaces.
The bugs engraved on the now massive, pile bunker-like staff crawled onto the armor as if alive.
The moment Diego activated the forbidden art he'd created, inspired by Gula's 【Behemoth】...
【Beelzebub】
Bwooooooom!
—The world was engulfed in insects.