Insect King Subjugation Battle (5)
Once upon a time, in a distant age. Before the empire had ever become an empire—back when it did not even exist. In an era that lay even further beyond the first rising of the sun from the earth. There stood a single, colossal metropolis. A golden city that adored beauty and cherished cleanliness.
The streets were spotless, and the people were kind. Yet that kindness did not spring solely from civic virtue. It was thanks to the lord’s revolutionary strategy for managing the city. A perfectionist, he had devised a plan to gather every scrap of refuse from his domain and dump it in one place. He would dig an enormous pit just outside the city and cast all the filth into its depths. In doing so, his city would remain pristine and the garbage problem would be solved. Of course, waste would continue to pile up inside the pit, but since it remained out of sight, everything was fine.
“Dig a large, deep hole in the empty lot beside the city.”
Having settled on the plan, the lord put it into action at once. He gathered earth mages and laborers to excavate a massive pit, then sealed it with a giant iron lid. Into that darkness they hurled every pest, every piece of trash, and every monster that threatened the city. The refuse would be devoured by insects and monsters alike. At first, the system seemed flawless.
If only it had never appeared.
The Gluttonous Preta was born there—as a tiny cleaner meant to dispose of the corpses and filth heaped inside the pit. Mindless, it devoured staggering amounts. Perhaps because it frequently consumed monster corpses saturated with mana, its own body mutated into a monstrous form in almost no time.
For the first few years, the lord’s policy appeared to function perfectly. By concentrating all the city’s filth in one place, life had never been more convenient.
“As expected of our lord!”
“How wise!”
“Still… isn’t it wasteful to use such a huge pit only for garbage?”
Yet, like most things in this world, anything left to stagnate will eventually rot. The innovative policy gradually corrupted. What had once been a dump for filth alone began to receive other offerings: corpses too troublesome to bury or burn, heinous criminals, beggars from the slums who marred the city’s beauty, and even loyal subjects who dared oppose the lord’s will. The pit that had been meant to protect the city transformed, in a single instant, into an execution ground.
“My lord, I beg you to show mercy!”
“No, no! I cannot die like this!”
“My lord! Please—at least spare my daughter!”
From that moment, the lord became a tyrant. Anyone who refused to obey was hurled into the pit, until only sycophants remained nearby. If they did not wish to die, they had no choice but to praise him.
“As expected of our lord.”
“How wise…”
“How magnificent…”
From then on, the city grew even more beautiful. Everyone wore smiles on their faces and adorned their appearances. Whether anyone was listening or not, they ceaselessly praised the lord.
But there was one truth they did not know: the pit the lord had created was, in essence, no different from a Gu jar.
When all the evil and filth of the world is gathered in one place, the creature born from it will be more vicious than anything else. Yet simply collecting such things was not enough to create a truly superior being—one capable of throwing the world into chaos. One more ingredient was required.
Resentment.
Emotion, thought, will—every form of it. Whether it came from humans or beasts did not matter. The more intense it was, the longer it lingered, the stronger its power grew.
“Mother! Motherrr!”
“Let’s get out… we have to get out somehow…”
The place where the Gluttonous Preta lived was exactly that kind of hell.
In the first few years, it merely underwent monstrous transformation. Its body grew larger and tougher. After several more years, it began to swell dramatically. Once it started eating humans, the efficiency of its growth changed. The calories it consumed translated directly into size. Before long, no matter how much it ate, it was never full and could not stop devouring. This continued for decades.
Eventually it grew large enough to climb out of even that enormous pit. Outside, food was everywhere—towering trees, the beasts that roamed between them, the people walking the streets. The creature ate everything without distinction.
“Kyaaa! A monster!”
“Save me! Please save me!”
“My lord, my lord! You son of a bitch…!”
That day, the great city was destroyed. By a single life-form that had been born as a humble cleaner of trash. The price for ignoring what had accumulated inside the pit was devastating.
“Ah… aah…”
Yulise stared upward with eyes full of terror. A colossal white worm blotted out the already dark night sky, making it even blacker. It was the legendary catastrophe she had heard of in ancient myths. Scattered across the ground around her lay her party members. Whether they had been crushed when the audience chamber’s roof collapsed or knocked unconscious by the summoning itself, everyone except her and Luke had fainted.
She asked herself, her mind reeling, What is happening?
They had been winning. So how had the situation turned so utterly against them? The plan had been perfect. Their preparations had been thorough. The party had synchronized their teamwork and carried out their roles flawlessly. They had done everything possible.
Yet the result was this.
The plan lay in ruins. Everything they had prepared had become meaningless. The comrades who had stood beside her were now collapsed on the floor. The realization that all their efforts until now had been in vain filled her with despair.
She asked herself again, How are we supposed to defeat something like that…?
It was an ancient disaster. A monster that had annihilated an entire city in a single day. No matter how powerful Lily’s magic, it would only scorch a fraction of its body. Even if Kamilla poured everything into her sword aura, she would never reach its vital organs. They might not even be able to block its attacks. How could anyone possibly stop something with that unimaginable mass?
For a long time she remained frozen in place, unable to do anything. Resignation, futility, and fear churned inside her heart. No solution came to mind.
“……”
Honestly, there was one idea.
If I sacrifice myself…
She was the Saintess, after all. The being with the greatest holy power in the world, one who lived beneath the goddess’s blessing. And the enemy was a calamity loathed by that same goddess. In other words, they were polar opposites.
It would take considerable time, but if she continuously released her divine power, she could defeat even a creature of that size. The real question was how to buy that time.
I just have to let it eat me.
That solved the problem immediately. It surely would not dissolve her the instant it swallowed her. Given its enormous body, digestion would undoubtedly take a long time. During that interval, she could gather her holy power.
Of course, she refused to think about her own body slowly melting away inside it.
Having steeled her resolve, Yulise spoke to the hero.
“Hero, please run away.”
“Huh?”
Luke, who had been staring blankly, turned his head.
“I will buy time by sacrificing myself… so please take the others and escape. If it’s me, I can definitely defeat it.”
“No—how exactly are you planning to defeat that thing?”
“That’s—”
Yulise explained her plan. At least in her mind, it was the only option left. For a moment, tears welled in her eyes. Though there had not been many pleasant memories, the time she had spent with the party came rushing back. She had witnessed how noble a single human being could become. She had seen the sincerity hidden inside the hero she had once believed to be evil. There were still so many things she had not done for him… but sadly, the time had come to part.
“Saintess.”
When she finished speaking, the hero called her name. His expression was calmer than she had expected.
“Lower your head for a second.”
“M-my head? Why all of a sudden…”
“Just do it.”
Though flustered, she obeyed. Wiping away the tears that had gathered in her eyes, she bowed her head slightly. And then—
Thwack!
“Ow!”
A sharp blow landed on her skull. A tingling pain enveloped her head. The hero’s flick had been delivered with genuine feeling.
She looked up at him with a wronged expression and cried out.
“Why did you hit me!”
I hit her because what she said was ridiculous, fuck.
I asked her, “What did I tell you last time?”
“Pardon? When…”
“Back when you learned black magic and fought with the rest of the party.”
Though flustered, she thought hard. The answer came faster than expected.
“Not to throw your life away recklessly…”
“Exactly. Did my words sound like a dog barking to you? Because you’re trying to give up again so quickly. That is absolutely not allowed. Request denied.”
Tap, tap. I spoke while lightly rapping her head. Perhaps the sting brought heat to her face; she shouted back at me.
“Then what do you expect me to do?! There’s no other way!”
I could only pause for a moment.
“Do you have any idea with what resolve I said those words? Do you understand how I felt when I said them?! I don’t want to die either. I want to live, but there’s no other option, so I have no choice… I’ve been holding all of that back and offering to sacrifice myself, yet you… you…!”
Tears pooled in her eyes. Her hands trembled as she spoke. Her sapphire gaze was filled with both terror and resentment. It must have been both frightening and unfair. After all, as she herself said, no one truly wants to die.
“Then live,” I told her. “If you want to live, then live. Why are you trying to die?”
I glanced upward. More precisely, at the status window floating above the Gluttonous Preta’s head.
It was two full levels higher than the Insect King we had originally been fighting. That meant the level gap between it and me had widened to five. Just seeing the number made curses bubble up, but what infuriated me even more was something else.
Party annihilation imminent. Resistance futile.
The damn system messages had been screaming since a moment ago. Three ‘WARNING!’s stacked on top of each other. The warnings were graded by number. One meant possible temporary damage. Two meant possible permanent damage. Three appeared when the entire party faced annihilation.
And now three had appeared. On top of that, it claimed this was fate. It was forced.
It was as if the system were saying: Your fate has already been decided. This is your end. Your four pillars of destiny point toward death as a stranger in a strange land. The heavenly mechanisms foretell your eventual miserable defeat. Such is your heavenly mandate, so struggle in vain and spend the rest of eternity in torment.
I wanted to tell it: Please, I’m begging you, shut the hell up.
I gripped my sword so tightly it felt like it might shatter and muttered, “I don’t believe in shit like fate, fuck…”
Across more than nine hundred regressions, they had suffered without end. Death by thirst, death by necrosis, starvation, death in battle, burning alive, suicide—there were almost no forms of death I had not witnessed. I no longer wanted to watch them sacrifice themselves or writhe in defeat.
“I will save them.”
I would save them no matter what. That was why I had come here. Though the original determination may have worn away, it still burned inside me.
Of course the situation was dire. Half the party was incapacitated, and those still conscious were completely exhausted. Meanwhile the enemy was brimming with energy, making the disparity in power even more glaring.
So what was I supposed to do about it?
The plan? Completely ruined. But I could simply make a new one. My comrades? Most were unconscious. But the Saintess was still here, wasn’t she? She was injured, yet her limbs were intact. She was a little tired, but the creature had also expended nearly all of its bugs.
That was enough.
As far as I knew, The Demon King and the Hero’s Party never presented a genuinely impossible problem. No matter how fucked the situation, thinking long enough would produce an answer.
…No.
I created the answers. The obstacles everyone else had called impossible, I had overcome them all. By thinking meticulously, by agonizing, I had found the correct solutions. This time would be no different.
“Ah.”
Then, suddenly, an idea flashed through my mind.
I called out to the Saintess.
“Can’t I just tank it with my body?”
“What?!”
The Saintess cried out in a loud voice.