Chapter 63
Chapter 63
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Defeat, Defeat, Defeat
-----------------------------------------------------------------
063
Defeat, defeat, defeat.
The moment the three master-level fighters, who had been holding the advantage, suddenly started to falter.
Crash!
Dante's alliance had no choice but to crumble.
It began on the second week after entering the labyrinth.
"Huff…. Huff…."
It happened right after yet another routine assault from Rasiel.
"Aren't you curious why I'm letting you live?"
Sein said, stepping on one of Dante's fallen candidates who was exhausted and collapsed.
"You're blood of the same line anyway. You know what's great about blood ties?"
"……."
"This should've been enough, right?"
Up until then, all he'd given them was the whip.
"Abandon Dante for Rasiel—no."
He grinned.
"Abandon that bastard Damos and come under me. Anyone?"
"……!"
"The battle's decided. I'm just offering you a chance."
And from some day onward, he began adding a new routine.
Right in front of the Dante members who couldn't even wash properly or eat.
Sizzle!
Rasiel started a pretty appetizing meal.
It looked like meat from the same monsters, but the aroma and appearance were different.
For some reason, those who devoured it seemed overflowing with even more vitality.
"Don't think the chance will last forever."
Sein said as he shoved a huge chunk of meat into his mouth.
"If I join you…."
It had always been that way.
Starvation was the hardest thing for humans to endure.
Throughout all of human history, it was hunger that sparked the greatest calamities.
"Can I eat too?"
"You…!"
"Of course."
Catching Sein's eye, one of Rasiel's candidates stepped forward to shield Dante's candidate and spoke.
"You want some?"
The guy was drooling like a rabid dog.
They could endure just starving.
But the problem was the monster meat they'd eaten wrong.
Dehydration from diarrhea, repeated over and over.
That was what.
"Wanna bark for it?"
"……Wh…."
Drove humans to madness.
"Not gonna bark?"
Sein dangled the meat.
"…Woof…. Woof woof!"
In the end, Dante's candidate lunged forward.
"Good boy."
That was the beginning.
The collapse.
It started from a small crack.
And when that first crack was a fellow candidate wagging his tail like a dog, the shock to Dante's candidates was truly immense.
"…I've been there too."
Rasiel's side saw it differently, of course.
But in the end, that day it was Dante who lunged first.
Driven by rage and madness, charging in as if death would be better.
Because tomorrow, his resolve would weaken even more.
But the outcome was obvious.
"I'll be back tomorrow."
And tomorrow.
"We'll join you too, Sein."
There were a few corpses visible.
Probably from clashes over differing opinions.
And then they realized.
The dam had already broken; there was no stemming the flow.
"Fine. So, what now?"
He grinned.
"Bark."
Dante's candidates began to defect.
*
*
*
Once the defection started, the rest was easy.
The bigger problem was how the defected Dante candidates looked.
Glowing faces, gleaming gear.
"Sein! What should we do?"
Wagging their tails as they followed Sein.
Comparing their own wretched state to that.
"I'll join too."
They began breaking one by one.
Damos didn't stop them.
"You idiots."
At first, he'd cut down two candidates who betrayed him to join Sein, but the looks and emotions they gave him back then made him raise the white flag in the end.
One by one.
And then.
"You're the last ones."
Only three remained.
The ones with the strongest pride and highest sense of honor, even among Dante.
Candidates from the main family.
"Kahahaha!"
Damos burst into mad laughter.
"Sis, were you like that too?"
"……."
"A main family brat. Even if you were only half a man."
His blazing eyes held emotions too complex to describe as mere anger.
"Wagging your tail for some no-name nobody?"
Sis didn't answer.
"So, you gonna hold out today too?"
Sein spoke as if such provocations didn't faze him.
"Ptoo!"
Damos spat.
"You all think the same?"
But that day was different.
"……."
Vita and Gimo, who had always steadfastly stood by Damos.
They weren't answering.
"Vita, Gimo?"
Fellow main family members.
The ones he'd allied with to become Dante's top candidate.
Unlike the other candidates he'd used and discarded like pawns, he truly saw them as comrades.
"Sorry, Damos."
They finally stood up.
"…Vita?"
"Looks like this is the limit of my vessel. I can't hold out anymore."
Even reaching master level, they were still human in the end.
They couldn't overcome their instincts and desires.
"…Gimo."
The two masters stood.
"Get a grip, Damos."
Gimo was different from Vita.
His anger was directed at Damos.
"Can't you see it even after all this?"
"……."
"Sein Demorus is different from us."
"……!"
"Damos, you're not the vessel to beat this mad bastard."
The ones he'd trusted most.
The moment they betrayed him.
"Whyeeeeee-!"
It was like the dam he'd held back to the end finally bursting.
"Sein Demorus-! Why! Whyeeeeee-!"
He screamed and wailed.
"Why are you going this far-!"
He was proud Demorus blood.
"You should've just killed us! Why humiliate us like this…!"
It was rage toward Sein for crushing even that shred of pride.
"My eardrums are gonna burst."
Sein approached, locking eyes with Damos, who had collapsed like a wreck and was howling.
"Why?"
"…Yeah. Why. Why are you going this far."
He grinned.
"I recruited Sis."
"……?"
"Still don't get it?"
Sis was already standing by Sein's side.
"Sis is my man."
"So…."
"Perpetrators are always so goddamn selfish, huh?"
Sein sneered at Damos.
But it was the first time.
That sneer felt terrifyingly serious.
"I heard how the main family treated Sis. Don't worry, he didn't tell me."
Sis bit his lip.
"I was curious why a main family punk had such a shitty personality and was so damn weak, so I looked into it."
And in the previous labyrinth.
-I heard about you.
Sein had proposed to Sis.
-I'll thoroughly destroy what you hate. Wanna join hands?
This was.
"The deal's terms were you, you bastard."
Sein and Sis's secret pact.
Another deal hidden behind this exchange event.
*
*
*
It was hell.
A blessing to some, hell to others.
A life not chosen willingly, but forced upon him.
-Your name is Sis Demorus.
Born as the son of the world's most threatening and fearsome existence.
But the problem was his mother.
-Sis.
Main family children were born from daughters of the three great dark families or powerhouses of the New Empire.
Seeds sown deliberately, not by chance.
But Sis was the anomaly.
-Sis. What're you doing?
A maid.
The freak child born from a mother whose beauty was too striking.
-My shoes are dirty. Lick 'em clean.
That gap couldn't be bridged just because they shared blood.
Swords thrust upon him were snatched away.
He had to suppress his emotions.
Even though he never asked to be born, he had to endure having everything taken.
The silver lining was that most paid no attention to wretches like him.
But the misfortune was.
-Sis, you son of a bitch!
Even among them, the inferior tormented the even more inferior.
That was Damos.
-Sis! Sis!
He even wanted to discard that name.
-Sis! Sis! Sis!
Having that name brought nothing but pain.
Even more painful was.
-Ah, whatever. It's just the halfwit.
That even Damos changed one day.
After deciding to go to Dante as a candidate, Damos changed.
-Just trust me.
Acting like some hero, dispensing tolerance and forgiveness.
That was.
'Disgusting.'
Utterly revolting to Sis.
As if all the past had been a lie.
-Sis. Even though you're only half a man, you might catch up to me someday.
Acting like Sis's suffering meant nothing.
But that kept Sis alive, and it drove him mad.
It was decided he'd go to Rasiel.
Deepening sense of defeat.
If he had anything, it was being main family.
The info from connections built while living like a dog in the main house.
'Forget it all.'
If that guy forgot, he could too.
Start fresh in Rasiel.
And if possible, become a successor himself and….
'Damos.'
Kill that bastard.
But there was a wall.
-They say it's Sein Demorus.
A true monster who wouldn't even glance at the likes of him.
Even recalling the past to steel himself.
-Let's make a deal.
He broke under that sweet temptation.
No.
-I can see the pain in your eyes. Acting like it's nothing, but it's total shit, right? You wanna die. But that's….
He grinned.
-You wanna kill, don't you?
A devil who knew him too well, as if residing in his heart.
-Hard to believe, but I've been there too. Not relevant now, though.
Sein's outstretched hand.
-Let's rip those dog bastards apart however we want. We don't need justice, right?
The roots he'd forgotten.
-We're the dark world's spawns, after all.
That's why.
A being who perfectly understood him.
A being he could truly follow.
Sein had utterly broken Sis.
He made him beat an unbeatable foe and thoroughly shattered everything of his.
"Well, that's not the only reason I spared the rest."
Sein said, picking his ear.
"You have to die."
Before he knew it.
The sword in Sein's hand, which had seemed to be idly picking his ear.
The moment it grazed Damos's throat.
"Aaahhhh!"
Damos awakened his blessing.