The Purge War (5)

"Who... who are you?"

She went deathly pale and stumbled back. Lena, who stood in her way, only watched her with a slightly crooked look.

She's just an ordinary woman. Just like... I was back then.

Lena had come personally to block her path for one reason only: her compatibility was one of those rare cases that exceeded 60 percent.

She didn’t like the way the woman stared at her in terror, but remembering how she herself had once been the same, Lena didn’t bother showing it.

"I came because I have business with you. I promise, it’s something very good for you. You’ll be able to evolve further, grow stronger."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"There’s something you want, isn’t there? Something you desperately wish for. Something you long for."

The woman’s eyes trembled in confusion, but Lena smiled as if she already knew. At that grin, the woman shuddered with fear for reasons she didn’t even understand.

"You were chosen. You can gain power. I guarantee it... you’ll be glad to become one with us."

"W-wait, when did— let go of me! Ngh!"

That was when the Great ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Lord’s tentacle, having crept up silently from behind, seized her.

Wrapped in an instant by the powerful limb, she screamed and thrashed, but this was not something the strength of a mere woman could resist. In the end, completely restrained, she had no choice but to face the monstrous spider’s visage ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with a face gone white as chalk.

"Aaaagh!"

"To be honest, I’d prefer it if you just went mad like the others. But for the sake of all of us, I do hope you keep your wits about you and gladly accept this blessing."

Lena forced the woman’s head down with one hand while gripping her hair, then shoved her face straight toward the Great Lord’s fangs.

No. I don’t want this...!

Her teeth chattered with sheer terror. But Lena’s hand, hard and merciless, kept moving until it forced her mouth open.

"Mmph!"

Then, the essence of Ascalas began pouring into her body.

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to endure it, but before long her lids flew open and her eyes rolled back completely.

Lena, still holding her mouth shut, burst out laughing at the sight. It was, after all, a reaction that was clearly different from the other minions.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

"So this is where they start to show up, once you reach a city."

I smiled bitterly as I looked at the screen. What was there was a new minion. But unlike the others, she was a little different.

A minion with the extremely rare trait of exceeding 60 percent compatibility. Of course, I wasn’t certain whether 60 percent was truly the exact threshold for preserving one’s ego, but at least the experiment had succeeded.

"Of course."

I pressed the accept button on the next message that appeared. The woman who had just become a minion this time was named Karin.

Of course, I didn’t know what kind of person she was. Even if I heard her story now, it would still be impossible to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠truly understand or grasp her completely. And the same was true for Lena.

But one thing was certain: Karin wanted something too.

Then we were comrades. Comrades fighting together for what we wanted. She would gain power, and I would gain "results."

"What exactly is this Synchronization Rate supposed to mean?"

I frowned at the tiny item that had quietly changed in the upper-right corner.

"You don’t really need to know right now. But I can assure you it’ll be useful to you in the future, so there’s no need to worry about it."

"...Are you serious?"

Agares dismissed it with a neat little line about not needing to concern myself with it yet. Considering the special nature of this game, it was nonsense.

"Rather than that, why not finish what you started? Your minions have already captured a careless frontier city, slaughtered both people and livestock to gather nourishment, and greatly expanded your territory. They’ve already lost the will to resist, so all that remains is cleanup."

"I know."

Agares had deliberately changed the subject. Unable to keep pressing the issue, I clicked my tongue and turned my attention back to the screen.

Karin, the second minion after Lena to retain her ego, wanted revenge. After being helplessly abused by her monstrous older brother and the thugs around him, she longed for vengeance, and at the same time she craved the strength to break free of her powerlessness.

That was the quest that had spawned from it. I had no reason to refuse. Lena, wearing a smiling expression above her head, and Karin, wearing one twisted in rage, soon began moving together toward somewhere.

"There’s enough nourishment to devour, and enough prisoners to turn into minions, but the Great Lord’s endurance has reached its limit. It seems this is the last of its activity."

That was when Agares informed me that the Great Lord’s activity had run out.

It took a considerable amount of strength to create minions. The hundred or so we’d made today alone had already pushed the Great Lord, which had grown this much, to its limit.

At the same time, choices appeared. It was time to pull back, but the choice asked by what means I wanted to withdraw.

"Option 2."

I chose number 2 without hesitation. The "loot" it referred to wasn’t gold or silver. It was people, livestock—living beings, plain and simple.

My soldiers gathered up as many of them as possible and forcibly dragged them into the forest where our nest lay.

"No matter how you look at it, we’re absolute monsters."

Watching the scene, I let out a hollow laugh. We had attacked a perfectly ordinary city and harmed its people. We devoured them and turned them into mindless monsters to serve us.

It was exactly the sort of thing a demon king from a fantasy story would do. The fact that I could change someone’s life into terror and death with nothing more than a few lines of choice text meant that, for someone else, this could be synonymous with horrific fear and slaughter.

"It’s only game data. To my eyes, you don’t look much different from the neutral monsters you butcher while climbing the ranked ladder."

Agares laughed at me then, and I shook my head, thoroughly exasperated. It was certainly possible that, as he said, all of this was nothing more than a pile of data.

But he didn’t seem to realize that the most suspicious existence in this game of Pandemonium was none other than Agares himself.

"Let’s sort through the loot. A large-scale war—the first you’ve experienced while progressing through the game—and the harvest that came from it. It’s by no means small."

The Great Lord and the minions had already returned to the nest, which now claimed the entire forest in the area as its territory. I could see the minions wrapping the "loot" in spider silk and sealing it away, and Agares advised me to check the spoils.

When the quest was completed, the harvest from moments ago was displayed. A staggering 450 people had been devoured or turned into allies.

And if they had dragged in that many more, then in effect nearly a thousand residents had been harmed.

What’s more, because of this battle, many of the minions would be able to break past the minion stage, just like Lena had before.

"Looks like only those above 50 percent compatibility evolved. So 50 percent really is the minimum condition, huh?"

"Your faction will grow even stronger."

I noticed their common trait. There were certainly survivors among those initially turned into minions, but the only ones who could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠advance to the next stage before the others were those slightly more compatible with Ascalas’s essence.

In a single instant, multiple minions became cocoons and began their growth into the next stage. Once even the Great Lord had been made to rest, there was nothing left to do.

"Are you proud of how much stronger your faction has become?"

But just before I turned off my phone, Agares, who had appeared in the lobby, spoke to me first in a meaningful tone.

"I’m not the one who kept prodding me about growing stronger and taking a city so easily."

"As I already told you, that is precisely why you will not be able to stop now. More than half of the humans who fled will spread fear of your existence far and wide, exaggerating everything they saw. Those rumors will twist, warp, and keep spreading from place to place."

"So what if it gets dangerous? I’ve already accepted that. No matter what we do, we’re monsters anyway."

I tried not to let it shake me. I was only understanding the situation I’d been given and making the best possible use of it.

Ignoring his words, I opened the shop window. I intended to pour the Mythic Essence I’d accumulated this time into it as well.

The more often I repeated it, the more meaningful the changes in my body became. Once you tasted it, it was hard to escape the intense pleasure of growth, and I had already fallen into it. I tossed aside the potion bottle and sat down in front of the computer once more.

My ranking continued to climb steadily toward the promised top ten. Because this was a team game, there were certainly matches I would lose no matter how well I played, but my improvement had already reached a point where it could turn games I would once have lost into victories.