Black Beetle (1)

Monstrous creatures from the Demon Realm had burst out of the northern forest. It was a horrible rumor that spread through the entire territory in the blink of an eye.

Those monsters showed no mercy. They attacked and devoured every living thing they could reach. Their indiscriminate rampage was like a swarm of locusts descending on a field and stripping it bare, a catastrophe that had already gone beyond ordinary battle or war.

"Sir Knight! It’s dangerous! It’s already too late!"

"No. We have to save the people. From those awful ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠monsters!"

And in the midst of that chaos stood a young knight, brave and hot-blooded. A hero who ignored everyone around him and ran straight into the village under attack to save it.

It’s not too late yet.

His name was Ian. Born the son of a wealthy local magnate, formally recognized for his talent and trained in mana until he became a knight, he was righteous, earnest, and ambitious all at once. Convinced that he had to bear the responsibility that came with his strength, he clenched his teeth and charged the monsters harming the people.

"This way, everyone!"

He entered the village as its people fled in screaming panic, drew his sword, and swung while running against the tide. The tentacles that came surging in were cut down or knocked aside by his blade, and before long he was felling Ascalas’s minions one after another as they rushed him.

"Ghk... What the hell is this...?"

He was a talented knight, but it was still a difficult fight. As the Grand Lord grew stronger, so did Ascalas’s soldiers—ruthless monsters who knew nothing of hesitation and feared death itself. Worse, when their bodies were barely cut down, they sprayed blood that reacted with the air and vaporized into poison, inflicting appalling damage right up to their final moments.

He hurriedly covered his mouth and nose, then staggered as he coughed. The poison was strong enough to affect even a knight whose flesh had been reinforced with mana.

These bastards...!

But Ian soon ground his teeth in fury. All around him, people had collapsed on the ground, their bodies already reduced to miserable corpses as poison consumed them. Among them were many children.

"Aaaaaaah! Die, you monsters!!"

Enraged to the very end by the slaughter before his eyes and by enemies who would not stop without any trace of conscience, Ian forced one more surge of energy through his weary body and swung his sword again. Riding the torrent of that fierce emotion, the Ascalas minions he had been barely managing to bring down began to fall one after another like leaves, like bundles of straw, beneath his blade.

"Emotion alone will not change reality. And yet, there are a very small number of people who awaken a miraculous power that can reshape reality on the back of that emotion. We usually call such people heroes."

That was when Agares let out a soft snicker as he watched the scene, and a quest window appeared on the screen he was looking at. The qualities of a hero were beginning to bloom at the very brink of crisis. His task was to crush them.

"Will you accept the quest?"

Seated in a soft chair, watching the spectacle unfold, Agares asked him in a leisurely tone. After all, every choice was always in his hands. This hellscape unfolding right now was the result of his own decision, too.

"Ah. As expected."

And, as expected, he did not refuse the quest. In truth, it was the obvious choice.

Once a runaway train was already barreling forward, trying to stop it now would only leave behind a half-baked result that was neither here nor there. The true Lord of Greed would never want such a thing. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Besides, it was no great trouble for him when he could simply make the choice with a single tap.

"...What are you?"

A special enemy appeared before the burning Ian. It was slightly different from the other minions: the black beetle armor wrapped around its whole body, and the red glow shining from within its helm.

One of the soldiers in the Warrior rank had stepped forward to capture Ian, a minion with enough aptitude to gain experience and evolve.

I will win. No matter what.

No questions asked. No matter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠how strong the opponent was, no matter what purpose it served, it was still an enemy he had to fight. Ian dragged his exhausted body forward and kicked off the ground first.

For that one moment, everyone stopped resisting and fleeing and looked at Ian.

"Sir Knight!"

"Please, God...!"

They lamented and prayed for Ian, who was fighting the enemy on their behalf. And the hero who bore the hopes of everyone like that would make those hopes real.

Mana, wrung out to its absolute limit, ignited, and his sword flashed blue for an instant. A single thread of hope rising from the ashes of slaughter and chaos. The miracle people would later call a legend, or a heroic tale, was showing a fragment of itself here and now.

My body feels light. Could it be that I...

Ian cut down the tentacles of the Ascalas warrior who had lunged at him, slipped past the claws as well, and then raised his sword in an upward strike that split the enemy’s body in two.

The next moment, hearing the wild pounding in his chest, Ian widened his eyes in disbelief. He knew his own level well enough. The movement and attack power he had just shown were a realm far beyond his true self.

"I can do this."

With a faint smile, he replenished his confidence. He had confirmed with his own hands, and branded into himself once more, the faith that what mattered most was never to break in the end.

"So you’re the queen of these monsters."

And so he lifted his sword proudly and pointed it at her. A beautiful blonde woman with black butterfly wings, her red eyes gleaming as she landed before him. Karin, the priestess of Ascalas, gave a bitter smile under the gaze of the young hero glaring at her.

"Are we hateful to you, Sir Knight?"

"...You can talk?"

"Of course I can. To prey, predators are irreconcilable enemies. I, too, used to resent and hate predators when I was prey."

She spoke. Ian flinched, startled that a clear monster like her could actually talk, but Karin did not care and continued at her own pace.

"But to predators, predation is only the act of filling one’s stomach. Nothing more. If you refuse to be devoured that way, then fight as you are fighting now. Do you truly think we are evil?"

"What nonsense—"

"There is no absolute good or evil in this world... That is the absolute truth I have come to realize."

With a thin smile, Karin flapped the massive wings attached to her back once. In that instant, the tiny black dust she scattered was carried on the wind and spread everywhere. Before anyone could even evade, it rained down over the people.

"What is this... Gahhh!"

"Aaaah! My, my body!"

And almost at the same time, horrible, wretched screams rang out in every direction. Ian, shocked, realized the true nature of the dust that dissolved without even affecting his own body, strengthened by mana.

It was none other than Ascalas’s essence ground into microscopic powder. It penetrated the body through mucous membranes and wounds, one of the priestess’s abilities that could forcibly infect people even without the Grand Lord’s venomous fangs.

"S-stop this at once!"

"There is no such thing as good or evil. In this struggle for survival, there are only winners and losers. And I! I discarded everything and accepted this path in order to become a winner! This road to becoming one with Him!"

Karin narrowed her eyes at the charging Ian and stretched out a hand. The ground roiled, and black tentacles like tree roots burst out to attack him.

While Ian battled those tentacles, Karin moved one of them to bring over the body of a child who had collapsed, frothing at the mouth.

"...He is a merciful predator. Instead of devouring the weak like us, He gives us a chance. All we need is one thing: the right mindset. The mindset to discard hypocrisy and pretense, and remain true to our desires. Child, do you want to live?"

Karin looked down at the child cradled in her arms. In the child’s fading vision, all there was to see was Karin’s silhouette looming overhead. Naturally, the child nodded.

"If you show Him your sincerity, He will always show mercy."

Karin let the black fluid flowing from the tip of her tongue drip into the child’s mouth. By virtue of her priestess privileges, she could store the essence in her own body and spread it in the Grand Lord’s place.

"Stop spouting your twisted logic, monster...!"

"If you think of yourself as righteous, then even if you have talent, you cannot receive His grace."

Ian barely escaped the tentacles and shouted when he saw the child convulsing violently in Karin’s arms, becoming another minion before his eyes.

But Karin’s face hardened coldly as she looked at him, and she rose into the air.

By now, more than a dozen warriors had gathered around her, facing Ian and breathing hard with poison-laced, ragged breaths.

Up until now, Ian had been victorious again and again, but facing their pressure with the sun at their backs, he flinched. The people he had been trying to protect had already been infected, and several of the powerful enemies he had barely managed to defeat still remained.

Once the heat of his feverish exaltation faded, all that remained was that cold reality.

"The heroic tale is over."

At Karin’s declaration, many of the Ascalas warriors empowered by her strength lunged at Ian all at once.