The Way to Prove It (12)
"We started moving a little hastily, but there’s no need to go around broadcasting it."
The Brant Barony collapsed in an instant. In the first place, with the territory still reeling from the earlier ambush and having failed to recover all its losses, there was no way it could escape the fact that its key strongholds and strategic positions had all been occupied.
And yet, seeing his soldiers carry out their duties with such steady efficiency, he didn’t stop there. He issued another order.
Block every route in and out. Attack anyone trying to evacuate, and even those who entered without knowing what was happening, so they could buy at least a little more time.
"To conceal the entire Brant domain and use that brief window to deal with the Waut Barony’s problem. Not a bad strategy."
Agares judged his choice to be a good one. Of course, with no such thing as an objective answer, whether a choice was truly good or not was something no one in the world could know until the results came in.
What did you enter the game for? No, what are you fighting for?
But Hajin merely wore a stiff expression, half-hearing Agares’s praise.
Having completely conquered the Brant domain through Lark, he now turned his attention elsewhere. To the origin of the unknown “Curse of the Corpse” that had spread through part of the Waut Barony.
That grotesque sorcery, which turned healthy people into zombies and forced them into servitude, had undoubtedly been cast by a player like himself.
At the sight of someone who had abandoned morality and justice alike for nothing but his own desire, he could not smile no matter what he accomplished, no matter how much success he achieved.
Pandemonium, the Demon Hall.
He decided the name of the game, which he had hardly paid much attention to until now, was unnervingly accurate. The players rampaging without a care for sacrifice or suffering, all for results in the real world they lived in, were no different from the demons turning reality into a living hell.
"The moment we showed ourselves, those bastards who’d been lunging at anything and everything are suddenly holding back."
"My lord has already sent word as well. They’re not just crazed maniacs. They’re pawns being controlled by someone else!"
This was a ruined village. The moment he gave the order to cut off the Brant territory, Karin and Robinson—who had seized this place—stood watch, wary of the many zombies glaring in silence from far away.
The vast horde of zombies, made up largely of nearby villagers, did not move recklessly at all. Watching that, Robinson grinned and twitched the claws attached to his scorpion body as he pointed toward them.
Given the savage habit zombies had of attacking anything that moved, the very fact that they were clustered together and waiting like that already gave away the presence of someone controlling them from behind.
"Doesn’t matter either way, does it? All we want is nourishment. Even if they hadn’t become those monsters, they were going to die by our hands anyway."
"Use your head. What if there are some among those corpses who could still become allies—those with high compatibility?"
Karin immediately snapped at Robinson, who was the sort to reduce everything to the logic of force.
The Incubation skill had made mass-producing minions possible, but the only units they could currently mass-produce were Minions. In the end, if they wanted to mass-produce troops at the Warrior rank or higher—troops with the potential to evolve—they needed resources with compatibility above fifty percent.
Once they became zombies, those resources were lost completely, so from their perspective the more zombies there were, the greater the loss.
2. Attack the zombies
"As expected."
And the one leading them knew that as well. When the choice came down so quickly, Robinson smiled in satisfaction and lifted the bow in his hand.
At the same time, the many troops waiting at his side instantly shifted their momentum now that the order had come.
"Move! The answer’s obvious at a glance, isn’t it!? A bastard who can only control corpses like those thinks he can beat us? I don’t know what he saw that made him strike first, but he’ll pay for it—without question!"
With Robinson’s shout, the countless forces surged forward. The zombies, sensing the change, did not flee either. It became a large-scale battle across a broad plain of abandoned fields.
But almost immediately after the collision, the outcome had already begun to take shape.
"Just as I thought—these idiots clearly misjudged the board."
Robinson fired arrow after arrow, blasting down the zombies charging with their massive claws swinging at him, and then sneered as he aimed his tail, condensed with energy.
"The more they bunch together, the better it is for us."
Karin agreed with him. In the end, the zombies born of the curse could not win a mass battle against the Ascalas forces.
The zombies’ greatest weapons were their mind-numbing savagery, their mindless ferocity in combat, and their infection.
But those abilities had no effect whatsoever on Ascalas’s minions, who possessed neither reason nor self, and obeyed nothing but orders.
The infection itself was still nowhere near enough to pierce Ascalas’s essence, so its effect was minimal. In the first place, the teeth and claws of a human infected body could barely scratch the carapace, let alone break through it.
"Well now, to think a knight would fall to monsters like these?"
Of course, there were a few special targets they could use as weapons in their own right. Robinson let out a snort when he saw a zombie swinging a sword at him.
An attack laced with mana, armor still on the body, and so on. It had been a knight in life.
"Good thing there’s still mana left in it. I can swallow that vessel whole."
"Kyaaagh..."
The moment his mocking laugh ended, tentacles shot out from behind and pierced straight through the knight zombie’s body.
Karin appeared with her wings fluttering, and in an instant her tentacles stripped the knight of both nourishment and the vessel containing its mana, converting it into her own.
Then she fed that replenished mana back to Robinson, allowing him to keep fighting without ever tiring.
"Get out of my way."
The enemy, who had realized from her appearance alone that Karin was no ordinary combatant, tried to snipe her down—but Robinson snorted and swept his claws through the air, knocking every attacker charging at her aside.
We’re winning.
The tide had already turned. Karin, Robinson, and the one watching this scene all became certain of victory before long.
1. Keep advancing
There was no hesitation left in the choice now. Once his high Insight had already confirmed the enemy’s capabilities, there was no stopping.
"Why, why in the world!!"
By contrast, another man—who had skimped on Insight and failed to read the enemy’s information in time, then rashly declared war—was clutching his head in despair.
"How did this happen! So many Black Beetles in our territory—!"
"Why the hell are you asking me, you idiot!?"
Thrown by the result that had turned out nothing like he expected, the Baron of Waut snapped at the skeleton. But the skeleton, its red eyes blazing, jabbed a finger right back at the baron instead.
"You said we could win with just a bit of troop support, and yet you didn’t even realize those monsters were chewing up your land!?"
"Th-that’s..."
The baron flinched at the skeleton’s rebuke. In the end, he himself had also failed to properly gauge the enemy’s strength.
If only I’d known this would happen, I would’ve invested more in Infection!
The skeleton ground its teeth, regretting its choice. In the end, all of this had been the result of its own decision. It had to take responsibility for the outcome, too.
"Then what do we do now? They’ve already devoured the entire southwestern part of the territory."
"We need more soldiers! We need stronger power!"
At the baron’s urging, the skeleton forced down its anger and growled. But at the words more soldiers, the baron’s face paled and he recoiled.
"I heard you had the knights and soldiers you drafted in haste stationed there. Turn them into death soldiers. That way, they’ll be reborn as stronger troops."
"But they’re loyal to me...!"
"You think they won’t run and collapse the moment they clash with those black bugs!?"
When the baron hesitated, the skeleton slammed its staff into the ground in rage and shouted. The burst of mana that erupted made the baron gasp and clamp his mouth shut in shock.
Only then did he fully realize what kind of being he had joined hands with.
"Treat this like your last chance—with your life on the line—and use every means available."
"Y-yes, understood."
In the end, the Baron of Waut backed down. He was the one in a desperate situation, after all, and the more desperate he became, the more the skeleton was all he could rely on.
I absolutely can’t lose here. It’s right in front of me now. My longing...
The skeleton burned with light in its eyes as it glared after the baron, who hurried off in panic.
In its eyes, the Baron of Waut and everyone else were nothing more than tools. Tools to be used whenever things went south.
The game gives him everything he wants. It lets him achieve things with his own hands. Once he had already tasted that, it became impossible to escape.
Synchronization Rate: 100%
The skeleton had already become, quite literally, the incarnation of burning desire itself—the black sorcerer incarnate.