Chapter 48 - Subjugation (3)
They say the ugliest emotion in the world is jealousy.
So would surely agree with that statent, but the ‘Yellow Wolf’ Yelena would certainly not.
To her, jealousy was a driving force.
The fundantal question she always had when looking at the Blue Wolf, who had sat in the sa position from the first day, stemd from there.
They were the sa in that they were Divine Beasts born from people's wishes, but people always liked the Blue Wolf a little more than her.
She was, how should I put it.
Called ‘selfish’.
And amidst that subtle discrimination, violent thoughts slowly began to coil.
-Why is that one treated the sa as ?
-Why do humans who like that one more than ‘exist’?
-I am a far superior being than that one, aren't I?
-Everything in the world should bow its head to , shouldn't it?
So she exercised her ‘right’.
She hit the Blue Wolf, bit it, made it bleed.
She sincerely spewed her animosity, telling it that a thing like it was by no ans of the sa kind as her.
She herself knew rationally that it didn't make sense, but she couldn't vent her anger unless she did so.
And then, a reply ca back from the other party.
‘I'm sorry.’
A reply that was enough to snap her sanity.
If it had gotten angry instead.
If it had fought back instead.
She wouldn't have been that angry.
But the other party was just lofty, to the end, giving off the feeling that it was standing above her and looking down on her.
The Blue Wolf.
By gently accepting even her unreasonable behavior, it had reaffird that it was a definitively ‘higher’ being than her.
Because it was a response she could never have managed herself.
So she took everything.
The people of the village who prayed to that one. The temple that was a place of faith for that one. And using that as a pretext, all the powers that one possessed.
Thoroughly, without leaving a single thing.
If a superior being was monopolizing the attention and love that should be poured onto her.
Then she just had to erase that one.
And make everything hers.
If she devoured that one!
She could reign here as a god-like being!
“Isn't that a bit pathetic?”
An unexpected voice reached Yelena, who was crouching in the center of the plaza.
It was the voice of the man she had encountered before.
The man who had a strong lingering scent of blue.
Was his na Kim Gyu-sik?
‘...He already arrived here?’
Inside the magic circle she had drawn, she ca to that realization and her body flinched.
There were so many of her sealed guardians nearby, so how could this man be here now?
But before she could think more deeply about that question, a sneering voice quickly ca back from the other party.
“So. To summarize your actions, you're going to kill everyone out of jealousy. Are you even a Divine Beast?”
“...What do you, a good-for-nothing piece of trash, know...!”
Her human form slowly crumbling, Yelena opened her mouth, her voice cracking.
From the mont he dared to bring blue before her, there was no need to maintain this form anyway.
This form was taken to gain the favor of the humans entering this place in the first place, but it had been proven that they were useless.
The most important task of seizing the Spirit Beast, the search for the Blue Wolf who would beco the Sacrifice, they hadn't done a single thing properly.
The man in front of her eyes had done all of that by himself, those pathetic worms!
“Trash or not, it's common sense that everyone knows, isn't it.”
The man said so and walked steadily towards her.
“The one who does bad things to others is the perpetrator. The one who suffers is the victim. But where are you acting like you're the victim?”
The voice, still full of cynicism, was grating on her nerves, but Yelena decided to ignore it for a mont.
Because she felt a familiar energy behind the man walking steadily towards her.
‘That foolish one...’
For so reason, this man had brought the ‘Sacrifice’ right before her nose.
At this, Yelena imdiately pounced on the Blue Wolf.
-!!
She leaped, explosively raising her condensed energy.
Her only target was the Sacrifice standing idly behind that man.
“...”
And even after seeing Yelena leaping fiercely towards it, the Sacrifice showed no particular reaction.
It just glanced towards the man nad Kim Gyu-sik.
As if it trusted him.
‘A cheap trick...!’
It was clear that sothing was being plotted, but once she devoured this one, the rest was not worth seeing.
A Divine Beast that has devoured another Divine Beast becos overwhelmingly powerful in itself.
Whatever trick was being used, she could just crush it with force!
And as soon as the yellow mana she emitted swallowed the Blue Wolf, Kim Gyu-sik also reacted accordingly.
However, it was not any of the movents she had anticipated.
Kim Gyu-sik simply touched the watch on his wrist.
As if what he had predicted had happened exactly at the predicted ti.
“Right. Sibling murder. A very, very bad thing.”
Then, a relaxed voice flowed out.
“I told you I'd finish it in 3 hours, didn't I?”
Kim Gyu-sik threw off the veil of the object on his back.
And.
Just like that. Without any warning.
-The Ebon Scale executes the sentence.
Judgnt.
Descended from the sky.
***
[Are you okay? You're out of breath.]
As she said, I did seem to need to control my breathing.
Seo Hye-in took a sharp breath and sheathed her sword.
It wasn't that she was physically out of reserves, but rather her breathing was more focused on suppressing her anger.
[...You really are a monster, aren't you? You crushed that many and your stamina is fine?]
When I honestly explained that fact, such a voice ca from over the communicator.
It was the voice of the Magic Tower's mage, Lee Si-yeong.
It was only natural for her to be dumbfounded. There was practically a mountain of human bodies piled up near her.
“Well, they suddenly changed into so strange monster-like forms, so I had to use so strength.”
[No, that thing about changing into monsters. That's not a power-up that can be solved just by using so strength...]
“Let's forget about such trivial things. Why did you co back here?”
Unlike her, who had been clashing with Climbers since coming up to this floor, hadn't this mage been wandering around on her own, saying she had 'sothing to investigate'?
She couldn't think of any particular reason for her to suddenly co back and call her.
[That white light from before, you saw it too, right?]
A white light.
Co to think of it, sothing did flash by earlier. It had no effect on her, so she had just ignored it.
But the monsters' movents had beco particularly sluggish after that.
[...You're a cleaner too, but you're not affected? Are you a Dark Knight or sothing?]
“Please stop with the confusing words. I'd like a proper explanation.”
[To put it simply, that thing just now was a ‘purification’. It deals damage in proportion to the evil deeds the target has committed.]
“...?”
Hearing sothing that sounded like it ca from the doctrine of so religion, Seo Hye-in tilted her head with a puzzled look.
Although Climbers wielded supernatural powers that were unbelievable from an ordinary person's perspective, most of them were a collection of skills ultimately bound by the law of mana.
The abstract concept of punishing evil deeds was not a capability included in any skill system.
[That's why I ca running when I saw it. Because it was so absurd.]
Lee Si-yeong continued.
“What?”
[Skipping the complicated theological interpretations and explanations of mana structure, to put it simply. It's not a power that can be wielded at a human level.]
This was one of those phenona that should be called a ‘miracle’.
With those words, Lee Si-yeong's transmission ended.
“What...?”
Seo Hye-in looked towards the inside of the city, which was emitting an ominous aura, with a confused expression.
Even hearing about miracles and such, nothing felt real.
However, she rembered that Kim Gyu-sik and her younger sister had run into that place.
If such strange things were happening inside, it was only natural for worry to arise first.
-!!!
And at the sa ti as that thought, mana soared from inside the walls with a monstrous montum.
It was a form of deep yellow mixed faintly with blue mana, but the colors soon mixed and turned into a darkish gray.
“What's that...?”
[...Hey, wait a minute. Don't tell the Sacrifice was eaten? Are you kidding ?!]
A shocked voice ca from over the communicator.
“A Sacrifice?”
[The guy we found when we first ca to this floor! Did you not see him?!]
Co to think of it, that boy seed to have been next to Kim Gyu-sik earlier.
She was so preoccupied with fighting the Climbers around her that she hadn't paid proper attention to that side.
[What was that crazy guy thinking, letting the Sacrifice get close to that thing?!]
“Is that a big deal?”
[Of course, it's a big deal! Evacuate everyone on this floor imdiately! Or they'll all die!]
“No, you have to explain the situation properly...!”
[We're no match for even one Divine Beast, even if all of us rushed in, so imagine its combat power being squared! That's just asking to die together!]
Along with that scream, the sound of soone running in a hurry could be heard from over the communicator.
“Then what about you, Mage?”
[I'll delay it sohow, so use that ti to evacuate as many as you can! There's no ti to talk now, so I'm cutting off communication...!]
And before that sentence could end.
Once again, a massive energy writhed.
-The Ebon Scale executes the sentence.
And then.
Judgnt truly fell.
A giant pillar of light descending from the sky directly struck the place where mana was rising in the center of the village.
-!
-!!
-!!!
And.
Silence imdiately followed.
“...”
[...]
Both sides of the conversation were quiet, but the texture of the silence was a little different.
Unlike Seo Hye-in, who was quiet because she couldn't grasp the situation at all, Lee Si-yeong must have been completely stunned by the shock.
“Um, Mage. That was?”
[...]
Even when she asked, only silence returned, so Seo Hye-in had to be enveloped in an awkward silence by herself again.
[Ugh.]
So, when such a aningless sound ca from the other side of the communication, she felt a certain degree of joy without realizing it.
Of course, she had to ask what it ant.
“What?”
[Ugh. Ugh, ugh...]
“...Mage?”
[Don't make laugh-!! Stop with the bullshit, seriously-!!!]
“...”
Seo Hye-in shut her mouth at the ferocious shout that followed.
[T-that, just now, in, in one blow, d-don't make laugh! Seriously don't make laugh! That guy, Kim Gyu-sik, what the hell is he?!]
Well.
‘I'm curious about that too...’
What was certain.
Was that it was a question Seo Hye-in herself could share.
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