Chapter 131

From Veronica's high ramparts, a vast view spread out beneath the uplands, now draped in pitch-black shadow. Beings that had once been human but were now catastrophes, nearly as large as the ramparts themselves, were tearing up the plain as they charged. The activation of the Absolute Throne had stripped them of reason.

"They're coming! Everyone, get ready!"

"Aaaaargh!"

The scouts at the front were ripped apart, leaving red footprints across the plain. Grinding his teeth, Pildu Gong activated every turret in the fortress and shouted,

"You bastards. This is my land!"

The number of catastrophes smashing across the plain was a full fifty. At a glance, that had to be more than half the catastrophes in peace land gathered here.

"Ahjussi, save your Mana."

Lee Jihye drew her sword and shouted,

"Everyone, fall back behind Dogae Bridge!"

The small people who had been working on the moat hurried back inside the fortress. Watching the army of catastrophes surge closer, Jihye's fingertips trembled. From the front ranks to the rear, the army grew steadily larger. It was obvious the ones farther back had slaughtered more small people and raised their stats higher.

"Damn it... so this is how they're going to make the Scenario easy for themselves."

Just then, Lee Hyeongseong came up onto the ramparts with the Search Party.

"Soldier ahjussi! Did you hear anything about Sangah-unni or Huiwon-unni?"

Hyeongseong shook his head.

"It looks like they're taking part in the Scenario that's happening on Earth. Dokja-ssi said there would be a Scenario going on there too."

"Damn it. So we're really the only ones who have to stop this. How much of the moat is built?"

"About half. The waterway should open soon too."

"Let's do whatever we can."

When she looked back, Lee Boksun was coming out as well, loosening up. Jihye's eyes lit up.

"Granny, can you borrow your Patron constellation's power again?"

"Heh heh, is it right to keep relying on the virtue of your ancestors?"

"We're in a situation where we need to borrow even our ancestors' ancestors' virtue. What room do we have to spare?"

It was then that dark shadows swarmed overhead. Tiny insects blackened the sky. Jihye flinched.

"Uwah?"

A closer look showed flying species mixed in among them. Lee Gilyeong and Shin Yuseong's army of monsters had finished preparing for the defense. Riding a hornet-like Monarch-Level Insect, Gilyeong cupped his hands around his mouth.

Buuuuuu!

The catastrophes that had reached the ramparts at last began tearing down the fortress. Hyeongseong spoke in a tense voice.

"...They're here."

The siege had truly begun.

"Fire!"

On one side came Pildu Gong's bombardment, and on the other came the cries of the small people.

"Fight!"

"Protect Veronica!"

Explosions rang out all over the walls, and the ramparts slowly crumbled beneath the catastrophes' kicks. Humans now truly looked fit to be called catastrophes.

If she'd chosen catastrophe, would she have ended up like that too?

Remembering Kim Dokja's words, Jihye bit her lip. There was no way to know the answer. All they could do now was defend the castle with everything they had.

"They're aiming for the main gate! At this rate, we... aaaargh!"

A Search Party member caught by the leading catastrophe screamed. Just as the small person's bones were about to be crushed and burst, a shuriken flew in from somewhere and stabbed the back of the catastrophe's hand. The enraged catastrophe jerked its head up, and someone leaped from the watchtower.

[The Incarnation Michio Shoji has activated flying squirrel walk Lv.6!]

The other Allies hadn't spent the two weeks Kim Dokja was gone idling around either. Michio Shoji in particular had honed his skills again and again.

Spreading small auxiliary wings from beneath his arms, he dove straight toward the catastrophe. But the catastrophe reacted a little faster. A gigantic hammer came flying at Shoji as if it meant to swat away a bug.

Dududududu!

Pildu Gong's bullets hammered the catastrophe's shoulder. But the shelling wasn't enough to change an attack that had already been swung. Just as Michio Shoji bit down hard on his lip and tried to change course,

"Load!"

Water had risen through the moat. Over it, Jihye's Ghost Fleet appeared. The water was shallow and the moat wasn't large enough, so only four ships had been summoned, but even that was a major force right now.

"Fire!"

Shells from the Ghost Fleet slammed into the catastrophe's shin. The catastrophe groaned and staggered to one knee, and in that instant Michio Shoji moved.

"Uaaaaaaah!"

His Mana-laced sword stabbed into the eye of the off-balance catastrophe. A dreadful scream rang out, followed by more bombardment. Michio Shoji dug into the catastrophe's eye like a madman. Stabbing, cutting, tearing. He poured every last bit of Mana he had into attacking a single point, as if that alone was everything he could do.

A moment later, the view dropped with a tremendous crash. The catastrophe had fallen. Michio Shoji, who had gouged out its eye and escaped, staggered upright, panting. Cheers rose from the small people around him.

[Someone has defeated the catastrophe that has yet to be named!]

[Main contributors: Lee Jihye, Pildu Gong, Michio Shoji]

They had done it. The small people alone had brought down a catastrophe.

[A constellation whose modifier has not been revealed is showing interest in the Incarnation Michio Shoji.]

Shoji looked around. The catastrophes were strong, but the Allies were holding up surprisingly well. The fortress ramparts were breaking apart and casualties were mounting, but they weren't being pushed back. Pildu Gong had [Armed Fortress], and Lee Hyeongseong's [Great Mountain Crush] kept landing effective blows on the catastrophes. Swarming insects disrupted the catastrophes' vision, and packs of monsters savagely bit at their ankles.

At this rate, they really might be able to hold it.

That was what the Allies thought.

Until pitch-black storm clouds began rolling in over the horizon of the plain.

"...What is that now?"

Jihye doubted her own eyes.

[The King of Catastrophes has received a Scenario buff effect.]

[Some of the Plausibility restrictions on the constellation Sovereign of Eight Heads have been lifted.]

"What the hell, how are we supposed to stop that...?"

Something almost as large as the fortress itself was approaching. Eight blood-red heads and tails.

Ahjussi. Hurry up and get here!

Jihye cried out inwardly as she drew her long sword.

* * *

After leaving Kyrios's territory, we passed through the region of bizarre rocks and headed straight for the plain.

"It looks like the Sovereign of Eight Heads already left. I can't feel his summons anywhere around here anymore."

"Are you alright, Ren-ssi?"

"I chose the small people, so I can resist the authority of the throne. But the side that chose catastrophe... especially Incarnations with weak Patron constellations, it looks like they were all pulled toward the plain."

If the Absolute Throne had been used over there, it was safe to assume most of the catastrophes sent to the planet had gathered there. In other words, this battle would decide whether the Scenario succeeded or failed.

[Some constellations are anticipating your performance!]

Bodies of the small people were strewn all along the path. Asuka Ren spoke with a bitter expression.

"...I guess there isn't any point blaming them."

The ones who chose catastrophe in order to survive. Not everyone had taken the side of the small people like Asuka Ren or us. As more time passed and more participants were sent in, the number of catastrophes would only keep growing.

"Because this is a Scenario."

Whether they sided with the small people or the catastrophes, in the end, the battles here existed to become spectacle. Maybe people threw themselves harder into their roles in order to forget that fact.

They sold their lives to earn money, then used that money to buy other stories. Maybe that was how humanity had always lived.

Kugugugugugu!

A powerful force was surging up from the bizarre rock region we had left behind. Even though we had gotten pretty far away, its pressure could still be felt all the way here.

"Looks like Kyrios noticed. Let's hurry."

After asking him to teach us martial arts and then running away, we'd be in for hell if he caught us. We started running across the plain toward Veronica Castle. Even while running, Asuka Ren kept glancing back at the bizarre rock region. Han Suyeong looked at Ren and asked,

"Do you feel bad?"

"Huh? No."

"Still, it must feel strange, right? Seeing a character you made yourself in the flesh."

"..."

"And he was handsome too."

She didn't say it out loud, but Kyrios was handsome.

In TWSA, when it described a particularly handsome pretty-boy type, it often used the expression "enough to rival Yu Junghyeok," and Kyrios was exactly the kind of person that expression fit. He was a lot shorter, and his personality was kind of old-fashioned, but still...

What would it feel like to see a character you created breathing, speaking, and walking around? If the author of TWSA were alive somewhere, wouldn't they feel something similar on seeing Yu Junghyeok?

"I'm going to check ahead for a second."

Han Suyeong picked up speed and moved ahead. While Ren ran with her head lowered, she murmured,

"I couldn't say anything to Kyrios."

"..."

"I couldn't tell him I was sorry for making a world like this. I couldn't tell him I was sorry for making him go through tragedy."

Even if she had made this world, what would be the point of revealing it? What use was there in telling them that their lives had been decided by someone's fingertips, that all their tragedies had been predetermined?

"This story already exists completely apart from me."

Asuka Ren's face as she said that looked like the face of a powerless god. A god stripped of the throne, unable to have any effect at all on its creations.

"They aren't characters you created anymore. You can't take responsibility for characters who have gone on to live outside the story. That's someone else's part."

"...Kim-san, are you a writer too?"

"No. I'm a reader."

"I'm jealous."

"Huh?"

After a brief pause, Asuka Ren continued,

"I'm jealous of the writer who has a reader like you."

In the distance, Han Suyeong was waving at us. Judging from the shape of her mouth, she was shouting that there was something over there. We quickened our pace.

"Kim-san. Come to think of it, there's something I wanted to ask."

"Go ahead."

"How did you win Kyrios over?"

"Win him over?"

"It looked to me like Kyrios liked Dokja-ssi."

"...What?"

"When Kyrios likes someone, that's how he gets prickly with them."

[The constellation Demonic Judge of Fire is showing curiosity.]

Come to think of it, for someone who kept insulting me for having no talent, Kyrios treated me pretty well. He cursed me out every time, calling me "big guy" and all that, but still...

"Kim Dokja."

Han Suyeong stopped me with a stiff expression. Turning to follow her gaze, I saw land belching black smoke. It was in the direction of Veronica Castle. Without even needing to say anything, all of us started running that way.

Not long after, the ramparts of Veronica Castle came into view. The bodies of monster species lay stretched out everywhere. The corpses of the small people had burst apart and been trampled underfoot. I could see catastrophes too, the backs of their heads crushed in.

That was probably Lee Hyeongseong's handiwork. The deeper we went into the inner castle, the more the corpses of the small people increased, and the fewer catastrophe corpses there were.

Surely we weren't too late.

And then, a moment later, we saw a horrifying sight behind the shattered annex.

Dududududu!

Pildu Gong's gunfire. Fortunately, the Allies were still alive. Hyeongseong looked badly hurt, and Jihye and the kids were exhausted, but they didn't seem to be in immediate danger. But their situation was still precarious all the same. And what they were fighting was...

"What the hell."

Even Han Suyeong, brash as she was, seemed appalled and took a couple of steps back toward me.

"Ah... Izumi..."

Asuka Ren, standing beside me, clutched her temple as if in pain, let out a groan, and dropped to her knees.

Gooooooo.

Twenty catastrophes were clustered around a single existence.

Above the body of the man, whose pupils had turned black, the shadow of a giant monster rippled, covering the whole sky overhead.

[You have encountered a renowned catastrophe!]

[The King of Catastrophes has revealed its identity.]

+

* renowned catastrophes discovered so far (2/2)

- King of Catastrophes, Izumi Hiroki (Sovereign of Eight Heads).

- Catastrophe that Dreams of Usurping, Yamamoto Hajime (A Millennia-Old Hundred-legged Monster).

+

[The shadow of the constellation Sovereign of Eight Heads is manifesting in the Scenario!]

Heads and tails like blood-red ravines. The eight-headed King of Catastrophes had coiled its streamlined body.

One head looked down around it, then lowered its neck toward the nearby small people. The faces of the terrified small people turned white, and the serpent's mouth smiled at them.

Kwachijijik!

Where its muzzle brushed past as if in play, only the lower halves of the small people remained.

"S-save us! Please save us!"

The crushed flesh of the small people was sucked straight into the red serpent's mouth. But nobody could stop it. Even the Allies could do nothing but stand frozen like mannequins and watch.

Only then did I understand.

The reason the Allies were still safe wasn't because they had fought so hard.

The gunfire was still going, but what filled Pildu Gong's face wasn't killing intent. It was resignation.

Lee Hyeongseong, Lee Jihye, all the other Allies too. The reason they were still alive was that they were a single meal for a fabled-grade constellation. Every time one of the serpent's mouths opened as if choosing prey, four or five small people were reduced to chunks of flesh and vanished.

[The small constellation of a small planet writhes in pain.]

[The small constellation of a small planet screams.]

Han Suyeong muttered,

"What the hell... what is that thing?"

The father of Shuten-doji[1], one of Japan's three great evil spirits, and the monster of the flood-control myths. That monster was Yamata no Orochi, the Sovereign of Eight Heads. If I tried to oppose that thing, I'd be torn apart and die even if one of its fangs merely grazed me.

"W-we can't fight it. We absolutely can't win."

At Asuka Ren's murmur, even Han Suyeong, who had been staring blankly, grabbed hold of me.

"Kim Dokja. You're not seriously thinking of fighting something like that, are you? Let's run. Okay?"

I didn't answer. The giant head swept through another group of small people. It was an easier hunt than plucking fish out of a bowl.

"It's not too late yet. We can still save the kids. If we hurry and take them..."

Kwadudeuk!

"Hey! They're all about to die!"

I shook Han Suyeong off and said,

"Wait a little longer."

If I stepped in now, there was no way to subjugate that bastard.

...Just a little longer. Just a little more.

At last, the serpent's muzzle turned toward Lee Jihye.

Damn it.

I sprang up reflexively and ran that way. But the serpent's head was a little faster.

And then, in that very moment,

something pitch-black shot past me.

Kwaaaaang!

With a thunderous crash, one of the serpent's heads let out a scream of pain and slammed into the ground. As the cloud of dust cleared, I saw a man standing there with his foot planted on the serpent's head.

Those cold, aloof eyes that were uniquely his.

"...Kim Dokja."

Yeah. I had been wondering why he was taking so long. Grinning, I said,

"You're late, Yu Junghyeok."

Even though he had become one of the small people just like me, Yu Junghyeok radiated overwhelming force. In his hand was a long sword with a violet sheen.

So he got that sword after all.

Without a word, we glanced at each other, then turned toward the catastrophe at the same time.

[The constellation Sovereign of Eight Heads has revealed its killing intent toward you.]

Yamata no Orochi, its mealtime interrupted, began rapidly swelling its body.

"Move aside, Kim Dokja. I'll kill this one."

"No. That won't work this time."

Stepping in front of Yu Junghyeok, I said,

[You have activated the Exclusive Skill Bookmark.]

Feeling a powerful blue-white energy roiling in my heart, I slowly blinked.

"I have to kill it this time."

In this Scenario, I would break the principle of non-killing that I had kept until now.