Episode 264
* * *
The drowned man covered the deepest part of the world.
And from within the depths of the sea, the drowned man Barbarossa opened his mouth.
“Behold, the King of Conquerors.”
Every time he opened his mouth, foam flowed out, but his voice was still clear.
And Dale was no longer the greenhorn he had been when they first met. The darkness of the primeval past had enveloped him, and his world was covered in water where the pressure was so strong that his bones would break and he could not even breathe.
“It is at the bottom of this world that they will finally awaken from their slumber.”
The drowned man said. At the same time, Dale could feel it too. In the darkness where not a single ray of light could enter, there were faint, wriggling beings.
How could I forget?
Monsters, beings that once destroyed the old world of this planet.
They haven’t woken up yet. But when they wake up again and raise their bodies, this world will meet the same ending.
“They have been the rulers of this star from the beginning. And they simply take back what they need to take back.”
“… … .”
“You are the pests of this planet. You are ruthless invaders who trample and destroy the earth according to your will. Every time you build a foundation on this earth, the planet groans, and what’s more, you are madmen who kill each other and dye the earth with your blood. That is you.”
“I never thought I’d hear that from a mad pirate.”
Dale scoffed, finding it ridiculous.
“The time has come.”
At that very moment, the Drowned Man Barbarossa opened his mouth. At the same time, the creatures writhing in the darkness, screaming from the bottom of the world, began to scream.
A chill ran down his spine. At the same time, Dale reached for his sword, but the Drowned Man’s hand was faster than his.
The world I was standing on was turned upside down.
The place where the two people were was soon a fortress in the Sahae Archipelago.
“This is a just war. A holy war to reclaim what was taken from you disgusting invaders.”
Kwajik!
The Drowned Barbarossa shattered the obsidian box he was holding. At the same time, the box shattered and the heart beating inside burst out.
The drowned man raised his head as his heart spurted out and was crushed.
There was a being there that could no longer be called human.
The man known as the Drowned Barbarossa disappeared, and an alien entity was found overlaying his presence.
“… …Who are you?”
The man laughed.
“Ah, I remember you, Lord of Conquerors.”
At the same time, a creepy, low-pitched voice flowed out.
There was a man there, wet and rat-like. At the same time, wet tentacles were sprouting out from various parts of his body, one by one.
“And the hunters of our blood relatives.”
“… … !”
A humanoid monster. A ruler with high intelligence and power who controls a group of monsters. And I could feel it intuitively. Among them, that monster was very special and different, and had powers that matched it.
“The King of Monsters… … .”
“A monster?”
At Dale’s muttering, the king of monsters laughed.
“It looks like you guys are calling us that.”
Strange beasts of the utmost magnitude. That was their name.
“But the names we use to refer to ourselves and the names we use to refer to you are a little different.”
“… … What are your names?”
“We are human.”
“… … !”
At those words, Dale’s expression froze.
“And do you know what we call you?”
“well.”
“One day, a meteor crashed into this planet, and the entire planet was engulfed in a storm of destruction. The end of the world had come. And to escape the end, we fled to the deepest part of the world and fell into an indefinite sleep.”
The one who calls himself the king of monsters and also the king of humans spoke.
“In the meantime, the ‘intruders’ that were parasitizing the meteorites had taken root on this planet. As they had done so far, they had destroyed several stars and placed their own existence on top of them, sucking out all the life from the stars before eventually becoming a swarm of alien locusts that were living in the same behavior.”
“That’s what we humans are… …?”
“Human? Don’t make me laugh.”
For the first time, the being that took the form of a drowned man showed emotions.
“You guys are real monsters.”
A monstrous beast. Dale did not respond to the man’s words.
Suddenly, the wet, rat-like man was nowhere to be found. Countless tentacles sprouted from his body, taking the form of a shell, and the being Dale knew was finally revealed.
“In the entire universe, there will never be another parasite as disgusting as you.”
The king of monsters, and at the same time a being who calls himself a ‘real human’, spoke.
“I will fight to protect our human homeland from monsters.”
“I can’t leave it like that.”
“Yes, Lord of Conquerors. And the ultimate ‘Human Hunter.’”
“… … .”
Dale laughed at the ironic title.
What is true and what is false? In a world where truth becomes false and falsehood becomes truth, nothing can be known anymore.
“I am still human.”
Despite that, nothing changed.
I thought about my promise to Shuve. My determination to remain human until the very end.
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
“Even if there is no justice for us, nothing will change.”
Dale said.
“There is no good or evil in survival.”
“Do you really think so?”
The king of monsters and the king of men burst into laughter.
“Is it really not evil for the powerful to take away and trample on the lands of the weak? Can you really say that it is not evil when you see the suffering of your own people who are trampled and groan under your destruction? Do you really think that both those who take and those who are taken can escape from good and evil?”
“Even if it’s evil, nothing changes.”
“That is so, King of Conquerors. You are no different.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The empire of monsters that you defined as evil and destroyed. They were saying the same thing as you.”
“… … !”
“Justice belongs to those who have power, and those who have power can take everything away from those who don’t. How is your argument any different from theirs?”
The empire he believed to be evil and overthrew, and their cause.
Ironically, what Dale is arguing here now is not much different from theirs.
There was a king of conquerors who worshipped the justice of strength and was determined to fight for survival.
“… … Was that really the truth?”
The Lord of Truth and Shadow smiled bitterly.
Still, nothing changed.
The king of men, the king of monsters, and the king of conquerors took up his sword.
Behind him, the sound of Shuv’s madness echoed.
“Now you are finally revealing your true colors.”
In response, the king of monsters and the king of men spat out taunts.
* * *
“Monsters are really bad!”
In the middle of the story, a child couldn’t hold back and cried out. The pouring sunlight was very bright.
“Why do you want to trample on and take away our human homeland?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
At those words, Lize, the Blue Tower Lord and the Shadow Lord’s younger sister, smiled.
“And yet, my brother, the king of humans, willingly stood against those beings to protect us.”
History belongs to the victors. There, truth is something good. History and truth are always written to suit the victors’ tastes.
“You have chosen to fight to protect us against the evil conquerors who seek to destroy our planet and our homeland.”
Those there were the victors.
Moreover, on the land of the victors, there existed only one empire.
And the empire had no other name.
Because it is the only country on this continent, and therefore not an ordinary noun.
For convenience, the term ‘Fourth Empire’ is used simply to distinguish it from the empires that have fallen from the past.
* * *
All the justice he had believed in up until now had collapsed. From the beginning, the Shadow Lord was not the savior of the righteous.
The definition of power that the empire claims is that those who have power have everything and those who do not lose everything. Therefore, there is only one justice in this world.
The strong survive.
No world is different. The world of the past is like that, the world of the present is like that, and even the world of the future will be like that.
The Shadow Lord was simply the most powerful and powerful of them all.
That’s why he could claim to be righteous. Because he had the power. That was all. The reason the Shadow Lord could claim to be righteous was not because of any moral integrity or anything, but simply because he had the power.
I couldn’t even laugh.
Still, nothing changed.
“I will fight to protect what I must protect.”
Dale said.
“Even if it means taking everything away from you.”
At those words, the king of monsters burst into laughter.
At the same time, the ground in the area shook as if an earthquake was hitting.
In the midst of a storm that threatened to engulf the entire Sahae Archipelago, the fortress collapsed.
The outside world was finally revealed above the collapsed castle.
It was a scene that seemed like the end of the world had arrived.
An uncountable number of ‘real humans’ were slaughtering the humans of the archipelago.
To Dale, it didn’t look much different from the past, where monsters would eat people.
I don’t know anything about justice. I don’t care even if it’s evil.
The seven circles and the shadow circle accelerated and accelerated.
He faces the brutal truth before him, and it is so fierce that it feels like it will explode.
As always, it wasn’t a plausible realization. But once the final piece of truth was put together, Dale had no hesitation.
Kwajik!
My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst.
─ I am with you.
Just then, a disembodied hand stroked Dale’s nape.
“Noah… … .”
The goddess of love and mercy, who loved people, placed her hand on his arm.
─ I’m here too, brother!
Young Shub smiled beside Dale as if he couldn’t help it.
The two goddesses were literally there, blessing the conqueror’s lord, and the atmospheric mana and primordial darkness overlaid Dale’s heart and shadow.
The power of the two goddesses was finally instilled in Dale.
Light and darkness, gold and shadow, truth and lies. Now, these things were no longer important to Dale. He was the Shadow Lord, and at the same time, he was the ugliness of gold.
The Black Gold Monarch finally raised his head.
With eight circles accelerating from his heart, and eight shadow circles.
It wasn’t a fight to save the world.
──The fight to take over the world has begun.
