#224
Kalkos Tribal Alliance (2)
The interior of the tent is filled with all sorts of bizarre decorations.
In a place filled with smoke emitted by an unidentified herb burning little by little.
Charurk— charurk!
The lightly tossed bone fragments rolled around on a circular metal tray.
The old woman, who had been staring blankly at the result, eventually sighed deeply and shook her head.
“Whew— I can’t see it anymore no matter what I do. I guess I’m getting old.”
Grand Shaman Morna let out a sigh, her face covered in tattoos distorting her eyes tightly shut.
To begin with, fortune telling itself was not a very accurate form of sorcery, but that was just a common saying.
For a great sorcerer like her, it wasn’t that difficult to simply tell fortunes.
‘That’s what I should have done. At some point, my future became cloudy and now I can’t see even an inch ahead of me.’
She slowly opened her closed eyes and looked outside through the gap in the tent.
What you see there are countless people moving in unison for only one purpose.
All he saw was a man possessed by something, diligently preparing for war.
‘Baltheon… what the hell are you doing?’
But she had been confined here since the summit ended and there was nothing she could do right away.
Perhaps she wouldn’t be alive today if her name hadn’t been needed to sway several tribes.
‘I don’t know how long that medicine will last. I’ve tried my best, but I wonder if he’ll be able to make it on time… Only heaven knows what happens next.’
A large, bulky warrior who avoided the eyes of the watchers and made contact based on his ‘intuition’.
He was an extraordinary person, so he would have started to respond in some way the moment he realized that the situation in the South was becoming dire.
‘however···.’
At one moment, I was lost in thought.
Morna’s expression hardened.
“···What is this energy?”
His eyes widened as if he had seen something he should not have seen.
“Huh, is it too late already…?”
She looked at the scenery outside—Beorsen—through a narrow, one-inch gap with a resigned expression, and let out a heavy sigh as she thought of her family who must be trapped in some other city.
I pray that the painter will please go away from them.
Gooooo—
In the center of the city, beyond where Baltheon’s residence is.
The endless ominous and terrifying aura she had already felt once was slowly spreading throughout the city.
***
-Howard: Huh, you’re really crazy? I knew it all along.
-Hesperon: …Wow, what are you really going to do later?
-Heinrich: Stop! How far are you willing to cross the line! No matter what, that’s…!
-Hannibal Strauss: Ahh—I’m tired of hearing that now. I’ll connect you again when necessary.
-Heinrich: Wait…!
Hans concentrated and built a wall within himself.
It was only a small fence compared to the barrier with the “Mind Hub” that the main body had built before losing consciousness.
Just doing that was enough to silence the many thoughts that had been noisily ringing in my head.
And after a while.
《The individual grows by achieving the conditions. The special skill “Evil Wisdom” absorbs “Clear Mirror Index” and “Wisdom Eye” and evolves into “Unholy Sage.”》
As if that was the trigger, the system text appeared before his eyes as he sat in the darkness.
[Wow, indeed. This bead is quite useful.]
He nodded his head in satisfaction, looking at the marbles placed on one side of his mind.
A gift left behind by the lord who suddenly visited.
This item, which gives a positive effect to all mental abilities when used, was a great help in preventing the constant connection with those annoying avatars just now.
‘It may also have been that the independence between each individual grew stronger over time.’
When the main body was intact and was the center of all objects.
Each avatar was no different than a body part, like a hand or foot, attached to a single body, with slightly unique quirks.
Even for a short while after their bodies fell asleep due to the shock of the abyss’s psychic erosion, they shared each other’s thoughts and acted as naturally as breathing.
Even aside from the fact that Hans wasn’t in good condition.
But a little more time had passed since then.
The avatars went through a process called ‘intra-brain meetings’ to communicate more smoothly.
It was still possible to accept each other’s situations and thoughts, but the process had become a little more cumbersome.
‘Of course. It would be more dangerous for each individual’s distinct self to be mixed up without a buffer zone called a ‘mind hub.’
Hans and Hannibal Strauss, who were particularly contaminated, had a strong tendency to stay apart from them.
At this point, he even used the power of the marbles to build a wall that he could open and close at will.
Of course, even if you control the connection arbitrarily, the effect won’t last long since they’re essentially the same being, but since there wasn’t much time left anyway, that wasn’t really a problem.
[Kekekeke— Ah, this makes my head feel really refreshed.]
Perhaps there was a part where the avatars influenced each other, knowingly or unknowingly.
Somehow, I felt like the emotions inside me were becoming more pure.
More pure and clean—the very essence of evil and poison.
[By the way.]
His gaze turned to a place where the pitch-black aura that filled the space was particularly dense.
“Keuuuu— kruruk—!”
[Kekekeke— This is unusual. I didn’t know that a human could accept the abyss to this extent. I had hoped so ever since I was mad. As expected, he’s not an ordinary human.]
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Plop— thud thud—!
The large body that had fallen to the floor continued to twist and turn, and at the same time, black energy began to stream out from it.
The phenomenon, which continued for a while, soon ended when the energy that had been flowing out was sucked back into the body.
Wiggle— wiggle—
“Ugh… This is terrible. It wasn’t like this even when he used madness. As expected of the Immortal King….”
He finally got up from his seat, drooling and mumbling softly.
The blood vessels all over his body swelled and turned dark blue, the white sclera of his eyes turned black, and his pupils shone with a blood-red glow.
A thick dark aura dripped from his body like paint, and he was polluting his surroundings just by standing there.
“Kuppupupp— This is ridiculous. Who would have thought that the wall that I couldn’t overcome no matter how hard I tried would be broken down like this?”
He was the chieftain who, after a very minor dispute with the Immortal King, eventually came to terms with his sincerity through persuasion accompanied by some force.
Baltheon, the main character of this coup, accepted the abyss and became a mine.
[Do you like the power?]
“Yeah, so what you want is···.”
[Baltheon.]
But before he could finish his excited words.
A low voice that seemed to echo from hell vibrated through the space, causing him to close his mouth and unconsciously look at the other person’s expression.
[That’s short.]
A short, authoritative and overwhelming statement.
Could it be the influence of the abyss that he had accepted?
Although he had undoubtedly reached the level he had longed for his entire life, for some reason he could not even freely stretch out his body in front of the Immortal King.
“···What you want··· is it as you said before?”
[of course.]
What Hannibal Strauss wanted was influence on the continent, and especially influence so great that it would guarantee him a rich karma.
[It’s war.]
Since the stage was already set, just putting my name on it would have resulted in a considerable amount of karma.
He had no intention of just being content with this great opportunity and letting it pass.
So what should we do then?
How can he maximize his intervention in an army that has already completed planning and final preparations and is about to set out for a prosperous land?
‘The answer is right in front of you.’
Commander-in-Chief Baltheon, who was consumed by the process of accepting power and became his servant.
In his case, wouldn’t it be enough to cover the entire prepared army, from the top to the lowest, with his colors?
[Kuhehehe—!]
Into the abyss.
By death.
Whatever happened in the process was very trivial to him.
***
Hans, using the bead of the spirit world, blocked the passageway connecting with the avatars.
Now, it is impossible to communicate, let alone check each other’s status in real time until Hans opens the door.
“Let’s hurry up a little.”
Under the leadership of Heinrich, who was anxious about this, the party of warriors who had received desert robes and survival supplies airlifted from the “Avatar Cloud” quickly crossed the desert.
Saint Riesta was carried by Heinrich, and Isiah was carried by Harley, and they focused only on increasing their speed.
“Harley, the backrest is wide so it’s easy to focus. It’s also soft.”
“Hahahaha! I’m going to do it again!”
Isiah, who had been maintaining the perception-obstructing and temperature-maintaining magic that covered the entire galloping party, exclaimed in admiration as she patted Harley’s vast back with one hand.
Not only was the area large, but underneath the robe was a furry horse hide, so it was literally like a moving bed.
Even while running like that, the group exchanged a few words of conversation.
In the conference room within the avatars’ brains, serious topics were being discussed again today.
-Heinrich: We can’t just leave Hans like this. We have to stop him somehow.
-Hugo: It definitely felt like things were getting worse. At first, we were sharing our opinions and understanding each other’s positions. But suddenly, the communication was cut off like this.
-Hubert: Is there a way? Well, if I somehow manage to land a single stab with a holy sword filled with divine power, it might be possible.
-Hesperon: Now that I think about it, Harley, before the connection was cut off, it seemed like Hans was going to turn all the humans there into undead or monsters. What about the new imprint? Of course, that old lady would be there too.
-Harley: Huh? Really!? Hey! You skeleton head! Did you kill the witch doctor grandma? What the heck! Aren’t you going to answer me? Don’t kill that grandma! I warned you!
Although they were moving forward while devising countermeasures both internally and externally, they were the true and real powerhouses representing the world.
Naturally, that feeling had to exceed the criminal’s awareness.
‘An ambush of this many people in the desert. Are they bandits? Or are they troops on deployment?’
Of course, they already knew that there were a significant number of people hiding along the route they were taking.
But going back would be a waste of time, and they wouldn’t be able to see through Isiah’s magic, so I decided to just quietly pass by…
It seems that the other side thought differently.
“Alert! Alert!”
“Stop! Show yourself!”
“If you do not comply immediately, you will be considered hostile forces! You will be shot immediately!”
Before we knew it, more than twenty people were blocking our path, thrusting spears and arrows at us.
Even though she couldn’t use all her power because she was moving and maintaining other magic, it was magic used by Issae, who was a so-called great magician.
Not only did they detect it in advance, but they were able to respond so quickly, so they couldn’t possibly be ordinary people.
‘Should I ignore them and pass by? Or should I subdue them and gather information? No, there are hundreds of them around here. If I consider subduing them and interrogating them, I don’t know how long it’ll take. I think it’d be better to just pass by…’
While still running, I carefully analyzed how to respond in a split second…
‘uh?’
Harley stopped dead in his tracks after seeing the faces of some of the soldiers.
And then Heinrich and the others stopped.
“Mr. Harley? Why all of a sudden…”
Although Isae, who was hanging on his back, showed a puzzled expression, she didn’t seem too worried either.
Of course, they are the strongest ones who can easily kill giants that are 30 meters tall, so how could they be scared by a few desert soldiers?
With Isiah’s help, Harley lifted the perception-impairing spell and stepped forward.
He was still wearing a robe to protect him from the desert sandstorm, so his appearance was not fully revealed—.
“Huh!”
“Hmm!”
The violent pressure emanating from his large size and overwhelming body was enough to make even the obviously elite soldiers unconsciously tense up and take a step back.
Of course, there were some who flinched and squinted their eyes to observe him closely…
“···That big guy looks very familiar.”
“This creepy feeling is the same. It’s much stronger. Surely···.”
“Harley? Not Harley?!”
By complete coincidence, we were reunited with a past relationship in the middle of the desert.
The trio of southern warriors who had a falling out with Harley while he was still establishing himself in the North, and later became friends and subordinates.
It was the big Luwang, the hairy Turaba, and the scarred Dao.
Harley threw off her robe and headed towards them.
“Hahaha! I see this all over the place, guys! What the hell are you doing here?”
“Harley, what are you doing here….”
“That’s right. I heard you were busy hanging out with the warriors… Huh? Wait, then it couldn’t be the person over there!”
“Eek! Misty! Misty! Come out for a moment! Harley! The warrior!”
An unidentified army that was accidentally encountered while heading to Beorsen.
They are an anti-Baltheon force that has gathered to punish Baltheon, who is oppressing the tribes with evil methods. They are led by a woman in her twenties named Misty…
“Hello. I knew someone was approaching, but I didn’t know it was you and your party. This too is fate, I suppose. My name is Misty.”
The daughter of the chieftain who ruled the South before Baltheon’s coup.
She was the granddaughter of the great sorcerer Morna, and at the same time her disciple—the great sorcerer.
