Chapter 302
The gates hadn’t opened yet, so no Light Pillars had appeared at the four sides where the troops had advanced to. It stayed quiet without any new quest notifications popping up. Nothing happened until dawn. Everyone had left, and Orca was the only one standing by my side. Orca was also as quiet as a monk as if it was contemplating or rummaging through its memory warehouse.
It broke the silence by using my language. It wasn’t surprising because even the sparrow near a school sings the primer[1]. I had wondered when it would start speaking in Korean, and apparently, it was now.
It stated, “Not coming. Maruka.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Then?”
“Baclan,” Orca responded tersely.
It was predictable. The Maruka Clan had regressed in exchange for sealing me. Therefore, the Baclan Corps were now taking over the task of annihilating us because they were historically the second strongest after the Maruka. At least I no longer had to deal with the problem of having the entire battlefield being turned into a swamp.
However, it continued, “Barba. Graf. Declan. Kciphos.”
He mentioned all the names of the monster corps. This was why the sky had been quiet. A big question came to my mind.
‘Aside from the enormous firepower, is that possible in this small region?’
The Seven Demon Kings were from different civilizations. They didn’t have similarities other than the fact that they all worshiped the same supreme god, Doom Kaos. Therefore, they stayed in their regions when they invaded the Awakened in the past, and there had never been an occasion where more than one corps attacked in the same area.
It was weird. Orca was still talking, “Lunea.”
Lunea?
“What is that?” I asked.
“Lunea worship. Doom Dejire.”
“...!”
This was the summary of what Orca said.
No.1 Doom Kaos
No.2 Doom Arukuda - Baclan Corps
No.3 Doom Entegasto - Barba Corps
No.4 Doom Insectum - Maruka Clan, Graf Clan
No.5 Doom Moun - Kciphos Corps
No.6 Doom Dejire - ?
No.7 Doom Caso - Declan Corps
I had only known that Doom Dejire existed, but there had never been any quests directly related to him. The monster group that followed it had never been at the forefront either, and there had been no dungeon where they lived. In other words, those who obeyed Doom Dejire were as secretive as the presence of the Seven Demon Kings.
I just found out their name, Lunea. The System classified monsters into either clan or corps based on the following logic: clans if the same mother (like a queen) gave birth to them, corps if not. That was the standard by which the System distinguished monsters. I didn’t know if the Lunea were a clan or a corps, but that wasn’t the important thing. What mattered the most was figuring out their characteristics!
! Baclan Corps - Primitive toughness.
! Barba Corps - Governing class: Power that manages death, Subjugated class: Plague.
! Maruka Clan - Explosive reproductivity, learns through repeated resurrections.
! Graf Clan - Poison.
! Kciphos Corps - Explosive reproductivity, organizational power.
! Declan Corps - Indomitable will.
I was able to summarize the other Seven Demon Kings in that way, but like I had mentioned earlier, the Lunea was a secret species. I wanted to ask Orca more about it, but that was all it knew. Yeon-Hee was coming back just in time.
***
“It’s a bit vague to say that it was a lie…” Yeon-Hee explained.
Since she had to move to her area where the gate had opened, she was holding her returning stone tightly. Orca avoided my gaze as soon as Yeon-Hee released it.
She continued, “Amon, the Grand Duke of the Maruka clan, will come to kill this child. Other than that, Orca also doesn’t know anything about the Lunea. Does it bother you a lot? The Lunea?”
Of course it did. I told Yeon-Hee why the Seven Demon Kings couldn’t be in one space. Then, Yeon-Hee came to the same conclusion as me. She said the reason why it became possible was because of the Lunea as they would play a role in suppressing conflicts between different civilizations of the Seven Demon Kings.
“Wouldn’t this species be specialized in mental powers then?” I asked.
Yeon-Hee pursed her lips. “Hmm…”
It was already hard enough for the regular Awakened to deal with the dead infected with the plague and the poisoned corpses that were walking around. If the monsters specialized in mind control came in at once…
Shit.
Doom Kaos was clearly very determined to exterminate us. It was the System’s decision that worried me at the moment. During the Final Stage in the past, none of the Awakened in leadership, including our guilds, had access to the final quest as the System had ended the Stage hurriedly. It sent all of us to the Stage of Rest. We had no choice but to be wary of the tranquil space without knowing the truth about the Stage of Advent. A comfortable shelter, plenty of food, and a wide range of easily accessible boxes were placed there.
However, that was when the malicious part of the System still existed. Those who had taken over the boxes were in leadership positions who had mental healers under them. Now I knew why the Stage of Rest was created: mankind’s defeat had been confirmed.
The System couldn’t leave us to die there. It knew that the battlefield would be moved to our home, Earth, so it made us, the defeated soldiers, rest before we fought again. That was it. I was afraid the System would make a snap judgment again.
“Guide.”
I cried out hastily. It didn’t come out once.
“Guide. Guide!”
[Hello. We would have met sooner or later, anyway. Let me introduce myself. My name is Lumah-le. Hehe! (๑╹ڡ╹๑) ]
It wasn’t earnest at all, and it felt like it was ridiculing us. The fate of mankind might not mean anything to these guys. Even while I was suppressing the flaring anger inside me, my heart was pounding so hard and telling me to snap off its tiny throat right away. Like the way I did to the First Evil and the First Virtue.
[I’m the only one who got promoted to the Final Stage. If you have any intention to challenge me, put that thought aside. You should protect me, not kill me. Oops! I wasn’t supposed to say that, but oh well. It’s all good. It was only a matter of time before you found out.]
The meaning of the message hadn’t been fully delivered to Yeon-Hee. She used to look at the Spirit like it was a fairy in a fairy tale, but she was now looking at it the way she stared at Orca. I shook my head at her, then asked the Spirit, “Is it a quest?”
[Yes, if the invasion begins.]
“Why should we protect you?”
[Hmm… Should I tell you or not? I’m debating. This is something you can’t figure out even with the trait Explorer. I’d like to think of this as the first step to building trust in each other. What do you think?]
“Good.”
[What do you think are the roles of the Guide? Hehe. The System has given us a lot of power, and great power has been concentrated on me, Lumah-le! Wow! Wow! I, Lumah-le, won the fierce competition between 450,000 Guides.]
It flew around my head as if it was showing off. Then, it stopped exactly between my eyebrows.
[You should treat me well because I will send you back home. And that’s why you have to protect me. Do you understand why we need to build trust in each other?]
I snarled, “I will end this war with my own hands. The System and you should stop being bossy. If you keep that, we can be good friends. I won’t hurt you either.”
Motherfucker.
[I can hear you swearing at me. Also, I respect your confidence that you can hurt me, but you should get rid of that thought. That will get in the way of our relationship.]
I narrowed my eyes. “Just answer me. I will fulfill what the System wants with my own hands.”
[You are going to figure it out soon. I don’t understand why you are rushing me. I’ll just put up the quest right now.]
“Wait.”
[Pardon me?]
“Do you know anything about the species Lunea?”
At that moment, the Spirit’s face hardened, a look I had never seen before.
[We were once called that way. Just as you are called ‘human beings.’]
“Were you all born from the same creature?” I asked.
[Where did you hear about all of this?]
It meant they had a mother. In other words, they were the Lunea Clan, not a corps. There was no doubt because the System kept them trotting. The Guides had left the clan earlier than the others.
***
I assumed that there were two ways that Doom Kaos and the other Dooms under him aimed to conquer one dimension. One was a destructive method that encroached on the life and soul of the dimension and the land. Another method was to train the army like the way the Seven Demon Kings trained their troops.
Currently, humans were on the verge of extinction as there were humans who had been changed because of the plague and poisons on the earth that the Seven Demon Kings had spread over the land. Furthermore, Doom Kaos and its subordinates didn’t even give us the opportunity to worship them. This basically meant that they had decided to destroy our dimension.
[٩(๑`^´๑)۶ I asked you. Where did you hear that?]
The Guide turned its head toward Orca as if it had found the answer itself. Its expression was similar to when it was filled with malice as a red light was glowing from its body.
Yeon-Hee reacted immediately. She came between Orca and the Spirit to prevent the Spirit from acting spitefully towards it, but everyone could still see Orca’s face as it was too big.
“The Guide said your fellows are coming here to kill us.”
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Orca’s head turned toward me only after I spoke to it.
I continued, “Heh. Our Great System is not even as good as Orca. Everything is coming. Barba, Baclan, Declan, Maruka, Graf, Kciphos, and the Lunea Clan.”
[...]
“However, I have prepared countermeasures. We will kill everything, including the Lunea Clan. Now it is their turn to play the same games we have been playing. Does that matter?”
[No, because I’m no longer a Lunean.]
“Then, make sure you tell the System to make the right quest. If I don’t like it, I might wreck the game board.”
[May I say one thing? I’m more concerned about Doom Dejire than the mother of the Lunea Clan.]
“Go ahead.”
[Be careful if you encounter the incarnation of Doom Dejire. It may send you, the Challenger, to the past where you are bound to die. Everyone has a moment like that. Hehe.]
1. An idiom that means exposure to a certain field for a long time helps even a layperson gain knowledge of it. ☜