Zich looked at the creature more carefully. He compared every aspect of its face—eyes, nose, lips, and even its eyebrows and jaws—with Lyla’s. They weren’t very alike, but he still got the feeling that they were similar.
“A princess and a goddess? I know Lyla is beautiful enough to be called those words, but isn’t your flattery too much? Or do you have another reason for addressing her that way?”
Zich stared at Lyla exaggeratedly again, and then he turned to Hans this time.
“You also called this guy a crown prince.” Zich turned his eyes forward again and pointed at himself with his thumb. “And you called me an emperor. Are you saying that Hans and Lyla are my kids or something? In fact, I don’t have any children or even a wife.”
—I don’t know the relationship between you three. I simply spoke with the knowledge I had.
“That makes me curious. What is this knowledge you are talking about?”
—I’m not sure. What do you think it is?”
The creature smiled. It was an irritating smile that didn’t show even a sprinkle of courtesy.
“Is your head lacking or did you not understand my question? Ah, actually, did you not understand my question because your head is lacking?” At Zich’s sarcastic remarks, the creature’s snide smile disappeared. “I thought you were quite the sarcastic fellow, seeing how you pretended to pay your respects to me as an emperor, but your face changed at the slightest provocation. I suppose you don’t know the joy of bantering.”
Everyone staring at the creature with their guard up looked at Zich’s face in unison. By joy of bantering, they knew Zich was talking about fooling his enemies and tormenting them. At this, Zich said, “It seems even my companions don’t understand this art. How pitiful.” Then, he shrugged, “That’s another matter—do you have any thoughts on sharing some of this knowledge with us? Ah, do you need some kind of command? Then, as the Emperor, I command you to spit out all the knowledge in your head this instance.”
The creature’s face was distorted.
“Is the Emperor’s command not good enough? Do you need the Crown Prince’s command too?” Zich grabbed Hans by the shoulders and pushed him forward. With a stunned expression on his face, Hans couldn’t resist Zich’s push and came forward.
“We also have a princess with us. Ah, actually, you called her a goddess. Then, does Lyla have the strongest voice among us?” Zich also placed his hand on Lyla’s shoulders, but she slapped his hand away. Zich shook his hand as if she hurt him.
“Tell us who you heed to. It’s not a hard task to issue a command to you, especially when you beg so earnestly for your enslavement.”
—…I was just playing around with you a bit, but you’ve forgotten your sense of worth and blabber!
Its voice was harsh now, and its lower body squirmed. It wasn’t a pleasant sight to see a grotesque lump of meat move.
“Haha, is that your true personality? Your disgusting personality matches your appearance.” Zich fixed his grip on Windur so that he was prepared to enter battle at any moment. However, he didn’t intend to attack immediately. Not only was he unaware of his opponent’s abilities, but he also needed to extract information by talking. There were many methods, but Zich decided to use a more direct method.
“However, the really weird thing is—why do I get a similar feeling from you as I do with Lyla?” Zich asked the question in his mind as it was. His question had an effect. He felt Lyla look at him in surprise, but he didn’t turn back and stared at the creature piercingly.
The creature’s face distorted even more harshly. It was responding especially aggressively to the statement that it gave off a similar feeling as Lyla.
‘It’s clear that guy is aiming for Lyla.’ At that moment, Zich saw something strange. The creature wasn’t wearing clothes and its upper body was exposed. The bare skin on display on its left arm twitched for a moment. It didn’t seem like it had moved it consciously, nor was it a muscle spasm. It almost seemed like that area of the arm had its own mind and moved according to its own will.
Blink!
It was an extremely slight change, but Zich could see it clearly. A tiny eye pierced through the skin and popped out. The surrounding fat blanketed it instantly, but Zich clearly saw an eyeball.
‘Is that perhaps…!” He had seen something similar before. ‘Those clumps of meat that we saw at the laboratory in the ruins!’ It was a monster that was literally made up of mixed and mashed humans; they stuck onto the floor, walls, and ceilings.
‘That clump of meat also loathed Lyla.’ Zich wondered if the creature in front of him was a similar kind of monster. ‘Is that the complete form of the clumps of meat?’ If that was the case, the situation would become more bothersome. He recalled the intense display of magic the clumps of meat had showcased.
‘It would be naïve to think that…wouldn’t have a similar magic ability.’
—I am…similar? To that woman?
The thing murmured. Although its pronunciation was off, he could still hear its voice clearly. Its eyes flashed open, and the snide smile it had at the beginning of their meeting disappeared without a trace. It wiggled its bottom widely. The blood vessels or what could also be nerves popped irregularly on its pink skin enlarged.
Rumble! The space shook. The water droplets hanging on the tree dropped one by one. The droplets on the surface of the earth gathered and wiggled like slime and transformed into human shape. They were the monsters that Zich and his companions had fought.
‘I see. That’s how they are made.’
The monsters dipped their feet into the lake. In an instant, the monster’s bodies disappeared into the lake like they were getting blown away. Simultaneously, monsters shot out from the nearest lakeshore to Zich and his companions.
‘It seems like they can pretty much teleport inside the water.’
Monsters began to overfill the lakeshore, each holding individual weapons.
—I thought of letting the rest of you go if you give me the woman, but I changed my mind. If you want to die that much, I will let you.
“I didn’t say that to anger you though.” Although it was unbelievable, Zich had really said the creature was similar to Lyla simply to see its reaction. However, there was no way Zich’s explanation would get through the creature anymore.
—Yeah. Now that I think about it, it’s strange. I was in a good mood, so I made some wrong judgments. Why should I leave Clowon’s remnants alone?
The creature no longer listened to Zich’s words; it merely murmured by itself as if it was insane.
—The Clowon Emperor’s sword! The Crown Prince’s Sword! And the backup system Core! I should destroy everything!
Crasssssh! The lake shook and strong waves appeared. The water rose like a tsunami and hit the land where Zich and his companions stood.
‘The location is not good.’
Anyone could see that their opponent’s specialty was water. Thus, in a location full of water, they would obviously be at a disadvantage. Zich thought about retreating for a bit and glanced back, but he saw the door shut close by itself.
—Do you think I’ll let you escape!
“What annoyingly keen senses!” Zich jumped forward and swung Windur at the monsters closest to them. The monsters that were struck by Windur lost shape.
However, there were a lot more monsters that came up from the lake’s surface than the number of monsters Zich defeated. The tree continued to form and drop water droplets from its branches.
‘Attrition warfare like this is unfavorable for us!’
He needed to directly kill that creature. “Lyla! Ice!”
Lyla understood Zich’s words and immediately raised her staff and began an incantation. White frost appeared on top of her staff. The creature’s attack officially began as the lake approached them. Zich fused mana into Windur and scattered his mana out from the front.
Crash! The water that looked as if it was about to completely sweep them shattered and bounced back. It was an enormous amount of force. However, even though they escaped being swept by the lake, the danger wasn’t over yet.
Swish! Swish!
From the puddle of water on the ground, a monster sprouted out. At the same time, an enormous whirlwind came out of the lake.
Crassssh!
The whirlwind bent its back and came sweeping over Zich and his companions.
“Snoc!”
At Zich’s order, Snoc raised the earth. Clumps of dirt blocked the top of their heads, and the whirlwind collided against the dirt wall.
Crash!
“Ugh!” Snoc let out a groan. It looked as if the thin dirt wall would break at any moment from the whirlwind’s intense force. Snoc quickly took out mithril from the magic box and stuffed it in the dirt wall. As tough and easily mana-fusible metals joined in, the dirt wall’s strength dramatically increased. However, their opponent also did not stay still.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Four more whirlwinds appeared. The dirt wall began shaking again. Water washed away the dirt, and mithrils used as support came out in full view. At that moment, Elena raised her staff.
Crackle! Fire erupted from outside the dirt wall. The fire lost strength from the powerful whirlwinds, but Elena continued to send out more mana and maintained the fire. The strong heat of the fire caused the water in the whirlwind to evaporate and the strength of the whirlwind decreased. Thanks to this, the dirt wall was able to endure the whirlwind’s attacks.
Lyla’s incantation ended. A huge amount of mana circulated inside her staff. She reached out with her staff, and for a moment, the world stopped. The countless number of monsters that were increasingly pressuring Zich and his companions, the whirlwinds that continuously tried to pierce Snoc’s dirt walls, and the waves pushing forward with great intensity were all frozen. The power was so great that even the dirt wall that protected them was frozen, and Elena’s magic was momentarily extinguished. Although Elena was a mage like Lyla, even Snoc and Hans, who had traveled with Lyla for a long time and thought they were used to her ability by now, froze in shock. They were shocked by the icy world that Lyla had created.
However, Zich was different. Zich had been waiting for this exact moment.
Tap! He jumped to the forefront. He avoided the monsters that had turned into ice statues and jumped over the waves soaring above the air and the lake with frozen currents. In an instant, Zich reached the island with the tree. He saw that some of the tree roots were frozen along with their enemy. Zich did not hesitate. He climbed on top of the tree root the creature was attached to, raised Windur up in the air, and brought it down.
Crash! An enormous explosion rang in the air. Bits of ice scattered all around their surroundings. The blue light reflected on the ice pieces of the tree, or more specifically, the water droplets on the tree branches, sparkled and looked extremely beautiful. However, even though Zich was in the midst of this beautiful, sparkling light, he couldn’t enjoy the sight at all.
A hand was blocking Windur; it was not a normal hand. The hand had eight fingers with sharp nails. Moreover, sharp nails also came out in places that nails would normally never come out from—the palms and back of the hand. The skin of the hand was rough and uneven as if clumps of dirt were haphazardly attached together, and this disgusting skin went past its hand and to its arm. The owner of the arm was the creature that Zich tried to attack.
The arm had come out by penetrating through its face.
Flash! Eyeballs suddenly sprouted out from the arm and they all glared at Zich.
“If you have eyeballs everywhere on your body, you must see all sorts of hellish sights.” As Zich mocked the creature, a mouth appeared on its arm. It spoke at the same time.
—At least I’ll be able to clearly see your death!
Crash! All the ice attached to the creature’s skin cracked and scattered away.