12. A Scar That Cannot Be Erased
“……Hoo.”
I lowered the halberd.
I asked for a weapon—
and the system actually gave me a halberd capable of fighting the founding piece of garb—
no.
The founding Emperor.
I brought Moran back to Cletta.
Cletta tried following me together with her.
I dodged around until I lost them.
As long as I held the halberd, I didn’t need to personally know how to use it.
It automatically granted me flashy movements and destructive force.
Dealing with basement spirits wasn’t particularly difficult.
Still, I didn’t know when its durability would run out.
So I was conserving it whenever possible.
Also—
Holloway now seemed completely convinced there was something strange about me.
Even when I displayed movements like this, he said nothing.
No Danger Gauge rose either.
‘I actually tried leaving Holloway behind too.’
But he refused to let go of my hand.
What was I supposed to do?
When I entered the basement, Dilaf eventually escaped Sellir and followed us.
Seeing me handling the halberd skillfully, he asked,
“Hey. When did you learn to use a halberd?”
Do you seriously think I learned this?
Instead of answering, I asked irritably,
“Why are you following me?”
I barely met you after the beginning.
I don’t like becoming too friendly like this.
Honestly—
I didn’t want to see his past either.
It makes my chest unbearably heavy.
Then I start feeling sorry for demons and wanting to reach out to them.
That was separate from uncovering the island’s secret and freeing them.
“I heard you found Boss’s, Sellir’s, and Extenron’s belongings. Find mine too.”
“Did you leave it with me?”
I found those by accident.
No.
Thinking about it—
nothing here happened by accident.
I really was dancing on the system’s palm.
I’d probably find Dilaf’s item before meeting the founding bastard—
I mean Emperor.
Or immediately after killing him.
But Sellir’s story only opened automatically because I resembled Myers and she voluntarily explained everything.
Dilaf and Suriel’s favorability still wasn’t particularly high.
Both of them still mistakenly believed I was some insane comedian.
I’m a very serious person.
“Hey! Why do you have to put it like that?!”
Dilaf suddenly got angry.
Then placed a hand over his chest and lowered his voice.
“If I had entrusted it to you, you would’ve found it quickly.”
“You’re an idiot. Idiot. Idiot.”
I muttered it like a curse as I walked.
Losing the map had made me vicious.
I need to find the Emperor……
Crunch.
Scrape-scrape.
The spirits weren’t going to let me wander peacefully.
Ah.
I want to ask where the Emperor is.
But I couldn’t bring myself to ask Holloway.
Even hearing that name probably hurt him.
“By the way, Boss. Why don’t you go back to your true form? You can control your enchantment now.”
Dilaf already knew I had seen Holloway’s adult form.
So there was no reason to hide it anymore.
“Even without the enchantment, looking at you still has basically the same effect……”
Why does his face look like that?
I deeply agreed with Dilaf’s quiet muttering.
Seriously.
Why is he like that?
***
“Hey. Know something? Even vengeful spirits have ranks.”
“Strong spirits and less-strong spirits?”
“Half right. The people tortured here became the strongest.”
“What does that mean?”
“A food chain formed.”
When everything collapsed, numerous things remained underground:
corpses.
Humans turned into monsters.
Humans consumed by demons.
And those who had directly participated in experimentation under the black mage.
The transformed humans eventually settled upstairs in the hotel.
Underground remained—
corpses.
Humans turned into demons.
And the human perpetrators.
But victims forcibly trapped here mutated inside an underground space filled with darkness, intense hatred, and the metallic smell of blood.
They became vengeful spirits.
Hatred and resentment filled them.
Slaughter became their only driving force.
I already knew that from the past.
Dilaf rubbed his chin and continued.
“Maybe it was instinct, but instead of killing the perpetrators outright, the victims deliberately made them the same as themselves.”
“Unable to die forever?”
“Able to be killed forever.”
The perpetrators were turned into vengeful spirits by their own victims.
The victim spirits possessed overwhelming power.
And overwhelming hatred toward those responsible for making them this way.
For an enormous span of time—
they tortured and killed those perpetrators in every imaginable brutal way.
Terrified perpetrator spirits spent a thousand years running and hiding.
It never mattered.
They were always caught.
Killed.
Then revived.
Demonic energy and resentment accumulated underground.
The basement became trapped in repetition, almost as though time itself had stopped.
“Wait. Those spirits that were attacking me and suddenly ran away when another spirit appeared……”
“They were fleeing from the victim spirits. Didn’t matter. They’re probably already caught and getting tortured again.”
Several times—
a spirit attacking me had stopped the instant another appeared and fled.
Apparently this was the food chain Dilaf meant.
I did pity them slightly.
But until I found the Emperor—
I had no choice but to exploit that hierarchy to survive.
Whenever a victim spirit appeared, I fled without looking back.
Then the Emperor should work the same way, shouldn’t he?
Could I use the spirits to kill him?
No.
Wait.
Something doesn’t fit.
The spirits cannot die.
The Emperor became one too.
Yet the quest told me to kill him……
I think I understand why Holloway left him alone instead of killing him.
No matter how often Holloway killed him—
he returned.
And the basement was outside Holloway’s authority.
“If I kill a vengeful spirit here, does it come back?”
“No matter who kills them, they return.”
Holloway answered instead.
Dilaf quietly closed his mouth.
“Big sis. You forgot I’m here, didn’t you?”
“Of course not.”
“You did.”
Of course not.
Because our eye levels were different—
Dilaf was simply easier to see.
Apparently Holloway noticed.
He coldly told Dilaf,
“Leave.”
“No.”
Holloway was rejected.
“Hey, I gave you all this information. Find my item.”
“If you promise not to kill me.”
“I won’t kill you!”
[‘Demon of Wrath’ Dilaf’s Favorability increased!]
[‘Demon of Wrath’ Dilaf’s Feelings ( ´罒`*)✧: A good human who finds items.]
[Dilaf’s favorability toward you has not reached ‘Maybe it would be nice if Evelyn survived?’, so his story remains locked.]
“Are these items really that precious?”
His favorability rose instantly.
“They’re all precious to us.”
“But Holloway’s item……”
“It isn’t precious because it carries the imperial crest. My mother secretly engraved something on it solely for me.”
There was another secret hidden in it.
You people reveal heartbreaking things so casually.
“Then everyone’s item contains something like that?”
Dilaf nodded.
“Things connected to when we were human.”
No wonder they cared so much.
We continued deeper into the basement.
I tightened my grip on the halberd.
Somewhere down here—
the founding Emperor was waiting.
Comments (0)