Chapter 309: Layer (2)

It took ten days for me to be finally discharged, though ten days weren’t really enough for a complete recovery.

“Mr. Gong-Ja, there’s no such thing as a complete recovery in this world,” the Chemist said as she checked my bandages. “You may seem like you’re all better, but your body has lost something... forever.”

“But I feel completely fine now.”

The Chemist sighed. “That’s exactly what I mean. For example, you use your aura to improve your muscles and blood circulation. Thanks to that, your muscles work at incredible efficiency, so it seems like there are only benefits, but it also means you’ll become incredibly weak when you can’t use your aura.”

I shrugged. “Well, does it really matter? I’m very skilled with aura anyway.”

“If this were the outside world, you would have died instantly, Mr. Gong-Ja. There is no aura or mana out there.”

I kept my mouth shut. The Chemist wrapped the bandage around me without changing her expression.

“Yes, we can’t return to the outside world anyway, but even if we could, we wouldn’t survive. Do you get it? Your body hasn’t only gained good things. It’s adapted to a specific environment and can only survive there. Okay. I’m done.” The Chemist wrapped the bandage tightly. “Fighting isn’t romantic, and wounds aren’t medals. At least, that’s how people like me see it. Please try to resolve conflicts with words rather than your fists, if possible.”

“I can’t promise I won’t get hurt again, but I’ll try to keep your advice in mind.”

As soon as I was discharged from the hospital, I stood before the five spires of the Magic Tower headquarters to solve matters with words.

***

—Mic test. Mic test.

Following the Chemist’s advice to refrain from using my aura, I didn’t use Aura Transmission. Instead, I held a voice amplifier, a magic item, to my lips. The sound wasn’t as clear as Aura Transmission, but it was still decent.

—

Ah

, everyone at the Magic Tower, can you hear me?

I got no response. There were no windows in the spires. Their surfaces were as black as gleaming obsidian. Even though I couldn’t see the Spiders, I knew they had all pricked up their ears. Of course, my allies, the Anti-Magic-Tower Alliance, were also listening intently to my every word. I was calm, surrounded by thousands of Spiders and followers.

—You have no chance of winning now. I defeated and captured the Gray Spider. Even the attack units, the ones you’ve been clinging to as your last hope, were unable to attack my world and were instead captured as prisoners. To put it bluntly, your chances of victory are zero.

I turned my head and nodded. Uburka, who stood behind me, nodded back.

“

Ugor.

”

He brought out the blanket wraps he had prepared in advance and neatly stacked them in front of the Magic Tower. Inside the blanket wraps were the Magic Tower Spiders that had invaded my world and been captured.

“Damn it!”

“Let me go! Let me go, you bastards! Let me go!”

“Don’t shout. You’re just embarrassing us even more...”

The Spiders peeked their heads out from under the blankets and wriggled around. From a distance, they probably looked like centipedes. I sat comfortably on top of the prisoners.

“

Gyaaaaah!

”

“You’re heavy!”

I ignored them. “As you can see, all your proud attack unit commanders have been captured. Although we hadn’t brought them here, hundreds of ordinary Spiders have been captured as well. In other words, your hopes have been completely crushed.”

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Just then, a voice came from one of the five spires.

“We surrendeeeeeeeer! We, the fifth headquarters of the Magic Tower, have long admired Lord Death King! Even before this, we had been discussing surrender internally, and now we finally have the courage to speak up. We apologize! Please show mercy! If you command us to bow, we will run from the spires with our heads instead of our legs. If you want to treat us like dogs, be our guest! No, we are already dogs! Woof! Woooof! Long live the Death King!”

Wow.

—There’s no need to do that far...

Another angry voice immediately rang out from the other spire.

“Hey, you fifth headquarters bastards! You can’t do that if you have any shame left in you!”

“What? Didn’t you hear us? We’re dogs, and dogs have no shame. Of course we can do this!”

“You bastards! Have you forgotten everything the elder has done for you? You’re also the chief spokesperson!”

“But the elder has been captured. Further resistance is meaningless. Speaking of which, wasn’t the spokesperson position supposed to rotate every week among the second to Fifth headquarters? Yet you guys have been furtively making me take care of the work for the past five hundred years. Do you know how it feels to take care of someone else’s bullshit for five hundred years, you fuckers?”

“W-why are you bringing that up now?”

“Then when should I do it? When you’re all dead and rotting in your graves? Take care, you scumbags. It was shitty to meet you, and it was a pain in the ass to live with you. I’m outta here!”

This is certainly... something. I feel embarrassed just listening to it.

Another voice began to echo from the opposite spire.

“But if the fifth headquarters is also out, don’t we have no chance to win? Let’s surrender.”

“What’s wrong with you guys?”

“We’ve been in charge of maintaining contact with the attack units until the end, so we heard a lot. They say those guys’ world doesn’t mess around. There are more than two Hunters at the level of the Constellation Murderer. We even received eyewitness accounts of seeing the Constellation Murderer himself...”

“Those are boldfaced lies! Do you actually believe that?!”

“My intuition never fails me... When the Sword Emperor tore down the sixth spire, my guts also told me that, if we keep holding out here, we won’t remain in one piece.”

“What kind of instincts are those? I’m going crazy!”

“Huh? What? Are the fifth and third headquarters considering surrendering? Then there’s no reason to wait around anymore. Hello! This is the second headquarters! We’ll surrender too! If we raise the white flag now, will you spare our lives?”

“Ah, Lord Death King! Don’t forget which headquarters surrendered first! It was the fifth headquarters! When you spread your hand and see all your fingers, you’ll think of the number five. If you remember the fifth headquarters, we will be eternally grateful!”

Okay, I finally knew what I had to do now.

—Please wait a moment.

I ran off into the building that had been used as a temporary medical facility for the past ten days and pushed open the wooden door. Inside, the Gray Spider was crouched in the corner of the room, holding her head. She looked up when she saw me enter. Compared to this morning, she looked much more haggard.

She frowned. “What? Why are you here now?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.” I took out my smartphone with a high-resolution camera and took a picture of her. “I just thought it would be nice to capture this moment, so I could keep it as a precious memory and tease you later.”

“So you came all the way back here just to see me looking pathetic and desperate? Of all the times to visit me, you had to come right now? While you’re negotiating a surrender deal with my people? Just to make fun of me?”

“

Um...

” I blinked. “I guess you could say that.”

“You crazy moth—”

I closed the door and returned to the negotiation site. As I left the building, I heard the Gray Spider scream behind me, but I didn’t have time to listen to her. I was in the middle of an intense negotiation, after all, and couldn’t afford getting sidetracked.

—Mic test. Mic test. Yes, I understand. Of course, we’ll gladly accept your surrender. We will, of course, guarantee your lives. If you wish, we can provide you with a separate living area. However, you have to give up the exclusive privileges you have enjoyed on the fiftieth floor, and you also have to liberate the other worlds you have colonized.”

The response came immediately.

“Your Majesty! These are very reasonable terms! At last, the old era has come to an end, and a new era has dawned! Praise the Death King! Long live the Death King! We’re the Fifth Headquarters!”

“Shut the hell up!”

“That’s not up to us, but the elder. Still, we’ll cooperate...”

“Yeah. As long as we live, that’s fine.”

Various voices chimed in. Slowly, we reached a conclusion. After half a day, they surrendered. The spires’ gates, tightly closed like the teeth of a white shark, opened up one by one. Even as the gates opened, the alliance members remained on guard and watched with tension.

“Fifth Headquarters of the Magic Tower. 481 witches of the Fear Net Nest all surrender to His Majesty the Death King!”

“Third Headquarters of the Magic Tower. 1,333 witches of the Tragic Net Nest all surrender...”

“Second Headquarters of the Magic Tower. 736 witches of the Anger Net Nest all surrender peacefully, so please spare our lives!”

Fortunately, no incidents occurred. The Spiders lined up in front of me and the followers. The ordinary witches took their robes off, and the commanders in conical hats took them off and respectfully placed them in front of where they were going to kneel. Regardless of their rank, they laid their thousands of staff on the ground. Some Spiders surrendered without saying a word, keeping their mouths tightly shut.

The Magic Tower’s reign of a millennium finally came to an end.

The alliance followers behind me watched it in silence. Occasionally, some bared their teeth in anger toward the Spiders, while others tried to harm the prisoners who had surrendered. How could they not?

However, the voices stopped the followers.

[The Incarnation of Love and Lust has entrusted the matter of the prisoners to the Death King.]

[The Eternal Plains Warhorse has entrusted the matter of the prisoners to the Death King.]

[The Tear-Bringing Bell of the Dead has entrusted the matter of the prisoners to the Death King.]

[The Labyrinth-Dwelling Eye has entrusted the matter of the prisoners to the Death King.]

[The Lonely Seeker has entrusted the matter of the prisoners to the Death King.]

All the Constellations who had participated in this war relinquished all rights related to the prisoners to me. That was the quest reward I had demanded from them.

I had achieved an incredible feat in this war. Anyone could see that I had done the most. I was in a position to demand almost anything from the Constellations, so I asked for the power to decide the fate of all the prisoners.

“How can we keep them alive?” the Eternal Plains Warhorse’s apostle asked, impatient to know the fate of the witches.

The apostle of the Incarnation of Love and Lust chimed in calmly. “Be quiet. This is what the Constellations desire, so I also want this. If we decide their fate, all that awaits them is hell. Torture. Interrogation. Humiliation. A festival of abuse and blood. It’ll be easier to leave the matter to an outsider like the Death King.”

The apostles fell silent. I didn’t expect them to accept this decision wholeheartedly. Actually, I didn’t even think they were going to accept it at all. That was why I plan to take the Spiders to the Lion Realm’s continent, where the Terras ruled.

Emotions tend to fade with distance.

Nothing would change much. The only difference would be that a new group, the Spiders, would join the Fire Water Council, in which all the continent’s species took part.

Evening arrived, and the blood that could have stained the ground dyed the sky instead, bringing forth the sunset.

“In the end, the first headquarters didn’t surrender,” the Assistant Writer muttered. “What are you going to do, Death King?”

Four of the five spires had already surrendered, but the last bastion of the Magic Tower remained, barricading their gate and vowing to fight to the death. The crimson sunset cast its glow on the spire’s obsidian-like surface.

“Maybe we need a scapegoat. Look behind you. People aren’t saying anything, but I’m sure their blood is boiling.”

The Assistant Writer was right. The apostles and ordinary followers glared at the last spire that hadn’t surrendered, their faces filled with unresolved resentment. It was a rage that would likely never be resolved. Such resentment and rage made them rear their heads and growl.

Even the Spiders that had already surrendered sensed the tension in the air and bowed silently. All the forces on the fiftieth floor tacitly agreed to a massacre.

I nodded. “I know.”

“You are a hero,” the Assistant Writer said. “The hero who liberated the fiftieth floor. But a hero should be the first one to choose which side they are on. I hope you don’t make a mistake now.”

I was about to open my mouth to refute that.

“

Ugor.

”

A massive hand covered my entire shoulder. I turned my head and looked up to see Uburka grinning and baring his fangs.

“Don’t worry, Daddy. I understand what’s going on. Send me to that spire. I can probably make them surrender.”