Chapter: 126
It was a touching reunion between a father and child (?), but all Lian felt was shock and horror.
‘What the heck is that?!’
He felt like he had stumbled upon a scene from a blind date where someone recommended by a friend turned out to be a shy tentacle alien sitting quietly.
Quickly regaining his composure, similar to how someone from a gag world would, Lian asked the young spirit for help in assessing the situation. The young spirit promptly relayed the loud and chaotic conversations of the surviving dark sorcerers nearby.
The information he gathered was nothing short of shocking.
The main laboratory, once filled with glass capsules, had been turned into a wreck because someone injected a mysterious blood through the main capsule, transforming all the test subjects into monsters.
Lian rolled his eyes, recalling the bizarre scene where he had shoved his hand into a strange capsule and was drenched in blood.
‘…It’s all my fault. Hahaha.’
Using his patented gag resident technique of laughing it off, Lian calmly thought,
‘Well, I was planning to deal with the test subjects anyway, so this works out. They seem to disappear over time, so I’ll just leave them be.’
Having neatly organized his thoughts, Lian made his way out of the laboratory through an emergency exit.
‘Can I take down Gargandoa’s building in one go?’
[Just like last time, are we only demolishing the building?]
‘I’d prefer to wipe out all the living beings inside, if possible.’
According to the young spirit, the only ones left in the building were the dark sorcerers conducting brutal experiments. While they needed to eliminate the data for creating battle weapons, it would also be cleaner to deal with those who contributed to making the battle weapons.
Living in a world where death was treated like light entertainment, Lian had no mental barriers to making these ruthless judgments.
Kwa-zish! Kwadak!
Thus, the laboratory was completely engulfed in a red glow and compressed to the size of an ant. Perfect cleanup job.
‘Alright, now let’s go find the others.’
With the help of the magic sword, Lian dashed away like he was flying. It wasn’t long before he spotted Noah and his group running from afar.
“Noah!”
“…! L-Lian?”
Perhaps it was too comfortable, or maybe he was too anxious?
In his rush, Lian almost forgot what he had hanging off his back. As a result, Noah had a front-row seat to the sight of a massive woman hugging Lian’s shoulder.
Swoosh.
If Noah was frozen in panic, Iris said nothing and simply drew her sword. It was a weapon she had taken from a dead researcher during the escape, and it emanated a magical aura.
Without any further discussion, Iris aimed to slash the spirit that was clinging to Lian.
The friendly smile on the spirit’s face distorted grotesquely. Mistaking the situation, the Spirit King began to gather the powers of darkness at his fingertips in a fit of rage.
In an instant, the atmosphere turned chilly, and Noah’s group began to draw their swords, preparing for battle.
“Grrr…”
Lian flinched at the sight of Jess baring her teeth. It was unfamiliar to him since he had never witnessed her fighting before, and the aura of lethal intent felt strange.
‘If this continues, we’re going to have a massive fight!’
Lian felt an alarm ringing in his head and quickly raised his hands in a frantic gesture.
“Hold on! Calm down! This person isn’t an enemy!”
Unlike the three women who were eyeing Lian like hawks, Lily was the only one who retained her rationality. She reacted immediately to Lian’s words.
“Iris, Jess! Stop! Sister! Brother said this person isn’t an enemy!”
Even Noah, usually the level-headed one, was about to charge after drawing his sword, but Lily’s loud voice snapped him back to reality. Noah twitched his fingers, finally regaining his composure, but his gaze still lingered on the woman clinging to Lian.
Once the situation calmed down to some extent, Lian wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and spoke to the Spirit King.
“Uh… could you please detach yourself for a moment?”
The Spirit King had lost control, making conversation difficult, and Lian was burning with anxiety. Still, he desperately repeated his request, and surprisingly, the Spirit King gently let go of Lian.
Lian was taken aback, eyes wide open, as the Spirit’s Mother smiled benevolently and said,
[Thank you for freeing me and my children.]
“…!”
In fact, the Spirit King had fully regained his senses after the laboratory was destroyed by the magic sword. He realized that Lian was not his child, but the image of Lian saying, “Uh, Mom,” had stuck in his mind, causing an overflow of maternal instincts.
As a result, he wouldn’t let go of Lian, but not to make things uncomfortable for him; he simply acquiesced to Lian’s polite request.
“…Brother, you said he was out of control.”
“Uh, yeah… that’s what I thought…”
Iris narrowed her eyes, thinking that this damn woman was after her precious brother. Her gaze turned sharper, especially when directed at the Spirit King’s voluptuous features.
While Iris fixated on strange things, Lily, Nero, and Noah were trying to comprehend how the situation was unfolding.
Lian briefly explained what had happened at the laboratory.
He excluded any mention of the original story, detailing how the dark sorcerer captured spirits for experiments and that the Spirit’s Mother had been horrifically mistreated. Hearing this narrative, Noah, who was previously spaced out, seemed to straighten out.
As the story concluded, the next priority was to find the Nest organization members who had gone ahead.
[If you go straight that way, you’ll find them!]
With the help of the spirit, the task was easily accomplished. Since they all had similar abilities, their running speed was quick.
Gazing closely -…
As they ran, Jess watched the magic sword like a cat eyeing a toy. Up until now, whenever Lian used the magic sword, he had been careful to control its aura to keep discomfort at bay, but now it was freely radiating an ominous energy.
As a result, Jess instinctively grew wary of the magic sword. With the unsettling aura wafting through the air, her pupils dilated and contracted naturally.
Noticing Jess’s unease, Lian motioned for the magic sword to tone it down, and the sword clicked its tongue, restraining its ominous aura. Noah, Lily, and Nero wore expressions that suggested they had a lot to say but were holding back because it wasn’t the right moment.
‘I should have broken it back then.’
Iris didn’t forget how Lian had wounded herself with the magic sword. However, she knew that without the magic sword, her brother wouldn’t have a way to escape from dangerous situations, so she chose to leave it be.
With thoughts about Lian, the magic sword, the missing companions, and the shady laboratory swirling in their minds, they soon encountered the group that had escaped from the giant spider.
“Ah! Lian!”
“O Great Savior!”
The now devout members of Lian Church welcomed the group with oddly sparkling eyes.
Jess felt a swell of pride that others recognized her master’s greatness, while Iris maintained a composed expression as if their reaction were entirely expected.
In stark contrast to the two deeply infatuated with Lian, a clear question mark surfaced on the faces of Lily, Nero, and Noah, who were thinking normally.
“What’s going on, Lian?”
“Sister Pia?”
“Hey… this guy is the savior, but…”
The three couldn’t decide whether to feel grateful that no one was injured or to be perplexed by the bizarre atmosphere.
In the meantime, Lian was surrounded by the followers, sweating profusely.
‘Something feels very off here.’
[Hehe, it’s only natural to praise such great power.]
Though the magic sword was overheating with excitement over its powers rather than any divine ability, it was busy feeling elated. Living longer than Lian, the magic sword added some surprisingly wise words.
[Revering and deifying great power is common. Those with weak minds instinctively seek to rely on the strong.]
‘Is that so?’
Lian thought the sword’s perspective made sense and understood the followers’ behavior as “people desperately seeking a place to lean on after exhausting themselves.”
‘But still, since there are proper gods, they should trust a real deity—’
He began to picture the divine being fondling a pure white bird and lost focus.
‘Hmm, maybe it’s best to just leave things as they are.’
Though he didn’t consider himself a divine figure, he felt he was a much more dependable person than those so-called deities.
Lian was oblivious to how his seemingly innocuous judgment would return to him in an unexpected way later on.
As time passed, the growing group quickly reunited with the remaining members of the organization making their way to the village. Everyone was shedding tears of joy at the miracle of returning unscathed from the cruel laboratory.
“It’s all thanks to His grace.”
As soon as the word “miracle” slipped out, the group of Lian’s followers moved quietly. Just as Pia taught them, they fluidly blended into their surroundings like assassins.
As Lian’s church continued to grow, he was deep in discussion with the others about their next steps.
“We need to move faster than the original schedule since the place we destroyed was one of the Demon King’s research facilities.”
This was information Lily had learned before they escaped the laboratory. Even though Lian already knew this from the original story, he nodded, pretending it was the first time he was hearing it, wearing a serious expression.
While they were trying to find a way out of the Demon King’s territory as quickly as possible, the Spirit’s Mother, having shrunk to the size of the young spirit after regaining her senses, perched on Lian’s shoulder and spoke up.
[It seems I can offer some assistance.]
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