Ding!
[World – Evil God of Blood (EP. 4) cleared.]
[A massive amount of experience points gained.]
[Title – Evil God Conqueror (Junior Transcendence) obtained.]
[True Blood (大) obtained.]
[All stats increase by 50% when facing non-living beings.]
…
[World Quest within Erbenus Blodia is deactivated.]
“It’s all over now.”
“Yeah.”
Thud.
Lasty, who had been holding my hand, jumped a bit and sat on the red casket.
The red casket was floating in the air, having no idea when it had been waiting there.
Even though we had spilled a lot of blood during the battles with Kraken and Pharaoh, there was still a huge amount of blood contained within the casket.
[Is it over?]
[Is it really finished?]
[Oh.]
[Lasty, is that you back?]
[The rain has stopped.]
[Lasty, sis!]
[The red rain’s over, right?]
[Did we take it down…?]
“I guess it absorbed quite a bit.”
“Should I put it back?”
As Lasty slightly opened the casket, a ghastly aura leaked out.
I nodded, still looking at the system window which didn’t indicate any additional episodes besides ‘deactivating.’
“Leave alive the Bloodsuckers we need. We can’t be here forever, right?”
“That’s true.”
“Then we need to at least put on a show.”
Anyway, Lasty could no longer be a ‘king.’
As long as even a single drop of blood existed in Lasty’s body, she couldn’t dominate and rule over anyone.
If she could, the disaster of blood would threaten the world once again.
Clank!
The massive blood within the casket began to spread across the world.
Although many Bloodsuckers died due to the series of events, it’s rare for the ‘soul’ of a Bloodsucker to perish.
Even if souls of Bloodsuckers were gone, the others could all be revived.
‘It’s a contradiction in itself to say we can revive them.’
After all, Bloodsuckers are basically half-corpses.
The casket continued spewing blood for a while until it finally closed with a thud!
“Done. Everyone except for the few that burst while retaining their souls has come back. Most of them are alive, so they should be able to function.”
“What about Riven and Blodia?”
“Riven went to the Blood Crystal. Blodia has vanished.”
“Vanished?”
“Yep.”
She, as if it was only natural, sat back down on the now-closed casket.
“The moment she tried to merge her ego and take over my body, it was a foreseen result. Even if it was successful, I wonder if she could’ve held on; and she failed, so…”
“Is it… gone?”
“Probably. I can’t feel Blodia’s presence anywhere in the world, including my soul right now. In the end, she couldn’t hold on.”
Riven said that Blodia used up her body and most of her soul to take over Lasty’s form.
It was said to be an unavoidable situation to avoid being swept away by the powerful Lasty, but I don’t think he would lie even in that situation.
He really seemed to be telling the truth.
“…Maybe.”
“?”
‘Riven might truly know the truth.’
In the end, it was Black Lily who led to this situation.
If my guess is correct, the reason for Blodia’s disappearance wasn’t simply that she couldn’t withstand the difference in rank.
Rather, her “real” purpose was…
“Was she aiming for this from the start…? Worried about Lasty’s response? I never thought she would move like this…”
“Response?”
“No, I’m not sure about that yet.”
I shook my head and closed the system window that still hadn’t appeared.
It seems like the episode will truly appear much later.
Even though it could be said that the story here has almost reached its “end”, I still haven’t obtained the core item, the ‘Fruit of Blood’.
In the end, until I see it with my own eyes, I can’t be 100% certain, no matter what I think.
Even if what I believe is correct, it’s not like it would be a huge problem.
[Why?]
[???]
[Talk about something only Lily knows]
[Ugh]
[Is this a stream end?]
[Huh?]
[Is there no more episode?]
[Is Lasty the master here now?]
[So, what do we do now?]
“What do you mean, what do we do?”
Swish!
As I waved my hand, a crack formed in the space revealing the Dimension Gate.
Normally, such travel would be impossible, but it’s feasible thanks to the Holy Seal.
“We need to go back.”
And gather Pharaoh too.
■
Meanwhile.
Somewhere far away from the central continent of this dimension.
-Gagagagaga!!
“Ahhh!”
“Run! Everyone, flee!!!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Numerous people were running away as an iron giant monster rampaged behind them.
The ancient monster, which made iron its staple, grew harder and stronger the more iron it consumed.
Because of this, the Iron Monster always roamed underground mines, but when the food ran out, it began invading human villages to consume iron.
Of course, its staple was iron, not humans, so humans weren’t its target.
Kugugugung!!
“Damn! Why already…”
“Everyone, run out of the village!”
“Country!”
“Sorcerer! Where the hell is that bastard? Bring them here now… cough!”
-Grrararararara!!
But among humans, there were many wearing ‘iron.’
The monster’s patience was extremely thin; it was not kind enough to pick off the human ‘clinging’ to the iron and eat it.
To be exact, it couldn’t even understand why it should do such a thing.
Tuh-up!
In the end, what it chose was both iron and human. It gobbled up both.
In that process, it absorbed the iron into its body, while the human was spat out like refuse.
Eventually, the Iron Monster flipped an entire village upside down before leaving with a bang! bang!
And two women were watching that scene from the air.
A tall woman with black hair and a small girl with red eyes.
“What do you think?”
“…Looks like a stupid rock.”
“Right? A stupid rock.”
Smirk.
“The Iron Devourer is a stupid rock with almost no intelligence. It doesn’t care about living creatures like humans, but if there’s even a little iron, that’s a different story.”
The Iron Devourer had poor vision, hearing, and sense of smell, but its ability to recognize ‘iron’ was on par with that of any mid-level celestial or demon race.
While it might be just a joke to the celestial or demon races, to humans and other living beings it was a monster beyond compare.
That’s why the Iron Devourer was called a disaster for humans. A nightmare for knights.
As the Black Lily’s hand waved, the recently devoured humans began to reconstitute, rising up.
It looked as though they were grotesquely transforming, as if a wicked sorcery were at play, but in fact, it was a process of revival.
One of the demon race’s magical spells possessed by the Black Lily: ‘Immortal Fabric.’
It was magic to forcibly reassemble the bodies of the dead within a magical realm, a technique different from the celestial race’s ‘Holy Resurrection.’
Holy Resurrection literally meant ‘revival.’ If it restored the body as it was in life, the Immortal Fabric was just piecing things back together.
‘Like…’
“It’s like sticking together a torn picture.”
“Exactly. It’s a way of reassembling ‘matter’ known as body. As expected of a fellow ‘scholar,’ it seems easy for you to understand. Blodia could learn it too.”
Ah.
“Of course, it’s easier to use blood for this, though?”
“…Is she really that woman?”
“Of course.”
The Black Lily nodded as she watched the confused humans sprawled on the ground.
“Lily and I are chemically different. We’re made of completely different components compared to those humans down there. No, even more so than the Iron Devourer.”
“It’s made up of that,” she said.
“Me too?”
“Blodia is the opposite. From head to toe, she’s made of the same components as Lasty. The only difference might be the Soul’s Rank issue?”
“Hmmm…”
“Well, from a mental perspective, they’re probably similar.”
Chuckle.
Black Lily smiled and gently patted Blodia’s head, who was deep in thought.
“So, that’s why you’re already here.”
“Why didn’t you catch that thing earlier? From the ‘knowledge’ I got from Riven, it said that Lily catches monsters.”
“There’s someone else for that.”
The Iron Devourer is quite a disaster for humans.
In human society, ‘iron’ has become a necessity, and just looking at the village’s buildings, there are countless items related to metal.
The Iron Devourer loves iron, but it won’t say no to other metals either.
If we’re not going back to the agricultural era, we’ll have to keep fighting that monstrous beast.
But Black Lily isn’t a user.
She’s the ‘World Boss’ designated by the system.
No matter how much she escaped the system, as long as she is still bound by limitations, there are many restrictions.
‘Lacking power…’
Above all, she hasn’t regained her powers yet.
“Primarily, we need to deal with Lily. Like Piarro, she needs some sort of trigger, but there’s nothing like that for now…”
“Like me?”
“Yeah. I think we need to take care of this first.”
The tip of Black Lily’s fingers created a crack and moved somewhere in the continent.
Blodia followed right after, and the destination had a temple wrapped in chains and talismans.
Nearby, traps and warnings filled with “do not enter” signs were abundant, but perhaps due to the passage of time, most had decayed and lost their functions.
Creek…
Despite countless seals, the temple’s door was very slightly open.
Inside the temple, the situation was even worse; the talismans meant to support the seals were torn to shreds, and the cursed magical tools infused with binding energy had long since been shattered.
Among them, the bottom of the empty sealed vessel had tiny letters engraved on it.
Iron Soul Sword.
“Iron Soul Sword?”
“Most disasters begin with curiosity and greed.”
Just like the iron disaster someone awakened.
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