Chapter 235 – Escape (2)

He was the leader of Jujeosa and one of the Four Great Powers.

Tianzhu, the King of Curses.

“Truly, thank you.”

While looking at Nangwon, who was bowing his head several times while expressing infinite gratitude for the current situation, Alon wondered why he was here while thinking anew.

‘……When he was young, he looked quite decent.’

Nangwon’s appearance that he saw in Psychedelia was different from now.

The strange tattoos on his face and the reverse eyes.

The long surgical scar that started from his cheek and continued to his right collarbone, which was like his symbol.

If it were not for these points.

The difference was so distinct that he would not have been able to think at all that he was Tianzhu.

How could one connect the bald Tianzhu, whose face was full of scars, with the beautiful boy before his eyes?

If he had not heard the words that his sister became the trigger for him becoming the King of Curses.

He might not have been able to believe it at all.

“Alon-nim, do you intend to take that person as well?”

While he was being surprised for a moment.

Langban’s voice full of hostility was heard from the side.

Nangwon, who was hugging his sister until just a moment ago, shouted hastily.

“Pl… please- please do not abandon us. We are different from the Northern Demons.”

“Demons are all the same demons, where are there any other demons?”

At the cold answer, Nangwon’s expression was dyed with despair.

Alon recalled Nangwon’s race from his memory.

‘Was it the half-demon race?’

Half-demon race.

A race that was known only as having been ruined several hundred years ago at the point when the original work of Psychedelia started.

No more information came to mind.

No matter how much he played the game.

He had not dug into this game like an abyss to the point of remembering even the detailed settings, and especially the settings of the past, in every detail.

For now, the general situation could be inferred through the conversation that passed between Langban and Nangwon.

Alon, who worried for a moment, looked at Nangwon, who had fallen into despair.

“Let’s take them.”

“……Are you saying you will take the half-demon race?”

Langban asked back with an expression as if he could not believe it.

Alon nodded his head.

“Yes.”

“Pardon me, let me say one thing, Alon-nim. He is a half-demon. Half-demons are a race whose insides are insidious and one doesn’t know when they will stab you in the back.”

“I, I am not like that!”

Nangwon, who denied with his whole body.

However, despite such a desperate gesture, Langban did not unfold his distorted face.

“Half-demons are dangerous. Also, putting aside my personal opinion, it will not be very good if a half-demon is included in the escape procession. Especially in a precarious situation like now where there is not a single bit of hope-”

Certainly his words made sense.

If the public perception of the half-demon race was similar to or worse than Langban’s.

Taking Nangwon into the group was a choice that was not good in many ways.

Even excluding personal hatred, there was enough justification to oppose it.

However, even while enduring such points, Alon had already made up his mind to save Nangwon.

After a moment of silence filled the place.

“Still, let’s take them along.”

Alon spoke calmly.

“……Are you serious?”

Langban, who asked back once more.

Alon understood his heart, but nodded his head.

“The ones here are all in the same situation. No one would have wanted to be dragged here, and they must have tasted terrible pain after being caught.”

They must have seen miserable sights and suffered pain that one could not even dare to imagine.

“But I do not want to discriminate in reaching out just because of a racial difference.”

But deciding whether to save or not based on the factor of race?

It is no different from making an even bigger hell within hell.

“Let’s take them.”

If his head had rolled a bit better, he would have been able to prepare more plausible words.

-Alon thought briefly like that, but.

“……I understand.”

Langban finally nodded his head.

“However- even if we take the boy, it seems we must give up on that girl.”

“Ah, no…!”

Nangwon, who was even more terrified than before.

The boy, whose eyes became red, held his sister’s body tightly as if he would never let go of his sister.

Alon asked Langban instead.

“The reason is?”

Langban’s gaze went to one side.

“……Those Baarma bastards have already played a trick. Look at her leg.”

When Alon lowered his gaze, he actually saw a massive egg burrowing into the skin and throbbing on the girl’s leg.

“That is-”

“It is one of Baarma’s authorities. The moment such an ‘egg’ is conceived in the body in any form, she has no choice but to supply nutrients until that parasite is born.”

“……What happens when the parasite is born?”

“The host dies. Moreover, if we go around with the host, our location will be exposed to Baarma’s followers.”

“Does it mean location tracking is possible?”

“Even if it’s impossible for ordinary followers, it will be possible for bishop-level ones.”

“Lie… lie-”

At Langban’s explanation, the face of Nangwon, who had harbored hope until just a moment ago, was miserably distorted.

“It is not a lie. To begin with, if I were going to tell a lie, I would have described the half-demon race even more viciously.”

But Langban’s stiff expression confirmed once more that his words were the truth.

“Cough… cough…!”

Nangwon’s sister, who was panting as if her breath were failing just now, began to cough.

“Sister, sister-!”

Thick tears fell drop by drop from Nangwon’s two eyes.

The girl, who slowly stroked her younger brother’s moist cheek, looked at Alon.

“Truly, thank you.”

“……”

“Pardon my lack of shame, but… please take care of my brother… truly, thank you.”

A request to leave herself behind.

But to please save her brother at least.

Endless tears flowed from the two eyes of the girl, who squeezed out her last remaining strength.

Her young brother could not dare to cry out loud and hugged his sister’s body even tighter.

Alon, who was watching the siblings, let out a deep sigh in spite of himself and raised his gaze.

The sky was still ashen.

And beneath that ash color.

Too many tragedies were being conceived.

At that time when even his heart was being dyed with ashen because it was stuffy and stuffy again.

“Godfather.”

“……Why is it?”

“Do you want to save that sister?”

Rine asked quietly.

Alon turned his body toward her.

“Is there a way?”

“That, I might be able to take it off if it’s now.”

Rine, who just spoke curtly while watching the girl’s leg calmly without showing any emotion.

“I think so too.”

As if responding to that, Penia also nodded her head.

Rine stepped one step closer to the girl.

“That parasite is currently sucking the host’s vitality, converting that strength into some kind of strength, and pushing it back in. Probably the reason is- it seems it’s trying to become an important organ that is indispensable for the host’s life maintenance.”

“……Is it to prevent itself from being removed?”

“That’s right. However, since it hasn’t progressed that much yet, I think it would be fully possible if we try to remove it, but-”

“But?”

“For complete removal, we must remove even the roots, but it seems the parasite has already laid roots deeply in that girl’s leg. In other words, if it’s to save her life, it seems we must cut off the leg.”

Since the situation was what it was, delicate work was impossible.

In the end, there was no choice but to cut off the whole place that became the parasitic site.

At that time when a way arose even though it was a half-hearted hope.

“No, maybe we can save the leg.”

Penia, who was thinking deeply alone, opened her mouth.

“Ah… ahhh…”

Soon, in Nangwon’s eyes, hope welled up.

####

Exactly two weeks had passed since he took in Nangwon.

As a conclusion, Nangwon’s sister was successfully saved without even cutting off her leg.

The reason it was possible was precisely because of Kalanon’s godhead.

‘That parasite seems to have been made with a weak godhead. Originally, mana and godhead repel each other, so if you try to pull it out with mana, the life would be in danger, but if it’s Kalanon’s godhead, it will be possible to pull it out safely.’

Alon, who used Kalanon’s godhead following Penia’s words, could easily save the sister.

And.

“……Brother- I brought the meal here.”

“You do not have to do that.”

“No. I definitely want to be of help to you even in such a trivial thing.”

Thanks to that, Alon gained one more younger brother(?).

Truly extreme hospitality.

Alon, while leaving a new impression that reverse eyes can also be sparkling.

Received the sweet potato that Nangwon handed over.

“Thank you.”

“No. I will serve you for life.”

“……”

The words that he didn’t have to go that far were about to burst out in spite of himself.

But he could not dare to say them to Nangwon, who was nodding his head firmly with his will filled up.

Alon also nodded back in a daze.

At that point.

“Ah!”

The face of Liang’a, who was coming while holding a sweet potato whether she intended to give it to Alon as well, became wrinkled.

“Hey! It’s my turn!”

“Where is my turn or your turn? Because you were slow, I brought it since our brother was hungry.”

Liang’a and Nangwon, who began to bicker with that as a signal.

When thinking of them in terms of their future presence and position.

Alon’s heart became grand for a moment at the sight of things that could blow away a country or two like the manifestation of the Five Great Sins if a fight once broke out, huffing and having a war of words.

“……Alon-nim, you were here.”

Alon moved his steps toward Langban, who had come to find him.

“How is the situation?”

“It is good. Especially this time, there are many survivors, and the proportion of soldiers caught from the alliance is higher than ordinary people.”

It was not bad news.

For about two weeks, Alon had raided a total of more than five altars, excluding the place where he saved Nangwon, and rescued the personnel.

Thanks to that, there were even more people in this hideout now.

“Moreover, thanks to Alon-nim, the morale is quite not bad.”

“Thanks to me, you say-”

“Yes. Because a god, by that existence itself, becomes a support for people.”

At Langban’s words, Alon recalled when he came to be called a ‘God’ by them.

‘Clearly, was it when I saved Nangwon for the first time.’

After that, Alon had treated people similar to Nangwon’s sister several times at the altars.

At first, a dragonkin.

Next was a race full of horns that even Alon saw for the first time.

And finally, a certain elf.

Thanks to that miracle-like sight.

Alon was being revered as a god by them.

Alon did not particularly deny that fact.

Because there were many things he could get right away just by not denying it.

Seeing as a separate godhead had not been created yet, it was not that godhead was accumulating.

But just by calling Alon a god and relying on him, the atmosphere of the hideout that was shrouded in anxiety became clearly better than before.

Because in their eyes, which were only full of anxiety and despair, hope began to dwell even if it was very weak.

“However- there is not only good news.”

“……Is that so?”

“Yes, Baarma’s side will probably move soon.”

“Certainly, since I’ve been running wild for two weeks, they will move soon.”

“Actually, since the number of altars exceeds dozens besides here, we might be able to afford a bit more leisure.”

“You mean we should prepare.”

“That is correct. So- it seems we must move as quickly as possible to gather the altars and go up. And-”

Langban, who hesitated for a moment, spoke.

“About Dalma.”

“Was there anything that came in about Liang’a’s hometown?”

To that, he was silent for a moment and then,

“I have something to tell you about that part.”

“……?”

He cautiously opened his mouth.

With a somewhat bleak expression.

####

“What did you say?”

Hidan, who returned only now after being in the north by the order of the Crimson Moon, heard truly strange news.

No, it was not strange.

At least as Hidan heard it.

It was words that were extremely unpleasant and harsh.

And that could bring a disaster.

Therefore, he asked Yuna back once more with a serious expression.

However, the returned answer-

“……The Great Moon has passed away.”

“Non… nonsensical-”

Had not changed.

He asked back seriously several times.

But it was as it was.

So very, despairingly.

And.

“……Has the report gone to the other Moons?”

“No, but- since the information began to be released five hours ago, probably in a day or two-”

At Yuna’s following words.

Hidan was silent.

Because he realized instinctively what would happen.

The thing that would occur when that rumor spread.

“……”

Hidan’s eyes began to tremble without hesitation.