Chapter 67: The Difference Between a Monster and a Vigilante (1)

"Hihi—there’s nothing abnormal about the Seeds of Desire, Alter-saaan."

A structure as if darkness itself had been cut out as a solid and carved into the shape of a castle. Queen Fine had formed it but abandoned naming it; the Diabolics called that castle the Castle of Darkness.

In one room of that castle—two men were there.

One was Alter Native. Clad in black clothes, with long white hair and pale skin—a man whose impression was marked by a crimson left eye and a tribal tattoo matching the scar of his crushed right eye.

Facing him was a somewhat stooped man.

He was slender and filthy. Dirty black hair had grown long enough to hide his face, and the crimson eyes peering through the gaps in the hair were opened wide like a fish’s.

——Diabolic Umbra.

A Diabolic serving Queen Fine, and the one who processed the queen’s power to create Seeds of Desire.

And—an existence who assisted Alter.

"Is that fact?"

"Yes, yes, of course it is. Starting from checks of the manufacturing process, I examined about a hundred of the produced Seeds of Desire! One by one, thoroughly! But the number of defectives was zero. Ah, of course—the possibility that only the seed administered to the Tentacle Monster Villain was defective is not zero. Yes, not zero!"

"——Then why do you think it became like that?"

"Before I state my inference, I would like to hear Alter-san’s inference, hihi. Show me something different from a beast whose brain is all muscle, a sex-addicted old man, or a whore who wants to be loved."

——It was true that Umbra cooperated with Alter.

But that was by no means loyalty or friendship. Precisely because their interests overlapped, they were joining hands like this.

Alter and Umbra differed in temperament, yet the future they sought was the same.

However, incompetents were unnecessary for aiming at that future.

Even Alter would not have given Umbra a second glance if he had not possessed a rare power in the other world of Lemora—one that leaned toward creation rather than destruction.

(——I am being evaluated.)

Alter had failed.

He had cornered Sacred Saber and Sacred Knuckle—yet he had been defeated.

Umbra’s fish-like eyes were asking: Are you an existence worthy of me lending my power?

"...Because he is an existence that can be dyed by both light and darkness—that is what I think."

"Hoh?"

"If it is only a matter of enduring the transformation by a Seed of Desire, the people of Calmate are superior to the humans of Earth. In fact, the Black Knight was like that. The residents over there are hard to dye with evil—because the magical power of light guides them that way."

The humans of Calmate instinctively protected order and performed justice.

Protected by light, living within order—as a result, the royal family had continued ruling that world for hundreds of years without change.

Peacefully, calmly, changing nothing.

Alter thought that state of affairs was like lukewarm water. It was better than Lemora, but it was not a world he preferred.

If not for the power of light that imposed unconditionally disadvantageous conditions on Diabolics, Alter would not have felt even a fragment of value in them.

"They love peace and hate evil. Even among them there are those who commit sins, but they are only people like Moldi with thin aptitude for light. Because they are such upright people, they cannot resist the desire that wells up from within themselves, cannot resist the darkness—no, they do not know how to resist. Precisely because it is the first pleasure they have felt—like a man and woman who have taken their first bite of the forbidden fruit, they are captivated by that sweet desire."

Yes. Implanting a Seed of Desire—the magical power of darkness—took effort, but once it had permeated they could not resist.

Even Alter, when creating Monster Villains in Calmate, had erected a barrier and amplified the darkness. Without that, those with strong will would have rejected it, and there should have been those who, like the Black Knight, endured for a while even after it had permeated.

But those implanted with Seeds of Desire had, without exception, lost their reason and run wild according to desire. Even if they could endure becoming a Monster Villain, once the Monster Villain transformation progressed they would tilt toward desire all at once.

"Then what about the humans of Earth? Those people have high affinity for both darkness and light. Therefore they can be utilized as resources for attacking Calmate—but here, that Tentacle Monster Villain, the exception calling himself Vigilante Atel Octo, appeared."

His form was not greatly different from other Tentacle Monster Villains.

Although he wore clothes, his shape was the same as a Monster Villain who raised a cry of desire and violated women.

It was certain he had been administered a Seed of Desire and transformed.

Then why had such an exception appeared? The reason? Under what conditions did it appear?

"At first I thought it was because the Seed of Desire was defective. That the roots had not reached the brain and reason remained—hmpf, if it had been that, the talk would have been simple."

Alter’s gaze pierced Umbra.

Alter did not like the same sex. Especially Umbra, with his filthy appearance, there was no reason to feel goodwill.

But his skill and intellect.

He trusted the technique for creating new tools—and he was also personnel necessary for the future Alter aimed at.

"Earth humans have aptitude for both darkness and light. If that is so—"

"Then it is not impossible to treat the darkness born when becoming a Monster Villain as one’s own power—is that it?"

Apparently he had reached the same conclusion long ago; a mouth twisted into a smile peeked through the gaps in his long bangs.

For now, at least disappointment had been avoided.

However, Alter quietly shook his head.

"But this does not explain it."

"Yes, that is so. If anyone could become like that Monster Villain, exceptions should have appeared earlier, and more frequently."

Ah, Alter nodded.

They had aptitude for both light and darkness. Precisely because of that, there was no way they would think of choosing light and walking the correct path.

Because tilting toward darkness—entrusting oneself to desire—was far easier than doing the right thing.

Suppose there was an obese man here.