Chapter 312: Our Arsilan (5)

Translator: Dreamscribe

Do you desire power?

Someone asked him that.

A voice brimming with malice.

It was a voice that seemed to contain all the hatred and rage in the world condensed into one. The Crown Prince flinched and slowly turned his head to look beside him.

It was dark.

So dark that even darkness itself seemed to be sucked into it. The only things visible were countless tentacles resembling the abyss. Those tentacles filled the floor, walls, and ceiling of the prison as they stretched toward him.

The rats and insects melted away the instant they touched the tentacles. Even the light illuminating the prison was devoured, plunging the surroundings into utter darkness.

“Wha….”

“What the…!”

The knights outside the cell were horrified by the sight and tried to raise their weapons, but

CRUNCH! SPLATTER!

Shadow-like tentacles shot up from beneath their feet, wrapped around the knights’ bodies, and burst them apart on the spot.

The fragments of their corpses melted away as the darkness devoured them.

“AAAAAARGH!”

“AAAAAAH!”

The half-shattered heads of the knights screamed in agony. Their eyes rolled frantically as they struggled to escape the darkness, but unfortunately, their bodies had already been horribly mangled and devoured by it.

WHOOSH!

Something shot up from the floor.

It was the skeleton of what had once been a knight. The shattered bones were engulfed in black currents and fitted themselves back together as though being assembled, then rose to their feet.

“M-MMMMPH! MMMMPH!”

The Crown Prince’s eyes widened until they looked ready to pop out.

[Hrrrgh! Please kill me! Kill me! K-Kill me!]

[No, no…, no.]

The knights’ screams continued to come from the skeleton. Even in death, they could not rest in peace and were wailing in agony.

Fear.

Overwhelming fear swept every thought from his mind and paralyzed his body. The Crown Prince trembled violently in sheer terror, even wetting himself. He tried to flee, but his limbs were restrained, making escape impossible.

“I will ask once more.”

STEP. STEP.

Someone walked out of the darkness.

The Crown Prince immediately realized what that being was.

A being formed from darkness itself.

The wicked god who had spread the Evil God Disease throughout the Kalsus Dimensional Empire and fueled chaos.

The god who ruled over all evil in the world.

The Evil God.

He had little interest in anything outside the Sanctuary, but he knew all too well about the Evil God. Even inside the Sanctuary, the Evil God Disease had caused enormous damage.

Many members of the Imperial Family had even begun covering their faces to avoid the Evil God Disease.

“Do you desire power?”

The Crown Prince could not say a word.

His very soul froze beneath that limitless terror. Yet after reaching the very depths of that fear, a strange thought arose. This absurdly powerful being was asking whether he wanted power.

‘Power…!’

He needed power.

He could not let everything end so meaninglessly.

He needed the power to unleash this hatred, this rage.

The Evil God waved his hand, and the gag in the Crown Prince’s mouth and every restraint binding his limbs melted away.

“A-Are you saying you’ll give me power?!”

The Evil God looked down at the Crown Prince, who sat collapsed on the floor.

“AAAAARGH!”

CRACK!

The Crown Prince’s limbs twisted, forcing him to crawl across the floor. It did not end there, as his bones began breaking apart into tiny fragments.

“AAAAARGH! I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

The moment the Crown Prince barely managed to answer, his shattered bones repaired themselves. He touched his arms and legs while cold sweat poured down his body. His pants were already soaked through.

The way he had addressed a god had been far too irreverent.

The Crown Prince, who had never bowed his head to anyone but the Emperor, dropped to his knees and prostrated himself.

“I-I desire power! Power so overwhelming that no one would ever dare challenge me!”

At the Crown Prince’s desperate answer, the darkness rippled.

It was almost as if the darkness itself were smiling.

“The price is your soul.”

“M-My soul…?!”

The Crown Prince hesitated at the mention of his soul.

The Evil God extended a hand, and the surroundings rippled before becoming flooded with brilliant light. He saw himself seated upon a throne made of gold and jewels. Scharnhilde, Kaljest, and the other members of the Imperial Family all bowed their heads before him and sang his praises.

The entire dimensional realm became his, and even Dimensional Predators became his pets.

His immortal life continued forever.

Infinite pleasure unfolded before him.

The Crown Prince’s gaze gradually became unfocused.

“That is my future…!”

He would become an Emperor more powerful than anyone else!

It felt as though that future had drawn right up before his eyes. The Evil God waved his hand, and another future unfolded.

He saw himself bound from head to toe, screaming.

Those carrying out his execution mocked him.

[Hahaha! He looks like a bug with all its limbs cut off.]

[Bro, this bastard pissed himself.]

[Disgusting bastard! Ptooey!]

[Hahaha! They called him the Crown Prince, but he was just some vulgar bastard.]

The nobles and members of the Imperial Family gathered around also delighted in the Crown Prince’s disgrace. They had all assembled simply to watch him die.

Scharnhilde looked down at him with an arrogant expression.

[Kill him painfully. Once he dies, put him into the Soul Collector. I will make him suffer forever.]

The Soul Collector was a recently invented technology.

It forcibly extracted the souls of criminals and insignificant insects from other dimensions and used them as an energy source. Thanks to it, the energy efficiency of the entire Kalsus Dimensional Empire had improved dramatically.

The Scharnhilde within the illusion looked ecstatic as she watched the Crown Prince suffer.

“AAAAAAH!”

GRRIND!

Bloody tears poured from the Crown Prince’s eyes.

Not only had they humiliated him, but they had condemned him to suffer even after death.

“Choose your future.”

Would he become an immortal Emperor?

Or would he die under torture and ridicule, only to suffer endlessly afterward?

The future the Crown Prince would choose was already decided.

“I offer you my soul! Evil God! Power! Grant me power greater than anyone else!”

The moment the Crown Prince shouted those words, the darkness surged violently and melted away everything around them.

“Your name?”

“Karus. Karus Deon Kalseras….”

The darkness laughed.

Evil sneered.

“The contract has been made.”

At that moment, an immense mass of darkness surged into the body of the Crown Prince, Karus.

“GRAAAAAAAARGH!”

He felt the pain of his flesh being dismantled and his soul torn apart. The darkness burrowing into his body felt like hundreds of millions of blades brutally slicing him to pieces from within.

He rolled wildly across the floor, writhing in agony, until at some point his movements suddenly stopped.

“A-Aaaah!”

He felt utterly full.

He could feel an unimaginable power filling his body and mind. That power continued to well up, rising without end.

“Ha….”

A twisted smile formed across his lips.

“Hahahahaha!”

Laughing like a madman, he stretched out his hand, and black tentacles erupted from it. The tentacles grew larger and larger until they blew away half the prison.

As the prison collapsed, the knights and soldiers outside stared at the sight in bewilderment.

“W-With this power…!”

It felt as though he could do anything.

This was infinite power that mere Dimensional Energy could not even begin to compare with. Countless curses and sorceries of the Evil God continuously surfaced in his mind.

Karus extended his hand, and tentacles burst outward, melting away all the rubble. A clear path opened before him.

“Crown Prince?”

“H-How….”

“A-A demon! The Crown Prince has become a demon!”

The knights screamed in horror after recognizing Karus. To Karus, the knights looked like insects. Insects he could crush beneath a finger whenever he pleased.

The knights tried to attack Karus, but their legs would not move. When they lowered their heads and looked down, they saw that their feet had sunk into the floor.

WRITHE!

The shadows wriggled, and countless teeth began sprouting beneath their feet.

VRRRRRR!

The teeth spun violently like a blender, grinding the knights apart from their feet all the way to their heads.

The ships hovering in the air began moving frantically.

“How annoying.”

Karus looked upward, and countless tentacles erupted from his back before transforming into wings.

FWOOSH!

Karus shot into the sky and appeared before the ships.

“Disappear!”

When he invoked an evil sorcery, masses of flesh erupted from the ships, devoured the vessels themselves, and sent them crashing down.

“H-Hahaha!”

The surrounding ships crashed before they could even approach him. He caught the ones attempting to flee with his tentacles and smashed them apart. It truly was godlike power.

Flinch!

But after unleashing so much power, he suddenly felt an endless hunger.

“U-Urrrrgh!”

His strength began draining away rapidly.

He could feel his body breaking apart from the inside.

‘Eat.’

‘Devour souls tainted by evil.’

Those words echoed through his mind.

Karus’s body plummeted and slammed into the ground. Karus pushed himself upright and looked around. He could see souls stained black.

“Food….”

He was hungry.

Thirst surged through him so fiercely that he nearly lost his reason.

Karus charged at the knights and impaled one of them with a tentacle. He destroyed the knight’s body and sucked out his soul.

“K-Krgh!”

I am a god!

He felt his strength filling up once again.

Karus gave a vicious smile as he watched the knights and troops swarming toward him.

There was food everywhere he looked.

Drool dripped steadily from his mouth.

***

Jinwoo nodded as he watched Karus rampage.

“Oh….”

A fairly distinctive villain had been born.

He had jammed a Superior Authority Stone into Karus’s soul and used the Authority of Informatization to grant him the ability to wield the Evil God’s Sorcery. He had also bestowed several additional Authorities. However, Jinwoo had arranged things so that Karus could only replenish his power and satisfy his hunger and thirst by consuming the souls of the wicked.

The souls of the wicked Karus consumed would naturally be transferred into Jinwoo’s Subspace before falling into the hell inside the Soul Sun. Perhaps the dimensional realm would become a little brighter as a result?

[Things are going crazy over there right now, aren’t they?]

“Want to see?”

Jun contacted him.

Jinwoo showed Jun what Karus was doing.

Karus generated tentacles, brought down fleets, and devoured the wicked.

As Karus laughed like a madman, skeletons emerged from the ground and the Evil God Disease began spreading.

[He looks insanely evil.]

“These guys were kind of lacking visually.”

The nobles of the Kalsus Dimensional Empire looked no different from ordinary people, so they lacked a certain impact.

The Crown Prince possessed a status far above someone like General Gord, so he needed to make an impression. If he remained in an ordinary form, he would simply be too plain and boring.

From now on, the more Karus consumed the souls of the wicked and the more he used the Evil God’s Sorcery, the more horrifying his appearance would become. Blisters were already rising across Karus’s skin.

Everything around Karus had been destroyed, and the forces guarding the area had retreated. Karus panted heavily before once again bursting into crazed laughter.

“Krrh, hehehehe! This is the beginning of my revenge!”

All that had happened to him was that he had been restrained and mocked a little. There were no signs that he had been tortured. Jinwoo had no idea what supposedly terrible thing had happened to him to provoke such a reaction, but in any case, a civil war was now guaranteed.

“Hahahahaha!”

Karus laughed before striking a suitably dramatic pose. The shadows rippled and wrapped around his body. In an instant, he vanished from the area and moved deeper into the Sanctuary.

“So he really can teleport.”

Although Karus had received an Authority from Jinwoo, it seemed the power suppressing the Sanctuary had failed to recognize him because he was still the Crown Prince. Jinwoo’s influence could now reach even the depths of the Sanctuary.

It would be bad news for the Kalsus Dimensional Empire, but a civil war within the Empire would be a great benefit to Arsilan and would provide interesting content for the Heroes.

Jinwoo looked around the domain of Erosion. The Avatar he had set up was being treated as a hero among the Erosion entities. After all, it was entirely thanks to him that they had managed to seize a large portion of the Kalsus Dimensional Empire’s territory.

“Oho! My loyal sword! Come here and listen to my story, would you?”

“Do you know the concept of becoming one? If you and I became one, we would become even greater. Hohoho!”

“Would you become Our secret friend?”

The Lords were eyeing him with disturbingly intense interest, but Jinwoo humored them just enough before quickly returning to Earth.

Anyway, it was about time to announce Episode 7 when the timing was right.

***

After arriving at FS Games for work, Jinwoo entered a meeting with the employees to discuss the announcement of Episode 7.

This time, he had been leaning toward an online announcement rather than an offline one, but suddenly, calls began pouring in. He was already used to receiving plenty of contact from corporations, so he thought little of that, but this time, the heads of several countries personally called him.

He could casually ignore the CEO of some major corporation, but things were different when it was the leader of a country. The calls had been coordinated in advance, so they were not entirely unexpected, but they still felt burdensome.

They congratulated him on successfully concluding Episode 6 and exchanged pleasantries with him before asking him to choose their country as the venue for the Episode 7 announcement. They were not overbearing about it. If anything, they sounded almost deferential.

At first, Jinwoo thought they were joking and laughed it off, but they were completely serious.

After receiving several such calls, he returned to the meeting.

Han Yong-seon also looked bewildered, but he nodded as though he understood.

“The number of Arsilan Saga users passed two billion a long time ago, and didn’t the Episode 6 Liberation War achieve the highest viewership in Earth’s history?”

“More than half of Earth’s population watched it.”

“At that scale, of course everyone would be interested in the Episode 7 announcement.”

The other employees nodded at Han Yong-seon’s words.

The number of Heroes alone had already surpassed two billion, and people could now connect even from various countries where Arsilan Saga had previously not been available. The entire world was gradually being united through Arsilan Saga.

Jinwoo had been so focused on Arsilan that he had grown numb to the constantly rising numbers. After hearing the employees talk about it, the scale of it finally began to sink in.

Earth’s current population was 8.2 billion. One-fourth of humanity was enjoying Arsilan Saga, and the number was still increasing. Even if Jinwoo started broadcasting out of nowhere, hundreds of millions of people would watch, and even if he merely announced a new version of the Soul Link, they would not be able to keep it in stock.

‘I really am ruling Earth.’

He was practically the ruler of Earth. His influence was far greater than that of the President of the United States. He even monopolized energy through nuclear fusion, so it was no different from having the entire world on a leash.

There had been some concerned voices, but he had never once abused his position for excessive profit and had instead shared the benefits with everyone. Some people had even begun calling him a ‘kind and friendly ruler’.

Jinwoo fell into thought for a moment before nodding.

“With this much interest, we should do it offline after all. There’s still quite a while before the reveal, so let’s make a plan.”

“Understood. Then where will you hold it?”

Jinwoo grinned at Han Yong-seon’s question.

“We’ll choose one. Like selecting the host city for the Olympics.”

“Oh!”

“Damn!”

“Oho!”

“I can’t wait to see the reactions!”

Selecting the venue for the Episode 7 reveal!

This, too, would become entertaining content for the Heroes.

*****

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