Chapter 1142: 129. Blocking

Muen looked at Miss Dragon’s back. Countless words gathered in his mouth, but in the end, he could not even spit out a single one.

What was he supposed to say? Stop Miss Dragon?

But why should he stop her? What position did he have, what method did he have, to stop her?

Although Miss Dragon had not explained it in detail, now that things had come this far, how could he not know exactly where her terrifying, fearsome name had come from?

Dragon of Death and Doom.

Natural disaster.

Destroyer.

Slaughterer.

Destroyer of nations.

For a thousand years, this giant dragon who drifted outside human civilization had accumulated countless evil names. In almost every story, she was the final villain feared by people, spat on by people, and continuously defeated by fabricated heroes.

But was what she did really nothing more than meaningless slaughter?

No.

For example, when she had entered Belrand before, although she had caused an enormous disturbance, she had not harmed even a single innocent person.

She was not carrying out slaughter without a purpose. This could be seen from the attitude the Church, the old little girl, and the upper ranks of all human factions had toward her. They knew about her actions and had always been tacitly allowing those actions to happen.

—Clearing Pollution from this world. That was probably what Miss Dragon had always been doing.

The kingdoms destroyed in legends.

Tars, which had vanished into history.

And... this place, Annabawei.

There was only one reason they had been targeted by this natural disaster... They were Polluted.

The Pollution of the Evil Gods was hidden beneath the bright and beautiful exterior of these countries, these cities. If it was not completely cleared away, it could cause enormous harm to the entire world.

Of course Muen knew this. By now, he could already be counted among the group of people in this world who understood Evil Gods the most.

Even from Muen’s current perspective, using complete destruction to clear away this Pollution was indeed the most correct method.

He was not a softhearted person, not an indecisive person, and even less some overflowing saintly mother type.

Reason told him that Miss Dragon was right.

She was doing the correct thing.

Even though that thing... was incomparably cruel.

“So this is what the old little girl meant by those words?”

Muen thought of what the old little girl had said to him before and laughed at himself.

At that time, he had not paid much attention to it. He had thought himself to have already experienced most of the terror and cruelty in this world.

But only now did he realize that what truly made people suffer in this world was not pity for innocent people who were about to die.

It was the complete helplessness of facing this kind of situation—one that was incomparably correct, yet made people suffer unbearably.

Who was wrong?

Was the killer wrong? No. She was protecting this world.

Were the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} ones being killed wrong? No. They only wanted to live.

No one was wrong...

“Muen?”

Marcie sat on the ground with her upper body leaning back. With every step Miss Dragon took forward, she retreated madly.

Her intuition told her that this red-haired woman was dangerous, extremely dangerous. The aura on her body... was exactly the same as that monster in the sky just now.

In despair and fear, she could only subconsciously place her hope on the person she had relied on during this time.

“M-Muen, save us...”

“...”

But what she saw was only Muen’s lowered head.

Seeing this, the light in Marcie’s eyes dimmed bit by bit, and the corner of her mouth stiffly pulled into a self-mocking curve.

Being so close, she had heard all of the conversation just now. Clever as she was, she had also roughly analyzed the full picture of the situation.

She lowered her head and looked at her own hand.

Beneath her skin, something was wriggling. She heard the sound of flesh tearing, heard the sound of bones growing, but she did not feel the slightest pain.

Even as she sat leaning back on the ground and retreated, her palm rubbing against the broken stones on the ground... there was not the slightest feeling of pain either.

She knew the changes happening to her body. When she became aware of that terrifying truth, this change had begun happening at high speed.

She had been Polluted.

All of Annabawei had been Polluted.

That was right...

If that was the case, what could Muen do?

He could not do anything.

The evil believers were evil.

The Goddess of Night was evil.

Annabawei... was also evil.

This red-haired woman was doing something correct and righteous. She was destroying evil, clearing away Pollution.

Evil had to be defeated by justice.

Filth had to be cleared away by light.

This was originally a truth that existed in the world.

It was also the creed she had firmly believed in since she was small.

Only, she had never imagined that in this story where justice defeated evil, from the very beginning, they had been standing on the wrong side.

Annabawei, from the very beginning, was something that could not see the light. Because for this kind of filthy existence, light that was too scorching would burn it away completely.

Even that gentle, kind Muen, who would tell her what the outside world was like and give her delicious black bread to eat... he had also originally come here for the sake of destroying Annabawei.

This was a place that would absolutely never be accepted by the outside world, and they were destined to be the same.

This was fate.

But.

But...

“We’re not wrong either...”

Tears blurred her vision.

The sunlight was still warm.

“What did we do wrong...”

“We only wanted to live...”

“We only wanted to bathe in sunlight...”

“We only wanted... to receive the world’s love fairly.”

Amid painful murmuring, Marcie slowly rose to her feet.

She did not know how strong this red-haired woman was, but judging from the Goddess of Night and Muen’s appearances, she was very strong. She was most likely the monster in the sky just now transformed into human form, so strong that she could easily destroy all of Annabawei.

But even so, Marcie did not want to simply surrender and face destruction like this.

She was unwilling.

The people of Annabawei had pursued light for entire centuries. Now the light was right before their eyes. They had already succeeded. They should have been welcoming happiness... and now someone said they had to be destroyed. How could she accept that?

“I still haven’t... accepted the honor belonging to a hero and been recorded in Annabawei’s history books.”

“I still haven’t... let Grandma live a good life, so she doesn’t have to eat nasty potatoes and mud cakes every day anymore.”

“I still haven’t... tasted something more delicious than black bread, and I still haven’t seen what the outside world is really like.”

“I... am Pioneer Marcie. I am a Pioneer who moves forward bravely... I won’t admit defeat!”

Marcie gripped the hoe tightly. Her whole body was trembling, yet she still forced herself to straighten her back and face the humanoid giant dragon walking slowly toward her.

Hamreign glanced at her once and did not take her seriously. In Hamreign’s eyes, Marcie did not even count as an ant. As for what that little mouth was clacking on about, she was too lazy to listen.

She continued forward. The position at the center of this valley was not bad. If she released magic there, she should be able to wipe them all out in one move, saving herself quite a bit of effort.

Ding.

Suddenly, something shot over, only to be bounced away by an invisible wall when it was about half a meter from Hamreign.

It was an almost rusted longsword. After the sneak attack failed, it spun and stabbed into the earth. Its owner was extremely fast, appearing in the field almost in a few flashes. He grabbed the longsword and blocked Hamreign’s path.

It was Alan.

“Evil dragon!”

Alan held the sword, the tip turned toward Hamreign.

“I have finally seen you again!”

Beneath the faceplate, Alan’s expression was excited, without the slightest trace of confusion remaining.

He had remembered. After seeing that thing in the sky just now, he had remembered everything.

Outside that fog, he had seen that pitch-black giant dragon wandering and searching for Annabawei. But at that time, he had not even had the courage to draw his sword. As Annabawei’s First Pioneer, he could only run away in a hurry with his tail tucked between his legs.

And now, he once again stood before the evil dragon.

This time, he would not run away again.

“Come, evil dragon. I will not retreat again! And I will absolutely not let you destroy Annabawei!”

“...”

Hamreign still ignored him.

This ant was a little larger, but it was still only an ant. He still could not enter her eyes.

Tap, tap, tap...

Another burst of chaotic footsteps sounded.

More Pioneers also hurried over one after another. Although they still did not know the current state of the situation, they had already keenly sensed that Hamreign had come with ill intent. She was an enemy.

So they also drew their weapons one after another... Pioneers never feared.

“Ah... no!”

And on the other side, the Goddess of Night, who had originally already burned out like an oil lamp, actually struggled and crawled up.

She left the divine throne and fell from the high platform. The once lofty “Goddess” was now rolling in the muddy ground mixed with blood, covered in dirt and ash, in an utterly wretched state.

But she could not care about any of that at all. With difficulty, she rose from the mud... She could no longer stand. She could only crawl along the ground, twisting like a lowly maggot.

“I beg you... Dragon Sister... Hamreign... Lady Natural Disaster... don’t...”

Tears blurred her vision, which already could not see much in the first place. She desperately wanted to grab Hamreign’s ankle, as if that could stop all of this from happening.

The scene once again became incomparably chaotic.

Even a little ridiculous.

“...”

Hamreign finally stopped walking.

Even if she did not care about ants, when a whole pile of ants surrounded her feet, it would still make her feel annoyed in the end.

Her molten-gold eyes shone brightly. That represented her will to destroy everything.

She had truly seen this kind of laughable scene far too many times...

Did they not want to die?

Then what could be done?

Who told you all... to have such bad lives?

Annoying.

“Since you insist on coming forward first to ask for special treatment, I will satisfy you.”

Hamreign gradually raised her hand, white and fair as jade, declaring the arrival of the end.

“Killing all of you first will not hinder me either.”