Chapter 438 : Temple (1)
Alon looked toward the temple located far in the distance.
A building constructed of red bricks, standing in the middle of a desolate world.
It clearly possessed the form of a temple on the outside, yet in reality it was closer to ruins.
Red moss clung between the broken pillars, and from the cracked ground, red grass was growing as well.
However, regardless of how it appeared on the outside, Alon could not easily let his guard down.
Because he felt it instinctively.
That there was something inside that temple.
And the closer they got to the temple, Alon’s intuition turned into certainty.
“......This.”
“It’s the thing we saw in the territory.”
Alon looked around the surroundings of the temple.
There, red eggs existed.
Shaped slenderly like ant eggs, tens of thousands of red eggs stretched endlessly from far away.
A bizarre sight.
However, for those who knew the identity of the red eggs, it was nothing but an endlessly unpleasant and disgusting scene, and within it Alon quietly ordered.
“Evan, Penia. I’ll walk from here, so fall back.”
“You’re going alone, Lord Alon!?”
“That looks far too dangerous.............”
Seeing the ominous scenery, the two expressed their concern.
However, Alon shook his head.
“It’s fine. If it becomes truly dangerous, I’ll escape immediately. So once I get down, withdraw to the rear.”
Reminding them once more, he opened the carriage door.
At that moment.
“I’ll go with you too.”
“......Yutia?”
“I don’t want to send you alone, My Lord.”
Yutia grabbed him.
“Hmm... it looks more dangerous than I expected.”
“Even so.”
Yutia smiled brightly.
However, seeing the determination contained within that smile, Alon thought for a moment before saying.
“Alright....... then let’s prepare a bit before going.”
He accepted Yutia’s words.
A moment later.
“Lord Alon, have a safe trip!”
[Krr-!]
After confirming the carriage moving away with Blackie’s cry remaining alongside Penia.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
Alon and Yutia cautiously began walking toward the temple.
The closer they approached the temple, the more the red eggs filled their vision.
“I’m certain there isn’t supposed to be a territory here.”
When Alon muttered the information he had previously heard from Evan, Yutia, who was walking beside him, spoke.
“I think they probably brought them here.”
“......Brought them?”
“Yes. Those eggs did exist in the territory too, but there weren’t that many, right?”
Alon quietly nodded.
The number of eggs in the territories they had passed through until now was far too small to explain the residents transforming due to the power of divine-blood.
But at the same time, a question rose.
‘Is there really a need to gather the eggs?’
As far as Alon knew, these red eggs were clearly part of the process through which divine-blood turned humans into ‘tools.’
A process that robbed them of intelligence and reduced humans into nothing more than tools to obtain faith.
In other words, if Alon’s understanding was correct, there seemed to be no need to move these eggs here.
‘.......What exactly is happening?’
Before they knew it, they had arrived in front of the temple.
Alon looked at the temple with a stiff expression.
Like a colony that had formed, the temple was filled with red eggs attached everywhere.
“Let’s go up.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
Carefully stepping onto the red temple, Alon quietly began forming hand seals inside his pocket.
He was already sensing it.
The aura of divine-blood clearly emanating from inside this temple.
Thus, keeping the hand seals ready so he could respond at any time, he headed toward the interior of the temple.
After quite some time walking silently through the crimson darkness.
Alon and Yutia reached the center of the temple, where the sky above was open.
The first thing Alon saw there was a gigantic sphere.
A massive red sphere so immense that simply looking at it felt overwhelming, as if all the energy of this world had gathered into one place.
“..?”
And in front of that sphere, Alon saw a human floating low in the middle of the temple.
“......!”
—No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t.
Alon corrected his own thought.
That wasn’t human.
Its back looked similar to a human’s.
Unlike the grotesque divine-blood beings he had seen until now, the figure was clearly close to human in appearance.
However, Alon realized it immediately.
That thing was divine-blood.
And moreover—
“...?”
It possessed a power stronger than any being he had encountered so far.
And the moment he realized that fact.
“Hm?”
The man—no, the divine-blood—who had been silently gathering the red sphere in the center of the temple until just now, turned around.
Just like his back, his outward appearance resembled a human.
But at the same time, it was unmistakably different.
Right on the left side of his face—
“What the?”
—two grotesque red eyeballs were writhing and moving.
And the moment those chilling eyes looked at Alon.
“Huh?”
A small exclamation slipped from the divine-blood’s mouth.
As if the situation itself was extremely surprising, the divine-blood rolled the eyeballs—one on one side and three on the other—while looking at Alon and Yutia.
“This is seriously fascinating.”
Soon he muttered in delight.
“Seriously, the Star Eater came here? It’s like—”
His lips twisted upward.
“As if you came so I could kill you comfortably.”
***
Rumors spreading among the divine-blood varied greatly in speed.
Of course, it was the same among humans, but among the divine-blood the difference was far more extreme.
That was because the groups of divine-blood who had descended upon the surface were each divided into hostile factions.
Even the types of factions were extremely diverse.
Those belonging to the four strongest factions.
Those who formed groups with personal goals.
And those with entirely different objectives, as well as divine-blood who belonged nowhere and remained hidden.
Because of this, rumors among the divine-blood sometimes spread easily—and sometimes didn’t spread at all.
The rumor that the Star Eater could absorb the abilities of divine-blood and distribute them had not yet spread widely.
On the contrary, one recent incident among the divine-blood had spread extremely quickly.
That incident was this.
The death of the Father of Maggots, who could be considered the loyal retainer of the Rotting Mouth, after being unilaterally attacked by divine-blood.
If it were another rumor it might have been different, but the fact that the leader of the Rotting Mouth’s faction—essentially a being belonging to the first stage—had died spread instantly.
And that rumor soon reached the ears of Burned Vegetation in the Allied Kingdom Alliance.
—[Hmm, this isn’t good.]
At those words, the divine-blood all nodded their heads.
Naturally, several meanings were contained within his statement.
The first was merit.
Until now, Burned Vegetation had been steadily building trust by protecting the Allied Kingdom Alliance while constantly appealing themselves to the divine-blood who had quickly joined Star Root and to the Star Eater.
However, what Darkness-Devouring Sword and the lower-ranked members of Star Root had accomplished this time was essentially something that could surpass Burned Vegetation’s achievements.
Because there was an obvious difference between dealing with enemies endlessly pouring in—and eliminating the cause itself so that enemies would have no reason to come.
[Tch—those damned lower-ranked bastards!]
[How dare they try to cut in line!]
“They didn’t try—they already did! With things turning out like this!”
The divine-blood gathered around Burned Vegetation fumed in anger.
In some ways, their anger was justified.
No one here had failed to notice Darkness-Devouring Sword’s intentions.
[As expected, they have no sense of fair conduct.]
[I think so too. Tch, to commit such a ridiculous act.]
[But now the bigger problem comes next. What should we do now? They’ll probably come rushing in seeking revenge after losing the Father of Maggots.]
At one divine-blood’s words, Burned Vegetation lightly nodded.
The second reason this incident was bad was that the probability of war had increased.
There were several reasons why the divine-blood had not touched the Father of Maggots.
The first was his strength—he could laugh while facing one or two divine-blood alone.
The second was that he was favored by the Rotting Mouth.
And the third was that everyone understood easily that killing him would trigger a war.
In other words, Darkness-Devouring Sword had essentially eliminated the fundamental cause of the divine-blood coming here—but at the same time, it was no different from starting a war.
Thus, just as they were worrying about this.
[....Ahem.]
Burned Vegetation, who had been deep in thought, cleared his throat.
All attention instantly focused on him.
Confirming the gathered gazes, Burned Vegetation slowly opened his mouth.
[To begin with, I believe this is actually an opportunity.]
The divine-blood immediately began murmuring among themselves.
[How could this possibly be an opportunity? Darkness-Devouring Sword already killed the Father of Maggots and monopolized the merit while we’re the ones stuck with the losses.]
As the natural objection arose, Burned Vegetation calmly continued.
[What has already happened cannot be helped. Darkness-Devouring Sword and the lower-ranked Star Root members have already dealt with the Father of Maggots.]
[Then isn’t it over?]
[No, it isn’t.]
[Why not?]
[Isn’t there the next step?]
[...Next?]
At the puzzled reactions of the divine-blood, Burned Vegetation nodded.
[Because of Darkness-Devouring Sword, divine-blood will now head here.]
[...............So you’re saying we fill our merit by stopping them? Honestly, since we’ve already been doing that it might be possible, but in the end we’re still bound to fall behind.]
It was a reasonable question.
However, Burned Vegetation replied with a relaxed expression.
[Certainly, if that were all, the merit would be similar.]
[....? Then?]
[But what if, instead of merely stopping them, we bring them into our faction and increase our strength?]
He said those words.
[!]
Among the divine-blood, exclamation seemed to pop above their heads instantly.
[Then this becomes the perfect opportunity. A very good chance to appeal our achievements to that person.]
Burned Vegetation’s eyes flashed as a smile spread across his face.