Chapter 128. Crown of Thorns (2)

---

Kururururu.

A giant bull was rolling back and forth in the sea of lava.

Streams of lava flew around and powerful earthquakes roared.

The remaining Margoths above the Gragos were crushed between the Gragos and the Heringsen and got massacred.

If Margoths got killed off like this, it wouldn’t be much different for humans.

Everyone felt cold sweat running down their backs as they watched this scene from the head of the black lion after barely having escaped.

Since they could imagine what would’ve happened to them

‘Phew.’

But the sigh of relief was just a moment.

Everyone looked around with worrisome expressions.

A land of death.

No other words fit these lands better.

‘It’s much worse than what I’d seen from afar.’

The leader of the Okonelly clan, Akon, frowned.

Dried and cracked skin.

Dried up corpses of Margoths who starved to death from lack of body fluids and had dried from the heat of the lava.

It was a bit obvious but there was nothing they could drink.

They had been forcibly dragged into these dead lands.

“Fuck. What… What do you want us to do! By dragging us here!”

“What are you going to do?”

There were numerous complaints arousing from all around.

Though they had to escape due to the bull having rolled, they could only curse out loud from the current situation.

At that moment Akon shouted out.

“Rerorerore clan! What are you bastards thinking of! Did you guys make the bull roll?”

“What?”

As everyone turned around to look at Akon, he shouted out even louder.

“I read it before that the Gragos will roll once it starts lacking body fluids. Apparently you guys did some crazy things recently, huh?”

“…Motherfucker. You really want to trap us like this, huh.”

Gwanje made a bitter expression.

Since those words weren’t exactly wrong.

If everything played out the way the great priest wanted it to and Hansoo hadn’t blocked his plans, the Gragos would’ve long rolled on the lava from what Gwanje had done.

With all the humans on top of it.

Everyone’s expressions started to turn grim.

The fact that they had to cross over to this side did not matter that much.

The important thing was that they were currently in a grim situation and they needed someone to take responsibility for this.

And somebody for them to vent their rage on.

“You crazy bastards! What are you thinking of!”

“What happens to the ones who would come after us then? And how are we supposed to go get to the next zone!”

Numerous enraged shouted were heard from here and there.

Everyone clutched onto their weapons and started to make enraged expressions.

The impatient ones had already pulled out their trump skills and were aiming at where Hansoo and Gwanje was standing there.

An extremely dangerous situation.

At that moment.

The air ripped apart as something popped out from it.

“!!”

A very small hole that had appeared in the air.

But the people who had been watching this all froze simultaneously.

Since it was a scene they could never forget even if they hadn’t seen it for a long time.

“Fairy…”

“Fuck. When did that thing that we haven’t seen in years…”

While having had been grinding their teeth, the fairy which had popped out from the air smiled.

“Hello everyone! Anyways, I don’t know why you tiredly crawled all the way here when we created a pretty and comfortable place for you to live on hahahaha!”

If the fairy was describing the top of the Gragos as a pretty and comfortable place to live then it was definite that it lived in hell.

Since if somebody envied a location where the Margoths rampaged and where there was always an uncertainty of them falling to lava then the place they lived on must be hell.

Everyone grinded their teeth.

But countless amounts of people had gathered.

Of course there would be people who wouldn’t just stop at grinding their teeth.

And even more so if they had been enraged this far.

“Good! You fucking bitch! It’s been a while!”

One of the Okonelly clansmen who had been preparing their trump skill.

‘Huh…Ballsy.’

Akon clicked his tongue.

This guy was definitely somebody who was confident in his skills and was quite impatient.

Since he was ready to charge in first in a situation where a war-like battle was about to occur.

And befitting of a person like that, his method of shooting an arrow of rage at the fairy was ruthless as well.

‘Fucking bitch! You think we’re still bugs like back then!?’

The man, McCarlen, grinded his teeth.

He couldn’t forget when that thing had killed his friend like he was a bug back in the tutorial.

But the current him was not him of the past.

He could now easily destroy tens of thousands of people from the tutorial.

Mccarlen’s trump skill that he had been mastering for over 7 years and had been collecting in his hand, <singular red beam>, shot out into the air.

Booooom!

A single red beam of light smashed into the fairy which had been floating in the air.

A fearsome power that would smash apart any adventurer it hit.

Everyone’s expressions brightened up.

‘It hit?’

The fact that the god-like fairy could not dodge the skill encouraged them.

And McCarlen who had seen this also turned around to the people as he laughed proudly.

“You saw it! Let’s do the same for that…”

But McCarlen knew something had gone wrong instantly.

Since the people were slowly backing away.

Precisely speaking, they were backing away from him.

At that moment McCarlen felt a chill run down his back and tried to turn his head in order to see the fairy.

But he soon realized that he didn’t need to.

Since the voice was heard in his ears.

“It’s a bit of a push yet. Heehee.”

“…What?”

‘…Yet?’

McCarlen made a confused expression as he turned around.

And he froze.

Since something was much different than before.

The always laughing eyes had been raised up and the leisurely ends of the mouth had a vicious smile upon them.

“But it does piss me off a little. You see, I’m still an existence that has emotions implemented. I’ve been allowed to vent off my emotions as long as it doesn’t step over the line.”

“Uh…Uhh?”

“You should take responsibility for your actions right?’

The fairy finished speaking as it started to rip apart McCarlen who had attacked it.

From head to toe.

One bit at a time.

“Uwaaaaaaahh!”

The fairy was barely the size of McCarlen’s palm and so the amount it could grab ahold at a time was barely the size of a thumb.

And it was even more horrifying because of this.

Since the fairy had steadily shredded Mccarlen apart one part at a time while keeping him alive as much as possible.

“…Fuck.”

“Holy shit…”

Every adventurer gulped down their saliva at seeing a person getting shredded apart.

McCarlen tried to retaliate madly but it was meaningless.

Since the fairy kept on working on his body no matter what kind of attack it received.

“Fu…ck.”

McCarlen left a single cursing word as he disappeared from the world.

The fairy, who had erased McCarlen from the world, opened its mouth while being covered in blood from head to toe.

While showing off that brisk smile that it always had from before.

“Anyways the reason why I came here was… To tell you to not worry about the Dimensional Portal. Since the Dimensional Portal and the beasts for your growth had been set for you guys. Since the place you guys are living on change, we can just change that too.”

Then as the fairy snapped its fingers, a grinding noise resonated throughout the body of the black lion.

Squirm squirm.

The ground was dug out as caves that looked like dungeon entrances occurred, lakes were created and beasts filled the lands.

Kyaaaaak!

Newly-born beasts rose from the ground and things started to crawl out from between the mane of the black lion.

A god-like power.

Everyone who had seen this grinded their teeth.

‘…Not an opponent we can go against.’

But the changes didn’t stop there.

As the fairy snapped its fingers again a giant lake appeared from the ground.

A similar passageway to the Mirror they had used to get up here from the Red Zone.

“Since there are no Margoths here we will use this temporarily. I’ve made many numerous lakes like this. They would come through this for now, they’re quite lucky aren’t they? Since they won’t have to worry about getting chewed up inside the Margoth’s mouth.”

Somebody shouted out.

Since the people who would come over here weren’t the important part.

“Wait! Coming here is settled but what about leaving this place?”

The fairy laughed at those words.

“Didn’t you know that you’re supposed to find it? You just took advantage of it after your seniors found it, look for it diligently since it’s somewhere on the black lion. Oh yeah, you know that you can’t eat this monster right?”

Then the fairy disappeared.

And everyone who had been listening to the fairy were enraged.

“Fucking hell…”

It wouldn’t matter much if everything was how it had been.

Since they weren’t weaklings who had just gotten to the Orange Zone.

Since they just needed to hunt and look for the portal.

But the situation was much different.

They were about to die from starvation.

They couldn’t even survive 5 days at this rate.

The temporarily suppressed rage rose back up to the point of exploding.

“Rerorerore clan, you bastards! What are you going to do! Nothing changed!”

“Clan leader, what happened! Are those words true?”

At that moment Akon, the leader of the Okonelly clan, shouted out.

“Wait! What do you mean there’s nothing to eat. Of course there are things to eat!”

Akon then pointed towards Gwanje, Cross and the Rerorerore clan.

“Those guys are the culprits! We just need to eat them! We can hold on until we find the portal!”

Everyone made reluctant expressions at those words.

Since the idea of eating people was a bit too much even for them.

And they weren’t that hungry yet.

Akon made an annoyed expression at these scenes.

“You dumbasses! It would take at least a month to find the portal! And do you think those guys can live for a whole month without eating anything!? What would those guys try to eat!?”

Everyone’s expressions changed at those words.

If that happened then they would constantly get hunted down.

Since the individual abilities of the Cross and Rerorerore clan were much higher than theirs.

‘And…Others might be different but the Rerorerore clan might really do it.’

Since those guys were crazies even out of crazy people.

Everyone started to slowly gather around the Okonelly clan.

At that moment the leader figure of the Akarons, Oteon, shouted out.

“Calm down humans! Do you think we came here without any plans!? 3 Days! We can heal the Divine Beast, Lazar, in just 3 days! Then body fluids that we can drink will come out!”

Everyone’s expressions brightened up.

Since then there wouldn’t be a need to fight.

And since it was the Akarons, who were natives, speaking it felt quite persuasive.

While everyone was mumbling to each other, Akon got nervous.

‘Damn. This won’t do.’

He felt the eyes of Enbi Arin and others who were glaring at him.

If all the adventurers moved away then he would get destroyed.

No, getting destroyed would be the better end of the deal.

Since the previous clan leader, Ariel, was not a benevolent person in any shape or form.

Ariel befit the leader position of the third largest clan in the Orange Zone, the Okonelly clan, and had the toxicity and coldness.

‘I need to kill them first no matter what!’

Akon shouted out loudly.

“Don’t trust them! Why would they do such things for humans! Wake up!”

‘That bitch…’

Enbi Arin felt her strength and agility skyrocketing.

Tainted Emotion, her trait, was turning the rage into runes.

Because of that crazy bastard, a war was about to happen.

“What are you going to do? You should deal with this before you go do your thing.”

Hansoo looked around the surroundings and then shook his head.

“No, I can go now.”

“Mmm?”

Enbi Arin frowned at the words she couldn’t quite comprehend.

***

Akon laughed as he looked at Enbi Arin who was glaring at him.

‘You can’t attack right?’

No, them attacking him was the outcome he wanted.

After creating this atmosphere, Akon called out the person who he had newly recruited.

— Come here, there’s something you need to do.

As if he had been on standby nearby, the guy instantly came to Akon after receiving the carrier pigeon.

And laughed as he spoke.

“It seems quite urgent.”

Akon quietly mumbled at those words.

“Yeah, you’re right. You asked me before right? That you wanted to come into our clan.”

Akon then thought of when he had met this guy.

A person who had come to find him at the head of the Gragos when he himself was replacing Ariel’s position.

— It seems like you have a lot of dissatisfaction, count me in as well. I don’t really like those guys either.

He had ignored this guy back then.

Though this guy looked quite useful, he wasn’t dumb enough to invite in a mysterious and random person.

But this was the chance to use this guy.

“Oh, has the time for letting me in come already?”

Akon nodded as he mumbled very quietly so that others wouldn’t be able to hear.

“You have a guy called Wongyung that you control right? Order him to… Pretend that they’re from the Rerorerore clan and attack us. If you do this job well then I’ll let you in as quite a high position in our clan. There’re a lot of spots that need to be filled anyway.”

It would be troublesome if there are any more people who side with the Akarons.

He needed to ignite the fire when he had quite a large force and collide now.

‘If the Rerorerore clan fight first then it’ll be perfect.’

He can just cut off this guy afterwards.

Sangjin laughed as he spoke.

“Very well. I just need to attack Okonelly clansmen right?”

“Yes.”

“One happens to be right in front of my eyes. You should’ve held on a bit longer.”

“What…”

Boooom!

“…Uh?”

Akon, who had been confused from the words he had heard, suddenly felt a weird sensation that he had never felt before.

The whole world was spinning with him as the center.

Well, more like his vision as the center.

And his vision quickly blurred out.

‘What the hell happened…’

Akon focused.

And then he realized despite the blurred vision.

The sword that had cut his throat.

‘Fuck…er.’

Akon’s head spun through the air, landed on the ground and rolled away.