NOVGO.NET Book 2 Chapter 649
Book 2 Chapter 649
Of course, not all of them were enemies of Residue.
There were two blades rushing toward him, one tinged with a reddish hue and the other with a bluish hue. In other words, they were the swords of the Red Knight and the Blue Knight, and the situation had suddenly escalated into receiving simultaneous attacks from two of the Four Knights, making his entire body break out in goosebumps.
He tried to use One Step Through Time and Space once again, but there were those who interfered from both sides.
Kaang!
One was Yang In-hyun, and the other was a black-haired man he didn’t recognize.
That is, the man who had been standing somewhere between the Blue Knight and Luca. But upon closer look, his face seemed somewhat familiar. More than anything, the external force he was radiating belonged to a Demon God.
Residue, who had been thinking for a moment, brightened and said.
“You, you’re that guy. The demon hunter who was on Earth. The human who was kidnapped by the Black Horned Demon God.”
“…Lukas?”
Only then did the man look at him with surprised eyes. Seeing that he recognized ‘this body’, Residue was convinced his guess was right.
Residue smirked and said.
“So, you resisted the Demon God’s brainwashing? An extraordinary mental strength. Impressive. Though you do seem a little unstable……”
“……”
He appeared too busy fending off the Blue Knight’s attacks to respond. Residue, knowing that, still didn’t stop talking.
“But I can’t seem to remember your name. What was it again?”
“Kran.”
With that brief reply, Kran’s figure disappeared. It was to focus all his efforts on fighting the Blue Knight.
Ah, right. That was his name. Residue, now alone, nodded and observed the unfolding situation.
Yang In-hyun and the Red Knight.
Kran and the Blue Knight.
Two unexpected battles had begun simultaneously.
Residue was about to join the chaos of battle, but for some reason, he halted his movements and slowly smiled.
“…This isn’t bad.”
“What isn’t?”
The sudden voice belonged to Luca.
Residue’s gaze shifted to the girl. He had seen her fight earlier from outside. No. That couldn’t be called a fight.
“Luca.”
“Yes!”
“Once this battle is over, it’d be best for you to separate from this body.”
“…!”
Luca's eyes widened in shock. And belatedly, she realized that the look in Residue’s eyes was a bit cold.
Her heart sank. She hadn’t exactly expected praise… or had she? At any rate, she’d done her best to block the Blue Knight. She had thought he might pat her on the head like usual, or even give her a playful smack… ṚåΝỌꞖЁṩ
Residue passed the confused Luca and walked over to Michael.
“How does the situation look, Michael?”
“Interesting.”
Michael narrowed his eyes as he observed the chaos.
“Objectively speaking, those two’s power levels fall short compared to the Four Knights. In fact, before you arrived, the Everlasting Plum Sword couldn’t even stand up to the Red Knight, who wasn’t using full strength. …But now a proper fight has been established."
Though, of course, the other side still held more than seventy percent of the advantage.
Michael added this softly, then pondered the reason why. Seeing this, Residue laughed.
“It’s simple. They’re keeping each other in check.”
“Keeping the enemy in check is to be expected…”
“I’m not talking about the enemy. The Four Knights. Because they feel discomfort in each other’s presence, their actions are being limited.”
“……”
Michael looked at the battlefield again.
And once he did so with that perception in mind, he could indeed detect something unnatural in the movements of the Red Knight and the Blue Knight.
“Why is that?”
“There could be several reasons. The repercussions when their powers collide, the lack of cooperative battle experience…”
“……”
“In any case, since this is how things stand, it opens the possibility of adjusting the plan in a favorable direction. Michael. You’ll have to take on an important role.”
Michael spoke with a half-resigned look.
“What is it this time?”
“Adjust the space so that the distance between the two battles doesn’t widen. No matter the situation, the distance between the Blue Knight and Red Knight must not exceed ten meters. If the adjustment fails, within three seconds the heads of the Everlasting Plum Sword and the hunter will fly off.”
“They can’t possibly be defeated in just three seconds…”
“They will be. Those guys will unleash the power of the Four Knights the moment they secure a safe distance. From the looks of it, the Everlasting Plum Sword doesn’t seem fully completed, and the hunter doesn’t appear to have the full support of the ‘Demon God’ either.”
Frankly speaking, three seconds was already being generous.
“…Of course, even if we manage to maintain that gap, it doesn’t mean we can win in the end. The Four Knights are likely learning about cooperative tactics with every passing moment. Even if we buy some time, we’ll ultimately lose.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“This body has a plan.”
Residue did not explain that plan. After patting Michael on the shoulder, he turned his back.
Then he strode over to Beniang.
Beniang, tied to something resembling a cross, was watching him with a disturbed expression. When their eyes met, she subtly averted her gaze.
Paak.
“Ggh.”
Annoyed by that reaction, he smacked her on the head.
And before Beniang could say anything while looking at him with a resentful expression, he spoke first.
“Stupid. Did you not even listen to what this body said? I told you to think, not to obediently offer up your neck.”
“…You didn’t even respond when I said something. And why do you always hit me whenever we meet?”
“‘This body’ is telling me to hit you.”
“Don’t lie. Master never adds violence to his teachings.”
“Hmph. I know him better than you do.”
At least a thousand times better.
“If you want to die.”
Residue spoke slowly while surveying the area around them.
The place where Beniang was tied was a plaza-like spot in the center of the city. Where a fountain or something should have stood, there was a large cross, and she was bound to it.
Around the cross stood tall walls like barricades, and beyond them, the figures of Absolutes could be seen writhing.
There were even a few familiar faces among them.
“First of all, let me tell you that they are not qualified to be the ones to bring about your death.”
“…You need qualifications to be someone’s cause of death?”
“Of course you do. There are two types of death. A meaningful death and a meaningless death. And from this body’s perspective, the deaths of trash should never carry meaning. Conversely, if the person was of worth, the world has a duty to remember that death for a certain period.”
Beniang blinked.
“…Then, what if the person wasn’t just worthy but a hero?”
“……”
“If it was a hero who lived their entire life not for themselves but for others, how long should the world remember that person?”
“Such people generally do not remain in history.”
Residue said coldly.
“That’s how it usually goes. You must have learned that through the memories you gained after becoming a ‘dragon’, so you can’t deny it.”
“……”
“But, when their deeds are passed down from mouth to mouth by those who knew them, and the legacy continues faintly, there comes a time when it suddenly spreads explosively across the world.”
Residue raised the corner of his mouth.
“That’s how legends are born.”
“……”
“Your death may not reach the level of a legend, but it does hold some value worth remembering. But them?”
Residue’s gaze turned toward the Absolutes.
“Have you thought about why those people want to kill you? To make Paradise more beautiful… I hope you didn’t believe such nonsense literally.”
“……”
“Hey, dragon.”
Residue spoke, for the first time in a long while, as someone who was once a Ruler.
“Those people will not remember your death. They won’t assign any meaning to it either. In fact, they’ll struggle to forget it. Because every one of them is an Absolute. Do you still not understand what that means?”
“……”
“To us, they might seem like weaklings. Beings who can’t even be clearly distinguished from other mortals. But how does the world view Absolutes? Why were those bastards even called Absolutes in the first place? Remember this. Those people have no right to complain to anyone. If they lacked even that level of resolve, none of them would’ve become Absolutes.”
Beniang looked bewildered.
Only now did Residue start to grasp the cause of her confusion.
The memories of the Seven Fanged Dragon God, the personality of Beniang Argento, and the intermingled sense of self.
The absence of her master, the emergence of Destruction… If, in such confusion, the messengers of the Top Universe had appeared, perhaps she couldn’t have made the right choice.
“I’ll give you a much simpler option now. If you still want to die, this body will gladly kill you. I’ll even extract the external force your corpse leaves behind and put it to very efficient use, and I’ll remember you for as long as possible.”
“……”
“But if you don’t want to die just yet, break those chains with your own hands.”
This time, he didn’t leave after finishing what he had to say.
After finishing his words, Residue quietly stared at Beniang. Soon, her lips slowly parted.
“Yes.”
As soon as he received that answer, he headed toward the Absolutes.
Crackle─
At the very front row were the faces of those who had led the Council of Absolutes. Gamzard, whom Residue had smashed to pieces, was there as well.
These foolish and weak bastards couldn’t even register Residue’s movements with their eyes and only realized he was there when he was already right in front of them, their faces snapping into surprised expressions.
“……! Y-you’re still alive after all…!”
“Ah, yes. One hole in the chest isn’t enough to kill this body, after all.”
“……”
“I wonder what the reason was for such a sloppy finish. I doubt you suddenly developed some sense of mercy…”
Residue said with a mocking smile.
“To use a giant’s heart for the sun, dragon’s scales for the night… then what did you intend to do with this body’s thunder? Weather control? Power source?”
In the end, they must have planned to recycle Residue the same way they did Beniang.
Throwing him into the Underground City with a hole in his chest was no different than the process of hanging a beast’s corpse after puncturing it, to drain the blood.
"You worthless trash not even worth grinding up. You threw this body into the Underground City by your choice. So are you satisfied with the current result?"
“……”
“Maybe you are- for now. I don’t expect much from you, but perhaps you’re feeling a bit uneasy. But this body will not give you time to dwell on that.”
Residue smirked crookedly and pointed toward the battlefield where the Four Knights were locked in a bloody fight.
“Here’s a little quiz. Another of the Four Knights, the Blue Knight, has descended all the way to the Top Universe. Why do you think that is?”
No one answered.
Crackle!
So he threatened them with the thunder.
The Absolutes flinched. Then Perus, standing at the very front, answered with a stiff face.
“We… don’t know.”
“There’s no way you don’t know. You just don’t want to think about it. Fool. Fine. If that’s your answer, then this body will kindly inject the truth into you. Even with brains just slightly better than pig slop, you must know about the relationship between the Four Knights and the Rulers, right?”
Residue’s insults crossed the line, but the Absolutes couldn’t even muster a proper response.
They had been utterly overwhelmed by him long ago.
Residue continued speaking with a cheerful smile.
“Even calling it ‘worst’ isn’t enough. But even among them, the depth of their resentment varies. For example, the Red Knight, who is cooperating with the Top Universe, once even worked with the Sun God. To put it in a way your tiny brains can understand, he’s the ‘moderate’ among the Four Knights.”
Then he pointed to the Blue Knight.
“And the woman who has now invaded Fortress City is an uncontrollable mad dog whose hatred for the Rulers and the Absolutes pierces the heavens and goes beyond.”
“…No way.”
Gamzard spoke with a pale face.
“Are you saying the Blue Knight came here to kill us…?”
And then, the one who had most directly caused the Blue Knight’s arrival to this place clicked his tongue in feigned regret.
It was an incredibly shameless expression.
“If you were going to use a Ruler’s corpse as decoration, you should’ve been prepared for this much.”
“That can’t be. The barrier of the Top Universe is perfect. Even if it’s one of the Four Knights, they wouldn’t be able to know what’s happening inside this city…”
“Puhaha… what a pathetic display of denial. Wasn’t it you lot who brought an outsider into that impregnable barrier in the first place?”
Perus faltered for a moment before speaking.
“Are you saying the Red Knight is the one who revealed this information?”
“By coincidence, this body doesn’t have much connection with the Red Knight. I have no idea what that guy is thinking.”
Throwing one stone had caused a much bigger ripple than expected.
As expected, even if they had borrowed his power, their fundamental unease toward the existence of the Four Knights hadn’t disappeared.
A few even nodded slightly as if to say, “It makes sense.”
‘As expected.’
These bastards, having developed such a closed-off disposition, seemed to have stopped collecting information from the Outside as well.
“Was the preamble too long? Then let me give you the real quiz now.”
Residue smiled faintly and raised one finger.
“When the Blue Knight over there kills the Everlasting Plum Sword and the hunter, and then tries to grind this entire Top Universe to dust, will the Red Knight really draw his sword to protect you? Like this body did?”
“……!”
“The Blue Knight is always sincere and never compromises. It’s impossible to persuade her with words. Once she decides to destroy something, she will absolutely do it. Which means, if the Red Knight wants to stop her, he’ll literally have to risk his life. Now… even with an order from the Half King, would the Red Knight actually do that?”
“……”
“You’d best think this through carefully before reaching a conclusion.”
Residue now erased the smile from his face.
And with a lowered voice, he said,
“This is the last chance this body is giving you.”
“A last chance…?”
“A chance to return this place to a sanctuary instead of a paradise. In other words, a chance to correct your mistake.”
The Absolutes stirred greatly.
They exchanged glances, quietly discussing among themselves.
Kwaang!
Even in that moment, the battle continued. Each time the two Knights unleashed their aura, the inner conflict among the Absolutes grew even deeper.
The first to fully sense that unrest were the representatives of the Council of Absolutes.
“…Are you saying you’ll protect us?”
“It’s a simple deal. You follow this body’s command, and in return, this body will drive out those two Knights.”
“What do you want us to do?”
Perus asked in a tone that had shifted before anyone realized it.
At that expected and desired reaction, Residue pointed toward the sky.
“Drop the sun.”
“…What?”
“Perform the requiem with your own hands. Lay to rest one who was once a Ruler.”
Then he looked up toward the sky he had pointed to.
If the funeral were performed directly by the hand of an Absolute, even that blunt guy might be slightly pleased.
But that was merely a bonus.
Residue’s true goal lay elsewhere.