The King of Flies had cleared away White Night, and now he was about to start massacring the humans.
“Hmm?”
Thump… Thump… Thump…
Inside the King of Flies’s mental realm.
The old fly suddenly felt a vague vibration.
It was not from the real world. Something was shaking inside this mental realm.
“What is this, where is this vibration coming from all of a sudden…”
Rumble…
As the old fly searched for the source of the shaking sound, he slowly turned around and soon found it.
It was collapsing.
The mountain made of his kin’s corpses that had piled up behind him.
The mountain he had built by devouring their heads and leaving the bodies… began to shake slightly before violently trembling and collapsing.
Crash!
The mountain of corpses caused an avalanche, collapsing from the top down. The old fly was taken aback by the countless numbers of headless bodies pouring down.
“What is this. Why is it collapsing all of a sudden…?”
The mountain of corpses fell straight toward the old fly, who backpedaled to avoid them.
And then, at that moment.
Amid the avalanche of headless corpses pouring down like a torrential rain— that being appeared.
Emitting a brilliant darkness from its massive horns… a blood-red demon.
“What?”
It was then, as the old fly let out a perplexed groan upon seeing the being born from the collapse of the corpse mountain.
Roar!
The avalanche caught up to his backpedaling. The wave of corpses engulfed the old fly. Unable to escape, the old fly was trapped in the deluge of falling bodies.
Walking leisurely through the rain of corpses was… the being.
“…!”
The old fly realized too late.
His body was trembling.
In front of this being that had suddenly appeared in his world, causing mountains to collapse and emitting darkness… upheaving heaven and earth, the old fly felt an instinctual fear.
“Who are you… Who are you?!”
The old fly shouted out.
Then the demon replied.
“The owner of that scepter.”
“…!”
“I’ve come to reclaim what was lent to you, former King of Flies.”
The old fly looked down at the scepter in his hand, trembling, and faced the demon.
The demon extended its hand and flicked it lightly.
“Hand it over to us. Both the scepter and the throne.”
“You, by what right, to claim my sovereignty!”
“Yours?”
The demon murmured softly.
“That’s impossible. That sovereignty, too— was merely lent to you by these.”
A pitch-black hole opened on the ground behind the demon, and black figures sprang up like a fountain.
They were heads.
The heads of his kin that the old fly had devoured.
Rising from the depths of the mental realm, the heads combined with the headless bodies falling from the sky, becoming whole flies that flapped their wings and landed on the ground.
“…”
The old fly watched this scene in stunned silence.
Headless bodies pouring down from the high mountaintop. And headless bodies rising from the abyss.
Like a puzzle, the flies interlocked in midair, becoming one and orderly lining up behind the demon.
Tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions…
Faced with the endlessly growing army of kin he had devoured one by one, the old fly was frozen.
“These creatures, daring… not knowing their place and plotting a rebellion…”
“This is not a rebellion.”
The demon kept advancing towards the old fly without stopping and whispered.
“Simply restoring the rights that should have been enjoyed, to their rightful place… a restoration.”
“Stay away!”
The old fly desperately slammed the scepter to the ground.
But— nothing happened.
Only then did the old fly realize. Everything in this mental realm had been taken by the demon before him.
The fact that the world he thought was his… could change owners so easily.
“I will not… I will not be taken down like this…!”
The old fly tried to turn and run away. He planned to escape this place first and then think of the next step. However.
Thunk-
The moment he turned around, the sound of something being pierced echoed.
“…Huh?”
The old fly slowly looked down at his chest.
-A red arm.
Like new life emerging from a cocoon, a solid red arm… had pierced through the King of Flies’s chest, protruding forward.
“Wha…?!”
Spitting blood, the old fly managed to turn his trembling head to look back.
The demon had silently approached and penetrated the old fly’s chest with one hand.
“You, not even being a fly, how dare you claim the sovereignty of our kind…”
“No. I am also a fly.”
The demon smirked.
“Perhaps everything in the world might be a fly. Don’t you think?”
“…!”
The moment he heard those words, a realization flashed through the old fly’s mind.
But the demon did not wait for him to organize his epiphany.
The demon, with the hand that had pierced the old fly’s chest, snatched the scepter and harshly pulled his arm back.
Whoosh…!
A fountain of blood gushed from the large hole in the old fly’s chest.
“Gah…”
As everything was taken from him and he fell, the old fly’s vision flashed before him.
The emaciated, festering old human priest who had fed him, caressed him, and recited verses to him.
‘Perhaps everything in the world… might have been that old priest…’
That all he thought was enlightenment might have just been the delusions of a mad fly.
That the true truth might have been elsewhere.
Thinking this too late, the old fly fell and died.
And behind that corpse… the demon finally gripped the reclaimed scepter tightly.
“…I am reborn.”
The demon slowly looked outside the mental realm.
With a gaze mixed with joy and excitement, as if reuniting with a long-lost friend.
“To bring death into your embrace.”
The demon slowly stepped into the darkness.
And-
***
“What’s this, why has it stopped again?”
I sweated seeing the King of Flies frozen in place.
After teleporting White Night away, the King of Flies had just stood there, motionless. Calming the agitated soldiers, I glared.
‘Whatever happens, this is an opportunity!’
In the end, White Night had peeled off the King of Flies’s outer layer.
Even with a simple glance, about a third of the flies that made up the King of Flies’s body had separated and disappeared along with White Night.
The King of Flies, now without its outer shell, had transformed into a state resembling a cocoon.
Now is the time to take it down…!
“Your Majesty!”
At that moment, a voice called out to me from the direction of the collapsed wall.
Turning around, it was Lilly, leading the alchemists, and Hannibal, leading the elementalists. I nodded.
“Lilly, Hannibal. Are you ready to resume the operation?”
“We’ve barely managed to recover the artifacts…!”
“We’ve also resummoned the spirits! We can continue the operation, Your Majesty!”
Lilly and Hannibal said in succession. I nodded again.
These two teams were originally on standby atop the walls, preparing to deliver a blow to the King of Flies.
But the walls had crumbled, and in the rush to evacuate, the prepared artifacts were damaged, and the summons of the spirits were dispelled — a disaster had occurred.
Fortunately, the personnel were safe, and they were finally ready to resume the operation. After making eye contact with them, I shouted.
“Good! Operation Winter Calling, let’s start again…”
It was the moment I was about to order the resumption of the operation.
Sssss…
Suddenly, I got goosebumps on my shoulder.
A chillingly malevolent energy rose up like dawn fog. Everyone at the site turned their heads towards the source of this evil energy in unison.
It was the King of Flies.
From that cocoon-like monster, a terrifyingly chilling energy was emanating without any movement.
“Everyone on guard! Stay alert— The enemy is plotting something-!”
Evangeline, with her shield in front, shouted, and all the troops tensed up, watching the King of Flies while.
Crack…
A sound of something splitting was heard.
It was the sound of the King of Flies’s cocoon-like body splitting open in the middle.
‘…What.’
Crack crack, as the center of the cocoon opened up, I gritted my teeth and groaned in frustration.
‘What is this doing now…?!’
Creeeak-!
A pair of red hands burst through the chest of the cocoon.
Those hands, with five human-like fingers, slowly grabbed the cocoon shell and then forcefully ripped it open left and right.
Crash!
The cocoon shell split completely to both sides, and a new monster, having completed its metamorphosis, slowly walked out.
Step. Step. Step.
“…”
Amid a chilling silence, the sound of its footsteps was clearly heard.
It was a fly. A fly, yet at a glance, it resembled a humanoid monster.
It stood on two legs, and its four arms were muscular. In its central right hand, it held a jewel-studded scepter — a scepter unlike any seen before.
A pair of wings neatly laid back, with a thin membrane stretched long like a cloak between them.
Its entire body was red, and atop its head, a massive horn protruded, emitting a dense darkness.
At a glance, it looked as if it were whipping long hair around.
Compared to the original King of Flies, it was a puny monster, yet still vastly larger than a human. Just a bit larger than an airship in size.
“I have been longing to meet you, player.”
It looked at me with its red compound eyes. For some reason, I thought its gaze seemed gentle.
I glared at it, spitting out my words.
“Who are you.”
“…I have forgotten my name.”
The monster then corrected itself.
“No, I had to forget.”
“What?”
“Because you always find a way to defeat me, player. Once my name is set, and my identity defined, you will find a way to defeat me again.”
The monster looked down at its body and muttered.
“So, to beat you, I had to forget my name first.”
“…”
“I was torn to pieces inside this fly and reassembled anew. Now, I remember neither my name, my way of speaking, my habits, nor anything.”
The monster then looked at me with a distant gaze.
“But… yes, this is certain. I was born to meet and contend with you. I have lived only for that purpose.”
“…”
“And finally, now is the moment.”
Its wings spread to either side, and it gently floated into the air.
“My entire life was for this moment…!”
To my troops readying their weapons for battle, I shouted.
“Don’t overthink it. This is the King of Flies’s final phase!”
Its total power is waning.
The King of Flies is ultimately a collective of the fly species. As the number of flies composing its body decreases, it naturally weakens.
Having carelessly scattered flies throughout the battle and having its hatcheries destroyed, its forces have significantly diminished.
Moreover, the flies absorbed in this world were taken by White Night and fell into the spirit realm.
Its current total power is significantly weakened.
Even if its form has changed, nothing else has.
‘We can definitely face it head-on!’
Even if it’s not enough…!
I gritted my teeth.
“To protect this world, we must kill it here…!”
We must win!
Raising the flag, I called out.
“All troops, commence battle-!”
With my shout, my remaining heroes and soldiers.
And the surviving flies charged at each other to the death.
–TL Notes–
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