BXBX NOVEL Chapter 146: Black Palace – 1
No, wasn’t it natural? Compared to last time, the number of dungeons that would occur had risen unpredictably, so there wasn’t anything odd about one being created here in Seongbuk-gu. But, thanks to that, I now had to face the situation here with both my eyes.
“It’s a battlefield…” Collapsed and burnt buildings weren’t an uncommon sight thanks to the Chaos Soul invasions, but the war between the humans was so devastating that it made those previous battles look like a joke.
“You knew Korea would be involved.”
“But…”
[The reconstruction work must be a big deal.]
“…What happened to Erkindra?”
“Go. We’ll take care of the dungeon.” My sister shook her head and muttered that she wouldn’t go.
“I don’t think I’ll return if I go. They need my help, but if I see them…”
“It’s okay.”
“But I’ve already chosen to be next to you.” I stroked her head a couple of times, filled with gratitude and concern, before dividing up my personnel. My sister and I, Mireina and Cain, and Lee Chan-yu and Katsuragi. After figuring out our groups, I sent the other teams to take care of other nearby dungeons.
“If you find a fallen, explain first. If they attack you after that, it’s alright to fight back. You can also bring them to me. You have Lunatic Trickster planted inside of you in case of a difficult situation. It will activate and bring me to you in that event. Understood?”
“Trust me and leave it to us.” If all the members of Rebellion were like Lee Chan-yu, I would have no problem.
“Ahh, why divide us up like this. It’s only me with another man…oh wait, captain!” Katsuragi was staring at Mireina with regret until he left through the gate, but that kind of behavior was exactly why he had ended up with Lee Chan-yu. I made sure to divide the groups so they would only be focused on attacking the dungeons.
“Wow, I want to be with Fate…”
“I put you with Cain exactly because you act like that.” Eventually, I was put into a position where I had to explain my reasoning.
“This is unfair! Why is Fate pretending not to like me?”
“It would be too cruel to explain it, so get started quickly.”
[I will return safely with Mireina.]
After sending them through the gate, my sister and I jumped through to our destination. Surprisingly, as we went a bit through the dungeon, we found people already in there.
“A new intruder…?”
“No, that woman… she’s the master of Erkindra!”
“Idiot, be quiet.”
“And that man…heeee!” I turned my head as the last voice reached my ears. It was that baldie I kicked down before; it seemed he was still alive.
“Escaping from the battlefield?”
“Hey…” The baldie let out a groan and nodded. The situation they faced was clear. Starting in China and the United States, like a virus, the flames of battle spread all over the world. But, they picked a poor hiding spot.
“This place is full of monsters that could take out the guys you’re hiding from with a single bite.”
“So, please…quietly…!” There had already been several victims. Those who survived remained silent in a gloomy atmosphere, stinking of the bloodshed they had run from.
“If there are any monsters nearby because of us, I will take care of them on our way.”
“No, please, stay with us. We can’t survive down here.”
“Go outside.”
“If we go outside, we will have to face the other countries. The world itself has become chaotic- all laws and morals have lost meaning.” The current society had been messed up from the start. I opened my mouth to respond to the bald man’s impudent words, but a cold voice came from beside me.
“Protect your own lives.” It was my sister.
“You? Didn’t you act blindly to save humans?” I was a bit curious of the reason myself. My former sister would’ve insisted that we save them as if it were natural. But she now ignored them, moving forward.
“Brother, we don’t have time for this.”
“…Okay.” We advanced relentlessly through the dungeon with hundreds of blackmines I had created but stopped to talk to these survivors. At my sister’s words, I nodded and followed after her.
“Please, save me!”
“Survive with your own strength. It won’t be that difficult.” The monsters around them had already been wiped out. If they weren’t satisfied with that and wanted us to take them along, they would’ve had to prove their worth long ago. As my sister said, they now had to protect themselves. Even in the most miserable environments on the planet, where there were only predators stronger than you, there was nothing you could do but struggle to survive with your strength. You weren’t entitled to beg for your life to anyone.
We moved forward behind the blackmines that chased after everything that could be devoured. Before we could reach them, all the monsters had been swallowed up by them.
“If I knew it would be like this, I would’ve gone with another team.”
“We don’t know what may be waiting for us, so don’t let your guard down.”
“Huh.” She followed after me. I smashed through the iron gate to the boss room without a key, not caring if the boss was in an enhanced state. Countless stems shot toward my head as soon as I entered but were burnt away by the shield of the Goddess’ Touch.
[Kugaaaaaah!]
“A higher entity that’s a plant?”
“Brother, be careful! There’s more than one!” In the boss room, there were at least five high-level individuals in the form of large trees. I expected it from the start, but among the monsters in the dungeon so far, this one boasted the most terrible difficulty. It was even stronger than the boss in the Black Palace.
[Kugagaga!]
[Kiaaaah!]
“We’ll need to deal with them quickly.”
“Let’s hurry up, brother. I’ll take care of one too.”
“Take the one of the far left.”
“Okay!” My sister nodded and kicked off the floor, the Wings of Jinma momentarily forming behind her back to explosively increase her speed. The sharp tree trunks rising in her path burned away all at once. I also hit the floor running.
[Kiaaaah!]
These dungeons were going out of control, threatening humanity, but it would be difficult if no humans were left in the world. Thinking it was exhausting and annoying, I swung Annihilation. The dagger drew a trajectory over two of the trees’ body, splitting them apart all at once. A thick sap began to gush out.
“Brother, that’s poisonous!”
“Alright.” A bit of high-level poison wouldn’t work on me, though I didn’t intend to test it. I used Predation to wrap around the sap flying towards me like a water cannon, placing it in a huge glass bottle I took out from my inventory. It would make a good use as materials for Lunatic Trickster later.
“It’s a waste to kill them. I have to squeeze all of it out!”
“We don’t have time!”
“To save time later, we have to spend it now!” I went to work, cutting through the trunks rising from the ground, collecting the poisonous sap that would spew out each time. After filling a reasonable amount of it in my inventory, we completely burned away the rest of them.
“It’s over…hey, the clothes you gave me got burnt a little.”
“It’s alright, it has an automatic recovery function.” After my sister broke through the last tree, the dungeon began to shake and return to mana. It was beginning to return to the underground. Particles of glowing black mana erupted around us to fill the space.
“…Are they alive?” My sister muttered while staring at the scene, and I nodded.
“More like half dead than alive, but they’re leaving right now.”
“What will we do now? Find another dungeon?”
“If we find one, I’ll go in and destroy it.”
“Sure…” She became lost in her thoughts. As I watched her, I recalled the question the man asked her earlier.
“Si-yeon, you didn’t answer than man because we didn’t have time. Why?”
Only
“Why didn’t I save them?”
“Yes.”
“I already told you, brother. I chose.” The energy inside the dungeon was reduced to mana and absorbed into my realm. I listened to her speak as we watched it before us.
“I chose you instead of all the people I could save. How many times do I have to say it?”
“…” I realized only then that the choice my sister talked about was far more valuable and irreversible than what I thought.
“…I got it. Let’s go to the next one.”
“Yes, brother.” Maybe I had distorted her will more severely than I thought. I was overwhelmed by the weight of her determination but tried to force a smile and activate the record as if everything was fine.
The dungeons we had to absorb were piled up like the mountains.