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Chapter 61: The Demon’s Mouth (2)

The doppelganger smirked. It had the appearance of a gnome’s body, but its joints twisted in unnatural ways. The doppelganger’s head stayed static while its body climbed around the barrier wall.

The doppelganger whispered with its characteristic sneer, “It is calling me...”

Crockta swung his greatsword again. However, the doppelganger jumped up high. It happened in an instant. The doppelganger was now looking down on Crockta from the top of the barrier sealing the Demon’s Mouth. Crockta tightened his grip on the hilt of the greatsword.

“What’s calling you?” asked Crockta.

The doppelganger opened its mouth. Crockta paused, waiting for it to speak, but the doppelganger began vomiting green fluid instead. Crockta used his greatsword as a shield to block the liquid. Most of the liquid slid across the sides of his blade and missed its mark, but some splashed onto Crockta’s shoulder and melted his skin. A sharp pain seared through his shoulder.

“Dammit!” shouted Crockta as he tried to shake off the liquid.

The doppelganger was a truly dreadful monster. Crockta decided to retreat. There was no way he could catch the doppelganger with its speed. He had to make the doppelganger come to him.

“Is this it?” Crockta pointed at the Demon’s Mouth with his greatsword. “Is this what you want?”

The doppelganger’s eyeballs began rotating. Then parts of its face began shifting. Its eyes moved downward, and its mouth went upward. Although its face turned upside down, its body didn’t move at all as if it had grown rigid. The doppelganger smirked.

Crockta raised his greatsword and turned toward the barrier wall. He began striking it, and the crack on the barrier grew deeper. Crockta continued to deepen the crack by relentlessly swinging his greatsword against it. Meanwhile, the doppelganger’s eyeballs continued to rotate without stopping.

Crockta spoke testily as if spitting something unpleasant, “Since this is what you want, I will take it.”

He pushed his Ogre Slayer into the biggest crack and twisted it, causing the barrier wall to collapse. Right when Crockta was tearing down the remains of the barrier, his heart thumped as mysterious dark energy seeped out. It was so dense and thick that he struggled to breathe.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhh!” The doppelganger suddenly screamed while charging toward Crockta.

“Bul’tar...!” Crockta swung his greatsword yet again.

This time, the blade cut through the doppelganger’s body. The doppelganger flew to the opposite side of the barrier and sagged onto the ground, whimpering. Its exposed shoulders spilled dark red blood. Crockta could now see inside the doppelganger\'s body. Its organs had a bizarre appearance, which didn’t even remotely resemble a human’s.

Then the doppelganger’s eyes turned red, and a creature that resembled a spider emerged from the doppelganger’s side. It landed on the floor and crawled toward Crockta. The spider-like creature had the face of a gnome. It widened its mouth to the extremes and shot out a secretion of green liquid.

“Ugh!” Crockta dodged.

However, the doppelganger’s secreted green liquid swooshed past Crockta and hit the Demon’s Mouth. There was an eerie sound as the darkness swarmed in at once.

Crockta doubted his eyes. Darkness was the absence of light. Yet, the darkness that had been pushed back by the light began filling every crevice and inch of the room. It appeared that the tables had been turned; the light retreated and buried itself. Crockta’s vision blurred as his surroundings grew dark.

“What is this...?” Crockta screamed as he stepped back.

The corrosive secretion spewed out by the doppelganger was melting the stand that held the belt in place. The stand crumbled away, eventually releasing the Demon’s Mouth.

The Demon’s Mouth was falling. It dropped to the ground with a clanging sound.

“...!”

In the darkness, Crockta barely managed to see that the Demon’s Mouth had begun moving. He couldn’t believe his eyes! The center of the belt, where the steel teeth were, cracked open and ground its teeth as if it needed something to chew and swallow. Additionally, it was pitch black inside its mouth.

“Kiyaaaaaahhhh...” the doppelganger let out an eerie sound. It seemed to be laughing.

Crockta was stricken with fear, as he was surrounded by two vicious monsters. He had to get out of here. Moreover, the awakened Demon’s Mouth began spewing dark energy that he couldn’t handle on his own. He felt suffocated.

“Dammit!” Crockta turned away.

He had to make a strategic retreat. Crockta ran toward the laboratory’s entrance. The doppelganger noticed that and crawled across the floor with its tentacles to thwart Crockta’s plan, sneering condescendingly as it did so.

Crockta, filled with great loathing for the creature, swung his greatsword viciously.

“Kiyaaaahhh!” The doppelganger spasmed like a bird flapping its wings and dodged the attack with remarkable speed.

Crockta kicked at the entrance door of the lab, but it refused to budge.

“Dammit!”

Then he noticed it had to be pulled open from the inside. He grabbed the doorknob and glanced at the doppelganger. It no longer paid any attention to Crockta and crawled toward the Demon’s Mouth as if possessed. Crockta bit his lips and strained to open the laboratory door. When it finally popped open, he ran outside frantically. However, as he ran, he heard painful screams all around him.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Crockta tried to ignore them. He ran like crazy and went outside. Then his mouth gaped open at the sight that was revealed to him.

It was chaos. It was hell. Gnomes’ corpses were flung into the air, while ogres wandered around with gnomes’ arms and legs stuck between their teeth. Wyverns were chewing on parts of gnomes, and the trolls bludgeoned gnomes’ corpses while giggling. Blood and flesh were scattered everywhere.

Crockta could hear screams ringing throughout the campus. He clasped his greatsword. What was going on?

Suddenly, something dropped from the sky with a thud. It was a troll. Crockta looked up at the sky and saw that wyverns were transporting monsters. He groaned. It was an unbelievable sight. In the background, he could hear gunshots from the gnome guards, but they gradually died down. When the gunshots stopped, piercing screams filled the silence.

“Crockta!” someone called out to him.

“Tiyo!”

Captain Tiyo was running toward Crockta with a rifle. “Thank heavens. You are alive!”

“What happened here?” asked Crockta.

“I don’t know! The monsters suddenly began dropping from the sky... I think they’ve gone crazy!”

Crockta furrowed his eyebrows while he listened to Tiyo. Monsters were arriving at the academy through strategic means as if something was calling out to them. Crockta became lost in thought as he looked at Tiyo’s flustered face. Everything Crockta had heard at Quantes was coming to him now.

“Lately, there’s been a downpour of monsters from the north.”

“The artifact discovered recently... is a belt called the Demon’s Mouth.”

“I heard the gnomes are debating whether to completely seal the object or to continue to research it.”

“It’s been especially weird lately. Monsters attacking Quantes is unprecedented... They have become too violent.”

“It is calling me...”

Crockta looked back at the laboratory building he had escaped from. It no longer looked like a building. Instead, it resembled a demon’s den that was consumed by darkness.

His instinct was telling him to go back. It was telling him that if he wanted to solve this situation, he had to face that thing. Yet, his feet refused to budge. He was afraid of the darkness surrounding the laboratory’s entrance.

“Crockta! Let’s get moving! We have to go!” beckoned Tiyo.

Crockta followed after him and ran out of the campus.

Crockta asked Tiyo, “Can you stop them?”

“We will mobilize all of the members of the garrison, but—!” Tiyo slurred the end of his sentence.

The gnomes had been able to ward off the monsters from the north with the city walls and the Asura Heaven-Breaking Cannon, but stopping monsters that had already entered the city wouldn’t be an easy task. The worst-case scenario could happen.

“We can only do our best,” finished Tiyo.

“Understood.” Crockta tried to ignore the foreboding feeling he had as he walked in tandem with Tiyo.

They noticed a group of gnomes in the distance who were moving along stealthily, hiding when they could. These gnomes were the academy’s researchers and security guards. Just when Crockta and Tiyo began running toward them to join them...

“Uwuhhh...!” An ogre discovered them and began charging toward them.

It smashed into the surrounding buildings as it ran and scattered huge amounts of debris everywhere. The civilian gnomes screamed. Right then, Tiyo’s rifle, the General, emitted fire. A stream of white light pierced through the ogre.

“Uwuh!” The ogre stumbled, knocking into a building.

Tiyo continued to fire his rifle, and its white beams temporarily stopped the ogre. Beads of sweat formed on Tiyo’s forehead. Unlike other magic guns that operated through magic stones, the artifact General used Tiyo’s energy and magic as its fuel. Thus, each shot he fired drained him.

Meanwhile, the civilian gnomes were in a state of confusion and didn’t know what to do. They just stood there.

Tiyo shouted at the top of his lungs, “Everyone, run!”

In response to his earnest cries, Crockta charged to take on the ogre.

“Bul’taaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!” The orc warrior’s battle cry echoed throughout the city of Quantes.

Crockta’s Crushing Roar skill squashed the ogre’s spirit and caused it to take a step back. He then leaped at the startled ogre and pierced its thick skin. The ogre collapsed. It tried to grab onto Crockta, but Crockta relentlessly stabbed the ogre over and over again. The ogre writhed in pain as it spewed blood, then it fell still.

Crockta pulled out his greatsword from the ogre’s corpse and propped it on his shoulder. Blood flowed in streams from the Ogre Slayer. The gnomes shuddered at the sight of the orc warrior covered in blood.

All of this commotion had drawn the attention of their enemies. More ogres began appearing in succession after hearing the cries of their brethren.

When they discovered Crockta standing on top of an ogre corpse, the ogres bellowed in rage, “Keeuuuhhhhh!”

The ogres charged in a frenzy, followed by trolls. Wyverns also circled the skies and drooled as they kept an eye on the tasty-looking gnomes.

Crockta couldn’t help but laugh at the ludicrousness of it all. What were their chances of winning? If they had a commander, he would be silent and wish them good luck at best. It was a war they could only lose.

“Crockta!” shouted Tiyo. He commanded, “Take the civilians and run toward the red building! There’s an emergency bunker in the basement! Wait there until the support troops arrive!”

Tiyo and the guards were standing side by side in formation.

“What about you?” asked Crockta.

“We will establish a defense line here,” declared Tiyo.

The bunker wasn’t far off from their current location, but someone had to hold off the monsters.

“I will join you,” offered Crockta.

“We don’t need you.” Tiyo grinned. “You are a guest! It is our duty to protect you, so don’t butt in.”

Tiyo propped the General on his shoulder. The guards also aimed their guns as several ogres were running toward them. Wyverns landed on rooftops and revealed their blade-like teeth.

“Quickly go, Crockta! We welcome you as a guest in this beautiful city of Quantes,” said Tiyo with a smile.

Crockta had initially perceived Tiyo as a formal military man, but it turned out that he was the type to joke around in precarious situations. There were certain men like him—strange men who displayed dark humor in the face of imminent death.

“Why are you just standing there, Crockta?! Get lost and go do some sightseeing!” shouted Tiyo as he fired the General.

The guards also fired at the monsters in unison. Colorful lights drew a long trajectory as they struck the enemies and stopped them from advancing. Assured by the line of defense, the civilian gnomes began running in the direction of the bunker.

Finally, Crockta nodded in agreement and said, “Understood. I will entrust this area to you, Tiyo.”

“Sure thing!” replied Tiyo heartily, but his expression changed in an instant when he realized what Crockta had said. “...Huh?”

Instead of leading the civilians, the orc warrior, who was plastered in blood, began running in the direction they had come from.

“What?!” Tiyo was stunned.

Crockta traveled a far distance in an instant. The laboratory building that was now drenched in darkness was where Crockta was headed.

***

Once Crockta entered the building, he heard strange noises everywhere—the sounds of wind, moaning and groaning, and the sounds of demons lurking in the darkness. Crockta made his way toward the laboratory. Even though it was the same building he had explored earlier with Eileen, it felt like he had come to a completely different place—as if he had stepped foot in an uninvited place.

Every inch of space was inhabited by darkness, and unknown creatures whispered to him. He didn’t understand them, but he could tell they were evil. They were damned creatures that smiled at depravity.

As Crockta walked further into the pitch-black cave, he questioned why he had come here. It was because Tiyo was annoying. Crockta wanted guys like him who pretended to be cool to regret it later and kick their sheets back in embarrassment as they lay in bed thinking about what they had done.

It was also because he wanted to preserve Quantes’ advanced civilization and technology. There weren’t many places as developed as Quantes in Elder Lord. At Quantes, every inn had a bathtub with running hot water, its restaurants had delicious steaks, and it even had an academy that continuously pursued knowledge. It was a city that had much to offer to the future generations.

Or maybe Crockta just wanted to kill the doppelganger. He felt like he would only be able to relieve his anger by maiming its sneering face. When it had ambushed Eileen and battled him at the laboratory, the doppelganger had laughed at him non-stop while crawling about. Crockta wanted to crush its sneering face with his greatsword.

While standing at the entrance of the laboratory, Crockta’s lips curved into a smile. ‘Fine,’ he acknowledged. The biggest reason was that ‘it’ was calling out to him.

He kicked at the door, revealing a stifling darkness that filled the room. The lights had been turned off. Each time he took a breath, the darkness filled his body and organs.

For a while, it had been whispering into Crockta’s ear, “Come here.”

Suddenly, he saw a pair of eyes rise from the darkness. Crockta immediately recognized it as the doppelganger, but it didn’t move in its usual bizarre manner. The doppelganger approached Crockta with slow footsteps and stiff movements like those of a doll.

The doppelganger handed it to Crockta. Crockta looked at the doppelganger and noticed that it was no longer alive. The doppelganger had become it, and it whispered to Crockta.

Demons delighted in making bets and tempting people with promises that sounded too good to be true. Then, they would laugh derisively as they devoured humans who had fallen for their tricks.

What about this time?

“Quantes’ fate is up to you. Everyone’s lives depend on you,” the demon whispered. “Is this the bonus stage or the end? Would you accept or turn and leave?”

Crockta replied, “You arrogant asshole.”

Then he put it on his waist.