How To Suck Honey With Extras [EN]: Chapter 284

284. To Reclaim the 316th (8)

I had to create an opportunity, even if I had to force it.

I summoned another sculpture, this time in the form of a giant hand.

Manipulating it, I grabbed the dragon’s damaged torso and forcibly pried it open.

The Empress, still exerting her power, was visible inside.

“I found you… Aaaaaaaagh!”

“You fiend!”

“Stop with the nonsense! Eat this!”

Whether she glared menacingly or not was none of my concern.

One of my arms was already failing to move properly.

Grasping Killmuris with my remaining hand, I plunged forward.

The Empress roared, but I ignored her.

I thrust my sword straight toward her torso. The moment the tip of the sword pierced her body…

“…Haa!”

I immediately detonated my aura, mercilessly slamming her down.

Bang!

A metallic rupture echoed as the Empress was flung away, and I was thrown back by the recoil.

‘…I’m reaching my limit.’

Both in terms of time and ability, if I left this rampaging power unchecked any longer, I would be consumed by it and become a monster like her.

But I had a solution.

I would change the ability.

Deleting an ability once acquired was impossible.

But changing it was possible.

I would use the ability’s upgrade function.

‘Switching to another ability should be possible.’

Fortunately, I knew the name of another ability in the same category.

Good, the ability change was proceeding smoothly.

Although it had less offensive power than the Grudge Crystal, its performance was still decent. It was mentioned in the classification as a superior version of the Blessing Crystal.

At the same time, the rampage stopped, and as I lightly shook my body, the crystals covering me shattered and scattered like dust.

‘I lived…’

While sighing in relief, I rolled my eyes, chasing after the Empress, who had been critically wounded and knocked away.

‘Is the Empress running away…’

Her presence was fading.

Should I pursue her? Or….

After hesitating, I decided against chasing her.

There was still a risk of her going berserk if I pushed her further.

In any case, my goal wasn’t to finish her off.

If I could make her retreat, that would be enough.

‘More than anything, the next time we meet… I’ll have plenty of time to deal with her.’

First, confirming the receding presence, I once again relaxed my body.

* * *

Quite a distance from the battle we had just fought.

A secret passage located in the basement of the Imperial Palace.

The Empress, barely managing to escape by destroying the exit, leaned against the wall, struggling to support herself.

“To dare… for a lowly thing to dare…”

Feeling relieved that she had escaped, she finally realized.

That she had fled in a disgraceful manner.

If she hadn’t avoided it there, if she had endured?

What would have happened?

She knew.

That was why she couldn’t help but be swept away by an unspeakable sense of humiliation.

“…A lowly thing. I’ll see…”

“See what? Hahahaha. It’s amusing to hear such pleasantries from someone who has been defeated? The great Empress is truly pathetic.”

A clearly mocking tone.

When she turned her head in the direction of the voice, Epheleo was there, sneering as if he found it amusing.

“…You!”

How long had he been watching?

It couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Did you know this would happen from the beginning?”

“Well, I didn’t really expect you to be able to do anything to that good-for-nothing.”

“What did you say?”

“Didn’t I tell you? That guy is annoying.”

“Stop talking nonsense! You never warned me about this! If he was like that from the start…”

The Empress stopped there.

She had realized.

The true intention of the man before her.

“Could it be…”

“Well, whether you noticed or not, nothing will change… But unlike that good-for-nothing, I’m honest, so I’ll tell you.”

Epheleo couldn’t help but truly enjoy the villain’s pathetic state before him, spitting out the words in a cheerful voice.

“I knew from the beginning that you would lose to that guy.”

“….”

“Whether it’s Aileon or Sylvester, it doesn’t matter who you face. You are destined to lose anyway. Well, even if you survived, the result wouldn’t change.”

As he said, she would prepare again and try to retaliate against Aileon.

And that’s when she would be defeated and fall in vain.

“What are you trying to say?”

“We are destined to not be able to win against those guys. But the most annoying of them is that good-for-nothing. That guy’s existence ruins everything.”

“…What are you plotting?”

“Nothing much. I just want the survival of this damn world and my own survival.”

“Survival? You? Now you say that?”

The Empress looked at him as if he were a madman, unable to understand.

A long-standing ghost who had thrown everything into revenge and had his soul swallowed by his ability was trembling with madness.

As if it were too ridiculous, Epheleo shrugged with a laugh.

“Well… even if I leave you alone, you’ll be taken care of anyway. But I’d prefer there to be as little noise as possible.”

Because if you interfere with what I’m about to do, it will be annoying.

“Puhuhuheup. How truly regrettable.”

He no longer hides his true intentions.

The current Empress is no longer an obstacle to him.

“Nonsense! You dare to think you can harm me!”

The Empress gathered her strength as if denying the fact.

The fatal wounds she had suffered from Aileon a moment ago had already been healed.

The consumed power had not yet returned, but eliminating a half-baked brat like him was nothing.

The words the brat had uttered were just empty fantasies.

“I’ll tear that filthy mouth so you can’t make fun of me anymore!”

Drawing out blood-red crystals from her entire body, she sharpened them to create countless blades and showered them toward Epheleo.

However.

“It’s useless… Not anymore.”

All the crystal shards disappeared.

“…What?”

And without understanding the phenomenon before her, she stared blankly.

The Empress’s body crumbled and vanished.

All that remained was Epheleo, who lightly dusted off his hands as if he had done something troublesome.

“It means you’ll never set foot here again… Foolish thing who doesn’t know her own fate.”

Scoffing, he headed somewhere as if nothing had happened.

He didn’t care about the commotion outside.

Whether the Empire was doing well or not, it didn’t matter to him.

He was aiming for one thing.

Only that one thing.

“Then, where… Before that, it’s unfair for only one side to get hit, so should I make some moves on this side too?”

Epheleo chuckled and took something out of his pocket.

A trivial artifact that he had coaxed Kmels Alfrens into giving him a while ago.

As he threw it, the artifact was sucked into the floor and submerged.

The effect of this would not be activated here.

But over there, below.

The underground where the humans were still hiding.

“Attacks should be fair.”

* * *

Meanwhile, those hiding in the Imperial Underground were holding their breath, waiting for the results, and cautiously watching their surroundings.

Closing their eyes and listening, they could faintly hear a trembling vibration from above.

It meant that they had entered into battle.

Abil was also quietly holding his breath, just waiting for the conclusion to appear.

“I wonder if things will go according to that friend’s intentions… It’s a bit frustrating to be in this situation where I can only stay still at times like this.”

Abil waited as if he were complaining.

But it wasn’t like he was doing nothing at all.

While the battle continued, the citizens were anxious. It was the role of the imperial family to control them.

There was no need to do anything specific.

Just stay here calmly.

And pretend to watch that distant place without saying a word.

That alone was enough.

Even if you pretended to be resilient, half of the work was done. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy.

“Oh dear… It seems that side isn’t very gentle either.”

Abil shook his head as if he was fed up and looked at one of the magical tools placed nearby.

It was a device that showed the state of the barrier created by that mage, Cruse Elfamant, or something like that.

There was a crack in it.

“It seems the barrier is breaking… Judging by the rough knocking, he doesn’t know any manners.”

The meaning was clear.

Abil declared to the citizens without hesitation.

“Now, prepare yourselves. The enemy is coming.”

There was no need to make a fuss.

The delivery should be as concise as possible.

In times like these, unnecessarily long words were just superfluous. He had already instructed them on what to do.

“Are you just going to let them fight? You guys should take up arms too.”

Those among the citizens who could fight took up arms and prepared to face the enemy.

There were also collaborators who remained to help them.

Alnix and Rucel.

The two of them had been asked to stay here and protect them, and they gladly accepted the task.

“Tch, it seems it won’t end quietly after all…”

Alnix quietly gripped his spear, watching the direction from which the enemy would soon arrive, and clicked his tongue.

“I was hoping things would go as smoothly as possible for us, you know?”

Alnix casually replied to Rucel’s joking complaint and stared at the direction the barrier would react to.

“They’re coming.”

The sense of crisis was tickling his spine, now felt even by his senses.

This energy wasn’t like murderous intent.

“…Terrible.”

An instinctive sense of disgust.

Something black was spreading across the underground waterway.

It wasn’t darkness.

Something far more blasphemous.

“…Is it a teleportation magic?”

Rucel rubbed his arms in disgust, watching the place.

Soon, gleaming eyes could be seen in the darkness.

One, two… He stopped counting when the number exceeded a thousand.

“You’ve got to be kidding me… Why did it have to be that?”

Alnix gritted his teeth after visually confirming the identities of the guys popping out from within that number.

It had become more difficult than he had imagined.

A legion of skeletons made of red crystals.

And not just the crude bones you often see.

Each and every one of them was properly armed.

Swords, spears, axes….

They were wearing armor that looked sturdy even on their skeletons.

“This… This time, I can really feel the emotion that they’re going to crush us.”

“Yeah. I’m thinking the same thing.”

They wouldn’t have put this much effort even when they were capturing the capital.

That meant that the current actions had properly touched their reverse scale [touched them where it hurts the most].

“There’s no more holding back, huh?”

“Are you going to be okay?”

Ernil came to check, worried, and her face turned pale as she saw the sight, just like them.

“Ernil, you stay inside.”

“I’m sorry. It would have been helpful if I was as strong as you guys.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Instead, if Alnix gets beaten up by those guys and comes back, fix him up properly. And then I’ll send him back there.”

“…Seriously, you unhesitatingly make me do the hard work.”

“Then who else would do it? Me? Someone as short as me?”

“Does height matter?”

Well, it’s a joke.

“Geez… Aileon, what was that ‘You guys alone will be enough to protect them’?”

“He meant that you’ll barely be able to protect them if you give it your all, right?”

Well, those on the ground wouldn’t be comfortable either.

Anyway, they had no choice but to fight.

The moment they steeled their hearts, the red skeleton groups, who had just finished teleporting, gleamed with their eyes.

Clatter.

A sound like metal and bone colliding seemed to ring out.

Clack. Clatter. Clatter….

The sound overlapped and rang out in large quantities as the guys began to move.

“They’re coming…”

And as if to welcome the guys, those who could directly fight the enemy, including Alnix, stepped forward and clashed with the charge of the legion, wielding their respective weapons.