I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 190

“It’s a pleasure to see you after so long, Your Highness.”

Damian mumbled darkly, striking a pose with one hand covering his eye.

“But please, don’t come near me.”

“……?”

“Because in this right hand, a nightmare is sleeping. A very vicious and dark nightmare that might swallow the world…”

Then, he suddenly grabbed his right arm holding the magic gun and groaned.

“Kuh! Calm down, Oloop! I understand you want to rampage, but this is in front of His Highness… !”

“……”

No, he’s become too much of a classic *chuunibyou* [a Japanese term for someone who acts like a delusional teenager] character.

I pointed at Damian with my fingertip and asked Evangeline,

“Since when has he been like that?”

“He’s been like that since the last defense battle.”

Evangeline shook her head.

“It seems like that magic gun is the cause, so I tried to take it away from him somehow. But he wouldn’t let go, even if it meant death.”

It seems Black Queen is causing problems. The black aura spreading from the magic gun’s magic core is covering Damian.

What the magic blacksmith Kellybay said before flashed through my mind.

– The more you kill something with the Nightmare Slayer, the more the nightmare sleeping inside that weapon awakens.

I quickly opened the party menu in the system window and checked Damian’s equipment status.

[Black Queen (SSR) Swallowed by Nightmare Lv.55]

– Category: Magic Gun

– Attack Power: 225-250

– Durability: 7/7

– Magazine Capacity: 7/7

– Fires cursed bullets that instantly kill the enemy with a certain probability. The probability increases in proportion to weapon proficiency.

– Oloop’s Wrath: The more the magazine empties, the stronger the bullets become. The last seventh bullet deals twice the damage of the first bullet and always inflicts a critical hit.

– Oloop’s Hunger: The user is consumed by the nightmare, revealing their inner darkness. If the user wins the battle for dominance with the nightmare, the darkness disappears. If they lose, they are completely devoured by the darkness.

As expected, he had filled all the kill counts, and the Nightmare Legion Commander trait was unlocked. There was also a strange prefix attached to the equipment name.

After reading all the explanations, I looked at Damian with a dubious expression.

‘So that’s… Damian’s inner darkness?’

Damian’s inner darkness is *chuunibyou* posturing?

‘For darkness, it’s a bit… cute…?’

Anyway, the additional damage option is amazing, but the other items are a problem.

A battle for dominance with a nightmare? I don’t know what will happen if Damian loses the battle for dominance with the nightmare.

‘I can’t lose Damian just because of one piece of equipment.’

If I unequip Black Queen, his condition will get better. I approached Damian to take Black Queen away.

Clack!

At that moment, Damian stretched out his left hand and showed it to me.

“Please trust me, Your Highness.”

With his right arm holding the magic gun hanging down, Damian mumbled in a strained voice.

“I need the power of this magic gun.”

“……”

“Please trust me. I will surely subdue this darkness and make it my own power.”

From between his disheveled brown curly hair.

Damian’s round brown eyes – the clairvoyant eyes that had saved this monster front line from game over countless times – were shining clearly as usual.

Although he was possessed by a nightmare and suddenly showing severe *chuunibyou* symptoms, he was definitely my trigger, Damian.

That’s why I decided to trust him. That Damian could win the battle for dominance with the nightmare on his own.

“I trust you, Damian.”

“Just leave it to me. Keuh heuh…”

I wish he would fix that laugh…

‘Let’s watch him for now, and if his condition gets worse, let’s just take the magic gun away.’

Anyway, like this. Junior, who eats healthy food without rest, and Damian, who is holding a magic gun and chuckling, have joined us.

“Certainly, both of them are not in good condition.”

Evangeline whispered to me with a pale face as I clicked my tongue.

“Compared to the last person, these two are fine.”

“Ah… that state is fine…?”

“Uncle Lucas is really… that… I can’t explain it in words. Anyway, should I say he’s definitely gone?”

Evangeline sighed, holding her forehead, and pointed to one side of the village.

“Ah, there he is! See for yourself!”

I looked in that direction.

Thud! Thwack!

“Kuh?!!”

“Aaaack!”

In the shadows of the night, someone with a large build swung their fists like a beast, and two bandits who were running towards them fell down with their broken weapons.

Grrr…

A beast-like growl quietly cut through the darkness of the night.

Between his disheveled blonde hair, a pair of bright blue eyes flickered like flames in the darkness, and then he slowly walked out of the shadows.

‘A wolf?’

No, that’s not it. That’s…

“…Lucas?”

Like a beast, he lowered his posture, and with white breath escaping from between his bared fangs.

Staggering precariously, Lucas walked into the moonlight.

[Beastification].

My knight, who had strayed from the path of humanity in his thirst for power, was there.

***

“We came straight to the scene where the senior was kidnapped, but it was difficult to track him at night in the mountains.”

Evangeline sighed deeply, looking at Lucas, who was baring his fangs and growling.

That’s right. Tracking is a specialty for classes like thieves or hunters, not for our party members.

Damian might be okay since he has good eyes, but he’s in that state…

“We decided to wait until daytime to track him, but Lucas said it would be too late, so… he entered that wolf state himself.”

He used [Beastification] to track me with his beast-like senses.

As a result, the beastification progressed too much… and he became as ferocious as a wolf like this?

“Lucas.”

I stepped forward to calm him down.

“It’s me, Ash.”

“……”

“Do you recognize me? Huh? Are you okay?”

Beastification is largely divided into three stages.

Stage 1. The power of a beast begins to dwell in the human body. It’s a relatively normal stage where humans use the power of a beast as a tool.

Stage 2. The beast begins to consume the mind. They lose their language ability and act half-beast-like.

However, the ego as a human still remains, but the boundary becomes blurred.

Stage 3. They become completely beast-like. They lose their reason and normal thinking as a human, and become a monster that just craves violence.

‘It seems like he’s past stage 1, and if it’s stage 3, he can’t come back.’

But if it’s around stage 2, he can still be turned back.

I swallowed hard and approached Lucas. Please, Lucas! Recognize me!

“Your lord has returned, Lucas! Safe and sound!”

“…Grrr…”

But Lucas still let out a wolf-like groan and approached me threateningly.

Evangeline, who was nervous, raised her shield, and Junior and Damian also grabbed their respective weapons.

The distance between Lucas and me quickly narrowed.

Lucas stared at me with his bright blue eyes and strode closer, but I didn’t back down and stood still.

Thud.

Lucas stopped right in front of me.

“……”

“……”

Silence fell.

Lucas and I stared at each other quietly. The other party members tensed up, ready to step in at any moment.

And then,

Thump.

Lucas knelt on one knee in front of me.

The fierce blue eyes that had been burning had become gentle and blinking. Lucas smiled like a big dog and slowly lowered his head.

Even as his reason was turning into a beast, he still recognized me.

“Hoo…”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“He’s a beast, but he’s our dog, for now.”

Without realizing it, I ruffled Lucas’s blonde hair like I was handling a big dog. Lucas stayed still. Good boy, good boy.

Evangeline, who was watching from the side, muttered as if she was dumbfounded.

“He’s literally become a loyal dog…”

Be quiet. Don’t say that to a sick person.

Anyway, it seems like he still recognizes me.

If I leave him like this, he might really become a dog and I’ll have to scratch his belly and play catch with him, so let’s turn him back into a human before that.

I pointed to Lucas’s waist with my hand.

“Grab the Karma Eater.”

Lucas nodded his head and obediently drew his longsword and handed it to me. No, don’t give it to me…

I handed it back to Lucas’s hand.

“Activate the sword aura!”

Then, a sword aura shot up from the tip of the longsword Lucas was holding.

[Karma Eater] is a weapon that generates sword aura by consuming alignment stats. [Beastification] stats can also be used as fuel.

After burning the sword aura for about 10 minutes, Lucas suddenly gasped and came to his senses.

“Huk! Your Highness?! You’re safe!”

“You weren’t safe! You big dog!”

“I’m so glad, Your Highness! I was so worried…”

“Listen to people!”

It’s a good thing I looted the Karma Eater! If not, you would have lived as a dog for the rest of your life! I lightly flicked Lucas’s forehead.

“I told you not to use beastification recklessly, you punk!”

“I-I’m sorry. When I heard that Your Highness was kidnapped, I lost my reason…”

Lucas whimpered and lowered his head. But he still bared his teeth and smiled.

“I’m so glad you’re safe, Your Highness.”

“……”

I let out a sigh.

How could I scold him more? This foolish knight who burns away his own humanity for my sake.

“Don’t do that again. Really.”

“I will keep that in mind, Your Highness.”

Anyway, Lucas has regained his reason, but the beastification hasn’t completely worn off.

He’s still crouching in a hunched posture, and his bright blue eyes are ferocious like a wolf unless he’s looking at me.

I clicked my tongue, looking at the state of the main party, which had finally joined together.

“I was gone for a little over a month, and you all went collectively insane.”

I patted Evangeline, who was the only one in a normal state, on the shoulder.

“Evangeline, you managed to hold on to your sanity.”

“Hehe. Who do you think I am? The successor to the Border Count, the last line of defense protecting this Crossroad! Evangeline Cross! Of course, I held on to my sanity!”

“You’re the only one, really. Hey! You all should learn from Evangeline! You’re all older than her!”

But the other party members’ expressions were strange when they heard that. They all looked like they were wronged.

Junior, who had emptied the tomato juice bottle, said one thing.

“Actually, Miss Evangeline is the one who lost her mind the most…”

“Ahem! Ahem! Well, well, let’s stop this story here! Let’s finish cleaning up this place!”

Evangeline, who quickly glossed over her words, scanned her surroundings.

“This is enemy territory, enemy territory? We don’t know where the enemy will pop out from!”

Tadadadak!

No sooner had she finished speaking than bandits who had run across the roofs of the village fell towards us.

At the very front was a giant with a fiery red ponytail – the bandit king Kuilan.

“Huuup-!”

Kuilan flew into the air with a light movement that was unbelievable for his large size, and delivered a flying kick with a smooth motion.

“Impudent!”

Lucas, who had rushed forward, swung the Karma Eater.

Clang!

The longsword and the tip of his foot touched, and a metallic sound rang out.

Kuilan was wearing metal gauntlets and boots with metal studs and spikes on his arms and legs.

The bandit king swung his metal fists and feet, which were full of studs and spikes, wildly in all directions.

Clang! Clang! Clang clang clang!

In an instant, Lucas and Kuilan exchanged about ten blows and then retreated from each other.

“I didn’t expect a pursuit team to catch up in just one night. Should I say it’s because of His Highness, or should I say I was clumsy?”

Kuilan smiled bitterly and adjusted his posture. His subordinates also re-gripped their weapons.

I smiled and crossed my arms.

“These guys are my direct escort party. You could say they’re the elite dream team that I’ve carefully selected. Of course, they’ll come running right away when I’m in danger, right?”

“A dream team…”

Kuilan tilted his head, looking at the mage who was struggling because he was full from chewing spinach, the sniper who was holding his right arm and shouting ‘Stay still!’, and the knight who was on all fours like a beast.

“For a dream team… they seem a bit… spoiled…?”

“Watch your mouth, you punk!”

Spoiled! That’s too harsh! Our guys are a bit messed up, but!

Kuilan pointed to the four bandits behind him.

“These guys are also carefully selected. They fought on equal terms even when they were chased by the Imperial Army’s Lieutenant General Knight Order last year.”

So, 5 vs 5. It’s a party PVP situation.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go here, Your Highness. I need your ransom. You’ll have to be kidnapped again.”

Kuilan clapped his gauntlets together in front of his chest.

Lucas growled, glaring at him.

“Shall I kill them, Your Highness?”

“Huh? No, what are you talking about?”

I smiled and looked at Kuilan and his party.

“We should kidnap them.”

That bandit king is an SR-grade character, right? All of his party members are at least R-grade, right?

‘I have to take them to Crossroad no matter what!’

I said it before, right? If they’re good at killing monsters, I’m more than willing to take ghosts, demons, or zombies. Bandits are a blessing.

Hey, you’re mine too! Get captured quietly!