I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 379

The goblin horde surged into the city of Crossroads.

The temple, the most populated place in the city, became the goblins’ target as they swarmed towards the scent of humans.

Bang! Crash! Thwack!

The temple in Crossroads had two entrances: a large main gate and a small back door.

Both entrances were littered with goblin corpses and blocked by hastily constructed barricades of chairs and desks.

From outside the barricades, the sound of goblins fiercely pounding their weapons was terrifying.

“Hoo, huff…”

Torkel, the leader of the Leprosy Extermination Squad, breathed heavily as he glared at the recently closed main gate of the temple.

His entire body, wrapped in bandages, was covered in the blood of goblins and his own blood from open wounds.

But Torkel had no time to care about how dirty his body was.

“Everyone who can fight, grab a weapon!” Torkel shouted towards the inside of the temple.

But how many of the wounded could actually fight, and how many weapons were even available in the temple?

Grabbing a kitchen knife hastily taken from the temple’s dining hall, and strapping a round table to his left arm as a shield, Torkel had a gut feeling.

If reinforcements didn’t come, everyone in this temple would die.

And with monsters swarming this far, reinforcements were unlikely.

“I issue an order.”

But that didn’t mean they could just stand there and die.

Torkel quickly gave orders to his Leprosy Extermination Squad members.

“You guys block the back door. The path is narrow, and the fence is high, so the four of you should be able to hold it.”

“Then what about the captain…?”

“I’ll block the main gate with the other wounded.”

Fortunately, the temple fence and stone walls were enchanted with divine protection magic.

The goblins didn’t try to climb the fence, instead focusing on breaking through the doors. Thanks to that, a defensive strategy was possible.

Bodybag and Burnout, who were in charge of setting up barricades, were piling up additional obstacles throughout the temple.

Wounded soldiers who had been carried in throughout the defense also joined, each grabbing a weapon.

As Torkel instructed, the other four members of the Leprosy Extermination Squad left to defend the side door.

Torkel quickly organized the soldiers gathered at the main gate and assigned them to defensive positions.

“I’ll help too!” shouted Priestess Margherita, rushing forward.

“I know how to use shield magic. I’ll be helpful.”

“…”

Torkel wanted to tell her to go inside, but there wasn’t even time for that.

Thwack-!

The barricade blocking the main gate shattered.

He hadn’t expected it to last long, but the breakthrough was much faster than anticipated.

It seemed that suicide bombers mixed among the goblins had blown up the barricade.

“Push them back!” Torkel gritted his teeth and charged forward. Bodybag, Burnout, Margherita, and other wounded soldiers desperately helped him.

A desperate battle ensued.

Although wounded, there were many skilled soldiers. Goblins that tried to enter the temple were quickly felled.

Torkel and Burnout crushed the goblins with overwhelming combat power.

Margherita cast shield magic on the soldiers, and Bodybag continuously restored the barricades with telekinesis.

For a while, it seemed like they were holding them off easily.

Kilik!

Kyaaak-!

That was until goblins suddenly appeared from behind.

“What?!”

“Why from behind?!”

“It seems… the back door has been breached!” Torkel gritted his teeth as he shouted.

It was as he had feared. When the main gate defense held firm, the goblins focused their attack on the back door.

All the members of the Leprosy Extermination Squad defending the back door were skilled heroes, but they couldn’t hold out long with their wounded bodies and inadequate equipment.

In the end, all four of them fought to the last, meeting their end.

And the goblins who poured in through the breached back door attacked the main gate defenders from behind.

“We have to retreat, retreat!” They couldn’t fight when surrounded from the front and back. Torkel finally gave up on defending the main gate and shouted.

“Inside the building! Hurry!”

The survivors barely managed to break through and retreat into the temple building.

Torkel closed the door, locked it, and blocked it with obstacles, shouting.

“Block the windows and gather everyone in one place! Now!”

But there was no need to gather people.

Everyone was already gathered in the central hall, trembling and praying.

Soldiers who were too injured to fight, priests who had no combat ability, all were trembling and praying to the goddess as death approached.

“…”

Outside, the goblins were screaming ferociously and trying to break down the locked door, but inside the temple, it was silent.

The contrast was strange and bewildering. Torkel slowly moved towards the inner part of the central hall.

There it was.

The statue of the goddess.

The face of the goddess he had always watched from afar, never seen up close.

“The goddess…” Torkel murmured blankly.

“…had such an expression.”

The goddess’s face was compassionate, as if looking down on something pitiful and sad.

Immediately after, his vision spun.

“Ah.”

Only then did Torkel realize he was bleeding.

A sword and a spear were stuck in his back. It seemed a goblin had thrown them at his back during the retreat.

His dull skin hadn’t even felt the attack. But the damage was clear. Torkel knelt on his own pool of blood.

“Mr. Torkel!” Margherita rushed over, pulled the sword and spear from his back, applied healing magic, and wrapped bandages.

Margherita’s priestess robes were no longer their original color, stained dark red with the blood of the wounded. Seeing her efforts, Torkel murmured.

“Stop, Saintess. It’s… meaningless now.”

“…”

“We’re all going to die here.”

Torkel slowly closed his eyes.

“It was a terrible life.”

“…”

“I suffered from leprosy my whole life, was ostracized, and pointed at. And in the end, I’m dying at the hands of goblins.”

“…”

“Since I’ve seen the face of the goddess for the first time, I want to ask… why did you give me such suffering?” Torkel slowly clasped his hands together and spoke in a suppressed voice.

“Please, just tell me that I was punished for the sins of my past life, as I’ve always believed, that I’m being punished for the sin of being born into this world.”

“…”

“If there isn’t even such a cause, then a life of only suffering… it’s too unreasonable…”

But even though he prayed after seeing her face for the first time, there was no answer from the goddess.

Instead, Margherita, who had tightly wrapped the bandages, spoke in a businesslike tone.

“I’ll say it again, Mr. Torkel. There is no such sin.”

Torkel opened his eyes and looked at Margherita. Margherita had her usual indifferent expression.

“There is no sin in your being born. Your suffering is not a punishment given by anyone.”

“Then, why? Why did I suffer?”

“Well… because that’s how the world is.”

After finishing the emergency treatment, the Saintess spoke calmly.

“This world is inherently unreasonable; it doesn’t follow cause and effect. And it’s painful.”

“…”

“We’re all struggling to survive together in this hell.”

Torkel, who had been speechless, stammered.

“Then, in this terrible hell, what should we do?”

“We should struggle.”

Margherita smiled faintly.

“Until the very end, with all our might.”

“…”

“And in the end, we pray.”

Margherita reached out her hand.

“Here, I’ll hold your hand.”

The Saintess’s blood-soaked hand grasped Torkel’s bandaged hand. And Margherita closed her eyes and prayed.

Torkel stared blankly at the scene.

Since contracting leprosy, it was the first time someone had held his hand.

And also the first time someone had prayed with him.

Bang! Thwack-!

The locked door of the temple shook violently. The sound of glass breaking echoed from all sides.

Goblins would soon pour into this hall.

Clang-!

The stained glass on either side of the door shattered, and goblin archers poured in.

The goblins shot arrows at the people in front of the goddess statue.

Torkel instinctively tried to shield them with his own body.

But there was a hand that pushed him away.

‘Huh?’

Pushed to the side, Torkel saw the person who had pushed him.

It was Margherita.

She had cast a shield magic on her body and was taking the goblins’ arrows instead. But she had already exhausted her strength.

Clang-!

The shield magic failed to block the last arrow,

Thud…!

The goblin’s arrow pierced her priestess robes.

Margherita quietly collapsed without a groan.

While other soldiers rushed at the goblin archers and killed them, Torkel held the fallen Margherita in his arms.

Priests tried to heal her, but unfortunately, the arrow had hit a bad spot. The arrow had torn through her left chest.

When the healing magic didn’t work, the priests shook their heads slightly.

“Why?” Torkel asked, genuinely unable to understand.

“Why, for someone like me? You…?”

“…I’m a priestess, and you’re a patient.”

Margherita replied with difficulty, her lips stained with blood.

“To save a patient… we’ll do anything…”

“But I’m a disgusting, dirty leper… why for someone like me…”

“You and I, we’re all the same.”

Margherita’s voice rapidly faded.

“We’re all just pitiful lives, struggling to survive in this terrible world…”

Margherita raised her blurred eyes.

In the hazy, fading world, the goddess statue was looking down at her.

“…Mr. Torkel. What kind of face did the goddess have when you first saw her?”

At Margherita’s question, Torkel answered in a choked voice.

“She had a face as if she was looking at something very sad and pitiful.”

“That’s how you see yourself.”

“Huh?”

“In my eyes, the goddess…” A smile flickered across Margherita’s lips.

“…is smiling very brightly…”

“…”

“I wish you could see this smile too…”

Margherita slowly closed her eyes.

And she no longer breathed.

“…”

Torkel quietly laid her body on the floor.

And he picked up the kitchen knife he had put down for a moment, and strapped the table back onto his left arm.

“The final prayer has already been offered.”

And it was as lavish as it could ever be – the Saintess had held his hand and prayed with him.

“Then now… all that’s left is to struggle until the end.”

Hearing those words, the wounded soldiers and priests who had been huddled in front of the goddess statue, praying, rose one by one.

They had all heard Margherita and Torkel’s conversation. And they had all witnessed Margherita’s death.

There was no need for many words. People finished their final prayers and grabbed something in their hands.

For the final struggle.

If this was all they could do in this terrible world, then so be it.

Thump! Thud! Thump…!

The temple door shook violently, as if it would break at any moment.

Just as they were making their final resolve, with Torkel at the lead, a low, rhythmic sound began to echo from afar.

Tu-tu-tu-tu…

At first, they tried to ignore it, thinking it was the sound of battle, but gradually the sound grew closer and louder. Torkel glanced upwards, puzzled.

‘What is that? A mechanical sound?’

And then the movement of the sound stopped above the temple-

Du-du-du-du-!

It unleashed a deafening firing sound.

Everyone inside the temple, terrified, flattened themselves to the floor.

The tremendous roar and vibration continued for a long time.

The sound of bullets flying, the ground being torn up, and the screams of goblins echoed so loudly that their ears went numb.

After a while, the roar stopped. Torkel realized that all the signs of the goblins in front of the door had disappeared.

Clink. Clack.

Torkel carefully removed the obstacles he had piled up in front of the door, unlocked it, and looked outside.

“?!”

The goblins that had been swarming at the temple entrance were all in pieces. And the floor was covered in bullet marks.

“…What is this?” Confused, Torkel looked up at the sky. The sky was turning red as evening approached.

And his eyes widened.

“That’s…!”