I Became The Tyrant Of A Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 489

“You’re acting recklessly, you insignificant creature.”

Medusa’s petrifying gaze flashed towards Torkel as he rose to his feet.

《It would have been easier if you had just stayed down and played dead…!》

Kiiiiiiing!

The petrifying energy swept through the area.

However,

《…?》

Even though Torkel was directly in the path of the gaze, he was unharmed.

《What is this?》

Medusa asked, bewildered and displeased.

《How are you not being petrified…?》

“I don’t know.”

Torkel replied curtly, staggering as he walked towards Medusa.

《This…!》

Thinking it was just a coincidence, Medusa unleashed her petrifying gaze once more.

Kiiiiiiiiing!

However,

Crack, crackle! Crash!

While everything around them turned to stone, nothing happened to Torkel.

He simply kept walking forward.

《What is this, what are you doing?!》

“…I don’t know why I can stand here like this.”

Slowly, but surely. One step at a time.

“But I think I know one thing.”

Torkel said as he moved forward.

“…That your situation and mine are similar.”

《What?》

Medusa was dumbfounded and yelled.

《What do you know, human!》

“……”

《The pain of having to live as a monster since birth because of a sin I didn’t commit… what do you know about that?!》

“Why do you think you’re the only one?”

Torkel slowly grabbed his helmet and took it off.

“I’m the same.”

《…!》

His face, ravaged by leprosy, was grotesque. Even Medusa was startled and flinched.

“I’ve had my fill of being treated like a monster.”

《You are…》

Torkel put his helmet back on and muttered bitterly.

“I thought I was being punished for a sin I committed in a past life. I thought I was paying the price for being born a sinner.”

《…》

“It was unfair, and I hated the world. It wouldn’t have been strange if I had become a monster like you.”

An unbearable anger and resentment towards the world surged within him.

He wanted to punch the faces of those who looked at him with disgust.

He wanted to beat to death those who spat and cursed at him just because he had leprosy.

There were countless nights when he couldn’t sleep due to the constant humiliation, unfairness, and sorrow.

Yet, the reason Torkel didn’t give up on being human was because of his fellow lepers [people with leprosy].

The people who lived together on a small island.

The adults who taught them academics, saying they needed to learn to read to avoid being oppressed in other ways. The young children who always shared the sweets they had managed to get.

It would have been easy to beat to death the people who treated them like monsters.

It would have been easy to set fire to the village that tormented them. Giving up on being human and becoming a monster was a sweet and tempting lure.

But if he did that, everyone on the island would be in trouble. So Torkel gritted his teeth and endured.

He had to live as a mercenary because no one would give him work, but he diligently earned money and sent it back to the island.

He lived like that, not becoming a monster, enduring and enduring again.

But it was just endurance, not overcoming. It was just prolonging life. He wasn’t living as a human.

But even in this terrible life….

– Welcome to Crossroads! Welcome, mercenary friends! Nice to meet you!

There was a moment that shone like a star.

Torkel remembered it like it was yesterday. Ash’s face, smiling brightly as he welcomed him and his companions, who were never welcomed anywhere else.

In fact, money didn’t matter.

Just seeing a face that didn’t frown at them was enough for Torkel to decide to fight for Ash.

The days on this monster front were painful and desperate. It was a more brutal battlefield than any human world, and death was always near.

But… the people here treated him as a comrade.

Other races, defeated soldiers, refugees, fugitives from the border, half-breeds, and even lepers like him.

On this front, he could live as a human.

Torkel remembered. One day, when a few people quietly came to place flowers in front of the graves of his fallen comrades, which were always desolate.

The moment when people who passed by the temple hesitated and greeted him, who was always silently sweeping the temple.

And….

– Here, let me hold your hand.

The moment the Saintess held his hand and prayed for him.

Torkel could remember it more clearly than anything else in the world.

“…I thought my life was nothing but pain.”

All his life, he thought it was dark and gloomy, as if covered by dark clouds.

“But it wasn’t.”

The instant Sid, the newborn half-breed baby, innocently placed his finger on his hand.

The moment he felt the warmth of that child, who also carried the ‘sin of being born into this world,’ Torkel realized.

“In fact, the sun was always shining.”

Behind the dark clouds. Telling him to look this way. Pouring sunlight down on the earth.

Torkel, who had closed his eyes because he had been in the shade for too long, hadn’t realized it. But now he knew.

That the sunlight was always shining in this place, Crossroads. That he was already walking in that sunlight.

And, he realized anew.

That even in the dark clouds he thought were hell in his childhood… there was a sunny place.

That the small, narrow island he always wanted to escape from was, in fact, in the sunlight.

《…So what?》

Medusa laughed, opening her mouth in a hollow manner.

《So what if you, who are similar to me, didn’t become a monster and remained human?》

Kiiiiiiing!

Medusa fired her petrifying gaze in rapid succession. Torkel wasn’t petrified, but he staggered each time the intense magical power struck his body.

《I became a monster by my own choice! Back then, looking at the stars in the sky… I made a wish!》

It was as the demon… the Demon King had said.

In fact, the young Medusa had wished while looking at the stars.

《I wished that everyone in the world would become as ugly as me! That my sisters, the villagers, all humans—would become monsters like me!》

She spoke as if blaming the Demon King. She lied, saying she had never wished for such a thing.

But in fact, Medusa had turned her two sisters into monsters by her own will.

Although she regretted it, regretted it, and regretted it again—it was undoubtedly Medusa herself who had made such an evil wish to the stars at that moment.

And at that moment, Medusa truly became a monster.

The girl who could have lived as a human under the love of her two sisters had truly become a petrifying monster who cursed humans.

“…Yes. That must be the difference between you and me.”

Torkel took a step forward, enduring the continuous onslaught of magical power.

“Born with this hideous appearance… what did we choose? To live as a human, or to live as a monster. That’s the decisive difference that separated us.”

“That can’t be. Such a thing doesn’t suit an ugly man like me. …I’ve just realized it.”

Torkel, self-deprecating, lifted his head.

“Because I endured that countless, near-collapsing lifetime… I was able to reach this conclusion now. So I am grateful.”

To himself, who had endured this painful life.

To himself, who had not crossed the line to become a monster.

After expressing his gratitude, Torkel took a big step forward.

Kyaaaaaaaa-!

When her petrifying gaze didn’t work, Medusa unleashed sonic waves. She hurled rocks and emitted a murderous aura.

“My ugly appearance will not change. The world’s prejudice will not change. But now I know.”

But without flinching, Torkel stood before Medusa.

And declared.

“There is no such thing as a sin for being born into this world.”

《…!》

“I am not being punished for a past life, nor am I cursed by a god. So, by my own will, I will struggle in this life. By my own will… I will live as a human, and I will die as a human.”

Medusa, who had given up on being human and became a monster by her own will, unknowingly took a step back.

“My name is Torkel. A mere human who is the last line of defense on this monster front!”

《Ugh, kuk…?!》

“Come, monster. I will stop you with my life.”

Torkel lowered his stance, raised his shield, and gripped his mace tightly.

“Because that is the way I can repay the debt I owe to this place… this land of sunshine…!”

The next moment, Torkel roared and charged towards Medusa.

***

Torkel had laid down the burden in his heart.

He had overcome the original sin—the sin of being born into this world—that had oppressed him his entire life, and he had awakened.

That was how he was able to use his ultimate skill, and he was able to withstand Medusa’s attacks by using that power.

But that power was not infinite.

When the allotted time ended, and the short battle was over, Torkel had to kneel and collapse in the pool of blood he had spilled.

《You acted so high and mighty, but is this all you’ve got?》

Medusa clicked her tongue and sneered.

《You gave a long speech, but so what? Even including the time you spent talking, it was barely 10 minutes? You acted so great while only holding me off for this short amount of time?》

“……”

《The sun was always shining? Haha! So, where is your sun now?》

Medusa yelled, pointing her hand at the dark sky filled with dark clouds.

《Now, human! If you have no more means left, beg for mercy from your god! Just like I did!》

“……”

《And realize! That while there are plenty of demons in this world—there is no god to save you!》

“I don’t know about gods,”

Torkel chuckled, even as he coughed up blood.

“But there are humans who are the masters of this land.”

《What?》

Thump…!

At that moment, the rock wall that Medusa had created shook violently.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Rumble!

After a series of impacts, the north side of the rock wall collapsed.

There stood the regular soldiers of Crossroads.

They had brought siege weapons such as cannons and had broken through the wall Medusa had built with crossfire. The regular soldiers, with determined expressions, approached in formation, holding up mirror shields.

To stop the monsters on this front.

Following the heroes, the regular soldiers had also risked their lives.

《…Well, you should have come out like this from the start.》

Medusa, with a hollow laugh from her long, torn mouth, flashed her petrifying gaze and yelled.

《I’ll turn all of you into stone! I won’t leave a single one of you, and I’ll make you regret your choice forever as statues!》

“……”

《In that petrified hell, you will resent and curse your god! Your king! Who threw you into this place for countless ages!》

“We neither resent nor curse.”

Torkel said calmly.

“Because this is our choice.”

《…Ha. You really do act noble until the very end.》

Kiiiiiiing!

After activating her petrifying gaze right in front of him, turning the kneeling Torkel into a stone statue, Medusa looked up at the sky and sang in a chilling, high-pitched voice.

With mockery, contempt, and ridicule.

έλεος, έλεος, Επουράνιε Θεέ! [Greek: Mercy, mercy, Heavenly God!]

Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων, Βασιλεί Βοήθει! [Greek: King of Kings, help the King!]

《Look! Foolish humans, look clearly with your own eyes!》

Medusa roared, charging her petrifying gaze towards the soldiers.

《While you are sacrificing yourselves to maintain the front line, where on earth is your king?!》

It was at that very moment.

Kugugugugugu….

The sky trembled.

The air rippled, and the dark clouds vibrated. Medusa was startled and looked up in that direction.

And,

Fwoooooosh-!