I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 582

《…The reason I bothered to invite you, and even try to have a conversation with you, is…》

The Fly King, letting out a long sigh, spoke in a low voice.

《It’s because, in the memories of that imp and that lich, you were the most outstanding human. That’s why I thought you were worth talking to. I even hoped you might understand my intentions.》

“……”

《It seems I was mistaken.》

“That’s a joke. That so-called courtesy would probably just mean being eaten by a slightly higher-grade maggot, or something like that.”

I also let out a deep sigh.

“Anything else to say? It feels like our meeting time is almost up. Any last words?”

《You… you’ve never tried to understand the world from our fly’s perspective. That’s why you don’t understand. We flies…》

“Hey, Fly King.”

I cut him off and spoke coldly.

“I don’t want to hear that kind of talk from someone who kills and mummifies their own kind just because they don’t agree with them, using their bodies as a framework.”

《……!》

“You should be the one trying to understand your own kind’s perspective.”

Taken aback, the Fly King stood there dumbfounded.

I turned sharply and walked away.

Conversations with monsters are always empty, but this one wasn’t without its gains.

‘Until now, the Fly King was an unknown enemy.’

A monster I’d never encountered in the game.

An enemy with unknown motives, trying to destroy the world for an unknown purpose, in an unknown way.

That’s why I was honestly afraid of the Fly King.

But, after our conversation, I understood him a little better.

And understanding is.

The first step towards a strategy.

I walked towards the end of this white space, pondering how to use the information I’d gained from our conversation, combined with existing information, in my strategy.

That’s when it happened.

《A…sh…!》

A familiar voice reached my ears.

Turning around in confusion, I saw Baekya, only her head remaining, at the bottom of the mountain of corpses.

“Baekya?!

She wasn’t completely eaten yet?

She was opening her mouth, desperately trying to form words.

《Send me… more…! Then…!》

The next moment.

Crack!

The Fly King’s leg roughly grabbed Baekya’s head and crushed it brutally.

The monster’s red compound eyes stared at me emotionlessly. I stared back at him.

And-

***

“…Hah!”

I suddenly opened my eyes.

Quickly looking around, I saw my companions watching over me with tense expressions. I asked urgently.

“How long was I unconscious?”

Junior, taking out his pocket watch, checked it and replied.

“Thirty minutes.”

Ten turns. Accurate.

“Is the retreat prepared?”

“Yes. We can escape in order as soon as you give the command.”

“Good, let’s start.”

I knew how to deal with the mutated individuals, and my understanding of the Fly King himself had also increased considerably. It was right to retreat without overdoing it.

First, the Verdandi party used their dungeon escape teleport scrolls. They were a light armor party, so they had suffered a lot of minor injuries.

Verdandi smiled at me and waved before she and her party members disappeared in a flash. Good, one team sent.

“Kuyllan party, next…”

I was about to finish my sentence when.

Kugugugugugu…

The Fly King’s entire body began to vibrate violently.

The floor trembled, and it felt like the surrounding air was boiling. Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

“What is this?!”

“Everyone, hold on tight!”

And the next moment.

Crack-!

A sound like hundreds of legs colliding at once echoed loudly, followed by.

Zzzzzzzzzzz!

A massive shockwave poured down from the Fly King’s head. We all screamed and barely managed to keep our balance.

After a moment, when the shockwave passed and the area became quiet, we managed to get up and check on each other.

“Ouch, my back… Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, we’re fine. How about you, Your Highness?”

“I’m fine too. Damn it, what was that anyway?”

Kellybay said, wiping away cold sweat.

“I’ve experienced this shockwave before.”

“Before? When?”

“When the airship fleet was trying to stop him, the moment he peeled off our magic barrier… I felt the same shockwave as this.”

Junior, standing next to me with a pale face, also stammered.

“When we used a joint magic attack at the second defense line, when the Fly King blocked our magic… I felt the same shockwave.”

Junior lightly clapped his hands in front of his chest, imitating the Fly King.

“When the Fly King breaks the ring above his head and does this, a hand clap… our magic techniques are nullified, and at the same time…”

Junior said hesitantly.

“I felt a sensation of being ‘robbed’.”

“Robbed…?”

“Yes. The magic that our mages cast, it wasn’t just disappearing… it was like it was being devoured, concept and all…”

I bit my lip.

It was this hand clap that removed the airship barrier, and it was this hand clap that nullified Junior and the mages’ joint magic.

Then what did he remove this time…?

“…Captain.”

At that moment, Kuyllan muttered, looking at me with a troubled expression.

“The scroll isn’t working.”

“What?”

Everyone was startled and looked at him. Kuyllan shook the scroll in his hand with a blank expression.

The scroll, having lost its magical light, had turned into a dull-colored parchment.

Everyone checked their own teleport scrolls. Damn it, all the scrolls had lost their magical light.

“The teleport scrolls, all of them… have lost their effectiveness?”

Everyone looked at me in panic. I swallowed hard without realizing it.

These dungeon escape teleport scrolls were our only means of escape. We had been poking around in the enemy’s belly relying on them.

If they were unusable, then…

“The fact that we can’t escape is a problem, but Your Highness.”

Junior said in a calm but trembling voice.

“Just like the airship’s barrier technology was stolen, it’s possible that this teleportation has also been… stolen by the enemy.”

“…!”

If the Fly King had really stolen the teleportation technology.

He could teleport to the Crossroads walls in an instant…!

“What do we do, Your Highness?! We still need to escape from here first…”

“But if the Fly King teleports to Crossroads like this-”

“Then should we stay here and hold out?”

“But this is the enemy’s base! If more enemy monsters pour out, we won’t be able to hold on…”

Just as the heroes were exchanging urgent words.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

Loud footsteps began to echo from the upper floor. We all fell silent and looked up at the same time.

And… through the hole in the ceiling.

The mutated fly individuals pouring down from the upper floor were clearly visible.

Wriggling, wriggling, wriggling, wriggling…

There seemed to be at least hundreds of them.

“…Damn it.”

I muttered, and everyone knew it.

This was beyond our ability to handle.

“Run to the lower floor, quickly-!”

As I shouted, the heroes quickly jumped into the hole leading to the lower floor.

Even as they fell through the hole, Burnout, who was at the rear, fired explosive bolts upwards.

Bang! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

The mutated flies that were crawling out through the narrow hole were engulfed in a massive explosion.

…And, without dying, they broke through the flames and began to fall towards us.

Next to Burnout, Bodybag also tried to stop them by throwing and retrieving Excalibur.

But since we were running away, the action of throwing and retrieving the sword was slow and inaccurate.

“Hercules-!”

As I shouted, Hercules, who was falling next to me, spread his large beetle wings and soared upwards.

Crack-!

Herkules bravely pierced and killed the leading mutated fly.

But the next moment, he was surrounded by dozens of mutated flies, and they all plunged their long stingers at the end of their abdomens into Hercules.

Guoooooo…

Herkules trembled and then collapsed. Damn it, is it poison?!

Thud!

After landing on the lower floor, I urgently canceled Hercules’s summon and stored him in subspace.

I tried to order another captured monster, but the captured monsters were running away in all directions, ignoring my commands.

‘What?!’

When Hercules, a commander-class captured monster, went down, the loyalty of all the captured monsters plummeted.

Most of the captured monsters were originally units transferred from Jackal. But they were not as loyal as Jackal’s subordinates.

Their not-so-high loyalty had been covered by the ultimate skill [The Foremost Banner] effect, but now that we were running away and had deactivated the barrier, it was no longer working.

Herkules’s defeat caused morale to plummet, and the unit collapsed. In game terms, it was a ‘moral break’.

This wasn’t a mental status abnormality, but a loyalty management issue, so my [Indomitable Commander] couldn’t stop it.

The captured monsters were either running away to find their own way to survive, or trying to surrender to the flies. I gritted my teeth.

“You fools…!

And the fly legion was not merciful enough to accept surrenders, nor were they careless enough to let those who lost their discipline and ran away live.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack…!

The captured monster legion was being slaughtered everywhere. I turned away, shuddering.

“Kraken! Buy us time!”

Kuoohhhhh-!

The Kraken roared and surged upwards, swinging its tentacles and slamming the mutated flies in all directions.

The mutated flies, like Hercules, also shot poison needles at the Kraken, but the Kraken, immune to poison status effects, withstood it easily.

However, the sharp forelegs of hundreds of mutated flies cut into its body, and it eventually let out a miserable scream.

Kuoohhhhh…!

“Damn it!”

It pained me to see my summon being brutally attacked.

Still, the Kraken was a monster that could be summoned once every three stages, so I had to use it to buy time in this situation.

Tap tap!

I don’t know how many floors we tumbled down.

The Kraken was no longer visible, and hundreds of mutated flies, having defeated the Kraken, poured down after us.

‘Tch…!’

The current escapees were Kuyllan and the five members of the Punishment Unit. Me, Bodybag, Burnout, Junior, Kellybay, and Kellyson.

With this composition, it was impossible to face that many monsters.

Junior was the only one with a chance, but he was extremely exhausted and unable to even cast basic magic.

After landing, I gritted my teeth as I ran towards the next hole.

‘At this rate…!’

Just then, the leading mutated fly smoothly performed an acrobatic flight, dodging all of Burnout’s suppressive fire, and rushed towards me.

“Tch…?!”

Just as I was gritting my teeth and trying to find a way to counterattack.

Suddenly, a huge shield rose in front of my eyes.

Clang-!

The mutated fly’s scythe-like forelegs collided with the shield.

I was surprised and looked at the owner of the shield. I saw a familiar, large figure wearing a helmet.

“Torkel…!”

“Are you alright, Your Highness?”

Tsukaak-!

Then, a clean flash of light cut through the air.

The sharp sword strike cut through even the magic barrier and split the mutated fly in half.

The blind swordsman Nobody appeared, rolling on the floor with his long sword drawn.

Tap-!

Then, three people who had jumped up through the hole on the floor below stood in front of me.

It was Zenith, Diarmuid, and Lucas.

Zenith was wearing a holy power armor and casting a wide-area healing spell, while Diarmuid was preparing fire magic with both hands, his beard fluttering.

“We apologize for being late, my lord.”

Lucas calmly reported, drawing his [Bestowed Sword] from the center.

“We searched for survivors all the way to the bottom floor, but found none. Instead, we incinerated the fly eggs on our way here.”

Lucas muttered coldly.

“We will join you. My lord, give the order.”

Relief and emotion washed over the faces of all of us, including me, who had been running away in a panic.

This was the first time in my life that I was so happy to see these old men.