I Became The Tyrant Of A Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 588

Kugung, kugugung….

With a violent tremor, as if an earthquake had struck, the Fly King’s body was sucked into the city.

The massive body overturned, kicking up a thick cloud of dust and sand.

In the gray-brown dust cloud that spread like fog, people who had collapsed in various places stared blankly around, unable to recover from the shock.

And,

Thud! Thud! Thud…!

From within the dust cloud, hundreds of the Fly King’s legs simultaneously touched the ground, slowly raising its collapsed body.

“Uwaaaah!”

“Hieeek…!”

“It’s moving! Run away!”

Terrified people scattered like ants.

The already enormous Fly King’s body looked even more gigantic, its silhouette barely visible in the dust cloud.

The hundreds of legs that made up the silhouette looked even more bizarre as they moved all at once.

Swish! Swish, swish!

Hundreds of legs moved haphazardly, snatching up the unfortunate people who came within their range.

People screamed as they were captured and dragged away.

“Kkyaaaaa!”

“Save me, save me! I don’t want to die!”

“C-calm down! I heard the Fly King only kidnaps people, it doesn’t kill them right away!”

A soldier shouted, based on the information he had heard. A faint glimmer of hope flashed across the faces of the people who heard him.

“R-really?!”

“Yes! In fact, the Prince has already rescued several people! So let’s stay calm. You know, even if you’re dragged into a tiger’s den, you can survive if you keep your wits about you…”

However,

Crack-

“Huh? Huh? Huhhhhh?”

The Fly’s leg suddenly exerted force, lifting the soldier who had spoken the information high into the air—and then slamming him to the ground.

Splat-!

The bloodied soldier died instantly.

The faces of the other captured people turned pale all at once.

“W-what the…”

“Kidnapping, you said kidnapping… you said it wouldn’t kill us right away… what is this…?”

The reason why the Fly King had not killed its victims immediately and instead kidnapped them was simple.

The ability gained by merging with the demon species Imp, ‘Sacrifice’.

To use this ability, which steals the power of the sacrifice, a series of rituals were required to offer the captured sacrifice as a ‘living sacrifice’ on the ‘altar’.

So, instead of killing the sacrifices, it had been paralyzing them and kidnapping them into the hatchery, which functioned as an altar, and then devouring them there.

But now, the hatchery had been destroyed, and there were not enough maggots to eat the sacrifices.

It could not absorb them as ‘sacrifices’. Therefore, there was no need to keep the humans alive.

It could just tear them apart and kill them…!

Boo-ooo-ooo-!

Thud! Splat! Crack-!

The Fly King roared and instantly slaughtered the people who came within its legs’ range.

The unprecedented situation of the entire south wall of Crossroads collapsing. It was a situation where even veteran heroes and soldiers had difficulty regaining their senses, and the damage increased in an instant.

“Fall back-!”

“Retreat from the Fly King’s attack range!”

By the time the soldiers barely retreated from the Fly King, there were already piles of corpses numbering well over a hundred.

As the human army retreated,

Kugung, kugugugung….

The Fly King moved its hundreds of legs in unison, slowly raising its body from the dust cloud… and ‘sat down’ as if it were a person.

The soldiers unconsciously thought that this series of actions was like a human waving their hand to brush away a fly on a chair before sitting down.

Thump-

The Fly King sat cross-legged as if meditating, and then gathered the rest of its legs in front of its chest as if in prayer.

Then, it roared.

Boo-ooo-ooo-ooo…!

The dust cloud spread out wide and round with the roar. The sound was so deep and majestic that it spread beyond Crossroads, throughout the entire southern part of the continent.

And everywhere that roar reached.

Booo-ooom!

From the smallest flies to the giant flies living in the wild. All the species of flies living in the present world.

They swarmed and began to pour towards the Fly King.

“T-this is…”

“What on earth is this…?!”

The soldiers groaned in bewilderment.

Flies are everywhere in the world.

Moreover, the season was late summer. Hot weather where flies were swarming.

Not only in the city, but in all the mountains and forests of the area… flies and maggots, summoned by the King, swarmed and poured out, flying and crawling towards the Fly King.

The human soldiers could only watch helplessly as the bizarre sight of flies pouring down, filling the sky.

***

《…….》

In the collective consciousness of the flies, the old fly was calmly meditating.

‘The war situation is not good.’

The old fly looked at the situation coldly.

Most of the eggs were destroyed, and the hatchery was ruined. Its wings were burned and lost, and the Fly King itself did not have much magical power left.

It was good to have stolen human technology, but human technology only works efficiently within the human system.

Constantly using human barriers and pouring out human magic with a fly’s body caused severe magical power consumption.

But, it was okay.

There were kin everywhere that could be used as its parts.

‘Conscript.’

It made its presence known to its kin as widely and clearly as possible.

‘Gather, my kin.’

Boo-ooo-ooo-ooo-!

All flies that heard this voice were forcibly bound to the collective consciousness.

The Fly King was a great ancestor resurrected from ancient times and the god of the fly species. There was no fly that could refuse this conscription order.

‘Conscript the spirit and flesh of all kin living in the present world.’

The order was coercive, ruthless, and merciless.

Booo-ooom!

The conscripted flies used their souls and bodies to repair the Fly King’s wounds and began to stack eggs neatly in the empty hatchery.

Flies that had lived separate lives, far from a swarm, threw their lives away to maintain the system of the Fly King in an orderly manner, as if they had always done so.

Of course, not all flies obeyed. As always, there were those who resisted.

And all those flies were,

Crunch!

After their souls were seized by the old fly in the spiritual world, they were devoured headfirst.

《I will not make the same mistake twice.》

The old fly growled as it tore off and swallowed the head of its kin.

In its previous life, the Fly King shared all the members and all the wisdom that made it up. It was to think together and move forward together.

But as a result, the subordinate flies rebelled.

After repeated evolution, the flies, whose intelligence had become too advanced, no longer moved for the community, and they split up, calculating their own interests.

The Fly King’s empire was torn to shreds, and the flies repeated a series of internecine conflicts, eventually destroying themselves.

So—this time, it changed.

As soon as it was given a second life, the old fly purged all the flies that rebelled against it.

It tore off and swallowed all their heads, leaving only empty shells that moved as it ordered.

It monopolized wisdom and selected evolution. It held the fly species itself in its grasp and shook it.

‘Die for our species.’

Now, all the flies under its command moved without any resistance to the orders it gave.

‘For me, die!’

Clack-

The old fly picked up the scepter that was rolling on the floor and struck the ground.

To open the future of the fly species.

To make this world a true paradise.

It was just taking on an unavoidable sacrifice. Both itself and the fly species…

《If I can save my species, I will gladly fall into hell.》

The Fly King’s entire body, which had been shattered during the fall, gradually began to recover.

The newly supplied flies filled in the broken skeleton and healed the injuries. The burned wings also slowly began to regenerate.

The humans’ response was still too late.

Covered in the dust that had risen as the wall collapsed, the soldiers rushed over and surrounded the Fly King again.

However, their formation was shallow, and their equipment level was incomparable to that on the wall.

The old fly smiled leisurely and looked around.

They had fought well, commendably, but in the end, humans were just a collection of individuals with free will, no matter how well they were united.

That will could not be completely unified.

It was impossible for them to overcome its species, the flies, where all species were perfectly united under the will of a single being.

《…?》

It was then.

《What is it, again…》

Surely, from within its stomach, where it had cleanly digested all the troublemakers,

The monster felt a faint foreign sensation.

The old fly looked down at its stomach in bewilderment.

What on earth was this feeling?

This trace of unease…?

***

“What the hell is that, crazy…”

In the city center, a little away from the Fly King’s main body. In front of the Lord’s mansion garden.

The mages, who were waiting with the fly ghouls that had been replicated from Baekya, as instructed by Lucas, hesitated and stepped back.

Booo-ooom-

Booo-ooo-ooo-ooom-

It was as if flies were pouring in from all over the world.

The flies of the present world, responding to the Fly King’s call, filled the sky and swarmed towards the Fly King.

Faced with this heinous and apocalyptic sight, the mages were at a loss, staring blankly around.

It was then.

Zhiing!

The eyes of the ghoul flies, which had been lying in the Lord’s mansion garden, seemingly dead, lit up all at once, and they all moved their wings and rose into the air.

The mages were horrified.

“What?! Who finished the ghoul magic?!!”

“N-no one did! The ghouls are acting on their own…!!”

“Stop them! We have to stop them now! Force stop all operations!”

“N-no, we can’t! We can’t stop them! They’re not listening to our orders anymore…!!”

Booo-ooom-

The dozens of ghoul flies that had taken flight formed a formation in the air and then shot towards the mages.

“Uwaaaah!”

“Someone help me!”

The mages screamed and rolled on the ground, but the ghoul flies’ target was not them from the start.

It was the magical device containing the original Baekya.

Crackling-

Bang!

The machine, which had been torn to shreds by the flies, shattered and exploded.

After killing their original, the dozens of ghoul flies floated into the air.

And like the other flies, they flew across the sky in an orderly manner towards the Fly King.

“……”

The mages stared blankly as they moved away.

***

The Fly King’s collective consciousness. Somewhere within it.

《You digested me…? Haha, don’t make me laugh,》

With only his upper body, one arm, and half of his head remaining, Baekya staggered and crawled on the floor.

《I’m the Great Magic Emperor, the Great Magic Emperor… do you think I’d be defeated by a mere fly…》

After his mind was torn to shreds by that old fly and swallowed by it.

From the bottom of this spiritual world, which was presumed to be the inside of its stomach, Baekya was able to find his torn self, piece it together, and regain this much of his form.

And even in this state, Baekya was plotting a counterattack.

‘That knight under Ash… that blond bastard had prepared to replicate me further.’

He had noticed that much a long time ago. He was preparing to shoot him out like a replicated bullet.

Then he would use it.

Even if he had to pour all of his replicated consciousness into this Fly King, he would definitely seize control of the Fly King.

《Rather than being defeated by a fly like this and being eaten forever, if I can somehow seize control of the Fly King…》

If he could find a chance to counterattack and take revenge on Ash, who had pushed him into this hell.

What couldn’t he do? It was a fight where he had nothing more to lose anyway.

So, when the Fly King was sending out the conscription order to all the flies in the area, Baekya also slipped in his own signal.

With a unique wavelength that only he could detect…

If that blond knight bastard had properly prepared more of his replicas, it would have worked properly. Other versions of himself would come crashing in here.

Now, all that was left was to wait for the time to counterattack.

《By the way, where is this…?》

Baekya raised his head and looked around.

The bottom of the Fly King’s collective consciousness was dark. There was no way there could be a smell, but it felt like there was a damp and disgusting unpleasant air.

Just as Baekya was thinking to himself that if he could just seize control of this monster, he would burn down the collective consciousness and everything else, it was then.

《Where else would it be?》

Suddenly.

From this bottom, someone’s voice was heard.

《This is the place where the ‘scraps’ that the old fly ate and digested are gathered and piled up.》

Horrified, Baekya turned his head sharply.

In that dark place, where the stench of blood was strong… a form of something could be seen.

《The bottom of consciousness, where the truly sinister inner thoughts gather… you could also call it the deep consciousness.》

It was a throne.

Made from the heads of the flies that had been eaten by the old fly.

A skull throne, built only from the heads that had been torn off.

On it, a being sat like a king, muttering in a serious voice that contrasted with its light tone.

《I simply call it the sediment.》