I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 753

It was when Cromwell was young.

《Ah!》

Cromwell was sparring with a young demon, but she slipped and fell by mistake, losing the match.

The tip of the demon youth’s sword was touching the end of Cromwell’s neck.

A defeat she was experiencing for the first time in her life.

Although young, Cromwell’s talent was so overwhelming that she had never lost in a duel with anyone in her life.

Cromwell was surprised, but the demon youth who had won against Cromwell was even more surprised. And the elder who was watching the duel had a pale, bewildered face.

《Haha, you’re amazing!》

Cromwell, who had been momentarily stunned, soon got up with a refreshing smile and offered a handshake to the youth who had defeated her.

The youth was bewildered and accepted Cromwell’s handshake. Cromwell patted the youth on the shoulder.

《You’re the first to beat me. Let’s spar again next time! Okay?》

But that never happened.

That night, the youth was ‘removed’.

Thud! Thud! Thud…!

The elder, with a blank face, swung his sword and stabbed the youth, who was tied to a pillar, in the stomach.

The youth writhed in agony and soon died. The elder wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve.

《Elder?!》

Cromwell, who arrived late at the scene, was horrified.

《What… what are you doing?! Why did you kill him!》

《Your Excellency.》

The elder muttered coldly.

《Your Excellency must not be defeated, nor should you fail.》

《What…?》

《As the ruler of the legion, you must be perfect.》

Therefore.

Anyone who knows of Cromwell’s defeat will be exterminated.

It was an absurd idea and action, but the elder’s eyes were flickering with a strange, firm belief.

Cromwell asked in a trembling voice.

《So, you’re just… making it like it never happened?》

《Yes. Your Excellency has never been defeated. It never happened.》

After setting the limp youth’s corpse on fire with magic, the elder whispered sternly in Cromwell’s ear.

《If Your Excellency truly loses, if you truly fail, then it is I, and our entire legion, who will be tied to this pillar and die.》

《…!》

《Never be defeated. Never fail. Only achieve victory.》

The youth’s body, which had been burned in an instant, was reduced to ashes.

Looking down at the blackened spot, the elder once again coldly imprinted on Cromwell’s ear.

《For the legion, only victory.》

It was as he said.

Cromwell buried all the mistakes she made during her growth and pretended they never happened. She was forcibly made perfect.

She had never been defeated, and she had never failed. Cromwell grew into the best legion commander.

And because of that.

Cromwell had not learned how to accept failure.

She had not learned to gain lessons from failure, nor had she learned how to recover from defeat.

《Huh?》

And at some point.

Cromwell was standing at the end of a dead end.

Dead End.

Defeated by the Night Bringer, and now unable to walk any further, she stopped.

‘Ah…’

At the boundary between life and death, she thought blankly.

‘It’s comfortable to stop.’

In fact, from the beginning, she didn’t understand.

Why she had to conquer the world.

What was the race’s long-cherished desire. What was the glory of her homeland.

She was just pushed forward.

Because everyone expected it. Because everyone was watching her. Because everyone was saying that she was the only hope…

But now that tedious race was over.

She could let go of everything and rest.

《Now, Your Excellency.》

Then, a voice was heard from behind.

When she turned around, she saw the elder standing with his arms open.

《Let’s make this defeat as if it never happened.》

《……》

《And. Let’s continue to win in the future.》

She didn’t want to.

She didn’t want to get up and fight anymore.

Why she had to fight, why she had to win, why she couldn’t lose. Cromwell still didn’t know.

But, because she was the legion commander.

Because she had to fight for the legion.

For her beloved legion members, and for her beloved father. Because she had to muster her strength one more time…

《Eat it.》

So she devoured it.

Let’s make the defeat as if it never happened, even if it means chewing and eating everyone in the legion, regardless of gender or age.

If she achieved her long-cherished desire and destroyed this world, everyone would be happy.

《Ah?》

Crushing the wall of the dead end with the flesh and bones of the legion members.

Crawling through the blood-stained passage with her revived body, Cromwell suddenly realized.

She had been pursuing victory for her father and the legion members, but.

For that victory, she had devoured her father and all the legion members.

《Aaaah…?》

***

《Aaaaaaaaaaaah-!》

The monster roars.

An ominous green magical light scattered wildly, soaring in all directions, and in the center, Cromwell, holding up huge green antlers, was boiling all over her body.

I gritted my teeth at the unusual atmosphere.

“How many phase changes are there, really…!”

Just do it moderately and die quietly!

But this is Stage 45. It’s the last boss stage before the final battle, Stage 50.

As befitting a boss monster of such a boss stage, Cromwell didn’t seem to have any intention of falling so easily.

Swoooosh!

Separated from the reindeer corpse, and now about the size of a slightly larger human female, a huge number of tentacles soared above Cromwell’s head.

The wriggling tentacles immediately hardened and intertwined with each other, making the already huge antlers even bigger and thicker.

《Aaaaaaaaaaaah-!》

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The hundreds and thousands of tangled tentacles began to emit complex colors, each containing different magic.

At the same time, thousands of magic patterns surged out from Cromwell’s antlers like waves.

“This is!”

Deermudine, sensing the magic, muttered with a pale face.

“It’s the magic patterns of the other legion commanders that Cromwell ate earlier…!”

“Huh?!”

“Not only that. All sorts of minor monster magic patterns are still there!”

I gritted my teeth and glared at Cromwell. No way, that bastard…

“Did she absorb all the abilities of the monsters she ate…?”

Now I understood a little bit of the messy process.

Why she had to eat all her allies and then spit them out.

Where all the abilities that the zombified remaining monsters couldn’t use went.

Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, that appearance of being trapped in a lump of meat and then coming out again…!

《Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!》

As if all the monsters in this world had been combined into one,

Cromwell’s antlers, which had been emitting ominous auras of various colors in all directions, suddenly stopped emitting color.

Cromwell’s huge antlers, which had stopped emitting magical light, turned a dull green.

Cromwell, who was staggering as if she had a huge tree on her head, finally…

Opened her closed eyes.

Flash-!

With a terrifying green glow, a terrible evil energy arose in the area.

Following that, only a few dozen of Cromwell’s huge tangled antlers turned red and began to glow.

‘This is…!’

The power of the Flame Giant Legion!

‘Is she manifesting all the power of the Flame Giants she devoured at once?!’

As Cromwell pulled her right fist back and then thrust it forward,

Flames surged from the red antlers, forming a huge giant’s arm in the air… and slammed down on the heads of our heroes rushing towards her.

Kwaaaaaang!

A tremendous explosion and smoke erupted in all directions.

-But, there is no damage.

“This is nothing…!”

Just before the fist of flame fell, I created a magical wall in the air and blocked it like a knife. The magic wall melted and evaporated in real time, but it was enough to buy a few seconds. My heroes were already close to Cromwell.

Then, Cromwell followed by swiping her left hand horizontally.

Gooooooo!

As expected, some of the huge antlers emitted a cyan flash, and this time, an arm in the shape of a long blade was created in the air.

‘The cutting ability of the Mantis Legion…!’

Tsukaaak-!

And, the mantis sickle-shaped strike that was flying towards us-

“Huuuuh-!”

Jjeoooook!

Torkel took it with his body.

Originally, it was a kind of curse that would surely cut the opponent, but Torkel activated his ultimate skill [Humans are not born to be defeated] and took it with his body, canceling the curse in mid-air.

“Nice, Torkel!”

But I had to stop speaking hesitantly before I could praise him.

Jjeong! Jjeong! Jjeong! Jjeooooong!

The antlers, which had only been shining partially, now began to emit colors one by one, as if they were being turned on.

《Aah…》

Cromwell’s green eyes widened as if they were about to tear, and all sorts of monster attack methods were materialized with magic around her body.

《Dad, watch, watch me.》

Crack, crack…

It was clearly the sound of magic reacting, but an ominous cracking sound, as if bone joints were colliding, echoed.

《I, our, legion…》

Cromwell opened her mouth wide and roared.

《To the path of glory-!》

Kwaaa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwaang…!

A fierce storm of magic arose in all directions around her.

The teeth of hellhounds, the venom of centipedes, the leg muscles of cicadas, and countless tentacles…

All of that took shape with magic and poured out indiscriminately. The heroes who had barely approached had to retreat quickly to avoid being swept away by the range.

“Ugh! What kind of guy is this…?!”

“Ash! There’s no gap to break through!”

“Keep your distance! We need to find a way!”

The close-range heroes, who had barely distanced themselves from Cromwell, caught their breath and looked for an opening. But just approaching this much had already left them all covered in scratches.

I clicked my tongue, looking at Cromwell’s antlers, which were shining non-stop.

‘The long-range attack team…!’

Our mages and snipers were naturally trying to attack, but.

Jjeok! Jjeooooook!

Already from the transformation stage, they were all being neutralized in mid-air, caught in the dense fog-like magic field that Cromwell’s antlers had deployed.

Junior, who had joined late, was struggling and pouring out [Elemental Disassembly], but Cromwell had eaten all the monsters in the area and made their magic her own.

The output, which was soaring like a rampage, was more than the magic that [Elemental Disassembly] was cutting down.

‘The good thing is, she’s not precise!’

Cromwell’s attacks are reckless.

It’s closer to a resistance that she reflexively sprays at enemies who come close.

To make an analogy, it’s like a boxer who has been punched a lot and is standing unconscious, swinging his fists at everyone who comes close… that’s how it is.

‘Then the attack methods we can use are…’

As I quickly racked my brain, a voice was heard next to me.

“Prince Ash.”

When I turned around, it was Deermudine.

The old mage nodded to me with a somewhat troubled face.

“I have a way to neutralize that monster.”

“Yes? Is that true?”

“Yes.”

Deermudine looked at Cromwell and smiled bitterly.

“When I was living with the demons in the Abandoned Sanctuary… I learned about a weakness.”

Following that, Deermudine let out a long sigh.

“It seems this kind of role always comes to an old man.”