I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 778

Three types of monsters swirled around the ruins, drawn in as if by a vortex.

An endless swarm of rats, led by the Great Rat Mother, devoured everything living in their path.

The statues of Greed, Hatred, and Ignorance, along with the 108 Torments [a reference to Buddhist hells], began chanting their corrupted scriptures with fervor, driving any humans who heard them mad and causing them to turn on each other.

And the Apocalypse Knights, led by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, each denied human life itself with plague, famine, war, and death.

Destroying the foundations of humanity,

destroying the hearts of humanity,

destroying the very lives of humanity…

As if born for this purpose, the monsters were ruining the world in its final days.

The ruined city was already littered with human corpses.

As their prey dwindled, the three monster groups had begun fighting each other.

The wave of rats surged forward, completely covering the giant statues—Greed, Hatred, and Ignorance—as they climbed over them.

The giant statues, unconcerned by the rats, chanted their horrific scriptures toward the Apocalypse Knights.

And the Apocalypse Knights, each raising their bows, greatswords, scales, and scythes, slaughtered the rats.

“…Haa.”

In the middle of this surreal battlefield,

Sid let out a soft sigh.

“We just came to get medicine…”

Just like the past 15 years, we had been leaving behind companions, moving shelters, eating rat meat, searching ruins, and fighting other survivor groups…

We were just trying to live another day.

The destruction of all of that was now right in front of us.

Thud thud thud-!

The monsters, having already pinpointed our location, surged toward us through the gaps in the ruins.

Clap-!

Sid clapped his hands and stretched them outward, creating a huge ring of light that cleanly erased all the monsters that had gathered in the area.

But pushing back the enemies was only temporary; the empty space was immediately filled by the next wave of monsters rushing toward us.

Thump!

Eliza stepped in front of me, plunged her sword tube into the ground, and spat out the activation phrase as if chewing it.

“Sword tube, deploy.”

Without even glancing at the sword tube that was opening wide, Eliza shouted as she charged toward the pouring monsters.

“Sword number 2, sword number 4, sword number 7, sword number 12, sword number 13… Damn it! Just launch all the weapons we can use!”

Whoooosh!

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Various swords were launched like rockets from the sword tube, raining down like a bombardment on Eliza’s position.

Eliza successively grabbed the swords in mid-air and swung them at the monsters that approached.

She sliced through the giant mutated ratmen, the Torments spouting evil scriptures, and the Apocalypse Knights who were flying around and casting curses, with her sword.

Clang! Clang! Crack…!

The enemies were tough and strong, so Eliza’s swords didn’t last long before breaking.

But Eliza didn’t care; she threw away the broken sword and grabbed the next one, shoving it into the enemy’s head.

“…”

Sid cleanly pushed back the surroundings each time his magic gathered, and Eliza directly dealt with the enemies that broke through that magic.

With just this, the front line maintained a certain balance, but we were not escaping their encirclement at all.

And far away in the sky, two beings—the ‘Sleepless Lake Princess’ and Crown—were approaching us every moment.

At this rate, escape was impossible, and we would be caught by them.

“Hoo.”

I closed my eyes and opened them, slowly awakening the dragon’s power within me.

Goooooo…!

The earth vibrated faintly, announcing the dragon’s descent to the world.

Startled, Sid turned to me urgently and shouted.

“Godfather, no!”

“What can’t be done in this situation?”

More and more monsters were gathering, and even Sid’s magic could no longer completely push them back.

“Kuh-uck!”

I also saw Eliza’s prosthetic arm being grabbed and torn off by the enemies as she fought bravely.

There was no more time to hesitate. I instantly awakened all the dragon heart and dragon blood within my body.

“Ugh…!”

My vision repeatedly turned black and red. I felt my existence rapidly distancing itself from being human.

Because I had used the dragon’s power too often after the apocalypse, my ego was now being corrupted every time I used it.

My memories were fading, and the wills of the black dragon and the red dragon were mixing, repelling, and clashing within me.

In the first place, I was a being patched together to be able to continue fighting up to stage 50. Having used it for 15 more years, it was natural that it was going bad.

‘It doesn’t matter!’

I took a deep breath.

And I exhaled with all my might in the direction where the monsters were most densely gathered.

Fwoooosh!

Dragon Breath.

The black and red flames, which could not be mixed, pushed each other away and were fired, burning everything in their path.

‘Ugh!’

The taste of blood was felt inside my burnt throat.

My thermal coat was burned away by the heat of the breath, revealing my upper body, including my neck, to the world. My body was covered in black and red dragon scales…

“Haa, cough! Cough!”

I coughed violently and spat out blood.

My body was a bit of a mess, but thanks to it, anyway.

“A path has been opened!”

All the monsters in one direction were swept away by the breath and annihilated.

Eliza, who had run to me, supported me and shouted.

“Your Highness, this way!”

***

Barely breaking through the encirclement and escaping, the survivors of the World Protection Front were rushing to meet us.

They had been waiting, knowing that a battle had broken out.

“We have to escape this city immediately!”

I shouted urgently.

“The other monsters are a problem, but the two worst enemies of the Lake Kingdom are descending to the ground! Before we get caught, hurry-”

But, was it a mistake to have wasted time breaking through the monsters’ encirclement?

Before I could even finish my sentence, a woman in a flowing dress, who had flown down from the sky, landed softly between me and my companions.

“…!”

Under the cracked sky, shimmering starlight was scattered around the woman.

The pale white end of her dress, which seemed not of this world, was discolored to black, and it flickered ominously, containing the darkness of another dimension.

Beyond the pure white mourning veil that covered her face… I could see the familiar, yet now devoid of human emotion, turquoise eyes.

I spoke in a trembling voice.

“…Nameless.”

My old friend, hoping that she might recognize my voice and return to the way she was before. With such a futile hope.

But, of course, that was not the case.

Swoosh-!

A black aura gathered in the hands of the ‘Sleepless Lake Princess’ and solidified into the shape of a long sword, and the monster swung it vertically.

Thwack-!

Sid, who had rushed toward me urgently, pushed me to the side.

The blow unleashed by the ‘Sleepless Lake Princess’ barely grazed me, and the trajectory of the sword split the world… from the sky to the end of the earth.

The torn sky poured down, and the cracked earth collapsed.

We cannot win.

She was not such an existence in the first place.

The only time she could be killed was before she became a complete monster, inside the Lake Kingdom. Having escaped the Lake Kingdom and become the culmination of all nightmares, she was literally invincible.

“We will buy you time, Your Highness! Escape!”

Eliza, clutching her broken sword, urgently directed the people.

“Sid, I’m counting on you to protect His Highness!”

“…Yes.”

Sid nodded silently and supported me. I shouted urgently.

“What are you saying, Eliza! If we’re going to escape, we have to go together-”

“Your Highness is our banner.”

Eliza said, holding a dark blue dagger in her mouth.

“Especially in this world, please continue to flutter until the last possible moment.”

“…”

“I’ll entrust this sword tube to you, Your Highness. The wills of those who fell before us remain inside it.”

After pushing her sword tube toward me.

After giving me one last complicated glance, Eliza charged toward the ‘Sleepless Lake Princess’.

“Waaaaaah-!”

“Block the monsters as much as possible!”

“Buy time-!”

The entire remaining force of the World Protection Front shouted and charged toward the enemy commander.

“Take this, you enemy of our master-!”

The dagger that Eliza threw as her last words did not leave any wounds on the body of the ‘Sleepless Lake Princess’.

The next moment, after confirming that Eliza had been torn to shreds by the black aura, I closed my eyes tightly and turned my body in the opposite direction.

While my people were buying time with their lives, I fled, supported by Sid, who was carrying the sword tube.

Just like the past 15 years, once again…

***

Was it because the sky was torn?

No more ash was falling. Sid and I were crossing a white ice field under a clear night sky for some reason.

“Haa, haa, haa…”

Sid was breathing irregularly.

We leaned on each other and walked like that for a long time.

It was then. Suddenly, a strong wind blew. Sid and I hugged each other and barely withstood the strong wind.

And, when the strong wind stopped…

“…!”

The white ash that had covered the ice field was completely swept away.

The cleanly frozen plain reflected the clear night sky as it was.

Starlight bloomed like flowers on the earth.

“Waa…”

Forgetting the current situation, Sid let out an innocent, childlike exclamation.

“I don’t think this is the time to say this, Godfather, but isn’t it beautiful?”

“…It is. It’s really beautiful.”

I murmured, looking at the scenery with Sid.

“It’s like a flower garden.”

“A flower garden? What’s that?”

“A field where lots of flowers are planted.”

Sid, who had never seen a flower or a field since the world had become like this, did not understand my words exactly, but.

“That flower garden must be this pretty too, then.”

He said that as if he somehow understood.

Thud.

Immediately after, Sid collapsed. I quickly caught the child and checked his condition.

“This is…!”

There was a long gash on Sid’s chest.

It seemed to be a wound he had sustained when he pushed me away from the ‘Sleepless Lake Princess’ attack. He had been sealing it with magic until now and had walked this far, but it was a wound that could not heal, so he had reached his limit.

Looking back at the path we had walked, we could see drops of blood scattered here and there. My face contorted.

Not knowing that my godson had suffered such a wound, I had gladly accepted the child’s support and walked all this way.

“Haha. I guess this is the end for me.”

Sid, who was murmuring in my arms with blood on his lips, looked up at me with clear eyes.

“Do you regret it, Godfather?”

“…”

“That choice… do you regret it?”

I pressed my lips tightly.

It was the content of that conversation I had with Sid a while ago.

If I had gone to Nameless and killed her before the final defense battle began.

If I had prevented the ‘Sleepless Lake Princess’ from descending into the world. Instead of giving up the true ending, if I had obtained even the normal ending I had gotten in the game.

I wouldn’t have had to see this worst future.

If that had been the case, my people, and Sid, could have lived in a better world than this…

It was then.

“Don’t regret it.”

“…!”

Sid continued calmly.

“Mom said so. That Godfather is someone who fought to save the world. That if Godfather wasn’t there, the world would have been destroyed a long time ago.”

“…”

“That you willingly took the lead on a path that everyone else in the world doubted, struggled with, and didn’t want to go down.”

“…”

“Godfather, you walked the path you believed was right. If you have no shame in that choice… don’t regret it.”

The child’s young voice was filled with clear conviction.

“I think that the reason why our mom, and the others, followed Godfather with their lives… is because Godfather’s path was right.”

“…”

“So, even for the sake of the people who followed Godfather’s banner… instead of regret, please fight until the last moment.”

I looked into the child’s eyes and asked.

“…Sid. Having been born into this world, weren’t you unhappy?”

Then, Sid blinked slowly and looked up at the sky.

“Do you remember? It was when I was very young. That day too, for some reason, the sky was clear like this.”

A faint smile appeared on the child’s lips as he recalled an old memory.

“Everyone went to play on the hill of ash near the shelter. They said they would give me a sled ride. I didn’t even know what a sled was, but I was excited and followed them.”

“…”

“They put me in the last remaining sack of flour, and Uncle Zenith and Brother Damian took turns sitting behind me. They gave me a sled ride from the top of the ash hill to the bottom.”

Sid’s face, as he talked about his memories, had already regained the innocent and cute appearance that was typical of his age.

“Master Diarmuidin and Junior Noona kept nagging that they had to do magic lessons while the weather was clear, but they were soon waiting for their turn for the sled ride. Haha, in the end, they even had a competition to see which was faster, the fire sled or the wind sled.”

“…”

“After playing excitedly until the sun went down, when we came back, dinner was ready outside the shelter… I still remember it. What Mom said at that dinner. ‘Today the weather is nice, so let’s eat out! And while we’re eating out, let’s have a special meal!’ she said.”

I know.

Everyone knows.

This world is hell.

“It would be a lie if I said it wasn’t painful… but there were definitely happy moments.”

Unreasonable, absurd, and nothing going my way. Even if I struggled to overcome the difficulties in front of me, it was still just painful.

A hell that no one but a superhuman could possibly live in.

But, even in such a world…

“I liked those moments.”

The child remembers the moments that shone like stars.

I… remember too.

The beautiful moments that had bloomed like a flower garden of weeds amidst all those difficult days.

Sid smiled brightly at me.

“It wasn’t a bad life.”

I gritted my teeth.

I clenched my fist and glared at my eyes, which were getting hot.

And I, too, smiled at the child.

“Me too.”

We are living in this miserable landscape.

Does that mean we should give up on the strategy?

…No.

“So, I won’t regret it.”

The strategy must continue.

Until the moment life stops.

“I will fight.”

Believing in the strategy I have set, uprightly.

Without giving up.

Thump…!

At that moment, someone landed on the ice field far away from where Sid and I were.

Saaaaa…

The final boss, the ‘Sleepless Lake Princess’, scattering a suffocating evil aura.

And her brother, the proxy of the Demon King, and the main culprit who made this world like this.

The ‘Pied Piper’.

Crown.

《Is this the end, Ash?》

The guy muttered from behind his black smiling mask.

《This nightmare lasted 15 years before reaching its end… you really have an amazing mental fortitude.》

Yes.

And now, I finally realized.

《Well then… shall we repeat it once again?》

“…”

《The nightmare you fear the most.》

That this nightmarish world… is none other than stage 49 itself.