I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 790

Thus, the woman’s infinite life repeated once more.

She gathered the guardian trees of the four races, creating a small sapling.

She returned to her homeland and planted the tree.

And in return, she was stoned and burned at the stake, dying.

《Falling into depravity…》

Watching the woman’s self-imposed, meaningless sacrifice, the Demon King was now pleading.

《Fall into depravity, I say!》

The woman no longer even glanced at the Demon King.

She simply repeated her life, silently.

《Why won’t you break? Why won’t you give up?》

It was the Demon King who couldn’t endure it.

《Just why……?!》

Since jumping down from the constellation and becoming an intermediary [a being that acts as a bridge between different realms], the Demon King had never once failed to corrupt an opponent.

He had seduced countless lives and watched their souls become tainted in the mire. Observing all those tragedies up close was the Demon King’s pleasure and reason for existence.

Every noble soul eventually broke before endless trials.

No matter how great their purpose or how long they climbed the towering mountain, everyone eventually lost their footing and fell into the valley of depravity.

The Demon King enjoyed watching that fall. The higher and more arduous the mountain of asceticism they built, the sweeter the fall.

But what about this woman? What about this insignificant being?

Despite being a tiny, ant-like existence, she was endlessly moving a task tens of times larger than herself up the hill, even as she was crushed.

“……”

The woman planted the tree.

The tree that would end her life, she planted it with her life. Endlessly, repeatedly.

…….

The woman didn’t know, but in reality, this act was not meaningless.

The tree had already taken root.

The guardian tree of a race had its trunk in this world and its roots in the spirit realm [a realm of souls and spirits, often separate from the physical world].

Even when time was turned back, the roots of the Everblack, connected to the spirit realm which was separate from the flow of time, could continue to grow.

Repeatedly, the tree was planted, and the combined roots expanded endlessly beneath the spirit realm. With each repetition, the Everblack grew a little larger and stronger.

And so, when the woman was stoned and burned countless times by humans.

The human tree was able to extend roots larger and stronger than any other tree to the bottom of the spirit realm.

***

And finally, that moment arrived.

The moment when the woman’s soul would completely shatter.

“……”

Summer day. A cabin.

The woman, opening her eyes, sensed it.

That her soul had reached its limit. That this was the last repetition.

Gathering her fragmented consciousness, the woman left the cabin to embark on her final journey.

“Mom?”

She encountered her son.

For some reason, her son’s eyes were trembling more than usual.

“……”

Numerous words echoed within her, wanting to be spoken, but she held them back.

The woman quietly embraced her son, then whispered in as gentle a tone as possible.

“Don’t forget that Mom always loves you.”

And the son quietly watched the back of the woman as she left.

Her back, staggering and swaying, yet heading in the direction she had to go.

…….

Decades later.

The woman, who had even forgotten how to walk, leaned on a cane and almost crawled back to her hometown.

‘The tree…….’

Only that word remained in the woman’s shattered mind, like a mission.

‘The tree, I must plant it…….’

And, the moment the woman, losing her grip on the cane, collapsed forward.

Someone embraced her tightly.

The woman, lifting her blurry eyes, saw…….

“Welcome back, Mother.”

Her son, now a full-fledged old man, was waiting there.

No, it wasn’t just her son.

Her son’s children, and the children of those children…….

They stood together with determined expressions, waiting for her.

Since this had never happened in her past lives, the woman was bewildered.

“Come, Mother. This way.”

As he helped the woman into the cabin.

The son explained calmly.

“Actually, I’ve always had a sense of déjà vu since I was young. I often felt like this world had been repeated several times. Not just me, but my son too. And my grandson.”

“……”

“Then, I discovered the research and journals that Mother left behind here. And only then could I understand everything.”

Because they were born as vessels to contain the curse.

All the descendants of the clan possessed the talent of ‘time,’ and had felt déjà vu in the repeated world.

The son explained, feeling awkward.

“I understand what Mother has been doing all this time.”

“……”

“How arduous a battle you’ve been fighting alone, Mother.”

He sat the woman down, who no longer had the strength to lift even a finger.

The son smiled gently.

“Don’t carry it alone anymore.”

“……”

“We’re family, after all.”

The woman looked around at her son, grandchildren, and grown family surrounding her.

The son carefully took the thorny sapling that had been in the woman’s hand.

And, he took the sapling to the place where the woman had always planted it. Her grandchildren had already dug the soil and made the spot soft.

“No, if you plant that tree…….”

The woman stammered in a trembling voice.

“You too, your children too, all of us…… will be burned and stoned…….”

“It’s okay.”

The son did not hesitate.

“Now, we’ll hurt together.”

The woman’s children planted the sapling.

The thorny tree drew in magic as the roots that had already extended into the spirit realm merged with the sapling. The overflowing magic surged like a fountain and poured out into the world.

Bathed in the bright light of magic, the son smiled at the woman.

“We’re connected, together.”

The surging magic settled into the children’s bodies.

Among them, the son, who was the first in human history to accept and wield magic, first used the purest magic drawn from the spirit realm to…….

Remove the curse that had been lingering in his mother’s soul and let it settle within himself.

Click, click, click.

The gray magic that had been residing within the woman swirled and moved into the son’s body.

“Kuhh……!”

However.

The karma that the curse had accumulated by the woman’s generation was too great and immense. It was too much for the son to handle alone.

“Demon King!”

The son, who was already aware of the Demon King’s existence, shouted.

“Let the curse of our clan…… flow without stagnating!”

《…….》

“Connect our clan, even to the descendants who will follow. Even if it’s just to bear this curse.”

The Demon King quietly looked down at the woman’s son, who was heading to hell himself, and his children.

“Even if it’s just to give my mother peace.”

《…….》

A silence filled with anguish passed.

《I am a demon who grants wishes. The master of the monkey’s paw [a reference to a story where wishes come with terrible consequences].》

Even though he had found a new scapegoat, the Demon King’s voice was not as excited as one might expect.

《I will grant your wish. From your generation to the distant future, your clan will be connected.》

He simply stated it calmly.

《The manifestation of the curse will be limited to one person per generation, but you must all share in the process. You will be confined together without an afterlife or reincarnation.》

“……”

《You must watch with open eyes all the journeys of your descendants suffering through regression and suffer together for eternity. That is your ‘connection.’》

“It doesn’t matter.”

The son smiled weakly.

“If the price for bringing light to the world is misfortune, then at least sharing that misfortune together, even a little bit…… would be the human thing to do.”

The curse spreads.

The curse connects.

Beyond the son, to his child. And to the young child held in that child’s arms…….

The woman, watching the events unfold before her, spoke with difficulty.

“Son, why…… I tried so hard not to pass this curse on to you…….”

“It’s okay, Mother.”

The son placed his hand on the thorny tree that was beginning to grow rapidly.

“This beacon of magic showed me the future.”

“The future……?”

“Yes.”

The son smiled brightly and whispered.

“In the distant future, a child will be born who will finally break this curse.”

The village began to stir from afar.

An angry mob began to gather and head towards the cabin. The son nodded calmly.

“A child who will break and change not only the curse, but this world itself, where people discriminate against each other based on power and race, and rule over others as slaves.”

Saying such a dreamlike story, the son quietly took his mother’s hand.

“They will be born, for sure.”

***

The woman and her son were burned at the stake together.

They burned to death together amidst a hail of stones. They died being called witches, monsters, and a cursed clan.

But the mother and son were not afraid. They held hands and looked at each other affectionately as they perished.

The rest of the clan had managed to escape the village before that.

Now, they would have to wander the world forever, living as the successors of the witch.

Connected by the curse of regression.

《…….》

The Demon King stood in the middle of the pyre, looking down at the two bodies that had turned to ashes.

Having escaped the shackles of the curse, the woman’s soul would have been freed.

A suppressed voice flowed from between the Demon King’s teeth.

《This time, I have lost.》

In the end, the Demon King had failed to corrupt her.

She had neither passed on the curse to her descendants with her own hands, nor had she destroyed the world with resentment.

She had simply chosen to quietly disappear on her own.

And it was none other than her children who had saved her from annihilation. The seeds she had sown in the world.

It was the first noble will he had witnessed that did not fall into depravity, and it was the first defeat he had ever experienced in his life.

《Your soul escaped my grasp while still noble. But do you think I will give up like this?》

The Demon King clenched his fist made of shadows.

《I will find you again, without fail.》

Whether she was in the afterlife, or reborn, wherever she was…….

The Demon King resolved to find her soul again.

《And this time…… this time!》

The Demon King swore.

《I will definitely…… corrupt you……!》

The only soul he had failed to corrupt.

The only soul that had defeated him.

The black thorny tree she had brought forth was raising its branches above the world. The magic that surged like a fountain began to bestow its grace upon all humans.

…….

…….

…….

And a thousand years passed.

***

Present.

Lake Kingdom, 10th District. Royal Palace.

《That person died as a witch!》

The Demon King roared at me.

《Her whole body was burned, stoned, and she died miserably in the curse!》

“……”

《That village, which would later be called the Lake Kingdom, those disgusting humans called her a monster! That woman was recorded as the first monster the Lake Kingdom had defeated!》

The Demon King pointed to the empty glass sphere. The facility where all the nightmares of the Lake Kingdom had once been captured.

《And that woman was not found anywhere in the afterlife, and the Lake Kingdom has been sealing the monster they defeated in their nightmares at the national level! It’s only natural that that woman is trapped here!》

“……”

《But, she was revered as a goddess instead of a monster? That can’t be! It can’t be! How could such a…….》

“That is.”

I let out a soft sigh.

“One of the cruelties that humans possess.”

《……!》

“They revered as a god the very person they had called a witch, pointed fingers at, stoned, and burned to death…… because they needed to.”

I calmly conveyed the story I had heard from the goddess.

“She was enshrined as the ancestral god of humanity, and took on the role of eternally supplying warmth to the guardian tree of humanity.”

《Supplying warmth……?》

“Yes.”

An ancestral god was, after all.

Just one cog in the machine put forward for the continuation of that race.

“Since the Everblack was an artificially created guardian tree, its roots had no ability to grow naturally in the spirit realm. It gradually froze and died.”

《No way…….》

“They needed fuel to supply warmth to the tree. And, the collective unconscious of the human race found a scapegoat.”

The witch who first planted this tree.

She who could not find peace even after death, was recorded as the first monster defeated by humanity, and was the first to be sealed in nightmares.

They linked her to the ‘goddess’ in folk beliefs and elevated her to the ancestral god of humanity.

And she willingly took on that role.

“Since she was the one who planted the tree, she thought it was her responsibility to maintain the tree. She is still warming the Everblack at the cost of burning her own existence.”

《…….》

“Eternally, from the bottom of the spirit realm.”

I added.

“Without anyone knowing of her existence.”

What she was burning was, literally, herself. Her very existence.

Naturally, she could not be recognized by anyone. She had already burned everything and become a ‘non-existent being.’ Because she was even burning her future possibilities as fuel.

She had become the object of an abstract concept called ‘goddess,’ but without receiving that light or praise…….

She was such a foolish person, making unconditional sacrifices.

《She delivered the light of magic while alive, and became a device to maintain that light after death…… Is that what happened?》

The Demon King sighed.

《How…… how foolish, what a stupid woman. Even if she sacrifices herself to the very end…… even if she is noble, what is left for her……?》

I nodded slightly.

“I am her descendant. One who inherited the curse of regression. That is why I was the only one who could recognize her.”

《…….》

“And now. I am going to the spirit realm. To save the goddess.”

The Demon King glared at me fiercely.

《Player, what is it that you desire?》

“……”

《You said you would save her. But how exactly do you intend to save her? And saving her cannot be your ultimate goal either.》

“……”

《Tell me. What is it that you truly seek…… what is it?》

After taking a deep breath.

“My real goal.”

Finally-

I declared.

“Is to destroy this tragedy, this game of destruction, the system itself.”

《……!》

“In other words.”

I crossed my arms and raised the corners of my mouth.

“I intend to rebel against you outer gods, against this entire universe…….”