V2 Chapter 202

“… …”

No one dared to say a thing.

All of them shivered and trembled as if they were naked in the middle of the winter land.

“Why are you not speaking…? I hate to say this, but I dislike being ignored,” Cian said. His thin lips curled into a smile that would have seemed warm and genuine were it not for the coolness in his glazed eyes

“Pl, please show us mercy, o strong one!!”

An elderly Grakilis crawled over.

“Mercy…hm, a very wonderful and convenient word. Always, always used by people at the end of their lives. Cliché and always taken advantage too—if that word was a person, it would have been a harlot…” he smirked in contempt.

“Pl, please spare us… we will do anything, please!! Please even if it’s the children!”

“Please spare us!! Please don’t kill us!!”

“We will do anything… place, spare us, mighty one!”

They continued to beg.

Seeing them not even able to retort and just continued trembling as if they were shivering from cold, all while speaking like a damn broken recorder. Cian’s interest disappeared. When he raised his hand, to the people it was like a scythe of the Grim Reaper about to swing. They became even more scared. However;

“…I already bestowed mercy to you once, though?”

Despair appeared on their faces.

At this moment, Cian chuckled in amusement; "Well, rest easy, for I am truly a magnanimous being. My patience has no limits. And I like giving second chances, and even third if I feel like it. So, that is why I shall bestow unto you another fabulous opportunity."

“… …?!!”

“…I’ll say this one more time. And this would be the last, I hope. I rather didn’t want blood on my hands again, it’s quite exhausting… killing, actually, it breaks my heart. Now then, choose to submit…or death. A simple question,”

“W, we will submit, you, your majesty!!”

Looking at them, groveling under his feet, Cian couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction.

This is ought should be… a voice appeared inside his mind, declaring the scene in front of him as normal and without any strangeness of it. It’s as if there was an air of inevitability about the outcome of the people groveling under his feet.

Cian finds it somewhat disturbing, at the same time a feeling of contentment surge through him.

“…as I already said, I am inevitable…”

What a weirdo I had become.

Even still, this was just the beginning!

… …

"Corpse Explosion!"

Booom! Boom! Boom! Baaang! Baang! Boom!!

Cian grasped his hand in the empty air and then used corpse explosions. Bodies were scattered in front of a bunch of enemies without mercy and then exploded like dynamites have been ignited. Cries of pain and despair reverberated throughout the entire forest.

This had been ongoing several times already.

Cian made them choose to submit but they foolishly tried to attack him and even mock him at times.

What foolish idiots, with brains even smaller than birds.

Even Buddha can get angry!

Who are they depending on?

Was it the Serpent Empress?

Then, why—no matter what they do, or prayed, no one had yet to come and save them?

Foolish dreams.

To the Serpent Empress, perhaps they didn’t even exist. Why would they so cling onto false hope only to fall into even deeper despair?

Such idiocracy, even Cian didn't know if he should laugh about it, or cry in pity.

After another night, another village fell.

Cian at first fought alone. However, as time passed by he became bored and lost interest.

After the Grakilis and its neighboring villages, Cian and his army of Undead led by the Manticore slowly conquered the other villages and tribes. He had swept through the eight Tribes that were close to the Village of Harley and Cornelia. And in a blink of an eye, one by one, they fell. Like dominoes.

Some tried to be brave, and fight against him, some tried to resist but there were also those who immediately gave up and surrender. What’s even more unfortunate was that those villages with good and abled men and warriors were the ones who had defied his will with foolish bravery and courage until the last moment, and therefore, they were rooted out.

The price of their lives not only made their families mourned but also disappointed him. Now, only several abled man-powers were left. If they were only a bit intelligent, he would have amassed quite a force with the combined power of the conquered villages.

Creating an army or at least a band of useful soldiers to defend the Village would have been much more desirable.

And yet, these idiots just had to use foolish egotism rather than intelligence!

This really frustrates him to no end.

Although the army of undead only consisted of simple skeleton soldiers and some elite undead such as Dullahan and Zombies, just the number of it could induce fear and despair in anyone. This should have been enough to scare these people, but there had to be idiots who took themselves infallible. What’s worse is that, when an idiot appears, it would infect other people to become idiots as well. Like a virus, a plague.

This was what made him even angrier.

Cian didn’t have corpses to use at first, but as they battled and killed people, corpses piled one after another. And instant, they reached over a hundred undead.

Quite a force to be reckoned with, actually. And in just a few days, those living within a kilometer around the entrance to the Ruins that could lead to the outside world had been conquered by him. Still, Cian didn’t step beyond that. After all, he knows that beyond the valley of serpent, was the true lair of the Serpent Empress.

Although Cian was not afraid of the Tyrant Empress, however, he knows that he didn’t have much time to stay anymore. And charging at her without knowing anything about the enemy is an idiot’s doing. At the very least, he should at least create a plan.

Even still… despite the commotion in this part of the forest, why does the Serpent Empress have yet to make her appearance?

It would be weird if she still hasn’t heard of his existence and what he was doing. However, she was still silent, and even her minions have yet to make any trouble for him.

Was she really uninterested in these people’s well-being?

Cian furrowed his brows but he has no time to care about her.

In any case, that kind of monster not coming to cause trouble was a welcoming event for him.

After planting a [Seal of Submission] on the surviving people of each tribe, Cian finally increased his slaves into several dozens, already bypassing a hundred marks. Although the people feared him at first, thinking they would die or be tortured the next day, after hearing what he had said and promised of survival they do what he ordered.

As long as they are not maltreated and treated maliciously, they can work with anything.

Being exterminated and killed was a natural occurrence for these people who had lived in the harsh world of the Black Lands. Every day could be the last day for them. A sliver of hope for survival was enough for them to accept everything. Although the [Seal of Submission] was not as amazing as Parent-Child Gu Curse that he was using within the [Garden of Eden], it was still enough to scare the people of this land.

After all, the [Seal of Submission] meant that the life of an individual was in the hands of the caster.

That’s simple and all, but having someone control your life, they would surely know how to act servile.

Furthermore, what Cian wanted to create here was not as complicated as the [Garden of Eden] that he must be worried about absolute loyalty, with the price of all his secrets and plans if something went wrong. Cian let them live and stay, and he didn’t ask anything beyond that. To the people, it was better than being under a cruel and merciless lord.

Although they were considered servants and slaves of Cian, but as the day passed by, they slowly started to understand what he wanted from them. There was no excessive violence and malicious acts. Cian just told them to start a village just near the Sordan Tribe then started living them just like they did in their original homes.

Foods and Equipment should be shared, and security must be maintained by each and every village, and also lend a hand towards the other neighboring villages without any sort of unequal status.

In this region, Cian was the only one absolute. And every person in each village is to treat others equally if not, his death would be but a mere simple snap.

No fighting, no bullying, no plundering, no war—

With Cian managing things and laying out laws and rules, although he was inexperienced in this aspect, it was actually quite easy. After all, since the City was still in the beginning stage, there are no difficult and complicated decisions for him to do. He just ordered the abled men to make a perimeter and build a defense wall, which was easily done by gathering bones and corpses.

As long as there are bones and corpses, Cian can make a wall using a Dark Magic Spell; [Bone Wall].

[Bone Wall] was one of the basic magic spells that a Necromancer and undead monsters such as Lich could use. It calls upon the remnants of the spirits of all the creatures who have ever died in the area. It accumulates their fossilized remains and summons forth from the ground a barrier of dense, fossilized bone.

However, Cian used this using a gathered pile of bones and corpses hence, it was much sturdier and higher in height than normal. Furthermore, with the nature of the Black Lands, bones and corpses were buried almost everywhere in the forest, that his death magic became even more potent than normal.

Cian had surrounded the Sordan Tribe’s along with the Harpies Sorgon Tribe with a Bone Wall. He had sacrificed almost all of his skeletons for this. Then, ordered to create a farming field. Since there were already prepared farming fields in every village, it was also not that difficult to accomplish it.

As for the other people, they started making villages around the Sordan Tribe that was temporarily named by Cian as the Hidden Jekyll Village. As for the other villages, they became adjacent villages with the Hidden Jekyll Village as the Main Village.

Cian wasted no efforts to elevate the standing of the Hidden Jekyll Village towards the other villages and even appointed Harley and Cornelia as Chiefs of the new tribe. Although they refused, after telling them that he would leave for a while, they immediately panic. It was a hard time consoling them and making them believe him that he will return. For now, Cian was able to settle several minor and major problems of the new village. Cian even let Leona roam around the area and patrol so that no dreadful monster that would appear. As for the matters for the lake, Cian decided to set it aside for now. The man-power and forces he had was still insufficient to deal with the monsters that would gather around the lake.

It’s better not to eat things more than he can chew. It would only create more trouble for him. For now, what Cian wanted was to let the villages settle first and stabilize their situation.

… … …

At Okmahun Demon City.

The visitors poured through the castle gates in a river of gold and silver and polished steel—over three hundred strong, a pride of demon elites and soldiers, varying appearances that of different tribes, with bulky bodies and titanic muscles. Some wore armors; some did not, displaying the pride of their very own naked visage.

Over their heads, a dozen golden banners whipped back and forth in the northern wind, emblazoned with the snowflakes and sword of ice that is the infamous symbol of the Princess of Ice. The symbol of freezing fear that terrorizes the mountain regions of the Winter Mountain. A sight to behold as they marched through with growls and groans of different magical beasts and monsters, most mount by horrible looking demi-humans.

Ruka knew many of the riders. There came the Mistress of the Avidhorn Family with hair as black and captivating as raven’s feather, and there Nedia Bornhusky with her terribly burned face but eyes still as fierce as hawk and preying eagles. Despite the terrible burned of her left face, she rode on her mount with pride and dignity that cannot be seen on ordinary women, blood and death stench emanated from her body as if she has always bathed herself in blood and corpses.

Though, the rumors had confirmed such an impression. Nedia Bornhusky, Marelys Avidhorn’s fiercest sword, and spear, her right hand that aids her to win many wars and battles. She was the Marquise loyal and most trusted General. Cold and Bloodthirsty, she came from a strange human-like race that lived in the deep of the Winter Mountain—cannibals that eats humans, demons, and monsters alike, and was known and hated by humans as Demon Worshippers.

They have the strange enhanced physical strength that no ordinary humans could ever compare and battle craze almost bordered insanity.

Many humans called them Barbarians, Freaks of Nature, or Beasts of Battlefield.

And Nedia Bornhusky, she was what you call a thorough predator.

She bathed in a pool of blood and cut fleshes of her enemies as if it was natural, and eats their flesh and drink their blood raw. Among demons and demi-humans, you can say she was a thorough Demon and Monster. However, she was as fierce as a berserker on the battlefield. Humans feared her, and just the sight of her alone was enough to make them tremble.

There was also the new rising star on the battlefield; Sayrash Stormblade following behind them.

Ruka’s eyes narrowed, she surely had changed after a few weeks of not seeing her. Her first impression of the new her; she was stunning. Her second impression: she was trying very hard to minimize her looks. Pale grey hair that was almost the same as her beloved Master’s hair color, tied in a simple ponytail. Fresh, creamy skin, a few adorable freckles, oversized wolf ears at the top of her head, and wolf-like brown eyes.