Ch.112Chapter 112. Betrayer of Humanity.

Blight Cradle.

For Marcus, it was a name he could never forget.

He was his own brother—frail yet brilliant, with talents so recognized by the royal family that he was appointed as their exclusive scholar.

He had admired his intelligent brother.

At one time, he even regarded his brother as a savior, whose intelligence influenced the entire nation.

But why…

“Why did you appear before me in such a state?”

What exactly had happened in his homeland while he was away?

What final fate had his brother suffered in their plague-ravaged country that made him return from death as a betrayer of humanity, standing before him now?

“…Such a state? That’s rather harsh.”

The voice leaked from the severed neck that he had beheaded out of anguish.

From that hideous head with no remaining human features came a voice that, even after half a century, he still recognized as his brother’s.

“Marcus, although our paths have diverged, I still clearly remember that you are my brother…”

“Silence! You’re just a monster who has taken over my brother’s corpse. Stop desecrating his death any further!!”

It was an obvious statement.

The Undead were merely ‘replicas’ constructed from the most intense lingering attachments among the memories remaining in a corpse.

Even written records penned by human hands become distorted, so how would his brother, resurrected by the disaster known as the Lord of Corpses, be any different?

“…Well, I was hoping for a touching brotherly reunion after so long. I suppose it’s too much to expect understanding from the living, even from a beloved brother.”

Slowly, tentacles emerging from his neck began to merge with his fallen body.

Such a bizarre act that no ordinary person could imagine performing.

Marcus, horrified that this was happening through his brother’s corpse, quickly raised his sword in threat.

“Don’t move!!”

“Whoa, whoa~ Calm down, brother. This is just a projection, not even my main body. If you get so scared, your lifespan will shorten faster, you know?”

The sword pointed at him trembled slightly at these provocative words.

A projection? So he hadn’t come here to eliminate the commander of this place?

If sending a projection wasn’t meant for killing, then what was it for?

“…Why?”

Despite rising to the position of commander of the army responsible for humanity’s future.

Even he seemed insignificant to a being who had ascended to the level of disaster like this one?

“What happened in our country that turned you into such a being? You used to be…”

“Weak, timid, and a bookworm who knew nothing but books. At the same time, I was also a loyal vassal who knew nothing but my lord, just like you.”

Though just a projection, his foundation was still the being who had once been his brother.

To his brother who was trying to find some understanding of the current situation from that foundation, Blight responded quietly with a bitter voice.

“The reason I walk a different path from you is simply because I realized one thing.”

“Realization? What…”

“In the end, all living beings are destined to become dust… Yet all creatures instinctively understand that the world will continue to flow even after they’re gone, so they feel fear and avoid danger, feel desire and seek growth, and ultimately wish to leave behind offspring.”

His words carried a sense of nostalgia.

Though his head was rotted, they clearly taught that his foundation was still his once-brilliant brother.

“But despite such natural order, this world is filled with too many absurdities for life. Even if one lives diligently, mass extinction by natural disasters is common, so how can one be confident that their trace will remain in this world just by following instinct?”

“…Are you saying you willingly participated in this for that reason?”

“Yes, I too am a loyal vassal who willingly joined the ideals of my second lord.”

A smile formed on his beak-like mouth.

Despite his grotesquely inhuman appearance, Marcus could immediately understand that what was drawn on his lips was a smile full of conviction.

“He said this: If we are all destined to disappear into oblivion, shouldn’t we at least make the tombstone that remains after destruction more solid? Isn’t it the true calling of those facing extinction to allow more people to leave behind such traces!”

That was the ultimate future the dead sought.

If they couldn’t resist despair, they would hasten the time of melting into that despair, hoping to leave at least some trace behind.

“Is that something worth trampling on the living to achieve?!”

Absolutely not, never.

A desperate future that those still living could never participate in.

“If our ideals were the same, we could find a compromise without fighting, but Marcus, as someone who has experienced the era of war, you understand? If we cannot compromise, fighting is the only option according to the ways of the world.”

Yes, in the end, if they couldn’t be together, they had to fight.

The reason he had specifically recognized and sought out his former brother, in a place he could have simply swept through, was for this very reason.

“So I don’t blame you. And you shouldn’t blame me either. Even if the future unfolding before us is not what you desire, that’s just how the world works…”

One of the lingering attachments of the dead man known as Blight Cradle.

Perhaps because of his ‘final brotherly concern’ hoping that his brother’s potential demise here would be somewhat less unjust.

“Commander, are you safe?!”

“The White Knight is over there! Paladin Order! Eliminate that creature with holy power!!”

Soldiers rushed onto the scene after him. Those who approached while eliminating the infected around them were also clerics possessing holy power that could resist the plague.

But Blight’s projection had already disappeared after leaving his final words.

Marcus, who had been looking down at him feeling powerless, quickly turned his attention to his subordinates who had come searching for him, grinding his teeth.

“Commander, I’m glad you’re safe, but we don’t have time to linger here.”

“The infected will soon rush in here too. We should first retreat to the west where the clerics are gathered, and then reorganize…”

“Send the Heroes guarding the northern wall to the deepest part of the excavation site immediately!”

Marcus shouted urgently to the soldiers trying to escort him. At his roar, the soldiers hesitated and quickly turned to look at him.

“Send the Heroes to the deepest part…? Not to deal with the situation here?”

“We can somehow block the damage here by ourselves, though we can’t help those already infected and fallen!”

It was a judgment he made while maintaining his composure despite facing his brother.

In reality, Blight had only left a small number of his forces for the ambush, and even if those few spread infection, secondary spread could be prevented by keeping distance and receiving help from clerics.

Nevertheless, the reason Blight didn’t deploy additional forces and only swept through the garrison area was likely for “distraction,” one of his initially anticipated purposes.

‘This isn’t simply waiting for the Red Knight to enter. The forces both sides have deployed to attack this place are too small for that…!’

If no additional forces were deployed, the enemy’s goal was not to annihilate this place but to quickly infiltrate and approach their target.

And there was only one place in this land worth targeting.

“The White Knight’s target must be the Dragon’s Heart! We must send Heroes there immediately to stop them!”

The Dragon’s Heart. Among the remains of a dragon that couldn’t withstand time, a place that still contained enormous energy.

The Empire had identified its existence and prioritized its excavation, preparing to transport it to the Empire soon.

With all paths to it open, infiltrating inside wouldn’t be difficult during a distraction like this.

‘Currently, three Heroes are somehow blocking the Red Knight. Though deadly to large armies, the White Knight is relatively weaker in combat power compared to other knights, so an elite small force should be able to handle it…!’

Among the Heroes were clerics who could resist the plague.

So while they risked their lives to deal with the garrison’s problems, if the Heroes went to the deepest part to handle the situation, they could somehow thwart the enemy’s purpose.

“W-well…”

But the soldiers who received the order had troubled expressions.

After looking at each other, they reluctantly conveyed the unpleasant news to Marcus.

“Not a single Hero responded to the initial call to head to the northern defense line.”

“…What?”

“Exactly as I said. It’s late to report because of the sudden ambush, but currently the Heroes who should be heading north are unaccounted for.”

“What does that mean?! Surely they’re not dawdling even in this situation…”

“Commander! Emergency situation!”

A soldier rushed toward the agitated Marcus. Having quickly crossed through the Undead, he tried to report to the commander despite being out of breath.

“Currently, the guards protecting the path to the deepest part of the excavation site… to the Dragon’s Heart, have been found murdered!”

“Murdered? What…”

Murdered. It’s not an expression one would use if the enemy were Undead.

Because those killed by them would rise again as the dead and turn into enemies.

“Betrayal…”

There was only one reason for using such an expression.

Because something incomparable to the invasion of the dead had occurred.

“Except for the three Heroes guarding the east, the rest of the Heroes have collectively betrayed us to seize the Dragon’s Heart!”

A situation where the hopes of humanity united in betrayal.

It happened at this critical moment.

****

At the same time, in the passage leading to the deepest part of the excavation site.

While the garrison area was being overrun by the infected, delaying reinforcements from the inside, two magic-infused spores flew toward Blight as he moved through the passage.

Both were disease vectors he had planted in his projections.

He was capable of receiving these vectors into his body, allowing him to indirectly experience the memories of what his projections had gone through.

“Hmm, I see. So that’s how it turned out.”

The projection attached to the Red Knight, and the one sent to provoke the commander of this garrison.

Ironically, of the two, Blight was more concerned about his brother who had become one of humanity’s pillars rather than the princess of the kingdom he served.

“If only he had died somewhere else, we wouldn’t have had to fight, but it ended up like this.”

It was sad, if anything.

While their ideal was something to be reluctantly pursued in a doomed world, the instinct of the living would never allow them to understand it.

“…Well, Marcus will understand later. That in a world like this, everyone must rely on Hyoseong to leave something behind.”

Yes, Blight didn’t think he had fallen from grace.

Even the prosperous royal family collapsed overnight due to the plague, so how could mere humans make any meaningful resistance against such natural disasters?

So to leave even a trace of his existence, he had no choice but to rely on the name engraved in his mind.

By spreading the three-character name of Hyoseong Woo, someone he had never even met…

“…Wait a minute. This doesn’t seem right.”

Feeling that his train of thought had derailed at some point, Blight quickly corrected his mind and chuckled.

Even though his head had been rotten for a long time, to think that a name would emerge more clearly than such lingering attachments, even overshadowing his mission.

“Fuhuhu, a being that remains endlessly engraved even in the memories of the dead… If it weren’t for this situation, I would have personally sought him out.”

A minor curiosity, but after this matter was over, he wanted to meet the person who was the source of that name.

Putting that thought aside, Blight soon took time to survey the center of the passage, focusing on his calling.

“Well then, I’ve successfully made it to the deepest part…”

Nearly ten corpses in splendid and expensive equipment were sprawled on the floor.

Just by looking at their appearance, different from ordinary soldiers and adventurers, one could tell.

That these were the ones called Heroes, the hope of humanity.

“Why are all the ones here completely annihilated?”

The sight of such Heroes sprawled dead everywhere was quite unexpected for Blight.

He had prepared himself and entered the heart of enemy territory alone, yet the Heroes he expected to be tracking him were found as corpses ahead of him.

‘Could it be that a different force from ours invaded and ambushed them… No, that’s not it.’

Blight compared the weapons clutched in their corpses with the bodies themselves.

Just by seeing that the wounds matched, he could easily deduce that this situation was caused by none other than ‘each other.’

Not only had the Heroes he expected to be tracking him entered this place ahead of him, but they had also come all the way here to kill each other.

Could it be that those who coveted the Dragon’s Heart had not only betrayed humanity but also betrayed their comrades who had joined in the betrayal, wanting to monopolize the heart for themselves?

-BOOM!!!

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a ball of energy burst from a remote part of the cave.

It collided with Blight’s mask, shattering it mercilessly and revealing his grotesquely distorted face to his opponent.

“…Hehe, well, look at this?”

Blight also recognized his opponent.

Realizing that he had been attacked by a Hero who had created this situation, Blight soon flashed his eyes, showing his displeasure toward the opponent.

“I thought what would unfold here would be a battle between the living and the dead…”

“Why is a single mosquito suddenly interfering and causing trouble?”

To think that among the Heroes sponsored by humanity’s leadership, there was one who had awakened as a ‘vampire.’

Isn’t it obvious why all the Heroes were so foolish?