Chapter 132

Episode 132. The Great Overlord (1)

There were two ways to prevent the Fifth Disaster.

We could turn him into an empty vessel by wiping out his forces. His army and most dangerous power, the 'monsters'. But this was a virtually impossible option.

If we were able to do so, we could have eradicated the monsters before the Great Overlord appeared and prevented all the tragedies that happened in the world.

It was a depressing fact, but objectively speaking, monsters were stronger than humans. Monsters were lesser in numbers than humans, but they differed in quality. If humans fought the monsters head-on, humans wouldn't last long, and the human race would soon be extinct.

Humans had simply cleverly survived thanks to several powerful individuals, hunters, and the strategies and countermeasures crafted from countless fights.

From the monsters' perspective, humankind was just a sad collection of prey that was barely clinging on. From our perspective, monsters were a group of invaders and predators that we needed to avoid and get rid of one day.

'Then, there's only one way.'

That left only one option. Killing the Great Overlord. We needed to kill the Overlord, who was about to become the monsters' 'head', and prevent the monsters from forming legions. Then the Fifth Disaster would naturally end. And then...

'All of these Disasters will be over.'

Before I came back in time, Analysts and experts said that the Great Overlord was powerful. They said that the source of his power was the medium that caused Rifts to appear and that it induced the proliferation of monsters. So, his existence was the reason why Rifts occurred and monsters increased.

'No matter how strong they are, creatures that cannot reproduce will one day go extinct. And then, there will be peace.'

His death would be the salvation of the world.

But the catch with choosing that option was that the Great Overlord wasn't an easy opponent.

"Okay, I'm not going to explain it again. Listen carefully."

Standing in the barren land, I slowly began to speak.

"The Great Overlord has a 'core' in his heart. It's similar in nature to the cores located inside Rifts."

"The cores inside Rifts? It's similar to those?"

"Yes. Just like breaking a Rift's core destroys the Rift, if we crush the Great Overlord's heart, it will destroy him."

Tap, tap.

I tapped the base of the tree with my finger.

"And all the Rifts occurring in the world will disappear. His 'core' is the same as the cores of all Rifts. Dimensional Distortion Phenomena, the 'Awakening' that people experience, the outpour of monsters. They all come from him."

"......."

"However, his core is therefore extremely hard and powerful. Just as it completely changed the world at some point, his core has enough destructive power to turn a 'world' upside down."

Memories from the past slowly came to my mind.

I experienced many battles with the Five Heroes and countless hunters. We even reached the Great Overlord quite a few times. We shot arrows and magic at his heart and stabbed him with swords to rip him apart. But we couldn't cause him any damage.

We could break his body, but we couldn't touch the core inside.

"We need enormous power. The core barely cracked even when six 1st class hunters focused all of their firepower on it. Even if Lee Jin-woo's characteristic can break its barrier, it won't be able to hurt it. So, we only have one choice."

I lifted the back of my hand as I continued to speak. My Mirage appeared, shimmering colorfully.

"I'm going to use all of my abilities. And... if I pour all of my energy in, I'll be able to break his core. However, at that moment, you must defeat his monster legion and open up his chest. Only I can destroy his core. And to do that, I'm going to burn everything I have."

"......."

"I trust you guys. I explained earlier the types of monsters he commands, the weaknesses of his abilities, and how to maximize your abilities. Just as our growth is slow, so is his. In my opinion, we have a chance. We definitely do."

The members of the Jeong Si-woo Division nodded.

Yeah, there was a possibility.

If everything went the best way possible, and if I ended up facing his core.... I would summon any story from the Akashic Records to smash the Disaster's source with my own hands.

I would destroy the core that made uncountable people bleed and cry. I would break what had become the essence of despair and sorrow and restore peace.

"Grrrrr... rrraawww-!"

"...Let's get started."

I could hear a monster howl from over the hill. Unless it was at the front line, all monsters inside the -Land of Death- shared their senses with the Great Overlord. The Overlord could see what they saw and feel what they felt.

"First, let's bring out the boy who daringly asked to play tag."

* * *

When he closed his eyes, a new perspective unfolded.

To him, 'sight' was something different than other ordinary life forms.

The friends that were always with him. When he closed his eyes, their eyes became his.

The land was dry and barren, the rivers had dried up without leaving a single drop of water, and insects were crawling over the ground and rotten trees. He could even feel the smell and sounds coming from them.

This was why the boy, the 'Great Overlord', felt so connected to the monsters. After all, sharing their senses meant they were more deeply connected than a family. Thanks to this, the Great Overlord didn't feel lonely. In fact, he never thought he was alone. He was born next to creatures that didn't resemble him at all, and the creatures' emotions were entirely different from him. But the creatures loved him and cared for him. He couldn't help but be happy when he shared their feelings. It was just hard to bear the loneliness and boredom that he felt from time to time.

"...But the ones that showed up the other time were interesting."

He didn't share those creatures' senses. They were the first creatures he ever saw that looked like him. Which was why he felt a bit cautious, but a greater sense of curiosity made his heart pound. There was nothing new in this land.

"Hmm?"

The Great Overlord was lying down and killing time when he tilted his head, and then he got up.

"Oh, isn't that them? Yes, it is! I guess they've come back!"

The Great Overlord's face instantly lit up. Yeah, there was no way they didn't want to play with him. Nothing had ever hated him, ever since he was born. So they must've also wanted to play with him. They just ran away last time because they were shy. Hehe. His head was full of child-like thoughts. The Great Overlord twitched his fingers and spoke to his friends.

Bring them here. We can be friends from now on. Let's play together.

"Krrrrraaawwww-!"

As soon as his 'command' was over, numerous monsters around the Great Overlord charged out madly. It was an innocent command. He didn't know how the monsters would accept it. The boy was unaware of what his thoughtless 'command' would result in when combined with the natural 'predatory instincts' of monsters. The 'innocent evil' that was born as an Overlord was much more vicious than the evil that's acquired over time.

"Huh?"

But suddenly something strange happened.

"What? Why can't I see? Are, are you blindfolded? It feels weird."

The creatures he was excited to be new friends with suddenly disappeared. And there was a stuffy feeling like something was covering his eyelids. What was this? It felt like a long, durable piece of cloth was wrapped around his head and over his eyes.

Simultaneously—

"What... Ugh. Ugghhh. Aaarrrgh!"

The Great Overlord's head was jerked back. He had never felt anything like it. The stuffy feeling that was covering his eyelids climbed down and strangled his throat. A long rope? No, a noose. Yes, it felt like he was hanging in the air from a noose around his neck.

"Arghhh... ugh...."

Saliva ran down his mouth. He sometimes tried to hold his breath as a joke. But he never felt this kind of suffocation before. The hopelessness and fear that came from the lack of oxygen when the air was being blocked off. He wasn't the one experiencing it. He was just sharing the feeling indirectly, but the Great Overlord unknowingly struggled, flailing his arms and legs, his body bent sideways.

And then.

Crack!

With the sensation of something breaking off, the stuffy feeling that was squeezing his throat disappeared.

"Gasp... gasp...."

At the same time, the Great Overlord started breathing again. He felt so relieved. The air he inhaled didn't feel like oxygen, but something sweet. Surviving death. He had never experienced anything like it, even in his dreams. He had never imagined it.

Then, his darkened vision became bright again, and he could see a man.

"Kiddo, you're watching, right?"

The man had something shining brightly on the back of his hand, and he was wearing a nice coat.

"Do you want to play? Yeah, I'll play with you. But it'll be a little different from your usual games. It'll be so much more fun, but you can run away if you're scared. But you know what. You're connected to these guys, aren't you? So, you can't run away."

His eyes were frighteningly cold.

They looked like they didn't belong to a living creature. His eyes were more like leaves that fell to the ground from a dead branch. Looking at them was like seeing a worn-down object that had fallen off of something.

"Uh... uh... Ahhhhhh......!"

His fingers shook. It was the first time he felt fear in his life.

Friend? No. That was no friend of his.

The Great Overlord lifted his hand and touched his neck. There was nothing around it. But it still felt like a noose was strangling him. He felt trapped and smothered. He felt like throwing up.

"Let's have fun. Okay?"

The man.

His face became carved into the Overlord's mind.

* * *

"You're just going to let it go without killing it?"

"We don't have to kill it. The Great Overlord doesn't know what death is. I'm going to instill trauma in him with simple terrors and slowly wring him out. If he suddenly experiences 'death', he'll go mad before he feels fear. It's not the time for that yet."

"...I see."

I answered Zhang Wei's question in detail.

The Great Overlord was still pure. He didn't know anything. So, I was going to slowly paint fear onto his empty canvas until he would be paralyzed with fear whenever he heard me or even smelled me. I was going to fill him with fear using all the methods I knew and then take the core out of his heart and destroy it.

"But the time will come when we have to kill a monster and force him to go mad. That's how his body works. There are four 'most powerful guardians' that protect him. Unless we kill them, the Great Overlord's body will, in theory, always remain invincible."

"...Invincible?"

"Yes, I'll explain it now."

I took out my notepad.

Scaring him didn't mean it was the beginning.

The moment we kill the four guardians.

That was the beginning of 'phase 1'.

"You have to remember everything I tell you about the guardians......."