Chapter 216
[12th Round] Rebound Controller
I thought Lulu would go to the Southern Continent alone, but she managed to persuade Hero Lemon, my self-proclaimed rival, to go together.
I wanted to send Lemon on an expedition to the Northern Continent, but his two-year mercenary contract had come to an end, so I let him go. Either way, for me, there was nothing wrong with those two killing one of the Five Great Disasters, Phoenix of the Southern Continent.
The other four heroes went to the Western Continent, except for Almond, for the same objective. An angel had joined them this time, so the chances of success were high.
As for me…
“That’s huge.”
I went to the U-shaped mountain range that surrounded the capital of the former Holy Empire. In the primary education course, I never got to see this view.
After all, it wasn’t just a simple mountain range.
That was the Supreme Dragon of Oblivion, Noebius, slumbering while disguised as a mountain.
But he didn’t just sleep. Time for the Supreme Dragon of Oblivion, Noebius, whose life was coming to an end, had simply stopped. Therefore, until one removed his seal, no attacks would do him any harm.
I called Green Cake to compare their sizes, but he looked too small in comparison.
It was like comparing Everest to an ordinary hill!
Today, I came to deal with my friend.
“Drug Hero, how are you going to defeat him?”
“As quickly as possible.”
“Didn’t you say he was your friend?”
“He’ll burn down the empire and the world otherwise.”
This problem couldn’t be solved with simple conversations.
Despotic to his core and bones, the Supreme Dragon of Oblivion, Noebius, would immediately rush into battle as soon as he opened his eyes.
And his rampage wouldn’t stop until his death.
It would be nice if his seal could be saved, but there was a time limit. If I were too late, then all of Fantasy would be destroyed by a fog so corrosive that it would melt everything it touched!
Hence, I had to solve everything here and now.
“Your Majesty, all preparations for breaking the seal have been completed,” said Old Mage A, the archmage of the former Holy Empire.
Only a few people knew that what actually surrounded the capital of the former Holy Empire wasn’t a mountain range but one of the Five Great Disasters.
The wizard had an artifact in his hands. They looked like beads, but it was the key to removing the seal.
They were kept and strictly guarded in the treasury of the Imperial Palace of the Holy Empire.
Warming up, I gave an order.
“As soon as I give the signal, remove the seal.”
“Your Majesty! As I’ve stated before, maybe it’s better to wait until the situation in the country has stabilized and attack when all the heroes have gathered? No matter how I think about it, he’d be difficult to destroy even for you!”
“It’s up to me to decide what is difficult and what isn’t.”
“I apologize!”
I gathered all of my strength.
I turned the level and experience points I had into power. Due to the large amount, it took about 5 seconds.
The plan was simple.
As soon as the seal was broken, immediately launch a preemptive strike!
The spirits of Fantasy had already told me about the structure of the body of the Supreme Dragon of Oblivion Noebius, covered with earth.
“Remove the seal.”
“Have mercy upon us, O G.o.d!”
The impudent Wizard A, begging for mercy, not from Master Mollan, removed the seal. The brightly shimmering beads turned into ordinary gla.s.s.
And my dear friend woke up.
The earth and sky trembled. All the animals and monsters that lived on the mountain scattered in fright.
Right now!
Bang!
Concentrating all my strength, I created a bright green beam that pierced through the huge rising mountain.
…
And it became quiet.
The Supreme Dragon of Oblivion, Noebius, didn’t even have time to shake off the ground before he had already lost his heart and left for eternal rest.
I didn’t even give him time to take his other forms!
I was able to verify that my dear comrade was dead when my level went back up from 1 to 999.
When the Supreme Dragon of Oblivion, Noebius, fell, the outline of the mountain he was disguised as began to disappear. The height of the mountain gradually began to decline, and in the end, only a small hill remained.
There was the risk that the Supreme Dragon of Oblivion’s dissolved body could flood the city with a deadly poison, but Boris quietly sorted it out with the help of Purification.
“Without his transformations, my friend is weak!”
But he was still the leader of the Five Great Disasters. How weak were the others? I didn’t even know what word to use to describe the heroes that couldn’t defeat them.
“Drug Hero, I think attacking the old man suddenly as he was just about to wake up is a little cowardly.”
“Hey, Addicted Spirit, you haven’t been punished in a long time, have you? I’m not a hypocrite. Unlike him, who’s ready to make sacrifices for the sake of his duty, I am not willing to sacrifice anything.”
With this, my duty as a hero was fulfilled.
Ten heroes were summoned to each cla.s.s. Therefore, ideally, they should gather in groups of 2 to eliminate each of the Five Great Disasters as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Yet, I single-handedly dealt with the most powerful of those monsters. Therefore, I had fulfilled my duties as a hero.
What was left?
“Saintess H, remember the list of a.s.sa.s.sins I filled out? Gather an army of these people and send them south to the Phantom King. Those who’d try to escape should be declared traitors and sentenced to death. If you send an angel, a demon hunter, with them, they probably won’t criticize me.”
“Yes, Master,” Saintess H replied politely.
I left the northern part of the Central Continent to the imperial princess.
She didn’t become the empress, as she dreamed, but nevertheless, I appointed her governor of the province, so there should be no complaints.
… But there were.
She wanted to be both governor and empress at the same time. Then I told her to resign from the post of governor, to which she easily agreed, which made me confused.
She wanted to become an empress and give birth to an heir who would take the empire, making her so easily ready to give up her position.
But I wouldn’t marry her in any way.
“Drug Hero, are you going there?”
“Yes. Finally.”
It’s time to head to the Northern Continent of Fantasy.
There were two years left before the initial call of the Hero.
The Holy Mollan Empire, under the patronage of Master Mollan, first offered the Demon Lord and the rulers of the Northern Continent to surrender and then declared war!
***
A sea and a ca.n.a.l separated the Northern and Central Continents. It was somewhat similar to North and South America on Earth.
Sea route and land route.
There were two options, but it was better to refuse overland movement since the path through the ca.n.a.l was rather narrow.
The Northern Continent was teeming with highly skilled Wizards. If we went for the cramped path, then any entire army would be destroyed by spells of ma.s.s destruction.
There was only one way for us to go.
“They probably think we’ll use the waterway.”
They expect us to take advantage of the vast expanse of water to reduce the number of casualties from magical attacks.
But I knew perfectly well that neither by sea nor by land was the most efficient mode of transportation.
By manipulating the weather, mages could cause typhoons and tsunamis, causing the empire’s ships to sink before reaching the sh.o.r.es of the Northern Continent.
“Then what are you planning to do, Drug Hero?”
“I’ll start a civil war.”
My popularity in the Central Continent of Fantasy had reached sky-high heights. There was no need to make women widows and children orphans and receive criticism for that.
I had declared war, but I wasn’t going to fight.
I just needed to collect a lot of ships in the port and train soldiers, just to pretend that there was a war.
What about the rest?
“The Dark Commerce will sort it out.”
The Scarlet Golem would soon go into ma.s.s production.
Many countries preparing for the attack of the Holy Mollan Empire would buy these golems en ma.s.se, competing with neighboring countries and overpaying, as a result of which their treasury would quickly empty.
And the only way to replenish the state treasury in an instant was to either fight or plunder.
I knew this from my own experience.
The Dark Commerce intervened in the politics of the Northern Continent, creating conflicts and selling the Scarlet Golems. They demonstrated their effectiveness by partic.i.p.ating in golem battles in the arena in the Sage Tower.
And the result became visible in the sixth year of the initial call of the Hero.
The Northern Continent was engulfed in war.
But this time, a strong country had united the entirety of the Central Continent, providing the countries of the Northern Continent a reason to buy the products, significantly accelerating this process.
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And this had nothing to do with the owner of the Dark Commerce Ssosia.
After all, she was only their leader in words. She herself did nothing.
“What did you say about me?” Ssosia got angry after hearing my plan.
“So it’s true. You are just their leader on paper. Your competent subjects are the ones engaging in all activities while you keep messing around.”
“Do not ignore my contribution! It is precisely because I am their head that an organization as large as the Dark Commerce continues to exist without any internal disagreements.”
Ssosia was the Second Demon. She was always second.
But in this case, that curse even played into her hands.
The founder of the Dark Commerce was the first, and he died at a young age from overwork. But thanks to his management over his workers that treated him as their “mental mentor,” he remained number one even after death.
From that moment, the fun began.
Usually, students fought among themselves over who would inherit the will of the teacher.
But because of the curse of being second, Ssosia became his heir. Thanks to that, she could manage the Dark Commerce with absolutely no fear of dismissal.
“Are you saying that it is enough for you to keep your shares intact without dying for the company to prosper?”
“Something like that. I wasn’t even lazy, to begin with.”
Ssosia told me that there were times when she used the power of the Dark Commerce to supply the heroes with food. But due to the endless repet.i.tion of it, the same actions bored her.
Soon enough, she grew tired of having fun as well, forcing her to sleep nonstop…
“So you admit that you are lazy?”
“Hmph!”
“Who do you think you’re giving an att.i.tude to? Dance.”
“Huh?!”
In the northern part of the Central Continent, naval ships were built at the shipyard, and the soldiers busied themselves with training. Meanwhile, in the south, a real war broke out.
Many lives were lost.
Exorcist Boris, the natural predator of all demons, Saintess H with an immortal army, Holy Mollan Empire’s Guardian Golem D.
I could send any of those three, and they’d be able to end the war immediately.
But I didn’t do it. There was no better excuse than the Demon Lord to get rid of all my disgruntled opposition.
“If you continue to do this, I will spread the rumor that the Demon Lord is your father-in-law,” the flushed Ssosia threatened me to stop herself from dancing.
“Go on and try. I will prove that all these rumors are lies. There are many ways one can deny this. Maybe for a start, in front of everyone, we will inflict trauma on the Demon Lord’s daughter, from which she will never be able to recover.”
“Haha … Just kidding, just kidding. After all, I’m your wife,” Her complexion had grown paler.
I didn’t know what was funny, but the First Spirit laughed, clutching her stomach while sitting on my head.
“Hee-hee! Oh, my belly! Hee hee!”
“Hey, Addicted Spirit, stop laughing like you’re insane.”
“I’ll do what I want! Drug Hero, where do you plan to go now that you’ve said you’re not going to storm through the Northern Continent?”
Good question.
“I just killed the giant Ullullu just to solve the drought problem, which reminded me of something.”
The secret place where the Holy Sword B was hidden. I didn’t even know its exact location since there were no memorable signs on the sandy beach.
If I knew that I would come again, I would have been more attentive last time, but in the 2nd round, I couldn’t even think that I would reach the 12th round.
But everything was fine.
If everything was the same as in the primary education course, it should be on the beach…
“Ullullu…”
“Awooooooo…”
“Awooooooooooooooo…”
As in the 2nd round, faint howls were heard, mixed with the sound of the waves.
Just like last time, the “t.i.tan of Chaos” became my experience points. And the “Mermaid of Chaos” sang in response to my power.
I jumped into the water without any hesitation.
And “again,” I met the mermaid who protected the Holy Sword B.
▷ Race: Arch-Mermaid
▷ Level: 999+
▷ Job: Guardian (Protection → Damage Received ↓)
▷ Skills: Defense MAX, Spear Mastery SSS, Evasion SS, Leadership SS, Immunity SS…
▷ Status: Interested, Calm
Her skills were higher than before. But still laughable.
“Hero of the present, I ask you to leave.”
“What will you do if I refuse to leave?”
I kept my answers the same as the ones I used in the second round.
“Unfortunately, you have no choice since you won’t even remember anything. The hero wakes up on the ocean sh.o.r.e and embarks on another wonderful adventure. Lalala ~ ”
“Hmm… You sing well. You’re better than the one I nurture at home.”
“Thank you… Kh?!”
I grabbed her by the fin, turning her upside down, and she immediately began thrashing about.
“Take it easy. Otherwise, I will tear off your fin and shove it into your mouth.”
– …
She immediately did as instructed.
At that moment, Ssosia, who arrived a little later than me, folded her arms over her chest and coldly asked.
“Why did you come here? Need a mermaid concubine again?”
Jealousy is ugly, Eternal Second Ranker.”
“I’m not jealous!”
I shook the sea mermaid in front of the angered Ssosia like a fisherman and replied, “Whoever controls the sea mermaid controls naval warfare.”
Business is done not with noise, but with the mind.