Trash of the Count's Family Vol 2. Chapter 415: Facing and Protecting (2)
Slosh.
Gray water touched the feet of those closest to the pool.
“O, oooh—G-God—”
A believer.
“O God of Chaos— Ah, ah—”
A priest.
They had welcomed it at first, even through their terror.
But the moment they touched the water.
The moment they inhaled the gray smoke.
“Uaaaaaaah—”
“Kgh—!”
They clutched their heads.
Horrific pain, sorrow, and despair.
At the same time, maddening pleasure, joy, and delight.
Tens of thousands of emotions crashed down over them.
Their heads felt hotter than hot, dizzier than dizzy, like they were about to burst.
Drip.
Blood started streaming down from all of them.
But the blood of those who had touched the water was not red.
It was gray.
Their irises were turning gray too.
When humans who had lived inside rules faced true chaos.
When they were swallowed by that fear.
Clang!
Clang!
“C-chaos—”
Someone drew a weapon.
“Khhk.”
Someone cried out.
“Uahahaha—”
Someone laughed while crying. Without stopping.
But there was one thing they all had in common.
“D-die! Stop screaming already!”
“Stop crying!”
They either tried to kill someone.
“Stop, stop......!”
Or, no longer able to endure it, turned their weapons on themselves.
All of them were rushing toward death.
“W-what is this—”
The Wanderer Cho looked at his older sister Ryeon.
“N-noona. You hear it too, right?”
He too had faced chaos.
Ryeon’s face had gone white.
“We have to run—”
Because they were Wanderers, and Wanderers with Transparent-grade individuality at that, Cho and Ryeon were probably enduring inside this chaos better than the others.
It was a blessing beyond measure that they had not gone near the pool.
Then Cho spoke in a low voice.
“Can we run?”
For the first time, he was afraid.
His gaze lifted toward the sky.
The gray smoke rising with the water was gradually covering the night, covering the dark moon.
Little by little, it was staining the sky gray as it always had.
But this was different from the past.
That was truly a sky of death.
Wanderer Cho and Ryeon.
Neither of them could say anything.
The only thing Ryeon could barely manage to say was one sentence.
“What in the world is this—”
What is happening?
That was all she could say.
“—!”
But she could not finish.
Ryeon, who was said to be sharp-minded, realized something almost at once.
“Over there.”
“Huh?”
The center where the water was shooting up.
That rock that had risen out of the pool.
That place that looked cramped with four people on top of it.
“That’s the only place.”
That’s right. The humans over there are fine.
Wanderer Ryeon thought that and was just about to move.
“!”
She flinched and stopped.
“...What is that—”
On top of the rock.
One person stood upright.
“W-why, why is it that—”
She could not finish the rest.
Why, the moment I look at that man now, do I think of the head of the family, of the very first Wanderer?
The man standing there alone.
Cale Henituse.
He could not possibly know what Wanderer Ryeon had just thought, and he had no desire to know.
Tremble.
The hands still gripping the knife were shaking.
Even so, he ignored it.
“God damn it!”
So much that he could not even spare attention for the pain.
A rough curse burst from his mouth now, and it had to.
“God fucking damn it!”
It really was a goddamn situation.
‘Damn it!’
Everyone’s about to die.
Chaos was covering them, and people were losing their minds.
Slosh.
The gray water spread farther in every direction.
It seemed to have already exceeded the amount of water that had been inside the pool, yet it kept surging up without end.
Sssaaa—
And the gray smoke was covering everything above.
-Cale.
But there was an even bigger problem.
-The smoke is rising upward.
Right.
Just as the Ancient Tree said, the smoke was going upward.
It was not only covering this holy land. The smoke was spreading fast, aiming to swallow the entire gorge, and beyond that, the Demon Realm outside the gorge as well.
Outside the gorge were the sacrifices, and also Raon and Choi Han.
“Huff. Hff.”
“Ugh... Mm.......”
Eruhaben and the Heavenly Demon were gasping for breath.
That ancient dragon and that martial artist, both stronger than he was, were struggling now.
Alberu was practically unconscious.
And Rosalyn and Gashan were somehow enduring while holding back their screams.
Tremble.
And his own body was shaking too.
He looked down at his hand.
The gray-covered hand was growing even clearer in color.
-Damn it!
The dominating aura was hanging on desperately.
‘Because I can see.’
The hallucinated voices were not echoing in his ears.
His vision was clear.
All of his senses were working properly.
“Hoo.”
Cale drew in a breath.
The cold air of the night entered deep into him.
Yes, I’m breathing properly.
Drip.
Another line of blood ran down from the corner of his mouth.
Plop.
But when Cale saw the drop of blood fall onto the back of his hand, a strange light entered his eyes.
‘Red.’
He could see people all around him spilling gray blood.
They had been swallowed by chaos.
‘But I haven’t.’
Cale realized it.
‘More than I thought—’
More than I thought—
‘I haven’t been swallowed by chaos that much.’
It was not just his eyes.
Inside him, not just his surface, had still not been dyed by chaos.
More than he had thought—
“I’m fine.”
Yes.
He was fine, and so were the ancient powers.
‘Still—’
This is manageable.
Because—
Cale lifted his head.
The sky being dyed gray.
And between it, the dark moon.
He could still see the night.
Through that night, through that darkness.
Cale was waiting for one very clever little kid.
A being that could stay intact inside this chaos.
The only being that had remained completely whole the first time the eyes of the God of Chaos appeared, when gray waves, a tidal surge, had risen, and the Blue Wolf and the God of Chaos had faced each other.
“Human!”
From within the darkness, a welcome voice.
Dark blue eyes sparkling like stars were flying toward Cale.
Very fast.
“It’s chaos again! I told them if they touched my human and my family, I’d smash everything!”
Raon, full of rage, was flapping his wings furiously as he came this way.
A being untouched by chaos.
‘He’s here.’
Raon was here, someone he could entrust his companions to.
Now he did not have to worry about them.
‘But it’s still not over.’
The ritual had started.
The God of Chaos might descend.
To stop that, he had to face this power of chaos.
He had to push back this gray water and smoke.
He had to save people from chaos.
“Hey.”
Cale called out to one existence.
-Damn it!
The dominating aura spat out its irritation.
It had already sensed what Cale was thinking.
-Fine! I don’t know anymore either!
That voice was trembling badly.
The dominating aura was reaching its limit.
But it was not at its limit yet.
Cale had never used his dominating aura past its limit before.
-Let’s save everyone and look cool doing it for once!
It muttered to itself.
Its voice sounded as if it were trying to force its way through the tension; even in its trembling, it was firm.
-Yeah, I protected you too, Cale, so other people too! Yeah, I can do it!
Because the dominating aura had realized it now too.
-I stand up pretty well against this stuff, better than I thought!
It had realized that it was protecting not only Cale’s eyes, but also Cale’s /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ red blood and the inside of his body.
It was stronger than it had thought.
And if it knew that, then there was no need to bluff.
No.
This was exactly when bluffing was necessary.
“Let’s do it.”
Cale bluffed.
-Yeah, let’s stand against it!
And the dominating aura began to pour out its power.
-But Cale, it might be harder on you. I’m going to spend less attention on you.
That was fine.
Because Cale had instinctively realized that only after that gray water and smoke disappeared would he finally be able to let go of this divine relic.
The enemy’s last move. He had to smash that move to pieces.
“I’m fine as long as I don’t pass out.”
Cale gave permission.
-Good! Now let’s push this energy back!
The dominating aura shouted in a voice full of swagger.
But not a single ancient power criticized it.
Drip.
Blood ran from the corner of Cale’s mouth again.
Drip.
And the moment that red drop of blood ran over the back of his hand and touched the divine relic—
Ssshaaaa—
A wind blew.
—!
And then, as if it were a lie, everyone stopped.
Only for the briefest instant.
A truly brief instant, but still.
Everyone stopped.
-Cale.
The dominating aura spoke quietly.
-If chaos makes you feel chaos by showing you all kinds of illusions—
Right.
Cale already knew the answer the dominating aura was about to say.
So he said it instead.
“Then you make them feel the real thing.”
Thump. Thump.
His heart pounded violently.
He could feel the vitality of his heart, the power of regeneration, burning through strength like mad.
Whether that happened or not, Cale used something the illusions made by chaos could not cover up.
-Domination. Fear.
The dominating aura spoke.
-Illusions can’t beat fear that really touches your skin.
An energy that wanted to dominate everything.
That energy covered this entire basin.
Goosebumps racing over the skin.
A physiological reaction illusions could not create.
The moment their bodies reacted, people stopped.
Because they had felt real fear.
Because they had felt some absolute thing that truly intended to dominate them.
It was similar to chaos, yet different.
It did not make them hear pain or ecstasy.
It was simply there like air, unseen, odorless, soundless.
And yet it covered their whole bodies.
Of course, everyone was still feeling the illusions chaos had made.
But only a moment was enough.
-We only have to let them know all of this is fake.
Just as the dominating aura said.
That was all he had to tell people.
The illusion isn’t what’s killing you.
Real domination has come to you now.
-If you get lost in an illusion and get distracted and fail to greet the king, that’s a disaster!
The dominating aura said mischievously, even while trembling badly.
-So greet him.
And then it continued calmly.
-There’s no God of Chaos here. There’s only a king. If you ignore reality, you’re in trouble.
Submit to the ruler.
At that moment, the power of the dominating aura crossed past its limit.
“Kuhk!”
Even while coughing up blood, Cale thought:
The dominating aura’s bluff had gotten completely out of hand.
‘But what do I do?’
Even if he brought people back to their senses—
“Human, human! What is this?”
How do I get rid of that?
He could stand against it. He could endure it.
But how was he supposed to erase that chaos?
-Cale.
That was when it happened.
-I’m hungry.
Huh?
Cale stopped, startled, as he remembered the ancient power that had been quiet until now.
-I’m hungry.
The gluttonous priestess.
The indestructible shield.
Come to think of it, when they had first arrived at this holy land, the gluttonous priestess had said:
“-I’m here too. I’m good at protecting things too.”
Right.
-I’m hungry.
And this one was good at eating too.
“H-ha, haha—”
“Human, why are you laughing while vomiting blood? Your face is pale! You look like you’re about to pass out right now! Like one second before passing out! Human!”
Flap flap.
Cale ignored Raon’s urgent words as he hurried around looking after the others.
‘Right.’
The gluttonous priestess was good at eating.
So good that she even ate dead mana.
Like those trees that had sucked in the liquid of death, the dead mana bomb that had once covered the jungle.
-I don’t break.
Right.
Who says it only has to eat dead mana?
A holy land where only blue grass had existed.
No. Even that grass had now been covered in gray water and had lost its color.
-I can eat it all.
Cale lifted his head.
He had already stood against it and endured it.
-So I can protect them.
-This land, and these people.
-I can do that now.
Thump, thump.
His heart beat hard.
The power of regeneration, the vitality of his heart, lent strength to the gluttonous priestess.
‘Right.’
He had stood against it.
Now he had to protect.
Cale looked upward.
There were no trees here.
Kuuuung!
The gorge shook.
The Death Precipice.
The bridge that alone connected it.
But on the full moon and the dark moon, that bridge disappeared.
Because the trees withdrew their roots.
Four trees with bodies and roots massive enough to span the wide gorge.
Kuuuung—!
All four trees began moving their roots at once.
Downward.
Down toward where Cale was, very fast.
-I’m hungry.
It was time to eat.
*****
“Wow—”
Mad Attention Whore. He looked down below the gorge and could not say anything else.
His whole body was trembling.
“This is insane—”
The face of the attention whore, completely immersed, twisted, and then a line of tears ran down.
“This is amazing—”
This, this—
“A hundred million, no, a billion views easy.”
Mad Attention Whore was trembling with excitement.