Chapter 9. Gambler’s Den (8) Part-1

"S-serves him right!" Kelvin cried out in excitement. "This is what happens when you provoke me! Hahahaha! This is my castle! Mess with me and I'll kill you all!"

Ellin stared at the collapsed Tom, who was bleeding from his head. He did not show the slightest movement and it seemed as if he wasn't so much as breathing. Ellin hung her head, thinking he had died.

"You're… dead?"

'Again?'

"It doesn't really… matter. Not like we knew each other for that long." She clenched her teeth. "But… still. It's annoying. I'm pissed off! Pissed off I say…!"

Humans were too feeble, dying easily in countless ways: of short lifespan, of illness, dying as a result of crime, as a result of fighting among themselves. It was the natural order of things, because that was just the way of humans; this was a world ruled by them.

'But… but…! This isn't right! How can you let that traitor take your life away so easily?'

Ellin's body trembled hard.

"He was the third person. Someone who didn't take fright to me being a demon, even though he's just a human. Someone who talked with me—laughed with me."

The monk, Ellie, and now even this apprentice Holy Knight. All those who treated her with warmth were gone, each and every one of them. It was as if she was an existence that brought misfortune, as if—like human rumors said—doppelgangers devoured the fate of those they met.

"… I'll kill you." Her eyes grew cold. "I'll kill you." Her face twisted viciously. "I'll kill you all!"

She bared her fangs and pounced toward Kelvin. The mercenaries responded by taking out their weapons and stepping forward, and the regular soldiers took formation, raising their countless spears.

"Protect L-lord Kelvin!"

"D-don't be scared of the demon!"

"Move!"

Ellin proceeded to butcher the lot of them with her nails; the mercenaries standing at the front were killed, ripped to bits and pieces like rags. Scared by the scene, Kelvin screamed out an order.

"S-shoot your arrows!"

"B-but our troops…!"

"Do you intend on everyone dying?! It's a matter of eliminating a vile demon! They'll think it an honor as well!"

The soldiers in the rear pulled on their bowstrings and fired; arrows cut through the air and pierced Ellin's body, as well as the other soldiers'.

"… It hurts."

'But I can bear it. Not like it's the first time I've felt pain like this.!'

Ellin glared at Kelvin with reddened eyes.

"Eek! Stop her! Stop her…!"

Kelvin hastily ran away upon meeting her eyes, and Ellin chased after him. The soldiers pointed their spears towards Ellin in order to stop her, and a score of blades pierced her body. She suffered spear wounds all over, her skin becoming torn.

Tears gathered at the corner of Ellin's bloodshot eyes.

"Didn't you hear me say… move?!"

Her nails smashed apart the spears and sent the soldiers flying. Ellin destroyed the formation of soldiers and forced her way toward Kelvin, who had already disappeared from the arena. She chased after him, and the soldiers after her. The Fortress of Money was already in a state of pandemonium, with spectators screaming as they fled, and the nobles shaking from head to toe while cowering.

The soldiers remaining in the arena were at a loss of what to do as they pointed in the direction Ellin had gone.

"Shouldn't w-we follow as well?"

"Are you mad? You saw that demon just now! She broke through a hundred-man pike formation! How do you intend on facing a monster like that? It'll work out somehow since there's the Holy Knight, Sir Rahon!"

"Then what about us?"

The gazes of the soldiers turned to the collapsed Tom, Halsem who was next to him, and the slaves.

"Since the order was to kill them… then we should kill them."

As the soldiers approached the slaves, Halsem jumped with fright and shook Tom's body.

"… B-Brother! What are you doing just dying like that! What are we to do now?!"

But no matter how much he was shaken, he did not move an inch. Halsem stared at Tom's forehead, where a stream of dark-red blood was flowing. The sight of it caused Halsem's eyes to turn red and he began to cry. It was just yesterday that they were laughing as they gambled together. While they did not share a very deep bond, he was still a friend who was free with his money, unbecoming of his status as a Holy Knight. Halsem was a surprisingly warm-hearted man, and so he could not help but feel sorrowful at the death of a friend like him. But, then again, he felt the most sorrow at his own despairing fate to come. The life he had spent doing nothing but gambling, treating every day as his last, was coming to an end in this manner.

"Damn you scumbags! Looks like I'll also be going to your side soon, brother." Halsem wiped his tears with the back of his hand. "Damn it, I should've just turned a new leaf in life like he told me. Ending up like this because I just had to have one more go today…! Damn it, damn it, da…"

Halsem shook his head, vision obscured by his tears, but then properly wiped his eyes as he sniffed.

"… Uh, uhh…?"

"What… the?"

Halsem was not alone in his bewilderment; the slaves and soldiers who were also present hesitatingly stepped backward, eyes round as they stared at the dark-red liquid wetting the ground.

Dark-red blood continued to flow from Tom's forehead. It soaked the ground and spread across the arena floor. For blood coming from a single person, there was just too much of it. Halsem fell on his bottom at the sight in a daze, and he looked at the ground with shaking eyes and a trembling body.

A snake rose out from the dark-red liquid that was still spreading and reared its head high. It tilted its head as it stared at Halsem, who looked back at it in disbelief.

'Am I seeing things now that my time has come?! B-but the other people are seeing it too, not just me! What the hell?! What the…!'

The snake opened its jaws—formed out of thick liquid—and a black substance oozed out. The snake then flew right past Halsem's face, at a speed akin to the magic bullet Kelvin had fired before.

"Uwaaargh!"

Halsem reacted to the sudden noise with a stiff face, his neck turning like creaking, rusty iron, and there he saw the snake's fangs dug into the throat of a soldier. Its body, elongated like a whip, squirmed for a moment before it retracted its fangs and pounced back.

"Ugh… arrrghh! Kaaaaagh!"

The soldier began acting strange after being bitten by the snake. His eyes rolled back into his head and all of the veins across his body began bulging. Over the span of a few seconds, his muscles expanded, his teeth grew longer, his nails turned sharper, and when the transformation finally came to an end alongside the sound of cracking bones, he turned to stare at his comrades with bloodshot eyes.

"O-oi. What's the matter? Are you…"

And he attacked, biting at them.

"G-ghoul?!"

Halsem looked in shock at the snake which was swimming around Tom within the blackish substance. The more it swam, the more the black substance gradually spread out. Halsem saw something jump out from the substance—crows. These creatures which came out after the snake shook off the dark-red liquid and took off into the air, flapping their wings. A ominous murder of crows was flying beneath the underground ceiling of the Fortress of Money. And…

"Aahhh!"

Something else was starting to come out from within the black substance—undead. They were crawling out from the substance, struggling as if climbing out of the deep sea. Their eyes gleamed with a blue light and they exhaled blue breath despite having no life in their body.

"… Wh-what the?!"

"Undead!"

"Fiendish devils!"

"R-run…"

"Don't run! Kill them! It'll be okay if you kill them while they're still comin…"

One of the soldiers mustered the courage and charged forth, but when he was about to try and kill an undead that was crawling out of the blood, his torso was separated from his lower half, sent flying into the air. The soldier's organs fell like hailstones, his blood like rain.

The skeleton that had struck with its sword moved its jaws and laughed eerily.

-Kiik! Kikikikikik!

"Aaaah!"

"It's impossible! How are we supposed to fight that!"

The soldiers fled screaming, covered in the bloody mess of the bisected soldier.

[Fuuu…]

The black substance gradually grew harder as it enveloped Tom's body completely, until it formed a set of armor and set him up on his feet.

"Bro-… brother Holy Knight?"

Halsem muttered to himself blankly, mind paralyzed, unable to think of even running. The entity gazed at Halsem for a moment. Its golden eyes visible through the slit of its helm curved like the crescent moon, as if they were delighted. Then, it turned away, laughing hysterically.

[Wait for me. Kel—vin!]

That thick black substance spread like a river with every step he took, from which a countless plethora of undead was born.

He was a walking army.

The Fallen Monarch, Artarrk!

He moved in the direction in which Kelvin fled with heavy footsteps.

***