Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense - Chapter 108: Afternoon Silvares (怒后)

Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

108 – Afternoon Silvares (怒后)

“Do not lose consciousness! Remember who we are! Just a little more! If we hold on just a little longer!”

Repeatedly shouting words that he couldn’t even remember how many times he had already, Doxiao relentlessly swung his sword.

As blood and flesh stuck to the filthy blade, making it difficult to recognize its original form, Doxiao counted the remaining enemies while swinging the sword.

‘They have definitely decreased.’

Just a while ago, the situation was desperate.

If you cut down a thousand, two thousand would pour out from the gate. If you cut down two thousand, three thousand would pour out.

But now, slowly and surely, the number of enemies pouring out from the gate was decreasing.

However, the decreasing number of enemies gave Doxiao a rather ominous feeling, because despite eliminating so many of these monsters, the boss hadn’t appeared inside the gate.

‘Could it be that there are also survival types among the overflow?’

In survival-type gates, which were much more difficult than ordinary gates but only had to be endured until the time limit, there were occasional appearances of vast numbers of ordinary monsters instead of the gate boss.

Thinking that perhaps the overflow had such a form as well, Doxiao tightened his grip on the sword.

‘It’s clear. So, this was solely a gate designed to break the opponent’s spirit, or something like that.’

Thinking that the end was finally in sight, Doxiao roared loudly towards his comrades who were desperately trying to maintain their sanity.

“Hold on just a little longer!!”

As everyone’s attention focused momentarily on the commander’s cry, Doxiao continued speaking while swinging his sword.

“Look at these vast numbers of monsters! If we endure just a little longer, we can obtain crystal stones from all these monsters! Crystal stones that would require the conquest of hundreds of gates to obtain! Surely, the awakener members will become even stronger! And those who haven’t awakener will gain new abilities!”

Greed.

The primal emotion that turns even the most desperate moment of a human, even in a state of impaired judgment, into a last-minute reversal, captivated the minds of the members.

“Endure! The sweet rewards promised by the Party are not far away!”

“Let’s end this tedious hell and return alive!”

“We are survivors!”

“Let’s wipe out these tiresome creatures and imprint the greatness of the Transcendent Hall upon the world!”

“Yaaaah!!!”

Finally, the time for counterattack has come.

Members whose mental states have changed from slaughterers to exterminators finally began to clean up the monsters pouring out of the gate as they wildly fired bullets.

And Doxiao, watching them with a relieved expression, looked down at the body of the monster caught under his foot and thought to himself.

‘Huh? Did it look like this?’

The corpse of the monster, examined closely for the first time, had an appearance sufficient to drive the attackers insane.

Some had a horrific appearance with dozens of tentacles where their mouths should have been, while others had a beautiful appearance with fair skin, resembling humans very closely.

The battlefield, with corpses of various races piled up like mountains, gave the impression of forcibly pushing thousands of extraterrestrial races gathered from numerous stars onto the battlefield.

And as Doxiao pondered over this fact, a dreadful thought came to his mind.

He thought that perhaps all these monsters here were originally advanced life forms with intelligence and reason, and some being capable of controlling the minds of such advanced life forms dominated their minds and pushed them into the gate.

Expanding his thoughts to that extent, Doxiao shouted to those around him with the loudest voice he could muster.

“Cease all combat!!!! Immediately retreat from this location with full force!!!”

Doxiao’s judgment that the being controlling these monsters might be of the mind-control type was accurate.

However, the decision to prevent the impending disaster was too late.

“You bastard!!”

“Get lost! You piece of trash!”

“Die! Just die!”

Moments ago, soldiers who were encouraging each other with shouts now aimed their guns at each other in Doxiao’s sight.

And before Doxiao could stop them, the soldiers pulled the triggers at each other.

– Rat-a-tat-tat! –

“Aaaargh!!”

“This damn son of a b****!!”

It wasn’t just ordinary soldiers showing signs of mental confusion.

Even awakener members belonging to quite high ranks swung their weapons not to protect their comrades as they did moments ago, but to kill their comrades.

And as Doxiao watched this, he too felt an unbearable rage towards his subordinates who didn’t obey his orders.

“I said stop!!!!”

In an instant, Doxiao, who shifted his stance, swiftly subdued the soldiers shooting at each other and swiftly cut the awakened member into four pieces, who was dismembering the corpses of his comrades elsewhere.

And finally, when Doxiao came to his senses, there was no one standing around him.

“What… What have I done?!”

At that moment, shocked by the dreadful catastrophe he had caused, an unbelievably beautiful voice echoed in Doxiao’s ears.

“Oh? Searching for reason even at this late hour, there truly are somewhat strong beings among humans, aren’t there?”

“Speech?! Monsters can speak?!”

“Monsters? Is that what the intellectual beings of this star call us? But it’s different. The being before your eyes is a being quite unlike the petty ones you’ve seen so far.”

With each word of the voice, Doxiao felt his heart trembling, and he desperately tried to maintain his sanity as he slowly opened his mouth.

“Reveal your identity.”

“Sure, as a being destined to die, it’s not like my name matters much, but since there’s no one else around here to talk to except you, I’ll tell you. I am Silvares, the Queen of Wrath, one of the absolute rulers among the Twelve Divine Beings who govern countless universes.”

Doxiao finally felt like all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.

Why these monsters, who seemed to possess reason and intelligence, rushed towards the members in such madness, and why his cherished subordinates ended up aiming their guns at each other.

Finally, why he, consumed by such raging anger, ended up personally cutting down his precious subordinates with his own sword.

He couldn’t distinguish whether this anger was because of Silvares’ ability or simply his own pure rage.

‘Whether this anger is mine or hers, it doesn’t matter.’

What mattered was that he finally faced an opponent he could exact revenge upon.

“The sin of causing innocent beings from other stars to suffer meaningless deaths. Death penalty.”

Exuding a chilling aura, Doxiao sheathed his sword into its scabbard.

“The sin of causing comrades who should protect each other to kill each other. Death penalty.”

Then, bending his knee slightly and adjusting his posture, he continued.

“The sin of taking the lives of precious subordinates and comrades with my own hands.”

With his left hand gripping the scabbard, Doxiao’s eyes, holding the sword handle with his right hand, were chillingly cold.

“Death penalty.”

However, seeing Doxiao’s cold anger, Silvares spoke to him with a gaze as if she were looking at a child holding a toy knife.

“Interesting. But unfortunately, I’m not the one to deal with you. To capture the queen, you must first defeat the knights who protect her.”

At that moment, a man wielding a sword appeared before Silvares.

Having a humanoid appearance but with long ears different from humans, the man was known as the strongest champion in the entire Abarrest Star System, where the entire race revered swords as gods.

“As for this man, he is the one who became the lord of the star with just one sword.”

Before she finished speaking, another man wielding a sword appeared in front of her.

With primitive-looking beast skin wrapped around his waist and a rough stone sword made of carved stone, the man exuded the wildness typical of uncivilized races from head to toe.

“And this man is the one who became the master of the star filled with beasts that devour rocks with just one sword.”

Having summoned two men to fight in her place, Silvares smiled and sat on top of a corpse.

Then, with a seductive smile, she said to Doxiao.

“Try to defeat these two. Then I’ll deal with you myself.”

“You should deal with me yourself.”

“So, first, these two…”

“I’ve already defeated them.”

Frowning at Doxiao’s words, she witnessed the bodies of the two champions before her split apart and crumble into pieces.

A swift strike of the sword that even a person who had dedicated their life to the sword couldn’t react to.

The power of the Sword of Devastation, which can cut through bone, flesh, and even the sword one holds, was astonishing even in the eyes of the rulers of the twelve universes.

“Impressive. Very impressive indeed. The human race, rulers of this star, seems quite appealing.”

With these words, she raised a slender finger and pointed at Doxiao.

“Don’t you want to become my champion?”

“No.”

“Aren’t you a swordsman? If you become my champion, you’ll receive endless life and the opportunity to train forever.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. The anger I feel right now isn’t an emotion that would be swayed by the proposal of a vulgar creature like you.”

“Oh, is that so?”

At that moment, a chilling sensation began to dominate Doxiao’s mind.

“You’re angry, aren’t you?”

Not anger towards the enemy in front of him, but anger towards himself.

The anger of constantly berating himself for succumbing to rage in a moment of carelessness and slaying his comrades.

‘I’m worthless. Why am I still alive when my comrades are dead? I killed them. I killed them.’

In that moment, Doxiao barely regained his senses amidst the tremendous pain throbbing in his throat.

However, what brought him to his senses was the aftermath of him impaling himself with his own sword.

With the scent of pungent blood filling his mouth, Doxiao widened his eyes.

And with eyes filled with rage, he looked at Silvares.

“I apologies, but a species burdened with guilt cannot escape my dominion. And the stronger their self-loathing, the harder it is for them to resist my power. Interesting. Humans are animals with emotions strong enough to sacrifice their lives due to guilt.”

The moment he heard her words, Doxiao realized how formidable his opponent before him truly was.

‘Darn it. This can’t be happening. It’s too dangerous. I have to inform headquarters…’

However, with his own sword piercing through his throat, dying Doxiao could do nothing.

Moments later, Doxiao, the awakened from the Central Military Commission’s Superhuman Division’s “Juege Sword,” met his end in the form of suicide.

It wasn’t the fighting-to-death life he so desired, but rather, dying with his own sword piercing his throat.

It was too anticlimactic to be called the final moments of an awakened, one of the strongest in the world.

“He’s dead? Humans are indeed a weak species compared to their mental fortitude. Well, it’s fine. It’s easier to deal with weaklings like these, who are physically strong but mentally feeble, than those like those beasts who are strong but emotionally weak.”

Using the corpses of the champions Doxiao had slain as her chair, she settled back into her seat.

Then, gazing at the distant sky, she murmured quietly.

“Walking through this desert alone is bothersome. I’ll have to wait for now. Until the guests who come running to see me arrive.”

The direction she looked was towards the most powerful awakened in China, the second strongest man in the world, known as the ‘Poison Emperor’ Zhai Tianlin.