The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 248 ?????? Mogers (18) - Self-Introduction Behind Mogers who had rushed out of the temple, a house-sized black shadow followed, roaring. -■■■■■!! The black wolf that once bore the name Raslro was already closer to a disaster of tangled muscle and fur rather than a four-legged beast. Each time its legs, whose paw size alone could easily cover a human's upper body, struck the ground, the earth screamed and caved in. Whooooom! With a noise like tearing through the air, the black wolf's front paw ripped through the space where Mogers had been. "Gasp!" Mogers, who dodged the attack by a hair's breadth, used the stick in his hand to strike the wolf's foreleg joint, just as he had before. A blow that had previously injured his opponent with just one strike. -■■!! However, this time the result was different. Rather than showing pain, the black wolf roughly twisted its body as if annoyed, and just the aftermath sent Mogers' body fluttering through the air like a piece of paper. After taking a rolling fall backward, Mogers clicked his tongue. "Huh. ...This one has become a complete monster." The black beast hadn't just grown enormous in size. Strength, speed, physical toughness. In every aspect, comparison with before was meaningless. If the past beast and the current beast were to fight each other, the past beast would probably become a lump of meat within ten seconds. Of course, the price was also clear. -■■■■……!! In the thoroughly reddened eyes of the black beast, anything that could be called reason had completely evaporated. Primal appetite and destructive impulse. Devouring Mogers who stood before it was all that existed in the beast's mind. "Can't be helped." Mogers smacked his lips bitterly. He would have liked to fight while keeping his trump card intact, but the monster before him was beyond the category of opponents he could face that way. Just as he was about to unwrap the bandages around his stick. Whoosh. The city began to burn. *** The white beast gazed blankly at the snow-covered wasteland where blizzards raged. The blade-like wind was not painful. The swirling snowflakes were not cold either. Because they were part of the white beast. She was winter. She was the frozen earth, white silence, and the oblivion that covered and concealed all things. No creature considers its own natural body temperature to be torment. The woman also did not consider this bitter cold to be torment. But she did consider loneliness to be torment. The children who had worshipped her could no longer offer words of prayer to her. The children who had stayed by her side were trapped in the distant realm of the hearth and could not escape. She wanted to freeze to death all the outsiders who had taken away the children, but if she did that, her own children would die as well. Therefore, all she could do was simply watch. The empty spaces left by the departed children. The places where the children would be living. Just blankly from afar. It was one such day when it happened. "Ah, O Winter. O bitter cold. O one who comes quietly." "Please, I beg you to save us, your believers." Words of prayer were heard. A prayer to god, forgotten for so long, was heard. "Our daughter is suffering in pain." "She is slowly dying, tormented by fever." She listened to the voice. Her descendant offering the prayer was terribly weakened. "Since prayers to you are forbidden in that distant place, I have come here like this." "To make this journey possible, my husband risked his life." "O Winter, our mother. As your daughter and at the same time as a mother of a child, I pray." "Please save my daughter, Morana." She felt pity. At the sight of a mother thinking of her daughter even while dying. Therefore, she asked. "Do you desire salvation?" An answer came back. "I earnestly desire it." She knew. The child now praying to her would not endure long and would die. And the daughter that the child so desperately sought to save had already died, unable to overcome the illness. Since there was no way to heal the already dead, the child's efforts in coming here for help and her husband's devotion would become meaningless. She could not allow that. Therefore she said. "Then I shall grant it." At her words, the child smiled while collapsed. Thank you. Thank you. I'm truly relieved. Even while dying from exhaustion, holding relief in her heart. Leaving the child's corpse behind, she headed to where the daughter was. And she infused her own power into the dead daughter. It was an extremely dangerous thing to do. Having lost faith for so long, she no longer had the divine power to revive the dead. Therefore, she carved away at her very existence itself. The more her existence became faint, the more life returned to the daughter's body. Sacrificing one god to save one insignificant child. It was such a foolish equivalent exchange, but she, Marzanna, did not regret it. Rather than being unable to be with anyone and only watching that snowy field forever, this was better. ─And Morana opened her eyes. Before her eyes, she saw the vision of a giant wolf. Fur shining silver under the moonlight. The white beast from the distant past that crossed the snowfields and instilled awe in humans. Winter, silence, white, and the wolf goddess. "...Marzanna." The wolf approached Morana. Sharp teeth and claws approached closely, but Morana felt no threat. Because the wolf was herself. It was the remnants of the goddess Marzanna, who had been absorbed into her as the price for saving Morana's life. The moment she blinked and opened her eyes again, the wolf's form was no longer visible. What she saw instead was the temple turned into ruins by the black beast. That wasn't all. Perhaps thanks to awakening to her previous life as a goddess, her senses had expanded to encompass the entire holy city. "-■■■■!!" "Good grief, it's like a bulldozer!" Mogers was fighting the black beast while utilizing the terrain, but the beast was rampaging, crushing everything that blocked its path. From the way he kept glancing at the bandages on the stick in his hand, Morana realized he was hesitating about something. "Aaahhhhh!!" "Save us! Someone please save us!!" Throughout the holy city, crazed beasts were carrying out massacres, while residents either trembled behind locked doors or screamed as they desperately fled. "Come this way!! Quickly!!" "Bring more arrows!! Don't let them get close!!" "Bring everything - filth, food scraps, anything! Just gather everything disgusting!!" At the makeshift defense line created using warehouse materials, the Belastok and surviving soldiers were facing the beast horde back-to-back. "......" Morana frowned. It was as Mogers had said. This was no longer a situation that could be resolved by hunting down the beasts one by one. Something more dramatic was needed, a move that would turn everything around. Raising her body that still had numbness remaining, Morana began lighting the hearths installed inside the temple. Activating the domain required following specific procedures and needed theological and archaeological knowledge, but Morana didn't care. It was the same as noticing terrain features or footprints hidden by snow. Senses pushed to the extreme could transcend theory and knowledge. After turning the eight hearths on and off in a specific sequence several times. Suddenly, Vestania's statue at the front of the temple shone brightly, and enormous power began gathering around the temple. Whoosh. As Morana unconsciously frowned at the excessively bright scarlet light, the flame's color had somehow changed to silver. At that strangely familiar flame, Morana blinked and looked at Vestania's goddess statue. "...Does this mean I'm also your believer?" Bone Fragment Outpost. As Morana asked this while recalling the years spent with Vestania's emblem carved there, it felt as if the flame flickered greatly. Though she knew it wasn't the right situation for it, Morana couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh. Should this be considered boldness, or a declaration of victory? The silver flames spread widely from the temple as the center, beginning to burn throughout the city. However, that fire was not one that burned people or objects. -GRRRK!? Only the beasts intoxicated with madness were harmed by the flames. The wolves that had been rampaging in blood and slaughter began burning like dry straw the moment they touched the silver flames, soon becoming ash on the spot. The residents who had been terrified shed tears of relief watching the beasts burn before their eyes, and the Belastok and soldiers who had been desperately defending also collapsed in place as if exhausted. At the undoubted success, Morana unconsciously let out a deep breath, but soon had no choice but to harden her expression. "Professor...!" *** The silver flames that Morana had ignited. When those flames first touched it, the black beast's reaction was unmistakable agony. -#&*#*$*@!!? It screamed and rolled its body on the ground as if trying somehow to extinguish the flames. But the more it did so, the more the silver flames grew in intensity and burned the black beast. Just when it seemed the black beast would simply perish like this. The black beast's eyes widened, and an enormous roar echoed from its throat. -■■■■■■■■■■■■──!! A roar that even generated physical impact, enough to push Mogers' nearby body backward. As if responding to it, shadows began emerging from all over the city. -Grrrrr! Beasts whose bodies were all burning with silver flames. They no longer tried to flee from the flames. Instead, they bared their teeth at each other. Crunch! Each time beast blood spurted, the intensity of the silver flames touching that blood weakened. Each time they chewed beast flesh, the predator's body size grew larger. Some beasts couldn't endure the flames and became ash, but others used each other as nourishment to forcibly withstand the flames. After repeating this eating and being eaten countless times. Finally, the black beast that had devoured all the surviving beasts stretched its body leisurely as if showing off. The silver flames could no longer affect the black beast. It wasn't activated using the Divine Power of priests or holy knights, but forcibly operated through devices. Moreover, the output had weakened due to the temple and various facilities being neglected for a long time. Most decisively, the power of some entity coiled within the black beast's body made it possible. "The vessel is small. At most just over a thousand people?" Pleasant words flowed from the beast's mouth. It was quite different from the black beast that had been rampaging without reason just moments ago, but that was natural too. Demons were beings that spread madness, not beings swayed by madness. "Are you the demon who impersonated a goddess and seduced Raslro?" At Mogers' question, the black beast's gaze turned toward him. 《That's only half correct.》 "Half?" 《I never impersonated a goddess. I just gave power to a guy who was rampaging madly with vengeance, and he just misunderstood on his own.》 The black beast - no, the demon - laughed. 《His thirst for revenge and his drive were to my liking, but his abilities seem to have been sorely lacking. I was planning to have an outing to the human world with my comrades after a long time, but at this rate, it looks like I barely made it across alone. No, I didn't even make it across properly. My body is feeble, I have no wings, and I'm starving to death!》 "You, are you by any chance 'Savage Fang'?" 《You know the boss? Let's just say I'm about the No. 2 of that group. I am Marcosius.》 Crack, crack. Marcosius, who had been stretching his body this way and that, straightened his posture again. And spoke in his unchangingly cheerful tone. 《Then let's begin. Don't worry. Unlike those picky bastards, I don't say things like 'child meat is good' or 'old men taste bad'! All meat is good!》 Thump. The mana emanating from Marcosius' body pushed away all the surrounding flames. 6th Rank. And high-tier at that. If he was this powerful with an incomplete summoning as he claimed, it wouldn't be strange to consider his true form's level to be at the peak of 6th Rank. A demon who simply hadn't completed his own laws, but in terms of raw power was already close to perfection. And one couldn't be reassured just because he was in a weakened state. If Marcosius himself went around eating to make up for what was lacking, his power would recover immediately. Facing a demon whose very existence could become a continental disaster - Mogers smiled. "What's so funny?" "No, I just thought it was worthwhile. I put quite a lot of effort into inducing this situation. Honestly, I thought it might fail, but fortunately my partner was more excellent than I expected." "Huh?" Mogers lifted the stick he had been holding all along and unwrapped the bandages that covered it. A smoothly polished wooden stock, double-barreled gun barrels gleaming with steel luster. When Mogers broke the middle connection with practiced movements, the chamber was exposed with a light metallic click. After pushing two bullets into the empty space, Mogers returned the barrel to its original position. Toward Marcosius who was watching Mogers' actions as if they were strange, Mogers spoke. *** ─Huh, is it true that demonic presence was felt in the south? That's troublesome. I was thinking of trying imperial commoner life experiences or medical activities in the east next time. I'll have to change my schedule. ─If it's bothersome, why not just leave it alone? That area is where those gloomy gods reside anyway. Since they're natural enemies of demons, they'll resolve it themselves. ─Well. The Hasht Sacred State has become a very closed group compared to the past. No matter what, they'd respond if it felt like a knife was being thrust into their belly, but quite a bit of blood would flow before they took action. ─It's not your country anyway, so what does it matter? ─That's how you end up regretting it later when you ignore it like that. After all, early response is important when it comes to disasters. ─Geez. But doing it the usual way won't work, will it? ─What do you mean? ─The guy I recently encountered was a mosquito, so I thought the south would be the same, but when I checked, there was a bit of beast scent. They're crude and sloppy at planning and such, but their instincts are good instead. If you sent down a combat-specialized clone from the start, they'd sense danger and flee immediately, right? ─Hmm. Thanks for the advice. Then I'll have to try a new method. Thanks to my experience with the demon Kron, I've become more skilled at creating clones. ─A new method? —It's 'XX hides his power'. No, in this case, it would be 'hides his identity'. ─Damn. *** "Since you revealed your name, I'll introduce myself too." "Mogers. Someone who immodestly calls himself a folklorist─" "─is actually a hunter."