CH 112

A seemingly endless line of people stood in what was once the royal capital. This line of men and women of all ages and all social classes stood on a path leading underground.

All of them housed a black mushroom on their bodies, and all had plates on their hands.

There was food on these plates, but this food ranged from luxurious cooking only nobles and royalty would eat, to rotten things someone struggling with poverty would be seen eating on the side of the road.

Everything was cold, and it was being carried underground one after the other by people with blank expressions on their faces.

And waiting at the end of the line was Rihalzam in his slimy form, looking to be twice as big as he was before.

A person approached him, stopped right before him, and presented the plates to him, before tilting it.

The food sliding off the plate was sauteed bird meat with sauce, looking deliciously brown. The meat fell off the plate and onto the slimy body of Rihalzam, which slovenly spread on the ground.

Splat.

The food was half sunken into the slimy body, and it was there that Rihalzam’s face appeared. It looked like a severed head floating in a slimy sea.

And then, more appeared.

Those Rihalzam faces began to fight over the bird meat that fell into their body.

They got in each other’s way, and pushed each other. They took bites off the bird meat and put on a repulsive fight.

A giant bearded man addressed a face that was pushed out. It was Douga, who had completely secured the position of Rihalzam’s right-hand man.

“Master Rihalzam, you evolved even more to a new species. How wonderful. Did you take another step towards becoming demon king? I barely recognized you in this splendid new form.”

Another person possessed via mushroom appeared, and dropped more food onto Rihalzam’s slimy body.

“Douga? That shaman manipulated me with his lies. What part of this is evolution? What part of this is wonderful?”

The many faces bubbling on the slime responded.

The upper body that existed until recently evolved further and disappeared, meaning Rihalzam’s face was the only human feature he had left.

Responding with these multiple faces made him a lot easier to understand.

The many faces swarmed the food that was dropped on their body, and one remained to respond to Douga.

“That shaman! He lied! Rust is alive and well! I saw it before they took down the spy I sent. It really is my destiny to kill him…”

He seemed happy that Rust was alive, but at the same time infuriated.

“Rust… Rust. Ah. What a sweet sound. I can’t wait to bite his body to pieces. How unpleasant.”

Rihalzam spoke to Douga as his face rolled around in the slime. Douga did nothing but quietly listen.

“Apparently the army I sent was defeated. But that’s part of the plan! Feel proud while you can. The work I did on those bodies is perfect. The real fun begins when they’re dead, Rust.”

Rihalzam said, as if speaking to someone who wasn’t present.

He then grinned, and let out a few ear-piercing laughs.

Rihalzam failed to notice, since the spy he sent to Habbafulton was the first to go down.

Rust’s Potion Rabbits managed to destroy the parasitic mushrooms without a single casualty.