Side Story Chapter 216

Side Story Chapter 216

Some of the survivors were beginning to edge away from the portal despite Jack’s warnings. If they moved from their positions they would immediately cease to supply their vitality to the dimensional gate.

-What in the world are you doing!? Don’t tell me you believe his sugar coated words!

The menace in Jack’s voice made the survivors flinch.

“B-But the emperor and the empress mother also—”

-There will be no social classes in our new world to begin with. The prince has chosen a temporary measure out of fear of the nobles because they’re the people in power, but we can start from perfection!

“What’s the use of a new world when you’re dead?” Anna scoffed. She pointed at the piles of corpses, stirring the survivors’ primal fear of death. Most of the survivors were teenagers who had long lives ahead of them.

“I-I’m going to go back.”

One of them changed his mind, a boy who was around fifteen years old. He was already far away from the gate and escaped the range of the gate’s magic circle completely in a few steps.

The boy immediately took off running. “I don’t want to die! If the continent isn’t going to fall, I-I want to be with my fa—!”

He never got to finish. The moment he got ten meters away from the magic circle, the boy vanished in a column of lightning—a magic trap.

“...Ugh.” The boy coughed out black smoke.

It turned out that Jack had kept the forest’s monsters on standby because Jack quickly brought in a black ogre to smash the boy’s head.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The survivors screamed.

“How dare you!” Cain roared, already bristling with murderous energy.

-Stop! Keep in mind that I can fry the rest of these brats.

“Damn you...!” Cain gritted his teeth.

The survivors went pale.

-Do you get it now? You’ll never be free from me! Never!

“D-Don’t kill me.”

“Uuuuungh. Hic. Mom...”

“I want to go home! Let me go home!”

All of the survivors broke out in tears. Although he was discarding his justification, Jack had no other choice; he was going to lose all of his sacrificial offerings he’d gone through so much trouble to gather and now he had to worry about his life.

But the rasp of metal against leather as someone unsheathed their sword made Jack’s lips tremble.

-Who is it! You don’t care if all these kids die?

Kireua was the one who drew his sword.

“You won’t be able to kill them,” Kireua said as he walked toward the lich.

-You cocky shit! You think I won’t do it?

Even though fierce lightning cracked around Jack’s hands, Kireua’s feet kept moving.

“No, you won’t be able to kill them,” Kireua repeated, shaking his head.

“Arrrrghhhh!”

“S-Save me! Help!”

“I can’t... ugh! I c-can’t breathe...!”

The survivors clutched their necks or pounded on their chests and screamed. Some of them clawed at the ground until their fingers were bloody but they didn’t notice it through the suffocating feeling tormenting their bodies.

Kireua sprang forward, unable to watch them suffer any longer. He swung his flaming sword toward the magic circle, but his attack was quickly blocked by a magical barrier that appeared over the magic circle.

His actions had terrible consequences. To his horror, Kireua was forced to watch a boy—who was fifteen years old at most—crumble into dust.

-I warned you, didn’t I? Tsk, you’ve made me waste one of my sacrifices.

“...You bastard.” Kireua gritted his teeth.

-People with trust issues tend to do themselves in before believing what other people tell them. Just watch. The wheel of fate has already passed the point of no return.

Kireua watched the magic circle surge with ever increasing demonic power. The survivors visibly aged with every breath as the portal became more and more vivid.

-This is it!

Jack couldn’t contain his excitement any longer. After draining over a thousand people’s vitality, the end was so close!

Kireua changed his plan and attacked Jack instead.

-...Mmm.

Jack grunted. Kireua had struck the barrier with his aura, cracking it, but the lich just sneered at him.

-Killing me now... won’t stop the wheel of fate. The Human Realm will fall, and everyone on the continent will come here to escape. I’ll be forever remembered as their savior! Besides... you can’t kill me anyway. My phylactery is already beyond that gate.

Kireua had to break his silence.

“You... already sent your phylactery through the gate?”

-Yes, that is why I’m certain the other dimension exists! My phylactery has passed through the gate, but I’m still alive, as you can see!

Kireua had no way of verifying Jack’s words, nor was it even important right now. He still had to free the survivors, but he was at a loss as to how to do it.

However, fate conspired to alter the circumstances.

-That looks yummy.

“What?!” Kireua’s eyes flew open in shock. At first, he thought he was mistaken because it had been so long since he had heard Coal’s voice.

-Can I eat it, Kireua?

Kireua felt like crying. He’d never imagined that he would be so happy to hear Coal’s voice.

‘Yes, you can,’ Kireua was quick to reply. ‘No, please eat it. I’m begging you, Coal.’

-Okay! But there is a problem.

‘What problem?’

-If I eat it, my tummy will explode too.

Coal’s words hit Kireua like a bolt of lightning to the face.