Shepherding Humanity

“Too much killing isn’t good. It would even be harmful for us; after all, we don’t want to rule over a broken world.” Longji said. “This world is a monarchy, and we only need to become the next Emperor of Alchemy. We do not need to massacre the commoners.”

Before they knew it, they had blended in with the natives over the years.

They’ve lived in this world for almost a hundred years, and thanks to their extremely fast cultivation speed, they’ve already reached the Sixth Level and become Legendary Mages. But they haven’t forgotten their original mission; he who gained the power of the Evil God would gain the world.

“You’re saying that I’ve killed too many?”

Yamada smiled. “Was it 10.000 people? Or 100.000? I’ve killed so many, I cannot remember anymore. You all say that I’m disgusting. You complain that I’m a butcher. You all have your own pride, and indeed, thanks to your powerful backers, you have the ability to uphold that pride and realize your full potential. Pell has his horrifying brute strength and you have your exquisite CQC techniques. Each of you have your own Magic System to grow into; it would be no exaggeration to call them entirely new Schools in and of themselves… But I’m different.”

“Compared to me, you’ve all had a blessed life.”

Yamada sighed deeply, then continued speaking in a hoarse voice: “I cannot uphold my honor as a samurai because my family is being held hostage. The institute’s researchers see me as an unstable factor. They have no faith in my strength as an individual, and want me to abandon my swordsmanship to follow the path they’ve laid out for me. For the sake of victory, I must create a Grand Cemetary, no matter how many people I have to kill; I even have to abandon my dignity and dress up as a woman.”

“Did you seek me out just to complain?” Longji asked.

“We must join forces! The five of us have gathered about 90% of the scattered body parts, which is enough for us to reassemble most of the Evil God and kill Medusa.” Yamada laughed. “The moment she becomes a Goddess is the moment we all die. But after we’ve gotten rid of this potential threat, there’ll be nothing in the world capable of threatening us, and we can fight amongst ourselves then.”

Longj looked at him with pity. “Oh? So you intend to create a 5-nations alliance to take over the Magic World. Was this the plan proposed by your research institute?”

“I knew that you wouldn’t agree.” Yamada did not deny this and continued: “I’ve already contacted the others and you’re the last one. But, we had to make a pledge.”

“What pledge?” Longji asked.

Yamada slowly stood up. “We’ll remove your country from the competition by killing you. After all, the entrance to this world is located within your country; only players on Chinese servers can enter, which gives you guys far too much of a home-field advantage!”

“You!”

Longi shot up from his seat, but before he could say anything else, Yamada opened his Magic Box. It was as if he had opened the gate to a realm of putrid flesh; long wriggling entrails surged forth, and the air was saturated with the odor of blood.

Within the tavern, commoners, bards, and Mages who were deep in their cups all exploded in an instant. Their blood splattered over the tavern floor, walls, and counters, painting the entire room dark red.

A swarm of crimson pups thronged the tavern, hissing malignantly as they gathered copses.

Bloody light rose upwards into the sky.

The bar’s wooden seats crumbled and broke as rotting limbs and bloody chunks of flesh swirled together. As the corpses piled up into a small hill, a giant wriggling crimson tombstone broke through the tavern roof and quickly towered above the earth.

“You….”

Longji had an utterly shocked expression on his face.

“That wasn’t him… That was us.”

A second later, the tavern’s basement exploded. A terrifying patchwork giant leisurely walked forth, meathook in hand. “For this game in another world, 5 people is too many. First we’ll get rid of you, then the 4 of us will compete among ourselves.”

“It’s the Evil Gods!”

“Oh my God!”

“Sure enough, on the Night of the Celestial Witch…”

Ah!!!

The people in the street scattered in all directions while screaming in abject terror.

“How unexpected… To think that I’d become the fuse that would ignite a volcanic eruption in this world.” Longji’s face twisted with emotion as he hurriedly switched to his true form.

His skin and clothing peeled off, and he transformed into a rope doll made of bright red tendons.

He hadn’t attached the organs he gathered onto his body, and purely relied on his own “muscle species” when assembling his humanoid form. Furthermore, he had made each member of his species train in magic, and was now a Sixth-Level Mage while each of his muscles was a First-Level Mage.

With a violent roar, his crimson muscles swelled up into dark red knots of flesh, turning him into a 3 meters tall aberration armored in muscle.

Immediately after that, his skin started to cast all kinds of magic spells, reinforcing him with the Witch of Spring’s White Magic, Empress Ermin’s Pulse of Life, along with various explosive Fire Magic buffs. Fully empowered, Longji slid into a martial arts stance.

Giant dark clouds stirred in the sky above.

The suffocating pressure seemed to crack the very heavens as cobweb-like fissures spread across the dark yellow sky.

“Oh my God! That patchwork flesh golem wielding a meat hook and cleaver is the ‘Crawling Chaos’ Nyarlathotep!”

The town’s people wailed as they fled.

Screaming in despair, women holding their children desperately ran out into the streets.

“There can be no mistake! This tombstone towering over an army of the dead must be the ‘Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young’, Shub-Niggurath! Our town will turn into a realm of disaster…”

“We’re finished! That tiny human figure has also revealed his true form as an Evil God! He’s the Evil God who hides himself among the masses, the ‘Nameless Mist’ Yog-Sothoth!”

The earth shook as the three hideous and bloodthirsty Evil Gods clashed.

Their overlapping spiritual power turned the sky above into a swirling kaleidoscope of dusty gray, pitch black, and dark red colors.

“As expected. When our Inquisitors tracked them to this meeting place, we knew there’d be a catastrophe.” In an underground location close by, the Church of Light’s Saintess, Linda, was worriedly conferring with her notebook. “Luckily, we’ve already sneaked in our dismantled parts and reassembled them.”

Boom!

One of the cellars in the town suddenly exploded. An awe-inspiring colossus slowly stood up, shattering the mud walls of the warehouse concealing him with but a single footstep.

“When kaijus appear, Ultraman Tiga is never far behind!”

The colossus laughed audaciously. “You PKers are all very strong! But if we 4 lucky survivors join forces, we should be able to match one of you! It’s finally time for our counterattack!”

Beneath him, countless women were desperately running away.

With parched throats, they looked up at the imposing giant. “What kind of day is this!? Yet another Evil God has appeared! That wild, idiotic laughter is unmistakable; it’s the ‘Blind Idiot God’ Azathoth!”

For a brief moment, Longji was speechless. The arrival of the four ordinary players was beyond his expectations.

After all these years, the identity of these 4 people was no longer a secret, and the Church of Light had also been exposed. But, they hid themselves well, and their combined strength wasn’t inferior to any single PKer; this made them very difficult to deal with.

“Hey you, the PKer over there!”

The colossus suddenly shouted out loud. “You’ve been surrounded! You have no chance in a 2 vs 1, but I know you still have a conscience, so join us! If it’s 2 vs 2, we should be able to win! Then you can become king, and work with our Church of Light to rule over this world with divine authority… We can both become the winners of this game!”

Longji was startled. Perhaps, he should accept this proposal?

“Oh God! Save me!”

Their talk was suddenly interrupted. The shockwaves caused by the battle had caused the eaves of a far-off building to collapse onto a fleeing mother and daughter pair, who could only cry out in terror as the beams fell down upon them.

“Damn it.”

The colossus rushed over and raised the back of his hand to prop up the crumbling house. His other hand gently cupped the beautiful mother and daughter pair, who were scared out of their minds, and placed them down on the ground close by.

“Ah! It’s the ‘Blind Idiot God’ Azathoth! Why is it saving people? As expected of the blind idiot god, it’s a truly incomprehensible existence.”

In the distance, the people who were desperately running away couldn’t help but turn their heads and look at this scene in disbelief.

Their comments filled the colossus with dissatisfaction as he strode back towards the nearby battlefield. “How many times do I have to tell you that you’re pronouncing my name wrong!”

“What is this Evil God saying? Is his name not Azathoth?”

“How should I know? He’s a colossal idiot after all.”

***

At this moment, in a cluttered alchemy lab in the mountaintop Kingdom of Roses’ Rose Palace, a young girl was sitting before an alchemy table and intently studying the Blood of Immortality through the microscope.

“All 4 of them showed up? They must know that I’m about to break through, and cannot hold back any longer.”

“Don’t go. It must be a trap.” An anxious voice emerged from the shadows. “You’ll only have to break through one final thin layer to reach the Demigod level, and ignite your divine spark to become a living goddess!”

“I’ve been waiting for this trap. No matter how deadly it may be, I must face it head on.”

Medusa gently shook her head. “I want to be pressured by them, like Grantham had once pressured me with the threat of death back then. Only then will I be able to break through this final layer. This final step is not one I can easily make, even if I had my entire life ahead of me.”

Her magic was based on the principle of Death, which was why, without the pressure of Death, it was very difficult for her to break through.

“There’s no reason for me to hesitate.”

Medusa stood up. “If I cannot break through, then I’ll simply die. If I can ignite my divine spark and reach the Demigod Level, I will be a goddess and killing the Evil God will just be a matter of seconds.”

For a moment, the dark room was silent, then the melancholic female voice spoke up again. “You’re too rash… At least bring me along as a final insurance if you’re going. If you happen to lose, I can bring you back by sacrificing my life…”

Medusa shook her head. “In that case, I’ll know that I won’t die! As long as there’s hope left in my heart, I won’t be able to feel the pressure of Death. I won’t be able to break through. I won’t be able to win. Doing so is meaningless.”

“You’re crazy!”

The voice in the shadows shouted furiously.

“Oh?”

Medusa had a mocking expression on her face. “I’ve never been a good person. What were you people thinking, pinning your hopes on someone as infamous as me? Who’s the crazy one here? Me? Or you?””

The figure in the shadows silently trembled.

Cold despair slowly welled up within her. Medusa held in her hands the fate of the Three Great Magic Kingdoms, the fate of the entire world; but she simply did not care…

“I’ve already done enough by suppressing the Evil Gods all these years… What do I care about the people, the nation, or the world?”

Medusa’s laugh was full of joy as she happily continued:

“I have my own dream. I only want to become stronger! I want to reach greater heights!

If it’s for my dream, I can do anything! I could even endure 400 years of humiliation during the Emperor of Alchemy’s era. I’ve endured everything all this time, but now… With an opportunity right before my eyes, how can I not seize it?”

Medusa darkly chuckled, her laughter growing ever louder.

As the sound of her laughter resounded throughout the entire palace, she lost the bearing of a Ruling Empress, and rushed outside like a mad woman. “If I must die, then let me die there!”

“For the sake of becoming strong, I’ll do anything! Even if it’s evil, even if it’ll get me hated by everyone! Power is the truth of this world! You yourself taught me that, all those years ago… Are you taking back your words? My teacher.”