098. the king (2)

In the vast ruins visible through the Legion unit’s field of vision, the queens and jellyfish could be seen working together to draw out a wave of energy that radiated intense golden light.

The power created by the Legion’s psionic entities, after wrestling with it for a long time, finally forcibly erased the large whirlwind portal that gave off an ominous aura.

―Lord, your troops have cleared the enemy’s portal.

All of the enemy forces were annihilated, and the portal they were pouring out of was completely destroyed by the hands of the Legion.

Like this, the corps reaped victory very easily, as always, but our party, including myself, couldn’t help but feel bittersweet for some reason.

“I won, but I feel defeated.”

“Hey, Stalin, why do you win or lose when you don’t even go out and fight? This is a funny guy.”

“… … .”

Looking around, only the charred land is desolate, and the completely ruined world is the only thing that catches the eye.

Facing such a sight, I too did not feel very good. In fact, the places where the party was sent on a mission first had to rescue only the ‘Emnorous survivors’, but this was a place where the indigenous people also survived, so I had to think about cleaning up.

“It’s really over here.”

The flames of hell brought by the army of destruction destroyed all traces of the civilization that existed in this world, leaving even the bases of the flower fields of the demons.

The mountains and fields that were supposed to produce rich products all turned to charcoal, and the rivers and lakes dried up, so there was no place for those who fought fierce battles to wash their bodies. The damage was so great that it was virtually impossible for the survivors in the region to rebuild civilization on their own.

There is only one thing left of this area, the medieval town that the survivors tried to defend until the end.

“The ruler of these so-called corps and a long-time enemy, but now the Demon King who has become a comrade. I am truly grateful for your help. But now what shall we do? Fields and villages, not even a single one is left, they have all been burned… … .”

The last surviving representative of the city was an old priest with a white beard who was very grateful for our help, but seemed very concerned about how he would live on in the future.

Those who lost their ground they had defended for a long time fell into such deep despair that they had no time to be angry with the enemy, and we were the only ones who could help them.

“I’m really ashamed of the subject that we’ve helped so much that we can’t repay it, but could you help us one more time? We don’t even have food to eat right now. If the enemy invades again like this, then it will really be over.”

“Oh, Mr. Beard? Then we’ll give you some food.”

My response to the request for food from the survivors’ representatives was simple.

“Arachne, select the spiders that are going to die soon because they are exhausted, and catch a few.”

—… … Are you the ruler? For what reason are you gathering those who will soon be feeding the hatchery?

“Oh, I’m going to bake and eat some.”

—… … .

When the individuals in the original colony reach the end of their lives, worker beetles tear them up and feed them back to the hatchery to use them as nutrients.

These guys had quite a long lifespan from birth, but through a patch where I accelerated their growth, strengthened their abilities, and shortened their lifespan, they became units that could survive for three to three days to a week at the most.

Thanks to this, the number of spiders who were born for the Legion and ended their short lives was incalculable, and since they obtained a photosynthetic tissue, these guys have consumed almost no resources.

“Gummy, if you take something, it overflows.”

If you feed these guys to the survivors’ cities, they’ll have plenty of food until they can start farming for themselves.

In addition, those legion spiders know well because they have eaten quite a lot of my body processed into mucus to use as food, but both the taste and nutrients were clearly verified as a kind of ‘perfect food’.

“Hey, what is the cook doing? Quickly light a fire.”

“… … Jiwoo, are you serious?”

“Yes, of course I am serious. Besides, those spiders are more delicious than I thought, right?”

“… … .”

As I looked at the spiders caught by the worker bugs and salivated, everyone started looking at me with puzzled expressions.

Those who haven’t experienced the true taste yet, unfortunately, didn’t think of the delicious legion spiders as ‘food’.

“… … are you insane they are people too How do you feed the worm?”

“Senior, my spirit is quite intact.”

“Hey, Mr. Jiu? However, using spiders as food is a bit… … .”

“Miyoung, try it once.”

“… … Those are worms, not food. And these are divine Paladins who worship the Goddess, not Bear Grylls who explore the wilds.”

“You are a communist. You too, take a bite and shut up.”

In this way, everyone in the party came up with the opinion that this is not a little bit, but it is natural that no matter how familiar the legion is to them, they could not ignore the existing idea that ‘spiders are bugs’.

“Hey, are you grilling a spider? It’s been a while.”

Of course, only one sorcerer who knew the taste of the spider, the only one here, began to salivate and glisten.

“That is delicious. It is almost at the level of 100 times concentrated natural king crab.”

“… … Are you really going to eat that?”

“Yeah, it’s really disgustingly delicious. So I secretly took out one by one and grilled it… … sorry. I won’t.”

Because they thought they were eating bugs, the reaction of the party was not very good.

However, after a while, the chubby spider’s flesh sizzled and gave off a sweet scent that made people crazy, and the expressions of the party suddenly changed.

“No, wait… … what is this?”

“Why does it smell so good?”

Yes, once you smell this, you will never be able to deny it.

I tore off one large, well-done leg, a joint the size of a grown man’s torso, packed very tightly with juicy flesh.

“Come on, let’s all take a bite.”

The party struggled for a long time, but eventually accepted the spider’s flesh, and the wizard even went so far as to sprinkle butter and pepper on it and stuffed it into his mouth as if his cheeks would explode.

“This crazy… … .”

“What does this taste like?”

“Wow… … .”

After tasting the spider’s flesh and hearing the swearing of some of the people in the party who were surprised, all around me was the ASMR-like sound of busily chewing and swallowing the grilled spider.

As the number of people is the number of people, one spider’s legs were all torn off in an instant, and the Legion Cook quickly took out a cauldron and started boiling the spider’s legs this time.

“Now, this time I will try to show off my skills properly.”

The party, who watched this with nervous eyes, burst into cheers at the corps chef’s declaration of skill display.

There was only one person, the heroine with a terrible allergy to chitin, sulking, while everyone else’s eyes were overflowing with greed.

… … no wait?

Where did the humans who saw legion spiders and hated them as bugs go?

“As expected, human appetite… … .”

* * *

When the spiders that were about to be disposed of at the end of their lifespan were disassembled and sent to the city of survivors, their representative was thrilled and at some point shed tears.

“To be able to give us such precious food, I really don’t know how to repay this grace… … .”

“Well, nothing is free in this world.”

In response to my answer, the representative of the survivors made an expression that he did not understand.

“… … Well? We have nothing to offer you right now.”

“No, why not? over there over there.”

He was greatly perplexed when he saw where my finger was pointing.

It was because at the place I pointed out, the paladins of the city were grilling and eating the legs of the spiders provided by the Legion.

“No, you mean asking for our paladins?”

“Oh, I’m not saying I’m going to own it, I’m just borrowing it for a while.”

Even the knights of the indigenous peoples here were very talented enough to defend a city against the army of ruin.

They were able to draw and use the divine power of the high person they serve, but this powerful divine power was demonstrating a very amazing efficiency by chewing up hellfire when dealing with an army of ruin.

I have Horus’ army and mammoths that can use divine power, but for some reason, the paladins on this side showed much better abilities in terms of defense.

The more friends we have on our side with this level of determination, the easier it will be for me to design fights.

“No, if we let them go, how can we protect our city? Without them, we can’t stop the enemy invasion.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. Because they can’t open portals to this world anymore.”

“… … Is that true?”

“No, have you been tricked? Absolutely.”

The possibility of a re-invasion by the enemy, which the representative of this region was worried about, was not noticed at all, but it was already neatly resolved.

“This is already my domain.”

My alter ego, rooted in this area, also shared essence and abilities, so I was able to use ‘the ability to freely manipulate space’ like the main body.

If it detects an enemy portal opening somewhere in the area, it’s enough for the clone to twist its coordinates and block it.

“Well then, I will take the paladins. For security and other needs, ask for help from the Legion Queens here or from my mind that rules the area. We will cooperate as much as possible with the reconstruction project.”

“… … Thank you, we will never forget this grace. I will tell the knights.”

Well, this is a very obvious thing, but when the paladins heard that I wanted them, they hurriedly packed their bags, saying they would gladly join the Legion.

As they were also in a situation where their entire hometown was blown away, the hatred and vengeance toward the Lord of Destruction was burning so hot that they couldn’t control it.

“They will now complete whatever you ask them to do, even at the cost of their lives.”

“No, what is life? Don’t worry too much, mister, I’ll make sure no one gets hurt and send them all back in good health.”

“… … Thank you. Thank you very much.”

… … This was a very shameless line, as if I had become the head of the Ministry of National Defense, but anyway, I’m going to save it as much as possible so I won’t get hurt, so let’s move on.

Anyway, I was able to get a decent bag for free with the huge benefit of exchanging spider meat for paladins.

Besides, the gains I saw didn’t just end with obtaining command of the Paladins.

“Benefactor, in our temple there is a treasure prepared for a hero who will appear one day. You seem very qualified to have that treasure… … .”

“No, wait a minute, isn’t that something that looks like a crystal?”

“… … Did you already know?”

I don’t know what kind of fate this is, but here I picked up one more stone, which is the fuel to recharge the power of the seal.

“Now, with just two more stones, I can use the seal… … You are lucky.”

Now that the paladins had eaten and rested, they were ready to leave for the battlefield with the corps, and while I was waiting for them, I was ready to create a number of clones and send them to important dimensions.

【Now, the alter egos are dispatched.】

The clones who shared my spirit will fight against the army of destruction in various places, rescue the survivors including demons, and make the area into the legion’s domain. to be.

“Now, let’s go home.”

I wish there were some good guys.

* * *

―My lord, I am Zaira, the Legion Queen of Nemesis. Those who want to see you come to this land in large numbers… … .

When I returned to Nemesis, the backbone of the Legion, where I could see a blue planet in the sky, I was greeted by a variety of alien life forms that looked like they were grinding and eating.

[The King has come-!!!]

[I want to be by your side. Please accept us.]

[Meet the only king of the corps.]

I looked back at each of those strangely shaped children and let out a sigh.

“No fuck, at least I thought they were more handsome than cockroaches… … .”

really ugly ugly