LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 228
“This is a bad end if I ever saw one.”
Warning: If you’re not into these gloomy vibes, proceed with caution.
So, if Blanca got dominated by the head honcho of the Evil Society during her capture…
Arman teased Blanca, getting a little kick out of it, but soon reached his breaking point.
No matter how much he enjoyed crushing others’ will, the continued taunts and jeers from her every time he showed up made even Arman lose interest.
Plus, it was about time for some reinforcements, so Arman decided to take matters into his own hands.
He figured that if he could rule her with his ability without completely breaking her, it would sabotage her precision greatly, but it was better than nothing.
And if it didn’t work out, he could always just spawn a similar ability offspring. No biggie.
Thinking it was all a walk in the park, Arman headed down to the basement where Blanca was locked up. As soon as he stepped in, Blanca rattled her chains and pretended to be shocked.
But when he silently reached out a hand towards her head, Blanca genuinely freaked out and begged him to stop.
“You crazy bastard! You really think I’ll just submit because you’re scaring me?! Stop it, stop… STOP!!!”
No matter how much she screamed in fury, she quickly resorted to spraying deadly toxins and corrosive gases to ensure her safety while trying to break free from her chains.
Expecting at least that much resistance, Arman charged in without giving her a moment to breathe and seized her head.
It was so quick that she couldn’t even use her slime ability.
Even though his arm and respirator got a bit toasted by the toxic gases she released, it was nothing some healing abilities and meds couldn’t patch up.
However, despite having firmly dominated Blanca, Arman couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was off.
He controlled her completely, yet didn’t feel like he had grasped her entirely.
In fact, it almost felt like her grip on him was growing weaker.
He couldn’t quite understand the source of this unease. Who would even think that the Mimic in her head had already devoured half her brain from the moment she lost consciousness?
But tragically for him, she had always been consciously suppressing the Mimic.
Even if the Mimic’s consciousness was overwhelmed by Blanca, its instincts remained intact.
This meant that during his strange sensations of detachment, the Mimic had already taken full control of her body and shot slime towards his eyes.
Before Arman could react, the spear of slime pierced through his head, slowly infiltrating him and began to take over.
A pathetic end for a man who was known as a master of evil.
The Mimic that consumed both Blanca and Arman combined all their knowledge to calculate how to spread ‘itself’ further.
There was no feeling or greater purpose in that act.
Much like an AI ordered to make paper clips, it simply utilized every means to spread as wide as possible.
This world was essentially a novel, meaningless information. I used to be a man, meaningless information. I’m part of the Liberators, information that will lose its meaning. The moment I break free from my ability, my consciousness will return, meaningful information.
After calculations, the slime realized that the male abilities it had captured would cause significant confusion in this space.
And so, using the female abilities, it fragmented itself and sprayed into the air.
No probabilities mattered in normal circumstances, but considering they were likely in chaos, the chances of dodging this attack were slim, so it decided to proceed.
The slime’s predictions turned out to be spot on, and everyone in the underground bunker of the Evil Society fell victim to the Mimic.
Ex/current members of the Liberators, every single member of the Evil Society, and the Heroes Arman controlled. Everyone without exception.
But that wasn’t the end.
For the slime, no, for the Mimic, it was merely a new beginning.
Yet the ending would surely be a grim fate for anyone involved.
And then, if by some twist, Blanca died before the grand finale…
Suddenly, a man with calloused skin and scars etched all over found his way to a lonely mausoleum.
Talking to himself, looking like he belonged in a mental institution, he was anything but crazy.
Given what Minho had experienced, he was surprisingly sober.
“Let’s see, this one’s for Blanca, this one’s for… Ageha, this one’s for Yeonhwa… oh wait, wrong one. This is for Alice. Right.”
He rummaged through the bags, pulling out food and drinks to place on the altar.
Each item were things his friends had liked when they were alive.
After placing the last one where it belonged, he grabbed a chair from somewhere and slumped down, talking as if he was having a conversation with someone.
“Running an organization isn’t as convenient as I thought. There are always some knuckleheads messing things up. When you’re as big as we are, there’s always something slipping through the cracks. Doing it firsthand really opened my eyes to how monstrous Heros Company is.”
As he grabbed a can and chugged it down, he mused, “I now get why your boss wields a knife. Going easy on them gets you nowhere. Maybe I should just turn to terrorism like you guys. That way, I might at least see those idiots change in my lifetime.”
“… ah, but maybe that’s pushing it. You had someone to back you up, but I don’t have anyone like that. Sigh… You could have said more before leaving, Blanca. Why did you just up and leave…?”
Feeling a bit melancholic, Minho briefly sank into a darker mood and then awkwardly apologized to the empty space before resuming his musings.
“Ah, speaking of which, Ageha, it seems Lapiz is slowly mustering the courage to go out into the world again. Maybe in about… five more years, she might be able to talk to others again, even if not like before. Regardless of diluted bloodlines, a dragon is still a dragon; if she’s supposed to live until 200, by 40, she’ll pretty much be equivalent to a human 20, right?”
Finishing the entire can in one go, he tossed it into the trash as he spoke a bit playfully.
“And… the first child will be old enough to start elementary school next year, Ageha. I wonder how you would have felt seeing that. Would you have congratulated her or been mad?”
Minho reminisced about the showdown with the Evil Society, spinning a pointless scenario in his head. If only Blanca had been there, maybe Lapiz would have come too and somehow they could have killed Arman without anyone dying—he thought.
Of course, theorizing now was utterly pointless.
Blanca had been dead for ages.
“… well, even if that wasn’t the case, you were probably dead anyway.”
He muttered while gazing sadly at Yeonhwa’s urn.
Like her father, she had rushed into a collapsing building to save the citizens and, unlike her father, she never made it out, so her death had nothing to do with Blanca.
“Or maybe not. Because Blanca died, you must have suffered the most.”
He murmured, wondering if that was why her personality changed so drastically.
Even though nobody would be coming, he decided it was time to leave; lingering would just be a hassle. So, speaking to the urns, he organized the snacks and drinks he brought.
After placing the chair back where he found it and attempting to leave, he hesitated, turning back as if something tugged at him, and posed a question to one of the urns.
“Blanca, maybe… maybe if I hadn’t touched you there, you would have lived?”
Recalling the moment when he attempted to subdue her, he pondered what he should have done to save Blanca.
Should he have approached her more calmly and considerately? Or should he not have touched that skull? He knew it was futile and worthless, yet he couldn’t rid himself of the regret.
No way he could shake that off. That regret was intent on haunting him until his last breath.
Fully aware of that, he embraced the regret and promised nobody could hear he would come back next time with Seolhwa and the kids, before leaving.
The mausoleum, now devoid of any evidence that someone had been there, stood lonely with only the urns keeping their mournful vigil.