A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 338: The Birth of a Leader - Part 14

"WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?" He shouted.

As he shouted, he took a step forward, and so too did all the armies, on all sides. They took their steps, and all the monsters gave out eager cries, excited by the prospect of flesh.

This sent a shiver through the villagers.

"You're afraid!" The mage said triumphantly.

Yet there was no longer any sign of them breaking. The biggest surprises had already been overcome. They knew their fate now, they saw it right in front of them – hell at the hands of a handsome man. There could be no bigger surprises than that.

Now that the mage's power no longer had an effect, now that he could not command them completely from a distance, he'd lost the hold he had on them, despite still having them inside his cage of monsters.

That seemed important to the mage. More important than the fact that he would absolutely annihilate them the moment he set his soldiers loose. The fact that the villagers did not give in to their despair, it irked him even more than it irked Ingolsol.

In fact, the Dark God was no longer so opposed to the current state of affairs.

"…Sweet suffering," he murmured, like a dog picking up a scent. His motivations weren't exactly sophisticated, or so it seemed from what Beam knew of him. Anyone, or anything, it was their suffering that he desired, their despair. Whether it be a mage, or a villager, he indulged in it all.

It seemed the stronger the enemy, the more he enjoyed supping on their despair. He was thoroughly malevolent through and through.

"Despair," the mage said again. His words mirroring those of Ingolsol earlier.

"Despair, despair, despair! Damn you all! Despair, and offer up your souls to his Lord! Why do you cling to your fragile bodies, have you not seen the power that despair grants you?"

They had indeed seen it. With each second that had passed, the Cursed grew stronger, as though they were drinking in the energy around them, and turning it all into raw power. But it was more that they were feeding on who they once were, burning it all, corrupting it, and turning that into power instead.

"You seem to be the one despairing," Beam noted. His voice had an edge to it. It was impossible not to hate the mage that was in front of him. Beam's makeup was such that he was more than partial to such emotions. Both Claudia and Ingolsol dragged him towards such a state.

Claudia with her righteous anger at seeing so many of the innocent so thoroughly abused, and Ingolsol for his eternal love of chaos and destruction.

"YOU!" The mage shouted, as though noticing him for the first time. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YES! YES! YES! It was him… Him.

He said the words, he broke the Curse… Why didn't I see that? Am I growing blind? Is my own power darkening my vision? I used to be able to see things so clearly, so closely…. But now, in my godliness, I only see from afar. To have missed such an important detail… mmm?" He trailed off.

Beam was warned of his attack by the sudden spike in animosity.

From across the battlefield, there came charging a lance of ice.

It ran through the air faster than any man could throw a javelin, at a speed that seemed nearly untrackable with the naked eye… And at the same time, three others did too.

One made contact with a house, and immediately tore its way straight through it.

The sound of the house being torn to pieces was enough of a warning for the villagers to just barely fling themselves out of the way.

With the villagers managing to escape it, Beam and the others were able to comfortably get themselves out of the way, but not before the four lances of ice met each other where they had just been standing, and shattered in a powerful stream of icy shrapnel. A few of the soldiers were hit in the back by lumps of ice, but none of them were dealt fatal damage.

"You… You're a mere worm too, hm? You and those two men next to you – you have that stench of that whore. You're treading on her path, are you? She that gives to only those she favours, and scorns everyone else? You would serve such a creature?" The mage spat his condemnation as a condescending air infected his tone.

"That true Lord of Progress, have you not heard his name?" The mage asked. "Well? You? Boy? Will you not answer? Can you not answer?

Will you say a whore's name instead? Would you be so blind?"

Beam frowned. "You're a fairly mad bastard, aren't you?"

He heard Lombard tut beside him as he said those words. "Don't rile a madman up…" he muttered under his breath.

The mage heard both of them, and it was Lombard's words that ended up irritating him the most. He gathered mana about his hand, prepared to unleash another storm of ice, this one even more powerful than the last… but he stopped himself before then, containing his emotions, and in doing so, he allowed himself the satisfaction of a superior man.

"Ah, I see. There are still those blinded by such things. You believe everything that you are told, do you? You believe the King fights in your interest? Do you truly think, if one could gain so much power merely by worshipping a whore, then he'd allow the peasants to access such things?" The mage asked.

"No? Of course he wouldn't. The King is as power-hungry as the entirety of the nobility is. Greedy, greedy. Wanting to grab everything for themselves. Well, I've adopted that greed, just a little bit. Your next journey awaits at mvl

Their disease became my disease – I merely played the game better! You cannot punish me for it. You three knights, with your petty little charms, your whore's scent clinging to you, with your whore of a patron Goddess, only giving her blessings to the rich."

"Three knights? Are you stupid as well as mad? There are only two knights here," Lombard shouted out. He'd completely reversed his earlier attitude of not riling up the mad, something that Beam took note of with a questioning look. Lombard merely shrugged in response, without offering further explanation.