Chapter 200: Shadows Intertwined with Chaos
In truth, in many people's hearts, there exists sothing called a priority order.
For Renjiro, whenever he faced a dilemma, unless it involved matters of great right and wrong, he would always choose to help and save those friends, family, gods, or people who had once shown him kindness.
After that, he would arrange everyone else by proximity, extending outward step by step.
This might seem a little cold-blooded on the surface, but in reality… it was the most human way of doing things.
Because in his view, without such a standard of judgnt, the so-called concept of human relationships would beco nothing more than a joke.
"The kinder soone is to , the more likely they are to be hurt because of ?"
Renjiro did not want to beco that kind of hero. 1
After all, twisted as his personality might be, he always had this stubborn thought deep down: people who ignored relationships and treated everyone equally, without distinction, felt inexplicably hypocritical.
Even if those so-called heroes were willing to sacrifice themselves, it was still the sa.
After all, under the premise that nothing involved overarching moral absolutes… if you treated everyone equally, then wasn't that, in reverse, extrely unfair to those who had once helped you?
If you offered them no preferential treatnt whatsoever, then why should they bother spending ti and effort helping you?
Just so you could generously pass on their contributions to complete strangers they didn't even know?
Or worse… end up dragging them into disaster because of it?
Renjiro believed that if such a "hero" truly existed, then regardless of anything else, their leadership ability would be abysmally poor.
This was genuinely soone you wouldn't dare to get too close to.
Of course, there were also certain "heroes" who, by virtue of so extraordinary and undefined charismatic leadership, still managed to attract many followers willing to give everything for them.
But Renjiro was destined not to be one of that kind.
In short, from this perspective alone…
"Maybe I really am suited to joining the Freya Familia."
Renjiro felt this more and more strongly.
Because on this very night, shortly after the Antares attacked Orario,
A certain "strongest" individual made the sa choice he did.
The location was in southeastern Orario,
"That damn boar bastard."
A hot-tempered young man of the werewolf race, with silver-gray hair and a tattoo carved into the left side of his face, couldn't help but curse out loud.
Just monts ago, the boaz warrior, who had been the strongest combatant on their (temporary) side, had actually fled the battlefield.
The trigger for everything was when the massive creature before them fired a single purple beam and collapsed the Babel Tower.
What had once been a situation they could barely maintain, one where they might even have pushed the monster back out of the city, had completely fallen apart due to that man's unilateral decision.
Now, all of Daedalus Street lay in ruins.
Screams and cries echoed without end.
Witnessing such a scene…
Could it be that even in this fantasy world of Genshin Descent, it was still the poor who suffered most easily?
No, that wasn't the case.
The reason the Antares attacked Daedalus Street, where the poor were concentrated, was simply because Orario, located at the extre western edge of the continent, was closest in this direction to the Large Tree Labyrinth, which lay in the far south.
The Antares had tunneled all the way here through the Chaos Desert, and the first area it inevitably ca into contact with was the southeastern district of the city.
Strictly speaking, after the "war" began, it wasn't just Daedalus Street, Pleasure Quarter had suffered heavily as well.
It was just that, compared to the miserable scene unfolding in Daedalus Street…
"Ahahahaha! Serves you right! Serves you right, you cheap, (beep)!"
Despite her own territory being in ruins, a certain dark-skinned goddess burst into loud laughter upon seeing the Babel Tower collapse.
She was genuinely delighted.
Mass casualties all around?
The Lower World on the brink of destruction?
No, none of that mattered to Ishtar.
As long as that disgustingly arrogant woman, Freya, suffered, then everything was worth it.
"For the sake of bringing her down, I'm willing to touch every taboo."
These were Ishtar's own words in the original future trajectory of this world.
And now…
"You loved sitting so high up, didn't you? Tch, after falling like that, you still weren't forcibly sent back?"
"Fine."
The dark-skinned goddess laughed wildly, her expression utterly twisted.
"Suffer a bit more. Sink a little deeper into despair… ha! If I could personally see that face of yours stripped of all its forr grace, it would be even more wonderful."
Her thinking was, admittedly, quite optimistic.
Unfortunately, dreams were dreams, and reality…
"Lady Ishtar, run! Quickly!"
"That monster's been driven over here by those Loki Familia bastards!"
"Damn it! Why bring it our way?!"
...
The battle prostitutes who usually followed Ishtar in arrogant swagger all turned pale as they saw the nearly hundred-ter-tall Antares advancing deeper into the Pleasure Quarter, cursing loudly one after another.
Even Ishtar herself couldn't help but panic as she witnessed the approaching calamity.
It wasn't that she feared death.
It was just that,
If Freya isn't dead yet, how could I possibly die before that cheap (beep)?
It had to be said, the dark-skinned goddess's jealousy toward Freya had reached an almost pathological level.
But it was precisely this torrent of negative emotion that finally pushed Ishtar to stop being stubbornly reckless, allowing herself to be dragged away by her "children."
At the sa ti…
"Ha… hahahaha~ what a masterpiece this is."
Sowhere in Daedalus Street, as the Antares gradually moved away, a crazed female figure quietly appeared beside a pile of ruins.
The very first thing this "madwoman" laid eyes on was the Braver in the distance.
"Finn~~ you hypocritical little shit Palum, even you can make such an ugly face? Totally lost control of your expression, huh… pfft, this is just too entertaining."
She, Valletta Grede, bearer of the title Arachnia, was a Lv.5 First-Class Adventurer.
Yet as a mber of the Dark Familia, she was a genuine, blood-soaked demoness who killed without blinking.
At this mont, faced with the devastation all around her, she felt not the slightest hint of compassion, on the contrary…
"We sched for so many years and still couldn't destroy the Babel Tower… and this thing snaps it in half with a single blow."
Valletta licked her lips with a feral grin.
"Heh… hehehe~ Finn~~ do you think I should give you a little surprise right now?"
"For example, taking advantage of the chaos to kill your main goddess, turning you into a truly powerless race (Palum) all of a sudden… hahahahaha~"
As the words fell, her expression froze.
Clearly, she really was tempted.
However…
"Only tonight, it might be better not to stir things up too much, little Valletta."
A male god with a frivolous tone spoke up from beside her, stopping the madwoman from taking things further.
His tone sounded earnest, but the substance of his words…
"Think about it, if the chessboard (the Lower World) disappears, and you disappear with it, how are you supposed to enjoy playing gas anymore?"
"And besides, I don't think you could deal with Loki anyway."
"When she takes off her mask, she's even crazier than you, you know~"
The god didn't spell out the last two points explicitly.
"In short, tonight, we'll just watch the show."
The ill-natured god, Thanatos, smiled with narrowed eyes.
"Who knows? We might even get to see sothing especially interesting."
"I've got that kind of hunch."
=============
100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter
140 Advance Chapters Available on Patreon! Patreon/Veltoria
User Comments
0 comments from readers