Streamer in the Omniverse Chapter 42 42: Village Jille (4)

[I'll put this here because I wrote the first part of the chapter listening to this song: NIGHTCORE - Anxiety (nathan wagner) (Extended) (lyrics). (Just search on YouTube; I'm not sure if links can be posted here).

So, if anyone wants to listen to it like I did, there it is.]

[I ask that if possible, read until the end of the chapter. I'll explain so things there.]

[Comnt here what you thought of the new cover if possible, did you like it?]

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At the mont I heard the scream, I felt my muscles tense, and my heart began to beat faster.

It wasn't a conscious reaction, but rather my body responding to the information I had about that phrase, the information I knew would follow.

My eyes unconsciously went to the Minimap, where I knew the supposed army was. What I saw was not a good sign. In the ti I wasn't looking, the number of enemies had grown significantly.

Looking over, at the red dots, I would guess about seven hundred, maybe more, all coming toward the village; they seed organized...

...This was bad.

I swallowed hard and took a deep breath before tossing the boxing gloves into the inventory and turning around, ready to run in the direction of the scream, before hesitating and turning to Dylan, who still wasn't in great shape.

"Can you run?" I asked the guide. The guy was better than before, but I could see he was trembling slightly, and his skin was still pale.

It seems using the Waterbolt really took a toll on him.

He hesitated for a mont before nodding, agreeing. "Yes, but not fast. Mana drain is not pleasant." He made a sheepish face before waving his hand. "Go ahead, I'll run right behind you."

I nodded hesitantly before starting to run, the guide's steps right behind mine before I began to pick up speed, increasing our distance as we ran through the village towards the gates.

As I ran through the village streets, I could see the residents, contractors, the Terrarians waking up; many with loud shouts and sighs, others in silence with vacant, sad, or desperate eyes.

With none of them trying to stop as before, when they were under goblin control, it didn't take long until I reached the village gates, or what was left of them after I blew them up along with a part of the wall.

In front of the wreckage that used to be the village gates, I could see a small crowd forming; so Terrarians on top of the debris, so behind them, others outside the village.

But they all had sothing in common; they were all looking at the horizon with fearful, scared, and desperate looks in their eyes.

And I could imagine why...

I didn't waste ti trying to go around the crowd; instead, I quickened my steps. When I was a few ters from the crowd, I tensed the muscles in my legs and jumped, then again using the double jump.

Gaining altitude thanks to my two jumps, in the air, I could get a better view of what these people were seeing. The reason they seed hopeless.

An army.

Not a bunch of goblins roaring and running like mad towards the village, no, what was coming from the horizon was a real army.

If the organized points on the Minimap hadn't been a good enough hint of what awaited us, what I was looking at on the horizon was.

Even at this distance of over two kiloters, I could see their organized march, their coordinated steps, their numbers... Looking now, I could be sure, there were more than the seven hundred I had guessed before, no...

...There were probably more than a thousand goblins.

"Damn, that's just great!" I muttered as I landed, the impact softened by my knees.

Already on the ground, I took the opportunity and quickly ran to one of the still-standing watchtowers, which hadn't been destroyed by my dynamites, and climbed it to get a better view.

At the top, I pulled binoculars from the inventory to get a clearer view of the army... it wasn't good, not good at all.

I could feel my hand trembling slightly and my mouth opening in astonishnt.

The first three rows of the army were large goblins, probably the sa size as an average human or Terrarian, maybe even larger.

They advanced like a wall of tal, wearing complete plate armor made of a gray material that I wasn't sure what it was made of, but it was so kind of tal alloy, of that I was sure.

They carried longswords in their right hands, made of the sa material as the armor, a cold gray tal, and, finally, large shields in their left hands, so big that they covered half of their bodies.

Right behind the first rows, the rest of the goblin army marched like a green tide. They were smaller in size, more similar to the ntal image I had of goblins.

They were much smaller, about the height of a ten-year-old child, varying a few inches from goblin to goblin. That is if ten-year-old children wore leather armor and various weapons to go to war.

All of them wore leather or chainmail armor, none of them unard. So wielded bows, with quivers on their backs, while others had short spears, swords, and daggers.

And worst of all? I could see mystical symbols engraved...

...On each armor and weapon.

They didn't seem to be in a hurry, marching slowly, one step at a ti towards the village.

And I knew why...

I involuntarily swallowed hard, the palms of my hands sweating.

...Intimidation.

Pure and simple intimidation. That's why they were coming so calmly, without haste. There was no better reason; they knew the state of the village people very well.

Even with the healing rain that Dylan had created, they were weak, their bodies malnourished for months under the matrix that stole their vitality and mana, and worse...

I turned, lowering the binoculars and diverting my gaze from the army, turning my attention back to the people below. Villagers and contractors.

They all seed fine at first glance, that is, if you ignored the sickly pallor they had. They all had varied emotions on their faces.

Fear, desperation, anger, anguish, sadness, lant. Negative emotions overall, but all of them, all of them, had one thing in common. Their eyes, I could see in their eyes, in each of them, sothing in common, or rather, the absence of sothing.

Will.

They had no will in their eyes, no will to fight, survive, react. They had accepted their fates, accepted the end that awaited them.

"Excellent, what a wonderful thing to see..." I said to myself, my voice containing enough sarcasm that if it were a liquid, it could probably drown the army on the horizon.

I sighed as I threw the binoculars into the inventory. I had seen enough.

It's like the saying goes, right? "No plan survives contact with the enemy." or sothing like that.

The primary plan was to use the village as a kind of fortress, as it would be much easier to defend than to fight directly. Well, that had gone wrong right from the start, as I was forced to blow up part of the wall to disable the matrix around the village.

And now, to improve our "army," people whom I thought were just being controlled but were actually being "sucked" almost dry, wouldn't be of much help.

After all, they had given up.

Even looking at the Minimap, I could see that the only things moving were the army on the horizon and a small green dot just below . Dylan.

None of the yellow dots were moving away.

None of the people in the village had tried to run, either they stood in place, or they were walking slowly towards the village entrance, probably to watch the army co their way before they were captured again.

After all, I doubted they would be killed; the goblin himself had said that, right? To him, Terrarians were just "batteries."

Speaking of Dylan, I could see the guide just below , at the foot of the watchtower. The guy looked tired.

He was sweating more than before, trembling as if he were cold, and breathing more heavily. I could see in his eyes that he didn't want to fight either, I didn't bla him, after all, even at this distance, the goblin army was intimidating.

Never thought I'd say that about goblins...

But he hadn't given up; I could see that. He would prefer to run, of course, but I could see in his eyes that if forced, he would fight, he wouldn't die silently... But with his current state, that didn't matter much.

So, it was just .

Dylan, as much as he might want to fight, wouldn't do much in his current state; the guy looked like he might collapse at any mont.

Our "fort" had a huge hole in the front wall. I could plug that gap with sothing big I had stored in the inventory, but what would be the point?

After all, our "army" didn't want to fight, just lie down and die slowly while being "sucked" by the matrix.

I could feel my fists clench tightly, and my jaw grind.

Damn...

...How was I supposed to fight an entire army alone?

In my current state, I knew I couldn't do it.

Sure, I could handle many enemies; I had done it in HOTD. The largest horde of zombies I had killed had about three hundred of them, and they didn't even touch .

But that? That wasn't a horde of dumb zombies just running forward without thinking, until they caught their prey or died. No, that was a real and trained army.

Ignoring the fact that they were much more than the three hundred zombies, their number was close to a thousand or maybe more. They wouldn't just run forward like brainless creatures and die.

They would try everything to kill , all the tactics they knew, all the techniques and strategies, everything.

As much as I had the VoidBag, weapons, strategies I could use, my trump cards, I had the feeling it wouldn't be enough...

... I couldn't face that... not now, I was sure of that, in my current state, facing that army was suicide...

I wasn't a protagonist who could save everyone; I wasn't invincible. Less than four months ago, I was just a college student, a programr, working to pay the bills and survive...

...I wasn't a hero...

The (CHAT) seed to agree with my thoughts.

[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Yep! It was good while it lasted, we had a lot of fun. We pushed a car for almost an hour, destroyed a wall, and punched dozens of malnourished people with boxing gloves, but I think it's ti to grab the Humvee and run! What do you think of this idea? (Iron Man running emote).

[BestToadSannin]: Anthony is right, fighting now is suicide. You need to know how to pick your battles, kid, and this isn't one of them. (Sad frog emote).

[(MOD)RedHuntressLive]: But the people in the village!? They will die if no one stops these goblins! (Concerned Little Red Riding Hood emote).

[WiseWizardGleam]: ... As sad as it is to abandon the people of the village, it is not a sin to choose to live... Go away, Devas. (Sad old wizard emote).

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]: It's a sad fact, Ruby, but Devas is not invincible. We, of all people, know what he is capable of. At this point, facing sothing like this is too much for him. As Albus said, it's not a sin to choose to live. (Sad old frog emote)

[(MOD)RedHuntressLive]: But... that's right... Devas is not a trained Huntsman... I forget that sotis; it's not his job to do this. Run, Devas! No one will judge you, I promise! Anyone who does, I'll ban them! (Little Red Riding Hood shouting run emote).

[AsuraLady]: Don't think! Just run! You don't know these people! This is different from choosing to help fight dumb zombies and fighting an entire army! (Worried little lion emote).

Most of the ssages were like this, even in the other (CHATS). The majority of people telling to run, that it's not my job to save these people, especially since they don't seem to want to be saved.

That they had given up and it was better for to just run, grab Dylan, get into the Humvee, and drive away without looking back, that it would be difficult or almost impossible for the goblins to catch us after I reached the road...

I could see ssages from everyone, Takashi, Kohta, Saeko, Shizuka, telling to run...

Hogwarts employees Snape and McGonagall saying that foolishness and bravery were different things...

Ruby's teammates saying it wasn't my job to do this, that I didn't have training, that it wouldn't be my fault...

Even ssages from little Alice and Harry telling to run, hide from the evil green monsters...

Sally saying that I wasn't like their "children," the gods, that I wasn't a demigod, that I was just human, that it wasn't shaful to be afraid...

No one blad , none of them would bla if I ran, I knew that...

... They were right... I was scared, how could I not be? That there was a real army, they weren't like the "monsters" I had faced before...

So, why... why did this ssage hurt so much... why reading this single ssage felt more like a punch in the stomach than anything else...

[JackSon]: But isn't Devas a hero? Shouldn't he save the people of the village? Why is everyone telling him to run? (Confused seahorse emote).

... I knew why. Why it hurt so much to read this...

If it were anyone else, Ruby, Saya, Stark, anyone, I would be the first to deny it; I wasn't a hero, and I never wanted to beco a hero.

Heroes carried more weight than they could bear until their backs broke.

Heroes were always blad for everything when sothing went wrong, even when trying their best.

Heroes were almost always alone... almost always had a bad ending...

Died alone...

This wasn't a comic book, an ani, a cartoon...

Human history was there to prove it. Almost all the heroes that humanity knew had a bad ending, as glorious as their legend was, it almost always ended badly...

So why... why couldn't I say those words... why couldn't I say that I wasn't a hero...

I knew why,... after all, I could say it to everyone else...

...Except for him...

The one who carried the na of one of the few heroes who didn't have a bad ending.

The one who would be the greatest hero in his story.

The one who would be the greatest demigod among all demigods.

The one who at this mont was just a ten-year-old child watching through a cell phone without knowing his divine origins.

The one who in the past... was my hero.

I lost count of how many tis I read and reread the series of books that Riordan wrote.

I lost count of how many tis those books brought a smile to my face.

I lost count of how many tis those books gave hope...

After all, if a twelve-year-old boy went to the underworld to rescue his mother, guilty of a cri he didn't commit...

...I could move forward even knowing the real aning of my na, why my "father" had given that na...

After all, if a twelve-year-old boy was forced to face a dangerous journey at only twelve years old, guilty of a cri he didn't commit...

...I could confront my "father," tell him it wasn't my fault that mom died, that I wasn't to bla for the way I was born...

After all, if a twelve-year-old boy faced a god face-to-face in battle, while mocking him... and won...

...I could keep living for myself, even if it was one day at a ti, step by step...

I felt my breathing calm down, my heart starting to beat slower, more slowly...

...I sighed as I closed my eyes...

Sighed... "What foolishness..." I wasn't like him...

...I wasn't a hero...

…

…

…

…

…

I opened my eyes forcefully while manifesting my plate armor over my body, on top of the chainmail I was wearing.

The (CHAT), realizing my intentions, exploded with ssages, ssages that I ignored, pushing the (CHAT) aside, minimizing it.

...It was foolish, I didn't need to do this, I owed nothing to anyone, didn't need to prove anything to anyone.

I could feel the weight of my armor as it appeared on my body. The weight of my sword as it appeared in my hand...

...I didn't need to prove anything, even though I was being watched, I didn't need to set an example.

I could feel my heart start to race, beating faster and faster. My blood starting to run faster, hotter...

...And what example was this? Choosing to fight and probably die when you have the option to flee? Protecting people who didn't want to be protected?

I could feel my mana start to course through my body. Accelerating, reacting to my emotions...

...Fighting in a world that wasn't yours, for people who weren't your people, who weren't of your own kind? A fight that wasn't yours?

I could feel my instincts scream at , telling this was a terrible idea, my fear trying to overpower , my body starting to panic...

...But this wasn't just about setting an example... no....

I turned, the wood beneath creaking under my weight, the weight of my armor and weapon. Looking down, I could see the people of the village.

Their eyes devoid of hope, their air defeated, their fear, their dread, their despair... Their lack of will...

...I felt that if I fled here, at this mont, I would lose sothing, sothing very important within , sothing that I knew could not be recovered...

I could feel my instincts begin to shift, my emotions change, fear giving way to another emotion... determination and determination slowly transforming into sothing else...

...Anger.

No one would save them, I knew that. Damn it!, they knew that, knew that this wasn't a world of heroes, no one would co to save them, and yet they chose not to react.

This wasn't my universe, it wasn't my planet, it wasn't my people, it wasn't my race.

I wasn't born on this planet, I didn't grow up in this realm, in this village, I wasn't a Terrarian.

They might look like , act like , live like , bleed like , but I wasn't a Terrarian...

...I! Was! Human!

No one on this planet knew my species, everyone mistook for a Terrarian, even the stream's (CHAT) seed to have forgotten that, but not !

The sole human in Terraria, the only one of my kind on the entire planet... in the entire universe!

I could feel sothing inside reacting, reacting to the army on the horizon, reacting, knowing they were a real threat...

...Reacting to the defiance.

I released the breath I didn't realize I was holding, the warm air from inside my body creating a thin mist as it collided with the colder outside air.

I cracked my neck, moving my head from side to side, and turned towards the army...

"So be it... I'm a fool anyway..."

...And took a step forward, falling from the watchtower.

I wasn't a hero... I don't think I could be one... But I was a fool...

...And what was a hero if not the greatest of fools?

I felt my body beco light for a mont before gravity began to take effect, and I fell, cushioning the impact with my knees.

I turned to Dylan, seeing the slightly widened eyes of the guide as he realized I was ard, ready for war.

"Can you cover ?" I pointed to the tower and then to his hands, his bow.

The guide seed scared for a mont, realizing it wasn't a mistake on his part, I was really going to fight.

I thought he would refuse, after all, he could run away, this wasn't his fight, it wasn't mine. I didn't bla him, and wouldn't bla him if he ran, if he hid.

After all, he wasn't a hero either... It wasn't a sin to choose to live.

But that lasted only a mont before the guide sighed, lowering his head and then quickly raising it with a smile on his face.

"My maximum range, using my bow and enchanted arrows, is five hundred ters. Anything beyond that, it won't reach." He said to as he began to climb the watchtower.

I looked at him in surprise. But before I could say anything, he stopped halfway on the ladder, turned to .

"You didn't tell to run. You didn't tell I would be useless, even knowing my current state." He pointed to his trembling body, sweating cold. But unlike his body, his face told another story.

He had a smile on his face, with determined eyes.

"You asked for my help, if I could cover you." He began climbing the watchtower again, at the top, he continued.

"You were the first person to really trust , not treat as just a nerd, a bookworm with knowledge." He had a mix of emotions on his face, bitterness and happiness.

"I said it before, didn't I? That I wanted to be a part of your group!"

He placed the bow against the wall and started taking things out of the ring, placing them all over the top of the tower. When he finished, he pointed to the army in the distance.

"I'm not a good fighter, but I'm excellent with the bow... so I'll throw back the sa words." He looked at , repeating the words I had said myself...

"We haven't known each other for long, but I'll trust you to do your part, Devas." The exact words I had said before...

I could feel a smile growing on my face.

This guy... Dylan seed to be a fool too...

I didn't respond verbally, just started walking towards the army. No more words were needed.

I walked slowly, in the plain around the village, until I stopped at the three-hundred-ter mark, far enough for the battle not to reach the villagers of Jille but close enough for Dylan to help .

I put my helt on using my hands, then planted my sword in the ground, supporting both hands on the hilt and waited for the army...

...Standing.

The goblin army didn't take long, curiously, they stopped about two hundred ters in front of . All more than a thousand goblins stopped at the sa ti, as one.

The army up close looked even more intimidating. The larger goblins, the ones wearing full armor, seed like a massive wall of steel, impenetrable.

As the army stopped, one of the goblins at the front, one wearing plate armor, took a step forward and shouted.

His deep and thunderous voice tried to assert dominance.

"CA TO SURRENDER, TERRARIAN?!"

A simple question, but one that carried an air of sarcasm and disdain. If their goal was to intimidate ...

...They had failed.

It was almost funny, the sa army that, a few minutes ago, from a distance, had left scared, terrified even... But now, in front of , I felt nothing...

No... that was a lie, I felt sothing, not fear, not terror, not dread... No...

...Even with a helt on, I was sure my smile was visible through the lower opening... A big smile... A fierce smile... in defiance...

A primal part of my being, the one that represented human challenge... the part that best represented humanity... reacted to the army in front of ....

I could feel my race, my being as a whole, I, human... roaring at the army in front of ...

If the stream were like a certain system from a Korean novel, I'd probably be reading this ssage.

[Your race "Human (Origin)" looks at the army in front of you and shouts in anger! Roars in defiance!]

So no... what I was feeling wasn't fear, dread, terror, none of those emotions....

...What I felt in this mont was anger, excitent for the coming fight, and most importantly...

...Defiance...

I drew a line with the sword in front of , without responding to the goblin. He seed to understand what that truly ant.

"You won't pass through here."

He didn't seem to like that, I could hear his growl of anger from this distance, and I wouldn't be surprised if, under his helt, he had a furious expression.

I was sure the goblins behind him shared the sa opinion.

With a fierce cry, the army in front of began stomping their feet and roaring as one, making the environnt tremble.

So, they started coming toward , running, not like the orderly march from before, no, now, like an army rushing to battle, to kill.

I stood there, calmly, waiting for them to co.

When they reached the fifty-ter mark, when I could see the arrows flying over the army, coming in my direction, when I could practically feel the mockery coming from them, I moved.

A simple movent, I lifted the tip of the sword slightly from the ground, an unnecessary gesture, after all, I could command the VoidBag with a thought, but I was being watched, so I might as well show off a bit...

Above , sothing seed to happen...

It started with one, then two, three, and so on, the number increasing every mont, until there were dozens... no, hundreds of weapons floating above .

Pistols, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, all kinds of firearms, all that I could find while wandering through Japan...

...All pointing at the army in front of .

Before gravity could pull the weapons down, before the army in front of could think, "What were those strange objects?"

I lowered the sword, sticking it into the ground again, at the sa ti, with a simple thought, all the triggers of the weapons were pulled by the appearing elastics...

...Firing all of them, all the bullets towards the goblins who were startled by the noise of all the guns firing at the sa ti.

They realized too late, what those explosion sounds were, only realizing how dangerous they were when the first goblins in the front began to fall.

One by one, the first goblins, the goblins in the frontline, started to fall, their armor and shields holding up for a few seconds under the rain of bullets before giving in, their bodies, right after, riddled with holes.

As impressive as their armor and shields with Mystic Symbols might be, they didn't last more than a few seconds against my weapons...

...Against the modern armant of Humanity.

The weapons went in and out of my inventory, firing rapidly, returning to the inventory before they could hit the ground and reappearing, firing again.

Compared to whom I was imitating, what I was doing was a pathetic imitation, but a part of couldn't help but whisper the na of the original Noble Phantasm.

In the end, I wasn't a hero, I was just a fool...

...But who said a fool can't imitate a hero?...

"Three Line Formation: Three Thousand Worlds!"

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Well, I thought a lot about how this chapter would be, what Devas' thoughts would be, and everything else. In the end, I ended up focusing on his fear and his "evolution."

Devas was, and still is, largely an ordinary guy. Even though he is much stronger than at the beginning, more experienced in fights, with weapons and everything else, an army is still sothing imposing.

So the first reaction is to flee because he knows it's dangerous. Since the beginning, he always had an "escape." In HOTD, in missions, even in the dungeon at the beginning against the Mother Sli, he wasn't in much danger.

Of course, he entered the dungeon without any preparation, almost got screwed, but it was still "doable," sothing any human with minimal preparation could do.

To go fight an army alone? Blocking them head-on? No.

Then we have Percy's ssage, a 10-year-old boy who still doesn't know he's the son of a god.

This part is sothing I hesitated to put. What would be the motivation to make Devas turn the key, so to speak? I ended up using his past.

Devas has a past! As I always say, sothing happened. He won't reveal it today or tomorrow, but sothing happened, and with that, he used sothing to distract himself—in this case, books.

Mainly Percy Jackson. As he says in other chapters, Percy was one of his greatest heroes.

So, tell , if you knew your heroes, be they characters from books, series, movies, cartoons, ani, anything. But they were not yet who they should be. They were in their childhood, not yet heroes, and sohow, they saw you as an inspiration. What would you do?

I don't know what I would do, and you might not know either. Devas? He doesn't know either, but he will try his best, show his best.

If you notice, he stopped using a lot of profanity in the stream. He mumbles and says so in a low voice, many in thoughts, but almost none out loud because now there are children watching him.

He tries to act in his best way, to "set an example," so to speak. He himself says it's not necessary, but it's sothing he wants to do, sothing he feels he must do.

So, there's his motivation. He could run, but he didn't just for that. He felt that if he ran there, he would lose sothing, he would run again and again, so he took a deep breath and went.

A foolish thing, right? That's why I hesitated to leave the chapter like this. It's sothing that many people may not like, but I thought it was right.

I've built part of Devas' character so far, focusing on how he's a normal person but tries to do good, be his best self.

He knows it's foolish. He could run, go to another world, accept a mission, grab the Humvee and run. But still, he stayed. Even though he knew it was foolish to risk himself for strangers, people who didn't want to be saved, people who weren't his species.

Another thing I focused a lot on—I always try to distinguish this—Devas is Human, Dylan is Terrarian.

I always try to focus on that—Devas is the only human on the planet, whether you like it or not, it's sothing lonely.

After that, I tried to show how his emotions changed, his fear being replaced by sothing else, reacting to the army in a different way. His race, the one I described earlier, reacting to the challenge in front of him.

And finally, he really goes to "stop" the goblins, himself, of course, Dylan will help, but the main focus and battle will be on him.

Well, I've written too much here. I won't drag on much more. As always, comnt on what you think, if the way I described Devas' thoughts was good, if it felt forced or not, if it was "smooth" or not. Comnt, I'm reading everything and trying to respond as much as I can without giving spoilers.

That said, good night, and good reading until the next chapter!

PS: I'll focus on Devas' "ntality" in the next world, as he knows he killed many sentient beings. I won't turn him into a psychopath out of nowhere; don't worry. There will be a focus on that later.

PSS: The next chapter should be the last of this arc, a battle far away, so expect a lot of action in the next chapter.

PSSS: Any theories about our friend DS's past?