Bzzzz-
A cluster of bees descended from the sky and coalesced into one on Suho's palm. Queen Bee Arsha. The moment she appeared, she placed a hand on her chest, bowed slightly, and greeted him.
[It's been a while, Sung Suho. How have you been?]
"You've gotten smaller."
At Suho's words, Arsha smiled bitterly and replied [Yes. My main body has already left this village.]
Currently, Arsha was floating before Suho, the size of a doll.
[This is just a clone I created by gathering the remaining scout bees.]
"Scout?"
[Kieek! So you were in league with the Demonic Spirit Clan after all!] Beru immediately grabbed Arsha's waist with his strong claws.
Because of her small size, Beru looked enormous in comparison. Intimidated by the shadow ant ferocious aura, Arsha hurriedly replied, [N-no. I did consider it for a while, but we parted ways a short while ago because our goals didn't align.]
"Parted ways?"
[Yes. I had no intention of being hostile towards you, Sung Suho... ]
"What? Are You one of Queresha's spawn?!" Esil's eyes widened at Arsha's sudden appearance.
But the one more surprised here was Queen Bee herself. Held in Beru's grasp, she looked at Esil and let out a small gasp.
[...I couldn't believe it when I saw you from afar, but you really are a demon noble. It's an honor to meet you.]
"Hmm hmm. Yes, it's an honor." Esil responded to Arsha's polite greeting, trying to suppress a smirk.
Then, with her nose held high, she introduced herself dignifiedly. "I am Esil, the eldest daughter of the Radiru family. And you are?"
[Ah, the great Radir family… I am Queen Bee Arsha.]
"...What are you two doing?" Suho looked at them with a dumbfounded expression.
Arsha felt a chill seeing how close Suho and Esil seemed.
'To think there was still a living demon noble.' That meant this demon in front of her had a high probability of becoming the next Demon King.
And such a powerful being was now an ally of Sung Suho, the successor of the Fang Monarch. No, wait, how did he even manage to gain the power of the Iron Body...?
'I can't even begin to comprehend what's going on.'
Moreover, it was quite the coincidence that so many different races gathered in this small, remote village. And the fact that she was currently the weakest among them made Arsha feel even more uneasy.
'This village was more trouble than it was worth.' She regretted ever setting foot here in the first place.
In any case, there was only one option left for her in this situation. To grovel. Even though her main body had already left, she had to avoid incurring Suho's wrath as much as possible, in case she encountered him again someday.
[Sung Suho, I truly did nothing but scout in this village. I swear.] Arsha pleaded her innocence earnestly.
And she began to honestly recount what had happened to her. [After 'that day,' I've been wandering around, trying to find places where you weren't present. But it turned out to be more challenging than I thought….]
The problem started when Suho suddenly decided to become a guild master and started raiding dungeons all over the country to gain experience. Whether by coincidence or misfortune, Suho would always plan a raid near wherever Arsha moved to. For him, it was just a one-day visit, but she had to hurriedly leave the area, to avoid being detected. Eventually, Arsha couldn't take it anymore and made up her mind. She would leave for another country where Suho wasn't present. However, the Korean peninsula was surrounded by the sea on three sides. And it was impossible for bees to cross the Pacific or the Atlantic with their tiny wings.
[...Stowing away on a plane was out of the question as well… These days, security is very tight to prevent villains from sneaking in.]
With those constraints, Arsha was left with only one option. North Korea.
[...I was simply heading north to reach the border. And that's when I encountered Harmakan preparing the great escape.]
"Harmakan?"
[Yes. The Grand Shaman of the Demonic Spirit Clan, Harmakan. He was in the middle of executing his plan to use the villains from Jisan Prison in order to increase his power, and he asked me to help with reconnaissance.]
[So you did help him…!] With these words Beru tightened his grip on her waist.
Arsha hurriedly continued. [At first, I only helped a little, thinking it was a plan to use villains who deserved to die! If I had known it would escalate to this, I would never have taken part in it.]
Arsha felt genuinely wronged. To make matters worse, she had first met Suho in the middle of resolving the previous villain situation. If another villain incident occurred with her participating, she couldn't help but worry that Suho might come looking for her.
[Initially, Harmakan told me he only planned to use the souls of the villains from Jisan Prison as ingredients for his magic.]
Arsha had readily accepted the offer, thinking that Suho wouldn't care if some villains died, as long as there were no civilian casualties. What Harmakan wanted from her was to scout the situation inside the prison and track the movements of the escaped villains.
[He promised to give me a few villains to turn into new lancers in exchange for my help with reconnaissance. But it didn't really go as planned... ]
Arsha had assumed Harmakan would kill all the villains as soon as they escaped. She planned to save a few of them, feed them Royal Jelly, and modify them into the new Queen Bee Lancers. But that plan went out the window the moment the villains staged a mass breakout.
[Harmakan prefers souls tainted with evil.] Harmakan wanted to further corrupt them to make his magic circle even more powerful.
And that was quite simple. Since Hwang Dongsuk was an extremely greedy man, all it took was a little persuasion for him to do the deed himself. Led astray by their leader, villains as soon as they managed to escape decided to conquer the nearby village. And truly taste their newfound freedom. The result was truly horrific. The moment Awakened individuals with superhuman abilities were freed from the constraints of the law. Everything turned into living hell.
[This village was already saturated with Harmakan's sorcery. And that magic further fueled the villains' desires.] Listening to Arsha, Suho's gaze shifted to the side.
The surviving villains, who had surrendered, were avoiding his eyes in shame. They were momentarily distracted by Arsha's appearance, but as she revealed their past sins, a sense of impending doom dominated their thoughts. Of course, these villains hadn't been killed by the Shadow Assassin Kang Taeshik, which meant they hadn't directly participated in the massacre in the village. But they definitely did wreak havoc, and the only reason they hadn't killed anyone was because they were occupying the nearby restaurants and bars, devouring food and alcohol they had been deprived of in prison.
Swoosh.
[Should I kill them all?] The villains paled as they saw the Shadow Assassin raise his dagger, having sensed Suho's gaze.
"No, wait." Suho raised his hand to stop Kang Taeshik.
"Don't kill anyone from now on."
[...Yes.] Kang Tae-shik lowered his dagger with a sad expression but not daring to object at his master's firm command.
But Suho's order to stop the slaughter wasn't out of pity for the villains. "It seems the more people die in this village, the stronger the Demonic Spirit's sorcery becomes."
[That's right. As expected of Sung Suho, you're truly amazing. You grasped how Harmakan's magic circle works in an instant!] Arsha couldn't help but be impressed by Suho's words.
The Demonic Spirit Clan's wicked sorcery, which treated souls like playthings, was a complex magic that other races couldn't easily comprehend. Even Arsha only knew about it because Harmakan had told her; she couldn't have figured it out just by observing.
But for Suho, it wasn't difficult. Since a while ago, unfamiliar system messages had been appearing above the corpses of the dead villains.
[Shadow extraction is impossible due to the absence of a soul.]
[Shadow extraction is impossible due to the absence of a soul.]
[Shadow extraction is impossible due to the absence of a soul.]
The missing souls had probably been taken by Harmakan. Arsha's story about Harmakans plan to use the villains as ingredients for his magic circle was only a confirmation. Putting all these pieces together was easy, He concluded that the more deaths occurred in this place, the stronger Harmakan's sorcery became.
"Sung Suho, I can easily guide you out of this village. Just trust me," The quick-witted Arsha offered to show Suho an escape route. No matter how strong Harmakan's illusion was, Arsha was the one who had helped him hide his main body.
But…
"No thanks." Suho firmly rejected her offer. It wasn't that he didn't trust her.
"In times like these, you have to face the enemy head-on." Suho's eyes gleamed as he looked ahead.
The Death Knights sent by Harmakan were already approaching.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Empty suits of armor were walking towards them. The ominous aura emanating from within their 'bodies' sent chills down the spines of everyone looking at them.
"Wh-what are those?!" The villains who had surrendered to Suho paled at the sight of the overwhelming force.
In stark contrast to them. Suho felt no fear, only excitement.
[Death Knight]
[Death Knight]
The enemies had name tags floating above their heads. Seeing this, he couldn't help but grin.
"Harmakan... You're unexpectedly helpful."
[That's quite considerate.] Beru also chuckled darkly, following Suho's lead.
Suho glanced at Esil, and she immediately retreated, understanding his signal. She was not to interfere from now on.
"...Turning the souls of worthless villains who don't even give experience into monsters." Suho chuckled meaningfully, raised his twin swords, and charged forward with Gray.
It was time to level up.
Kwaarururung! At that moment Harmakan's giant hands erupted from the ground, picking up entire buildings and swinging them at Suho.
Rumble!
"That's an interesting trick." Suho chose to face it head-on.