Chapter 1131: Avenger

The Genocide Ghouls suddenly started worshiping Fran as their so-called priestess.

「…You’re gonna obey me?」

「Of course! God commanded me to submit, so we will obey your every order! You need only say the word, and we will lay down our lives!」

『He’s not lying.』

It seems a command from the Evil God Fragment is practically a divine revelation to creatures bathed in evil energy like him.

「Who are you?」

「I am simply an insignificant, undying pile of rotting flesh.」

It ended up being a struggle to make him stop talking in riddles, but we eventually succeeded with enough patience.

The ghoul’s name was Avenger, and he was one of the Black Skeleton Corps’s secret weapons. Nameless created him using the power of an undead called the Holy Mother.

He was apparently born from the grudges of thousands of dead souls, then infused with evil energy by an Evil God worshiping necromancer known as Onslaught.

It seems Fort Millennia, the supposedly ruined base of Evil God cultists, actually contained a secret research facility for these kinds of experimental undead. Raydoss had purposely spread the rumors about the fort to conceal this lab’s existence.

However, the ghouls left the fort on their own when they sensed the presence of a divine artifact.

Avenger then went on to explain a few of Raydoss’s heinous acts.

We were already aware of their efforts in collecting illegal slaves, but what they used them for was even more horrifying.

The majority of slaves bought by the South and West Conquest Dukes were subject to inhumane experiments. Any slaves who miraculously managed to survive the experiments would simply be used as human sacrifices in rituals. Raydoss had all sorts of rituals needing sacrifices, such as rituals for creating magic swords, or dominating monsters.

What’s more, death wasn’t even the end.

After making full use of the slaves without any consideration of human dignity, they went on to abuse the negative emotions lingering after their deaths. These grudges against Raydoss were used to empower undead or curses.

It’s as if they had some sort of obsession for making full use of every last resource.

The origin of this line of thinking apparently comes from long ago, when Raydoss first banished adventurers from the country. Raydoss was suffering a severe resource shortage due to various factors such as war, famine, and monster stampedes. However, there was one resource they had a surplus of: population.

Raydoss decided to allocate their excessive population to fields, frontier villages, etc, without any concern for their well-being.

Of course, amateurs can’t do much when dropped into harsh conditions without training. Despite the countless failures and deaths, Raydoss merely threw in more people to replace them. They were practically slaughtering their own citizens to reduce the number of mouths to feed, yet there was surprisingly little dissent among the population.

Conquering other countries was Raydoss’s national goal. Many of the citizens were trained as soldiers, and willingly accepted getting sent to their deaths if it was for the sake of the nation. Back then, brainwashing education was apparently very prevalent due to the constant wars.

It was also common for soldiers who could no longer fight, such as those who had lost their limbs, to volunteer themselves as experimental subjects in various fields.

Excessive, brainwash-like patriotism and viewing people like a cheap resource. These ideas became the norm in Raydoss, remaining ingrained in their culture for a long time and twisting into something more disgusting as the years passed.

The country’s bloodstained history must have reduced the psychological hurdle for sacrificing their own citizens. Rather than the people voluntarily sacrificing themselves for the good of the nation, it was now the nation itself who demanded sacrifices.

And many of these convenient ideas survived to the current day. For example, how it was okay to take illegal slaves in other countries and sacrifice them for the good of Raydoss.

Avenger’s tone of voice was laced with hatred, probably due to the grudges infused within him.

He and the other ghouls were born out of grudges against Raydoss, so they hated the country immensely. However, the Holy Mother and Onslaught had a power capable of controlling them, enslaving them to the very country that killed them.

But now, it seems the Evil God Fragment lifted Raydoss’s control over them, which revived their old grudges.

「They have ordered me to spread poison in Kranzel, but I couldn’t care less anymore! Let us spread this rot throughout Raydoss instead!」

Come to think of it, these guys have very lethal abilities when used for war. They’re fast enough to outrun your average adventurer, and they can disperse incredibly potent poison over a wide area.

Not to mention what would happen if they reached farmland or water supplies. Apparently, they could produce poisons capable of rendering the land infertile for a decade.

They’re practically terrorists with an infinite supply of chemical weapons. In terms of pure kill count, Avenger might even be able to beat the lich Nameless.

Avenger claimed he was the secret weapon created to turn the tables on Kranzel when they launched their counterattack on Raydoss. The South Conquest Duke apparently spent all the resources he had been saving up on him.

Well, this so-called secret weapon is currently blabbing to Fran about all their plans right now…

「You’re saying the Black Skeleton Corps doesn’t have much resources left?」

「Yes. The executive members are still alive, but many of our forces have been dispersed to defend other regions.」

「How many are executives are left?」

「Six in total. First is Nameless the Mage Slayer. Second, the Holy Mother. Third, Wickerman the Substitute. Fourth, Iceman the Glacial. Fifth, Charredman the Blackened. Finally, Hideman the Shadow.」

Avenger went on to explain their abilities, but Hideman was definitely the one who interested me the most. His infiltration abilities were just that troublesome. However, the good news was that it’s apparently very difficult to prepare new bodies for him. To Avenger’s knowledge, Hideman only had two bodies left.

As we continued discussing the Black Skeleton Corps’s inner workings, Avenger uttered something that we couldn’t ignore.

「If you wish to slay the remaining executives, they are currently engaged in an operation on the other side of that mountain. I hear it is the groundwork to intercept and eliminate Kranzel’s army.」

「…! Tell me more.」

「At once!」