[Dead City of Flowers] Area 5 – Innermost Sanctum of the Temple
Deep inside the temple of Area 5 stood a gathering of about a dozen figures clad in black.
—One had internal organs spilling out.
—Another had lost an arm.
—Yet another dragged along a body missing a leg and an eye.
Every single one of them was mortally wounded.
The figure who appeared to be their leader walked up to the stone monument in the center of the room. Looking around at his injured comrades, he spoke.
"Everyone, you have done well to follow me this far. We have finally reached this land."
Clenching his right fist, he shouted with fierce conviction.
Though their lives were already on the verge of fading, every one of the black-clad figures was filled with an unmistakable sense of accomplishment.
"Once the monster sleeping in this land is unleashed, even the Heroes here will not escape unscathed. And right now, in Northground, Lord Neimu is advancing the plan to revive our chief god. When that happens, we can wipe out the weakened Heroes in one fell swoop! We, the demon race, shall triumph!"
As some of them broke down in tears, the leader pulled a bottle of liquor from his bag, poured it into small cups with trembling hands, and passed them out. Raising his own cup high, he called out:
"To the extinction of the human race, and to the future prosperity of our demon race—cheers!"
Gulping down the drink, the leader smashed the cup against the ground, turned back to the stone monument, and laid his hand upon it.
Vivid red geometric patterns emerged in concentric circles across the stone, beginning to spin.
The figures in black began melting into putrid sludge. Amidst that hellish spectacle—
"Long live our great king—Lady Ashmediaaaa!"
Crying out one after another, the black-clad figures collapsed into rot.
Then, the mushy, decaying flesh that pooled across the floor surged upward, coalescing into a humanoid silhouette.
He had a body as small as a dwarf's yet round as a balloon, a completely hairless, glossy head, and small, circular sunglasses perched upon an unnaturally round face. He was dressed in bright red clothing patterned with countless spheres.
Floating into the air, the man drifted out of the temple and spread both arms wide.
"Puhapuhapuhaha!! Ah, the crisp air of the outside world after so long... Mmm, it is the absolute, very beeest—"
He broke into cackling laughter, only to—
"—and I HATE IT TO DEATH!"
His expression twisted into sudden, furious rage.
Then, shifting entirely once more, his face flushed with pure ecstasy.
"Come forth, my beloved children, bursting with a stench of rot foul enough to turn my nose!"
He raised his arms and clapped his hands together twice.
Four of the spheres patterned onto his bright red clothing swelled up and crawled out.
What appeared were four figures—men and women wearing black suits and hats. Their faces had melted into sludge, morphed into bizarre shapes: a star, a circle, an inverted triangle, and a square.
"The stench of death where flesh rots and bones dissolve♫ Rot the living, breed the maggots♩"
Raising both arms, he slowly swayed his body and hands from side to side, humming his tune.
"Rot awayyy♪ Melt away, way, way, waaaay~~♫"
The four men and women followed his lead, raising their arms and swaying side to side as they joined in chorus.
"That isss♫"
The man with the balloon-like body swayed his raised hands and torso even more dramatically.
"That, that is indeed♬"
The four men and women matched his wild movements.
"The yearning of me, the Rot King (The Kin of the Rot King)eeeee!!"
The man in sunglasses and the four figures shrieked together in mad harmony.
As if answering their cries, the soil and vegetation around them rotted away into spherical masses, giving birth to towering, grotesque monstrosities.
"Now, rot everything in this world to DEATH! To build our paradise brimming with the stench of rot-TOOOO!"
The monsters pressed onward, rotting the earth and trees and devouring every other undead creature in their path.
All to fulfill their master's mad yearning...