"What...?"

Charymos’s body twitched and the tentacles on his chin became so rigid and erratic that some of them attempted to strangle him.

"That’s all you have to say?!!! You have had a successful hunt?! Hahaha!!! I must be going mad!!"

Charymos laughed belligerently and balanced his hands on his knees. This was not his usual dramatic antics either, he was genuinely bewildered, a part of him wondered if he had sustained mental injuries from doing battle with Honyopi.

"Kaelen, you little shitstain."

Charymos calmed himself —No, he was still enraged, but he knew he had to maintain his dignity as one of his Lord’s aides.

"You go rogue and then you attack me, defending those measly Humans who dare sully my Lord’s Tower and for what?! Just for you to kill them and say something so ridiculously stupid afterward?!"

Charymos loomed over Kaelen, the slime that oozed from his pores dripping on Kaelen’s scalp, and each droplet carried the weight of a forged steel ball.

"It is as you say Master, however I—"

"Be quiet!!! I am not your Master you failure!!"

Thwack!!

Charymos swung his girthy arm and swatted Kaelen away into the distance, and the boy crashed into numerous trees thunderously.

"...Make yourself useful and bring him back!"

He shouted, and the Roach immediately obeyed.

Fwip!

The Roach appeared in front of Kaelen’s trajectory and effortlessly caught him, his insectoid hand gripping the boy’s bloodied face as the rest of his body swung limply.

"You who was once so blessed, how could have possibly condemned yourself so?"

At the Roach’s question, Kaelen merely stared blankly through the crevices of his insectoid fingers.

Fwip!

The Roach gently placed down Kaelen before Charymos and stepped aside, bowing quietly like a statue once more.

"Do you know how far you have set me back, Kaelen?! Have you the slightest idea of the things that I have incited because of your existence?!"

Charymos roared like the seething beast he was, but Kaelen simply prostrated himself before the Kraken Spawn.

"Please hear my words, Master. I have not betrayed you, how could I? When you have made me with your own two hands and have showered me with your love?"

Those words came painfully from Kaelen’s mouth, but he knew he had to survive, otherwise...

[Their deaths will have been in vain...]

[No, more than that... I want to live! And explore the beautiful world that I have created!] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Kaelen acted like the gnat that Charymos saw him as and bowed so deeply that his head dug into the moist earth.

"My Master, my glorious, ingenious creator. Did you not bring us into the swine’s floor so that we may hunt and grow much stronger?"

Though hesitant to do so, Kaelen raised his head from the earth and looked Charymos dead in the eyes.

"I was simply accomplishing that. I took advantage of my similarity to those humans as you call them, and infiltrated them, knowing that I was too weak to fight them all."

"Nonsense! Then why did you bear your fangs at me?! No creation of mine would dare to harm me!"

Charymos retorted with what seemed like a broken heart, but Kaelen knew that this creature did not possess a heart to be broken in the first place.

"Because those were my prey, Master. You killing them would have done nothing for your own strength!"

"I wanted them to trust me! To think that I was one of them, that way I would slay them much easier and grow stronger for you."

Kaelen raised his voice, and the Roach trembled quietly, fearing the wrath that would be incurred.

"Kaelen... Do you think me a fool?"

Charymos’s anger boiled-over, and he raised his arm once again to strike Kaelen, but...

"Master!"

...Kaelen defiantly stood to his feet.

"Look!"

Crackle!!!

Kaelen drew his Mana, and it was incomparable to the last time Charymos saw it.

"Look at the power I have gained! There is not a single Homunculus who is as strong as me currently! Nor are any of the common swine on this floor, nor are the Mermen back in your domain a match for me! Is this not what you wanted, Master?!"

Kaelen shouted once again at the unconvinced Kraken Spawn and stomped away toward the corpses of the two Humans he once held dear.

Slash! Slash!

He decapitated them, and that action alone almost brought him to his knees with nausea.

"I feel nothing for them!"

Kaelen walked back to Charymos, presented the heads of Hank and Helena at his webbed feet and backed away once more.

"..."

"You have grown to be silver-tongued, Kaelen. Is this something that you have perhaps learned from those Humans?"

"Look at the state of you. Your eyes are swollen, you have been crying have you not? For those lower lifeforms. A failure is indeed what you are Kaelen."

"I will forget that you have ever existed and clean up the mess you have made."

"..."

"Veylith... Ah, yes. Veylith will be a good replacement for you. I will first need to rigorously educate her so she does not end up like you."

Charymos approached Kaelen, and an elongated slime stretched from his palm before hardening into a blade.

[Damn it...]

Kaelen’s heart sank to his stomach, but he did not let that show on his expression.

"Wait, Master... Please do not sully your hands by killing a failure such as me."

Kaelen retrieved his spear and pointed it at as his abdomen, causing Charymos to pause for a brief moment.

"Is that so?"

A horrifying, sadistic grin etched itself across Charymos’s face.

"Then do it. Did you think that I would stop you?"

Those words made Kaelen’s heart skip a beat. Yes, he had indeed hoped that Charymos would finally be convinced and stop him.

"Go on, we don’t have all night."

Kaelen’s spear trembled, but only briefly and he —

Stab! Squelching!

"Gargh!!"

The spear imbued with Mana pierced him and he fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

He then let go of the spear’s shaft, knowing very well that his regeneration could not save him with a foreign object in his body.

[...]

[I guess this is it. I’m sorry, Julius, everyone.]

[... I did my best.]

[...]

[Ah... I feel drowsy. What exactly... Has been the purpose of my existence?]

[...Suffering in my previous world, and even in this one, the one I programmed sitting on a desk...]

[But at least... I could play for a bit... This hellish game.]

[At least... At the very least...]

With the light in his eyes fading, Kaelen glanced at Charymos.

[... I died by my own hand, and not to some fodder character I created on a whim.]

[...]

[...Ah that’s right, should killing oneself give a player the PK branding? I’ve never thought of that.]

[Ah, man... There was still so much to give thought to, so much left to do.]

With those vain thoughts, Kaelen’s consciousness waned.