Gamer Chapter 37 (Patreon)

Gods above and devils below. This world was one of ice and beautiful light as even in darkness there was the constant Aurora Borealis of light swirling in the sky that danced between the stars.

And during the day it was either snowing densely with nothing in view that was more than ten meters away at most even with my own supernatural senses, or the cloudy sky above would have powerful sunlight pushing through the thick clouds weaker points leaving thick trails of light seemingly piercing the gloomy gray clouds above with a holy golden glow.

"Nifldum is a beautiful land however brutal it is in reality. But with the directions to the closest of the two kingdoms. It is time we made our moves in conquering this place." I spoke to myself as we had collected a good deal of information about this divine realm.

First, there always were only two kingdoms and anyone that tried to properly strike out and make themselves kings would have their holdings assaulted by both kingdoms and have their riches stolen, men enslaved and murdered, and the women... Yeah, this was Viking territory pillaging was their very culture.

The two kingdoms were both rather simply named as well being the 'Heior Kingdom, and the Forsa Kingdom'

The Heior kingdom was the closest one and the one I would have the easiest time taking over, as it was led by the barbarian king Luthbrok who answered all challenges in contests of pure brutality in pitched combat only runic equipment being used. With no other magic being used lest the Geass he uses to ensure honorable single combat will kill the cheater.

However... The Forsa kingdom I was honestly feeling a bit more intrepid about. Their leader was the Seidor Witch who was more than three hundred years old supposedly and was once one of Skadi's handmaidens before being cast out for using her fellow handmaidens in a magical experiment.

With the seemingly endless winter fading away, my party had moved to the northwest to head to the barbarian kingdom where physical might more than anything determined your worth. Basically following the same path those barbarians that came to raid the village we resided in actually even if we were flying across the forest with the beginning of this divine realm's overwhelming spring energy flowing through our veins.

As we flew upon the warmer spring winds Arianna called out happily. "With how much life force this enhanced spring aura carries. I am surprised more factions haven't come here honestly?"

I nodded but then said wryly. "Arianna... What if the four teams of prospectors landed here during the endless winter?" 

And I saw Arianna's face become pinched as she shook her and chuckled as she knew the prospectors would have then quickly beaten a retreat as those prospectors were likely only barely more magically powerful than she was. This meant that they, knew that they would literally freeze to death if they stayed in that endless blizzard. Probably packed their bags and fled back to Earth.

Our flight through the skies of the awakening spring of Nifldum was however cut short as from the quickly covered snow below us covering the dense forestry exploded outwards with a squeal that sounded like it belonged from a large Caribou or something. Came a huge eagle with the body of a lion that had wings on its sides and its head was the eagle head.

"A bird monster without divinity trying to go after you. Thats most precious my wielder." I heard Kusanagi mutter to me mentally and I smiled as I held her still-sheathed handle in my hand and with a squeeze, I used Kusanagi as a magical foci to control the winds. And then the monster screeched in utter confusion as its wings however magical, found no purchase in the air.

And with a series of louding crunching noises, it slammed back into the forest below us.

"Let's keep going. The monsters here aren't anything special." I said as the monster didn't even make a quest or anything pop up for it. Thats how utterly weak it was to me now as I had grown so much since I had arrived in this world.

We kept flying with Kiyohime taking the front lead as she wanted to repay me with how much she adored the dragon pearl I gave her. So any monsters we met didn't exactly survive for long under the apathetic gaze of the Shinto dragon.

The whole of the realm of Nifldum was barely a thousand miles in diameter and with our magical power fueling our flight we could fly very quickly if we wanted to, so in just three hours of flying we bypassed more smaller villages and even some towns until we reached the capital 'city'

"Are you sure you wish to conquer this Jake?" I heard Arianna ask rhetorically and I gave a wry smile in answer.

As arrayed in the massive city were three colosseums arranged in a triangle with a large castle between the three colosseums. But oddly, between all the colosseum leading to the main castle was a river of red fluid that flowed slowly towards the castle that was surrounded by a moat of that red fluid.

"Stick together please," I called out as we flew down towards the capital city of the Heior Kingdom and we flew past the walls so we could avoid the guards and once we got into the city I also realized that no wards anything caught onto us as my system pinged out. [Quest Gained! Rightful Conquest!]

Looking into the quest itself my face twitched at how much of a 'barbarian' it wanted me to be. [Rightful Conquest- Go to the castle and make your challenge known to the Heior royal family. Slay the king and the two princes upon the sands of the colosseums to anoint yourself as the new royal bloodline.] [Optional Objective- Lamentations of the women- After slaying the men of the family take your rightful prize and have the queen and two princesses rule the petty kingdom in your stead as you rule above as their emperor.]

Idly looking at the end where the rewards I gave a wry smile reading them. [ Rewards- Initial Completion- 15 Job Tokens, 5 Primordial Word Runes of choice.] [Completion of Optional Objectives- Receive an additional 3 Primordial Runes of choice. A treasure map leading to objects needed in other quests with hints to item locations.]

Looking at the quest I realized this was a bit of a turning point in my steps to becoming an Emperor... Before with the Gumiho realm, my system knew I literally couldn't capture it, nor could I hold it with the two Gumiho queens still being alive. But this realm with Kiyohime as my beat stick was possible to burn to the ground and take under my aegis.

I personally had the might in my forces to slaughter the royal family and take my place as the new one, and as I stared at the quest. The reality that my taking over, of habituated lands where I would be all but conquering them really hit me at this moment.

I wasn't afraid of doing it. I literally committed genocide on monsters that looked a little different from humans and in the months that I had reincarnated I had come to the mental realization that I was going to be great. I refused to settle for being just a random mercenary warrior who couldn't even do magic.

Taking a breath I mentally clicked yes to the quest and it closed with my eyes closing as I had only one quest that required a massive treasure hunt of all things... The treasure hunt for all the stone pieces of Tamamo that were sealed away and turned to stone.

I was rather curious as to where they were and even if I decided not to free her. I imagine the shinto or yokai would dearly love to get their hands on the sealed remains of Tamamo No Mae the strongest Yokai to live besides Son Wukong who wasn't a dragon. 

"Let's gather some information first then. The inns near the Colosseums will likely have all the information we need." I spoke with the girls nodding in understanding with all three following behind me as we headed out of the alleyway we landed in to merge with the foot traffic as we headed towards one of the large colosseums.

The people were of a rough sort, all of them whether they be men or women would be armed with weapons and their eyes were hungry as they glared at everyone looking for weaknesses. The children were a little better as they wore thick cloaks to cover their forms allowing them to steal from adults who weren't looking below them. Though, in our minutes of walking, I saw what happened to the street rats that got caught and the clear thrashing they got.

"A city where only violence and taking that which you desire except for paying with teeth and bones collected from the colosseums is the only currency is just... Disgusting!." Arianna muttered with disgust at just how ridiculous the system was.

"These people will be difficult to rule. It's like Skadi decided to keep and distill the most violent and base elements of Viking culture in one city and then having a clearly more favored culture of mages on the other side of the world." Kiyohime spoke as my face twitched seeing a woman grab a man on the side of the main road we were walking down and drag him into an alleyway with her dagger flashing in the air as she stabbed him a dozen times in the neck in the quarter of a minute that I had her in view before we continued on.

Murder, violence, thievery. Nothing seemed to be outlawed on the streets themselves as there were no guards or anything keeping order. I was looking around for a nicer inn or hotel to get some information and then out of the corner of my eye in front of us, I saw a man walking straight for me.

I had all three ladies around me in a triangle and as he came closer I met his eyes and I saw his eyes were blood red and within his hand was a thick long dagger that was clearly meant to have the heft to shove through leather and break through bone so without a change in expression. I met his own eyes filled with casual murderous intent as he grinned and as he went to ram his dagger into my chest I slapped it the side with one hand.

'Barely stronger than base peak of humanity.' I thought blandly and then putting weight on my right leg I covered my hand in Touki and I did a hand chop that audibly shattered his neck making him drop bonelessly to the ground while our party stepped over his choking form.

As we came closer to the colosseums the area became at least cleaner even if the casual violence didn't seem to have any damned end but we did find an inn that we could use thankfully. Going into the inn, it was a dark musty affair that was tinged with the heavy scent of blood, sweat, semen, and shitty mead.

"I am new to the city, how do I challenge the Royal Family." I asked the barkeep bluntly as I put down a fang from a Hellhound I killed that was after Andromeda. 'Actually how is that little spitfire doing anyway?' I mused while the barkeep wolf-whistled at the hellhound fang.

"Now this is very nice... You must be from one of the outer clans that managed to stay under the kingdoms radar aye? Anyway, its simple laddie, you just gotta kill all three colosseums champions in the arena and once you do, you have the right to challenge a prince to marry his daughter after killing the prince." The barkeep told me as he pocketed the long fang inside his jacket pocket.

I nodded and seeing as it was still fresh in the day relatively I turned on my heel with the three following behind me as we then headed to the closet colosseum and after bribing the guards I learned that the Champion of this colosseum was taking paid challenge for high grade fangs and teeth right now for the people who were watching the champion who was famous for his gambling addiction.

So after paying the guard the entrance fee I was given a literal fucking bloodied rock that had the number thirteen scratched into it... Shaking my head I spoke up. "Girls go ahead up to the friends and family section, this will be quick, I won't be waiting on anyone," I said coldly and the three nodded with Kiyohime looking not happy about my leaving but understanding I needed space to do my work.

[New Quest!] [Butcher's Bill- Kill all three Champions of the colosseum's and collect the champion's Runic equipment as proof of your kills] [Reward-5 Job Tokens per champion, 100 bloodstones per champion killed and equipment collected.]

Walking into the 'locker rooms' I saw the remaining eleven people in the room seeing as from the sounds of things. The first one was already fighting the champion already, I took out Kusanagi and said bluntly. "Get out. I am going to kill the champion now including the previous challenger." 

A woman without a word snapped a barbed whip at me and with a loud snapping noise the whip collided with the barrier of wind around my form from Kusanagi and then I blurred forward in a blitz of speed and a harsh crunching noise rang out as I cut her in half from shoulder to waist with her ribs shattering with no resistance under my sword.

Whirling around I dodged a long flail thing that had spikes on the end and pushed my touki into my sword. I exhaled as I slashed outwards and the room rumbled as my ki flew off my sword in a wave of destruction that when meeting the other gladiator's flesh made their forms explode into bloody mist as they didn't have Touki or another form of reinforcement.

 "Alright, we give!" One of the survivors called who managed to duck under my slash called out and I nodded without a change in expression as I swung my sword again to cut the gate blocking the waiting area from the main colosseum allowing me to walk up the path up to the colosseum where I noticed the sand beneath my feet was pure white where it should have been died red from the countless bodies dragged over it.

Unholy screams hit my ears as I walked up the ramp up to the main colosseum until I saw that my supposed opponent was named the 'Bloodied Tooth Champion' of all things and as my eyes landed on his form I understood why. His opponent was a woman, and he had cut off one of her legs and she had a spear shoved through her guts and a series of daggers shoved into her shoulders to paralyze her arms movements.

The so-called Bloodied Tooth, was earning his name as he had her sitting on her backside with her back to him with him having her hair back tied to loops in his belt to tilt her head back. So with his hands free he could use some brutal-looking spiked pliers to rip the woman's teeth from her mouth even as she begged for death and was drowning in her blood with how she couldn't swallow properly.

"Man... I am honestly torn. Are you worse than Gumiho who literally eat people whether they already be dead or they actually hunt people for sustenance?" I asked I shut down my emotions to deal with the task at hand and the man looked up with crazed eyes at me.

His eyes lit up on seeing me talking and without even looking at the girl he just slammed the spiked pliers into her face, neck, and through her eyes a dozen times in but a couple of seconds making me frown at his speed. "Your teeth! They are whole, pure, and as white as fresh virgin snow!" He screamed in such utter ecstasy that it made Kusanagi shudder in my hands.

"What is your name? I am going to polish your bleach your skull and use your teeth to make the the most beautiful of brushes to wash my skin!?" He demanded to know with him panting as he shivered in place. His legs were a blur of motion as he wanted so dearly to take off my head now.

But I didn't respond and only held up Kusanagi with my eyes closing as I drew heavily on my Touki to fill the surroundings with my life energy. 'Kusanagi, is there anything even to rule here?' I asked wryly.

My sword chuckled in my soul and responded frankly. "My master... As an Emperor having soldiers you can throw into a meat grinder will always be important. He is probably at the level of a weaker high-class Devil or a weaker combat-inclined six-winged angel." 

I felt a flare of magic in front of me and as his form blurred towards me from my side, I tilted my sword to the side with the edge pointing at him a slicing noise rang out as the projected invisible wind blades cut through a part of the champion's chest.

"Primordial Runes on your boots and leggings huh? Speed doesn't matter when I know where a psycho like you is going to attack me." I muttered almost bored as with the man having his guts cored out. He obviously couldn't fight that well so without any building up I just brought Kusanagi down onto his head cutting his head in half to kill him instantly much to the cheers of the Colosseum viewers who roared at seeing the champion die.

But as I watched the stump of his split head spewing blood onto the sand... I frowned as the sand remained untainted by blood after but a couple of moments. "Where is the blood... Those waterways outside the Colosseum where people were throwing corpses in them. It's all blood heading to the royal castle." I said in realization before I had one last thought. 'What the hell are they doing with all that blood though?'