Arknightcraft Modpack
Chapter 489: Kashchey's Open Scheme
Talulah, who had just moments ago been locked in a fierce struggle, vanished in an instant.
Even Brull—who had been watching her the entire time—had no idea what had happened. All he saw was her popping a piece of candy into her mouth, and then, as if erased from existence itself, she disappeared without a trace.
Naturally, the Infected under his command lost their target as well. Their bloodthirsty, frenzied gazes swept back and forth across the area, yet they could no longer find even the slightest hint of that girl.
It was as though she had been wiped cleanly from the world, leaving behind no sign that she had ever existed.
And yet, Brull felt no joy of victory at all.
On the contrary, a rapidly rising sense of danger flooded his heart, forcing him to subconsciously tighten the formation of the Infected around himself.
Talulah herself was gone, but the pressure she radiated felt stronger than ever.
His instincts screamed at him that she hadn't gone far, perhaps she was even lurking nearby, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and deliver a fatal blow.
"I know you haven't left," Brull shouted into the empty surroundings. "Didn't you keep saying you wanted to protect the Infected? That you'd save them from my control? What's this now, playing turtle and hiding your head?"
His voice echoed across the open ground.
But the only response was the biting cold wind, gradually reclaiming the area now that the intense heat had faded.
That instinctive sense of danger still clung tightly to his mind. Brull didn't dare relax for even a second, racking his brain for a way to break the stalemate.
And soon enough, an idea surfaced.
It had to be said that once a person abandoned their moral bottom line, the number of choices available to them increased dramatically. The paths they could walk became far more twisted… but at the same time, dealing with problems became much simpler.
Seeing that Talulah refused to respond, and that even direct confrontation had vanished, Brull slowly formed a cruel smile and let out a low, sinister laugh.
"You won't come out, huh? Fine. As long as I know you're here, that's enough."
"Aren't you determined to protect the Infected? Then I'll give you a chance."
He commanded the group of Infected who had previously surrounded Talulah to spread out, clearing a wide open space in the center. Then, singling out one of them, he forced that individual to step forward alone.
Brull deliberately chose a child—skinny to the bone, clearly underage.
With casual indifference, he peeled away the black threads clinging to the boy's body, awakening his original consciousness.
But before the confusion could fade from the boy's eyes, the other controlled Infected had already closed in, slamming him down onto the ground.
"Sorry about this," Brull said calmly. "I think your name was Kade, right? Anyway, your parents already died from infection, didn't they? I'll send you to reunite with them now."
He pronounced the boy's impending fate in a flat, emotionless tone. There wasn't the slightest ripple of feeling on his face—like a machine coldly announcing a verdict.
Brull remembered the boy's name. He remembered the identity of every single Infected present.
And precisely because of that, he could feel their hatred all the more clearly. The more deeply he understood it, the more profoundly disappointed he became.
So using this boy as disposable bait to force Talulah into the open was no burden to him at all. Not even a trace of guilt stirred in his heart.
The young Infected, of course, knew nothing of this.
Surrounded by figures that looked like walking corpses—their bodies covered in freshly scalded blisters and burns—the boy could do nothing but struggle desperately and scream in terror.
"I'll give you a chance to live," Brull said calmly. "Our former leader of Reunion, Miss Talulah, is actually right beside you. Whether you live or die now depends entirely on whether she's willing to save you."
"Otherwise," he added lightly, "I doubt your fellow Infected would mind tearing you apart piece by piece."
On the surface, these words were directed at the boy. But everyone present understood the truth—they were meant for Talulah.
Brull was gambling.
He was betting that Talulah was truly the kind of person he used to be, someone who trusted the Infected completely, someone who could never abandon even a single one of them.
If he guessed right, then he still had a chance to win.
As for that other guy's presence, Brull had known about him for a long time. But under the assumption that he was merely living off Talulah's protection—or worse, the one constantly whispering poisonous ideas into her ear—Brull had never regarded him as a threat.
After Brull finished speaking, Talulah still didn't appear.
It was as if everything he had done so far had been meaningless.
But Brull didn't look disappointed at all.
He casually waved his hand, signaling the Infected to tear the boy apart, and began selecting the next candidate.
After all, he had more than enough Infected under his control. If one wasn't enough, there were plenty more. But if Talulah was truly as he suspected, then even one life would be enough to force her hand.
What Brull hadn't expected was that the boy, who had been screaming in terror just moments ago, suddenly began to curse.
Yet the target of his rage wasn't Brull, the one about to kill him.
It was Talulah, whose presence he wasn't even sure was real.
"Help me! Are you really just going to stand there and watch?! And you still call yourself the leader of Reunion?! Didn't you promise to lead the Infected toward a better future?! Then why isn't there a place for me in it?!"
"I hate you… but please—please save me."
Tears and mucus smeared across the boy's face. He didn't know much; most of what he understood came from Brull's words. Having barely received any education, he still knew one thing clearly—
If he wanted to live, Talulah was the key.
Whether she was truly there or not, all he could do now was pray for her salvation.
At the same time, his hatred toward her was real. From Brull's words, he could tell that if Talulah hadn't been hiding, he wouldn't have been dragged out and pushed into this situation in the first place.
But no matter how heartbreaking his cries were, or how desperate his voice sounded, Talulah still didn't appear.
And so, in his despairing sobs, he could only watch as the controlled Infected seized his limbs and began pulling, as if to tear him apart alive.
Just when even Brull began to wonder whether Talulah really could endure it—or whether she had already left—a wave of heat suddenly erupted with the boy at its center.
The Infected surrounding him were forced back, and at the same time, a crimson figure burst through the defensive ring before Brull like a blade, charging straight toward him.
Even with their greatly enhanced physical strength, the controlled Infected were still knocked aside by that figure, violently exposing Brull at the center of the crowd.
"Found you."
As he looked at the Draco girl emerging from the shadows, there was no panic in Brull's eyes—none of the confusion one would expect from a sudden ambush.
On the contrary, he wore an expression of absolute confidence, as though he had already seized control of the entire situation.
Talulah's longsword came to a halt right beside Brull.
The heat radiating from the blade was so intense that even Brull's hair had begun to curl from the temperature alone. Yet despite that, he showed no intention of counterattacking—none at all.
"You really are even more naive than I imagined," Brull said lightly. "For the sake of such a disgusting, ugly Infected—one who even harbors hatred toward you—you exposed yourself just like that. Was it really worth it?"
Following the edge of the sword upward, Brull looked at the girl standing before him, now fully revealed from her invisibility. A trace of amusement lingered on his face as he spoke.
"I don't care what he said," Talulah replied. "What matters right now is that you release your control over the Infected. Otherwise… I don't know how I should deal with you."
Her tone was far less steady than the blade in her hands. The hesitation in her voice was impossible to miss—yet even so, she still chose to prioritize what she believed mattered most.
"Oh?" Brull raised an eyebrow. "Then why could you go this far for him, but not spare me?"
"I'm an Infected too. Is there really any difference between him and me?"
"Or is it that you've already come to believe, just like I have, that there are differences among the Infected?" he continued. "If not, then why won't you hurt them, but you're willing to hurt me?"
As he spoke, his reptilian slit pupils contracted sharply. Black threads twisted within his eyes, writhing like clusters of venomous snakes.
"N-No… that's not it," Talulah said shakily. "You're wrong… Their changes—this is all because of you."
Her voice grew more uncertain with every word.
"Oh?" Brull asked softly. "Then let me ask you something."
"Just now, was it me who controlled him into hating you?"
His pupils turned pitch-black, like pools of ink. Yet at the same time, a poisonous smile bloomed at the corner of his mouth.
"..."
Silence fell.
For a brief moment, Talulah nearly lost her grip on her sword.
Then, a strange sensation suddenly traveled up from the blade in her hands, forcing her eyes wide open.
The Brull she had been holding at swordpoint had stepped forward of his own accord, allowing the longsword to pierce straight through his chest.
Even as the blade impaled him, the smile on his face never faded—untouched by pain.
"Now," Brull rasped in a low, hoarse voice, "you're the same as me."
"Go on. Experience it for yourself, the hatred they feel toward you."
As his words fell, the red threads that had gathered around his body surged outward.
At some point unknown, they had already wrapped around Talulah completely, binding her in place.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/156361807?collection=55713
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