Arknightcraft Modpack
Chapter 490: The True Target
The red threads gathered from the Infected instantly wrapped around Talulah, who had gone rigid from Brull's sudden action. Along with them came an endless torrent of hatred and memories flowing through the threads and into her mind.
Just as Brull had said, Talulah could easily feel the pain and recollections of the Infected through those threads. She could even understand their thoughts with unsettling clarity.
And precisely because of that, the ugliest side of human nature was laid bare before her—naked and unfiltered.
Hatred and desire for revenge born from the oppression of the uninfected. Resentment toward their own fate as Infected. Dissatisfaction and bitterness directed at leaders like her and Brull.
These were things Talulah had known about before, topics she had deliberately avoided thinking about.
Yet now, through those threads, all of it was forcefully connected to her consciousness.
For the first time, she was facing it head-on.
In that moment, all her beautiful illusions about the Infected and the goodness of human nature shattered completely.
Their thoughts were far uglier and filthier than she had ever imagined. Talulah had never expected that people who shared the same poverty and suffering—people who had endured so much—could harbor such twisted desires.
Just a single glance at what churned within their hearts was enough to make her feel sick.
What pushed her closest to collapse, however, was this—
Even after she realized all of it, even after she desperately wanted to look away, the emotions and memories kept flooding in regardless. The threads continued to transmit them without pause, forcibly engraving them into her mind.
Endless hatred battered her consciousness. Those vile thoughts gnawed relentlessly at her heart.
Only then did Talulah truly understand how Brull could change so completely in such a short time.
And yet, at this moment, she couldn't even summon her power to break free of the threads. She could only watch helplessly as wave after wave of hatred crashed against her ideals, smashing into her beliefs again and again.
Still, Talulah did not give up resisting, nor did she allow that hatred to reshape her thoughts.
Because she knew very clearly that this time… she was not fighting alone.
When she thought of the boy who always stood by her side, silently protecting her—when she remembered his tolerant, trusting smile—it was as if a beam of light pierced through the darkness corroding her heart, firmly anchoring her to who she was.
People live for themselves, not for how others see them.
Hold fast to the path you've chosen. Think clearly about why you're walking it.
Steven's words echoed in her ears.
The resolve that had begun to waver hardened once more.
That's right.
These ugly things had always existed—within every Infected, and within every human being. They were part of human nature itself. She had simply chosen not to look at them before.
But precisely because of that, she wanted to change it. To resist it.
Not just for the Infected, but for everyone on this land.
Even if all she could do was make people suppress those evil thoughts and grudges, preventing them from being acted upon, that alone would already be a meaningful step forward, one taken for the sake of her own beliefs.
Perhaps her ideals truly were vague. Perhaps, at their core, they were a rebellion against human nature itself.
So what?
At the very least, she had tried. She had struggled. She had resisted.
If she could change even a handful of people—if there were still those willing to walk this path alongside her—then what was there left to be confused about?
These hatreds and dark thoughts were not reasons to abandon her path, they were fuel.
Fuel that reminded her how much still needed to be done, and how desperately this land needed more people willing to stand up… just like her.
Chasing after that beam of light that pierced through all hatred and malice, Talulah's consciousness snapped fully awake.
Even though the red threads were still wrapped tightly around her body, even though her mind was nearly overflowing with all kinds of vile, twisted thoughts, at the very least—her eyes had changed.
They had returned to what Steven remembered.
The eyes of a fighter.
The eyes of someone who refused to bend.
Though she still couldn't break free from the red threads, this time, there was no way those things could change her anymore.
And that—
That was the moment Steven had been waiting for.
"I knew it," he said with a faint, relieved smile. "You wouldn't go down that easily. This is the little fire dragon I know—the one who dares to defy fate and stubbornly cling to her own path."
Having witnessed everything from start to finish—even watching Talulah be swallowed by those threads—Steven finally allowed a hint of satisfaction to show on his face.
He had been gambling too.
And thankfully, he had won.
From the moment Brull appeared, and from the instant he grasped the nature of those black threads, Steven had already pieced together that snake's true plan.
After losing the curse it once used to maliciously bind Talulah, reclaiming her body was no longer an easy task.
To achieve that, there was only one option—
Completely shatter Talulah's consciousness.
That was why Black Snake had orchestrated the defection of this group of Infected.
The Infected who were willing to follow Brull and break away from Reunion were, by nature, far more volatile than those who remained disciplined. Correspondingly, the resentment and malice buried in their minds ran far deeper.
And those emotions were the deadliest poison imaginable to Talulah.
What the Black Snake intended was simple: to present that poison to her in its purest, rawest form. Everything else would take care of itself—Talulah would destroy her own mind from within.
As for how to expose her to it so completely, so irresistibly—
That was the purpose of Brull, this single "snake scale."
If it had been Steven from before, he likely wouldn't have spared Brull at all. A boss that clearly carried a decent amount of "WAP" wouldn't have lived past the first encounter. As for Talulah's growth? That wouldn't have mattered to him in the slightest. With him around, there was no real risk of her going astray anyway.
But fate had other ideas.
Steven remembered the girl from the future, the one who had entrusted the present Talulah to him.
And so, he chose to believe in her and let her be entangled.
Break, and then rebuild.
Only by personally shattering her own ideals could Talulah be reborn from them, clearing away all the confusion that followed.
As long as she could break through this scheme, she would no longer need to fear that Black Snake ever again.
Only then would he truly have fulfilled the promise he made to that girl—
To save, in the truest sense, the little fire dragon lost in her confusion.
That was the real reason Steven had never intervened.
Why he had stood by and watched as Talulah was engulfed by the red threads.
Fortunately, Talulah did not betray his trust.
He had already said everything that needed to be said. And she had not been crushed by that overwhelming hatred.
From the moment that resolute gaze reappeared in her eyes, Steven knew that the result he needed had already been decided.
And with that, it finally meant one thing—
After holding back for so long, he could at last stop restraining himself and move in to clean up.
Canceling his invisibility outright, Steven ignored the threads that tried to creep toward him and strode straight to Talulah, who was still bound in place. He reached directly into the mass of red threads and firmly grasped her hand.
Waves of resentment and malice surged along the red lines, attempting to invade the Minecrafter mind, but they never even made it past the outer layer.
Those emotions slammed into the barrier formed by his discarded memories and were effortlessly filtered out, utterly incapable of affecting him in the slightest.
Steven applied a bit of force, and Talulah was pulled free from the tangle of red threads with ease.
Though some strands still clung stubbornly to her, in the face of an overwhelming difference in strength, their fate was sealed—they could only be torn apart one after another.
What should have been nothing more than a manifestation of consciousness now behaved like a tangible substance in Steven's hands. He grabbed the threads casually, tugged, and they snapped.
The moment Talulah was no longer their host, the red threads fell into chaos. They gathered together, forming a writhing mass like a crimson amalgamation, and instinctively surged toward the closest presence—
Steven.
At the same time, the black threads moved as well.
They converged in an instant, merging with the red strands until the two intertwined completely, spreading like a web and connecting themselves to Steven's body.
"…So now you're targeting me instead?"
The Minecrafter raised an eyebrow, curling his lips into a slightly amused smile as he observed the strange phenomenon.
No wonder pulling Talulah free had met with so little resistance.
And no wonder only the red threads had bound her—while the black threads representing the Black Snake had remained motionless the entire time.
Now, at last, they had gathered.
But their target wasn't Talulah.
Even so, Steven made no attempt to resist.
On the contrary, he allowed the surging torrent of interwoven red and black threads to pour directly into his body, even actively drawing them in.
"Well then," he muttered lightly, "let's just give it a try."
"If you wanted another shot so badly, there was really no need to go through all this trouble, Mr. Snake."
As a familiar silhouette gradually took shape within his consciousness, Steven greeted the forming Black Snake with a friendly smile, letting out a faintly exasperated sigh.
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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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[1] https://www.patreon.com/collection/55713?view=condensed
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/156361807?collection=55713
[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/156361807?collection=55713
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