"No!!!"
A roar erupted through the blood-scented cavern. The beast king, drenched in blood, suddenly snapped awake from his fury and heard the wails drifting through the red mist.
The altar!
Those people had reached the altar!
A bead of cold sweat mixed with blood slid down his forehead. He suddenly realized he had focused on a single body for far too long!
Having completed all his arrangements, he had desperately wanted to see that man's expression. Thus, he had deliberately selected this most perfect body from his collection and used it as his vessel to walk the mortal world.
Yet it was precisely because of that arrogance that his plan had suffered an avoidable mistake.
The negative emotions generated by the imperfect vessel had backlashed against his mind. He, who should have been thinking calmly, had instead been led around by his anger until he became a puppet of his own emotions.
And in that brief lapse of attention, those people had actually reached the edge of the brood nest.
But it was already too late for regret. He could only hope that fellow's two hundred years of "cultivation" would be of some use.
"...No, my friend, can you hear my voice? Answer me, quickly!"
With all his strength, the beast king cleaved apart a soldier firing at him, forcing the others back with a deafening roar.
Taking advantage of the brief lull in that group's relentless assault, he frantically called out to the Lord of Plagues in his mind while trying to contact the plague monks within the "altar."
Yet what made his heart sink was that he could not contact them at all.
They had once called for his help, but their cries had been drowned beneath the chaotic gunfire and roars.
At that moment, a weak