The Outer God Needs Warmth-Chapter 192: Beauty and the Beast (2)

He pushed his thick black hair back, revealing his sharp facial features, a strong jawline, broad shoulders, and immense strength—so much so that even ordinary people couldn't compare to him.

Not just in appearance, but in reality, he was a soldier who had fought several times on the frontlines against wild monsters and emerged victorious.

Gaston Marquis.

Carrying several swords, he had been hunting monsters, but there was no way he could defeat the girl standing before him.

No matter what it was, the terrifying sea that formed when it touched the ceiling would be drawn upwards, shrinking into a single point before exploding and vanishing.

Just a moment ago, it came down in the shape of a rectangular prism, like a cake being cut, and struck the guards standing beside him.

Despite wearing armor so strong that even a typical monster wouldn’t dent it, the body and metal were mashed into pieces, floating gently in the water.

How could he win against this?

Gaston stood only three seconds away from attacking, yet he couldn’t muster the courage to try.

Where had the laws of this world gone? A rectangular prism from the ceiling was swaying in the air, and even if he used magic to leap forward, could he actually win?

No, to begin with...

Was it really a human using a power that covered the sky with water?

Though there were still considerable forces left in the Marquis' army, even if he gathered all of them, the chance of winning was slim.

So, Gaston decided to sacrifice himself in order to survive right then and there.

"Pride Industry, Rocketmobil Company, Gun & Lufu Company. If these three companies erase the minor incident that happened in Vern City, they promised me a million gold. So, if you ask why, I can only say that I made a deal with them."

Gaston, speaking confidently, immediately lowered his head and prostrated on the floor when he saw the sharpness in Victoria’s eyes.

Pride Industry: A company that started by making mainframes for wind-up machines and later absorbed much of the heavy industry sector, becoming a globally influential conglomerate.

Rocketmobil Company: A global conglomerate that includes the Cogni Transport Company among its subsidiaries, and deals with all kinds of companies using wind-up machines. In fact, they are essentially the same entity, as Rocketmobil ships out products made by Pride Industry.

G&L Company: A company responsible for the software of wind-up machines. It not only produces software but also manufactures exclusive hardware, making it a monopoly in places using smart wind-up machines. Without using their hardware, the software doesn’t work, and vice versa, solidifying their hold as a multinational monopoly.

Corporate ethics hadn't developed yet. Thus, monopolies and oligopolies held immense power, with companies growing stronger than even the state.

In fact, even if the king had ordered an investigation, he was buying off nobles to direct things the way he wanted.

And Victoria knew about these three companies.

Because Victoria was studying wind-up knights. If you combine all three, it would almost encompass the entire wind-up machine industry, so it would be odd not to know about them.

The wind-up machine incident in Vern City.

Having experienced that, Victoria thought to herself:

The three companies were trying to bury the incident, but the one executing it stood right in front of her. Therefore, ending everything could be done by handling the person in front of her.

No matter what they tried behind the scenes, the most powerful group in Vern City right now was Gaston Marquis.

Victoria, being knowledgeable about machines but not politics or conspiracies, made a hasty judgment.

However, no one here would point that out.

"Huh? I’ve seen you somewhere. Victoria Bet, right? The girl living in my city. Ah, I got it. Hey, you have family inside, right? If you’re worried about them, I can lend you my strength. You see, I’m the owner of Vern City. So, could you clear this water for me?"

At that moment, when Gaston thought he could secure victory by arresting the person and exposing their crimes to the royal family or the media, he made a fatal mistake.

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He recognized Victoria. Since the royal family had heavily promoted the harvest period, it wasn't strange for Gaston to recognize her. In fact, he had no choice but to recognize her.

But his mistake was speaking to her in a condescending tone after recognizing her identity.

Now, by saying that...

"No."

Gaston’s words were desperate, but Victoria took it as a threat.

The consequence of his words was severe.

A column of water shot down, pressing three people, including Gaston, into the ground.

Instead of one person, the three of them sank as deep as the room itself, without even having the chance to scream, and disappeared, leaving only small chunks of debris floating in the water.

Victoria rose up from the water, controlling it as if it were a part of her body, her power over water making # Nоvеlight # it her domain.

To put it simply, it was like calling her “Full Armor Victoria.”

With that, she moved toward Vern City.

The ocean that flowed backward vanished slowly from the sky, like the retreating tide.

Those trapped between the ground and water breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the sea drifting southeast.

Sitting on the remains of the wreckage left behind by the tidal wave, they realized that the nightmare-like night had finally ended, watching the stars and the moon rise in the sky.

For those who survived, this wasn’t a protest or a natural disaster.

It was a monster story.

This was no reality a human should experience.

And in the center of the village...

The left hand, which had been reduced to nothing but the shoulder, twitched.

Like a worm of an arm, the fingers moved, crawling toward a half-cooked chunk of flesh, blackened at the back of the head and spine, all torn and mashed.

And then, faint cracks appeared in the world.

It was like a crack on a glass window, with the same shape spreading out like spiderwebs.

Immediately after...

Instead of the half-cooked flesh or the crawling arm, two girls appeared with white skin and purple hair.

The gruesome miracle didn’t vanish.

"Hehe."

"It's warmth."

"Wow, I love Victoria! I love her!"

"I didn’t think she’d send so much warmth!"

"Moreover, she’s riding a massive water bubble toward Vern City now. I wonder how many people will die if we keep going like this."

"I’m sure she’ll keep bringing me warmth from now on."

"This is the harvest season!"

"Anyway, enough about that."

"I never thought my arm would not be ejected outside. When the light flew, I thought I was done for, but because the soldier made of harvest season covered me and pushed me, my arm didn’t evaporate when it went beyond the beam."

"It was funny that I could still move in that state."

"Whether this is a human arm or if it's created flesh, I still don’t know."

"If I enter another world or another doll, I’ll need to be careful."

"Anyway."

"Since I’m seeing the world from Victoria’s point of view, I stopped making my body return to normal when I saw Victoria pulling the sea toward her."

"I was curious how far she could go."

"And I was satisfied."

"Moreover, the experience I had in extreme situations helped me, and I had no hesitation when it came to killing someone."

"When consumed by too much power, a person’s value becomes less than a bug."

"That happens often."

"So, a lot of warmth came in along with memories."

"Though warmth can be fully gained from someone killed by the harvest season, memories get damaged."

"Still, I learned a few things."

"First, Gaston Marquis."

"This guy is truly amazing. In some sense, the most amazing thing about him is how he perceives reality as he sees fit."

"Maybe he heard there were screams from the south, so he sent an official document to Gaston to investigate."

"He was told to check if there were any unusual incidents in Vern City or if there were deaths south of it."

"Gaston sent an investigation south of Vern City."

"He ignored it, thinking that what was happening in Vern City was just another common event, not something the king needed to explain."

"Faster than the king, he sent people from a multinational corporation to make a deal."

"He refused to investigate the true nature of the incident in Vern City, and instead, he prevented actions to uncover the truth."

"If no rumors about the company circulated in Vern City, he promised a 5% bonus for the next 20 months."

"So, since the profitable business was running smoothly in Vern City, he decided that nothing had happened."

"He believed that firmly, and that’s what makes him amazing."

"Of course, when the protest group began distributing materials about the events in Vern City, Gaston immediately started massacring the protesters."

"And when the business encountered minor setbacks, he renegotiated with the company and severed all connections to Vern City and the outside world."

"For Gaston, all these incidents were just minor troubles during business."

"At least in his mind."

"From this, it seems the royal family had nothing to do with it."

"Rather, I’d ask if the state was really functioning properly. Maybe they threw too many resources into dealing with the witch."

"Still, it's truly amazing that they couldn’t stop Maleficent."

"While sorting through these thoughts, I greeted the newly made harvest-season Polaris."

"How are you feeling?"

"How are you still alive?"

"Turns out, you don’t die with just one arm left."

Polaris grimaced at my words and turned her head to look at the sky, letting out a deep sigh as she observed the sea moving far away.

"That... is Victoria?"

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"The first time I met her, she used water. But could she do this much?"

Legs, like spider legs, stretched from the river and sea, continuously supplying the sea floating in the sky.

"I didn’t know Victoria could do this either."

Other people know.

As the world developed, and the harvest season gained more knowledge, even though they handle fire the same way, their levels change.

Though it may seem like the same ability to handle fire, it could be operating on completely different principles, and the more knowledge the world accumulates, the more flexibility the users develop.

Based on that, it’s probable that psychic powers rely on human imagination. In other words, if you can’t imagine a scene like that, you can’t create it.

That’s not because of a lack of power, but because you don’t know.

If you think about where you saw such a scene, it was the first time she almost drowned when the harvest season happened. So it must have been easy to imagine.

Polaris, with a lost expression, just glanced between me and Victoria, unable to say anything.

Given her pale skin, the burns weren't life-threatening, but it showed Polaris was strong, not just in power, but physically resilient.

However, seeing her hesitate like this, she’s still a child.

"The enemy was drowned by Victoria."

"Yeah... So what will Vel do now?"

"I’ll follow Victoria. What about you, Polaris?"

In a situation where life may be at risk, instead of using someone else as a shield, you make yourself the shield.

Knowing this, I knew what choice she would make.

Polaris stayed silent for a long time, then lowered her head.

"Let’s go get Victoria. We need to figure out what’s going on. We’ve come this far and we’re in this state; we can’t just turn back. Let’s go."

Humans always repeat foolish choices.

That’s the human I believe in.

"Yeah. Let’s do it, Polaris."