Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer-Chapter 286: The Greater Good

"Wait, entities are climbing the towers?" Sophia asked, surprised. "I thought they were the ones who created the towers."

Vesper’s voice was calm as she explained, "The tower, though created by the entities, is under the control of the admins. Inside, the admins hold absolute power, while the entities are mere participants, just like us."

"I don’t know much about them, but they gave up their almighty powers to create the towers and enter them as mortals," Rick continued. "As a result, we haven’t heard anything from them in three years. No sudden messages and certainly no sponsorships for anyone."

The information took Adrian by surprise. The entities had the power to influence everyone within the realms. Why would they give up that power and enter a tower? It didn’t make sense.

’Unless... they don’t want the powers.’

<What do you mean, Master?>

’Imagine being immortal with little to do. I suspected their boredom was why they entertained themselves through us, offering us gifts and whatnot. But what if it wasn’t enough to satisfy them?’

<They’d take things a step further and become the participants themselves. But even then, it’s a bit extreme... even for them.>

’They’ve always been a little over the edge, to be honest.’

It was just Adrian’s theory, but he couldn’t think of any other reason why the entities would sacrifice their powers and immortality just to enter the towers they constructed. It had to be for fun.

Perhaps their idea of fun is vastly different from the mortals, and the towers provide them with a new form of entertainment that the mortals can’t comprehend.

However, Adrian wanted to know other things, especially why the ghost soldiers were roaming in the settlement. Rick could guess what Adrian wanted to know and spoke before he could.

"...You won’t be pleased to hear this, but... Maria is an ally. A precious one," he said, but he knew it was bullshit as he couldn’t even maintain eye contact with Adrian.

"At least try to believe what you’re saying before you say it," Adrian scoffed, shaking his head. "Precious ally? Is that what you’re calling a genocidal maniac these days? Tell me how many people did you kill to create the ghosts-"

"Adrian, that’s enough!"

Surprisingly, it was Amelia who interrupted. Adrian turned to look at her and knew something was wrong with her.

"You’re supporting her?" Adrian asked calmly. "An honourable elf like yourself?"

"You don’t understand what we were dealing with," Amelia snapped. "Those people would have died no matter what! Yes, it was a terrible thing to do, but it had to be done. Sacrificing a few to save the rest—that’s how nature works. It’s always been that way."

"Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep peacefully?"

"Adrian, it’s-" George tried to interrupt, but Adrian raised a finger, prompting George to back down.

"Miss selectively honourable elf, will you be kind enough to answer some of my questions?" Adrian continued. "Victor was also an honourable ally to some people. After all, he turned corpses into chimaera for the greater good, right? According to your logic, I shouldn’t have killed him and instead severed him as his slave for resurrecting me."

"Similarly, we shouldn’t have fought against the church. After all, they were doing good work for the slums. And avenging our friends? Maybe that was wrong too, even when their heads were used as decorations. Perhaps I should have let you die instead of fighting Ahuli.

After all, he was just doing an excellent job for his tribe by killing us all! Hell, what’s the difference between the Netherites and us-"

"ADRIAN! THAT’S ENOUGH!"

Everyone was surprised at how Amelia lashed out at Adrian, especially when she was on Maria’s side. Sophia couldn’t believe Amelia was the same person who fought Adrian back in Nexaria when he wanted to kill the entire church.

But Adrian’s reaction was unprompted as well. There was no need to bring up the past, or maybe there was, but he could have some tact about it rather than turning them all into villains.

But in the end, he was right. If the things Adrian said weren’t justified, then Maria and the DRA’s actions shouldn’t be justifiable either. But it seemed Amelia had her version of the truth, and she was going to stick by it no matter what the others had to say.

"You’re right," Adrian replied as he got up. "I wasn’t here. I shouldn’t have any say in the matter. But tell me one thing... that arm of yours, did Maria give you that?"

"...it has nothing to do with the current discussion-"

"Yes or no, Amelia. It’s a simple question," Adrian cut her off. "If you’re intelligent enough to decide who gets sacrificed and who doesn’t, then surely you can answer my question."

"Yes-"

"That was all I had to know," Adrian smiled wanly before turning towards Rick as if he didn’t care about anything else. "If the tower is where the treasures are, what are you guys doing here?"

Adrian continued, "After all, I assume most hunters are already inside the towers making a mark for themselves?"

"Things... are not all rainbows down here," Rick replied. "As you have already seen. We’re dealing with rampant corruption in humans. Especially those who have been inflicted some mental trauma."

"The Netherites climb down the towers and mingle with those people in far-off camps and slowly take control of them," Vesper added. "Promising to take away all their pain and suffering and punish those who have wronged them."

She continued, "They tried the same thing with the Nexarians but failed. However, the humans on Earth aren’t mentally strong enough to resist them and are eventually turned into the demons you saw earlier."

"I can’t blame them," Adrian shrugged, walking away but not before firing shots at all of them there. "Even though the Nexarian leaders were awful behind the scenes, their people trusted them. That’s probably why the Netherites couldn’t corrupt Nexarians much."

"Earthlings, on the other hand, can’t trust their leaders. Especially when they never know when the higher-ups would reward their loyalty by sacrificing them for the so-called ’greater good,’ whatever that means in this messed-up world."

But that wasn’t all. Adrian had one last thing to say, especially to Amelia. "Maybe I was wrong to treat the Nexarians so harshly. After all, they, too, were sacrificing some people for the greater good. Just like you people are."

With that said Adrian left the room before anyone could say anything else. Vesper wanted to follow him, but Sophia grabbed her hand, stopping her.

"Leave him be," she said. "He needs some time alone to process everything."