Nameless King

"Grandpa!" Franzi exclaimed, running up to the old man lying in bed.

"Oh, Franzi, hi, how are you feeling?" The old man said with difficulty. His eyes were faded and dark. Life was slowly leaving him.

"You need to worry about yourself right now, not me. We've got the cure, and we'll cure you now."

"What...? Really? You got it?"

"Yes, here." Franzi showed the old man the flowers and handed them to Irma.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine in a few hours. We won't let you die." Irma went to the table and squeezed the juice out of the flowers.

"Well yeah, you almost died trying to save your old man." Wain said carelessly, entering the room.

"It doesn't matter!"

"Oh, who is this young man?"

"They saved us, and in fact, we were able to pick flowers thanks to them. A spider like you attacked us, and I hate to admit it, but Irma and I didn't have enough strength to overpower it." Franzi smiled awkwardly.

"Ahahahaha, I see, looks like we got a chance to get out of here after all."

"Old man, tell me more about this place, and your granddaughter mentioned someone who got you in trouble." Osvald said.

"Sure, just give me one minute while my granddaughter prepares a healing potion."

"Done." Irma said after a while and handed him the medicine. The juice of these flowers was the best medicine against poison.

"Thank you. Without your help, I would surely have died, how glad I am to have two such beautiful granddaughters."

"Don't be, we couldn't have done it any other way."

"Old man, enough with the sentimentality, tell us how we'll get out of here." Wain said seriously.

"I think we should start with how we got here. We were a small village living on Beastfolk Planet in Cat Clan territory. One day something strange started to happen to the world, the lands floated up and flew away somewhere, and our village teleported here."

"He's talking about the Merger of Worlds, right?"

"Yes, that's right. Old man, did Cosmic Beetles live near your village?"

"Only a small Nest we controlled, but obviously we failed. After the relocation, there were too many beetles, and all our attempts to defeat them were a failure."

"Did you try to use their power to get back in?"

The old man nodded, "We were able to catch one beetle with great difficulty, but we were unsuccessful. We think maybe the queen's powers will be enough, but defeating such a creature is impossible for us. Unfortunately, we are too weak."

"Beetle Queen, that sounds logical..." Osvald muttered.

"Man, there's someone else in this area besides you and the Cosmic Beetles, right?" Wain asked.

"Yes, in the distance, beyond the hills, is the base of Pearl Hunters."

"What? This is where the Pearl Hunters live?" Wain was surprised, he had only encountered a few Pearl Hunters, and each one was very strong and gave him a lot of trouble.

"Yes, as far as I know, usually Pearl Hunters act alone, but they are the exception. Fortunately, they decided not to touch us, we have nothing of value to them." The old man shook his head.

"Are they stuck here, too?"

"I'm not sure, but it looks like it. I'm sure you must have realized that there is more than one Soul Pearl. I'd take the pearls and leave if I were a Pearl Hunter. They didn't, and there must be a reason for that."

"I see. Do you have any idea how to get out of here?" Wain asked.

"No." The old man sighed regretfully, "Maybe you might have something if you can defeat the Beetle Queen. It's unfortunately impossible for us."

"I see. Osvald, it looks like we have a plan."

"Great, thank you, and goodbye, if we can, we'll save you." Osvald waved and headed for the exit.

"Wait!" Irma exclaimed, "You've learned a lot about us, but we still don't know anything about you. Who are you? What has happened to the world?"

"It doesn't matter." Wain said coldly, "The world is still the same as it was, cruel, unjust, but beautiful. The only difference is that now all worlds have joined together, so prepare that everything has completely changed when you return home. See you later."

Wain and Osvald walked out.

"Shit, stop!" Irma headed after them, but suddenly the old man grabbed her arm.

"Grandpa?"

The old man shook his head, "We're lucky they turned out to be kind people. We shouldn't inconvenience them."

"What? You think they're kind?"

"Irma, they saved you and said they would help us get out of here."

"Sister, Grandfather is right. Others in their place would have waited until the spider killed us and robbed us, and that's at best." Franzi said seriously, "We just have to hope for the best, right now we're powerless. We could barely kill one bug, and for them, even a hundred isn't a problem."

"Fuck! Why does this always happen?! No matter what we do, every time someone strong shows up, all we have to do is hope for luck and the will of fate." Irma yelled and slammed her fist on the table, causing it to break and shatter into splinters.

...

"Osvald, how many Soul Pearls do you think there are?"

"Two or three, no more. Although we still don't know how big this area is, maybe we'll find something unique. Either way, this space is a big rarity."

"Huh, I've only been to a few Purgatory Zones before, and there was only one pearl each. How many pearls have you seen at most?"

"I once fought in an area where there were no limits. It was like a whole world, and I could only see part of the core. There were ten Soul Pearls, but it was only a fraction."

Wain nodded.

Soul Pearls were his best solution to raise Majesty, and besides the Beetle Queen, he had another target. He was going to consume all Soul Pearls in the area.