The Final Boss Has Returned
Chapter 120
The Dark Alliance Reborn!
The tangible and intangible benefits I had gained through unlocking the faction were not few, but the most noticeable achievement among them was undoubtedly the joining of the Dark Church.
[Upon hearing news of the Dark Alliance's revival, the Dark Church emerges from the shadows of the world and heads toward Snow Castle.]
The Dark Church!
That group, which had existed only in the description of the Dark Temple, had come to me of their own accord the moment the Dark Alliance was revived.
"I never thought I would live to see the day the Dark Alliance rises upon this land again."
The Dark Council.
In the building that symbolized the Dark Alliance, I was greeting an elderly NPC dressed in black priestly robes—the High Priest of the Dark Church.
The High Priest looked at me with an emotional voice and continued speaking.
"Now that the Dark Alliance has risen upon this land again, the time has come for our church to spread the dark gospel throughout the world. Fortunately, thanks to the Apostle having built the temple in advance, we were able to resume the church's activities immediately without any significant delay."
[High Priest Carlton's Loyalty has increased.]
[You have fulfilled a hidden requirement.]
[The quest 'Dark Temple Reconstruction' has been removed.]
[The Demon God of Darkness is pleased.]
[Your level has increased.]
Thanks to having built the temple in Snow Castle in advance, I skipped the quest and immediately assigned Carlton to the empty Dark Temple, and shortly after, the notification window I had expected appeared.
[A new class, 'Dark Priest', is unlocked.]
[Dark Priest]
[The Dark Priest is a class that exists at the opposite extreme of ordinary priests.]
-Dark Priests are priests of darkness who serve the Demon God of Darkness and the Demon Kings of Fumodian. Their dark divine arts include ordinary buff and healing skills, but they also possess unique skills different from ordinary priests, such as shield skills that absorb enemy damage or healing skills that restore allies with every attack.
Because the Dark Church and Dark Priests were the center of demon god worship, they had long been oppressed. However, now that the Dark Territory has been declared and the Dark Alliance revived, the Dark Church has resolved to establish its main branch in Snow Castle, the capital of the Alliance, and to accept outsiders as new priests in order to revive the faith in the demon god.
-This is a class exclusive to the 'Dark Alliance' faction. Only users belonging to the Dark Alliance may change to this class.
-The class-change quest for Dark Priest is available in Snow Castle, where the Dark Church's main branch is located.
-A new possibility has opened in the World of Arde. Participate in the new history.
The Dark Priest class is unlocked!
With this, the Dark Alliance finally had a healer class worth using.
'I was worried about the lack of a healer class. This is a relief.'
The Holy Union!
I already knew they had launched from the notification window that had appeared earlier.
Excluding hidden classes and other miscellaneous possibilities, there were largely three healer classes in the World of Arde.
Priest, Spirit Mage, and Druid!
Druids and Spirit Mages were hybrid classes that could also double as damage dealers depending on which skill tree they specialized in, while Priests were pure healer classes.
Since Priests had been tied as an exclusive class for the Holy Union, a shortage of healers would naturally have occurred in the Dark Alliance, but now that Dark Priests were unlocked, the lack of a healer class was naturally resolved.
If they had failed to secure a healer class, their numbers would ultimately have been at a clear disadvantage compared to the Holy Union.
After all, combining the three classes of tank, damage dealer, and healer was important even in Arde Saga Second.
Just as I, having secured a faction-exclusive healer class, was dismissing the notification window with a satisfied expression.
[The Lord of Conquest, Hive Mind, has pinpointed the dimensional coordinates of the World of Arde.]
[The invasion of the Broken World begins.]
Notification windows rose up, overlapping before my eyes.
The invasion of the Broken World by the Lord of Conquest, Hive Mind, had finally begun.
* * *
The Invasion of the Broken World!
The contents of this notification window that appeared before every user connected to the World of Arde were simple, but the consequences were anything but.
[Keeeeeeek!]
[Krrrrrrr!!]
Dimensional rifts opened all across the World of Arde, and from those rifts, countless monsters poured down like rain.
A situation where monsters had been released not in any single region, but across the entire world!
However, if it had stopped here, it could not have been called an "invasion."
The minions of the Hive Mind were monsters, after all, and to users seeking prey for leveling up, they were rather welcome beings.
But the real problem wasn't that just the monsters had invaded. Their strongholds had crossed dimensions in their entirety and taken root in the World of Arde.
Colonies!
Massive forward bases and production factories for monsters, comprised of countless plants, took root in each of the four cardinal regions of the World of Arde, and three Colonies appeared in the central region that was the heart of the world, endlessly spewing forth monsters.
Along with this, the users gained the opportunity to personally experience the Great Cataclysm of over ten years ago, which NPCs had spoken of ad nauseam.
"What the hell, these monster bastards!"
"There's no end to them!"
The users panicked at the endless numbers of monsters flooding from the Colonies, and because a systematic command structure had not yet been established, the front lines began to crumble without end.
In contrast, the minions of the Hive Mind had a unified command structure under the Hive Mind's hive consciousness.
The Alpha Mind—a massive biological building rooted at the center of the Colony and an avatar of the Hive Mind—issued orders, which were relayed to the Swarm Lords and Unclean Ones, who carried out specific commands and led the monster legions to ravage the World of Arde.
Of course, the World of Arde did not simply take their offensive lying down.
The Holy Union and the Dark Alliance!
The two major factions established not long ago immediately gathered their forces and launched counterattacks.
[Otherworld Invasion Repulsion: Phase 1]
[Category: Normal]
[The Hive Mind of the Broken World has invaded the World of Arde. Reduce the Hive Mind's forces even by one to repel the otherworldly invasion and protect the World of Arde!]
[This quest updates daily.]
[Quest Completion Objective]
[Slay 30 Swarm Hounds]
The first thing distributed by both factions was the so-called daily quest—also called homework!
It was bait to mobilize users for the war against the Broken World.
The daily quests existed in endless tiers, starting from the Swarm Hound—the weakest monster and lowest-ranked minion among the Hive Mind's forces—to the highest-ranked Behemoth, structured so that users from low levels to high levels could slay them and receive rewards.
Of course, the prepared countermeasures were not limited to that.
Everyone knew that this level of countermeasure was merely enough to maintain the status quo.
The Colonies.
To destroy the factories endlessly spewing out monsters, allied armies for a full-scale counterattack were being formed by each faction.
* * *
The North.
It was the center of the Dark Alliance, the region where the Ironblood Kingdom—the first nation established by users in Arde Saga Second—was located, and simultaneously, a land of eternal winter!
On that harsh land as well, an Alpha Mind that had crossed dimensions took root no differently from other regions, and a Colony was spread out.
But what was unfortunate for them was that, unlike other regions, the place where the Alpha Mind had established itself and spread its Colony was the domain of the undead.
The Undead King!
The northern Colony, rooted in land where a monster straddling the threshold of a half-transcendent being lurked, immediately faced the wrath of the Undead King.
[Sweep away all those otherworldly vermin gnawing away at my domain!]
At the Undead King's command, an uncountable number of undead charged toward the Colony.
Undead!
Just like the minions of the Hive Mind, the countless undead knew no fear. As they flooded in like a tidal wave, the Alpha Mind of the North witnessed for the first time in its many dimensional invasions that it was being overwhelmed in numbers.
The collision between the endlessly surging undead, enough to fill the horizon, and the endlessly pressing monsters, likewise enough to paint the horizon!
Moreover, the entire North, including the Deathlands, was a domain where the Undead King's authority reached completely, and the Undead King made full use of his forte.
That was raising dead corpses as undead.
The corpses of the countless monsters killed in battle immediately rose as undead, and their speed and numbers surpassed those of the monsters produced by the Colony.
Moreover, the North was not home only to undead.
"From now on, I will enter the northern Colony conquest."
Drakan!
He who now rightfully occupied the position of liege of the Dark Alliance had proudly declared the first Colony conquest.
"Those who wish to participate in the conquest, come to Snow Castle. It goes without saying now, but I always welcome everyone's participation."
On top of that, the user recruitment declaration, now an expected staple, was a given.
And upon hearing that declaration, users naturally flocked to Snow Castle.
From the Lawless Harbor recapture to the war with the North!
Drakan was a commander of complete victory who had never lost a war he commanded, and crucially, this was the first quest to be summoned on a 'faction' scale since the RvR system launched, so the users' enthusiasm to participate was all the hotter.
"Honestly, if you're an Alliance user, you gotta go to the Colony conquest."
"Isn't this why we joined the Alliance?"
"I heard the Union guys haven't even formed their allied forces yet..."
"What are you talking about? I heard they're gathering too."
"We can't lose to the Union guys!"
The Dark Alliance!
The newly introduced faction system gave users a sense of belonging to their respective factions, and the users of the Dark Alliance were no different.
It was no longer simply helping with someone else's quest or another person's business, but quests to protect 'our faction' and 'our alliance'—in other words, the awareness that this was not someone else's problem but 'our problem'—began to spread among the users.
Compounded by the competitive spirit against the opposing Holy Union, the users of the Dark Alliance literally began flooding into Snow Castle like a rising tide.
"Let's go to Snow Castle!"
"For the Alliance!"
Countless users headed toward Snow Castle for the Alliance, for rewards, each harboring their own desires. Snow Castle, already designated as the starting point for human users of the Dark Alliance and packed with new users with barely room to step, had truly become a complete madhouse.
And Drakan watched the sight and smiled contentedly to himself.
"More people have gathered than expected."
Sin Hayeon whispered beside Drakan.
That's right.
That so many users would gather like this was something neither Drakan, Sin Hayeon, nor even their elite dedicated support team had anticipated.
"A sense of faction belonging, huh..."
Drakan quietly gazed at the bustling users of the Dark Alliance.
Faction belonging.
Thinking it was worth utilizing, Drakan climbed onto the podium prepared in advance in the square.
Now, it was time to begin the Colony conquest.