The Final King Has Returned — Chapter 121
A crowd so enormous it could rival a mega-concert!
Seeing the gathered masses of countless users, I laughed inwardly.
'I didn't know users would feel this much of a sense of belonging to a faction.'
That the newly opened faction system would have some effect on user mobilization was something predicted by everyone, myself and my dedicated support team included.
Just as users who joined guilds felt a sense of belonging to their guilds and participated in guild affairs as much as possible, we had expected that factions could have a similar effect.
But we hadn't expected such a dramatic effect.
Guilds offered their members tangible and visible benefits, so the cohesion of guild members was high.
But we—my support team and I—had expected that factions couldn't provide members with as many tangible and visible benefits as guilds, and therefore would have lower cohesion.
But contrary to our expectations, the cohesion users felt toward their faction was considerable, and that cohesion resulted in countless users participating in the raid.
In conclusion, the current situation had surpassed our expectations in a good way, so it wasn't bad.
No, on the contrary, I felt my chest swelling with emotion.
'Yujin, that bastard must have felt like this.'
I thought back to six years ago.
Yujin!
Back in the previous game, he had formed the 'Revolutionary Army' based on his fandom, the Church of Infinite Yujin, and the small-to-medium guilds that supported him, and countless ordinary users had sympathized with his cause and gathered under the Revolutionary Army's banner.
When he first mustered the Revolutionary Army, the crowd gathered in the field must have been similar to this one.
Would the sensation Yujin felt when mustering the Revolutionary Army—that exhilaration—be the same as what I'm feeling now?
I couldn't know that far.
But what mattered was that my efforts thus far to win the hearts of users since Second had finally begun to show results.
Thinking so, I spoke while receiving the gazes of countless users.
"I won't make a long speech. Unlike some people, I'm not very eloquent, after all."
Laughter burst out among the users at my words.
Seeing their reactions, the corners of my lips rose.
"Just as it's always been, I will definitely win this war too."
Victory!
The word defeat did not exist in my dictionary, except where Yujin was concerned.
No, someday in the near future, I would show Yujin the bitter taste of defeat as well.
For revenge.
Making that vow, I looked down at the users and said,
"For the Alliance!"
The moment my words ended, a cheer loud enough to tear off ears burst from the users' mouths.
"Waaaaaaaah!"
"For the Alliance!"
I turned my back on the users' cheers and stepped down from the platform.
Now, it was time to begin the Colony raid in earnest.
* * *
The Colony situated in the north.
Unlike the other regions, this northern Colony happened to be located in the Land of the Dead, and it had been gradually pushed back in a war of attrition against the undead. The Dark Alliance army led by Drakan was what completely severed the northern Colony's lifeline.
"Attack."
At Drakan's single order, the users and NPC soldiers of the Dark Alliance charged immediately!
The Dark Alliance forces, diverse in race from humans to orcs, vampires, and lycanthropes, joined with the army of the dead commanded by the Undead King, and the front line established by the northern Alpha Mind began melting away in an instant.
An orc's glaive bisected a monster's body in one stroke, and a lycanthrope's claws ruthlessly tore apart the enemy.
Vampires' blood magic absorbed blood from the corpses of dead monsters, and the spears of fishmen pierced monsters' heads.
Necromancers raised the corpses of dead monsters, black magicians cast curses, and the dark auras of dark knights flashed as they slaughtered the enemy—a sight that truly befitted the name of an army of darkness, a battle of evil against evil.
[Kieeeek!]
[Kik!]
Amidst the monsters of all sizes and shapes dying en masse, the one standing at the very front of the front line was Drakan.
Every time Drakan's Ironblood Executor flashed, the bodies of the monsters surrounding him were split apart.
'Just a few more levels and I'll be at the level cap.'
Drakan thought while checking his status window.
His current level was 378!
Leveling up had slowed since he was close to the level cap, but even that would end soon.
Just two more levels and he would reach the effective level cap of Arth World.
'I just need to beat the bastard called Alpha Mind or whatever.'
Smiling, Drakan advanced while gazing at the massive bio-structure towering in the center of the Colony—a structure that looked more than twice as large as the Swarm Lord he had encountered at the last ruins of the Broken World.
[Kieeeek!]
Drakan cut down the monster charging at him in a single stroke.
Two steps left to the level cap.
The time to make his final spurt had come.
Of course, even if he hit the level cap, another wall called the succession quest remained; but anyway, Arth Saga Second was a game where they said 'the real game begins at the level cap,' so reaching it held more than enough meaning.
In any case, Drakan wasn't the only one fighting fiercely on this battlefield.
The undead!
The Undead King's minions, who had been fighting evenly with the Hive Mind's army even before the Dark Alliance's reinforcements arrived, were now tearing through the battlefield as if wings had been attached to a tiger's back now that the reinforcements had arrived.
[Annihilate them.]
[It is the Undead King's command.]
The low-ranking undead, including skeletons, zombies, and ghouls, endlessly charging under the orders of the high undead, the Liches and Death Knights!
With the addition of undead created from the corpses of dead monsters, the Colony defense line established by the Alpha Mind collapsed in an instant.
[This, this is absurd!]
Alpha Mind was shocked.
When it had descended upon this small world called 'Arth World' under the command of the Hive Mind—the progenitor of its kind and eternally immortal leader—it had believed it could finish its mission quickly, just like other dimensional invasions.
The Hive Mind was the most specialized in invasion and conquest among the four lords under the Overlord who constituted Gehenna, and it took their kind, its kin, at most a year to bring down a single world.
That was precisely why the Lord of Conquest led the vanguard of Gehenna.
In terms of 'conquest,' if nothing else, there existed no being inside Gehenna that could surpass the Hive Mind.
But this world called 'Arth World' was completely different from the worlds they had conquered until now.
[Raising dead corpses back up, what in the...!]
Raising dead corpses back up!
The so-called concept of 'undead' was something Alpha Mind had experienced for the first time after coming to this backwater dimension called Arth World.
[Moreover, the entity ruling those 'undead' is no ordinary being.]
That wasn't all.
As an offshoot of the Hive Mind and a being possessing supreme dominion second only to the Hive Mind itself, the northern Alpha Mind could sense it.
The Undead King!
That the dominion of the entity commanding the corpses called 'undead,' possessing a mighty dominion encompassing the entire north, rivaled that of its progenitor, the Hive Mind!
[Just what kind of messed-up world is this place?]
Watching the defense line being dismantled one after another, Alpha Mind was aghast.
Regardless, the Dark Alliance forces kept grinding through the enemy army and advancing.
"Sweet! I leveled up again!"
"For the Alliance!"
"Isn't this an amazing farming spot?"
"Big respect to all you bros! Bringing you the Northern Colony raid live."
The users too, each chattering about their own situations, were entering the Colony interior through the collapsed defense line in a manner that seemed disorderly yet orderly.
The moment all defense lines collapsed and troops penetrated deep into the Colony, Alpha Mind intuited defeat.
[Our army is infinite, and my brothers are in this world as well. Arth World too shall be subjugated before the name of the Great Father!]
Without showing the slightest agitation, Alpha Mind continued to send out monsters.
Monsters newly born from the bio-structures called Plants erected throughout the Colony were deployed to the battlefield immediately.
The Hive Mind's army was near-infinite anyway, and it was not alone that had descended upon this world.
Though it was somewhat bewildered, this world called Arth World would eventually have no choice but to surrender before endless numbers!
Just as Alpha Mind was struggling in its final death throes.
[Storm of Decay.]
A solemn voice resounded from the blackened sky, echoing across the entire battlefield.
With it, something resembling black clouds surged from afar and soon swept across the entire Colony.
[Kuaaaaaaack!]
The moment the black storm struck Alpha Mind's main body, Alpha Mind let out a scream under the pain so excruciating that even its mind went numb.
And the Undead King, seated upon the skull throne in the castle of bones, overlooked the entire spectacle.
[It's been a while since I exerted myself; I'm a bit tired.]
The Undead King!
He had used one of his ultimate skills, the Storm of Decay, from a distance to sweep away the entire enemy encampment.
The Storm of Decay called forth by the Undead King had not only literally caused the enemies to rot away in one fell swoop but also destroyed the Plants and even dealt a devastating blow to the Alpha Mind at the Colony's center.
The entire Colony was filled with groans.
The sight of the monsters' bodies rotting and collapsing in an instant was a spectacle that evoked the two words 'the end.'
A single strike.
It was the result of a single ultimate skill from the Undead King.
[As for the rest, I leave it to you, Apostle.]
Drakan smiled upon hearing the Undead King's message.
'Even in its decayed state, it's still a monster that's acquired half the standing of a Transcendent, huh?'
The Undead King!
His divine authority was something Drakan himself knew all too well.
After all, Drakan himself had been the first to attempt the Undead King raid in the previous game.
And the ultimate skill the Undead King had just used, 'Storm of Decay,' was the so-called raid-wiper that had annihilated the attack party of elite users from the Ironblood Alliance.
The terrible nightmare of that time, when I alone survived by using my survival skill, remained vivid to this day.
But today, witnessing the Storm of Decay that swept away the entire Colony, Drakan realized the Undead King's power was far greater than he had thought.
'Was it always this powerful, or has its power increased as the seal breaks...?'
Watching the devastation wrought by the Storm of Decay, Drakan soon erased such thoughts from his mind.
What mattered was that the Undead King possessing such powerful strength was his subordinate, and the day he broke his seal and rose from the skull throne would be no different from gaining thousands of troops and tens of thousands of horses on his side.
Thinking so, Drakan raised his Ironblood Executor and pointed at the Alpha Mind groaning in decay.
"Kill him."
The moment Drakan's words fell, the vast army that had paused resumed its advance.
The successful completion of Arth World's very first Colony raid was now close at hand.