The Final Boss Has Returned – Chapter 127
A week flew by after Drakan's broadcast ended.
Excluding the north, where the Colony had vanished, the first attempt at capturing a Colony among the west, south, east, and center—where Colonies still remained—was the south.
Iron Axe and Shooting Star, respectively based in Europe and North America and snarling at each other over supremacy in the south, had been forcibly merged into one under the name 'Simseong Iron Stars' thanks to Vice Chairman Shin Jeong-hyeok's tremendous financial power.
And the Simseong Iron Stars Guild's first real battle was none other than the Southern Colony Raid.
With Vice Chairman Shin Jeong-hyeok's active support, the Iron Stars Guild's Southern Colony Raid succeeded.
However, the Southern Colony Raid failed to generate as much buzz as Iron Stars and Vice Chairman Shin had anticipated.
Of course, the fact that rival guilds had merged into one, that another powerful guild possessing two Over Rankers had emerged following JDG, and that the Nine Great Guilds had shrunk to the Eight Great Guilds was plenty to talk about.
That is, under normal circumstances.
But unfortunately, there was an even bigger issue at the moment.
The Dark Alliance and the Holy Union!
With the whole of Arde World divided into two camps, and even users who had remained 'neutral' gradually choosing sides, all users' attention was focused on the fact that Yujin and Drakan—the representatives of the two camps—had declared raids on the same date.
[Your boy Drakan acting like a coward lol Is it for real that he's declaring an eastern raid now?]
[Fr, he shot to fame in the north, abandoned the easterners, and now he's pretending to care. Hypocrisy is disgusting lol]
[Yujin-nim's raiding three at once, but your boy Drakan's bragging like crazy over just one raid; are Dark Alliance black bulls always such bluffers?]
[-Yujin-]
[Ah, the Yujin stans are trolling again, gross;]
[If you Union cowards had Five Eyes like your Yujin, Drakan-nim would've raided all the world Colonies at once long ago. He wouldn't just look after the center like a coward lol think about the power gap lol]
[Fr, besides Drakan-nim, is there any other user who cared for the east like this? Why does your cocky Yujin ignore the east again? Ah lol if you have Five Eyes, you should care about the east too lol]
And Drakan's strategy of targeting faction loyalty had hit its mark, so public opinion among the users was now split almost completely in black and white.
The Dark Alliance and the Holy Union!
The keyboard battles between the two factions' users had reached such an extreme that the administrators of Arde Saga's largest community, the Arde Forum—sick of the fighting between the two camps' users—had created separate boards for the Dark Alliance and the Holy Union.
At that moment.
[Yujin-nim has started his stream!]
[Drakan turned on his stream!]
As announced, Yujin and Drakan started their streams simultaneously.
With that, users from both camps split into two groups and entered their respective representative users' channels.
* * *
The East.
Two massive armies were now gathered around the giant Colony rooted in the former capital of the old Gasan Kingdom.
Drakan!
The western army he had recruited from the north and led south, mustering troops from the allied races, and Ignis's eastern army that had departed from Lawless Port had finally arrived at the Colony.
Alpha Mind, which had devoured half the east, ordered the monsters to stop the advance of the eastern and western armies, but the monsters were no match for the Dark Alliance's army, which boasted overwhelming military might.
Drakan looked at the Colony and turned on his stream.
[For the Alliance!]
[Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty to Drakan-nim~]
[Black bull has arrived!]
[Dr-ha~ it means hi to Drakan-nim!]
A flood of chats poured in the moment the stream started, and donations exploded as if they had been waiting!
Drakan smiled as he looked at the chats and donations.
It was because his strategy of provoking Alliance users had been a massive success.
Despite openly scheduling his stream at the same time as Yujin and Five Eyes, Drakan's viewer count exceeded his usual numbers.
Drakan watched the occasional donations popping up and looked beyond them at the Colony standing tall.
The Eastern Colony that had grown by devouring the capital of the Gasan Kingdom!
At its center, Alpha Mind stood tall, just as it had in the north.
[The eastern army has arrived.]
A whisper reached Drakan's ears as he looked at Alpha Mind.
The eastern army that had departed from Lawless Port leading eastern users alongside the Black Ring and JDG!
Ignis, who commanded that eastern army, had sent Drakan a whisper.
"Check complete. Attack."
[Understood.]
Upon hearing Drakan's order, flames ignited around Ignis's body at the vanguard of the eastern army gathered on the opposite side of the Eastern Colony.
"Drakan-nim has given the order."
The orange flames swirling around Ignis's body gathered at the tip of his right index finger.
The energy of fire condensed into an orange fireball!
Ignis pointed his right index finger at the eastern gate of the old Gasan Kingdom's royal castle, covered in membrane, and said:
"Inferno."
Kwagwang!
The orange flames extending from Ignis's right index finger struck the castle's eastern gate like a spear blade, and soon after, the gate burned and crumbled.
And through the gap, monsters began pouring out.
"Attack."
Seeing that, Ignis gave a blunt order.
Ignis's order was quickly relayed to JDG's executives via whisper, and the eastern users who received the command charged straight at the monsters.
The eastern users who had only suffered at the hands of monsters until now!
They unleashed their pent-up rage and ran toward the monsters.
Now behind them stood JDG and Ignis, and beyond that, the Dark Alliance and Drakan.
The very one who had burned Lawless Port and gone on to completely destroy the Pirate Coalition in the naval decisive battle!
The experience of victory Drakan had left behind was not achieved by Drakan alone but together with the eastern users, and therefore, the eastern users had no doubt that Drakan would once again lead them to victory in this Colony raid.
"Long live Drakan-nim!"
"For the Alliance!"
"Levels! EXP!"
As the eastern army, led by Ignis, Khalid—the leader of the Black Ring—and the dense ranks of eastern users, advanced into the Colony, the western army was likewise charging toward the Eastern Colony with Drakan at its fore.
Now rightfully seated as an Over Ranker, Drakan stood at the head of the western army, ruthlessly cutting down monsters with the Iron-blooded Executioner, while the Dark Alliance's army followed behind him.
"Steel Rain."
Drakan, who had been swiftly and accurately slaughtering monsters at the front, raised the Iron-blooded Executioner to the sky and uttered the skill activation phrase.
In that moment, dark red aura shot up from the sword Drakan held like a single blade, reaching the dark clouds covering the sky.
[Rumble!]
Along with it, the sound of thunder began to echo across the battlefield.
Steel Rain!
One of the two ultimate skills currently in Drakan's possession, together with the Incarnation of Iron Blood!
His wide-area ultimate skill, famous for executing the northern users who had tried to take his life in the war against the north, was unveiled once more upon the battlefield.
Kwakwakwakwang!
A rain of swords made of dark red aura falling from the sky plunged straight into the ground, causing deafening explosions everywhere on the battlefield.
Having reached level 380 and with his victory level risen, Steel Rain had grown even more powerful and mercilessly slaughtered the monsters.
Watching the monsters scream as they were bombarded by the aura rain, Drakan smiled.
And behind such a Drakan, an Arch Lich led an army of the dead, and besides that, everything from vampires to werewolves and orcs!
Facing troops consisting of almost every race of the Dark Alliance, not to mention their leaders, the monsters were ruthlessly cut down.
[To think the humans' resistance would be to this extent…….]
Alpha Mind, watching the scene from the center, was bewildered.
Arde World!
Resistance in this tiny world, no different in size from the countless other worlds they had invaded under the orders of the Conquest Sovereign, Hive Mind, was more intense than any invasion in history.
The brother stationed in the north had already been turned into minced meat by the attacks of the 'Undead' and the 'Dark Alliance,' and the brother in the south had also died at the hands of the natives not long ago.
But even after witnessing that spectacle, the eastern Alpha Mind never gave up on the invasion.
Hive Mind, the powerful unified will that governed the entire race!
Disobeying that command was impossible, even for an Alpha Mind—a command unit with high autonomy in thought.
But neither could it sit still and be slaughtered by the natives like its brothers in the north and south.
[Send my children up.]
Alpha Mind's dominion swept through the entire Colony under its command.
With it, bizarrely twisted flying bodies rose from the giant nests that had sprouted throughout the Colony.
The Hive Mind's aerial weapons, called "Goryeong" by the werewolves who had lived in Broken World for over ten years!
True to their name, Goryeong with grotesque appearances—as if tentacles were wrapped around wyverns—surged up throughout the Colony.
Unlike other regions, where major NPC factions like ruling guilds or kingdoms had led the resistance to some degree against the Colonies, the east was a region that had been helplessly ravaged by monsters for a week in real time.
Therefore, the eastern Alpha Mind, which had gathered vast amounts of organic matter and resources, had finally developed the Colony enough to produce 'Goryeong.'
[Now that my children have risen, the wretched army of the natives shall soon fall!]
The moment the Goryeong that had taken flight alongside Alpha Mind's roar were about to assault the Dark Alliance's army—
[Kyaaaaaaa!]
A giant skeletal frame tore through the dark clouds thickly packed in the sky and revealed itself.
Bone Dragon!
One of the three most powerful undead under the Undead King had revealed itself.
Behind such a Bone Dragon followed a mixed unit of Bone Wyverns and ordinary Wyverns.
Drakan.
He had discovered beforehand through reconnaissance that the enemy possessed aerial forces and had prepared aerial troops in advance.
Breath spewed from the Bone Dragon's massive maw, and watching the Goryeong plummeting after being struck by the breath, Drakan smiled, while the eastern Alpha Mind panicked.
But Drakan's scheme did not end here.
In the capital of the Gasan Kingdom, the unusually wide Arken River flowed through the center, and even now, after being eroded by the Colony, it remained the same.
And beneath those deep waters, merfolk who had hidden their way here from under the eastern sea and swum up against the river current were waiting.
[The time has come. Go out and kill the otherworldly monsters.]
Merfolk King Nereus!
At his command, the merfolk hiding in the river burst out all at once and landed inside the Colony, plunging it into massive chaos from within and without.
Because on top of the already dire situation of struggling to stop the western and eastern armies of the Dark Alliance arriving outside, they were now being attacked from within.
A war situation clearly turning in the Dark Alliance's favor!
Looking at the tide of battle, Drakan smiled.
Now, at last, the time to devour everything in the east was approaching.