The Final Boss Has Returned — Chapter 150
Flash!
Along with the sound of thunder, a barrage of lightning poured from the sky.
Judgment of Will!
The moment the Hive Mind’s mighty will manifested as physical force and crashed into the earth, the users took massive damage.
“What the hell kind of damage is this?”
“Is it insane?”
It was devastating damage, the word “overwhelming” wasn’t even enough!
Only because they were all rankers did they survive by activating their survival skills; otherwise, their characters would have been sent flying outright. The users were shaken by the overwhelming might.
“It stings.”
“The enemy’s attack power is beyond our imagination.”
And at the center of it all, Drakan and Yujin, who were commanding the users, exchanged these words.
Befitting top rankers and Over Rankers, they had not suffered any great damage even after taking a direct hit from the Judgment of Will.
“We can overwhelm the enemy’s forces with numbers.”
Beside Drakan stood a user wielding a massive blade.
It was the Blade Disciple, Wujing.
They could overwhelm the enemy troops with numbers!
It might have sounded absurd at first glance, but it wasn’t mere nonsense—not with the Chinese users who specialized in human wave tactics joining them.
“But if we do that, the damage to our users will increase.”
“If it is to prevent the destruction of Ard World, should we not be prepared to make any sacrifice?”
Wujing shot back at Yujin’s words.
He simply could not understand Yujin, who was so worried about damage to the users.
It was just a game; it wasn’t as if they were actually dying.
“Sacrifice! That is unacceptable!”
A sharp clash erupted between Yujin and Wujing.
Drakan sighed inwardly as he watched the two.
*He knows nothing about how to handle Yujin.*
Drakan’s gaze turned toward Wujing.
The Blade Disciple, Wujing.
He knew far too little about how to deal with Yujin.
Speak to him of sacrifice, and side effects were bound to burst forth immediately.
Yujin.
Of all things, he was the most sensitive to the sacrifice of ordinary users.
However, that was merely an ideal.
Reality was different.
As if to prove that this was the Hive Mind’s stronghold, endless waves of monsters were pressing into the Territory of Conquest.
Against the monsters flooding in so thickly they blotted out both heaven and earth, the current forces were insufficient.
Of course, the advance party was composed of rankers who could each fight a hundred alone, but a single Judgment of Will had forced most of them to use their survival skills, eroding their combat strength.
Reinforcements.
No, ordinary users had to be committed.
And the number of users gathered in Broken World right now was, as Wujing said, great enough to overwhelm the enemy with sheer quantity.
It was the result of all forces in Ard World uniting for the first time ever.
Thus, Drakan interjected between the two arguing figures and spoke.
“There is some truth to Wujing’s words.”
“Lord Drakan?”
At Drakan’s words, Yujin’s gaze turned toward him.
Drakan.
He had expected him to take his side, yet to his surprise, Drakan had sided with Wujing—on that absurd opinion of sacrificing ordinary users, no less.
“However, I must say that the word ‘sacrifice’ is incorrect.”
But at Drakan’s following words, both Wujing and Yujin could not help but show puzzled expressions.
That the word sacrifice was incorrect!
What could he mean?
“The users gathered here have all united under our great cause—the protection of Ard World. I believe that excluding users who have armed themselves with the noble resolve to protect Ard World from this raid in the name of safety would, rather, be an insult to their very will.”
Yujin flinched at Drakan’s words.
It was not a sacrifice!
The users gathered here had already made the noble resolve to protect Ard World!
Not allowing such users to participate in the raid would be an insult to that resolve!
Thus, Drakan’s logic—that it was by no means a sacrifice—seemed like sophistry at a glance, yet held considerable persuasive power.
“Lord Drakan speaks the truth. The public must also be wishing to participate in the raid.”
Only then did Wujing grasp the hidden meaning behind Drakan’s words and back him up vigorously from the side.
Yujin nodded at Drakan’s words.
What the users wished for more than anything!
Yujin deeply empathized with the fact that it was none other than to participate in the raid.
He had unconsciously ignored that his own perception of treating the users as lambs to be protected at all costs was mistaken, and that the users, too, harbored hearts that wished to unite and fight before the crisis of Ard World’s destruction.
“I was mistaken.”
Yujin readily admitted his fault, and Drakan smiled as he looked at him.
Yujin.
To handle him, even the same words had to be handled with care—a differently chosen letter made all the difference.
Simply put, what mattered was wrapping things up with plausible justification.
This was precisely the method Drakan had learned for dealing with Yujin through their clashes.
“I will permit ordinary users to participate in the raid.”
The moment Yujin’s final approval was granted,
the users who had been waiting in the rear solely to join the raid surged into the Territory of Conquest all at once.
“Waaaaah!”
“Kill them all!”
“For Ard World!”
At last, the human wave!
The moment a tide of people crashed into the Territory of Conquest.
* * *
Hive Mind Raid!
This raid, upon which the fate of Ard World rested, was being broadcast live not only on game-specialized broadcasters but also on the official Miracle Entertainment channel on Ard Live.
Of course, many users were participating on-site, but the number watching through the live broadcast was also considerable.
[Woah lol look at the scale lol it’s insane lol]
[Fr, it’s literally human wave tactics;;]
[No but it’s half monsters half people;;]
[Isn’t this legendary-tier?]
[It wasn’t even like this during the Revolution lol]
The users watching the live broadcast were all astonished by its scale.
The moment Yujin permitted ordinary users to join the raid, the number of users pouring forth like a flood was so endless that it covered the horizon and then some.
It was a force surpassing the Hive Mind’s forces, which were themselves renowned for overwhelming numbers!
Truly, it was not just the users who were stunned by the crushing numbers.
[Wh-what is this?]
Hive Mind, the Lord of Conquest!
Having spent countless eons destroying innumerable worlds, it had truly been a long time since it had been exposed to such danger.
More than anything, the fact that the troops it could currently control were fewer than the enemy’s numbers shook the Hive Mind.
Conquest!
As befitting that name, the Hive Mind’s combat method was simple.
Overwhelming numbers!
Overwhelming the enemy with truly crushing numbers!
That was the method the Hive Mind had employed from the past until now.
Quality over quantity!
Those who said such things had simply never witnessed truly overwhelming “quantity.”
If a hundred was not enough, a thousand; if a thousand was not enough, ten thousand; if ten thousand was not enough, a hundred million!
The sole strategy the Hive Mind had adhered to was crushing the enemy with endless numbers great enough to overwhelm even quality itself, enough to blanket the horizon.
But now, that strategy had become useless.
The army of users covering the ground was effortlessly tearing apart the vassals the Hive Mind had sent out.
Like the saying “half water and half meat,” it was a bizarre battlefield split half and half between users and monsters!
Of course, it was not only users present.
“Kill those otherworldly monstrosities! For His Imperial Majesty!”
The Empire!
The largest and strongest nation in Ard World!
The Empire, belonging to the Holy Alliance, had dispatched its imperial troops to the other world at the request of the Hero.
The Imperial Army, led by the Empire’s Grand General—who was known to have reached the realm of the Grand Sword Master—maintained strict military discipline amid the chaotic users and ground down the monsters like a single, elaborate machine.
“Follow the guidance of the Goddess of Light! Fall back, foul things!”
The Holy Kingdom, another nation maintaining the continent’s balance alongside the Empire!
The holy warriors of the Holy Kingdom, including the Holy Knights Division and the Priests Division under the Pope who served the Pantheon and the Goddess of Light, were also participating in this war in the name of a holy war.
It was not just the Holy Kingdom and the Empire.
“For the Alliance!”
“Protect the Hero!”
Elf Rangers and the Dwarf Warrior Division!
The mighty army of the Holy Alliance, lined with the greatest forces symbolizing the alliance and superhumans representing them—the Grand Knight Captain of the Holy Knights Division, the Elf Archsummoner, the Dwarf Warlord, and the Grand General of the Imperial Army—was storming into the Territory of Conquest from the east.
And to the west.
There, an army exuding the exact opposite atmosphere from the Holy Alliance was sweeping across the battlefield.
It was the Dark Alliance.
[Undead Rise.]
Arch Lich!
The most powerful necromancer in the world, second only to the Undead King!
The undead army he led displayed a peculiar phenomenon: far from decreasing, its numbers grew the more they fought.
The corpses of monsters strewn across the battlefield immediately resurrected as undead under the Arch Lich’s guidance and joined the Army of the Dead, while high undead such as Death Knights and Liches led the lesser undead across the battlefield, ruthlessly slaughtering monsters.
It was not only the undead.
From the Fishmen to vampires, orcs, and lycanthropes!
The elite troops of all Dark Alliance races that Drakan had successfully recruited through his quests thus far were gathered in one place, massacring the monsters.
“By the Apostle’s command!”
“Kill them all!”
“For the Alliance!”
Contrary to the Holy Alliance, the protection of the Demon Subjugation Temple and the Dark Demon God descended over the Dark Alliance’s army radiating dark energy.
That did not mean they were losing the aerial battle, either.
Western sky.
[Kwaaaaaaaargh!]
Bone Dragon!
One of the three strongest undead—also a subordinate of the Undead King, and now quite familiar from its appearances in Drakan’s broadcasts—revealed itself.
When the Bone Dragon unleashed a roar, the flying monsters’ airspeed began to slow.
Behind it followed Wyvern Riders on Drakan’s side, including the Bone Wyverns and the Flyingmen of the Army of the Dead’s aerial forces.
Nor were the forces in the eastern sky outmatched by those in the west.
Fwoooosh!
A giant bird composed of flames, scattering blue fire.
Led by the Holy Kingdom’s guardian divine beast, the Phoenix, the Holy Alliance’s aerial troops riding griffins endlessly filled the sky.
Truly, from the Hive Mind’s perspective, it was little different from being besieged on all sides!
With the Holy Alliance’s forces surging from the east and the Dark Alliance’s forces from the west, the current battle situation was overwhelmingly unfavorable to the Hive Mind.
[Mental Storm!]
The Hive Mind unleashed a Mental Storm again, as if lashing out in desperation.
[The power of the Pantheon descends upon the Territory of Conquest.]
[The power of the Demon Subjugation Temple descends upon the Territory of Conquest.]
But due to the authority of the Pantheon and the Demon Subjugation Temple, which had descended upon Broken World, the effect of the Mental Storm was diminished once again.
Subsequently, the Hive Mind fired off the Judgment of Will, managing to eliminate a considerable number of users, but even after being struck by the Judgment of Will, the users surged forward without end.
At last, despair began to take deep root in the Hive Mind’s unified will.