The Final Boss Has Returned - Episode 46
Before Reksaseu's eyes appeared the figure of 'that bastard'—one he wouldn't find satisfying even if he tore the wretch to shreds and devoured him.
Deurakan!
The face of that bastard, who looked every bit the villain, the very figure of the devil he had seen on the battlefield six years ago, was seared perfectly into Reksaseu's sight.
Thump!
Reksaseu's heart pounded as if it had gone mad.
Deurakan, the Steel Sovereign!
The mastermind of evil who had led the revolutionary army and clashed with them countless times during the World Revolution was now standing before him, having transcended the years.
The moment his eyes met that bastard's, rage welled up from the depths of Reksaseu's chest.
"Deurakaaaaaan!"
Reksaseu spewed forth the seething hatred from the depths of his heart.
The sight of the specter from six years ago returning was seared into his eyes.
Seeing Deurakan wielding that dark-crimson sword and clad in black full plate armor, just as he had then, made Reksaseu's blood run backward.
Scenes of the past Arde World, ruled by evil, flashed through his mind.
Of course, Reksaseu also knew that Yujin had personally gone to warn him, and that Deurakan had accepted it.
But Reksaseu did not believe Deurakan's promise.
Deurakan was a cunning bastard, a wicked villain capable of committing any act without batting an eye if it served his own interests.
A crooked smirk.
And now, that villain was directing his sneer straight at him.
Looking at that mocking grin, Reksaseu shouted, his fury shooting straight to the top of his skull.
"Die!"
A single word condensed with all his hatred toward Deurakan!
At those words as a signal, the executives of the Infinite Yujin Church began firing off skills.
"Chain Lightning!"
"Wind Arrow!"
"Warrior's Strike!"
Watching the colorful skills fly toward Deurakan, Reksaseu smiled.
That's right.
This is the end.
Deurakan!
Now he would end that bastard's march with his own hands.
At the ecstasy of bestowing upon that bastard the same nightmare from six years ago, Reksaseu's hands trembled.
If there was one thing he didn't like, it was Deurakan's face—still showing composure even at this very moment.
But it didn't matter.
Because soon, he would turn that sneering face into a death mask!
Thinking so, Reksaseu put strength into the spear he held.
At that very moment.
From Deurakan's mouth, a sound Reksaseu had not expected burst forth.
"Summon Kraken."
Kraken?
They hadn't even carried out the pearl retrieval quest yet, so what was this all of a sudden?
Right as Reksaseu was bewildered by Deurakan's words.
The floor shone, and giant tentacles began surging upward from the radiant ground, splitting the water as they rose.
The skills fired by the Infinite Yujin Church members to kill Deurakan collided with the tentacles and vanished into nothingness.
A sea monster with a gargantuan body so large its end couldn't be seen was slowly revealing itself in the middle of the battlefield.
"It's the Kraken!"
"The Kraken has appeared!"
"T-this is unbelievable! T-the Kraken...?!"
The clamoring voices of the surrounding NPC soldiers echoed in Reksaseu's ears.
All expression vanished from Reksaseu's face.
"Really... the Kraken?"
Kraken!
The guardian beast of the fishmen!
But the Kraken was an existence that shouldn't be here right now.
According to the quest explained in the video that bastard had personally uploaded back then, shouldn't they need to recover the Abyssal Pearl in the palace underground to resurrect the Kraken...?
The moment that thought reached that far, the end of that video suddenly flashed through Reksaseu's mind.
'That bastard didn't include the scene where he accepted the quest!'
That's right.
Deurakan!
He hadn't included the scene of accepting the quest at the end of the video.
He had merely shown the quest's contents and wrapped up the video, nothing more.
At the time, he hadn't thought it particularly strange.
Because not only him, but other streamers had also ended their videos like that.
But it was only upon seeing the Kraken revived without the quest that Reksaseu realized.
The fact that information had leaked from somewhere.
And the fact that Deurakan had used that information to dig a trap to ensnare them!
And Reksaseu now realized the fact that he, without even knowing that, had been a perfect sucker caught in the trap Deurakan had laid.
So from the beginning, this was an unwinnable fight.
The moment despair draped over Reksaseu's eyes.
Blue lightning radiated from the Kraken's tentacles.
[You have been struck by Abyssal Lightning.]
[You have been afflicted with the status ailment 'Stun'.]
[You have been afflicted with the status ailment 'Paralysis'.]
Feeling a sharp tingling throughout his body, Reksaseu collapsed, his rigidly stiffened body falling onto the abyssal floor.
In his vision, he saw Deurakan rising up along the Kraken's body.
A sneer.
Deurakan looked at Reksaseu and sent hand signals to the surroundings, and the fishman soldiers who received them grabbed Reksaseu and his group and dragged them away.
Deurakan smiled as he watched that sight.
* * *
Kraken.
The guardian beast of the fishmen!
Thanks to having absorbed the power contained in the Thunderbird's horn, the sea monster had come to possess the lightning attribute that hadn't existed before; as it rampaged in the middle of the battlefield scattering lightning, great chaos befell the battlefield that had been gradually finding stability.
"How is the Kraken here?"
"T-this is unbelievable! W-why is the Kraken here?!"
The morale of the mermaids plummeted, while conversely, the morale of the fishmen rose.
"The guardian beast has come!"
"Kill the mermaid bastards, kill them again and again! We must reclaim our old lands!"
While all the warriors of the eight fishman tribes simultaneously attacked the mermaids, and JDG's elite raid party had Scylla by the ankles, the fishman camp had yet to secure a definite advantage in battle.
But with the Kraken's appearance, the precariously maintained balance collapsed on the spot.
"Tyrant's Command!"
And what tilted that collapsed balance even further toward their side was none other than Deurakan.
When he used Tyrant's Command, a legacy skill he had newly acquired, a massive emblem rose into the air.
A black cogwheel engraved with a red skull!
The Iron-Blood Alliance!
It was the moment the emblem of the guild that had ruled Arde World in the name of terror long ago, the symbol of the tyrant Steel Sovereign, revealed itself once more in the deep abyss.
[The legacy skill 'Tyrant's Command' has been activated.]
[The morale of allies on the battlefield increases significantly.]
[The attack power of all allies on the battlefield increases by 10%.]
[The stats of all allies on the battlefield increase by 10%.]
[The morale of all enemies on the battlefield drops significantly.]
......
Notification windows endlessly popped up before Deurakan's eyes!
The effects of the legacy skill soon manifested.
"I-it's no use. T-this is an unwinnable fight...."
"O-O Goddess of the Sea! Have mercy!"
The formation of the mermaids, whose morale had fallen, collapsed entirely, and the fishmen dug into that gap and slaughtered them.
Along with the sound of clashing weapons, red blood began spreading in all directions through the water.
And it wasn't only the fishman warriors who received Deurakan's buff.
JDG's elite raid party!
They, too, were receiving the buff.
Ignis looked at Scylla, flames wrapped around his entire body.
[SKYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!]
A terrifying roar from Scylla that made one's flesh tremble!
But of Scylla's six heads, only one remained.
The other five heads had already been severed by the attacks of the JDG raid party!
Looking at the single remaining head of Scylla, Ignis smiled.
Even now, in one corner of his vision, he could see real-time chat and exploding donations.
Ignis looked at Scylla, which had transformed into a monstrosity, and spoke in a low voice.
"Inferno."
As he manifested the skill, flames surged even more violently from his entire body.
Feeling the orange flames enveloping his body, Ignis raised his right hand and aimed at Scylla's one remaining head.
At that moment.
The flames burning across Ignis's entire body gathered at the tip of his right hand, condensing into a single point; soon after, that point exploded, and an enormous flame flared up, flying toward Scylla like a single spearhead.
[SKYIIIIIIII!]
The single-headed Scylla let out a bizarre scream and sprayed a breath from its maw, but a breath from only one head couldn't completely neutralize Inferno, one of Ignis's ultimate offensive skills.
"Storm Arrow!"
"Lightning Tornado!"
"Judgment of Light!"
When JDG's high rankers fired off skills to support Ignis, Scylla's breath scattered futilely, and their skills, including the Inferno Ignis had unleashed, struck Scylla's remaining head directly.
Scylla screamed upon being hit by Inferno, and Ignis didn't miss that moment, commanding the raid party to pour an all-out attack onto Scylla.
And finally.
[You have slain the Guardian Divine Beast, Scylla.]
[You have achieved the accomplishment 'Outlaw of the Seabed'.]
Looking at the notification window that appeared before his eyes, Ignis smiled.
Waving his hand to dismiss the notification window, Ignis looked at the Kraken rampaging in the middle of the distant battlefield and thought.
Deurakan!
He had kept his promise not to intervene in the Scylla raid.
So now, it was his turn to keep his promise to join the battlefield once the raid ended.
Entrusting the loot collection to the raid members, Ignis kicked off the ground, cutting through the water as he soared toward the battlefield.
* * *
The battle that had taken place in the deep sea had ended, of course, in victory for me and the fishman side.
The moment Scylla fell, the mermaids, whose morale had already been declining, completely lost their will to fight.
Antaios, the commander, grand general, and governor of the mermaid army, had resisted until the end, but ultimately met his death at the hands of Nereus.
It could truly be called a great victory.
Nereus, the fishman prince—no, now the fishman king—who had achieved the objective of annihilating the main force of the mermaid army, triumphantly returned to Aqua Haven where the protective barrier had been restored and held a victory celebration.
While the fishmen were joyfully partying in Aqua Haven, I was having a meeting with the completely disarmed users of the Infinite Yujin Church in the prison beneath the Kraken's sanctuary.
"Who are you bastards?"
"You knew everything and yet have the gall to act like you don't. But then again, you've always been that disgusting bastard."
At my words, Reksaseu, the leader of the Infinite Yujin Church users trapped in the prison, cackled and mocked me.
His words were right.
From the beginning, I had seen through all of their plans and had turned them around to meticulously dig a trap and screw them over.
So the only thing he could do now was mock me.
"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about."
I continued speaking, acting out an expression that said I truly didn't know what he was talking about.
"Anyway, who are you bastards, why were you with the mermaids, and why on earth did you try to kill me earlier?"
Right now, every action I took was fodder for a video that would be uploaded to the channel.
So I had to act completely oblivious from beginning to end.
Of course, those who would suspect me still would, but anyway, they were the ones who had thrown the first punch at me while I was just standing there, so the justification was on my side.
Anyway, even if I acted like I didn't know, since the video would be uploaded to the channel, it was only a matter of time before netizens uncovered Reksaseu's identity.
In other words, it was a game perfectly in my favor.
Reksaseu burst into laughter like a madman at my question.
"Are you really asking because you don't know?"
Madness settled in Reksaseu's eyes.
"You are a villain! One so disgusting, petty, and despicable that it makes one want to vomit—a piece of human trash! No, you're a lump of filth not even worthy of being called human! Do you think any other reason is needed to execute such evil?"
Curses flowed from the bastard's mouth, but I didn't pay his words much mind.
Because his intention was all too obvious.
Anyway, he was in a situation of utter resignation, and the circumstances of trying to kill me were irrefutable; most importantly, he had failed in his goal of killing me, so his aim was probably to spew a torrent of curses to provoke me while he had the chance.
But my mental fortitude wasn't weak enough to be shaken by mere trash talk.
Nor was I stupid enough to fall for such obvious provocation.
I looked at Reksaseu and spoke.
"Very well. I've heard enough, so now I must decide your punishment."
At my words, the gazes of the Infinite Yujin Church group focused on me.
I looked at them and finished my words.
"Banishment. I banish you bastards from this seabed to the surface. That is the punishment I deliver."
Banishment!
At the word 'banishment' that flowed from my mouth, Reksaseu's expression stiffened rigidly.
I looked at the bastard making an obviously flustered expression and laughed inwardly.
Because his flustered expression just now made me certain that my guess about his goal hadn't been wrong.