Chapter 69: The Return of the Final Boss
The Northern Expeditionary Force!
The expeditionary force pressing toward the end of the world with the goals of completely conquering the North and the death of the Undead King numbered a staggering one hundred thousand.
Composing that Northern Expeditionary Force were the Simseong Milky Way Guild of the Spear King Rio—who proclaimed himself the paramount leader of the North—along with its allied guilds and collaborators, as well as elite warriors and NPCs such as Druids conscripted from the Northern Tribal Alliance.
The Land of Death!
As befitting the domain of the Undead, the ground was cracked and parched like a dried rice paddy, and in that place where the sky was dyed a dreary gray, a battle was unfolding now.
"Kill the undead bastards!"
"Let's turn these corpse bastards back into corpses!"
The clash between the Northern Expeditionary Force and the Undead Army!
On the battlefield where the dead and the living were tangled together and magic raged unchecked, the one who stood out above all was none other than the Spear King Rio, wielding Mistilteinn.
Spear King, 槍王!
True to that name, every time Rio's spear thrust out, ghouls, skeletons, and zombies alike collapsed.
From the entire bodies of undead grazed by Mistilteinn, leaves, stems, and flowers bloomed forth.
Overwhelming vitality!
The power of life and nature, diametrically opposed to death, engulfed the undead.
Wherever Rio passed, countless undead fell like rotten sheaves of straw, and with his every step, flowers, grass, and sprouts burst forth from the parched earth.
A sight truly no different from an incarnation of life—a single flower blooming upon the battlefield!
The expeditionary force was enraptured by the sight.
And likewise, viewers watching the battle against the undead through internet broadcasts and cable game-specialty stations were all glued to the overwhelming scene.
Drakan!
The wars he had shown until now—from the recapture of Lawless Harbor to the undersea war and the naval decisive battle—had been fascinating as well, but the war between the Northern Expeditionary Force led by Spear King Rio and the undead was no less interesting.
A war waged between the living and the dead!
The 'War of Death,' as if watching a real-time clash between light and darkness, was already drawing enormous attention across Arde forums, SNS, and Arde Live, regardless of whether the reception was positive or negative.
It was to the point that even when going out for lunch in the real world, one could occasionally hear talk of the Northern Expedition over their shoulder.
And with these results, Rio was extremely satisfied—no less than his superior and the de facto master of the Simseong Milky Way Guild, Sin Jeonghyeok.
'It was an expedition I started as if pushed into it, but now that it's underway, I feel it was the right call.'
It was a quest started by Sin Jeonghyeok's coercion, but once he actually began, an enormous amount of attention and profit was pouring in!
In that situation, Rio was screaming with happiness.
'If only I succeed in the Undead King raid, I could become the true ruler of the North.'
In Rio's head, his happiness circuits were already revving so hard they threatened to smoke.
Undead King!
The greatest hero of the North, its pioneer, and the one called the father of all Northerners—the Archdruid Kazan—had to be content with merely sealing him. If only he could slay that Mythic-grade monster!
For the first time since entering the Second, he could become the ruler not of a 'Guild,' but of a 'Nation.'
Rio, King of the Northern Kingdom!
What a glorious name that was!
Rio knew.
Just how tremendous the power held by a guild master who had devoured a 'Nation' in the previous game had been!
Right now, even Drakan, the leader of that Iron-Blood Alliance, had swallowed the Saxen Kingdom in the name of the Iron-Blood Alliance through a treason quest in the previous game, and hadn't he brought numerous top guilds to their knees through guild wars? Hadn't he formed a guild alliance on that basis and waged war against the entire world?
Even if it didn't reach that extent, there was a vast difference between a guild and a nation, and the capabilities and power of a nation allowed one to do far more diverse and numerous things than a guild.
So much so that there was a saying that when a guild becomes a nation, a million things change!
Anyway, if he completed the War of Death quest and could kill the Undead King, it wasn't such a far-fetched dream to unify the Northern Tribal Alliance, establish the 'Northern Kingdom,' and ascend to the throne of a king ruling over the entire North.
If that came to pass, he would be the first to achieve a feat that even Yujin, the top ranker of the current era, had not accomplished.
'King, king. Heheheheheh.'
Rio let out a sinister smile inwardly.
Meanwhile, the battle had already ended completely.
Rio watched with a pleased smile at the beautiful sight of life blooming as the druids cast their magic over the Land of Death.
To him, Kaian—the expeditionary force's vice commander and vice master of the Simseong Milky Way Guild—approached and spoke.
"Guild Master. This battle is another victory for our expeditionary force."
"What about the broadcast results and buzz?"
"Simseong Milky Way, Spear King, Northern Expeditionary Force, and War of Death are all ranked on SNS real-time trends. Portal trending searches are likewise dominated by related keywords. The number of real-time streaming viewers on the guild's official channel is twenty million. The live broadcast of War of Death aired on SBC Games achieved a viewership rating of 10%."
Rio smiled at Kaian's words.
Because today's results were supremely satisfying as well.
"The Vice Chairman must be pleased today as well!"
Vice Chairman Sin Jeonghyeok!
The crown prince of the Simseong Group had not had a day without a smile on his face due to the Simseong Milky Way Guild's recent streak of dominating the spotlight day after day.
"Let's keep going straight to the Undead King like this."
The moment Rio said that with a smile.
[The Winter Seal has been destroyed.]
A single line of notification rose in his field of vision.
"Winter Seal? Destroyed?"
The destruction of the Winter Seal!
What kind of bolt from the blue was this!
Rio's face stiffened at the notification window displaying unbelievable content.
Winter Seal!
News that that seal—so famous that any Northern user not knowing of it might as well be a spy—had been destroyed was enough to shake Rio's mental state.
'Just who? How? Why? Did they destroy it?'
Moreover, unlike ordinary users, Rio had progressed through quite a few North-related quests, so he knew exactly where the seal was and who was guarding it.
Winter Forest!
The Druids' Sanctuary!
How had they broken through that terrifying place where the Archdruids resided, smashed even the World Tree, and destroyed the seal beneath it?
This was impossible unless it was an elite party including an Over Ranker-level user.
But Rio's thoughts could not continue further.
[Eternal Winter returns to the North.]
Because along with the short message, snow poured from the sky as if a hole had been torn in it, and a fierce, biting knife-like wind began to blow.
Eternal Winter!
It was the moment the army of General Winter mercilessly descended upon the Northern Expeditionary Force.
* * *
Eternal Winter had come again to the North!
The effect of that message delivered to all users in the North was tremendous.
[Winter Seal? Who broke it?]
[North is crazy cold right now. Not taking questions.]
[Wanna build a snowman with me?]
[White garbage is falling from the sky;]
[This guy's definitely acting]
Of course, the North had always been famous as a cold and barren land, but that too was a relative concept. Naturally, seasons called spring and summer, when snow melted, existed in the North as well.
And the current season in the North was summer!
It was weather with temperatures continuously above freezing, where snow was nowhere to be found. It wasn't for nothing that the Northern Expeditionary Force had chosen summer to begin the war.
Under those circumstances, winter suddenly barging in was a shock in and of itself.
With bone-chilling cold and fist-sized snow pouring down as if the sky had torn open, Northern users were scrambling for cold-weather countermeasures.
But the one hit hardest of all was none other than the Northern Expeditionary Force!
"I-it's an absurd cold. We haven't even reached the North Pole yet, but with this level of cold, non-combat losses could reach serious levels by the time we arrive at the North Pole."
Upon hearing Kaian's report, Rio's hands trembled.
"What the hell is this!"
North Pole!
The undead's main base, an extreme zone where blizzards raged all year round!
The snowy field that one must pass through to reach the northern end of the continent, commonly called 'the end of the world'—they hadn't even reached it yet, and such cold had struck!
This was truly a nightmare.
They had used the stockpiled cold-weather supplies in haste, but according to Kaian's report, massive non-combat losses could occur upon entering the North Pole.
Of course, the powerful individuals comprising the expedition's leadership, like themselves, were relatively free from the debuffs brought by the cold, but the soldiers making up the expedition were not.
Furthermore, if the enemy had been fellow humans, there would have been no need to worry this much. Non-combat losses from the sudden cold would be similar for the enemy as well.
But the problem was that the enemy was not human, but undead.
Corpses couldn't feel the cold, and thus the undead were immune to cold debuffs.
It was truly a situation overwhelmingly favorable to the enemy!
Charging bare-bodied into the North Pole, which would grow even colder with the advent of Eternal Winter, was nothing short of suicide.
"What about additional cold-weather supply support?"
"We are doing our best to secure supplies, but the budget has already reached its limit. Without additional support, further resupply will be difficult."
Money!
In the end, damn money was the problem again.
Indeed, the cost of maintaining the current grand army was no joke, and if additional expenses were incurred on top of that, budget overruns were a natural result.
But if they advanced like this without even minimal cold-weather measures, even victory would be no victory at all.
With the completed Mistilteinn in his hands, he could cut off the Undead King's breath, but he might get buried in a blizzard and die before even reaching that point.
"I will speak with the Vice Chairman about this."
Rio squeezed his eyes shut and logged out.
* * *
Skull Castle!
Inside the castle, which now felt somewhat familiar, I and my party members were having an audience with the Undead King.
A giant skeleton three meters tall, clad in black robes and bound all over by vines and tree trunks!
The Undead King moved his jawbone toward me.
[Contractor, thou hast faithfully carried out my request. Thanks to this, that arrogant human army is no different from a rat in a poison jar.]
Blue ghastly flames ignited in the Undead King's empty eye sockets.
[Canst thou show me the completed Laevateinn?]
"Of course."
At the Undead King's words, I took Laevateinn out from my inventory.
Fwoosh!
A sword composed of pale, blazing blue flames!
Surging flames undulated like waves in the Undead King's eye sockets as he gazed upon that sword.
[Truly, a flame more beautiful than I expected.]
A trembling voice flowed from the Undead King's mouth.
[I shall bestow upon thee a small reward for completing Laevateinn, my ultimate weapon.]
Blue light gathered at the tip of the Undead King's bony right index finger, and soon after, a strange pattern formed in the air.
The very next moment.
[The Undead King is attempting to teach you the 'Rune of Regression.']
[Will you learn the skill 'Rune of Regression'?]
Rune of Regression!
Even for me, who had mastered all sorts of information from the previous game until now, a skill name I was seeing for the first time had appeared.
'It's clearly a one-time use skill since it has the Rune name, but Regression?'
Of course, it wasn't a completely unseen skill type.
Rune!
Skills ending with such a modifier were usually one-time use skills.
For example, like the Rune of Speed or the Rune of Flame—once used, they disappeared entirely, skills closer to consumable items!
But a Rune of Regression!
He couldn't even guess its effect.
'Since it's a reward from that Undead King, it can't be bad, at least.'
Thinking so, I nodded.
"I will learn it."
[Rune of Regression]
[Grade: Mythic]
[Upon use, you can return to the state of your prime for 20 minutes.]
[A one-time skill; once used, it cannot be used again.]
[User's Prime: Steel Lord Drakan (Level 863)]
The moment I checked the skill information, my eyes shook.
'863, that's definitely my level from the previous game.'
Level 863!
Seeing my character level from the previous game written plainly there, I smiled.
That level must be based on the previous game.
Because unlike the previous game, where level was simply the measure of strength, the Second had a 'practical level cap' of 380, and raising one's level beyond that was excruciatingly difficult!
Even Ignis, an Over Ranker, was only in the 420s, so that said it all.
Anyway, that wasn't what was important right now.
Just 20 minutes!
Though it was a short duration and a one-time skill, an absurd skill that let me return to my prime self had been given to me.
[I have bestowed upon thee a reward befitting thee. Art thou pleased?]
"It suits me perfectly."
I answered the Undead King's question with a smile.
I instinctively realized.
Undead King!
The reason he handed this one-time skill to me.
It was likely a device of the quest to make me fight against Spear King Rio, who wielded Mistilteinn.
For a veteran—no, an oil well—of the Arde saga like me, this much was obvious at a glance.
[As for the contractor's companions, in my name, I grant them the right to choose one weapon to their liking from my armory.]
At the Undead King's following words, my party members' faces brightened with joy.
There had never been a user who disliked rewards.
Right then.
[The time has come.]
The Undead King's voice echoed throughout the grand hall.
[It is time to punish that arrogant human army and show all of Arde who the true master of the North is!]
The grand hall vibrated faintly.
Undead King!
Blue magical power was flowing from his entire body.
As expected of a Mythic-grade monster, the momentum emanating from the Undead King was truly on a terrifying level!
If I had been a raider here to raid the Undead King, the debuff notification stacks from that fear emanation just now would have surely piled up enormously.
[Contractor. I entrust to thee command of the undead army.]
The Undead King's blue gaze turned toward me.
[Go and fight. Be victorious. Bury all those living ones in the snow! Do this, and I shall acknowledge thee as my apostle, and our undead shall join the Ancient Alliance.]
I smiled at the Undead King's words.
War!
The time to finally begin the real, full-scale war had come.