The Final Boss Has Returned - Episode 91
[The Vanished Lycanthrope Clan]
[Rank: Legend]
-Over a decade ago, when the Great Upheaval occurred, the Lycanthrope Clan fought bravely against it. However, at some point in the world changed by the Great Upheaval, they completely vanished from sight.
The Vampire King Nosferatu, who had dealings with the Lycanthrope Clan, harbors doubts regarding their disappearance. The Vampire King, tormented by the thought that they might have been swept away by the raging torrent of the Great Upheaval and flung into another dimension, has requested you, the Apostle of the Demon God, to track them down.
The last place the Lycanthrope Clan was seen is the Wolf Den of Monster Land.
-Will you accept the quest?
The quest that appeared was just as I had expected—a quest to find the whereabouts of the Lycanthrope Clan.
The Mythic-grade quest, Path of the Apostle!
The path leading to its final stage had finally appeared before my eyes.
"I accept."
[You have accepted the quest.]
After accepting the quest, I remained standing in place and looked at the chiefs of the five races as I spoke.
"As the Apostle of Darkness and the Lord of the Alliance, I command."
Their gazes turned to me.
I scanned the faces of the chiefs one by one and continued speaking.
"Deploy all forces except the undead to Lawless Port in the east."
"Is it war, Apostle?"
At my words, the Orc Great Chieftain Botan growled fiercely.
"Yes, it is war. Even now, the rabble calling themselves the Northern Alliance dare attempt to invade Lawless Port, my territory."
I spoke in a calm voice.
My words were true.
While I was capturing Snow Castle, that bastard Rio's Northern Alliance Army had already arrived at Lawless Port and commenced their siege.
Of course, I had already anticipated that entire situation, so I had granted Ignis the temporary position of lord, and after Sin Ha-yeon had 'donated' a massive amount of funds to the territory, Ignis had used that money to build a cosmic defense structure. However, since Rio had scraped together every last bit of his main forces to the point that the north became a no-man's land, his military power was not to be underestimated. If we delayed any longer, Lawless Port could fall.
Of course, now that I had devoured the entire north, giving up something like Lawless Port wouldn't be that much of a loss, but I was the type of person who, if something was mine, wouldn't give the enemy so much as a single hair.
Moreover, Lawless Port's profits, now that the casino had properly settled in, were truly enormous, so I had to defend it.
"The undead will leave half their forces in the north as a precaution against unforeseen circumstances."
[Understood.]
Though I had declared the Dark Territory in the north, not all of the northern region was in my hands yet.
An area between one-third and half still remained.
If I pulled out all the main forces in this situation, there was a risk that the hegemony over the north, barely secured, would fall back into enemy hands.
Therefore, in order to maintain hegemony over the north, it was necessary to leave behind garrison troops in the occupied territories.
"And the remaining forces, including half of the undead, will all head to Lawless Port."
At my words, the chiefs of the five races each showed respect and submitted to me.
I looked at them and smiled.
Now, it was time to finally put an end to the long, tiresome bad blood with Rio.
* * *
After Spear King Rio's refusal of mediation!
Because of this, public opinion online had turned quite unfavorably against Rio.
Yujin!
In Arde World, his proposal for mediation held a position close to holy ground, so the fact that a mere Over Ranker had dared express his refusal was the cause.
[Isn't Rio crazy? How can he refuse our God-God-God's proposal?]
[Either his greed is no joke, or he went crazy because Drakan interfered with his quest;]
[Honestly, our god Drakan was right lololol This b*stard was just packaging his own selfish greed as justice or whatever lololol]
[True though, Drakan obediently accepted the mediation~]
[Honestly, I'm an Infinite Yujin cultist, but just this once I agree with those Black Ox bastards. Disgusting b*stard]
Setting aside how well the internal unity of the Northern Alliance Army was, a tremendous amount of criticism was pouring down on Rio!
To the point where the fanbases of Drakan and Yujin—like oil and water—even temporarily acknowledged each other, Rio was being treated as virtually public enemy number one.
Because the justification Rio had put forth when he attacked Drakan in the beginning was "carrying out justice," even more serious backlash was flowing out.
Carrying out justice!
In Arde World, only Yujin and his alliance, Five Eyes, could proudly fly that flag—and yet, after raising it, to have refused Yujin's proposal head-on was more than enough to earn the users' dislike; it was overflowing.
And Drakan, as if he had anticipated this flow of public opinion, had already given Ignis the order to recruit users. Ignis's recruitment had gained a fair amount of response, and the number of users heading to join Lawless Port was increasing meaningfully.
At that moment.
[The Dark Territory has been declared in the north.]
[The power of darkness spreads throughout the entire north.]
Dark Territory declaration!
All users connected to Arde World had that notification window appear before them, and people's gazes were uniformly drawn to the north.
[Dark Territory?]
[Does anyone know what that is?]
[I don't really know either;]
[Analysis King just uploaded a video and said it's the preliminary stage of rebuilding the Dark Empire.]
[Wut, Dark Empire lolol]
[Holy crap lol, so the reason Drakan went to the north out of nowhere was because of that?]
[Breaking news, Drakan... took Snow Castle and occupied over half the north...]
[Wut lol, so Drakan becomes the ruler of the north?]
[Isn't this the first time someone has swallowed a whole region in Second?]
[In the previous game too, Drakan was the first to consume a nation lolol]
[He pulled off something Yujin hasn't even done yet lol he's insane lol]
[Our Yujin-nim isn't incapable, he just chooses not to, okay?]
Soon after, issue creators who dug into Arde World's myths and legends found the meaning of Dark Territory in the legends of Saion and uploaded videos revealing its true nature one after another like bamboo shoots after rain, but that wasn't what truly mattered.
Drakan!
The fact that he had achieved the feat of becoming the conqueror of a single region—a feat Yujin had not yet accomplished—astonished people.
Unlike the previous game, in Second, it was not users but NPCs who were moving Arde World.
The power of the Ten Great Guilds was immense, but they had yet to reach the level of strength of the NPC nations established in Arde World.
Of course, speculation close to certainty circulated here and there that if Yujin and Five Eyes's full potential were revealed, they could easily overthrow a nation or so, but until now, Yujin had not shown any movement to officially swallow up the central region where he held sway.
In that situation, Drakan had become the first in Second to devour an entire region and even declare a Dark Territory.
Drakan's steps so far had been groundbreaking in their own right, but this was a shocking fact that would overshadow all of his previous achievements.
Something that no one, not even Yujin, had accomplished—Drakan had done it!
While users were chattering about this fact, another piece of news arrived.
[Guys, did you see the Orcs moving in the Skyfloor Mountain Range? Are they moving house or what?]
[The undead are moving too?]
[Yeah, the Orcs and undead are gathering at the passage connecting the east and north;;]
Drakan!
By the order he had given, the military forces of the Orcs, Vampires, Undead, and Merfolk were gathering in the border region between the east and north.
That wasn't all.
The Dark Elves in the southern Great Forest had also begun their northward march toward the east together with the undead army that had been garrisoned there after completing Drakan's Dark Elf Kingdom quest.
A force more than enough to easily crush the Northern Alliance!
That massive force had finally begun its advance toward the east.
And Drakan was at its vanguard. This news immediately flowed into the ears of the Northern Alliance Army.
"Enemy forces are pressing in from the north. Even conservative estimates put them at 1.5 times our forces."
Upon hearing the report from Kaian, the vice guild master of the Simseong Milky Way Guild, Rio's lips trembled with rage.
Estimated forces of at least 1.5 times!
That meant only one thing.
If they arrived here, there would be no hope.
'So him heading north wasn't simply with the purpose of inducing us to split our forces and disrupting our rear?'
The declaration of Dark Territory followed by the concentration of Orc forces!
Hearing that news, Rio felt as if he had been struck hard in the back of the head.
Drakan!
He had finally realized the true reason Drakan had headed north.
He hadn't landed in the north simply to cause disruption in the rear.
Reinforcements.
He had gone north to summon powerful reinforcements capable of completely annihilating the Northern Alliance.
Rio only realized that what the bastard had been aiming for from the very beginning was exactly that, after being struck in the back of the head.
If only he had known beforehand that Drakan was hiding such a card!
Rio would have responded to the ceasefire negotiations long ago.
But Rio had misjudged the situation, and in the end, that misjudgment came flying back like a boomerang.
"To defeat them, we need to capture Lawless Port quickly."
A hollow laugh flowed from Rio's mouth upon hearing Kaian's words.
It is commonly said that a siege requires at least three times the defensive forces.
It meant that a well-built castle's defensive capability was that outstanding.
But Lawless Port's defensive capability transcended even that meaning of outstanding.
The towering black city walls that surrounded the entire city!
Those walls weren't just unique in color; they possessed a special ability to randomly cast curses on soldiers attacking the walls.
Of course, the curses were at a level that could be handled by the druids assigned to the allied army, but that much force being wasted was a loss from the Northern Alliance Army's perspective.
That wasn't all.
From the great magic defensive formations installed only in important fortresses to the fortress cannons mounted atop the walls!
It possessed such tremendous defensive power that one would believe it to be the capital of a nation.
If it were a land city, one could cut off supplies through encirclement and starve them to death, but Lawless Port was a maritime city.
It could receive plentiful supplies through the Pirate Archipelago.
Originally, the naval forces of the Northern Alliance, with Vikings and mermaids as their main strength, should have carried out commerce raiding operations to disrupt maritime supply, but ever since the naval battle with Drakan, the Northern Alliance navy had been miserably annihilated, and the dominance of the eastern and northern seas was already completely in Drakan's grasp.
Moreover, the problem didn't end there.
No matter how good a fortress's defenses were or how unbroken its supplies, if the defending forces guarding the fortress lacked capability, the fortress would fall easily.
Just like Snow Castle, the northern capital, which had easily fallen because only stragglers remained after the main forces had all withdrawn.
But from the standpoint of Rio and the Simseong Milky Way Guild, it was most regrettable that the defending forces protecting Lawless Port were the elite of the elite.
Over Ranker, Flame King Ignis!
And JDG, one of the Ten Great Guilds!
The Black Magician NPC with strength rivaling an Over Ranker, the leader of the Dark Ring Council, Kalid!
The combined defensive strength of Lawless Port—from these most elite forces, to the rankers belonging to Jeil E&M, to the users voluntarily joining even now—was truly enough to make Lawless Port an impregnable fortress.
"If we cannot capture Lawless Port before Drakan arrives here......"
Kaian trailed off.
If they failed to capture Lawless Port by the time Drakan reached it, the Northern Alliance had no chance of victory.
To face Drakan with their currently inferior forces, they had to at least occupy Lawless Port and dig in to stand a chance.
Rio knew the words Kaian had omitted.
"Damn it."
A curse flowed from Rio's mouth.
Between a rock and a hard place!
There was no longer any path of retreat for him.
He couldn't surrender to Drakan at this point.
No, Drakan wouldn't even accept a surrender now.
He was not a man who would show mercy twice.
Thus, the current situation was a perfect checkmate.
Rio rose from his seat.
He had only one choice he could make now.
"Capture Lawless Port at all costs."
Upon hearing Rio's words, the Northern Alliance Army once again began attacking the black walls of Lawless Port.