◈ Episode 438. Steps (2)……
Why?
“The steps of the Heavenly Demon, who looks down even upon the Ten Thrones.”
Where had that bullheaded stubbornness gone, the kind that never budged no matter how I pleaded?
How could those lips so shamelessly utter the words Heavenly Demon?!
Yes, I knew the truth.
It was all because of that dreadful love of blood kin.
But if that was how it was going to be…… ‘I told you, you should just become the youngest of the Lee family?!’ Even if I could understand Granfell because he had his reasons, I could not let my mortal enemy off. It was obvious. Without my knowing it, that enemy, Lee Yerim, had tainted Granfell.
After all, she had tormented me relentlessly in the group chat.
—So when is the Heavenly Demon’s return?
—No, I’m telling you, Heavenly Demons are the trend these days, Hoyeol.
—Everyone will actually think it’s cool and like it??? lolololol Cool, my ass……!!
‘Let’s hold it in for now, Hoyeol.’
In any case, the unique skill I had acquired through Gamigin’s spoils—
[Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step]
—had an incredible effect.
At the same time, it made me recognize my place.
‘As expected, he’s ahead of me in the realm of the bizarre.’
There was no need to go through the trouble of manifesting a portal.
The moment I activated Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step,
I could freely leap across dimensions.
‘And not only that, as you can see.’
I could detect unstable rifts and enter them. With this, one fact became clear. From now on, rifts would not be hunting grounds or dungeons where players could level up.
‘They are spaces that high-ranking Demon Kings can manipulate as they please.’
Rifts before they formed in reality.
High-ranking Demon Kings could interfere with “unstable rifts.” For now, they had only exerted influence through their Demonic Eyes, but from now on, no one could say what schemes or traps they might lay.
Even now, that was the case.
I looked at the players belonging to the Crusade Alliance forces, including Nam Taemin, Hisagi, and Leoni. Let’s see, they must have entered this place through a rift formed on the Arcana Continent.
‘And the high-ranking Demon Kings noticed that.’
It was not bad luck, but an inevitable course of events.
The Demonic Eyes of high-ranking Demon Kings existed in every rift. Even if it had not been this particular rift, the players of the Arcana Continent would inevitably have encountered them in some other unstable rift.
In that sense, it was fortunate that I had stepped forth with Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step.
Crack.
It was no exaggeration to say that it contained terrifying destructive power. Merely by appearing, merely by making that clicking sound as I walked, I had trampled and crushed the mental bodies of the high-ranking Demon Kings.
‘That really was fortunate.’
What would have happened if I had not intervened?
It was horrible even to imagine, but there was no need to imagine. Who was Granfell, after all? Even in this situation, he was hurling venomous words at the scattering avatars of the high-ranking Demon Kings.
“Remember this. You are beneath my feet.”
At this moment, I was speaking with the high-ranking Demon Kings.
That was right.
‘Because I am conversing with beings of a different rank.’
It meant that I, too, was speaking in a voice of a different rank.
Therefore, my voice did not reach the players.
‘……I really am grateful all over again.’
So, of course, everyone could only be bewildered.
“H-Hoyeol? No, Commander-in-Chief, how did you get here?”
I replied calmly.
“I was on a stroll.”
As expected, it was not wrong.
After all, all I had done in the rift was take steps that made a clicking sound. More importantly…… They really didn’t hear, did they? That ridiculous nonsense about a Heavenly Demon or whatever.
They really didn’t hear it, right……?
…
Nam Taemin engraved the knowledge he had acquired into his mind.
“The rifts that form on the Arcana Continent are unstable rifts, a stage prior to forming in reality. Those who can enter those unstable rifts are those who possess ‘rank.’ In other words, high-ranking Demon Kings, or beings possessing a rank equal to that of such Demon Kings.”
Needless to say, this time as well, it was not a conclusion Nam Taemin had reached on his own.
It was precious information personally given to him by Hoyeol,
the Commander-in-Chief they had happened to encounter inside the rift.
“Everyone remembered that, right?”
Even if only to relay it to Nam Cheolmin,
Nam Taemin repeated it over and over again in his head.
To that Nam Taemin, Hisagi added,
“You have forgotten one important fact, Taemin.”
“I did? What? There’s nothing like that.”
Hisagi shook his head at Nam Taemin, who wore a puzzled expression.
“The fact that we entered such a rift.”
“……!!!”
According to Hoyeol,
unstable rifts were spaces that only those with an understanding of the bizarre,
those possessing rank, could enter.
But they……
Hisagi continued coldly.
“We did not grasp the danger. We were not even aware that a high-ranking Demon King existed inside the rift. And yet, we were able to enter it.”
Schreig offered a conjecture.
“That’s probably because we’re players, right? Even if it’s unstable, a rift is still a rift. Players are beings who can freely enter rifts, after all.”
He looked deep in thought,
but it was too complicated a matter for the head of a berserker to follow.
Leoni muttered with one leg cocked.
“So what’s the conclusion? Is this a good thing? Or are we screwed?”
Skal, who had been silent, answered.
“It depends on the perspective.”
“What depends on the perspective?”
“Whether we become an unexpected wild card, or a burden.”
“……!”
“It means it’ll be one of the two.”
If they could make use of the fact that they could freely enter unstable rifts, they could interfere with and help stop the plans of the high-ranking Demon Kings. However, if they failed to even notice the very existence of a high-ranking Demon King, just like a moment ago……
Hisagi added coldly.
“If the Commander-in-Chief had not been there, we would have been annihilated.”
There was no rebuttal.
“…….”
Because none of them had sensed the existence of the high-ranking Demon Kings.
A grinding sound came from someone clenching their teeth.
It was surely because they had once again been made to recognize their place.
But there was no despair.
“Good. Then we’ve got a clear goal.”
Entering unstable rifts.
If they grew to the level where they could clear unstable rifts, would that not mean they could go beyond merely supporting the Commander-in-Chief and even prevent rifts from forming in reality?
Nam Taemin clenched his fist properly.
“Now I get it. What we have to do.”
Why Hoyeol had made them remain on the Arcana Continent.
The Arcana Continent, where numerous buffs including experience gain were active,
was the optimal environment for players to grow.
“So from now on, let’s run four times faster, everyone.”
Though it was Nam Taemin who said it, even Hisagi did not object.
It was the moment everyone’s opinions aligned.
The instant they took a step, a memory suddenly came to mind.
“But…… I wasn’t the only one who saw it, right?”
“Saw what?”
“No, inside the rift.”
As said before, the players, who did not possess rank, had been unable to sense the presence of the high-ranking Demon Kings inside the unstable rift. At most, they had seen monsters that inhabited the nearby field.
Schreig searched his memory.
“It was a place not far from Antonium. A field where monsters around level 200 at most appear. Common sense says……”
Leoni cut in.
“That it was strange for an appearance message to pop up, right?”
The appearance message that had suddenly risen in their vision.
There had been no monster in that field conspicuous enough to produce an appearance message. In that case, it was clear that one of the high-ranking Demon Kings had triggered the appearance message.
[The self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon appears.]
……
What in the world did “self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon” mean?
After agonizing over it, Leoni nodded.
“I don’t know what bastard it was, but his taste is definitely something else.”
*
The Shadow Mercenary Corps.
“So for that reason…… it turned out like this.”
The leader, Wolf, mumbled his words.
“As expected, no matter how I think about it, I’m not cut out to be a leader.”
Until the moment they wiped out the Frenzy Society,
the Shadow Mercenary Corps had reunited with the deserter and former leader, Kichi. Unfortunately for Wolf, Kichi had no leisure to pay attention to his whining.
‘We must recover it.’
What the Frenzy Society was targeting was prey far greater than the Shadow Mercenary Corps: Claudi, Hoyeol. And in the Shadow Mercenary Corps’ sacred ground, the “Canyon of the Forgotten”……
‘They obtained a weapon capable of killing Claudi.’
It was unlikely to be bluff or a lie.
It was none other than the sacred ground of the Shadow Mercenary Corps.
The Frenzy Society bastards must have risked their lives to enter the canyon.
However, she still could not understand.
‘It isn’t strange that they found the sacred ground.’
After all, the Shadow Mercenary Corps already had a record of having assassinated someone of Claudi blood once. But the place the Frenzy Society bastards had searched made no sense.
They had not tried to enter the hideout itself.
They had merely searched through corpses carelessly discarded in the canyon.
Whose corpse had the Frenzy Society bastards searched?
From whose pile of dead bodies
had they been able to find a weapon that could kill Claudi?
At that point,
“Hoo.”
Kichi cut off her thoughts with a sigh.
Questions could be resolved before she slit their throats.
Her pupils sank deeply.
‘It’s definitely not like before.’
The sensation of the dagger in her hand.
Kichi instinctively realized that her senses had grown dull. It could not be helped. In the world of adventurers, she had continued living a life she could never have dreamed of on the Arcana Continent.
Compared to the days when she carried out requests while crossing the line between life and death almost every day, it was only natural that her current body was not normal. Kichi looked at Rockkid.
‘Especially since I drank competitively with that lump of muscle.’
Suddenly, the scenery of the Yusra Kingdom came to mind.
‘Yusra was beautiful.’
It was not some vulgar meaning that it looked beautiful because it overflowed with gold, silver, and treasures. The Yusra Kingdom had been an ancient kingdom forgotten by everyone. In addition, it was a world of adventurers that did not properly understand the infamy of the Shadow Mercenary Corps.
‘It was perfect for throwing away the past and living in hiding.’
Of course, old habits died hard.
“……Ah.”
She belatedly remembered the tab she had run up at the Golden Calf Tavern.
Even if only to pay off that debt, she would have to return to Yusra someday.
Though whether they would accept her again was another question.
‘Now that the Shadow Mercenary Corps has begun moving again.’
And now that the adventurers have returned to the Arcana Continent.
The infamy and sins of the Shadow Mercenary Corps
would inevitably surface once more.
The people of Yusra and the adventurers had only shown kindness to them because they did not know the truth. Once they learned that ugly true face, the Shadow Mercenary Corps would have no choice but to wander the shadows again.
So Kichi had not forgotten.
Yes, Hoyeol,
who had seen through their infamy,
who had even lost a precious elder sister to the Shadow Mercenary Corps,
and yet had forgiven them.
That was why they had no choice but to advance.
Even in the face of grim news.
The 9th Seat, Descheve, opened his mouth.
“Nadibo is dead.”
The 8th Seat, Nadibo, had headed to the Frenzy Society’s territory as a scout and vanguard.
From the moment their shared vision with Nadibo was cut off, they had guessed as much.
Kichi covered her face with a mask.
Her body was not intact.
Not only had her sense for actual combat dulled during the blank period,
but even the Shadow God had left the Shadow Mercenary Corps.
Kichi looked down at the ground.
The shadow stolen by the Shadow God still had not returned.
‘It’s questionable whether the apostle contract is even valid.’
Even so, there was something they had to take back.
Whether that was simply the weapon to kill Claudi that the Frenzy Society had stolen,
or the pride you always spoke of,
Kichi did not know.
Kichi opened her mouth.
“We will take it back.”
The Shadow Mercenary Corps moved.
“As masters of the shadows.”
To announce that a great power of the underworld had returned to the continent……
[The infamy of the Shadow Mercenary Corps resounds throughout the Arcana Continent.]