◈ Episode 524. The True Calamity (2)
It was the moment common sense crumbled.
“The patterns, the mechanics were skipped……?”
The 1st Legion Commander, Primordial Satan.
AAU had begun the analysis from the moment it appeared.
Even if the settings within the database were incomplete, as long as they were certain all of them would be realized, AAU was no longer an organization that would merely sit idle.
Joshua, the Chief of the US Branch, opened his mouth.
“Primordial Satan, isn’t that the one mentioned in the last meeting?”
“Yes, Chief!”
“Good. Transmit the relevant data to each branch at once.”
Korean Branch.
“Senior! It’s exactly as that colleague of yours said!”
Yoon Sugyeom skimmed the arrived report and nodded.
“That’s right. It’s exactly as Katrina said.”
If Arcana were still merely a game.
One of the boss monsters that would have appeared in a distant future update.
The monster in the concept art bore the form of Primordial Satan.
However, if there was one thing different.
“If you exclude the brilliant sealing orb, that is.”
In the database, it had been bound by ordinary iron chains.
Because it was an initial setting.
Meaning it had not been bound by something as grand as that Primordial Satan.
Putting that aside, what that meant was simple.
“The mechanic where the pattern changes as the chains and sealing orb come undone definitely remains. But ordinary chains wouldn’t be able to stop it. Primordial Satan has been realized as such a powerful being that it’s obvious at a glance it had to be sealed with a special item.”
Gulp.
He swallowed dryly.
Because of Primordial Satan’s strength?
Because of Paimon, who sealed such a Primordial Satan?
No, the burning in his throat right now was due to a different tension.
Park Minjae opened his mouth in a low voice.
“……Did the Chief Director slay such a being in a single blow?”
The position of AAU Branch Chief was not something one could reach through years of service alone.
Cosmo, no, even before that.
From the time when the Arcana Continent saga had remained in the development stage.
Park Minjae, who had contributed to the creation of Arcana, dug up the common knowledge of the past.
“Do you all remember? The boss monster’s life system.”
Everyone nodded.
A perpetual rookie.
Even Seong Hyeonjun, the one with the shortest career.
“Even if the level is the same, boss monsters possess unique health pools with units different from ordinary monsters from the start. When one health pool hits bottom, it moves to the next pattern and generates a new health pool. Wasn’t that characteristic clearly visible during the 4th Legion Commander, Evil Dragon Knight Copper?”
Evil Dragon Knight Copper.
They recalled the afterimage.
Seong Hyeonjun whispered to Yoon Sugyeom.
“……That’s certainly true, Senior.”
The cornered Evil Dragon had become lively as if it had completely recovered its life force upon encountering Copper, and Evil Dragon Knight Copper had rampaged perfectly fine even with his head cut off.
Park Minjae added to those who were nodding repeatedly.
“Would it be any different for Primordial Satan?”
Everyone fell silent.
Because, as he said, common sense.
The common sense that had continued since Arcana was merely a game.
The common sense that had been maintained until just moments ago.
Had been shattered miserably.
“The 3rd and 2nd Legion Commanders. I half-believed, half-doubted even them. No great news of victory came from the battlefield, but…… since the moment Skal awakened as a Dragon Knight, humanity’s forces were not greatly outmatched. I thought they had somehow progressed to the final pattern without us knowing and passed it over.”
However.
“I became certain after seeing Primordial Satan’s end.”
Park Minjae’s voice was deeply significant.
“From the moment he ignored the rules of the Arcana Continent saga and slew Primordial Satan in one blow, the Commander-in-Chief has definitely broken through something.”
“Broken through? What……?”
“The limits as a player.”
No, it was insufficient to conclude it as merely a player.
Park Minjae.
He muttered inwardly.
‘He has even denied the System that no one could defy.’
There is a saying players often utter.
That the System does not lie.
But the current Commander-in-Chief was wielding an ability that surpassed even the System possessing such absolute power.
‘And the aftershock of that power is entirely……’
Park Minjae’s gaze turned toward the control room monitor.
Now, with almost every camera angle directed at Hoyeol.
What Park Minjae was focusing on was the background spreading behind Hoyeol.
It was Jeju Island.
Writhing.
The ‘black something’ that had slain Primordial Satan in one blow.
That something was devouring Jeju Island.
At that ominous scenery, suddenly.
Park Minjae couldn’t help but imagine something he shouldn’t.
‘If it were to lightly clench in that state.’
Just as Primordial Satan had burst apart.
Jeju Island.
He imagined everyone who had entered Jeju Island bursting apart.
Park Minjae roughly shook his head.
‘No, that won’t happen.’
It is the Commander-in-Chief, none other than him.
I, Park Minjae, who have a damned twisted personality.
I, who caught the stench of Raymon Shon early on.
It is the Commander-in-Chief whom I trust.
Even if he staggers.
It means he is not someone who will ever break.
It was the moment Park Minjae clenched his fist tightly in faith.
“……?”
Because he had been watching the background.
More than anyone else in the control room.
He could capture it quickly.
“Control room, are you listening? Enlarge camera 172 immediately!!”
At the urgent command of the Branch Chief, the scenery of the control room soon changed. Hundreds of cameras that had been displayed were minimized, and only camera 172’s angle filled the vast screen.
“?!”
Thanks to that, everyone could witness it.
“Wh-what is that?”
Chief Director Lee Hoyeol Yusra.
Someone with silver hair fluttering, the same as his.
The scene of the mysterious man approaching the Chief Director.
*Pride parted his lips.
“How unlike you, Granfel, my younger brother.”
In this moment, you.
You are doing something you would never do.
For the sake of a single ray of light.
Pride bit his lip.
“As your one and only blood relative, I could no longer bear to watch.”
The encounter with Paimon.
After that, Pride climbed through the Demon Realm alone.
Unlike when he had entered by Paimon’s invitation.
It was Pride who had barely saved his life only through Paimon’s mercy that was no mercy at all.
*Cough.*
“Rejoice, little brother. The fact that I’ve dragged this body along to find you.”
Pride wiped away the blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.
The process of climbing up Behemoth’s maw was anything but pleasant.
His own silver hair, no different from Granfel’s, was so drenched that it couldn’t find its original color.
Merely looking at how it had turned into a crimson silver (赤銀) light after being stained with blood was enough to tell.
Pride smiled faintly.
“……Only for you.”
He recalled his conversation with Paimon.
Though they hadn’t made any promise.
At the point where Paimon had half-killed him, its intentions were clear.
Ssk.
He looked at his two legs trembling from exhausted strength.
“If I approach you any more than this……”
He shifted his gaze and glared at the curse risen in the sky.
“Paimon, that devil, will tear me to shreds.”
But it was fine.
‘You cannot give up, Paimon.’
Are you not the ruler of the western Demon Realm?
‘Unlike me, who gave up on everything long ago.’
Pride.
Scenes of his family passed through his memory.
The scenery of ‘that day’ was no exception.
Perhaps due to tracing back the past.
The traces of a smile completely vanished from Pride’s expression.
‘Paimon must have sent out the Legion Commanders to buy time for its manifestation.’
But because Granfel awakened faster than expected.
Because the Legion Commanders were all annihilated.
Your plan has gone up in smoke, Paimon.
Pride weighed it in his mind.
‘You must choose.’
Granfel.
Or everything you possess.
One of the two choices.
‘I finished my choice long ago.’
But do you have such resolve?
Pride could be certain.
He clenched his teeth.
And then, he took one step toward his younger brother.
‘A mere demon couldn’t possibly have such resolve……’
But Pride was mistaken because he hadn’t witnessed it.
The Demon King of the Eighth Throne, the gentle Barbatos.
The scenery visible beyond his telescope.
The entire western Demon Realm that had long been offered as a sacrifice.
Soon, Pride stammered.
“Did you truly…… abandon the western Demon Realm…… your everything……?”
*
“Young Dragon Knight, the situation is changing rapidly.”
Proznax.
Even with the dragon’s pupils that see through essence.
The current situation could not be easily judged.
Proznax resented his own inexperience.
‘If only I hadn’t just shed my hatchling status.’
If only he were like Yunaxus or Kudhanax, he would have known of the circumstances involving the Black Dark Dragon’s unusual state and another Claudi with the same hair at this moment.
‘In the end, am I of no help?’
Proznax spat out in frustration.
“The years spent alone on the ice mountain are vexing.”
Skal clenched his fist.
‘It’s a reaction I’m seeing for the first time too.’
Proznax, who had not been broken even before that primordial evil with the fearsome name, was reproaching himself.
That must mean the situation is that grave.
He reviewed the player’s field of view, the messages.
[The 1st Legion Commander, Primordial Satan, has been slain.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
…….
The experience was so enormous that merely not retreating from the battlefield raised levels.
But the level-up messages were not welcome in the slightest.
There was only one thing he sought.
‘The identity of the blood-soaked silver hair.’
But no matter how much he reviewed the messages, no appearance message came up.
No, to be exact, one message had appeared.
[□□, ‘□□□ □□□□ □□□□□ □□□’ has □□□□□.]
A message dotted with mosaics.
“……Damn.”
So he could only guess vaguely.
That the mosaic-dotted message.
Might be referring to the intruding blood-soaked silver-haired man.
It was then.
“!”
Because it does not lie.
Merely outputting the given situation simply.
A despair-inducing message was output in everyone’s field of view once more.
[A□ □□ □□’s □ King, ‘□□□ Pa□□’ appears.]
It was coming.
The mastermind of this incident.
Paimon was appearing.
However, there was a question.
Unlike the message where nothing could be understood, Paimon’s appearance message was somewhat understandable, if only barely.
From the time when Arcana was merely a game until before Hoyeol appeared.
“No way…….”
The player who alone had guarded the highest peak, Skal.
His knowledge as a player produced an answer.
An answer that even he, who was watching, could not believe.
“That side is stronger than Paimon?”
If Nam Cheolmin, the analyst of the Great Alliance, had uttered such words.
Skal would not have believed it.
It was not that he looked down on Nam Cheolmin.
He would not have believed any AAU intelligence, any ranker’s words, or any guild information.
But had not the System message, which never lies, outputted it?
“A being that surpasses even Paimon……?”
Does that mean there’s something I’ve overlooked?
‘……Yes, if it’s Proznax’s dragon eyes.’
If they were dragon eyes that see through essence, at this moment.
Between Paimon and the mysterious man.
They would have clearly grasped which existence was more threatening.
However.
【Fall back, wicked Demon King.】
Proznax was revealing hostility only toward Paimon.
Skal made his judgment.
That his instinct was not wrong.
‘The silver-haired man is not dangerous.’
He could not be certain, but…….
He did not feel hostility from that man.
Moreover, he did not appear to be in a whole state.
Not only was he covered in blood, but he was also continuously vomiting blood from his mouth.
Then why?
Skal fell into even deeper thought.
‘The System message does not lie……’
And his thoughts reached another possibility.
That’s right.
There was another silver hair.
Untouched by blood, not even a speck of dust upon it.
The Commander-in-Chief had been here.
Skal’s pupils trembled.
‘……Then could the message be referring to……?’
But his thoughts stopped there.
“How dare you shout at me.”
An oppressive pressure closed in in an instant.
At the same time.
Crash.
The minute ice barrier protecting Proznax crumbled down just like that.
Even though Paimon had merely responded to the Dragon Tongue.
Proznax and Skal began to tumble together.
“Inferior reptile.”
Smaaaash.
Proznax and Skal slammed into the ground.
Proznax urgently manifested Polymorph.
It was to transform into a chick to minimize internal injuries and prevent the young Dragon Knight from dying crushed under him.
“Skal!”
But the young Dragon Knight’s condition was strange.
Proznax quickly snatched Skal.
And then asked.
“Young Dragon Knight, you have just crossed the threshold of death. And yet.”
Even while asking, Skal’s gaze was fixed.
“Why do you still look only at the Black Dark Dragon?”
Still toward Hoyeol.
“……Proznax-nim, we didn’t know from the beginning.”
Skal barely opened his mouth.
“About the Commander-in-Chief.”
His voice shook precariously.
“Not a single thing…….”