◈ Chapter 543. Messages Flickering with Madness.[The Goddess Order has declared war.][You belong to a hostile faction.][Your relationship with the Sacred Land Muon has drastically decreased.][Your influence in the Sacred Land Muon has drastically decreased.]……
“Bullshit.”
It was hard enough to swallow his anger, but he forced his feet to move.
The golden palace of the Yusra Kingdom.
Walking down the corridor were members of the Holy War Allied Forces.
The three guild masters and executives of the great alliance.
“I’ll go into more detail at the meeting.”
Nam Cheolmin continued in a grave voice.
“But I’ll make this clear in advance.”
The level of the Holy War Allied Forces?
To be honest, they had had no match until now.
They had the Magic Tower, the greatest military force on the Arcana Continent, and the Yusra Kingdom. On top of that, they had the Commander-in-Chief’s private soldiers, whose true strength was still shrouded in mystery.
However.
“This war won’t be an easy fight for us, either.”
The gods of the Arcana Continent.
Among them, the Goddess, who possessed the greatest influence, had revealed her true form and declared that she would fight alongside the Goddess Order. Nam Taemin scratched the back of his head.
“Of all the bullshit, now even a god’s pulling this crap. No, is she even a god in the first place?”
It might not be something a barbarian should say, but think about it rationally.
“No, if she were a real god, shouldn’t she be thinking about bringing peace to the Arcana Continent? But what? The moment the gates of the Pantheon open with an update, she’s declaring war? Against the Commander-in-Chief, no less?”
Hisagi, unusually, agreed.
“That is uncharacteristically logical of you, Taemin.”
“What? What’s uncharacteristic about it?”
Ignoring the bristling Nam Taemin, he continued.
“Branch Manager Park must have felt the same doubt.”
AAU Korea Branch Manager, Park Minjae.
Just thirty minutes ago.
He had finished an emergency press conference.
“I’ve felt this for a while.”
Under the pouring spotlights.
Park Minjae had spoken without pause before the reporters.
Leoni, who had been brooding over that sight, opened her mouth.
“If you get on that man’s bad side, I feel like it’d be seriously exhausting.”
Park Minjae.
He was a man who could rarely be summed up in a single phrase.
A mad dog.
-“I guarantee this. No, I’ll stake not only my words, but my position as branch manager and everything I have as a developer of Chronicles of the Arcana Continent on it. The one behind this incident is not a god of the Arcana Continent. It is Raymon Sean, the traitor to humanity who provided the cause by opening the gates of the Pantheon in this situation.”
Nam Cheolmin couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Pfft. He certainly does have that image.”
“No, hyung. You’re supposed to agree with me, not her!”
“Hm? Out of nowhere?”
“No matter what, a barbarian is smarter than a berserker…….”
“What are you saying? Even your brain is a lump of muscle.”
A war of nerves that could not be held back even for a moment.
Zap.
Nam Taemin and Leoni exchanged glances.
Nam Cheolmin clicked his tongue at their childishness.
“What, that was the reason?”[Barbarian]
and [Berserker].
A pride match between the representatives of the two classes.
Nam Taemin rallied himself to shake off the air of defeat.
“Anyway, Branch Manager Park aside……. We can consider the other branches, except the EU side, to be on our side, right? No matter how objectively you look at it, I don’t think we’re at a disadvantage.”
“That is true.”
“Right, there’s no room to refute that, is there?”
“However.”
“……
However? What now?”
Hisagi, those snake eyes—why did he only ever nitpick his words?
Unconcerned by Nam Taemin’s gaze.
Hisagi’s narrow eyes gleamed.
“We cannot overlook the loss of power on our side.”
“……
Ah.”
He had resolved to refute him immediately if he spoke nonsense.
And yet.
Since the appearance of Paimon, the Demon King of the Ninth Throne.
Less than a week had passed.
The aftermath still remained starkly with the Holy War Allied Forces.
Nam Cheolmin pushed up his slipping glasses.
“We can think about material damage later. For now, the Magic Tower has suffered considerable losses. Four senior mages won’t be able to participate on the battlefield for at least several months. Among them, especially…….”
“The blond loudmouth.”
At Leoni’s words, Nam Cheolmin nodded.
“That’s right.”
No, don’t just indulge her like that.
Without noticing his younger brother’s gaze.
Nam Cheolmin nodded with a serious expression.
“The absence of Senior Mage Bensch William of Flame Magic will be especially significant. He was powerful enough to save Antonium, the imperial capital that had fallen into danger, all by himself.”
Worried that morale might fall even further.
He did not say it aloud.
But Nam Cheolmin recalled the conversation he had shared with the Tower Master, Marcelo.
-“He possesses the talent to one day become a chief mage.”
However, it was too early to sink into gloom over Bensch’s injury.
Before they knew it, they had arrived at the conference room.
Nam Cheolmin continued with a stiff expression.
“But more than anything else, the Commander-in-Chief’s absence is the greatest blow.”
That was right.
The Commander-in-Chief’s whereabouts were still unknown.
Perhaps that was why.
Those words could not help but suddenly come to mind.
-“Before long, I will fall into hell.”
“…….”
At this moment.
Everyone in the great alliance was thinking the same thing.
But they had no leisure to fall into premature grief.
“Let’s go in.”
Clack.
Nam Taemin, who had gathered himself, opened the conference room door at the front.
And then he flinched.
They had clearly arrived at the meeting room with time to spare.
“Your Majesty Hakuna. And Tower Master Marcelo……?”
Because the two of them had entered the conference room first.
An excessively early hour.
Even taking the gravity of the situation into account.
The air was so cold it felt chilling.
Hisagi, sensing something unusual, asked.
“Has something happened to the Commander-in-Chief’s safety?”
Hakuna answered that question.
“It has. It seems the Commander-in-Chief has…….”
“……?”
“Fallen into hell.”
“W-What do you mean by that all of a sudden……?!”
Sheer bewilderment.
But Hakuna and Marcelo might have been thinking of Hoyeol even more than they were.
There was no reason for them to say such a thing without grounds.
“Hell.”
Now that the ominous possibility had become reality.
An indescribable emotion surged up.
Leoni ground her teeth with a crunch.
“Including those bastards who are branch managers over in Europe. There were bastards on that side who heard him say with their own ears that he would fall into hell. They knew that and still pulled this crap. If news of this reaches those bastards’ ears, they’ll think it’s the perfect opportunity, won’t they?”
Silence fell.
The meaning of that silence was simple.
Because everyone agreed.
Marcelo opened his mouth.
“Regrettably, we do not know what kind of place hell is. Therefore, even if we wished to follow Sir, we would have no means to do so. However, we must not overlook it. The trials and pain Sir may be enduring at this very moment.”
For a brief time.
The Magic Tower had regressed into the past.
And as the leader of that Magic Tower.
“Therefore, we must make them realize it as well.”
As Tower Master, he uttered.
“Even if it means turning their land into hell.”
A declaration of war.*Paris, France.
The secret hideout of the guild Bohemian.
A man chattered away at Gaiber.
He was Hamed, an executive of Bohemian and Gaiber’s longtime friend.
“At first, I thought you’d gone crazy and wanted to die……. Gaiber, did you foresee even this? If that’s the case, I’ll admit it. If the Goddess has returned to the Goddess Order, this might actually be worth trying, don’t you think?”
It was no exaggeration.
The player community was colder and more rational than anyone.
Even public opinion there had begun to stir.
-Isn’t now exactly the time to buy at the bottom? lol-Even if you cling to the Holy War Allied Forces at their peak, there’s nothing left to gain.
-The moment the Goddess appeared, the board completely flipped. gg-Have you guys seen how priest-type classes shot up?-Fr, it’s basically like they got another class change.
It was truly as if sunlight had entered a rat hole.
“Public opinion still isn’t on our side, but……. Once the players turn, it’s over anyway. Honestly, since a god joined them, I was worried we’d lost our underdog position and that there wouldn’t be anything for us to gain. But at this rate……!!”
Hamed kept talking without pause.
However, despite his chatter.
Gaiber was far too quiet.
Hamed approached Gaiber, who had been looking down outside the building, and flinched.
“U-Uwaaaagh!!”
His whites were terrifyingly stark.
Gaiber’s pupils had vanished……!
Hamed screamed in horror.
“G-Gaiber! I thought you seemed insane, but don’t tell me you’ve been possessed by a demon? Fuck……!! It’s not like I can kill you with my own hands……!!”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“……
Huh?”
Gaiber’s eyes had returned to normal before he knew it.
“I was praying. Why would you interrupt me, Hamed?”
He had been praying……?
His relief lasted only a moment before Hamed froze.
Because he remembered what he had heard from Gaiber time and again.
-“God, my ass. It’s just an NPC.”
-“Just think carefully about how to exploit it.”
-“If it’s a god, there should be plenty to exploit.”
It was not even a story from long ago.
Even when they had visited Muon, the sacred land of the Goddess Order.
Gaiber’s thoughts had seemed unchanged.
If that was the case.
There was only one guess he could make.
Hamed asked, half in disbelief.
“Gaiber, don’t tell me you can hear it too?”
The voice of god, like the Saintess of the Goddess Order……?
At those words, Gaiber nodded.
As he slowly unclasped the two hands he had been holding together.
“Yes. Only after hearing the voice did I come to believe.”
“In what?”
“The existence of a living god.”
“……!”
As stated before.
The two had been together for a long time, from before the Cataclysm until now.
Perhaps that was why.
Hamed could only swallow dryly at Gaiber’s sudden change in attitude.‘……
The Gaiber I know, you’re.’
Despite the class [Paladin],
he had been excessively materialistic and human. But from the Gaiber before his eyes, Hamed felt a strange sense of alienness that was unlike before.
“Hamed, God spoke to me. For me. For you. And for our world. He told me to completely burn away the ‘infinitely deep darkness’ that will plunge everyone into sorrow from this world.”
At those words, Hamed could be certain.‘……
He’s no longer the Gaiber I know.’As he had just said, Gaiber was materialistic and human. Therefore, even when a new class quest had appeared, Gaiber had said this.
-“From now on, I’m going to move Bohemian for my own benefit. If you don’t like that, you can leave. But I promise you. If we succeed, an enormous reward will be waiting for us at the end.”
Hamed swallowed a groan inwardly.‘Is this also the effect of the Pantheon emergency update?’He could not guess what kind of patch note had turned Gaiber into such a fanatic. But that was not what mattered. Hamed shook his head.
“Enough. Let’s end it here, Gaiber.”
“End it here?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can be with you anymore.”
Damn it, I guess I shouldn’t do things like investing.
Now that the odds of winning had risen drastically, he was pulling out.
It was a choice that clearly offered no benefit, no matter who looked at it.
But the reason was clear.
Hamed said it plainly.
“I can’t be with you when you have a goal like that.”
That was right.
Because the one Hamed had believed in and followed was Gaiber, a man who was materialistic but at the same time full of humanity, who had lost one arm yet refused to give up, believing in himself and struggling on.‘Not mere gods of the Arcana Continent.’The moment Hamed turned away without hesitation.
“Hamed.”
“Please. Don’t stop me, Gaiber.”
He did not want to talk any further with the changed Gaiber.
But this might be their final meeting.
The moment Hamed stopped.……
Thud.
From behind him.
Through his chest.
A blade protruded.
“……?!!”
Gaiber’s alien voice brushed against his eardrums.
“This is righteous judgment, Hamed.”
“G-Gaiber……?”
“Because I cannot tolerate heresy.”
The players’ vision.
Before both of their eyes.
Different messages appeared.
“Give G-Gaiber b-back…….”[※Warning: Vitality is too low.]
“O God of All.”[※Warning: Faith is excessively high.][※Warning: Status abnormality, ‘Fanatic,’ has activated.][※Warning: You cannot control your body.]……
“Please accept the proof of my faith in you.”