◈ Episode 57. Our Pride Is Aligned (1)─Stop the Demon King Summoning Ritual. (In Progress)●Defeat the demon corps commanders. (0/10)
Was it because the investigation had been completed?
A newly surfaced quest objective.
As I looked at it, I gradually began to understand. ‘They had a reason for blocking us so desperately.’ In order to successfully complete the Demon King summoning ritual.
It seemed the Demon King’s army had been desperately blocking our path.
Once I knew that, I could guess why the Demon King’s army had come swarming in.
They must not have expected the defensive line to collapse this quickly.
“Is there a way to evacuate the survivors swiftly?”
Harkon asked the Shadow Mercenaries.
“Hard to say.”
Hard to say?
So does that mean there is a way, or there isn’t?
Kichi, who had been pretending not to hear, met my eyes.
She flinched, then hurriedly called someone.
“……
Alkari. A portal, we need a portal. Hic.”
Alkari was the old man who had offered me a potion.
If he could manifest a portal, he was likely a mage-type class. ‘He seemed to have deep knowledge in potion-making as well.’ The more uses someone had, the better.
It wouldn’t be bad to have a conversation with him at least once.
“I did not step forward because you were here, my lord, but if you require my assistance.”
Alkari glanced at me as he drew up his mana.
By the way, he didn’t step forward because I was here?
He has misunderstood me quite thoroughly. ‘Of course, I could manifest one.’ Even if it wasn’t on the level of the Magic Tower’s portal.
I, too, could manifest a portal.
No matter what high-level magic it was.
The moment I saw it.
I had Granfell’s talent, which allowed me to comprehend the process of search, interference, and manifestation.
As long as I had the mana to support it, manifesting a portal was not difficult.
However. ‘I need to conserve mana.’ In the battle against the Demon King’s army just now.
I had used up a considerable amount of mana.
Who could have known?
That there would be survivors like this, and not an insignificant number of them either.
“……
Thank you. Sir knights.”
“No. We are not in a position to be thanked.”
“And thank you as well. Adventurer……?”
I looked at the girl bowing her head to me. ……
Please, be humble for once.
Do not take gratitude as if it were only natural.
I barely managed to nod my stiff head. ‘So the rest all fought against the demons.’ The survivors who had been hiding were all elderly, infirm, women, and children.
People incapable of proper combat.
They needed to be evacuated to a safe place quickly. ‘However, there is no need to add to their confusion.’ The fact that they had fallen into another world.
The survivors still did not seem to have realized it.
A place that was safe for them, yet familiar.
Even without saying it, there was only one such place.
“I will set the coordinates to the Yusra Kingdom.”
Alkari tactfully summoned a portal.
Because the distance between the coordinates and the number of people using the portal were both considerable.
It seemed to be consuming a great deal of mana.
Alkari was guzzling potions like water.
Harkon gave orders to several knights, including Jessica.
“You will join us after the survivors have settled down.”
The survivors were moved swiftly.
Was this also being measured as contribution?
I checked the glittering quest window.───────Current Contribution: 32,700p──────……
It was an enormous increase.
Harkon said to me.
“Sir. I do not know what you think, but I believe we must bring this to a swift conclusion and rescue the other survivors as well. There is no guarantee that survivors exist only on this street.”
“I am of the same mind.”
“My, I spoke needlessly to you, Sir.”
Because I now knew that doing good deeds would bring contribution points.
There was not the slightest reason to oppose it.
Of course, before that, a swift conclusion……
In other words, we would have to finish subjugating the Demon King. ‘A Demon King summoning ritual, is it.’ I searched my memories.
The words of the Akshan demon hunters passed through my mind.
However, no memory that could clearly help came to me. ‘If it were just a demon, perhaps, but a Demon King is another matter.’ It had been a full ten years and two years ago.
In other words, the era itself was different.
However, one thing was certain.
Every ritual required a sacrifice.
Just as [Exorcism Ritual]
required the sacrifice of a demon item.
Surely, the Demon King summoning ritual also required a sacrifice. ‘……
Wait.’ As I thought that, suddenly.
The scenery of the street looked different.
A street overflowing with blood and corpses.
I turned back and looked once more at that terrible sight.
It was like a single line drawn with blood and corpses.
“……!”
That straight line connected to the center of Frost. ‘Don’t tell me these corpses and this blood are the sacrifice.’ I organized my thoughts at that point.
For now, it was nothing more than a hasty conjecture.
But even if that conjecture became reality.
My actions would not change.
I knelt down and closed the eyes of a corpse that had not yet shut.
To ignore them.
And stop the Demon King summoning ritual would be meaningless.
Yes, the pride in my heart said so. ‘Besides, if my conjecture is correct…….’ The one in a hurry was not me, but rather the other side.
After all, this prideful act of collecting the bodies.
Was not merely interfering with the Demon King summoning ritual, but was no different from wrecking it outright.
I opened my mouth.
“Regrettably, I have no intention of dancing to your tune.”
If you are frightened, then die.*AAU.
The branch was moving busily.
The appearance of the Demon King’s army.
It was certainly a different situation from the Great Evil.
At the Korean branch, Seong Hyeonjun searched through a USB.
“Please. Please. Let there be something……!”
It was a USB used at Cosmo back when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
Perhaps there were work files he had backed up.
Seong Hyeonjun desperately hoped so as he began searching through the folders.
“The Great Evil was something we’d never heard of or seen before, but the Demon King is different.”
His senior, Yun Sugyeom, was the same.
He, too, began searching through his work notes.
Then, suddenly, he found something.
“……
I-I found it. Senior!”
“What? Let me see.”
“It’s not specific information. But the concept is here.”
“Yeah. That’s right. My memory wasn’t wrong!”
Demon King.
Boss monsters that would appear in Arcana in the distant future.
Because that point in time was truly far in the future.
Even in the backup files they found, only the basic concept existed.
But even so, wasn’t this something?
Compared to the time of the Great Evil, when they could only sit and suck their fingers.
“Right. The concept was taken from Demon Kings that exist in reality.”
If that concept had not changed.
Then the Demon King that appeared in Frost was also from reality.
In other words, a Demon King that existed in legends or folklore.
At least that allowed him to let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness.”
“What do you mean, thank goodness? The problem is figuring out which Demon King it is.”
“Ah, so we have to find that out……!”
Tap─!
Seong Hyeonjun smacked his own forehead.
At that moment, Yun Sugyeom found something in his notebook.
“……
I found something too.”
“Huh? What is it, Senior?!”
“Demon King raid stage composition concept.”
Stage composition.
That was information that might truly be useful.
Yun Sugyeom clicked his tongue.
“But this is also only a concept.”
“Still, you never know!”
“Yeah. Even if I don’t know about anything else, there’s a high chance this concept remains.”
“Let’s see. Demon King summoning ritual?”
There was a reason Yun Sugyeom was certain.
Because at the end of it, there was a familiar phrase.
Seong Hyeonjun’s eyes widened.
“……
Contribution system! Senior, could this be?”
“That’s right. The ongoing quest also has a contribution system.”
“But that quest’s objective is to recapture Frost.”
“Yes, but if you look at the bigger picture.”
Yun Sugyeom pulled up a map of Frost on the monitor.
Frost, a great city surrounded by walls.
Yun Sugyeom traced a circle with his finger along Frost’s walls.
“Perhaps recapturing Frost might be treated the same as stopping the Demon King summoning ritual. Think of the entire city of Frost as the site of the Demon King summoning ritual.”
“……
What? What do you mean by that?”
Seong Hyeonjun once again examined Yun Sugyeom’s notebook.
Then he realized those words were not baseless.
Seong Hyeonjun carefully opened his mouth.
“Then depending on the players’ progress in the Frost recapture quest, the Demon King summoning ritual could either succeed or fail. Is that what you’re saying, Senior?”
“There’s a high probability of that.”
“If the Demon King summoning ritual succeeds……?”
“Like with the Great Evil. We’ll have no choice but to hope for a miracle.”
But miracles were called miracles because they did not happen often.
Moreover, unlike the Great Evil, the two of them knew better than anyone how powerful a Demon King was.
Seong Hyeonjun spoke, his words mixed with a sigh.
“I hope someone racks up contribution points like crazy.”
“So who’s currently leading in contribution?”
“Mm, among the players who have disclosed it, it’s Unification Under Heaven.”
Click─Seong Hyeonjun continued.
“Unification Under Heaven’s master, Ryu Ojunchun. Contribution: 1,800.”
“……
Eighteen hundred?”
“I can’t shake the feeling that it’s lacking. I don’t really know, though.”
After confirming that number, his anxiety somehow grew even worse.
Tremble, tremble.
Yun Sugyeom shook his leg, then asked again.
“Then if we include the players who haven’t disclosed theirs?”
“……
Then it would have to be Lee Hoyeol, wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah. If it isn’t Lee Hoyeol, then that’s a truly serious bug.”
Lee Hoyeol’s accomplishments!
Even from a developer’s perspective, they were inexplicable.
Hadn’t he brought down Frost’s wall, which boasted outrageous durability, in one blow?
Hadn’t he commanded the Lionheart Knights and the Shadow Mercenaries?
People ordinary players could not even hold a conversation with……
“How far do you think he’s advanced by now?”
Smoke rising from Frost.
Because of it, it was difficult to film Hoyeol after he entered Frost.
Even VBC’s footage, which recorded Hoyeol’s every move, showed nothing but smoke.
Yun Sugyeom shrugged.
“Hard to say. How would I know?”
However, so that they could be of even a little help.
They had no choice but to do everything they could.
Yun Sugyeom soon continued.
“Let’s keep watching. AAU has its pride too. Shouldn’t we at least uncover the Demon King’s identity? We can’t keep being called salary thieves forever, can we?”
“Still, if it’s Lee Hoyeol, he must have earned around five thousand points, right? Nah, no matter what, five thousand is too much, isn’t it? Then at least around three thousand points……?”
“Ahem. Is now the time to be thinking about that?”*If my conjecture is correct.
Then as much as the contribution was rapidly increasing.───────Current Contribution: 50,900p──────It meant that the Demon King summoning ritual was also running into trouble.
Of course, it did not take long for my conjecture to become certainty.
“……
Something big is flying over here? Ah, what a pain.”
That thing says what a pain every time it opens its mouth.
In any case, were they not the Shadow Mercenaries?
Leaving their personalities aside, their skills alone were beyond doubt.
There was no way he had seen wrong.
By the way. ‘……
Flying over here?’ I laughed inwardly. ‘Yes, you must be so frightened you’re about to die?’ If it’s not running, but flying all the way here.
It must mean the Demon King summoning ritual is being disrupted, and you’re getting desperate.
It was worth using my head.
Just as I was thinking that……
What is that?
It wasn’t a figure of speech—it really was flying over here?!
Flutter─!
The sound of wings beating.
At the same time, Frost’s acrid smoke cleared.
What revealed itself was a gigantic bird.
To the point where one might think that if there were birds living in hell, they would look like that.
Its appearance was enough to instill ornithophobia where none had existed before.
The creature’s red pupils stared this way.
I could tell by instinct.
That gigantic bird was a demon corps commander.─Stop the Demon King Summoning Ritual. (In Progress)●Defeat the demon corps commanders. (0/10)
The blinking quest window proved it.
Right, so we have to kill ten creatures like that?
I was not the only one who realized that fact.
Because there was Harkon.
The one who had been waiting for the appearance of a demon corps commander more than anyone.
“Your Majesty. I will complete the mission without fail.”
Goooo─Harkon’s sword began to emit sword aura.
That sword of Harkon’s was shining with a light unlike any I had seen before.
Sword aura.
Hadn’t it been said that the more it grew, the deeper it became, taking on its own unique light? ‘So he has reached that realm.’ Granfell’s talent.
Thanks to it, I could grasp Harkon’s growth.
So naturally, a corner of my heart felt reassured.
My comrade was that strong.
Of course, the demon corps commander from hell was flying in the sky.
It was likely looking for an opportunity without coming down.
However, I had no intention of waiting as it wished.
Even if I could not give Harkon wings.
I could lay down stairs for him.
However, before that, I needed to restrict its movements.
I drew up my mana.
A spell suitable for breaking those wings.
And one that could conserve as much mana as possible……
I was in the middle of selecting a spell.
Rumble─!
An eerie sound rang out.
At the same time, the sky darkened for an instant.
The flow of air changed.
Dark clouds gathered. ‘……
This is.’ Lightning crackled within those dark clouds.
This was magic I had seen before.
No, to be precise, it was a [Skill].
I opened my mouth.
“Jesse Heinness.”
As if answering me.[Heavenly Punishment]
Fell upon the demon corps commander.
Right on top of its head.
Bzzzzzzzt─!
Its power was on a completely different level from when it had struck Count Ascura.
As if it bore a grudge against the demon corps commander.
It did not consider mana consumption in the slightest.
It was an utterly emotional and rough manifestation.
Shamelessly, I gave my evaluation of that skill.
“It still leaves much to be desired.”……
Desired, my ass.
The one truly lacking was my level.
That was why I did not hesitate.
I have to do something too……!
Only then can I pick up even a few crumbs.
I immediately manifested the stairs.
“Sir. I will complete His Majesty’s mission and return.”
Soon, Harkon stepped onto the stairs and soared into the sky.