The players were trapped helplessly on the altar.
The eyes of those who had been filled with hope only moments ago were now stained with fear and terror.
“E-everyone, snap out of it!”
Emily, their leader, shouted belatedly, but fear, once it had spread, did not vanish so easily.
All they could do was hold their breath and stare at the approaching statues.
—Thud, thud!
I don’t want to die. I want to live. Why am I in here? Get me out of here! I don’t want to die! Save me! Please, someone… Aaaah!
But their frozen bodies could not even make a sound.
The strength had drained from their entire bodies, and their minds could think of nothing but death.
Amid those soundless screams, the players’ faces turned deathly pale.
All they could do was wait for death within a despair already decided.
It was then.
—Bang!
A single figure shot up from the ground.
Like a meteor in the night sky.
Or like a moth hurling itself into flame.
The beautiful blue trajectory stole everyone’s gaze.
“I-Is that Ian?”
Ian.
The only solo player in the raid party, and the girl who bore the title of Savior.
“Haaaaaah!”
She swung her sword with all her might.
***
Why had I chosen to charge out alone?
No matter that I was level 16, no matter that I had gained stats worth three levels, rushing at three statues was an act of suicide.
Alone, I had no chance of winning.
And yet the moment I saw the faces of those terrified people, those people who had surrendered to fear, my body had leapt forward on its own.
Why?
Had some shallow sense of justice welled up from deep within my heart?
Did I want, after all this time, to become some savior who rescued people?
No.
I never had anything like that sense of duty in the first place.
Even now, fighting the boss at the very front line, I honestly had no resolve to bring this world to an end.
But.
‘The reason I decided to fight.’
The reason I made up my mind to become stronger than anyone.
‘That’s right. Everything began that day.’
It began in the dark alleyways of Staria.
Just remembering it made nausea rise in my throat.
The face hidden in darkness surfaced in my mind, and my whole body instinctively stiffened.
But I had sworn never again to be dragged around by someone else’s will.
Even if it meant dying for it.
‘I’ll decide my own end.’
So if I had to die, I would not wait for death in a disgraceful heap.
I would die fighting.
Just like now.
I had thrown myself into the enemy lines of my own will, to see that will through.
“Sword Rush!”
The statue with the shield, Sigurd the Indomitable.
His shield blocked my sword.
—Kaaang!
As if the title Indomitable was no mere decoration, Sigurd’s shield did not give an inch.
At the same time, from the side, a massive sword wreathed in blue light thrust toward me.
‘That’s Linear!’
The fourth form of basic swordsmanship obtained when sword proficiency reached 200—a single-strike thrust technique.
After kicking hard off the shield, I rotated my body in midair and swung my sword to avoid the sword of the statue, Tyr of Condemnation.
My sword and Tyr’s sword spat sparks.
Of course, I was the one being pushed back.
My stance was poor, and I lacked strength, but twisting the trajectory of his sword was still possible.
“Urgh!”
Even though I had merely clashed swords and altered its path, my wrist throbbed.
If my focus had slipped even a little, I might have dropped my sword.
But my sword was still in my hand, and at my waist was another weapon.
Landing on the ground, I brought my sword down vertically and aimed my staff at myself.
Basic magic skill, First Circle wind magic.
Single-target support technique.
“Haste!”
A new skill I had obtained when my staff proficiency reached 100.
The blessing of wind seeped into my body.
A shadow fell over my head.
Tyr’s sword and Sigurd’s shield came smashing down where I stood.
I drew my sword and sprinted.
—Bang!
The ground exploded.
But my body was already far ahead.
When Haste was active, the speed I could produce was one and a half times my usual speed.
There was a time limit of three minutes, but right now, I had no room to be picky.
The first one I had to bring down was Sigurd, the one with the shield.
Taking position behind him, I activated a skill and leapt in a single bound above Sigurd’s head.
I raised my sword over my head.
Basic swordsmanship skill, Third Form.
A two-hit slashing technique.
“Double Accel!”
The skill with the highest damage I could currently unleash.
Two arcs of light slammed into the statue’s head.
—Kagagak!
The solid rock repelled my attack.
As expected, to destroy the statue, I needed an attack even stronger than this.
In other words, like before, I needed a combined assault with the other players.
But.
‘Do they still need more time to come to their senses?’
I’d like them to join in before my buff ends.
Avoiding Sigurd’s reaching hand, I spun my body in midair.
Landing on the statue’s head, I sprinted across its shoulder.
Tyr’s sword thrust toward me once more.
Leaping upward to avoid the blade, I ran along its flat and swung my sword at Tyr’s arm.
My brain burned hot.
As though my whole body had become a sharpened blade, everything except battle vanished from my mind.
As if I had become a beast.
I entrusted my body to instinct.
***
“Th-that’s impossible…”
A voice filled with shock rang out.
The sight of her holding back the statues alone, without anyone’s help, was impossible to accept by ordinary common sense.
But the players could not take their eyes off Ian.
Because the trajectories she drew were so beautiful.
And yet, like a flame that looked ready to gutter out at any moment, they were heartbreaking.
At the same time, the sight made their chests ache with envy.
They could only watch Ian’s desperate struggle with dazed eyes.
“Fuck. What the hell are we doing?”
Then Emily’s voice lingered in everyone’s ears.
Biting her lip hard in frustration, she struck her own cheek with her fist and looked back at the others.
Their faces had given up.
But right now, their strength was desperately needed.
‘You decided you’d clear this game no matter what.’
While Ian was buying time, she had to restore their morale somehow.
And that role belonged to Emily herself, their leader.
Using the shame of having given up, however briefly, as a weapon, Emily shouted at them.
“Everyone, snap out of it! Are you just going to stand here and watch?”
At Emily’s desperate cry, the players’ bodies trembled.
They were all frightened in the face of a hopeless situation, but in a corner of their hearts, a feeling called admiration was still breathing.
“Did you come here to sightsee? Weren’t we here to take down the boss too?”
But no one stepped forward willingly. They only stared at the floor.
Because finding courage in the face of death was not easy.
Silence fell.
Displeased by that silence, Emily slammed her shield into the ground.
“Get up! We haven’t lost yet. Then shouldn’t we at least try something?”
Then she turned around and raised her shield.
“I won’t tell you to follow me. But if you don’t have the confidence, at least throw your skills. I’ll hold the front somehow.”
Emily charged into the battlefield where Ian was rampaging.
The players watched Emily’s back as she grew farther away.
Then Mugi, a member of her party, stepped forward.
Normally quiet and shy, Mugi now aimed her staff at the statue with cold eyes.
“Naira, get up.”
“M-Mugi? Are you really going to do this?”
“Then are we just going to let Unnie die?”
“…No. I don’t want that.”
Naira drew her bowstring beside Mugi as well.
Emily was someone precious to them.
They could not leave her to die here.
Then a man took his place beside them.
“Yeah. We came here to clear it anyway. Let’s give it a shot.”
Adrian drew his axe again as well.
“Fine. Even if we get wiped, I don’t want it to be in such an embarrassing way.”
Aslan, the gauntlet user who led Party 7, struck his fists together.
“I’ll help too.”
“I’m going in too.”
“Let’s win this.”
Wang Mei, the staff user from Party 4; Nasser, the shield user who served as the vanguard for Party 9; and Sigrid, the spear user who led Party 5.
One by one, more and more people gathered beside Mugi.
Shaura shook his head.
“You really are a reckless bunch.”
But because they had that recklessness, they had been able to decide to fight on the dangerous front line.
Adrian raised his spear high.
“Now that it’s come to this, let’s see who wins!”
The players, their morale restored, burned with fighting spirit once more.
Arrows and magic blanketed the sky again, and everyone advanced toward the statues.
—Kwa-gwa-gwang!
While all attention was focused on Ian, Tyr’s statue, struck defenselessly by the barrage of incoming skills, was destroyed.
The statue split apart into countless shards of stone.
Watching the sight, Ian swallowed a hollow laugh.
“What, you could all do it after all?”
At that moment, Sigurd’s shield cast a shadow over Ian’s head.
At the same time, a voice rang out.
“Ian, dodge!”
Emily.
She raised her own shield toward the falling shield.
A skill that could be used when shield proficiency exceeded 200.
Basic shield skill, Fourth Form.
Single-target defense art.
“Iron Wall!”
The iron wall Emily created collided with Sigurd’s shield.
“Uaaaaah!”
Emily desperately held firm.
Blood vessels burst in her eyes.
“E-Emily?!”
“I’ll hold it as long as I can, so hurry and take this thing…”
Ian said nothing more.
Instead, she quickly moved away from Emily’s side and leapt in one bound above Sigurd’s head.
The players’ attacks poured down.
—Kwa-gwang!
Cracks began to spread through Sigurd’s statue.
Aiming for that gap, Ian swung her sword with all her strength.
The technique she had used the most, the one that was always her foundation.
“Slash!”
A blue sword strike dug into the statue.
The solid rock was pierced. It crumbled.
And at last.
“Hraaaaah!”
Sigurd’s statue was destroyed.
Ian landed on the ground, panting.
‘Is the buff over?’
The three minutes permitted to her were finished.
Her body felt heavy, as though steel beams had been laid on top of it.
But her heart was lighter than ever.
Now the only statues left were Eira of Mercy, who held a staff, and—
‘Only that one.’
A single statue holding a spear, watching the players.
Ian ignored its gaze and immediately prepared to charge at Eira’s statue.
At that moment, Eira’s staff struck the ground hard.
Green light spread from her staff.
It was not the wind magic Ian used, but a warm and merciful wind, and it seeped into the destroyed statues of Tyr and Sigurd.
The fragments of the statues, enveloped in light, floated into the air.
They began to gather together again, and soon returned to the forms they had had before being destroyed.
“H-healing?”
They had thought, at most, that she would use powerful magic, but the players’ eyes filled with shock when they faced a complete healing spell.
Because among the staff skills unlocked so far, no healing magic had existed.
Even though the title Mercy had bothered them, they had not expected this.
But Ian adjusted her grip on her sword once more.
“Since we did it once, we can do it again. Let’s destroy the staff statue first.”
“They won’t just let us, though.”
“We’ll have to divert their attention like before.”
Ian stamped her foot.
Though she was noticeably slower than before, she slipped between the sword and the shield.
Emily shouted toward those behind her.
“Shields! Everyone, block the sword first! Melee dealers, draw the shield’s attention, and ranged dealers, destroy Eira’s statue!”
Compared to Tyr’s sword, Sigurd’s shield had greater destructive power, but it was slow.
Emily made her decision by taking advantage of that point.
Following her orders, the players moved.
The players split into three groups.
The ten shields struggled against Tyr’s sword, the melee dealers moved quickly to keep Sigurd from defending, and the ranged dealers poured their skills onto Eira behind them.
Naturally, it was no easy task.
Tyr’s sword, bending in irregular arcs, kept digging into the shields’ blind spots; the trajectory created by the enormous shield made it difficult to find an opening; and Eira’s magic threw the players into confusion.
But.
“Eira defeated!”
In the end, the players brought down Eira’s statue.
With their means of recovery gone, Tyr and Sigurd were once again reduced to dust and scattered under the combined assault of the players who had joined in.
Now only a single statue remained.
The nameless warrior holding a spear.
They could instinctively tell that this was the final phase of the raid.
Everyone held their breath and waited for the statue to move.
However.
“Why isn’t that thing moving?”
“Don’t tell me it’s a bug?”
Even as time passed, the statue did not move.
At that moment, the voice of the stone tablet rang out.
[Useless things. Very well, this body shall hunt you down myself.]
The stone tablet rose into the air.
The tablet, soaring high into the void, headed toward the motionless statue.
[Loathsome Great Warrior, become one with me in this place!]
Blinding light overflowed.
The light became a cord connecting the stone tablet and the statue, and at last, the two became one.
The statue’s eyes turned red.
And above its head appeared the name it had lost.
[Lv 17 Ragnar the Great Warrior]
The final phase.
The nameless Great Warrior had been resurrected in the hands of his corrupted master.