“Track all the movements of the rankers in real time, and report them.”
“Yes, Master.”
“We must be the first to pinpoint where the ‘King of the Dimensional fissure’ appeared. Rather than killing the petty fissure monsters, it’s better to kill a single king.”
“I will keep that in mind, Master.”
The warriors began moving in perfect unison.
Amid them, the Master forced himself to rub his brow, which still refused to relax.
‘A raid is being carried out somewhere I don’t know.’
The forces he had spread across the world were not only warriors.
Countless groups cooperating with him.
Even the U.S. government was the same.
Information from all over the world was being reported to his eyes and ears in real time.
Yet nowhere was there any story of monsters emerging through a dimensional fissure.
Unless somewhere he didn’t know, someone he didn’t know, was proceeding with the raid.
‘We have to find it, no matter what.’
He could not miss this chance.
This perfect chance, honed for years, for him to become the protagonist.
***
Gracia, on the rooftop railing of Jamsil Lotte Tower, tilted his head.
“This is strange.”
A fissure had clearly opened in the sky.
On the ground, Korean soldiers and players were preparing for the invasion.
At the point where only a collision remained, the enemies did not invade.
‘The progress is rising quickly. That means someone is raiding it.’
Who on earth?
For a moment Phantom crossed his mind, but that’s impossible.
No matter how outstanding Phantom’s tricks are, he hasn’t even been a player for half a year.
Getting strong in just that time has its limits, even for Phantom.
‘When the invasion starts, I thought the owner of Hydragon would appear too.’
The reason Gracia was still in Korea.
It was to find the player who carried Hydragon’s soul.
Because he had appeared in the previous two invasions, Gracia was sure he would show himself again when the fissure opened.
As expected, the fissure opened, but the problem was that no invasion was taking place.
Suuuuuuung!
Swords lined up around Gracia.
“If I poke it, it should react.”
Muttering softly, Gracia fired the swords one by one toward the fissure.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Kurrurung!
But the swords couldn’t pass through the fissure.
The moment they touched it, they bounced back.
Even when he bundled the swords and shot them, it was the same.
‘An unbreakable warp, looks like it won’t disappear until the raid is complete.’
If it didn’t even flinch at this level of attack, it meant it had the unbreakable option.
Of course, even an unbreakable option can be shattered if you have something like a ‘Hammer of the God of Destruction.’ But using that just to break a single warp was far too wasteful.
《The ‘King of the Dimensional fissure’ has been killed.》
“······What?”
Gracia jolted in shock.
Even Gracia, who hardly reacted to anything, couldn’t help but be startled at this.
The King of the Dimensional fissure had suddenly died.
He didn’t even have time to grasp where, doing what, it had died.
《‘King of the Dead, Ahram’ revives.》
《Entering Phase 2.》
《Progress 20.5%》
“······.”
······A revival pattern, huh.
Phew. He let out a breath. If the raid had suddenly completed, it would have felt awful.
In that time, the progress had crossed 20%.
‘Ahram?’
But, Ahram.
Looks like a boss monster that reveals its true colors only after dying once.
The name Ahram felt oddly familiar.
‘Right, the gatekeeper of the First Hell in the Demon Realm was Ahram.’
He hadn’t participated in the great expedition, but he knew the story of the great expedition in detail.
So the King of the Dimensional fissure was Ahram.
Had they not properly raided it back then?
‘Knight King Wilhelm advanced by sacrificing soldiers. He got greedy and tried to catch the Demon King without raiding properly, and ruined everything.’
And now the gatekeeper of the Demon Realm lives, and is trying to invade Earth.
Which means Wilhelm didn’t properly kill Ahram.
In the end, the great expedition failed, and the Demon Realm and the Demon King are aiming for Earth.
‘Tsk, should I have killed the Demon King myself after all.’
The reason Gracia didn’t join the great expedition was simple.
‘······I had to eat a star.’
Back then, he was in the midst of transcendence.
He eventually succeeded in transcendence, and gained even greater power.
Now, he felt like he could beat Wilhelm too.
He could even kill the Demon King Wilhelm failed to kill.
‘If I find Hydragon’s soul, I can complete the unique-grade sword.’
With only Hydragon’s soul added, everything would be complete.
He already had one unique-grade sword, but if he obtained its matching counterpart, he would become invincible.
No one in Pangaenia, nor on Earth, would be able to oppose him anymore.
Even if Wilhelm returned alive, same thing.
However,
There was one thing he couldn’t understand.
《Progress 24.1%》
“······ Is this a bug?”
***
Is this what it feels like to lie in a comfortable bed?
People often say “I got carried” in team games when teammates lead the game all the way to the end.
That was exactly it.
Right now, I was definitely riding a high-speed bus······ no, a stable jet.
Guoooooaaaaaah!
Ahram screamed.
Because the Giant of Annihilating Evil charged through the battlefield and crushed him in an instant.
He died helplessly, but Ahram revived.
‘Phase 2.’
Phase 2 of a revival pattern.
Ahram, who had absorbed the power of the black star into the sword in his hand, revived stronger than before.
—I······ am······ immortal············!
KuaaAAANG!
When Ahram roared, a black shockwave spread and pushed the Giant of Annihilating Evil back.
As he poured out ominous black flames and raised his greatsword, even the star guardians couldn’t help tensing up.
‘It’s not like I can just sit still either.’
Either way, it’s the main quest.
‘They said rewards are given based on contribution rank.’
But I’m the only player here.
Even if my contribution is low, if I finish the raid here, I have no choice but to be first.
So to get even a little contribution, I have to lend at least a bit of strength.
Watching the swaggering Ahram, I raised my hand.
Kwaching!
The moment the ‘mystery’ of those ominous black flames disappeared.
—············ The power············ Ruin bestowed upon me············!
Ahram panicked.
As the black flames that blocked approach vanished, the Giant of Annihilating Evil went berserk again.
Every time it swung the Club of Annihilating Evil, the terrain collapsed and Ahram was flattened.
《‘King of the Dead, Ahram’ has been killed.》
《‘Hybrid Fusion Ahram’ revives.》
《Entering Phase 3.》
Ahram, revived twice, began absorbing the hybrids.
Tens of thousands of hybrids were sucked into Ahram, repairing his body and forming a gigantic shield.
Bang!
And that shield even blocked the club swung by the Giant of Annihilating Evil.
—Kahaha! Sink······ into the abyss······ all of you!
The Giant of Annihilating Evil began pounding the shield like a madman.
The star guardians and the Four Great Masters were also overwhelmingly crushing the swamp hybrids.
It was a spectacle, but the White King was just watching with arms folded.
“Why are you only watching, caw?”
“Because ‘I’ promised I would only watch, that’s why.”
What a ridiculous guy.
Even in this situation, he really was going to just watch.
On the other hand, the Four Great Masters were moving hard.
They were actively responding to eliminate Ahram and the hybrids that had appeared beneath Kramdel.
The White King asked.
“Then why aren’t you intervening more actively? If you step in, it’ll end far more easily, won’t it?”
“I said I’d only destroy the mystery too, caw.”
“······ So that’s why you were only destroying the mystery.”
The White King let out a hearty laugh.
The moment I destroyed the ‘First Wall,’ the White King began to believe my bluster as some kind of ‘truth.’
A unique-grade mystery.
Destroying it meant I was a being that could twist the rules.
“It’s ending soon.”
The White King said while looking at the Giant of Annihilating Evil and Ahram.
Even after absorbing hybrids and creating a shield with absolute defense, in front of the Giant of Annihilating Evil, it was nothing more than stalling for time.
—You monstrous bastard······!
Like the saying that no tree stays upright after being struck ten times, the shield began to crack under the relentless club strikes.
It was almost pitiful to watch.
《‘Hybrid Fusion Ahram’ has been killed.》
《‘Black Star Ahram’ revives.》
《Entering Phase 4.》
Already Phase 4.
At that moment, progress passed 60%.
As Phase 4 began, the power of the black star started fully devouring Ahram.
“Hmm······.”
The White King let out a low hum.
The instant Ahram absorbed the black star he held, mana began exploding across Ahram’s entire body.
“That’s dangerous.”
Everyone, including the White King, sensed the danger.
Ahram’s mana was no joke.
Soon, the White King turned his back without hesitation. When he drew out his claws and sliced through space, a hole opened in the field that had turned into a ‘Swamp of the Dead.’
The White King’s claws could cut everything just by being swung.
Then all the Four Great Masters gathered around the White King.
Only the Giant of Annihilating Evil was still near Ahram.
“You should come too.”
The White King said casually to me.
Since we’re family now, come along with us, that’s what it meant.
I looked at the star guardians far away, and spoke.
“Are you leaving the other star guardians and the Giant of Annihilating Evil behind, caw?”
“There’s no helping it. If he explodes soon, this entire space will collapse.”
If we don’t escape, it’s dangerous.
It was the sign of a massive explosion so dangerous that even the White King felt threatened.
But the star guardians and the Giant of Annihilating Evil were already too far.
And if the White King left, everything that couldn’t escape in time would be annihilated.
‘His danger-detection ability was godlike, at least.’
The White King’s danger-detection ability was unmatched.
As if seeing the future, he could move.
If he was retreating, the destruction of the star guardians and the Giant of Annihilating Evil was basically certain.
‘Dramut, Andasar······.’
The problem was that Dramut and Andasar’s head were among them.
Dramut was a star guardian who was relatively friendly to humans.
If not, even if I had become the master of the stars, he wouldn’t have followed my words that far.
Even with coercion, it was only possible because Dramut acknowledged me too.
And Andasar’s head, considering Priest Andrew, was something I absolutely had to take.
“Are you planning to stay here? That doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
“I’ll block that explosion, caw.”
“······ You mean the star’s explosion?”
As if asking how I could possibly stop the explosion of the black star.
He looked at me with eyes mixed with a bit of distrust.
Because that black star’s explosion wasn’t something you could stop just by being strong.
Whatever.
I slowly pulled a single hair from my pocket.
《Using ‘Hair of the Nameless Constellation.’》
A hundred rewards the Constellations offered me directly after clearing Main Quest 5, Obtain Mystery.
The list I chose from them was this, one ‘hair.’
‘The only Constellation that gave a body part of itself.’
Not a tool, but a body part.
Even if it was just a hair, I believed it would have special meaning.
And that choice proved successful.
The Giant of Annihilating Evil couldn’t tolerate it.
That existence that had stained the star black.
Not only the Giant of Annihilating Evil.
Every star guardian here could never tolerate it.
Even if it wasn’t their own star, that star itself is the symbol of the Goddess.
How could they stand by and watch that ‘evil’ itself, daring to taint the Goddess’s symbol with evil and use it.
‘It must be annihilated.’
Not even dust should remain.
The Giant of Annihilating Evil willingly stepped forward to face Ahram.
Because it couldn’t allow a mere minion of Ruin to stain a star and use it.
But Ahram kept reviving.
At last, after three revivals, he even absorbed the power of the black star.
“Who dares······!”
The Giant of Annihilating Evil poured out everything it had.
But Ahram, who had absorbed the black star, only intended to annihilate all his adversaries.
—Die······ all of you······!
Self-destruction.
It meant he would blow up together with the star to erase them forever.
Terrifying mana gathered around Ahram.
Like a black hole, it pulled in everything, preparing to detonate.
Neither the Giant of Annihilating Evil nor the other star guardians had expected Ahram’s self-destruction.
If it detonated with the black star, this entire space would vanish.
It was too late to run. The suction was too strong to break free.
At this rate, ten star guardians would die at once, and then even the remaining stars would clearly be endangered.
“I won’t let that happen!”
The Giant of Annihilating Evil hugged Ahram tight.
With the Giant’s Magic Resistance and his skills, he planned to minimize the damage from the blast.
“Giant of Annihilating Evil!”
“Are you going to sacrifice yourself?”
“Don’t do something that stupid!”
The star guardians shouted in shock.
ZuaaAAAAA!
Even in that moment, Ahram’s mana and the black star’s mana swelled as if about to burst.
It was too late.