◈ Episode 524. A True Disaster (2)
It was a moment when common sense broke down.
“The pattern, the gimmick, was omitted……?”
First Legion Commander, Primordial Satan.
AAU started analyzing the creature when it appeared.
Even if the settings in the database were incomplete, as long as they were all realized, the AAU was no longer a finger-sucking group.
Joshua, the head of the AAU’s U.S. branch, speaks up.
“Primordial Satan, wasn’t that the one mentioned at the last meeting?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Great, I’ll send the relevant materials to each branch right away.”
Korea Branch.
“Senior, isn’t this what my senior colleague said?!”
After glancing at the report that arrived, Yoon Soogyeom nodded.
“That’s right. It’s exactly what Katrina said.”
If Arcana was still just a game.
One of the boss monsters that would have appeared in a future update.
In the concept art, the monster had the appearance of a Primordial Satan.
Except for one thing.
“Except for the glowing seal sphere.”
In the database, the creature was chained up with ordinary chains.
The original setup.
It wasn’t like it was chained to something fancy like that primordial Satan.
The implications were simple.
“The chains, the gimmick of the pattern changing as the seals are broken, are still there, I’m sure, but mere chains can’t stop it. The primordial Satan is strong enough to require a special item to seal it.”
Gulp.
A dry gulp escaped me.
Primordial Satan, because of his strength?
Because of the Paimon that sealed it?
No, the burning in his throat was caused by a different tension.
Park Minjae finally spoke up.
“……Did you defeat such a creature in one blow, General Manager?”
The AAU branch leader’s position didn’t come with annual leave.
Cosmo, or even earlier.
Since the days when Arcana’s continental biography was still in development.
Park Minjae, who had contributed to the creation of Arcana, reminisced about the past.
“Everyone remembers the boss mob’s life force system.”
Everyone nodded.
They’re all new.
Even Sung Hyunjoon, the least experienced.
“Even if they’re the same level, boss mobs have their own unique health reservoirs that start from a different unit than normal monsters. When one reaches the bottom, a new one is generated as it moves on to the next pattern. Why didn’t you see that clearly when you killed the 4th Legion Commander, Evil Dragon Knight Copper?”
Evil Dragon Knight Copper.
I review my memories.
Sung whispered to Yoon Soogyeom.
“……It’s definitely true, senior.”
The cornered Evil Dragon seemed to have regained all of its vitality from the encounter with Copper, and Evil Dragon Knight Copper rampaged on, unharmed by the severed head.
Park Minjae added to those who kept shaking their heads.
“Do you think it’s different because it’s primordial Satan?”
Everyone fell silent.
Common sense, as they say.
Common sense that had been around since Arcana was just a game.
The common sense that had held up until just now.
It had been shattered.
“Third and Second Legion Commanders. They were skeptical. There were no reports of great victories on the battlefield, but……. We weren’t far behind in power when Skal awakened as a Dragon Knight, so they assumed we’d made it to the final pattern without realizing it.”
However.
“I was convinced when I saw the end of the primordial Satan.”
Park Minjae’s voice was meaningful.
“From the moment he killed the Primordial Satan with a single blow, defying the rules of Arcana Continent Biography. It’s clear that Commander in Chief destroyed it.”
“Destroyed what……?”
“His limitations as a player.”
No, it’s not enough to call him a player.
Park Minjae.
He muttered to himself.
‘He denied the system that no one could defy.’
There’s a common saying among players.
The system doesn’t lie. But the current Commander in Chief had wielded an ability that surpassed even that system’s absolute power.
‘And the aftermath of that power is …….’
Park Minjae’s gaze turns to the control room monitor.
Almost all the cameras are now pointed at Hoyeol.
Park’s attention is drawn to the background behind Hoyeol.
It’s a panoramic view of Jeju Island.
Creeping.
The ‘black something’ that killed the primordial Satan with a single blow.
That something was devouring Jeju Island.
It was an ominous landscape.
Park Minjae imagined something he shouldn’t have.
‘If you even lightly grab it in that state.’
Like primordial Satan unleashed.
Jeju Island.
And imagined everyone who entered Jeju Island exploding.
Park Minjae shook his head roughly.
‘No, that won’t happen.’
It’s the commander-in-chief, not anyone else.
Me, Park Minjae, with my fucking twisted personality.
I, the one who smelled Raymon Sean’s stench early on.
This is the Commander in Chief I trusted.
Even if he’s shaken.
He will never be defeated.
Park Minjae clenched his fists in faith.
“……?”
He was looking at the background.
Before anyone else in the control room.
He caught it quickly.
“Control, do you copy? Camera 172, zoom in now!”
The urgent command soon changed the scene in the control room. Hundreds of cameras zoomed out of view, leaving only the angle of camera 172 to fill the vast screen.
“?!”
Now everyone could see it.
“That, that?”
YUSRA General Manager Lee Hoyeol.
Someone with silver hair like his own.
The mysterious man approaches the general manager.
*
Pride parted his lips.
“This is not like you, Grandfell, my brother.”
In this moment, you.
You are doing something you would never have done.
For a ray of light.
Pride bit his lip.
“As your only blood relative, it was hard to see you anymore.”
An encounter with Paimon.
Afterward, Pride traveled alone through the Demon World.
Unlike the time he entered at Paimon’s invitation.
Pride had barely escaped Paimon’s mercy.
Cough.
“Rejoice, my brother, I came looking for you with this body.”
Pride wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
The journey back to Behemoth’s maw had never been pleasant, and his hair, not unlike Grandfell’s, would never find its true color again. It was stained reddish-silver with blood.
Pride gave a small laugh.
“……only for you.”
I think back to my conversation with Paimon.
We didn’t make any promises.
Paimon’s intentions must be clear, given that he’s half-killed me.
seug.
I look at my legs, which are shaking with exhaustion.
“Perhaps, if I reach out to you further than that…….”
I shift my gaze to glare at the curse in the air.
“Paimon, that demon will tear me to pieces.”
But that’s okay.
‘You can never give up, Paimon.’
Aren’t you the ruler of the Western Demon World?
‘Unlike me, who has already given up on everything before.’
Pride.
His memories flashed through his family’s landscapes, and that day was no exception. The smirk had completely vanished from Pride’s face, perhaps as a result of revisiting the past.
‘Paimon’s use of the Legionnaire is to buy time for his manifestation.’
But Grandfell had awakened faster than expected.
And the Legionnaires were all slain.
Your plan has been foiled, Paimon.
Pride weighed the options in his mind.
‘You must choose.’
Grandfell.
Or everything you have.
Either one.
‘I made my choice a long time ago.’
But do you have what it takes?
Pride was sure of it.
He gritted his teeth.
Then he took a step toward his brother.
‘There is no way a mere demon could have such determination…….’
But Pride was mistaken, for he had not witnessed it.
The Eighth Throne Demon King, the gentle Barbatos.
The view through his telescope.
The entire western part of the Demon World was long ago sacrificed.
Then, Pride stuttered.
“Are you really saying that you gave up everything, the western part of the demon world……?”
*
“Young Dragon Knight, things are changing quickly.”
Frostnax.
Even with the pupils of a dragon that sees through the essence.
The current situation did not lend itself to easy judgment.
Frostnax cursed his inexperience.
‘If only I hadn’t just shed my hatchetling skin.’
Only Eunaxus or Kudhanax would have known about the unusual state of the Dark Dragon at this moment, and the story of another Claudi with the same hair.
‘So I’m no help, after all.’
Frostnax spat out his frustration.
“I resent the years I spent alone on the iceberg.”
Skal clenched his fists.
‘I’ve never seen that reaction before.’
Frostnax, whose very name implied that he would not be deterred by the immensity of primordial evil, was chastising himself. The situation must be dire.
Review the player’s vision, and message.
[First Legion Commander, Primordial Satan has been defeated.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]…….
Just for not retreating from the battlefield, I was rewarded with a huge amount of experience that would increase my level. But the leveling-up message was not a pleasant one. There was only one question.
‘The mystery of the bloody silver hair.’
But no matter how many times I looked back at the message, I couldn’t recall any appearance messages. Or, to be more precise, one message did come to mind.
[□□, ‘□□□ □□□□ □□□□□ □□□’ becomes □□□□□.]
The mosaic message read.
“……shit.”
So I made a vague guess.
A mosaic-filled message.
I wondered if it referred to the bloody, silver-haired man who’d broken in.
Then it happened.
“!”
Because it doesn’t lie.
It simply prints what it sees.
The despairing message was once again displayed for all to see.
[The □ King of □ □ □ □□, ‘□□□ Pa□□’, appear.]
Here he comes.
The cause of all this.
Paimon appears.
But, I was curious.
Unlike the unintelligible message, Paimon’s appearance was a little bit understandable, back in the days when Arcana was just a game before Hoyeol came along.
“No way…….”
Skal is a player who has stood alone at the top.
His knowledge as a player gives him the answer.
An answer that he can’t even believe.
“They’re stronger than Paimon?”
If Nam Cheolmin, an analyst for the Great Alliance, had said that.
Scal wouldn’t have believed it.
Not that he disrespected Nam Cheolmin.
He wouldn’t have believed any AAU spy, any Ranker’s words, or the Guild’s information. But the system message, which never lies, wasn’t said.
“Even Paimon has been surpassed……?”
Am I missing something?
‘……Yes, if it is Frostnax’s dragon eye.’
A dragon’s eye that sees through to the essence, of this moment.
Paimon and the mysterious man.
You know which one is more threatening.
But.
【Go away, evil Demon King】
Frostnax’s hostility was directed solely at Paimon.
Skal made a judgment call.
His instincts were not wrong.
‘The silver-haired man is not dangerous.’
He couldn’t be sure, but…….
He sensed no hostility from the man. What’s more, he didn’t look like he was in good shape. Not only was he covered in blood, but he was spitting blood from his mouth.
So why?
Skal sank deeper into thought.
‘System messages don’t lie…….’
And then another possibility occurred to him.
Yes, it was.
Another silver hair.
Unsoaked in blood, untainted by even the slightest grime.
The Commander-in-Chief was here.
Skal’s pupils twitched.
‘……Couldn’t that be what the message was referring to?’
But that was as far as the thought went.
“Don’t you dare shout at me.”
A sense of impending doom.
At the same time.
hududeudeug.
The microscopic barrier of ice protecting Frostnax crumbled instantly. Paimon had merely answered his words. Frostnax and Skal began to plummet together.
“You lowly reptile.”
ssaeaeaeaeg.
Frostnax and Skal plummeted to the ground. Frostnax hastily activated his polymorph. He transformed into a chick to minimize internal injuries and prevent the young Dragon Knight from being crushed to death by him.
“Skal!”
However, the condition of the young dragon knight was strange.
Frostnax quickly snatched him up.
Then he asked.
“You’ve just crossed the line of fire, young dragon knight. Come on.”
Skal’s gaze remained fixed as Frostnax asked.
“Why are you still looking at the Dark Dragon?”
Still looking at Hoyeol.
“……Frostnax-nim, we were never aware of it in the first place.”
Skal barely opened his mouth.
“About the Commander-in-Chief.”
His voice wavered precariously.
“None of those…….”