◈ 690. [STAGE 40] Current time of counterattack
.
Field south of Crossroads. At the feet of the Night Bringer.
“….”
Right now, I am fake Ash and real Ash… After hearing that ‘Master’ and ‘Your Highness’ are mixed together, Lucas hesitated as if he didn’t know how to react.
Perhaps it was a side effect of using the demon sword in the beast form, but the expression on his face was also dull.
First of all, the corners of his mouth are twitching as if he’s happy that I’m back… Is he smiling or crying?
‘Well, my subject right now is ‘Master’.’
Right now, I have fake Ash taking the lead and real Ash helping me intermittently.
But strangely, every time I see this guy, Lucas, I keep getting the urge to hit, kick, and torment him. It seems like Ash’s true personality is being reflected… Have you seen Ash’s personality?
“I’m sorry, my lord.”
Lucas bowed his head to me.
“My lord asked me to do so, but I ended up giving in to the darkness…”
Beast Painting.
Demon sword.
Dragon Slayer Nightmare Slayer Geumjutsu Big Technique….
I still quietly observed the heroes continuing their battle throughout the Night Bringer’s body. That desperate and desperate look.
It couldn’t have been helped.
That would have been the only way to immediately destroy the monster’s body. I also continued to make reckless choices, so I was in no position to blame others.
“But I couldn’t defeat him with darkness… It was a bad choice.”
Lucas knelt before me and let out a suppressed voice.
“We have already… plunged into darkness like this. My lord. Leave us alone.”
“….”
“And the path you must take… please walk in the right direction. The only way to defeat that evil dragon is at the end. So…”
I looked at Lucas’ slightly trembling shoulders.
“Eight.”
Unable to resist the urge, I swung my foot and gave the guy who was kneeling on his knees a nice slap on the butt. Phew!
“Huh?!”
Lucas jumped up and looked at me with a truly aggrieved expression. It was so unfair that tears welled up in my bear-like eyes.
I feel like I’m going to cry soon. Forgive me. Because it was Jin Ash who told me to do it, not me.
I spoke out before he could say anything useless.
“Hey Howie. “What did I say before?”
“yes?”
“’If I forget, you lead me.’”
Lucas’ blue eyes widened as he mentioned something that had happened so long ago.
“No matter what I look like or what you look like, what we have to do is fixed. Even if I forget, you must not forget.”
“….”
“Answer Lucas. “What do you have to do?”
Lucas slowly lowered his head and answered slowly but surely.
“…It is to stand in front of the lord and open the way for the lord to travel.”
“Accurate. escort.”
If not you, who on earth would I appoint as my vanguard, you bastard knight?
“I will defeat that damn evil dragon. And to do that, we need you… and everyone, Lucas.”
“But I… and everyone in the special lease… have already been immersed in darkness and can no longer harm that monster. We are done. It’s no longer of any use…”
“No.”
I grinned.
“If I am stained by darkness, there is a way to help me as I am stained by darkness. So don’t give up already.”
“….”
Lucas looked like he couldn’t understand.
But that’s right. This guy. Does life end if you take a few steps in a dark direction? Do you think the game will end with a bad ending?
Not like that.
Life goes on. The fight continues. As long as we try to keep going.
I raised my head and looked at the sky. Lucas followed suit and looked at the sky together.
Not a single star can be seen in the dark sky where the curtain is undulating. There is just vast, vague darkness.
“Operation name: Night-Closing.”
I smiled faintly as I said the name of the counterattack operation.
“Let’s end that awful night together, Lucas.”
I walked towards the front of the Night Bringer, leaving Lucas behind, who was looking at me with a blank expression.
“I’m going to play with that dragon for a little while, so you can gather all of the special team and gather them together.”
I glanced back and gestured.
“Let’s have an awesome fight.”
***
Jump, jump, jump.
As I headed towards the front of the Night Bringer, the evil dragon looked down at me, frowning as if he was shocked.
《Player.》
“If I see you like this often, I get bitten. Isn’t that right, Night Bringer?”
I chuckled.
In fact, I’m tired, exhausted, and tired, so I keep trying to calm down… but the inner ash keeps bouncing off my vocabulary. This feels weird.
《You have already been defeated by me twice, but you cannot admit your limitations… Are you going to challenge me again? At this level, you can’t even say it’s ugly.》
The Night Bringer’s gaze on me no longer had the interest of observing something strange.
Instead, there was a sense of boredom, as if looking at something cumbersome and bothersome.
“It’s different from back then.”
But it doesn’t matter how you see me.
I’m tough, ugly, sloppy, and ugly… I just continue playing the game no matter what.
“I’ll show you a completely different me.”
…No, I’m trying to be serious, but this damn bastard can’t control his instinct to drip!
“Let me introduce you properly again.”
Standing straight in front of the Night Bringer, I politely bowed in imperial style.
“My name is Ash ‘Bonehater’ Everblack.”
Then one more time in the Bringer Principality style.
“At the same time, it is ‘Dawn Bringer.’”
《…!》
When I revealed the name of the dragon, the Night Bringer’s eyebrows furrowed.
Regardless, I continued to introduce myself.
“The crown prince of the Everblack Empire, the Dragonblood Duke of the Principality of Bringer, the lord of the fortress city of Crossroads, and the commander of the World Defense Front…”
After that, I threw out random words.
“Owner of Hotel Crossroads, Wintersilver, top son-in-law, Sid’s godfather, winner of the fall festival dance festival, dungeon retreat instructor, former imperial capital’s best playboy, undocumented save data, iron man of hell….” He spewed out nonsense and then slowly
. A pseudonym that did not exist before was added.
“He is also a descendant of the Jeokryong.”
While smiling and showing off his molars, he glared at the monster.
“He is an illegitimate child who stole the blood of a black dragon.”
He spat out the last word and finished the introduction.
“He is the current guardian deity of mankind.”
Yes.
Currently, I have three overlapping statuses as a transcendent.
Red dragon. Black dragon. And the guardian deity of the human race.
As the entire world was on the verge of destruction, all of humanity began to pray for salvation… and became more intense than ever before in the state of longing for the presence of a savior.
Ironically, because he faced destruction, he was given the strongest authority as the guardian deity of the race.
As each day came closer to destruction, its power increased exponentially, and now it was incomparable to before.
“Ha.”
The Night Bringer, who had been quietly listening to the list of gloves I wore and the armbands on my shoulders, clicked his tongue.
《It’s too much. It’s hideous.》
Narrowing his eyes, the Night Bringer looked closely at the top of my head. As if there were several invisible crowns crowned there.
“How many crowns…how many yokes are you going to put on yourself?”
“I have to take on this much to be on par with you.”
If there was a difference in level so far that it couldn’t even be touched before. Now, you could say that we’re close enough to see each other’s faces.
“how is it. At this level, can we say that we are on a level with the famous World Closer?”
As I chuckled, an unpleasant expression flashed across the Night Bringer’s face.
I gently bit my lower lip and raised one corner of my mouth.
‘It doesn’t matter if it’s a god, a dragon, a human, real or fake, Dunbringer or Bonehater.’
I’m a clutter-furnace blast to pieces.
If I could make morning come to this world again, I would just wantonly swallow everything and drag everything around.
It was then.
《…I saw a beast coming out of the sea.》
Night Bringer recited the sentence quietly.
“It has ten horns and seven heads. On its horns were ten crowns, and on its heads were blasphemous names.”
Then the Night Bringer stared at me.
As if I were a monster with seven heads and ten crowns.
《…Now I don’t know which side is the monster.》
“I am a human.”
I spat it out without a moment of hesitation.
“Because here on the front line, I am the one who defines people.”
《What is the definition?》
“What is a person?”
This time, I stared at the Night Bringer.
“A person who wants to communicate and understand others.”
《….》
“Even if we have no choice but to kill each other with swords, I want to talk and understand first. So here at the front, no matter what crown I wear on my head or what blood flows through my veins, I am still a human being.”
I gestured towards the guy.
“What about you, Black Dragon?”
“Hot.”
Night Bringer snorted.
“There is no conversation to be had with you.”
“Aren’t we still talking now?”
“This is not a conversation. It’s just a pastime enjoyed playing with things worse than ants.》
The next moment, the Night Bringer’s eyes burned with a terrifying golden light.
“You have already been defeated by me. Player.》
“….”
《Even if you try again a thousand and ten thousand times, even if you wear hundreds of millions of hastily made crowns, the gap between you and me will not be permanently narrowed. So my conversation with you and your new challenge are all in vain, vain, vain.》
I smiled bitterly.
That’s actually true.
The only way to defeat Night Bringer was through the raid inside the Lake Kingdom during the first battle.
I had no choice but to defeat it underground before it landed on Royalty and absorbed the night.
In past episodes where the real Ash succeeded in hunting the black dragon, most of the time he also defeated the black dragon. If you fail at this time, it is safe to say that your chances after that will be infinitely low.
I lost that raid, so it was actually the end at that point.
Night Bringer, who had safely ascended the throne, absorbed the night and became the night itself, breaking the standard and flying outside the scope of the attack.
If it were a game, I would have just given up and moved on to the next round.
But this is reality.
It is the final battle. There is no such thing as a next episode.
So, in a reckless, dirty and shameful way, I struggled to continue the game.
For variables you may not know about.
I just did my best to spread the possibilities.
《I will engrave it on your body and soul again. No matter how many times you die and rise again, in the end, you and your world are nothing but embers that will die out under my night… I will make you realize with wailing!》 Flash-
!
A terribly bright golden light burst from the Night Bringer’s eyes, and the darkness in the area began to distort and swirl.
‘Forged chestnuts’. That’s an overwhelming output unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
I watched in silence as the Night Bringer loaded a special move with the power to tear the world into pieces.
thud…! thud…! thud…!
Then the ground started shaking.
Is it because even the earth trembles in fear in front of the overwhelming power of the monster that is trying to destroy the world?
Thump thump thump thump thump…!
no.
no.
This is a ground shaking that has a more direct cause.
《…?》
The Night Bringer, who was loading the ‘Forged Chestnut’, was startled and looked behind himself towards the south.
《What?》
Thump thump thump thump thump!
The ground roars like a drum.
From the far south, the epicenter moves north at once – causing the entire earth to shake violently.
Yes, this sound… is the same ground rumbling sound that has been ringing underground in the Lake Kingdom for a few days now.
The sound of rough scraping on the ground, as if announcing the approaching end of the world.
The identity of this sound is –
《No way, this earth shaking…!》
As an unusually large earthquake struck, the panicked Night Bringer completely turned his large body to face south, and the
very next moment.
Kugwagwagwagwagwang-!
As if a thunderbolt had struck, the surface split open from the south, digging a long groove, and waves of dirt and rock bounced all the way to the sky –
Tukwaaaaaaa!
A huge snake swimming across the earth rose from the ground, its silver-gray scales shining.
Continental terminal.
Civilization predator.
Snakes of the World.
A very large monster that Crossroads faced in Stage 9. The name is-
《Jormungand…!》
The Night Bringer, who had spoken the other person’s name instead of me, let out an embarrassed groan.
Behind the towering horns of the giant white snake’s head, a smiling masked clown with a flute in his mouth sat.
Pied Piper Crown.
A prince of the Lake Kingdom who can communicate with and control monsters through the sound of a flute.
“after.”
Crown slowly removed the flute from his mouth, glanced at me and nodded.
“I did what you asked me to do. so.”
I hope you keep your promise –
Crown’s last words were not revealed. This was because the sniper, a boy with brown hair who was sitting behind Crown… no, I should now call him a young man, was waving his arms at me and shouting.
“Prince!”
Damian shouted, looking at me with big brown eyes filled with tears.
“I believed that the prince would return safely…!”
A smile formed on my lips.
I also believed in my trigger.
That you will return to my battle lines safely.
***
The possibilities I had randomly scattered were turning into cards and returning to my hand one by one.
No matter if this hand is a loser, a royal straight flush, or whatever… there’s
only one thing I can do anyway.
“All in.”
I muttered quietly as I looked at the massive body of Jormungand rushing towards the Night Bringer.
“Then let’s get started.”
It was finally time to strike back.
