Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: The Third Named, Corps Commander Crow (1)
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Crow had revealed a shocking truth about the world.
There was too much I had learned to dismiss it as a mere lie.
The world I had saved.
A world that was now just a game.
"Huhu."
He seemed to be expecting some kind of reaction from me. Without taking a fighting stance, he simply stood there, a smile playing on his lips as he watched me.
"...So."
"Hm?"
"Is your goal simply to destroy this world?"
My words came out clipped.
Because I was displeased.
I found myself wanting to ask the things I never asked the demons in the past. Of course, a timid Hero like me wouldn't have had many conversations with them. We were too busy drawing our swords and fighting.
Crow spread his arms and laughed.
"Haha! Humans are born, they eat, they breathe, and they live. It's the same as that. We will paint all worlds in our color. Would you ask a living creature why it breathes?"
"You seem to know quite a lot. Do you know this world is a game now? Are you the real you? There must be other Crows fighting other users, right?"
"Multiple versions of me, you say? I like the sound of that! Indeed, from a higher dimension, we might look like pieces on a chessboard."
"Then die here as a chess piece."
He chuckled.
"We will steal the power of the World Tree and create our own. Then we will fill this world with demonic energy. If I am a piece on the chessboard, and I have a role to play..."
*Swoosh.*
Straightening his posture, he floated into the air and began to move backward. He was heading for the center of the Tree of the Abyss, where the violet orb was.
"...then I will simply carry it out faithfully!"
*Rumble!*
The center of the Tree of the Abyss vibrated.
"Very well, Hero! If you intend to protect this game board once more, then I shall block your path from the opposing side!"
Crow vanished into the violet orb of demonic energy, and it began to grow.
*Rumble. Ruuumble.*
*Caaaw—!!*
Having absorbed the violet orb, Crow soon took the form of a giant crow chimera.
What the heck, he really is a crow.
Even his cry says so.
Talk about an anticlimax.
Sharp talons, a crow's head, crow's wings. A bipedal crow-shaped chimera? Some might find it cool, but personally, I thought it looked lame. Still, the immense power it held was palpable.
In old comics, the boss would sometimes go through three transformations during a fight. Once they reached their final form, their power level would skyrocket from 530,000. But it always made me wonder, why don't bosses just attack with their full power from the start?
Of course, Crow was different from a comic book boss. He faced me in his true form from the very beginning.
*Shing.*
I drew Astaroth.
*Chk.*
I swung it horizontally, tracing a silver arc.
"I understand your motive well enough."
You're not some famous skeleton, and you're just an NPC now. Stop trying to break the fourth wall.
If we are pieces on a chessboard, would Corps Commander Crow be a knight?
I'm a pawn.
A pathetically weak pawn for now, but not one to be ignored.
Chess strategy is built around pawns. And when a pawn reaches the end of the board, it becomes a queen.
Promotion. Queening.
It becomes a powerful piece that can turn the tide of the game.
"I love this world."
The beautiful Astria Continent.
The world I protected with my comrades.
A lower dimension? A higher dimension?
I don't know about any of that.
I am the Hero of this world.
If there are those who seek to destroy it.
As the Hero, I will simply stop them.
*Chk.*
I lowered my stance, my eyes glaring.
*Flash!*
Becoming a flash of light, I surged toward him.
[Third Named]
[Level 53]
[Corps Commander Crow]
[HP 300,000,000 / 300,000,000 (100%)]
*
*Caaaw—!!*
So noisy. Is that really the same composed Corps Commander Crow?
He seemed to have lost the ability to speak after changing form.
*Clang, clang!*
His ceaselessly swinging talons and my sword clashed again and again. Crow's attacks were fast and sharp. He swung those massive talons, trying to tear me to shreds.
*Scraaaape!*
*Flash!*
Dipping the sword that met his talons in a semi-circle, I lowered my stance and zipped past Crow's waist. *Swish!* The crow feathers covering his body were sliced and scattered. His feathers had a defensive strength comparable to a dragon's scales.
*Whoosh!*
Without even turning, he swung his talons at me as I passed him. A cold sweat broke out as I ducked my head. A powerful whoosh of displaced air swept over me.
Even his basic attacks have a considerable range. Unless I get directly behind him, I won't be able to escape his attack zone.
*Clang, clang, clang, clang!*
Crow spun around swiftly and swiped his talons at me in a fierce upward motion. A four-hit pattern, scraping from bottom to top. For a crow, he's certainly using those sharp talons as a weapon. Combined with his massive body, the attacks sent a powerful shock reverberating through my sword.
*Flap.*
"Hah!?"
His giant crow wings flapped once. Crow lightly lifted himself into the air, then came crashing down on top of me.
*Thud!*
*Tap.*
I used Backward Evasion to lightly move out of Crow's landing zone, aiming my sword at his back.
*Whirr.*
He rotated his head 180 degrees to glare at me.
A chill ran down my spine.
Sensing danger, I launched a counterattack without delay.
*Creaaak.*
The bird-brain's mouth opened.
A brilliant light flashed from its maw.
*Flash!*
*Fwoooosh!*
A violet beam shot out from it, instantly sweeping over the spot where I had been.
So this guy can use something like a breath attack.
And he has wings, which makes it even more of a headache.
*Vwooom!*
But the breath attack wasn't the end of his post-landing pattern.
Crow raised a hand.
Demonic energy flared in his grasp.
In that fleeting moment, my mind raced.
All my invincibility skills were on cooldown. The patterns were coming relentlessly fast. The attacks themselves weren't faster than Zakam's, but most of them forced me to use an invincibility skill.
Should I activate Cooldown Reset? No, I can't use it on a basic pattern.
If it comes to it, I'll take the hit.
As I braced my body for the impending impact.
*Kabooom!!*
A massive, circular explosion of demonic energy erupted, centered on me and Crow.
I broke into a cold sweat watching the violet energy surge around me.
A strange explosion.
It didn't damage me.
The eye of the storm.
Like a donut shape.
The inside is empty.
In that case.
*Slash, slash, slash!*
I began slashing at Crow's motionless body, trying to cut through the feathers and expose his flesh.
And then, Crow's hand, which had risen to cause the explosion...
*Chk.*
...came down.
*Kaboom!*
*Poof!*
The cooldown for Backward Evasion came up just in time. My body, now on the other side of space, was safe from the explosion.
I was prepared for it.
If it's a donut-shaped explosion with an empty center, the typical pattern is for the outside to explode, followed by the inside. Just like Zarkan, the third named boss of the forward base.
An explosion targeting ranged dealers, followed by one targeting melee dealers. If I were raiding with ranged DPS, they would have all been wiped out by the first donut explosion.
But.
"Ugh!?"
I frowned at the strange, unpleasant sensation that suddenly enveloped my body.
*Clang, clang, clang!*
Before I could think any further, Crow's talons flew at me. I calmly blocked them, looking for an opening in his assault to give him a taste of my blade, all while trying to identify the source of the unpleasant feeling.
What is it?
Actually, I know what this unpleasant feeling is.
It's pain.
It feels like all the blood is draining from my body. My strength is fading, and swinging my sword feels strenuous.
Of course, if my synchronization rate were low, I could just ignore it. But just as I benefit from a high sync rate, there's also a penalty: my body becomes sluggish when I'm injured. It's similar to how an injured human body instinctively curls up defensively.
But I don't usually fight while taking damage. I'd rather die cleanly. The World Tree's Belt feels like it sets my max HP to 1%, so I don't have to fight while dragging a dying body around. One hit and I'm dead.
In any case, I have almost no memory of fighting while taking continuous damage.
Why?
I shouldn't have let a single one of his attacks hit me.
Amidst the chaos, my eyes caught a transparent icon that had appeared in my field of vision.
It was the buff and debuff window.
It breaks the immersion, so I usually keep it off, but I turn it on when I'm trying to figure out initial mechanics.
What appeared before my eyes was.
[Severe Punishment (24s)]
[Take 1000 damage per second]
Damage over time. A type of debuff.
How?
There are cases where buffs can bypass invincibility skills. They provide a benefit, but if overdone, they can turn into debuffs. Of course, those are the types you can remove through mechanics.
But this is clearly a debuff.
A kind of bleed damage.
My HP was steadily decreasing.
When did I get this debuff?
There's only one pattern I can think of.
The violet flames that enveloped my body when I used an invincibility skill during the close-range explosion.
But I should have resisted it with Backward Evasion.
There's only one conclusion.
My invincibility skill, which had protected me from all damage so far, didn't work.
I gritted my teeth and glared at Crow.
"This bastard."
For some reason, it looked as if the crow's head was smirking.
Corps Commander Crow.
He.
He bypasses the system's safeguards to inflict damage.