If I Die, That's Fine~
If I die, that's fine~
—You carried the lizard's belongings, so I had expectations… yet you are revoltingly weak.
"Ughk… this is… way too much…"
—What is your connection to the lizard? Speak the truth, and I shall ease your suffering.
Haring crawled across the floor, blood gushing from her wounds. Looking around, she saw that Hidene and Ka-zen had already been taken out by dark magic. Nya-nya was still half-frozen solid and long dead. Only Haring had barely survived, dragging herself across the ground.
It wasn't because she was stronger or luckier than the others.
Why not just kill me already?
The black skull floating in midair was deliberately postponing her death. Players barely felt pain under normal circumstances—but that didn't mean they felt nothing at all. Having a hole blown clean through your chest was roughly equivalent to a sharp toothpick plunging into your flesh.
It hurts like hell!
Haring gasped for breath and tried to figure out how things had gone so wrong. At first she'd thought the ogre had revived, but a closer look proved otherwise. Its head had been severed, and the rewards for killing it had already come through. Someone had merely been puppeteering the corpse. And that black skull drifting overhead was nothing a player of their level could hope to take down.
Haring and the others—fresh off defeating the ogre and feeling stronger for it—hadn't even managed to lift a finger before getting wrecked.
Which left only one possibility.
Something higher.
The being that had granted power to the "Fallen" Ogre. The Demon King was supposedly dead, so something a notch below that…
"Le… gion Commander…"
—Oh? Did the lizard tell you my name?
"…Who the hell are you… you damn otaku…"
—Insolent.
A Legion Commander. One of the demonkin who led the Demon King's legions—entities players had long speculated would appear after the ogre. And now, with the ogre dead, one of them had finally shown itself.
—I ask again. What is your connection to the lizard?
"……"
Haring lowered her gaze. There was a reason this thing had killed everyone else and kept only her alive for a conversation.
Clink.
"This damn epic weapon…"
The reddish sword in Haring's hand. Forged from ancient dragon scales, the blade was the decisive clue confirming her connection to Lea. No matter how much she denied it, there was no escaping those eyes.
Haring sheathed the sword with resolve, then lifted her head and met the skull's gaze.
"You want to know?"
—Speak. Then I shall kill you swiftly.
"Then… tell me who you are first."
—You should have heard it from the lizard.
"Dunno… never heard it…"
—Is that so.
Rumble…!!
As the skull unleashed its true power, the egg-chamber—which had withstood even the Ogre Lord's sword aura—began to collapse. Watching the debris rain down endlessly, Haring thought: Strong. Genuinely strong.
This wasn't even its real body—just a fragment of consciousness or lingering will—and it still packed this much power. How were they supposed to fight something like that later?
Two hundred people? Three hundred?
They'd barely managed the Ogre Lord. Was taking down a Legion Commander even possible? And if the Demon King ever came back…
—The Fifth Legion Commander, Cadaver of Ministry.
"Damn… that's a cool-ass name. Even got yourself an epithet and everything…"
—Flattery will avail you nothing.
"That so?"
Haring pushed her worries aside and grinned. Sure, the Legion Commander looked ridiculously strong, but…
"The Demon King. Already got his ass handed to him like a dog."
—What did you say?
"You're just the Demon King's lackey, right? Looking at you, I bet Lea-chan wiped the floor with you too."
—…! How dare you! Do you wish to wander the underworld for eternity?!
"That's just facts, though? You're shaking so hard you can't even deny it, huh?"
Haring made a mountain-shaped hand sign and pressed a single button floating in midair.
Would you like to log out?
You are currently in combat. Logging out will result in character death.
Death will incur experience loss and penalties.
"Yep~ If I die, that's fine. Already made a killing~"
—Hero…!
"Byeee~"
Belated black mana slammed into the spot where Haring had been standing—but she was already gone.
Outside the Ogre Altar.
BOOM…!
"Wh-what was that?!"
"Black smoke…"
"Combat ready! Something's appearing!!"
The top rankers drew their weapons as they watched the altar crumble. The Ogre Lord's subjugation, the sudden tremors, the altar's collapse—they couldn't pin down exactly what was happening, but they knew an important event was about to begin.
Hajin quickly fell back and drew his blue sword, its blade rippling like his hair. The beastkin Joa began her transformation.
"…This is unexpected."
Yeoje rose into the air, gripping a staff that radiated holy energy.
The sky turned black. The moment the vast skull's form revealed itself, the rankers immediately unleashed their attacks.
"Attack!"
"Hit it with everything! It's a hidden boss!"
"Yahoo! What do we get if we kill this thing?!"
"I don't see the subjugation party!"
"Even better! Kill it!"
Rankers who'd been preparing for the raid, plus countless heroes who'd rushed over at the news, poured on the attacks—and the skull seemed to flinch for a moment. Emboldened, the heroes attacked even harder… until they had no choice but to stop.
"Uh…"
"Why isn't that thing changing…"
"Huh?"
"Is this for real?"
The skull looked exactly the same as when it first appeared. That flinch hadn't been damage—it had simply been trembling with barely contained rage.
The skull—Fifth Legion Commander Cadaver—flared with crimson light in its eye sockets.
—Heroes… the heroes of this generation are truly arrogant! More arrogant even than that Bahamart!
"…!"
"We're sorry!"
"Dude, run! We can't take this thing right now!"
"Gomen nasai!!"
—How lamentable that this place still lies within the Goddess's grasp. Still, I can at least bestow a curse upon the likes of you.
Hummm…
Watching his residual will slowly dissipate, Cadaver began drawing a black magic circle. A vast spell large enough to swallow everyone present. The heroes scrambled to flee, but escaping a range that could easily cover ten ogre colonies was no simple feat. And logging out inside the attack radius would mean death plus a whole stack of penalties.
There was one option left…
"Yeoje!"
"Lady Yeoje! We had good times together!"
"Help! Open a door for us!"
Yeoje of Cheonsang. A top-tier ranker and owner of countless hidden pieces, she could open a portal called the Gate of Genesis. The cooldown was a brutal seven days and the duration short, but it could transport at least a hundred people. Most of the rankers started searching for her…
"She already bailed?"
"What absolute bastards."
"I thought we were a team! Same raid alliance and everything!"
"They're just running off like that?"
Cheonsang had already opened the portal and fled before anyone could even finish saying the word "curse." Floating in midair, looking like she was preparing an attack—she'd actually been opening the Gate of Genesis the whole time.
The remaining rankers stared blankly at the sky or desperately flung attacks at the skull, but it was useless.
—Die.
Black magic descended upon the land.
[Photo: Black mana covering the sky and a skull]
[Photo: Black blades raining down on the Central Continent]
Holy crap, almost died going to the ogre colony.
Some skull thing suddenly showed up and looking at it, it was definitely one of those Legion Commanders they've been foreshadowing forever.
Used every single thing I had and barely got out of the area, almost got wrecked for real…
More importantly, is it true Cheonsang just opened a door for themselves and bailed?
Absolute legends lmao
"Mmmnya…"
Thump thump thump!
Lea-nim~
Lea-nim, we're back!
Open door please~
It was noisy outside. What was all this racket when she'd finally gotten a good night's sleep?
It hasn't even been a year yet.
At most, maybe two weeks had passed since the heroes left. No matter how much stronger they'd gotten, beheading an ogre chieftain in a mere two weeks defied all common sense.
Just the round trip alone should take two weeks.
"I'm absolutely not opening it… absolutely not…"
She wasn't about to lose this precious deep sleep she'd finally managed to snag. One way or another, she was going to sleep for at least a year.
She reinforced the barrier's soundproofing and curled up tighter—but the noise only got louder. After tossing and turning for a long while, she finally transformed and got out of bed.
"…It better not be."
If they'd come back because they didn't want to fight, she'd make sure they never set foot in here again—
"We caught it!"
"Here's the ogre's head. Couldn't bring the rest because of the skull."
"You missed us too, right, Lea-nim?"
"?"
Huh?