Episode 57
Episode 57
Naturally, since the Cult of the End is a massive organization, it has a hierarchical order.
Or rather, it's only natural for a religious group, isn't it?
They believe that beings closer to the god they serve are more divine. So inevitably, a hierarchy is bound to form.
And one of the top five figures in that hierarchy is visible in the distance.
"It's the Knight Commander."
Since the Cult of the End's Holy Knights are also knights, they have a Knight Commander.
There are roughly six knight orders, with one commander for each order.
And as you'd expect, these so-called Knight Commanders are all incredibly strong. In terms of hierarchy, they're considered just below the Cult Leader and the Saintess.
In-game, they're roughly around Swordmaster level.
But considering the knights and Cardinal nearby, Aron alone can't win against them.
'Originally, we won with help from other knight orders though.'
In the game, you properly encounter the Cult of the End's Knight Commanders when attacking their main base.
At that time, the fight against the player ends messily with the appearance of Rex and his knights.
After that, they only get mentioned in a single line about being killed by the Imperial Knight Commanders.
'Originally, Aron wouldn't be weaker than Rex, but...'
In his current state, Aron is weaker than Rex.
After all, Rex was as strong as most max-level characters, or even stronger depending on matchups.
"Is the Knight Commander really strong? What about assassination... would that be impossible now?"
"Assassination probably won't work. Can you get all the way over there from this distance without being detected? If that were possible, assassination would be best. Clean and efficient."
"Hmm..."
Aron stared blankly at the Knight Commander.
His gaze alternated between the Knight Commander and the ground beneath his feet.
After thinking for a moment, he shook his head vigorously.
"Impossible. If it were just one person, I might try, but if I fail now, I probably won't be able to escape."
"Then what should we do..."
I wasn't disappointed by Aron's answer.
A realistic answer is more helpful than reckless stubbornness.
"It would be good if the Saintess were here."
"The Saintess? Why her?"
"Well, if the Saintess were here, she could block the strange magic and curses they use. That alone would make fighting much easier."
"Don't you have any similar tools or techniques?"
"I just have knowledge, I'm not the Saintess."
I've seen games where prayers are used to harness divine power, but Black Nightmare 2 doesn't have that.
Only the Hero uses the Goddess's power, while others borrow power from strange gods.
A method to use it as a workaround?
"Huh?"
There is one.
Come to think of it, Aron right in front of me is the Hero.
I'm not sure if it will work, but if the game mechanics are the same, it should definitely work.
"Aron. You're the Hero too, right?"
"I was the Hero in the past."
"But back then, you were the real Hero recognized by the Goddess, right? Not just someone who happened to be called a Hero."
"That's right. If you weren't chosen, you couldn't defeat the Demon King."
Then there's a way.
It's somewhere between a bug and a technique, and I'm not sure if it will work here in Black Nightmare 2, but we have to try.
"Can you still use the Hero's power?"
"Now? Well... I can use a little bit. Something like this."
Aron stretched out his hand and opened his palm.
After concentrating for a moment, a very weak but pure white light shimmered in his hand.
"Good. Then stay still like that."
The principle of this strange technique is simple.
First, what is MP?
Magic Point or Mana Point.
Actually, which one it is doesn't matter. What's important is that MP is essential for using skills.
And in Black Nightmare, each character class uses a different type.
Aura uses energy, magic uses MP, so what about the Saintess?
She uses faith.
Every character can only use one of these three.
Even the legendary Hero only uses faith.
"I'm going to channel aura into your body now. Then immediately condense it into your hand, understand?"
"Uh... so you want me to mix this power with aura?"
"They won't mix? Anyway, try to condense it properly."
Anyway, in the game's programming, a single character can't use more than one type of power.
But when you force it, problems occur.
'In the game, for some reason, the power is forcibly released and an enormous amount of divine power explodes.'
I read an explanation written by a programmer user, but I don't remember it.
Being an arts major who knows nothing about programming, I didn't read it properly and just wrote 'lol fr' in the comments.
The important thing is that an enormous amount of divine power explodes.
"Uh, uhh? This is strange?"
The aura that flowed into Aron's body instantly transformed into Aron's own aura.
This was possible because Aron is much stronger than me.
The transformed aura gathered in Aron's hand according to his will, and fortunately? it steadily grew in power and size to prepare for explosion.
"That's it! Grow it as much as possible and throw it! Anyway, there's so much filthy power around here that they probably won't even properly sense it!"
As I said, the guys below were just gathered together chatting among themselves, not even sensing this growing power.
Probably because of the energy emanating from the magical beast corpses covering the area.
"Perfect! Throw it! Let's send those bastards off in one blow!"
While they didn't notice, the small Hero's power in Aron's hand had transformed into a massive ball of light.
With enough fighting spirit, he might even be able to fire a laser like in that one manga.
"Alright, here goes!"
Aron swung his hand.
Like throwing a ball, his hand that had gone above his shoulder swung forward.
And the massive energy flew toward the canyon below. Burning away the turbid energy all around, it reached the enemies in an instant.
Kwaaaang...
The ball of light then erupted with brilliance, swallowing everything around it.
"Wow... it's stronger than I thought."
When I saw it in the game, it was just a somewhat powerful explosion.
"Right. At this level, wouldn't everyone below be dead? If they survive being hit by something like this, are they even human? I'd have a hard time surviving it too."
"Since both the Cardinal and Knight Commander were there, they probably reacted."
No matter how much other energy filled the area, such power came right next to them - surely they couldn't have...
It would be even better if they died without noticing.
"Ah. They're alive."
At Aron's disappointed voice, I checked below again.
The thick dust cloud dispersed in an instant, revealing two people still standing.
"Wow... they survived that? They're tough."
Fortunately, perhaps because they were caught off guard by the divine power, their condition wasn't good.
The Knight Commander was barely standing, and the protected Cardinal wasn't in perfect condition either. It was clear that if we went down now, we could finish them off immediately.
"Let's go now. If other knights come out, it'll just get annoying."
At my words, Aron nodded.
He picked me up lightly and jumped down into the canyon.
We jumped from a height of several dozen meters, but Aron landed lightly as if it were nothing.
"Wow, they both look really panicked."
As soon as we landed, the Cardinal and Knight Commander's gazes turned toward us.
I jumped out of Aron's arms and grinned.
"Nice to meet you? Though this first meeting will be your last."
Aron drew his massive sword.
He gripped the weapon that was closer to a blunt instrument with both hands and took a stance, ready to swing.
"Well then, farewell."
With my greeting, Aron swung his sword.
And the canyon collapsed.
*
"That was just one swing of the sword, right?"
I glanced at Aron and asked, looking at the completely collapsed canyon where not even body parts remained of the two who had been standing there.
No matter how strong Aron is, I didn't expect it to be to this extent.
"I swung with full power just in case... I've recovered more than I thought."
His reaction suggested he didn't expect this outcome either.
He let out a deep sigh and nodded.
"It's fine. They were bastards who needed to be killed anyway. We also had to clean up the corpses here. If left alone, the remaining guys would have taken and used them."
"So is this the end then?"
"Let's first follow the map the Dragon Emperor gave us to the end. With the Cardinal and Knight Commander dead, there probably won't be anything left. But we should still check."
"Right, let's move immediately then."
We didn't even check if any remaining Cult of the End followers were there.
With just one attack from Aron, half the canyon had already collapsed, and the surroundings were so destroyed that the map needed to be redrawn - they were clearly crushed to death.
Even if not, the small fries wouldn't be able to perform rituals without resources anyway.
Held in Aron's arms, we ran a bit and arrived at the location guided by the map.
"Block them! We just need to hold out until the Cardinal-nim and Knight Commander-nim arrive!"
"They're just two people!"
"Run and block them with your bodies if you have to! Just block them somehow!"
At the location marked by the Dragon Emperor, Cult of the End followers had swarmed out like bees.
They must have heard the explosion and come out.
These guys were clearly the ones hunting magical beasts and helping prepare the ritual.
"We should take care of these guys too before going, right?"
"Yeah, I can see tools that interfere with dragon power inside there too. I can feel filthy energy coming from inside."
At my words, Aron nodded and took his stance again.
"I'll make it quick."
When he swung his sword again, the guys blocking the front disappeared in an instant.
Just how strong will he be when fully recovered?
Whatever, it doesn't matter since he's on my side.
Instead of pointless worries, I used safety as an excuse to tightly hug Aron's neck.
Ssuup.
Haa.