Because of Me?
Me?
The official broadcast feed cut from the arena to the commentator's booth.
Shock and awe there. Smug, faith-filled expressions there, as if to say I knew it all along. And behind them, a sea of spectators waving their hands frantically and roaring themselves hoarse.
"That concludes Round 1 of the Mock Siege! Wow~ what an unexpected winner this round, wouldn't you say?"
"Absolutely! As everyone predicted, Leo's team was in a fantastic position, and their growth was overwhelming. But the way it all unfolded — that came down to Lily's team and Chukachip's team colliding head-on."
The screen changed.
Footage of both teams charging at each other the moment the match began.
Even combing back through the entire history of the Mock Siege, teams crossing straight into each other like that was a rare sight indeed.
"Because the two teams spent the opening attacking each other, Leo's team was free to grow completely uncontested. There wasn't the slightest reason for Leo's team to wedge themselves into that fight."
Luna nodded along to Rakl's analysis.
"Exactly. Leo had already left to hunt down Raizaka. Jumping into a brawl with only a handful of people in that situation would've done nothing but hand her allies a defeat — so standing back and watching was the best possible choice for Leo's team."
"Precisely. And with that, victory seemed destined for Leo's team... or so it looked."
By the end of the two teams' clash, Lily's team had come out slightly worse for wear, but had subdued Chukachip's team. The problem was that Leo's team had already grown beyond all expectation. Closing that gap looked all but impossible.
And yet.
"Lily's true strength went far beyond that."
Leo, empowered by the Blessing of the Extreme Dragon, had grown to nearly her absolute ceiling. Plenty of people questioned why she'd chosen a defensive siege battle — until they understood the answer.
She had no other choice.
If Lily had been the one holding the castle, Leo wouldn't have had the faintest sliver of a chance attacking it.
Luna gave a satisfied nod.
"I can't say we predicted Lily being this strong... no, actually, we predicted it — and she still exceeded the prediction. Is there truly any player out there who can stop Lily?"
"Lily being several tiers above the other players is a fact. But is beating her impossible? I don't believe so."
"Oh! How so? She seems absolutely invincible to me."
Just then, the broadcast replayed the clash between Lily and Leo. Rakl picked up the thread in a serious tone.
"First, Lily fights with a spear and a hammer — or possibly some other special weapon. And in the process, she takes no small number of wounds, large and small. In particular—"
Crack!
Footage of Lily's hand flying off, severed by the sword of light. Lily, who had been pressing the attack relentlessly this whole time, went wide-eyed.
"Leo's sword of light actually severed her hand. That alone tells you she's far from invincible."
"Certainly true. Losing a hand is a substantial loss."
"Exactly. For a player who relies on physical weapons like hers, losing body parts means a massive drop in combat power — no matter how well she can heal."
Nearly perfect strength, but not invincibility. It seemed she'd grasped every principle of the world, yet limits remained.
If she'd truly grasped everything, she wouldn't have let things spiral that far before intervening.
...Granted, Lily had still held more cards up her sleeve, which was probably why she'd played it a little looser than she might have otherwise.
But to the public, it simply looked like she'd made a 'mistake'.
"Strictly speaking, it's a little hard to say that the outcome of this match came down primarily to the skill gap between Lily and the other players. After all, the one who held the line at the Core wasn't Lily — it was that dark cloud."
A dark cloud that had held back the enemy in Lily and Vlack's stead. He'd assumed it was Vlack's ability, but couldn't say for certain.
That cloud was an entity with power on the level of a Grand General or above — it had suppressed Iron, Fracion, and every last one of their summoned beasts.
"Whichever one of them it belongs to, it's good news for Lily's team. Could it be one of Vlack's abilities?"
"Hard to say... We'll probably only find out once the match officially wraps up."
"Indeed! Now then, before we move on to the next round, let's take another look at today's highlight moments and—"
"Haaaah... I'm dead."
The moment they returned to the waiting room, the first things they saw were Devil and Redberry sprawled flat on the floor.
Their bodies should have fully recovered — seeing them like this, they were clearly exhausted in mind rather than body. I walked over to them.
"Great work out there, everyone."
"Lilyyyy... I honestly thought we were done for, I swear..."
"What even WAS that? First you swallow everything up on your own, then suddenly we've won everything?!"
The two of them had practically leapt out of their skins when they saw the Shadow Spirit subdue the enemy, flailing in shock.
The Shadow Spirit was, at minimum, a world-boss-tier entity. Granted, it was being absorbed and controlled through a roundabout, decidedly improper method, so its power was weak compared to the original. But it had still grown into something on the order of a well-developed Grand General, making it genuinely useful in the Mock Siege.
It's on par with the Unicorn without the penalty — maybe even stronger. Unless you're a Grand General, you'd never beat it.
I had no idea what its intentions were, but for now it was unquestionably helping.
I looked down at my hand for a moment.
A hand that had once been severed — and restored, perfectly whole.
Even Leo, I hadn't imagined, could cut through the body of someone who'd reclaimed their divinity. This wasn't simply a matter of being sharp and strong.
Angelkin flesh stands outside the 'order of things.'
Two races had rejected the natural order rooted in the world: the angelkin and the demonkin. Their very existence defied that order, scattering their own laws out into the world instead. Among them, angelkin bodies could be wounded — but severing or cleaving them outright was impossible. Only beings who, like the angelkin, stood outside the order of things could ever manage it.
Severing... no, I don't think that was it. So the light spirit was a power of the angelkin? But even a spirit shouldn't be able to step outside the order of things.
Creeeak...
While I was lost in thought, the door opened and Vlack walked in. Something must have happened outside — despite having left before me, he was the last one to arrive at the waiting room, his arms stacked with what looked like a heap of documents. The instant he noticed my gaze landing on the papers, he swept them into his subspace.
"Nothing important. Just a few things I need to discuss."
"Things to discuss?"
"Hmm..."
Vlack seemed to deliberate briefly. When I told him it was fine and to go ahead, he scratched his head and answered.
"We've been checking whether there's a problem with the balance adjustment system for the Mock Siege."
The balance adjustment system. A mechanism designed to let even the strongest players fight under conditions roughly equivalent to those beneath them. It's used primarily in DCK, Deoen's professional league, and sees frequent use in duel arenas, private tournaments, and official competitions alike.
Say there's a user ranked around 1,000th and a user ranked in the top 10. The gap between them is heaven and earth — possibly more than that. No matter how hard they reached, it's a level they could never touch...
But when this system activates, that heaven-and-earth gap shrinks to something a stretched-out hand could almost reach.
"Right now, though, the gap between 'Grand General'-tier users and 'General'-tier users is far too severe. And this isn't just a Lily problem — it applies to every player involved."
No matter how much buffing or growth advantage you stack, you simply cannot beat a top-10 player. Viewed one way, that's only natural — but when Vlack first planned the Mock Siege, he'd thought about it a little differently.
Even if the growth gap becomes crushing, the weaker side should at least be able to 'interfere.'
It looked like a success on the surface, but that interference had proven so feeble as to be meaningless.
Redberry gave a great ahem!, planted her staff upright, and pushed herself to her feet.
"Honestly, Raguel — who hadn't grown like Iron or Fracion — was still stronger than both of them. I seriously thought she was the real Grand General."
"Hmph! Iron was nothing special! If it had been one-on-one, I would've won!"
"I imagine the others are all feeling the same way."
"So was there something wrong with it, then?"
Had the system genuinely malfunctioned and stopped adjusting properly? But the restrictions had certainly been severe enough to feel.
Vlack shook his head.
"No. We checked, and there was nothing wrong. Nothing substantially different from last year's Mock Siege, either."
"Then... why?"
"Simple."
Simple?
"Everyone's simply gotten far too strong since then. Strong enough that last year's benchmarks no longer hold."
Compared to a year ago, Vlack, Leo, Chukachip — every one of them had grown staggeringly stronger. The difference in level was such that they looked like entirely different people. Leo especially had grown at least tenfold, and it would be fair to say even more.
But that wasn't the biggest reason Vlack and the organizers had in mind.
Vlack drew out his greatsword.
The flow of mana within it moved according to his will now, unlike before. Having sat through Lily's short lecture a little over two weeks ago, Vlack spoke with a voice full of hard-won conviction.
"Your lecture, Lily. Or rather... I'd say it was your influence."
"I'm sorry?"
Me?