No One Will Be Able to Beat Him
“Hold on just a second. I only need to finish this part up.”
Leo began gathering the parchments and spirit fragments scattered haphazardly across the pale-brown table into one pile.
Then she conjured a spirit wind on the spot, blasting away every speck of dust in the area, and let out a sigh of relief.
“Uuuugh…! This is exhausting~”
“I see you haven't been online for very long today?”
The Leo before my eyes was markedly different from the one I usually watched.
Short sessions of a few hours, or marathon stints of over thirty hours pickled in penalty debuffs — but right now she looked surprisingly normal.
A demeanor and way of speaking a bit more mature than a young child's.
Still adorable as ever, though.
Only her tone had grown somewhat calmer; her appearance remained exactly the same. Leo scratched her head as if it were nothing.
“It's an important day, so I've only been on for about two hours.”
“Can't you just take that potion? The one that removes penalties.”
“Ah, that…”
Leo had once taken the penalty-release tea so she could talk to me seriously.
Though it was expensive and its duration wasn't long, with Leo's wealth she could easily keep it going until the siege war ended.
“I don't want to use that stuff.”
“Ah… I see?”
“Ugh… how do people even drink that.”
Even if the penalty was mild, I supposed what she hated was what she hated.
“Oh! That's not what I wanted to talk about.”
Leo rummaged through the pile of papers and fragments she'd gathered up, then picked out a charming little statuette.
A cute green parrot-shaped figurine that fit neatly in one hand.
Leo immediately scurried over and pressed it into my palm.
“It's what I promised. You'll be able to summon Lady Naphras anytime, anywhere.”
A figurine imbued with the power of the Spirit King Naphras.
Now that the celestials and demons were gone, Naphras's wind blew in every corner of the world.
In other words, the Wind Spirit King could manifest wherever she pleased.
And conversely, I could also use the figurine's power to leap across vast distances in a single bound.
“Did the Spirit Deity Duke have no objections?”
Normally, an ability like this was granted only to a King's contractor.
In the past it had been me — forced into it… no, by mutual agreement — but the contractor of the present age was Arne.
“Duke Arne… said he didn't care either way, no matter what happened.”
Whether he himself was the contractor, or the Spirit King lent her power to someone else — it made no difference to him.
All Arne needed was to make Magukgong pay her dues.
“In fact, he even welcomed it, saying that if the ability could bring about even more despair, all the better.”
“…I see.”
I tucked the figurine away without protest.
It was true I was drastically weaker than in the past, so having the Spirit King's wind at my side could only be a good thing.
Besides, the ability I'd wielded before reclaiming my divinity had been the spirit wind itself.
It won't surpass my divinity, but at least I'll be able to put on a spectacular show.
This was the Spirit King's wind, after all.
With a spear I could conjure storms, but that expression merely signified raw destructive force.
With the Spirit King's wind, however, I could create an actual storm.
A storm that could swallow a castle or two whole.
Of course, at my full strength I could raise a storm across an entire kingdom — but that would hardly deserve to be called a 'wind' in the first place.
It wouldn't even be a wind raised by wind.
“I'll be off.”
“Okay! Go absolutely wreck them!”
Leo waved both hands furiously.
Is she getting consumed by the penalty again?
I left with a smile at the familiar sight.
“Oh.”
“Eep?!”
The little cheek was to be pinched only once.
Saturday evening, six o'clock.
The hour when people began logging into DeoEn and their streams one by one.
As everyone's expectations converged on a single point, lights came on across countless broadcast channels — including the network channels themselves.
Among them, the ones that drew the most eyes were, as always, the famous network channel DBC and the official Teatv stream.
The official channel, broadcasting under the title Season 3 Siege War, was flooded with viewers in an instant — surpassing a million within ten minutes.
As the chat scrolled at breakneck speed, the screen that had been showing only sweeping vistas of DeoEn adjusted itself.
A blue sky and a brilliantly shining sun.
Sunlight poured down onto the earth, and the peaceful, fertile land brimmed with life as it bathed in the rays.
And then that world. Split in two.
Light and darkness.
The light went beyond mere radiance, washing over the world until everything was bleached white.
And the darkness dyed the world black, deep enough to swallow that white world whole.
Krrrkkk…!
Something pried its way through that darkness and revealed itself.
What emerged was a black hand.
A hand so deeply, utterly black that it seemed to drink in even the light itself.
An otherworldly aura came pouring out of the roughly outstretched hand.
Even through the screen, the sheer presence made you flinch.
At last the hand vanished, and the two black horns that appeared in its place glowed red as if hinting at something — then disappeared into the darkness without a trace.
Beeeeeeeeeeeep…
Zzzt—
With ear-piercing static, noise flooded the screen, and the image adjusted once more.
In an instant, the screen switched to a desk in a bright studio where three people were seated, and a very familiar figure greeted the viewers.
“Hello, everyone! I'm Kim Yong-woo, your caster for the glorious opening of Devil of Angel Season 3 Siege War!”
“And on commentary, I'm Rakl!”
“And joining as special commentator, I'm Aisha!”
“Hello everyone~”
Despite the appearance of some fairly famous commentators offering their greetings, the chat window paid them no attention whatsoever.
Everyone's interest was focused entirely on the black 'demon' that had just appeared.
Kim Yong-woo, as though he'd anticipated the reaction, continued in a lively voice.
“Wow~ it seems you were all quite startled by the new teaser that just dropped.”
“Well, this is the first appearance of a race that has never once shown up until now. And the game is called Devil of Angel, after all. Every single time, people asked, 'What does the game's title have to do with anything? Are those two races ever even going to show up?' There really was a lot of talk.”
Rakl paused briefly to catch his breath.
“And so, this time! This time, no more waiting! The massive update arriving in about six months — the Season 4 Great Cataclysm — and its teaser made its grand debut!”
“A demon, right? It definitely looked like a demon at a glance.”
“I believe that's the correct read — it's almost certainly a demon.”
“Wow… even through the screen, I felt shivers running down my spine.”
“It was certainly frightening. If it's this unsettling just watching on screen, imagine what it'll feel like seeing it in-game…”
Kim Yong-woo the caster sat in the center, Rakl the commentator on the right.
And the woman on the left was looking straight into the camera.
Long silver hair flowing down to her waist, and eyes that held the light of stars.
Her face had quite a cute shape, but given her rather mature height and figure, it was a bit of a stretch to call her simply adorable.
“And Aisha! It really has been far too long!”
“Great to be here! I'm Aisha, your siege war commentator!”
Currently ranked 11th.
A former pro of the DCK and a champion in her own right — a genuinely skilled player.
Her class was the hidden class Sword Star, famous for wielding a sword art that moved like a shooting star.
She had countless other titles and achievements as well, but there was a single word that described her best.
Sword God and Sword Star.
Naturally, Sword God was the stronger of the two — but the fact that both wielded the longsword made them unavoidable points of comparison.
Every single-digit ranker used some unique weapon or ability, and almost none of them focused on the 'sword' itself.
Vlack technically used a sword too, but it was a greatsword — a different classification entirely — and in truth he was closer to a mage.
The same went for the other rankers.
“Now that commentator Aisha is here, there's one thing I simply must ask. There's talk going around that 'Sword God' may well be appearing in this siege war.”
“That's right. I'm incredibly excited for it myself!”
“If he really does show up, what kind of performance might we see from him?”
Sword God was strong, but since he made no appearances in any media, little was known about him.
At best, footage captured by other players, or a handful of glimpses during special events.
“Sword God is…”
And Aisha had crossed blades with Sword God before.
Aisha broke into a smile full of conviction.
“The strongest. If he really does appear, there won't be a single person who can beat him.”
Sword God.
The God of the Sword bows to no one.