Demons, Let's Go~!!
The second city among the main cities of the Second Continent. Far in the distance, the forces of the Third Continent could be seen forming ranks and preparing their assault. The Second Continent's troops, driven back again and again, had finally been pushed right up to the city. With their backs against the walls, they formed a desperate last stand.
"Damn it, when's the support getting here?"
"Hell if I know. I heard they were on the way."
"Screw this. Are they waiting for us all to die first?"
The Second Continent players' morale had already hit rock bottom after repeated defeats. They clutched return scrolls in one hand, ready to teleport out at the first sign of trouble. Watching them, the Third Continent players slowly tightened the noose, spamming taunts as they advanced.
"What can you even do~"
"Eheheh~. Getting mad~?"
The Third Continent players were giddy, acting as if victory was already theirs. While the front-line scouts kept the Second Continent players' blood pressure rising, the engineers in the back prepared to summon their siege cannons. It was a routine they'd practiced ever since invading the Second Continent, so the process flowed smoothly.
"Siege cannon summoning initiated!"
"Oh yeah~ transformation time~"
"This is my favorite part lol"
"For real lol"
"Hey, it's my turn to do it this time."
"Ah… sorry, sorry. Here, the altar."
"Yeah. Transforming is cool and all, but there's nothing to do after you—…huh?"
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"Up in the sky… what is that?"
"What are you—…holy crap, what the hell is that?!"
Shwaaaah~~ Far away, beyond the city they were attacking, airships began appearing one after another. In mere moments their numbers had visibly swelled, and they opened fire on the invading army.
Shwooo~ng. Boom! KABOOM!
"Agh! It's the First Continent bastards~!!"
"Shit. The First and Second Continents allied!"
"Damn it… we're screwed…"
"Drop the prepared Spirit Kings first!!"
"I'm going in~"
"Time for payback~! You mutts!!"
From the airships hovering high above, Spirit Kings of the Second Continent leapt out—when exactly they'd boarded was anyone's guess. Using the Spirit race's trait of taking no fall damage, they were simply dropped straight from the sky.
"It's the Spirit Kings!!"
"Focus fire! Those bastards are dead the moment they land!!"
The musketeers tilted their heads back and opened fire. Having fought Spirit Kings many times before, they knew exactly what would happen if those things reached the ground, so they attacked with everything they had.
Then, from one of the airships in their line of sight, something flashed and fell.
Shwooooooo~ BOOM~! KABOOM! KRAKOOM~!
"Shit! Magic's coming from the airships! They brought mages too!!"
"Cannons are firing! Don't clump up—spread out!!"
As the players scrambled, the Spirit Kings landed among them. Thud! Thud! Thud! Their formation shattered as the Spirit Kings carved through the gaps, while fireballs and cannon shells rained from above. Resignation began to creep into the Third Continent players' eyes.
"Screw this… isn't this way too much…?"
BOOM!
The airships were packed to the brim with warriors, mages, and Spirit Summoners who had fused with their Spirit Kings. They swept over the Third Continent players' heads, dropping Spirit Kings directly onto the siege cannons while mages and artillery bombarded clustered enemies from a safe altitude. Once the Spirit Kings destroyed the cannons and cleared the surrounding troops, the airships descended to unload warriors, picked up the mages, and lifted off again. They then retreated to the rear to ferry the remaining Spirit Kings forward once more.
It was a simple tactic, but brutally efficient. The Third Continent forces had no choice but to retreat in disarray. If only they had flying mounts like other servers, they might have attempted a counterattack—but the developers had locked them behind special conditions, leaving them with no way to deal with the airships.
In the end, the battered remnants of the Third Continent tearfully used their return scrolls while the allied First and Second Continent forces looked on. There was no need to chase them down, so the allies simply urged them to leave.
"Damn it… just you wait."
"I'll be back, you bastards~!"
"Aww, how sweet. You can see we're waiting to let you go, right?"
"Ah… yeah. Still, it was fun."
"Take care~!!"
"!! Noona! Don't go!"
"Dude. Is that person even a noona?"
"If the voice is pretty, it's a noona. Noona~!"
"What the… psycho…"
"Haha. Bye bye~"
The Third Continent leadership meeting room was heavy with gloom after their defeat.
"We lost…"
"Of course we did. Two continents teamed up."
"No! Aren't the airships just broken? There's literally no counter!"
"We're the only ones without one. Apparently the Second Continent has exactly one magic that works."
"Wow… the balance is insane. So we're just food for the First Continent now?"
"On the other hand, the Second Continent is our food."
"Anyway, what do we do now? If that alliance invades, do we just surrender?"
"Well… it's just a game, so does it really matter? Lose and you lose, win and you feel good."
"Still, winning would be nicer…"
"Or we could at least make them suffer on the way down."
"Huh?"
"Suffer?"
"A way to make them suffer… there is one, right?"
"Ooh~ Teach, what's the plan?"
"It's…"
"It's?"
"Simply…"
. . .
"Whoa… holy crap. Are you a genius?"
"Lmao. Sounds fun."
"Yeah. Let's do it right now."
The First and Second Continent alliance had no idea the Third Continent players were plotting something. After driving off the Third Continent forces, they gathered to catch their breath and decide whether to push into the Third Continent. The expedition commander from the First Continent and the leadership of the Second Continent had assembled.
"Alright… looks like everyone's here, so let's begin the meeting."
"First order of business is whether to advance into the Third Continent."
"Vote yes or no as you see fit."
"I vote yes."
"I vote no."
"Me too, no."
. . .
"The no votes have it. We'll end the war here."
"Wait, we got our asses kicked the whole time and finally won—now we're just stopping? What the hell?"
"Hey. Accept the vote result!"
"No, let's hear the reasoning. So what do you think we should do?"
"Obviously we should invade and pay them back the same way!"
"Pay them back, huh… why?"
"Why…? Because we suffered, so—"
"And what exactly did you lose?"
"Uh…"
"Nothing, right? Your inventory protection scrolls are still active, so you didn't lose any gear."
"W…ell… yeah?"
"Did you lose any time, then?"
"Th…at's true!"
"Sigh… Look, this is a game. They declared war, so we got to enjoy war content. What time did we lose?"
"……"
"You seem a little too invested. Maybe step outside and get some air?"
"Yeah… sorry. I wasn't thinking straight…"
"No more objections, right? We've got levels to recover, so let's go farm some scenery."
"Hahahaha."
"Level loss is a serious issue lololol"
Just as the meeting was ending on a cheerful note, a bright chime rang out and a system announcement appeared.
From this moment onward, the crime rate of the Third Continent has exceeded 50%. The entire Third Continent will transform into the Demon Realm. The following changes apply:
1. All users located on the Third Continent will transform into Demons. Their existing classes will be deleted and replaced with the single class Demon Fighter.
2. Demons cannot be attacked by monsters. They also gain no experience from killing monsters. Instead, they gain experience by killing users.
3. Portals usable only by Demons will now appear across all continents, scaled to each continent's crime rate. One portal spawns per 10% crime rate, after which the crime rate decreases. This process repeats whenever the crime rate exceeds 10 again.
4. Regular users cannot enter the Third Continent. Even if they do, they will be transformed into Demons.
5. Should a user satisfying extremely special conditions appear, all Demons will be summoned to that user's side and the Third Continent will be sealed. All Demons must protect that user.
Someone who read the announcement let out a deep sigh.
"Ah… annoying. We were going to become Demons first."
"You too? Same here lololol"
The moment the Third Continent players understood the announcement, they erupted in cheers.
"Hell yeah~! They're all dead~~!"
"Demon psychos~~!!"
"Whoa… now we can dish out damage without getting hit back?"
"For real lol. Now they can't invade us, but we can invade them whenever we want. Lmao"
"Alright~ let's go~"
Due to the Third Continent's transformation into the Demon Realm and the players' conversion into Demons, a 5-hour server maintenance will begin shortly. Please log out in a safe location.
Server shutdown in: 30 minutes
"Uh… see you in five hours…?"