Momo Needs a Manager
It wasn't powerful enough to kill Do-hee in a single blow. But if she hadn't dodged the follow-up attacks, she would have gone straight to the afterlife.
That cursed magic sword — she'd seen exactly how insane its damage was when Roofkr's party got wiped. The only reason Roofkr had survived three hits was the sheer depth of his armor reinforcement behind them.
Do-hee and Iona, who had dumped everything into offense, would die for certain the moment they took two hits or more.
But the sharpest pain of all was to her pride.
In all her life, Do-hee had never met anyone who could dismantle a person's composure quite like Mazia. She was, without question, the perfect woman for the Demon King's role — so perfect that Do-hee would sooner believe Wicker had rigged the odds to secure his ideal casting than that a 0.02% gacha pull had simply landed.
"Are you okay?"
Iona rushed over in alarm, but Do-hee blocked her path.
"Stay back! If you come over here, you're taking hits too. We have to keep our distance!"
"...Right!"
The instant the words left her mouth, Iona moved to the far side of Mazia, opposite Do-hee, and though no signal had been given, everyone fell into formation as if they'd rehearsed it a hundred times.
They all unleashed their attacks at once, arranged in the optimal spread so that no one would catch a teammate in the crossfire.
The mages, who could carve magic circles into the floor and strike from afar, held the very back. The archers, who had to fire around their allies, took the middle. A handful of warriors glued themselves to Mazia and spread out in a ring around her.
From here on, everything came down to how faithfully each of them performed their role.
The warriors had to chug potions for dear life, raise their shields, and wall Mazia in so she couldn't move. The archers had to put at least one arrow per second into her head. The mages had to land their single most powerful skill without fail.
Mazia's health was a measly 250 thanks to the debuff — but Serena's potion had one crucial property: it could be drunk even through hit-stun.
Drink for three seconds, and the instant the potion's effect faded, her health would refill to full.
Which meant the party had exactly three seconds to deal 250 damage and win.
Setting aside the warriors' damage, since crowd control was their primary job — four archers putting two arrows each into her head made 80. Six mages channeling five-second casts made 180.
Only if every single person landed their damage with surgical precision would the total hit 260 and end it in one kill.
Once that three-second count began, not a hair's breadth of error was permitted.
If not for the Demon King armor's 95% damage reduction and Serena's potion, the math wouldn't have been this razor-thin. Then again, without the potion, it probably would've been too easy for a final boss.
Wicker hadn't allowed potions for nothing.
But if victory simply required everyone to play their roles well, word of a clear would already have come from the parties that tried before.
Mazia was a Demon King clever enough to wallpaper the entire fourth floor with psychological warfare. And sure enough —
The moment the raid finished setting up their formation, she spoke.
"Everyone. It seems you're taking me lightly."
"Wait! Mazia! Hold on—!"
"Flattery won't work on me, CEO."
"No, really, I have something to say. Dragging this out only hurts us anyway, doesn't it?"
"...That's true. I'm listening."
The clock was indeed ticking away. Two minutes and thirty seconds remained. If Mazia didn't fall within that window, the raid was a failure.
The Demon King in black armor reversed her grip on the magic sword and laced both hands over the base of the hilt — the very picture of leisurely confidence.
...Which was only because Mazia was the one inside it.
But the party's formation still held. If they could just seize the timing — one single opening —
Mazia, however, couldn't leave that sliver of a gap alone, and played yet another audio clip.
It was Finishing Move: Momo's Aegyo, Part 3.
She was supposed to be hunting for her timing, but Mazia's relentless psychological assault had lit a fire in Do-hee's chest.
"Hey! Seriously! If you had a feature like this, you should've shown it ages ago!"
"A little surprise is good for you. The audience chamber was built for you alone in the first place, CEO."
"...How many more are there?"
"Seven?"
Do-hee was dumbfounded. Wait — had she really spit out that many aegyo lines back in the day?
She probably had, but it was a distant memory. Things she'd only done in the earliest days of streaming, so long ago they didn't even surface in her mind anymore.
"Hey. You used to say you could barely restrain yourself from hitting me every time I did aegyo. Why did you hoard all of it like this?!"
"How could I not save clips that may never be seen again?"
"..."
"See? You haven't done aegyo once in three years, CEO."
"It... wasn't the atmosphere for it! And that's my darkest history!"
"I know. I know full well. I'd say it's a shame, honestly... as a longtime fan."
The chat in Do-hee's stream erupted at Mazia's words.
Oh man, right after everyone tore her apart in the comments lmaooooo
That's when she started pivoting her whole image lol it was rough
Still kinda miss it though
fr lol
If Mazia hadn't brought it up I'd have forgotten it forever
Mongmongs' granny really is built different lmaooooo
Everyone, it seemed, wanted the aegyo back.
While they talked, the raid timer dropped to one minute thirty.
Mazia, well aware of it, asked first.
"Not attacking?"
"We are. Mages, prep your casts!"
Five seconds to get ready. Right before the casts finished, the archers' arrows would fly.
But had Mazia ever received a coordinated, formation-based assault like this without learning from it? There had been plenty of trial and error along the way, and the third party just before them had come genuinely close.
"Too late."
Glug, glug.
Even as she subjected Momo to psychological warfare, Mazia was already drinking a potion.
But the warriors who should have been checking her at point-blank range were gamers like Maru, short on raw mechanics — in that sliver of a moment, none of them made the call to drop their shields and land a basic attack.
The potion bottle, filled with a yellow liquid suspiciously reminiscent of banana milk, vanished in an instant.
Do-hee noticed too late.
"Wait, that's the invincibility potion—"
Mazia began to glow gold. And in that very state, she downed another potion — this one a berserker's brew with a ten-second duration.
The instant the invincibility wore off, red sparks coiled and crackled across the entire black armor.
Fwoosh!
The magic sword swept out, and the warriors holding their shields up at close range were blasted backward one after another. Thanks to the berserk potion, even their guards were being shredded.
Still humming her own little song, Mazia raised a white potion this time.
As long as those red sparks clung to her body, she was immune to hit-stun — at this point, any attempt by the warriors and archers to check her was meaningless. Arrows pinged off with a tinny ting-ting-ting, dealing their pittance of damage and nothing more.
"I'll disappear now. Ta-da."
Mazia vanished from sight entirely. It lasted a mere two seconds, but it was a transparency potion that could not be detected by any means.
Dora burst out laughing at the sight — because every potion Mazia had been knocking back was one Dora herself had gifted her, "just because."
"We're doomed. I gave her a hundred transparency potions~"
"WHY ARE YOU TELLING US THIS NOW?!"
Judging by how violently Do-hee reacted, it was clear: the moment Mazia drank that transparency potion, the raid was as good as lost.
Potion effects had no cooldown, meaning Mazia could keep chugging invisibility and running circles until the timer ran dry.
But was Mazia the type to drag things out like that?
No. She was thoroughly immersed in her role as the Demon King.
"Defenseless."
"Fxxk!"
With a heavy thud, Lane went flying backward and slammed into a wall.
"This side too."
"KYAAAH!"
This time it was Komari who went airborne. Everyone whirled around in panic, but even chasing the sounds, pinning down her position was nearly impossible.
One, then two. The casting mages, the archers holding the line — every last one of them went hurtling into the walls.
Potions brought their health back, but the formation was in complete ruins. With barely a minute left on the clock, the raid was, for all practical purposes, impossible.
Sliip.
The transparency wearing off, Mazia stood before Do-hee before anyone realized it. Towering over her in that giant frame, she looked down.
"You didn't actually think I'd go easy on you, did you?"
Of course not.
Once Mazia took responsibility for something, she became someone worthy of its weight. With the mantle of Demon King on her shoulders, crushing the invaders was objective number one.
So Do-hee had never once expected mercy.
"I'll save the seven aegyo lines. Come raid me again sometime and I'll use them."
But that didn't mean Do-hee had given up on beating her, either.
Take this much of a beating and fold? Not a chance. It would've been an insult to hand her that.
Never forget her streaming style. No matter how many times the trolls knocked her down, the woman who got back up and eventually took the crown before graduating her show — that was Cheon Do-hee, and that was the VTuber called Momo.
"Everyone, reset your casts."
Do-hee drew her bowstring.
"The Demon King doesn't cut slack for CEOs."
Mazia stood right in front of her. It didn't matter. Her pride had taken plenty of cracks — but did a six-year broadcast veteran like Do-hee really seem like the type to wobble over this much?
Lane, her cast already half-finished, screamed.
"CEO! TIME! Uh, I mean, TIME OUT!"
A few more seconds until the magic fired. Mazia raised her sword high to swat Do-hee away first.
Do-hee squeezed her eyes shut. Down in the lower-right corner of her stream, the white wolf-beastgirl squeezed hers shut too.
Eyes closed, Do-hee clamped down on her throat with everything she had.
Just as Mazia had hidden her ultimate technique all the way into the audience chamber — Do-hee, too, had been saving a Mazia-only ultimate of her very own.
Mazia's arm froze mid-swing.
On the official Parallel broadcast, her avatar's screen-face went saucer-eyed and bone-white. And it wasn't just Mazia — every archer with a drawn bowstring found themselves unable to let go.
Embarrassment, it turned out, was not Momo's burden alone.
...But the mages' already-begun casts were a hair's breadth from completion.
Iona, who had already endured one full round of torment on the fourth floor, had developed an immunity to the shame — and it was she alone who kept her wits and screamed.
"FIRE!!"
At once, the magic circles bloomed beneath Mazia's feet. Layered schematics of light blazed brilliantly and — BOOM — detonated a conflagration of every element at once, erupting from the ground itself.
Seizing that exact instant, everyone but Momo loosed their arrows.
Mazia's remaining health: 40.
One more shot each from the archers would finish it — but if Mazia pressed her potion button and bolted, she'd be at full health in three seconds. And the warriors still hadn't latched onto her.
If things stayed like this, Mazia would escape and heal to full.
But Momo's bowstring was still drawn. Her throat — the throat capable of that cutesy voice — was still perfectly intact.
Momo's tongue rolled out in full baby-talk as three arrows streaked toward Ji-a. And at last, Momo's fingers released the string.
KA-CHANG!
The arrows struck Mazia's head dead-on, draining the health bar to zero.
Clang — CRASH!
The Demon King's massive frame toppled and sprawled across the floor.
★ [Official) Momo ♡ Jia]
★ [Jia-nung, be my manager fowevew?]
★ [Jia-jia-nung~]
★ [FowevewManager? FowevewManager? FowevewManager?]
★ [I wuv you ♡]
★ [So who's doing the official broadcasts now]
The Momo gallery — and the fan cafe, the Parallel fan cafe, and the memories of every single fan who'd joined the server — had just been engraved with the worst dark history imaginable.
But they caught the Demon King.
The first clear in the entire server, no less.
Even so, Do-hee voluntarily handed back every reward she'd received. One could argue she'd committed the act in a fit of pure insanity — she publicly returned her loot to Wicker on the spot, declaring she'd claim it properly when the boss was cleared through legitimate means.
Truthfully, everyone had already been well disposed toward Do-hee for the entertainment she'd provided. And when the members who'd joined the raid followed her lead and returned their own rewards, players and spectators alike fell over themselves praising Momo.
[Server][Credit Delinquent] Roofkr : Shooo cute~♡♡
[Server][Clear Stream] Keugaemang : Been a while since you were cute ^^
[Server][Landlord] Ronze : You've got this, noona! haha;
...The only problem was that every bit of that "praise" was aimed squarely at roasting her.
"Haah. I've lost my mind......"
Iona, who had grown quite close to her by now, tried to console her.
"Looked at the right way, Ji-a-nim simply exploited the fact that Momo-nim's a notorious troll. It was brilliant improvisation. Honestly, I don't think I could ever have pulled something like that in her position."
"Please never try. Not if you don't want to build a dark history of your own."
"Ahaha..."
And yet — if the same situation ever came around again, Do-hee probably wouldn't hesitate to break out the aegyo. Becoming a CEO had scrambled her life, given her a reputation to protect, and a dozen other excuses to keep avoiding it. But she was still, at heart, a broadcaster.
If she didn't look after the people who looked up to her, who would?
Hadn't Mazia — Do-hee's longtime fan — said it herself? That she'd waited three years and never gotten to see it.
The Demon King, so thoroughly in character, freezing mid-swing like that — it had to be because, after three long years, seeing Do-hee's aegyo again had simply pleased her.
And Do-hee's act of self-sacrifice moved Iona completely.
Granted, BachuBachu had marched in backed by colossal capital and now held the throne as the industry's number one agency. But Do-hee remained a grand elder of the VTuber scene. Until only a few years ago, countless aspiring VTubers had nurtured their dreams watching Momo and her best friend Taro.
Granted, Iona's own role model was Taro — but she knew exactly what kind of person Momo was, too.
A magnificent one. The kind who, when the moment came, didn't care if her own dignity shattered to pieces.
A broadcaster to the bone.
And the rickety-bridge effect couldn't be ignored either. That bond forged through shared hardship pushed Iona to take the next step.
"If I may, Momo-nim."
"Yes?"
"For our final day — how about we prepare a duet for the concert? I'll talk my company into it."
"...A duet?"
"Yes. Serena and your Maru are friends, aren't they? I think it'd be lovely to have the two of them sing one together. And both fandoms are on good terms right now."
These were two companies with a very real rivalry between them. But during the Demon King raid they had fought as one heart and one mind — and it was Do-hee who had proposed the alliance, and Do-hee who had created the opening for the final blow. Parallel, in the end, had been the first to extend a hand to Rapits.
So in a situation like this, wasn't it only fair for Rapits to reach back first?
Even if the companies kept glancing nervously at each other, if Iona pushed hard enough, it could be made to happen.
Perhaps because she could see how much Iona was stretching herself, Do-hee answered without a moment's delay.
"Sounds good. Let's do it."
