The Battle of the Conscienceless
BOOOOM!!!
“Hmm.”
THUD!!!
Tarkan and Elia collided in a frenzy, the two warriors trading blows in a relentless slugfest.
The saintess’s uppercuts and straight punches hammered into the giant’s muscles, piercing through the demon tribe’s signature thick hide and sending shockwaves deep into his internals.
“Not a bad punch at all.”
Yet Tarkan wasn’t content to simply admire her strikes while taking them.
He interlaced his fingers, clasped both hands together, and slammed them straight down onto the fragile girl’s skull.
KWAAAAAAAAANG!!!!
“Ugh?!”
THUUUUD!!!
The blow that rattled her brain sent Elia’s spine arching as her knees buckled beneath her.
“Hmph!!”
SMAAAAASH!!!
The follow-up strike whipped across the side of her head.
“Kuh?!”
The tremendous impact triggered the onset of a concussion, and damage began piling up across Elia’s body.
BOOOOM!!
Finally she was sent flying by one of Tarkan’s hits, crashing into the wall with a deafening roar.
Rumble…
Shattered chunks of stone buried her beneath their weight.
“Elia!!”
Tap tap tap!!!
Seeing the saintess in danger, a frantic Arkhis drew her rapier and charged once more.
“Haaaaaaaap!!!”
He might have been a violent, irritating brute, but she couldn’t simply stand by and watch him get pummeled.
“I’ll join the fight too!”
Jinwoo, who had been trembling on the sidelines, found his courage and rushed in alongside her.
CLANG!!
“Urk?!”
Even though his blade had clearly made contact with skin, it was Jinwoo who got repelled.
“Just how absurd is that defense…!!”
“I’ll strike the weak point!”
He clutched his stinging palm and retreated, allowing Arkhis to switch in and take his place.
Vertical Strike
KWAAAAAAAA!!!
Her carefully aimed thrust shot toward the eye of the blankly standing Tarkan…
Swish!
“You’ve grown stronger than before. Not bad at all.”
He defended with his forearm, leaving only a shallow scratch on its surface.
“Ugh…”
She had unleashed her strongest ultimate technique, yet the damage he suffered was laughably minor.
On top of that, his defensive speed earlier had clearly surpassed hers.
Just where did a monster like this even come from?!
It was enough to leave her stunned.
After conquering the tower she had reached level 40 and trained even harder than before.
Yet she still couldn’t see the bottom of this creature’s power.
He had shrugged off Elia’s fists without issue and seemed barely affected even after being bathed in Iflata’s flames.
“Are we… really going to lose like this?”
Drip.
A bead of sweat slid down Arkhis’s tense jawline.
“Do not give up!! To retreat is to decay; to fear is to die!”
THUUUUUUD!!!
But that moment of hesitation lasted only an instant.
Saintess Elia burst out from the rubble with a powerful cry, shattering the stone debris as she leaped forward.
“..?!”
“You were still alive.”
As she rose immediately, Tarkan stared at her with genuinely surprised eyes.
“The fight is not over yet!”
BOOOOM!!!
Elia reaffirmed her resolve with a thunderous voice and charged once more.
Her momentum was that of a living siege engine.
THUUUUUUUD!!!!
“Ugh… hm!!”
Even Tarkan, who barely managed to stop her rush, let out a faint groan, clearly struggling.
This woman. She’s gotten even stronger.
“Let’s fight head-on right now!!”
“Uh… yeah!!”
Despite facing a giant twice her size, the delicate girl clung to him desperately while shouting.
Jinwoo and Arkhis found their courage renewed and rushed in again.
“Ah! I finally get it completely!!!”
Whoosh!!
Following their lead, Iflata began chanting with an enlightened expression. Hotter flames than before roared upward.
“Haaaaaaaa!!!!”
"Entwine, Volcano!"
"Burn it all down!!"
⟨ Inferno Eclipse ⟩
This time Iflata didn’t forget her buff skill, launching the flames in textbook fashion.
“Hmm…!”
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!
A mushroom cloud rose as the battlefield was swallowed by explosive smoke.
Swish swish swish!!
“Professor Bajina! Is it true intruders are targeting the students?!”
“Damn it, what the hell is going on?! This was supposed to be the perfect vacation plan…!!”
While Elia’s group battled Tarkan and Ryushia faced Arhan, Professors Bajina and Lamia were racing toward the scene after receiving the emergency request sent by Ryushia and Jinwoo.
Their mission was simple: eliminate the intruders and protect the students.
“I don’t know what kind of uninvited pests are attacking, but we can’t just ignore them.”
“Shall we show these terrorists exactly what real power looks like?”
They were leaping across building rooftops at high speed when—
“…Stop!”
“Hm?”
Tap!
Lamia sensed a chilling presence and urgently called for a halt.
“Hmm? Your instincts are still excellent, Lamia.”
“Emily…”
The one blocking their path was the pink-haired, twin-tailed magical girl—Redanis’s Second Finger, Emily.
“Hmph, if it isn’t the alliance’s traitor.”
“To be accurate, the alliance betrayed me.”
Thud.
Emily wore a cold expression as she slammed her massive hammer into the ground.
“Sorry, but I can’t let you interfere. Our kids are busy working right now.”
“Then we have no choice. We’ll settle this with force.”
Crackle crackle crackle!!!
Lamia set aside their old connection and drew forth her magic power, deciding a fight was inevitable.
“Full Body Armament.”
Clank!!!
Whiiiiiiing!
Professor Bajina quietly spoke her activation phrase as well. Steel components surged out and encased her body completely.
Click!!
“Hey, Lamia. I’ll finish this quickly with my One-Shota missile.”
“…Pardon?”
Now fully equipped in her signature steel armor, Bajina stepped in front of Lamia.
“Hmph?”
Whiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!
She aimed the cannon on her suit’s right arm at the indifferent Emily. A loud electromagnetic hum mixed with surging magic power.
KWAAAAAAAA!!!
Ting!
“…?”
Despite the threatening launch sound, the tiny missile simply bounced off Emily’s rock-hard forehead.
“Magical kingdom tech, right?”
“Yeah…”
Lamia gave Bajina a strange look. The professor whose ultimate attack had been so pathetically neutralized muttered in a dejected voice.
“Enough playing around.”
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!!!
Emily decided the probing phase was over and began drawing out the full power of her magical girl transformation.
“Spark!!”
Crackle crackle crackle!
Lamia swiftly fired a bolt of electricity.
“Hey! You think some static electricity like that can stop me?!”
The magical girl’s barrier casually deflected the current as she charged straight at Lamia.
BOOOOM!!!
“Hup!!”
To intercept the rushing pink magical girl, Bajina ignited her rocket boosters and met her head-on.
Grrrrrrrrrind!!!
“Ha! You think that hunk of scrap can stop me?!”
“I’ll teach you that the difference in magic power isn’t always the deciding factor.”
Even as her suit’s armor crumpled under Emily’s hammer, Bajina held her ground stubbornly…
“Just hold on a little longer!”
Rumble rumble rumble…
Lamia gathered dark thunderclouds in the gloomy sky.
"Cloud Lightning!!"
FLASH!!!
The lightning mage’s powerful bolt struck the small girl.
“Hmm…!”
BOOOOM!!!
Bajina had timed her retreat perfectly. Blinding light exploded across the area.
Whoooosh…
“Kuhuu… th-that actually stings a little?!”
“…!!”
The attack carried enough power to fry anything it touched, yet Emily emerged from the smoke with only slightly scorched clothes and split hair.
She still looked completely fine.
“Die already!”
Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
Since neither missiles nor Lamia’s lightning could inflict a serious wound, Bajina pulled out the magic-engineering machine gun mounted on her armor and opened fire wildly.
Each bullet could burst goblins apart; three seconds of continuous fire could reduce an ogre to powder.
“Ah~ That feels nice and refreshing!”
Emily spoke in a relaxed tone, faint bruises the only marks on her forearms.
“Argh! Are all the Goddess’s magical girls monsters?!”
“Magical Leap!”
Whooooosh!!!
Emily ignored the annoyingly talkative Bajina and leaped toward Lamia first, aiming to neutralize the long-range threat.
“…!!”
“Sorry, but could you take a little nap?! Magical Hammer Stamping!!”
KWAAAAAAAA!!!
The instant Emily closed the distance, Lamia’s eyes widened in alarm…
CRAAAAAASH!!!!
A gigantic hammer swung down where she had been standing, pulverizing everything around it.
Crackle…
“Apologies, but if I had taken that hit, I doubt I would have simply fainted.”
Lamia had transformed into lightning to evade, slipping out of the attack range. She spoke calmly from her new position.
“Heh… As expected of the kingdom’s elite. If there had been more people like you, I might not have ended up like this.”
“…”
“Ah, enough reminiscing. Shall we get serious now?”
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!!
Declaring that the warm-up was over, Emily released a massive surge of pink magical power.
“As expected of the strongest magical girl—the one who killed the previous Demon King.”
“Yes… She was once the kingdom’s greatest hope and ultimate power, but has now become its worst enemy.”
“Enough chatter.”
Step.
Emily radiated a murderous aura, pointing her vicious hammer at them as she spoke quietly.
“Here I come.”
KWAAAAAAAAANG!!!!
The clash began between former allies now bound by bitter resentment.
While the others fought their respective opponents, Ryushia stood alone facing one of Redanis’s Fingers.
“I wonder if everyone is fighting well…”
“Hehe, worrying about others while facing me? Is this the composure of the strong?”
“Me? That’s hardly something I can say in front of you—someone who displays such masterful swordsmanship even while in a dying body.”
“Hehe… How humble of you, young lady.”
The man before her was, if you looked only at raw specs, the weakest boss in the game.
His rank within Redanis was the lowest.
Health, attack power, defense—everything was at rock bottom.
No wonder players joked that if you nerfed his patterns and speed, he’d be no stronger than an ogre.
However…
“Hmph!”
Slaaaaaash!!!
That monstrous sword technique and speed were the real problem.
“Hup!”
You had to dodge before he even drew his blade, or you’d never avoid the strike.
Slice!!
“…Those trees must have been expensive.”
“Hehe, we can always plant new ones, can’t we?”
Otherwise she would end up like the five trees behind her—each neatly bisected.
“Sigh… I’ve met the most troublesome opponent possible…”
“That’s my line.”
Arhan’s body was nothing but that of a frail old man.
Yet he was a mad boss who had discarded everything else and slaughtered players using nothing but the world’s pinnacle swordsmanship.
By abandoning raw physical power, he had instead comprehended the principles of all things through the sword and learned to control the very flow of battle.
Among the ten executives, he was the Sword Demon who used pure skill to crush players who dared underestimate him as the weakest.
A boss like Tarkan was actually easier by comparison.
His dangerous patterns came with honest, readable wind-up motions, and his somewhat slow speed allowed for the classic strategy of one person holding aggro while the rest attacked.
But this old man offered no such mercy.
Frame-perfect patterns, relentless chains of attacks with no breathing room.
Almost no telegraphing, and sometimes he would suddenly unleash an instant-death move after pretending to hesitate.
He could throw off rhythm mid-combo, parry and dodge like a player, and if you tried using a dangerous technique he would land one hit and immediately retreat with infuriating cunning.
“…If Jinwoo and the others had been here, it would have been a disaster.”
“Well, cutting the heads off novices is easy enough.”
Had the matchups been different, the newbies’ heads might have been rolling across the ground together.
CLAAAAAAAANG!!!
“My my! Attacking in the middle of conversation—how underhanded!”
“As if you’re one to talk!”
I spat the words at the old man whose hands were trembling after barely blocking the blade I had drawn in an instant.
Sorry, but I’m a rotten, seasoned veteran myself.
“Shall we have a filthy, underhanded brawl between two dirty fighters?”
“Keke… Just what I was hoping for.”
Let’s see which of us is dirtier and more shameless.