Chapter 171
Chapter 171
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 171
Chapter Title: The Third Night (22)
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The messages appeared immediately.
“Unique Achievement!”
“Another Unique Achievement?”
“Could it be Lee Hyuk-soo again this time?”
The people erupted in excitement.
After Lee Hyuk-soo achieved a Unique Achievement during the Second Night, everyone had earned contribution points totaling a thousand.
But it wasn’t just contribution points they’d gained.
“Thank you! Thank you!”
“We believe in you!”
The people clasped their hands together.
They bowed their heads repeatedly, conveying their sincere gratitude.
The stamina depleted from battling the Legion of Death had been partially restored.
However, the Third Night was far from over.
Lee Hyuk-soo gazed up at the sky and clenched his fist tightly.
‘It’s gone completely mad.’
Aheta’s eye reflected in the Super Blue Moon.
Blood tears were streaming from it.
With a gaze filled with rage and madness, it was meticulously hunting down the remaining humans while commanding Anubis and the Legion of Death.
Guoooooo!
Anubis’s roar echoed from not far away.
The berserk Anubis was truly a monster that heralded death.
Without the sacrifices of Gula and the holy knights, the participants would have been wiped out.
“……We have two days left.”
“Can we hold out?”
Lee Hyuk-soo turned at the voices behind him.
Before he knew it, a considerable number of people had gathered behind him.
Those who had rearmed themselves with the help of the demon merchant Dagon.
They were the last desperate unit scraped together from every faction.
Among them were many from the Abyss Safety Division.
‘Can we hold out?’
Lee Hyuk-soo shook his head inwardly.
The Lord of the Moon, Aheta, was desperately trying to annihilate them.
With normal methods, they wouldn’t last a day, let alone two.
Part of him wanted to run as well.
The sight of Anubis slaughtering humanity was horrific beyond words, enough to turn the stomach.
Facing it head-on would mean being torn limb from limb while still alive.
‘This is the last chance.’
But if they didn’t band together now, there would be no second opportunity.
As long as that ‘eye’ remained in the sky, there was no place to flee within the Third Night’s territory.
Fighting to the death was the only way to buy time.
Unlike them, the Legion of Death was scattered.
The final strategy was to defeat them piecemeal while concentrating fire on Anubis as much as possible.
‘Anubis hasn’t left the temple entrance yet.’
It was probably waiting for someone who had completed the quest inside the temple to appear.
‘……Is the Prophet inside the temple?’
He couldn’t imagine anyone besides the Prophet achieving both the Legendary Quest and Unique Achievement.
And as long as Anubis didn’t join the war directly, there was a chance.
……So.
“We have to hold out.”
Shring!
Staring at the Legion of Death approaching from afar, Lee Hyuk-soo narrowed his eyes fiercely and gripped the Greatsword of the Lion King.
“Damn it! How the hell did they……!!!”
Aheta’s entire body trembled with rage.
Dark energy swept through the surroundings, rampaging wildly.
He simply couldn’t comprehend it.
The freed Eternal Outer God wouldn’t have granted a wish so obediently, and hunting an Outer God was utterly impossible.
Mortals couldn’t even dream of facing such a being.
Even if the Archmage was an incarnation of a demon god, or even of one of the nine greater lords, it would be the same.
“Erasing an Outer God without the ‘weapons’ of the Nine Lords should be impossible!”
The hyperdimensional colossal monsters within the Great Rift.
Only the Great Nine Lords could oppose them.
That was why the Abyss absolutely revered and followed the Great Nine Lords.
Even the Outer Gods of the Great Rift feared only them.
However, there was no way the Nine Lords would hand over their weapons for mere incarnations.
Naturally, the Archmage should have died inside.
Yet.
‘He killed the Outer God, dominated the entire territory, and even achieved a Unique Achievement.’
Achieving the Unique Achievement meant the Eternal Outer God had been extinguished.
Aheta had set it that way, so it was certain.
But how?
What absurd method had turned the impossible into reality this time?
Even Aheta couldn’t do such a thing.
……If he stayed idle, bankruptcy was inevitable.
Launching the Super Blue Moon had been his all-in gamble.
A declaration of absolute confidence in victory.
Thanks to it, millions of humans had poured in.
‘……Millions of Death Boxes are being distributed.’
But that choice was now strangling him.
Just expressing gratitude granted a Death Box.
Death Boxes were originally awarded only to rank achievers or those fulfilling special conditions.
Handing them out indiscriminately would empty even Aheta’s treasure vault.
Not to mention.
‘……Archmage. That means millions allocated to him too.’
Ah.
His thoughts seemed to freeze.
His hands and feet trembled uncontrollably.
Death Boxes grew more powerful the more you collected.
At millions, even a ‘Hidden Treasure Vault’ might reopen.
And that wasn’t all.
‘Who knows what else he has.’
It wouldn’t end there.
A greedy Archmage wouldn’t be satisfied with that much.
He must have claimed massive additional rewards.
Aheta grew anxious.
Rights of the Night?
They meant nothing now.
His disqualification as Night Manager was already sealed.
The Creators wouldn’t acknowledge him as manager.
He had only two choices left.
‘Go bankrupt, or not.’
Bankruptcy meant the end.
The enormous debt would consume him entirely.
Gathering ‘big shots’ for investment might sustain him now, but in this situation, no high-level Creator would invest in Aheta.
Just look at the current state.
Numerous Creators were keeping their ‘incarnations’ idle.
Even the investors weren’t lifting a finger.
Instead of sowing chaos among the humans to eliminate even one more, they just watched blankly.
They were convinced of defeat in this war.
And saw no point in helping Aheta.
Therefore.
“Anubis! You must kill him. No matter what, by any means!”
Killing the Archmage was the only way.
No other solution came to mind.
Aheta poured in coins with all his might.
Strengthening Anubis to slay the Archmage who would soon appear was his last hope for survival.
And soon enough.
“……You’ve finally shown yourself, Archmage!”
At last, the Archmage emerged from the Eternal Temple.
Aheta focused every nerve on the temple entrance.
This was the first time facing him properly.
Until now, he’d hidden his presence and never revealed himself!
Now he could finally see.
The man who had thwarted him countless times—what kind of human was he?
And then.
As he gazed at the man appearing at the temple entrance, Aheta’s eyes shook violently.
He couldn’t help staring at what the man wore.
Baal’s belt, the World Tree Staff, the Star of Arrogance and Shatiros’s shoes from the Grimoire of Mysteries—all treasures without exception.
However.
“……The Immortal Emblem?”
What shocked Aheta was the Immortal Emblem.
It was proof of the ‘Honored One,’ which even Aheta didn’t possess.
Despite possessing countless treasures and mysteries, he’d never obtained that one.
And wearing the Immortal Emblem meant.
“He’s…… not an incarnation?”
……He wasn’t someone’s incarnation.
A lord’s incarnation could never become an Honored One.
A puppet controlled by another couldn’t claim honor.
He’d been absolutely certain the Archmage was an incarnation of the Great Nine Lords.
That meant he’d acquired all that radiant equipment on his own.
He’d achieved every feat so far single-handedly.
Ding!
……The shock didn’t end there.
As the Archmage revealed himself, Aheta detected the presence of Divine Beast Cygnus from the true sky’s domain.
Along with it, the divine beast began devouring the entire territory as sustenance.
‘It’s even eating the Super Blue Moon.’
47 hours remained.
But if it consumed the territory and Super Blue Moon entirely, the Third Night would forcibly end.
Concluding in humanity’s victory.
He couldn’t allow that.
Aheta screamed with all his power.
“Anubis! What are you doing? Kill him now!”
Anubis was still there.
The supreme commander of death.
Death incarnate!
……Yet, for some reason, Anubis didn’t move.
It ignored Aheta’s absolute command.
Even though all emotions should have been stripped away, leaving only destructive urge.
It was trembling, staring at something.
“Anubis! Are you defying my orders?!”
Grind!
Aheta gnashed his teeth.
Time was of the essence, yet Anubis seemed broken.
Perhaps from pouring in too many coins?
But he soon realized it wasn’t the case.
Aheta maneuvered the moon’s eye to peer closely at the temple entrance.
……And saw it.
The reason Anubis couldn’t move.
Something stood between the Archmage and Anubis.
A being resembling Anubis but much smaller, blooming not with death but a radiant Flower of Life as it approached.
It felt like the very origin of life, eternal and enduring.
Aheta instantly recognized what composed that body.
‘Factors from the Eternal God and the strongest servant, absorbed into one.’
……Impossible.
How could it absorb the factors of a god and the ultimate lifeform simultaneously?
But it was reality.
This was Anubis of life, the antithesis of death.
“What…… is that……”
Even Aheta could only mutter in a daze at the sight.
The Immortal Emblem and divine beast were shocking enough.
But.
“That absurd lifeform……”
……All those marvels combined couldn’t compare to this single being.