Shin Yujun Starts Rampaging Again
"Shin Yujun has started rampaging again!"
"...What?"
"I'm telling you. He's shown himself."
It was Paulo, in his role as her assistant. The moment he said it with a grave face, Ukria drove her thumb into her temple.
"You're joking."
"Does this look like a joking face to you? What even is this? I prepared everything you told me to prepare. I gave you everything you wanted, and this is the result."
"Shut up."
"...Pardon?"
"My head hurts enough as it is. Stop chattering at me. Where is Shin Yujun right now?"
"Until a moment ago he was massacring our troops. Then he vanished somewhere."
"Vanished where?"
"His trail's gone cold."
"He left no trace?"
"None."
"How many troops has he killed?"
"Impossible to count. Too many."
"Haa..."
Ukria let out a long, deep sigh.
How? How in the world had he escaped Pierre's Domain?
The beings she had designated as summons were no ordinary existences. A Hydra, monster of myth. A beast that lived only in the pages of ancient texts. And a Dragon Fang recluse who had long since ceased all activity as a player. The Dragon Fang, especially — she had been certain even Yujun would not put that one down with any ease.
At the very least, I thought the Dragon Fang alone would force something close to a stalemate. Did they mesh worse than I expected?
The thought came and went. Ukria shook her head.
They weren't a combination that should have gotten in each other's way.
She had no choice but to admit it. Yujun must have killed all three summons and walked out of Pierre's Domain. There was no other way to escape.
Is there no way to confirm it?
Even the one who had used the item could not see what had happened inside Pierre's Domain. That only swelled her curiosity, and her doubt.
Shin Yujun. What in the world are you?
Overflowing talent did not explain it. Even if that talent had been met, again and again, by strokes of fortune, could anyone truly be this strong? And it wasn't as if he had been given so very long to grow.
What do I do with this?
She had never once entertained the possibility that he might escape Pierre's Domain, and so no method of stopping him came cleanly to mind. No matter how she turned it over, nothing was better than sealing him in there.
"I'll have to see for myself."
"What?"
Paulo went pale.
"Don't tell me you mean to go look at Shin Yujun."
"I do."
"Absolutely not."
"No. I'm going."
"I'm telling you, it's too dangerous."
"I'll look after my own body."
"If you run wild however you please, I'm the one who gets interrogated. What am I supposed to do if they try to kill me too, asking why I didn't stop you?"
"Then come with me and keep watch."
"Ha..."
Faced with an attitude that amounted to pure unreason, Paulo groaned. He knew Shin Yujun's infamy well enough. Go anywhere near the man, and you did not come back alive. He truly, desperately did not want to go. But bending Ukria's stubbornness was next to impossible.
Dead either way. Might as well try something.
Fail to protect Ukria, and that alone was grounds for execution. Anyone else, perhaps — but Ukria's standing in Heaven, within the Moderate Faction, was beyond anything one could imagine.
This is exactly why I never wanted this post.
Paulo heaved a deep sigh and strapped on his gear.
"When do we leave?"
"Now."
"...Couldn't we at least wait until Shin Yujun shows up somewhere, and go then?"
"You're right. That would be better."
"Ah."
Paulo's mouth fell open, blank.
"What?"
"He's appeared again, they say. He does have a gift for showing his face at the most spiteful moment."
"Paulo. Get ready. I'll make a few preparations of my own before we go."
"You're truly going to fight Shin Yujun?"
"I have to. Among everyone I know, at least, there isn't a player capable of stopping him."
"Ah — then please report to the higher-ups in advance. Say you went on your own authority."
"Paulo. You're coming with me. How could it possibly be my decision alone?"
"..."
"Tacit approval. More than that."
"I'm not going."
"Then I die."
"Wow. I am genuinely going to lose my mind."
"You'll be scolded either way, so just trust me and come along."
"Selfish. You really are."
"Where would you find a player as selfless as I am? I can't even sleep — sacrificing this frail little body of mine, all for the sake of the Moderate Faction."
"The sacrifice... well, that part's true, but..."
"See?"
"But if we're going by that, aren't I sacrificing something too?"
"You talk too much. Honestly."
"Yes, yes. Mouth shut. I'll follow."
Kwa-kwa-kwang! Kwaaaang—kwang!
Explosions never ceased in a sky choked with acrid smoke. Almost none of them had begun as explosion magic. Most were born where players' spells collided.
"How is this situation even going?"
The angels locked in combat had no way of knowing who held the advantage. At the start, the Moderate Faction had shoved forward like madmen. But from the moment Shin Yujun appeared, a single blast had begun wiping out whole sectors at a time, and it had happened again and again. On the ground it certainly felt as if they, the Moderates, were ahead — and yet the screams drifting in from far off belonged to Moderate players.
"Shouldn't we be falling back?"
"Why?"
"Because it feels like we're the only ones whose numbers keep shrinking."
"So it wasn't just me. And here I thought I was the only one with working eyes, calmly fixated on the scrap right in front of me."
"And still there's no sign of a retreat order."
"Well. One of two things. Either the one who was supposed to give the order is dead, or they don't much care whether we live or die."
"..."
Zzzzt. Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
Another explosion.
"Has Shin Yujun developed a taste for lightning magic? Day and night, that's all he throws."
"Can't blame him. We still haven't found a proper way to answer it."
"Ha. With things like this, what is Lady Ukria even doing? If she'd just deal with that damned Shin Yujun herse—"
Shhk!
"—lf."
Yujun was simply there. He took both angels' heads.
"Heard every word."
He said it to the corpses. On a battlefield raining screams and blasts, their chatter had reached his ears with perfect clarity. Body and senses alike had grown sharp enough that no matter how sounds great and small piled over one another, he could tease them apart.
He climbed higher on Fly. Any angel who got in his way on the way past, he seared crisp with Chain Lightning.
"Leveling's gotten far too slow."
In truth, set against any other player's growth, even this was absurdly fast. Dozens of levels in a single day. But Yujun's greed had no end. If the angels' numbers had to come down, better that he be the one to bring them down — while keeping the Hardline Faction's allies alive as best he could.
Why aren't there any Demon God Worshippers among the angels?
It was called a war, and still, killing them sat wrong. They had committed no great sin against him. They were not his enemies.
If I just stand here, they'll try to kill me anyway. No need to feel guilty... but still.
His level wasn't rising, and cutting down still more Moderate angels didn't seem as if it would mean much of anything. He felt the need to find Ukria.
Find her and kill her, and there's a good chance the Moderate Faction surrenders on the spot.
From the beginning, the only being capable of stopping him had been Ukria, the one they called a genius. Break the Moderate Faction's sole hope, and the war would be his with ease.
That was when it happened.
"Shin Yu...jun...!"
An unfamiliar voice called his name. The distance was great, but Yujun's hearing had grown keen enough to catch it — and it was, unmistakably, calling him. He flew toward the source, trap though it might well be. A trap didn't matter. Ukria had already played her strongest card, and he had dealt with it cleanly. Even if she produced a second plan, he was certain it could not put him in real trouble.
"He actually came?"
At the source of the voice, sure enough, stood Ukria, and with her a tall angel. Yujun tilted his head.
"Hm? Just the two of you?"
"...That's right. But it's enough."
"Seriously?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I'll admit I underestimated you. There is nothing I can do, by my own hand, that will kill you."
Ukria said it with the ghost of a smile on her face.
"You're going to lock me up?"
"Yes. I'll grant that you're strong. That doesn't solve everything. From here on, you're going to feel that in your bones."
"So I can't leave this place until I die?"
"That's right. Well? Ready to look reality in the face?"
Yujun put on a thoroughly wronged expression.
"Why are you doing this to me? What did I even do wrong..."
"Shameless. You killed Utria. That wasn't your fault?"
"Hey. Get the story straight. Utria attacked first. What, was I supposed to sit there and take it?"
"...I'm doing this because I can't afford to be taken down by you either. This is how I stay alive. Talk like that, and you're in no position to complain."
"True. Neither of us is in a position to gripe."
As he said it, Yujun slowly took in his surroundings. A landscape that looked like nothing in particular. And yet Ukria was certain he would be imprisoned here for the rest of his life. Why?
He spread his mana wide. Something was there — some energy. He couldn't tell what it was.
"You used an item?"
"And I added my own ability on top. I knew you'd want to come find me, so I prepared, just in case. I never thought you'd walk in so obediently, without a shred of suspicion. Thank you."
The corner of Ukria's mouth twisted.
"Paulo. Turns out you didn't need to come. Sorry for the trouble."
"Not at all. I'm simply glad it worked out."
And yet Yujun, the one actually caught in the trap, could not have looked more at ease. At first she thought he was forcing the calm. Time passed, and he showed not the slightest trace of anxiety. That, instead, set unease sprouting in Ukria. She knew he was not the sort of player who bluffed. Which meant he might, after all, have some way of breaking this.
"...Paulo."
"Yes."
"Let's put some distance between us first."
Ukria drew straight back. Paulo followed and asked.
"If we leave him like this, the barrier's power will hold?"
"That isn't a barrier."
"Then what is it?"
"A Mythic-grade item, used with a little power borrowed from the illusion race."
"You're saying all of that is an illusion?"
"Mm... not quite. Think of it as a prison woven out of several things at once. Physical force can't break it. Magic won't solve it either. If Shin Yujun were fully versed in illusion magic, that would be a different story — but as far as I know, he can't use illusion magic."
"And if the illusion race comes to rescue him?"
"They won't even come to Heaven. And if they did, do you think we'd sit still? Drive the Hardline Faction out quickly and raise a fortress over the place where Shin Yujun is. That would do it."
"...Rather extravagant treatment, for imprisoning a single player."
"There is no other solution."
"Then is it over? We go put an end to this tedious war?"
"For now, we watch a little longer. We still don't know how Shin Yujun will respond."
"Didn't you say he could never get out on his own?"
"That's what I know. But Shin Yujun already has a record of shattering my certainty once."
Ukria's anxiety lay naked across her face — an expression that dragged even Paulo, watching her, into unease along with her.