Wh-What Do We Do About That?
"Wh-what do we do about that?"
"I don't know."
One of the players up on the wall shouted.
"It'll disappear once some time passes, so just hold out till then!"
"And how long are we supposed to hold out?"
"No idea! Three minutes, was it?"
"......"
"Just hold out as long as you can!"
It was a reckless answer, but it wasn't wrong. Pouring magic into the thing for no reason would only waste mana and make it grow larger, and it wasn't even certain the barrier would vanish with time. The thick, murky membrane had shown itself only twice so far.
"We'll handle it!"
Players of the Papacy stepped forward. Yet even when holy power was poured over it, the unidentified barrier showed no sign of fading. The players kept falling back, casting magic that worked on the terrain itself. Spells of great power were stopped cold by the membrane, but magic that reshaped the ground at least slowed the undead legion's advance.
Watching the players driven helplessly backward, Yujun muttered.
"I wonder if the Demon God Worshippers would even kill the undead."
Paranet tilted his head.
"Pardon? What manner of words are these, so sudden?"
"Their goal is conquering the Continent and summoning the Demon God. If the undead tear through everything once, it helps them too. I was just curious whether any Worshipper would slaughter undead merely to stack Peace Contribution."
"......Abrupt, and yet I find myself curious. Even so, I should not think the cult would step forth in person to put the undead down. That would be saving the Continent, would it not?"
"On the other hand, they might annihilate the undead just to deny the players a chance to grow."
"That, too, bears reason. Among the players gathered here, Demon God Worshippers can hardly be absent. They will be striking the undead legion, of that I am certain."
"I gave the place a quick sweep. Nobody was fighting half-heartedly."
"Do you not find Demon God Worshippers with ease, Master? How many of the wretches are here?"
"Fewer than you'd think. Right now I can feel about two hundred."
"......Is that not rather many?"
"As a ratio, it's nothing."
"So it is, so it is."
"Anyway, aren't you fighting?"
"What?"
"Even if you die, I can summon you again. Go earn some contribution."
"At once!"
Paranet dashed off as if he had been waiting for the order.
That thick barrier blocked only magical attacks and holy power. It did nothing against physical blows. Yujun knew as much because a fair number of players had already gone inside it, and stepping through didn't seem to dull one's body in the slightest. That was why he had sent Paranet in.
Good. That's the way.
Yujun dealt with the undead without intervening too heavily. Wiping out every Bone Beowulf had already shifted the tide on its own, but beyond that he had done little of note. The whole time, his eyes stayed fixed on the very rear of the undead legion. There stood a powerhouse radiating an aura that couldn't even be compared to the Lich Lord he had met before, and the monster beside it nagged at him just as much.
Those two are mine to stop.
He watched the pair he had marked with careful attention. It wasn't simple greed for Peace Contribution. There was every chance they would be the ones to shatter the balance between the Holy Empire and the undead legion. Yujun himself could do the same, which was all the more reason he had to take those two as his personal mark. That didn't mean he meant to stand by and watch forever. Little by little, he raised the intensity of his magic, because he could see the Holy Empire's players slowly losing ground to the legion's momentum.
A little more time and the city would be packed with undead. Player corpses made excellent material for liches to raise, and he could already see several Lich Lords capable of resurrecting them.
Good thing I came.
Wasn't this the place on the Continent overflowing with the most Peace Contribution, and the farthest thing from peace? Sensing the undead swelling and the need to thin them, Yujun prepared Touch of Healing. He dropped below the wall, cast Cold Wave once again without fail, and packed the spell full of it.
Crack—! Crrrack!
Players startled at the enormous wave of ice that appeared out of nowhere, then realized it was advancing not toward them, but toward the undead legion.
"Tch. Who wastes mana on a spell that huge and that weak..."
A mage muttered, then fell silent. Drops of Touch of Healing were falling from the Cold Wave and melting the undead in an instant. Unable to believe his eyes, he stared wide and craned his neck to be sure.
"Magic fused with holy power?"
The energy felt even clearer than holy power—the complete opposite of the murky aura the undead carried. Even the giant undead mammoth, unfazed by holy power, vanished in the blink of an eye the moment Touch of Healing touched it. Melee players who had thought the mammoth's endurance incredible gaped.
"......Did the Pope himself step in?"
"Already? That gentleman almost never shows himself."
"Which means it's that dangerous~!"
"Wha—"
BOOM!
The undead had no intention of simply taking the blow. The liches began unleashing truly powerful magic, and the shields raised by the Empire's mages shattered in an instant. The spells of liches—especially Lich Lords—were beyond imagination. Players on the front line vanished without a trace in pitch-black flame, and the Lich Lords did not stop there. Their true advantage was a reservoir of mana no different from a spring that never ran dry. Spells kept coming without pause. The magic of three Lich Lords outclassed what dozens of liches had cast together, and shields thrown up in a hurry could never stop it.
"Gyaaaah—!"
"Ghk!"
The vanguard fell so helplessly that merely managing a scream counted as impressive endurance.
And this is with only the Lich Lords stepping up...
Yujun's brow furrowed. At this rate, the moment a Bone Dragon joined in, the Empire would collapse before anyone noticed. The Bone Dragon was one of the undead he was wary of, possessed of a power that couldn't be compared to an Earth Dragon. For now it only matched its steps to the legion and showed no other movement. If the thing had moved, the battle would have ended long ago. It wasn't as strong as a true dragon, but a Bone Dragon's innate power was formidable all the same. Yujun could tell without ever clashing with it.
If it won't come to me, I'll have to call it out myself.
He sprinted toward the Lich Lords. An ordinary player would have needed a full three minutes even at a dead run. Fifteen seconds after Yujun kicked off the ground, he was within arm's reach of one. The Lich Lords were scattered rather than clustered, so he meant to take them one at a time. The nearest noticed him far too late. The price was steep.
Shhk!
The hulking Lich Lord's head split clean in half from the crown. Another sensed its death and hurled a magical projectile at Yujun, but he had long since left that spot. The second Lich Lord recognized the ambush—and still couldn't stop it. What good were dozens of layered shields if a single stroke of the sword shattered them all? Yujun's blade tore through the barriers like paper and completely destroyed the Lich Lord's body.
The raw attack power really is something.
It was fair to say no one could take the Planet Destroyer's Sword with their bare body—not unless they wrapped themselves head to toe in items bearing an indestructible option. And he had almost never seen that option appear on armor rather than a weapon.
The last remaining Lich Lord grasped the situation and began to retreat. It even used Blink to open the distance, but Yujun's sprint was faster than Blink. He thrust his sword at the back of its skull. Naturally, the Lich Lord never reacted.
Thuk!
Peace Contribution has increased by 2,680!
Every time he cut down a Lich Lord, his level rose by exactly one.
Good thing I started hunting now.
Peace Contribution was being awarded quite generously at this rate. Was it because he had picked off only Lich Lords? He had drawn a great deal of aggro. Before he knew it, enormous undead monsters had formed a circle around him and lunged. Yujun spent mana in bulk and scattered Touch of Healing in every direction without holding back.
Shwaaak—!
The undead melted without fail. Even they were not incapable of learning. They recoiled in terror and began to flee. With Yujun tearing through the rear, the Holy Empire's players gained a measure of breathing room. The crisis was the same as ever, but it was no longer a situation balanced on a knife's edge.
Figuring he might as well stack Peace Contribution while he was at it, Yujun prepared a large-scale spell. If that murky barrier rose again the magic would be useless, but the ability didn't seem unlimited, so drawing it out once wasn't a bad idea. With the surrounding undead's eyes fixed on him, he rose on Fly and immediately prepared a flame spell. On a battlefield like this, nothing beat lightning—but undead were resistant to shock by nature, so it was hard to get much effect. He could sweep them away with overwhelming power, yet the efficiency was terrible.
Maybe I'll farm a bit of contribution.
He had no intention of infusing Touch of Healing into the spell, so the liches could resurrect the undead. There was no guarantee he would meet a legion of this scale again, and the liches probably wouldn't gather in these numbers either. For the moment, Touch of Healing wasn't necessary. He adjusted the spell's range as carefully as he could so it wouldn't reach the liches, then unleashed the flames.
Fwoosh—! Boom-boom-boom!
The spell was Fire Blast, one mages used often: strong and wide-ranging even with little mana. When Yujun cast it, the power and the range were on another level. A colossal ring of flame spread in every direction and swallowed the undead. Everything nearby vanished without a trace.
That has to be over a thousand, roughly?
Catching this many undead with an ordinary Fire Blast was nearly impossible. It had only worked because he had leapt into the middle of the enemy formation and used the spell's range to the fullest. An ordinary mage couldn't pull off something so reckless. If a similar situation ever arose, it would only be a last desperate thrash while surrounded, right before death.
Sure enough, the undead that had been reduced to ash rose again and closed around him.
The contribution duplicates? Ah...
A deep smile touched Yujun's lips as he drew up his mana.