Tyrant of the Battlefield
Randolph’s Great Adventure!
‘The Tale of Randolph Purifying the Contaminated City’ has been newly assigned.
Consume Starlight to read the corresponding story.
“······.”
The story that rose simultaneously before every Constellation in the Hall of One Hundred Constellations.
At the mere sight of Randolph’s name, several Constellations flinched in open revulsion.
The contents of the “Council” had not even been fully decided, yet none of them had dreamed the next Main Quest would begin this swiftly.
Of course, countless other stories continued to be assigned to them without pause. Yet every Constellation’s gaze remained fixed solely upon Randolph’s tale.
“Oho. So this ‘name’ is the Writer that makes all of you so tense?”
Twenty-seven new Constellations appeared, their forms etched in brilliant starlight. They were unmistakably different from those who had come before.
“Certainly, your methods cannot endure that Writer’s ‘consumption.’ Yet we cannot simply refuse to read. For we are empty, failed beings.”
The one who stood at their center—the being who radiated the most dazzling starlight—spread both arms and spoke.
“To become First-Rank Constellations and reclaim our former glory. That is our long-cherished wish. But the time has come to cast aside your methods.”
“······ More fools have come crawling again.”
The Constellation of the Most Brilliant Hero shook his head. The seventeen Constellations who had appeared previously had spoken the same words, only to lose every last scrap of their starlight.
Their method had been to scatter indiscriminately and reclaim with interest, yet Randolph’s pace had been impossible to control, and in the end their light had been extinguished.
This time would be no different. Their confidence was admirable, yet······
Those stars had still never experienced Randolph firsthand.
This is no time to worry about them.
There was a more urgent problem to resolve first. If the Constellation Council was not concluded properly, it would merge with Main Quest 8 and produce irreversible consequences. That much was certain.
No—perhaps this Main Quest will not even be cleared.
The Constellation of the Most Brilliant Hero believed that Randolph might fail to complete this particular story. Because······ he had already seen it.
The other story unfolding in the desert city.
The story of Transcendent Isabella.
Tyrant of the Battlefield
The first time I opened my eyes in Faisalmer, I was a prisoner.
Nothing more than a straggler who had fled from an expedition force.
Yet one question had always lingered.
Did that mean this body—Randolph’s true identity—was nothing but a common soldier belonging to that expedition?
Even the name “Randolph” that I had chosen was, strictly speaking, only a nickname.
Yet no matter how thoroughly I searched the status window, no “true name” ever appeared.
When you play a character, a true name is always displayed separately.
But not for Randolph.
The moment I spoke the name Randolph, that name itself became his true name.
··· Everything began right here, in Faisalmer.
After that, I began my “survival” at Level 1, still wearing shackles. I subdued a Hydragon, caught the eye of the Snake Princess Isabella, and successfully passed myself off as a “Star-Chosen.”
Isabella’s dream had been to escape the Desert Queen and seek out her own “origin.”
Our interests had aligned perfectly, and so we had managed to flee the desert city together.
The situation then and the situation now are completely different.
I no longer needed to run. I had grown strong enough.
The worst city. The worst starting point.
Even if the physical abilities of the contaminated barbarians had skyrocketed, this place was still only a beginner city.
In the end, it is only a beginner city.
Moreover, the Desert Queen herself was gone. Nothing remained that could stand in my way.
Main Quest 8—“Purify the Contaminated City”—was a quest where speed was life itself.
Whoever located the contamination sources more accurately and eliminated them faster would win.
In short, it was a speedrun.
And the most important thing in a speedrun was—
A frontal breakthrough.
Carving a straight path all the way to Faisalmer.
For that purpose, the power of the One Who Blooms Darkness was perfectly suited.
“Rise, caw.”
Darkness (Lv. 2) is being raised.
Darkness blooms upon every being within a 500-meter radius.
In that instant, darkness literally rose.
The darkness that began at my feet swallowed a radius of roughly five hundred meters in the blink of an eye.
And upon the chests of every barbarian caught inside that domain, the Eye of the Dreadful Omen was carved.
“Wh-what the hell is this?!”
“Uwaaaaah!”
Living barbarians turned their blades on one another, slashing and stabbing. In moments the land submerged in darkness became a living hell.
The One Who Blooms Darkness was a maker of chaos.
But this was only the beginning.
Just as the Corpse Crow’s skill transcended, the One Who Blooms Darkness also grows.
Even after becoming the King of Corpse Crows I had continued to raise its rank. In the end it had become the Dreadful Omen and shown me the ultimate form of the Corpse Crow. The One Who Blooms Darkness still had room to grow as well.
A Level 2 skill already covering this much area.
If it reached Level 10, it might plunge an entire city into darkness. Or it might transcend and transform into an entirely different skill.
Darken, and Darkness.
Those two were the unique skills of the One Who Blooms Darkness. And the Eye of the Dreadful Omen (Lv. 10) clung to them like a trait.
“My body is moving on its own!”
“Aaaagh!”
Screams filled the battlefield. Amid the chaos I examined the skills once more.
【Darken (Lv. 2)】
- Become darkness itself and evade all attacks for 30 seconds.
- While Darken is active, take 1,000% additional damage from light and holy attacks.
- As the skill level rises, duration increases and the additional light/holy damage decreases.
- Can only be used while Darkness is charged.
【Darkness (Lv. 2)】
- Raises “Darkness” across a wide radius.
- Those who set foot in the Darkness have Darkness bloom upon them and fall into extreme confusion.
- The skill’s owner is permanently in a state of Darkness.
- Links with Eye of the Dreadful Omen (Lv. 10).
- As the skill level rises, the radius of Darkness expands, the confusion grows more severe, and the charge rate of Darkness increases.
【Eye of the Dreadful Omen (Lv. 10) ★★★★】
- The authority Baal seized by devouring the head of the Dreadful Omen.
- Inscribes the “Eye of the Omen” upon opponents within the Darkness domain.
- When the Omen opens its eye, it seizes complete control over every being.
- As Darkness is strengthened, the Eye of the Dreadful Omen is also strengthened.
- If Darkness is insufficient, the Omen’s eye will not open.
No matter how many times I read them, the descriptions never grew old. I burned them into my eyes and hammered them into my skull.
If the King of Corpse Crows had elevated corpses into art and made them fight, the One Who Blooms Darkness was an absolute ruler who dominated a domain and controlled everything within it.
It possessed not only versatility but also overwhelming performance even at a mere Level 2. Had it not briefly bound even the White King himself?
Raising the level of Darkness might make even greater feats possible.
Unless someone snipes me from extreme range, fighting me will be no easy task.
If I were to turn myself into an enemy, I would struggle considerably. At minimum I would need to snipe from beyond five hundred meters, yet light and holy attributes were mostly blessing-type; sniping skills among them were almost nonexistent.
Any other attack I could simply evade or block with Darken.
Of course, one could enchant an arrow with a blessing for elemental damage, but sniping itself grew weaker the farther the range. Ultimately, the decisive blow needed to kill me would have to land inside the domain of Darkness.
By the time anyone thinks of a proper counter, they will already have stepped into the Darkness.
A method of countering certainly existed. But if I never gave them the time to conceive a proper strategy, that method was useless.
I smiled faintly and continued walking forward.
Straight into the heart of the desert city of Faisalmer.
Contamination Source eliminated!
Remaining Contamination Sources: seven.
Unstoppable momentum! The screams of the contaminated barbarians never cease.
The skill Darkness has leveled up.
Gyaaaaah!
A barbarian whose body had grotesquely swollen met its end, surrounded by the very barbarians who had followed it.
At the same moment the Darkness skill rose to Level 3, and the radius of the Darkness domain expanded even further.
The state of the contaminated ones is strange.
I had eliminated three contamination sources so far. Every one of them had shown not only mental contamination but physical contamination as well. Yet even to my eyes their condition was far from normal.
They have completely transformed. Not human—into something else entirely.
Moreover, each time I removed a contamination source the transformation grew more severe. The first source had merely been slightly swollen. The third one I had just eliminated······
Demon Blood Clan······
A monster that disguised itself as human and split its skin open like wings. It was beginning to resemble the form of the creature I had killed in the Abyss Labyrinth—the former queen of the desert city of Faisalmer.
But I had definitely killed her. That monster would never rise again.
Then again, I myself had returned from death, so I could not be certain.
Could it be that eliminating every contamination source would resurrect the Desert Queen?
Contamination corrupts an entire city.
When contamination sources accumulate, the whole city is affected. This phenomenon had appeared only after the continents of Pangenia rose into the sky. Contamination corrupted a city, turned it into a sacrifice, and brought about its complete downfall.
On the surface it resembled a plague, but the problem came afterward—after the city became a city of the dead.
According to the records, contamination sources are linked to the birth of new species.
That was why people called this contamination the “Celestial Plague.” The continents had risen into the heavens, and this was the evolution that matched them.
But why, of all things, the form of the Demon Blood Clan?
And where was Isabella in all of this?
If she still lived, finding her would not be difficult.
“Rise, Darkness. Caw.”
No one would be able to eliminate these contamination sources faster than I.