The Advanced Guardian Wall

It happened in that very instant.

Outside the banquet hall, lightning tore across the sky.

KRA-KOOM!

"H-Hydragon! A Hydragon has appeared!"

"That's no ordinary Hydragon!"

"Stand and fight!"

The soldiers outside erupted into chaos.

There was no reason a Hydragon would suddenly appear here. If there was any reason at all, it was only because Randolph had summoned it.

"Evacuate!"

"The building is collapsing!"

Hudson looked at Randolph. In the midst of the confusion, Randolph had already closed the distance and stood right before him.

"Log out."

"B-but then, Lord Randolph—!"

"I'll be fine. Korea is still safe."

Korea had not yet come under attack.

Tears welled in Hudson's eyes.

"Ah…! Thank you!"

Korea.

Everyone poured out into the streets. The ground had begun to shake without warning, an earthquake rolling through the land.

"W-what is that…?"

And the people who had come outside found themselves unable to speak.

High above them in the sky, a meteor was falling.

"The sea…!"

That was not all. The seas on three sides heaved, and a colossal tsunami came roaring in.

An unannounced natural catastrophe. The players, too, were thrown into panic by the sudden invasion, every last one of them.

"H-how are we supposed to stop that?"

"Where are the demonkin?"

"I heard the one invading Korea is the Golden Rule Mage?"

"Don't tell me that thing floating in the sky is…?"

But no demonkin were in sight. Instead, a man gripping a golden staff drifted alone in the air.

When the man swept his staff, the meteors fell faster and the tidal wave swelled even larger.

Whoosh!

Crack-shatter!

BOOM! KRA-KOOM-KOOM!

Yet before the meteors could strike, countless swords shredded them apart.

"Gracia!"

"It's Gracia!"

"Why is Gracia in Korea?"

Having logged out, Gracia stood against the Golden Rule Mage. The problem was that the number of falling meteors was simply too great.

The range is far too wide.

Gracia's brow furrowed. He had unleashed all one thousand swords, and still it was not enough. The tidal wave, too, sprawled across a range far too vast for him to block alone.

In the end, several meteors slipped past Gracia's defensive line and plummeted toward the ground, while the tsunami prepared to swallow the surrounding cities whole.

"Ah…!"

What was about to happen was catastrophe itself. People squeezed their eyes shut, painting the coming disaster in their minds—

"Huh…?"

"W-what?"

But the catastrophe they had braced for never came. A vast barrier had suddenly risen before them, stopping both the fallen meteors and the tidal wave in their tracks.

Staring up at the enormous barrier that had appeared without warning, the Golden Rule Mage tilted his head.

"What is this massive Guardian Wall?"

"…I will withdraw from the Hero Council."

After Master's death, Gracia spoke those words at the Hero Council assembly. He would leave the gathering that had begun as the Eight Heroes.

"…Gracia. Are you saying you will surrender every privilege you have gained?"

"I am, Lucifer. I will give them all up."

Lucifer. The true leader of this assembly in all but name—the one who had founded the Hero Council and steered it from the shadows while setting Master at the front.

When he spoke in that heavy voice, Gracia simply nodded. He would abandon everything.

It was wrong from the start for someone like me—who never even joined the Great Expedition—to sit among them.

It had been wrong from the beginning. A man who had never properly clashed with the demonkin, let alone taken part in the Great Expedition, calling himself a hero who had conquered the Demon Realm? Even a passing dog would have laughed.

Yet for a long time he had never corrected it. Deep down, he had been unable to let go of the benefits that came with the lie. Because of greed. In the end, he too had been complicit in this vast deception.

"You haven't forgotten the Oath, I trust?"

"Take it."

Gracia held out his right arm. To leave the Hero Council, one had to surrender a part of one's body. Given everything he had taken, he was more than willing to pay the price.

But then—

"I will make the truth public. That the only one who led the Great Expedition was Wilhelm."

"…And what exactly do you gain from that?"

Lucifer's face twisted. Broadcasting a fact like that would win Gracia nothing. He would lose an arm and be cursed for living a false life—nothing more.

"Honor."

"You mean that meager honor of your own?"

"I do."

Gracia admitted it freely. This choice existed solely for the sake of his own integrity. And yet, integrity before oneself was more important than anything else.

If I cannot stand tall ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠before myself, I will never surpass my limits.

He had finally understood why he could grow no stronger. Because he was not upright. Because he was not honorable. Gracia longed for honor, yet he had always clutched dishonor in his hands. That was what had barred his path. That was the decisive reason the stars avoided him.

"A pity."

Lucifer gave a thin smile. …Still a man whose true nature remained unknowable. Gracia himself had never fully understood what Lucifer actually was.

Then Lucifer slowly drew something from his coat.

"I won't stop you from leaving. I won't even take the arm. But truly, it is a shame. I had hoped to share this with everyone."

…What he pulled from his coat was a severed piece of someone's body. The moment Gracia saw it, he knew. That was not a goddess's remains—it was the body of another god. …A special star.

Union, the Golden Rule Mage.

After swearing loyalty to Isara, he had accelerated his corruption rate until at last he could reach Earth.

"So this is the land of sinners."

Ah. From the very air—thick and foul—this was unmistakably the land of sinners. A barren earth choked with worthless mana. This place was filled with the sinners he was meant to crush.

How best to smash them?

Shhhhk!

When Union swept his hand, a rectangular storage vault materialized.

The golden staff stored within the infinite inventory flowed out and settled into Union's grip.

This time, a consumable. He fired a lightning-shaped rune toward the ocean, and a colossal tidal wave rose.

The moment he cast the skill, meteors began raining madly from the sky. Then Union pulled a blue potion from his inventory, gulped it down, and swept his staff once more.

He was the Golden Rule Mage. In the days when his body had been stolen and his freedom lost, he could replicate every act the "sinners" had once performed.

And that was not the end of it.

The inventory always had a security flaw.

Long ago, every sinner had possessed an inventory—the authority to store items in an infinite vault and draw them out at will. But that system had carried a security weakness. That was precisely why players of the present age were never granted infinite inventories.

And Union—

I can command every inventory.

He could draw forth and use every single item that had ever been stored in every inventory that existed in that era. A walking treasure vault, nothing less. With that, a landmass of this size would be annihilated in a single stroke.

Whoosh!

BOOM!

In that instant, countless swords came flying from somewhere and began shattering the meteors.

"…Oh-ho. The Sword Saint, is it?"

He knew at a glance. That was the Sword Saint's skill—Thousand Swords. It seemed a successor to the class Sword Saint had appeared in this generation as well. The acquisition conditions were notoriously strict, making it a difficult class to obtain, yet this one looked reasonably skilled.

Of course, even so, this was no match for him—not for the Golden Rule Mage, the Master of the Infinite Inventory. The Sword Saint was certainly an excellent class, but it was not a proper Hidden Class.

Moments later, a grotesquely shaped pair of giant shears emerged from the inventory.

Snip!

The shears snapped shut, and the swords were sheared away all at once. All Breaker—a Grade 8 weapon that cut and destroyed every weapon of Grade 6 or below. Unless Sword Gang was applied, any weapon of Grade 6 or lower was mercilessly destroyed. And the vast majority of the blades used for Thousand Swords were Grade 6 or lower.

The Sword Saint who had appeared wore a face of no small shock at the sight.

"Sinner who inherited the Sword Saint. Have you nothing more to show me?"

Union was delighted. To toy with the sinners and cast them into hell. At the thought of burning this entire world to ash.

In the end, the Sword Saint failed to stop the countless meteors Union had poured down.

KRA-KOOM!

The falling meteors were about to turn the ground into a sea of fire—

Staring up at the enormous barrier that had suddenly risen, the Golden Rule Mage tilted his head.

"What is this massive Guardian Wall?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

A blue barrier had blocked both the meteors and the tidal wave. This was unmistakably a Guardian Wall—one of the goddess's privileges. And yet it was far too vast, far too solid.

A single small eye floated up before him. Then the findings observed by the Sage's Eye appeared before his gaze.

Indeed. The name alone was enough. This was a Guardian Wall that nullified every attack below a certain level. But a Guardian Wall was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not something that simply grew stronger by raising its level. And yet it had been enhanced into an Advanced form, blocking attacks across a vast range.

A format and shape he had never seen before. Moreover, it meant that Union's attacks were lower than the level of that Guardian Wall.

But that was fine. He had stored plenty of experience. These were EXP potions that originally held his true rank—temporarily lowered to maintain balance when crossing dimensions. He was a being who had never been permitted to cross dimensions in the first place. Crossing over at too high a level risked being flung back by the laws of equilibrium.

Gulp. Gulp.

He drank without pause, and soon the words appeared before him.

Now then. Could this stop it as well? An extremely enhanced bow of Extreme Absolute Destruction—a bow that dealt one additional level of attack when targeting barriers. He drew the string and released it.

KRA-KOOM-RRR!

"…Again?"

Strange. That strike should have been the equivalent of a two-level increase in total, yet he had never imagined even this attack would be blocked. Just how high was the Guardian Wall's level? Had it even been possible to raise one this far?

"…What an interesting sinner."

It seemed some extraordinary sinner was hiding down below. He glanced aside to find the Sword Saint charging at him, light-forged blade in hand.

CLANG!

But the Sword Saint could not pierce the Shield of the Absolute. Paying him no mind, Union continued to stare fixedly at this peculiar Guardian Wall, as if willing it to break.

I do wonder what class the master of this Guardian Wall has inherited.