333. Harpy Queen
333. Harpy Queen
***
Even though they had expected what the being emerging from the darkness would look like, the moment they saw her, they were startled.
She was pure white, through and through. As a being so white it seemed to carry nobility pushed aside the darkness, that alone made her utterly alien.
Her radiantly shining golden hair illuminated her with mystery, and her face was exquisite, as if beauty itself had been given form. Her red eyes glittered like rubies painstakingly cut by a master artisan, and her pure-white feathers wrapped around her body like an angel's wings.
The Harpy Queen, having revealed herself in that manner, took in the three women in her view one by one, and a small note of puzzlement crossed her features.
"Strange. I don't see anyone who could have summoned me..."
A voice both soft and intense pierced straight into the three women's ears.
Serin, who had instinctively raised her Crescent-Moon Weight, studied the Harpy Queen and thought.
'A special variant.'
She had already guessed as much from the level of 85. But the revealed appearance confirmed it beyond doubt.
The proof was that despite bearing the modifier "Demon-Corrupted," she was calmly maintaining her reason. She was behaving so much like a person that it made one wonder whether such a being could even be called a mere monster.
Just as Serin was collecting her thoughts.
Sua, having suppressed her presence, raised her rapier with a faint frown at the corners of her eyes, while Yujeong sharpened her claws and lowered her upper body so far it nearly touched the ground.
Even as the three of them each settled into combat stances, the Harpy Queen calmly looked around, casting her gaze about as if searching for something.
Then, without warning, she flicked her slender hand once. As if shaking something off.
Whooosh!
A gale so massive it was impossible to believe it came from such a light gesture swept through the entire cave in an instant.
Countless clouds of dust rose, and the cave was filled in a single moment with a savage howling of wind.
Sua raised her rapier to brace herself, and Yujeong likewise covered her body with both hands, enduring the fierce wind.
Only Serin, her silver hair whipping in the violent gusts, kept her eyes on the Harpy Queen.
Yet even so, the Harpy Queen continued scanning the cave's interior as if she had no interest in them at all.
"No hidden presence either... Truly strange."
She had stirred the wind as a kind of search, but when she felt no other presence at all, the Harpy Queen's puzzlement only deepened.
Then, after a brief standoff that wasn't quite a standoff.
The first to move was Serin.
—Moon Princess's Step.
The instant a pure-white light settled on her legs, she shot forward like a streak of light.
As she carved white afterimages across the cave, charging straight ahead, the Harpy Queen's gaze instinctively followed the movement.
And when she found herself looking into emotionless blue eyes staring directly at her, curiosity stirred. Objectively, the power this one possessed should have been the weakest of the three humans.
Yet even in those eyes that moved first and stared straight at her, she could feel no emotion whatsoever.
——!
Then white trajectories embroidering the space seized her vision a beat late.
'An unusual weapon.'
She knew that the human race wielded a wide variety of weapons, but what she saw now was an unfamiliar weapon she had never seen before.
A pure-white cord embroidering the space. At its end, a crescent-shaped blade surged in, weaving through the air in ceaselessly unpredictable patterns. When the white trajectory was suddenly aimed at her legs, she reflexively pulled her body away.
Swish!
Watching the Crescent-Moon Weight's blade narrowly miss her body, the Harpy Queen found herself taking in the silver-haired woman, hair flying, and felt that this human was somehow different.
***
Inside the TSJ building.
Eunha, who had been watching Serin's stream, found it hard to tear her eyes away for even a moment.
After entering Phase 2 of the raid, only a few minutes had passed, but the sight of her on the screen was dangerous beyond measure. And that applied to everyone, without exception.
Plea and Bloody Night, too, seemed to be walking on the edge of a blade. Every one of them appeared to be in a crisis.
Even Eunha, watching the broadcast, couldn't understand how the difficulty had been measured.
Then, when a hologram of the Harpy Queen appeared on the screen and things entered a lull, Eunha's eyes widened without her realizing it.
'Level 85?'
Was that really the level of the monster appearing now? Along with that strong doubt, she saw the chat window scrolling rapidly upward.
[????]
[A Harpy Queen shows up in Phase 2?]
[Has this ever happened? I feel like I've never seen it]
[Sua was right, isn't this a bug?]
[Harpy Queen, you're killing me!!!]
[It's a 3-person party with Rin right now anyway. This is so rigged]
[The Harpy Queen's behavior and appearance are weird too]
[For real, was the Harpy Queen always this composed?]
[Harpy Queeeeeeeen]
[Just give up quickly and file a bug report...]
[Level 85 Harpy Queen's majesty lol]
[Is that level difference even real?]
As she looked at the chat window, filled entirely with confusion, a voice came from beside her.
"Serin. Doesn't this really seem like a bug? No matter how famous Another World is for being bug-free, this really doesn't make sense unless it's a bug."
"Well... I'm not sure yet."
Her own thoughts were leaning toward it being a bug, but she couldn't say she was certain.
Because, as Serin had said before, there was also the possibility that several circumstances had overlapped and raised the difficulty.
—No hidden presence either... Truly strange.
The moment the Harpy Queen uttered those incomprehensible words, the view on the screen changed abruptly.
Without any warning, Serin hurled herself at the Harpy Queen in a single motion, and following her hand as it swung like lightning, the white trajectory surged toward the Harpy Queen in an instant.
Just as the Crescent-Moon Weight's erratic movement closed in on the Harpy Queen, it seemed the first attack might land.
But then the Harpy Queen moved lightly and evaded it, and when Plea and Bloody Night joined in right after, the screen was quickly filled with a brilliant burst of light.
Watching the broadcast, Eunha found herself holding onto an expectation she hadn't meant to form.
The situation on screen was certainly unreasonable enough to be considered a bug, and the traits possessed by the level-85 Harpy Queen were all extraordinary.
'But if it's Serin...'
She didn't want to conclude that it was completely impossible.
If it was her...
If it was Serin, something would be different.
...
Just as Eunha was losing herself in the sight of Rin on the screen.
"..."
Seola was watching Eunha without thinking. The emotions she held were disbelief and doubt.
'Does Eunha really think... this is possible?'
Even Plea, who had led the raid, had personally said it was a bug, and the chat window's opinions were similar. The consensus was that this situation itself made no sense.
To Seola as well, the outcome seemed bleak.
It felt like throwing an egg at a rock. No matter who looked at it, it was close to impossible. Yet they seemed determined to put themselves through hardship for nothing.
But now, seeing Eunha watching the broadcast with such expectant eyes, Seola found herself doubting her own judgment.
'Maybe even this...'
From Eunha's perspective, perhaps this was within the realm of possibility.
***
Whooosh!
As a massive gale swept through the space, the three women who had been closing in were hurled backward.
Swish!
Sua, who had driven her rapier's blade deep into the ground, opened her eyes blearily even as the gale pushed her body back.
In one part of her vision, she could see Yujeong, who had been flung high into the air, radiating jet-black energy as she quickly landed back on the ground, but she couldn't see Serin.
'Where's Serin...?'
Then she heard a bang, the sound of something bursting. When she turned her head, she saw Serin leaping through the air toward the Harpy Queen once more.
Seeing her about to face the enemy alone again, Sua kicked off the ground.
...
Was there any situation as unfair as facing an opponent who could fly, when that opponent also possessed great strength?
No matter what techniques one had for ranged use, unless one was a ranged class, a flying opponent was that much more troublesome to deal with.
And now, Serin, facing the pure-white feathers that filled her vision, twisted her delicate features.
'Annoying.'
Every light gesture from the Harpy Queen stirred up a fierce wind, making it difficult even to launch an attack.
As the gale bent the Crescent-Moon Weight's trajectory, simply controlling the weapon seemed to consume twice the concentration it normally did.
And that feeling only intensified when combined with the Phase 2 debuff that slowed her by 50%.
Even with Yujeong's buff, the Harpy Queen's movements felt faster, making her hard to predict.
—New Moon.
She launched a slash of pure-white moonlight along the Crescent-Moon Weight's upward-swinging arc, but the Harpy Queen once again did not bother to counter.
Whooosh!
With a mere gesture toward the air, she stirred a gale and twisted the attack's trajectory. Even that was cunning beyond measure.
When even the New Moon's trajectory was thrown off, I moved out of the way for the moment.
SWISH!
Immediately, five streaks of jet-black lines surged toward the Harpy Queen with a shriek, but Serin couldn't help noticing the corner of the Harpy's mouth.
"Every last one of you... is so dull."
And then she evaded the attacks lightly, merely by twisting her body.
As the attacks went to waste and Yujeong moved to Serin's side to coordinate an assault, the Harpy Queen immediately soared high into the sky.
——!!
At that moment, a golden light, brilliant to the point of splendor, illuminated the space.
The golden trajectory shot forth as if it had precisely predicted the Harpy Queen's rising form. She twisted her body, crossing her hands as she swung. Along with the golden light that carved through the air, the Harpy Queen flew on with ease, her entire body without a single notable wound.
Clench.
Biting her lip at the sight, Serin disliked that more than anything.
She had been continuously condensing moonlight into her Crescent-Moon Weight, preparing a technique. But the Harpy Queen, weaving through the air, seemed to be toying with them.
'I don't like this.'
Glance. She saw numbers ticking by at the edge of her vision.
-6:37.
The ten minutes that had stopped when the Harpy Queen appeared had begun flowing again, and before she knew it, more than three minutes had passed.
Considering the rules of Phase 2: Hall of Pandemonium, simply letting time pass wasn't a bad thing. But she held no hope in that.
'There's no way it'll end that easily.'
When she had checked the Harpy Queen's status window, she had confirmed the "Demon-Corrupted" modifier.
That meant the Harpy Queen had not yet awakened her demonic energy. It meant she could still become stronger or more threatening.
As she watched small motes of light gathering little by little, coalescing around her Crescent-Moon Weight, accumulating moonlight, the other two acted without needing to be told.
From Yujeong's hands, endlessly slashing through the air, jet-black blood surged forth in countless streaks toward the Harpy Queen, while the golden light that followed Sua's outstretched rapier repeatedly illuminated the air, constraining the Harpy Queen's movements.
"Would things change if I killed one of you?"
Just as the Harpy Queen spoke, as if she had realized something, Serin unveiled a new technique.
—Dance of the Moon-Demon Rakshasa.
Along with the Crescent-Moon Weight radiating brilliant moonlight, Serin vanished from the space in an instant.