Dragging the Abyss into Daylight
Lilith had simply assumed Hecate would join her in this duel as a matter of course.
Yet for some reason, Hecate had changed her tune, putting things on hold with the claim that she 'had no interest in interfering with the duel between Lilith and Ryu Hwi.'
"Hmm. So she's just going to sit back and watch him become mine?"
⟪Ahahahahahaha. What a hilarious joke. About as funny as your very existence.⟫
The voice sounded like laughter, but its tone was as flat and emotionless as someone reading aloud from a textbook.
⟪I want to play with Ryu Hwi in a game I rigged. That's all.⟫
"And that opportunity will never come."
⟪You parasite off Ryu Hwi's companions, and yet you've failed to understand the man himself. How pitiful. Allow me to offer you a single piece of advice.⟫
"Advice, is it? Say whatever you like. I'm curious what pearls of wisdom you could possibly have for me."
Lilith was confident there was no element of this game she could lose.
She already knew that skills carrying a Mental Resistance effect existed within this game labyrinth.
She knew that Legend of Lambda had borrowed part of Loki's blueprints, and that the Mental Resistance skill was a byproduct of that.
But the Mental Resistance skills that appeared in this labyrinth were hopelessly weak compared to the original. Nowhere near enough to ward off the erosion of her dream-realm.
⟪You have made him very, very angry. And when that man is truly angry, there's no telling what he'll do.⟫
Noir Lilith scoffed at the advice.
"Shall we make a wager, then? How many of the one hundred and eight do you think that man can bring down? I doubt he can manage even ten."
⟪Sigh. You haven't understood a word I've said.⟫
⟪I have no further advice to give. Well, I suppose we'll see whether that man deigns to play along with your little game board at all.⟫
With those parting words, Hecate cut the connection.
Insolent upstart.
Lilith snorted and reached out to a different member of S.E.N.
"Hello, Q. What's going on? I'm planning to settle everything today, so... wait, what?"
Lilith's expression stiffened slightly.
"A broadcast?"
⟪Hello, everyone! It's Noel, the mascot of Jucheongwang!⟫
Noel, the face of Jucheongwang's broadcasts, beamed brightly as she welcomed her viewers.
Word that an unscheduled broadcast was about to begin had spread across every community on the net.
For the past several days, many people had been puzzled by the strange silence from Jucheongwang's channel. Then today, out of nowhere, news broke that a special live broadcast was about to air, and it tore through every forum at once.
Throngs of viewers raced one another onto Yggtube to catch the special show from the recently viral Gacha King.
THE GACHA KING! SPECIAL LIVE BROADCAST!
The Gacha King's Challenge!
A battle of 1 vs. 108!
"Hmm."
Even with the broadcast underway, Noir Lilith was not flustered.
She had already anticipated that Jucheongwang might broadcast this fight. It was no great problem.
If anything, Jucheongwang would come to regret airing it. The whole world would bear witness to the hero who conquered the old version crumbling into nothing before their eyes.
Noir Lilith idly considered all the ways she might toy with Ryu Hwi.
"I'm sure they've prepared their own tricks over there, but I didn't hand them a full week for nothing."
It was obvious that a week would be enough for Ryu Hwi to make some manner of preparations. Knowing that full well, Lilith had still granted the time.
She had needed it herself.
Now that every preparation was complete, there wasn't the faintest sliver of a chance she could lose. Lilith was certain of her victory.
He loosened his body with light stretches, checking his condition.
"She needed time to prepare something. Or there was a reason she had to wait out the week. She gave me seven full days even though she knew I'd use them to build countermeasures."
He inspected the deck of his Shuffle Gun, rebuilt with the cards he'd purchased from the Shuffle Shop. The composition had changed considerably.
"Lilith probably isn't the type who's confident in direct combat."
Lilith wielded the power of dream-realm manifestation to recreate the skills and items that all one hundred and eight of her hosts had used in their game labyrinths.
If she could manifest anything at will, then surely she could produce even more effective tools. Still, there had to be a limit to what her dream-realm could do.
"All one hundred and eight of them were active gamers... which means she needed to accumulate experience as a gamer herself. Most likely she can only manifest things tied to her hosts' personal 'experience.'"
"If all she can do is manifest the power they held as gamers, it's not much of a problem. The real danger of the dream-realm isn't 'manifestation.' It's 'erosion.'"
He drew a single card from his deck — one bearing an effect tied to the Moon.
Tonight, a full moon would rise.
Lilith had set the duel for evening, when the moon would be in the sky.
The most plausible theory so far was that the hours when Lilith could commit her full power were the night, and specifically a night with a full moon.
If that theory proved true, he was at the worst possible disadvantage. One wrong step, and the moment the game began he could be consumed by 'erosion' before it even started.
"Lilith is absolutely certain she can beat me. Without a doubt."
[I'd imagine so.]
She must have believed that a mere week could change nothing.
And yet — just in case — she'd chosen the moment where her victory would be most absolute.
"YggON. She dared to look down on a UR Master. What say you to that?"
[Whatever she thought she was doing—]
YggON's lens glinted.
[—let's teach her exactly what her place is. Anyone who slights a UR earns a death sentence.]
"That's the spirit."
The time had come.
⟪And now, the Gacha King's special event! The Gacha King's Challenge — the battle of 1 vs. 108 — begins NOW!⟫
Listening to Noel's voice, Ryu Hwi stepped forward.
His starting point was the very first village of Legend of Lambda.
Scattered across every corner of Lambda's world were Lilith's split avatars. Find and defeat them all, and Ryu Hwi would win. But hunting them down one by one would simply take far too long.
Lilith had no intention of letting the duel drag out, either.
The proof of that—
"Kgh?!"
The moment the game began, a violet haze began eroding Ryu Hwi.
No avatar of Lilith stood anywhere near him, and yet the dream-realm's erosion gnawed at him all the same.
[The 108 avatars scattered across the region are deploying a Field enveloping the entire game labyrinth. The density has dropped considerably given the expanded range, but the effect itself appears to be active.]
"So that's it... she didn't scatter them across the map for nothing. But at this density, I can resist it with Seyril's Blessing."
The sensation was unpleasant, but it was within his threshold to endure.
[That said, the longer this drags on, the worse your position becomes.]
"I know. But... that cuts both ways."
Ryu Hwi let a sharp grin slip.
She was about to learn exactly how fatal a mistake it had been to give Jucheongwang a 'week.'
"Let the hunt begin."
The chat window was in chaos over the sudden event.
"1 vs. 108" out of nowhere — and nobody had the faintest idea what the 108 even was.
As if to quell their confusion, Noel's broadcast rang out.
⟪I know a lot of you are thrown off by the sudden broadcast! Today we're here to announce a special 'update' — and a commemorative event to go with it!⟫
A special update.
At those words, the chat erupted.
Viewers assumed a new patch was coming to Legend of Lambda.
⟪This update will apply not only to Legend of Lambda, but as a common patch to every game labyrinth currently serviced by Jucheongwang.⟫
An update applying to every single Jucheongwang game, not just Legend of Lambda — the news drew puzzlement from everyone watching.
Noel took a moment to draw a deep breath.
What she was about to drop was, in a very real sense, a nuclear bomb.
Few would grasp the full meaning now, but to those who knew of them, it would land like a thunderbolt.
There was no reason to hesitate. When they had shattered World of Phantasm, hadn't they gone even further off the rails than this?
You people touched the wrong man. Consider this your first warning.
Noel beamed.
Random Field Bosses — encounterable under special conditions!
Secret. Enemy. Network.
— S.E.N!! —
A newly added piece of content, dripping with mockery and scorn: S.E.N.
If even a handful of those watching understood what that name meant, they would have held their breath, thinking, It can't be—?!
⟪Right now, we're partially revealing information on the special monsters that will soon appear across Jucheongwang's games!!⟫
Crowley. Hecate. Vritra. Loki. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven.
Orochi. Quetzalcoatl. Tiamat. Seth. Lilith.
The names of the new monsters floated across the screen.
Those who failed to grasp the pattern behind the names saw nothing more than exciting 'new content.'
But those who knew what those names meant realized what Jucheongwang was doing and went pale with shock.
Beings hidden beyond the abyss. The ones who moved in the darkness — entities so dangerous they must never be spoken of carelessly, never approached rashly.
And Jucheongwang intended to drag them up into the light, under the banner of 'game content.'
⟪And today, in celebration of this special content update — a live broadcast! The Gacha King takes on S.E.N's Lilith, wielder of '108 souls' as her avatars!⟫
5555 had spent the past week building the S.E.N content.
Three of the S.E.N monsters had been fully implemented, but 'Lilith' alone had been treated as an event-exclusive monster.
And this broadcast was streaming live across the entire world.
Even the S.E.N had no way to interfere with Yggtube itself.
Even Noir Lilith, who had been settling in to savor the fight, could not hide her alarm.
A broadcast she had expected. But dragging the S.E.N's name out into the open, bold as brass? She'd never imagined it.
The S.E.N was a secretive organization, yes — but its influence was vast. Its membership included Platinums, and beings who commanded Platinums like their own personal underlings.
Jucheongwang had hurled a direct challenge in the S.E.N's face.
And in a manner no one could have possibly imagined.
Just then, Hecate's call came through.
⟪How quickly you've come to regret things.⟫
Noir Lilith's brow furrowed.
"You're hardly in a position to laugh either, are you?"
⟪Oh, I'll laugh.⟫
Hecate said it flatly, leaving no room for argument.
⟪It's hardly an ideal situation — but the mere thought of you panicking brings the laughter out all on its own.⟫
"...!"
⟪Do struggle for us, won't you? Flail about as pathetically as you can manage, Lilith of the Secret. Enemy. Network.⟫
Having gotten thoroughly under Lilith's skin, Hecate severed the connection once more.
"Hecate!"
Noir Lilith ground her teeth.
No — there was no need to panic yet. Her original plan had been to toy with Ryu Hwi at leisure, savoring every moment. But now that things had come to this, she would simply change the schedule.
She had just resolved to make them regret this audacity, when Noel's voice rang out yet again.
⟪Other S.E.N monsters will also spawn at random during this event, alongside 'Lilith'! They treat every visible thing as a valid attack target — monsters included!⟫
Noel walked through the S.E.N monsters' specifications one by one.
⟪With any luck, you might even get to watch the S.E.N monsters fight each other!⟫
The instant the words left her mouth, Lilith's avatars scattered across the map sensed it — fearsome presences materializing all around them.
S.E.N monsters running on the Fall of Saynal difficulty setting.
And of course, Lilith herself was squarely among their targets.
A duel she should have dominated from the opening bell had been flipped on its head the moment it began. Lilith's lips trembled at the sheer absurdity of it.
"Fine. Bring it on then, shall we? UR Master!"
Lilith wasn't the only one thrown off balance.
Watching the broadcast, 'Q' slammed a fist down on his desk.
"Have they lost their minds?! What in the world are they doing?!"
The S.E.N — and the 'names' of its members — had just been broadcast to the entire world.
They were framed as game content for now, but the mere act of exposing those names to the light was the problem in itself.
Whoever had done this clearly suspected that the 'names' of the S.E.N's members carried some special meaning in and of themselves.
"Didn't I tell you so?"
Q's secretary Gabriel spoke in a voice utterly devoid of emotion.
"I asked whether you were confident you could handle 'him.' UR, was it? That isn't the only thing that makes him special."
Gabriel said it matter-of-factly, and yet somehow it felt as though he were sneering at Q.
"He is a bomb with no way of knowing when — or at whom — it will go off."