Nightfall - The Time to Kill Gods (7)
To the developers of Nightfall, Ariandel was a being of pure love and hate.
He was the first boss-level entity players encountered in the tutorial, and at the same time the final boss of the standard route.
Of course, Nightfall’s true final boss was the Calamity God that could only be faced in the hidden route—but the vast majority of players never learned that fact.
In other words, at this point in time Ariandel was the symbolic figure who bookended the entire game of Nightfall from beginning to end.
It was no wonder that when Powell Software released Nightfall-related advertisements, they focused so heavily on imagery of Ariandel.
Yet the Nightfall development team had poured truly enormous effort into giving the character of Ariandel that level of polish.
Excluding the puppet, Ariandel was the character among Nightfall’s cast who required the longest time for both setting work and design.
In particular, because Ariandel was the existence who had to make players experience death in the tutorial, the developers devoted special care to crafting his combat patterns.
They sought out countless experts and masters who had professionally trained in swordsmanship, motion-captured their movements, and even fed their combat data into an artificial intelligence for learning.
The result was Ariandel’s overall combat ability—literally that of a monster itself!
If they had released Ariandel in that state as-is, the majority of players would have been torn apart without even being able to put up a fight. So the development team imposed considerable restrictions on his stats.
But right now, when Yujin had not artificially triggered the event that weakened the minions of R’lyeh—
At this moment, Ariandel had recovered a substantial portion of the power the developers had artificially sealed away.
Ariandel, who possessed strength enough that an ordinary player would not find it strange to have their entire body shredded the instant they faced his sword, was currently—
KWA-KWA-KWANG—!
Amazingly, exchanging blows with Yujin on nearly equal footing.
Between the two of them, a ferocious battle was unfolding at a level ordinary people could not even perceive.
Their exchanges of attacks were so fast that the two figures now appeared as nothing more than pure white flashes of light!
The moment Yujin and Ariandel collided, a terrifying wave of force erupted around them, sending tremors rolling through the entire area.
KAAAAANG—!
“Khrrrkk…!”
And at the end of that clash, the one who first took a step back was none other than Ariandel.
In the end he had failed to properly receive the Holy Sword Yujin was swinging, and was forced into a frantic retreat.
“This is… absurd. Even if he has received the power of the Holy Sword, for a mere human to overwhelm me head-on—me, who received authority as a descendant of the Calamity God from Him—how is that possible?”
Ariandel muttered as if half impatient, half utterly dumbfounded.
And Yujin, watching that sight, let out a short snort of laughter.
“Of course it is. This is our second fight, after all.”
In the past, Yujin had clashed with Ariandel once during the tutorial and succeeded in bringing him down at the end of it.
Back then Yujin had not been receiving physical corrections from the Holy Sword as he was now, and because he was still unaccustomed to virtual reality games, his use of Willpower had been extremely limited as well.
Even so, that Yujin had been able to fight Ariandel on equal ground and ultimately kill him.
And the Yujin of the present could casually wield power far greater than that earlier self.
Of course, the current Ariandel had also grown stronger in the few days they had not seen each other—his overall physical abilities had increased, and he had even learned strange tricks like spewing tentacles from his body.
But even so, Ariandel’s sword would never reach Yujin.
Thanks to the life-or-death struggle a few days prior, Yujin had already perfectly grasped the level of Ariandel’s strength.
He admitted it. Ariandel was definitely strong.
After returning from the otherworld, he had been one of the few beings who made the bored Yujin feel the emotion called interest.
It was simply that Yujin was not so weak as to take a wound from the sword of a mere loser.
“…How vexing. With this decrepit old body, it seems this is as far as I go.”
Ariandel clutched the wound leaking from between his chest and glared at Yujin with eyes full of hatred.
“Keheheh… Do you believe yourself the strongest? You are wrong. Because you are nothing more than a lucky child born in the era when I have grown old and powerless…!”
CRRRK-CRACK—!
With those words, Ariandel’s body was enveloped in a certain energy and began to transform rapidly.
Just as Ariandel was about to transform into a bizarre form that was half human and half octopus—
“Here.”
Puhwak—!
“…!”
As Yujin’s sword brushed past him, Ariandel realized a forced change had occurred in his flesh.
“Th-this is…!”
The mutation into a “descendant of the Calamity God,” which had been progressing through the authority received from the Calamity God, was forcibly halted.
In a truly absurd fashion, Yujin had severed the very authority of the Calamity God itself with nothing more than a swing of his sword!
“Impossible…! For a mere human to cut the chaos of a Ruler itself…! No matter how much power of the Holy Sword he borrowed, something like that should not be—”
“The guys who get careless and take a hit from me all say the same thing.”
Yujin spoke to Ariandel in a languid tone.
“What was it, ‘the One Who Gazes at the Stars’? That guy spat the same line at me right before he died.”
“…What?”
At Yujin’s words, Ariandel stiffened as if genuinely shocked.
“Could it be that you did not merely repel the One Who Gazes at the Stars, but actually killed him? That with the power of a mere human you succeeded in slaying a Ruler?”
At Ariandel’s dazed muttering, Yuria gave a slight nod of her head.
“It is true. My master has succeeded in the god-slaying of a Ruler.”
Humans lie, but puppets do not.
Seeing Yuria’s answer, Ariandel’s face twisted into an expression of pure astonishment.
Impossible.
That a mere human could kill a Ruler—beings that could be called gods themselves?
Even Ariandel, called the First Hunter, could at best temporarily drive a Ruler from the present world if he used every means available.
But something like that could never be compared to the achievement of confronting a Ruler’s true body and slaying it.
So if Yuria’s words were truly fact—
And if that young hunter had truly accomplished the feat of god-slaying—
Then in this very moment, who exactly had been the one drowning in arrogance?
“I cannot accept it…! If it is possible for a human to kill a god, then what in the world has my life until now even been…!”
An ominous and dreadful energy began to gather upon Ariandel’s greatsword.
It was his original Phase 2 pattern and at the same time his ultimate technique—the Strike of Annihilation.
By emitting a wavelength matching the natural frequency of all things, it atomized everything in existence—Ariandel’s final move!
Ordinarily even Yujin would have been unable to block it without offsetting it with Willpower.
Yet the expression on Yujin’s face as he looked at Ariandel remained utterly calm.
“I already told you. That attack—I’ve seen it once before.”
Last time, lacking power, he had been forced to aim for a counter by receiving the opponent’s attack head-on.
But this time was different.
Yujin intended to shatter Ariandel’s Strike of Annihilation from the front.
And there was only one method that could overwhelm a blow capable of destroying all things in the world.
To cut the enemy down with overwhelming speed before the attack could even land!
Demon-Slaying Sword: Blade Draw
Moonless Cloud Radiance!
Piiing—!
Sword met sword, yet a sound like a thread being pulled rang out.
…No. The idea that sword had met sword had been Ariandel’s misunderstanding from the very beginning.
Puhwak—!
Blood erupted from Ariandel’s chest.
And at the same time, the greatsword he held split cleanly in two.
Before he could even register the situation, the match had already been decided.
“Keheheh… So that was it. The blade draw you used to cut the door just before climbing the tower was not even half of half its true power.”
In his final moment, Ariandel realized that Yujin’s attack was the same one he had seen once before, and for the briefest instant he let his guard down.
But to think that deliberately exposing his attack beforehand had itself been part of the psychological warfare!
“Magnificent… You… have the right to kill gods…”
Crk-crackle—
Cracks began to spread across Ariandel’s body.
Yet Ariandel paid no mind to the abnormalities in his flesh and simply gazed at Yujin.
“I… was far too weak and foolish, and in the end could only become a pawn of the Ruler… But you are different. Unlike me… you truly possess the right to slay gods…”
The cracks spread across Ariandel’s entire body.
And then, right before his whole form collapsed—
“That child… Yuria… I leave her to you…”
With those words, Ariandel’s body crumbled away.
That was the death of the First Hunter, Ariandel.
…Of course, for some of the viewers, it was a death that made no sense whatsoever.