Nightfall DLC - Descent of the Demon King (2)
For all that he looked the part of an ordinary guy, Yujin was the owner of experiences most people would never come close to tasting.
An average person living in modern society simply had no chance of brawling day and night with demonkin who kept trying to assassinate him, or of storming into the Demon King's castle with nothing but a single sword to cut the king down himself.
Yet even for Yujin—possessor of so many grotesque adventures—there remained one experience he had never once undergone.
Something that even the otherworld hero and returnee, the peerless Yujin himself, had never known…
"So… you're telling me to fight myself?"
"Yes. We ask this of you most earnestly, Swordmaster."
Right after Yujin had defeated the Fiend God and watched Nightfall's true ending, Powell Software had contacted him in a frantic rush.
They had urgent matters to discuss regarding the soon-to-be-released Nightfall DLC, Descent of the Demon King, and they needed him at headquarters at once.
Figuring something catastrophic must have happened, he had raced over—only for the general director to hit him with that request the moment they met.
No one could beat the boss monster they had built from Yujin's own combat data: the Demon King.
Worse, they couldn't find a single person who had even landed a proper hit on him.
If they shoved the Demon King into the DLC as-is, players wouldn't just fail to defeat him—they would be massacred. So would Yujin please, for the love of everything, do something about it? It was an utterly ridiculous plea.
Honestly, Yujin couldn't begin to understand why the general director was asking this of him.
"But aren't the Rulers like 'the Star-Gazer' and the Fiend God already boss monsters no one can normally clear? In that sense, the Demon King doesn't seem all that different."
That was true enough.
Yujin had one-shot both the Star-Gazer and the Fiend God, but under ordinary circumstances they were not opponents regular players could face head-on.
Even Yujin himself would have been in genuine danger in a few spots if he hadn't spammed Uinyeom techniques—so what more needed saying?
Having built the game with balance thrown to the dogs from the start, they had zero persuasive power now, suddenly fretting about difficulty and pretending to care about ordinary players.
"Mm… if you put it that way, I don't have much of a comeback… but the Rulers who appear in the main story and the Demon King were designed with completely different intentions."
When the Nightfall team had designed the Rulers, the single most important element had been cosmic horror.
In other words, the Rulers who showed up on the hidden routes were put there so that players would confront beings that utterly transcended human understanding and feel pure helplessness and despair.
That was why players could never defeat them unless they first went through certain events that artificially weakened the Rulers' power.
Because from the very beginning, the Rulers carried the backstory of absolute beings that human strength could never overcome.
The Demon King was different.
What the Nightfall team—and every player still waiting for the DLC—expected from the Demon King was not cosmic horror, but physical power that shattered the limits of humanity.
Which meant that when players faced the Demon King, they couldn't use the same trick of weakening him through some event the way they did with the Rulers.
If the team resorted to that, players would never shake the feeling that the whole process was unfair and artificial.
And the more they felt that way, the further the DLC's ratings and sales would slide day by day.
They would start saying this Nightfall DLC was clearly a disappointment compared to what they had expected.
That, above all else, could not be allowed. It absolutely must not happen.
Especially when you considered the profits Powell Software had already raked in from the stock price that had skyrocketed after the DLC announcement!
"…Then what exactly do you want me to do?"
"It's simple. We want you, Swordmaster, to measure just how far the Demon King's limits go."
"His limits?"
At Yujin's question the general director let out a long, heavy sigh.
"…Among all the beta testers who have played the DLC so far, almost no one managed to inflict meaningful damage on the Demon King. Because of that, we on the development side still have almost no idea what his exact specs or limits even are."
"…"
Yujin looked around the room with a thoroughly incredulous expression.
Seriously? With this many beta testers gathered here, not a single one had taken the Demon King down? Was that even possible?
"Ah, well—Ecclesia was the only one who managed to fight him almost on equal footing. She even blew off the Demon King's left arm with her magic bullet rifle."
"…And so what? In the end she still lost, just like everyone else."
Ecclesia muttered it in a tone of pure disbelief.
"I know better than anyone that Soma is a monster… but this is a bit much. It's not even Soma himself—just a minor copy made from his combat data—and it's already this strong."
"…Mm."
"Anyway, please. I don't think I'll be able to cool my head until I see that son of a bitch take a hit from you, Soma."
"…Yeah, all right. Fine."
Yujin nodded with a vaguely sour look at Ecclesia's words.
What was this weird feeling? She was clearly insulting someone else, yet it somehow felt like he was the one getting roasted.
And so Yujin logged into Nightfall's DLC, only to find himself standing in a city steeped in dark, gloomy atmosphere—Arkham.
"…Huh? What's this? I was definitely sitting in a corner of the cabin, but the second I come to my senses I'm summoned to a place like this…"
On his shoulder, Yuria—still in the form of a cute little doll—frowned and peered around in every direction.
"No, looking closer, my body has reverted to the old marionette as well. And seeing that the Arkham we once saved is once again sunk in darkness… it seems we have been transported to a past point in some sort of parallel world. Wouldn't you agree, Master?"
Yuria coolly assessed the situation in an instant.
"Mm… yeah, something like that. You don't seem especially surprised by any of this, though?"
"Arkham is a city corrupted by the Rulers' influence. A considerable amount of demonic energy is concentrated throughout the entire place, so I have heard that incidents of this sort are not uncommon."
Having answered with perfect nonchalance, Yuria suddenly seemed to hit on an amusing idea; a smile curved her lips.
"Well, there is no need to worry. This is only a temporary phenomenon. Once we fulfill a certain condition, we should be able to return to our original timeline."
The "condition" Yuria spoke of was almost certainly defeating the Demon King somewhere in this city.
"There is no way Master, who even brought down the Fiend God, would fail to meet a condition as trivial as that, so what is there for me to worry about? Since things have turned out this way, why don't we treat it as a date for just the two of us? The atmosphere is a little lacking, of course."
Not a trace of tension colored Yuria's voice—only absolute trust in Yujin.
"Then let us head that way. Intense demonic energy is radiating from that direction; we should be able to find a clue to resolving this incident."
Yujin started walking in the direction she indicated.
After they had walked for some time, he suddenly realized someone was blocking his path.
Someone who, like Yujin, carried a doll on his shoulder and gripped a sword stained black.
Even though a hood hid the face, Yujin knew at once who it was.
The Demon King.
That had to be the boss monster built from his combat data—the very one that had slaughtered every beta tester and forced him to log into the DLC.
"…Who is that? Judging by the demonic aura rolling off him, he looks like trash who fell for a Ruler's temptation."
The moment Yuria clicked her tongue and muttered that, the brow of the "Yuria" on the other side twitched.
"…Trash? A maggot who knows nothing of the truth has quite the mouth on her. Spouting that nonsense when you have no idea what resolve my master accepted the demonic energy into his body with…"
"I have no need to know, and no desire to know. It is bound to be some pitiful little reason. People who take demonic power into themselves always trot out excuses that pathetic."
Yuria said it while lifting the corner of her mouth in a slight smirk at the other "Yuria."
"As a fellow marionette doll, I find it shameful beyond words. If it were me, I would rather kill myself than serve trash like that as my master."
"…Ha. That is exactly what I want to say. Seeing the hunter who keeps a doll with a filthy mouth like yours, I can already tell he is the same breed as you."
Watching Yuria and "Yuria" snarl at each other, Yujin felt a headache coming on for some reason.
Just as he was about to break up the completely pointless argument, the Demon King—who had been silent until now—finally opened his mouth.
"Are you a hunter who has come seeking this city? I cannot understand it. This world is already halfway ruined, and yet hunters of unknown origin keep visiting one after another…"
"…"
"I see… From the looks of it, you came here to fight me. Then… you too are after the demonic power I carry."
Muttering that, the Demon King slowly raised the blackened holy sword toward Yujin.
"But you cannot defeat me. Do you know this? From the very beginning, no one stood in the heavens. Not you, not me, and not even the gods…"
At the Demon King's all-too-familiar line, Yujin's face twisted violently.
"The unbearable emptiness of the heavens ends now. Because I will stand in the—"
"Hey."
At that moment Yujin, who could no longer stand it, strode right up to the Demon King.
"Never say that line with my voice again."
Without another word he smashed a fist into the Demon King's snout.
"It's mortifying as hell, you bastard."
Yujin felt nothing but pure resentment toward the general director who had made the Demon King deliver a line like that.