The Sturdy Lake Bared Its Black Maw
The once-sturdy lake gaped open like a black maw. The water within began surging upward.
Cracks radiated out from Kudan at terrifying speed, until the ground itself collapsed. The skeletons lunging at him tumbled into the crumbling lake. Even those scrambling to escape lost their footing on the rapidly fracturing ice and were sucked into the depths. They clawed desperately at the ice shards, but their heavy armor, the slick surface, and the water's drag sent them sliding inexorably under.
A few undead managed to perch precariously on the broken floes, but barely twenty of them. And even those scraps of ice were too small for combat. The undead legion had been all but annihilated.
"We... did it?"
"We won...?"
"We're alive! We survi—hey, wait?!"
The Nords cheered at the sight, but the fissures snaked toward them with alarming speed. They'd driven in too many stakes.
"Wh-whoa!? We're in danger too!"
"Everyone! Tear down the barricades—now!"
The Nords turned to Aum. He rapped the barricade with his knuckles.
"Why do you think I built these useless things? They're meant to double as boats—tear them down quick! Or do you want to go swimming with the dead?!"
Only then did the Nords realize why the flimsy barricades had been built so shoddily. They hurled ropes over them and yanked furiously, dismantling the structures in a frenzy. At the same moment, the cracks spiderwebbed outward, collapsing the ground beneath them. The Nords scrambled atop the barricades. Those who couldn't reach grabbed ropes and clambered up for dear life.
Aum barely hauled himself onto what was now a makeshift raft. His eyes bulged as he spotted Kudan leaping across the fracturing ice floes toward Loki's main camp.
"That idiot...! No matter how monstrous his strength, he can't dodge skeleton longbowmen's arrows...!"
Aum's frantic shout went unheeded. Kudan barreled into Loki's formation at impossible speed. The skeleton longbowmen loosed a volley, but he batted them aside with his warhammer.
Pook!
Not all, though. Arrows pierced his shoulder, arm, leg, torso—huge shafts like spears. Yet Kudan gritted his teeth and charged on undeterred. His speed didn't falter; if anything, it surged. He smashed into the onrushing undead, hurling them skyward and pulverizing them midair.
Watching from afar, Loki's eyes widened.
"...I knew he was a monster, but this brutish? Ha! This beats the boredom of palace life by miles!"
Incredible...! Can a man really rampage like that with spears lodged in him?
An ordinary person would die instantly from a single longbow arrow. But Kudan's freakish hide let only the tips penetrate as he pressed the assault.
Aum gaped in disbelief too.
"Did I really try to tame that monster? But... he's winning! At this rate...!"
Loki narrowed his eyes.
"...He'll break through."
Ragged skeleton assassins lunged with daggers, only to be flung back or shattered without mercy. Close-quarters skeletons had already fallen; longbowmen and ambushers stood no chance head-on.
"Don't block my path, you rabble—!"
Kudan unleashed his Divine Gift. Super Strength—amplifying his muscles dozens, hundreds of times over.
He swung at the air, and the shockwave blasted skeletons away.
"You demon bastard!"
Kudan leaped high, echoing his first battle cry.
"Kankun—!"
He drew his warhammer back, poised to smash down. Just like their first clash. But—
I've grown since then!
His muscles swelled unnaturally, veins writhing. Hundreds-fold strength ballooned to thousands-fold.
"I'll save her!"
Grip crushing the haft to bend... he slammed it toward Loki.
Loki raised a hand from his palanquin. A magical barrier flickered up—but shattered effortlessly.
Kudan poured every ounce of humiliated rage, every fear for Kankun's future, into a muscle-tearing swing.
"Die—!"
Nothing could stop him now. Over half the skeletons were gone. The remnants—longbowmen and assassins—were outmatched.
Loki chuckled, then closed his eyes.
"...Fun. These humans are strong."
The warhammer cratered "Loki's" face.
BOOM—!!!
The goat helm exploded in shards. Kudan's eyes bulged. "Loki" spoke.
"But..."
Kudan stared in shock. Beneath the shattered helm: a bare skull. The skeleton's head crumbled to dust.
"...What?"
***
"Haha, what a thrill!"
Loki—in raven guise—sat cross-legged on the ice, watching the distant "battlefield." He savored the game, eyes gleaming at its unexpected zest.
"If that were the real me, I'd have blocked it easily. But where's the fun in that?"
***
"Un...dead?"
As Kudan muttered blankly, distant onlookers erupted in cheers.
"We... won...?"
"Victory!"
"Kudan beat the necromancer!"
"Incredible! Kudan! You're a real monster!"
Aum rejoiced from afar too—but Kudan froze. He knew. In their first clash, he'd sensed life in the "demon." Now? Just a skeleton.
That meant...
"...Fake?"
***
"...Everyone's thrilled! Except Kudan himself."
Loki flipped the chessboard.
"Cracking the ice, charging the king... such a cliché story. I considered it myself, but that'd be no fun. Still, well done. Sinking an immortal legion at once, as a mere human!"
Loki—no, Hoon in raven mask—gazed from afar, beyond mortal sight, at Kudan's former position.
"That severs the skeleton sorcerer double's link... Guess I'll handle it myself? The double was useful, though."
Hoon recalled days prior.
'Simple task. Forge what I asked from scrap.'
His request to dwarf Reran: craft one item.
'Make armor like mine. Goat helm, jet-black plate...'
A fake Loki double. It gauged this world's armies' might.
"Fun game."
"...Muttering to yourself, Loki?"
Loki turned. Beside him, blue-haired Kankun tilted her head. Armored in his gift, she'd stood vigil for hours, weary.
"Sitting here motionless... And didn't you hear something from way over there?"
"Your turn now, Kankun."
"Huh?"
"Too far for you to see, I suppose."
"What're you even talking about?"
"Just... time to play for real."
Loki rose.
"Alright. The true main force moves."
Black aura coalesced into armor around him. Hundreds of eyes glowed behind.
Two hundred undead—the reserves, untouched by the "war game."
Fifteen undead liches in bone-trimmed black robes, staves embedded with enigmatic jeweled metal, circlets like crowns.
Thirty-five death knights in full plate and helms, kite shields left, massive greatswords right—blades unfit for slashing.
These alone outclassed the obliterated horde.
Loki grinned darkly, striding forward.
"Now, the real counterattack begins!"
Kankun scurried after, glancing nervously. The undead followed, eyes blazing murder.
***
"How...?"
Kudan stared at the vanished fake, petrified—
Kraaaah!
Surviving skeletons stirred. Assassins chained arrows to longbowmen's shafts, firing toward the sunken lake.
The Nords panicked.
"Wh-what?! The necromancer's dead! Why're they moving?!"
"Shooting at the lake? Have they gone berserk?!"
Then chains tautened from submerged arrows. Undead hauled them in.
Nords puzzled—but Aum blanched.
"No! Kudan! Stop them!"
Kudan observed over Aum's plea. Seconds later, realization hit; he whipped toward the lake.
Rumble—!
Chains reeled up. Skeletons clinging dragged themselves from the depths.
"...Rescuing the drowned?!"
Kudan smashed pullers with his hammer, but nimble assassins and bowmen kept distance, focused on salvage. Rescued undead charged him, eyes aglow.
Clawing from the lake, they evoked hell's risen dead.
Aum gnashed his teeth.
"Aid Kudan—everyone!"
Fewer foes now. No melee specialists left, no formation—best odds yet. Nords rowed to ice, charging undead.
But numbers swelled over time. Aum drew his sword, dashing to Kudan.
"Kudan! What happened?! You killed the demon...!"
"No."
"...What?"
Aum gawked; Kudan clenched his jaw.
"Fake. A trick!"
"Trick?! Ridiculous—!"
Screams rent the air.
"What the hell is that?!"
Some Nords reeled back, eyes wide in terror.
"...Undead army?!"
"That many...? The lake didn't hold 'em all?!"
They froze before approaching doom: two hundred undead. Leading: thirty-five death knights. Trailing: fifteen liches. Speechless.
Kudan stiffened too.
Aum laughed madly.
"Ha, haha! Hahahahaha! What is that? Huh? Ha! What the hell...?!"
Now yelling at Kudan, then fixating on the vanguard: goat-helmed Loki. Mind-shattering shock.
"You cheating bastard! Tricking us?!"
Aum's roar drowned the screams. Loki cackled twistedly.
"Haha! Deception's strategy in war, no? Besides—"
He sneered at frail humans.
"Crushing hope with despair breaks morale best. And it's the most fun victory."
Toying foes to ruin—gaming's sweetest win. To him, mere play.
His words pierced Aum's mind from afar.
"You coward...! Call yourself a Constellation after that?!"
"Never claimed to be one. You Nords dubbed me 'Constellation' or 'demon.' Besides, Loki the god thrives on cunning tricks and pranks over wisdom."
Aum grasped it. Knew the end.
"...We're done."
He bit his lip. No chance now. Barely held three hundred; two hundred more—including absurd elites? Death knights ahead, lake dead rising behind. No escape.
"Time to end it, Aum Linia!"
Undead charged at his cry.