Listening to the Heavenly King's lants, it went sothing like this:
Originally, they planned to trap adventurers in fake safe zones from floor 51 up while kidnapping civilians. The civilians' souls would beco dark crystals while their bodies made undead armies. The undead armies would then tie down players while the dark crystals transported tower monsters outside.
This would force players to deal with gimmicks both inside and outside the tower simultaneously. They'd need to break through an impregnable fortress guarded by the dark mage's elite troops to stop floor 60 monsters from roaming outside.
Would they slowly conquer the tower, take the fake safe zones, and handle monster waves to preserve humanity's strength? Or quickly push through the tower to stop the dark mage's experints and deal with the Four Heavenly Kings, even if it brought chaos to Empire and Kingdom?
It was a vicious gimmick full of traps binding players' feet, from fake safe zones to monster waves. The Heavenly King probably planned to appear dramatically to deliver despair after the Kingdom and Empire were endangered and players got hurt badly.
If Han Se-ah hadn't charged in like a madwoman, that is.
"But to think you'd rush here so quickly. Thanks to that, I couldn't even send a tenth of the planned forces, let alone half."
"Why are you telling us all this?"
The Empire storyline with monster waves never even started thanks to Han Se-ah's reckless northern advance, and the elite troops ant to bind players were wiped out before three units could be created. They closed the gate with dark magic ant for troop creation in their hurry, but that backfired by drawing curious mages to the tower.
He laid out their grand plans in detail even a monkey could understand. While Grace and Irene looked ready to plant arrows or sacred law in his forehead, Han Se-ah and Katie stared at him with curious eyes.
The dark knight shrugged at their sharp gazes and answered readily.
"Because I've done everything I could, my very best. Now only one thing remains."
"Yeah, I get the feeling."
Dark energy rippled with his words about doing everything possible. In the dim fortress, black magic gathered in his hands to form a longsword.
Behind his tattered cape, various weapons like spears and arrows ford ssily. Though his actions seed absurd, he was still floor 60's boss monster and a Heavenly King. He had the skill to one-sidedly toy with and escape from over a hundred high-rank adventurers.
This ti he showed no intent to ambush, reverently gripping his sword with both hands and raising it vertically before his face. Seeing him finish battle preparations like a knight making an oath, I drew my holy sword without hesitation.
This fortress was too narrow and sturdy for escape anyway.
"By the way, there's one last thing I want to ask."
"After all my talking, you still have questions?"
"Why did that dark mage bastard run out leaving this sturdy fortress?"
"How would I know? That's why I dealt with him myself!"
The mid-boss's sudden dash was unexpected trolling even for the Heavenly King. As expected of a virtual reality ga - real sentient beings rather than stupid AI could cause such things to happen.
His dark energy rippled ominously, clearly annoyed thinking about that ti. With nothing left to accomplish and thus no reason to retreat, he leaped from his chair swinging his sword trailing dark aura.
Naturally, his target wasn't with the holy sword but Han Se-ah and Irene behind .
"I knew it, you bastard!"
"I told you! I'd do my best!"
His black longsword lunged for Han Se-ah's throat as he jumped, while dozens of spears from under his cape flew through shadows toward Grace and Irene. 𐍂àNỒᛒËȿ
A bold attack knowing he wouldn't die instantly from the holy sword. But while he knew Irene was a saint who converted the dark mage's army with miracle-like sacred law, he didn't know her specialty was protective sacred law.
Before Han Se-ah could use Magic Shield, pure white protective sacred law blood with incredible speed like flicking on a light switch.
Enhanced by the special stone, the sacred law swallowed all damage from the shadow-riding ranged attacks and caught the viciously swung dark magic sword while illuminating the dim fortress.
"What is this?!"
"In the Goddess's na!"
Even as a Heavenly King who had invaded multiple worlds, he clearly hadn't expected such a solid barrier to deploy instantly.
But proving his Heavenly King title wasn't just for show, he twisted in mid-air using the solid barrier as footing. Having experienced the holy sword before, he twisted his waist to dodge it while taking Katie's sword and Grace's arrows on his back.
This is why small, technically skilled opponents are such a pain to deal with, seriously...!
Still, he couldn't perfectly dodge everything - Grace's pale green arrows and Katie's frost sword ghostly targeted joints like his nape and ankles, binding his feet. Not quite satisfying, but it let land several solid hits with the holy sword.
'...Wait, what about Han Se-ah?'
As the Heavenly King rolled to dodge my descending holy sword and Grace's rapid-fire arrows ruthlessly pursued him, piercing the fortress's softer floor like a sewing machine at insane speed, a thought suddenly struck .
"EXPLOOOODE!"
Hey, didn't she loot the munitions storage earlier--?!
At that mont, the dim fortress lit up brilliantly.
※
After the blinding flash and eardrum-shattering explosion passed, what I saw wasn't the Heavenly King dark knight or precious Han Se-ah who'd cheerfully unleashed friendly fire trusting her teammates.
"Oh, Goddess?"
"..."
In the pure white empty space that seed to continue flashing, there was the blonde Goddess staring at with a blank expression.
She seed like a clumsy neighborhood sister when sending urgent system ssages, but seeing her standing solemnly before radiating divine power made my breath catch. Not from sensing she was a powerful being who could hurt .
It was the pressure of sothing transcendent made of divine power and soul, not human, staring at that gradually made breathing heavier.
"The ga,"
"Yes?"
"Why do you play the ga like that?"
Yet as soon as I heard her voice, that heavy presence instantly vanished without a trace.
Ah, I believe it. You really are clumsy.
"You seem to be having quite irreverent thoughts."
"No, well..."
Still proving her divine nature by uncannily sensing my impure thoughts, she approached with golden hair rippling like a veil or mist and glared at sharply.
Perhaps because she was divine, having a beauty too dazzling to look in the eye glare at fiercely wasn't good for my heart. Still, since I hadn't done anything wrong besides internally mocking her a few tis, I t her gaze without looking away and spoke.
Given how things were going, eting directly like this instead of just sending ssages must consu huge amounts of energy she could use, so I needed to move the conversation along quickly.
"What do you an, why do I play the ga like that?"
"Roland, before coming to this world... didn't you play lots of gas?"
Unaware of my thoughts, the Goddess seed to want to speak indirectly with that blank expression. Even for a clumsy klutz of a goddess, she tried to conserve limited energy last ti, so why was she acting like this today?
Seeing tilt my head in confusion, she thumped her chest in frustration. I hadn't noticed earlier being distracted by the brightly shining divine power and flowing long blonde hair, but the Goddess's divine power reserves were on par with a saint's.
...Hmm, could she read this too? Surely not accurately though?
While I had such random thoughts, the Goddess trying sohow to make understand while speaking indirectly opened her mouth again.
"Roland, what's the most recent thing you got?"
"The special enhancent stone?"
"Nooo, not ga content! In terms of our relationship!"
"Ah... the swordsmanship? Those swordsmanship fragnts?"
What is this, so family ga show quiz?
Still, she must have rushed out because she had sothing important to convey. It wasn't in quest and reward format, she appeared through the flash of Han Se-ah's bomb, and was giving advice while consuming precious energy.
As I thought this, the Goddess's presence instantly faded, apparently having consud extre energy just directly ntioning swordsmanship as a keyword.
"Roland, listen well! And play the ga properly!"
"Yes yes, I understand."
"To win the lottery you have to buy a ticket, get it? You have to buy a ticket to win the lottery--!"
Holy sword, swordsmanship, lottery ticket.
The Goddess disappeared chanting about lottery tickets like an exorcised evil spirit's final cry.
At her last shout, a classic internet joke I'd seen ca to mind, making understand what she wanted to say and what I needed to do.
Enjoy the chappy!
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