Its appearance was sudden.
The sky hadn't been dyed red, and no demon had appeared to cause a ruckus. It simply appeared one day and stood before the kingdom.
"Who are you!"
Despite the lack of grand effects, the re appearance of the being was enough to impose an overwhelming presence.
Its body was made of flesh without skin, with a grotesque face and an extraordinarily large fra. It moved, wriggling and grotesque in appearance.
It was an unknown creature, but people would now refer to such horrifying and monstrous beings with one term.
A demon.
As the kingdom's knight saw the being, he rushed forward.
"Damn... how is it that this demon cos from our side? We need to hold out while gathering the extermination troops!"
"Yes!"
While the empire's knights were the strongest, that didn't an the knights of other nations were weak.
In particular, the Lurian Kingdom, located near the empire, had significant combat prowess. To survive beside the empire, so level of competitiveness was essential.
Because of that, Lurian's forces were strong, with both physical strength and ntal fortitude.
Yet, despite this, the knight trembled as he stepped forward.
Upon facing the enemy, a chill fear gnawed at the knight’s mind.
This demon had not only a grotesque appearance but also an intangible atmosphere that overpowered anyone in its presence.
It had the charisma of a ruler, or the malice of a murderer.
The demon spoke.
"The disgusting human stench fills the air..."
Its voice was coarse, like scraping tal.
The demon extended its hand, and its flesh expanded, crushing the knight's arm.
Crack—!
A horrific sound echoed as the knight's arm was crushed.
The sound of a pained scream filled the air.
"Kneel. And be afraid. The king has co to this land."
"Damn!"
So knights, terrified, raised their shields.
The demon thrust its arm into the ground.
Flesh began to wriggle, and red spikes erged from beneath the earth.
"You shall live bowing your heads, trembling in fear like cattle. I am the one who rules the north."
Thud! Thud!
The knights were impaled by their shields and arms.
‘This is insane…’
It was hard to believe, even after seeing it firsthand. They hadn’t been unprepared, yet nearly half of the troops were taken out with just two attacks.
"Ugh, aaah!"
To make matters worse, several soldiers waiting in the back fled in terror. They feared they would die here.
The demon, who called itself the king, continued its slow attacks as it spoke.
"The Lord of Terror, Beleth."
The demon didn't retreat even a single step, and it walked straight, decapitating the king.
In just two days, the Lurian Kingdom was brought to its knees.
[Russian is so difficult]
[Bad news under the rain! Bad news under the rain!]
[Thanks, as always, for reading]
[What are these Soviet bastards saying right now?]
[Looks like the developers' parents went to heaven or sothing?]
[Yeah, seems like they’re pissed off]
[With the update, their country that was running smoothly got wiped out, it makes sense]
[And now they're taking the NPCs to the empire, asking for help?]
[Oh, lol, does that an we can et the bears from the bear country?]
[Is that the important thing right now? The hunting grounds are about to get overcrowded, damn it.]
Whether it was an update or not, sothing huge had happened with the ga’s second anniversary. Naturally, the aftermath had the community on fire.
This ti, it was bad news, for both the players and the NPCs.
The news of a country’s destruction was enough to make the players aware of the dangers.
They never expected a server, one of the most successful, to be shut down like this.
The users hadn't expected this at all—such a thriving server to be shut down.
What was even more terrifying was that the danger was still ongoing.
The demon was still rampaging, causing havoc.
[So what’s that demon doing now?]
No one knows. Normally, players would gather information from the vicinity, but everyone was running away, so no one could confirm anything.
[One user who escaped said it was collecting the dead bodies.]
[Really a creepy bastard from start to finish.]
[What about our server's knights?]
[They probably just received the news and are discussing what to do.]
[Must be quite the shock for them.]
[An official ssage was posted on the guild board.]
They’re actively receiving refugees.
They ntioned that it's too dangerous to send troops, but they’ll be organizing an extermination force.
They’re asking for a lot of support, especially from the otherworldly beings.
[When are the Russian guys coming?]
[It’s a long way, so it’ll take quite a while to get here on foot.]
[Are these bastards trying to use us as cannon fodder again?]
[They’re fighting for their lives, so it’s understandable.]
For the first ti in a long while, the community was filled with a serious atmosphere.
This demon felt different, and everyone sensed it instinctively.
A demon had appeared.
Not long after hearing the news about the Russian server’s fall, I received the full story.
Honestly, I had expected it. It wasn’t like a teor just fell from the sky. No country would start a war at a ti like this.
“Yor, what are you going to do?”
Chaerin, who had brought the news, asked. I answered.
"First, I’ll have to sign up for the extermination team. I have the adventurer faction after all."
"And after that?"
"Well..."
Honestly, there wasn’t much I could do after that. The knights had decided to focus on defense for now.
A country had fallen, but from my position, it didn’t feel real.
The demon hadn’t appeared before yet.
"For now, I’ll keep going like usual. I’ll still go to the arena."
Now was the ti to keep my combat instincts sharp. And in my opinion, there was no better place for that than the arena. I could fight as much as I wanted, and it was relatively safe.
When I said that, Chaerin nodded.
But she seed to still have sothing she wanted to say. I noticed her lips twitching.
I tilted my head and asked her.
"What’s up?"
"Well... I’ve been curious about sothing for a while. Can I ask you?"
"Ask away, don’t keep guessing."
"Now that you have an ID badge, why do you still live in the cave? It’s not like you’re short on money."
It was a sowhat random question, but at the sa ti, it was understandable.
It had been a long ti since I received my ID badge. If I wanted, I could have gotten a house in the city by now.
Even though I had grown fond of the cave, it wasn’t exactly more comfortable than a house in a city.
When the wind blew, dirt would co in, there was no heating or cooling, and even when the area was fortified, sotis predators would sneak in... It was uncomfortable.
To soone else, it might seem foolish to insist on living in nature.
But I had my reasons. I scratched my cheek and answered her.
"Well... I live there because people would be uncomfortable if I stayed elsewhere."
As for otherworldly beings, it was one thing, but for the Gaia people, there was still a lot of hostility.
Sure, so had loosened up, but changing deeply ingrained beliefs about manifestors wasn’t an easy task.
Normally, they would have been executed at the age of 10, but suddenly being told to accept one...
The emperor was too radical, and for the average dieval person with a closed mindset, it wasn’t sothing that could be easily accepted.
After I explained this, Chaerin apologized, looking embarrassed.
"I’m sorry, I asked a pointless question."
"No, it’s fine. I don’t mind."
After that, we chatted like usual and parted ways.
I continued to visit the arena after that.
Perhaps because of the news, the audience in the stands had noticeably decreased.
But fortunately, it didn’t interfere with the matchmaking.
Shin Hanbyeol, who ca with , even preferred the smaller crowd.
For a few days, I continued to visit the arena. During that ti, I heard so news from outside.
One person who had fled on horseback reached the empire, trembling in fear.
The scouts had gone out but couldn’t find the demon, though strange things were roaming around.
They saw a masked group from afar, probably from Regaton...
All the rumors were like ghost stories.
The only relief was that, after investigation, it seed there were fewer casualties than expected.
Most seed to have gained so trauma from the fear, but many had joined the ranks of refugees.
Because of that, there was now a concern about whether there would be enough space left to house them.
With a reasonable sense of tension, I was listening to the rumors about the demon when...
"Ah, hey? Long ti no see... Hehe."
One day, a new guest arrived at my forest.
A slender figure, long white hair, and red glasses with red eyes behind them. A beautiful woman awkwardly greeted .
It was her first ti in the forest, but we had a long connection.
She said we had both co from the sa orphanage.
The 3rd faction leader, Liya. She spoke to .
"Today, I ca to take you to Regaton."
"Sigh..."
I sighed before answering.
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