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After Deathron set up the magic circle, users continuously rushed to reclaim the alliance’s stronghold.

Users have an endless chance to resurrect.

There are experience points and various costs involved, but they can come back to life and attack repeatedly.

Among them, there were some who could defeat Deathron, but the real problem lay elsewhere.

Swish!

“Gah…”

“Is that guy not getting tired?”

“He’s a monster…”

Abid.

As long as he stood firm, the thousands of rankers would not be able to breach this place.

To capture Abid, one would need to be within the top 100.

And they would have to be strong like a knight or Black, but all such individuals were in the empire.

While the alliance’s stronghold was important, the empire was where the most civilians lived on the continent.

If things went wrong, tens or hundreds of thousands of people could be wiped out.

Graaah…

Abid turned to look back as he retrieved his sword, which was dripping with blood.

In the center of the magic circle, Deathron was diligently gathering energy.

‘Is it still far off?’

“Whoo… whoo…”

“Hey.”

“Don’t talk to me! I’m focused!”

While twisting his entire body to gather energy, Deathron was doing his thing.

Abid didn’t really understand why he was using magic this way, but decided to let it be for now.

‘It’ll be over soon anyway.’

Deathron said it would take about six hours, but with the stupid challengers continuously dying, there was much more blood and life force accumulating than planned.

At this rate, the magic circle would activate before long.

As Abid nonchalantly sliced through the incoming challengers like they were nothing, he gazed at a certain spot.

He then urgently swung his sword, slicing through the air.

Swishhh!

In an instant, space opened up, and a significant amount of magical energy poured into Abid.

“What, what’s this?”

‘It’s not just a moth to the flame. Brace for impact.’

“What?”

Something was flying toward him at an alarming speed.

With the momentum of a beast and thick power, it engulfed Abid.

Abid took a defensive stance as he laid his sword flat, but Deathron, who had been gathering energy, was bounced away.

If Abid hadn’t initially absorbed the damage, that attack would have been quite a threat.

Deathron barely picked himself up and looked ahead.

Before long, Abid was trapped in a mystical white sphere, while a massive shield stood…

“Why is that madman here?!”

“Who dares to destroy the alliance?!”

“Deathron! You’re dead!”

“Prepare yourself! I’ll make you pay for daring to touch the alliance!”

The alliance leader, the knight, and the named rankers within the top 30.

They had originally been fighting in the empire, but rushed over after hearing the alliance’s stronghold had been breached.

Of course, if it had simply collapsed, they would have prioritized other matters, but the knight received an urgent report.

Boom!

The griffin’s shield in the knight’s hand generated a white barrier.

“Deathron, I received intel that you’ve made a deal with a demon to do something here. According to the magic tower, it’s something like a summoning circle.”

“……”

“I don’t know what it is, but since you’re dividing our forces, there’s definitely something up.”

“Ugh…”

“Do your best to stop it. We can’t afford any more damage here…”

“Hahaha!!”

Deathron laughed uproariously.

The named rankers, including the knight, frowned, but it was hard for him to hold back his laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“They were going to die anyway, and now they’re just coming to my grave! This is perfect, hehehe…”

“Can’t you read the situation? Even with a deal with a demon, you can’t defeat us all by yourself.”

“Just me?”

“That’s right, just you. Zombie knights can’t come out. This sphere, given to me by an angel, can hold even a mid-ranked demon for about 30 minutes. During that time, we kill you…”

Swoosh!

With the sound of a blade slicing through the air, the sphere started moving.

Countless cracks appeared in the white sphere enclosing Abid, and the named ranker who brought it looked horrified.

Before long, the white sphere shattered completely.

Crack!

Abid stepped on the shards made of holy magic, furrowing his brow.

‘…What an unpleasant power.’

Grrrr…

Dark magic erupted from every pore of Abid’s body.

Deathron laughed at the knight and his followers, who were hidden behind him with panicked expressions.

“Hahaha! My new friend is stronger than I thought! You guys are now dead meat!”

‘Deathron.’

“Serves you right. Huh?”

‘How much time does it save if I kill all these bugs?’

“U-uh…”

‘Hurry up and answer.’

“Since they’re so strong, I’m worried it’ll fill up too quickly…”

‘That works. Reactivate the magic circle.’

Whoosh!

Abid’s sword moved.

Most of the users, including the knight, put their strength into defense, but Abid easily dodged and decapitated four out of the eight members.

In the blink of an eye, half of his party lost their lives.

The knight exploited the griffin’s shield’s ability to the limit, but with just this many people, they couldn’t capture the top-tier ranker.

What the knight intended was merely to interrupt Deathron before he could put any trick into play.

However, they had failed to neutralize Abid successfully, and the operation ended in complete failure.

Slash!

“Gyaaaaaaak!!”

“The alliance leader!”

Soon, two more were dead.

Now, he and the remaining ranker wouldn’t last long either.

Should they send more troops to stop Deathron and this zombie knight?

‘But the empire is also at risk.’

He had already taken this troops to their limits.

If they depleted the personnel any further, the users in the empire would be in danger.

“……”

‘If we’re going to die anyway…’

The knight clenched the feather sword, which was an offensive weapon, instead of the griffin’s shield.

‘I’ll kill him and die.’

Deathron was a user.

Even if he died, he could come back, but there was a system in place where if a user of a specific faction died while on an important mission, their contribution would be significantly reduced.

Killing him would make it hard for him to use that trick for a while.

“Ah…!”

In that brief moment, another user died.

The last remaining knight among his party.

He aimed Abid’s sword at the knight’s heart, and before long, it pierced through his heart.

‘!’

“Uwaaaaaa!!!”

He ran.

One of the special abilities of the griffin’s shield, rapid regeneration, and life extension.

Though the sword had pierced his heart, he clung to his drained life and charged at Deathron.

Abid was momentarily surprised by the unexpected situation and distractedly let him slip away.

“That madman…!”

“I’ll take you with me!”

“Hey! Hey hey! Zombie! What are you doing? Block! Block already!”

“Go nicely!”

“Y-you piece of shi—!”

The barrier surrounding Deathron shattered by the feather sword.

Just before his heart, like the knight, was pierced through.

Snap.

“Uh, uh?”

‘How noisy.’

The knight’s head flew into the sky.

Yet, the life extension still actively worked.

‘Who’s the dead one here?’

Swoosh!

Abid decimated the knight into dozens of pieces.

The remains of the knight’s corpse fell to the ground, transforming into blue particles.

As the situation settled, Deathron sat on the ground, drenched in cold sweat.

“Haah… haah…”

‘For a bug, he was strong. To hold this much power without the help of an angel. That’s why five out of seven of the undead are dead.’

“Damn it… We need to hurry and deal with this! I almost died!”

‘Can’t you stop even this much?’

“No, I had no choice but to pour all my power into this!”

‘Shut it. Are we done?’

“…Damn. I’ll see you later. When the demon comes out, there’ll definitely be a hierarchy to sort out─”

‘Are we done?’

Swoosh.

As Abid’s sword moved, Deathron grit his teeth and grabbed his staff.

The magic circle began to glow red with the magic he emitted.

“Damn… Yes! It’s all ready!”

The magic circle dyed red.

Deathron filled it with all his energy and magic, completely activating the circle.

Boom…

The sky itself began to change.

The auroras that colored the night sky started to turn a deep red due to the influence of the magic circle.

But soon after, the red was chased away, and purple began to fill the space.

A distant power could distinctly be felt.

‘The color is changing.’

“…? Indeed. It used to be black and red.”

Is there a glitch in the system?

Though Deathron was confused, the magic circle was functioning normally, and the magic felt strong, so he thought nothing of it.

All along, Deathron had been using magic without understanding its principles.

Thud.

Deathron approached the magic circle and knelt down.

The darkness of the demon realm gazes upon Deathron and the surroundings.

“O great being of the demon realm! You who shall bring death to this world!

Whoosh…

“Show yourself!!”

Bang!

With a chant, a violet beam poured out from the black crack opened in the night sky.

The beam was tied completely to the magic circle, and the remnants of the alliance’s ruins were obliterated.

Even Abid, who had seen many strong ones from the demon realm, found this impressive.

He felt an unsettling sensation and instinctively bowed his head.

With this level of power, the demon would probably hold a rank higher than himself, the lowly undead.

As a ruckus ensued, the demon that would plunge the world into evil and death finally revealed itself.

‘She’ possessed vast power, with black hair and violet eyes, wearing an elegant black dress.

The two bowed their heads before the great demon, feeling an eerie magic, and slowly raised their heads.

And just like that, they turned pale.

She smiled at them.

She was…

‘…?!’

“No, no way! How is this…?”

“Oh my.”

Black Lily.

“Did you summon me? Thank you.”

 

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