Chapter 123
-How much time is left? What time is it now?
└ 10 o'clock. About an hour left.
-We've skipped everything we could in the story, and I don't think we can cut the battle time any further.
-With 10/10/10, the bosses' HP pools are just way too large by default.
-Isn't the Part 3 boss the Pope? You could skip it if you didn't make eye contact with Sariel and Ramiel, so why didn't you?
-(Manager1): Before entering the Part 3 boss battle, you have to kill the angels as preparation and rescue Daniel.
└(Manager2): +You have to release them into the wild instead of killing them, too.
-You want us to let Daniel go? Fuckㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└He's the root of all evil, so how are we supposed to hold back?
-It's more amazing that he hasn't died even once yet.
└This is seriously an unbelievable play;;
└Adela's gotten a lot stronger, so it seems easier in some ways than Part 1.
[LG Chaos: The final move is a double-lariat pattern. The middle range is an unblockable instant-death hit, so be careful!]
[Veixel: Adela is turning around, so don't dodge in advance—wait until the last possible moment!]
-It's an instant-death hit, but you have to wait until the last possible momentㅋㅋㅋ How are we supposed to do that!
-And NoName pulls it off.
-It's hard to follow with my eyes alone.
Spells that were easy enough to say poured down on Name one after another.
Yet she deflected the fallen angels' swords with machine-like precision.
She grabbed the head of a fallen angel buzzing like a fly and slammed it into the ground.
Without Name having to say a word, Adela drove her dagger into its heart, bringing the battle to an end.
Kagang-!
A crack appeared where the fallen angels had stood.
The statue had been serving as a sealing stone.
The barren ground, where not a single blade of grass grew, split in two, and the mechanical sound of gears turning drifted up from between the cracks.
Clank-clank-
A gigantic animal cage, like one found at a traveling circus, rose from the ground.
Name had no trouble identifying the people lying collapsed inside it.
“Daniel, Repi...”
Daniel regained consciousness beneath the harsh sunlight and rubbed his eyes. He had not seen light for so long that it took time for his pupils to adjust.
When he saw the two familiar women outside the prison, Daniel broke into a radiant smile.
“Adela! Forest Keeper! You came to save us!”
Daniel stood while gripping the bars, his face shining with joy.
Seeing that, Adela ground her teeth.
“How could you do this...! Because of you, everyone in Abyss—and NoName too!—almost died!”
“What are you talking about, Adela? I...”
“I know everything. You Imperial lackey!”
Adela swung her fist through the bars.
The blow sent Daniel flying to the opposite side of the cage, where he collapsed limply.
“None of this would have happened if you hadn't lured Gestalt into it. Why did you do it? Why!”
Adela pleaded in a voice that was nearly a sob.
How many regressions had they gone through because of one utterly absurd invasion plan?
“We almost all died because of you! No, we definitely all died! You knowingly sent us into a death trap!”
Adela could recount the memories of every regression in vivid detail, as though they had all happened yesterday.
“Answer me! Why did you do it?”
“You talk as though everything was my fault?”
“Huh?”
Gripping the bars with both hands, Daniel shouted in a voice filled with resentment.
“Did I steal the bay laurel? Did I personally oversee the Yggdrasil experiments? I only did what I was ordered to do. I'm a victim too!”
“Th-this...”
“Since you know everything, then you know Repi is my mother too, don't you? Can you even begin to empathize with my situation? My mother is being held hostage by the Empire, and if the Holy Kingdom discovers my identity, my head will be cut off on the spot! No, of course you can't understand. Street trash like you probably don't have anything precious to protect!”
With bloodshot eyes, he continued pouring out his grievances. Every word felt hateful to Adela, who shut her ears, but he continued speaking.
“For ten years—ten whole years—we've been living in hiding from the Holy Kingdom, which was trying to find and kill us at any moment. The slaves sacrificed in the experiments? What do I care? Whether they starved to death in the streets or died in the forest, it's all the same.”
“Then you knew Yggdrasil was a demon-summoning circle and did all that anyway?”
“A demon? Ha. Listen carefully. No matter what demon gets summoned, this world will become far more livable than it is now.”
“What?”
At its core, the struggle to reclaim the bay laurel was a power struggle between demon worshippers.
The Imperial faction led by the Crown Prince had thoroughly concealed Yggdrasil's growth, even using the pretext of purifying the forest to deceive the Emperor.
But the truth could not remain hidden forever. While the unsuspecting delegations were transferring the bay laurel, spies planted by the Holy Kingdom, including Jean Chronicle, discovered the truth.
The Empire and the Holy Kingdom attacked the delegations to seize the bay laurels by force, setting the stage for the five laurels to be scattered.
“This world has already been handed over to demon worshippers. The Empire, the Holy Kingdom—all of them! In that case, wouldn't it be better for one side to win quickly and bring the war to an end?”
The Pope worshipped Beelzebub, while the Crown Prince worshipped Belphegor.
And countless fanatics who worshipped various other demons were scattered throughout the world.
Knowing the true power of the bay laurel, Daniel had stolen the Laurel of Reincarnation and planned to use it as a bargaining chip with someone who could cure his mother. But when Name appeared and he sensed a threat to his life, he had no choice but to hand the laurel over.
If she had belonged to either the Imperial or Holy Kingdom faction, his life would have been forfeit before anything else mattered.
“Then the reason you planned the Academy invasion was...!”
“Gestalt contacted headquarters to look into my identity, you know? I had no choice if I wanted to remain in the Empire.”
To destroy the evidence, he sent an anonymous tip to Jean Chronicle and made the other members, who knew little about the bay laurel, turn traitor.
With Abyss Branch 15 left empty, Jean Chronicle destroyed it, while Daniel escaped amid the confusion. At a glance, it had been a perfect operation.
But Jean Chronicle, suspicious of the whole thing, contacted the Holy Kingdom's Inquisitor in advance, and Daniel's plan came to nothing.
“I'm going to kill you... I said I'm going to kill you!”
“Do you think I'd explain all this to you without having something up my sleeve? You monsters can kill me whenever you want. You're looking for the Laurel of Creation, aren't you? I guarantee that without the Demonbane Executioner's Sword, you absolutely cannot defeat the Pope. I know where it is.”
Daniel spoke as though he were certain.
He gently stroked Repi's head, whose eyes twitched as though she were about to awaken from the exchanged shouts.
“Get Repi and me out of here and send us away. I won't ask for anything more. Why are you glaring at me like that? This is how weak people survive—by being cowardly. Why blame me? You should blame this world.”
“...”
“You don't know where Gestalt is right now either, do you? If you don't decide quickly, that man might die.”
The laurels currently in Name's possession were the Laurel of Reincarnation, the Laurel of Life, and the Laurel of Industry.
The Laurel of Creation was in the Pope's hands, while the Laurel of Death remained unaccounted for.
[SaveTheGradStudent: If you just let Daniel and Repi go here, he'll tell you the random spawn coordinates for the Demonbane Executioner's Sword. On your first run, there's a chance Daniel is lying, so don't just kill him because he told you. If you go there and the sword isn't there, you'll have to come back and confront him.]
“Sis! You're really going to believe that bastard? He's done nothing but lie from start to finish! Do you realize who put us through all this?”
-They say we can't kill him? He's seriously making me want to stab him~
-Can we really not beat the Pope without the Demonbane Executioner's Sword?
└We have to search for the Life Vessel while simultaneously evading pursuit by the fanatics.
-Let's steel ourselves, boss. If you kill him here, Adela dies too.
-ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ If this weren't a time attack, I'd just cut him down.
-Are there really that many spawn locations for the Demonbane Executioner's Sword?
└A fucking ton. It takes at least 30 minutes, and if you're unlucky, it can take over two hours.
[SaveTheGradStudent: Boss, you're not seriously going to do it, are you? If you really kill him, you won't clear it in time!]
“What are you hesitating about? What if he betrays us again?”
Daniel was overflowing with composure. Adela, on the other hand, pleaded with tears in her eyes.
“You're just the person possessing that body, sis... Have you never even imagined what kind of pain the body's original owner must have suffered? You're more than capable. You could easily defeat the Pope even without some sword like that!”
Adela had suddenly used the word ‘possession.’
-?????????
-??????
-You just said “possession,” right?
-What the hell? How did she know?
-I'm starting to get scared.
-Did she just realize the player's existence?
-Holy shittttttttttttttttttttttt
-Damn, I have work tomorrow and need to go to bed early, but I'm screwed.
-I thought there was no script after Part 1! What the hell is this!
At the sudden revelation, Name bit her lip hard.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Um... I don't know exactly, but you're an angel from another world...? Anyway, you definitely said so yourself, sis. At night.”
-?
-I skipped the story, so who was she talking to then?
-Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ This is insane
-Has the end of the human era finally arrived?
“I understand that we need to reclaim the bay laurel as quickly as possible. But does it really make sense to keep that bastard alive just to find a way to defeat the Pope? How many times did we die because of him while escaping that hellish Academy! Even if they're demon kings or demons or whatever, we don't need to throw away every scrap of morality and use any means necessary!”
After failing the Academy exam, Adela had thought those two years were nothing but hell, but she had already adapted to that life.
And she hated Daniel for destroying it so completely that she wanted to pierce his throat right away.
Thinking that, if not for his goading, there might someday have been days when she could get along with the other members, she continued trying to persuade Name.
Name mumbled, putting off her answer. She blinked incessantly, scanning Adela's face and body in turn.
“Demon King... Demon King... Talk to me later.”
Name picked up her sword.
Adela flinched and took a step back.
Whether Adela cared or not, Name took one step, then two, toward the cage of bars. Mud splashed in every direction with each step, dirtying the green grass.
“Get me out quickly. I've been in here so long my whole body is stiff.”
“I understand everything you did, Daniel. You tried to protect your mother without turning your back on your familial bond. In such a harsh world, I suppose you had no choice.”
“Sis—no, NoName!”
“As expected... I thought you would understand. You abandoned all your companions in the forest and escaped too, didn't you?”
Adela and Daniel revealed completely opposite emotions.
“But a familial bond alone isn't enough to give me a reason to forgive you. Is that really the only reason I shouldn't kill you here?”
“N-no... You're joking, right? If you kill me, you won't be able to defeat the Pope even in a million years! Do I look like I'm lying?”
“When people win money gambling, they think it's all thanks to their own skill. So why do they blame someone else whenever they lose money?”
“No. You can't... You can't do this to me! Think carefully. If you kill me, every last one of you will be slaughtered at the Papal Court!”
“If you step into a gambling den, you have to pay the price when you leave, too. That's only natural.”
Name drew her sword.
Daniel ran to the opposite side of the prison and put as much distance between them as possible, but the sword energy rippling from Name's blade extended far enough to pierce straight through the entire cage and still have room to spare.
There was not the slightest wavering in those cold eyes. This person was definitely going to kill him.
His uncontrollably pounding heart caused Daniel unbearable pain.
I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.
Clutching one side of his chest, the man slammed his knee onto the cold iron floor.
By the time he realized that the pain in his chest was not simply caused by fear, he could see Name's expressionless face through the slanting bars of the cage.
“You're an adult, aren't you? You have to take responsibility.”