Slowly rising to her feet, White Night became the new King of Flies, and at that moment, I was flooded with all sorts of thoughts.
Would the Imperial Edict I had placed on the first King of Flies work on White Night?
If it doesn't work, is there another way?
If everyone still breathing were to resolve to fight to the death, what then?
Or, if we were to surrender from the very beginning...?
As long as it's not game over, if there's any way to continue this fight...
'Like when we faced the Goblin God-King, maybe an unexpected ally will appear...!'
Harboring such vain hope, I was about to look northward when-
"...!"
In the next moment, I urgently shifted my gaze southward.
Something... someone else.
Was approaching from the south.
"What...?"
It wasn't just me. White Night also looked south with surprise, and the heroes stationed throughout the ruined city began to turn their attention southward, one by one.
The aftermath of the explosion was still burning in the southern plains.
Cutting through the center of the blast site, still emitting dazzling light and magic energy.
Step. Step.
A figure was walking through.
In the deep, heat-suffused night,
There stood a man.
Despite the great distance, the aura he emitted was so intense that it almost seemed like an illusion that his form was clearly visible.
Dressed in a neat black and white suit, with long black hair casually trailing behind him...
And those shining golden dragon eyes lifted high.
Though he took on a human form, it was clear. This was no human.
Step. Step.
Was it an illusion? As he walked, it seemed as if the light retreated behind him.
The flames and magic energy around the blast site receded, and the man walked straight through the path that opened up towards Crossroad.
Having only seen his 'true form' in the game, this was my first time facing him as a human... but I felt like I knew who he was.
"Myself, I have only heard tales of such a being."
Next to me, Dusk Bringar, pressing down on her blood-soaked shoulder, spoke with difficulty.
"The end of the mythological era, fought by my ancestors..."
Hearing the identity of the man, I closed my eyes tightly.
"...The Black Dragon King."
The Nightmare Legion's top commander. The Black Dragon Lord.
Master of the Deep Night. The First Midnight.
Darker than the deepest night. He who brings down the sun. Devourer of the moon. The World's End Bringer-
"Night Bringer..."
Step. Step. Step.
Quenching the swirling flames in the southern plains with his innate aura of darkness.
The king of the Black Dragons approached Crossroad with a dignified stride. White Night stared at him silently.
Rank 3, the Grand Sorceress, and rank 1, the Black Dragon.
If these two commanders of the Nightmare Legion were to join forces, even Crossroad in its prime condition would struggle to hold them off.
Yet, despite this- I remained vigilant, looking for an opening.
After all, the sudden appearance of this man was... an unforeseen factor.
Perhaps, though the odds were slim, a way out might present itself here.
Step...
Though it seemed he was merely walking lightly, Night Bringer had already arrived in front of Crossroad.
He was holding something carelessly in one hand... Upon closer inspection, it was a person.
Her white hair tangled, her body soaked in blood, and her robes torn to shreds, with an old, rusty sword tied to one hand...
"...!"
It was then I realized the identity of the person Night Bringer was holding.
It was Nameless.
Having reached right in front of the destroyed southern gate, Night Bringer carelessly threw Nameless forward. His black lips parted, and an emotionless voice flowed out.
"...This deposed princess tried to stop me, causing a delay."
Nameless couldn't even groan as she rolled on the ground. Every time she touched the earth, blood painted the floor like a brush soaked in red paint.
I hurried to check on Nameless's condition, but Night Bringer verbally stopped me.
"She's not dead. If killing her was an option, she would have been torn to pieces a hundred times over."
"..."
Despite my fierce glare, Night Bringer simply shifted his gaze to meet mine briefly, showing no reaction.
"Night Bringer...!"
White Night flew into the sky, releasing terrible hostility in all directions, and landed in front of the Black Dragon.
Only then did Night Bringer turn his face, lifting his bored gaze to meet White Night's.
Thump-!
White Night's giant body landing on the ground caused it to quake.
While the humans around swayed, Night Bringer, through some trick, didn't move an inch.
White Night glared with a dreadful red light emitting from his multiple eyes, grinding his teeth.
"What business do you have here!"
"...To think it was the Grand Sorceress. Quite the sorry sight you've become."
"Answer my question! Why are you here? This deluge was supposed to be the Fly Legion's affair!"
"Are you prolonging your life by stealing bodies from that Fly Legion? How... disgusting."
For the first time, a smile appeared on Night Bringer's lips. A clear mockery.
"Shut up...! Answer me! This deluge belongs to the Flies! You weren't supposed to join! Didn't the King of Kings decree it so!"
"I came chasing after it because that Fly Legion stole something of mine."
Night Bringer, touching the collar of his suit, tilted his head to the side, then looked directly up at White Night with his golden eyes.
"I've come to retrieve something that belongs to me."
"What could possibly belong to you...?"
"There, isn't it?"
Night Bringer pointed with his index finger, directing it at something in White Night's grasp.
"The King's Scepter."
"...!"
White Night, startled, clenched her hand tightly. It was a clumsy motion, like a child hiding a toy from a parent.
As if knowing the King's Scepter was hidden in White Night's hand, Night Bringer gestured towards it.
"That is the symbol of the King of Kings. He who commands all the commanders of the Nightmare Legion- the Demon King."
"..."
"I don't know what mistake Cromwell, the foolish Guardian Demon Commander in charge of acting authority, made for that King's Scepter to have rolled all the way here to human territory."
Listening silently, from White Night's entire body- the red compound eyes of all the flies that composed her body flashed in sequence.
Power began to slowly surge within the body of the King of Flies. Night Bringer continued calmly.
"The Demon King is in seclusion, and now that I have killed Cromwell, who was acting in authority, and usurped this hellish throne. I have finally become the new King of Kings of the nightmare."
"..."
"Of course, that King's Scepter is mine as well. Hand it over quietly, White Night."
A smile also formed on White Night's lips. That smile too was one of mockery.
"What if I refuse?"
"Oh... Is there a reason?"
"There's only one reason...!"
Behind White Night, colors that shimmered with the darkness of another world spread out, forming the shape of wings that spread like a neural network.
From the fully spread wings, no, from her entire body- White Night roared, emitting an overwhelming morale.
"I too am vying for the throne- for supremacy!"
"Indeed..."
Night Bringer nodded.
"Without such ambition, how could one be the leader of an army."
"Now, I command both the Liches and the Flies!"
King of Flies White Night declared with a voice that echoed hundreds, thousands of times.
"With the endless magic power provided by the constantly breeding flies, and with the endless immortality provided in their ceaseless breeding- I will start a new life as a Lich that never dies!"
Whoosh-
The night wind blew. Night Bringer's long black hair flowed over his neatly black suit like a cape.
Through the wildly disheveled black hair, his half-closed golden eyes, tired-looking, opened wide.
"You have reached a pitiful conclusion, sorceress."
"Say what you will, I..."
Swoosh-!
Power swirled and gathered in the two wings spread behind her, and with terrifying momentum, White Night was launched forward.
"By any means, I will ascend and reach that celestial throne-!"
The countless number of flies that composed White Night's body flashed their malevolent lights from their compound eyes, staring down Night Bringer.
All those hostile 'gazes' materialized into curses, transforming into the form of a gigantic spear in White Night's hands.
White Night, laughing maniacally, drove that spear down towards Night Bringer.
"Huh."
With a small sigh, Night Bringer took a dignified step forward with one foot shod in his shoe,
"Trivial."
Then, flinging the lapels of his suit, he stretched out one hand forward- and clenched it.
Crack-!
The next moment, White Night's upper body vanished.
"...?!"
Everyone watching was taken aback.
An invisible, formless power- no, 'the night' itself had clenched and crushed White Night's upper body.
Like the battles before, this strike was truly transcendent.
A force that mere mortals could never contend with.
"You."
Looking at White Night, whose upper body had flown away, Night Bringer casually remarked with his hand in the air.
"You are not of the caliber to oppose me."
Ssshhhh-
Staggering back, the King of Flies recombined the remaining flies to once again form the figure of a woman.
With more than half of the flies gone, the newly formed White Night was significantly smaller in size.
White Night was visibly confounded by the overwhelmingly powerful difference.
"What, what-"
Night Bringer snapped his fingers.
"Hand over the King's Scepter quietly, insect. It's too much for you to handle."
"Shut up..."
White Night's body, trembling, began to disintegrate.
"I can continue to live even if only one remains... But you, even if you're a dragon, have only one life."
"..."
"If I have to eliminate you anyway, I'll do whatever it takes to kill you here and now-!"
Snap-!
White Night scattered.
Transformed into countless flies, White Night became like a black cloud, engulfing Night Bringer from all sides.
Red curses swirled at the tip of each fly's mouth.
What effect those curses had, how they intended to kill Night Bringer, I couldn't tell.
Click...!
With an annoyed flick of his finger, the flies falling towards him- just like a night sky clearing of clouds, vanished cleanly.
"If one remaining can continue your life."
Night Bringer indifferently uttered.
"Just erasing every single one ends it all."
Among the countless vanishing swarms of flies...
There was one very small fly, desperately retreating and fleeing.
"Where do you think you're going, White Night."
Night Bringer stretched out his hand, catching the fly with an intangible force, then flung it down at his feet-
"Whether a great king or a great emperor, accept the end befitting the title you've claimed for yourself."
"No, no! My, my immortality...!"
Crunch.
He stomped it to death.
Without uttering a last word, White Night died under Night Bringer's shoe.
An incredulously vain end for her, who had survived by all means.
Night Bringer's luxurious leather shoe pressed lightly against the ground, and without even checking, he walked forward, step by step.
Towards me.
No... towards the King's Scepter that had fallen in front of me.
Stopping his stride, Night Bringer flicked his index finger upwards, and the King's Scepter that was rolling on the ground soared elegantly into the air.
Catching the King's Scepter with his other hand, Night Bringer looked straight at me. Then he spoke.
"Meeting you for the first time, player."
"..."
"I've heard you're the new King of Kings of this human realm. I am Night Bringer, the newly crowned King of Kings of hell."
The King of Kings of monsters.
The King of Kings of humans.
We stared at each other in silence for a moment.
The Black Dragon King examined me from top to bottom, then suddenly grinned.
"Let me ask first."
A beautiful, yet cruel smile.
"How do you wish to die?"
--TL Notes--
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