Lake Kingdom's only connecting passage between Zone 9 and Zone 10, ‘Grand Bridge.’
Long and massive, the bridge stretched over a chasm so deep that its bottom was lost to sight, an ancient bridge.
Having occupied Zone 9, we set up camp at the front of the bridge and waited for the Black Dragon. It was necessary for him to pass this way in order to march towards the humans.
How long we had waited in preparation for the battle.
Thump... Thump... Thump...
At last—the Black Dragon appeared.
From the opposite side of the Grand Bridge, out of the deep darkness of Zone 10, thump-thump, its heavy footsteps heralded its arrival.
Whoosh...
The lights that lined the massive bridge flickered in unison and then, the next moment, went out completely.
In the oppressive darkness that hung thickly around, the monster moved as smoothly as a whale swimming in the deep sea.Its body was larger than any dragon species we had ever faced.
Enveloped in darkness, its black body was so massive that it was difficult to tell where it began and where it ended.
Its huge scales wrapped around its body, stretching upwards as if soaring towards the sky.
Beneath the two massive wings on its back, countless smaller wings sprouted.
Above its proudly raised long neck, its main head flashed a golden gaze.
And at the junction of its neck and body, six dead heads were lined up like a necklace.
Our heroes collectively swallowed their saliva.
Nightmare Legion's top commander.
Black Dragon Lord. True Black Dragon.
Owner of the Midnight. The first of Midnight.
Darker than the deepest night. The one who brings down the sun. The one who swallows the moon. The World Closer—
"Night Bringer..."
Click-!
As I spat out the words, my subordinates simultaneously aimed their weapons at him,
"..."
Night Bringer, observing us slowly, scrutinized us.
"To call this the final desperate squad of humans..."
Then, in his characteristic weary and blunt voice, he said,
"Too puny."
The next moment.
Zzzing!
Like the power of a drone turning on, the six dead heads hanging around his neck like a necklace simultaneously opened their eyes—flashing golden gazes.
The six heads spun in a circle and floated in the air, scattering their malicious light around the center head.
Controlling the six heads at will, Night Bringer stared at me.
"As my last amusement, you seem woefully insufficient."
"Drop the needless concern."
Feigning composure, to ease the tension among my subordinates... I blurted out my usual nonsense.
"Just try catching us, and you'll burst with satisfaction...!"
"Ha ha."
Then Night Bringer opened his huge mouth and laughed.
"Watching your futile bravado is amusing, but truly, the sight of you losing everything and crying is what I'm most looking forward to."
"Please take care of your perverted desires on your own. This isn't that kind of place."
"Let’s see how long you can keep spouting that idle talk..."
The next moment, the Black Dragon closed his eyes.
The six heads circling his central head also simultaneously closed their eyes.
As his golden eyes shut together, darkness instantly enveloped around his heads.
The next moment,
Flash-!
Seven pairs of eyes opened simultaneously and stared at us.
‘Starting with your strongest pattern?’
I gritted my teeth. This wretched creature starts with the most malicious of intents!
Fourteen [Dark Evil Eyes] concentrated their output, and an invisible force... no, ‘night’ swept over us.
It was the same blow that had instantly annihilated King of Flies-White Night before.
He refined the overlapping darkness with his own hatred, or malice, to destroy his opponent.
I’m not sure how he used this attack in his human form back then, but that’s not what's important!
‘I know this is your strongest attack!’
It was a pattern he had used even in the game.
And the fact that it was a pattern used in the game meant that there was a way to counter it!
"Prepare to activate [Shining Dark]! And!"
After commanding the activation of an artifact made from the magic core in my eye, I called for a defender to specifically handle this attack.
"Scalian! It’s your turn—!"
As I called his name, Scalian burst forth from subspace. This guy too had already transformed into his original form—a massive Eastern-style dragon.
"Huuh-!"
In mid-air, Scalian spun his long serpent-like body, and darkness spewed out like mist from his entire form, as he took a defensive stance wrapped in that darkness.
Waves of darkness collided with each other.
The artifact [Shining Dark] initially absorbed the darkness unleashed by Night Bringer, and Scalian personally withstood the attacks that pierced through the darkness.
Crrrrash-!
When Night Bringer’s attack hit, the scales covering Scalian's entire body shattered into pieces and scattered everywhere...
Shrrrrk!
And immediately beneath them, new scales sprouted.
Trembling, Scalian muttered.
"Ugh, it's my first time being hit by father...!"
"Sorry for leading us into a scene of domestic violence!"
This guy's ability, the 'Scales'—are specialized in defense, including against special abilities and magic.
Moreover, being a member of the Black Dragon Legion himself, Scalian possesses dark attributes, which allowed him to safely withstand even Night Bringer's tremendous blow.
In the game, we used to block that attack with the artifacts made from the magic core in my eye and Scalian’s magic core simultaneously.
"Scalian?"
Night Bringer called his name in surprise when one of his own legion members appeared on the human side. Scalian awkwardly replied.
"I'm sorry, father. But, there's something I really wanted to see."
"Hmm... Alright, go and see it then."
Night Bringer said in an unexpectedly gentle tone.
"If you survive in front of me, that is."
An enormous amount of magic power boiled up within him.
Before the start of the real battle, I waved the flag and shouted.
"[Gardis's Blessing], activate!"
At Stage 40, the Goddess’s Blessing—[Gardis's Blessing] was activated!
Its effect, ‘Warm Starlight’. All heroes on the front line during Stage 40 are resistant to dark attributes, and their inner light manifests a weak luminescent effect.
Like real ‘fireflies’, dim but emitting light on their own...!
I swung the flag mightily. A magic barrier rose, and all sorts of buffs I possessed rained down upon the heroes' heads.
"Advance!"
With their respective Dragon Slayer and Nightmare Slayer weapons drawn, the heroes readied their ultimate techniques.
"This is a battle that decides the fate of the world..."
Shouting passionately, I thrust the flag forward.
"Let's go forth and fight, my people-!"
Responding to my call, the heroes under my command all charged forward, screaming at the top of their lungs—
And above them descended the breath and magic, the Dragon Roar and darkness unleashed by Night Bringer.
***
...Losing track of time, the battle continued.
It was a true bloodbath. We and Night Bringer, neither of us stepped back, fighting fiercely.
My heroes and I fought as best as we could, according to our training, our tactics, and using our quick wits and refined senses.
But— the Black Dragon was too strong.
Even as we wounded him and made him spill blood with our attacks, he endured.
Despite knocking down his six heads and focusing light on his body to create a weakness and then bombarding it with firepower—he did not fall in the end.
‘In the game, repeating this grueling task four or five times would have brought him down...’
I gritted my teeth and looked around.
If this were a game, I could have repeated this process over and over again.
I would only need to manage skill cooldowns and consumable items. Dropped HP could be patched up with healing spells and potions, and I could ignore injuries to command the heroes.
But this is reality.
Even a brush with his breath caused burns, and the mages who took on his magic suffered from overload and collapsed.
After the Dragon Roar swept through, we lost our sense of balance, and anyone caught by his huge feet or tail suffered broken bones.
"Haa, haa..."
"Hoo! Hoo...!"
"We can still fight... still go on...!"
For hours on end, the bloodied heroes gasped for breath ruggedly.
All were heroes who had become extremely skilled over time, but the battle with the Black Dragon inevitably forced them to expend themselves.
Casualties poured out like an avalanche, and each time, we replaced them with reserve heroes to continue the fight...
Eventually, everyone from the reserves to the Monster Capturing Legion was ground down, and though we fought on, administering healing magic and potions on the field, this was as far as we could go.
The heroes' combat strength had significantly diminished over the long battle.
We had reached the end of our offensive capability.
We no longer had the capacity to repeat this grueling operation.
Groooan-
On the other hand, Night Bringer was still intact.
Of course, he was not without damage.
It had been a punitive operation carried out by the best heroes on the human side. The floor was soaked with the blood he had spilled.
However, his tremendous vitality had not run out.
Still arrogantly holding his high neck, he looked down on us with a haughty gaze as if to say, show me if you have anything left.
I hated to admit it, but this was reality.
'This punitive expedition has failed.'
If this were an MMORPG, we could quickly retry after a total annihilation.
But this is reality. So.
"...We retreat."
We must preserve what forces we can and flee.
That way, there remains a chance for the next opportunity. A chance to attempt the raid again.
"Everyone, prepare to retreat...! We're returning to the surface!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Lucas nodded heavily.
This guy, who had fought the hardest at the forefront, had a severely burned left arm but showed no signs of pain.
Fumbling with his right hand in his pouch as his left arm was immobile, Lucas asked.
"Should we use the dungeon escape teleport scroll?"
The teleport scroll was a means of escape provided to each party leader when the Black Dragon Legion punitive operation began.
Lucas evidently assumed that it would be used for the escape.
However, I shook my head slightly.
"No... that won't work."
"What?"
In the game, Night Bringer was a monster that belonged to the final boss line along with the 'Sleepless Lake Princess.'
In simple specs, he was even overwhelmingly powerful.
In this hell, he's an endgame-level monster. There's no way such a being would let us escape so easily.
"In his territory, using teleportation for escape is impossible. He will forcibly dispel it."
In the game, this was a gimmick that made players who thought they could easily raid and escape using teleport scrolls vomit blood.
The same goes for the 'Sleepless Lake Princess'... When fighting final boss-level monsters, you must fight thinking there's no second chance.
Lucas's face turned pale.
"How, how do we retreat then..."
"..."
Lucas, more than anyone, even more than me, was able to assess the situation coldly.
He must have thought retreating was the rational decision as our chances of winning were dwindling.
But he likely didn't expect that the teleport scroll would be useless.
Creeeak-
Night Bringer opened his massive mouth. And among his six heads, two whose jaws were not crushed also opened their mouths.
Soon a pitch-black darkness began swirling inside his gaping mouth, heated with energy. Without a doubt, it was a breath pattern.
His breath, if faced head-on, meant certain death, ninety-nine out of a hundred times. However, since its trajectory was always straight, we had managed to dodge it by moving sideways.
This time too, the heroes prepared to dodge, taking heavy breaths, but I knew.
Half of the heroes had lost their ability to dodge.
When that breath came, half would die. Our precarious stand would crumble like a sandcastle and we would be annihilated.
This was our offensive endpoint, our limit, and then-
"Night Bringer!"
It was the last moment I could pull this card.
I staggered forward, calling his name. I too was hobbling with various minor injuries.
The heroes who seemed prepared to take the breath with their bodies if necessary turned around, puzzled by my action.
I patted the shoulders of such heroes and stepped forward.
"...Ash."
The [Lord of the High Tower], turned into a shield form, and Dusk Bringar shook her head at the forefront.
"Please, no..."
After giving her a faint smile,
"Black Dragon!"
I called the monster's name once more and stood at the forefront.
To the mightiest and most terrible dragon looking down at me as if asking why, I brought up the main point.
Boss stage special gimmick.
Success rate 100 percent.
A 30-minute non-aggression pact between commander characters-
"As king to king, I propose a parley to you!"
A one-on-one conversation with him.
It was a request for a 'Commander's Parley.'
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at /MattReading