CH 128

[Reunion in the Snowfield]

“—Alright, let’s go!”

[Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!]

Under the dark cloudy sky, I was running through a plain leading hundreds of allied players.

We made an army that no monsters could hope to stop. However, there was uneasiness on my men’s faces.

◆◆◇◆

–It all started ten or so minutes ago, right after we received the report of attacks from Crutteruo who was in command of the intelligence division.

Suddenly, another message came from her. This time in video format.

When Zansword opened it…

[…Greetings, players on the Demon King’s side. Pardon me for borrowing your little rat’s message.]

A video played, showing Crutteruo beat up and covered in wounds and Pendragon, the enemy’s leader…!

[How did you find the mass PK? Surprised? I bet you are. You should be in the middle of pep-talking yourselves. ‘We may lose in numbers, but we won’t lose in quality’ or something along the lines?]

Everyone else gritted their teeth at Pendragon’s words.

I frowned, kind of pissed off, but at the same time, I was impressed with her scheme.

You would lose 20% exp upon dying in this game.

By killing our members… she was effectively hindering their growth, hindering us from improving our quality.

At this rate, the enemy side wouldn’t only have the number advantage but also the level advantage.

[This operation doubles as a test for my new combatants. I know all of you joined the Demon King out of love and admiration for Yuri-kun. So, allow me to present you, ‘Mass-produced Yuris’–!]

In the next moment, several video windows popped up around Pendragon.

They displayed groups of white-clad people wielding ‘Beginner Bows’ slaughtering players on the Demon King’s side…!

“W-what the hell’s this?!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding!”

“Mass-produced Yuri-chans…?!”

The revelation of the enemy’s trump card had the room buzzing.

I broke into a cold sweat whereas my comrades became flustered. Pendragon then shouted, [Talk about terrifying, huh! Some of you must be scared out of your wits right now. You wouldn’t want to fight them without first testing how strong they are, right?

[That’s why I’ll give you a chance to have a ‘skirmish’ with them! An hour from now, come to my city, the ‘Snowy City Niflheim’. Fight my Yuri-kuns and see their strength for yourselves…!]

――With that, the video message from Pendragon ended…

◆◆◇◆

“…Yuri. Are you sure about this?” Zansword asked with a pale face, running next to me.

“Truth be told, I’m against this,” he quietly voiced his honest thoughts as snow began to fall from the overcast sky, “Copies they may be, they are copies of you. You can’t underestimate their strength. Not to mention, we are talking about that scheming fox Pendragon here. She must have other cards up her sleeve.”

“I know, Zansword. I know. But we can’t just ignore them either, and you know that.”

Yeah. We had no other option but to accept this invitation.

Imagine yourself in an ordinary player’s shoes.

First, the Demon King’s side lost in numbers and then their high-rank players were being killed off left and right.

And to make matters worse, they declined the enemy leader’s open challenge to a skirmish—what would you think of them?

“If we turned tail from this challenge, we would lose before the war even started…! The Goddess’s side players’ morale would skyrocket while the Demon King side players’ morale would plummet.”

“That’s… true. And if that happened, other new players would join the Goddess’ side in droves. No one wants to be on the losing side.”

“That’s right. Which is why we must take their challenge and beat them in their own game, no matter what…!”

We continued to run for dozens of minutes.

When the snow started falling heavier, a tall, straight silhouette came into our view.

The closer we got to our destination, the clearer the giant silhouette became. Eventually, it became completely visible and revealed itself to be a gigantic tree that rose beyond the clouds…!

“Heh… so that’s the Goddess’s Spirit Tree Yggdrasil.”

It was the counterpart of my Demon King Tomb Yuggoth.

Just like how the mechanical tomb continuously churned out Demon Steel (what’s a tomb, again?), the gigantic tree seemed to be continuously spitting out Divine Steel from its base (what’s a tree, again?).

“Since we’ve gotten close enough to see that tree, that means…”

Past the raging snowstorm—we finally saw it.

A white-clad army stood imposingly in front of a white city from where the gigantic tree rose–!

“Yo, Pendragon. Been a while.”

“Hey there, Yuri-kun. It’s been a while, indeed.”

And so, we met once again, now leading our respective armies of hundreds of warriors.

We both knew the moment our eyes met, that the snow-covered land would soon be stained with blood…!