NoveLight ™
"Stop! Stop it already!"
Bang! Bang!
The constant onslaught of filthy sludge kept coming.
I quickly flew, blocking or dodging every attack.
But the more it kept attacking, the more my divine power drained away.
Is there… no way?
The more I countered, the more my remaining strength diminished, but if I didn't block or dodge, I would be hit.
I couldn't even contact the Constellation to receive their power.
It was a dilemma, a dire situation.
The wound I took earlier was healed with divine power, but if I was hit again, I couldn't guarantee I’d be able to recover.
I was stuck, constantly evading, unable to find a solution.
Whooooooosh
[Noise eliminated.]
Suddenly, it appeared in front of me.
!!!
It was behind me just a second ago!
I had been caught.
It used its web to deceive my position and led me into a trap.
[Obstacle removed.]
From it, sharp filthy sludge spikes shot up, rushing toward me.
I couldn't dodge this.
I had to block it…
I slammed on the brakes, hastily trying to defend by raising my arm in front of me.
But there was no time, and the colorless power I summoned to block was not strong enough.
Crack! Crack!
That weakness was nowhere near enough to stop the spikes.
I was being pierced...!
I could only helplessly watch as the spikes came at me, charging madly forward.
Kaaaaaang!
Suddenly, a storm of black magic swept through, blowing away all the filthy sludge.
"Heh!"
[What is this?]
[Seriously, what is this?]
"Are you alright, Apostle of the Dream?"
As the smoke cleared, a dark, glowing woman floated between me and the creature.
She quickly checked my condition and then glared fiercely at the sludge creature.
"The crime of leading your master to death by your own hand. I shall be the one to judge you."
It was the Demon God, Huffniss.
…Did she figure out who I am?
[Pride has disappeared.]
[Th-That's impossible…]
The Demon God rushed at the creature.
Her overwhelming magic and divinity surged forth, creating a storm of power around her.
The creature flailed desperately, pouring out more sludge.
Sizzle Sizzle Sizzle
It was a dirty and pathetic attempt to buy time to survive.
But the Demon God crushed all of its resistance with overwhelming power and advanced without hesitation.
[Pride] is called the greatest sin of all.
The first original sin also came from Pride, and other sins stemmed from it.
As such, the sin of Pride is not something just anyone can bear.
Only those who are strong enough to be arrogant, to have hubris toward themselves, can carry this sin.
That is Pride.
The first Demon Lord who overthrew the greatest massacrer and inherited the Demon King's position to create peace and unity between humans and demons.
She was not a being that could be confined to titles like the Five Great Lords.
Boom! Boom!
Kaaaaaang!
[No, this is impossible!]
[This can’t be happening!]
The Demon God broke through all the defensive barriers the creature had hastily constructed.
It was terrifying when it was my enemy, but now that I saw it as an ally, I couldn't be more reassured.
[Reversal! Reversal! Reversal!]
The strange power of the creature, which had previously neutralized both my and the Constellation's abilities, kept activating.
The unpleasant light shone on the Demon God several times.
Boom! Boom!
But the Demon God’s advance did not slow down.
Could the creature’s power not affect her?
I watched the Demon God carefully.
No, that wasn’t it.
Every time the creature’s light touched the Demon God, the magic emanating from her grew weaker.
The creature’s power was definitely nullifying and weakening her divine power.
Yet, the Demon God’s strength didn't seem to decrease. This was likely because her power was vast enough to withstand it, and she was in such an emotional state that she wouldn’t hold back any of it.
[Can you hear me, Dreamteller? Please answer if you do! We’re in trouble! Please!]
"…Constellation?"
[Dreamteller, it, it’s connected! What do we do? Is our Apostle safe?!] The voice sounded frantic.
"Yes. I’m fine."
The connection with the Constellation was restored.
It seemed that the creature’s power had been focused on stopping the Demon God, and in doing so, it had drained all the energy that had been nullifying our Constellation’s abilities.
The replenished divine power from the Constellation flowed into me.
Unlike before, where I was barely holding on with just 1% of my energy, now the fully charged divine power filled me with omnipotence.
[Impossible.]
[Impossible.]
[Impossible.]
[Impossible.]
The sludge creature, driven to the edge, continued spewing its filth, but the Demon God shattered everything it threw at her.
The endless flow of sludge it had once seemed to produce was now visibly diminishing.
And finally—
Crack.
"Why don’t you try harder?"
The Demon God's hand seized the creature by its neck.
[The... the seed of Pride... cultivation…]
She lifted it slightly.
Then—
Boom!
She slammed it hard against the ground.
The dream world, erased by the Demon God's power, left only a void beneath. The sludge smashed into the empty floor, causing massive cracks to spider outwards.
"As the King of Ten Thousand Demons, I pass my judgment. Death."
The Demon God's power began flowing into the creature.
I mustered the full strength of the power granted by my Constellation and rushed toward her.
"Wait a moment, Demon God!"
As she was about to flood the creature with magic and detonate it, she turned at my shout.
"…Apostle of the Dream. Don’t tell me you’re here to plead for this criminal’s life?"
Her blazing eyes fixed on me.
Her thoughts poured into my mind as well.
So she did figure out my identity.
...She’s not going to punish me for deceiving her, is she?
"I understand the sacrifice you made for me, Apostle. You are my benefactor. But what’s done is done. If you’ve come to speak of mercy or forgiveness, you’ve come to the wrong place."
Her fierce determination to tear apart the monster before her was palpable.
But at the same time, her choice of words—"benefactor"—revealed something else. She thought all my actions were part of some grand plan to remove her Pride.
…Well, technically, it wasn’t a complete misunderstanding.
After all, I had intended to give her a second chance.
"Please, just hear me out, Demon God. Obliteration is too simple and convenient a punishment."
Let’s be clear: I didn’t want to let that thing live either.
What could possibly compel me to defend a creature that had just been gleefully trying to kill me moments ago?
But obliteration? That was too clean, too easy.
I wasn’t about to let it escape with such a neat, beautiful ending.
And I knew the Demon God might appreciate this alternative.
"…I see. So you’re suggesting that if we bind this thing to a weekly raid boss system, the people of the continent will be able to beat it up endlessly?"
"Exactly."
The [Akashic Archive] weekly boss system.
Currently, there was only one weekly boss available due to content development constraints: the Queen of Monsters from the tutorial.
We had added her to the system as a nod to our investor, the Goddess Ren.
Both to honor the Ten Heroes and to ensure the Monster Queen would suffer eternal torment.
The weekly bosses not only provided essential rewards for progression but also offered an infinite challenge for hardcore players.
Thanks to this, the Monster Queen had been slaughtered countless times by everyone, from fresh newbies to bored veterans.
She was doomed to suffer eternally, unable to die, through endless repetition.
"…There’s no better fate for this criminal than that."
The Demon God continued battering the sludge until it was no longer capable of resistance and handed it over to me.
Using the authority of the dream, I completely sealed it away.
The creature, now infused with the dream's power while unconscious, would no longer be able to use its nullification ability.
With everything finally over, the Demon God gazed up at the sky.
Though the dream world had been erased, leaving only an empty void, she wore an expression of longing, as if remembering someone dear to her.
Her palpable sorrow made me uncomfortable, so I quickly pulled up the logs from the [Akashic Archive] server.
The command I had prepared in advance in case confining the Demon God went wrong: Backup.
"I found it."
Even amidst the creature's nullification attempts, the process had successfully completed.
…Of course, even a backup couldn’t bring back the revived Demon King she longed to see.
But a copy of the Demon King, created from the false dream world, could still exist.
I could only hope that this would be enough to console the grieving Demon God.