Chapter 21

EP.21 The Four Dragons, the Paladin, and the Holy Maiden

I'm hungry.

After drinking during the day and falling asleep, what woke me up wasn't the chirping of sparrows, the ringing of my phone, or the sound of an alarm clock, but the rumbling of my stomach.

And what came next was...

a headache that felt like my head was about to explode, even though I hadn't been hit on the head with a hammer...

Shit. My head hurts.

How many bottles did I drink?

I counted the soju bottles scattered on the floor.

One. Two. Three... Four... Five, six bottles?

For heaven's sake. I only remember up to the third bottle.

So, I drank three more bottles after that?

By myself? Without any snacks?

Was I really that good at drinking?

My head hurts, but...

it wasn't as bad as someone who would rather die, and there were no signs of vomiting...

"I'm surprisingly fine."

The doubt was immediately resolved by the vibration of my vocal cords as I spoke.

Ah.

I'm not that weak body that couldn't even eat meat anymore.

The body of the Holy Maiden, which defies the laws of calories like basal metabolic rate and metabolism, is full of energy even after days of fasting.

The headache that felt like it was squeezing my entire brainstem also eased up after I drank a lot of tap water.

What time is it?

I picked up my phone to check.

19:58.

...

...

Oh,

it's two minutes before the match starts.

"Ah!"

I almost flew to sit in front of the computer chair.

***

Darkness enveloped the world.

Darker than the night sky,

deeper than the abyss underground,

darker than pitch-black darkness,

a curtain of darkness that should be called pitch-black is covering the world.

This was, of course, not a natural phenomenon.

Therefore, all living things that sensed the abnormality cried out in horror and looked up at the sky.

The last thing the sunset, suffocated by the darkness, illuminated was...

a massive structure.

Black, with a sinister aura rippling, and stretching long like an inverted tower.

...

Although it was called a structure, in fact, it was the bones of some creature.

The massive bones, forming a shape in a cluster, spread out like a wide canopy, blocking the sun, and it was perhaps natural that the world was plunged into darkness.

The bones of the creature, now a dead object, sprouted from the sky like bamboo shoots after the rain.

Eventually,

even though the body was tightly bound by mysterious chains to stop it,

the monstrous creature made of bones finally tore through dimensions and etched its existence into the world beyond.

By its mere appearance, exuding intense malice,

all living things shrank back.

At the same time,

a message appeared to the twelve players participating in this game.

『Load.

Player 'Soram' has activated the Ultimate Skill!

* Descent of the Four Dragons, summoning the Dragon.

The evil dragon that once plunged the entire continent into darkness,

even after its body rotted away and was sealed, did not achieve complete annihilation,

and, though dead, it continued to wait for the day when its shackles would loosen.

And at this very moment,

the sturdy seal, created by the holy sacrifice of those who shone the brightest, uniting humans, elves, and dwarves,

is being undone by a wicked black magician!

If the seal on the raging Four Dragons were to be completely broken,

not only this war but the entire continent would be plunged into hell once again.

...

However...

‘A foolish one will appear again someday. This is my arrangement for that time.’

Fortunately, the Four Dragons will not devour the continent.

In the current continent, forgotten,

the re-sealing ritual that the hero, once called the Holy Emperor, performed at the end of his life, even preparing for his own annihilation, took effect on the Four Dragons emerging into the intermediate world.

As the chains, torn apart by the resistance of the dead dragon, returned to their original form,

it was once again banished to the world beyond dimensions.

The Four Dragons, tightly bound and dragged into the black world,

shuddered with frustration at the thwarted ambition and felt extreme anger,

and did one thing.

...

In the final moment,

the Four Dragons took a deep breath.

“B,”

The first to react to the message was

Holdmedic.

A voice that seemed to be on the verge of tearing swept through the voice chat.

“BREATH!!!!!!! Take cover!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get to the corners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

『Holdmedic has died.』

It was an absurd situation where the person who told everyone to take cover died first,

but no one in the voice chat laughed at her.

『Stadak has died.』

With a single breath of the Four Dragons,

『Mohé has died.』

『Parfetino has died.』

The players of the ‘Yuyuyu Chalchalchal’ team died one after another.

And amidst them, a roar echoed unexpectedly.

Actually, it sounded more like

a cry of frustration and struggle.

『Load.

Player 'Paladin' has activated the Ultimate Skill!

* Fury of the Immortal.

‘Why can’t I die?’

It is a question the warrior asks himself,

who participates in battles merely because

he enjoys the sensation of slicing through flesh,

and the beauty of the rising fountain of blood,

for no other purpose.

Having thrown himself into countless battles,

this warrior, who was closer to death than anyone else, felt a strong desire for the world beyond death, which he could never reach.

However, this desire was never resolved.

‘Why can’t I die...’

As the question turned into resignation, and resignation into anger,

the transformed fury spewed out as a defiance against death itself.

Fine, if you won’t come to me, I won’t reach you.

Not until you want me!

The 'Paladin' etches his existence outside the reach of the Grim Reaper’s scythe.

The question of life has excluded the concept of death itself.

Until this will fades, the 'Paladin' will not die.

Remaining duration: 19 seconds』

Like trembling herbivores,

the air itself fled from the Four Dragons' breath,

and everything in the sky and on the ground melted away,

while a man stood proudly, wielding a massive greatsword as if it were a toy.

The warrior, who had overcome even death, roared again, shaking the heavens and the earth.

Before his renewed will faded, he leaped forward, charging straight ahead.

The enemy heroes, utterly terrified, scattered in all directions.

This was because there was nothing to gain from facing the 'Paladin' who had activated the ultimate skill that deferred death,

and it was a standard move to avoid fighting until the 'Fury of the Immortal' duration ended,

though it also meant accepting the destruction of their formation.

Seizing the opportunity, the 'Paladin' began to sweep through the enemy ranks like a lion slaughtering a flock of sheep.

However, once the ultimate skill's duration ended, his future, left alone without any troops, was already decided.

Thus, the 'Holy Maiden' ordered him.

"Let's retreat once."

The deepest part of her clear voice was filled with self-reproach.

The situation was created by her decision to group all team members to advance and secure a key objective.

She had anticipated the 'Meteor Fall,' but she hadn't considered that the enemy's black magician had already cleared all the conditions to summon the Four Dragons.

She managed to react to the incoming breath,

and to prepare for the attack aimed at her in the rear,

she had already memorized a holy spell that could block any attack once, which allowed her to survive the breath that melted everything.

She blamed herself for not foreseeing this.

It was a clear mistake, missing one crucial detail she should have paid attention to.

She thought it might be due to the lingering effects of the alcohol,

but wasn't it also her own mistake for not properly managing her condition, the most important aspect of the game?

Before she became the 'Holy Maiden,'

the fragments of depression and self-hatred that always lingered within her began to gnaw at her again.

Whether the 'Holy Maiden' knew how the 'Paladin' felt or not,

he said something, perhaps to comfort her, during the intense battle.

"It was a place we had to die to get to. We could have ended the game if we had taken it."

"No, reconnaissance was first. We should have sent Parfetino first..."

"If we did that, we would have been bursted on the objective."

"..."

'Burst' refers to pouring all skills and troops into hunting an objective without considering player combat.

Indeed, sending one scout and confirming the burst before the main force advanced would have been difficult,

given the enemy team's superior ability to hunt objectives, leaving insufficient time.

It was a sharp trap set by the enemy team's order, like guessing the front and back of a coin tossed into the air.

Either let the objective be taken,

or fall into a trap while advancing.

Thus, even the 'Holy Maiden,' who had always made appropriate judgments as if she knew all the battlefield situations,

had to rely on probability, more accurately, psychology.

Still,

even with the 'Paladin's' words, which were unclear whether they were comfort or not,

the 'Holy Maiden' couldn't uproot the self-reproach that had sprouted.

It was a favorable game.

If the enemy had forced us to match the coin's side they caught in the air,

and the damage of not matching was significant enough to reverse the game,

the loss of giving up the objective was something we could willingly accept.

The momentum might be lost once, but by