“This should do it.”
─I just finished suppressing the wind element. I’m about to move directly.
“I got it.”
The Grim Reaper headed toward the endless darkness, receiving reports from the Guild Members who were spying on Lily’s broadcast.
“Something’s definitely off.”
Even if you’re ranked number one, is it really possible to suppress life, light, and wind so quickly?
Thinking back, with all the reverse and Users mobilized, capturing just one darkness was tough, so Lily was definitely abnormal.
“Well, I did win this fight.”
Fighting against such an abnormal User made no sense.
There was no reason to face her head-on, and if it had to come to that, the Grim Reaper would have given up on this episode long ago.
He wasn’t foolish enough to think, “This time I’m a bit stronger, and with the reverses, maybe I can win somehow?”
After all, the goal of this episode Quest was to gather all the powers of the seven.
It wasn’t about overpowering the opponent like Lily, so the Grim Reaper could dodge her and gather all the powers successfully.
“I’m entering. Try to hold her ankle. Use everything we’ve got.”
─Understood.
Gulp! Gulp!
Voices echoing through the system communication swallowed something.
All resources prepared for this day would be consumed.
The Stone of Reversing is a very useful item for future Quests or dungeons, but he couldn’t afford to be careless against Lily.
It felt regrettable, but better to use everything than to hesitate and lose it all.
Huff…
I’m going down.
According to the Nameless Man, the endless darkness was the corpse of a ‘Dragon’ from another realm.
It was said to be the true master of the seven powers, a being comparable to a transcendent World Boss in strength.
At one point, it was speculated that the will of that being lingered within the corpse, but in the end, they couldn’t find it; they only had a hunch.
Also, somewhere within this corpse, there’s supposed to be a secret space holding their will…
“The story is not my job.”
The truth was, all of this didn’t matter to the Grim Reaper.
He was firmly in the stance of a User.
Whether the Dragon had taken root in this land after thousands of years of journey or if the masters were just fake, that was all just a boring description.
Most Users often didn’t care much about the ‘story’ experienced during dungeons or Quests, and the Grim Reaper especially felt that way.
Beyond respect and understanding, he considered the story itself utterly meaningless.
What mattered to the Grim Reaper were the rewards after clearing and the losses he had suffered in the meantime.
Those two things were everything.
“This should do it…”
The Grim Reaper quickly moved his body towards the place the Nameless Man had told him about.
A massive mountain appeared after crossing a maze-like space.
It was a Black Mountain that seemed like not even a single ray of light could penetrate it.
The Grim Reaper faced the mountain and began to take out the fragments he had collected, one by one.
“First, the wind… Oh?”
Whoooosh…!
A Star Fragment of Wind, glowing with a Green Light, left the Grim Reaper’s hand and filled part of the Black Mountain.
A portion of the mountain turned green.
The Grim Reaper then took out the Star Fragments of Lightning and Light, and those fragments also flew off to fill parts of the mountain.
Now, the Black Mountain had portions of green, yellow, and white.
Out of seven powers, three had been added, coloring almost half of the mountain differently.
The Grim Reaper checked the Quest progress window just in case.
[3/7]
“As expected.”
There was no problem with the progress.
It seemed that Lily hadn’t arrived yet, but he still had to check.
“Where’s Lily?”
─You have arrived in the land of darkness. Soon, you will enter the endless darkness.
“Got it.”
Considering how long it takes to descend, there was plenty of time.
Since the path here was in the form of a complex maze, he had some leeway, but just in case, he should move quickly.
Next were not fragments, but masses of Life and Space.
These were not fragments but spherical forms, resembling Spirits.
He had gathered some of the scattered power pieces from around the world and formed them into shapes similar to fragments.
Sreeee…
Fortunately, the two powers were absorbed well by the Black Mountain.
Now, the other colors had a much greater proportion than the darkness of the Black Mountain.
“Next is darkness… This isn’t going to change, is it?”
The Grim Reaper took out the darkness, which had been messed up by the Users who had swallowed the Reverse and Stone of Reversing, and tossed it towards the Black Mountain.
The darkness was absorbed, becoming part of the Black Mountain.
Now only one remained.
“Krah! You…”
“Shut up and fly away.”
“I’ll kill you… Kurgh!!”
The Earth. To be precise, the Earth that had lost its power.
While the other attribute powers were all from the Grim Reaper’s intervention or theft, the only one that had no connection at all was the Earth.
Lily had obtained the Star Fragment of Earth and spared the owner of the power.
If Lily hadn’t spared the Earth, this plan would never have succeeded.
Before the plan was even executed, the Earth had been kidnapped by the Reverse and dragged here.
“If it were me, I would have killed it long ago. Why steal the power and keep it alive? Are you rubbing ointment after smashing its head?”
“You bastard…”
“That woman is strange too. Acting all nice while pretending to kill everything. That’s why she gets played, stupidly.”
“Stop pretending to be nice to something strange. You’re just going to get played, you fool.”
“…You’re going to regret this. You will definitely regret it—”
“Get going. Go. That crazy girl is coming.”
The Earth pulled itself together for one last struggle, but couldn’t resist the Grim Reaper’s kick and flew away.
It flew away.
It flew away…
“Well then… huh?”
It did not fly away.
The Earth is floating in the air.
Considering that even the power of darkness, which was subdued, flew away without resistance, it was clearly an abnormal phenomenon.
The Grim Reaper momentarily panicked before seeing something holding onto the Earth.
Something transparent, obscured by darkness.
The transparent thing melted away in the air, revealing its true form.
“Long time no see?”
“…Shit. How?”
“Hehe, there are always ways.”
Lily.
The number one ranked user with abnormal strength, who swings a hammer to hit heads yet pretends to be unnecessarily nice.
Lily was smiling brightly while holding onto the Earth.
By the way, her other hand was gripping the hammer slung over her shoulder.
“No way, shit. How did you get here so fast? Aren’t you using a bug?”
“You’re quite talkative. Things haven’t changed, have they?”
Is this another kidnapping?
Lily said this as she descended onto the ground.
The Earth, with a dazed expression, was soon sucked into the space she created.
“What? Where did it go?”
“I’ve temporarily stored it for protection. It would be troublesome if it gets kidnapped again, wouldn’t it?”
“……”
This is bad.
The Grim Reaper’s current feelings could be summed up in three letters.
It had barely been 20 seconds. No, it had only been 10 seconds at most.
How had he already arrived here after hearing Lily’s location from a guild member?
Moreover, if he assumed he had come through a crack in space, he should have felt some sound or shake of power, yet there was none.
It was as if he thought, ‘I was here from the beginning.’
“Shit.”
“Hehe.”
Whatever it was, the important thing was that Lily had already arrived here.
And the moment he lost the Earth, all plans fell apart.
Even if he somehow escaped from here, there was no way to save ‘the Earth.’
Though he might lose everything else, he absolutely had to gain the Earth.
‘The Star Fragment of Earth is with Lily.’
In other words, now that the Master of Earth was gone, he had to defeat Lily to clear this quest.
The Barbarian can clear this quest.
Suddenly, the difficulty jumped from “hard but doable” to “What the hell, did they really expect me to clear this?”
The Grim Reaper felt dizzy and drew his scythe.
“This is ridiculous. Truly a shit game.”
“After all, it’s never easy to covet someone else’s stuff.”
“Why the hell is this someone else’s stuff?!”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Do you think I just mindlessly scarfed this all down? I spent a month prepping for this. Gathering the kids, making plans, pouring all the guild resources into this. Huh? I did all that, you crazy woman. It looks easy now, but timing was a massive pain—”
“Then how about we make a ‘bet’?”
“…What?”
Boom!
Lily’s hammer dropped to the ground.
In that instant, the ground cratered and the entire Black Mountain trembled, but Lily continued without a care.
“Remember when I kidnapped Sre? It’s similar. If you beat me, instead of becoming the Master of Earth, I’ll just give you a Star Fragment. But in return… well, how about transferring ownership of everything buried here? Oh, and I’ll return the Yellow Raider too.”
“…You gotta be kidding. You think I stand a chance against you? Do you really think it’s fair to compare one to six?”
“Then… how about you just take one hit?”
“…One hit?”
“Yes. If you can endure just one hit, I’ll consider myself defeated.”
If you don’t want that…
“We can just fight as is.”
“……”
One hit.
That woman is abnormally strong.
Of course, I’d lose if I fight her, no matter how strong I got, I couldn’t last even five minutes.
“But just one hit…?”
It might be impossible with just his own abilities, but if he can stack up all the remaining reversals and defend as much as possible, it might just be possible.
Besides, he had no other options left anyway.
“Alright. You’re not just bluffing, are you?”
“Of course not. Either way, we’ll follow the PVP conditions.”
The conditions set here are guaranteed by the System.
The Grim Reaper accepted the various ‘conditions’ that appeared before him by pressing the accept button.
[PVP Conditions Starting.]
And then.
“This is absurd.”
Creak!!
The white hammer shattered all defenses and smashed the Grim Reaper.
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