Chapter 133

In the center of the sky, black storm clouds were swirling like a spinning top.

Purple lightning flashed, scattering sparks throughout the forest.

The swirling mass grew larger, poised to engulf the entire world.

[system: Run as administrator]

[system: trig/0xf29a31 has been added. (Command: RECOVER)]

[Alert: Skill – ‘Pantomime’ has been added.]

[Alert: Trait – ‘Curse of Immortality’ has been added.]

I checked everything promised by the administrator. Except for admin rights, everything could be obtained in-game, but these were necessary to save time.

Without a moment to hesitate, I rolled down the Vatican stairs.

[Adella: 18km]

Adella’s location was instantly known through the game system.

It’s quite fortunate that I didn’t need to use magic here.

Buildings towering high into the sky began to disappear one by one from the background.

A black veil cloaked the mountaintops at the end of my sight. The dense forest was consumed by fog.

It would be appropriate to say that the world was getting swallowed up in a collision with another world.

I took a deep breath until my stomach churned in the cold air and exhaled towards the front.

[Cast: Enhancement Interference]

“Ugh… Adellaaaaa!”

The sound spread out in all directions, and in response, crows cawed loudly and flapped their wings frantically.

[Adella: 395m]

[Adella: 390m]

She moved.

Thankfully, it looked like she heard my voice.

Before long, a silver cat appeared from the dark forest, perked ears pointed forward.

“Ugh… Sister… Sister! Uwaaaaah!”

The girl, sobbing sorrowfully, jumped into me without a hint of hesitation.

Now that I looked closer, her arms and legs were full of cuts and bruises, making it hard to view her as anything but hurt.

“Adella.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t leave me… Right? Huh… Aah… I’m so scared… so scared. I don’t know what to do anymore. You suddenly disappeared… The world turned completely black and white… Huh… Over there, the ground is collapsing…”

Adella began to tremble violently and cry intensely. Her pitiful cries mixed with painful moans.

As if blaming me for suddenly vanishing, she tightened her grip on my waist.

“This must be a dream… It has to be… Wuu… Please don’t abandon me, I’m so scared…”

Tears streamed down her eyes as Adella confessed to me.

Unconsciously, my hand reached for her head.

Gently stroking her, I pulled away the leaves and branches tangled in her hair.

This might be a game for some, but for her, it was everything.

I could feel the fear, terror, and anxiety she was experiencing in my entire being.

Yes, it was just like how any human would feel upon witnessing annihilation for the first time.

Whether or not it was annihilation, in the face of overwhelming, uncontrollable violence like earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and typhoons, everything is equal.

I intertwined my fingers with her delicate hands and pulled her tear-stained face towards me.

Facing her elongated, slit cat pupils.

“Adella.”

“I’m going to die… It must be a dream…”

“Adella!”

“Eep!”

“Have you ever been wrong to listen to me until now?”

“N-no…”

“I’ll save you and this world. But promise me one thing. No matter what happens, you must believe in me. Even if you think otherwise, my words are always right. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes! I understand…”

“We don’t have much time. Don’t fall behind, follow me.”

[High Heal lv.2: Restores 3000 health over 10 seconds.]

[MP cost: 1200, Cooldown: 45 seconds]

The power of the four laurel leaves far surpassed the magic of reality.

In an instant, Adella regained all her strength, dusted herself off, and chased after me.

As we retraced our steps, I quickly recalled the conditions to consider for the ending.

First, find the ‘Laurel of Death,’ which seals Mephistopheles’s cornerstone.

The moment the Laurel of Death claimed Adella’s body would trigger the appearance of the final boss.

Then, who possesses that laurel now?

“Sister, ahead! There’s a wall!”

“Just ignore it and run! We can get through now!”

Generally, when transitioning from Part 1 to Part 2 or Part 2 to Part 3, you cannot go back to previous maps.

This is partly to ensure smooth story progression, but also due to the limitations of the open world.

However, such distinctions meant nothing at the current moment when worlds were colliding.

Like Professor Cronicle passing through crowds, at that point beyond the black fog, we were no more than a ghost.

Clang-!

“Kyaaah! What’s this! A turkey…?”

“Oh no, my dinner…!”

“Ah…! I’m sorry, bald man! I will pay you back later… But at least enjoy the leftover food!”

In the meantime, the bald man who lost his dinner that morning stomped his feet in frustration.

Having quickly traversed the hyperloop devices in each region, we soon arrived at the capital of the Empire.

“Where is this…?”

Slowing down and checking the minimap, I found no response, like a dead navigation system.

I had no choice but to recall the overall map I saw on the Triforce Wiki to find the way.

“This is the headquarters of Abyss.”

“Headquarters of Abyss? Wait, wasn’t this the royal palace?”

The Baroque-style palace seen at the Back Gate of Rement Academy. And we had just crossed its garden, so her confusion was valid.

“To be precise, it’s the royal palace’s underground. The head of Abyss is none other than the princess.”

Abyss was set up as the princess’s private organization to stop the prince, who was a devil worshiper.

Not being able to trust either the Empire or the Divine Kingdom, she gathered talents and tried to pit them against each other, aiming to find and eliminate all laurel leaves in this world.

However, the Gestalt who returned to the headquarters could not contain the sorrow of losing Adella, and it was originally part of the story arc for part 4 to steal the last remaining laurel from the headquarters to resurrect the demon.

The demon, having found a perfect body, could manifest within Adella, and that was precisely Mephistopheles.

The operators referred to it as ‘overlaying the creation code,’ and although not everyone understood, one could guess its meaning.

The Laurel of Death was given a role as one key, while Adella was assigned as the lock.

In other words, if either were missing, we could not meet Mephistopheles, and the world would collapse.

It was absurd to think that we had to summon a demon bent on destroying the world to save it, but it was our only option.

As I reached into the vault wrapped in triple layers, the laurel came out with ease, making it feel almost futile.

[Error]

[Laurel of Death]

[Synchronization has completed.]

[What happened to the connection?]

[You can now use rank 5 magic.]

[Level: 30 → 31]

[HP: 39250 → 43750]

[system: error 0xff021a43]

While minor errors occurred, there was no problem progressing the story for now.

For the time being, I had passed the first stage.

“Adella, do you remember the demon that stole your body in the first playthrough?”

“Are you talking about Asmodeus?”

“Right. We’re going to summon Asmodeus here.”

“What? Are you out of your mind? You’re not serious, are you? I can’t have heard you right!”

Standard difficulty had various routes, and the final boss was diverse, with Asmodeus being one of them.

In the Nightmarish story, Adella had committed suicide and was tragically removed without ever showing her face.

Asmodeus’s unique skill was ‘Soul Exchange.’

By mixing all souls within a specified range, he would directly engage allies at random in combat.

Reflecting the demand of players who wanted to directly fight as illegal mage Giselle or ice mage Luna, the boss battle with Asmodeus was considered a special event in the world of Moura.

That particular setting was recycled from the Nightmarish story, leading to this situation.

Naturally, Adella was horrified and jumped up.

“Specifically, we’re only taking Asmodeus’s skill.”

“Skill? Aah… You gave me quite a scare…! But what’s that going to do?”

“Well, it’s obvious. Here, is there anyone other than you and me?”

[Pantomime: Steals and uses one skill from the target.]

[MP cost: 2000, Cooldown: 80 seconds]

Since it was a priest class, I couldn’t use it in multiplayer, but in the story, acquiring skills was unrestricted regardless of class.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to clear this hellish difficulty as a pure healer.

Originally, using Pantomime was limited to enemies, but I was currently in a state of transferred admin rights.

In other words, I could also use it on a single ‘object’ like the Laurel of Life and still copy the code directly.

“Adella, just for a moment, I’ll be relying on you.”

[‘Soul Exchange’ has been stolen.]

[Instant cast]

[Soul Exchange will occur with a random ally within the specified range.]

[Adella ⥨ NoName]

[NoName ⥨ Adella]

I was trying to get used to elf ears, and now there were cat ears instead.

Surely, tails wouldn’t implement alongside them, would they?