Chapter 139

[Mephistopheles – Phase 3]

[HP: 1,439,294/4,444,444]

“I see. It doesn’t feel like it. Baalberith, Belphegor, Asmodeus.”

As Mephisto brushed his white hair aside, he smiled bitterly.

“All of them, you erased them! I should be thankful that you took care of my competitors!”

In the war among demons for Wigrasil, only Mephistopheles had survived in vain.

How long had he wasted gathering power since the “Primordial Eradication”?

The will of evil drifting through the world was once again united and turned to dust, and that dust became a lizard wandering in the shadows.

And that lizard grew into a serpent, then an eagle, and ultimately its will was transmitted to humanity over thousands of years.

Compared to the ten years it took for Wigrasil to grow, the time was unbearably long.

“Right. They were hasty. They couldn’t wait the last ten years, making thousands of years of endurance pointless. But I! Will not make that mistake.”

Bubbles began to rise in his vast hollow body, and his flesh began to regenerate.

With about a million health points, his body resembled a city in the sky.

Not a walking chariot but a walking city.

The brighter his purple eyes shone, the more the magic flow in the atmosphere swirled wildly and began to gather in his grasp.

Trees that couldn’t root deeply were broken easily, and boulders as large as houses were sent flying without resistance.

And for this, Neme was given merely four laurel wreaths attached with a mere 16-fold output enhancement ability.

-“Isn’t that too much HP?”

-“In regular mode it’s 500,000, but this is ridiculous lol”

-“The defense must be higher too; it feels like dozens of times stronger, not just tenfold.”

-“Is this the end for NoName?”

-“The ‘want to clear’ was impossible.”

“No! My sister is not that weak!”

The silver cat shouted towards the viewers.

Do they truly not feel it?

Mephistopheles was not the only one gathering power.

And as if to confirm that fact, Neme’s golden eyes blazed red.

“It’s only natural for humans to kill each other.”

Neme, who had lived through the era of turmoil.

The sight of hundreds of corpses being devoured by crows, leaving no flesh behind to decay, was nothing special.

Humans killed humans, humans killed Mazzaks, and Mazzaks killed humans in return.

In the endless cycle of slaughter, she remembered those who fell without leaving even a name.

“But it is also humans who save humans.”

Paradoxically, the battlefield was a place filled with good.

Women carrying soldiers who lost their legs, crossing the mountains day and night,

Mercenary groups sacrificing themselves to protect residents from monsters,

Even humans and Mazzaks joining forces to protect village children.

There was no malice when killing an enemy, but in saving lives, there was only good.

Because of this, Neme believed in the possibility of goodness.

If only the wars happening around the world could be stopped for even a moment, if everyone could just catch their breath, perhaps the madness could end.

That’s why she stole the “Key of Heaven” to turn back the army of Alphenheim and stole “Agnes’s Tears” to nullify the participation of the Prahans.

“Eternal peace and rest for the world? Most who spout such sweet words were merely mad warmongers.”

The common folk did not seek such grand ideals.

They only wished for another ordinary, peaceful day to till the fields diligently during the day and gather for a cozy meal filled with laughter.

Whether they were human or Mazzak, the princess was always the representative of those people.

“If you want to call me the Demon Lord, then go ahead and call me that.”

[5 Circle Casting: Akashic Record]

Above Neme’s head, five magic circles of different sizes appeared.

They were not all different magic circles.

Molecular structures of polymer compounds were instantly drawn in each circle.

In magic, the speed of recording cannot exceed that of the caster’s thought.

But when a massive quantity of circuit structures was completed in the instant that the human brain could not hold, it was enough to doubt that natural proposition.

As the five circles merged into one, the magic circle revealed its might and brightly illuminated everything, even the tiny insects hidden among the weeds.

The magic circle gradually shrank until it settled on Neme’s head, no larger than a human head.

Woom—

[Unique Magic – Demon Lord’s Horn]

A black horn, a foot long, erupted from hair filled with sunlight.

The ends of the straight bone structure stretched outward, sharp and pointed, as if it had been one with the skull from the very beginning.

Seeing the horn bloom with thick murderous intent, Neme grinned satisfactorily.

“I will ensure you can never say such things again.”

* * *

Mazzaks were generally more skilled in magic than swordsmanship.

The reason was due to the existence of the horns inherent in their race.

The horns served to purify magic while also reading magic flows.

Thus, Mazzaks were akin to having a calculator in their heads while casting magic, making them superior to humans in achieving magic.

Moreover, in the world of the game, the magic flow was consistent.

In other words, if one could derive the exact environmental factor for casting magic, Neme was confident that one could cast magic without great power, like a boat flowing down a river.

To cast all magic as an “optimal solution” was an incredible feat, as proved by Adella’s astonishment.

“The magic circle from the horn…! Was my sister an angel…?”

A thousand spears shot at Neme were twisted off course by the fierce pressure of the winds.

-“What is that horn?”

-“NoName has become a demon!!!!”

-“What the hell is that demon?”

-“How can she cast magic without even using her hands? Is that even possible?”

└ Magic is coming out from the horn ddddddd

Just grazing against it would send you to the other side of death, but Mephisto’s attacks were repeatedly blockaded by Neme’s strikes.

When Neme had searched for video footage of Mephistopheles in battle, she had already realized.

The reason why defeating the final boss was impossible for a mere mortal.

Mephisto learned and responded to all player attacks, even imitating them.

That characteristic was somewhat similar to Shardenfroide, but the difference was that the first strike was always permitted.

Thus, users had to study different patterns or utilize different magic until the boss’s health dropped.

The progressively stronger boss, by its very nature, inevitably had to have weaker initial influences, but the sheer base HP of 4 million compensated for all its shortcomings.

However, all of these descriptions didn’t apply to Neme.

[4 Circle Casting: Glacis Astar]

[MP: 9400(9520-120)/13500]

The 4 Circle magic was cast using merely 120 MP.

A sharply sharpened niobium spear flew at supersonic speed, piercing through Mephisto’s heart.

Upon confirming Mephisto’s staggering, Neme immediately linked the first Unique Magic with Adella.

“Let’s go, Adella, now!”

Thinking back to the time with Professor Cronicle (Asmodeus), the situation was much more manageable.

How restricted she had been because of one main penalty.

“I never thought I’d catch so many demons in my life…!”

[Unique Magic – Esteria Ryu First Form – Adella]

Hundreds of blades ravaged Mephisto’s body, which had been struck with stun status.

Adella instinctively felt that her strikes were on a different level than before.

The sword felt light, but the power contained within was anything but light.

Two daggers and one longsword were scattered in the air, leaving dizzying afterimages.

Delivering 300 blows at an ever-accelerating speed, the two girls distanced themselves from the demon.

Neme’s horn resonated with a time delay.

[Unique Magic – Esteria Ryu First Form]

[Adella – 300 Hits]

[Break]

Mephisto’s flesh began to crumble. It lost its form and turned into a black, viscous substance like the demon of Professor Cronicle.

“Dare to play petty tricks…!”

Yet, it seemed Mephisto was stubbornly enduring.

“Watching a fool who cannot even perceive his own death speak of the world is truly…”

The magic flow violently whipped around. It swirled so powerfully that the red remnants of mana could clearly be seen around the demon.

The energy contained within it was on a different level than any spell cast before.

[6 Circle High Casting: Hellfire]

“Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

[Ugh… Kaaaaah!]

The ultra-high temperature of 30 million degrees Celsius burned the demon’s soul.

An intensity twice that of the sun’s core was something a sentient being could not resist.

Skin marinated in blood dripped away. The demon transcended the limits of flesh and returned to the mist from whence it came.

The mist encompassed stars,

and galaxies,

and finally contained the universe.

The mist swelled, repeatedly splitting and creating, covering the entire sky.

– Is this Phase 3?

– The damage is insane.

– No, it’s not just Phase 3 patterns.

A fatal move.

“I’ve already activated the self-destruct device…”

Their strike was more than enough to take the demon’s life.

However, with the support of the system, a demon that could survive at least once transformed all available stats into energy.

Neme quickly hoisted Adella over her shoulder and planted her feet firmly on the ground.

[system: Mephistopheles is casting “Death’s Requiem.” Evacuate immediately beyond a radius of 3km.]

[▶ Navigation Assistant – ON]

[▶ Mini-map – ON]

“Wait, the map size…?”

Neme swallowed hard at the sight of the shrunk map.

No matter where she went, she could not escape beyond 3km.

– The map is blocked?

– Can’t we get through like before?

– Back then, the overlapping open world made it possible, but it seems the restoring sorcerer fixed that.

– If you’re going to fix it, fix it properly; what is this?

– Frustrating!

– Teleport? Portal? Right, there are none of those here.

– Come up with a collective intelligence, quickly!

– How many people are watching; think about it!

[‘Veixel’ donated 1,000 won!]

– Teacher! The Undying Curse trait!

A viewer shouted urgently.

An incredibly overpowered trait that grants invincibility for five seconds.

Fortunately, it wasn’t on cooldown, but there was another problem.

– It only applies to oneself, though?

– Ugh, is there really no other way?;;

– Originally, it was just a simple pattern of running away like hell, but this is seriously overkill.

– For real, I’m dying to know.

Neme closed her eyes and recalled the numerous Nightmare clear videos she had watched.

In two minutes, a deadly skill would fall above her head.

What then?

After three seconds of casting Death’s Requiem, the world would be reconstructed, and the battle power counting would begin with the ending.

‘When is the clear judgment?’

Adella, who had tightly squeezed her eyes against the harsh winds, was unable to let out even a groan as she was embraced by Neme.

“Everyone, when is the story clear judgment!”

– Story clear?

– The clear should already have happened, right?

– Yeah, Mephisto’s HP is 0.

– If it had a built-in invincibility skill, we wouldn’t have to run away like this.

The clear had indeed happened.

But the players needed to survive until the end of Death’s Requiem.

Combining both conditions in her mind, Neme’s thoughts raced faster than ever.

The trait-sharing bug could not be relied on; the update log indicated it had been neatly fixed with a hotfix four years ago.

Could they break through the map? They hadn’t figured that out in Mephisto’s battleground.

‘There’s only one safe place to survive…!’

If it had been cleared, it meant the open world was now integrated into the Wearsoft database.

If so, with administrator privileges, they might be able to access the “data” of the world itself.

While traits tied to entities couldn’t be touched, individual skills might be possible.

[system: Run as administrator]

[Phantom Mime: Steal and use one of the opponent’s skills.]

[MP Cost: 2000, Cooldown: 80 seconds]

‘If I can extend stealing from a skill to the target itself…’

As long as she could clearly “identify” the being called Adella, she could somehow transfer it through skills.

560 lines of skill code unfurled before her eyes.

Even though the skill to replicate a target was straightforward, it had a plethora of additional codes attached to counter various bugs and errors.

Quickly skimming through the source code, she confirmed that adding a line wouldn’t cause any significant issues and began to expand a new magic.

[Code Change: base World -> %PrivateRoom/NoName%]

[SessionTask failed with error: The network connection was lost.]

[system: The broadcast has been forcibly terminated.]

Blue Dragon,

The great sage of the Black Mage Tower,

The masterpiece of Tsurevis Ostantine, the mentor of her mentor.

[7 Circle High Casting: Persona Pyxis]

[Not enough MP.]

One of Neme’s horns shattered from the compressed power reaching its limit.

[7 Circle High Casting: Persona Pyxis]

[Not enough MP.]

A box that contains personality, Persona Pyxis.

[7 Circle High Casting: Persona Pyxis]

[MP is…]

[MP: 0(6795-6795)/15000]