At the elite group's campsite.
At a certain moment, people who were running amok in the camp suddenly froze in place. They became like specimens in amber, still breathing, hearts still beating.
Something definitely happened. Abandon would bet his decades of gaming experience on it.
For the first time, he found the current "wax museum" scarier than the previous "madhouse". It was too quiet, combined with the surrounding abyss-like darkness, they seemed like they were stuffed into a tiny submarine, slowly sinking to the bottom of the sea.
A thick layer of dark shadows bubbled up from the pitch-black ground, stirring wildly like boiling water. Abandon's scalp tingled, and he immediately ran towards the direction of Hot Ash.
"There are so many shadows in the camp!" Abandon shouted.
"At the same time, the monsters around us have all vanished," Night Ranger Solo quickly reported. He looked into the distance, his face unable to hide his worry.
"The change is too fast. Anakin and the others must have triggered something." Hot Ash drew his long sword, its glow illuminating the surroundings.
"I think so too," Solo said hurriedly. "Since the monsters are gone, can't we go to support them…"
"No," Eugene said firmly.
"I didn't ask you!" Realizing his relative might be in trouble, Solo had no mind to maintain any Player etiquette.
"You can't do anything if you go now, except cause trouble." Eugene stared at the campsite, which looked like a puppet theater. "Don't you feel it?"
This time, even Hot Ash frowned at Eugene.
Abandon and Solo, being mid-level Players, might not notice, but Eugene should be able to feel what Hot Ash could. In fact, besides noticing the abnormality in front of him, he hadn't detected anything else.
Was it because of his native status?
Though puzzled, Hot Ash wasn't going to play twenty questions at a time like this. He hummed, "Mr. Eugene, what do you suggest?"
"While the Saints in the camp are immobilized, everyone should immediately retreat to the Brick Mountains, ensuring the safety of most people. With your abilities, it should be doable."
Eugene clearly had thought this through. "I myself will stay here to cover for the Goddess."
"Taking so many people over the snowy mountains?!" Abandon's mouth fell open.
Eugene smirked slightly. "Mr. Hot Ash is a fierce knight. He can do it. If I'm not mistaken, Amazon must have prepared a thorough response plan. You don't need to complete the whole journey."
Hot Ash looked deeply at Eugene. "Are you sure you want to stay?"
"The traitor Painter was guided here by God. I must see the result." Eugene's tone was calm. "Drake is also an interesting person, always appearing at places concerning my God… Lastly, if this team can return, someone needs to tell them what happened here at the camp."
"I'm staying too, waiting for my sister!" Solo immediately added.
Abandon glanced at the decorative-like, motionless undead knight.
Ever since Drake left, he couldn't control it anymore. It wasn't destroyed by Eugene only because it was a "critical quest NPC". If there was a risk, Eugene wouldn't protect it, and Solo would prioritize Anakin… Their quest could fail.
Moreover, since Solo was staying, running back alone would be embarrassing in front of Hot Ash. He might as well stay through!
"I'll stay too." Abandon cleared his throat. "Our quest NPC is still here! I have to watch over it."
Hot Ash nodded appreciatively. Eugene, however, glanced over the two staying behind, then looked meaningfully into the distance.
...
Anakin was reaching her limit.
Despite having Fischer, the "air purifier", the corruption was still rapidly corroding her body. She had already lost sensation below her waist, and above it, she felt ulcer-like intense pain.
The night was too heavy, her condition too poor, and she was gradually unable to see the situation in the distance clearly. All she could see was the surging darkness and the purification magic that was almost engulfed.
Painter extended a hand towards her, his palm hovering just above Anakin's thigh without touching. A warm current flowed and stirred along with his purification magic.
"Hold on, miss."
Painter spoke with a smile, his tone light as if he wasn't bothered by the corruption at all—if Anakin hadn't seen his festering, blackened ankles, she might have believed him.
"You needn't be distracted…"
"If you fall, the burden on us becomes heavier, and Mr. Fischer's pressure increases," Painter said. "It's not stinginess, it's tactics."
Anakin gasped for breath and nodded. She took out the last two bottles of holy water from her inventory and handed one to Painter.
If she had known this would happen, she would have prepared more. Who would have thought that just by doing a quest, she would end up facing the Demon King?
The system had once called her "the lucky one chosen by fate", but it seemed all her luck had been used up in such an ominous place.
After drinking a bottle of holy water, the effect was minimal. The corruption was relentless, and Painter's purification was like a drop in the bucket.
Anakin didn't know if it was getting darker or if her vision was blurring with black spots. Even Painter, close at hand, started to blur. She was about to…
Suddenly, her vision cleared instantaneously.
The corruption remained the same, and the efficiency of the purification hadn't changed, so there was only one possibility—Anakin turned in shock and looked at Fischer.
Fischer was staring intently in the direction of the Demon King, his eyes flickering with an unusual fervor.
His spell to collect corruption had strengthened several times compared to before. The thick corruption in mid-air condensed into a ball, pulsating like a living organism.
"My God."
Fischer ignored Anakin's gaze, fixated only on the main battlefield. "How foolish I have been… How could I waver? I was deceived by a false god before…"
Painter frowned and squinted in the same direction, saying nothing.
As the leader of the Drifting Mercenaries, he had long acquired the ability to see in the dark—at that second, in his vision, a blue ring of fire suddenly ignited, and the form of the Demon King flashed.
Its body and head were severed into two parts.
...
It worked.
Nol, however, didn't relax his guard. He signaled Teest to jump down, landing between the Demon King's body and head.
As expected, the Demon King didn't perish from that strike.
Its head and body twisted on the spot, spewing more black figures from the severed parts. They rushed towards each other, as if trying to reattach the severed sections.
Teest naturally didn't miss this opportunity.
[King of Eternal Sleep] activated again, and several large pieces of debris floated over, lying across the middle of the Demon King's head and body. They occasionally rotated, pushing away the gathering figures.
Nol then activated his magic again—targeting the "head" and "body", he only needed [Lullaby].
Nol, burning half of his body with all his might, pushed the Demon King's body further and further away until it was swallowed by the waves. What followed was simple.
To get the sea moving, he only needed the most basic magic.
Nol laid on Teest's shoulder, extending his staff. The tides of the Endless Sea surged, and waves as high as tsunamis washed the shadow-spewing body into the depths of darkness.
When they turned around, only a giant head remained behind them.
Above the head, six white orbs slowly drifted. The top of the head continued to spew shadows, and the neck's severed part also kept spraying. The vortex of shadow remnants gradually calmed down. They just appeared and dispersed. They turned their backs to the head, aimlessly running into the distance.
For some reason, the head seemed much calmer now. The six eye-like orbs slowly rotated, converging in the direction of the two men.
The hill-like toy bear collapsed, its beautiful flowers still blooming. The cannons fired chaotically into the sky, exploding like fireworks. The fierce wooden talismans clattered to the ground like oversized party poppers.
Nol, dragging his mutilated body, braced for battle, and Teest also prepared his shield just in case.
But they didn't feel any hostility.
The fragments of the dream swiftly passed, and the head also shrank more and more. It deformed and collapsed, its six light spots also constantly moving, their gaze following the two men in front of them.
The world's remnants behind the Demon King splendidly collapsed, resembling a bright yet lonely curtain fall.
It could be harmed but had no health bar. It was nearly devoid of reason but didn't struggle, nor did it have the boss's typical death throes.
At that moment, Nol suddenly felt that this long-dead Demon King was more like a "living being" than any enemy before.
It didn't attack, and they didn't take the opportunity to strike either. Teest once thought of taking the chance, but Nol gently stopped him.
So they just quietly watched.
The city's ruins dispersed, and the figures of different shapes and sizes hurried away. As time passed, their forms became more blurred.
In the end, at the spot where the head had been, only a child's shadow remained.
Its size was no different from a normal child, appearing to be under ten years old.
Beneath the child's feet, there were two very vague, almost formless adult shadows. They lay quietly on the ground, like its shadows. At the place of their eyes, there were two dim white lights, too blurred to distinguish.
On the child's face, the two orbs of light were relatively clearer. It moved its body and looked up at the two towering opponents.
It silently opened its arms towards them, just like the Demon King did when it first attacked.
The air briefly solidified for two seconds.
Nol, missing an arm and a leg and with most of his body consumed as material, struggled even to stand. Teest was still somewhat intact, but he was paler than a corpse, his lips bloodless, showing symptoms of magic exhaustion.
In the deadly quiet night, their breaths were louder than their heartbeats.
"Put me down," Nol whispered to Teest.
"It could be a trap, and we're both at our limits now."
"But if it isn't." Nol struggled to get off Teest's back. "I can't bear it."
Teest reluctantly let go, muttering, "What if it is? I don't want to bear that either—"
Nol stopped, giving him a weak smile. "You can do whatever you think is necessary, including stopping me."
"…This isn't an order." After saying that, Nol took out the wedding ring from his backpack and carefully hung it on his chest. "I'm communicating with my husband."
Teest stared at Nol for a long time, annoyed, then stepped back half a step. "Ah, you're really troublesome."
The shadow still held its arms open, the two orbs of light in its eyes unwavering. Nol slowly stepped forward, stopping in front of it.
The blade of the letter opener silently passed through the shadow. Just as he had guessed, nothing happened.
"…Thank you…" The shadow seemed to have forgotten how to speak, trying several times before barely managing to make a sound. "…It's okay… It's useless…"
It was indeed different from the other shadows!
Nol squatted down. "Kid, do you remember anything? How can we save you?"
The child's shadow quietly shook its head.
"Without those dreams… it's finally quiet…"
Its voice was ethereal and unpleasant, sounding more like an old person than a child. "We died long ago. You can't save us…"
It chose the question that would least affect Nol's sense of guilt.
"We are just lingering spirits…"
The child looked down at the two adult shadows. "First it was me… Then came a brother and a sister… They said they were adults and wouldn't compete with me for control, voluntarily giving up…"
"Sounds harmless enough," Teest interjected without mercy. "But your corruption is terribly strong."
The shadow remained motionless. "As long as we exist, we will hinder the new world… We just want to go home…"
"Do you remember how you became like this?" Nol went straight to the point. "Anything will do."
The shadow shook its head and responded in a soft voice, "Memories keep fading… I forgot the names, the past. We can't go home anymore… We just want it to end…"
Nol was speechless.
The obsessions of the first three creators were so deep. With god-like powers, they became wandering spirits in the world. But two thousand years of loneliness and pain were enough to dilute decades, even just a few years of human memory.
They wanted to go home but had long forgotten who they were. When they sensed traces of their compatriots, they instinctively pursued them.
…But how many things could withstand the power of a "god"?
At this point, Nol suddenly realized a very subtle issue.
"Since you are the lingering spirits of the 'former creators'," he said slowly and gently, "why couldn't the other two gods defeat you? …Do you remember this?"
The child's shadow flickered for a few seconds, this time not immediately shaking its head in denial.
"Not long ago, two very strong ones fought each other, and then one became weaker… I could feel it…"
The shadow clumsily described. "I never saw them… They are not my compatriots… I don't like them…"
"Could it be the battle between the Goddess of Life and the Eternal Son?"
Hearing this, Teest moved closer with interest. "Those two were lying all along. They never dealt with the Demon King at all!"
"Thank you." Nol braved the corruption, tentatively reaching out his hand to touch the figure's head. The latter was a bit surprised. It didn't dodge, but instead started to tremble slightly.
The outline around the figure became increasingly unstable, and it hesitated before moving a small step forward.
Nol was startled and then decisively extended his arms, embracing the shadow. In a trance, he felt as if he had returned to the hunter's cabin in Night of the Hunt.
He had longed for an embrace in the initial breakdown, and he got one.
…How lucky he was.
"I'm sorry. This is all I remember…" the figure whispered in his ear. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you…"
"Kill me, kill me, kill me…"
The figure began to disintegrate and churn, its voice turning mechanical again. Those few minutes seemed like a cruel flicker of life.
The slender figure tightened its arms around Nol, murmuring in fluctuating tones. The purification magic couldn't suppress such close-range corruption, and Nol closed his eyes, deciding to let go of the embrace when—
Swoosh.
Accompanied by a strange magical fluctuation, something cool brushed against his shoulder, piercing the figure's head.
It was the "Betrayer".
The figure's outline shook violently, followed by a death-like silence. It curled up, slowly leaning against Nol's blood-stained shoulder.
The next second, it dispersed like smoke, as quietly in its departure as in its arrival.
For some reason, Nol suddenly remembered the first time he saw it… The monster called the Demon King, lying quietly on the beach, dreaming of a past that was a thousand years old.
If he lost himself in this world, lost his sanity, would he become a part of it too?
"Good night," he whispered softly.
"You said I could do anything," Teest said provocatively behind Nol. His tone was assertive, with a pea-sized hint of nervousness.
"Thank you, Teest," Nol replied seriously, still in a kneeling posture.
Corruption still flowed over his skin. The Demon King had no corresponding system task, so the system was momentarily silent.
In the dark, Nol struggled to stand.
Grief, relief, doubt… They mixed together, turning into a faint rage.
The two gods never fought the Demon King themselves, now stirring up Players against him—no matter how the three innocent creators had fallen to this state, those two were definitely implicated.
He had to—
[Notification: Authorization effective., Data processing complete.] The system's voice suddenly sounded.
…What?
[You have been recognized by the "Remnant Will of the World".]
[Fantasy "Playing House" rights transferred.]
[Novel "Armored Holy Throne" rights transferred.]
[Game "Prosperous Shopkeeper" rights transferred.]
Nol stood there, stunned.
Before him, three white shadows suddenly appeared. The shortest in the middle, its edges flickering with data error-like mosaics, resembled the child just now.
The other two, a man and a woman, adult-sized.
The child gestured a ball-throwing motion at him, then waved. The adults nodded at him, the girl even making a "V" sign.
[Postscript: Go home.]
[Postscript ends.]
As the system notification ended, they dimmed and disappeared on the spot. In that instant, the dark land seemed to light up.
The dark red sky above faded, revealing a sky full of stars. The black corruption on the ground turned into white specks, slowly dispersing into the night. The land became an ordinary yellow-brown. The cold and discomfort from the corruption were gone, leaving only clean wounds.
At this moment, the Endless Sea was still gray-black. But Nol believed that at sunrise tomorrow, it might turn azure blue.
Nol's throat was sore.
He had no joy in victory. They had to win, and the Demon King… The Demon King also wanted them to win. From the beginning, this wasn't a real battle.
Overwhelmed with emotions, Nol instinctively turned to embrace his knight.
But when he saw the sky, his thoughts were instantly replaced by awe—
In the indigo night sky, stars twinkled. There should have been four identical moons overhead. But now, there were only four equally sized black holes.
The thing that had been blocking them moved away.
The next second, something stuck to them. But what returned wasn't the gentle-colored "moon", but gray-red, murky, moist chunks. They rotated for a moment, revealing four misshapen red pupils.
They stared directly at Nol and Teest.