Barbarian in a Failed Game

318. The Great Demonic Realm (1)

The main headquarters of the Pantheon, after being thoroughly swept by E-Urel.

After the irresistible strikes of the Sword of the Night Sky receded and E-Urel vanished along with Khan and Aries, those left behind did not remain idle. The Borderland Marquis’s army was the first to occupy all facilities of the headquarters and completely subdued the Paladin Division.

“Resist to the end! Do not surrender to the heretical forces……!”

“Such nonsense.”

Veil, the Magic Swordsman.

Once a mercenary affiliated with the Mage Tower, he was a formidable warrior who had learned magic in exchange for doing the Tower’s errands.

Swirling red spells around his blade, he cut through the Paladins, muttering under his breath.

“It seems that formidable blessing has vanished. Haven’t you been abandoned?”

“Infidel…!”

“Persistent…”

Though Veil couldn’t quite hold his own among Khan’s party, he was fundamentally a mercenary. Not only had he become a Gold-rank mercenary at a young age, but he was also a genius who excelled in both swordsmanship and magic.

“This should be enough.”

After striking down the last of the Paladins, bale spat on the ground. Thanks to the sudden cessation of divine miracles during the fight, the battle had been entirely one-sided.

‘That brute must have done something.’

There was no doubt about it. Not long after Khan disappeared, the divine miracles ceased, and all holy magic stopped working altogether. Without holy magic and miracles, the Paladins were just a well-armed army.

In a normal war, a fanatically determined army could be threatening, but their opponents were not a typical army. They were an elite force of otherworldly beings with superior physical abilities and advanced techniques.

“…Can that be opened again?”

With the immediate battle over, bale’s attention naturally turned to the heavenly gate that had appeared in the sky. He directed his question to the being who had been staring intently at the dimensional portal, something beyond his own understanding.

『Forcing it open wouldn’t be wise.』

Natrix, who had inadvertently become the fleet’s artillery platform, examined the heavenly gate with her Dragon’s Eyes and sighed as she answered.

『The portal itself is already extremely unstable. It could have been caused by that man, E-Urel, using it, or… something is happening inside.』

Given the sudden cessation of divine miracles, the latter seemed more likely.

『First, we need to ensure that the headquarters’ forces cannot mobilize. Hmm?』

Natrix’s head turned sharply. It was as if something had forcibly grabbed her neck and twisted it. The dwarves operating the magi-tech cannons on her back screamed at the violent motion.

But Natrix had no room to worry about the mortals on her back.

『This is…!』

She could feel it. A presence descending from that distant land of chaos, tearing through the sky. An ancient evil that would devour the sun and cover the entire continent in sulfurous flames.

Even just revealing a part of its true form brought the world’s fate inexorably closer to annihilation—a catastrophe beyond compare.

In an instant, Natrix’s vision expanded infinitely. Her physical body remained in the skies above the headquarters, but her soul felt as if it was being sucked into some unknown place.

And then.

Their eyes met.

“Not yet. The time is not right.”

Its appearance could not be compared to any creature on earth.

Its skin, made of sulfurous flames, continuously incinerated everything around it. Beneath those flames, a dark, pulsing flesh moved like a separate entity. Beneath the flesh, veins intertwined in a complex web, flowing not with blood but with a tar-like, sticky substance.

But more alien than its body were its eyes.

Pure chaos and dark magic swirled together. The two forces blended as if they had always been one, yet also repelled each other like oil and water. It was the embodiment of ‘chaos’.

A primordial God.

An ancient evil born from chaos.

The Arch Demon, descending from the far eastern end, fixed its gaze on Natrix. That alone caused Natrix to feel an excruciating pain as if her soul was being ripped out.

『Gasp─!』

The time she spent locked in eye contact with the Arch Demon lasted less than a second. No physical time had passed. The Arch Demon was a being that mocked the constraints of time and space.

But it undeniably happened. Natrix felt the agony of her Dragon Eyes melting. The sulfurous stench invading her senses seemed to rob her of all perception.

“Argh!”

“The dragon’s gone mad…!”

Flight was as natural to a dragon as breathing. But that was impossible for Natrix at that moment. The dwarven engineers hastily escaped from her rampaging back, embraced by Neria’s spirits.

“Natrix!”

Meanwhile, Natrix needed to be calmed down. If she started rampaging here, the damage would be catastrophic. Fortunately, there was still a person brave and reckless enough to put a leash on an angry dragon. The Grand Warrior, Gordi.

Neria realized something was wrong when she saw blood pouring from Gordi’s mouth as his face contorted.

“Grand Warrior?!”

“…Ugh.”

What was causing this?

From Neria’s perspective, Natrix suddenly going berserk and the Grand Warrior coughing up blood was bewildering. Fortunately or unfortunately, being relatively newly ascended to a High Elf had spared her from the Arch Demon’s gaze.

But in the next moment. Even without the Arch Demon’s gaze, it became clear to everyone that something unprecedented was happening.

““The sun… it’s turning black!”

“…Karyan, help us.”

The sun had begun to turn black. No, by the time anyone noticed, the black sun had already replaced the original. The sky remained as bright and clear as ever, yet the sun alone had darkened.

“This is impossible….”

Veil, confirming the black sun, muttered in disbelief. The berserk dragon momentarily slipped from his mind in the face of such an eerie and surreal sight.

Normally, staring directly at the sun was impossible, but this black sun had no such effect. Instead, it seemed to draw in one’s sanity. Veil, staring blankly at the black sun, suddenly gasped.

‘The smell of sulfur…?!’

A pungent stench that seemed to come from nowhere briefly numbed his sense of smell. Feeling dizzy, bale staggered and noticed that the light had faded from the eyes of the Paladin he had just subdued.

“…Dead?”

Veil’s fingers trembled as he checked the pulse of the Paladin he had subdued.

He was dead.

The Paladin, who had been subdued but still alive moments ago, had stopped breathing. And it wasn’t just the Paladin at his feet.

“Hey, Gern! Why are you collapsing all of a sudden?!”

“Lady Neria…! Schultz isn’t breathing…!”

More and more non-human beings began showing the same symptoms as the Paladins, ceasing to breathe. Without any warning—synchronized with the appearance of the black sun—they had died.

“Don’t look at the sky!”

The first to respond was Elena, the goddess’s scales bearer, who had just escaped from the tower where she had been confined with the Paladins. She was still able to use holy magic, and the holy magic she cast enveloped all the sentient beings in the headquarters.

Thud— thud—

But even a mortal’s miracle couldn’t stop the disaster wrought by the Arch Demon. More continued to collapse, lifeless, their breath halted.

“What in the world…!”

Biting her lip at the sight, Elena prepared to summon a greater miracle.

Blaze!

Suddenly, a brilliant light flared from the scales that appeared before her. Elena immediately recognized the source of the light.

‘The Goddess of Justice…!’

The holy power of the goddess began to shield the mortals from the Arch Demon’s power. Those who couldn’t even resist began to lose consciousness as if falling asleep. Their souls were half-dormant, preventing them from seeing the black sun.

This provided a temporary reprieve, but Elena couldn’t fathom the full extent of the phenomenon. The strange occurrences that had enveloped the headquarters were, in fact, happening across the entire continent.

***

“Emperor!”

“No need for alarm. I’m already aware.”

“But reports are flooding in from the palace! People are dropping dead all over… What?”

The imperial secretary was bewildered by the emperor’s calm demeanor and then, noticing the collapsed officials scattered on the floor, nearly fainted himself.

Regardless, the emperor continued to gaze at the ceiling of the palace with narrowed eyes.

“…A black sun.”

Emperor Friedrick’s eyes were fixed beyond the tall ceiling of the palace, directly at the black sun. It wasn’t that he had suddenly acquired the ability to see through solid objects. That black sun was such that it could be seen no matter what was in the way—it was unavoidable.

“This is serious, isn’t it?”

Conrad, the half-human, half-dragon knight, appeared like an afterimage, scratching the back of his head.

“Not all knights and mages are unscathed. Luckily, the Royal Guard is intact. But some Battle Mages have been affected. It seems to be more a matter of mental fortitude than physical strength.”

“If even this old body of mine is fine, then that’s likely the case.”

“You never know. Maybe you’re only fine because of the dragon’s magic circle protecting you. Who’s to say you won’t collapse the moment you leave the palace?”

Conrad’s light-hearted joke did little to brighten the mood. Whether this black sun was the disaster itself or merely a precursor to something worse, no one could predict.

However, the emperor leaned towards the latter. It couldn’t possibly end with just this.

“…If even the palace, protected by the dragon’s magic circle, is like this, then the outside must be far worse.”

“That’s correct, Emperor Friedrick.”

Someone interrupted the emperor’s muttered speculation. A third voice interjected into the emperor’s office, where outside intrusion was nearly impossible.

Yet neither Conrad, the emperor’s bodyguard, nor the emperor himself showed any signs of alarm at the voice.

“At least one-tenth of the continent’s population.”

Emerging from a golden shimmering ‘spatial rift’ was a strikingly handsome man, beautiful enough to be sculpted by a goddess of beauty.

His identity was the imperial guardian dragon, Arkadnil, the only ancient dragon still alive and active in the present age.

From his mouth came a fact so staggering it made one’s vision swim just to hear it.

“The moment that black sun appeared, one-tenth of the continent’s population died.”

“Ugh…”

Even the emperor, who rarely displayed emotional disturbance, could not help but groan at the number. It wasn’t just a simple one-tenth. It meant one-tenth of all humans on the continent. And that number was bound to increase as time passed.

It was possible that a disaster far worse than the black sun was about to engulf the continent.

“…Arkadnil, you must have some idea about the nature of this black sun if you’ve awakened from your long slumber and come to find me?”

“Indeed, I do.”

The guardian dragon, Arkadnil, responded calmly.

“Prepare for a total war. We must gather all the forces of the empire and the continent. There is no need for persuasion. If we fail, the entire continent will disappear. And…”

Advance into the Great Demonic Realm.

“I will open the path to the Cradle of the Void. Even if it means burning this wretched body of mine.”

Just as Arkadnil did in the game.