Crow revealed the shocking truth about the world.
It's too much to dismiss as just lies, given how much I've come to know.
The world I saved.
A world that's now just a game.
"Huhu."
He seemed to be expecting some kind of reaction from me. Without taking a combat stance, he just silently smiled and looked at me.
"...So."
"Hmm?"
"Is your goal simply to destroy this world?"
The words coming out of my mouth became short.
Because I felt unpleasant.
I wanted to ask about things I hadn't asked the demons in the past. Of course, how much conversation could I have had with demons as a timid hero. We were just busy fighting with swords drawn.
Crow spread his arms and laughed.
"Haha! Humans are born, consume food, and live while breathing. It's just like that. We dye all worlds in our color. Do you intend to ask living beings why they breathe?"
"You know quite a lot, huh? Do you know this world is now a game? Are you the real one here? Other Crows must be fighting with users too?"
"That I have multiple selves, that's good too! Certainly, from a higher dimension's perspective, we might look like chess pieces on a board."
"Then die here as a chess piece."
He cackled.
"We steal the World Tree's power, create our World Tree. And fill this world with demonic energy. If I'm a chess piece, and have a role to play."
Swish.
He straightened his posture and started floating backwards. Where he was heading was the center of the Tree of the Abyss, where the purple sphere was.
"I'll just faithfully carry it out!"
Rumble rumble!
The center of the Tree of the Abyss shook.
"Very well, hero! If you intend to protect this game board once again, I'll stand in your way from the opponent's piece position!"
Crow disappeared into the purple demonic energy sphere, and it started growing.
Rumble. Rumble rumble.
Caw-!
Crow, having absorbed the purple sphere, soon became the form of a giant crow chimera.
What, it really is a crow.
Even the cry.
This is totally disappointing.
Sharp claws, crow head, crow wings. A bipedal crow-shaped chimera? Some might find it cool, but personally I don't like the appearance. However, the mighty power it contained was clearly conveyed.
In old cartoons, bosses would do things like transform 3 times while fighting. When they reach their final form, their combat power would suddenly rise from 530,000. But why don't bosses attack with full power from the start? I used to wonder.
Of course, Crow was different from cartoon bosses. He greeted me in his true form from the start.
Shing.
I drew Astaroth.
Swish.
I swung it horizontally, drawing a silver trajectory.
"I understood your motivation well."
You're not some Mr. Skeleton or whatever, don't casually break the fourth wall when you're just an NPC now.
If we're chess pieces on a board, would Army Commander Crow be a knight?
I'm a pawn.
A weak pawn now, but not to be ignored.
Chess strategies are based on pawns. And pawns become queens when they reach the end of the board.
Promotion, queening.
Becoming a strong piece that can turn the game around.
"I love this world."
The beautiful Astria continent.
The world I protected together with my companions.
Lower dimension? Higher dimension?
I don't know about such things.
I am this world's hero.
If there are those trying to destroy this place.
As a hero, I'll just stop them.
Swish.
I lowered my posture and opened my eyes wide.
Flash!
Becoming a flash of light, I rushed at him.
[3rd Named Boss]
[Level 53]
[Army Commander Crow]
[HP 300,000,000 / 300,000,000 (100%)]
* * *
Caw-!
How noisy. Is this really that polite Army Commander Crow?
He seemed to have lost language after changing his form.
Clang, clang!
My sword kept clashing with his ceaselessly swinging claws. Crow's attacks were fast and sharp. He tried to tear me apart with those huge claws.
Clang clang clang!
Flash!
I swung down the sword that clashed with his claws as if drawing a semicircle, lowered my posture and brushed past Crow's waist area. Swish! The crow feathers covering his entire body were cut and scattered. His feathers had defense comparable to dragon scales.
Whoosh!
He swung his claws at me who had passed by him without even looking back. I lowered my head while breaking out in cold sweat. A strong air-ripping sound brushed past above my head.
The range is quite wide even from normal patterns. If I don't accurately take his back, I won't be able to escape his attack range.
Clang, clang, clang clang!
Crow quickly turned his body and strongly swung up his claws towards me. 4 times, a pattern like scratching upwards from below. For a crow, he's using sharp claws as weapons. That attack, combined with his huge body, made my sword vibrate with strong impacts.
Flap.
"Huh!?"
The giant crow wings flapped once. Crow, who lightly floated his body, came down to crush me from above my head.
Thud!
Tap.
When I lightly escaped from Crow's landing range through backward evasion and pointed my sword towards his back.
Swivel.
He turned his head 180 degrees to glare at me.
Creepy.
Feeling ominous, I activated counterattack without delay.
Creak.
The bird head's mouth opened.
Light flashed in its maw.
Flash!
Boom boom boom boom!
The purple flash that gushed out from there instantly swept through where I had been.
This guy, he can use something like breath too.
Having wings makes it even more troublesome.
Woong!
But the pattern after landing wasn't the end of the breath.
Crow raised his hand.
Demonic energy flashed in that hand.
In a split second, my head rotated at high speed.
All invincibility skills are used up. Patterns are coming quite rapidly. The attacks themselves aren't faster than Jakam's, but most patterns were forcing invincibility skills.
Should I activate cooldown reset? No, I can't use cooldown reset for normal patterns.
If necessary, I'll give up my bones too.
As I was stiffening my body in preparation for the impact about to come.
Boom!
A circular giant demonic energy explosion occurred centered on me and Crow.
I broke out in cold sweat seeing the purple energy rising from around.
A strange explosion.
No damage came to me.
The eye of the typhoon.
A donut shape.
The inside is empty.
Then.
Swish swish swish!
I tried to cut Crow's body that stopped moving and dig through his feathers to expose his flesh.
And Crow's hand that went up causing the explosion.
Swish.
Came down.
Boom boom boom!
Tap!
The cooldown for backward evasion came just in time. My body positioned beyond space was safe even in the explosion.
I was prepared.
For a donut-shaped explosion with an empty center, the pattern of the outside exploding first followed by the inside is common. Just think of Zarkan, the 3rd Named boss of the outpost.
Explosion targeting ranged dealers, followed by explosion targeting melee dealers. If I had raided with ranged dealers, everyone would have been wiped out at the first donut explosion.
But.
"Ugh!?"
I frowned at the strange discomfort that soon enveloped my body.
Clang clang clang!
Crow's claws flew in without giving time to continue deeper thoughts. I calmly blocked that and looked for gaps in the offense to feed my sword to his body, while trying to grasp the identity of the discomfort that assailed my body.
What is it?
Actually, I know the identity of this discomfort.
It's pain.
It feels like all the blood in my body is draining out. My body loses strength, and swinging the sword becomes laborious.
Of course, if the synchronization rate is low, it's something that can be ignored. But as much as I benefit from the synchronization rate, there was also a penalty of my body becoming dull when injured. This is similar to how an injured human body defensively shrinks.
But I don't usually fight while taking wounds. Rather, when I die, I die cleanly. However, since the World Tree's Belt feels like it makes max HP 1%, I don't have to fight with a dying body. I just die if I get hit once.
Anyway, I have almost no memory of fighting while continuously taking damage to my body.
Why?
I shouldn't have allowed any of his attacks.
Meanwhile, my eyes caught one transparent icon that appeared in my field of view.
It was the buff and debuff window.
I usually don't look at it because it lacks realism, but I turn it on when grasping initial gimmicks.
What appeared before my eyes was.
[Severe Punishment (24 seconds)]
[Take 1000 damage per second]
Continuous damage. A type of debuff.
Why?
There are cases where buffs penetrate invincibility skills. These give benefits, and when excessive, transform into debuffs. Of course, they are types that can be removed through gimmicks.
But this is clearly a debuff.
A kind of bleeding damage.
My HP was continuously decreasing.
When did this debuff enter?
There's only one pattern I can think of.
The purple flames that enveloped my body when I used an invincibility skill during the close-range explosion.
But I should have resisted through backward evasion, right?
The conclusion is one.
My invincibility skills that had prevented damage from all patterns so far didn't work.
I gritted my teeth and glared at Crow.
"This guy."
Somehow the crow head seemed to smile slightly.
Army Commander Crow.
He.
Penetrates the system's protection and inflicts damage.