I Killed the Player of the Academy-Chapter 245 : World Tree (2)

→ World Tree (2)←

Eochaid Bres was an opponent whom I had defeated before.

In the last iteration, Park Sihu and I fought against Eochaid with his Sun and managed to come out on top.

Right now, he was much weaker than he was in the previous iteration, because the Sun was no longer in his possession and was mine instead.

However, when it came to the question of whether I could be certain of my victory or not… I definitely couldn’t guarantee it.

When against an enemy as strong as Eochaid Bres, you couldn’t possibly be arrogant or certain of anything regardless of how many things you had done in preparation.

“You’ve grown even more. I can feel energy sharper than before coming from you.”

Despite standing against an enemy, he sounded nonchalant and friendly. Although his brutality was still there, I could feel him being proud of my growth for some reason.

“I can’t tell what’s going through your minds, both you and Valtazar.”

“Having standards, is how he called it.” Eochaid replied.

“You better be grateful. Him letting your woman live was one aspect of that.”

“My woman?”

“I mean the Serpent Princess.”

Was he talking about Miruam? I heard Valtazar didn’t kill her and let her go when collecting Lia Fail. That seemed to be what he was referring to.

“K, Korin-ssi. Don’t you tell me, you did that with Her Highness Miruam?! L, let me do it too!”

“…Immoral. Dirty.”

They were having some absurd misunderstandings. What was wrong with Hua Ran these days…

“Be mindful of what you’re saying. Of course not. If I laid my hands on the princess, I would be immediately taken in as a consort, no questions asked.”

Trust me. I was speaking from experience here.

In any case, going against Eochaid Bres already… Although I did want to pick the hardest route, I wasn’t asking for this much…

‘It’s kinda doomed.’

I had been hoping to hold onto my aura and mana in reserve as much as possible for the fight against Valtazar.

This guy was strong and there was no doubt about that. Against someone like him, we had to go full-on with our lives on the line.

“Aren’t you way too early? It’s the virtue of a boss to come out late, don’t you know that?”

“Unfortunately, I’m not the main character of this stage."

It seemed that a fight was inevitable.

“Get yourselves ready.”

Only 2 party members against Eochaid Bres, huh…

“Sir Korin! Let me assist as well!”

“Lord Baron! We can help!”

“No. Stay back. Or you will die for nothing.”

Saying that to the rest of the group, I stood at the forefront. Average knights and soldiers would be reduced to nothing in the blink of an eye against someone like him.

There was no need to waste their precious lives.

“You and I will be the vanguard, Hua. I’m counting on you.”

“…Don’t worry.”

“Korin-ssi… What about me?”

“Wait until you can find a gap through the Domain. You can never tell what weapon he has in his arsenal.”

I had my regeneration ability to back myself up, and I could face-tank a few attacks from the front. As long as I didn’t die in one hit, there was hope.

However, that wasn’t the case for everyone else.

Hua Ran and I were probably the only ones here who could survive Eochaid Bres’ strongest attacks.

“You really value human lives way too much,” Eochaid commented.

“That’s how everyone should be.”

“Sometimes, the leaders must look at lives in numbers.”

“I don’t like the way you’re saying it. Human lives are the most important – remember that.”

He sneered in response before lifting his arm. The humongous sword in his hand was the Demonic Sword of Tethra. Fortunately, he was starting off with something I knew.

“Hua. Try not to get touched by that sword. If you have to, use your chains to avoid direct contact.”

“…Got it.”

The sword was a demonic one of souls.

In a flash, Eochaid Bres vanished from where he was along with his greatsword.

However, my eyes didn’t lose track of him.

[System Back-up in Operation. Reviewing the Precept.]

————————————————————————

————————————————————————

Relativity: A++

Support: 200% Increase in Stats

He was one of the great evils hoping for the end of the world. My Precepts that wished for the protection of this world supported me to fight against him.

– Kagack!

Following his speed, I parried the greatsword striking down from above. Through the embers and flashes between the sword and the spear, I could see his lips contorted into a savage smile.

“Good reaction speed! You’ve gotten stronger!”

My stats on average had gone up by at least 150 from back then. On top of that there was the 200% support, so my stats were much higher than the past!

“You can’t beat me with pure strength anymore!”

I used Herculean Strength on my hands carrying the shaft of the spear and flung his greatsword off. At the same time, I kicked up with the spinning force of my waist to push his greatsword further up into the air.

“Foolish move!”

The moment my foot came in contact with the greatsword, a black aura flooded out from the sword and tried to encroach me.

Demonic Sword of Tethra.

It was a sword possessed by demons that tried to break the minds of its wielder. Anyone touching the sword was prey to endless whispers of evil.

[DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE—!]

The demons cried and shrieked, pouring out curses of destruction and agony that no human could resist. However…

“You think I would be misled by some random demons!?”

I might seem like this, but I was the successor of the Divinity of Sun. Besides, I had already overcome this in the last iteration even without the help of the Sun!

– Tung!

Without any pause, I continued to fling off the greatsword into the air. Due to that, Eochaid Bres lost his posture for a split second with his arms flying up, and Hua Ran didn’t let that slip.

Massive chains were flying towards him in the split second he lost his posture.

– Kwaang!

By pouring her aura to exponentially grow the chains in an instant, Hua Ran had used it as a whip to slash at him.

Instead of resisting the force, Eochaid Bres allowed the whip to push himself back and disappeared into the darkness.

He quite literally disappeared.

Even I couldn’t sense the exact moment he disappeared despite seeing through the darkness with runes, so it was safe to assume that he had relied on some magic to enable that.

– Sheek!

It was then that I heard something flying towards me. I then found a burning tip flying in at a rapid speed and parried it away in surprise.

– Kaang!

There was so much force in the attack that my hand was turning numb. Upon hitting it away, I realized what I parried was a black spear.

“Venomous Spear?”

It was the enchanted spear that endlessly scorched whichever part it came into contact with until the foe was burned to death. I remember Miruam’s subordinate, Persia, using this in the last iteration… It seemed that it was borrowed from Eochaid Bres.

“You really have everything don’t you…!”

He was aiming for one of my legs as well. It probably didn’t matter whether the injury itself was lethal or not, because it would curse the opponent upon contact regardless of where it hit.

“After the fall of the Danann, our youngest kind did not gather the leftover Inheritance. She left them be, thinking that it was up to destiny even if some humans happened to come across them.”

A black radiant armor was faintly gleaming beyond the darkness where the voice was coming from. It was pitch black, and hard to find in such darkness.

“But I am different. I could not let our Inheritance, the proof of our radiant past, our treasures, end up in the hands of those stupid monkeys.

“That’s why I chased after every single one of them. I killed them and took everything they had. I did not leave a single bone behind.

“I punished every foolish monkey that dared to seek divine treasures."

“Do you understand what I mean? What you are confronting is the proof of a whole myth. The culmination of gods and their glorious days.”

Eochaid Bres.

The one who collects divine treasures.

The greedy king.

To defeat him, we had to overcome every aspect of the myth he possessed.

****

Sometimes, it tended to go unmentioned because of the sheer impact of the Sun, but before arriving at the final phase of the ‘Sun’ in the game, the raid for Eochaid Bres was notorious for having insane difficulty in phases 1 and 2.

– How many patterns does this fucker have?

– He has more than 10 resistance armors. There’s no point in having a party specializing in one element.

– And how many weapons does this guy have? Do we know the entire list?

– Even the same weapons have different uses depending on the situation. The AI level of this boss is insane.

Eochaid Bres had so many patterns and weapons that even the final boss, Tates Valtazar, paled in comparison. There were countless complaints, how this raid felt like a souls-like game – a completely different genre compared to the rest of the raids.

‘You just had to remember a whole walkthrough in the game but…’

Things were completely different in real life. I already realized that in the last iteration.

The enchanted spear kept aiming for a gap while the Demonic Sword was striking down from above. Every time Hua tried to attack, she was stopped by a plate of fire that poured out flames.

The fundamental difference in a game and real life, was that unlike the NPC Eochaid Bres who couldn’t escape the boundaries of HP and phases, the current Eochaid Bres in front of us was an experienced warrior and a living god.

Besides—

“Sir Korin!”

A knight ran in trying to help me, but the Demonic Sword of Blood came flying down from the air to kill him.

“Dodge…!”

Pushing the knight away, I tried to block the sword, but after grazing past the shaft of my spear, the sword sliced out a part of my shoulder.

“What a fool!”

Not letting go of that little gap, the enchanted venomous spear came flying at me, but in that moment, Alicia suddenly teleported and appeared right next to Eochaid Bres.

“Hoh?”

The Demon-Slaying Sword crashed into his armor. Eochaid was pushed away along with the sharp screeches of metal. He seemed surprised but Alicia was more surprised by it.

“It got blocked?!”

“Impressive that you were able to do this much damage to Luchtaine’s Ebony Armor.”

Eochaid, who allowed the attack in the first place with firm belief in his armor, made use of the short gap between them to punch with his gauntlet.

“Kuhuk…!”

Alicia flew off after the punch to her stomach. Hua Ran immediately dashed behind her to stop Alicia but the force was so strong that even she was pushed aback.

“Hmm…”

After a few minutes or so of our fight, Eochaid glanced around with an apathetic look and said in a reproachful tone.

“Stop trying to protect the weak, young boy. Leave them aside and fight as hard as you can. Or what? Are you going to blame them for your defeat?”

“Hah…”

It seemed that his words hit the soldiers and knights behind me, more so than it was to me. They were increasingly becoming more aware that they were holding me back than being helpful, because I had been saving them every time they almost died from the attacks.

“That’s the difference in our mindset, I guess.”

“Are you going on again about how human lives are precious?”

“That’s not the only part of it… By the way, this place is a bit dark right?”

“Huh?”

I slowly started to take a few steps back. Seeing that, the soldiers and knights behind me did the same.

“Turning the light off from the entire world using the Divinity of Light and isolating the army using the roots of the World Tree. It’s a good strategy but…”

[Dunareff Chunsik Division. Confirming the coordinates of the enemy.]

I turned around and looked at the soldier who had been conveying Eochaid’s coordinates to the rearguards this whole time.

“Don’t you think you’re too eye-catching, destroying everything and throwing things around?”

– Kwanzaa!

An enormous ball of fire suddenly started to fall from above, acting as the star in this starless night sky.

“Everyone run away!”

“UAAAAHK!”

“Hmm?!”

I pulled Alicia and Hua Ran into my arms and immediately started to sprint.

“No matter how strong one individual is, there’s a limit to how much you can do against numbers!”

A gigantic ball of fire came crashing down at Eochaid Bres from above.

– Kwaaaaang!

****

Mages were ranged dealers and glass cannons that attacked and supported from the rear of a fight, but they were much more universally useful now that this was real life.

In small groups, they were like troops with heavy firearms but when it was a whole lot of them, they could perform the role of a missile squad. It wasn’t an overstatement to say that the role of a large group of high-quality mages in a war was that of an artillery brigade.

“Fuu… We confirmed the shot had landed accurately at where the support was required, Captain Chunsik… I mean, Elder Admelech!”

“Hmm… Chunthree… I mean, my dear disciple Zollin, well done.”

“It was all thanks to the observation spell of Jinsik… Ahhh, I mean, Professor Arkai.”

The elder and the elder-successor of the Tower of Mages’ Red Cult were referring to each other by their names which had become quite unfamiliar.

In front of Marie and other people, they called each other Chunsik and Chunthree, but there was a common consensus between the people from the Tower of Mages, that they would call each other by their actual names when they were alone.

“Fuu… We have to win this war.”

“Of course. We have to hope Master Marie and Sir Korin wins this.”

Why were the Tower of Mages, a former alliance of Valtazar, so desperate at winning this war now?

It was because they had become subordinates to Marie Dunareff by blood.

As long as their parent vampire, Marie, was alive, they could live forever. Even though it was the pitiful life of a slave, they still found hope in their future.

But everything would be over if Marie died. Since they awakened as a ghoul and not a vampire, they were destined to die and be eradicated from existence along with their parent vampire.

As such, they had to wish for Korin Lork to win, and they did whatever they could to increase his chance of victory even by a small percentage. Also…

“Our cult has to achieve the highest contribution! We cannot lose to the blue or the green cult bastards!”

“That’s right! The future Head of Research at the Tower of Dunareff has to be Chunsik… I mean, Elder Admelech!”

There was going to be the new Tower of Mages, the Tower of Dunareff, being built in the south after the war! And apparently, the post was going to be filled up after the war depending on their accomplishments!

“Ahh, I can still vividly remember those days… top quality engineering equipment, infinite supply of funds…! Assistants who would listen to each and every one of my words…!”

“Meat and not potatoes…! A clean toilet…! An individual bedroom that’s bigger than 2 square meters…!”

The elder and the head disciple of the fallen Red Cult pulled out as much mana as they could while reminiscing in their glorious days.

“You damn accursed Valtazarrr…! Bring me back my research facility!”

An enormous ball of fire appeared in the air through the magic circle and flew towards their enemies once again.

The trail left behind in the dark skies was a representation of their hopes and dreams.