Chapter 56

Chapter 56.

Darkness opened its mouth wide.

That was how it felt, given the tremendous amount of dark Mana clinging to Resonar Type 2’s body.

The first stage of Great Harvest.

It turned ‘all corpses’ within the surrounding radius into Death Knights.

Just before Resonar revived, there was an instant when it received a death judgment.

At that moment, Resonar was a ‘corpse.’

Naturally, the rule of Great Harvest—‘all corpses’—included ‘boss Monsters’ as well.

Even if that boss was the 94th Floor Break Boss.

‘I have come this far without a problem.’

In the slowed world, I watched Resonar’s corpse being eroded by dark Mana.

From the moment Resonar appeared until today.

I had meticulously analyzed the cards in my hand.

Debuffer. Frost Sorcerer, Han Seol-ah.

Tanker. Deathlord and Spirit Sorcerer, Lee A-un.

Damage Dealer. Me.

The Tankers to use as backups.

Commander Min Ji-hee.

That was everything I had.

The cards in my hand were limited.

However, was squeezing the given materials to their absolute limit and somehow creating the optimal strategy not the true specialty of a veteran player?

When all those factors were considered.

The only method that could conquer Resonar was this single move.

The Monsters in Lost Honor and the Demonic Beasts in reality had identical specs.

From their strengths to their weaknesses, everything was the same.

According to my experience of defeating Resonar countless times in Lost Honor.

This method worked.

The problem was that it was not an easy technique even in the game.

Moreover, Resonar’s resurrection happened in an instant.

In terms of perception, it was on the level of coming back to life at 100% Health immediately after being killed.

That was why damage-over-time was necessary.

Not magic like a sure-kill move that risked everything on a single blow.

It had to be magic that dealt damage at an honest, fixed interval.

Only that kind of magic made it possible to accurately predict the moment Resonar died.

Killing Resonar with Pestilence had also been the result of calculating this far.

Then, was the Resonar strategy over?

Could I call checkmate here?

The answer was ‘no.’

‘…From here on is the turning point.’

It was time.

Screeeeeech!!

A bizarre grinding noise, as if someone were scraping a blackboard in midair, erupted.

Inside Resonar, golden radiance began flashing madly—flash! flash!—to the point that its flickering was clearly visible even in slowed time.

Resonar’s resurrection judgment had begun.

As long as the opposite individual was alive, Resonar would revive completely.

This was an absolute rule that could never be bypassed.

After all, Resonar’s gimmick was an immortal shield protecting it.

But conversely, that also meant that the moment the gimmick was turned against it, it transformed into its most fatal weakness.

The pulse of dark Mana that had been dyeing Resonar black suddenly stopped with a jolt.

Instead, a golden radiance flashed as if tearing out through that empty place, and Resonar’s collapsed flesh began forcibly regaining its original color and form.

It meant it was reviving.

And when exactly half of it.

At the very moment when the portion eroded by dark Mana and the newly revived portion were divided precisely in half.

[System Logic Conflict Occurred]

—The world stopped.

***

[Calculating the rules of individual ‘Wondrous Echo - Resonant Entity Resonar’…]

[Proceeding with judgment]

The flowing clouds, the drifting dust, and even the drops of blood rolling across the ground stopped.

In the air between Resonar and Ha Seong-un, golden letters collided chaotically and appeared, as if engaged in a fierce legal battle.

[Claim. According to the core rule ‘Resonance,’ Resonar Type 2 must revive]

[Counterargument. ‘Great Harvest,’ which activated upon Resonar Type 2’s ‘death judgment,’ is valid, and it must transform into a Death Knight]

[Dismissed. The boss’s ‘core rule’ has priority over all other judgments]

[Counterargument. This skill activation is acknowledged as a ‘legitimate strategy’ achieved through the user’s meticulous calculation]

In the completely stopped world.

Only the letters were moving.

[Referring to ■■…]

[That follows the precedent of ※※…]

[…]

[…]

The letters debated for a long time.

And at last.

[Judgment complete]

The verdict fell.

[…]

[…]

The two beings who had been debating fell silent.

[The strategy of individual ‘Ha Seong-un’ is legitimate]

[The reasons are as follows]

[1. Resonar’s ‘resurrection’ judgment unfolds after ‘death,’ even if only for an instant]

[2. ‘Ha Seong-un’s’ ‘Great Harvest’ unfolded precisely at the moment of the ‘death judgment’]

[3. Due to the ‘death judgment,’ Resonar became a ‘corpse’ for an instant, however brief, and thus qualifies as a target of Great Harvest]

[4. The claim of ■ that Resonar’s core rule takes priority over the Great Harvest judgment is valid. However, at the moment of resurrection judgment, 88.4% of Resonar had already completed preparation to mutate into a Death Knight through Great Harvest. Furthermore]

[5. It is acknowledged that the 88.4% occupancy rate was Ha Seong-un’s intention for overruling the claim of ■, and it is also reasonable to regard this as part of the strategy]

[…]

[…]

The verdict continued.

[Therefore, according to the ‘Grand Principle: All Bosses Must Be Conquerable’]

[In this ‘rule conflict,’ it is ruled that ‘Great Harvest’ takes priority over ‘Resonance’]

[…]

[…]

After a brief silence.

Flash.

The golden letters vanished.

***

“!!!”

Min Ji-hee froze in shock and horror.

Fragmented words wandered around in her gaping mouth.

“H-Huh….”

Everyone was in the same state.

Resonar Type 1 was frozen, but it was still alive.

Therefore, according to the Apostle’s strategy guide, killing Resonar Type 2 should only cause it to revive immediately.

However, the moment Resonar Type 2 staggered.

An enormous amount of pitch-black Mana spread from the Apostle’s body and began greedily devouring Resonar Type 2, which was floating in the sky.

Crack! Crunch!

From the distant sky, the grotesque bursting sound of bone and flesh being forcibly separated could be heard chillingly.

Every time Resonar’s blue-green slimy skin touched the pitch-black magical power, it collapsed as though acid had been poured over it and melted down into blood.

“Ah, ahh….”

Min Ji-hee doubted her own eyes.

Since Type 1 was alive on the ground, Type 2 should have revived in its intact form from before it took damage.

In fact, Type 2 briefly flashed with golden light, as if resisting that erosion and attempting to revive, but…

Boom!

The darkness emitted by the Apostle instantly chewed up and swallowed that golden light.

Crack! Bang! Crunch!

At last, once all the flesh melted away, Type 2’s large skeleton was forcibly bent, twisted, and reassembled into a completely new form in midair.

The grotesque larva’s frame fused into the skeleton of a gigantic and alien black knight, and in every empty space between bones where flesh, muscle, and blood should have been, dark-red magical power clung like leeches.

Those soon became a steel-like breastplate, condensed into the form of a greatsword in its hand, and formed armaments overflowing with heavy deathly energy.

Before long, blue will-o’-the-wisps symbolizing death blazed within its empty eye sockets.

“….”

At that moment, only one word appeared in Min Ji-hee’s mind.

‘Death Knight.’

It had not yet been discovered even once.

But from the moment they learned that ‘undead’-type Monsters existed, it was a name that had circulated like a legend.

The strongest undead warrior.

Perhaps that was exactly the sort of undead it referred to.

‘Right now… he made an undead out of the corpse of the 94th Floor Break Boss?’

Her thoughts stopped.

However.

That was only the beginning.

Gooooooo!

Because ‘Great Harvest’ had only just begun.

The pitch-black Mana that had swallowed Resonar Type 2 in the sky now poured down toward the ground like a waterfall.

“!!!”

Min Ji-hee, the operations team, and even the Tankers, who had all been silently looking up at the sky, flinched in shock.

“Sh-Shieeeeelds!!!!”

This was right after they had witnessed Resonar’s massive body being ‘horribly’ dismantled before their eyes and turning into a skeleton knight.

The fear that they would end up the same way if they touched that Mana caused the Tankers to react convulsively.

“Aaaagh!!!”

“Uwaaaaaagh!!!”

The Tankers screamed, raised their shields, and exerted their abilities with all their might.

However, the dark Mana passed through the Tankers’ barriers without any obstruction…

And over the blood-soaked field spread thickly across the ground, [Authority: Ocean of Blood].

It seeped into the thousands, tens of thousands of lowest-grade spirit and skeleton remains that Lee A-un had poured out and burst apart while turning himself into a Blood Clot.

Discarded gunpowder.

No, they were the most perfectly arranged offerings.

Every single one of them was a ‘corpse.’

Rattle, crunch, crack!

The bone fragments scattered across the battlefield began writhing all at once.

The Authority of [Grand Necromancy] reached every ‘death’ remaining on the ground.

White bone fragments sprouted from the corpses of the spirits, which had looked like opaque jelly.

The blood that had soaked into the ground flowed backward, clinging to the joints to create false muscles, and pitch-black dark Mana covered them, forming steel-like black armor.

“U-Uwaaaaah!”

“Something is rising from the ground!”

Kim Tae-wan and the Tanker line, who had been holding the front line, panicked and retreated.

From beneath their feet, black knights reeking of rotten blood and bones were crawling out, pushing through the piles of earth.

“M-Moveeee!!!”

“Aaagh! Aaaaaagh!!!”

Some fell over, swept away by the sudden movement and sent tumbling.

Drrrrr…

Thud!

Blue eye-light filled the battlefield.

Ten, a hundred, a thousand… no, even more than that!

The remains Lee A-un had built up by grinding away his life were reborn one by one as Death Knights with blue eye-light blazing from their eyes.

The plain before Pyongyang instantly became the encampment of an undead legion.

“….”

Min Ji-hee froze in astonishment.

In the sky was Resonar Type 2, now a boss-class Death Knight.

On the ground was a legion of thousands of Death Knights.

That enormous legion of death knelt in unison toward only one person.

The Apostle, floating proudly in the sky.

Thud!

A heavy silence descended.

In that stillness, the Apostle slowly raised his hand.

The Apostle’s finger, which slowly descended, was pointing at Resonar Type 1, frozen pure white.

Thud!

With that one indifferent hand gesture, the legion of thousands rose all at once.

“Tear it apart.”

No sooner had the command fallen than the legion of death began rushing forward like a storm.

It was a silent march, without even the common battle cry.

The surging legion of thousands of black knights began clinging to the cracked massive body of Type 1 like a swarm of ants.

Head, back, belly, tail.

Black death piled up in layers so thick that even the shape of the 94th Floor Boss could no longer be seen.

Thousands of time bombs had finished being set.

The Apostle looked down proudly upon that sight.

Snap.

The moment he lightly snapped his fingers.

Boom, boom, boom!!!!

A chain of explosions erupted.

—Woooooooong!!!

Resonar Type 1, which had awakened from the freeze, roared.

And before it.

Clank.

The Death Knight that had once been Resonar Type 2 lifted a greatsword as heavy as its own body.

Whoosh!

Crack!

The greatsword, brought down heavily and fiercely, crushed the skin still covered in thin ice, and as the aftermath of the impact spread, dark-green blood poured like water from Resonar Type 1’s entire body.

—Ooooooooooh!

Resonar Type 1’s scream was almost pitiful.

The Death Knight charged at Resonar Type 1 while holding its greatsword, and with a thunderous boom, the greatsword drove deep into it.

Immediately after.

Snap.

In time with the sound of snapping fingers that rang out again.

Kwaaaaang!!!

Along with an intense explosion, the death Mana held by the thousands of Death Knights gathered into one point and detonated in succession, unleashing a roar that shook heaven and earth.

A mushroom cloud that rose as if pressing down on one’s vision swallowed the atmosphere in the area, and soon an entrail-twisting shock wave crashed over them, erasing the world in white.

Not only the Tankers, but even Min Ji-hee, who had kept her distance, was swept away by the storm and sent tumbling.

Amid the flash so bright they could not easily open their eyes, the Tankers buried their heads and trembled.

And at last, when the light faded and the smoke cleared.

There was nothing there.

Not Resonar Type 1’s massive body.

Not the legion of thousands of undead.

Not even the ‘Resonar Type 2 Death Knight’ that had swung its gigantic greatsword.

All that remained was an enormous crater gouged deep into the ground and a blue hologram window floating brilliantly in midair.

[Notification: ‘94th Floor Tower Break Boss: Wondrous Echo - Resonant Entity Resonar’ has been subjugated]