I whistled merrily to myself as I walked back to my throne room.

Part of me was worried that the dragon might wise up and head back through the portal, but I was reassured by the roars and breath attacks that I heard around every 30 seconds or so.

That thought gave me pause, and I summoned a dave right as I got back into the throne room.

“Is it weird that I’m currently comforted by the fact that I have a hostile dragon in my basement?” I asked the barely sentient ball of slime.

The dave didn’t respond, but I knew one of these times one was going to, and I was gonna freak out.

Anyway, I summoned 10 more daves before getting bored and deciding to head back down. 10 daves was too many to carry, so they instead slowly hopped behind me, but I wasn’t in a rush. From there, it was just a debate of how I was going to cheese out the fight.

The first dave I just [Air Strike] punched directly at the dragon in between one of its breath attacks. The dragon snatched that dave out of midair with its mighty jaws, and it expired immediately.

For daves two and three, I picked them up, waited for a breath attack to finish, and then sprinted up to the dragon before throwing one high and one low. I then ran like mad and frantically [Disrupted] the breath attack that came behind me. Those daves had marginally more success, but it turned out that the dragon was actually strong enough to shake them. Those two also perished quickly.

I sat down to think for a bit.

“Hm. There probably aren’t enough daves in the world to kill a dragon in this scenario,” I muttered. “The main problem’s getting them to him.” Another roar echoed through the dungeon as a plume of ash shot past me. I ignored it as I continued my musings. “I guess I could try some other ranged attacks? I kinda forgot that I have that as an option.”

I pulled out the bow that I stole borrowed from a very helpful clerk and nocked an arrow. I waited for the next breath attack, stepped out into the hallway, and let loose.

The arrow clattered harmlessly off the wall to the dragon’s left.

“Dang. Emilia always makes this look so easy!” I complained. I managed to nock another arrow and fire, but I was rushed by the dragon’s next inhale. My shot thudded into the floor in front of it as I dove for cover.

“Okay, Titus. A marksman, you are not.” I shook my head. The next breath attack swept by me as I continued thinking through the problem. [Hell Blaze]? But I’d have to wait about half an hour. I ran myself OOM[1] summoning the daves.

I continued thinking even as several more breath attacks sped past me, but I wasn’t coming up with a good answer.

“Why are you so hard to cheese?!” I yelled out to the level 35 monster that, if given a chance, would likely be able to solo most of the world’s armed forces.

Eventually, I let myself think up stupider solutions, and I finally came to one I was willing to try.

I grabbed two more of my daves, waited for my next window, and then yelled a battle cry as I charged. I threw the daves onto the dragon, punched it with two [Fire Strikes], and it was already breathing in for its next attack.

I [Disrupted] that, punched it a few more times, and almost got my head crushed between its gigantic fangs when it snapped at me.

Then it inhaled, and I screamed in terror as I fled back down the hall and barely managed to [Flash Step] around the corner before the breath hit me.

At the end of the day, I’d dealt damage without taking any.

So, as awkward as it was, I’d found my plan.

I lost track of the number of repetitions that it took, but eventually, I took the dragon down.

“Victory!” I shouted. I even remembered to take it easy right after my level-up, so I didn’t faceplant or anything.

I got an unwelcome surprise, though.

System: Class level cap has been reached

I was worried that all of my hard work fighting that dragon would end up being for nothing.

I braced myself as I flipped open my status.

Status

Name: Titus

Level: 25

Class: Demon Lord

Race: Demon Lord

HP: 750/750

MP: 401/550

SP: 980/1125

Age: 24

There were a lot of different things I could have said when I saw the change, but I settled for a good long laugh.

When I finally finished and wiped the tears from my eyes, I shook my head.

“My stats more than doubled. All of them. And that’s before the throne room buff.” I gave another brief laugh. I still couldn’t believe it. “AltSys, no wonder you said I win this thing. The poor [Hero] doesn’t have a chance. I bet I could even eat a [Sunder] or two and still be fine.”

Then I remembered the last time my stats had jumped up randomly.

“Wait. Didn’t I get an extra skill at level 10?” I muttered. I flipped to that section, and just like before, I saw a new listing. “That’s…” I stared at a skill that guaranteed my victory, perhaps even just by itself, but… “That would just straight up kill him.”

I frowned. That would also likely mean a server rollback, so it didn’t seem that my new skill would be that useful after all.

It also seemed odd for a [Demon Lord] skill, but so was [Disrupt], so I put that aside.

Then I finally remembered where I was and that I had a giant dragon corpse just sitting there.

I walked over and looted it, then started my walk back to the throne room.

If I ever decide to tell this story back on Earth, I should probably change how I took down the dragons. I laughed a bit. I don’t think people will be very happy with legendary beasts being cheesed like this.

That got me thinking, and I was a bit distracted as I got back to my boss room and practiced [Elemental Strike] and [Flash Step] until I ran out of stamina.

If I was going to write a book about this, would it even do well? I know that there’s been a growing trend of villain and anti-hero protagonists, but… my story seems a bit weird.

“Then there’s the question of what I would even call the dang story,” I said. [Summon Dave] came off cooldown, so I popped one of those out and addressed it. “The strongest slimemancer.” The dave didn’t look impressed. “What? There’s no way I can keep calling you daves. First, it’s embarrassing. Second, slime is already a perfectly good fantasy genre name for what you are.”

I at least pretended that mollified the dave.

However, that was an awful name for a book, even by my standards, so I threw out a few more.

“The weakest [Demon Lord].” But I’m actually kinda strong now…

“Help I got Transported to an Unfinished Game World as the Final Boss!” Don’t know that I’m a fan of the Japanese light novel[2] title convention…

Nothing fit, so eventually, I just sighed. “I guess I can figure that out when I get home.”

Reminding myself of home took my good mood down quite a few pegs.

I’ll see my family again soon enough. I’ll make it home.

However, there was one last thing that I’d forgotten to take care of after my level up, and a brief glance at the obelisk perked me up a bit as I finally remembered it.

“Skills and spells!” I said with a facepalm. “I almost forgot!”

I checked out the skills section. I had a couple of skills for weapons I’d used, [Survivor], and [Sneak]. I also had the useless and slightly insulting sounding [Pack Mule]. The notable missing skill was [Bowmanship].

But… I used a bow fighting the dragon! I should be able to buy the skill, right?

I quickly realized the problem. I’d used a bow against it. I’d also failed to land a single hit.

“We can fix this,” I said as I closed out of the obelisk. I pulled out my bow and arrow and took aim at one of my daves at the bottom of the steps.

After five missed shots on a stationary target, I just gave up.

“Got it. Not getting that skill,” I muttered.

I had 7 skill points, so I could either get [Sneak] and [Survivor] or one weapon skill.

I decided to go with the former. [Sneak] wasn’t going to be very helpful, and I assumed [Survivor] wasn’t going to be either. However, weapon skills were already useless since I wasn’t going to make them do more damage than [Elemental Strike] anyway.

After my purchase, I did my quick mental gymnastics to think about the [Survivor] skill without really thinking about the [Survivor] skill. As far as I could tell, it helped when I was at very low HP. Which was a bummer since I already had a second form that activated when I got to there anyway.

As for spell points, I had enough to buy one more [Summon Monster].

I hesitated on that. I didn’t really need any more help with the upcoming fight. Also, whatever I picked would probably show up in the outside world as well, given how the daves worked out.

I was this close to passing on that altogether when I had a different thought.

Wait… What if I didn’t make this monster to help me? My pensive frown turned into a grin as I quickly snapped it up.

My goal? To make the best anti-demon monster there ever was.

I took my time on the designs and then gave it one final check over.

Spawns in the ashlands, but has immunity to blight and ability to cure it on other people? Check.

Hostile to demons, but not anyone else? Check.

Name of my summon will be the species name to avoid making the same mistake as the daves? Check.

I nodded to myself and created it.

It turned out as a level 10 monster, and it took me a whopping 250 MP if I wanted to summon my own. That was a bit much, but I figured I owed Placeholder as much of a fighting chance as possible. So, I ended up splitting my mana usage so that every 5 daves I summoned, I summoned one of them.

I also ended up stuffing them all back into a room that was connected to the throne room. I was pretty sure it was supposed to be a treasure room, but I didn’t care much. If the party did somehow manage to kill me, why on earth would I give them more loot?

I looked over my inventory, my summons, and my dungeon and nodded. “Alright, all that’s left is training. Let’s do this.”

----

Over the next month, I practiced [Flash Step] and [Elemental Strike] almost the entire time.

That bore fruit, and they both reached level 5, though [Elemental Strike] did that much sooner.

Testing it on myself, each of my [Elemental Strikes] was now doing 27 damage. At least, that was the number when I was outside my throne room. Apparently, I had some kind of defensive buff inside there because I initially registered 6 damage per attack. Anyway, I assumed that [Fire Strike] probably did more since it didn’t have a secondary effect, but I couldn’t exactly test that due to [Fire Immunity].

Meanwhile, [Flash Step] could now carry me up to 10 feet every 30 seconds.

However, that wasn’t the only thing I practiced.

I practiced actually using the knives that I’d bought. I quickly found that holding them in reverse grip worked the best. I could block and still throw [Elemental Strikes]. I only cared about that because I wasn’t actually planning on slashing or stabbing anyone with the knives themselves since that only did 6 damage. Or 1 damage to me when I was in my boss room. Heck. A regular punch, not even an [Elemental Strike], did more damage than that.

I also made sure to practice using my inventory. I learned how to quickly snap one of my knives back into my inventory to use [Disrupt] or [Hell Blaze] from the now-free hand. I also trained myself to near-instantly pull out a new knife. I was hoping I wouldn’t need that skill since I was planning on just bursting the [Hero] down, but if I didn’t, I was sure my weak knives wouldn’t stand up very long against his OP sword. Just to be extra safe, I had the armory produce a few dozen more for me. I also no longer complained about the weird setup rules for that room once I learned I could have it make me stuff over time for free.

Throughout all of that, I continued to fill up my room with daves. I eventually realized that I would need some practice commanding all of them, so I had some mock battles with an imaginary party. I figured out that it was easiest to make them into “squads” by naming a certain section of daves “Squad A” etc. However, that quickly got shortened to just “A” since they wouldn’t understand what I meant when I called out things like “Squads A through D.” That then later got changed as I realized it was easier to keep track of them in order with numbers instead of letters, so I now had squads of daves named 1 through 20.

The final thing I familiarized myself with was the steps leading up to my throne. Since that was essentially the only terrain that I had, aside from the pillars, I figured that I needed to know it backward and forward and upside down.

That, and it was a set of steps in the final boss room. I had to assume the [Hero] and I would end up dueling on them at some point.

I practiced a lot up on those steps, and that actually ended up being one of the reasons I was able to get [Flash Step] up to level 5 at all. It turned out that [Flash Stepping] at more difficult angles, like upstairs, made it level faster.

Or it was all confirmation bias. One of the two.

Was all of my preparation a bit overkill? I wondered that myself sometimes, but at the end of the day, I knew that I was facing a [Hero] at the end of a story when he would normally save the day. I wasn’t going to make the usual mistake of underestimating him.

----

My training made the time pass quickly, and I felt prepared when the [Hero] and the rest of the party finally tripped the alarm that I’d set at the entrance to my castle.

“Well. He’s here. Am I ready?” I asked the blaring claxon. The blaring claxon that just kept on going.

A quick [Disrupt] fixed my embarrassing mistake of not setting up an off button.

“I wonder how much time he has left,” I muttered as I went to flip open my quest page. I needn’t have bothered.

System: 1 hour remains until the demonic portal opens!

“Only an hour left? I know you’re the [Hero], but aren’t you cutting it a bit close?” I shook my head, walked up to my throne, and sat down heavily. Then I grabbed the scrying mirror off the pedestal and said, “Let’s take a look at what the party’s up to, shall we?”

I said that, but it turned out that it was harder than I expected to find them.

“Which way did they go?” I asked as I moved the scrying spell up and down my different castle hallways.

Then I jumped as I heard banging at the doors to my room.

I quickly moved the spell right outside, just in time to hear Jake’s voice come from both outside and the scrying spell.

“Titus! Open up!” he said.

I almost shouted back at him, but I paused as I had a lazier way to do that.

“[Message] Jake Smith. Nope. Go away,” I said.

Jake Smith: Come on! Please

“Come on! Please open up!” he shouted. “We can talk about this!”

I winced at the loud voice coming from the scrying spell.

“[Message] Jake Smith. Yeesh. Calm down. I can hear you just fine,” I replied.

There was some more back and forth after that.

Honestly, I was just curious how much of their time I could waste by having them sit at the boss door.

I tried to convince Jake that maybe he just wasn’t pushing it hard enough or that maybe he could open it with a [Sunder].

After pushing with all of his might and then wasting dozens of SP using his most OP skill on an invincible door, he finally figured out that I was trolling him.

“Okay, how do we get inside?” Jake finally asked the rest of the party.

“It depends. If we’re in a dungeon, my bet’s that we have to find a key somewhere,” Garrett said.

The rest of the party agreed that it was at least a good idea to check it out first, so they finally left the front door.

Well, most of them. Sam paused to gently lay David Junior the Second by the door. She patted the dave gently, gave it orders to stay, and then took off running to catch back up with the party.

“How does she still have that stupid slime ball?” I muttered to myself.

As the party took off running down random halls, they somehow headed to the area where I’d set up the first boss.

“Looks like you’re going to manage to do this in order, eh? Well, the first one should be a gimme,” I said to the scrying mirror.

They entered the first sub-boss room, and after they were all in, the door slammed shut behind them.

Jake groaned as he spotted the boss monster across the room. “A Giant Dave, again?”

The party fanned out as the giant ball of slime jumped towards them.

Why wasn’t the boss on the ceiling waiting to ambush them? Well, I gave it specific instructions not to do that. There were two reasons for that. The first was that I didn’t want to actually kill any of the party. The second was that I wanted to see how they’d react if something in the middle of the room immediately grabbed their attention as they walked in.

Good. None of them looked up. I mentally filed that away and watched the rest of the fight.

It was a bit anticlimactic. It turns out that without the ability to ambush prey, even a giant dave is still not very threatening. The backline was able to constantly whittle it down from range, and Jake conserved his SP by just making normal sword strikes and dodging whenever it jumped at him.

When A Giant Dave was finally defeated, a chest appeared in the middle of the floor.

Should be some health and/or mana potions, and boss key part one of four.

Based on the party’s discussion after that, it seemed that my loot was working correctly.

“So, A Giant Dave again?” Jake finally asked. “Is this going to be a boss rush?”

“Well, if it is, we’ll know after the next one,” Garrett replied.

“A… boss rush?” Tim asked.

I guess his class doesn’t give him random knowledge about other video games. I thought to myself.

“Wait, I think I know that one!” Sam said. “A boss rush is when you get to the end of the game, and you have to fight all of the bosses again in order!”

Garrett nodded. “Yup. Usually without much of a break in between. So it’s looking like that might be what we’re in for here.”

“I guess I was a bit too obvious,” I said as I watched their exchange. I didn’t feel like inventing 4 new bosses, so I reused the old ones like any good programmer. I was starting to wonder if that had been a mistake when the System sent us another message.

System: 30 minutes remain until the demonic portal opens!

The party panicked a bit after that, and I got lost in thought.

“Nevermind. The bosses should be fine then,” I said to myself. “Actually, am I going to have let them skip a boss or two?” I looked at the boss door and debated. If I could have just set it up to only open on my command, I totally would have. However, it turned out that there still needed to be some way for people challenging the dungeon to open it, or it considered the dungeon impossible and threw an error. So, I ended up compromising by letting the door be opened by anyone who I gave permission to OR by anyone who held the completed dungeon key.

Ideally, I wanted the party to make it with less than a minute to spare. That would mean they would have no way to defeat me in time, but I could also hand off all of my summons to Jake before getting sent home. Thus my debate about whether or not I should send them a [Message] and have them come early.

“I guess I still have some time to figure that out,” I said to myself. I took a look back at the scrying mirror and realized I’d lost the party.

Dang, it. I thought as I scrolled it around, trying to find them.

I found Sam first. She was near the 4th boss room alone. What the heck?

“Okay, that looks like a boss room, so…” she sat down and sighed. “I guess I wait… Too bad I left David Junior behind.”

Did they just split the party? I frowned and scrolled over to the second boss room. Emilia was standing right outside of it and calling out to Jake.

Jake came sprinting down the hallway, and they entered it together.

“Just the two of you? Against an Ice Elemental Matriarch?” I asked with a touch of disbelief in my voice.

I wondered how they were going to deal with the fact that it had invulnerability until all of the other ice elementals were killed, but I shouldn’t have worried. It was a [Hero] I was dealing with after all.

Jake sprinted up to the only normal ice elemental that spawned in with the boss and slashed it several times. Then, right as I thought he was just planning to take it down like that, he activated his skill.

“[Sunder]!” Jake shouted.

At first, I thought he’d wasted his SP on just the mob. However, he’d lined both it and the boss up in a straight line.

It happened in the blink of an eye, but he had still slain the mob first. The boss went down with a single strike.

“Head back to the boss room and wait for us!” Jake called to Emilia.

She shook her head. “No! We haven’t seen the third boss! I’m coming with you!”

He ended up caving in to her demands, and the two ran together towards the third area of my castle.

I decided to scroll ahead and kept the spell looking at the third boss room. It took a few minutes, but eventually, the rest of the party, minus Sam, gathered outside the boss room.

I couldn’t help but grudgingly admire their plan for speedrunning my castle. Good idea. Send the bulk of the party towards the boss you aren’t familiar with.

During that time, the System sent another message.

System: 20 minutes remain until the demonic portal opens!

Jake and Emilia arrived a few minutes later, and that boss fight was much the same as the last one. It was a Fire Elemental Matriarch, after all.

I frowned as I saw Jake obliterate yet another one of my boss fights with [Sunder].

Should I have changed it up after all? I shook my head. “Nah. He’s still got the lightning elemental up ahead of him… How did he deal with that anyway?”

Jake sent the rest of the party to wait back at the door to my throne room while he took off sprinting. When he finally got near the fourth boss room, Sam waved to him in greeting.

He told her to head back to the boss door, but Sam disagreed and tried to stay. However, he was insistent and told her that she would just slow him down, and eventually, he went into the boss room alone.

“That was a bit harsh, [Hero],” I said as I watched Sam dejectedly jog in my direction.

However, that wasn’t where the main show was, so I flipped back to the 4th boss room.

“Okay, [Hero], let’s see how you manage this,” I said as I watched him stroll towards the being made of pure lightning.

His sword started glowing, and I was confused.

“[Sunder]? But that does lightning damage, and it’s immune,” I muttered.

However, he didn’t release it. Also, the boss monster flung several lightning bolts at him, and he didn’t even try to dodge. He simply held up his sword… and the lightning all vanished into it?

“What the frick?” I paused as his sword continued to act as a literal lightning rod, and he finally reached the boss. “That’s not how that skill’s supposed to work!” I groused.

He made quick work of it with just normal sword strikes. However, I guess that’s what happens when a [Hero] can completely ignore all of a boss’s attacks.

“[Message] Jake Smith. That is totally cheating, you know,” I said.

I watched him look up and around in confusion before replying.

Jake Smith: I know. Don’t care. Give up?

My only reply to that was a scowl as I watched him claim the fourth part of the key and a few more potions. Potions that I was now really regretting giving out because they hadn’t had to use a single one.

Anyway, with the key complete, Jake made his way back to the door.

System: 10 minutes remain until the demonic portal opens!

It took him a few minutes to make it back, even at a sprint. However, that was still a few more minutes for our final showdown than what I wanted.

Dang. Looks like I mistimed it. I frowned. Should’ve added more traps or something.

Unfortunately, as soon as they’d entered the dungeon I’d lost my ability to make changes to it. I guess that was only allowed in the air dungeon due to a quirk with “first time setup.”

Anyway, as soon as Jake approached the doors, they unlocked all by themselves.

He was about to step forward and push them open, but Sam whispered something to him. He hesitated for a second and then reluctantly nodded.

I wonder what that was for?

However, I didn’t think it was wise to continue looking at them through a scry when they were about to be right in my face. I set the scrying mirror back into place right as the double doors opened.

The party strode into my throne room, where the floor was practically covered in daves, except for a small portion at the entrance where the party formed up.

I clapped slowly as they entered, even as I continued leaning lazily on one of the armrests of my throne.

“Here’s the part where I say, ‘well done for making it this far, chosen [Hero],’ right? I’m also supposed to offer you half my kingdom if you join me, but…” I gestured helplessly. “I can’t say I’m fond of it. If you want it, whole thing’s yours. Not like I’m planning on sticking around anyway.”

Jake looked like he bit back a retort, and then he nodded to Sam. He stepped back, and she stepped forward.

“Hey, Sam! You’re ruining the [Hero’s] big moment! He’s supposed to decry how evil I am and how he’ll never join me!”

Sam looked on the verge of tears, but she clenched her fists and looked up at me. “And that’s why I’m the one who’s doing the talking. Titus, you aren’t evil! This isn’t like you!”

“You’re right,” I replied. “This isn’t like me.” Sam’s shoulders sagged a bit in relief, but I wasn’t finished. “And neither is being an adventurer and going off on quests. The only thing that is like me is being a dang programmer back on Earth!”

As she looked on in shock, I continued. “That’s why this is the only reasonable course of action. I have to go home. I have to leave this crummy world behind me and go back to one where I’m not the lord of darkness.”

“But-“

I cut her off with a hand. “I’m not finished.” I sighed. “I have to go back, but I know how fond you are of this new world, and far be it from me to take that away from you.” I looked across the party. “That’s why if you just let the portal open, I’ll give you whatever help I can in fending off the invasion. You will have all the daves you see here to help, and I also have some other monsters in the back under my command that should be useful. I also have a full stockpile of potions so that you can face them at full resources.”

“You know we can’t accept that!” Sam said with tears in her eyes.

“That’s the only offer I can make, so-“

This time it was Sam’s turn to cut me off. “No! Titus, as your friend, I beg you! Please, just stop!”

I sighed again. “You say that, but you and I both already know this is coming down to a fight.” When she looked confused, I motioned at her empty shoulder. “If it wasn’t, you would’ve brought your pet.”

She looked stricken, but the System chose then to interrupt us.

System: 5 minutes remain until the demonic portal opens!

Jake put a hand on Sam’s shoulder and stepped forward. “Times up Sam, I gave you all I could.”

“Please! No! I can get through to him!”

Jake stepped forward with his sword drawn. “Titus… If you aren’t willing to surrender… We’re going to have to kill you.”

“Even though I’d be willing to help you if you just let me win?”

He clenched his fists. “Yes. It’s too risky.”

I stood up. “You really should have dropped it [Hero].”

A look of confusion came over Jake’s face at my strange emphasis, but it was replaced almost immediately by a look of panic. “Above!” he shouted as he fell back to the middle of the party.

I [Disrupted] Jake’s party perk at that exact moment, so the rest of the party was slow on the uptake.

Meanwhile, daves poured from the ceiling like a flood.

I charged at the party anyway because I wasn’t entirely sure plan A would succeed, but it sure looked like it would. It would deal plenty of damage, and the daves also had orders to stop attacking once their target stopped moving. It was the perfect non-lethal way to take out the party.

Tim has no time to cast a [Fire Ball], and they don’t have any other AOE that can clear that many monsters.

Unfortunately, I was wrong about that second point.

“[Omni Strike]!” Jake shouted. He swung his sword in a quick arc in front of him, and every single falling slime exploded in a cascade outward from him.

That was a pretty stunning development, but I didn’t let it catch me off-guard for long.

“[Hell Blaze]!” I cast. The flame exploded in the middle of the party and lit them all on fire. I winced a bit at the party’s cries of pain but did my best to ignore them.

I [Flash Stepped] right in front of the [Hero] and decked him in the face with a [Fire Strike].

He seemed a bit stunned by that, so I got to follow up with another one to his gut before he finally swung his sword to retaliate.

A knife appeared in my left hand, and I batted his attack away, even as I hit him with another [Fire Strike].

However, the party seemed to be recovering, so I decided to get my minions into play.

“1 and 2! Attack the adventurers!” I called out to two of the sections of waiting daves. They hopped slowly toward the party from either side. Garrett took one front, and Lindsey took the other, and they both began hacking through the encroaching monsters. Meanwhile, Emilia and Sam fired rapidly, and Tim started his chant for a [Fire Ball].

While my minions engaged the rest of the party, I was still in a 1 v 1 with the [Hero]. With two hands capable of attacking and blocking, I managed to keep him on the defensive at first.

However, he quickly picked up on the fact that he had an advantage in reach. He made three quick swings at me that I parried, even as he backed up and made some space for himself. Unfortunately for him, there was only so far that he could go because the floor was mined with daves.

He hesitated a brief moment as he glanced behind himself, and I had my opening. I jumped into the air and [Air Strike] kicked Jake in the head.

That kick likely would have bowled him over without the added knockback from a level 5 [Air Strike], but with it, he was launched directly into the waiting daves.

I was planning on having them hold him in place as I just beat him like a schoolyard bully, but Jake wasn’t going down that easily. He somehow managed to kill all of the daves in his landing zone with a sweeping sword strike, even as he was tumbling through the air. As far I could tell, he didn’t even use a skill.

I stopped for a brief second because I was honestly just impressed.

It was then that Tim’s [Fire Ball] exploded and took out a massive section of daves. I couldn’t be entirely sure, but based on the fact that he was chugging a blue potion, I had to imagine it had been [Overchannelled].

The rest of the party was finally free to stop dealing with mooks, and I started dodging spell bolts, and Garrett and Lindsey soon kept me occupied in melee. [Heals] and a [Cure] were also sent Jake’s way, and I frowned as I realized I hadn’t taken care of the healer first.

However, I needed some space before I could fix that. I finally managed to [Air Strike] kick Garrett away when Tim shouted, “Jake! Quick! Before his skill recovers!”

“Clear!” Jake shouted.

I looked over at Jake, whose sword was now glowing, and I saw Lindsey quickly back off. I also realized that both [Flash Step] and [Disrupt] were on cooldown.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this, Titus,” Jake said.

Oh. This is gonna suck.

“[Sunder]!”

To his credit, Jake didn’t hold back with the fate of the world on the line. His skill landed true, my HP bar dropped about a third, and I was frozen in place, slightly doubled over as I could barely even think through the pain.

Not that I doubted it, but I now had undeniable proof that in Placeholder, the sense of pain was directly related to damage taken.

I had also taken more than 1000 damage in a single second, even with my buffed resistances.

I was in so much pain that there was a second or two where essentially none of my senses worked. However, they came back at just the right time.

“-at two-thirds HP! Jake! Keep attacking!” Tim shouted.

“[Power Strike]!” Jake shouted from behind me.

I made the mistake of attempting to block the attack instead of dodging it. My right hand shot up, and there was a clash of steel on steel as my knife made contact. However, Jake’s swing shattered my blade and barely slowed down as it sliced through my arm.

That took a small but noticeable chunk out of my HP bar, and I grunted in pain. However, It paled in comparison to what I’d just felt, so it barely even slowed me down.

I pulled another knife out of my inventory and blocked the next swing.

“3, 4, and 5, attack!” I called out. Tim’s [Fire Ball] was on cooldown, and so was Jake’s [Omni Strike]. With their primary sources of AOE down, I felt like it was time to step up the number of minions. However, I still wasn’t going to commit all of them. I was sure that they would have some form of AOE back up before all of the squads could get into position.

The System chose that moment to remind us we were on a clock.

System: 4 minutes remain until the demonic portal opens!

We all barely acknowledged that as we were a bit busy.

“Garrett, Lindsey, switch!” Jake called out. “Everyone else, toward the doors!”

Jake’s command was, for the most part, clever. By having the party move back towards the doors, he made the daves come at them from more or less the same direction. Also, Jake was much better able to handle the wave of minions since a single swing from his sword took them down, unlike Garrett or Lindsey.

The problem with his command became apparent as Garrett and Lindsey charged to attack me.

I dodged their attacks easily enough but let them think they were keeping me on the defensive. That let me lead them a bit further away from the rest of the party before they realized it. Then it was time.

“6, attack him,” I said while pointing at Garrett. “7, attack her.” I pointed at Lindsey.

Even more daves moved in as Jake called out, “Lindsey! Garrett! Get back!”

However, his split of the party was going to cost him dearly. I was going to make sure that neither of them would be able to make it.

Garrett was easiest. I send a spike of wrath aura his way, and he was suddenly no longer in the retreating mood.

“Garrett, Garrett,” I said sadly as I shook my head and watched him recklessly swing at the daves until they finally covered him. “You always were a bit of a liability because of [Rage]. But that was never your fault. How could you have known what you were signing up for?”

After a second, he finally collapsed with a groan as his [Rage] deactivated. Just as ordered, the daves continued covering him, but stopped attacking right after that.

Meanwhile, Lindsey had covered a bit of distance back to the party, but fortunately, [Flash Step] was finally back up.

I sprinted after her, and when I was finally in range, [Flash Stepped] in front of her and [Air Strike] kicked her.

Even with just a split second of notice, she managed to get her shield into position to block it. My foot clanged against her metal shield, but while it may have reduced the damage, it didn’t do much for the knockback. I sent her flying backward towards the attacking daves.

Lindsey managed to contort herself between them and bat another away from her with her shield even as she turned it all into a roll that put her back up on her feet. She was still wearing her heavy armor during all of this, by the way.

I sighed. “Lindsey. I have to admit, I’m pretty glad that you aren’t the [Hero].”

She rolled to dodge a few leaping balls of slime and then ducked under the [Air Strike] punch that I threw at her as a follow-up.

“You’re the most martially skilled of all of us, but the unfortunate thing-” She was running out of room to dodge as the daves were moving in around her. She swung her sword at them, but it took multiple hits for her to take down a single one. “-is that you just don’t deal damage.”

She was soon overwhelmed, and I barely had to lift a finger. I shook my head.

2 down. Healer next, then [Hero].

I turned back to see how the rest of the party was doing just in time to see that they’d cleared out the three squads I’d sent at them.

I also saw Sam running towards a group of daves while chanting. “Wind form a blade with which I will strike down the enemies that stand before me.” She slid at the end and swung her wand in an arc in front of her. Her voice echoed out twice in a telltale [Dual Cast].

“[Air Cutter]!”

“[Air Cutter]!”

Two thin blades of air appeared, one right above the other, and then flew right at dave height along the floor. Based on the fact that my daves didn’t explode violently like when Jake hit them with his [Omni Strike], I could only conclude that her spells didn’t do that much more than 50 damage altogether. However, since they continued in an expanding arc for a few dozen feet, Sam’s massacre of my minions was still a close second to Jake’s.

There was a part of me that was starting to regret not taking out the casters first.

Oh well, I had an opportunity for an easy takeout on Garrett and Lindsey. Of course, I’m taking it.

While Sam was busy obliterating several squads of my minions at once, Jake rushed towards Garrett and was lopping the daves off him left and right.

I tried to curse as I ran after him. 3 squads of minions had kept them busy for less time than I thought.

“8, 9, and 10,” I paused as I realized those squads had been heavily depleted by Sam. “And 11, 12, and 13 attack them!” I also ordered the rest of my daves to move in closer because the party had cleared out most of the area around them. It seemed like I hadn’t been as thorough with my squad practice as I’d needed to be.

I finally closed the gap with Jake. I threw out a quick [Fire Strike] jab that he dodged.

However, as separated as he was from the party, he wasn’t alone. Two arrows flew my way, courtesy of Emilia.

I sliced one out of the air, but the other thunked into my shoulder. When my health bar didn’t even noticeably move, I wondered why I even bothered.

I turned my complete attention back to Jake and immediately noticed something. Jake was ticked.

“You base turd!” he shouted as he brought his sword down in a devastating two-handed swing.

I was still off-balance from Emilia’s attack, so I didn’t have time to dodge. I threw up both of my blades in a cross-block.

His sword crashed into them. The knives creaked and buckled, but they held.

“You almost suffocated him!” Jake shouted. He pushed down even harder with his sword, and it was my legs’ turn to buckle as I had to strain to try to hold him off.

“That’s my bad,” I grunted out. “I forgot you guys have to breathe.”

That fact reminded me that I was also likely suffocating a certain [Knight] beneath a mound of daves as well. “Get off her face!” I shouted over at that pile of daves. I heard Lindsey gasp for air, and I winced.

Oops.

That little distraction almost made me lose our blade lock.

Meanwhile, the daves hadn’t quite reached the rest of the party, so Emilia continued peppering me with arrows. I ignored those, but it was a bit harder to ignore the [Heal] that Andrew sent my way.

I grit my teeth through it and decided I needed to do something. Even if the stalemate was technically working in my favor since it was still winding down the clock.

System: 3 minutes remain until the demonic portal opens!

Speaking of the clock, that gave me the slight moment of distraction that I was waiting for.

I heaved with all my might to the side and tried to unbalance Jake. It worked. His [Power Strike] crashed into the floor, and I had my opening. Both of my knives vanished as I grabbed Jake’s arm and threw him to the ground.

I followed him to the ground, and from there, it was a tussle over his sword. I grabbed at it and beat at his right arm and hand, but he refused to let go.

Then all of a sudden, his sword vanished.

“[Sun-“

Jake scarcely got the first syllable out before my fingers snapped the [Disrupt].

“der],” Jake finished. His skill didn’t activate, but he still managed to run me through with a sword that he had caused to appear in his left hand.

The fact that it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as before was what told me it wasn’t the Hero’s Sword. The obvious difference in appearance was something I only noticed after the fact.

A backup weapon. He’s learning. I thought as I tabled my plan of winning solely by taking away his sword. Instead, I managed to get him into a pin with my legs, and I started hitting him in the face over and over again with [Fire Strikes].

Just take him down, and it’s game over! He struggled against me, but with the level difference, I was just too strong for him. Meanwhile, the rest of the party was indisposed dealing with the rest of the daves, so they couldn’t help either. I was sure that I had him.

Another [Fire Ball] exploded across the room, and I internally berated myself for giving the party mana potions.

The party was getting too much room to maneuver, and soon they’d be able to bring Lindsey and Garrett back up with potions or [Heal]. I couldn’t let that happen.

“All daves, attack!” I shouted. I couldn’t bother with the rest of the party because I had a [Hero]-sized problem to deal with.

Just take him down quickly!

I upped the tempo of my attacks, and Jake’s struggles intensified. He nearly broke free. Meanwhile, I was starting to panic.

Why isn’t he going down!? 27 damage a strike, and [Fire Strikes] should be doing more. 20 attacks should have been more than enough to take Jake down at his level. However, he was still fighting back after about 30. I frantically switched to [Earth Strikes] and [Ice Strikes] after that since I had to assume he just picked up fire resistances somewhere.

No dice. 20 more quick attacks, and Jake was still fighting. In fact, he managed to dislodge me and get back to his feet.

I scrambled to my feet, and I… was afraid.

Jake slowly walked towards me, and a sword appeared in each hand. A wayward dave jumped at him, and he took it down with a single slice without even looking at it. If there had been any mercy in his face, it was gone. All that was left was a righteous fury.

He charged me with a yell, and both swords slashed and stabbed at me. I barely managed to block or dodge his first few attacks, and wherever I blocked, my knives chipped or bent. I had to discard a few different blades just during his opening salvo.

Even worse was that he was leaving openings, but it didn’t seem to matter if I capitalized on them or not. [Earth Strikes], [Fire Strikes], and [Ice Strikes]. None of them seemed to deter him. He ignored every blow I landed and simply redoubled his attack.

Fortunately, the knockback from [Air Strike] still worked and was enough to give me some breathing room.

I would retreat, desperately defend until I had enough of an opening, and then [Air Strike] him away. Then he would charge yet again, and we would repeat the cycle.

If that sounded like it was in my favor, since I was buying time, it was not. With that many attacks, occasionally, one would get through. I did my best to ensure that when it did that it was Jake’s backup sword that was stabbing me, but even that was enough to make my health bar move noticeably.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party was slowly working their way through my army of daves. Or quickly if you counted Tim’s next [Fire Ball] and Sam’s [Air Cutters].

I wasn’t liking my odds of holding out against an enraged [Hero] once they were free to help him, so I came to a quick decision.

Rest of the party first, then just run out the clock.

I was no longer under any illusion that I could beat Jake in a straight-up fight.

However, I couldn’t deal with him and his party simultaneously, and he was standing between them and me anyway.

An idea came to me, and after [Air Strike] kicking him away from me, I mixed things up by running at him.

That caught him a bit off-guard, but not as much as what I did next. My knife disappeared from my right hand.

“[Summon Dave]!” I cast, right as I [Flash Stepped] behind him. I plopped the monster right onto his lower back as I took off running towards the next closest party members, Emilia and Sam, who were kiting a horde of daves.

Based on the noises of frustration I heard behind me, my tactic must have been particularly successful.

However, that only gave me a few seconds head start before I heard the pounding of Jake’s feet against the floor.

No time to play nice.

“Sam, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about this,” I said as I ran up and [Air Strike] kicked her back towards the army of daves.

Her cry of pain and her calling me a jerk as she was engulfed by a horde of her favorite monster almost hurt more than Jake’s [Sunder]. Almost, but not quite. That freaking skill hurt a lot.

Anyway, I was on the clock with a [Hero] chasing me, so I immediately turned to Emilia.

“Emilia-“ I started.

She pivoted with her drawn bow and loosed it into my chest.

I growled as I also kicked her back to the daves.

I finally finished my statement as I pulled the arrow from my chest and snapped it. “I’m not sorry… Beach.”

I then gave quick orders for the daves to get off their faces right as the System sent another message.

System: 2 minutes remain until the demonic portal opens!

I only had 2 more minutes to hang in there, but despite my attempts to not get delayed, Jake caught up with me.

“[Power Strike]!” he shouted. Two swords came down in a heavy overhand swing.

There was no way I was blocking that, and I awkwardly dove backward out of the way.

Both swords cut deep gashes into the floor where I’d been just a half-second earlier, and I quickly got back up to my feet.

However, as I was doing that, Jake’s backup sword disappeared, and his Hero’s Sword started glowing.

That was just to make an opening! I realized and managed to get the [Disrupt] just as he leaned forward to use his skill.

I guess not having the blink forward threw him off because he ended up falling over. Either that or I [Disrupted] the skill right as it started. Either way, I beat a hasty retreat.

He’s learning. He didn’t call it out that time. I was worried, but I only had to survive one more [Sunder] based on its cooldown. As long as I didn’t take too much damage, that was doable even if I messed up my [Disrupt].

Even as I ran at Andrew and Tim, I berated myself for the order I fought the party.

You even told yourself to take down the [Cleric] first. Then you said to take care of the AOE. Then you did neither. Idiot!

As I ran for them, Andrew saw me coming.

“I won’t let you hurt Tim!” he shouted as he turned to face me.

“Andrew,” I sighed. “You’re so overprotective of Tim… but you can’t even protect yourself.”

With his bold pronouncement and his laser focus on me, he had literally left himself open to a couple of daves that hopped at him.

As he ineffectually tried to get them off, I just ran past him towards Tim.

Tim had just finished firing yet another [Fire Bolt] off at a dave when he saw me approaching.

“I surrender,” he said simply. As I looked at him in confusion, he dropped his wand and walked over next to his father. A couple of daves took the opportunity to jump onto him.

“Really?” I asked. “Just like that?”

“I can ascertain when I am bested,” Tim replied.

As soon as they were covered, I ordered the daves off their faces once again.

Really should’ve started with those two. Something felt off about the situation, but with every party member covered in daves except Jake, I’d accomplished my mission.

It was now time to run out the clock…

And I meant that literally.

As Jake reached me and tried to attack, I simply sprinted away from him.

“Come back here, you coward!” he shouted.

I had no intention of stopping unless he went to help one of his party members up or [Sunder] me.

My plan worked flawlessly… for a few seconds.

Then we heard an explosion from over by Tim and Andrew, and both of us whipped around.

“What did you do!?” he shouted.

“It wasn’t me!” I replied.

He took that opportunity to take another swing at me, but I ducked under it while trying to figure out why a group of daves had spontaneously exploded.

As I saw Tim hunched over Andrew with a health potion in hand, I put the pieces together.

That little… he stopped moving, so the daves stopped attacking! Then he [Fire Balled] himself and the entire mess near him and Andrew!

I [Flash Stepped] past Jake to try to go do damage control, but Tim was already helping Andrew to his feet.

“Hurry, father! [Haste] Jake!” Tim called out. Then he glanced at me, “While I prepare my ultimate spell!”

Andrew looked bewildered, but at Tim’s harsh glare, he started casting. “Grant to my ally swiftness and increased speed.” He paused there for several seconds, and I could feel the spell growing.

He doesn’t have [Overchannel], right? Is it just that long of a cast time?

Meanwhile, I didn’t recognize Tim’s chant, and that fact made me very nervous.

“I am the avatar of destruction, the destroyer of worlds!” Tim started. As mana started practically pouring out of him, I quickly changed priorities and sprinted towards the [Wizard]. “I will unmake all of creation, and-“

“No, you don’t!” I snarled. I reached him and hit him with an [Earth Strike] in the gut.

As I laid the beatdown, he finished his spell right before he went down. With a cheeky grin, he said, “[Mage Bolt].”

The [Overchannelled] black mass of magic that struck my chest hurt a lot less than the realization of how hard I’d been played.

Meanwhile, Andrew finished his [Haste] spell, and Jake stumbled a bit with the new speed.

I summoned a dave and punched it his way while he ran just to trip him up more. That bought me enough time to take Andrew down with [Elemental Strike] even as he [Healed] me.

Despite everything, I was still a bit above half HP as the System’s one minute remaining message came in.

System: 1 minute remains until the demonic portal opens!

Jake’s [Sunder] had been the only thing that had made a real dent in my health, but as he sprinted my way, I wasn’t too confident I could keep it like that.

Do I [Disrupt] the [Haste] and worry about the [Sunder] later? I asked myself. However, there was one aspect of the battlefield I hadn’t made use of yet, and I thought I should at least give it a try. The stairs.

I finally got to make use of all my footwork practice, and it’s probably the only thing that kept me alive for that stretch of the battle.

While fending off an enraged dual-wielding [Hero] was sketchy but doable otherwise, adding [Haste] to the mix meant I had to take every slight advantage I could get to avoid being turned into sashimi.

I frantically blocked attack after attack as I backpedaled up the stairs and only managed brief retaliations where I would [Air Strike] him in the shins or wherever else I could get him with my feet. I also discarded more broken knives there than I would care to admit.

Despite all of that, I wasn’t winning. Jake was still landing a hit on me every once in a while, and I started running low on knives.

At one point, I even pulled out my stolen sword to try to defend with that, but I was disarmed and slashed across the chest in less than a second.

This would be doable if he just had one weapon! I complained to myself.

That finally gave me the inspiration I needed. His primary weapon was an OP invincible weapon. His backup weapon was not.

I made the questionable but tactically necessary decision to let him stab me with his main sword as I vanished my knives and grabbed his off-hand. Instead of punching him, I directed my efforts at the blade, and after three quick [Earth Strikes], it shattered.

Jake also got another clean hit on me with his primary weapon, but it was a small price to pay.

It was a lot easier to fend off his attacks from there, and I was able to parry them instead of block them outright, which made it a lot easier on my knives.

“Give it up, [Hero],” I said. “You might as well save your SP for what comes after this.”

“I’ll never give up!” he said.

I blocked and dodged another flurry of blows.

“Can’t you see that you’re just wasting resources!” I said. “I’m going to win this. I still have more than a third of my HP, and there’s my second form after that! The only question at this point is how much SP you’ll have left for the invasion! Think, [Hero]!”

Jake shook his head and backed off for a second, right as a system message came through.

System: 30 seconds remain until the demonic portal opens!

“No, Titus. I’m going to win. And I’m sorry it had to come to this. [Sunder]!” he shouted the name of his skill.

I snapped the [Disrupt] out of reflex and was relieved for half a moment. I wouldn’t have to deal with another [Sunder] because the portal would be open before his skill was back up.

As his sword began glowing, I realized my mistake.

A fake callout. Outwitted again.

I held up my hands as I tamped down on my internal frustrations. “Now, [Hero], let’s not be hasty-“

“The time for talk is over. Sorry, Titus,” he replied.

His sword grew brighter as I tried to explain. “No! [Hero]! I have a skill! You don’t want to do this! It won’t end-”

He ignored me and gave me a look of pity. “[Sunder]!”

There was a loud thunderclap, and a flash of bright light as Jake blinked past me. However, there was also a flash of red around me as I sighed.

“-well for you,” I finished.

Unlike Jake, I was used to activating my skills without calling them out, and I’d activated the skill that I got for hitting level 25 that had a whopping 24-hour cooldown. [Reflect Attack].

Jake made a choking sound as he fell to the ground and tumbled down the stairs. Whatever had been keeping him up against any attack I’d thrown against him apparently didn’t work against his own OP skill.

The thing that surprised me the most was the lack of a server reset.

“Hey, [Hero]! Are you dead?” I called down to him.

His only reply was a groan of pain, but that was all I needed.

I almost wanted to collapse out of relief. I’d… done it. I won.

The message from the System reminded me I didn’t have time to waste.

System: 15 seconds remain until the demonic portal opens!

15 seconds until the invasion began… and the entire party was currently down for the count.

I put my fingers in my mouth and gave a loud whistle.

That was the signal, and out of the treasure room, my summons came bounding and loping in.

4 legged with white and light-grey fur, to my shame, I’d accidentally added even more canines to the already oversaturated population in Placeholder. However, that’s because I couldn’t think of any good demon-slaying monsters. Instead, my mind had kept thinking about hellhounds and wondered why I hadn’t heard of any battle doggos on the other side.

So… I made them. Heavenhounds. A natural counter to demons.

“Heal!” I commanded the hounds. They all started walking up closer to me, and I sighed. “Not heel. Heal! As in heal the adventurers!”

They were good dogs, but only a little smarter than daves, unfortunately.

They bounded away and began to breathe out beams of light onto the party.

Yes, in place of fire breath, I’d given them a healing breath. I figured if that hurt demons, all the better.

I also needed the daves off, so that was my next command. “All daves, get off and stop attacking!”

System: 10 seconds!

With that, I ran over to the middle of the room and dumped out all of my inventory except for Megan’s necklace. That included a few more knives, but mostly dozens upon dozens of potions.

“Take anything you want,” I told Jake. “All daves and hounds, obey any command from any of these adventurers except to attack me!” I shouted to my summons.

I spoke quickly, but the clock was still counting down.

System: 5 seconds!

System: 4 seconds!

I made my way back to my throne as the canine monsters finished bringing the party back up.

System: 3!

System: 2!

System: 1!

Jake tried to charge me again, but it was too late. Four beams of light (green, blue, red, and yellow) shot down from the ceiling and flew into the portal frame and vanished as the inside of the frame turned a blackish-red color.

The ground shook violently along with the next message.

System: The Demon Lord has succeeded, and the demonic portal has been opened! The realm trembles as a new age of darkness will sweep over the land!

I winced as I read that and winced just a tiny bit less about the following messages.

System: Quest completed. “Open the Demonic Portal!”

System: Quest completed. “Re-open the Demonic Portal”

“He actually did it,” Garrett said quietly. “He won.”

“I should kill you for this!” Jake growled as he continued his charge up the steps.

“What’s done is done, [Hero],” I said as he leveled his sword at my chest. “At this point, I’m done fighting back, and you have no quest reason to kill me. Also, I like to think that I showed remarkable restraint seeing as you’re all still alive.”

We stood in a stalemate for a few seconds.

“Come on, Jake,” Garrett called out. “It’s not worth it.”

Jake reluctantly listened and went back down to the rest of the party.

“Chin up, everyone!” I tried to inject some levity into my voice as I addressed the people who’d just attempted to kill me. “How many stories have you heard where the bad guy gets their final world-ending powerup only for the [Hero] to win anyway? Besides, I gave you as much of a fighting chance as I could. You should be fine.” I nodded to myself. The party looked less than impressed. “Now, I should be out of here any minute.”

I looked at the portal where nothing had yet come out and then back at the party. They started positioning themselves and the monsters to face the portal, and Jake looked back at me.

“You’re not going to help them, right?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No, of course not. My job’s done, and I’m just waiting for my ride home.” I paused as I remembered one final tidbit. “Oh yeah, you can get through the door because you have the boss key, but the demons won’t have that, and I’m sure as heck not giving them permission. So, if you need to fall back, that can buy some time. I don’t know how long it will take them to figure a way around that, but it might help.”

Jake was quiet for a few moments and then hesitantly said, “Thanks.”

We stared back and forth at the portal for another few awkward seconds.

“Admin?” I finally whispered. “Uh… Are you there? Can we talk? And what’s taking so long with me being sent home?”

My whispers were interrupted as a figure strode out of the portal.

The first thing I noticed was that he was massive. He was a foot or two taller than Garrett, and it was hard to tell through his spiky black armor, but he seemed even more muscular.

The lack of hair, red skin, and grey horns jutting out of his head also immediately pegged him as a demon. In case him coming out of a portal to Hell hadn’t already established that.

The final clue to make that a 100% no-brainer was that a boss health bar also showed up.

Its title? Admin, Demon King of Wrath.

I barely heard Tim cast [Identify] and then shakily whisper. “L-level 50.”

Admin!? What’s he doing here in person!?

“What are you waiting for!? Get out here!” Admin shouted at the portal. As he did, I could feel a wrath aura flood the entire room I was in.

I barely managed to carve a section of it out with my own aura to have an unaffected pocket. Meanwhile, Jake had a much larger area to cover to keep it away from everyone in the party, along with all of the summons. He managed somehow, but I could see the exertion on his face from just dealing with Admin’s aura.

To make matters worse, a myriad of very cowed monsters and demons started exiting the portal. Most of the demons looked more similar to Admin than me, which definitely showed that I was an anomaly. As for the monsters, there were manticores, imps, hellhounds, and too many others to keep track of.

Suddenly, the number of hounds I’d prepared wasn’t feeling like nearly enough.

As Admin’s eyes scanned the room, they gave off a complex feeling. The best I can describe it is dull anger that everything in front of him wasn’t on fire, but also a grim glee that that would be fixed soon enough.

That look changed when it landed on me, and then it was just pure fury.

“Kill them,” he said. Then he pointed at me. “But leave him. He’s mine.”

“Wait!” I called out. He pulled a giant spiked club out of his inventory that was a bit reminiscent of mine in wrath form. “I’m not your enemy! I opened the portal-“

He suddenly vanished and reappeared right in front of me with the club in midswing.

A small part of me wondered how someone that big moved that fast, but fortunately, that didn’t occupy me completely. My reflexes were up to snuff, and I managed to [Flash Step] down the stairs right as he obliterated the throne I was standing in front of.

“You’re in league with that traitor!” he shouted. I was just barely able to dodge his next downward swing that cracked the steps underneath us.

“You mean AltSys? No! I wanted to help you find him-“ I started to say. However, I was not fast enough to dodge the wide swing that came my way.

I was launched off my feet and across the room. I impacted the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of me.

To make matters worse, Admin appeared in front of me right after and slammed his fist into my gut.

As I was stuck there, doubled over and pinned to the wall, Admin sneered. “A rogue admin in our section, he’s only talked to you, and the [Hero], and you honestly think I would buy that?”

“He… needs to pay,” I choked out. “I wanted you to trace the messages down to find him.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” he asked with a mirthless chuckle.

He let me free, and I fell to the ground. However, before I could get back up, he kicked me across the room and then appeared in front of me to slam me to the ground with his club.

“I already tried, you imbecile! How incompetent do you think I am!?” he roared.

My HP bar was sitting at a quarter, and it was clear I wasn’t going to get the help I wanted from Admin in terms of revenge.

I... I’m sorry, Megan. My only goal left was to survive and go home. Vengeance would have to wait if it was going to be possible at all.

“Stop!” I called as he hefted his club once more. “The quest! I completed it! You have to send me home!”

“You’re right,” he said. However, the wicked grin that broke over his face didn’t comfort me at all.

He picked me up by the throat with his left hand and hardly seemed to feel the weight.

“However, it seems I failed to specify a few things…” His club vanished back into his inventory, and he hit me in the stomach again. “Like what condition I’ll return you in.” The next punch was a hook that snapped my head violently to the side. “Or when I’ll send you back.” He slammed me to the ground with enough force that I made an impact crater.

As I laid there groaning, he circled me. “Or even the most crucial part… Whose home will I be sending you to?”

My eyes widened in horror.

“No,” I whispered.

He loomed over me. “Yes. Enjoy your trip to Hell, [Demon Lord]. I’ll make sure to send you the most painful way possible.”

The great club reappeared, and I barely managed to roll out of the way in time.

I was outmatched, but I had no choice but to fight.

“[Summon Dave]!” I shouted as I punched the slimeball at him. “[Summon Heavenhound]! Attack!”

The dave flew true, but he batted it out of the air, and existence, with a flaming fist.

The heavenhound charged him and inhaled for its breath attack, but that was as far as it got before his club gave it critical existence failure.

However, it wasn’t like I held out much hope for those two summons which is why I charged in right after.

I peppered him with [Earth Strikes] and then hit him with an [Air Strike] to knock him away right as he was about to retaliate.

I can do this. Just keep ramping up the stagger and use knockback to keep him off balance.

However, my mistake was that this was no mindless monster that I was fighting.

“[Hell Blaze],” he cast with his free hand.

As the red and black flames engulfed me, I internally ridiculed him about the waste of mana.

However, he’d used it for nothing more than a smokescreen. His club cut through the fire, and I didn’t react fast enough to dodge.

I was once more launched into the nearby wall, and my HP bar was sitting near empty.

System: Critical HP Detected. Sufficient Level Detected. Demon Lord Form detected. Auto-activating Demon Lord Form.

System: Attempting to activate Wrath Form

Do it.

System: Wrath Form Activated

I could feel the rage overtaking me once again. I held out a brief hope that maybe wrath form would be enough to fight him.

Meanwhile, Admin watched me impassively. “How do I use that skill again? Oh. Right.” He snapped his fingers. “[Disrupt].”

System: Cancelling

That single word dashed my hope as his next attack dashed the rest of my HP bar.

I was stuck face down in negative HP as I started the process of dying.

“You’re not dead already, are you?” Admin asked. He lifted me off the ground again by the neck, and all I could do was feebly glare at him. “Ah. So that’s how this world handles negative HP. Interesting.”

Meanwhile, I was in pain. It turned out that going from 0 to -3750 in 5 minutes was a lot worse than from 0 to -100.

“Well, I suppose I do have to thank you,” he continued as he looked me in the eye. All I could see was contempt. “You somehow managed to get the portal open, and your class was a good prototype for my avatar. Though there were a lot of weaknesses I had to remove.” He sneered. “Anyway, for your help, I will grant you one last wish.”

I somehow managed to barely move my head to look out at how the party was fairing. They were barely making a dent in the horde that had come out to face them, and they were trying to make a retreat to the doors. Most of the summons were dead or dying, and the party looked close too.

As I looked out at the doomed world I’d created, I realized I had only one chance left.

One final gambit.

“Please, just let him live,” I croaked out.

He followed my eyes to Jake, and his malevolent grin returned.

As he dropped me and vanished off in that direction, the first part of my gambit had succeeded. All I could do next was hope.

Please. Let it still work.

Admin returned in a flash with Jake held by his throat. He was choking and trying to remove Admin’s hand to no effect.

“You mean this [Hero]?” he asked with a sneer.

I didn’t have to act to put trembling in my voice. “Y-yes.”

“I don’t think I will, after all,” he replied.

“But you said-“

He laughed.

“Imbecile. I lied. Just to let you have one last moment of hope.” He leaned down over me. “And you know the best thing about hope?” Admin asked as he slammed a fiery fist into Jake’s gut. “It’s watching the last bit of it die in someone’s eyes.”

Jake struggled feebly and tried to slash Admin with his sword. Admin merely yanked it out of his grip and threw it away.

Jake choked and struggled as Admin slowly beat him to death in front of me.

And I’d put him there. I’d sacrificed him on the off chance that the server would reset one last time.

As I looked at the fear on Jake’s face, I realized that, for once, I didn’t envy him.

Ah… Envy. I had to be on death’s door to see it, but I finally understood. I’d envied him this entire time. I’d wanted the power that he’d been given for nothing. I’d wished that I didn’t have to struggle and nearly die.

And I finally realized that Jake had his own struggles.

A prophecy that foretold suffering for him and the party.

Having the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Having a quest to kill someone who saved his life.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered as tears came unbidden to my eyes. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know it would end like this.”

Admin’s wicked grin never stopped as he continued pummeling Jake right in front of me.

“JAKE, I’M SORRY!” I shouted through my tears as I closed my eyes and couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

However, something was off. The sounds of battle had faded, and my shout echoed through a much emptier room.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a stunned Jake staring back at me with his [Sunder] prepped.

It… had worked.

My mind frantically tried to catch up to where and when I was as Admin screamed at me via text.

system: Time travel!? No… A server reset! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? Do you have ANY IDEA how much mana that avatar COST ME!? YOU WILL DIE SLOWLY NEXT TIME, DO YOU HEAR ME!?

I ignored the text that was yelling at me and tried to take stock as quickly as possible.

Jake was about to [Sunder] me but stopped. [Disrupt] on cooldown. [Reflect Attack] is active. Less than 30 seconds!

“The quest is a lie! I surrender!” I said. At Jake’s look of bewilderment, I continued. “Please, Jake! You have to believe me!”

“Alright,” Jake said with his [Sunder] still glowing. “Then give up the quest.”

“I give up! Cancel quest!” I tried a few other frantic words and even went into the quest section to give them up. No dice. “It’s not working!”

“Then what do we do?” Jake asked.

I looked over at the portal. “Can you [Sunder] it?”

He shook his head. “They’re immune!”

“Then… the obelisk!” The quest had said that I needed to be alive and in control of the area, so if I could have Jake claim the obelisk, that would be enough for me to fail. However, like all other boss fights, the obelisk had vanished as soon as the party came into the room. I tried to force it to come out, but the System wasn’t having any of that.

System: Cannot summon obelisk while members of a hostile faction are in the boss room

The next message confirmed that I didn’t have any more time to waste.

System: 15 seconds remain until the demonic portal opens!

I had only one conclusion left that I could come to. I was oddly at peace with it.

Well… I’m dead either way.

“Jake, you have to [Sunder] me hard enough I don’t go into wrath form!” I shouted as I punched myself lightly in the leg to use up [Reflect Attack].

“Are you sure!?” Jake called back.

“Do it!”

“I’m sorry, Titus. [Sunder]!”

Once more, Jake’s attack felt like it nearly cleaved me in two.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. I was left at critical HP and began entering wrath form.

Then I was suddenly back in time yet again.

“I’m sorry, Titus,” Jake said.

system: HA! You won’t get away with these rollbacks again! I’ve found what’s causing them, and next reset, YOU’RE MINE!

I once again ignored Admin and focused on Jake.

“Stop fricking holding back!” I snapped at him.

“I wasn’t going to! I’m at max power! I’ve dumped as much stamina as I can, and it’s at its limit!” Jake shouted back.

System: 10 seconds!

“It’s not enough!” I yelled. “Aren’t you the [Hero]? Screw the limits! If you can’t use more stamina, use your mana or your health! Or your frickin life force or something! Just do it, [Hero]!”

Jake hesitated.

System: 5 seconds!

“Now!” I shouted. “Or all of us are dead!”

System: 4 seconds!

A look of determination came over Jake’s face, but it was replaced by one of revelation.

“[Limit Break]!” he shouted. He followed that with a long wordless yell as the light shining off him went from a campfire to a supernova.

It was beautiful to see in a way, even though it meant my death. I could only watch for a split second before I had to close my eyes.

You always did make a good [Hero], Jake. I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused you.

System: 3!

I pulled Megan’s necklace out of my inventory and let it rest in my hand.

Looks like I’ll be headed to the afterlife like you soon… I only hope that wherever you ended up…

System: 2!

That it’s better than the place where I’m headed.

System: 1!

“[Sunder]!” came Jake’s cry.

A deafening thunderclap was the last thing I heard as my entire world went white, and I knew no more.

[1] OOM – Out of mana

[2] Japanese light novel titles – Japanese light novels, and the anime made for them, are (in)famous for overly descriptive titles. A few examples (yes, these are titles to real series)

Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious

Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town

I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level