Chapter 48

~ Dance of Death ~

SW/SW/SW

Reeve the vampire had been in a bad mood these few days. Many factors contributed to his absolutely foul mood. First, his classmate punched him in the face twice—twice! The first punch was rather clumsy, which made sense because he was a perfectly good kid. The last punch was aimed at his eye and he was grateful that his eyeball was still intact. It surprised him how hurt the attack was.

Second, before he could think of a proper payback, the kid suddenly got kidnapped. It was all over the neighbor, saying that he got himself kidnapped during a night outing. Reeve did not know whether he was happy or sad. It had got to be karma for punching him in the face, but his disappearance was truly a blessing in disguise. The kid surely was lucky. Reeve’d just thought of a wonderful way to pay his thanks.

Third, everyone was being an idiot—always annoyed him. His real world friends, his mom, and his dad… all of them were idiots. Even his teammates, too. They all got killed by Etherios before they could touch a hair of her head.

Well, served them right. Who told them to ignore the witch? They were a bunch of idiots who thought that they were immune to her song and now they reaped what they sowed. What were they, noobs?

Four, this floating castle annoyed him to no end. Soldiers kept coming; there was no end of them. Before the latest update, they did not even exist! The path to Azariel was quite straightforward, with Etherios and Hathor on the way. No stupid wyvern riders, no annoying archers, and certainly no dumb mages!

Damn! Shabu-Shabu wasn’t even here, saying he’d got some homework to do. The traitor!

“Now what?” he muttered as he saw more and more soldiers coming out from the castle. With only eight players, clearing this event wasn’t even possible. From the start, they knew that the castle would be full of soldiers, but the sheer numbers threw them in a pit of confusion.

No matter how much AoE spells the spellcasters used, they kept coming. There were just too many of them!

“Take this, dammit!” Reeve threw a yellow-colored sphere at the archers. As soon as it crashed against the ground, nearby archers were struck by lightning bolts from the sky. Most of them were dead, but some survived with only a little HP remaining.

Ah, that was quite a rare item. He hoped the sacrifice was worth it…

He didn’t know whether failing the quest would earn him money and EXP based on how many soldiers he had killed, but honestly Reeve couldn’t care less. To hell with this quest. He had teamed up with rubbish and there was no way that they’d succeed.

To hell with his rare items, he’d just hurl them straight into hordes of enemies. Jolts of lightning stroke the ground where they crashed, electrocuting nearby enemies.

One player, who rode a big wyvern, muttered something that sounded ancient. The spiky-scaled wyvern opened its mouth and fired huge fireballs. They scorched platoons of archers, turning them to cinder.

At least, someone useful appears, Reeve grumbled inwardly.

Reeve commanded his blue phoenix to smother the castle with blue flames. The sacred bird cried and flapped its wings quite fast. As soon as countless blue balls emerged from the wings, the phoenix hurled them towards the castle. The blue flames exploded violently upon impact and gave birth into uncontrollable fire that ate everything in the vicinity.

But shockingly the flame dissipated without anyone tending to it.

“But that was one huge flame!” one player exclaimed.

Reeve in disbelief. It was indeed a huge flame, but it gradually disappeared just like that. What was going on?

Damn, could it be that the castle was alive—a super rare item? This didn’t even exist before the update!

“Hey, is that…?” one female archer asked, trailed off, a finger pointed at a direction. Reeve turned his head to see what distracted her so much.

…and he gaped.

It was a tiny… a tiny doll flying at them! What was more, it was holding a pair of kitchen knives!

…and behind it was the final boss himself, flying towards them, with hands that looked so bestial they didn’t resemble a human’s hands anymore.

“Azariel!!!” a player exclaimed in panic, taken aback at the sudden appearance of someone who was supposedly waiting for them in the upper level throne room.

“Azariel’s here! What should we do?! Should we focus on him, the soldiers, or the doll?!” an archer shouted in confusion, her wyvern blocked most of the arrows with one of its wings.

Before they could think of a plan, the doll screeched at them, forcing them cover their ears. The ear-splitting screech drove them crazy. One player, who was too late in doing so, was suddenly got his defense drastically lowered and stunned.

“Hey, someone punch that mage!” Reeve bellowed, but it was too late. The soldiers were quickly focused their attacks to the mage and she perished from the battlefield.

Seven players remaining…

Despite the chaotic turn of event, Reeve managed to hold on to his composure. Barely. He dodged arrows and retaliated with his phoenix. Too bad one arrow got him in the back and it was laced with deadly toxin! Thank God he brought Antidote with him.

Finally, no more soldiers coming out. Still, they were greatly outnumbered and Reeve feared that they were going to lose.

His phoenix suddenly screeched and maneuvered to the left. The sudden movement almost made him fall. Quickly he grabbed the reins to stabilize himself. Turning his head to his right, he was met by a huge, black beam that corroded anything that touched it.

It was coming from the final boss!

“Oy, Vampire, what did you just do?!” a player holding lance and shield shouted. “Let me take the hits! Use Shadow Scent quickly!”

Fuck him! He knew that! Reeve took the said item and crushed it in his palm. The item released green cloud that surrounded him, reducing exposure and masking his presence.

To his surprise, Azariel was still aiming at him! This time he hurled five black balls at him in quick succession. The homing balls were quite huge and evading proved to be so difficult. Missing his target, Azariel laughed maniacally instead. He got a rune that glowed eerily on each hand.

Those runes didn’t look so good to Reeve…

Out of that rune, a large beam of energy was released. On the left was black and the other one was white—the worst thing was that he aimed them at him!

Reeve drove his phoenix in sheer terror. Why was the last boss focusing on him? Why not the knight? Was the Shadow Scent not working? Was this some kind of bug!?

Reeve had no slightest clue!

…was this karma? Karma for thinking about revenge?

“Hey, someone take care of that doll for me! I can’t aim at it! It’s too damn small!” an archer ordered, which sadly was ignored. The rest of the team was too engrossed in staying alive that they didn’t respond to anything.

The said doll was also fighting with the players. Due to it being tiny, it easily flew around with cuts and blood in its wake.

“Someone, get him off me!” Reeve pleaded to the deaf players. “He’s been attacking me like crazy! Someone throw Blinding Flask!”

He was ignored again.

With one flap of his wings, Azariel flew towards him, his ‘mouth’ was making a scary, twisted grin. Somehow, Azariel’s figure was getting bigger and more sinister. There was something really sinister behind him, grinning so evilly at him. It was something… unearthly, dangerous, and wrong…

[Dark Aura].

Reeve screamed in horror before his head was cut off.

0000

Kail stared mutely at the severed head in the air. The face was forever painted in pure terror. The mouth was wife open and the pupils dilated.

Reeve had died. The monster who bullied him in this game was dead.

He defeated him.

He was beheaded.

Suddenly Kail laughed. He laughed so hard that it sounded like a madman’s laugh.

“A… ha! Hahahahaha! He died! He died!! Blood, killing… taste so good…” Kail covered his face with a hand. The taste of blood, the taste of killing… they were very addictive, just like drugs. It was satisfying to be able to defeat someone he hated the most. “Kill… I want to kill more…”

“Eeek…! He’s… he’s crazy…” a female healer squeaked in fear. “I know that he’s mad from the character profile, but this is way too wrong… Is… is he programmed like that?”

Look at that guy! He’s talking to NPC!

Must be a weeabo.

Master, why did you throw it at me?!

I’m so hungry I could eat a horse—no, on a second thought, a castle!

Is he programmed like that?

NPCS WERE LIVING BEINGS!!!

With that thought, Kail disappeared behind the mage and ripped her to shred. No remorse ever crossed his blackened heart. Her question destroyed the last remain of his sanity and kindness.

He talked to NPC! – So they thought NPCs were nothing more than decors in a game? There was nothing wrong with talking to NPCs. Kail asked something and they responded. They could reach mutual understanding.

Is he programmed like that? – Programmed? Programmed?! She knew nothing about him and about NPCs! She hadn’t experienced it first-hand! NPCs he’d had interacted with were so real they looked exactly like humans! Agriella’s concern, her laughs, her fears... Hathor’s feisty nature, her charm, her smug smiles, and everything about her weren’t programmed! They weren’t codes! They weren’t formulas! All of them were genuine!

How dare them…? How dare these players insult NPCs…?

He couldn’t forgive them. He wouldn’t forgive them.

Kail swore he’d kill those who belittled NPCs, no matter who they were.

“Your Majesty!” one soldier approached him.

“What now?!” Kail roared.

Despite the intense anger he displayed, the soldier remained calm and informed him, “Her Majesty insists on fighting alongside you! We can no longer convince her to rest!”

Out of habit, Kail placed one hand on his hip and tilted his head to his right, “Goddamn…! That cunt is truly the death of me! I’ll pull back! You finish them!”

0000

Elvaria couldn’t believe what she just saw…

…the minions were repeating words like normal NPCs while the last boss wasn’t.

Azariel did not repeat words like the rest of his minions. He responded to question and even asked one. His anger, reason unknown, seemed so real to her that she felt like he was a human trapped in a game. But that couldn’t be, could it? That sort of thing happened in comics and cartoons.

Could it be that the Advance AI System was partially finished?

Honestly Elvaria didn’t know much about technical stuff like that and could not care less.

Too bad that they had failed the quest. The battle was epic, though a bit one-sided. She loved the clash between players and Etherios. Her voice was melodious, like an angel’s trumpet—of death. It was eerily unique, distinguishable, and somewhat bitter.

Elvaria made a mental note to read the wikia later. This Etherios intrigued her…

As she stretched in her seat, she saw a newbie just like her sitting two rows ahead of her. She was an elf, just like her. Instead of blonde hair elves usually had, she had auburn hair, which was tied in a loose braid and put on her left shoulder.

If Elvaria was into animes and mangas, she’d immediately know that the hairstyle was the infamous Hairstyle of Death.

Elvaria approached her, hoping to get to know her and make friends. Once she was close enough, Elvaria noticed that the girl’s eyes were fixed still on the screen, a hand covering her mouth.

Elvaria’s race had keen ears. Despite the girl’s mouth being covered and she spoke rather breathlessly, Elvaria caught a familiar name from her lips…

“…Kail?”