Right before despair could truly set in, a hand caught Hirrus’s shoulder. He whirled, terrified that JudoThrow had pulled some shenanigans right under his nose, but it was no adventurer.

It was Nidra.

Wherever she had taken the king, he must have been safe enough.

“It’s over now,” she said.

“I know,” Hirrus said with a grimace.

Nidra laughed. In this moment when defeat was assured, she was laughing. And not dark or sad laughter. Actual mirth.

She was happy.

Hirrus felt a glimmer of hope. If Nidra was happy, it meant she had a plan.

“Ah,” JudoThrow said from the crowd of Hirrus clones. “There you are.”

The adventurer teleported out of the crowd, fist raised to strike.

Hirrus stared at the oncoming fist in horror. He had sacrificed so many hit points to his Echoes, this might actually be the end of him. All he could do was watch his death approach.

“Kamar! Now!” Nidra barked.

BONG!

The sound of hollow metal being struck shook the air.

JudoThrow grasped at his head in an involuntary response, his attack abandoned.

“It’s over now,” Nidra repeated, now addressing JudoThrow instead of Hirrus. “Ten. You’re next. Moirna after. Just like we practiced.”

Nidra’s officers emerged from whatever stealth ability they had. Ten began casting an Arcana, and a spectral pan and ladle appeared before them and crashed together with that same BONG! sound.

JudoThrow flinched and twisted in pain, but could not act.

Hirrus recognized the Arcana. It was one he had gotten for the Awakened when he’d taken them out in the forest around Shemil.

Walk The Wok.

It did nominal damage, but inflicted a stun effect.

JudoThrow couldn’t attack. He also couldn’t teleport away. The stun effect of the Arcana was keeping him from doing anything.

Including that restorative Arcana.

“You tipped your hand perfectly,” Nidra said. “Hirrus revealed your entire kit for us. He showed us how to beat you, and you were never close to killing him.” She gestured, and Moirna stepped up and cast Walk The Wok, the reverberating BONG! sound stunning him again. “You were never going to win. Not even for a second.”

She gestured again. “Sarit. Then Deanna. Remember your timings. If it’s done right, Kamar’s should be ready. If not, we have a backup.”

“How?” JudoThrow snarled through gritted teeth.

The stun didn’t seem to silence him.

“Your two weaknesses,” Nidra said as Sarit cast next, keeping the stun chain going. “First, obviously, crowd control. Hirrus afflicted you with bind and slow without resistance. You have such faith in your abilities—your defenses, your teleport and attack speed—that you didn’t bother to make yourself immune to such effects. A proper stun is so rare, isn’t it? And so is the numbers and quantity of cooldown reduction raid gear needed to make an endless chain.”

Nidra gestured again, and Deanna conjured the spectral cookware with another BONG! sound. “You did not fear, and so here we are. With you unable to act.”

JudoThrow snarled wordlessly this time. He was visibly struggling to control his body, but was unable to act. Nidra let him growl, gesturing again for Kamar, who continued the chain of stuns.

“Your second weakness is quite similar,” Nidra continued. She gestured at their numbers. “Crowds. I would have feared that a single mistake, and you could obliterate us all. But Hirrus’s Echoes put the lie to that. You can only fight one foe at a time.” She paused as Ten interrupted with the BONG! of the next stun. “But that’s not out of hubris. That’s out of sadism. You always want to pick off your foes one at a time to see the despair grow in their eyes.” She leaned in close to him. “Just like it’s growing in your own now.”

The stun chain continued. Hirrus realized that he was stunned himself. Not by a debuff, but in surprise.

They’d won.

Hirrus had held open the jaws of defeat long enough for Nidra to snatch victory from them.

“It’s done,” Nidra said, looking to Hirrus. She gestured at JudoThrow. “My revenge is complete. Finish it. The honor is yours.”

Hirrus didn’t need to be told twice. Time was running out, and Walk The Wok had such a low multiplier that there was no way it was going to finish the job in time. All of his buffs were already stacked up.

He just had to drain the rest of JudoThrow’s hit points quickly and efficiently.

Of course, he could still have fun with it.

Hirrus cast Reflected Echo one more time. In a few moments, there were thirteen of him. It was a lot to concentrate on. Perhaps impossible in a real fight.

But this wasn’t a fight. This was an execution.

Hirrus had the Echoes surround JudoThrow. Six of them stepped in, slashing with their hooked swords and then the icy greataxe, moving in eerie tandem at Hirrus’s strained direction. Those six stepped out quickly, and the other six stepped in, slashing with each weapon as well.

Just as all of Hari had been defenseless against JudoThrow’s control, now JudoThrow was the one who was defenseless.

He was hacked to pieces, 1,000 damage at a time.

Even with so much damage going out so quickly, it took nearly two full minutes of unrelenting attacks and stuns to kill JudoThrow.

As he hit the ground, covered in cuts, a great sigh went out among the Awakened as their work was finally done. Sarit nearly collapsed, overcome by the stress of maintaining her part of the plan. Ten let out of whoop of celebration that made many of those present gasp in shock.

But neither Hirrus nor Nidra could rest yet. Hirrus was closer, though, and after dismissing his Echoes, he was the one kneeling over JudoThrow’s corpse first.

Hirrus pried the helmet from the adventurer’s head. As soon as he had it in his hands, Nidra visibly sagged in relief, dropping to her knees beside Hirrus as he examined the ugly blue-black helmet.

Domination Crown

Head

Item Level N/A

+1,000 BUR

+1,000 SUP

+1,000 TEN

+1,000 ATT

+1,000 RES

+1,000 GLE

Special: +10,000 HP

Use: Gain control of any non-player target for 168 hours. Cooldown: 000:30:55/168:00:00

This is a Dev Test Item. Use of this item constitutes a violation of the Terms of Service and may result in termination of your account. Please contact a GM immediately if you find this item in your inventory.

The rest of JudoThrow’s gear was the same. Absurd stats, accompanied by an insane chunk of hit points, topped off with a ridiculous power, along with the message that threatened termination.

Hirrus only had eyes for the helmet, however.

This was the cause of all this trouble. And now that its bearer was dead, its reign was over.

It was such a small thing. He suspected that with his outrageously inflated BUR—still modified by several Arcana—he could have torn the helmet in two in his hands to destroy it in a needlessly dramatic fashion. Instead, he dismissed it to his inventory. Once there, no one could pry it from him. And after the upcoming Reset, it would be gone forever. There would be no risk of the remains falling into industrious hands capable of repairing or replicating the piece.

There was a rush of power, as well. Hirrus felt his level increase after defeating a foe of incomparable power.

But beyond that, there was the Arcana.

As he had expected in his lowest moment, they did not obey any rules. They barely had any attributes at all, but their power was undeniable.

SetPOS

N/A

Utility

Cast Time: N/A

Cooldown: N/A

Effect: Set position to desired position.

FullRest

N/A

Utility

Cast Time: N/A

Cooldown: N/A

Effect: Set current hit points to 100%, reset all active cooldowns.

Hirrus almost wished he had something left to fight. An adventurer to humiliate. A cause to support. Anything. It seemed such a waste that these Arcana would never be used. But Hirrus didn’t do this for power. He had come to do what was right. And now, at long last, through every hardship and challenge, it was done.

“Thank you,” Nidra said. “Finally, my nightmare is over. My king is free.”