As the music continued to amp up the feelings of all who hear it, the surviving Sultanate Soldiers took defensive positions. Or at least they attempted to, but they were on a completely flat platform with nothing to hide behind save for each other. Plus, human bodies do not tend to do well against a giant metal man who fully intends to lay waste to all before him. The soldiers, realizing their predicament, all drew a ranged weapon, or, in some cases, just held up a weapon or shield to (hopefully) be of use somehow.

Zero Noir, on the other hand, decided that he would take the first move I this final boss battle, and his eyes glowed a sinister red before firing a lance of crimson energy that swept across the platform in a perfectly straight line. Much to the surprise of the humans, elves, dwarves, and beastmen who were leftover from their attack on the False Hydra, the beam did not simply incinerate those whom it touched. Instead, those who were hit by it felt as though they were hit by a heavy blow all over their bodies and were launched into the air as though gravity was lesser in this place.

Zero Noir waited for the confusion to wear off and for the idiots in front of him to even attempt to retaliate, but it seemed that they did not understand how to play this game at all. If he were a normal boss in most games, he certainly would have waited for his horde of opponents to take as much time as they needed to figure out what to do, but he was not going to let the ‘rules’ stop him from crushing these people.

This was no JRPG, this was more along the lines of Sm*sh Br*s, not something like F*nal F*ntasy or Dr*gon Qu*st, after all. What kind of self-respecting Boss in a game like that would sit around and wait for a retaliatory strike? This was not Very Easy Mode, no, he was going for a much harder difficulty.

However, he did suffer from the common flaw of most of the more inhuman higher-ups in Darksol, that being that he liked to ‘play with his food’. So, as the Sultanate survivors tried to figure out what to do, Zero Noir held his right hand out to his side and a massive scythe appeared just beyond the edge of his fingertips. The scythe spun as Zero Noir moved from side to side for a while before he stopped near what to him would be the far left side of the arena.

The gigantic weaponized farming tool flew into his grip and he pulled back for a swing, sending the fleshy bags of meat scurrying away. Some, however, did not seem to get the memo and were sent hurtling through the air as Zero Noir’s tool hit them and then passed through them, leaving no visible wounds. Those who were struck felt the same impact, though to a greater degree, as the ones who were hit by the giant trash can’s ‘laser eye’ and were knocked even higher into the air than those who had previously been hit.

Those who had raised their shields to try and block rose to their feet, only to begin to stagger around in place like they were both extremely drunk and horrifically dizzy. Zero Noir didn’t let up for more than a second, though, and the mass of writing metal tendrils that extended from his waist in place of his legs shot out and latched into the platform, looking almost like the tangled mass of roots you would see when pulling up a plant.

The platform shook and the floor that the soldiers were standing on began to deform as small bumps appeared here and there. The smarter member of the elites recognized the pattern and immediately moved away to avoid the obvious sign of an incoming attack. Some unlucky or unintelligent people, on the other hand, either stayed in place or did not move fast enough, and soon a part of the platform looked to be a forest of long, thin spikes.

As the battle went on, Zero Noir became increasingly exasperated at the seeming lack of initiative that the Sultanate people had to explore the true nature of the battlefield or even attempt to fight back. He was getting rather tired of playing with these people in this way, as although he had sent more than 30 of them flying off the stage to a horrible death below, the remainder did not even bother to test the rules of gravity in this place. They occasionally would fire an arrow or throw something at him, but aside from that, it was akin to seeing a person with no real experience with a medium attempt to review it as though they knew what they were doing.

The whole idiocy of it all brought to mind the utter incompetence of some video game reviewers and critics and their ‘professional and expert gameplay footage’ that showed how little they understood what they were attempting to look at. He did concede that these people had never faced something like this before, but a little initiative would have been wonderful to see.

Zero Noir, therefore, had no other choice but to keep up his little game until the last person was sentenced to a terrible fate. He was fully committed to the idea that this was a boss battle that the invaders had no chance of winning, and he was just about to deal another major blow when a feeling that he had only felt twice before in his whole life flooded his arena.

This sensation was enough to divert his attention for more than a few seconds and was strong enough that even the invasive idiots could feel it. All eyes looked in a singular direction and Zero Noir, having felt this kind of raw power only twice before, became utterly terrified. He had no more time to play with the people on this last battlefield, and rather than continuing the fight as it had been, he simply used his authority as Dungeon Master to flip the platform upside down, sending the few left on it plummeting into oblivion.

As Zero Noir panicked, many, many others around the world felt the awakening of a singular being. Some cheered for joy, some wept in fear of what was almost certain to come, some smiled as they imagined their encounter with the source of the emission ending in their victory. All of those who had positive relations with that being celebrated while that one being, one who had laid dormant within his last great spoil of war upon a throne colored both in hues of obsidian and silver, opened his heavy eyelids and let out a sigh.

Though he could not muster up the energy to move, the Abominable King managed to work out a few words that echoed across his dominion.

“I have returned.”