Land of Ruins (1) and Land of Ruins (2)
Shade Guild Points.
It is said that it has no effect now, but users who read the explanation had a premonition that the point would be very useful.
Because Hyun and Ain’s names were at stake!
‘Shade Guild. This must be the guild Hyun belongs to, right?’
‘Even if it’s useless now, I don’t know what will happen later. Unless Hyun is cheating users all over the world… .’
‘The earlier you do this quest, the better!’
The figure Hyun showed in the battle with Sado.
When the Shade Guild Quest appeared there, the two incidents created a synergistic effect.
Those who jumped into the quest first were those who saw the value of the reward.
‘This case is unconditionally a jackpot!’
Not only users conducting personal broadcasts, but also some large broadcasting companies showed interest in the incident.
It is a known fact that Hyun and Ain made most of the history quests.
You may be able to capture that history yourself this time too!
Like that, countless drones flew in the air at the lower level of the sky bridge.
As everyone expected, something unusual was happening in the sky.
A war in the sky.
Just like Salon did in Iluna, a new star was born this time too.
The user belonging to the abyss showed a fighting spirit to fight with all his might until the end, and achieved the feat of taking first place in the quest with an overwhelming difference in achievement value.
The magnificent background of the sky bridge and the scale of the battle were not inferior to those of Iluna at all.
The only unfortunate thing was that no one had witnessed Hyun or Ain during the quest.
-A new video is up on Ain’s YouTube channel! (link)
-But the channel name was changed?
As the channel name was changed from AIN to Hyun & Ain, new lists were updated.
It was the video Hyun ordered Tartar to upload, and it was also the last video to be uploaded on the channel.
The purpose is something other than money.
Hyun added the specific principles of fairy tales in the additional explanation section.
It was to further solidify the name Hyun by revealing that he had been with Ain steadily before.
A video from the Icethorn Dungeon to the top floor of the Skybridge.
Louise’s appearance was not revealed in the video, thanks to only the editing of the point of view when she was reversing or when she was with Ain.
People realized many facts that had not been revealed until now.
The reason why Ain’s mood changed often and the reason why there were so many types of skills he used.
It was because he was assimilating with Hyun.
Hyun and Ain have been playing together since the beginning of Asrian until now.
It was the day when the existence of the Shade Guild was revealed and Hyun, the guild leader, cast off his shadow.
‘What is this… .’
And in the aftermath of this incident, there were people who went through absurd things.
Ginny woke up from a deep sleep and could only break out in a cold sweat as soon as she opened her eyes.
204 cases in 124 cases.
The number of missed calls and unread messages recorded on the cell phone, respectively.
In addition, I couldn’t even count how many emails had arrived in the email window marked with 999+.
It didn’t take Ginny long to figure out the cause.
[Registrant: Genie]
Her name was revealed in the process of registering guild quests, and her voice was revealed in the process of commanding users with quest alarms.
With those two clues, some people have identified the character Ginny.
And since there was no way to contact Hyeon or Ain, he contacted Genie who belonged to the same guild.
In fact, most of the e-mails Ginny received were for Hyeon or the Shade Guild.
‘… .’
After staring at the mail window for a while, Ginny quietly shut down the Internet.
I opened my phone again and looked at my missed contacts.
There were messages from people involved in my professional days, companies, and research organizations.
The highest percentage is from former bosses and colleagues.
Some of them were even quite offensive. Just by talking about technology leaks, it was clear that it wasn’t good intentions.
‘I knew a day like this would come someday.’
Ginny nodded quietly.
There is nothing to be afraid of.
However, I felt like I needed to move a little faster.
‘I’ll have to ask Hyun if I can save more people.’
In this world, money is power.
As long as the image surfaced, the Shade Guild had to quickly acquire a size that was difficult for most companies to touch.
***
A medium-sized transport of about 50 meters crossed the sky.
About an hour had passed since the party left the sky bridge.
Hyun summarized the situation so far.
Ain is sleeping offline.
It took more than ten hours to reach the next destination, so there was no need to stay awake.
During the main quest, it was impossible to leave only Louise and Papi alone, so he and Ain decided to connect alternately.
‘I won’t be chased again, right?’
Even a celestial’s sense of sight can’t detect a place over several kilometers unless it’s an S-class like Radiette.
In the first place, the number of celestials was not many, and there was even less chance of meeting someone by chance in the vast sky.
It meant that I could relax for a while.
Poppy and Louise were sleeping, so Hyun was alone on the deck of the carrier.
I looked through articles on the internet or had short conversations with guild members who were online.
Just before, he had sent the recorded copy to Tartar and gave him an order.
‘I’m a bit bored.’
The scenery of the sky was monotonous.
A truly white sea.
Looking down at the ground, nothing was visible because it was covered by clouds.
If it were the same height as the earth, it would be an environment in which humans could not survive, but the sky in Asura was no different from the weather on the ground, except for a little chilly.
No, compared to the speed of the transport ship, the air resistance is not felt much, so the atmospheric concentration is actually thin.
This was also a fact that I didn’t know in Asura’s days when there was no sensory synchronization.
click-.
While thinking about this and that, Hyun, who felt a presence, looked back.
“Oh, are you awake?”
Poppy seemed to have woken up.
“It wasn’t a dream.”
Poppy still couldn’t get out of the shock.
After Louise’s important story was over, I heard a few additional explanations from Hyun, and I also learned the identity of the angel of harmony.
That the angel he served was actually a devil.
When he first heard the story from Hyeon, Papi was furious, saying it was a lie, but after several clear pieces of evidence were added, he became more and more silent.
Now, it seems like I’m completely convinced.
“The two beings who saved me are both demons… .”
“It could be.”
“It is a serious problem for me. Is there any other celestial besides me who has been helped twice by the devil?”
“Isn’t that better? It’s like a first achievement as a heavenly person.”
“… It is not a matter to put it so simply.”
“Mmm.”
Hyun did not bother to refute or persuade.
Poppy is not an NPC who plays an important role in the world view.
In other words, even though it was the 1.5th generation, it had artificial intelligence that was not much different from the 1st generation.
The reason why I couldn’t shake off the idea that Poppy was an NPC was because his expression and behavior were not much different from those of the village shopkeepers.
“… Thank you again.”
It was when the silence in the sky continued that Poppy opened his mouth.
“huh?”
“I heard that you saved me and also saved the priestess.”
“… It did.”
“Actually, I should have thanked you first, but I only expressed my feelings.”
In an instant, Hyun’s eyebrows twitched.
The moment I accidentally met Poppy’s eyes, I thought his expression wasn’t too awkward.
Actually, that feeling was not Hyun’s illusion.
The level of artificial intelligence of NPCs in Asline is determined by the importance of the role they play.
The reason why Papi’s ‘awkwardness’ faded was because his fate, which was supposed to die on the sky bridge, was reversed.
In a word, it can be said that the system has re-recognized Poppy as an important NPC in the world.
Of course, Hyun, who doesn’t know the complex mechanism of the system, just thought it was because of his mood.
As time passed, Hyun also took a proper rest, and Ain and Louise also woke up.
The transport ship arrived in the land of darkness only ten hours after leaving the sky bridge.
“Everyone get up, it’s our destination soon.”
“Ugh… Is it arrival?”
The land of darkness seen from afar was no different from what he saw in the event scene of deception.
The ruins of the war.
Hyeon roamed the dark land from a distance with a transport ship, observing the surroundings.
“Is anyone there?”
“There is no energy that can be captured in my senses.”
Papi replied.
I was worried about what would happen if the celestials were waiting here, but it didn’t seem to happen.
I don’t know if the celestials thought the land of darkness was just a useless island.
Until now, Hyeon himself hadn’t felt the need to return to the Land of Darkness, so he wouldn’t have even thought of heading here if Deception hadn’t told him where he was going.
“I can land in a corner.”
Hyun has built a transport ship at the edge of the island.
The land of darkness seen up close was more desolate than expected.
“There really is nothing left.”
The group was silent as they traversed the bleak landscape.
Starting with Hyun, the party walked slowly, and as they got closer to the center of the island, more traces of battle could be seen everywhere.
The altar with a large hole in it, and the pits dug here and there, as if struck by a meteorite, looked like traces of a disaster.
Perhaps because of the memories from five years ago, Louise shook her shoulders from time to time.
“This is the center.”
The party stopped walking in front of the almost collapsed altar.
“Is the spirit of your subordinate really alive here?”
“I don’t know… I will try to wake you up.”
At Hyun’s question, Louise resolutely nodded.
The reason why deception informed the land of darkness as the destination.
What can be done on the ground in the dark that is useless.
It was only waking up the sleeping minions of darkness.
“Everyone stay away from me a little bit.”
Louise cautioned the party and closed her eyes.
pounding.
It was at that moment that Hyun’s heart squirmed violently.
The souls of the transcendent and those who serve him are connected by countless strings.
The string vibrates whenever someone says a prayer, creating sympathy.
And when the empathy is strong or the connection between each other is solid, the string of souls resonates even without prayer.
Fire!
After five years, Louise’s empathy was opened.
Recovering a part of her self, Louise has the mental strength to endure empathy.
As Magi coiled around her, Hyeon felt his soul being sucked into him.
“Goddess… this energy.”
Poppy’s eyes widened.
I now know that Louise is a demon, but it was a different feeling to see the power of a demon right in front of me.
‘This… It’s the same as feeling assimilated.’
And Louise’s feelings were conveyed to Hyun.
I quietly felt that feeling.
Louise was nervous.
Why? The reason for this could be understood from Louise’s muttering mixed with tears after a while.
“hyeon… That’s strange.”
“what?”
“Wait, maybe it’s because of my immaturity… Okay, I’ll try a little more.”
However, Louise’s nervousness turned to despair as time passed.
It had been a while since Louise’s mouth had opened again.
He looked around the ruined land of darkness and said.
“I can’t feel anything around me. why… .”
“What do you mean?”
“Somehow, here… It seems there is not even a single soul left.”
Louise repeated the same action several times.
I tried resealing empathy and then unlocking it, and I desperately searched for the soul that might be sleeping somewhere while changing places.
Tens of minutes passed here and there, but until then, not even a single soul was found.
Hyeon suddenly felt his pulse go out.
‘What happened.’
Hyun just stared at Louise, who was nervous as if it was her fault.
Louise’s efforts would now be futile.
In order for her actions to return to the Dark Land to have meaning, Louise had to resurrect thousands or tens of thousands of troops here.
Even if you were lucky enough to find one or two souls, there was no guarantee that it would be a named level like Shatin, and reviving one or two named subordinates would not be able to stand against the sky.
‘No, there’s a high chance there won’t be any.’
The land of darkness rose from the underworld to the ground and back to the sky.
In the meantime, he would have had no choice but to pass the ‘white belt’ inevitably.
The sea of death that melts even the soul.
There is no way that souls who are not transcendentalists can withstand that turbid and ferocious aura.
If you haven’t been looking for it until now, you won’t be able to find even a single soul in the future.
‘Caydrial… .’
Suddenly, the image of her laughing like a cat flashed in Hyun’s mind.
The archdeacon of deception.
Even in her previous works, she always showed her true colors at the last moment.
Deception and darkness become stronger when they coexist.
Common sense convinced me that deception would not deceive the existence of the same abyss, and even the great devil, who could become the strongest ally.
Was that why he believed so naively that Caidrial would never betray Louise?
“hyeon! I just heard a voice!”
It was at that moment that Ain’s cry rang in the head of the complicated string.
“what… ?!”
Hyeon quickly approached Ain and asked.
“Is it deception?”
“I think so!.”
“What did you say?!”
“that is… .”
After checking the recorded voice again, Ain opened his mouth.
“Put your sword in.”
“knife… ?”
“huh.”
“where?”
“I don’t even know that!”
Hearing Ain’s answer, Hyeon suddenly had a bad feeling.
Are you trying to say that you put a knife in your back?
If your intention is to deceive yourself like that, I think you really can’t hold back your anger.
‘No, it’s not certain yet, so I can’t be certain.’
Hyun tried to interpret the oracle first.
Is the ‘sword’ a symbolic meaning? Are you talking about a real sword?
Plugging also requires an object. I don’t mean sticking a sword into the air.
hooked At that moment, Ain muttered as he suddenly stuck a scythe into her ground.
“Um… Nothing happens.”
Hyeon, who had been watching quietly, corrected the wrong in her behavior.
“That’s not a sword.”
Yeah, I’ll have to try something first.
Hyun took out all types of weapons from his inventory and tried to insert them into the ground one at a time.
Poppy watched from the side with strange eyes.
With curious eyes, as if examining a demon’s ritual.
“Shatin. you do too A part of your body is also a sword.”
“I don’t know what… Let’s do it for now.”
When Hyun instructed, Sha Tin also joined in the bizarre behavior.
cooong! There was a slight vibration in her as she slammed her greatsword down on her floor.
Because the weight of the greatsword was quite heavy, it felt like breaking the ground rather than inserting it.
“I don’t think this is… .”
After a few minutes of shoveling, Hyun took a deep breath and looked around.
I went somewhere to see if Ki-man was laughing at this sight, but I couldn’t find the devil’s figure anywhere.
‘Wait, maybe?’
In an instant, Hyun’s thoughts flashed.
Because there was one ‘sword’ that hadn’t been used yet.
‘The Dark Sword… ?’
Simultaneously with the activation of the skill, a huge darkness grew in Hyun’s hand.
Hyeon jumped up high and hit the floor with all his might with the sword of darkness.
Likewise, nothing happened.
“… … .”
Are you really deceived by deception?
It was at that moment that Hyeon’s heart was gradually colored with anxiety.
“What did you do?”
Poppy suddenly asked.
“The energy of the earth just wriggled.”
“when?”
“It’s the moment you pierced the demonic sword into the ground.”
Celestials are very sensitive to the movements of divine powers.
When Poppy said something had changed, he couldn’t take it lightly.
“Is it working… ?”
“Can you tell me what you were doing?”
“I don’t know either.”
“yes… ?”
At Hyun’s answer, Papi showed an absurd reaction.
The only thing that could be done was this absurd thing.
“’Put your sword in.’ An oracle has come down. So I’m trying to do something similar for now.”
“trust… Is it the devil’s oracle?”
“Um, similar.”
The target of Ain’s contract was deception in the form of an ‘angel’, but that figure was only a shell.
Strictly speaking, Ain is the devil’s apostle.
Even at the word of the devil’s oracle, Poppy, whose resistance to the devil had faded a little before he knew it, began to generously unravel the knowledge he knew.
“In the interpretation of oracles, ‘sword’ often means ‘key’.”
“key… ?”
“yes. The shape of a sword entering a scabbard is likened to matching a key.”
Hyun thought it was a pretty plausible story.
Come to think of it, Papi is a celestial. When it comes to interpreting oracles, you must have more knowledge than anyone else in this room.
‘If you interpret it as it is… Will it be ‘insert the key’?’
where, what key?
The more he thought about it, the more his head tickled.
Every time I felt like this, something flashed.
just as expected. Lightning struck Hyun’s brain as he continued his thoughts.
“Hyun, where are you going?!”
“Wait, I have to test it.”
Hyun went up to the altar located not far away.
A pyramid-shaped altar in the middle of the Dark Land.
Most of it was destroyed in the war five years ago, but the top part is still not completely broken.
‘Is this right?’
If the sword really meant a key, the key had to be inserted into the correct hole.
And there is only one place in the land of darkness that can be said to be special. The top of the altar where Louise performed the awakening ceremony!
‘The sword of darkness!’
The moment when a huge greatsword was thrust vertically into the roof of the altar.
Kurrrrr!
The whole earth shook.
The vibration this time was clearly felt even by strings that did not have a feeling.
‘This is for sure!’
An earthquake that shakes the entire island.
However, the shaking lasted for a few seconds and then stopped.
Even after repeating the same action several times, there was no major change except for a momentary shaking of the ground.
Is this the end?
No, Hyun was not disappointed.
There was one method left untried.
“Louis!”
I called for Louise, who blankly looked up at me.
Louise, who could not find even a single soul no matter how hard she tried, had her empathy sealed again.
“Come over here for a second!”
“I haven’t found my soul yet… .”
“Do that later!”
Louise hurriedly climbed up to the altar.
Pod! Hyun assimilated into her body.
It is now clear that the keyhole is the top of the altar.
So what is the key?
Poppy said that the energy of the earth stirred when the sword of darkness was driven into the ground, so is that skill the key?
It’s a plausible guess, but it’s a little different.
The correct way is probably… .
‘The sword of darkness used by Louise.’
Kwajik!
The greatsword in Louise’s hand pierced the altar vertically.
The duration of the Dark Sword is (Empathy/100) seconds.
Kurrrrr!
Unlike before, the ground tremor did not disappear even after the sword disappeared.
No, rather, the earthquake was getting stronger as time passed.
“Kuh… !”
Hyun quickly left the altar.
It was because a black energy suddenly burst out from the top.
Had he not evacuated immediately, Louise and herself would have been swallowed up by that black mist.
“Hyun, what did you do?!”
“This energy is divine power! It doesn’t look like it’s been refined with Magi!”
The rest of the party watching from below are perplexed because they don’t understand why.
“Dangerous!”
Hyun quickly warned everyone.
It was because he knew how dangerous this aura could be.
black fog. Before being ripped off into the sky, the energy that filled the land of darkness.
Ruthia… No, Caidrial had explained the flow of this fog by comparing it to blood flow.
Also, the altar was called the ‘heart’ of darkness.
According to that analogy, it was like Louise had a huge sword driven into her heart.
“Laugh, coming this far… !”
“Everyone get away from me!”
Like a volcano erupting lava, a black mist flowed endlessly from the top of the pyramid.
From the altar to the earth, from the earth to the canyon… The black mist was covering the entire land of darkness in an instant.
While the party climbed to the high ground to take refuge from the fog, they quietly watched the scene below.
“What is going on…? ?”
“I don’t know either. Poppy, do you know something?”
Poppy swallowed and said what he thought.
“The magic circle is being drawn.”
“where?”
“All over this island.”
I could see it better from a higher vantage point.
The sight of a torrent of fog rushing back and forth across the land, drawing black patterns.
“A magic circle? What kind of magic is this?!”
“I don’t know that much, but… If it’s this huge, it won’t be ordinary magic at all.”
The fog that covered all parts of the land reached the edge of the island before I knew it.
The diameter of the island is about 5 km.
If you interpret Poppy’s words, the magic circle is the same size as him.
The fog that reached the edge of the island was seeping into the ground instead of falling like a waterfall.
Like blood flowing through the body, a black mist began to circulate through the land of darkness.
“What? wind?”
“It’s the sky, but is the wind blowing?”
At one point, the party felt the wind brush their cheeks.
sky. In other words, there is no wind blowing in the space above the white belt.
Hyun thinks it’s because the atmosphere is thin, but Asrian’s NPCs believe this.
Because flames and wind are the power of the abyss, and the sky is only the realm of heaven.
Anyway, wind blowing in the sky was not an ordinary phenomenon.
“It is not the wind!”
Poppy, who had a good sense of humor, was the first to grasp the situation.
“The whole land is moving!”
“what… ?”
Hyun didn’t understand the words at the moment, but after a while, he understood it himself.
The cloud-covered landscape was passing by.
Many times faster than traveling on a transport ship!
The wind hitting my face grew stronger in an instant, and before long it was difficult to open my eyes.
Ain and Louise’s hair also began to flutter violently.
‘Incredibly fast… !’
“Where are we going now… ?!”
Ain asked, but no one could answer the question.
Papido, who was the only one to notice the existence of the magic circle, couldn’t figure out where the island was moving.
Hyun suddenly became frightened.
Could it be that deception is taking them to dangerous places?
“Everyone, let’s go near the transport ship!”
“Move now? It’s hard to even stand still?!”
“I don’t know what will happen. If you are in a hurry, you have to get on the transport ship and run away!”
Whoa!
Reaching the edge of the island, the group watched the outside using the firmly anchored transport as a handle.
Behind the clouds, the distant landscape burns red… .
Just as the sun was about to set, night came in an instant.
“It suddenly got dark… Is it because of me… ?”
“No, it’s because we’re going too fast.”
A phenomenon that occurs when the ground moves in the opposite direction to Asura’s rotation.
Two satellites were shining in the starry night sky.
The golden Gluna and the blue Iluna.
With two colors of light shining down, the party flew in the night sky for a while.
It wasn’t until after a while that the speed started to slow down.
“I’m stopping… .”
Hyun looked up.
Iluna was floating in the place where her head was bent vertically.
“This is right below Iluna.”
Poppy realized something and murmured.
The orbit of the satellite was off five years ago, but that didn’t mean that Iluna started orbiting Asura.
It was only slightly displaced from its original position.
In other words, a total lunar eclipse only turned into a partial lunar eclipse.
For this reason, the sun, Asura, and Iluna were still orbiting close to a straight line, and the blue satellite was always fixed in the shape of a crescent moon.
and just before
The land of darkness landed on its straight track.
“laugh… !”
“Did you feel your body lighten up for a moment?”
“It is sinking!”
The movement of the earth has not yet stopped.
With Iluna above her head, the land of darkness began to descend toward the ground.
slowly… . but steadily.
“Dangerous!”
This time, Poppy was the first to realize something and shouted.
“At this rate, we will reach the white belt soon!”
“Oops, that’s right!”
from the sky to the ground.
If the descent of the land does not stop, the party will inevitably cross the white belt.
A place where all the energy of the world mixes turbidly and even the soul melts.
“You have to get out before then… Yes?”
Looking down from the edge of the island, Hyun lost his words for a moment.
Normally, the transparent white band is not visible.
However, at the moment it engages with a foreign substance, it reveals a turbid color, so a white band can be observed with the naked eye.
“It’s breaking… .”
A huge hole appeared at the place where the ground and the white band interlocked.
Like the miracle of Moses, the mist of white turbidity was parting in time with the descent of the earth.
