Her mind went blank.
Once again, the overwhelming shock and confusion drove Sylvia’s thoughts into a frenzy.
‘What is this?’
Everything was topsy-turvy.
Though everything had turned into complete chaos, it wasn’t the worst-case scenario. All the previous routes to achieve her goals were blocked, but a new one had opened—a route that was almost ridiculously overpowered.
Originally, she would have had to negotiate with all factions individually to recruit them, raise the favorability of herself and her companions while elevating their strength to a certain level.
But conquering the Sixth Lord would resolve all these tedious processes in one swoop.
‘How…’
How had this situation come to pass?
During the time she had been unconscious, no significant update or patch could had possibly occurred…
‘Did someone kill Ouroboros in a single strike?’
It was hard to believe.
There was only one method to defeat Ouroboros: to collapse the rule of the Abyss, break all patterns, and then bombard the groggy Ouroboros with overwhelming firepower before it could regenerate.
Though it sounded simple, the actual difficulty was no easy task.
The idea that someone could have done this alone, without even a group of sixteen or more elite raiders, was absurd.
But the Grand Lord was not someone who would lie about trifles, so there was a high probability it was true. Somehow, if his words were to be believed, the Sixth Lord was not merely a behind-the-scenes manipulator but one of the strongest beings in the world, though the extent of his strength remained unknown.
‘Just how strong could he be?’
Numerous possibilities raced through Sylvia’s mind.
…No, none of that really mattered.
What was immediately important was not those minor details, but the future possibilities. Sylvia pulled herself together and looked at the Sixth Lord. His gaze was indifferent and desolate.
It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, but just meeting his eyes made her nerves tingle.
“Come over here.”
At the Sixth Lord’s voice, Sylvia moved cautiously closer. He approached Ouroboros’s carcass, nudged it slightly, and asked her,
“You claimed you can see the future, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should also know what this is.”
“Ouroboros. A fragment of chaos from the outer realms, and the ruler of the Abyss. Correct?”
The Sixth Lord, Luke, glanced at Sylvia with a hint of surprise before continuing,
“Do you know its uses?”
Sylvia hesitated, then managed to close her mouth tightly. Every word needed to be carefully chosen when engaging with the Sixth Lord. The rising tension made her throat move. Just being in his presence felt suffocating, and one misstep in conversation seemed unbearable.
After a long moment of consideration, Sylvia opened her mouth slowly.
“I do know.”
“Tell me what you know.”
“You can create Dark Crystals.”
The Dark Crystal was an extremely refined fragment of the Outer Gods, processed into a jet-black crystal that swallowed all light, with a faint violet mist swirling within. While the crystal itself was only a raw material with no special effects, the items crafted from it had uses beyond imagination.
Among them, the most popular item was the Dark Cape, which granted its wearer full invisibility—not just hiding presence but temporarily erasing their existence itself. As such, it was a versatile artifact, making it an excellent gift to build rapport with the Sixth Lord.
“…I’ve never heard of that.”
“Of course not. To my knowledge, you’re the first person who’s ever defeated an Outer God.”
“But how do you know about it if that’s the case?”
“As I’ve said, I know the future.”
The conversation seemed banal, but despite the circumstances that should’ve been astonishing, the Sixth Lord wore an overly calm expression, as if pretending to perform ignorance while already knowing everything.
To the commoner, Dark Crystals were beautiful gems and nothing more. But they were materials that only players with specific capabilities could use, and Sylvia was one of those players.
The Sixth Lord likely had no knowledge of this, so Sylvia hesitated to outright ask for Ouroboros’s remains. However, she couldn’t bear to let such valuable materials go to waste. Though the Sixth Lord had no reason to trust someone he’d just met, Sylvia decided to rely on the Grand Lord’s Insight to convey her sincerity and gently made her proposal.
“There’s no one else who knows how to use this besides me. If you let me handle it, I can ensure…”
“Proceed.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Try.”
Would he really hand over this precious material so casually?
When Sylvia was about to feel moved, the Sixth Lord continued.
“However, there’s a condition.”
Of course, there had to be.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to accommodate the Sixth Lord’s request, so she slowly nodded her head.
“Follow me.”
Sylvia entered the Lord’s Palace, following the Sixth Lord. He led her into a room. Judging from the mountain of documents piled neatly on the desk in the sparsely furnished room, it seemed to be his office.
“I remember you said you could handle paperwork.”
“Yes.”
“Then take a seat.”
“Me? You mean me?”
A nod.
When Sylvia hesitantly took her seat while glancing at Luke, he subtly suppressed a smirk and slid the documents towards her.
“We are about to go through a handover.”
“Um?”
“Let’s start with the regional situation report, budget allocation, and personnel management.”
“…”
“Excuse me, what does that mean?”
“Analysis of law and order in the domains of the Second Lordship, regular patrol records, and the monthly report to the royal family. All of that is now your responsibility.”
“Everything?”
Sylvia briefly scanned the documents in front of her. Though meticulously categorized, seemingly the work of the Sixth Lord, the sheer quantity was overwhelming. It would take at least a few weeks.
“The deadline for the royal report is in five days.”
“Is that even possible?”
Well, if she focused solely on the task for five days, it was conceivable, but the time was exceedingly tight. The Sixth Lord tilted his head as if there were no problem. Having already sworn loyalty to him, she couldn’t take back her words, leaving Sylvia sweating nervously.
The Luke recalled something important and spoke,
“As a reference, you don’t need to be too meticulous with the work.”
“Excuse me?”
“Since these documents will be presented to the royal family, just do them decently. If you want, you can throw in a few small mistakes.”
“…?”
What did he mean by that?
Could he be testing her?
[ Warning! Sudden changes detected within the target! ]
[ System analysis impossible with this entity! ]
[ Unable to discern the target’s intentions! ]
Sylvia swallowed deeply.
No matter his intent, she understood that she couldn’t take his words at face value. She knew this kind of character well. They would make such elusive statements about unclear expectations, but if the results were unsatisfactory, their favor would become impossibly difficult to earn.
“The corpse you can study at your leisure. But this task comes first.”
“I understand.”
“Let me emphasize again: the work doesn’t need to be too precise. As long as it’s not a catastrophic failure, even a few intentional errors would be fine.”
“Understood.”
Sylvia suppressed the laughter that nearly escaped her lips.
And she thought,
‘There’s no way.’
The Sixth Lord, Luke Richter.
She was definitely going to conquer him.
*
A few days had passed.
“…This is ridiculously easy?”
She was lounging on the bed, enjoying her unexpected free time. Having handed most of the paperwork over to Sylvia, she found herself with a surprising amount of leisure. It was all worth it for handing over the seemingly useless Ouroboros remains.
She mused absentmindedly.
When the chains of order collapse and cracks appear, the entities of the Outer Sea would eventually descend. That meant they’d soon face the ultimate bosses—beyond anything they’d encountered so far.
Though he had absorbed fragments of the Runes of Time and Space, granting him power comparable to those foes, worry lingered. His current level would save him from death, but his priority was the world’s salvation. Surviving alone wouldn’t be worth much. If the final battle against these ultimate bosses ravaged the world, everything would be for nothing.
“Of course, a certain amount of sacrifice would be necessary… But it would be better to minimize harm.”
Thus, the clearest solution was to strengthen their forces.
“Hmm.”
At the moment, there weren’t many ways to increase his power. He already commanded time and space with nearly inexhaustible abilities thanks to Uroboros’ legacy. Magical energy, which he’d already given up on, no longer mattered, leaving him with either finding remarkable artifacts… or enhancing the Runes’ own powers.
“I’ve reached the peak of blossoming…”
The powers granted by the runes followed four stages:
– Embodiment(體化): The rune’s power seeps into the physical body.
– Blossoming(開花): The rune’s five stars imprint on the soul.
– Ascension(昇華): Touching the world’s core.
– Oneness(歸一): Becoming one with the rune, a state almost tantamount to godhood.
Having absorbed fragments of the Demon King sealed in Elfried’s soul and Uroboros’ chaotic energy, he was currently on the brink of the blossoming’s zenith. Even at this stage, he wielded transcendent power, but Ascension would open a totally new dimension.
The power, accuracy, and speed of his abilities would increase across the board, but the most significant change was the dramatic increase in the abilities’ range.
Most importantly,
‘The ability to unlock powers becomes possible.’
Until now, he had paid a price to unlock the power of the runes. For example, he sacrificed a ring during the Uroboros extermination to attain dominion over the Abyss. That was the fate of one burdened by karma and the world’s causality.
But upon reaching Ascension, one gained some freedom from causality. Some abilities could be used without cost, and among them, there were quite a few useful ones.
‘Like teleportation.’
By setting a marker in advance, this ability allowed him to return to that point anytime. He’d wanted to acquire this ability when obtaining the Rune of Space but ended up with dominion over a region instead, something he rarely utilized anyway.
Ultimately, what he needed was to reach Ascension.
The problem with Rune powers, however, was that they were harder to progress than typical abilities. Though defeating an Outer God and absorbing its essence was one way, they weren’t exactly common, and waiting for another encounter was uncertain.
So, there was little choice.
He would need to find and absorb another Rune.
“……”
He went through all the potentially useful Runes mentally before making the decision.
“Rune of Elements.”
…It was time to act.
