A Village Appeared on My Desktop

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Chapter 177 – Borderline (7)

“The Demon Lords attempting to crawl to the surface through the chaos have been defeated one by one. Those that were vanquished will remain quietly in hell until they recover their strength. Now, only one Demon Lord remains: the Ashen Flame, Razak.”

“If we kill him, will peace come to this world?”

“Peace. I can’t be certain whether that’s possible or not.”

Regner smirked at Riena’s words. He understood why she would say such a thing.

Having spent quite a bit of time in this world and seen many things, Riena had accumulated more experiences in a shorter time than most others.

The countless human faces she had observed. Especially the ones she never saw in her hometown, where she was revered as a Saintess.

The lords exploiting the commoners, the residents rioting in desperation, swindlers deceiving fellow farmers, and so on.

Many of these situations that were related to side quests, had no direct connection to demons. Even outside the context of wars between factions, there were plenty of elements threatening peace.

“What’s clear is that we don’t have the luxury to relax. Peace, like the affairs of the world, won’t maintain itself just by sitting idle. It requires tremendous effort to keep it intact. God is not some indulgent parent who caters to our whims.”

Even though Regner was an angel who followed God, he conveyed that one should not rely entirely on Him. Despite receiving direct support from that very God, Riena empathized with him.

Ultimately, it was oneself who was the subject living in this world, and it was also oneself who would change it.

“Thank you for your wise words.”

“…I’m grateful that you consider them wise. You don’t need to be overly thankful. All the achievements you’ve made here, as I’ve said, are the results of your own efforts. It seems that ‘He’ is coming.”

Regner smiled at Riena’s expression of gratitude and looked up at the sky. It was the moment he would reconnect to the game which he had briefly disconnected from.

‘This time, it’s a bit long.’

Riena swallowed dryly as she gazed at the sky. Originally, they had been alternating between resting and strategizing, but this time it was different. He had instructed her to rest within the game.

Thanks to this, she had already spent several days navigating through the game, tackling chapters and completing quests. There weren’t any real discomforts. After all, this place was just another world.

However, this also meant Riena was unaware of what was happening outside. The very reason he hurriedly logged into the game was the same.

“Let’s go. Doesn’t it seem urgent?”

Regner assessed this from his character’s control. The way he rushed in, jumping up and down in a flurry, seemed exceedingly urgent.

“I’ll go right now!”

Hastily finishing her preparations, Riena followed him. Their destination was the castle where the final boss awaited them, accessible through a city laid waste by the invasion of the Demon Lord.

“This tiresome path.”

He sighed while maneuvering his character to guide her. It wasn’t like anything special awaited them in this final chapter.

All it was, was the same foes from before appearing stronger and in greater numbers. He thought he understood why this game was criticized for lack of innovation, merely recycling elements from its acclaimed predecessor as he and Riena entered into fierce combat.

This wasn’t their first rodeo.

Whether it was due to limitations or inefficiencies, the bugs were absent, and all of the foes before them were typical game monsters.

However, Riena’s power, which had steadily grown as the protagonist of the game, proved fatal even to them.

“—!”

Ejected as elite monsters in Chapter 1, the soul devourers poured out like fodder, and her golden-infused sword cut them down in a single stroke.

Screaming in disbelief as they dissolved, the undead had not anticipated falling in one hit. She didn’t even glance at them.

Under the gloomy sky, amidst an overall dreary and eerie backdrop, only the mystical golden glow emanating from her radiated warmth and divinity.

“Chosen judge, how dare you…”

While she sat still and sent her subordinates to fight, it wasn’t out of kindness that this game’s boss was waiting patiently for the player to ‘hunt them down’.

If it were up to him, Razak would have loved to rip them apart as they made their way here.

Riena’s origin or true identity didn’t matter to Razak at all. Like a player in the game, Riena was an adversary of the Demon Lords.

‘I can’t just mindlessly kill. Since she’s made it this far, that girl has been chosen by the heavens, and unless I completely shatter her resolve and corrupt her heart, I can’t win.’

This muscular Demon Lord, adorned with the head of a bull shrouded in flaming ashes, snorted as he flexed the wings on his back.

He already knew how to bring Riena down. Due to the trolling by fellow Demon Lords, shattering the existence cloaked in divine protection was simply impossible now.

“Attack the companion with that girl. Keep putting them in peril and shake her resolve. Make her faith waver!”

Razak commanded his subordinates. The target was not Riena, but the nameless knight moving alongside her.

Aware of the fact that this knight was important to Riena, Razak intended to leverage that knowledge.

“—!”

Though Razak couldn’t move his avatar completely yet, elite monsters and midboss-level monstrosities charged forth en masse at Riena and Joonyoung.

“Ugh…”

Riena grit her teeth at the relentless assault of the foes. As clear as her upper hand was in both stats and skill, she knew the moment she let her guard down, she’d be in trouble.

In the blink of an eye, sharp swords whizzed past, and javelins tore through the air. The shockwaves and magic impacts rolled in.

It was a super-high-difficulty fight where even Riena, unleashing her skills, could hardly advance.

“What, what is with all of these?”

The problem was that for the strongest warrior of the Arin tribe, Riena, to be pushed to this extent meant it was nothing short of a disaster for your average player.

It was definitely not a level representative of normal game difficulty.

Wave upon wave of enemies that should not have been present at this level attacked from all directions, making the player controlling the character through mouse and keyboard feel dizzy as he struggled to preserve the character’s life.

The moment he loosened his ongoing defense, an unseen arrow or skill would likely swoop in to snuff out the character’s life in an instant.

Until now, he had been leading Riena while casting support magic, but this moment was different.

‘Can these guys be targeting me!?’

He gritted his teeth as he viewed the moving multitude of foes on his screen.

Up until that point, it had always been Riena at the center of everything. All rewards were funneled to her, and naturally, Riena had been the one to lead the charge against enemies.

He had been essentially a guide and supporter within the game. Although there were moments he stepped in, most of the time, his role was to let the residents handle things themselves, guiding them.

No matter how Riena treated him, every enemy they had faced until now had aimed for her. Unless he made a notable move, the nameless knight would remain an inconsequential figure, his face unseen.

But Razak was different. After constraining Riena’s movement with a sheer numerical onslaught, he directly commanded his minions to target him, who was lurking at the back.

“Is he an idiot!?”

He exclaimed as he looked at the screen and sighed. The character was merely an extension of himself. Even in a hardcore game where dying meant data loss, losing data he invested in Riena wasn’t on the line.

After all, Riena wasn’t just a game character.

Even if the character died, in the end, it was nothing more than a useless piece of data.

As a player existing in another world, he couldn’t fathom why Razak was targeting him.

“Now, choose, judge. Your comrade or your mission!”

Oblivious to what thoughts Razak was having about him, he grinned while watching the two cornered individuals.

He was clearly beyond the level that a player could handle, and he was hitting his limits, barely holding on. If Riena wanted to save him, she had to leave the spot with him.

If that happened, Riena would essentially be fleeing. That would be akin to abandoning her duties as a judge and betraying the heavens.

Razak was aiming for that. Forcing a comrade’s sacrifice for a sacred duty, aiming to fracture Riena’s heart no matter what choice she made.

Once a crack appeared in her heart, he planned to push through and create an opportunity.

“Kill him!”

At last, his defense barrier shattered. Though he frantically pounded the keyboard to guard, the limit had been surpassed.

Seizing the chance, Razak commanded a wraith knight to kill him. If Riena wanted to save him, it was now or never.

“No, that insolent girl!”

However, Riena, glancing back at him for a moment, ultimately did not attempt to rescue him.

She stood firm in her place, watching as he was ripped apart by the enemy’s onslaught. Razak’s eyes widened in shock as he witnessed this.

“Thank you for everything up till now…”

As she watched the character he controlled perish, a faint smile spread across her face.

She already knew that the knight who just died was merely one of the many avatars he possessed. Just because the knight died didn’t mean he would die too.

But she also knew that if she couldn’t save him from this place, they would never again traverse this world together as they had before.

For Riena, their shared time in this game was a rare opportunity and blessing in a life barely reaching twenty.

Although enemies swarmed them, this was another world that had unfurled her view, which was once confined to mere barbarian tribes, allowing her to meet various individuals and hear countless stories.

All her experiences in the Dark Blood world contributed significantly to who she was now.

‘Because I know that.’

Thanks to this, she had matured into a Saintess capable of discerning her true duties and what is truly important.

[Celestial Blessing: Wings of Purity]

Nothing is eternal. Where there is a meeting, there is a parting. Ironically, Riena found herself growing once again by sacrificing the God she served.

Her heart had become sturdy and seamless. Even Razak or the bugs wouldn’t be able to worm their way into it.

“Ah, no, this is absurd.”

The strongest Demon Lord, the Ashen Flame Razak, staggered as he viewed the intense light bursting forth below him.

Chapter 178: A Village Emerged on My Desktop