D.I.O

“Argh!”

However, Lancelot couldn’t avoid injury. Though Lancelot could neutralize Tan’s attack with his stab, his arms were ravaged in the process.

If Tan’s attack continued, it would spell the end for Lancelot… but Arthur took advantage of the dragon’s brief shift in focus and rushed toward Tan, sending out another light attack.

“I told you to focus on me!” Arthur shouted.

Furthermore, Arthur’s assault wasn’t the only attack Tan had to face.

Boom!

Tan frowned as he felt dozens of attacks hitting him simultaneously. If Tan had his way, he would have captured the insignificant human who had [neutralized] his strike. Then, he’d run some experiments to find out how the human had done such a thing, but unfortunately, Tan couldn’t afford to divide his attention.

Woong! Woong!

Various spatial rifts started appearing, and soon, figures in unique garb poured out. There was a swordsman covered entirely with metallic armor, a robe-wearing mage, and a fighter whose body itself seemed hard enough to defend him.

“Oh! I know that guy! Isn’t he DIO’s operator?”

“I never thought I’d be fighting the operator. Now, this is what I call a final battle.”

“Don’t relax or lose focus. I heard that this monster is currently in the mid-to-late Level 20s.”

“Is it stronger than Igniz?”

Users started pouring out from the spatial rifts. They were all powerful individuals at the Master level. Once Tan realized how these players were summoned, he exuded dark blue spiritual qi.

“Utilizing DIO’s mission system… Hahaha! Setting me as the target - you dare! You’ve designated me as a boss monster?!”

Crack! Crunch!

Tan’s tsunami-like spiritual power wave started affecting the gathered Masters. Some blocked it effectively, but others succumbed to the overwhelmingly powerful force.

“Woah! Be careful!”

“Shoot! Dang, he’s strong!”

“We don’t have system buffs! Everyone, keep your wits about you and maintain your focus! Still, since we have Arthur on our side, we shouldn’t be at too much of a disadvantage!”

Even when their colleagues died after standing beside them just moments ago, the surviving Masters didn’t bat an eye. This was because these people had appeared as [users].

The users materialized in the real world through DIO. So, while they may face a slight penalty if they died, it was not an eternal death, as it would just be a death to their in-game character. Moreover, these Masters had faced death many times over.

‘Shit! It would be so simple if I just destroyed their souls.’

Tan gnashed his teeth. Tan knew he shouldn’t annihilate these users’ souls. Although these users were currently his enemy, they would all become valuable resources once Tan defeated Arthur and Merlin and regained operational control over DIO. It didn’t matter if he killed the users, but many problems would occur if he messed with their souls.

“In the end, I guess it can’t be helped. If Gerult manifests, this is all for naught anyway.”

Growling, Tan raised his spiritual qi.

“I shall kill all of you.”

Rumble!

Dozens of monkeys that had been sniping and neutralizing the falling lightning attacks turned to ash and scattered. To be precise, all of the monkeys weren’t annihilated. One was scorched beyond recognition, but it escaped. Cruze had been hiding behind Lancelot and continuing to fire toward Tan when she screamed in surprise.

“Wukong! Are you okay?”

“I’m not okay! I thought I wouldn’t sustain much damage because it was a 1 in 35 chance he’d land a blow on me, but to attack all my images at the same time… he even damaged me!”

“… Since you’re crying like a baby, it seems you’ve avoided death.”

“Seems I’ve avoided death?! Hey, you cold-hearted master, a direct hit would have killed me!”

“So, you’re saying you avoided getting hit directly, right?”

“Ugh! This master of mine has no sense of empathy or concern!”

Cruze’s pet, Wukong, sighed when he saw that his master had not even turned her head to see if he was okay; however, since the situation was dire, Wukong didn’t continue protesting. Since he had avoided a direct hit, he escaped with his life, but Wukong suffered severe injuries.

At that moment, a red energy aura wrapped around Cruze’s pet, Wukong, and healed his scorched body. And that wasn’t all. Meanwhile, Lancelot had been trying to heal his broken arms using potions when the aura enveloped him too. Under its effects, he recovered quickly.

“This precious aura comes from a great healing spell. Receive it with honor and appreciation.”

Next to them, a girl in a white coat stepped down as she held Hydra, a red staff taller than her. She wasn’t a famous user, but everyone present knew who she was.

“Miho….”

Tan’s plot to instigate a fight between Merlin and Arthur threw Miho to Earth with her fox body. This was how she retained her tails in real life. However, the moment she manifested, she became a human user, as DIO converted one’s real-life body into a human avatar in-game. Thus, manifesting removed her tails.

Miho wasn’t the only one that appeared in the area.

“Tear everything down. I shall gather my wrath and….”

Arc, whose body was entirely covered with black armor, quietly whispered a spell as she strode forward. Merlin’s pet Quiet Heaven and Arc’s pet Ellie were perched on her shoulders. Also…

“… Huh?”

Actually, that was all. With a confused look, Wukong glanced at the red-feathered eagle that flew into the air.

“Hey, Quiet Heaven… Where’s your master?”

“Merlin didn’t come. He has something else to do.”

“What? This freakishly powerful monster is invading, but you’re telling me your master has something else to do?”

Wukong looked at his old friend with a puzzled expression, but surprisingly, Quiet Heaven nodded.

“Yes. It’s actually quite important.”

“Wait, what can be more important than this? He has something more urgent?”

“Yeah, it seems that way. Hahaha, it’s very important….”

“Hey, Quiet Heaven… Mr. Shepard?”

Exasperated, Wukong had called out to Quiet Heaven using its real name. Not getting a response, Wukong turned to Ellie, a cat with green eyes and black fur that had a faint blue glow.

“Sally, what’s going on?”

“Don’t call me by my real name, you idiot… Well, I guess it doesn’t matter anymore now that our contracts have been terminated. Regardless, something came up, so Merlin won’t be joining us for a while. We need to buy him some time.”

“No, wait… you both know you’re speaking gibberish, right? That guy is Tan… Tan! He’s an elder of the Noblesse, and in the old days, he was called the King of the Arrogant and the Beast of the Apocalypse. No matter how important other matters may be, we’re not in a situation where people can just leave for other things! How the hell are we supposed to fight Tan with our strongest ally missing?”

Wukong screamed, but everyone else prepared for battle. Nobody seemed to care or listen to Wukong’s hysterical cries.

“One, two, three, four!”

Miho swung her red staff as if she were twirling a baton, and soon, fluttering flames appeared around her. This was one of the fox species’ unique abilities - fox fire, and it began to amplify with the addition of her magic power.

“… We will come together and accomplish what we set out to do. So, enwrap and solidify….”

Arc was still walking forward while chanting. With each step, the magic power swirling around her body intensified madly.

“Have you all gone deaf and dumb? Where is Merlin? What is he doing right now? Hey, Mr. Shepard… Quiet Heaven! Where the hell is your master?”

Of course, it was quite logical for Wukong to have such a hysterical reaction to Merlin’s absence.

The battle was rapidly reaching its climax.

With this battle, the fate of DIO, the users, and the many beings connected and entangled to the service would change forever. It was a momentous occasion, likely marking a milestone in human history.

Yet, during this critical time, one of the strongest powers that everyone acknowledged unequivocally was missing…

However, Merlin’s pet, Quiet Heaven, lightly clicked its tongue before speaking.

“Tsk. You’re not acting like the famed Wukong of old. Stop being such a worry wart and prepare.”

“To be specific, the Great Sage Heaven’s Equal was the one who spread his prestige and made my name known throughout the land… wait, enough with my name and reputation… where the hell is Merlin?”

“He’s conducting some research.”

Wukong’s thick eyebrows twitched after hearing Quiet Heaven’s simple answer.

“Research? Research?!”

Wukong looked back. With a roar, a strong qi-based light attack cut through the sky.

“He’s conducting some sort of research right now?”

As the newly-added forces began attacking, Tan couldn’t use his ultimate magic attack. The Masters were attacking non-stop, preventing Tan from gaining the chance to cast one. All the players knew everything would end if Tan completed his large-scale ultimate magic spell.

“Are you serious?”

Seeing such a desperate battle, Wukong made a thoroughly exasperated expression.

“Research… In this situation? At a time like this?”

***

Meanwhile, Merlin was in his lab inside the Magic Tower. Although he hadn’t been here for long, he had already run numerous tests on Muspelheim.

“There’s no denying it… Both Muspelheims are real. Even if one is deemed a fake, it has the exact same power and performance as the other.”

Since he was not recognized as the owner, Merlin couldn’t use Muspelheim as a weapon. Furthermore, he couldn’t access its structure to understand its activation principle, so Muspelheim was essentially a useless hunk of junk.

Defeating Igniz and obtaining Muspelheim was a greater gain than all the drops he had acquired so far combined, but once he wielded Muspelheim, he found that it did not benefit him whatsoever.

Regardless, Merlin, a gifted researcher, studied and ran tests on Muspelheim ever since he got his hands on it. At this moment, he was going to bear the fruits of his labor.

Of course, a higher being, someone more powerful than Merlin, could be deceiving him by presenting two Muspelheims… But who would do something so useless? And why would anyone spend such considerable resources to create a fake Transcendent Weapon?

“This… perhaps…”

Merlin summoned his Editor Blade. And, as he stared at the two Muspelheims, he revised a hypothesis.

“Data Patch.”

Boom!

As soon as he whispered the trigger phrase, the Editor Blade recoiled and bounced off, hitting the ceiling. Merlin lifted his hand and squeezed his tingling wrist. The Editor Blade disappeared like a flickering image and returned.

“As expected, this doesn’t work.”

Just like how a transcendent was a [singular, independent figure], the same was true for a Transcendent Weapon. Moreover, Muspelheim was a Numbered that ranked within the top thousand of its kind.

Since Muspelheim burned and existed by its own power and will, respectively, others could not interfere and overwhelm it through external force unless they possessed a staggering amount of power. Even after entering the tower, Muspelheim wasn’t subject to DIO’s system. This was also the same for Igniz when she entered DIO, as Igniz was an external transcendent. If DIO’s [system] could affect these transcendents, Merlin would have restrained and captured Igniz like he did Sungmuk, whom he made into his pet.

“I can’t do anything with it despite holding it….”

For a moment, Merlin thought Muspelheim was like a locked compressed file; he undoubtedly had it in his possession, but he couldn’t unlock the file and utilize its content.

Then, an idea popped into Merlin’s head.

“Wait a minute… a file… that means…”

If one tried to create a large new program, for example, a masterpiece game, a huge amount of manpower and money needed to be consumed. First of all, programmers were required, and illustrators to draw in-game illustrations would be necessary as well. Scenario writers and storytellers would create quests and stories, and software engineers would oversee and supervise all aspects of software production and processing.

When creating a large-scale game, spending tens of billions of dollars was expected. However, even with such enormous expenditure, making this game would take several years. Programmers, illustrators, storytellers, and other resources were required. It would take many years, even if countless people spent hundreds of millions of dollars.

“What about copying, though?”

It was a completely different case if someone wanted to copy an existing game. Even if it took countless people several years and tens of billions of dollars, once a person got their hands on the source file, copying the data was simple.

All one needed was a computer and…

One’s fingers…

“… Nonsense.”

Merlin laughed at the absurd assumption. How could such a thing be possible?

Nevertheless, as always, existing evidence was more important than theory.

“I guess I’ll give it a try… since I have Pathway to Hell….”

As he focused his mind, Merlin activated his Editor Blade, and then…

The Noblesse and Elohim… and even the gods throughout the universe… all who were watching him…

“Data Copy.”

… They watched as Merlin exploited a [Universe Error].