NOVPUBIn the chilling winter air, Hyperion held Talia’s hand, seemingly trying to share some warmth with her.
"Talia, why don’t you go home first? I’ll have Lanci drop me off at the Boss Cat Restaurant later."
Hyperion looked at Talia, speaking in a gentle and considerate manner.
She could sense that Talia didn’t want to watch the ongoing match anymore.
Although she didn’t know the reason, Hyperion would not pester someone when they may be troubled.
"Alright, I’ll wait at home for you for dinner."
Talia nodded, released Hyperion’s hand, and rose up to swiftly leave the walkway.
Watching Talia’s figure disappear, Hyperion let out a breath of relief, possibly of consolation, possibly of admiration.
"If only I had a mother like this from the beginning..."
Hyperion lowered her eyelids, whispering to herself silently.
Then, shaking her head, Hyperion once again turned her attention to the ongoing battle.
On the icy Battle Square, the iron armor of the Demon King’s Slaughter Troops clanked, a lean fighter suddenly burst out with astonishing speed, his body instantly transformed into a lightning bolt, his muscles generating immense power in his movements, looking to launch a powerful kick to strike down his enemy.
However, the sawtooth broadsword in the hands of the Demon Soldier was already poised to meet the attack, he didn’t try to block with his weapon, but took the kick head-on, while the chest of the fighter was torn open by the sawtooth sword, the warmth of the fresh red flesh instantly taken away by the cold wind.
On the other side of the Square, two Demon Soldiers were besieging a lone fighter, who was trying to retreat in terror, but the heavy axe and the Death God’s scythe inevitably swung towards his waist from left and right, spraying blood, his internal organs nearly separated from his body, the mighty impact force made it unknown whether his waist was directly dislocated.
As the mist of blood spread, the audience could clearly see that each attack by the Demon King’s Army was sculpting the art of fear, they were not just fighting for victory, but also relishing the process of slaughter, as though only this could burn their chaotic eyes, filling their already empty hearts.
The five Ichrite fighters, who had been remodeled by Lanci, felt no pain, only the combat instructions for slaughter remained.
Their sawtooth broadswords and giant axes traced fresh red arcs in the air, and every time they fell, there was always a fighter who let out a piercing scream or got flung into the air.
The white Battle Square had long been stained with crimson, the vivid bloodstains on the marble tiles were continuously spread by rubbing.
"No, don’t come over!"
A fighter with a twisted leg, his eyes filled with fear, sat on the ground and kept retreating, with all his strength trying to strike at the Demon Soldier in front of him. However, it was like trying to shake a giant tree. As the butcher kept getting closer, there was only a contemptuous and morbidly obsessed expression in his eyes.
Then, the hair-raising sound of organs rupturing echoed through the battlefield.
After more than ten minutes of fighting, the fighters of the Arolan Kingdom fell one after another, their blood-stained weapons reflected a cold hue under the dim natural light.
At this point, the entire arena had become quiet, except for the four fighters who had already fainted, there was only one left, Kuise, being surrounded by five demons.
Even though each member of the Soul of Fighters’ Club Team from Ichrite Academy was already severely injured, their smiles were only more satisfied.
"Finally, it’s only you left..."
The deputy captain let out a low growl like a beast from the abyss.
The other members also seemed to have come to kill Kuise, not enough no matter how many times they killed him.
This hatred seemed to be turning into love, they only wanted to see him, get close to him, only he could provide the answer for their satisfaction.
"Why won’t you all go down!!"
Kuise began to retreat for the first time during his incredulous roar.
This was the muscle movement driven by instinct.
He had knocked these blokes down in the previous battle.
But even if their bones were broken, they would still stand up again!
He had never seen such terrifying creatures before.
Though at the moment, Kuise, whose face was covered in blood, seemed to still be able to fight. But facing five undead, madly surrounding and hunting him, he finally felt terror.
Under such circumstances, he no longer wanted to confront this group of mad dogs.
But in front of tens of thousands of people, if he, who had been very tough just before, surrendered to those he disdained, it would be more unbearable than killing him!
"Do you know how many times you have killed me..."
"Today, you must die here..."
"I will never let you hurt Cervini again..."
The heads of the creatures swayed back and forth, muttering incomprehensibly with twisted facial expressions, their blood-red eyes fixated on Kuise.
The group of creatures in front of him seemed as if they had been brainwashed, incessantly murmuring inexplicable words.
"What on earth are you talking about?!"
Watching all this, Kuise finally cried out in horror.
He hadn’t done anything to Cervini at all!
Even Lavisseir on the commentary seat didn’t know how to explain at this point.
Hyperion immediately jumped off the audience stand, ran to Lanci, who was sitting on a coach’s bench.
The problem is much more serious than she imagined!!
The staff noticed that a spectator had jumped down and quickly prepared to restrain her, but when Lanci signalled that she was part of their coaching team, the staff nodded and stopped.
"Hyperion, I promise I’ll make you feel better today."
Lanci noticed Hyperion’s arrival, looked at her, and proudly said with a smile.
"Lanci, what have you had them do these last two days?"
Hyperion looked nervously at Lanci and asked.
Although she was surprised that Lanci admitted he was protecting her and taking this victory, rather than finding another reason, she was more concerned that Lanci had done something too audacious.
Hyperion felt that Lanci, who understood the concept of winning and losing, had become more unusual.
It was as if no one could escape his hypnotic green eyes, who would make humans fall into an endless fervor, willingly handing everything over to him...
"I had Professor Bolao modify a horror-themed Single Shadow World for me, changing the setting of forced death exit to - they would be resurrected at a certain time point after death and continue the story until they complete it."
Lanci leaned back in the long chair, watched the Battle Square, crossed his fingers and rested them on his legs, replying.
"And then?"
"Then I set the images of Kuise and others from Royal Arolan Academy as villains, setting the female lead identical to Cervini, and sent the members of the Soul of Fighters’ Club Team into the Single Shadow World one by one, designing the most tragic plots that they would find hard to accept according to their personality."
"..."
Hyperion was now more listening than speaking.
"These fighters watched as Cervini was brutally killed over and over in a world that is both fantasy and reality. They are stuck in an endless cycle of death and resurrection, every time they were about to break down from despair, Great Love Poet would appear as a goddess, gently reminding them of the mistakes and sins they had made this time, and send them to start over."
Lanci continued to narrate to Hyperion.
"You made Great Love Poet... a goddess?"
Hyperion swallowed her saliva.
"Yes, I allowed her to be released, to exercise unlimited psychological counseling."
"No..."
Hyperion covered her head.
She couldn’t describe this sin-filled spirit-torturing game.
But this was Pandora’s Box that she had opened herself.
"It’s not over."
Lanci shook his head.
What the members of the Soul of Fighters’ Club Team did not realize was that Lanci, as the central administrator, would sometimes enter the field as a character, creating some tragedies that would make them feel extreme fear or anger, to guide them.
The outcome of the story would be the challenger’s victory, but the partners who have formed a bond will certainly die, including Cervini, who would definitely die because of the challenger.
If there existed any prospect that a partner of the challenger could survive until the end, Lanci would personally enter the game and play his part to ensure his complete termination.
"I focused on emphasising a sense of fate. Just as they catch a glimpse of hope, I would extinguish it at the moment when they think things are about to change for the better. This is so they understand the harsh reality that fate is difficult to alter. When they return to real-world, they will have an awakening as if coming from a dream. However, they will also realise that the wheels of fate have started to forcefully turn once again, and they have only one chance left."
Lanci finished explaining to Hyperion how he had arranged the special training for those two days.
In the end, after more than thirty hours of intensive training, the five fighters successfully exited from this Artificial Shadow World controlled by Lanci.
Their mental condition had undergone a radical transformation.
"You…"
Hyperion’s eyelids were twitching as she quickly turned her gaze towards the Battle Square.
These five fighters, who have been deeply immersed in the Shadow World for so long, must have blurred the line between reality and fantasy by now. They have witnessed Cervini being killed by Kuise hundreds of times and now perhaps their only thoughts are of killing Kuise.
She couldn’t imagine what extreme actions these five fighters were going to take against Kuise in what was coming next!
