White Night did not easily fall prey.
She began to modify the talismans attached to her body in real-time and soon started to regain control over her magic power.
If she had just three more minutes, she could have recovered her strength and turned the banquet hall into ashes.
But she was already surrounded by my heroes.
We were not foolish enough to watch her regain her power.
Flight was not permitted.
My heroes charged in from all sides, shouting, and White Night, despite everything, began a desperate resistance.
She scattered talisman scrolls she had hidden, attempting to bombard the area. But then...
"Torkel!"
"Huup-!"
With his ultimate skill, 'Man is not Made for Defeat', activated, Torkel blocked White Night's path.
An immensely powerful magic that could melt city walls exploded, but Torkel, with his ultimate skill and his giant shield, easily blocked it.
As White Night frantically reached for another talisman, Lucas and Evangeline broke through from her flanks. White Night immediately scattered talismans towards them, but...
Boom!
Lucas, trusting the overwhelming magical defense of his new armor 'Water Moon', charged straight in.
He successfully closed in on White Night, piercing through the magical flames.
Taat-!
Evangeline, approaching from the other side, easily blocked the magic with her shield and absorbed the damage with 'Damage Save'.
My three vanguards successfully intercepted White Night's three most crucial attacks.
At that point, it was game set.
A mage is certainly the most powerful tactical weapon in this world, but...
If they cannot secure distance, warm up their engine, or have insufficient fuel.
"Checkmate."
They die.
White Night was pummeled by the sniping and magic of my heroes coming from all directions.
***
The third-ranked commander of the Nightmare Legion, the Grand Sorceress White Night, fell in vain.
"..."
As I quietly watched the fallen lich, the moment I approached her...
Rustle, rustle...
"What...?!"
A sticky darkness from another world burst forth from White Night's body.
'This one, she couldn't have...!'
Even as she was vanquished, she managed to modify a talisman... to secure a connection with another world!
The eyes of the bloodied corpse on the ground suddenly rolled and glared at me.
A dense darkness covered the air, and within it, a giant white eyeball slowly appeared.
Whirrrr-
Thump!
A bright red iris swam atop the white, rotating like a turret locking on its target, then stopped.
The target was me.
A clear sneer crossed the lips of the fallen White Night.
"Even if I go, I'll take you with me to hell, Ash...!"
The giant eye began to blink, appearing to move in slow motion.
The figures of my subordinates throwing themselves to protect me also seemed to move slowly.
And then, faster than any of them-
Swoosh!
Nameless blocked in front of me.
Flash-!
From Nameless' hand, an old iron sword emitted a dazzling light.
"Haah-!"
With her blue dress fluttering, Nameless struck down with a slash made of light.
The beam of light from the sword was so bright it seemed to erase the night around it.
Before that light, the darkness of another world was incinerated, and the Outer eye in it lost its form.
The iris couldn't even close its eyelids, and the attack was rendered futile.
"It's not the Outer God, but the darkness that forms the base of the summoning you targeted."
White Night muttered in resignation.
"Interfering until the end, Nameless One..."
Instead of responding, Nameless flicked her sword down and slowly sheathed it.
As she flicked her sword, the fragments of light scattered around us, forming a defensive line that neutralized the darkness of the other world.
In the fading darkness, the giant eyeball still gazed at me.
And then-
"...Player."
A voice resounded.
It was deep, dull, and reminiscent of a bug gnawing on something. I clutched my throbbing forehead.
That eyeball, the Outer God, was speaking to me.
"You are worthy."
"Worthy of what, all of a sudden... Worthy?"
"Yes. You are more than worthy of ascension... of obtaining divinity and ascending to the throne. Haven't you been fighting for a very long time?"
White Night looked up at the eyeball with startled eyes, but the eyeball roared without paying her any attention.
"I shall aid you. Let us stand together in the heavens. Then your shattered soul will be completely healed, and your existence restored."
"..."
"You are worthy of this. Come, join me..."
"Fuck off."
I interrupted it and flipped my middle finger.
The eyeball widened in shock.
"What?"
"Fuck off. Or maybe you have eyes but no ears?"
I growled, spewing blasphemous words against the Outer God.
"I don't need your ascension, divinity, throne, or whatever incoherent game you're playing. Just pretend you never heard that and get out of our world."
"Do you not understand? You are a fake, glued together! The only way for the shattered you to become real again is to gain divinity and stand with us!"
"And who are you to certify me as genuine or fake?"
Standing right before the boundary of scattered light, I glared at it.
"I am fake. I am shattered. So what?"
I think of...
The child lying in the hospital.
This collapsing world.
All the people within my reach.
I want to save them.
This clear wish in my heart, even if the darkness of another world descends, is an unquenchable lantern that allows me to be myself.
I smiled wryly.
"That's enough for me."
"...Is it?"
The darkness faded, and the giant eye began to disperse.
The last thing it uttered, surprisingly moderate in tone.
"As one who has watched over you for a long time, it was a pleasure to converse, Player. I will watch your last battle towards destruction... to the very end."
"There might be doom and gloom in your world, but not in ours."
I spat out bitterly towards the disappearing eyeball.
"I'll make sure to ruin your fun with all my might."
The eyeball completely vanished, and the darkness lifted.
The silence was broken by the dying voice of White Night.
"...Why?"
I turned around to see White Night, fallen and coughing up blood, asking in pure bewilderment.
"Why did you, refuse that offer?"
"..."
"You too are a fake... like me, a chimera pieced together from someone else's memories."
"..."
"Why? Don't you want to become real, Ash?"
After a small sigh, I slowly raised my hand to the sky.
"Do you see it, White Night?"
"...?"
Confused, White Night raised her head to look at my finger.
And then... she belatedly realized what my finger was pointing at.
The moon.
During our battle, a hole had been blasted through the outer wall of Hotel Crossroad. Through it, moonlight, having just passed through the clouds, was shining down.
Bathed in the pale moonlight, I murmured.
"Isn't it beautiful?"
"Beautiful, but what does this..."
"Does it matter whether the hand pointing at the moon's beauty is real or as fake as Pinocchio's? It's irrelevant, right?"
"...!"
The hand is not important.
Look at the moon.
Whether I am real or fake, that is not important.
As long as my heart in saving this world is real.
"What matters is the heart behind the flag, not the flag itself."
So.
It doesn't matter if I am a being born of lies. Even if I am a hideous patchwork of pieces, it doesn't matter.
Because the heart within me is true.
White Night, as if struck on the back of her head, looked up at the moon with a dazed expression and then,
"Ha ha..."
Let out a hollow laugh.
"Ash, your words are truly right."
"..."
"Whether it's real or fake, it's just a finger pointing at the moon."
The sorceress who was Soya, having entered the body of Black Night, a copy from White Night,
Whether it's Black Night, Soya, or White Night, the mage whose identity was now unclear, coughed out laughter mixed with tears and blood.
"I spent my life in vain, striving to be a real, eternal finger."
"..."
"Without truly knowing what life I desired, what I wanted to point to..."
The light in the undead's eyes quickly faded.
"If I could turn this world into a fake, then perhaps I could go to the real world above... Then I, too, would no longer be a fake."
"..."
"Even if I had managed that, since I never knew what I truly wanted to point to, I would always remain a fake."
The laughter mixed with tears gradually subsided.
"How absurd, how laughable. In the end, I..."
With her head buried in the mud of her own blood, White Night mumbled one last time.
"What did I want to point to, what did I want to live for..."
For what purpose.
To the extent of sacrificing her life and becoming undead.
To the extent of allying with the Demon King and begging the Outer Gods.
Did she want to become real?
"Now, I... can't remember..."
Unable to recall to the end.
White Night breathed her last.
"..."
Looking down at the corpse of the fallen enemy commander, I slowly raised my head again.
The pale moonlight shone straight upon us.
***
The party was over, but the battle was not yet finished.
Apart from the liches that had infiltrated Crossroad, the remaining forces of the Lich Legion were waiting in the plains south of Crossroad.
They were in hiding, fully prepared to strike Crossroad from outside if the party turned out to be a trap and White Night sent a signal.
Their movements were stealthy, but such contingency planning was predictable. Our scouts had already located them.
Above all, White Night, who was supposed to send the signal, had already been eliminated.
My troops, having circled around to the rear of the Lich Legion, who were only guarding against an attack from Crossroad, ambushed them.
The Lich Legion, composed entirely of mages, possessed formidable firepower, one of the most powerful among the monster ranks.
However, as I've said several times, that's only when the basic conditions are met.
A fighter jet that can't take off from the runway doesn't even get the chance to crash.
My heroes, who closed in suddenly, decimated the Lich Legion, which couldn't put up a proper resistance.
With the legion commander and the elite units all eliminated inside Crossroad, it was actually more difficult for them to exert proper combat power.
"..."
After neutralizing the last lich's attempt to cast magic with her shield and finishing it off with a spear,
Evangeline, looking down at the fallen lich, spat out,
"Will we ever have a monster on our side?"
"..."
"I liked that lich archmage... She gave me armor, helped in many ways... I thought maybe, transcending friend or foe, she could become our ally."
Dressed in Snow White, given by White Night, Evangeline muttered as she looked down at her armor.
"But to think she intended to burn down our world... We defeated and eliminated her, but my heart feels odd."
"Someday, it might happen."
I found myself thinking of Salome again.
I thought of Kali-Alexander and White Night as well.
All of them could have been enemy commanders who joined our side.
Some really became our allies, some we understood yet had to fight to death, and some tried to betray me until I took the initiative.
What kind of enemy commanders will we face next?
But one thing is certain.
"Yet, we are in the midst of a war."
Basically, we are enemies who must fight to death.
"Don't ever forget that, Evangeline."
"..."
"Let's go."
Comforting Evangeline, who had her lips tightly sealed, I led the way.
"The real war begins now."
The first battle of the third year.
The third-ranked commander of the Nightmare Legion, the Grand Sorceress White Night, and the Lich Legion.
This battle has come to an end.
And now.
The most arduous and challenging final year begins, incomparable to what we've faced so far.