Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

85 - THE PLAYERS' BATTLE

Due to the appearance of the unknown Unseelie Lord, the MMORPG World of Yggdrasia was temporarily closing down its doors to the players.

The total number of registered accounts all over the world was three million and four hundred thousand players, with over six hundred thousands online at any given time. It was one of the leading large-scale MMOs at the moment.

But more and more people had begun to hold suspicions about its overly realistic world and much too human NPCs, and some had started to search for the truth. In the world of cyberspace now said to be even more vast than the real world, some players had reached a certain website with only scraps of information as their only hints.

Among these players, only those with a clear position in society, a rational mind, and a desire for the truth powerful enough for them to be willing to disclose their own personal information would be allowed to sign a special employment contract. So it came to be that several hundred players now gathered at the website for their backdoor login process.

"Is everyone ready?! Right nyow, there's a super-duper crazy meownster over there fighting with the Dark Lady! You'll die if it so much as looks at you! It might even get your real body! So prepare yourselves, boys and girls, and we'll get going!"

With the overly vivacious announcement of their guide, a stuffed cat in a maid uniform, the players stepped foot into Yggdrasia one after another.

Each driven by thoughts of their own.

***

Even the central region of the Eastern Continent had not escaped the influence of the large-scale magic circle. Swarms of dark pixies were ravaging the area.

With the downfall of the Torrann Caliphate, Katrosvingt took its place as the new largest country on this continent. The country had coordinated with Marsal Kingdom and other neighboring countries to destroy one of the Origin points of the magic circle, and they had succeeded.

As the Dark Lady was currently attracting the attention of the Unseelie Lord, the current most dangerous threat to the world, Katrosvingt and Marsal were allowed a moment of reprieve after they had killed most of the dark pixies on their lands.

It was not an extermination — the dark creatures were still a threat to these two countries. Yet even so, they were already beginning to shift their focus away from protecting their citizens, instead making military preparations to defeat the Unseelie Lord and the Dark Lady.

"...what is that?"

The soldiers standing guard on the walls of Katrosvingt's capital city noticed a group of dozens of monsters of all types approaching.

Monster attacks had gotten much worse ever since humans began to gather mana from the World Saplings, and so this attack was, in a sense, a common sight.

"What the hell...?"

But leading the monster group was something very much uncommon. It was a bicorn the size of a donkey, on top of which was a hellhound as large as a medium-sized dog, and on top of that was a chicken-size cockatrice.

The guards even forgot to ring the alarm in front of the absurd sight.

"Wha..."

"What's that thing?!"

"Hey, the alarm..."

"Waaahh?!"

Soldiers gathered as more and more of them noticed the abnormality. Then, to their surprise, the monsters all effortlessly jumped over the ten-meters high walls as if they were just stepping over a fence, ignoring the magic barrier.