The Grand Volcanic Throne Room of The Abyss

Several hours later

The Ruler silently watches the livestream showing on the screen in front of him as an amine nervously gives his report from his position a couple of meters in front of the raised dais. Alongside the two are various pureblood abyssal demons, with all of them gathered on the sides of the throne room.

The throne room itself consists of a large cavern-like hall, with a throne atop a raised dais at one end, and two enormous, obsidian doors at the other. Throughout the room are various floating braziers, lit by a dark, black flame, similar to the flames leaking from the Ruler’s eyes.

“…and your son…” the amine pauses in his report, sweat dripping off of the tips of his bat-like wings as he attempts to look anywhere that isn’t his Ruler.

“Go on,” Wilhelm says, his cold eyes writhe with black flames seemingly piercing straight through the lesser abyssal demon along with his words.

“Y-your s-son, along w-with the entirety of our main base on Aegis,” the amine begins, now physically shaking as he speaks, “have been completely wiped out, without a single survivor.”

As soon as the amine finishes speaking, he tenses up as if expecting the Ruler to do something to him. However, the Ruler just stays completely still for several seconds, causing the amine to slowly lift his head to look at him.

The instant the amine sees Wilhelm, his entire body is burnt to a crisp by a powerful wave of black flames originating from the Ruler’s eyes.

A few seconds later, one of the pureblood abyssal demons gathered in the throne room steps forwards – completely ignoring the scene that had just played out – before asking, “What do you want us to do, Ruler?”

The black flames that had begun raging in the Ruler’s eyes after hearing the news begin to turn into a simmering spark as he turns his large head to look at the demon in question. Several seconds pass in tense silence before the man finally orders, “We’re shifting our focus away from the reaper brat and to that damn bird! I want his head on a spike as soon as possible!”

After saying that, the Ruler closes out of the livestream in front of him without a second glance, stands up from his throne, and begins to glide across the floor in front of him with a pace as lithe as a cat, despite his enormous stature.

Meanwhile, the gathered abyssal demons all share a glance before following him towards the entrance to the throne room.

An Office within the Arcadian Magic Association

“So, it’s been done?” Arianais calmly asks without even glancing at the System Call screen in front of him.

“Yep,” the electric harbinger joyfully says, “that brat was tons of fun to play with! Thank you for pointing me towards him!”

Arianais’s eyes twitch slightly before he says, “It was my pleasure.”

Ansigar Lang – still covered in black blood from the chrono he had just killed – hangs up the call with a smile.

As soon as the call disconnects, the water harbinger sighs with a slight shake of his head as he mutters, “I will never understand that bird-brain…”

Just seconds later, a pool of darkness appears in the middle of Arianais’ office, followed soon after by the form of a humanoid figure rising out of it. The figure has the appearance of a human female, except with strange shadows flying across her skin, and wisps of darkness escaping the tips of her hair.

“What’s up, Umbra?” Arianais asks with nothing more than a glance towards the darkness variant harbinger.

The woman has shadows covering her eyes, and is wearing a long, flowing, black dress.

As soon as she fully emerges from the pool of darkness, the pool vanishes, and she begins to step towards the window near the chairman without a word.

Arianais quietly sighs before asking, “I’m assuming you overheard my conversation with Ansigar?”

The woman simply nods her head, still not saying anything as she looks out the window into the ocean world beyond. Amidst the seemingly endless ocean are various skyscrapers poking out of the water, along with large sea monsters of various different species peacefully floating around amidst the buildings.

“Then you should know that the Ruler is likely to be taking his focus off of the little harbinger for a while,” Arianais continues, reaching out to grab a swig of the wine glass that was sitting on his desk.

Umbra just nods her head again in silence without moving from her position by the window.

‘It’s no wonder many people seem to refer to her as a mute…’ the water harbinger thinks to himself with a frown before turning to look out the window himself. ‘Assuming those people actually survive meeting her, that is.’

“Good,” Umbra finally speaks, her voice carrying throughout the room despite the quiet tone of which she had spoken.

Soon after speaking, the woman steps into another pool of darkness that opens up right before her foot hits the ground, causing her to slowly sink back inside again without another word.

Arianais’s frown deepens slightly as he stares at the slowly vanishing pool of darkness, only to disappear entirely once he looks back out the window again.

He then sighs and mutters to himself, “Why must all harbingers be so eccentric…”

Wolf

One day later

As soon as the large desert watcher disappears in the usual sparks of light, I reach into my inventory to grab a stamina potion before downing it without a moment’s hesitation. At the same time, I feel myself begin to float out of the arena now that the default challenge has been cleared. After finishing the potion, I glance at my info again.

My Info:

Level: 601

EXP: 59438/60100

System Points: 216.20

Viewing Room Profits: 9513

I frown a little at the sight of my level before shaking my head.

It isn’t level 602, but it will just have to do.

This was the last of the default challenges after all…

Besides, if there are any other monsters fighting alongside the boss – which I hope there aren’t – then they will give me the EXP I need to level.

I turn my head to look back at the arena one last time before starting towards the teleport pad. However, just as I’m about to reach the pad, a message appears on the corner of my interface.

Oh?

System Notification

You have received a message from Administrator: Diane Frost

“You will not have to worry about the Ruler trying anything for a while.

The Chairman of the Arcadian Magic Association took care of that for us, so the bastard will be distracted by something else for the time being.

Stay safe.”

My eyebrows raise slightly in surprise before lowering again as I swipe away the message.

Regardless of the situation out there, I’m still going to try to get out of this dungeon as quickly as possible.

That man needs to pay, and I want to be the one doing it.

Although before that, I still have to deal with this boss.

At that thought, I step forwards, onto the teleport pad.