“Master?! Is something wrong?” Ren asked.
“Tahara, I leave you in charge,” the Demon Lord announced before vanishing.
“Huh...? All right...?”
The crowd took the disappearing act as another act in the show and answered with uproarious cheers.
Out of all places, the Demon Lord had Quick Traveled to the forest where he had met Aku—where he first awakened in this world.
“There’s...another one!”
“Master?!”
The Demon Lord clutched the ring, his face more pained than he had ever shown another soul. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t stop the power from pouring out of the ring. Unable to grasp the full picture, all Ren could do was stand on guard.
A sinister voice echoed in the forest, almost mocking the Demon Lord. “Observation was never your strong suit, Creator. Did you not realize that ring held two distinct powers within it?”
Ren scanned the woods around them, but failed to find the source of those words. The Demon Lord—Akira Ono—however, could have recognized that hellish voice anywhere.
“Chaos and destruction. You must have thought yourself clever, tapping into its power... Too bad you only used Chaos. The other is left untouched,” the voice went on.
Unable to speak, the Demon Lord drew Sodom’s Fire and thrust the blade into the ring with all of his might—ready to destroy his finger with it. It didn’t leave a scratch.
Miracle of the Still Angel—Blessing of Destruction!
Purple haze leaked from it, slowly taking shape. In contrast to the summoning of Manami, this ritual reeked of pure evil. “I always felt that this vessel was but a speck—a stain marked upon a completed being. Each time, I was overcome with powerlessness.” The haze took a humanoid form—one of a character Akira Ono knew all too well.
It was the relic of a game he’d cast away—the other final boss of 1999. Clad in a robe of black and purple as solemn as a death knell, the figure stood with their hair nearly touching the ground, a menacing staff clutched in their hand. Just a glance of them felt like a thousand cuts to the soul.
“Bloody Mary...” the Demon Lord breathed.
“Oh, you remember? Then again, there is no forgetting me, is there? Long ago, you lost something dear to you when you forsook this husk of the past. There’s been a thorn in your heart ever since... Ironic, isn’t it?”
“Why...you?” the Demon Lord grunted.
Without a word, Ren thrust her spear faster than the eye could follow—but Bloody Mary leaped back, easily dodging the attack. “Every enemy of Master’s will be eliminated.”
“You were always such a loyal dog,” Bloody Mary said to Ren. “How does it feel to reunite with your true master? Tell me. How does your creator taste?”
Before Bloody Mary had even finished the question, Ren had swiped her lance sideways, aiming to sever the threat in half. This time, several abominations emerged from the purple robe and stopped the blade before it reached Bloody Mary. Among them was a mechanical bat wing, a shield with pulsing veins on its surface, and something that resembled the face of a crying baby—an array of horrors that would have churned anyone’s stomach to behold them. Ren’s eyes narrowed—there shouldn’t have been any item in existence that could have stopped her attack.
Bloody Mary hadn’t even budged. “This is called parasitic armor. It didn’t exist in the old arena. Chaotic stuff, born from the mixture of magic and cybernetics in a postnuclear cyberpunk world. To celebrate my reunion with the Creator, let me show you another trick.” Bloody Mary concentrated magic in their staff until the ground shook beneath them, as six purple magic circles appeared around the staff. “Dark Illusion!”
A devastating beam shot out of the staff, erasing the forest in a straight line. Ren dove onto the Demon Lord and pushed him to the ground. If it weren’t for her, the spell would have dealt catastrophic damage to him.
When the dust settled, Bloody Mary was cackling. “Lucky you brought your dog with you, Creator! No matter. Now, my dream will come true... Don’t be so arrogant to believe all of your creations adore you.” With that, Bloody Mary began to dissolve into thin air.
The Demon Lord desperately outstretched his hand—which took all of his strength. “Maria, wait...! Where are you going?!”
“This body prefers the dark. See you at the bottom of Tartarus...”
“Tartarus?”
“You’ve forgotten too much, Creator... No, those fools have taken your memory and—” Bloody Mary laughed dryly. “That doesn’t matter to me now.” With that, Maria disappeared entirely, leaving a plume of crimson feathers behind.
With this, Akira Ono recognized the move for what it was: Red Phoenix, a precursor to Quick Travel.
“Master... Who was that?” Ren asked.
After a long moment of silence, the Demon Lord managed to answer like he was squeezing out an iron ball from his mouth. “Hellnard Maria, the Bloody Mary... The final boss to a world I left behind.”
“A world...?”
The Demon Lord sprawled on the ground. Right now, he didn’t have the energy to spew cryptic lines.
“Worry not, Master. If that is your enemy, I will erase it,” Ren said.
“No shot. I’m not gonna let you anywhere near something that dangerous,” the Demon Lord said without his usual pompous characterizations. No matter how much resistance Ren boasted against magic, he knew better than anyone that a final boss was on another level altogether.
“Administrator.” The Demon Lord commanded the admin screen to open, projecting a sentence he hadn’t read before, spelling an end to an era.
Hakuto Kunai eliminated.
The Laws of the Empire unlocked (x1).
A weak laughter escaped the Demon Lord’s lips. Defeating Hakuto Kunai, the final boss, had always been one of the ways to unlock the Laws of the Empire. Players could also earn difficult trophies set up around the game for a chance to use this book, which had the power to drastically change the arena.
In short, the Laws of the Empire was a book that provided a direct line to Akira Ono where players could send in requests. This unique feature led to new skills, abilities, items, and even Areas being implemented into the game.
“Law of the Empire... I didn’t expect things to turn out like this,” said the Demon Lord. As that path had opened up to him, he watched the ring on his finger turn to dust, just as the Still Angel had at its final moment. Crushing hopelessness and emptiness threatened to cave in his chest. “Ren. You better go back to the village without me and—”
Ren had straddled the Demon Lord and sealed his lips with her own. The dark Fallen Angel and the girl in a schoolgirl’s uniform intertwined—a union so shocking to behold that it would have been burned into the soul of anyone who witnessed it.
“H-Hey, what do you think you’re—”
Ren silenced her Master with her lips again. Then, she spoke. “Do not concern yourself with that wretch.” She held his face in her hands and met his eyes with her own icy gaze, one that reminded the Demon Lord of cherry blossoms on the wind.
He was starting to feel dizzy. “O-Okay. Just get off—”
“No.”
While the village of Rabbi went mad over the miraculous summoning of the Grand Angel, what transpired in these woods was just as momentous. Another final boss had descended upon the continent, but no one knew yet how they would impact this strange world.
✦ ✦ ✦
Hellnard Maria
Race: Demon Lord — Age: Unknown — Sex: Unknown
Weapon: Queen of the Dead
A horrible staff as tall as themself. Maria killed the queen with it to take control of Europe City.
✦ ✦ ✦
Armor: Pavane for a Dead Princess
A majestic robe of black and purple. By massacring the last of the noble bloodlines, Maria took control of Far East City.
✦ ✦ ✦
Parasitic Armor:
Cannibal Bat
A mechanical bat wing.
✦ ✦ ✦
Hill of Lament
The face of a crying baby.
✦ ✦ ✦
Silent Raven
A shield with pulsing veins.
✦ ✦ ✦
Level — 666
HP — 66,666/66,666
Stamina — 600/600
Stats — ?
Unique Skills: Black Tortoise / White Tiger / Red Phoenix / Blue Dragon
Magic: Knows all skills of the Dark and Black elements from class-1 to class-10.
Duel Skills: Cunning Fox / Wondering Silver Wolf / Phantom Heartbeat / Blasphemous Wings
Special Ability: Summon Advisor / Construct Europe City / Construct Far East City
The other final boss known as Bloody Mary—the one who ruled over Far East City of Chaos, a title Akira Ono created in his youth. Bloody Mary’s sex and age were unknown. Currently, the Bloody Mary is a hybrid abomination of Hakuto Kunai and Hellnard Maria. They were powerful enough to rule the world on their own, but their astronomical level became a handicap against the Demon Lord and his army. Victory was still far out of their clutches.