Chapter 130: Black Roots

Jang-Wan realized that their victory and defeat would be decided by her choice. Either she actively helped Crampus and AR1026 right now, or she retreated and planned for the upcoming days with Wisdom and their remaining two expeditionary forces.

“I don’t think I can help.”

AR1026 was about to argue, but Crampus took a step forward and stopped her.

“Well then…we can’t do anything about that. Because that’s reasonable too.”

Jang-Wan nodded.

‘There’s no other choice.’

Even if she wanted to help, there would be nothing she could do now that her Divinity had dropped to the single-digit. Additionally, if that fact was revealed, she would have to explain to the two players how that came to be.

‘Telling them that I helped Wisdom make an apostle is easy. But I would also need to explain why I kept it a secret, and that I was doubting another among us.’

It wasn’t a big secret, and she’d been thinking about telling them later, but it wasn’t the right time now.

‘Their feelings are already hurt. One part of the alliance has broken down because of Lunda’s betrayal. Among the five allied nations, one was defeated, another one betrayed, and yet another is going through defeat. In a situation like this, where the alliance can break at any moment, there’s no need to say unnecessary things.’

In Jang-Wan’s opinion, it seemed that Crampus was taking the situation pretty well. However, the same couldn’t be said about AR1026, who was suffering a big loss at the moment.

Jang-Wan said, “I’ll turn my army around. Then Black Scale’s cavalry from Deimerit will likely chase after us.”

That was obvious. In terms of the battle between troops, Golden Eye had already been completely defeated by Red Fruit. While the clash itself wasn’t over yet, it would soon get to a point where it couldn’t be considered a battle, but Red Fruit’s one-sided pursuit of Golden Eye’s army. It would become a war of total annihilation.

Golden Eye’s goal depended on how many soldiers would return alive. There was nothing for Black Scale to really help with, and Mangul’s army also almost reached Deimerit. They were so close that the troops would be revealed as soon as the sun rose; it would be easy to track them from Deimerit.

Mangul’s army, which was mainly composed of infantry, would have to continuously sacrifice some of their troops and abandon all their supplies in order to retreat quickly, without the time to even burn said supplies to prevent Black Scale or Red Fruit from taking them.

‘It’s not like they would benefit a lot from running away right now, but…”

Jang-Wan said, “I’ll block Black Scale’s cavalry somehow.”

Crampus nodded.

“Alright, that should be enough. We’ve done as much as we can.”

“Crampus!”

AR1026 glared at Crampus before looking at Jang-Wan. Jang-Wan was ready to be bombarded with insults since she was guilty of suspecting AR1026 and not helping them with their fight now, but AR1026’s attitude was different from what she had expected.

AR1026 lifted her veil and asked, “Can you consider it one more time?”

The two had been companions for a long time now, but it was Jang-Wan’s first time seeing AR1026’s face. Jang-Wan noticed how attractive she had made her avatar.

‘Or is that her real face?’

Unlike the game The Lost World, it was possible for them to use their real face here. In other words, players could bring their actual appearance on Earth to this world. However, there was no way to know if that was the case for someone.

Jang-Wan kept her lion mask on and said, “I’m sorry. I actually want to suggest you give up on your troops again. There’s still a chance, isn’t there? There’s no need to waste your Faith points on this. If you use that many Faith points on this battle, the next will be much harder.”

AR1026 sighed.

“I know. But we each have our own circumstances.”

“Circumstances?”

“I’m talking about our game plays.”

AR1026 clicked on her system window to somehow turn the situation around while she kept talking.

“I’m sorry for not telling you before, but Golden Eye’s internal affairs actually aren’t the best right now. And it’s probably because of the moves that Nebula has moved. There are many in our country who believe in Night Sky, and there are even some among the aristocrats. It’s not too serious, but it’s come to the point where nothing can be done since dealing with the aristocrats would affect business. The king of Golden Eye is weak in power, so a crushing defeat would make it difficult for the nation to mobilize another expeditionary force at the same scale. And if I make a mistake, the next army would definitely be smaller.”

Jang-Wan replied, “Why didn’t you say anything about that until now?”

“I didn’t want to cause trouble to others. And it would be humiliating if I got defeated alone when all the others were able to deal with Nebula’s ways. I was also afraid that some of you might suspect me if you knew the exact situation of the internal affairs in Golden Eye. There turned out to be a real traitor though. Still, it’s not like anyone could have helped anyway in the grand scheme of things.”

Jang-Wan had nothing to say.

AR1026 was right that there was nothing others could do to help. It would be strange for a god to step into another god’s territory to help them once they had established themselves in a country. And in order to make such close contact, they would have to form a real alliance supported by the system instead of a loose alliance.

‘She had her own issues she couldn’t tell me about. Although we were a part of the same alliance, there was distance between us. And that’s not only true for AR, but also for me and Wisdom. Perhaps it might have also been the case for that damn Lunda too.’

It occurred to Jang-Wan that perhaps there was a point in time when they could have stopped Lunda from betraying them.

AR1026 then said, “But it’s all in the past. Be careful. Don’t make any stupid decisions like I did.”

“Alright. Let’s hope that things pass without much trouble.”

“Okay. Thank you for everything until now. I hope we see each other again.”

Jang-Wan and Crampus were surprised.

“AR?”

AR1026 then lightly touched the system window as if it were her last time.

In Jang-Wan and Crampus’s perspective, it seemed like AR1026 had disappeared.

The two looked at each other.

“No way.”

As Crampus uttered in bewilderment, Jang-Wan looked down.

Someone was floating on top of Golden Eye’s camp.

Jang-Wan clenched her teeth.

“Did she just use Hierophany?”

***

She didn’t seem that big. Perhaps the size of a female Human or Elf. Her silhouette swayed as her black dress fluttered in the air, and below the dress, her feet weren’t touching anything. She was floating in the air. On the other hand, her face was concealed as if covered by a shadow. Only the eyes were visible, and they were glowing red.

She looked like a small, floating doll, but her presence made chills run down peoples’ spines. Even throughout all the chaos, the soldiers raised their heads to look at her. Red Fruit’s army had no way of knowing what the figure was, but the priests of Golden Eye’s army recognized her immediately.

The priests shouted, “Concealed Text God has descended!”

Cheers bursted out from the camp of the fleeing Golden Eye’s army.

***

“Hey, get it together.”

At Crampus’s words, Jang-Wan raised her head.

“But if she dies while using Hierophany, her XP would significantly decrease, right?”

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Although she had said AR’s XP would significantly decrease, her Divinity level would actually drop to zero if Golden Eye’s current army got wiped out, and AR also died while using Hierophany. That would lead to AR becoming a vassal, which was no different from death. In fact, Jeol Woo-Bi had died while using Hierophany and became a vassal.

Crampus then said, “That means…AR has taken a lot of risks. She’s carrying out an armed resistance against Lunda and Nebula, telling them that if they cross the line, she will have to throw courtesy out of the window.”

“But…”

Jang-Wan found it difficult to consider AR’s use of Hierophany as a positive. In the first place, Hierophany was a skill that came with the risk of death, so it was only used strategically with extreme limits, or wasn’t used at all unless the situation was dire.

Crampus shook his head.

“Stop. That’s enough. It’s not like you’re going to change your mind now, are you?”

Jang-Wan hesitated before nodding. To be honest, she was only hoping for a successful retreat even if that meant those two would be completely defeated.

Crampus said, “So let’s do what each of us have to do. You bring your troops back alive. It would be better if you could also protect Golden Eye’s army.”

“Alright. What about you?”

“I’m not going to use Hierophany, but…”

Crampus looked at the sky for a moment. A flash flickered amid the clouds. It was a sign that the one he was worried about was about to appear.

“I should help AR as much as I can.”

***

At the rear end of Golden Eye’s camp where the battle was taking place, Lunda screamed from behind a shaded boulder.

“A…AR used Hierophany! What should we do?”

Sung-Woon, who was next to her, scolded her.

“We’re winning, aren’t we? Don’t overreact.”

“B…but, it’s a Hierophany body.”

.

Sung-Woon could admit it was difficult to deal with a Hierophany body. In The Lost World, that would be the strongest thing on its own no matter what anyone said. The abilities of a Hierophany body were determined by the player’s Divinity level and Domains. Thus, if their Divinity level was higher and they had lots of Domains, they would be stronger, making it difficult for any being to deal with them.

“But what level is AR again?”

“I think 18?”

“See, that’s not much different from Jeol Woo-Bi.”

“How are Jeol Woo-Bi and AR comparable? Jeol Woo-Bi didn’t even know how to play the game properly.”

Sung-Woon thought about retorting, but he knew what Lunda was trying to say.

A player’s abilities when they used Hierophany were determined by their Divinity level and the size and number of Domains they had, but how the abilities would manifest was a different matter.

Hierophany could manifest in numerous forms in accordance with the player’s tendency. For example, Jeol Woo-Bi had maximized their physical abilities when using Hierophany, so they had appeared as a giant god.

However, that wasn’t what the average players of The Lost World favored. Maximizing physical abilities was rather thought of as a dumb thing to do. Creations or apostles could be used for pure physical force. And maximizing physical abilities would constantly consume Faith points, thus increasing the cost of maintaining Hierophany.

Although seemingly absurd on paper, it was necessary to reduce physical abilities in order to decrease the cost. Since there was almost no way to physically damage the Hierophany body considering its Divinity level, it would be better to use the remaining Faith points for another ability.

Lunda then said, “She’s moving!”

As soon as Lunda noticed, AR lifted her hand.

Getting an ominous feeling from that, General Tobe Volco shouted, “Retreat! Fall back!”

But it was too late. Below the feet of hundreds of Red Fruit soldiers, black thorns shot out from the ground. And sharp screams could be heard from those who attempted to flee. The thorns had risen straight up and pierced through the soldiers from the bottom, protruding out of their mouths, heads, and spines.

With one gesture from a god, about 300 soldiers of Red Fruit’s army died in an instant.

Lunda called out, “Nebula!”

Sung-Woon grumbled.

“It’s fine, it’s not too late.”

When AR was about to raise her hand again, lightning struck the ground.

A black Lizardman shrouded in electricity appeared.