Chương 1: Tutorial Complete

The sky had split open above the Fortress of Malachar, torn from one horizon to the other by a glowing crimson scar where black lightning pulsed. Every discharge made the air tremble and lit up the battlefield for the span of a heartbeat. Where mountains had once stood, nothing remained but chains of shattered rock, cleaved peaks, and collapsed slopes beneath which entire armies had vanished.

Rivers of lava wound through the chasms, swallowing corpses and broken pieces of armor before continuing their relentless march toward the plains. Far in the distance, a dragon fell from the sky, its charred wings folded around its body. Its carcass tore through the clouds, slammed into the side of a mountain, and the impact ripped away an entire section of stone.

A thunderous rumble rolled across the valley as a cloud of dust billowed upward, merging with the ash that had been falling without pause for the past three days. Thousands of soldiers still occupied the plain, yet not a single one advanced. The survivors of the human kingdoms, the dwarven citadels, the elven forests, and the tribes of the North formed an uneven line among the dead. Some leaned on their swords, unable to remain standing without the support of their blades.

Others pressed strips of cloth against their wounds, their eyes fixed on the fortress. Torn banners snapped in the violent wind, still bearing the emblems of kingdoms, many of which no longer existed. A golden lion fluttered beside a silver tree, while farther away, the hammer of the dwarven clans was almost hidden beneath a crust of dried blood. No one shouted. No one gave orders. Even the wounded seemed to suppress their groans, as though the slightest sound might shatter the world's fragile balance.

At the summit of the ruined fortress, two figures stood facing one another. The walls had been blasted apart, the towers gutted, and the battlements reduced to heaps of black stone. Broken columns surrounded what had once been a throne room, now exposed to the open sky. At the center of the ruins, Aldric gripped his sword with both hands. His breastplate, once gleaming white, had long since lost its color beneath layers of mud, ash, and blood.

A deep gash ran across his cuirass, revealing the chainmail crushed tightly against his skin. His cloak hung behind him in tattered strips, and several strands of hair clung to his forehead. A cut stretched from his eyebrow down to his cheek, yet his eyes never left the creature standing before him. The Demon King stood at the edge of the abyss that had swallowed half the fortress. Two black horns rose from his skull, one snapped off near the tip.

Plates of obsidian covered his body, embedded in flesh laced with glowing crimson cracks. Every breath sent thick smoke pouring from his mouth, slipping between his fangs. Six wings spread from his back, though two had been reduced to mangled stumps with shreds of torn membrane hanging from them. In his hand rested a spear whose tip seemed to devour the light itself. Around the weapon, shadowy figures writhed, faces emerging from the darkness only to vanish a heartbeat later.

"At last... you stand before me, Aldric of Valdor," the Demon King said. His voice rolled across the mountains without the slightest need to raise it. Down on the plain, several soldiers lifted their heads as loose stones tumbled through the ruins. Aldric tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword. Warm blood streamed down his side, seeping beneath his armor, but he never looked away.

"I destroyed your portals," he replied.

"Your armies will never come again. » The Demon King tilted his head, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

"My nine armies," he corrected.

"You destroyed all nine of my armies. You shattered the Ash Legion before the Gates of Caldris, drowned the Faceless Riders in the Marshes of Sorna, and buried the Giants of the Abyss beneath their own mountain. You killed my four generals. Vaelor fell to your blade in the Desert of Glass. Myrka perished in the flames of her own city. You tore Gharos's heart from his chest while he still wore the Armor of a Thousand Dead, and you pursued Serath into the Realm of Shadows itself.

Then you sealed the Gates of Hell, shattered the Crown of the Void, and crossed the Poison Sea alone. After all of that... you finally stand before me. » A powerful gust swept through the ruins, sending clouds of dust swirling around them. Aldric raised his sword. The metal let out a deep, resonant hum as golden lines spread across the blade. They converged near the crossguard, forming ancient runes that pulsed in time with the beating of his heart.

"I'm not alone," he said. The Demon King's gaze drifted toward the plain. Thousands of survivors stared up at the ruins, some too weak to lift a weapon, others clinging to the hand of a dying comrade.

"They can no longer help you," he replied.

"Your mages have exhausted their mana. Your knights have lost their mounts. Your king lies somewhere beneath the corpses, assuming my demons haven't already devoured him. Even your companions are gone. The archer died in the Tower of Winds. The dwarf sacrificed his soul to shatter my gates. As for your priestess... she gave you the last years of her life so you could reach this fortress. You are alone, Aldric. You always have been. » A tremor ran through the hero's wrist.

For a fleeting moment, the faces of those who had stood beside him filled his mind. Lirca, laughing beside a campfire despite the arrow buried in her shoulder. Bruam, cursing every god ever worshipped as he repaired a suit of armor. Elwen, her hands wrapped around his, her hair turning white as the light slowly faded from her body. A dull ache tightened around his chest. He drew a breath, but the sulfur-filled air burned his throat.

"Then that will be enough," he murmured. The Demon King drove his spear into the stone. The impact split the ruins apart, and a wave of black energy erupted beneath his feet. It surged through the fortress, raced down the shattered battlements, and spread across the valley. Wherever it passed, the flames died, and the dead rose once more. Hands burst through heaps of corpses, followed by twisted, lifeless faces.

Fallen soldiers staggered back to their feet, their shattered limbs hanging limply at their sides, while disemboweled demons crawled from the craters. Across the plain, the survivors raised their weapons, and the whisper of steel sliding free from its scabbard rippled through the ranks.

"They've fought enough," Aldric said. He drove his sword into the ground. A burst of golden light erupted from the blade, forming a radiant circle around the fortress. The glow raced along the shattered walls before sweeping across the valley. The moment it touched the dead, their bodies froze. Shadows were torn from their flesh and drawn into the sky, where they burned away in thousands of glittering sparks. Across the plain, the soldiers watched as corpse after corpse collapsed back to the ground.

One knight fell to his knees, his fingers clenched around the hilt of his sword, a broken laugh escaping his lips. The Demon King ripped his spear from the stone and lunged. The ground exploded beneath his feet. In the blink of an eye, he crossed the ruins, the tip of his weapon hurtling toward Aldric's face. Aldric twisted aside, and the black spearhead grazed his cheek before obliterating the column behind him. Fragments of stone erupted in every direction.

Aldric brought his sword down, but the shaft of the spear intercepted the strike. Golden radiance and black darkness burst from the clash of the two weapons, unleashing a shockwave that tore away the fortress's last remaining walls. Massive chunks of stone were hurled into the sky, some flying for miles before crashing into the plain below. Aldric slid backward, his boots carving two deep trenches through the rock. The Demon King gave him no chance to recover.

His spear spun in a blur, striking Aldric's shoulder before sweeping upward toward his throat. Aldric parried the first attack, slipped past the second, and ducked beneath the third. His blade carved a brilliant arc through the air, severing two of the creature's wings. Black blood erupted from the wounds, splattering across the ruins. Wherever the droplets struck, the stone dissolved, releasing sickly green wisps of smoke. The Demon King roared and seized Aldric's face with his free hand.

His claws punched through the metal of the hero's helmet. He lifted him effortlessly before hurling him across the ruins. Aldric crashed through one wall, then another, before his body slammed into the mountainside. The rock fractured around him. Before he could move, the black spear tore through the sky and embedded itself only inches from his head. The mountain exploded.

Its summit lurched upward, tipped forward, and came crashing down the slope in a deafening roar that drowned out every cry rising from the plain. Aldric burst from the cloud of dust, his body wreathed in golden light. He caught the spear as it flew past, spun through the air, and hurled it back at its owner. The Demon King raised a hand. The weapon came to an abrupt stop before his open palm, but Aldric was already behind it. His sword crashed down onto the creature's shoulder.

The blade sliced through the obsidian plates and bit deep into flesh. The Demon King roared, then drove his elbow into the hero's chest. The impact ripped Aldric from the ground and hurled him far beyond the fortress. Aldric shot through the sky like an arrow, clearing mountain after mountain before crashing into the center of a lake. A towering column of water erupted into the clouds. The shorelines vanished beneath the surge, trees were ripped from the earth, and fish were flung hundreds of yards through the air.

At the center of the crater, Aldric sank into the mud. Agony flashed through his ribs. He spat out a mouthful of blood, drove his sword into the lakebed, and used it to pull himself back to his feet. Above him, the surface of the water boiled. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. A colossal shadow swallowed the sky. The Demon King emerged from the clouds, his remaining wings spread wide behind him. He raised both arms, and darkness condensed between his hands.

A black sphere began to grow, no larger than a shield at first, then expanding until it rivaled a tower. It continued to swell until it eclipsed the sun itself. A black moon now hung above the lake, encircled by rings crackling with lightning.

"Disappear along with this world, Aldric!" the Demon King thundered. The black moon began to fall. As it descended, the lake rose toward it in towering columns, torn upward by its immense pull. Within seconds, the water was gone, exposing the cracked lakebed beneath. Aldric raised his sword. The golden runes blazed so brightly that his skin became visible beneath his armor. Veins of light spread along his arms and climbed toward his face. A translucent window appeared before his eyes.

△ ULTIMATE SKILL AVAILABLE △ DAWNBRINGER Mana Cost: ALL REMAINING MANA △ WARNING △ Survival Probability Below 3% Aldric stared at the black moon. Its immense mass swallowed the sky, and cracks had already begun to spread across the earth beneath the pressure of the spell. Behind him, beyond the mountains, stood the last survivors. Farther still lay the kingdoms that had waited twenty long years for this victory. He tightened both hands around the hilt of his sword.

"Three percent," he murmured.

"I've survived worse." Light erupted from his body. It swept across the drained lake, climbed the mountains, and spread throughout the sky. For a single instant, the night vanished. The soldiers on the plain turned their eyes away, unable to endure the brilliance. Aldric's sword began to lengthen, its blade becoming a pillar of light that pierced the clouds. He drew a breath, stepped forward, and brought the weapon down. The black moon split apart. A single golden line appeared at its center.

It spread outward, racing across the moon's surface until it split it cleanly in two. The two halves continued their descent, passing on either side of Aldric before crashing into the surrounding mountains. The world lurched. Peaks were obliterated, forests vanished beneath the shockwave, and the searing heat vaporized what remained of the lake. Molten boulders were hurled high into the sky. They cooled as they passed through the clouds before raining back down as a storm of meteors. Aldric dropped to one knee.

The light surrounding his body flickered, then faded away. His sword shrank back to its normal size, its tip sinking into the earth. His fingers refused to close properly. Every breath sent agony tearing through his ribs, and a high-pitched ringing echoed in his ears. Even so, he lifted his head. The Demon King descended slowly from the sky. A deep gash ran across his torso, from his shoulder to his hip. Blood poured from the wound in torrents, yet he was still smiling.

"Magnificent," he whispered.

"After all these years... a mortal has truly managed to cleave the Eternal Night. » He landed only a few yards from Aldric. His legs trembled, but he remained standing. Behind him, what remained of his wings crumbled apart, their fragments turning to dust before fading into nothingness.

"You have no mana left," he continued.

"Your body is broken. Your divine artifact is on the verge of destruction. And yet... you're still holding your sword. Tell me, Hero... what do you hope to accomplish now? » Aldric placed one foot in front of the other. His knee nearly buckled beneath him, but he kept moving. The Demon King raised his spear.

"I'm going to finish what I started," Aldric replied. The black spear shot forward. Aldric tilted his head, and the blade sheared away part of his ear. He never stopped advancing. The shaft slammed into his ribs. Something cracked inside his chest, but he trapped the weapon beneath his arm. The Demon King pulled, trying to wrench it free, and Aldric tightened his grip until the metal punched through his armor and bit deep into his flesh.

"So... you feel no fear?" the creature roared.

"I do," Aldric replied.

"But it's behind me. » The Demon King turned his head. In the distance, silhouettes were climbing the mountains. The survivors had left the plain behind. The first of them were already making their way up the slopes, carrying the wounded or helping one another onward. A knight missing an arm struggled forward with a banner clenched between his teeth. Beside him, an elf limped onward, an arrow still lodged in her thigh.

They were far too distant to join the battle, far too weak to face even a single demon, yet they kept moving. The Demon King's gaze returned to Aldric.

"They're coming to die with you."

"No," Aldric whispered.

"They're coming to remind me why I have to win." He released the spear and lunged forward. The Demon King raised an arm, but Aldric slipped beneath his claws. His hand found the hilt of his sword. Gathering the last of the strength left in his legs, he forced himself upright. The blade drove upward between the obsidian plates, pierced the creature's abdomen, and burst out beneath its sternum. The Demon King froze. A scorching breath brushed across Aldric's face.

The creature's crimson eyes flickered before settling on the blade protruding from its chest.

"So... this is how it ends," he murmured. Aldric drove the sword in even deeper.

"Yes." The Demon King placed a hand on Aldric's shoulder. His claws pierced the metal, but no strength remained behind them.

"Do you truly believe my death will save your world?"

"I won't know until afterward."

"There will be other wars. Other monsters. Humanity will turn on itself again before my blood has even dried."

"Then they'll have to manage without you." A faint laugh escaped the Demon King's throat. Lines of light spread across his body. They raced along his arms, climbed to his face, and widened between the black plates covering his flesh.

"You truly are... the greatest fool this world has ever known."

"I've been told that before." Light exploded. The Demon King's body disintegrated into thousands of black fragments. They rose around Aldric, carried away by a wind that hadn't existed only moments before. His crown fell first. It struck the ground, cracked apart, and crumbled into dust. The spear followed, its surface rapidly coating itself in rust before collapsing in on itself. Soon, nothing remained of the creature except a dark silhouette scorched into the earth.

Aldric remained motionless, his sword still extended before him. He waited for another attack, one last laugh, a final curse. Nothing came. The sky glowed crimson one last time before the great scar stretching across it slowly began to close. One by one, the black bolts of lightning faded away. Above the shattered mountains, a pale light pierced the clouds. No one moved on the plain. A soldier let his shield slip from his grasp. The metal struck a stone, and the sound echoed through the silence.

Another soldier dropped to his knees. His shoulders began to shake, and a sob escaped him. A woman raised her sword toward the sky. Her voice broke as she tried to shout. Others followed her, and before long, the entire valley was filled with cries, laughter, and tears. Soldiers embraced one another among the dead. Some fell to their knees and kissed the ground. Others called out the names of those who would never answer again.

"He won!" someone shouted. The cry was taken up by hundreds of voices, then thousands. It rolled across the mountains, echoed through the ruins, and climbed to the summit of the fortress.

"Aldric has won! The Demon King is dead! » Aldric barely heard their voices. His fingers loosened, and his sword slipped from his hand. It sank into the earth, standing upright before him. His legs gave way. He sat down at the edge of the crater, his forearms resting on his knees. Around him, the wind scattered the last drifting ashes. For the first time in years, nothing was trying to kill him. No general was preparing an ambush. No village was burning behind him.

No one was waiting to tell him that another kingdom had fallen. He took a breath. Pain tore through his ribs, but he breathed again. The air filled his lungs, heavy with dust and blood. Even so, a smile spread across his face.

"It's over," he whispered. △ WORLD QUEST COMPLETE △ The Demon King Has Been Defeated He stared at it for several long seconds. He had imagined those words through countless sleepless nights. He had seen them in his dreams back when he still slept on damp earth between battles. More than once, he had feared he would die before they ever appeared. His smile widened.

"We did it." Calculating Tutorial Results... Aldric frowned.

"The what?" Lines of text began racing across the translucent window at a dizzying speed. Armies Defeated: 9 Demon Generals Slain: 4 Legendary Artifacts Acquired: 17 World Threat Eliminated: 1 Civilizations Preserved: 12 Tutorial Rank: SSS Tutorial Complete Preparing Main Game... Aldric opened his mouth, but the light swallowed him before a single sound could escape. The ground vanished beneath his feet. The mountains, the survivors, and the fortress dissolved into a blinding white radiance.

His sword vibrated one last time where it stood embedded in the earth before it was ripped from the ruins and drawn after him. The world went black.