■■■■■■■■■■-!!!

A monstrous shriek that turned fear into awe rang out, and the hunks of flesh, as massive as Mount Taesan, were crushed.

───────-!!!

Trying somehow to attack Basiliora, it raised the opposite hand that still remained. Twisted bones grew along the gigantic hand, forming a grotesque awl-like shape, and it swung down toward Basiliora’s back, but—

Kkwajik-!

That hand was blocked—so futilely light—by the black spikes that burst out of Basiliora’s back.

Kwajijijijik-!

Then it was completely crushed.

■■■■■■-!!

Letting out a threatening scream at everyone—yet also a monstrous cry that breathed hope into everyone—it laid its body down on the black territory.

Black threads bursting out from all over the black ground ceaselessly pulled the hunks of flesh up, trying to restore the body.

Gudeuk-kkudeudeuk-!

And so, once again, a mountain of flesh began to form.

‘Has it started?’

After confirming what was happening on the ground, Alon realized his attack had worked on the Sin of Sloth, and let out a light sigh.

In the original work, the Sin of Sloth could be divided into a total of four phases.

Phase 1, without taking a single attack from anyone, endlessly expands the black territory and makes the targets who enter the “territory” kill each other.

If you don’t handle the situation quickly at this point, you can no longer stop the Sin of Sloth.

Based on Psychedelia’s world map, if the black territory’s encroachment count was 30 tiles or more, it was game over without question.

Because in the game, there was no magic with a range of world distance 31 tiles or more.

No, not 31—there wasn’t even anything beyond 20 tiles.

There was essentially no way to stop the Sin of Sloth.

Even with all those settings, the reason the Sin of Sloth’s game over standard was 31 tiles was because of divine power.

The formula was complicated, but if you wrapped yourself in Sironia’s divine power in-game, you could step into the black territory and ignore the territory’s influence.

Of course, only up to 20 tiles out of 31.

If you went in any farther, debuffs would start applying one by one, and in the end, you’d change the same as everyone else.

That’s how it would have been, originally.

‘...I should thank Heinkel.’

If not for Heinkel, the world would have come close to ending without Alon even thinking of properly stopping the Sin.

But it was still too early to relax.

They had only just gotten past phase 1.

“.......”

Alon lowered his gaze.

There was Basiliora, and around Basiliora, the hunks of flesh that were forming.

‘Six—no, is it seven?’

The number of hunks of flesh increased depending on the tile count of the black territory. Based on 30 tiles, four were summoned.

‘...As expected, ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the territory right now is far bigger than anything you could experience in the game.’

Alon thought that while looking at the number of hunks of flesh, but even so, Alon still didn’t feel a strong sense of crisis.

On the ground, seven gigantic masses of flesh lunged at Basiliora all at once. They were so huge you could feel their size even from the sky, and in an instant they surrounded Basiliora.

“This is insane—”

“Aren’t you supposed to do something, Selaim?! This is different from the plan we heard this time! There are seven of them!”

Startled curses spilled out of the soldiers’ mouths.

A desperate shout burst from Parkline’s mouth.

It was only natural.

Each mass—by its body alone—was big enough to crush Basiliora flat.

“Ts-”

So, swallowing a groan as if there was no helping it, Selaim began gathering magical power to unfold magic.

“-!”

The black hunks of flesh completely wrapped around Basiliora, and hands with grotesque bones jutting out all rose into the sky at once, about to slam down—

As if Alon had been waiting, Alon quietly formed a hand seal.

And.

“Yeongmok.”

What the soldiers—and what Selaim and Parkline witnessed—was the ink-colored trees that bloomed across Basiliora’s entire body.

Without making a sound, the trees that bloomed tore apart the hunks of flesh imprisoning Basiliora.

Trees drenched in dark red blood and green bloodstains swallowed the black territory and the sky.

And beyond that, they hoisted the black masses up like heavy fruit, hanging them as they shot up into the sky.

“Dra...gon?”

Staring at the black trees spread out like wings, one soldier muttered.

Everyone who had lost their words stared blankly at Basiliora’s form.

It was overwhelming.

The countless trees clinging to that gigantic body made Basiliora look even more immense.

The fear—or the elation—that any living thing would naturally feel seeped into everyone’s hearts.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■-!!!!

Then, with the Receiver Basiliora’s monstrous cry, the hunks of flesh that had been broken down in the sky fell, crashing toward the ground.

Unlike when they were created by devouring everyone’s fear, the hunks of flesh fell disgracefully, smashing apart.

Limbs were torn away, and the strangely jutting bones snapped weakly.

And.

‘With this, phase 2 is over, too.’

After confirming the situation on the ground, Alon looked toward phase 3, which would arrive soon—

‘No, has it already arrived.’

—and watched the rapidly begun phase 3.

In the place Alon watched while strengthening Alon’s vision with magic, those scattering dangerous magical power were approaching Ashtalon’s royal castle.

Alon recognized who they were at once.

‘Three of the Seven Great Powerhouses. Dragon-Strike Spear, Thousand-Year Ice, and Cliff Sword.’

Phase 3 of the ‘Sin of Sloth.’

Those who died inside the black territory, yet possessed strength above a certain level, were used as its hands and feet.

More accurately, it was closer to the Sin “controlling” them, and because of that, this third act became a frequent subject of talk among players in many ways.

Those controlled by the Sin were set at random.

So if that random encounter landed on people in “powerhouse” positions, or master knights, the situation became extremely complicated.

Because the controlled ones became stronger than they originally were—by as little as 50%, or as much as 100%.

And as if to show the evidence, the three powerhouses approaching from far away were so strong you felt like you could see that dark aura.

Thousand-Year Ice held a gigantic weapon and froze everything around.

Beside that, Dragon-Strike Spear, true to the name, gripped a spear that spewed a dangerous momentum.

And lastly, Cliff Sword—

Kwak- kwadeudeudeuk!

Cut through the surrounding terrain like it was nothing, slowly approaching.

An action with no meaning at all.

Yet an overwhelming magical power poured from Cliff Sword—enough to act like that.

Only a moment after confirming that sight—

“Like I thought, it’s coming.”

Alon also found those things starting to swarm around the three powerhouses.

Those who were hard to even call the dead followed behind them.

Soldiers, knights, monsters.

Things that had been alive, things that still had some shape left.

They were approaching Alon, who was preparing magic to fire at the Sin of Sloth once again.

And at some point.

Dragon-Strike Spear raised the massive spear held in hand high.

Kwaaaang-!!!

A burst of magical power exploding roughly.

As if it didn’t matter what happened to the body, Dragon-Strike Spear took the posture of throwing the spear, and suffocatingly fierce magical power began to gather in that hand.

The target was clearly Alon.

And that wasn’t all.

Cliff Sword and Thousand-Year Ice, who had been simply walking in slowly while exuding magical power, also moved as if they meant to go for Jaebo (the treasure-vessel) that Alon was riding, freezing the air and creating steps.

Powerhouses strengthened by the Sin’s power.

...Things with even the slightest shape still remaining.

They were charging in all at once to deal with Alon.

With a sound like iron bones twisting.

Dragon-Strike Spear, twisted to the limit, entered Alon’s vision.

Even without strengthening Alon’s vision, the spear swallowing black magical power and whipping around was visible with perfect clarity.

For that spear, distance seemed to have no meaning.

The moment it left the hand, it was certain enough that there was no need to think twice that the attack would reach Jaebo in an instant.

But Alon didn’t lose composure.

Up to here, it was all expected.

────────────!!!!!

The spear in Dragon-Strike Spear’s hand tore the air with a chilling sound.

A spear that cut through the air, cut through sound, surging forward as if it would shoot down the god in the sky.

At the moment everyone’s gaze was drawn to that spear as it rose, as if receiving additional acceleration again and again, piercing through a steep tearing scream—

Kkwang-!

Golden lightning surged up along the spear fired toward Jaebo.

And there.

Seollang, dyed in gold.

Heujuk-!

With a chilling smile, Seollang fired the spear that had been gliding toward Jaebo right back at Dragon-Strike Spear.

Paaaar-!!!!

The spear plunged into Dragon-Strike Spear, and the ground exploded as if a missile had bombarded it.

And within the cloud of dust, Thousand-Year Ice, who had been making steps in the air just moments ago, shot up into the sky and was fired at Seollang, but—

Kwajijijik-!

Just the same, Thousand-Year Ice’s weapon couldn’t reach Seollang.

“It’s been a while.”

With a fresh smile, Elivan, who had blocked Thousand-Year Ice’s attack without difficulty.

Thousand-Year Ice, whose expression was impossible to read, immediately tried to swing a foot at the obstacle that appeared right in front, but—

Kwaaaang-!

As if having foreseen it, Elivan swung the sword straight down, and Thousand-Year Ice plummeted rapidly, as if being driven down to the ground.

At that moment.

From within the dust cloud, the Cliff Sword Hidden person, who had taken the stance of drawing the blade, as if having been waiting, drew the sword—

[-]

could not.

The Hidden person looked at the gigantic sword embedded in the place where the Hidden person had been a split second ago, then stared up at the sky again.

In that blue place that had held only a single ship until just now, following magical power like long circuitry—

Pajik-! pajijijik!

cracks were forming.

So many cracks, enough to devour the entire blue sky.

Then, from those cracks that seized the sky, weapons poured out all at once, and then—

“Foolish—”

a voice fell.

“For mere shells—”

With the dense weapons within the cracks at the back,

“Don’t think you can reach elder brother.”

Radan’s voice looked down on the ground with unshakable ease.