Tyrant Jebar.

He had not been called by that name from the beginning.

When Jebar, who had grown up among the undead, first revealed himself to the world, people had called him the King of the Dead.

Jebar, who possessed strength greater than anyone else’s, heard the story of the Overlord one day and went to seek him out.

Why?

It was simple.

“...I want to be friends. We’re both in the same position, after all. Kch.”

At the time, both of them were young, and Jebar had thought that the only one fit to be his friend was himself.

And because Jebar had lived alone his entire life, had killed with his own hands the parents who had tried to kill him, and had made a contract with a demon, he had believed that only he and that lofty being could become friends.

But the Overlord had sneered.

“I hear you wiped out an entire territory for no reason and turned it into undead. And when its lord asked why, you said it was because it amused you.”

Jebar had wanted him to cast off such hypocrisy.

“Isn’t it only natural that the strong stand above the weak? The weak are consumables for the strong man’s pleasure. You know that too, don’t you?”

However, after cutting down Jebar’s undead legion with a single sword, the Overlord said this to him as he fled.

“Power exists to protect. You are nothing more than a tyrant unworthy of possessing power.”

Those were the last words Jebar heard as he ran away.

From that day on, Jebar had lived under the name Tyrant.

And he had also thought this to himself.

From the very beginning, the Overlord had forged ties with no one at all, and in order to do that, one needed strength equal to his.

That was how Jebar had comforted himself, and hundreds of years passed.

And today.

[The Overlord descends.]

The function hidden within Overlord’s Armor.

“A special power meant only for true blacksmiths is imbued within it.”

The truth the Overlord had never told was revealed.

It was a power he had placed there for the one who would be exposed to countless dangers and hardships.

“W-What is that!?”

“Who is coming out!?”

The black current pouring from Overlord’s Armor began to form the shape of a person.

As people watched that black current take shape, the thing that drew the most attention was the sword in his hand.

“What the hell is that? lol”

“...He suddenly appeared, so I got insanely hyped, but that sword looks like something not even a Level 1 user would carry.”

The unidentified sword in his hand looked lumpy and unbalanced.

It was such a miserably made sword that it felt like a blade no one would even want to hold.

But.

[The most beautiful sword in the world appears.]

“...!”

“...!”

“???”

For a moment, the entire world fell into panic.

The most beautiful sword in the world.

Back when Hyunsoo had been climbing the Tower of Honor, the most beautiful sword in the world had been born, and the story of the blacksmith who had contributed to its making had swallowed all of Ares.

“T-Then are you saying that sword is the most beautiful sword in the world? I can’t understand it.”

People did not know.

That beauty had been abstract from the beginning.

A flower blooming before a lonely person felt more desperate than anything else.

A flower blooming before a happy person was incomparably beautiful and radiant.

[The king who once led an era appears.]

[His name is the Overlord.]

At last, his figure was completely revealed.

As they looked at the tall man standing there, the people of the world were bewildered.

“T-The Overlord!!!?”

“You mean the Overlord recorded in Ares’s history as the strongest NPC!?”

People could not understand the sudden appearance of the Overlord, nor could they tell whether it was real.

Not until Tyrant Jebar opened his mouth.

“...Overlord, what brings you here? I heard you disappeared after losing your child. Kch.”

There was agitation in Jebar’s voice.

Because once, that bastard had treated him as nothing more than a lunatic, some idiot tyrant.

But what about himself now?

He was far too noble and great.

Because right now, through a single blacksmith and a successor, the birth of a mythic creation was right before his eyes.

And yet the Overlord did not spare him so much as a glance.

He merely walked toward Hyunsoo, who had been turning into a Death Knight under the power of darkness.

Then he waved his hand once through that dark power.

[Death Knight conversion is interrupted.]

[You return to your original form.]

The entire world fell into shock once again.

“Jebar... got ignored.”

Though Jebar looked faintly pleased to see the Overlord, the Overlord paid him no heed, as though he were just some bug passing by.

And more than that—

“I didn’t know this was the power hidden in the armor. Have you been well all this time?”

Nod—

The Overlord smiled faintly as he looked at Hyunsoo.

People could not understand it.

“The Overlord is known as a cold-blooded man. One king of a certain nation even described him as ‘an emotionless puppet.’ Was that wrong?”

Soon, they came to understand through the difference between the way he treated Hyunsoo and the way he treated Jebar.

Looking at Hyunsoo, who was gasping for breath, the Overlord straightened the knee he had bent and rose as he spoke.

“It was thanks to you.”

That brought shock both to Tyrant Jebar and to the world.

Tyrant Jebar’s panic was the greatest of all.

He had thought the reason the Overlord had not accepted him as a friend was simply because he was weak.

He had believed it was only because he had been weaker than the Overlord, but that man was the Overlord’s benefactor and close friend.

Jebar could not believe it.

“What is that tiny little blacksmith supposed to be? Krahahahahak!”

It felt as though hundreds of years had been denied.

And yet, on the contrary, he was grateful.

Because thanks to the Overlord casting him aside, he had grown infinitely stronger over those hundreds of years.

Though he had been weakened after being struck down by Saint King Harun, he knew the Overlord had been weakened as well.

“...I wanted to meet you again and become close friends. By turning you into a Death Knight, for all eternity!”

If he turned the Overlord into a Death Knight, and if he then armed him with artifacts through Hyun, that too would become a mythic creation.

Jebar wanted to show him.

[He calls the subspace beings inside the Staff of Creation.]

From within it, more than a thousand drakes in the Level 500 range began to appear.

This is insane...

Only then did Hyunsoo realize it.

Jebar had been toying with them from beginning to end.

To be exact, 1,013 drakes and a Transcendent species Chimera Dragon above Level 600.

As Hyunsoo watched Tyrant Jebar cackling from atop it, his face turned deathly pale.

Especially because Jebar knew that the Overlord had started weakening from the moment he vanished.

“Die.”

The manic grin on Jebar’s face froze in an instant.

At the same time, the Chimera Dragon and the thousand drakes all moved at once, enormous Breaths condensing in their mouths simultaneously.

Overlord Baroque looked at them.

In truth, though he had not told Hyunsoo this yet, he was now no more than the youngest blacksmith at a forge.

And the reason he loved blacksmithing was also because it planted new inspiration within him.

For the man who had once believed that only the sword was the measure of strength, it had planted new knowledge and allowed him to realize the birth of a new power.

The proof of that.

“Furnace.”

The forge where blacksmiths lit their fires.

Along with that word, Jebar felt a crack in the ground whose nature he could not identify.

That fissure was enormous, as though it had drawn a circle with a radius of 100 meters.

And a furnace was something hotter than anything else when it came to melting iron.

KWHAAAAAAAAAAANG—!!!

A massive pillar of fire rose from the ground across a radius of 100 meters, comparable to the hellfire shaped by demons.

Everything within the radius of that pillar of flame, which seemed tall enough to pierce the sky, began to disappear.

KWHAAAAAAAR—!

The drakes’ flesh burned away before they could even resist, turning them to bone, and then those bones scattered into ash in an instant.

“SKREEEECH!”

That Chimera Dragon which had looked so mighty and lofty.

That single Chimera Dragon struggled desperately to endure.

And Jebar too sensed danger.

“Protect me.”

The Chimera Dragon wrapped its entire body around Jebar.

Then the people of the world, watching the strange spectacle unfolding before their eyes, lost the ability to speak.

The towering buildings of the capital and the thousand drakes had disappeared without a trace.

And all the flesh of the Chimera Dragon had burned away, leaving only bone, while Jebar, still standing within it, coughed blood from his mouth.

[Tyrant Jebar’s HP falls below 35%.]

Then the Overlord, standing lofty before Hyunsoo, aimed the most beautiful sword in the world, forged together with Barsen, at him.

“Begone.”

But though the Overlord did not show it, he had exhausted all his power with that single strike.

Of course, Jebar realized that as well, but he also realized that even if the Overlord had spent most of his power, this was still not a situation he could win.

Tyrant Jebar’s gaze turned toward Kabel.

“You think that means I’ll give up? Krahahahahahak!”

Cackling madly, Jebar shot into the sky with the Chimera Dragon.

“I lost this time, but the situation itself has not changed—”

A sudden chill ran down Tyrant Jebar’s spine.

Because some unknown power was being born from Kabel.

That.

It was the fulfillment of one last condition, and that final condition had been “to win against the King of the Dead.”

That was right—it was victory, not killing him.

Because of that, Jebar came to realize it.

[You cannot suppress the one who will become the God of Death.]

[One god is watching you.]

“...”

Shiver—

Tyrant Jebar turned and fled without gaining anything at all.

[Tyrant Jebar flees!]

Because a mere king dared not oppose a god.

And as Hyunsoo watched Jebar flee, he realized something.

[The Overlord can exercise his power only once for your sake.]

In other words, he had been able to launch only a single attack at the enemy, and he had exhausted all his power to save him.

“We’ll °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° meet again.”

SHHHHHHHH—

[The Overlord returns.]

Everything had, for the moment, come to an end.

Hyunsoo and Kabel thought that all they had left to do now was receive boundless love and praise from the king of the Parkro Kingdom and bring this quest to its conclusion.

But then an unexpected variable appeared.

[King Antro rushes over!]

[King Antro is in an extremely furious state because of the buildings that were erased by the Overlord!]

[King Antro may hold you accountable for that crime!]

“...?”

“...?”

Hyunsoo and Kabel both looked around at the same time.

Hyunsoo’s eyes trembled.

No, Your Highness Overlord... you’re leaving behind a troll move like this...?

That Furnace power from just now.

Together with the monsters, it had blown away roughly one-seventh of the capital.

H-He has every right to be furious, though?

Both of them broke into a cold sweat.

[Kabel: What do we do, Hyunsoo?]

[Hyunsoo: ...I have a way. Just a second.]

[Kabel: A way?]

Soon King Antro came rushing over with his officials, his face full of anger.

If one had to express his honest feelings, it was this:

He was happy, but he was angry!

A great deal of the capital had just been deleted by that Furnace attack!

And yet, even as he ran, he asked,

“...Am I supposed to be angry about this, or hug them?”

“...I don’t know either, Your Majesty.”

His own feelings were baffling him.

Soon Antro made up his mind.

He reached them, intending to vent his anger and send the bill to Atlas, but then King Antro wore a puzzled expression.

Suddenly, Hyunsoo started coughing up blood.

“KHUHEEEEEEK!”

Clutching at his chest, he collapsed with a thud, then sank to his knees with unfocused eyes and looked toward King Antro as he approached.

King Antro.

He was sincerely flustered.

And soon Hyunsoo slowly opened his mouth.

“...Are the people all right?”

“...”

Only then did the king understand why Hyunsoo had collapsed.

“Don’t tell me... to summon the Overlord, you used your life as the medium? Why would you go that far!?”

King Antro had no choice but to misunderstand.

Antro had been too far away to hear any of that talk about benefactors.

At that, Hyunsoo trembled faintly at intervals and smiled pale.

“...Because I am a monarch too.”

“...”

At that, Antro’s eyes shook as he wondered whether this situation could really be true.

What baffled him was that Kabel was not making any gesture at all in this situation.

[Hyunsoo: Back me up already! If we have to pay for this, Atlas’s finances are going to hit rock bottom!]

Hyunsoo was burning up inside. After everything had gone perfectly, Kabel was sabotaging it at the last second!

But then—

[Kabel: I already am.]

[Hyunsoo: ???]

Antro looked at Kabel, who had been standing there blankly.

“...How!”

A single hot tear was rolling down from one of Kabel’s eyes.