4.

Demons who were something like high-ranking nobles of the Demon Realm still remembered the time long ago when the Demon Realm had shone in its glory.

Back when the six great evils that the hateful and terrifying Helena had plundered were rampant throughout the Demon Realm.

And Marmon Feneliroph, a Demon Realm noble who had descended into the present world, was lost in sentiment as this aura of despair, which stirred nostalgia for that time, washed over Marmon.

For now, the density was as feeble as it could possibly be.

But there was no doubt this was that same aura of despair.

“The manifestation is not yet complete.”

The seals binding Mugan had not all been released.

The situation was that the manifestation was faint and the seals had only barely loosened.

Marmon could faintly sense that the foolish current Overlord had reached somewhere near the deep layers of Mugan, and that was why the seals had loosened.

The Lord of Despair’s power would only be released through the Overlord’s intervention.

The Black Star must have sealed the Lord of Despair within Mugan for that very reason.

Realizing this, Marmon absorbed and condensed the aura of despair that was gently spreading through the air. Even scraping together all the despair nearby, it was still far too feeble.

However,

“When the foolish Overlord carelessly awakens the seals, when the Lord of Despair emerges from Mugan and manifests in the present world, the Demon Realm will finally take those great evils it so longed for back into its hands.”

As Marmon said that, a faint smile tugged at Marmon’s lips.

By Marmon’s estimate, until that time,

it would not take all that long.

The Overlord was an outsider.

Even if that one was incredibly strong, compared to Helena of the past, that talent was bound to be pitifully lacking.

Marmon had not a shred of doubt.

Only waited eagerly for the despair to break loose.

But then—

“Marmon-nim... the Sword Saint is beginning in earnest to gather an army. In particular, it is said that the Sword Saint has drawn upon all powers related to us demons and sent an expedition to the Celestials’ ruins.”

“...The Celestials, is it.”

Annoying beings, to be sure.

But they too had suffered deep wounds at Helena’s hands.

Marmon knew well that they had decided to cooperate with the Demon Realm, if only temporarily.

However, unlike the Demon Realm, the Celestials did not have a hole torn open, so for now they had no means to cross back and forth into the present world; crafting that means would naturally be their highest priority.

All of them were aiming for Overpalace, the court that would be ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) offered up to the Black Star and the Overlord.

It had to be toppled somehow.

That undying Overlord was not even a problem for now.

So Marmon judged, and spoke to Marmon’s vassal.

“I heard the Sword Saint had gone mad, and yet there is still judgment left. Confirm whether the connection with Heaven is being fully established.”

“As you command!”

Watching the vassal vanish at once at Marmon’s word, Marmon continued to gather despair.

Simply waiting for the present world to soon become a hell of despair.

5.

The Lord of the Abyss’s right arm and the Lord of Despair’s left arm.

They were opponents that could certainly be called quite troublesome, but because these were people who had learned the strategy for dealing with them to the point of exhaustion, they were able to deal with them more easily than expected.

When they finally cleared the ninety-eighth floor,

they had finished the second floor and it was time to tally contribution.

Naturally, Mihael was making a tremendous fuss as he did the play-by-play.

“Aaah!!! The second floor has been cleared!!! I will now announce the contribution results!!! This time, the Demon King’s interference was minimal, but as expected, the Demon King! The Demon King takes first place in contribution alone! And hot on the Demon King’s heels in contribution is!!!”

As Mihael drew it out a bit,

the viewers began chanting the names of the leaders they each supported.

-Luna! Luna! Luna! Luna!

-It’s gotta be big sis Luna!!!

-No, it’s gotta be big sis Embris!!!

-Embris, Embris, Embris!

-Kyou! Kyou! Kyou! Kyou!

-Please, Kyou!

-Lunaaaaa!!!

Everyone’s cheering was split by team,

but they all cheered with one heart.

Seeing the viewers’ chats, Mihael thought that if he stalled any longer, he really might get sent to the Abyss, and shouted,

“Number one in contribution among the backup teams! Luna’s team!!! In a very narrow second place is Kyou’s party! Third place is Embris’s party.”

When he mentioned Embris’s party, who had come in third, the slightly regretful tone in his voice clearly heightened the immersion.

Mihael was showing not a gamer’s face, but the very picture of a born MC.

It was hardly a secret that Rapid had done well to pick Mihael as a broadcaster.

At any rate, when Embris’s party, who had ended up in third, were looking pretty crestfallen,

Mihael said,

“Ah, this makes it two consecutive interim tallies where Embris’s party has come in third, doesn’t it? But that’s okay.”

“There are still plenty of chances. In terms of contribution percentage, the gap is only about zero point two percent.”

“That’s honestly the kind of percentage you can make up with just one more solid hit, you know?”

“Ah, that’s right.”

As Mihael and Lowell encouraged Embris’s party with their commentary,

the mood of Embris’s party definitely perked up.

In any case, Seong also felt it had been the right call to leave things to Mihael, and they continued straight on to the next floor.

As expected, the ninety-ninth floor was, like the previous one, filled with despair along with the next aura, the aura of Destruction, and this time it wasn’t two arms, but Despair’s right arm and Destruction’s left leg.

Whereas last time the Abyss’s right arm had done the main attacking and Despair’s left arm had supported, this time it was the reverse.

Destruction’s left leg supported, and Despair’s right arm delivered the main attacks.

Destruction shattered the ground and disrupted their balance, and in that brief hesitation caused by the broken balance, waves of despair burst forth and attacked.

Despair boasted, as the name implied, truly despairing offensive power, but even with their balance disrupted, most of them dodged well, and above all, Seong’s support was so outstanding that they were able to endure it.

On the ninety-ninth floor as well, their coordination in attacking was so tight you could almost call it perfect, and so they were able to clear the ninety-ninth floor quickly, too.

When they cleared the ninety-ninth floor in no time, you could say it was almost a festival atmosphere.

“Aaah!!! The ninety-ninth floor has been defeated!!! And the Demon King, who’s been in first place so far, remains in that position, and unbelievably, the contribution scores of all the backup teams are identical!!!”

In other words, they would be deciding the winner on the hundredth floor, which might very well be the final floor.

Everyone felt their blood boiling.

Especially the viewers watching.

Just how insanely good was this for dopamine?

Viewers who had never felt this kind of “I’m going crazy watching this” feeling before were in an uproar.

-Wow, holy crap lololol why is this so nerve-racking?

-lololol seriously.

-Wow, after coming all the way here and they’re tied????

-Seriously 😂😂 this is too much.

-Wow, my heart hurts so bad I think I need to take some calming medicine...

-So this is what it means when they say your heart hurts.

-Ugh, I guess I’ve developed hyperhidrosis, my hands are soaked in sweat.

-I peed myself, gotta go wipe the floor;;;

Every single viewer was going wild.

Of course they were watching and chatting, but the word was also spreading across communities, and the number of viewers was starting to climb significantly.

Even one hundred million would have been an absurd number.

They broke through the so-called “demonic” mark of two hundred million viewers, and no less than two hundred thirty million people were watching.

Because such a wide variety of races were all enjoying this together with one heart,

the voting was still ongoing, and the results were almost dead even.

Originally, Luna’s team had held overwhelming popularity, but Kyou, who used to be called a villain, had also gained a large fanbase, and Embris, too, had built up a considerable number of fans.

Of course, it might be that this phenomenon was happening because Seong, the one called the Demon King, was holding the center.

In any case, as they were reaching what they thought would be the final floor, the hundredth,

Seong felt a strange sensation and muttered inwardly,

‘Further down?’

They had said “deep layers,” so the hundredth floor might have counted as the deep layers, and Seong had thought that maybe one hundred would be the end.

But he had also thought there might be something further down.

Sure enough, Seong felt the aura being sucked to somewhere even deeper than the hundredth floor.

It was a bizarre sensation, to say the least.

In any case, what mattered now was what came next.

“This time, I can’t feel the aura of the next floor.”

“Does that mean it hasn’t manifested yet?”

“Hm, that could be it.”

The three team leaders gave their own analyses, and Seong nodded as well.

Because he could not yet feel any aura from below, he agreed with that.

So Seong started to say more, then stopped.

They still had to compete with each other on the hundredth floor, after all.

What on earth would appear on the next floor?

With that anticipation, they all descended to the hundredth floor together,

and this time, they felt something a little different as they entered.

Up until now, the moment they arrived on a floor, a system message would appear and they could see something manifest.

This time, there was no system message, and only some strange aura lingered in the air.

“W-what in the world is going on??? Nothing is revealing itself on the hundredth floor. No system message is appearing, either.”

“Ah, is this some kind of ominous sign?”

“For now, we don’t have anything we can know. The backup teams are on alert, scouting the surroundings... and the Demon King, as if he knows something, isn’t budging an inch.”

As Mihael narrated even that,

the viewers were just as curious.

-???????

-What??? Why isn’t anything showing up????

-Is the hundredth floor a reward floor???

-By the pattern, shouldn’t this be a Despair+Despair floor???

-What is this???

As the viewers were puzzling over it,

Mihael said,

“Is this one of those, ‘Actually, there is no reward~ Despair, everyone’? Is that what this is?”

At those words, the viewers burst out laughing.

-lololol as if they’d actually do that

-lolol if they did, you could totally sue and win

-lolol there’s no way that’s it.

-But still, I’ve got a bad feeling... 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

And right as everyone was saying how ominous it felt,

the aura Seong had sensed from the floor began to intensify, and system messages appeared.

[The Lord of the Abyss fully regains its mind.]

Suddenly, the Abyss?

As they looked at the system message with that expression on their faces,

[The Lord of the Abyss awakens from its seal.]

[The Lord of the Abyss uses 『Abyss』.]

With that message, the floor of the hundredth level collapsed, and everyone was swallowed up by a darkness like a bottomless pit.

However, realizing that they could not move, everyone knew.

This was a cutscene.

And so, as all of the teams fell into the Abyss, they were able to see it.

[The Lord of the Abyss invites you to 『Abyss』.]

[You are being moved from Mugan’s hundredth floor to 『Abyss』.]

[The 『Lord of the Abyss』, the 『Lord of Destruction』, and the 『Lord of Despair』 sealed within 『Abyss』 awaken from their seals.]

They were able to see those despair-inducing system messages.