8.

One of the Demon Realm’s Six Great Sins—the Despair Lord that Helena had stolen.

Count Marmon, who had been gathering its power, was smiling with satisfaction.

Because the momentum of despair scattering across the world was anything but ordinary.

“Despair... you’re finally waking up.”

He was collecting that energy, truly delighted.

You could call it an orb of despair, maybe?

Right as he was admiring that gloomy, ominous orb—

Marmon felt it.

The presence of the Despair Lord, coming from far away.

The moment that presence escaped Mugan and manifested in reality, the entire surface world would surely surge with the Demon Realm’s despair.

The demons who had come up with him were already absorbing despair.

So if he could just retrieve that despair...

“The Demon Realm can recreate its former glory.”

Count Marmon, staring at the orb with anticipation, smiled slyly.

No matter how much the current era’s Overlord ran wild, there were things that could be done—and things that couldn’t.

Still, there was something that felt strange.

“I can’t understand why Overpalace isn’t moving.”

Even if there was the world’s suppression force, with interference on this scale, that suppression force should weaken.

And yet, for it to not move at all was... odd.

Could they be plotting something?

That thought crossed his mind, but—

If they didn’t move right now, it was good for them.

So he didn’t worry too much about it.

Then, at that moment—

CRACK—!

A sharp sound of something breaking rang out, and Marmon lowered his gaze as if something was off.

A fracture had formed in the orb of despair clenched in his hand.

“...Why?”

In that instant, Marmon’s eyes widened at the incomprehensible phenomenon.

SHATTER—!!!

The orb exploded into pieces, and the ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) fragments scattered into the air, vanishing off somewhere.

Count Marmon stared, wondering what the hell was happening, and looked in the direction they flew—

Toward Mugan City Belhadan, where the Despair Lord had been sealed.

Despair was heading there?

For a moment he thought the Despair Lord had manifested completely, but no.

It was the opposite. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

“The Despair Lord’s power is...”

It was disappearing.

Count Marmon stared that way like he couldn’t understand it, and his subordinates hurriedly sent reports.

They were messages from different people—

But they all meant the same thing.

-Count! The aura of despair has vanished!

-Count! The aura of despair is disappearing toward Belhadan!

-Count! Right now, all the despair spread throughout the world is being sucked into Belhadan!

Exactly what he’d seen was happening.

Which meant there was only one possible conclusion.

“The Overlord retrieved the Despair Lord?”

An immature Overlord who had only just started growing—

Absorbed despair?

The Grand Duke had said it would be impossible unless it was Helena’s extraordinary talent.

Which meant...

“Someone even more talented than Helena?”

No. That couldn’t be.

It couldn’t happen.

A second Overlord with talent greater than that witch-like calamity?

He couldn’t believe it.

And yet—why?

The chills crawling up Count Marmon’s spine refused to go away.

And at the same time, Count Marmon felt fear.

“What am I supposed to tell the Grand Duke...?”

He squeezed his eyes shut, but—

He had no choice.

He’d have to use a different move.

“Everyone, put your strength into searching for Corruption.”

Another one of the Six Great Sins.

It seemed like he would have to hunt down Corruption to calm the Grand Duke’s wrath.

0.

After Seong’s group ended the stream like that—

Embris’s party looked extremely frustrated, squeezing their eyes shut, trembling, and grinding their teeth.

But Kyou’s party didn’t look particularly happy, either.

They won, but it wasn’t an easy win.

If Embris had just had a little more sense—split-second judgment—she could’ve absolutely taken that match.

So Kyou’s party also wore uncomfortable expressions.

No one really looked like a winner—

But Seong looked at them and said,

“Everyone, that was a great match.”

“...Thank you.”

“We need to work harder.”

Kyou and Embris said that, and Seong grinned.

He wrapped up and sorted out the situation.

From this Despair Lord event, they’d also received huge rewards.

The biggest one—

“Now we’ve been issued passes too, so we can keep helping you, Seong-nim.”

Like Luna said, they’d been issued passes.

The continent-wide event wasn’t over yet, but it wasn’t like their individual skill upgrades were the important part.

Now, as a backup team, they could finally stand at Seong’s side and support him.

What could be more important than that?

That was why Seong nodded.

And he was about to check the new clues he’d obtained as well.

Right when he thought, Now I’ll finally claim the rewards after taking down the Despair Lord—

“Um, Seong-nim....”

Mihael suddenly approached, and Seong looked at him like, What is it?—then abruptly expressed his gratitude.

“Thanks to you, Mihael-hyungnim, we got to do some fun content. Thank you.”

“Oh, come on. Thanks to you, we got to join the Rapid Guild too, and I even got to become a professional broadcast MC, so I’m the one who’s grateful. But more importantly, there’s something I wanted to tell you.”

“Hm?”

As Seong tilted his head, wondering what it was—

Mihael said,

“Are you looking for something related to that swordsmanship you showed earlier?”

“Huh? The Galaxy Sword Dance?”

Seong looked at Mihael, startled.

At Seong’s look—like, You know about that?—Mihael nodded like, I thought so.

Then—

“Back in my previous guild, there was a party I was close with, and they once bragged that they’d seen swordsmanship that held the universe inside it.”

“Huh?”

Seong wondered if they’d seen Nina, who Nocturne had with him—

But something about the story felt off.

“They found a hidden dungeon, but the difficulty was so high that even the Eclipse Order kept it secret and hid it.”

“Ah.”

“I heard there’s a hidden raid boss in there that uses swordsmanship containing a galaxy.”

At those words, Seong’s pupils trembled.

A trace of the Galaxy Sword Dance.

He was wondering what the hell it could mean, when it clicked together with the clue he already had, and a system message surfaced.

[Clues regarding the Corruption Lord are being compiled.]

[Based on information about the hidden dungeon, its location is being identified.]

[You realize it is located in the tenth region, Wishless.]

[You learn that the Corruption Lord possesses the Galaxy Sword Dance.]

[Location has been specified.]

As he read those system lines, Seong’s eyes went wide.

And Mihael scratched his head and said,

“I only heard it’s somewhere around Wishless, and I never got the exact location... so that’s all I know. Sorry.”

“No!!! This is enough!!!”

Seong got excited in a way you rarely saw—

And Mihael flinched in surprise, then couldn’t help smiling.

Seong had done so much for him.

He was relieved he could repay even a little bit like this, and he smiled.

And at the same time—

“Then I’ll be wishing you victory.”

Mihael said that, gave a bright smile, and greeted them, and Mihael’s team left Mugan.

Seong and his backup team, still in Mugan, heard that and started discussing everything as a whole.

They’d gained a purpose for moving on to the next region.

So there was plenty to talk about.

“Then the next region is Wishless.”

“Should we split up and look for the hidden dungeon?”

“Hm. That would shorten the time.”

As the three party leaders said that—

Seong shook his head.

The party leaders and everyone else looked at Seong, a little anxious.

Was he saying he didn’t need them, that he’d go alone?

Unlike the backup members, who were worried he might say they weren’t needed—

Seong looked at them and said,

“No, there’s no need. I already know the location. I got it as a reward.”

“Wow. I’d heard that if it’s job-related, rewards can be given like that—so it was true?”

“Ah! That’s why!”

“Hm. That really is an incredible reward.”

Just like the three party leaders were impressed, the members were shocked too.

Who would’ve thought they’d get something like this as a reward?

There were other rewards too, but nothing topped this.

Thinking that, Seong quietly left Mugan with the backup team—

And sure enough, after seeing Mihael’s party leave, they slipped quietly through the users gathered around.

Then—

“Alright. I’ll log in tomorrow morning—see you tomorrow.”

Seong said that and logged out, and everyone else, looking pretty exhausted, logged out right away as well.

Seong thought it had been pretty fun.

And when he came outside—

Lee Geon-dong was already out there, greeting him first.

“Heh. Good work. The response is insane. Even that last sparring match was insane.”

“Yeah?”

Seong acted indifferent, but nodded like he’d enjoyed it a lot.

By the way—

“So what’s the next region?”

Lee Geon-dong, who’d already heard some of it from Seong, asked.

Seong grinned and said,

“The Corruption Lord.”

“Oh? Corruption?”

Lee Geon-dong looked excited at the new concept, but then he said, sounding a little regretful.

“Kinda sucks. Looks like today’s the last day we get to do this together at my place.”

“Yeah. You said the remodeling’s finished.”

As of today, Seong was going back home.

Lee Geon-dong felt regret too, but he wasn’t going to stop him.

It was fun, but there were definitely inconveniences.

Anyway—

“Then let’s party tonight.”

When Lee Geon-dong said that—

Seong grinned and nodded.

Last day deserves a party.

And as he did, Seong thought—

‘The Corruption Lord... and the Galaxy Sword Dance.’