Chapter 8

-Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Monsters flooded relentlessly around the cannon, now preparing for its third mana shot.

Lucas' defensive line was holding up for the moment, but it was clear it wouldn't last much longer.

"Loading complete!"

"Damien!"

The artillery commander confirmed the load was ready. Without missing a beat, I called out to Damien.

"Fire!"

Damien's eyes were streaked with red veins, possibly a side effect of using the Far-sight ability. But we had no time to consider that now.

-Clink!

Already locked on his target, Damien pulled the trigger without hesitation.

-Bang, clink, clink...!

-Whoosh!

The third shot.

The fired mana bullet traveled a massive distance...

-BOOM!

And landed right where the Spider Queen lurked.

This was nothing short of extraordinary marksmanship.

Whether it was an error by the gods or a trick by the game developers, the truth remained: Damien's aim was a miracle in reality.

The problem was...

-Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Despite everything, the Spider Queen remained upright.

The Queen was no fool. Having been hit twice, she understood that she was the target and had swiftly developed a countermeasure.

Her strategy was simple yet effective: use her underlings as living shields.

The mana bullets, falling in parabolic arcs, were intercepted by the spider guards.

While the mana bullet penetrated all barriers, by the time it reached the Queen, its potency had significantly decreased.

"Black Spider Queen, hit confirmed. But, she's still standing...!"

The scout with the telescope reported, his voice trembling. I forced myself to shout in response, maintaining an illusion of calm.

"What are you all doing standing around? Do you think we have time to waste? Load the next bullet! Now!"

The artillerymen, drenched in sweat, hastened to cool down the cannon and load the next bullet. Yet, their faces were heavy with despair.

"Euuuriyaap!"

At the heart of the forward base, around the cannon.

Lucas stood there, brandishing his sword with all his might, holding the last semblance of a defensive line.

"We must protect the cannon! We must protect His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Lucas fought admirably, living up to his reputation as the most formidable knight present.

Despite his level being half that of the Black Spider entities, he fought tooth and nail, skillfully wielding his sword and shedding monstrous claws.

The frontline, where Lucas held his ground, didn't falter.

But the rest of the soldiers...

"Cough!"

"Ahhh..."

"Sa...Save me! Take me home..."

Casualties began to pile up.

In the ally information window, the number of comrades was plummeting at a terrifying speed. I couldn't bear to watch any longer and closed it.

I hadn't realized.

When it was just a game, I hadn't understood.

That this was a place where real lives existed.

That death wasn't just a simple figure, but arrived with dreadful screams and odors like this.

The frontline dwindled in an instant. At this rate, the defensive line seemed likely to collapse entirely before we could even fire the fourth shot, let alone the fifth.

"Hey, you monster bastards!"

At that moment, a voice bellowed from outside our defensive perimeter. My eyes quickly darted to its source.

There, amidst the throng of beasts, stood Ken, defiantly yelling.

"Here, here! Look at me!"

Up until now, Ken had successfully diverted a fraction of the spiders by drawing their attention and hiding beyond the wall.

However, when the Spider Queen issued a new command and all spiders swarmed our fortress, Ken was left marooned outside.

He could have fled. After all, he had a large family depending on him.

"Fucking spider bastards! I am Sir Ken of the Empire!"

But Ken stayed, steadfast in his duty to the very end.

Quivering in the face of the spiders, he roared to capture the enemy's attention.

Was it my threats that kept him there? Or was it something else...

-Screeeeech!

As dozens of spiders veered from their attack on our line to regard Ken, a gut-wrenching feeling washed over me.

I understood then that I wouldn't be able to ask him why he had chosen to return.

Dozens of black spiders halted their onslaught and darted towards Ken.

Ken made an attempt to activate his stealth skill, seeking to lure them away and hide behind a toppled stone wall.

"Ah."

His stamina depleted, Ken failed to activate [Urchin's Survival Method].

In an instant, he was swarmed by dozens of spiders. From atop the fortress, Ken glanced my way, offering a weak, sorrowful smile.

"Damn, I knew it would end like this..."

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

The horrific sound of flesh being torn echoed clearly across the distance.

I forced myself to watch, bearing witness to his demise in its entirety.

Ken wasn't the only one. Everywhere, humans were being slaughtered by these monsters.

As I bit my lip until it bled, I was hit with the realization of what I'd done in this game. How readily I'd sacrificed allies when it suited my purpose.

This fucking game was built that way. Someone had to die to progress.

To rescue someone, to secure that item, to complete that side mission, to achieve that goal...

Someone had to die, and I willingly played the executioner.

All in the name of efficiently completing the game, I guiltlessly sent countless allies to their doom. Never once did I question this.

"Stop."

But now, I finally understood.

"Stop..."

The significance of what I had been doing.

"Stop, you fucking monster bastards!"

The sheer pain each death entailed.

Watching people drop and bleed out before me, I screamed without thought.

"Stoooooop!"

But they didn't stop.

A scream wouldn't deter the monsters. There was always only one method to halt a monster.

Kill it.

Before it kills us.

"Your Majesty!"

The artillery captain's voice pulled me from my thoughts, and I spun towards him.

"The fourth round, loaded! However, the barrel can't handle the repeated overheating and cooling..."

"Damien!"

Ignoring the artillery captain's words, I called out to Damien.

"Fire!"

Blood, like teardrops, streamed from Damien's bulging eyes.

His complexion was ghostly pale. It seemed his body was failing under the strain of using [Far-sight].

Yet, Damien bit down on his teeth and pulled the trigger.

-Bang, clink, clink...!

-Whoosh!

The fourth round.

The blue mana bullet streaked a mesmerizing path through the sky, once again homing in on the queen's horde.

This time, dozens of guardian spiders raced to intercept the bullet with their bodies.

However, the mana bullet traced an uncanny perfect trajectory in the air, bypassing most of them...

-BOOM!

Strike.

It landed squarely atop the queen's head.

This was the power of Far-sight.

The cheat skill that overloaded hit points to their absolute limit, successfully struck the queen, defying the rules of reality.

-Squeal, screech...

But, but...

-Screeeeeeeeech!

Amidst the blazing explosion and smoke, the damned spider queen remained terrifyingly alive and active.

The artillerymen crumbled to the ground at the queen's horrifying roar. Damien, who had been aiming, couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed.

Despair etched itself across every face.

"Our attacks aren't working..."

The artillery captain murmured in a drained voice, his hand blistered from cooling the heated barrel.

"The barrel's reached its limit. If we try to shoot again, the mana cannon itself will explode."

"..."

"We might as well give up now..."

The other soldiers glanced up at me with exhausted faces, their silent agreement evident. I took a deep breath and surveyed the scene.

Our defensive line was teetering on total annihilation.

Spiders swarmed beneath our artillery.

Lucas, rallying the last handful of soldiers, held the final line of defense.

His body was more stained with his own blood than the spiders'.

I looked towards Damien. He was groaning, eyes screwed shut, blood streaming down his face.

The cannon teetered on the brink of destruction, our defenses had crumbled, and our marksman could no longer even open his eyes.

Despite all our sacrifices to land a hit on the monster queen, she remained alive.

Was this the end?

Was there truly no hope left...?

"No!"

Just then.

"There's definitely damage! The queen's outer shell has been peeled off!"

Someone yelled. Every head turned in surprise towards the source.

A soldier, true to his duty till the end, even in this dire situation. He was a scout. He pulled his face away from the telescope and hollered.

"If we fire once more, we can kill her-"

But before he could finish,

-Rumble...

The entire cannon platform started to violently shake,

-Boom!

The ground beneath us gave way.

The relentless advance of the Black Spider Legion siege troops, their massive bodies encased in heavy armor, collided with our battlements, splintering them to bits.

One calculated charge, and our defenses were obliterated. Those of us who were atop the walls plummeted helplessly.

Amidst the rain of bodies and the remnants of shattered cannons.

I shut my eyes as I descended towards the ground.

Everything crumbled.

The world around us, the prospect of conquering the game.

All of it.

***

"Your Majesty."

A distinct voice penetrated the chaos.

Engulfed in pain, as though my body was ripping apart, I strained to open my eyes.

Before me... was Lucas.

Lucas lay over me, as if to shield my fallen form with his own.

And burdened on his back were the remains of a demolished building.

He'd used his body to guard me from the falling rubble.

"Lucas?!"

Jolting back to consciousness, I quickly scrambled to stand.

As I moved, Lucas grunted and brushed off the debris strewn across his back.

"Are you... unharmed, Your Majesty?"

"I should be the one asking, Lucas! How are you...."

I ceased speaking.

Blood saturated Lucas's back. The injuries he'd suffered from protecting me from the collapsing building were far graver than those inflicted by the spiders.

"Cough!"

Lucas, hacking out blood, spoke with a pained expression.

"Your Majesty, do you remember? It's a tale from nearly 20 years ago."

"..."

I couldn't recall.

Because I'm merely a game player who inhabited this body, unable to share any past memories with you.

"When you first met me and appointed me as your escort, you made a declaration."

"What... did I say?"

"'I may not be an emperor, but I'll be the coolest guy in the world.'"

A feeble smile graced Lucas's face as he dwelled on the past.

"'So you, who will be my escort, should also become the coolest knight in the world.'"

"..."

"Even though they were the words of a naive child, they struck a chord within me. I've clung to them to this day."

Lucas fixed his blood-stained gaze on me.

"Your Majesty. I trust you."

"Even in these circumstances?"

"Regardless of where or when."

And then, Lucas slumped.

I caught Lucas as he tipped to the side and carefully laid him on the ground. His injury was severe, but thankfully, he still breathed.

'Hang in there, Lucas.'

You're the hero, aren't you? The redeemer of this world.

You can't die here.

Swiftly, I surveyed the scene. Scattered on the floor of the broken battlements were shattered cannons and wounded soldiers.

Why haven't the spiders ended us yet?

"Your Majesty."

The answer to my question rapidly unraveled.

At the entrance of the narrow passageway on the first level of the shattered battlements.

"We're not defeated yet."

Lilly stood her ground.

With her [Fire Skin] trait triggered, she'd been barricading the entrance, single-handedly holding back the surge of spiders rushing at her with her bare form.

Pale and trembling, Lilly, who'd just drained her final mana potion, inquired.

"Right?"