Evan D. Sherden, End of the Play (6)

Serpina was able to get stronger holy power and authority after acquiring a new class by hearing the Great Mother’s voice and obtaining her blessing. That was how she was able to overwhelm others who were beyond her expectations. Surprisingly, it was none but Serpina who was the most believed person on earth by the Great Mother. The goddesses’ dignity always stayed by her side, which naturally made her words weigh heavy.

―Even if her words are downright lies.

So, those who associate with her don’t ever dare question her. They passionately believed that she shared in their will.

―Despite the fact that she was on the pinnacle against the Demons as a disciple of the Great Mother.

Of course, with the assistance of the Succubus Queen Maybellika, who played her role smoothly, all the evil and members of the Demon tribe that gathered in Sherden believed in Serpina and followed her plan. The largest scale Great Backflow since the creation of the dungeon, which nobody ever expected, provided an excellent window of opportunity for them to have the entire Sherden a target for their dark magic circle. Serpina ordered a large-scale summon such evil people like the thieves, robbers, rapists, and killers who hid into the darkness of Sherden and the corrupted alchemists, dark magicians, demons, and the Four Heavenly Kings gathered in one place. Surely, there was one additional reason why they were so obedient to her. It was that everyone in Sherden would be sacrificed by the magic circle which would be activated here. And thanks to that, she gathered all ‘targets for elimination’ in one place.

“You, it was you…cough.”

“As expected, you won’t die from just this. Well, it’s kind of given since you are one of the Four Heavenly Kings.”

Rubecca of the Four Heavenly Kings was considered the most dangerous being in terms of strength among all those gathered in this place. Therefore, Serpina decided to take her out first. When the magic circle was activated, it was right before the moment when Rubecca realized something was off.

“Karrgh…”

Serpina concentrated her holy power to create a holy spell called ‘God’s Judgement,’ and Rubecca panicked as she realized the magic circle was totally off, which led to her body being pierced by thirteen giant spears of light without being able to defend herself!

“Arghh, you, you. You’ve fooled us all…! But you’ll die too since my poison flows through my thoughts…! It will kill you first since you attacked me!”

“Yup, well, I knew about it to some extent.”

Rubecca’s poison was a magical poison that ignored the limitation of distance and injected itself into the target through her flow of thought. That became the reason why she was called the Slaughterer among the Four Heavenly Kings. Moreover, as her hostility towards the person who harmed her was bursting, her most horrific attack was aimed at Serpina.

“I feel a slight headache.”

“Headache? It won’t just end with that after receiving my most lethal poison…you did receive the power from the gods at that time!”

“Yup, of course.”

Despite how fierce Rubecca’s fangs were, Serpina couldn’t be defeated since she was following the will of the Great Mother. When Serpina lightly prayed with her hands together, all the poison that tried to flow into her was completely removed. She couldn’t take any chances of letting it affect the baby in her womb. However, it was fine since she had herself bestowed with a blessing beforehand.

“You, just you…I’ll kill you with my hands!”

Despite having thirteen spears of light pierce her body, Rubecca tried to rip her apart by moving her body. However, before she was able to do so, a holy knight with a shield…Raihan completely restrained her movements.

“You can’t harm her.”

“Argh…you, you were with her all along!”

“Of course, from the start. Now, why don’t you try using that poison on me too?”

“Absolutely! But before that, this bitch…Krrgh!? Why, why is my movement…!?”

Once someone started acknowledging Raihan, there was nothing they could do. All attacks would be redirected to him anyway.

“Was it this much? Serpina would have had a hard time…”

“I’m all right, darling. Our child is also safe.”

“…We haven’t had our wedding, right?”

“You, bastards…!”

It was given that Raihan could defend himself against Rubecca’s poison since he had mastered all kinds of resistances along with the ability to wield holy power. Rubecca clenched her teeth as she was cornered in a situation where she was the one attacking.

“Will you guys just stand and watch!? Kill these damn traitors! The pawns of Evan D. Sherden are amongst us…!”

Rubecca tried to ask the other Demons for help…but sadly, nobody was there to help her.

“Huh, did the magic activate correctly?”

“Weird; hey, look, the target lock missed in the end. It’s not including Sherden!”

“No, it’s not that it missed Sherden, but this…Argh!?”

From the moment the magic circle was first created, the witches, along with the best magicians, including Belois, twisted the magic…so, as a result, the activated spell was draining the miasma from all the Demons in the area.

“The magic circle is working in opposite…!”

“Re-reflux. It’s draining our miasma…krgggggh!”

Screams from the Demons echoed out in all directions. It was the moment the massive-scale magic that drained energy and restrained the movement was activated! Rubecca was able to resist the magic circle somewhat, being one of the Four Heavenly Kings, but the other Demons couldn’t.

“Ah…the precious demon army…!”

“Good job, Rubecca.”

Serpina smiled bitterly as she pointed her staff at Rubecca. When the tiara on her head sparkled with light, an enormous amount of holy power gathered at the end of the staff.

“Thank you for gathering up all the Demons. But since your role is over…please get off the stage.”

“Grrrrrrrrgh! You damn humaaaaaaaaaaans!”

If Evan were here, he would have complimented her for saying the perfect villain phrase. But she couldn’t say anything else after becoming a pile of ashes!

“Run! It was a trap!”

“Damn, I was hoping to make myself shine…argh!?”

“Nobody gets out! Not even one!”

The humans who weren’t targeted by the magic realized something was off, so they tried to escape, but then, Miriam was already prepared for the stage spotlight.

“The mace of God that will eradicate all evils on this stage will now descend upon you!”

“Miriam D. Sherden! Did you perhaps lie to us as well!?”

“Traitor!”

“Oh my, you guys are the traitors against Sherden. I am just your judge!”

In the plan of overtaking Sherden by Miriam, Serpina, and Maybell didn’t seem to have any gap in terms of politics, economy, and trades, and there were quite a several nobles that acted boldly, thinking that this was the perfect opportunity to destroy Marquis Soline, Eric, and Evan D. Sherden. Within them, there weren’t just the collateral ascendants but also the nobles of Sherden and magicians from other countries, and they were all gathered in this place. Evan’s plan on eradicating all evils in Sherden was overwhelmingly successful.

“I had a magic item that detects lies, but why!?”

“Having an artifact to nullify such items is only common sense, isn’t it? I just wanted to throw out garbage like you on Evan’s behalf! Hahahaha!”

Miriam took out her great fan and laughed while covering her mouth. She never forgot her role as an actress until the end after receiving such a request from Evan. They tried to attack her out of anger, but the arrows fired by Jhin killed them.

“Krgh, damn…! Was this all just a trick!?”

“And it was carried out with utmost caution, and yet it was according to his plan? Nonsense, it…can’t be like this! How stupid we all were!”

“You weren’t stupid. We…no, Evan was just smarter.”

Miriam eased her lips to sneer at them. Spreading endless despair to the enemies through revealing the secrets of the current situation was sure a fine example of the bad ending climax! Those who realized that they were completely fooled and that they couldn’t escape no matter what usually lost their tempers and most of them ended up breaking their monitor or the game CD!

“Evan! Evan D. Sherden!”

“Arrrrrrrrrgh! I’ll kill hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim!”

“Keeeeh…since things have turned out this way, let’s break the magic circle and have the energy flow against them! To destroy them! Sherden will be in a mess through this Great Backflow; we still have a chance if we use that opportunity to attack!”

“We have to save our Commander!”

“But wait…what’s that?”

The magic circle kept on glowing intensely after absorbing the miasma and showing off a dreary light, and something ‘strange’ appeared at the center. It was the size of a puppy first…but as it absorbed the miasma gathered in the magic circle, it started to grow bigger. They turned deadly pale and tried to stop that thing as soon as they realized it absorbed the energy from the magic circle, but it was no use. It was blocking everyone by turning some of the miasmas into a shield!

“Wait, wait a second.”

“Is that perhaps…”

As its body grew bigger to the point that people were able to identify it by appearance, the people planted by Evan started reading their believable scripts at the right timing.

“Is that the Chaos Dragon which only appears at the age of chaos…!?”

“Our twisted desires reacted with the magic circle, and that creature was summoned…!”

It was the form of a complete dragon. A body covered with shiny scales, a magnificent pair of bloody wings, four feet with sharp claws, which was a bit short compared to its giant yet slender body, and the terrifying vertical pupils like a reptile. That existence that only appeared in history was that of the legendary dragon. No, the Chaos Dragon made its appearance through the reaction between the hideous human desires and demon miasma!

―Kyyyyuuuuuuuuuuu!

Then, when that creature, which grew big enough to step on any human like a bug, became angry and roared, all creatures weaker than the dragon were intimidated.

“No, we can’t win.”

“A dragon; it doesn’t make sense…”

“All will perish. All…!”

People were thrust into despair. Nobody could have hope in the horrible tragedy created by the evil intentions of humans and the Demons. The dragon obliterated all nearby Demons by stepping on them as soon as it regained consciousness!

“Damn, we’ll all die if we don’t kill that one first!”

“The magic circle that was supposed to obliterate Sherden; why…damn it!”

The entire region turned into a mess due to the appearance of a dragon. Whenever it cast a spell, hundreds of humans and demons died, so it was a priority over the traitors. As they were too busy with the current situation, they didn’t realize that the dragon was oddly killing people in a selective method between the human and the Demons. At that moment, Miriam used her overwhelming charisma to lead certain people to a safe place. It was at this moment that Louise’s party arrived at the scene.

“Jhin spotted!”

“I’ll win this time with all my strength! I’ll mock him after defeating him!”

Lin and Lan shouted as they charged towards Jhin. But Jhin, who was helping Miriam evacuate the innocent people, held them with ease and spoke.

“The show’s over. You’ve been told that there has been a change in the scene after the Great Backflow.”

“Huh, I wanted to give Jhin a punch before that!”

“Hmmph, I wanted to play Loser-will-grant-the-winner-a-wish game…”

Jhin sighed as he expected them to learn something while traveling along with Louise and her party, and when he was lost in such thought…

“But we get to play with Jhin every day from now on.”

“I was bored without Jhin.”

“…”

Jhin hesitated as Lin and Lan were happily chatting with each other. His eyes that resembled the dragon’s scanned them. The twins were hanging on Jhin’s arm and laughing together.

“I don’t really get you, girls.”

“Jhin’s an idiot!”

“Stupid Jhin!”

“Say whatever you want.”

Meanwhile, Save, who realized Jhin wasn’t a villain from the start, approached him without feeling surprised as Lin and Lan were getting along with him.

“Ah.”

“You’ve done a good job so far. If you don’t mind, can I duel with you later?”

Jhin’s eyes widened at the polite request from Save, but he nodded generously.

“We’ll all become the same members of the Knighthood once things are over.”

“…Dungeon Knights.”

“But for now, move. That’s what Commander Evan wants.

“Evan, the Commander…yes!”

His words echoed within Save’s heart. Save nodded his head in a daze, then fixed his sight towards the hall that became hell because of the dragon. The Demons were almost wiped out thanks to the effects from the magic circle, and the villains were one-sidedly being massacred as they lost their escape route. It was hard to tell who the real villain was in this situation.

“It’s time for you guys to shine.”

At that moment, someone approached them from behind. According to the scenario, she was supposed to receive an escort from the Ironwall Knights, but due to the Great Backflow, she appeared recklessly in the middle of the battlefield, and there she stood in the middle of the crowds struggling to survive. It was Redine D. Sherden, Evan’s mother.

“I’ve seen all the achievements you have fulfilled so far. This is your last task. Please stop that dragon which descended due to humanity’s foolishness.”

“That dragon, but…”

“Just get the spotlight by adequately fighting against it.”

As Save was about to refute, Redine whispered to him quietly.

“Our daughter-in-law will take care of the rest in the end, so just leave the impression that you are a mighty warrior fighting against a dragon.”

“…”

It was a stage filled with fabrication till the end. By her ridiculous words, Save…

“If it’s his will.”

He lifted his halberd after replying to her valiantly.

“I’ll become a dragon slayer or whatever.”

“No, you won’t kill it, all right? Well, you can’t kill it though…Louise, go with him. You need to be in the spotlight as well.”

“Yes, all right!”

Sherden faced the crisis of the Chaos Dragon, which was brought upon by the accumulated lust of many humans and Demons. Evan D. Sherden, the hero of Sherden, wasn’t able to stop the dragon since he was busy fending off the Great Backflow. The hero Must Save, the one that inherited Evan’s will and the one who was in the same party as Louise, stood up to fight the dragon. Must Save, Louise, the priestesses of the void god Lin and Lan, earth magician Renail, priest of the nameless god Enoch, and thief Lucid. Their party bravely stood in front of the Chaos Dragon, whose anger started to reach out to the innocent people after engulfing the villains and the Demons, but the best they could do was hold their ground against its immense power. And a girl that appeared alone in the final stage of the courageous battle…the best tamer of Sherden Serena L. Silk Line, succeeded in taming the exhausted dragon, and the worst crisis that had ever happened in Sherden since its foundation came to an end at last!

…And Evan ended the Great Backflow by blocking the entrance of the dungeon until the miasma from it depleted. Those who knew the scenario of this play somewhat realized that stopping the Great Backflow physically was far more impressive compared with confronting Gnar. Still, everyone decided not to mention it as Evan was satisfied with how the scenario successfully ended.