Minhyuk’s heart was filled with hope when he saw that the damage the fragments had received was much more than the damage his men had received. Many of the fragments received severe injuries that made it hard for them to move.

The difference in the fragments hunted between the Beyond the Heavens Empire and the Luvien Empire was only at a hundred or so. It seemed like Minhyuk had finally taken one step closer not only to the Beyond the Heavens’ victory in this battle but also to the position of the true Battle God.

Once the restrictions were lifted, the players of the Beyond the Heavens Empire immediately tried to cast their skills. However, something completely unexpected happened.

Arrows and sword lights from afar rained down upon the fragments, shooting and cutting them down. When Minhyuk looked at the direction from which the attacks came, he saw the Swords of the Gods riding on their horses, with Duke Vlad and Nerva leading them, coming toward this fortress.

“...What the hell?!”

The players of the Beyond the Heavens Empire were all flustered. Most of the members of the Swords of the Gods exceeded the level of the Beyond the Heavens Empire players. The worst part was that the Beyond the Heavens Empire had shaved off most of the HP of the fragments when they swooped in, effectively taking away the fruits of their hard labor. Perhaps this was only natural since the two empires were at war.

“Guys, don’t stop attacking,” Minhyuk said when he saw that the gap between their empires’ hunted fragments that they had narrowed painstakingly began to widen again.

The Beyond the Heavens Empire players acknowledged his words and began to use their skills to attack and kill the fragments as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Minhyuk jumped down from the fortress and walked toward the troops approaching the Luvien Empire.

Nerva and Duke Vlad stepped forward to meet with him. However, it was Duke Vlad who spoke on Nerva’s behalf. He said, “The Beyond the Heavens Empire and the Luvien Empire might be at war, but with the current situation, I believe we shouldn’t quibble and work together.”

Duke Vlad was quite crafty. Like Nerva, he was also aware that the Luvien Empire would face criticism and be affected negatively if they attacked the Beyond the Heavens Empire, which was fighting for the world's future right here and now. So, he chose not to attack them. At the same time, he was also paving the way for Emperor Nerva.

“Underhanded bastards,” Minhyuk muttered. He suddenly found himself to be in a dilemma.

He lacked the troops even if he wanted to fight the Luvien Empire right here and now. Fighting against the fragments was already too much for them.

Of course, it would be much easier to hunt the fragments if they joined hands with them. However, the fact that the Luvien Empire and the Beyond the Heavens Empire were at war meant they had to consider that they would be hit at the back at any given moment. It was a risk they had to take if they had to fight side by side with them.

“Underhanded? This is for the future of the world. Saying that we’re underhanded seems to be a bit too much, no?” Duke Vlad snorted.

Minhyuk clicked his tongue. “You bastards only know how to take away what others had fought so hard and struggled to hunt. If you were truly worried about the world's future, you should have made the same choice as mine and had your troops lie in wait. I’m calling you underhanded, so what? Isn’t it because the Luvien Empire, which boasts that they are the strongest empire in the continent, is doing something underhanded? And all this so that you can put Emperor Nerva on the throne.”

“Let me say it once again: the Luvien Empire is…”

“Stop making excuses…”

As their conversation dragged on, the expression on the face of Duke Vlad, who had always sported a neutral expression, grew darker and darker.

Nerva, who was utterly sober despite looking extremely drunk, thought,

Nerva looked at the two bickering people with wide-open eyes.

“Fine. That’s it.” Minhyuk suddenly stopped bickering with him. “I hope you will do your best to hunt the fragments ”

Duke Vlad exhaled roughly. Why was the Beyond the Heavens’ emperor in front of him completely different from the image he had heard of before? With every word he said, Vlad could feel how fiery his personality was and how easy he was to provoke. He looked like he could not control his anger well.

Duke Vlad then ordered the knights of the Swords of the Gods to charge forward.

“...”

Duke Vlad was suddenly rendered speechless. It only took a few minutes, but over half of the fragments disappeared. At the same time, these notifications rang in Minhyuk’s ears.

Only at this moment did Duke Vlad realize why Minhyuk had latched on to them and stretched out their conversation for as long as possible.

The knights of the Swords of the Gods could not just go past Minhyuk to hunt the fragments while the two emperors were still discussing. On the other hand, the Beyond the Heavens Empire members had already been fighting against them earlier and were free to deal with them as much as they wanted. To top it off, they only focused on hunting the fragments that were rendered immobile and littered with severe injuries from the bomb that exploded.

In other words, Minhyuk bought time for the Beyond the Heavens Empire members to hunt the fragments.

“This underha—” Duke Vlad trailed off; he could not bring himself to finish the words.

He said earlier that the most important thing right now was to hunt the fragments for the sake of the world's future. To put it simply, he was not in a position to criticize Minhyuk and call him underhanded.

“...”

Duke Vlad’s expression grew ugly while Minhyuk looked at him expressionlessly. Only when Minhyuk turned around did he reveal a smug smirk.

“Swords of the Gods, what are you doing?! Hurry up!” Duke Vlad shouted, rushing the knights of the Swords of the Gods to move. “How dare a mere emperor…”

Anyone could see by Vlad’s ugly expression just how offended he was.

Duke Vlad saw that the gap between them began to close again as the Swords of the Gods stormed in to hunt the fragments. He would make sure to let Nerva sit on the throne of the Battle God.

Duke Vlad’s real name was none other than He was Helenia’s only disciple who had long been forgotten with time. Arumbe had taken over Duke Vlad’s body a few years ago and had been waiting with bated breath for this moment.

Arumbe intended to allow Nerva to succeed the throne of the Battle God and make him into his puppet, especially now that Nerva had turned into an incompetent emperor who had been left dwelling in the past and addicted to alcohol.

If Arumbe could manipulate Nerva, who had become the Battle God, he would have control over the Land of the Gods and the human world. Once that happened, then the world as a whole would kneel in front of Helenia.

The fragments? A lot of them had died at this point. But would this disrupt Helenia’s descent? No. In the first place, Arumbe, who was in the body of Duke Vlad, had already prepared for this scenario. Soon, the real battle would begin.

Duke Vlad rushed forward to hunt the fragments. However, there was one man who was glaring sharply at his back. And this man was none other than Nerva.

***

The performance of the Swords of the Gods, especially the first knight order and Duke Vlad, was outstanding. They were able to close the gap in just one breath.

Minhyuk stood atop the fortress walls and looked at the fragments. He thought,

There were only 300 fragments left now. He believed that this was enough. Helenia would no longer be able to descend at full power with this number. He thought all that was left was to determine who would be the next Battle God.

However, that was a mistake. Just when everyone was busy hunting the fragments, something happened.

“...?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

Everyone stopped for a moment. They were all left dumbfounded by the notifications.

A loud noise rang in the area.

Shards? Weren’t they supposed to be fragments? What did they mean by the true power of the shards? Were the notifications telling them that what they had been dealing with were mere shells? Decoys?

Minhyuk’s breath was stuck in his throat. He thought that it was all related to the red jewels. It had always given him this strange and uneasy feeling since earlier. The jewels were supposed to grow bigger and bigger as the number of people that they had killed increased. And whenever a fragment died, these jewels would fall off their bodies.

The shards started to twitch as they slowly raised their bodies. Their forms looked similar to humans', except their skin was as if lava had melted it and showed several traces of blood. Even their eyes were completely black. One look could give someone goosebumps.

One of the Swords of the Gods swung his sword and cut down the shard trying to stand up.

However, the shard did not fall even after receiving the brunt of the attack.

“...”

Minhyuk was left speechless when he saw the level of the shard.Just like that, shards began to arise from where the fragments had died before.

“Kihyaaaaaaack!!!”

“Keuhaaaaack!”

“Kekekekekekekeke!”

“Ahihihihihihihihi!”

“Kyahaaaaaaa!”

The shards' maniacal laughter roared. At that moment, the players and the Swords of the Gods felt like everything around them had turned into slow motion. They tried to attack the shards with all of their might to subdue them. But their high defensive power made even the Swords of the Gods helpless.

The Sword of the Gods that tried to cut down one of the shards failed to even leave a nick on the skin of the shard. The worst part? He was the one that got caught in the neck and was slammed into the ground.

Locke, who tried to swing his axes, was punched by one of the shards and sent flying back.

Ascar tried to cut them down with her greatsword, but the shards retaliated by cutting down the hands that held her blades.

“Kihyahahahahaha!”

“Keuhyahyahyahya!”

“Ahihihihihihi!”

Minhyuk’s breathing turned ragged as he watched the shards simultaneously charge.

One of the shards reached the fortress's gates and easily pierced through them with its arms. Thankfully, the iron gates that the Beyond the Heavens Empire had prepared in advance had been lowered, preventing it from going further.

However, even that was only like a piece of paper to the shards. The iron gates were quickly crushed and torn apart as the shards rammed, punched, and tore at it with all their might.

“Stop…”

The average level of the players was at Level 610, while the Swords of the Gods was at Level 660. They had no way to stop the more than 4,000 shards that were charging in at full force.

Minhyuk saw dozens of beasts running inside the fortress walls and charging toward Helenia, who was slumbering inside the clear spherical glass. Not long after, one of the shards rushed at her with open arms, its mouth releasing roars of unprecedented joy. It looked like a child extremely happy to have met its mother once again.

“Kihyehyehyehyehye!”

Minhyuk’s legs grew soft when he saw the creepy scene. And one thought flashed in the heads of everyone present.

Then, at that moment, someone stepped through the gates. The man moved extremely fast.

In this game, a player at Level 300 would not be able to beat an NPC at Level 400, even if ten players had gathered together to fight against the NPC. Similarly, players at Level 300 would also not be able to beat an NPC at Level 500, even if hundreds of them gathered together. This was all because of the difference in their strength.

The shards laughed maniacally as they ran with open arms.

“Ahihihihihihihi!”

But then, someone appeared and cut their heads off.

The man looked briefly at the head that rolled on the ground. Then, he turned to look at the shards running toward Helenia’s transparent wall from all directions as he moved. With every swing of the man’s sword, a head would fall and roll on the ground. And when hundreds of the shards had finally crowded from the inside, the man said, “Mercenary’s Pinnacle Swordsmanship. Final Chapter.”

If someone asked who among the NPCs would be considered the Supreme, just like how the players’ Supreme was Minhyuk, everyone would answer the same thing.

“Death Wolf.”

And their answer would be

Just like that, hundreds of wolves ran and tore the shards apart.