It was about Cromwell’s childhood.
“Ah!”
While sparring with a young demon, Cromwell slipped and fell, resulting in her first defeat.
The tip of the demon youth’s sword touched Cromwell’s neck.
Her first defeat ever.
Though young, Cromwell’s talent was overwhelming, and she had never lost in a sparring match.
Cromwell was surprised, but the young demon who had defeated her was even more shocked. The elder watching the duel turned pale with bewilderment.
“Haha, you’re amazing!”
Momentarily stunned, Cromwell got up, laughed brightly, and extended her hand for a handshake with the youth who had defeated her.
The youth, still dazed, accepted Cromwell’s handshake. Cromwell patted the youth’s shoulder.
“You’re the first to beat me. Let’s spar again next time! Alright?”
But that never happened.
That night, the youth was ‘eliminated.’
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk…!
With an expressionless face, the elder swung his knife, stabbing the youth tied to the pillar in the stomach.
The youth twisted in pain and eventually died. The elder wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve.
“Elder?!”
Cromwell, arriving a step too late, was horrified.
“What… what on earth have you done?! Why did you kill him?!”
“Your Excellency.”
The elder spoke coldly.
“Your Excellency must neither lose nor fail.”
“What…?!”
“As the ruler of the legion, you must be flawless.”
Thus.
Anyone aware of Cromwell’s defeat was eradicated.
Though an absurd thought and action, the elder’s eyes held an eerily firm conviction.
Cromwell asked in a trembling voice.
“So, you’re making it as if this never happened?”
“Yes. Your Excellency has never lost. Such a thing never happened.”
After setting the limp youth’s body on magical fire, the elder whispered sternly into Cromwell’s ear.
“If Your Excellency truly loses, truly fails, then it will be I, and our entire legion, who will be tied to a pillar and killed.”
“…!”
“Never lose. Never fail. Achieve only victory.”
In an instant, the youth’s body was reduced to ashes.
As Cromwell stood frozen, staring at the charred spot, the elder reiterated coldly into her ear.
“For the legion, only victory.”
And it turned out as such.
Throughout her growth, Cromwell buried all her mistakes and pretended they never happened. She was forcibly made flawless.
She never once lost, never once failed. Cromwell grew to be the greatest commander of the legion.
And because of that.
Cromwell never learned to accept failure.
She never learned from defeat, never learned to steady her heart after a loss.
“Huh?”
And at some point.
Cromwell stood at a dead-end.
Dead End.
Defeated by Night Bringer, she could no longer move forward and came to a halt.
‘Ah…’
On the brink of life and death, she thought blankly.
‘Stopping… is comfortable.’
In truth, she never understood from the beginning.
Why she had to conquer the world.
What the ambition of her race was. What the glory of her homeland was.
She was just pushed to the forefront.
Because everyone expected it. Because everyone was watching her. Because everyone said she was the only hope…
But now, that tiresome race was over.
She could let everything go and rest.
“Your Excellency.”
Then a voice came from behind. Turning around, she saw the elder standing with open arms.
“Let’s make this defeat as if it never happened.”
“…”
“And from now on, continue to achieve victory.”
She didn’t want to.
She no longer wanted to get up and fight.
Why she had to fight, why she had to win, why she must not lose. Cromwell still didn’t understand.
But, she was the commander.
She had to fight for the legion.
For her beloved legion members, and her beloved father. She had to muster up strength one more time…
“Eat.”
So, she devoured.
She devoured everyone in the legion, regardless of gender or age, to erase her defeat.
If she could achieve her ambition and destroy this world, everyone would be happy.
“Huh?”
Crushing through the dead-end wall with the flesh and bones of the legion members.
As she crawled through the bloodstained passage with her resurrected body, Cromwell suddenly realized.
She had pursued victory for her father, for the legion members, and now…
She had devoured her father and all the legion members for that victory.
“Ah…?”
***
“Ahhhhh-!”
The beast roared.
Ominous green magical light scattered chaotically and surged everywhere, and at the center, Cromwell’s entire body, holding up enormous green antlers, boiled.
Sensing the unusual atmosphere, I gritted my teeth.
“How many phase changes are there, really…!”
For once, could she just die quietly!
But this was Stage 45. The last boss stage before the final Stage 50.
As befits a boss monster of such a stage, Cromwell had no intention of going down easily.
Whoosh!
Separated from the reindeer corpse, Cromwell, now about the size of a slightly larger human woman, raised countless tentacles above her head.
The tentacles, writhing as they rose, immediately hardened and intricately intertwined, making the already huge antlers even larger and thicker.
“Ahhhhh-!”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The hundreds and thousands of entangled tentacles each held different magical powers and began emitting complex colors.
At the same time, thousands of magical patterns surged like waves from Cromwell’s antlers.
“This is!”
Sensing the magic, Dearmudin muttered with a pale face.
“It’s the magical patterns of other legion commanders Cromwell devoured…!”
“What?!”
“And not just them. The patterns of all sorts of minor monsters remain as well!”
I gritted my teeth and glared at Cromwell. Could it be… that bastard…
“Did she absorb all the abilities of the monsters she devoured…?”
Now, the messy process made a bit more sense.
Why she bothered to devour and regurgitate all her allies.
Where the abilities of the zombified remaining monsters went.
Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, locking herself in a mass of flesh and then coming out again… that form…!
“Ahhhhh!”
As if she had merged all the monsters in this world into one,
The antlers, which were emitting ominous multicolored auras in all directions, suddenly stopped emitting colors.
The enormous antlers, having ceased to emit magical light, turned a dull green.
Cromwell, swaying with an enormous tree-like structure on her head, finally…
Opened her closed eyes.
Flash-!
With a terrifying green glow, a dreadful aura spread across the area.
Immediately, dozens of intertwined antlers turned red and began to shine.
‘This is…!’
The power of the Flame Giant Legion!
‘Is she manifesting all the power of the flame giants she devoured at once?!’
Cromwell drew back her right fist and then thrust it forward,
Flames whirled out from the reddened antlers, forming a giant arm in the air… and slammed down toward our heroes rushing at her.
Boom!
An enormous explosion and smoke spread everywhere.
-But, there was no damage.
“Is that all…!”
Just before the flaming fist fell, I conjured a magical barrier in the air and blocked it precisely.
The real-time melting and evaporating of the magical barrier bought us a few seconds, but it was enough. Our heroes had already approached Cromwell.
Then Cromwell swung her left hand horizontally.
Whoosh!
Likewise, some of the antlers glowed cyan, and this time, a long, blade-like arm formed in the air.
‘The cutting ability of the Mantis Legion…!’
Slash-!
And the incoming mantis scythe slash-
“Huup-!”
Thud!
Torkel took it head-on.
Normally, it’s a kind of curse that would inevitably slice its target, but Torkel activated his ultimate skill [Humans Are Not Born to Lose] and neutralized the curse with his body.
“Nice, Torkel!”
But I stopped mid-praise, feeling awkward.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
So far, only parts of the antlers were glowing, but now, they were starting to light up in succession, spewing colors.
“Ah…”
Cromwell’s green eyes widened menacingly, and around her, all kinds of monster attack methods materialized from magic.
“Ah, Father. Watch over me.”
Crunch, crack…
It was clearly the sound of magic resonating, but it echoed like the eerie cracking of bones and joints.
“I will lead our legion…”
Cromwell opened her mouth wide and roared.
“To glory-!”
Boom…!
A fierce magical storm erupted in all directions.
The teeth of a hellhound, the venom of a centipede, the leg muscles of a cicada, and countless tentacles…
All of these took form through magic and poured out indiscriminately. The heroes who had barely approached had to retreat quickly to avoid being swept away.
“Ugh! What kind of creature is this…?!”
“Ash! We can’t find an opening!”
“Fall back! We need to find a way!”
The close-range heroes, having barely distanced themselves from Cromwell, caught their breath and searched for a gap. But even getting this close had left them covered in wounds.
Watching Cromwell’s constantly glowing antlers, I clicked my tongue.
‘The ranged attack team…!’
Our wizards and snipers were, of course, attempting to attack.
Slash! Slash!
But since the transformation phase, Cromwell’s antlers had spread a thick mist-like magical barrier, neutralizing all attacks in the air.
Junior, who had joined us late, was struggling to unleash [Elemental Disassembly], but Cromwell, having devoured all the monsters in the area and made their magic her own, was producing power more rapidly than [Elemental Disassembly] could deplete.
‘The only fortunate thing is, her attacks are not precise!’
Cromwell’s attacks were reckless.
It was like a boxer who had taken a barrage of punches and was unconscious, swinging their fists at anyone who came close…
‘In this case, the only attack method we can use is…’
I was quickly calculating when a voice came from beside me.
“Prince Ash.”
I turned to see Dearmudin.
The old mage, with a somewhat complex expression, nodded at me.
“I know a way to neutralize that beast.”
“What? Really?”
“Yes.”
Glaring at Cromwell, Dearmudin gave a bitter smile.
“When I was at the abandoned cathedral, living with the demons… I learned of a weakness.”
Then Dearmudin sighed deeply.
“Once again, such a role falls to an old man.”
–TL Notes–
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