Genius Blacksmith's Game

The reason for Vera’s confidence came from the Calamity Church.

The Calamity Church was the largest church rivaling the Ares Church.

Not once had a player ever truly shone within that group that served the evil god Baal, but she had pulled it off.

She had brought Gremory’s resurrection closer than anyone else and had obtained the position of 1st Legion Commander.

That was why she had been able to strut so arrogantly even in front of Asura, the man called the idol of death gods, mad killers, and assassins.

Why?

Because she had believed the legion commanders at her side would protect her....

And that was true.

[Blink]

It was the moment Blink activated.

The legion commanders who had prepared for any contingency immediately pressured Kabel with stun skills, staggering skills, and status ailment skills.

However—

[You resist.]

He resisted all of them and drove an unhesitating strike into Vera’s heart.

[Authority of Resurrection.]

[One time only, HP refills to 50%, and for a single moment defense is doubled.]

She was relieved.

Asura Kabel’s specialty was instant death.

The last time Kabel had revealed himself, aside from that one instant-kill move, he had possessed no power capable of killing her in a single strike.

But then—

“Crush to Death.”

[Crush to Death]

[You pierce the enemy at once with a massive concentration of power.]

[Splash damage occurs.]

[Those within a 6-meter radius are struck with a single hit equal to 30% of the original Crush to Death damage.]

FWWOOOOOOSH—!

It wasn’t only Vera.

The power of Crush to Death pierced even the nearby legion commanders.

FWWOOOSH—!

FWWOOOOOOSH—!

FWWOOOSH—!

FWWOOOOOOSH—!

Kabel was a horrifyingly thorough person.

‘He must have thought that someday someone would appear who could resist Blink.’ 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

If there was an instant-kill move, then naturally there would also be a way to defend against it.

Kabel had overcome that by obtaining the skillbook of a certain legendary assassin he had sought out for a long time.

That was right.

The man called Asura Kabel—

he was not someone you could think of as merely Asura.

One must never forget that once, he had been called an information broker and had possessed more information than anyone else in the world.

Pssssssh—

Vera emerged from her capsule in a state of utter shock.

“Do you know how hard I worked...... how hard I worked to become a legend......!”

It had been dazzling.

The image of herself obtaining the Gremory Resurrection quest, rallying the Calamity Church, and even controlling the legion commanders like puppets.

The whole world had gone wild with excitement and expectation.

Kabel didn’t know how much effort she had put—

“.......”

Vera froze in shock.

The last thing the man called Asura had said to her.

Not every legend is the same.

Had that simply meant the difference in power and class?

No.

While Vera had been advancing, the man called Kabel had also been making endless effort.

Just as he had acquired the power called Crush to Death, which she had known nothing about.

Asura had worked harder, and he had advanced further.

‘Why, why are you going that far!’

Vera could not understand it.

Putting together all the stories about Kabel, he had not seemed all that different from her.

He had been a loner, and if it was information that brought money, he had sold it whether the buyer was evil or good.

In the past, through various contracts, he had even killed targets that should not have died.

Then Vera realized something, and a chill ran down her spine.

“......He knew?”

Kabel, who possessed tens of thousands of pieces of information, might have assembled many separate fragments and pursued the single highest-probability outcome.

At the current battlefield between the Calamity Church and the Ares Church, people from Atlas had come.

They had answered the Ares Church’s call for support.

And Kabel had not gone.

‘It must have started from then......’

The moment the announcement had rung out that the fifth legend had appeared.

‘He had been looking over every piece on the board!’

How the pieces would move.

How they would act!

And so Kabel had known she would come.

Just now, the instant he appeared, he had used two consecutive instant-kill moves on her. His two greatest powers.

“......Th-this madman!”

Goosebumps rose across Vera’s body.

He might have known about Gremory’s Earring.

The effect of Gremory’s Earring—

[Gremory’s Mercy envelops the legion commanders.]

[The penalty on the designated legion commanders is reduced from 50% to 10%.]

[You receive the penalty.]

[Your level drops by 10.]

It let them partially ignore the penalty.

Which meant a predator had been waiting for prey to walk into the trap.

Because the instant she died, the earring’s effect became null and void.

And now, before a single beast, those who had ruled the demon realm under the name of legion commanders were falling into nothing more than prey.

Vera panicked.

Since she had already died, there was no taking it back.

But the world could not be allowed to learn that she had fallen into Kabel’s trap, and that Gremory’s subordinates had been reduced to mere prey.

Streamer Rollo, whom she had called in order to boost her own rise—

she sent him a whisper on her phone.

[Vera: Stop the broadcast right now!!!!!]

[Rollo has blocked you.]

[The message cannot be sent.]

Thud.

Vera collapsed to the floor, unable to accept it.

The maze Asura Kabel had laid out.

It was so complex, so tightly woven, that there was not even an exit to escape through.

*****

Meanwhile.

Rollo had received a whisper from a certain individual.

[Kabel: I can’t believe there are still people trying to film other players with this kind of bad manners.]

Rollo had intended to ignore it.

Because he had judged that filming the fall of Atlas would bring him far more profit than any sanction or criticism.

[Kabel: Then I suppose you’ll have nothing to say even if your channel gets deleted for such bad manners?]

[Rollo: ......What do you want.]

[Kabel: All revenue from the broadcast.]

[Rollo: ......Not that I stop filming?]

Rollo could not understand it.

Soon, after starting the broadcast and gathering viewers, Rollo gasped in admiration.

“What is this......?”

With only two blows, Vera had been forcibly logged out.

[Current viewers: 623,015.]

Now he understood why Kabel had not asked for the broadcast to be stopped.

And the viewers were going insane.

—Wow, Vera was acting so arrogant, and he crushed her instantly.

—Kabel is insane......

—That skill Kabel just used, Crush to Death. That’s the power the legendary assassin Rubero used.

Rollo possessed a great deal of expert knowledge.

And so, with a trembling voice, he said,

“That’s right. It was the power Rubero used. Countless experts said it was a shame that Kabel had class-changed into Asura. They said that compared to the power he had, the vessel of Asura was actually too small. But those words themselves were arrogance. Kabel is Asura, yes—but he is also one who possesses infinite information. He doesn’t have a dual class, but he possesses the power of one.”

Rollo’s voice was rising before he even realized it.

Because of one notification.

[Asura Kabel requests screen sharing.]

At that moment, handing over every bit of revenue to Kabel no longer felt wasteful in the slightest.

Anticipating what was about to happen, he said,

“From this ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) moment on, it’s Asura’s time.”

[Screen sharing begins.]

*****

The pieces on the board panicked at the appearance of the king.

[The effect of Gremory’s Mercy disappears.]

[The 50% penalty on 12th Legion Commander Vetro for descending to the surface is applied in full.]

[The 50% penalty on 5th Legion Commander Dunden for descending to the surface is......]

[The penalty on 20th Legion Commander Broad for descending to the surface......]

The legion commanders knew one man.

The second person the demon Gremory had coveted.

The mad killer, and the King of Hell, Asura.

One who might perhaps have been their ally was now standing inside the enormous trap into which they had fallen, eyes gleaming as he looked at them.

Alone, he faced five legion commanders, and beyond them, the five hundred members of the Calamity Church, and declared,

“From this moment on, I’m cutting off Gremory’s left arm.”

“......!”

“......!”

“......!”

It was an appropriate metaphor.

Because the source of Gremory’s power lay in the 22 legion commanders.

We were her “left arm.”

But the power of legion commanders did not come merely from their levels and martial strength.

Even weakened, they were accompanied by powerful Calamity Church priests who could still unleash strength on par with high-ranking dark mages.

At the same time, it all rained down on him.

A tremendous evil aura tore through the air and poured toward him.

BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM—!

But his divine movement was beyond what ordinary humans could track with their eyes.

And they made one miscalculation.

They had brought not Calamity Church knights, but priests as their core force.

The problem was this: in all of Ares, when it came to pure damage alone, the man called Asura held an edge even over Bahala.

Breaking through dozens of black magic attacks with nothing but divine movement, he descended to the ground and cut them down one by one.

A priest, face drenched in fear, unleashed black magic.

Asura lightly evaded it, and instead it struck a priest behind him.

“KRAAAH!”

The mad killer walked between the priests.

[A critical hit lands!]

[A critical hit lands!]

[A critical hit lands!]

[A critical hit lands!]

Just because you strike a vital point does not mean a critical hit lands every time.

This was the power called Critical Murderer, which he had obtained together with the skill Crush to Death from the legendary assassin Rubero.

Critical Murderer made it so that if he attacked a vital point, it was always a critical hit.

Was it a good skill?

For ordinary players, it displayed only rare-grade power.

For ordinary players, attacking a vital point in the middle of battle was not easy to begin with.

And high rankers were not much different.

If ordinary players succeeded once in ten attacks, high rankers might show a success rate of about three times in ten.

But what about Asura?

He was striking vital points with 100% certainty.

And when a critical attack succeeded, normal damage generally rose by over 50%, and with the added damage from a successful vital strike, it produced around twice the power of an ordinary basic attack.

Statistically, they said Asura’s single strike was about 2.5 times that of an ordinary high ranker.

But right now, every single strike was hitting a vital point.

FWWFWWFWWFWWFWWFWWFWWOOOOSH—!

Everywhere he passed, the evil priests were turning to ash.

Of course—

“Demon’s Shield!”

[The defense of all those possessing the power of evil rises by 43%.]

“Hound’s Mauling.”

[A massive demonic beast bites into the enemy.]

“Vetro’s Spear.”

[A massive spear moves on its own and attacks the enemy indiscriminately.]

“Demonic Oath.”

[Demonic Oath pierces the enemy every 0.3 seconds for 2 seconds.]

FWWOOOOOOSH—!

As Demonic Oath activated, hits landed on Asura’s body every 0.3 seconds.

FWWOOOOOOOSH—!

And yet, against those clad in Demon’s Shield, against the freely moving spear of Vetro,

against the enormous demonic beast summoned by a legion commander—

even while facing them all alone, Asura put power into the tips of his feet.

“King of Hell Rampage.”

BOOOOOM—!

In an instant, power that exceeded his limit.

It resembled the power of a berserker.

A berserker’s power granted overwhelming attack strength, but in exchange lowered defense and reduced total HP.

That was exactly what happened.

But that was the greatest power of all when one did not get hit even once.

The neck of the massive demonic beast—once, twice, three times......

FWWFWWFWWFWWFWWFWWOOOOSH—

In an instant he stabbed it over a dozen times, and the effect unleashed by the Dagger of the Evil God crafted by Master Blacksmith Hyun transformed those mere ten stabs into more than fifty.

FWWFWWFWWFWWFWWFWWFWWFWWOOOOSH—!

He brought one down and rampaged in every direction.

The black spear said to have once been used by the demon Vetro

pressed Asura with its bizarre movements, but it was useless.

Instead, he grabbed the shaft of that grotesquely moving spear and used it to stab its caster through the chest.

FWWOOOOOOSH—!

“KRAAAH!”

And then, becoming a true King of Hell above the sky, he looked down upon the earth and drove down the dagger in both hands.

The target was everyone here.

“Slaughter.”

KRAAAAAAGH—!

Into the minds of all those there, whose defense had risen by 43% through Demon’s Shield, it thundered all at once.

FWWWWOOOOOSH!

Though it was not damage on the level of Crush to Death, it was still equal to 60% of that.

It was an indescribably massive shock.

“Cough.......”

“Ghk.......”

Legion Commander Vetro could not comprehend it.

Asura too had clearly taken major damage and appeared worn out, but his breathing was steady.

On the other hand, three legion commanders were dead, and two hundred seventy priests were dead.

Right now, Gremory’s left arm was being cut off.

“K-kekeke. Kekekekekek!”

But Vetro burst into manic laughter.

Because the proof that Lady Gremory was far superior to Asura was being realized right here.

“Are you not thinking about the right arm?”

For those subordinate to Gremory, voice transmission had already spread through them.

“Lady Gremory never expected anything from Vera.”

She had been nothing but an outsider.

Blinded by greed and desire, capable of betraying Gremory at any moment.

In the end, she had been nothing but trash to use briefly and then throw away.

“By now, Lady Gremory’s right arm will have reached Atlas. By now, tens of thousands of your territory’s people will already have been slaughtered!”

He praised the greatness of Lady Gremory.

He rebuked Asura, who had rejected the hand she extended and remained in a place like Atlas instead.

“If you cut off the left arm, then what about the right arm!? The left leg!? The right leg!?”

As he mocked the man growing arrogant over cutting off merely the left arm, he became puzzled by the expression on Asura’s face.

“.......”

Asura was looking up at the moon in the night sky.

“Soon.”

He smiled as he looked at a certain existence engraved within that moon.

“The right arm gets cut off.”

At that very time.

3rd Legion Commander Beond reached the area near Atlas.

At Gremory’s voice transmission, he had awakened the legion commanders.

Their current state—

astonishingly, they were not under the surface-world restriction.

On top of that, he had gathered a thousand true members of the Calamity Church and had just arrived at Atlas’s rear gate.

That was when he witnessed a strange sight.

“What is that?”

“......What is this?”

“Good lord.......”

It was the image of a certain cat dwelling in the moon, posing seductively with its tail raised high.

People called it the Brightest Moon.