The Game Difficulty Is Insane
In the end, Katrin accepted the proposal.
It was the result of exploiting her personality—someone who would rush into fire and water without hesitation if it involved her missing younger brother.
‘The method’s a bit questionable, but…’
So what.
It wasn’t like he committed a crime.
Anyway, in exchange for information about her younger brother’s whereabouts, Katrin agreed to head to Avenue together with Glen.
And as for Judith—
—If it is with you, Saint, I will follow even if that place is hell itself!
She declared her blind support for Glen and decided to accompany them.
Thus, just as planned, Glen secured powerful reinforcements: high-ranking inquisitors from the Inquisition.
‘Two 7-star holy knights.’
And if he added Jaber, who was already in Avenue, that made a total of three 7-star holy knights gathered in one place.
Just imagining it made his chest feel hot.
Of course, that didn’t mean the coming battle against Penelope would suddenly turn completely in their favor.
Even with such powerful reinforcements, the overwhelming numerical disadvantage of 30,000 versus 1,100 remained unchanged.
‘Still, at least we should be able to hold out until allied reinforcements arrive.’
Glen nodded as he reviewed the remaining cards he had in hand.
‘That aside…’
“Why are you so down?”
He looked at Romina, who was crouched gloomily on his bed.
She had been like that ever since the conversation with Tris.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Hey.”
“Why are you suddenly acting all serious?”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Huh? For what?”
Glen raised an eyebrow.
“I got exposed. About being a demon.”
“Oh, that.”
So that was what she meant.
She seemed to be blaming herself for Tris finding out that she was a demon.
“It’s fine. It already happened. And Tris said she’d keep it a secret anyway.”
“But if I hadn’t stepped in on my own in the first place, that risk wouldn’t have existed. If it wasn’t Miss Tris but some other human who saw me, things could’ve gotten really bad.”
Romina buried her face in her knees.
Glen sat on the bed and gently stroked her head.
“Well, you’re not completely wrong. But that’s just a hypothetical, right? It didn’t actually happen. And more importantly, if you hadn’t helped back then, I’d be dead.”
“……”
That was true.
The fight against Muta, the 7-star demonic swordsman.
If Romina hadn’t intervened, the one wandering the underworld right now wouldn’t be Muta—it would be Glen.
As mentioned before, it had been a fight where Glen was disadvantaged at a ratio of 3 to 7. When Romina joined in, it became 5 to 5, and then when Tris stepped in as well, the situation flipped to 7 to 3.
“So the choice you made yesterday was absolutely not wrong, Romina.”
“……”
Romina slowly lifted her head.
Her amber eyes wavered.
“I… helped?”
“Of course. Like hell you did. I’m late saying this, but thanks for helping me.”
Glen grinned, showing his teeth, and Romina let out a small laugh.
“What is that? At this point, it’s like I should be bowing down to receive thanks.”
After cheering up the dejected Romina,
Glen immediately sat down at his desk and took out paper and a quill pen.
There was still time before departing for Avenue, so he wanted to organize what had happened here while he had the chance.
‘It’s been bothering me too much.’
The biggest incident, without question, was defeating Muta, the vice-commander of the Demon King Army’s 8th Legion.
Thanks to that, a significant portion of the enemy’s combat power had been shaved off, and he had also gained a small reward.
《You have defeated an enemy with a vast difference in power: 『Vice-Commander Muta』.》
《All stats increase by 1.》
It wasn’t bad, but it was still a little disappointing that it wasn’t a Lunatic reward.
Of course, during the battle, a Lunatic-level additional trial—Berserker’s Blood created by Penelope—had been applied.
However, since he hadn’t defeated Penelope herself, the main body of the Lunatic trial, it seemed it didn’t count as a proper clear.
Still, having all stats increase by one wasn’t a bad reward at all.
Especially now that his stat growth had slowed down as his rank increased, this kind of stat boost was always welcome.
‘Who doesn’t like free stats?’
Glen shrugged.
Then he took out Einheria from his inventory.
During the fight with Muta, Einheria had finally awakened its second ability.
“Finally!”
With a bright expression, Glen opened Einheria’s status window.
《Einheria》
《Rank》 : Legendary
《Type》 : Long Sword
《Options》
: 『Soul Bound to the Blade』 – This sword absorbs half of the experience gained by its user to grow, evolving through a total of five stages and gaining new abilities. (Current stage: 2)
: 『Soul-Carving Edge』 – The strong and negative spiritual power imbued in this sword partially gouges out the soul of those it cuts.
: 『Wail of the Restless Dead』 – Consumes the user’s vitality to release the strong and negative spiritual power imbued in the sword as a wave.
Starlight flickered in Glen’s eyes.
At last, he had obtained Einheria’s second ability: Wail of the Restless Dead.
‘A ranged skill, welcome aboard.’
As explained in the description, Wail of the Restless Dead was a skill that fired the spiritual power stored in the sword like sword energy.
It was like rain in a drought, compensating for the lack of ranged harassment options typical of sword-based classes.
‘If I’d had this skill when I fought Angonina, it would’ve been way easier.’
Back then, all of his rings had been deactivated due to the penalty of the Gray Ring. Since Wail of the Restless Dead didn’t depend on ring activation, it would have been a huge help.
‘That doesn’t mean it won’t be useful in the upcoming fight with Penelope either.’
Considering the way Penelope’s 8th Legion fought, the debut stage of Wail of the Restless Dead would be more spectacular than ever.
With that thought, Glen returned Einheria to his inventory.
‘That’s enough for achievements.’
Glen’s expression suddenly turned serious.
He began thinking about that power that had been bothering him all along—Holy-Demonic Power.
Holy-Demonic Power.
It was truly an astonishing force.
Muta, who had consumed Berserker’s Blood, was a being that Romina and Tris—both at the 6-star level—and Glen himself, self-proclaimed 6.9 stars, couldn’t defeat even with a combined assault.
