The World of Masks

Kloer stares at the altar with fresh eyes. I thought the Phantom Monarch was just a peculiar sense of grandeur, a symbol of his greatness and greatness, and that his followers had created to serve the Demon King himself for a reason.

"How much can you pull out?"

If the life force drawn from the world itself, the sheep would be enormous. I thought that was enough for the reason that the old Demon King was able to spread fear like that.

"We can only pull it out of the area because it's just the beginning. We need to expand our reach to extract more human life force in the future. But there's a limit to what one altar can cover. That's why there are altars all over the world. Wake them all up, and build a new altar to the south."

"Well, if you could draw life from other altars, would you really need to start here? You and your inspiration fought over this place, didn't you?"

If all the altars in the world were part of a life-changing system, I thought it would be better if Jack, who had enough life force, didn't bring the Allied forces here, but instead used another altar as a node to increase his power. But Jack denied it.

"This altar is the center of every altar. First, we need to trigger this place as a central axis, and then rebuild or install the altar as if it's expanding around it. Above all, this is the only altar where the Demon King can establish an opponent to inject the extracted HP."

"Indeed · · · · · · · · · · · ·."

I thought I was a coward who was thrown into a useless altar every day when I saw the Dark Wizard, but if it was that important to this altar, I wouldn't have lost my mind.

'But I was still a little too scared.'

No matter how much I thought about it, it was too much.

Even as Chloe tricks the Dark Wizard, Jack's words continue.

"Usually the life force drawn from the altar is given to the Demon King. Honestly, if the altar is within the range of drawing out life, the Demon King can call it invincible because the HP extracted from the area is immense. However, as soon as it leaves the realm of the altar, the Demon King's power decreases rapidly. As the distance to the altar grows further, the force that decreases proportionately increases. Of course, the power alone is great, but you can't wield the power you think is invincible, even within your realm. In fact, the Demon King rushed into a world invasion and ventured far enough away from his realm."

If the battle were to take place within the realm of the altar, the Allied forces would not be able to defeat the Demon King even if they woke up dead. In a way, 50 years ago, the Allied forces were quite fortunate.

"Besides, the altar isn't the only source of life for the Demon King. The Demon King's undead and monsters, the Demon King's minions, are also subject to life support. Monsters given their lives are loyal to the Demon King, who is the master of their lives. Perhaps after the altar has been fully Awakened, monsters from this area will gather here."

The monster army was one of the main forces of the Demon King. The life force injected from the altar will strengthen, but Izzie will be subdued and loyal to the Demon King to the depths of her bones. After 50 long years, monsters will once again serve the new Demon King and roar around the world.

"But is the side effect of pulling life out of the world that severe? The North has been devastated for almost 50 years."

If I pulled it out so badly, I wouldn't be able to restore it for the last 50 years.

"It's bad, but it's enough time and plenty to recover in about 50 years. Natural life is created indefinitely once you have enough time. Unless the altar continues to work."

"Wasn't it stopped?"

"No. It was silent because the Demon King was dead and the humans he was going to control were gone, but it wasn't completely stopped. I'm practically a singer. Other altars were alive the closer they got to the central altar. The life force they absorbed has been feeding the monsters, so the environment in the north has become desolate and the monsters have become stronger. although, of course, the effect was marginal compared to when it was fully operational, almost as little as it worked."

"And yet it's like this."

I can't believe the result of the sheer destruction of the altar with only minimal operation was complete desolation in the north. Although he was called the Demon King, the scale was too large.

"He didn't either. The altar was drawing out its vitality. The increase in monsters' strength was marginal because they didn't distribute."

"So where's the rest of your life force?"

"Hey."

Jack reaches out his finger and points to the top of the altar on its way up. A dark black pillar was spreading constantly there. Cloe is astonished at the place Jack pointed with curious eyes.

"It can't be that black pillar that's just bursting into thin air right now, can it?"

Chloe smiles awkwardly. But Jack did not hesitate to betray Chloe's expectations.

"That's right."

"· · · · · · · · · · · · Does that mean anything? Expanding the forces of darkness around you."

"Hmm? There's no such thing. You've seen too many novels, haven't you?"

Jack's stuffy answer was that Chloe was devastated.

"What a waste!"

I just thought it was too bad to know the identity of the black pillar that I thought was ominous and magnificent. Jack chirps.

"Don't worry. It's not meaningless. In other words, the altar is rebooting. I'm getting a new owner to reinstate myself. And in the meantime, 50 years of meaningless accumulation of life is releasing. I know you think it's a shame, but it's much better to start over from scratch than to adjust it to reusable life force. You can think of almost infinite HP to use as long as the altar is active, so there's no reason to miss it."

"But that's a shame."

"That life force will seep around you. Then we can use the Altar to retrieve it. Don't feel bad about it."

Jack gazes at the black pillar with a dazzling glare. The overwhelming life force continues to flaunt its existence, spreading indiscriminately.

"If we stop drawing life force right now, the north will have more productivity and environment than the south for a while. No, my life force was all at once, so even if I keep drawing it out, at least a few decades will continue to be an unimaginable harvest."

The life force that is being released is enormous. The amount of life that should have infiltrated the northern region at once for 50 years is unimaginable. After being trapped inside the altar, the life-forms that came out of heaven scattered everywhere and began to scatter their grace. The life force that went up to the other side of the sky turned into a bright blue light, not a black light that was corrupted by the altar, and floated freely through the air. A great blessing has come upon the northern region.

How long has it been? The pillar of life, which had been expanding indefinitely, has begun to shrink. As if all the energy had been poured out, the altar slowly reduced the life force that had been vomited.

Hook!

Soon the pillar of life disappeared neatly. All that was left was a big hole through the mountain ceiling in a straight line, overlooking the sky. If the pillar of life has blown away all the clouds around it, all you can see is blue sky. The small earthquake that followed as the pillar of life disappeared also disappeared neatly.

Whoo-hoo!

An enormous cry erupts from the altar, as if informing you of your existence. The sobbing, which sounded like hate and joy, gave me goosebumps on Chloe's back.

Ugh. Ugh.

All kinds of metaphysical symbols appeared on the surface of the altar. The blood-red pattern flashes silently. It was like a pulsating vessel.

About that time, Jack and Chloe reached the top of the altar. On top of the altar, where the pillar of life disappeared, only the sorcerers were as quiet as the other altars.

Ugh!

The sentences on Jack's body surface became brighter. It flashes resonantly with the pattern on the altar. Chloe looks at you curiously.

Jack sets Chloe straight and walks into the Magic Blade. Every time Jack steps forward, the lights of the sorcerer faint like a vision of the king.

Duck.

Jack stops at the center of the enchanted circle.

Twenty black energy seeps from the sorcerer's camp and envelops Jack. Jack's skin was so clear. The creased black energy completely conceals Jack's appearance.

After a while.

The black energy that was hovering around Jack slowly seeps into Jack's body.

"Hehe, heh."

I take a deep breath and then exhale. I opened my eyes slowly.

"Sounds good."

I repeated, slowly folding and extending my hands as if I were checking for new forces. The power of the unknown to feel. A strong smile was engraved on Jack's face.