Barbarian in a Failed Game

While Alejandro and Ludmilla were sent to the front lines, Khan certainly wasn’t idle during this time. Seizing the opportunity as his comrades engaged the King of Warriors, he penetrated deeper past the front lines.

To the location where the ‘altar’ that could end this calamity once and for all was situated.

“There it is.”

『You didn’t need to tell me; I can see it.』

Khan had been enduring the sensation of clinging to the exterior of a helicopter for hours, relying on the wind spirit and dragon words to withstand Natrix’s flight.

As he crossed the Potsral Mountains, where waves of green monsters ceaselessly surged, and reached the Land of Warriors, Khan frowned at the scene below.

‘It looks disgusting.’

Dark, writhing masses were scattered across the Land of Warriors.

Their exterior resembled sticky blobs of tar, and overall, they had a form similar to larvae. However, they were covered with dozens, or even hundreds, of human-like mouths, making them appear incredibly dangerous.

‘The fact that these byproducts are already roaming around means… time is tighter than I thought.’

Khan had seen these things before. During the later stages of the Midland Quest, in the southern territories of the beastmen.

『Has the gate opened?』

Even Natrix noticed the writhing ‘byproducts’ below and seemed to grasp their nature. But her assumption was incorrect. Not yet—

“It’s only half-opened. Unlike in ancient times when demons roamed freely, the demons of the current era must offer sacrifices to manifest their true power in Midland. Those grotesque creatures are byproducts produced when a demon forces its power through the dimensional rift.”

That’s why they were called byproducts. Simultaneously, these grotesque entities serve a function similar to that of an ‘altar’.

“When the Greenskins feed those byproducts with the humans killed in the war, they directly fill their master’s belly.”

『You speak as though you’ve experienced this before.』

Khan gave a bitter smile at Natrix’s comment.

Not just experienced—

‘I know it too well.’

Having witnessed its presence up close and personal, it felt as if the ‘Heart of Predation’ in his right chest was pulsing like a real heart. The heart, which had undergone a transformation after absorbing the giant’s blood, seemed excited to face its origin.

It was inevitable, Khan muttered to himself.

It was a problem he had to solve sooner or later.

“The root cause of this situation is Aecharis.”

At Khan’s words, Natrix abruptly stopped flying. She seemed to doubt her ears, wanting to confirm if she heard the name correctly.

“You heard me right. These byproducts are created during Aecharis’s descent.”

Khan provided solid evidence to back his conviction.

‘In the game, when Aecharis descended, he waged war with these byproducts at the forefront.’

So, there was no way Khan had misidentified them.

『Aecharis… The Scion of the Arch Demon attempting to descend into Midland…? Whether that’s true or not, what reason would he have for such an uncertain gamble?』

Despite everything, Natrix couldn’t seem to fully believe it.

As she mentioned, Aecharis’s descent was indeed a gamble.

『No matter how many humans he sacrifices, he won’t be able to fully wield his true power. If the incarnation he descends with gets defeated, he would fall to a point where he couldn’t even claim to be the Scion of the Arch Demon anymore…』

“To him, it’s likely a very high-stakes gamble. Or perhaps, in his arrogance, he didn’t even consider the possibility of failure.”

At least, the Aecharis from the ‘Midland Quest’ likely descended under such beliefs. But the current Aecharis is different. He now has an urgent reason to descend.

‘It’s me. Because of me, he’s trying to descend faster and more aggressively than before.’

Having a part of his power stolen by a mere mortal due to the intervention of the Goddess of Justice would be a great humiliation for him. This also severely restricted the activities of his demon worshippers and led to the failure of his subordinate demons.

‘It’s no wonder he’s becoming desperate.’

This is why he resorted to such visible, drastic measures. However, the continent’s response was excessively delayed.

‘Of all times, when I was in the Paradise…’

Of course, the Empire planned to mobilize forces from all over for a grand extermination. But given the situation, Aecharis’s descent seemed imminent.

The frontier kingdoms being destroyed so quickly and easily contributed greatly to this predicament.

‘If only the other frontier kingdoms had managed to hold the front lines like the Argon Kingdom…’

Khan dismissed these rising thoughts from his mind. The situation had already happened, and he was now at the demon’s maw to resolve it.

“Whether it’s Aecharis or his father, the Arch Demon, if not now, there will be no chance.”

Khan patted Natrix’s scales, which had paused at the mention of ‘Aecharis’.

“It won’t take long, anyway.”

Once the altar at the center of the ritual is destroyed, it will be over.

***

Whooosh.

Boom───!!

Without any warning, the ground overturned, and an earthquake erupted. For the ‘shamans’ conducting the ritual in an otherwise inaccessible location, it was a bolt from the blue.

“Krrk. A human…?!”

“Not a human. A kin!”

“Krrk. Fell from the sky─”

Crack.

As if admonishing them for their idle chatter, the head of the shaman, who had been commenting on the presence that fell from the sky, was ripped off.

It was said to be almost impossible to decapitate a Greenskin fighter entirely even with swordmasters, yet it was done barehanded.

“Krrk! It’s the Gray Kin!”

The stunned shamans shook their wands, which looked like they were made from human bones. As they did, black energy began to swirl and emerge from the wand tips.

“Dark magic!”

Khan, who was called the Gray Kin by the Greenskins, sneered as he wiped the blood from his hands. He then used his agility to close the distance quickly. And in that instant, two of the most primitive yet efficient weapons were directed at the shamans using dark magic.

Boom. Boom.

The punched heads burst like balloons, and the axes lodged in their skulls split them in two. The overwhelming power was enough to render the Greenskins’ tough skin and incredible regenerative abilities useless.

However, Khan felt a strange sense of unease. It was weird to see Greenskin shamans, who were unheard of, and even more absurd that they had converted from warriors to shamans.

Despite this, Khan couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease.

“Why are they so weak?”

They were too weak. The Greenskin warriors were renowned for their strength, even in the game.

The Feral Orcs, with their formidable power, tough skin that refused to yield to blades, and regenerative abilities that could heal severe injuries in no time, posed a significant threat with their instinctual combat skills.

“They shouldn’t be this weak, regardless of whether they converted to shamans or not…”

Had he become too strong?

His level had increased by three just from the events in paradise, but this was beyond that level of growth.

“Natrix!”

Even as Khan pondered the source of his unease, he continued to slaughter the shamans with his hands and feet, shouting up at the sky.

He was trying to confirm with Natrix, who was observing the anomalies on the ground with her dragon’s power, if there were any suspicious elements.

But at some point, he realized something.

“Natrix’s consciousness is gone?!”

A dragon’s vast consciousness was usually observable from afar.

Yet, for some reason, her consciousness was nowhere to be seen. What was even more shocking was that even the dragon’s massive body, which should have been visible above, was nowhere to be seen.

“Krrk. Gray Kin! Die!”

“Divine consciousness! Interference!”

At that moment, the Greenskin shamans, who had seemingly died, reappeared as if from the ground, casting dark magic once more.

Of course, no matter how many shamans attacked, Khan was more than a match for them, and he dispatched them with his axe and fists, feeling a growing sense of unease.

“What’s going on?”

Natrix’s true form was enormous, and it was impossible to conceal her massive consciousness, even if she transformed into a human. So, what was happening now?

As Khan crushed and split the skulls of the shamans, he quickly scanned the surroundings. The enormous altar carved from human bones had long been shattered during his descent, leaving only the auxiliary altars scattered around.

And on the ground lay the shattered remains of the Greenskin shamans…

“The bodies are gone.”

The remnants that should have been scattered all around from the violent deaths were nowhere to be seen. It was as if everything had been an illusion from the start.

However, the Greenskin shamans he killed weren’t fakes. The presence felt from them through Karyan’s Eye was undeniably real.

Surveying the areas where the bodies should have been, Khan dropped his arms limply as he reached a conclusion about the situation. The continuous detection of these extraordinary anomalies could only mean one thing.

“It was a trap.”

This place was a trap designed from the beginning to lure one mortal. And no sooner than he realized that fact,

『Did you expect to live after defying Aecharis?』

A presence emerged—one that used the entire Greenskin race as pawns and sacrificed countless humans from frontier kingdoms just to trap one mortal.

『Wretched mortal. Your soul will be a plaything for demons for eternity, and your flesh will become the vanguard of hell, ravaging the land of the damned.』

The Scion of the Arch Demon.

The monster known as the Demon that Devours Worlds.

“Aecharis.”

『Yes, you scum. The Lord of Hell has descended. The Demon that Devours Worlds, the firstborn of the great Arch Demon, Aecharis has──!!』

From beneath the ground, the larvae-like masses—Aecharis’s byproducts—emerged. These byproducts coalesced to form a massive maw. And through the maw of the Demon that Devours Worlds, a monstrous being that should have been on the front lines of the Argon Kingdom arrived via spatial transcendence.

“Kik. Kikik. Gordi Khan. I’ve found you.”

A goblin with a frame small enough to be mistaken for a child and a body so frail it could be twisted with one hand. The Little Giant drooled and laughed. Chewing on pieces of what seemed to be ‘human’ flesh.

“I’ll eat you too. Just like your comrades.”