Maria spent the next period of time inside of the game moving around with Hovet Lys, recording everything she did as Rio and the mercenary group’s activities. They constantly went from battlefield to battlefield, fighting Maria’s dark army. Even though her objective was to exterminate everyone, her efforts as Rio were completely hindering that. It did annoy her at the start, but after some time, Maria actually began second-guessing herself.
‘Was this really the right decision?’
Those were her thoughts whenever she went to a battlefield and saw all of the devastation her army had caused to the NPCs. After interacting with them for so long and on a deeper level as her character Rio, Maria began to sympathize with them and see the NPCs as ‘people’ and not just some computer programs. Her sentiments from when she first started the game where she saw the NPCs being the same as regular people were ignited once again. This troubled her to no small degree.
She began thinking about pulling back from this advancement quest because all of the things she had ordered her dark army to do were just too cruel to the NPCs. Her minions had destroyed their cities, homes, and practically their lives.
Families were separated from each other as brothers, fathers, husbands, and lovers were killed during every attack, leaving behind devastated families and people. Seeing all of the people cry and, subsequently, their gratitude for the Hovet Lys Mercenary Group for putting all their effort into the war which managed to save a few people caused Maria to feel troubled. They were thanking the person who was bringing misery to their lives, so she felt extremely hypocritical.
She kept arguing to herself that this was just a game and all of this was only for her entertainment, but seeing all the horrible things she was doing, Maria couldn’t find any of this entertaining at all. However, even if she wanted to stop, she couldn’t. By now, more than half of the population of the planet has been exterminated and this includes every living organism, not just the humans.
Maria’s dark army had swept through all of the human cities and monster habitats, leaving nothing alive in their destructive march. The previous kingdom Maria was in, which was Richard and everyone else’s home, had been thoroughly destroyed already and it all happened within just a few days after the dark army had begun being more active at Maria’s command. Half of the planet had become nothing more than a wasteland completely void of life and it was all her fault. She had long since stopped having fun on the planet because she had begun questioning her own character and morals.
In the end, Maria had to stop all of the recordings because all she was doing was recording all of her mistakes and it made her even more miserable. In the end, she couldn’t just give up on the quest, so she decided to part ways with her character as Rio by having him ‘unfortunately’ die in the midst of battle.
The Hovet Lys Mercenary Group had become so large since the time of its establishment that only the founding members that had survived were extremely aggrieved when they lost him. The others only saw it as losing any other member because they had joined much later. Losing a comrade within the mercenary group’s ranks was quite common. After all, most of the people there had become numb to it all.
They did pay their respects but nothing more than that. They didn’t grieve for Rio for too long and just went about their activities as usual. After burying Maria in a casket, she waited for a while until her dark army came to ‘rescue’ her and exhume her from her burial site. She took off her guise as Rio and revealed her normal self. Her hair was still short since she had cut it but after activating [Metamorphosis], her hair turned black as it grew back to its original length.
“I can finally end this facade…”
Maria had grown sick of staying on this planet so she wanted to hurry up and get this quest over with. Her own personal interests still outweighed the lives of all these NPCs in her mind, but she felt extremely remorseful though.
“I knew it…I really should stop relying on Death…”
If she continued to be Death’s Champion, Maria reckoned that in the future, she’d have to do more of these rather heinous activities like reaping the lives of millions or even billions of creatures. Dealing with death was only natural for a person who was the champion of the Death God. Perhaps if she had sought a different form of entertainment, Maria wouldn’t have had to feel this way and second guess her characters and morals all because of some game.
“No use thinking about it anymore… it doesn’t even matter if I’m Death’s champion or not, because in the future, I’ll become a divine entity just like him, so I won’t need to be under him anymore.”
Behind her, all of Maria’s minions were kneeling down in servitude as their Dark Empress had finally returned to them.
“Morte, Calen…”
“Yes, my Master?”
“Your orders, Master?”
Morte and Calen both asked together. Morte had evolved to the point that he had been promoted from a Skeleton King to the Undead King. He now had more human-like features and he could talk. Calen had undergone a similar change, but he was still just a Lifestealer, though he was now able to talk more coherently and better control his frenetic nature, so he didn’t become a mindless fool that struck at everything around him, including his allies, when they went to war.
Her minions could only exceed 10% of her level, so they were capped at level 140 for now. Calen and Morte both experienced the change when they hit level 100 and this was the same for her other familiars. The one she took particular notice of was her Lich, who had been promoted to a Nether Lich. Maria looked around for her Lich but didn’t see her anywhere, so she asked, “Where’s Velinda?”
“My Queen, Velinda has–”
“I am here, Master,” a voice echoed within the empty space next to Morte and interrupted him.
A female Lich suddenly appeared in a burst of black smoke that came from the ground. Maria didn’t expect her Lich to be a female, but she couldn't tell because it was previously just a skeleton with no humanoid parts that could indicate it being of that gender.
She had the look of a normal human woman but her skin was pale with a bluish tint to it, so anyone that saw her could easily tell she wasn’t human. Her eyes were also glowing with an ominous red light, so that was another difference.
Despite being undead, she had quite a beautiful face and body. Maria wondered why most of her female subordinates always had this otherworldly beauty to them, but their characteristics were dependent on Maria’s LCK stat and her character’s physical appearance. She didn’t know this but it didn’t matter too much, since admiring beautiful women had become something of a hobby for her, especially since she was surrounded by so many of them.
Anyway, Maria was glad to see that all of her people had gathered so she steeled her heart and began giving down the orders, “We’re going to wrap everything up within the next few days.”
“Yes, my Master.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“As you will, Master!”
“Give us the order, Master.”
Maria nodded and said, “Each of you will take a third of our forces and spread out across the planet. We’ll begin our systematic extermination of this planet’s creatures in full force now.”
She materialized a map of the world which was literally only one continent and divided it into 4 parts. “I will assign you one of these sectors and you’re to bring the army with you to exterminate all life in each of them.”
“And what of you, my Master? Are you not going to bring anyone?” Morte asked after realizing that, since he and his comrades would be splitting the dark army into 3 parts, then none would be left for his Master.
“I’ll be going alone…I don’t need anyone to accompany me since I’m only going to be exterminating some rats…”
“Yes, my Master, but please, I implore you to take one of us as your attendant.”
Maria’s unfortunate reputation of being directionally challenged was well-known even to her undead subordinates. Quite frankly, this was the worry that Morte had, so he implored her to bring someone as her attendant so that she wouldn’t lose her way. Maria thought for a moment about this before realizing Morte’s worry and replied, “Fine, Kel’thuras will be my attendant.”
Even she wasn’t oblivious to her own shortcomings, so she decided to assign one of her previous necromancers, who had now become a demi-lich, to be her attendant. The demi-lich in question stepped forward from behind the 3 high-ranking undead and prostrated to Maria, “It is my honor, Master.”
Maria nodded to Kel'thuras before she turned to her 3 high-ranking undead and said, “Let’s begin. I’m tired of playing around on this planet.”
She spread her crimson wings and took to the skies. Maria's eyes were hardened with burning resolution to see her quest to the end. Even though she didn't like the fact that she would be killing any more NPCs, her situation couldn't be helped since it was part of her quest.
If she failed today, then Death would just put her on another planet where she needed to kill more NPCs again. It wasn't like the quest was going to change just because she failed. She'd only have to do it all over again on a different planet. Since this planet was already half-dead, Maria figured that it was quicker to end these NPCs' suffering.
"...I'm sorry..."
--------------------------------------
For the next few days, Maria and her dark army proceeded with their operation to fully exterminate all life on the planet she was on. It was a very cruel and unrewarding process because Maria had to indiscriminately reap the lives of numerous NPCs. The monsters didn’t matter too much to her since they were just monsters, but the NPCs greatly bothered her. She couldn’t stand seeing the frightened and pitiful looks they gave her as she reaped their lives. It was extremely unpleasant but she did what she had to do without any hesitation.
In real life, however, Maria would always feel sick to her stomach and it was to the point where she would sometimes vomit just from the thought of it. This inner conflict continued to torture her until finally, there was only a single human power left on the planet. This power was where all of the planet’s survivors took refuge and it was the strongest nation on the planet.
The people and the soldiers of this kingdom had an average level of 100 so it was a pretty powerful nation in its own right. This particular power put the entirety of Maria’s dark army to the test since both forces were somewhat equal in power. This nation was called the Deftanus Kingdom.
*******
The Deftanus Kingdom was an extremely prosperous Kingdom thanks to its national strength that almost put them on the level of an Empire instead of just a kingdom. It couldn’t be coined as an empire, however, because it was still lacking in a few areas when compared to a true empire.
However, despite not being an empire, the Deftanus Kingdom was giving Maria’s army a run for their money. Her shadows and undead hadn’t been able to push too deep into the kingdom’s lands and this was making Maria grow a little bit impatient.
The kingdom was employing all sorts of nefarious tactics that were stopping her minions from moving forward but this wasn’t too surprising. Maria heard that the Deftanus Kingdom’s King was a rather depraved and insidious man.
He had taken the throne after usurping his brother and exterminating his family. After that, he began ruling the kingdom with an iron, yet debaucherous, fist. The people in the Deftanus Kingdom’s court rudely described their king as an unrestrained sleazeball though they acknowledged that he was an extremely good king.
He had a good grasp of politics and wasn’t ignorant at all. Not only that, but he had a firm grip on the kingdom’s military forces so not many people were willing to go against him…otherwise he’d punish you in the most heinous way possible. It was in fact so heinous that Maria didn’t even want to think about it but after hearing what the king would do to his subordinates, she actually wanted to willingly destroy this garbage kingdom.
Since things were taking so long, Maria decided to take things into her own hands and struck at one of the Deftanus Kingdom’s cities by herself. Needless to say, she left behind nothing but devastation in her wake as she angrily destroyed everything in her path.
********
Cries of pain and despair rang throughout the battlefield.
“NOOOO!!!”
“Monster! MONSTER!!!”
“AGH!! Ahhhh...”
Throngs of dismembered and mutilated bodies littered the grounds of a devastated battlefield. The terrified cries of soldiers rang throughout the battlefield as they all tried to beat a hasty retreat.
“Stay away! Stay AWAY!!!”
They were running away from what they thought was the incarnation of the god of Death himself and quite frankly, they were right about that. The black-winged angel whose wings had been tainted black by all of the blood that had splashed on her when she had gone on rampage earlier when the Deftanus Kingdom’s army was still mostly alive.
Now, the remnants of that grand army were running away with their tails between their legs because they couldn’t wrap their heads around the terrifying existence that had single-handedly destroyed them all.
Maria had a pissed-off look on her face because all of this was so extremely boring to her. There was no fun in massacring weaklings. A young soldier had been frozen in place due to fear and Maria mercilessly swung her blade down on the young lad.
These soldiers were supposed to be the future and hope of the Deftanus Kingdom and the planet but in front of the walking apocalypse, he was naught but a mere mortal who was easily felled by a single swing of Maria’s demonic ax, Calamity.
Living true to its name, Calamity had indeed brought upon a calamity to this planet and its people. Maria hadn’t realized this, but the ax was glowing and pulsating ominously for some time now after she started to directly take part in the planet’s destruction. After looking around the devastated battlefield, Maria had a sad look on her face as she watched all of the humans run away in terror of her.
“This was supposed to be my fourth planet but instead of getting a stronger one, I only got a playground…”
Seeing that all of the humans no longer had any will to fight, Maria shouldered her ax and took to the skies.
“I’ll definitely complain to Death about this later.”
With the harbinger of death finally leaving the battlefield, the people who were left on the battlefield finally cried out in joy and began thanking the gods for letting them live another day, but in the next moment, a dark flash of light suddenly sprung in the middle of the desolate battlefield.
The dark flash quickly engulfed the entirety of the battlefield in a dome of explosive black magic, completely eradicating everything and everyone in its area of influence. Once the explosion of light slowly dissipated, all that was left of the battlefield was a large crater, completely devoid of all life.
“...This upgraded version of [Unholy] sure is terrifying…”
Maria had wiped out the nigh impenetrable fortress that the Deftanus Kingdom’s army had been guarding for the past few weeks that had been hindering her dark army’s advances. With it gone, her forces could finally march forward and she immediately relayed the order to her 3 high-ranking Undead familiars who started moving their armies.
She wasn’t going to be waiting for anyone so Maria began flying towards the Deftanus Kingdom’s capital city, hoping to end all of this by the end of the day. After that, it would be left for her army to start cleaning up whatever living creatures were left on the planet.
“Hah…it wasn’t always like this…”
******
It didn’t take Maria too long to completely wipe out the Deftanus Kingdom. She obliterated the capital city and everyone in it with one of her combined techniques, Greed’s Unholy Eye, which had caused a nuclear-like explosion the first time she used it in the battle to secure Wall Victoria and Transylvania. Unlike last time, Maria made sure to regulate the skills so she didn’t feel drained after using them due to the tremendous use of her SP when she invoked those 3 skills together.
Her Necromancer, Kel’thuras, was there accompanying her so even if she did feel drained after using the combined technique, she’d still have someone protecting her until she regained her SP. However, it had to be noted that the combined technique was even more powerful despite the regulations because the 3 skills that made up the technique had their levels and ranks increased since the last time she used it.
The effects were even more devastating than the last time and the large capital city of the Deftanus Kingdom had been blown away and everyone in it was killed off cleanly. Maria didn’t have to confirm any of the kills because all that remained of the city and its population was a crater filled with ash.
Without having to see or hear the NPCs she had killed, Maria was able to somewhat cope with the genocide she had just committed. Her army went about with the clean-up and exterminated any remaining life on the planet and finally, she received the quest completion prompt.
*DING*
You have completed the quest: Path of the Divine!
A black portal appeared in front of Maria but she didn’t go through it just yet. She looked back on her dark army and sighed before deciding to bring them with her back to Vanhal. She had developed them here on this planet and they would always remind her of the things she did to this planet but it was a waste if she just abandoned them here. Maria had her dark army walk through the portal first and she followed right after without looking back on the planet she had just destroyed.
*DING*
Class advancement quest has been completed! You have successfully advanced your class: Dark Priestess → Divine Vessel