The declaration that he would clear the hundredth floor today was like rain in a drought for the viewers.

Honestly, Seong was someone who would call it a day and end the stream once he felt it was a good stopping point.

Everyone had always felt a bit of regret about that.

But this time, when he said he would clear up to the hundredth floor, they couldn’t help but look forward to it.

-Wow, the hundredth floor!!!

-Seriously lol I’ve been hoping for this, finally!!!

-Lmao I did good taking a day off today 😂

-This is a huge win!!!

-Let’s go straight through to the evening!!!!

-This is insane, actually insane!!!

-Such a generous stream lololol

On any other stream, saying he’d go further would have been taken as a given, but in the Demon King’s stream, seeing everyone so happy about it felt a little ironic.

Well, still, good things are good things.

As Seong watched that and enjoyed it a bit, on their way down to the ninety-eighth floor, he sensed a strange aura.

Up until just now, the aura had been filled with despair.

Now, as he felt it change into a different aura, Seong tilted his head.

Mihael picked up on that and asked,

“Huh? Demon King, is something off?”

At Mihael’s words, Seong nodded.

Normally, he wouldn’t have said anything.

But this was a broadcast, and it was also content where they had decided to compete.

Seong spoke.

“I don’t think what’s below is the Lord of Despair.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean by that?”

“Huh? It ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) really is like that.”

“The aura changed.”

“It’s definitely different.”

At Seong’s words, the team leaders like Luna, Kyou, and Embris could also feel it, albeit a bit late. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

It was no longer the aura of despair they had been feeling just before, but something similar to what they had felt on the eightieth floors.

“I can feel the aura of the Abyss.”

“Huh? The Abyss? When the stream is blowing up like this right now?”

“Hahaha.”

At Mihael’s ad-lib, Seong let his guard down and couldn’t help bursting out laughing.

The viewers were the same way.

-lolololololol Mihael-ham is weirdly sensitive to the Abyss.

-lol it’s only just starting to blow up, so yeah, we can’t have the stream go down the drain 😂

-???: The Abyss, sir? Am I getting fired?

-lol look at his freaking terrified face 😂😂😂

-He looks like he thinks he did something wrong, that expression is killing me lolol

Seeing the viewers and Seong both crack up, Mihael theatrically wiped his forehead with his forearm like he was wiping away sweat, as if to say he’d just resolved one big issue.

The viewers took it in good humor.

-lolol okay, whew, he’s not getting fired

-lolol that “one big thing solved” face is so annoying in a funny way 😂

-Ah lol boss, that was funny~

-lol he’s pure comic relief at this point

-Ah, why is Mihael so funny lol

At first Seong was laughing along, and then he gave a signal with his eyes to the backup team.

As if to tell them to prepare for the Abyss.

All three backup teams nodded at Seong’s signal.

This much, they could pick up on just from reading the mood.

It happened while Mihael was more or less chatting the situation up to the viewers like a comedy routine.

They had been fighting the Abyss up to this point, so they knew its aura’s properties and power well.

But then, suddenly, mixed into the aura of the Abyss, the power of despair started to appear.

What kind of bizarre, grotesque situation was this?

As Seong narrowed his eyes, this time, even without Seong saying anything first, all three team leaders could feel it.

Because of that, they went down more cautiously than before, and when they reached the ninety-eighth floor, a message appeared to welcome them.

[Some of the Lord of Despair’s mind awakens.]

[Some of the Lord of the Abyss’s mind awakens.]

[On the ninety-eighth floor, the Lord of Despair’s left arm and the Lord of the Abyss’s right arm manifest.]

Just as that message described, what appeared in front of them to greet them was a jet-black right arm identical to the Abyss, and an ash-gray left arm, dyed in despair, that had formed in midair.

The two arms floated in the air as if they were attached to a single body, yet they moved freely as if they were separate entities, facing them.

Should they call this a collab between the Abyss and Despair?

This time as well, it looked like a fun theme, but he had already said something before.

Seong couldn’t hide his regret as he said,

“Begin.”

Just like before, the moment Seong spoke, the entire backup team shot forward.

However, when the Lord of the Abyss’s outstretched right arm turned toward them,

Kuuuuuuuuuu———!!!

just like the Abysses they had faced so far, a pressure that felt as if they might fall into the Abyss itself pressed down on them and shot toward them.

But maybe it was because they could see the direction the hand was moving and were already on guard?

All the backup team members saw that hand motion and slipped out of place ahead of time, avoiding it completely, and this time it was the Lord of Despair’s left arm.

The Lord of Despair’s left arm wasn’t simply reaching out; it clenched the air as if it were grasping something, and flames of despair began to surge up between its fingers.

Fwoooosh——!!!

The ash-gray flames flared up ominously, blooming despair around them, and the negative energy of despair spread in all directions, beginning to summon those who had sunk into despair.

A knight who had once been a knight but, having fallen into despair, laid down his sword; a man whose peer became a Tower Master and, in despair like a cliff’s edge, threw himself into the Abyss; a priest who had waited for God’s salvation but in the end lost his family and now thrashed in the mire of despair—these appeared.

There were only three of them.

But each one of those three radiated an extraordinary aura.

As the knight, soaked in despair until he had become despair itself, charged in, Luna, gripping the primordial might, thrust her fist toward the knight’s sword, and the knight swung despair.

When despair and gigantic power collided,

Screeeeeeeeeee———!!!

a scream of despair, like a banshee’s wail, rang out, and Luna’s body flinched for a moment at that sound.

But then the unseen darkness loosened Luna’s stiffness, and the knight and Luna, who had clashed, were both pushed back by the force at the same time, retreating from each other.

Ssssss——.

Shaaah——.

Both of them were pushed back several meters, and it was the same distance.

It was proof that Luna’s power, the primordial gigantic strength, and the sword of despair were equal in might.

Luna hadn’t imagined that a summoned being would be this strong, so her expression was quite surprised, and in the same way, Kyou and Embris, who respectively clashed with the despair mage and the despair priest, narrowed their eyes in considerable surprise at the similar level of power.

“Aaah! Everyone has collided with power that’s almost equal!!! The summoned being that looks like a knight and Luna seem to have equal strength, the summoned being that looks like a mage seems to have magic power equal to Kyou’s, and lastly, the summoned being that looks like a priest and Embris’s curses and blood magic cancel each other out!!!”

Even though the power was almost equal, the backup team didn’t look particularly troubled or overly tense.

Part of it was that they hadn’t gone all out, and part of it was that they were conserving strength for the next floor.

Still, they had never even dreamed that mere summoned beings would possess power on par with a hidden raid boss, so they were beginning to draw out a little more strength.

The battle continued as Mihael delivered commentary afterward.

Even while the three team leaders were taking on the summoned beings, the Lord of the Abyss’s right arm kept reaching out, spreading the power of the Abyss to disrupt their balance by adjusting directions and pressure, but before Seong even had to step in, the team members were each protecting their team leaders and helping one another.

‘Oh-ho?’

The instant Seong let out a brief sound of admiration, Mihael must have picked up on that as well, because he shouted,

“Aaaah!!! Is this because they already went through so much on the previous floor??? Judging by how the Demon King’s contribution score isn’t skyrocketing like before, it seems like he’s keeping his covering fire to a minimum!!! The backup team has grown!!!”

With Mihael’s intense commentary, the viewers’ excitement likewise flared up.

It was a bit of a shame that they couldn’t fully grasp the situation on the field and that watching on video was inevitably a step down from seeing it directly.

But because Mihael’s commentary was adding even more urgency and impact, everyone was holding their breath as they watched the footage.

-Wow, they really do look like they’re moving much better than on the previous floor????

-lolol this is seriously insane.

-If you cobbled together a montage of most rankers’ plays, I doubt you’d get something this crazy???

-The live editing is nuts;;;

-Who’s holding the camera??? It’s insane.

-I mean, the backup team is just stupidly good at fighting????

-Even while they’re competing on contribution, since the Demon King said something earlier, their cooperation is perfect too;;;;

-This is the backup team???

-Wow, what’s our backup team doing???

Everyone was in a near-constant state of amazement.

In reality, while simultaneously keeping the Lord of the Abyss’s right arm in check, the backup team was gradually pressing the summoned beings and attacking them, and if the Lord of Despair’s left arm had done any other interference here, things might have gotten a lot busier, but that hadn’t happened yet.

The Lord of Despair’s left arm seemed to be fully occupied just with passing power to the summoned beings and controlling them, and as Seong watched that, he couldn’t help but grin.

On the previous floor, there had been a big gap in contribution.

Even now, Seong was still in first place, but this time there wasn’t a huge difference.

‘They’ve definitely grown a lot now that they know how to deal with this.’

Seeing everyone’s growth, Seong was grinning, looking quite satisfied.

In the midst of that, in a brief instant while the backup team was hunting, Seong caught sight of something odd.

He watched the Lord of the Abyss’s right arm, the Lord of Despair’s left arm, and the three—Luna, Kyou, and Embris—attacking whenever the arms showed openings, along with the two arms.

On the floors before this, it had been closer to fighting alongside them, so he hadn’t perceived it.

‘The aura is flowing downward.’

The same amount of aura that was being consumed by the attacks was flowing down from the Lord of the Abyss’s right arm and the Lord of Despair’s left arm.

As he watched the aura of the Abyss send the two auras downward combined,

Seong recalled something he had previously inferred, and feeling that it was probably correct, he nodded.

Seeing it with his own eyes definitely soothed him, and he grinned as he gave covering fire.

Once they went down below this, wouldn’t they see those auras that had been sent down like that all gathered together?

Whether it was simply a pattern of things getting stronger.

Or whether there would be something else, he still didn’t know.

‘I hope something comes out that’s as strong as I’m expecting.’

Thinking that, Seong continued supporting the backup team, and the battle was gradually drawing to a close.

Smiling in anticipation of what would appear on the next floor, Seong wondered what was to come.