“Hm-hm. Then, Helena, may I ask you just a few questions?”

It wasn’t only the viewers who were curious about Helena at Mihael’s words.

Every member of Seong’s backup team was listening intently to Mihael’s interview.

Even though many of them were exhausted from the fierce battle that had ended in victory against the Lord of Destruction, they could not help but be extremely curious.

After all, the biggest reason the backup team couldn’t really move together with Seong was Seong’s overwhelming strength, and his vassals played a major part in that strength.

There was no way they wouldn’t be curious.

Especially because, among the vassals he could only summon one of at a time, the one Seong had chosen without a moment’s hesitation had been Helena.

Everyone had no choice but to be curious.

The level of focus was such that it would not be an exaggeration to call it the interview of the century. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The interview was beginning in front of nearly three hundred million viewers already.

And the amazing thing was—

“So I just look here and answer, right?”

When Helena said that and spoke while looking straight at the camera—which should absolutely never be visible to NPCs or monsters—

The viewers all got chills.

-?????????

-Wh-what is this??????

-I mean, vassals do have intelligence, but aren’t they still treated like NPCs?

-Yeah yeah yeah that’s right though????

-But how is she looking exactly at the camera???????

-What is this?????

Everyone was typing in shock.

And no wonder.

NPCs and monsters can never see the camera.

It’s a function within the game, something under the influence of the system.

It was something that should be obvious, but Helena casually ignored that and was staring straight into the camera.

It might have been a coincidence, so—

Mihael somehow endured the chills running over his skin, looked at Helena, and asked,

“D-do you perhaps see something there, is that why you’re looking that way?”

“Mm? Hm, I can’t exactly see it, but I do know that something is looking at me, you know?”

“Y-yes?”

“The outsiders are watching us with this thing right now, aren’t they? Right?”

“......???”

Mihael’s face looked like he had just seen an actual ghost.

And the viewers weren’t much different.

-?????? What is this???

-Seriously what is this??????

-So she can’t see it but can feel it??????

-What the hell, that’s so creepy???

-I mean, she’s artificial intelligence...... so how??

-Was that urban legend about Eternal World being another dimension actually real?

Everyone was typing in chat, shuddering.

Which was only natural.

A beautiful, seductive woman was holding two severed heads and doing an interview, and she was talking like an NPC who knew this world was a game—any gamer would be creeped out and scared.

Perhaps because she picked up on that atmosphere—

Helena spoke as if it were no big deal.

“I don’t really know what’s there, but I know someone’s watching me, and Seong told me about it once before.”

“Ah~! Aha! I see.”

“Right, normally you wouldn’t know. It’s something you can only sense once you’re at about my level.”

At Helena’s words, Mihael’s expression relaxed a little as he let out a breath of relief.

Seeing that he felt reassured because Seong had told her, Helena also thought to herself inwardly,

‘I should be a bit more careful.’

It overlapped in her mind with the time long ago when the locals were so frightened they called her the Demon King, so she glossed things over roughly.

Well, it was the truth anyway.

In any case, the outsiders had come to this world to revel in it, so it was only natural they’d be shocked if she talked like that.

Once Helena made it clear she was ready to proceed with the interview—

Mihael took a moment to stabilize the situation, then posed his question to Helena.

“You took on the Lord of Narak alone—were you confident from the very beginning?”

“Hm.”

Helena was about to answer Mihael’s question without filtering anything, but then she remembered the earlier mood and paused to think.

And deciding to hide, for now, that she was a being from the past, she answered in a suitably vague way.

“Well, yes. I did have the advantage in terms of match-up.”

“Oooh!? That’s incredible.”

“That’s only because Seong made me well.”

“As expected of someone so amazing that people call him the Demon King.”

“Ahaha! Our Seong is amazing!”

When Mihael suddenly praised Seong, Helena also laughed cheerfully and nodded.

Everyone already knew Seong was incredible.

The viewers, too, could only agree.

-He made a vassal like that???

-He didn’t restore her, he created her, that’s just absurd;;;;;

-Just how strong is he, seriously???

-I really want to know what went into the recipe.

-What on earth did he put in for an Almighty lord-class vassal to pop out???

-No, more than that, this is on another level—she soloed the Lord of Narak, who was comparable to the Lord of Destruction the backup team struggled with;;;

-And she did it alone.

As people went wild, making all kinds of comments—

Mihael collected the situation and asked,

“You truly are incredible. For you to have been created... we can really feel how extraordinary that is. By the way, are you yourself also a lord?”

“Yes, I’m a lord too. But I can’t tell you what kind of lord. Sorry about that.”

At those words, the viewers, the backup team, and Mihael all felt a ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) pang of disappointment.

Though it was something that couldn’t be helped.

They moved past that for the moment and asked this and that, asking about Seong’s usual behavior and all sorts of things.

How long did they go on like that?

Looking over to Seong’s side, where the battle still hadn’t ended, Mihael asked,

“Come to think of it, the Demon—no, Seong hasn’t finished his battle yet. What do you think about that?”

He was asking Seong’s vassal about the flow of the fight.

Of all the people present, Helena was the strongest.

He wondered if maybe she could even provide commentary.

Helena watched carefully, then said,

“Hm, Seong’s getting pushed back a bit.”

“Excuse me!? I-isn’t that a sign we should go help him?”

At that, Helena smiled faintly and said,

“Seong can handle it on his own. Don’t worry and just watch. Up until now there’s been a curtain over it, so you couldn’t see. I’ll show you.”

As Helena said that and snapped her fingers—

The space on Seong’s side, which they had thought was simply too fast to see, suddenly became perfectly clear.

Only—

“Wh-what is that?”

“Ahahaha! Looks like they’ve fought quite fiercely.”

Helena laughed lightly, but the others couldn’t.

Mihael, the viewers, and the entire backup team were all the same.

The floor, the ceiling, and all the walls had been annihilated and erased, and only Seong and the Lord of Despair were floating in midair, aiming their weapons at each other.

Seong held a sword, and the Lord of Despair held a spear-like staff.

The viewers gulped as they watched.

-What the hell, what on earth happened here????

-And the Demon King doesn’t have a single scratch on him???

-The Lord of Despair’s the same though;;;

-What kind of fight have they even been having?

-I mean, I figured he was stronger than the Lord of Destruction or the Lord of Narak, but this level???

Just then, as the viewers were hammering out those chats—

Helena looked at them and said,

“Looks like Seong’s been pushed more than I expected.”

With those words, the Lord of Despair began to move again.

Everyone fixed their full attention on him.

And Helena said,

“Though in the end, Seong’s going to win.”

Helena, humming as if singing, spoke in an excited tone.

And all of them watched the situation with a nervous feeling, wondering if Helena’s strong trust and confidence might actually be shattered.

Seong’s battle began anew like that.

7.

Around the time the curtain of dimensions had just been lifted and Helena, the backup team, Mihael, and the viewers were all watching Seong—

Even though he should have been quite tired from a battle that had lasted over thirty minutes, Seong was looking at his opponent with a smile.

Unlike the Lord of Narak or the Lord of Destruction, whose forms were not human, the Lord of Despair looked as if despair itself had been molded into shape, with not even features—just a shadow-like figure.

Yet the sight of that figure wearing a robe and armor over it was quite striking.

That distorted despair, radiating a full and dreadful dignity, was on a completely different level from anyone Seong had fought until now.

He was very strong.

Until now, Seong had used the power of darkness and the powers of other lords in the fight.

The fact that they had both used quite a bit of power, yet neither had taken any damage, said it all.

That guy called the Lord of Despair—

‘He’s very strong.’

And the other side was thinking exactly the same thing about Seong.

He had planned to look down on him, since at the end of the day he was only human.

But he was stronger than expected.

And he even had an energy the Lord of Despair hadn’t felt in a long time.

Not a single thing about him wasn’t irritating.

The curtain of dimensions had been lifted—

But voices did not carry, so what they were saying could not be heard by the others. The words came from the Lord of Despair.

“Are you the second Overlord?”

The first Overlord, Helena.

And the one who could be called the next generation, Seong.

At that question, Seong nodded in acknowledgment.

“Yeah, I’m the Overlord of this generation.”

“......In that case, that woman just now must truly have been Helena.”

“That’s right.”

Helena, whom he loathed and feared without end.

He had thought he would finally emerge from his seal and step back out into the world, but when he saw Helena, he had been utterly shocked.

But the Lord of Despair was no longer thinking about that.

“If I lose, I’ll be absorbed into you.”

“Probably, yeah.”

At Seong’s words, he deliberated for quite a while, then the Lord of Despair looked at Seong and said,

“I am despair itself, the one who will crush all and make all kneel. Nothing can escape my swamp.”

“So?”

“I will kill you and surpass you as well. I’ll throw you into the pit of despair.”

With that shout, the Lord of Despair began to unleash his power.

As despair’s energy poured out, forcing everything to be seized by despair—

Seong nodded as if he found it amusing.

He gripped Hero Hindel’s sword and infused the sword with darkness.

Darkness imbued with the concepts of blocking and severing.

Gripping the sword dyed in that darkness, he paradoxically used darkness to cut despair.

Srrrk———!

With that as the start, their battle began once more.