Chapter 33: Vain Dragonrider

Axel collapsed to his knees, wheezing hard.

He felt on the brink of death. Every part of him was in agony.

But he had done it. He killed that damn dragon.

The Quest to exit the Zone… To free himself of this deathtrap of a gauntlet…

Was complete.

[... Well done. Even I was uncertain you would be capable. But this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt: I was not wrong in choosing you. You have done it. You have accomplished an Impossible Feat — the first in over a hundred years.]

There was an unfamiliar charge in his Handler’s voice. The neutral tones he had grown used to were now… energised. Excited. 

[There will be consequences to this. Those from Beyond have noticed you now. They have seen your worth. And they are furious.]

He coughed, confused. “What, people don’t like me winning?”

[You weren’t supposed to win. You were never supposed to win. You were an anomaly that was rigged to die — an ugly stain among their perfect division of your species, yet one that made itself increasingly known for how persistent it remained despite every growing attempt to get rid of you.]

“Growing attempts… to get rid of me?” His head struggled to comprehend, half-dead as he was. “You are referring… to some additional form of direct interference? To kill me? How?”

[Had you not found it strange why the forces arrayed against you have constantly been growing in strength? Think about it: if an actual Level 40 entity were present in every tutorial zone, no species would have ever survived their first trial in the Great Game. It is simply impossible for a newly assimilated participant to ever kill an active Level 40 Entity, even if all were to work together.]

Was it? The dragon was undoubtedly powerful, but if there were 2000 participants, couldn’t they have worked together to kill it? After all, he had done it all by himself! Humanity wasn’t that incompetent.

Except… that wasn’t a fair comparison, was it? The only reason he had managed to do so was because he alone was devouring the total experience and resources meant for an entire Zone population. He had inflated himself with so much strength and gifts that his collective power would have triumphed even over the combined might of two thousand lesser participants.

If he were deployed in a normal Zone with other humans, would he even be half as strong as he was now? Unlikely. He would be missing so many traits, titles, skill points, and equipment. So much of his strength was acquired exponentially — a consequence of how the System rewards those already of greater power rather than distributing it equally. 

Were he a normal Participant instead of one dropped into an empty Zone, he might not even be Level 20 within the same timeframe, and his Class would almost undoubtedly be weaker.

Not to mention his foes… They were stronger, yes, but the rewards they gave were substantially better.

If Axel did not have the Troll King’s Halberd, for instance, could he have even killed the Dragon?

[All tutorial Zones were supposed to have a Level Cap limit of 20. This applies to both the foes within and what the Participants might achieve. However, in your case, the System had deliberately removed the Level Cap — turning it into a ‘Dead Zone’ — such that they may spawn monsters that could easily kill you.]

[Don’t you see? The System has been deploying Bosses far beyond anything that a Tutorial Zone should have. And you killed them all regardless.]

That Wolf King he had faced within the first fifteen minutes of his arrival… It had been over Level 20. If he had been a Level 1 participant, there should have been no way for him to survive.

But he did survive. And so… what must have happened next was…

“They kept raising the Level Cap to introduce more overpowered monsters, hoping I would die?” he deduced. “But in overcoming them, I kept growing stronger than what they had anticipated.”

The Handler giggled, wicked and amused.

[You were a Roach that would not die. And with each attempt they made, each new overpowering monster they sent to kill you, you just. Kept. Growing. Stronger. Feasting on the corpses of monsters you had no right slaying, as if those murderous mercenaries were but meals for your consumption. Over, and over, and over again. Until those in charge grew so insulted that they threw a Dragon at you. And still!]

Her amusement was almost a physical thing now. He could feel her touch on him, her form bent over with belly-aching laughter.

It was not a human laughter. It was the haunting melody of funeral songs, the finality of a dying breath, the tears shed for the departed, and the final thought of a loved one before the dead was forgotten from memory forever.

The laughter of Death, in all its cruel, loving forms.

It was the most beautiful sound Axel had ever heard.

[You killed it! A Level 40 Fae Dragon! A boss monster fit for a Rank-D Dungeon, and you grew strong enough to slaughter it within your first day of entering the Great Game!

[That is why… Those above now act with such caution. Because to them, your existence is—]

“Absolutely absurd.”

From the mountain of hissing dragon flesh, a figure emerged.

Slicked in boiling slime, the Dragonrider tore free from beneath the corpse of the Dragon. His armour was dirtied and wet with acidic blood, and his helm was torn free…

He looked terrible. The noble visage was now gone. Skin hissing with caustic burns, a leg broken and twisted beyond repair, and blood leaking from his side. 

But even so wounded, Axel did not think he could fight the Prince and survive.

“The System sent you to this Zone to die,” the Dragonrider said calmly. “This is a place claimed by the Fae Tyrant, conquered fairly under the eyes of the System. It is part of my Father’s territory; a domain where his lesser forces may rest, for not all of the Fae were deemed worthy of ascending to the Hub — that vaulted heaven overseen by the System, where even immortality could be sought.”

The Dragonrider sighed. With great force, he pulled his moonlight lance free from the Dragon’s corpse, spilling yet more blood into the surrounding canyon.

The air grew sharp with caustic heat.

“But every so often, we are given the privilege of hosting such vassal worlds as part of the Great Game — to initiate the lost species of the universe into their new lives through brutal culling,” he continued. “Such rewards the System affords those who would kill the most… It was a rare opportunity for the unworthy to ascend beyond mere Entities, glutting themselves on weaker prey. My father had hoped for his forces to expand, such that he might better the strength of his Guild…”

The Dragonrider smiled grimly. “Great was his fury when he heard his Zone was to receive a mere lost mongrel, and greater still when that mere mongrel was somehow killing his soldiers and precious vassals.”

The Dragonrider stepped off the Dragon’s corpse, shining lance in hand.

“A handful of bugbear troops slain by a Level One participant? Embarassing, but hardly anything to cry over,” the Dragonrider said conversationally as he limped towards the soldier. “The Wolf King and his Fourth Son sent to deal with the pest, yet somehow wound up dead? More alarming, and a cause for concern.”

Axel cursed and summoned health potions into his hand. The moment he tried to drink it, however…

A blinding laser fired from the Lance tip, severing off his last remaining hand.

Well, fuck.

“Then, the Siegemaster…” the Dragonrider tsked. “The Third Prince slain, along with an entire legion of our bugbear troops. And worst of all, the Giant General freed, after a century of enslavement… Oh, how Father had raged when he heard that. So terrible was his fury, he ordered any human slaves found in the Auctions to come to be bought into his abode, so that he might sate his anger in their blood.”

Axel tried to limp away, but his legs were weak. He could not move.

Upon his back, he felt the loving caress of his Reaper’s scythe rest upon his neck.

“And so, he sent a force he thought for certain would kill you: The Troll King and his horde,” the Dragonrider chuckled. “Disgusting the King may be, his power was undeniable. There was surely no possible way a mere Participant — one whose time in the Great Game had not reached even a single day — could overcome the King’s vaulted regeneration, let alone the army of Trolls combined with the King’s brutal skill in battle.”

The Dragonrider stopped before Axel, mere footsteps away.

“But then, you killed him,” the Dragonrider said, a hint of awe in his voice. “And now I am here. Forced on this errand. Oh, I know my wayward sister helped you. I will need to hunt her down later. You have killed all four of my Fae-Hybrid Royal Guards, after all. I will need replacements. She will do nicely.”

At that, Axel lunged.

His body went from a completely relaxed state to sudden, explosive motion. An iron dagger clutched between his teeth, Axel aimed for the throat—

— and was blown back to the ground instantly.

The dagger flew somewhere far away. Axel was on his back. He tried to get up. He could no longer feel his legs.

When he coughed, his mouth felt weird. He tried wiggling his tongue, but realised he no longer had one.

His lower jaw was gone, along with the front of his throat.

Torn off in a single swipe.

“Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!” The Dragonrider laughed, astounded. “You have not given up! Not even at the brink of death! What grand, unending agony must have cursed your old life, such that you would breed within yourself such terrible resilience! I see myself as a scholar first before a warrior, you must understand. Is your entire species possessed of equal ruggedness? I must acquire more. Your people would make excellent slaves and lab subjects…”

Axel rolled over, gagging on blood. He did not know how much longer he had. The System… The UI tracking of his health all this time…

It was gone. It did not notify him of his fading health or anything of that sort.

“I had thought this a wasted trip, but I see now I was shortsighted.” The shadow of the Dragonrider fell over him. Axel tried to turn, to face his executioner in the eye, but a boot pressed hard against his head, pressing him painfully into the ground. “Don’t worry, I will not kill you, despite how much you took from me. As leniency expected of a noble in my position, and to honour the sheer warrior spirit you possess, I will allow you your death once I have extracted the appropriate recompense from you for the slaying of my precious hybrids and dragon.”

Axel was choking. He could not breathe.

The boot lifted off his head. An armoured hand grabbed him by his mangled throat and lifted him up.

Axel tried to kick, to do anything that could break this horrid paralysis engulfing him. His body would not respond; it betrayed him in his final moments.

Axel was brought face-to-face with the Dragonrider. The Eldarin had a grin on his face.

He was familiar with that look. The sickening smile seen in labs and butcher tables — those in charge who no longer saw their subjects as human beings.

Axel had seen them every single day of his childhood. The sight of them brought terror and nightmares to his cadre, even if they hid it well beneath sneers, insults, or the touch of their fellow members.

Axel… felt nothing. No terror. No fear. Just a single, undeniable truth that he would see all of heaven and hell move to make it arise.

No matter what happens to him that day… No matter what happens to his body after…

This monster before him would not live to see tomorrow.

Pain had become him. Axel might well die within the next minute. He did not care. His life was not important. 

Death had earned him… And so he needed a gift to meet her with.

Axel forced his neck to turn as the First Prince brought his body around to face him. His lone remaining eye locked with the Eldarin, and in that moment of fatal, lasting exchange, the Eldarin froze.

Beholden to the calm, silver gaze of the Reaper.

“Do not resist. There is so much you must see.”

[Trait Conditions met.]

[Reaper’s Tithe Activated]

[The Pale Eye of Death falls upon you…]

With a torn throat and the last of his life, Axel screamed.

And Darkness fell upon them.