Legacy of the Betelgeuse

I'm inside the Black Oath clan's base and having a small conversation with other members, everyone was good to me and helped me get the items that I needed for the quest that I'm having. Aven and Chris are gathering some materials for their new armor while Ian and Ilvia are helping Cecilia to level up her new weapon's mastery. I'm on my own but that's fine since I have things to do on my own and I don't really need anyone helps at the moment, so I decided to go to the Maryoca Kingdom because I heard there's a quest with high rewards by just doing a simple quest.

I'm in the capital city of the Maryoca Kingdom and I'm looking at the guide in the forum about the quest that I'm about to do, but something feels odd around here, the atmosphere is somehow gloomy. I look at the NPCs and they look kind of worried or concerned about something, I keep on walking to see my surroundings, and all of them are the same, I have no idea what's going on over here until I see the notice board and see so many posters of people's faces that went missing.

I just remember that there's a rumor that has been going on since the last few months about NPCs are getting kidnapped and none of them have been found. This problem is still ongoing and none of us the players have any idea what's going on, but it doesn't mean the community isn't doing anything, they do try to solve this mystery but sadly there's no clue whatsoever.

I'm standing in front of the notice board and looking at the people that went missing, but then I hear screams are from one of the buildings on my right, I look at where the scream is coming from and immediately run toward it. I see a woman NPC is running out from the building with blood is covering her left sleeve, we the players around the area are running toward her and making sure that she's fine. Suddenly a male wearing torn clothes is coming out from the building where the woman came from, we are all looking at him and he doesn't look good, his skin is purple and his eyes are red.

The woman is pointing at the man while screaming historically.

"Help me! He wants to kill me!"

I look at the man and immediately unsheath my swords, I look at the players beside me and I nod at them and they nod back at me, we then run toward him and try to put him down. When I'm close to him, I swing my sword at him but to my surprise, he grabs my sword with his bare hand, his hand is bleeding but he doesn't seem to be in a pain. I'm shocked and my sword won't budge from his grip, and then the players next to me are swinging their swords and halberds at him, they manage to hit his body but the man doesn't care at all. The man looks at one of the players and uses his claws to hit him, the player that gets hit by him immediately died, everyone is shocked because the damage is so big. We are all decided to back away and I have to let go of my sword because I don't want to die, the man is just looking at my sword in his hand and then throws it away.

I immediately message Aven and the others about this, and not just them, I also tell the clan members in the clan member's chat so everyone can come to help us. The first one to reply to my message in the clan member's chat is Kyle, he asks me where am I and asks me for a screenshot of the man who managed to one-shot a player. Without thinking and questioning his message, I take a screenshot of the man in front of me and then send it to the clan member's chat. Kyle immediately orders all the clan members to go to the Maryoca Kingdom and to handle the man, those who are free reply and say that they're on their way. Cecilia sees my message and tells everyone to be careful and not to get near the man because for some reason Cecilia seems to know about this already.

In less than five minutes, Kyle, Cecilia, Valentino, and Poshmeleon with the clan members are here with me. Kyle looks at the man that looks like a zombie, he then looks at Cecilia and nods, Cecila nods back at him and she seems to message someone. Kyle looks at the clan members and tells everyone to be careful and clearly warn us to not fight him, he orders us to keep him occupied and don't let him run away, we all nod with understanding. I don't know what's he planning to do but he's the leader and I'm just going to follow his words as a clan member.

Cecilia leans toward Kyle so suddenly and I look at them up close and try to lean my ear toward them so I can be eavesdropping on their conversation. I hear Cecilia mentioned the subject and it's not just happening over here but also around the three sovereignties. I'm surprised to hear that and I have no idea what are they talking about and why Cecilia calls this man a subject, is it this man is some kind of a result of an experiment or something? Kyle looks at Cecilia and he nods with understanding, he then turns around and looks at us while raising his two-handed sword.

"Okay, guys! Let's surround this man and make sure he won't run away! If he's trying to run away, I need you to stop him with everything that you have, it doesn't matter if you go all out because this man is so strong that even all of us can't defeat him so don't hesitate and swing your weapon as if you want to kill him!"

Wait, what?! I thought it's forbidden to kill an NPC? Why is he telling us to go all out and try to kill him? Cecilia looks at me and she shakes her head.

"Don't worry, Allen, none of us are able to kill him. We just going to hold him down until they arrive here."

I tilt my head with confusion.

"They?"

Cecilia smiles.

"You will see, for now just focus on holding him down, okay?"

I just nod with understanding.

Hundreds of players are surrounding the man, he looks around and starts screaming at us that enough to make us take a step back to avoid him. Kyle and Valentino with Cecilia run toward the man, Kyle swings his sword and the man dodges his attack so easily. I'm shocked that the man can move that fast, even the monster that I have fought didn't have that kind of reflexes, Valentino then swings his axes at him and the man easily dodges all of his attacks as well. Cecilia cast a spell to bind him but the man immediately breaks the spell then charges toward Kyle, it takes Kyle by a surprise but he manages to block the man's attack with his sword but then his sword shatters into pieces.

Kyle backs away and looks at his sword handle.

"Sh*t!"

The man looks at me and somehow I feel like he's going to attack me and just like that he charges at me but then Aven and Ian are run past me and block the man from attacking me. Kyle looks at them both and warns them to be careful but it's too late, Aven and Ian's weapons break into pieces then the man uses his claws to slash Aven's armor, and his armor breaks immediately. Aven is about to back away but the man grabs his collar and bites him on the neck while tearing his flesh with his claws, Aven falls to the ground and he's dead. Ian charges at him and punches his gut but the man isn't flinching at all, he looks at Ian and immediately punches Ian in the gut, Ian is thrown so far away. The man is glaring at me while showing his bloody teeth at me, I'm slowly backing away while he's moving toward me, and as soon as the man dashes toward me I know I can't run away and so I'm just on my knees holding my one and only sword to hold him, but then...

*Clank!*

I open my eyes and I feel something or someone is blocking the sunlight, I'm slowly opening my eyes and I see a woman is standing in front of me wearing full plate armor while holding a shield and a lance on her hands. I look up and I see a silver-haired woman that's blocking the man's attack for me, I'm surprised to see Ivonna and not just I can finally see her, she's standing in front of me protecting me from the man! Then suddenly a footstep is coming from behind me, a guy wearing a black tailcoat jacket with two sickles wraps in his arms, I look at the person's face and I finally meet him! The strongest player in the world, Trevor!

Trevor looks at Ivonna and raises his eyebrow.

"He's still weak, we should finish him now before he mutated."

Ivonna nods.

"Okay, I will leave it to you then while I'm protecting the players."

Trevor smirks and nods.

"Don't worry, it won't take long."