Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 100
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- Chapter 100 - The One Who Couldn't Protect
Chapter 100: The One Who Couldn’t Protect
Afterward, the four returned to the castle, and Alice took the sleeping Satanas to her room to lay her in bed.
Sora, left with Kuro, headed to the throne room and reported to Otter that they had completed the quest.
They also reported that two soldiers had also become victims in the attack. Otter, looking serious, thanked them for the information and rewarded them with extra ‘El’ as compensation.
Otter decided to leave the issue of the worshippers to other adventurers, and that conversation ended there.
As for the ?Fire Dragon Jewel?, according to ancient records, it was said to have fallen from the heavens long ago, and the Dragon King of that era had buried it in various places to pray for the nation’s prosperity. The details, however, remained unclear.
For now, since it couldn’t be said that the castle was completely safe, I was tasked with holding onto it.
The next quest Sora and the others received was to investigate the disappearance of soldiers who had been sent to the west, to ?Eupheme?.
Judging by the quest details, there didn’t seem to be any time limit, so after discussing it with Kuro, we decided to wrap things up for the day.
Logging out and returning to reality, Sora was lost in thought the entire time.
Even during dinner with Shiori, Kurono, and Shino.
Even while blindfolded and being helped into the bath by her younger sister, she remained dazed.
Back in her room, Sora collapsed onto the bed with a thud.
To be honest, she couldn’t think of anything.
Her mind was completely blank.
It wasn’t just because she had met her former disciple.
??”I… I saw it.”
What she barely managed to glimpse, using her ?Insight II? skill, was the color of the icon floating above her head — a yellow color she had only seen once before.
What that meant was proof that Ilya was an ?Unknown? beta player.
In other words, like Kurono’s parents, she must have been drawn into that world because she continued playing the game beyond the beta period.
I could understand that.
But a mix of emotions swirled in my chest, making it hard to breathe.
I never thought I would reunite with her in this way.
My gaze fell on the collection of game discs I had carefully stored. Among them was the one game where we first met, and where we said our final goodbye.
?Sky Fantasy?.
While its momentum waned slightly after the release of ?Astral Online?, it remains a highly popular VRMMORPG. Players embark on a fantasy RPG adventure, riding airships across islands floating in the vast skies.
It was there that I joined the top guild ?Hunters of the Apocalypse?, with the goal of defeating Satan.
Satan was a high-end content boss designed by the developers in ?Sky Fantasy?. To fight it, you needed an item called a summoning trigger, but the biggest hurdle was that only one could be obtained. You couldn’t increase your supply through trades or other means.
In other words, the same group could only battle her up to six times—making it the worst boss fight ever with the lowest number of attempts possible.
Because of this limitation, no one has been able to defeat her so far.
Usually, when no one can defeat a boss, the developers weaken it, but in Satan’s case, that would never happen.
Why? Because the developers had publicly promised to reward the party that defeats Satan with 100 million yen.
Sora picked up her smartphone and tapped on a note-taking app.
The app contained information about Satan.
Its body was over 10 meters long.
With twelve wings and a shape resembling a dragon with limbs, covered in pitch-black scales.
First of all, one of Satan’s key characteristics is that you have to destroy all twelve of their wings before you can deal any meaningful damage to its main body.
Moreover, seven of those wings can only be damaged if you attack them with specific elemental attributes and a certain level of attack power.
The remaining five wings are immune to damage unless you use weapon-specific attacks, like slashes or strikes.
Depending on the order in which the wings are destroyed, Satan unleashes defense-piercing magic or physical attacks, meaning the wings alone are packed with challenging mechanics.
On top of that, Satan’s main body alternates between being immune to physical and magical attacks every 10 seconds, which is incredibly frustrating.
If you don’t carefully time and manage your attacks, it’s not uncommon to see your strongest moves get nullified right after you’ve worked so hard to land them.
To make matters worse, after a certain period of time, Satan unleashes an *all-direction defense-piercing magic meteor impact* that grows in power, wiping out countless players.
And of course, Satan’s regular attacks aren’t any easier.
Its breath, claws, and sweeping tail attacks instantly kill players—even those at max level—if they aren’t using shields.
If you fail to take cover from her wing beats, you’ll be thrown off the field and fall to your death.
If more than seven players challenge him, for each additional player, Satan gains 90% resistance to physical, magical, and all elemental damage types.
Since no one has figured out how to disable this mechanic, parties are essentially limited to six players.
“Ugh, just thinking about it gives me a headache. But my comrades and I…”
We almost had it.
We nearly conquered one of the hardest challenges in VR gaming.
Players from all around the world had their eyes on us.
When the six strongest players in ?Sky Fantasy? took on ?Satan?, the boss that had crushed so many challengers, streamers and VR media companies used the “Spectator System” to broadcast the event far and wide.
And then, right in front of everyone watching from around the world, it happened.
With Satan’s remaining HP, a victory was within reach if Ilya and I used our highest-level skills.
Sora’s sword slashed through Satan, and Ilya unleashed her most powerful combo skill.
But just as we reached that point…
??Satan’s HP remained at a mere 1.
We had no time or energy left for the other members to follow up with another attack. As soon as Ilya finished her skill, time ran out.
We were hit with the forced wipe attack “The End”, and just when victory was within our grasp, Sora and the others were defeated.
We were one step away from achieving an unprecedented feat but failed.
Ilya collapsed in tears, apologizing to us over and over, but we kept reassuring her, saying, “Don’t worry about it,” “We still have one more attempt left,” and “Let’s review our equipment and use it to our advantage for the final challenge.”
In reality, combo skills in ?Sky Fantasy? are highly dependent on critical hits, which can significantly affect their power.
At that moment, the “Two-Heaven Sword Style: Five-Demon Celestial Slash” Ilya used against Satan didn’t land a single critical hit, resulting in the lowest possible damage.
Ilya had boosted her weapon and skill to their maximum critical rate, which was 90%.
For none of her five attacks to land a critical hit was simply incredibly bad luck.
Because of this, even among top players in ?Sky Fantasy?, opinions are divided. The debate over whether Ilya’s choice of skill was a mistake continues to this day.
It’s such a delicate topic that even professional gamers are split down the middle.
And yet, many of those watching criticized Ilya on social media, calling her the scapegoat for failing to land the final blow.
That alone would have been bad enough, but people who had never liked Ilya began to attack her character, even spreading rumors that she had failed on purpose.
On social media, once a rumor spreads, there will always be people who believe it, no matter how much the person or those around them try to deny it.
Sora and the others stepped up to defend her, doing everything they could to clear her name.
But the impact of that moment when she failed to land the finishing blow was too strong, and the number of people criticizing and slandering her never decreased.
If I had to sum up that time in one word, it would be *hell*.
Ilya, who never expected to face such malice, couldn’t bear to look at the internet anymore, and eventually, the shame of being called ?the disgrace of Black Flash? whenever she logged in became too much for her to handle. She quit ?Sky Fantasy?.
When I went to her house, she cried as she said:
“I’m sorry… for being such a terrible student.”
A few days later, Ilya’s parents, thinking of her well-being, decided to move, and she left Kamisato City.
After that, I lost all motivation and stopped logging into ?Sky Fantasy?. I only played offline games from then on.
?Black Flash? name became a curse to me. [1]
A symbol of my guilt for not being able to protect my dear student.
What kind of strongest player am I?
I couldn’t even save my one student. I’m a complete failure.
As Sora stared at her now unrecognizable reflection, she bit her lip.
If Ilya is trapped in that world, I have to save her.
This time, as her mentor.
Even if it costs me my life.
In the form of a young girl, the boy made a firm resolution in her heart.
TL Note:
Black Flash is Sora’s game name in Sky Fantasy.