The guards in the royal palace were unable to mount any proper resistance against the attack. Their plan was to eliminate the land-dwellers while the latter were asleep, but Siegfried’s party struck one step ahead of them.

Thanks to the preemptive attack, the Atlanteans lost the initiative and collapsed helplessly.

“Hey, you can go take your revenge yourself. You can do that much, right?” Siegfried said casually to Albion.

He did not bother stepping in and just left Albion to deal with Perseus.

Of course, he could have handled it himself, as he could defeat someone like Perseus even with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.

Even if the strongest warriors of Atlantis came at him all at once, he would probably not suffer even a single scratch and win easily.

However, Siegfried deliberately yielded Perseus to Albion for one simple reason.

There were too many eyes watching.

Albion would ascend the throne and become the king of Atlantis once this situation was resolved, but in order to do that, he needed to win the hearts of the Atlanteans first.

Hence, Siegfried yielded Perseus to Albion, as he had to win with his own strength—not by relying on land-dwellers—and prove his rightful legitimacy as heir to the throne.

“Thank you,” Albion replied with a bow, welcoming the decision. Then, he charged straight at Perseus, and the battle between them finally began.

Leaving the battle to Albion, Siegfried turned his attention elsewhere.

‘Hmm... Where could that rat be hiding?’

He tried to locate the hooded figure, the Cardinal of the Illuminati.

Now that Maugris was gone, this so-called Cardinal was undoubtedly the current acting leader of the Illuminati.

In that case...

‘This might really be the end,’ Siegfried thought.

He believed that the Cardinal was the final Executor of Destiny. If he destroyed the altar in Atlantis, then the ritual wouldn't be able to erect more than four pillars of light.

In other words, the Creator would not be able to descend onto the world.

The conversation between Perseus and the Cardinal also gave him a crucial hint.

“Make sure you proceed without fail. His Holiness the Pope has passed away, and one of the six sanctuaries has been destroyed. Our Lord’s descent will be lost forever if this sanctuary is destroyed as well, so not even the slightest mistake will be tolerated. Do you understand?”

Judging from what the Cardinal had said, this was clearly the final stage. He could prevent the Creator from descending once and for all if he destroyed this altar, and it meant the disappearance of the threat to the world.

‘Yeah. I need to find that bastard and kill him.’

Siegfried immediately activated Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance to locate the Cardinal.

[Alert: Search in progress...]

[Alert: Searching...]

[Alert: Target found!]

The Cardinal was currently at the entrance to the sanctuary, the Gate of the Sea.

“Let’s go, Hamchi.”

“Kyuuu! Go go go! Move in!”

Siegfried immediately headed toward the Gate of the Sea, where the Cardinal awaited him.

“So you are the one who has been interfering with our plans, and you've gotten in our way again," the Cardinal said with a furious growl as soon as he saw Siegfried. He knew immediately that this plan, too, had gone wrong.

‘So it’s him. But he’s surrounded by strong guards,’ Siegfried thought, inspecting the paladins surrounding the Cardinal. He did not even need to flash his Rune of Insight at them; the energy emanating from them was more than enough to tell how strong they were.

However, Siegfried was not intimidated in the slightest.

‘They're strong, but they’re still weaker than Maugris.’

Even their leader, Maugris, had fallen to Siegfried, so these ones would be no different.

He aimed the Annihilation’s Grasp at the Cardinal and the paladins.

“The Creator can't descend,” he said in a low voice.

Whoosh!

Siegfried charged straight at the enemy and—

Shwiiiik!

—Carnage ensued.

The Annihilation’s Grasp unleashed a fierce wind that cut through the Cardinal and the paladins.

***

After an intense battle, Albion defeated Perseus. He stood before Perseus and said, “I, Albion, Prince of Atlantis, hereby sentence you to death for your crime of treason.”

Whoosh!

He chopped off Perseus' head with one swing of his trident. Then, he looked around and declared proudly, “Hear me, Atlanteans! I have executed the traitor! I, Albion, Prince of Atlantis, have reclaimed my rightful place as the heir of Atlantis! As your king, I command all of you to stand down!”

The battles scattered throughout the palace grounds slowly began to die down the moment Albion commanded the guards.

The loyalty of the Atlanteans toward their king was absolute. Even though Perseus had reigned as the regent, the Trident of Atlantis in Albion’s hand, the mark of the true ruler of Atlantis, was simply impossible to defy.

With Perseus gone and the Trident of Atlantis solidifying Albion’s legitimacy, the Atlanteans all bowed one after another and pledged allegiance to their new king.

“No more Atlantean blood shall be spilled today! The wicked scheme has fallen! My fellow brothers and sisters! I shall reveal to you the truth behind everything!” Albion shouted.

With that, Siegfried’s comrades stopped attacking the Atlanteans, too.

The fierce battle had finally come to an end.

Perseus was dead, and Albion was finally recognized as king, so there was no reason for the two sides to continue fighting.

“We don’t have time to stand around here, Albion! Lead the way to the sanctuary!” Seung-Gu exclaimed with urgency.

“Okay, follow me!” Albion replied, immediately leading the way.

They rushed as fast as they could toward the Gate of the Sea, but what greeted them caused all of them to stop in their tracks.

“...”

Corpses were strewn all over the place.

And as for Siegfried...

“Oh? You’re here already?”

He greeted them nonchalantly while sitting casually atop the corpse of the dead Cardinal.

As expected of the one who had defeated Maugris, the true leader of the Illuminati and the one who had existed since the dawn of creation. Those weaker than Maugris were simply not his match.

“T-This guy is really...” Albion stammered in disbelief.

He knew that Siegfried was a ruthless human, but he did not imagine that he was capable of carrying out such merciless carnage and could act so nonchalantly about it.

“What do you mean by that? Anyway, did you take care of that traitor?” Siegfried asked.

“Yes, I did,” Albion replied with a nod.

“Good. Time to fulfill your promise, then,” Siegfried said with a grin. Then, he jerked his chin toward the gate and said, “Open it.”

“O-Of course!” Albion quickly rushed to the gate. He clearly understood his situation. ‘I’m dead if I get on his bad side.’

Siegfried would act like a mischievous prankster at times, but once he got serious, he would become a demon without a shred of mercy in him.

Albion instinctively knew that not only his life would be in danger, but even Atlantis would be in peril if he were to defy Siegfried.

“Please give me a moment,” Albion said. Then, he lifted the Trident of Atlantis, the royal relic of his people, and drew a line across the Gate of the Sea.

Woooong!

The Trident of Atlantis vibrated, and the symbols engraved on it shifted on their own.

C-Creaaak...!

A few seconds later, the gates opened.

“Let’s go,” Siegfried said, entering the sanctuary with his companions.

Inside the gates, they found a familiar altar and a censer placed on it. A thick layer of dust covered both the altar and censer, which showed that they had been untouched for ages.

Surprisingly, this sanctuary had clearly been chosen hundreds of thousands of years ago to be used for the Creator’s eventual descent.

Ding!

[Alert: Congratulations!]

[Alert: The main scenario, Legacy of the Creator, is almost complete!]

The notification informed Siegfried that the end of this long scenario was finally coming.

Woooong!

He charged up Touch of Death at the tip of the Annihilation’s Grasp and—

Whoosh!

—Struck the censer atop the altar with it.

Baaaam!

C-Craaaack!

The altar and censer split apart, shattering into pieces. Then, it disappeared, leaving no traces of behind.

[Alert: Congratulations!]

[Alert: You have completed the third main scenario of BNW — Legacy of the Creator!]

With that, Siegfried completed the third main scenario of BNW and succeeded in completely stopping the Creator’s descent. Originally, all six pillars of light ought to have risen, allowing the Creator to descend upon the world.

The Illuminati tried to summon the Creator with only five pillars of light, but with the destruction of the altar and censer just now, summoning the Creator was now impossible.

“It’s all over now. The world is safe,” Siegfried said, turning from where the altar once stood.

He couldn’t help but smile, knowing that he no longer had to fear the destruction of the world. This fact allowed him to breathe easier.

Of course, not all threats in the world had disappeared, but at the very least, he managed to prevent the biggest calamity, the descent of the Creator.

Just knowing that the Creator would no longer descend was a huge relief for him.

***

“Thank you so much. As the King of Atlantis, I give you my sincerest gratitude,” Albion said with a bow.

“It was nothing,” Siegfried replied with a shrug. Then, he made a circle with his fingers and said, “And if you’re really grateful, then show it with this. Empty gratitudes don’t mean anything.”

“...”

Albion was dumbfounded, but he agreed.

If it hadn't been for Siegfried, he would have never defeated Perseus and reclaimed the throne, so offering tribute to the Proatine Empire was the least he could do.

That wasn't the reason he was dumbfounded, of course. He was rendered speechless due to the fact that Siegfried seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with money, which he found to be quite disturbing.

However, Siegfried had his reasons for obsessing over money.

‘The reconstruction of the empire alone will require an insane budget. I need to scrape every penny I can get.’

The Proatine Empire’s finances were currently in terrible shape.

The war against the Marchioni Empire had taken a huge chunk of their gold reserves, but the compensation paid to the families of fallen soldiers and the post-war reconstruction costs were beyond imagination.

“Well then, I’ll be leaving now.”

“Okay. I will be sending an official envoy to the Proatine Empire soon.”

“Good thinking.”

After securing tribute from Atlantis, Siegfried left the deep sea and headed back to the surface.

“Huh? Why is it still the same?”

Once he shot up through the surface of the water, he grimaced at the sight of the four pillars of light in the distance.

“Why haven’t they disappeared?”

He had assumed that destroying two altars and censers would also make the four pillars of light vanish, but it did not seem to be the case.

‘Oh well, it’s probably fine to just leave them be,’ he thought with a shrug.

As far as he knew, there had to be at least five pillars of light for the Creator to descend, which meant that four pillars of light were not enough to continue the ritual.

‘I guess I might as well take a few days off.’

With that thought in mind, Siegfried logged out of the game.

***

Just as Tae-Sung was about to clear the third main scenario of BWN, the Legacy of the Creator, a huge wave of change hit BNW.

[Breaking News: BNW will be opening a new server soon!]

[Breaking News: Hive Games Entertainment Stocks Going to the Moon!]

[Breaking News: New Eastern-Themed World to Launch Soon!]

The excitement among players reached its peak when the beehive officially announced the opening of the new server. Moreover, the new server would be based on completely different world settings, so it attracted more attention and hype than usual.

Thanks to that, Tae-Sung, who was a major shareholder and executive of Hive Games Entertainment, saw his net worth multiply several dozen times over.

However, he did not bat an eye at the reports. After returning from his trip to Switzerland with Yong Seol-Hwa, he publicly announced their engagement.

Once the two formally met each other’s parents, talk of marriage naturally came up, and the topic of engagement followed soon after.

And so, Tae-Sung and Yong Seol-Hwa got engaged and were planning to get married a year later.

‘I should hit the gym first and then play the game.’

With that thought, Tae-Sung headed to the gym.

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

His phone suddenly began ringing nonstop.

Calls and messages from his comrades, Cheon Woo-Jin, Seung-Gu, Gosran, and Daytona, started pouring in.

“W-What the hell? Did something happen?” Tae-Sung muttered, slightly taken aback by the sudden influx of calls and messages.

He had no idea what was going on, but he knew that something big had to have happened for everyone to suddenly reach out to him like this.

“Hello? What happened, Seung-Gu?”

Tae-Sung called Seung-Gu back first.

— Something huge happened! We got screwed, hyung-nim!

Right as Seung-Gu picked up, his urgent voice erupted from the phone.