Logically speaking, this made no sense at all! Even he had no confidence in finding them so quickly. One had to know that they resided deep in the Greenwood Forest.

Were they in a T2 Area or perhaps even T3?

One had to remember that barely entering a T2 had been the ultimate limit of his abilities not long ago. Even now, he was definitely too weak to reach the deeper parts.

His Strategy —> Quantity over Quality

He was sending an army of immortal baits in pursuit of personal gain. At the end of the day, he just needed them to annoy the elves enough to draw them out.

”Woo! Woo!” (We already found them?! That’s amazing!)

The little wolf was already rejoicing, wolfing down its pumpkin pie. It was time to go!

”Hehe, that may not be a good thing. Either the news is fake, and someone’s laying a trap for us, or some unknown event is in progress.” Jack sighed, pensive.

”Woo?!” (A trap?!)

”Hehe, we’ll simply have to prepare ourselves to take on the world., won’t we?” Jack lightly chuckled. He’d assume the worst and hope for the best….

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

In a particular Greenwood clearing…

”There’s really one?! What kind of luck is this?!” The players exclaimed.

They were currently surrounding a young Elven lady. Long blond hair, skin as fair as snow, sharp pointy eyes, a short stature…and so much arrogance!

She glanced at them with her head held high, not worried by their menacing look and sharp weapons.

”You came to welcome this esteemed young lady. I guess you humans aren’t completely worthless after all.” She chuckled.

The players shared weird glances. There was 100% something wrong with this youngster’s brain. Then again, this much was to be expected given how they had found her.

She had been going around singing loudly.

Wariness? None!

Self-awareness? None either!

It was quite ridiculous how their initial plan had simply been to fake a search before calling the Demon King over to screw with him.

Somehow they had ended up finding the real deal…

”What are you oafs waiting for? Bring me food and lead the way to the nearest palace. I’ll give your ruler the honor of basking in my presence.” She ordered.

Did she think they’d slave for her because she said so? Bitch, please! They inwardly sneered at her foolishness. In any case, she would be the perfect bait!

For now, they’d focus on their current kidnapping plan. As long as they could nab the Demon King, they could trade his life for their true objective.

Mythical Trident —> Great Wealth Fame!

But even as they were full of Greed, they didn’t become complacent. Their opponent was a force to be reckoned with, after all.

Still, so what if he was the Demon King? He was still human! Hehe, they would utterly destroy him!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

”Just a little bit further!” A player enthusiastically led the way.

Their guide was a fan of the Demon King. He kept glancing backward with admiration. A trap? If it was one, this guy didn’t know about it.

They finally reached their destination.

An Elf, it really was one! Jack’s heart started beating fast because of what this represented. Somewhere, somehow, a path leading to the Elven Realm had opened!

His eyes shone as he glanced at her.

Her body trembled as she saw those piercing eyes full of Greed and desire. She felt the urge to run away, as far as possible. But then the fear turned into anger.

How dare a puny human look at her like that! She was royalty and deserved to be treated as such! She turned to the others. “Bring me this pervert’s eyes.” She spat out.

”T-that’s a bit extreme…no?” They showed awkward smiles, seemingly wanting to mediate between the two. But, they were inwardly scheming, waiting for their prey to approach.

20 meters…

12 meters…

NOW!

Jack carefully approached, but suddenly… — Bzzzzz— The surrounding air violently rippled. A second later, an enormous green light cage appeared!

— ነፍስ — እስር ቤት — አንድ አቅጣጫ —

How?! Jack was instantly taken aback. Those crazy bastards had gotten their hands unto an entrapment formation?! It would even prevent respawn?! Next level ambush!

No, it wasn’t just a simple one either. It was a double-layered one!

From middle to edge, it went:

- Cage Area

- Safe Area (Enemies)

- Sturdy exterior wall.

That’s when dozen upon dozens of grinning players made their appearance. They all carried bows, staffs, or throwing weapons.

They all took place in the safe area, one that only they could access. Holy Crap!

The entire area had suddenly been turned into a shooting range. But instead of shooting a dull, lifeless target, they’d be firing at the Demon King himself. How extravagant!

The Elf gave a gasp as she rushed toward the shining wall, only to collide heavily with it.

— BONK! —

”Hey, let me out! You morons, I’m still in here. What are you all doing?!” She was thumping her small fist against the light, throwing a tantrum.

At this moment, many playfully aimed their weapons at the Elf, panic finally showing on her delicate visage. What the hell was wrong with those people?!

”Cease this foolishness at once! I’m from the royal line of—”

”Who freaking cares, hahaha! Anyway, Take the Demon King down a peg!” They all repeated the last part as if a war cry.

”You guys, can’t we slowly discuss this?!”

”Nope!! Ready, aim…FIRE!!”

That’s when the outburst started, a rain of death flying his way. There was no way that anyone could evade this, even him!

The world disappeared for an instant under the flashes of light.

”Hehe, as soon as he dies, we’ll very temporarily be able to hold his soul. This should be sufficient as collateral. You all know how much the Witch cares about him!”

Everything was accounted for— or so they thought. Suddenly an enormous commotion was heard, relentless banging sounds echoing.

— Bang! Bang! Bang! —

”EHHH?!” The enemies inside the safe zone jumped in fright. What the hell was that?! But as they turned around…. “W-when did they all come?!

A green sea had appeared, goblins staring at them all with eyes overflowing with fury! There were enough of them to make the players turn pale.

They were the trump card Jack had prepared, expecting this to be a trap. But, there was an issue. Even with their numbers, they couldn’t break through the formation!

Even as they relentlessly struck, they barely managed to dim the barrier slightly. It would still stand strong for a while! That’s when the kidnappers finally relaxed.

They ignored the ruckus, focusing on the Demon King. They’d grab him and…. HOW?! As the aftereffects of the attacks went away, he stood there alive and well!

Not only had he survived, but he was even staring at them with a taunting smile. He currently had a ghostly appearance, bone dust floating in his surroundings.

At the last minute, he had summoned dozens of skeletons to act as bone shields. That’s how he had barely managed to preserve his life.

”Was that it? I’ll praise you for the effort, but it’s not sufficient. Still, that’s quite an interesting plan.” He chuckled as he calmly strolled around.

The madman then started pointing at the glyphs with an amused expression, explaining their meaning as if a bored scholar.

”Oh? The prison glyph, this one is quite obvious. Now that one’s to allow your own attacks to go through the wall. Finally, that last one is to aim at my soul. You went all out, eh?”

They watched him describe it all, utterly baffled. Some remembered clearly the mage who had given them the formation: even he didn’t understand it that well!

They knew he was a monster….but wasn’t this exaggerated?! But they suddenly came to a realization. “Goddammit, keep attacking. He’s buying time!”

Jack felt helpless. He knew very well that his own people wouldn’t be able to rescue him in time. There was only so much he could do in such a passive position!

Should he use THAT now? That one thing he had gotten back in the Tutorial Necro Dungeon, so strong it had taken an eternity to master and even scared him!

It was truly a perverse spell, but he couldn’t afford to let himself get sealed so easily. So what if he caused yet another calamity? He’d retain his freedom!

He made his mind, his entire being turning cold. He began accessing magic older than time itself, one that definitely shouldn’t exist in this world.

Dark tendrils started oozing from him, seemingly alive. Even the world itself began to weep as if sensing the disaster to come.

The assailants threw everything they had at him, EVERYTHING! But even then, they somehow felt that it wouldn’t be enough.

Cold sweat escaped them, their breathing becoming erratic.

The Demon King was a freaking madman!

But just as he was about to unleash hell unto the world, Jack saw Moon Moon and Bubblegum’s worried expressions.

They were banging on the barrier of light with all they had. Her daggers were enveloped by deadly energy as she relentlessly slashed to no avail.

Even while they fought, the two kept shouting orders at the goblin legion. They were akin to proud generals anxious to rescue their Lord.

That’s right….he wasn’t alone, not anymore.

Even if he fell and got kidnapped, they would come for him.

Use a dangerous trump card? He suddenly changed his mind. Jack stopped everything, the terrifying mana flow disappearing.

He chose to believe in them instead. He gave a bright smile as he glanced at them one last time. He finally ran out of mana, his body torn apart and his soul captured.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━ YOU DIED! ━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The battlefield turned silent. The Demon King had been defeated?! Everyone couldn’t help but be stupefied. But, amidst the silence, a war cry resounded.

”You’re all dead!!” Bubblegum shouted. It wasn’t simply anger. It was a promise. The battle was only getting started…