An event where the player’s intervention is impossible, and the companion characters fight on their own.
This was the companion enhancement event in Crusader Bryden NX.
The problem was that, despite being called a “companion enhancement event,” no one ever succeeded in it.
The player couldn’t intervene and just had to watch the screen.
The carefully nurtured companions—who could have easily won if only the player could control them—would flounder helplessly before meeting a meaningless defeat…
And if the event simply ended with defeat, that would have been fortunate.
But absurdly, any character who lost in this so-called “companion enhancement event” died.
You’d raise them with such care, only for a sudden, unavoidable event to trigger.
There was no option to refuse it, and the precious companion, who couldn’t even be controlled, was thrown into battle and perished without a single instance of victory.
They called it a “companion enhancement event,” but since no one ever succeeded, players—including myself—called it the “companion deletion event.”
To make matters worse, when a companion died in this event, their equipped gear couldn’t even be retrieved.
So, to minimize the losses, the only viable strategy was paradoxically to avoid getting attached to companions at all—treating them like expendable items and dressing them in rags.
Considering that most people who played Crusader Bryden NX were fans of the original light novel Loveholic, this was a massive insult to the source material and a slap in the face to its fans.
There were countless reasons why that garbage game flopped—enough to discuss for three days and nights—but I can say with absolute confidence that this insane “companion deletion event” played a major role.
It was bad enough that characters who had been so close in the original novel were forced to kill each other.
But after all the effort to recruit them as allies, they’d just get caught in the deletion event…
Who in their right mind designed a game where you’re supposed to grow attached to characters, only to be forced to abandon them? I wanted to crack open their skull and take a look inside.
And now, the real problem: this companion deletion event had started happening in reality.
Based on everything I’d experienced so far, this event was doomed to fail.
And anyone caught in it—every single one of them—was going to die.
“This is some bullshit… Who the hell thought this was a good idea…?”
Last time, when we fought Vector, they had told me to cut down Ravi—who had been captured by Vector—and attack him instead.
This damn fate or whatever it was kept demanding that I abandon the women around me whenever things got tough.
Shouldn’t fate be helping me find a way out of this situation? Why the hell was it constantly getting in my way?!
Of course, there was no option to comply with that nonsense.
The most I had ever been willing to concede was making sure the three “losing heroines” could reconcile with Bryden in some way.
But I had already let go of that idea.
Since it had come to this, I had decided to make all three of the losing heroines mine.
And now, a companion deletion event had triggered.
Did they really think I would just stand by and let them be taken away?
No matter what happens, I will save Ravi and Lenis!
I refuse to watch that garbage game’s atrocious character-deletion event play out in front of me!
Fighting through immense pain and desperately clinging to consciousness, I lifted my head toward where the two were.
I saw them being overwhelmingly pushed back by Sophia and O’Brian.
“Kya-ha-ha! I thought you might have some grand trump card since a mere pseudo-human came charging at me so confidently, but is this really all you’ve got? That idiot behind you is rolling around on the ground, getting in the way, and you—despite rushing in so boldly—have nothing to show for it!”
“That expression is priceless, young lady. I sincerely hope you don’t lose that spirit until the very end. The look of terror and belated despair on the face of a brave person when their head is about to be severed… it stirs an irresistible desire in me.”
“Ugh… Aagh!”
“Arghhh! Huff…!”
“Keugh…! Damn it…”
To think that at such a crucial moment, a backlash would hit me, leaving me unable to do anything…
If this keeps up, those two, caught in this ridiculous character-deletion event, are bound to die…
Because I was staggering, unable to focus due to the pain, Ravi and Lenis were also distracted, unable to concentrate fully on the fight.
“Alvis! Are you okay? Agh…!”
“Alvis, what are you doing in a place like this?! Snap out of—kyah?!”
“Ravi! Lenis! Damn it…!”
Though Ravi and Lenis, bleeding from multiple wounds, managed to get back up, the battle had already tilted heavily in Sophia and O’Brian’s favor.
“Alvis! I’ll protect you for now, so if you can’t fight, at least get out of here!”
Fwoosh—
As Lenis finished casting her spell, her staff glowing white, I felt the pain subside slightly.
It seemed that the Pain Reprieve ability of her Winged Staff was also affecting the backlash damage I was suffering from.
My breathing felt lighter, but because she was focusing on healing me, Lenis had left herself more vulnerable to attacks from the front.
“Taking your eyes off the fight to tend to dead weight… Not a very good habit, young lady.”
BOOM!
“Aaaagh!”
“Lenis!”
Struck by O’Brian’s explosive magic, Lenis was sent flying, her body covered in soot.
“Lenis! Are you alright?!”
“You pseudo-human! How dare you take your eyes off me while I’m right in front of you?!”
SLASH!
“Ugh…!”
Things were snowballing badly. I had believed that, with my strength, I could handle any problem and had led everyone here… But now, I was the one holding them back.
Cursing internally, I forced myself to stand.
Ravi and Lenis also rose at nearly the same time.
Though they hadn’t lost their fighting spirit, their bodies were riddled with injuries.
“Still standing? Then this time, I’ll make sure you never get up again by ripping your limbs off your torso!”
“I can barely hold back… I need to decorate my display case with your severed head, young lady. We’re busy people, so let’s wrap this up.”
Sophia combined her twin sabers into one and swung down at Ravi with all her might.
At that moment, Ravi raised both arms and caught the saber, which was covered in countless razor-sharp fragments.
Swoosh—
Instead of the metallic clang that should have sounded from such a collision, there was an eerie noise as if something were being absorbed.
Then, in an explosive burst of speed, Ravi lunged forward and slammed her knuckles into Sophia’s chin.
BOOM!!!
It was the Shock Discharge counter ability of Primordial Knuckles—one of Ravi’s weapons.
Once per battle, it could absorb the full force of an enemy’s attack and return it with equal destructive power.
Sophia let out a bloodcurdling scream as she was sent tumbling backward.
“AAAAAGHHHH!!!”
But Ravi didn’t stop there.
She rushed forward at a speed even greater than Sophia’s retreat, caught up with her, and delivered a powerful punch to her abdomen.
At the same time, Primordial Knuckles began shifting shape, revealing razor-sharp fangs like those of a wild beast.
“Haaaah!”
As Sophia’s body was flying horizontally through the air, Ravi’s fist struck her abdomen vertically, triggering the second ability of the Primordial Knuckles: Breaking Strike.
Boom!!!
An invisible shockwave erupted, a technique that destroys the target from the inside out with terrifying power.
No armor, no barrier—nothing could withstand this attack.
The moment it landed, Sophia’s body, which had been soaring horizontally, bent at a near 90-degree angle before she was violently slammed into the ground, coughing up blood.
“Kuh… Urgh…”
“Sophia!”
Seeing Sophia sustain such immense damage in just two attacks, O’Brian’s eyes widened in shock as he called out to her.
“Didn’t I tell you not to look away during battle?”
As O’Brian’s head turned toward Sophia, Lenis seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack.
She raised her hand high into the air, revealing a beautifully intertwined golden and silver ring on her finger.
The night sky was thick with clouds, making it impossible for moonlight to shine through.
Yet, as soon as she lifted her hand, a bright moonlight emerged from nowhere, illuminating O’Brian.
And then, through that light, a massive moon descended upon him like a falling star.
It wasn’t the real moon—it was an illusion crafted to appear that way—but the sheer pressure it exuded was overwhelming, not just for O’Brian but for everyone present.
“What kind of cheap trick is this…?! There’s no way your skills are enough to break through my defenses!”
“Tonight’s moon is nearly full. That means… the power of my ring is at its peak!”
The Intertwining Moons Ring, obtained as a war trophy in Arboness, had been given to Lenis.
Simply wearing it increased the power and effectiveness of all magic and abilities from the new moon to the full moon at the cost of additional mana.
But beyond that, it also had a special ability—Falling Moon, which concentrated lunar energy to strike the target.
O’Brian sneered and erected multiple layers of barriers, but…
“It’s useless!”
Once Falling Moon was activated, it could not be dodged, blocked, or absorbed.
It was an unavoidable, absolute attack.
O’Brian’s expression contorted in shock as he realized the moon was passing through his barriers as if they didn’t exist in the first place.
“What—”
BOOOOM!!!
The falling moon collided with O’Brian, triggering a massive explosion and kicking up a thick cloud of dust and debris.
“Huff… Huff… My mana is…”
The Falling Moon ability allowed the user to adjust its power by consuming different amounts of mana.
Judging by its force, Lenis had likely poured nearly all of her remaining mana into it.
And since the night was just before a full moon, the ring’s passive effect had further drained her mana.
Now completely depleted, Lenis wobbled and collapsed to her knees.
Ravi, having knocked Sophia out in two hits, leaped back to their side and slumped down as well.
“Hah… Hah… I can’t… move anymore…”
“Huff… I’m sorry, both of you. I couldn’t do anything to help…”
“Don’t say that, Alvis. If it weren’t for you, neither I nor Lenis would have made it this far.”
“H-Hmph! With this, I’ve repaid my debt to you from Aldebaran!”
As the two of them sighed in relief and caught their breath…
Swoooosh… SPLURCH!
“!!!”
“!!!”
A sharp, black tendril shot out from within the cloud of dust, piercing through the abdomens of both Ravi and Lenis.
The black tendril, having impaled them, retracted back into the dust, disappearing from sight.
Beyond the swirling debris, agonized screams of imperial soldiers rang out.
“H-Huh? W-What is this?!”
“T-The smoke! The black smoke is dragging people away!”
“Aaaaaah! S-Save me!”
CRACK! CRUNCH!
SQUELCH…
Still struggling to comprehend what had happened, Ravi and Lenis clutched their bleeding stomachs, frozen in shock.
Meanwhile, from within the dust cloud, horrific sounds of chewing, bones snapping, and flesh being swallowed echoed through the battlefield.
“Hah… Heh heh heh heh…”
“I never imagined it would come to this.”
From within the dispersing dust, two familiar voices emerged.
Sophia and O’Brian stepped forward once again.
But they no longer looked the same.
From their necks down to their navels, their torsos were covered in a writhing black aura.
Half of their faces had turned completely black as well.
On the blackened parts of their faces, dozens of eyes twitched and wriggled.
From their torsos, over ten gaping, fanged mouths had formed, constantly opening and closing.
From within them, black tendrils slithered out, grabbing hold of nearby imperial soldiers.
The soldiers, screaming and struggling, were pulled toward the monstrous mouths on Sophia and O’Brian’s bodies.
One by one, they were swallowed alive.
From between the grotesque, devouring mouths, blood trickled down, staining the ground beneath them.
“I almost died… If it weren’t for the safeguards prepared by our boss and our clients, I really would have died! Me! The Crimson Rose Sophia, almost killed by some brat like you!!!”
“We were too careless. We should have been more cautious, knowing our clients had warned us about a target for extermination among this party. We underestimated you.”
▶ Target Updated: Level 75 – Sophia, the One Who Accepted the Darkness
▶ Target Updated: Level 75 – O’Brian, the One Who Accepted the Darkness
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