Harem Online: My Party Is Full of Beautiful Celebrities

Chapter 150: The Monument Of The Dark

[All monsters and unaffiliated players have been killed.]

[The Monument of the Dark shall awaken in fifteen minutes.]

[Pierce the Monument of the Dark with the Crystal Spear to claim the territory for the Night Espresso Guild!]

Relief swept through what remained of Night Espresso as soon as the system messages appeared.

Cheers rose along the ridge. Some players laughed breathlessly with their weapons still raised, as if Just Die might somehow crawl back out of the flood.

[That’s it! West Bank is ours!]

[Where’s all that barking now, Just Die?]

[Somebody clip Raze Dawg’s face when he hears about this!]

[Don’t celebrate too hard. We still have the Monument.]

That last warning sobered the ridge faster than any command could have.

Players sank onto the wet stone as fatigue finally caught up with them. Mages lowered their hands while fading spell circles broke apart into thin sparks. One healer sat with her back against a broken ridge wall, her staff dim in her lap and her eyes fixed on the system timer.

The win was real, and so was the cost.

Martin exhaled with the rest of them. He had carried a huge part of the fight, but that did not make his resources endless. Since he could no longer level up, the free recovery that came with each level-up was gone. From this point onward, his stamina and mana depended on the healers, and several of those healers had already fallen.

He rolled one shoulder, and the weight in his shield arm answered immediately.

To hide the stiffness in his fingers, he shifted his grip on the Crystal Spear.

His stamina bar sat low enough to bother him. His mana looked even worse. Every skill choice from here on had to count.

Night Espresso’s numbers had dwindled badly, which kept Martin from fully relaxing. He did not know if they had enough players left to take down the Monument of the Dark, or if even his strength would be enough to secure the win.

At the very least, no one else would benefit from this expansion quest if they failed. Just Die had already been thoroughly defeated.

[Kuro A: Brother EMP.]

Martin turned toward him and gave Ao Tenshin a light pat, asking her to bring him over to the ridge where Kuro A waited.

Ao Tenshin pushed through the flooded water with a proud little sway. Her shell bobbed once as she lifted her chin, and the tiny horns on her head glimmered faintly. Her round eyes carried the smug confidence of someone who had absolutely helped and knew it.

Kuro A stood with his hands clasped behind his back, trying to keep the posture of a proper commander. The moment Martin reached the ridge, that stiff pose cracked. His voice still held the rhythm of command chat, but his face betrayed him completely.

The serious shotcaller from a few minutes ago slipped away, leaving behind a young man trying very hard not to look too excited.

He smiled at Martin with genuine enthusiasm, then looked down at Ao Tenshin’s adorable face and gave her the same look.

"You two were our hidden weapons tonight! Without you, this would’ve been a lot uglier!" Kuro A said.

Ao Tenshin lifted her head a little higher and puffed her tiny chest out as if she had been waiting for someone to say exactly that.

Martin returned Kuro A’s enthusiasm with a smile. "Your calls were great, Brother A. But your trust in us was crucial too. You enabled me. Thanks."

"That doesn’t require thanks." Kuro A straightened again, though his fingers still adjusted the edge of his sleeve. "Any decent shotcaller would know to build the fight around you."

"It takes a good eye and the right mindset to recognize that and capitalize on it, right?"

"Hmmm..." Kuro A looked toward the flooded battlefield as if the answer might be floating somewhere below. "If a shotcaller prioritizes their own party or friends over the entire guild... ah, yeah, I see what you mean. Well, that doesn’t concern me. I don’t really have friends. Ah, I mean... friends in this game."

"Do you?" Martin asked.

Kuro A blinked.

Martin smiled. "You have us."

For a second, Kuro A looked as if he had received a system message he did not know how to answer. His mouth opened slightly, but no answer came out. Then he looked away too quickly, pretending to check the battlefield below.

Beneath Martin, Ao Tenshin needed no further cue and squealed adorably.

Kuro A looked shocked at first, then blushed and lowered his head. Whether it was nerves or embarrassment, Martin did not care. Kuro A looked more like a flustered younger brother than a battlefield commander now.

The quiet between them was getting dangerously soft, so Martin ruined it on purpose. His grin widened at once.

"You see, a selfish shotcaller won’t last long in Cassandra’s guild. She has a sharp eye."

Kuro A agreed at once, nodding twice.

"And... she has the second-best ass I’ve ever seen. That’s also a heavy reason to follow her!" Martin laughed aloud, sounding like a shameless uncle.

Kuro A’s face went bright red. His shoulders jumped, and his hands flew up as if he could physically stop the sentence from reaching anyone else. "B-B-Brother EMP!"

"Haha!" Martin laughed even harder.

The top spot belongs to Clause, but I’m not saying that out loud about my friend.

Once the teasing had done its job and only a little of Kuro A’s nervousness remained, Martin and Kuro A talked through the guild’s current state.

The numbers were rough. No one knew what to expect from the Monument of the Dark, and the guild had already paid heavily just to stand here.

The next fifteen minutes never felt peaceful.

Night Espresso regrouped along the ridge, checked cooldowns, repaired their formation, and pulled exhausted players onto higher stone. Healers moved from group to group, rationing their mana with careful hands and quieter voices. Mages watched the flooded lake instead of the sky. Rangers kept their bows ready, even though there were no Just Die players left to shoot.

Kuro A slipped back into command chat, and the shy expression faded from his face. The focused calm that had held the guild together during the collapse returned as he organized the survivors. Martin stayed near Ao Tenshin, one hand on the Crystal Spear and his eyes on the center of the lake.

Ao Tenshin was the first to stop looking proud.

Her little head lowered, her shell settled deeper into the water, and her tiny claws pressed against the stone beneath the flood. The proud sway left her body.

A faint blue glow rose from the tiny horns on her head. The water around her shell trembled in thin rings, then smoothed out before the rest of the lake did.

Martin noticed at once. His smile faded, and his fingers tightened around the Crystal Spear.

"Angel?"

Ao Tenshin did not squeal this time.

Then the fifteen minutes ended.

The lake went still before the system announced anything.

It did not look calm. It looked as if something had pinned it in place.

Every ripple vanished at once, as if the valley had taken a breath and refused to let it out.

A half-finished cheer died somewhere on the ridge. Someone’s bowstring creaked. A healer’s spell light flickered against the wet stone and disappeared.

The entire Cascade Valley shook.

Dark Forces gathered at the center of the lake, twisting the water into a black spiral. The flood that had carried Ao Tenshin so proudly now bent toward the same point, dragged inward by something deeper than current.

The Crystal Spear pulsed in Martin’s hand.

Ao Tenshin’s cheerful pride was gone. She stared at the lake with wide eyes, her tiny horns glowing brighter in answer.

Martin tightened his grip around the Crystal Spear.