Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse

'The others are probably too focused on finding him. I just need to move fast and gather them while they're distracted,' Victor thought, glancing at the faint glow of a nearby marker. Without wasting time, he made his way toward the closest one.

Just as he approached the glowing pillar, he stopped in his tracks. "…You? What are you doing here?"

"Funny, I could ask you the same thing," came a voice from behind.

Victor turned to see the leader he had parted ways with earlier, who had also been hunting for markers. He let out a cynical chuckle at the irony.

"Get lost! You're on your own!"

"Hey! Wait, you bastards!"

From atop the hill, two of the three allied leaders turned their backs and fled. The remaining leader tried to call them back, but his voice fell on deaf ears. Frustrated and seething, he too gave up and disappeared from sight.

"How many times is that now?" Colin asked as the last of their would-be enemies left.

"Sixth time. They were all from different alliances too," Zachary responded with a laugh.

"So, more than half of them have already come and gone? Persistent little bastards," Colin muttered.

"It doesn't matter. They always leave without a fight," Justin commented, amused by the pattern they had noticed.

The pioneers chuckled as they listened to the back-and-forth between the leaders. The tension they had initially felt when facing enemy groups had long since dissipated. After all, each encounter followed the same script.

'They see the bodies, freak out, and try to form alliances, but none of them ever work out,' Justin thought, recalling the five identical encounters they'd had. Even when two groups managed to unite, neither side was willing to take the lead, knowing they'd suffer heavy casualties.

With this happening over and over again, Justin's group no longer feared another confrontation.

"Nobody's really attacking us, huh?" Nathan mused aloud, his voice tinged with surprise.

"They can't. Not only are the bodies unnerving, but they don't have much reason to fight us," Justin explained to Nathan , a smile tugging at his lips.

"Even if they kill us, they wouldn't gain any markers. Worse yet, they could weaken themselves only for someone else to take the city. What's the point? All they'd achieve is weakening their own forces."

Justin knew that his status as a public enemy was only because of the unspoken agreement that the others had to eliminate him first to make the competition fair. They thought that with Justin out of the way, their chances of claiming the city would improve. However, if they fought Justin's group and took heavy losses, they could end up getting wiped out entirely.

"The important thing is the city," Justin continued. "They want to stop me because they think I'll take it, but what if they kill me and someone else takes the city? They'd be left with all the losses. Only an idiot would risk that."

Nathan nodded in understanding. "It's like the story of the cat and the bell. No one wants to be the one to make the first move because they know they'll suffer for it."

"Exactly," Justin agreed. "They approached us without knowing what we were, but the moment they saw the bodies, they realized the risk and backed off. Now that they know, they'll leave us alone, but they still want the city. So, they'll settle for their second option."

"Second option?" Nathan asked.

"Ah, looks like they're making their move," Justin said, his eyes narrowing as he noticed a faint glow in the distance.

Everyone turned to see the light pillars indicating the locations of the markers. One of them had begun to move.

"Did… did someone take a marker?" Ethan asked, eyes wide in surprise.

"Seems like it. Look, more of them are moving now," Justin pointed out.

Soon, two, then three, and finally five of the glowing pillars started shifting across the map. The other groups had abandoned the hunt for Justin and were now focused on gathering the markers.

"Wait a minute… we have 6 points, right?" Ethan asked, his tone laced with concern.

"That's right," Justin confirmed.

"And there are 13 markers in total, correct?"

"Yes," Justin said calmly, already seeing where this was going.

"Then, if someone gathers 7 markers, wouldn't we lose?" Ethan asked, panic creeping into his voice.

Justin leaned back, stretching out his legs with a relaxed smile. "That's not going to happen. Trust me."

"But… if they keep collecting markers and eventually start fighting each other, there could be a final winner—"

"There won't be a 'final' anything," Justin cut in with a smirk. "Just watch."

Ethan looked confused, but Justin's confidence reassured him. Justin turned his gaze back to the glowing pillars in the distance. He wondered how many markers each leader would manage to gather before things started to unravel.

Two.

Amazingly, the leader with the most markers only managed to collect two. The others had gathered just one each, watching and waiting cautiously from a distance. The reason for this hesitation was simple—they all knew what would happen if they continued collecting more.

"Captain, shouldn't we gather more markers?" one pioneer asked nervously.

"Are you crazy? The pillars are already broadcasting our location! If we collect more, what do you think will happen?"

"But if we don't, that guy will win…"

"Better that than us getting hunted down! If we start grabbing too many markers, we'll just be making ourselves into targets!"

The logic was sound. If anyone were foolish enough to collect more than three or four markers, the rest would hunt them down, seeing them as a valuable target. What had once been a plan to kill Justin and take his lead was now a free-for-all to gather as many markers as possible.

Everyone had realized the futility of their earlier approach. Instead of trying to take Justin down, they were now racing to gather the markers. However, the more they collected, the more visible they became to the others. Nobody wanted to be the obvious target with multiple markers in their possession.

Each leader now hoped someone else would do the hard work for them, gathering enough markers so they could swoop in at the last moment to claim victory. The markers became a source of paranoia—everyone watching each other, waiting for the chance to strike.

While this standoff dragged on, a cold voice suddenly pierced the air.

'Time is up. It seems the winner was decided from the start.'

"…!"

Justin's group, along with every other leader, froze at the chilling words of the Dark Elf.