Chapter 140: Zone 10 Boss (2)

‘...Intruder detected?’

Naturally, the intruder had to be me.

For a message like this to appear...

So the Zone 10 boss really was different from all the others.

I kept Radiant Incarnation active as I moved in search of the boss.

Monsters roamed the ground below, their figures flickering through my field of vision.

But then...

‘Those are the Fallen.’

The monsters inhabiting Zone 10 were none other than the Fallen.

Humanoid in shape, each with a different set of horns, they were unmistakable.

Something else caught my eye as well.

An enormous castle.

A single half-collapsed, crumbling fortress stood in the middle of that land of death.

For some reason...

Zone 10 looked exactly like a scene from a ruined world.

‘...!’

All at once, I sensed a chilling presence.

The Demon King immediately flew toward it at the speed of light.

The boss came into view almost at once.

Corrupted Hero, or whatever they had called it...

It wasn’t a monster.

It was a human.

Black hair, blue eyes, gleaming golden armor, and a sword held in one hand.

A woman with a deathly pale complexion stood alone and motionless in the middle of the endless black earth.

The moment I spotted the boss, I stopped time.

– What are you doing? Release it.

At the Demon King’s words, I asked tensely,

‘...How is she? Do you think you can win?’

I had known from the instant I laid eyes on her.

Even before Sixth Sense kicked in, pure instinct told me.

She might look like an ordinary human on the surface, but as a living being, she existed on an entirely different level.

– She is still but a lowly creature. No match for Us.

‘Then...?’

– Were I in my true body, yes. Whether We can kill her within ten minutes is something We will not know until We try.

In other words, even he couldn’t guarantee victory.

Just as he had warned me, she was a formidable opponent even for the Demon King’s power.

But looking at it another way, he hadn’t said defeating her was impossible.

That was good news.

‘I’m counting on you, Demon King!’

At this point, all I could do was trust him and leave everything in his hands.

I encouraged the Demon King one last time and released time.

The hero—

No, the boss raised her head and looked up at us.

The Demon King extended one hand.

The frigid air condensed into a single point.

Just as he had erased the bosses of the previous zones in an instant, an immense torrent of freezing air surged toward her.

And then...

Kiiiiiing-

Pure white energy, similar to the Aura Blade skill, gathered around the boss’s sword.

Except the power radiating from it was on a completely different scale from something like my Aura Blade.

The boss swung her sword.

If Radiant Incarnation hadn’t accelerated my thoughts, I wouldn’t even have been able to perceive the motion as a sword swing.

The deep-blue freezing air and the pure-white Sword Aura collided.

At the point of impact, space warped for an instant like heat haze.

Then came a deafening roar.

...Kwaaaaaaaa!!

It was a staggering collision of power.

Powerful enough that, had I been in my original body, I wondered if the sheer aftershock alone might have injured me.

The two forces ground against each other in midair, each fighting for dominance.

In the end, the Demon King’s power prevailed.

The freezing air slowly pushed the Sword Aura back, closing in on the boss until...

having reached its limit, it exploded.

A colossal mass of ice erupted where the boss stood, blooming like a flower of frost.

Like ripples spreading across the surface of water, the shockwave radiated outward from the frozen blossom, covering every inch of the surrounding earth in ice.

Crk-crrrack!

The boss immediately shattered the ice and broke free.

Frost coated her entire body.

The Demon King followed up without hesitation.

Freezing air spread chaotically through the void around Radiant Incarnation, branching outward like the roots of a tree.

It gathered together, glowed, and transformed into razor-sharp icicles.

Each individual icicle was so enormous that even the missile arrows from Floor 7 couldn’t compare.

Hundreds—

No, thousands of gigantic icicles blanketed the sky before raining down like a torrential downpour.

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!

Onto the devastated earth below.

The boss swung her sword at incredible speed, knocking every last icicle out of the air.

At some point, the Sword Aura around her weapon had expanded until the blade looked large enough for a giant to wield, and every sweep shattered countless icicles.

But the icicle barrage was merely a diversion.

Several geometric magic circles appeared around the Demon King.

Once again, freezing air compressed to its absolute limit and shot downward as beams between the falling icicles.

I saw the boss dodge those beams instead of trying to block them with her sword.

...If someone told you to dodge rain falling from the sky, could anyone actually do it?

Yet she seemed to be accomplishing precisely that impossible feat.

With astonishing speed and acrobatic movements, the boss dodged and deflected the indiscriminate barrage, gradually closing the distance between us as I hovered in the sky.

The Demon King didn’t retreat.

There was no reason for him to.

Instead of dodging, he moved as though to spread a barrier around himself.

But...

Shwack!

Before he could finish, the boss’s Sword Aura cleaved straight through my body.

The body of light split cleanly in two.

At that exact moment, the Demon King’s magic—

disguised as a barrier—

detonated at point-blank range.

Kra-dgk!

Ice spikes burst outward like the spines of a sea urchin, piercing the boss’s body in several places.

The price of launching her attack had been a single instant of vulnerability.

That was why she couldn’t evade.

But while I was using Radiant Incarnation, the attack did no damage to me at all.

The two halves of my body rippled and flowed back together.

Only then did I realize it.

The Demon King had deliberately used himself as bait.

He had carefully moderated his attacks, giving the boss just enough room to close the distance and tempt her into launching a counterattack.

Then he had pretended to raise a barrier to erase whatever suspicions she might still have had.

He lulled her into letting her guard down—

and used that opening to land one decisive blow.

It was a strategy only possible because he had absolutely no need to worry about defending himself.

I had always imagined the Demon King as the sort who simply overwhelmed everything through sheer force, so seeing him use this kind of deception was strangely unexpected.

Then again, perhaps that only showed how dangerous this opponent really was.

Pinned in place and skewered by the ice spikes, the boss could no longer evade the finishing attack that followed.

Two branching beams of freezing energy pierced straight through her head and the core of her chest, blowing both apart.

Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu...

The beams hardened into ice.

Driven into the ground, the boss ended up impaled upon two enormous frozen spears.

Was that...

it?

‘No, wait.’

The thought of the resurrection spell crossed my mind, and I immediately stopped myself.

There was no way the Zone 10 boss would go down that easily.

Of course not.

‘...’

Right?

No boss-kill notification appeared.

And then—

the mark engraved on the boss’s forehead began to glow.

One of the two elongated cross-shaped marks vanished.

Hwaaaaa!

At the same time, a pillar of light descended from the sky.

The light enveloped the fallen boss.

Then...

the ice spears dissolved, and the boss—who had unquestionably been killed an instant earlier—was suddenly standing again, perfectly unharmed.

...What the hell is that?

‘Resurrection?’

Apparently that hadn’t been the end after all.

There was another phase.

Oh, come on.

That’s cheating.

I stopped time.

‘Demon King, looks like we’ll have to kill her at least two more times.’

The cross-shaped marks on the boss’s forehead.

Judging from what had just happened, one disappeared every time she resurrected.

That meant she had one more resurrection left after this.

– Troublesome.

There were roughly eight minutes and thirty seconds remaining on Radiant Incarnation.

It had taken about one minute and twenty seconds to burn through one of the boss’s lives.

If the other two took the same amount of time, we would have more than enough.

But...

The first kill had gone quickly only because the Demon King’s psychological trap had worked so perfectly.

An opponent like this obviously wasn’t going to fall for the same trick twice.

I released time.

The Demon King immediately prepared another attack.

But then the boss looked up at us and—

Kwang!

launched herself into the air and fled.

Had she concluded that fighting us head-on would only get her killed?

Naturally, we caught up immediately.

We were moving at the speed of light, after all.

Paat!

The feather-shaped mark on the back of the boss’s right hand began to shine.

Wings of light unfurled behind her.

Her speed instantly increased severalfold.

Even so, she couldn’t possibly outrun actual light.

The Demon King clung to her like a shadow, relentlessly pouring attacks onto her.

Having learned from her previous death, the boss didn’t counterattack at all.

She focused entirely on dodging and defending.

Even if I could move at the speed of light, however, that didn’t mean the Demon King’s magic traveled at light speed as well.

Whenever my Willpower ran low, I stopped time and replenished it, steadily supporting him throughout the fight.

At some point, a blizzard began raging across the battlefield.

Wherever the Demon King and the boss passed, the world turned white.

The black wasteland transformed into an endless field of snow.

And the boss endured the absurd freezing storm remarkably well.

It wasn’t as though she took no damage.

But her movements remained steady, and every attack that might have dealt a fatal blow was narrowly dodged or blocked.

That game of tag continued until...

perhaps because her body was gradually freezing over,

I noticed her speed beginning to fall.

The boss finally abandoned her retreat and dropped back to the ground.

Kwoong!

She drove her sword into the earth and sank down onto one knee.

Surrender?

Of course not.

This time, the shield-shaped mark on the back of her left hand lit up.

Pure white Armor of Light formed over her golden armor.

What the...

That was basically—

She had completely abandoned evasion and poured everything she had into defense.

– Insolent creature. Very well.

The Demon King prepared another attack.

It was magic I had never seen before.

Countless geometric patterns appeared in every direction.

And from among them rose an enormous figure resembling a colossal god of war.

– ᚸᚹ ᚡ ᛟᛥᛠᛀᚱ ᚾᚿᛀ ᛉᛗᛡᛢᚯᚻ...

The giant slowly raised its greatsword.

The point of the blade aimed directly at the boss.

She unfurled her Wings of Light once more and wrapped them around herself, adding yet another layer to her defenses.

Like divine judgment—

the giant’s greatsword descended upon her.

‘...!’

A blinding flash erupted.

So intense that it swallowed the entire battlefield.

At the center of that overwhelming light, I could see the boss enduring the attack.

Her wings were the first to crumble and disappear.

Then cracks spread across her armor.

Even so, she held on.

And held on.

Far longer than I wanted her to.

The one racing against the clock was me.

Growing increasingly anxious, I summoned Diul and ordered him to spread the Pitch-Black Fog.

If it’s now, while she can’t move, maybe this’ll work...!

Hwaaak!

But it wasn’t even close.

The Pitch-Black Fog Diul released was extinguished helplessly by the light pouring from the boss’s armor.

‘Kyaaaaaa...!’

A scream filled with pain echoed through our mental connection.

It seemed some kind of backlash had struck Diul.

I hurriedly sent him back into the ring.

Damn it.

Is this really a fight I can’t interfere with at all?

The Demon King’s power continued boring slowly through the boss’s defenses.

At last, the Armor of Light shattered completely.

The giant’s greatsword pierced straight through her body.

And then—

the final mark on her forehead disappeared.

Flash!

Once again, a pillar of light descended from above.

But this wasn’t some game.

There was no rule saying we had to wait politely while the enemy transformed or resurrected.

The Demon King immediately bombarded the pillar with attack after attack.

Unfortunately, the boss’s ability was every bit as broken as something from a game.

The pillar of light blocked every attack from outside until her resurrection was complete.

Her second resurrection.

Most likely, only her final life remained now.

But Radiant Incarnation had...

‘One minute.’

Just over one minute left.

Her second life had taken far too long.

Damn it.

Resurrecting twice?

Isn’t that completely broken?

Kwoong.

The boss once again drove her sword into the ground and dropped to one knee.

Don’t tell me...

Again?

The regenerated Armor of Light and Wings of Light wrapped around her body.

Seeing her settle into that defensive endurance stance again was horrifying.

Jjeeeeeong-!

The giant’s blade came down upon her.

This appeared to be the strongest magic the Demon King could currently unleash.

But it wasn’t enough.

There simply wasn’t enough time.

Her wings began to crumble once more.

Cracks slowly spidered across her armor.

And then—

ten seconds remained.

...It’s over.

When Radiant Incarnation had only one second left, I stopped time.

– It is useless.

I already knew.

He didn’t need to tell me.

If only I’d had a few more minutes.

But thinking that changed nothing.

We had failed.

– Choose. Will you flee?

‘...’

The moment Radiant Incarnation ended, everything would be over.

There was no way I could fight this monster with my own strength.

The Demon King was asking whether I wanted to escape somewhere else before that happened.

I could escape.

One second was more than enough time to return all the way to Zone 0.

[If the Contract is not fulfilled, ‘Person123’ will be permanently barred from entering Nightmare difficulty.]

But if I did that...

it was over anyway.

If I failed to defeat the Zone 10 boss, I would permanently lose access to Nightmare difficulty.

That was the price of the Contract.

And to me, that was no different from death.

‘...Thank you for your efforts, Demon King.’

This was the choice I had made.

Running away had never been an option in the first place.

Whatever the outcome, I had to see it through to the end.

I released time.

One second passed.

Radiant Incarnation ended.

At the same moment, the giant figure scattered into dust.

The instant control of my body returned, I activated my skills.

If there was even the faintest possibility left...

all I could do was hope the boss’s already-cracked armor had reached its limit.

Flame Strike.

Destruction Ray.

Hellfire Eruption.

I gathered every offensive magic skill I had and unleashed them all at once.

On top of that, I gambled on one final attack using the Demon King’s power.

Of course, without Radiant Incarnation, there was an obvious limit to how much of his power I could draw out.

I pulled out every last bit I could handle and fired it.

Kwaaaaang!

The miracle...

never happened.

When the smoke cleared, the boss stood there.

Completely unharmed.

I’m screwed.

The instant that thought crossed my mind—

the boss disappeared.

Sixth Sense screamed danger.

I immediately stopped time.

...And found the boss right in front of my face.

Only then did I realize her sword was already buried halfway into my neck.

Damn it.

Is this even possible?

Even with Sixth Sense warning me, she was too fast to evade.

With Radiant Incarnation gone and my thought speed back to normal, I couldn’t even properly perceive her movements.

The instant I released time, I cast Teleportation.

Blood erupted from my neck, which had escaped being severed by the barest margin.

“Kurgh...!”

Clutching my throat, I immediately activated Rapid Regeneration and used the Mist Beast King’s Pearl.

My half-severed neck healed in an instant.

At the same time, thick mist spread across the area.

[Item: Mist Beast King’s Pearl]

A pearl containing the power of the Mist Beast King. On use, it spreads mist over a 100-meter radius for 3 minutes. Within the range of the mist, the user can teleport freely. Once used, it can be reused after 24 hours.

For as long as the mist remained, I could teleport freely anywhere inside it.

On top of that, I summoned Plli and called forth the knights from the Citizenship item.

It was little more than desperate flailing—

anything to put up even the slightest resistance.

But...

Sixth Sense screamed again.

An enormous Sword Aura swept in from the side.

Plli and the knights were annihilated instantly.

Only I barely escaped with a teleport.

Death.

The very edge of death.

An overwhelmingly powerful enemy I couldn’t even hope to challenge.

My heart hammered hard enough to burst.

Lately, I had grown fairly accustomed to Nightmare runs.

Maybe I had forgotten this feeling for a while.

But now it came crawling back up from somewhere deep inside me.

I immediately stopped time again.

But that wasn’t the real problem.

If I couldn’t defeat this boss here, it was over.

Everything was over.

But how the hell was I supposed to defeat her?

This absurd monster had endured even the Demon King’s power...

‘...The hourglass.’

Should I use the hourglass?

If I could somehow reset Radiant Incarnation’s cooldown to zero, then I could break out of this situation.

But I had several dozen skills.

The odds of Radiant Incarnation being the skill selected...

It was such a slim chance that I would have to pray for a miracle.

Was there really no other way?

Then one thing came to mind.

Just one.

[Item: Pankera’s Crown]

The crown of Pankera, the Dream Demon King who governs dreams and illusions. While wearing the crown on the head, the wearer can move into the Mental World. A target in direct physical contact with the body can also be pulled into the Mental World. Time flows the same in reality and in the Mental World.

The Mental World.

If there was no way to deal with her in reality...

what if I dragged her into the Mental World instead?

As long as I made direct physical contact, I could pull an opponent inside with me.

I didn’t deliberate for long.

There was no other option.

I released time, immediately pulled the crown from Subspace, and placed it on my head.

Then I stared through the mist.

The fog blocked my vision completely.

I couldn’t sense the boss anywhere.

For a moment, no attack came.

Then—

Sixth Sense suddenly went berserk.

Kwaaaaaa!

A colossal blade of wind erupted and blew the mist away.

Even teleporting wasn’t enough to avoid it completely.

My left arm was torn off.

The mist dispersed entirely, clearing my vision.

The boss was standing nearby.

Right in front of me.

Grinding my teeth, I stopped time.

I can reach her.

I have to reach her.

Somehow.

The mist was gone, which meant I could no longer teleport freely using the pearl.

But the cooldown on my Teleportation skill had just ended.

The boss stood right at the edge of its range.

I completed Mental Concentration and immediately cast Teleportation toward her.

But then—

Teong!

My body was hurled backward as though I had slammed into an invisible wall.

‘What...?’

The teleportation that should have carried me directly to the boss had failed.

I knew this sensation.

I had experienced it once before.

It felt similar to when the Spatial Coordinate Distortion Device had blocked my Teleportation during the Floor 4 Hidden.

You’ve got to be fu—

Don’t tell me this boss has some kind of similar ability that prevents anyone from approaching her?

There wasn’t even time to be shocked.

Because the boss had disappeared again.

The instant she vanished, I barely managed to stop time.

Even so—

her sword had already sunk slightly into my neck.

Teleportation was on cooldown.

Dodging the way I had before was impossible.

The instant I released time, my head would be severed.

...Death was finally right in front of me.

[Skill: Subspace (Epic)]

Creates a Subspace to store or retrieve objects. Storing an object requires direct contact with it, and objects can be retrieved within a 1-meter radius. Storing living beings or spirits is impossible. Up to 100 kilograms can be stored. Casting requires 3 minutes of Mental Concentration.

Classification: Magic Type

Willpower Cost: 300

Cooldown: None

At that moment—

a skill I normally used without a second thought, almost like an inventory, flashed through my mind like lightning.

Store.

Direct contact.

I immediately began Mental Concentration.

The instant I released time, I cast Subspace.

The object I targeted for storage—

was the boss’s sword.

Hwoong!

The boss’s hands sliced through empty air.

The sword she had been gripping was gone.

I thrust out my remaining hand.

The instant my right palm touched the boss’s face, I activated Pankera’s Crown.

My consciousness plunged downward—

and was sucked into the Mental World.