Chapter 67: The Fallen King’s Plans Fail One After Another!

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"GO! TEAR HIM APART!!!"

The Fallen King roared with raw fury and ordered the shadows to advance. This was part of his powerful Magic, a fusion of Shadowmancy and Necromancy that once allowed him to command entire armies of the dead.

However, there was one critical problem. Without his head and the Arcane Eyes that had powered him, he could only summon around a dozen Shadow Death Knights instead of the hundred or more he had called forth before.

At the same time, his giant body, now stripped of its armor, began to grow even larger. Ghostly bone armor started forming across several parts of his frame, yet it remained unable to cover him completely. The loss of his precious Arcane Eyes had heavily weakened his magical abilities, leaving him far more vulnerable than he had ever been.

"Noir! Your turn!"

"AWOOOOOOO!"

Noir let out a powerful howl and transformed into a giant three-meter-tall shadow wolf. He charged straight toward the Shadow Knights, using his Shadow Manipulation to force every one of them to target him instead. His massive jaws clamped down on their ghostly forms, biting through their shadowy bodies and slowly absorbing them. With each one he consumed, Noir grew bigger and stronger.

"What kind of beast is that?! It can devour my shadows?!" the King shouted in disbelief. He quickly formed what resembled a second head from pure bone and ghostly energy in the place where his original head had been. "Tsk...! Impossible! You have such a being under your command?! This is not...! This shouldn’t be— Uuuggh!"

Frustration and rage filled his voice as he angrily stomped the ground and released even more shadows in a desperate attempt to regain control. "My Arcane Eyes! Without them, my magic power has been reduced far too much! Where...? Where are they?!" He frantically looked around the battlefield, searching for any sign of the lost artifacts.

The Arcane Eyes were actually a pair of incredible and nearly indestructible artifacts. Riven had destroyed the King’s head and, as the eyes fell free, quickly stored them inside his storage ring before the enemy could reclaim them.

"Looking for these?" Riven asked coldly, raising his hand and revealing two giant floating eyeballs. They glistened with even greater beauty than before. Through his power they had risen from C Rank all the way to SS Rank, transforming into true Divine Arcane Eyes. "I’ll be using them from now on!"

Riven took full control of the two floating crystalline eyes. They immediately began charging vast amounts of magic power and conjured attacks according to his strongest affinities.

So far, his primary affinities were Chaos, Darkness, Curses, and Death, followed closely by Ice and Poison.

Giant Shadow Weapons formed in the air. Poisonous Vipers of pure energy coiled and struck. Ghostly Rays of deathly light and Cursed Masses of swirling Darkness descended from every direction, bombarding the Fallen King without pause. Riven continued to avoid the titan’s massive sword swings by running swiftly around him, never staying in one place for long.

"BASTARD! COME CONFRONT ME! COWARD!"

The King roared in pure fury, his newly formed head twisting with rage as he swung his enormous blade again and again.

Riven finally nodded. He stopped running, turned to face the titan directly, and charged power into his legs. With a powerful leap he soared as high as he possibly could, rising until he floated at the same height as the monster’s new head and faced him eye to eye.

"I’m here."

His sword gleamed brightly as it transformed into a gigantic blade of pure shadows. Riven swung it downward with all his force, the massive weapon cutting cleanly through the Fallen King’s left shoulder and drawing a deep, dark wound.

"TSK! CURSED BLADE!"

The King responded instantly by summoning a black gate behind him. From the swirling darkness a gigantic sword made of condensed shadows emerged and blocked Riven’s Abyssal Assault completely, the two weapons locking together with a heavy metallic shriek.

"Your Cursed Weapons."

The Fallen King possessed three Cursed Weapons that he would summon during his second phase.

The Cursed Blade was only the first of them.

The second?

"CURSED AXE!"

He tore a gigantic axe from the same darkness and swung it toward Riven with his second arm while still wielding the Cursed Blade to deflect the following Abyssal Assault and Netherworld Blade Dance.

Their weapons collided again and again.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Explosions of ice, netherworld flames, cursed energy, and raw fire erupted in every direction. The force of each impact shook the entire battlefield. Riven held his guard firmly and then quickly ran across the length of the gigantic, cursed sword. The dark curses wrapped around his legs and began devouring his lifeforce, but that was exactly what he wanted.

Once his health dropped close to 50 percent, the Apostle of Chaos Talent triggered. A thick black aura surged outward around his body. His stats increased greatly, and Call of the Beast activated at the same time, further mutating his form into a powerful werewolf-like monster covered in black fur and glowing crimson eyes.

"RAAAHHHH!"

With a beastly roar that shook the air, Riven unleashed the full power and pressure of his very soul. The Fallen King became paralyzed for a brief moment as Riven’s Death King Talent — an SS-Rank rarity ability — temporarily overwrote the giant king’s own soul presence for a few critical seconds.

"W-what is this presence— ACK!"

As the King’s soul groaned under the overwhelming pressure, something suddenly struck his back from far away.

BOOOM!

An explosion of golden light erupted, tearing a massive chunk of flesh from his body and digging deep into his thorax.

"?!"

Then another explosion followed.

BOOOM!

"W-Wha...!"

BOOOM!

And another.

BOOOM!

And yet another.

BOOOM!

More impacts continued without pause.

BOOOM!

And more!

BOOOM!

BOOOM!

BOOOM!

"Where...! Where is that coming from?! Shadow Army, do— Ugh?!"

He looked down in frustration and saw Noir constantly devouring his Shadow Summons the moment they appeared. He was completely unable to call forth their help, as the black wolf happily ate each one the instant they spawned, growing visibly bigger and stronger with every meal.

"D-Damn mutt! Stop eating my soldiers!" he roared in fury. "This King have had enough!"

His third Cursed Weapon was finally summoned.

"Cursed Spear!"

The Cursed Spear surged forward like a black bolt of lightning. It struck Noir before the wolf could react or dodge, releasing a massive explosion of black lightning that spread in every direction.

BOOOM!!!

"Noir!"

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