Chapter 100: Oh, I Didn’t Forget About Your Nose

Chapter 100: Chapter 100: Oh, I Didn’t Forget About Your Nose

"We simply need to supply the rune at its point of origin with mana in a counter-current flow. That will reverse the circuit and reveal the power source," Elena said.

"Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast—the Cerberus is coming," Xavier warned, pointing at the corridor ceiling, which had begun to glow with a faint light.

"We need a little time to find the origin point," Elena answered, urgency sharpening her voice.

The low growl of the beast echoed through the empty hallways, mixed with heavy footsteps and the scrape of sharp claws on the marble floor.

Grrrrhhh... rrrraaagh...

Xavier moved at once, trying to close the giant double doors. He shoved them hard, but they didn’t budge. He planted his feet, called on every ounce of his heightened strength, and pushed with everything he had. The doors still refused to move even an inch.

"This is useless," he said. "If we can’t seal the door, I’ll have to face it alone."

"I’ll join you," Melli offered. "If we fight together, we can distract it longer."

"No! I need you here with Elena. Help her find the origin and shut the rune down as fast as possible—that’s the most effective plan. I can handle the beast. I won’t put either of you in danger."

"Here!" Elena called out as she located the origin of the complex arrangement. Melli hurried back to her side to help feed the counter-flow of mana.

Xavier felt the heavy presence of the Cerberus closing in. He stepped out into the hallway and found the giant beast almost at the entrance. Its black fur bristled, six bloodshot red eyes locking onto him the instant he appeared. The middle head dropped lower, shoulders hunching as a ferocious growl rumbled from its throat—it had found its target.

GRRRRAAAARGH... HSSSKREE...

The creature was massive, its height nearly reaching the ceiling. It looked like a monstrous three-headed pit bull, far larger and far deadlier than any ordinary beast.

"So, you’re the king of all the hellhounds," Xavier said in a teasing tone.

The beast answered with a feral snarl from its central head while the two side heads loosed blood-curdling howls.

GRRAAAARGH!! AAARGH!! HOOOOWL—!!

Xavier felt his heart tighten as the sound reverberated through his body in waves.

"That wasn’t a simple howl, was it?" He had spent a great deal of time studying Cerberus and its abilities. The beast had just used a mind attack designed to instill fear and target the heart—perfectly paired with its ability to sense fear and a passive that weakened its prey the more terrified they became. It was a deadly combination, horrifying for most, but Xavier had prepared specifically for this.

He summoned Miss Incinerator. The moment the blade materialized in his hands, the Cerberus’s mental attack vanished. That was one of the many advantages of an ego sword, beyond amplifying elemental power, it granted several passive boosts. One of them was a surge of dominance, charisma, and fearlessness—the aura of a natural leader—that completely canceled the adversary’s mind assault and turned the fear back on the attacker.

The beast felt the change at once in Xavier’s confident posture. It charged, all three heads lunging to crush him in their jaws.

SKREEEEEAAARGH—!! GRRAAAARGH!!

Xavier turned and sprinted in the opposite direction. Miss Incinerator’s voice rang in his ears.

"Really, owner? You’re going to run like a coward after summoning me? Why not just use my full power and kill that damned mutt?"

Xavier almost laughed. Her insult was oddly accurate—Cerberus was exactly a damned mutt, just the king of them.

"It’s called a tactical retreat. I’m not a savage who kills everything that gets in his way. And using your full power would destroy a quarter of the building instantly," he answered while running. The beast’s massive body kept slamming into the stone walls; the hallway was vast for a human but narrow for something that size. Every collision slowed it down, giving Xavier the distance he needed.

GRRAAAARGH!!!

They had long since passed the room where Elena and Melli worked. Xavier opened one of the pouches on his belt, pulled out a flask filled with pure black liquid, and hurled it at the oncoming beast.

"Take that!"

The flask shattered on the floor. The liquid vaporized instantly, filling the entire section of the hallway with thick black smoke. Xavier made sure not to inhale any of it while keeping his distance.

The beast growled once more and stepped out of the cloud. All six of its blood-red eyes had turned pure black.

GRRRRAAAARGH... HSSSK...

"Owner, what did you do?" Miss Incinerator asked.

"That little thing was a dusk-shade potion," Xavier replied. It was one of the first potions he had learned to synthesize under Nyxara—a temporary blindness agent whose strength depended on purity. At the time he never imagined he would use it this way. This batch was one of the purer ones; it should keep a beast of this size blind for several hours.

The Cerberus lowered all three heads to the floor, flaring its nostrils, trying to catch his scent. The moment it did, it charged again, one massive claw slashing toward him.

SKREEEEE—AAARGH!! GRRAAAARGH!!

Xavier stepped back in a flash of crackling lightning.

"Oh, I didn’t forget about your nose either." He pulled a circular enchanted artifact from another pouch, fed a trickle of mana into it, and a transparent green barrier sprang up around him, sealing his scent completely.

All three faces of the beast shifted into expressions of pure confusion as his scent vanished. Its posture changed from aggressive to wary, sensing the sudden shift in the situation.

Grrrk... hsssk... grraagh...

"Now, it’s our turn to attack," Xavier said with a low chuckle, tightening his grip on the sword.

Meanwhile, inside the beast’s chamber, Melli and Elena finished feeding the entire rune with counter-flowing mana. The moment the circuit completed, the chamber began to vibrate. For a second they feared something had gone wrong—then everything fell silent. In the center of the arrangement a section of the floor sank downward. Gears shifted and clicked beneath the floor. When the noise stopped, a pure white pedestal glowing with serene light rose from the circular hollow.

Resting atop the pedestal was a golden bracelet fitted with a transparent crystal that floated calmly above the metal. The pedestal’s white light reflected off the polished gold, giving the bracelet an unmistakably precious appearance.