Chương 431: Chapter 418 - How Far We've Come

Entire ridges had been ripped open by explosions and lightning strikes, the ground cracked and blackened where the creature's breath had rolled through earlier like a plague. And still it stood. The thing towered above the battlefield like a nightmare given flesh. A horse's body fused grotesquely into a rider's torso, both stripped of skin so that veins and muscle pulsed openly across its monstrous frame.

Its head hung low between its shoulders, and every breath that escaped its lungs spread a grey rot across the land. The Dungeon's Special Boss, The Nuckelavee, reared again. A roar of diseased wind blasted across the valley as its toxic breath poured outward.

"Spread out!" Leonie's voice cut through the chaos. She was already moving. Lightning wrapped around her body as the Valkyrie manifested behind her in a storm of white light. Her shield smashed aside a rider charging from the flank while her longsword carved a blinding arc that split another clean in half. The Emperor's manifestation settled over her, reinforcing her strength and amplifying the commanding presence she radiated across the battlefield.

From the side, A Song of Fire erupted as Ayu burst into motion, Lukas' Strength manifestation pushing her physical prowess to terrifying heights. Her Will flared outward like living flame, wrapping around her body in a blazing mantle that burned the poisoned fog away as she accelerated. She moved through the battlefield like a dancer crossing a stage of death, her feet barely touching the ground before the next step carried her somewhere else. A rider lunged toward her. The creature never finished the motion.

Ayu's knee struck first, crushing its ribcage inward with a sound like snapping timber. Her elbow followed a heartbeat later, tearing its skull sideways before her spinning kick launched the entire corpse clear across the battlefield. She didn't slow. Three more riders closed in. Her body flowed through them. Strike. Pivot. Elbow. Knee. Each movement carried the rhythm further, her blazing Will leaving arcs of burning air with every motion. Behind her, far in the rear, the air shifted. Chiara's cane rose forward.

The Magician ignited behind her. A lattice of electromagnetic constructs fused with her Will snapped into place around her body as calculations streamed through her three minds. She adjusted angles, field densities, and charge distribution— Then fired. The first beam carved through a wave of riders like a surgical blade of light. The second strike detonated against the Nuckelavee's torso. The explosion looked like a small sun.

White light swallowed half the battlefield before the shockwave rolled outward with enough force to flatten the dead forest surrounding the valley. Riders vanished instantly, reduced to drifting ash by the energy release. Even the Nuckelavee staggered. But it didn't fall. Instead the ground behind it split open. Dozens—then hundreds—of riders surged out from the rot-filled fog like a cavalry charge from hell. Pablo's summon met them head-on.

The creature towered above the battlefield like a living fortress of bone and muscle. Its body had been crafted from the fusion of multiple mutated summons, its limbs adapting constantly as it fought. One arm ended in a blade grown from hardened bone, the other carried a shifting mass of tendrils that smashed riders apart with brutal efficiency. The first wave crashed into it. The summon roared. Then it adapted. Bone plates thickened across its chest while new limbs split outward to intercept the incoming cavalry.

Riders were crushed, torn apart, or impaled as the creature adjusted itself mid-battle, evolving with every impact. But the true anchor of the battlefield stood elsewhere. Imani stepped forward, cratering the earth beneath his boots. The Guardian Star burned, a full sun that embraced his figure, radiating an invisible pull that bent the battlefield around him. The riders charging across the valley suddenly veered off course as gravity itself seemed to shift. They were dragged toward him.

One slammed into his shield. The impact shattered the creature instantly. Another was pulled off its mount entirely and slammed into the ground at his feet. Imani's hammer fell. The blow cratered the earth. Three more riders tried to escape the pull. None made it more than a few meters. They were dragged inward like iron filings to a magnet. Imani destroyed them one by one. Above the battlefield, Leonie cut through the air in a streak of lightning.

"Now!" Her command came the instant the opening appeared. Ayu launched upward. Her Will flared brighter as A Song of Fire reached its peak. She ran straight up the Nuckelavee's exposed leg as if gravity had simply stopped applying to her. The monster swung its arm. Too slow. She slipped past the blow with a twisting step and drove a knee into its side with enough force to rupture the muscle beneath. Black blood exploded outward. The Nuckelavee shrieked. Its breath gathered again. Chiara saw it.

Her spectral constructs shifted instantly as she recalculated the vector of the coming wave." Five milliseconds," she transmitted calmly. The battlefield responded. Lukas' cards shifted. Strength ignited again—this time on Imani. The Guardian Star flared brighter. When the Nuckelavee unleashed its next breath, Imani stepped directly into it. The poisonous storm crashed into his shield. For a moment the entire valley disappeared inside the wave. Then the gravity pull intensified.

The toxic cloud bent inward toward him, dragged toward the blazing miniature sun behind his back. The poisoned air collapsed into a spiraling vortex around his position instead of spreading across the battlefield. Chiara fired. This time she didn't hold back. The projectile that left her constructs was closer to a nuclear detonation than a conventional attack.

A column of condensed force—Will interwoven with destabilising fields and violent electromagnetic discharge—punched straight through the Nuckelavee's chest and detonated inside its body. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. The explosion split the sky. The shockwave rolled outward for kilometers. When the light faded, half the creature's torso was gone. Still— It moved.

Ayu dropped from above like a falling star as Lukas, in that same instant, redirected Strength back to her. A Song of Fire roared around her, Will blazing so fiercely it trailed behind her like the tail of a comet. Her body spun through the air and both knees crashed into the base of the monster's skull. The impact hit like a meteor strike. The ground exploded.

A crater burst outward beneath the blow as the shockwave tore through the valley floor, shattered rock blasting into the air while the Nuckelavee's exposed bone split apart under the force of the strike. Ayu twisted mid-motion and drove her elbow down with everything she had left. The second impact collapsed the creature's skull inward. For a moment the Nuckelavee froze, its monstrous frame locked in place. Then its enormous body gave way.

The corpse crashed into the valley floor with the weight of a falling mountain, the impact sending another tremor rolling across the ruined battlefield. For a long moment, everything went silent. Then the remaining riders began dissolving into drifting ash. The poisonous fog slowly thinned. And all that remained of the giant Nuckelavee were motes of light drifting through the air, and the plentiful loot left behind as a prize for those who had slain it. All the rest exhaled.

The fight had been demanding, but compared to the first special boss, this one had felt much easier. Higher SP, refined skills, and the growing synergy between them had changed the battlefield entirely. Leonie's gaze moved slowly across the field. The place where the fight had unfolded was so vast it barely resembled a Dungeon chamber anymore. It looked more like a piece of the outer world, a ruined valley stretching seven kilometres from edge to edge.

Across it she could see enormous craters blasted into the earth, long trenches carved through the ground where attacks had torn the terrain apart, and entire domes of missing soil where explosions had simply erased the land. The scale of the destruction made it impossible to ignore how far they had come. She then focused on the others. Save for bruises, cuts, and patches of skin still darkened by the Nuckelavee's cursed fog, they were all standing.

Imani rested his hammer on his shoulder, the fading glow of the Guardian Star slowly dimming behind him. Chiara lowered her cane while the last of her constructs dissolved into faint sparks around her. Pablo's summon vanished into motes as his main body jerked slightly, consciousness settling back into it.

"That wasn't too bad," Lukas said as he walked forward, an easy smile on his face despite the devastation surrounding them.

"I guess we're just too good," Ayu chuckled. Bruises marked her arms and shoulders, but the grin she flashed was as bright as ever. She stepped forward and stomped the ground, using the motion's inertia to flick one of the seven red orbs upward from the rubble before snatching it cleanly out of the air. Stage 1 – 45. 192% ➤ 48. 000%"Well, looks like The Tower agrees it's getting too easy. Guess we've gotta step it up," Ayu said as the orb dissolved into her body.

The fatigue vanished instantly, bruises fading as a fresh surge of strength coursed through her.

"Yes," Leonie said calmly.

"Now that we've reached the ceiling for mid-tier special bosses, it's time to move on to the real challenge. High-tier Dungeons."

"You reckon we have enough accumulation for that? Even the weakest bosses in those are way stronger than the special bosses here. Shouldn't we acquire a bit more Grade 5 gear and temper it before doing so?" Pablo asked.

"Remember, inside The Tower we are always on a deadline. It's faster to obtain Grade 5s in high-tier Dungeons," Leonie replied.

"Even if we can only defeat the first or second boss and don't get the full Grade 5 sets, it would still be worth it. The minimum drop there is Grade 3, and mobs occasionally drop Grade 4, which makes wealth accumulation significantly more efficient. As for Grade 5 equipment outside of that, we can focus on it once we're strong enough to handle bosses like this alone—or at least in pairs. Otherwise, considering the travel time and—""Sis, we got it," Lukas said with a soft chuckle.

"You don't need to run the full boardroom briefing. We trust you." Leonie stared at him for a moment, her lips pressed thin.

"Oh, this is a pretty nice Grade 5," Ayu said from behind, lifting the piece of gear from the loot pile with a grin.

"Guess you got yourself an upgrade, Imani," she added as she flung it toward him. Imani caught the massive piece instinctively. Grade 05 - Bulwark of the Skinless Demon Rider Tempering State: 0 Physical aptitude +6% Pillar aptitude +6% Body durability +10% All regeneration and healing effects +100% Imani studied the shield in silence. The tower shield was enormous, nearly reaching from his boots to his shoulders when planted on the ground.

Its surface was forged from dark metal plates layered over one another like scales. Vein-like grooves ran across the surface in jagged patterns, faintly glowing with a dull reddish hue as if something beneath the metal still pulsed with life. At the center, a warped relief depicted the twisted shape of a horse-headed rider fused into a single monstrous silhouette, its skeletal form stretched across the length of the shield.

Despite its size, the grip behind it felt perfectly balanced, the weight settling naturally into Imani's arm. The others watched him examine it for a moment before exchanging glances and nodding. It was a great item. Once tempered, it could push Imani's role as their frontline anchor even further.

"Well, I've got a card that would make that second affix really worth it," Lukas said with an easy smile.

"Not that I wish you pain, Imani… just, you know… if you do get smashed, I'll be there to patch you up." Imani looked at him. After a moment, both of them smiled. As for the rest of the loot, Leonie packed it into one of the two Storage Bags they had purchased recently at great cost from one of the Marquis's cities. All that remained was the seventh red orb lying on the ground. They all stared at it with mixed emotions.

Silence lingered for several seconds before Ayu stepped forward, hooked the orb off the ground with the tip of her foot, and caught it as it popped up. She slipped it into her pouch.

"Ok then, let's get going." Her voice sounded steady, yet something heavy lingered beneath it. After a moment, the others simply nodded and followed. Together, they stepped through the Dungeon's exit. Once outside, they retrieved their phones from the Guild's liaison, who had been watching over them. The man treated all six with deep respect, as befitted Gold-rank Adventurers. The first thing they did was check for messages. There were none.

Ayu, in particular, kept staring at hers for a while before finally slipping the phone away.

"Alright," Leonie said calmly.

"I just sent Alonso a message to check how things are on his side and to let him know about our plans. We'll return to Riviera, perhaps for the last time, arrange a few things with the Guild, and then coordinate our move to Aldermere's branch. That will be our new base of operations. The branch there is far larger, with Mithril ranks and even an Adamantite among their members, so we could stay there for a while." They all agreed and set off toward Riviera.

As they all separated to take care of their own final errands in Riviera, Chiara found herself with little to do. She hadn't formed any connections with the locals, whom she considered impractical distractions and a waste of time, so she simply made her way toward Alonso's rented house, which had, in a way, become her spot. She planned to take a short nap, or perhaps just lie down and play with some of the models she had been developing inside her mind.

Yet just as she was about to step inside, she sensed a subtle shift behind her. She turned. Three figures stood before her. Two were cloaked in crimson and gold, their long mantles swaying gently with the wind, their faces hidden beneath deep shadows. Between them stood a third figure at the front, and the moment Chiara's eyes landed on him she felt the weight of his presence. He wore full armor that shimmered with a faint, radiant glow.

Every plate was engraved with intricate sigils that caught the light like threads of gold. The design was unmistakable. The feared anti-daemon division of the Church, and one of the most powerful organizations in this world, with even its weakest members standing at a Mithril-level standard. The Holy Knights. For a brief moment, Chiara froze. The knight inclined his head slightly, almost courteous.

"Good afternoon," he said calmly.

"Are you acquainted with Alonso Shemson?" His voice carried an effortless authority, the tone of someone used to being answered. Chiara glanced between the three of them before forcing herself to remain composed.

"Yes… yes, I am," she replied carefully.

"What can I help you with?"

"We are investigating an incident," the knight continued, his voice measured.

"Our records show that Mr. Shemson passed near the location around the time we believe it occurred. We hoped you might be able to tell us his current whereabouts."

"That… unfortunately I'm not aware of it," Chiara said.

"I believe he left on a long journey toward the south-east. He may have already left Brithelm."

"Is that so…" The knight paused, studying her for a moment. Then he spoke again, still polite.

"In that case, perhaps you could help us clarify one more detail." His gaze remained steady.

"Do you know where he was and what he was doing during the sixth and seventh day of Silverbloom Eve?" Chiara's lips parted.

"That is—" The air suddenly shifted. One of the cloaked figures leaned slightly toward the knight and sent a silent transmission through a private pulse. The knight's gaze slowly lowered. His eyes settled on Chiara's cloak. They narrowed as the polite mask faded, replaced by absolute coldness. The pressure arrived without warning. It felt as though a mountain had collapsed onto her shoulders. Chiara's body convulsed as blood burst from her mouth, her knees buckling under the crushing force.

Every muscle screamed as something unseen wrapped around her like a colossal invisible hand. Her mind tried to resist. It was useless. The force gripping her pressed into her thoughts as well, sealing every pathway and crushing every attempt at resistance before it could form. Her face turned pale. She tried to send a signal to the others, but the moment the pulse left her mind, it vanished.

A breath later, the cane hidden beneath her cloak tore free and rose into the air, drifting slowly toward the knight as if pulled by an unseen force. The Holy Knight caught it and calmly examined it for a brief moment before returning his gaze to her. His eyes were cold, and utterly indifferent. Then the pressure tightened once more, and— Chiara's vision went black as consciousness slipped away.