The sky... tore open.
A jagged, dark-purple fissure bled across the heavens, pulsing like a dying heart. Reality itself warped around it, screaming under the pressure of something that should never have crossed over.
And then—
It came.
[The Plague-Drake King]
[Level: 35 | Tier: Lord]
It wasn't fully here.
Its colossal lower body remained trapped within the rift, flesh and space fused together in violent distortion. But its upper half alone... was enough to eclipse the entire forest.
Rotting emerald scales.
Wings dripping liquid corrosion.
Eyes burning like twin toxic suns.
It opened its maw—
—and the world trembled.
A roar erupted.
Not sound.
Force.
The shockwave obliterated everything within a hundred meters. Trees snapped like twigs. The ground cratered. Air compressed into a suffocating wall.
Oliver screamed as blood burst from his ears, his body thrown violently against shattered stone.
In the VIP Observatory—
Chaos.
"The barrier is collapsing—38% and dropping!"
"If it uses a full breath, the dungeon will rupture!"
"Teleportation is still blocked—we can't intervene!"
They could only watch.
Watch... as extinction descended.
The Drake King inhaled.
Deep.
Its chest expanded, ribs cracking outward under unbearable pressure. A sickening green light gathered in its throat—dense... violent... absolute.
[Lord Skill Activated: Breath of the Plague King]
Then—
Release.
A tidal wave of liquefied death erupted downward.
It didn't just melt matter.
It erased it.
Space distorted. Air dissolved. The forest vanished beneath a collapsing ocean of pure corrosion.
Oliver shut his eyes.
This is the end.
...But nothing came.
No pain.
No heat.
No death.
His eyes slowly opened.
And he saw it.
Standing between annihilation and the world—
A titan of black bone and jagged crystal.
The Abyssal General.
It hadn't moved.
Hadn't dodged.
It planted its colossal blade into the earth.
[Skill Activated: Crystal Aegis]
BOOM—
A dome of dark crystal erupted outward, swallowing Arthur and everything behind him.
The dragon's breath crashed against it.
HSSSSSSSS—
The sound was unbearable.
The shield screamed as acid devoured it. Cracks spread instantly. Toxic energy seeped through like veins of glowing poison.
In the VIP stands—
"It's breaking!"
"No—wait—It's still holding?!"
The Headmaster's voice trembled:
"That... is not a summon anymore..."
Arthur didn't look at the shield.
Didn't look at the cracks.
His eyes were locked... on the dragon.
Analyzing.
Calculating.
It's stuck.
The rift restrained its body. Its wings couldn't spread. Its core couldn't shift.
It was powerful.
But immobile.
A fortress.
A target.
"General."
Arthur's voice cut through the storm.
"Drop the Aegis."
Oliver's scream tore through the chaos:
"ARE YOU INSANE?!"
The General obeyed.
Without hesitation.
Absolute Loyalty.
The barrier shattered.
The ocean of acid fell.
It consumed everything.
The General.
The ground.
The air.
Arthur.
And yet—
Arthur stood still.
[Passive Skill Activated: 100% Poison Immunity]
The acid washed over him like rain.
But the General—
did not resist.
It absorbed.
[Skill Activated: Toxic Domain]
The crystal armor ignited.
Not defending.
Feeding.
The dragon's breath was dragged into the General's body—compressed, refined, forced into its blade.
The greatsword began to tremble violently.
Cracks formed along its edge.
Light leaked out—unstable, overwhelming.
A weapon not meant to exist.
[Warning: Toxic Domain Overload]
Arthur's vision flickered.
Pain stabbed through his skull.
A sharp line of blood ran from his nose.
His knees bent—
just slightly.
"So... this is the cost..."
He smiled.
Cold.
Accepting.
Above—
The Drake King hesitated.
For the first time—
Confusion.
"Now."
Arthur's voice dropped.
"Assassin."
A blur exploded upward from the toxic storm.
The Plague-Bone Assassin.
Invisible. Silent. Perfect.
It struck—
Not to kill.
To disrupt.
Twin blades plunged into the dragon's left eye—
"ROAAARR—!!"
The beast thrashed violently.
For one second—
its control broke.
Arthur's eyes sharpened.
"General."
A pause.
"Execute."
The General moved.
The ground collapsed beneath it as it launched upward—
A black comet.
A green star.
A weapon born from death itself.
The sword screamed.
Cracking.
Breaking.
Overloaded.
[Warning: Structural Integrity Critical]
Arthur's mind trembled.
One mistake—
and everything would collapse.
The General reached the dragon.
Raised its blade—
A dying star of toxic light.
But then...
The energy slipped.
For a fraction of a second, the overwhelming volume of foreign Lord-Tier mana violently fought against the Epic-Tier vessel holding it. The blade didn't align. The strike stuttered mid-air.
The Dragon King's remaining emerald eye snapped toward the General, its massive jaws opening to snap the undead commander in half.
Arthur didn't panic.
He forced his monstrous, breaking willpower directly into the connection, aggressively suppressing the anomaly. He didn't just command the General; for a terrifying second, he merged his consciousness with the void-mana itself to force the blade down.
SLASH.
Silence.
No explosion.
No sound.
Just—
a perfect, delayed line.
The General landed heavily on the melting earth.
Its blade shattered completely in half.
Fragments of glowing crystal dissolved into ash.
Its armor dimmed.
Cracked.
Barely holding.
Above—
The world froze.
A thin, glowing line appeared across the Drake King's neck.
Time... hesitated.
Then—
Reality resumed.
The head fell.
A mountain of flesh crashing into the earth.
The remaining body was dragged violently back into the collapsing rift—
consumed by the void it came from.
But before the rift sealed perfectly shut...
Arthur saw it.
Deep inside the purple distortion, far beyond the dead dragon's body.
A single, massive eye.
Golden. Unblinking.
It didn't look at the falling corpse.
It looked directly at Arthur.
It didn't feel like being watched.
It felt like being... recognized.
And then, the sky sealed.
The nightmare ended.
Silence.
Absolute.
Arthur stood beneath the raining blood.
Breathing slowly.
Unsteady.
His vision blurred again—
and for a split second—
he dropped to one knee.
For a terrifying, fleeting moment... he almost blacked out. The world spun into absolute darkness before clawing its way back to reality.
"...Not free... after all..."
He wiped the blood from his lips.
And stood again.
[Ding!]
[Incredible Achievement!]
[You have slain a Level 35 Lord-Tier Boss!]
[Level Difference Exceeds 20!]
[Catastrophic EXP Multiplier Applied!]
Golden light erupted around him.
Violent.
Overwhelming.
Like the system itself... struggling to contain what he had done.
[System Warning]
[Unauthorized Evolution Detected]
[Source: Unknown]
[Notice: Empathy Suppression Active. Corruption Level: 7% → 15%]
Arthur stared at the massive jump in his corruption.
He didn't comment. He couldn't. The hollow cavity in his chest was expanding.
In the VIP Observatory—
No one spoke.
Marcus stared... hollow.
The Headmaster... silent.
Oliver—
broken.
Arthur looked up at the sky.
At the fading light.
At the system.
A faint smile appeared.
Cold.
Endless.
"...Next."