Chapter 31: Nightmare, 3rd Floor (3)

The sudden burst of light forced me to squeeze my eyes shut.

Grwooooo...

When I opened them again a moment later, the Undead surrounding me were writhing as their bodies melted away.

At the same time, my Concealment wore off.

A few of them, finally able to perceive me, lunged in my direction.

But they were already half-dead and posed little threat. I crushed their skulls with my mace.

“Haa.”

Before long, every last Undead that had surrounded me dissolved into nothing.

The intense light pouring from the Sun Emblem soon faded as well.

...Is that it?

But no clear message appeared.

Yeah, I figured as much.

Both the first and second floors had ended with the appearance of a boss monster.

The odds were high that the third floor would be no different.

I stood still, thinking.

“Do I need to go back up?”

There was nothing else underground besides the central cavern and the three branching passages.

Returning to the surface was my only option, wasn’t it?

But what if the Undead up there were still intact...?

With nowhere else to go, I headed toward the passage leading back to the surface.

The entrance pit I had first descended through.

“Huh?”

When I arrived, brilliant sunlight was streaming down from above.

Wait, did the sun actually rise?

It seemed that activating the emblem had caused the sun to rise on the surface as well.

I clamped the mace between my teeth and scaled the wall.

Then I cautiously poked my head out of the pit.

Beneath a sky dominated by a blazing sun, a spectacular scene unfolded before me. Countless Undead across the surface were thrashing as their bodies melted away.

“Wow...”

I watched in a daze for a moment before snapping back to my senses.

It felt as though everything was over, yet the floor still hadn’t been cleared.

So what was left?

It had to be a boss.

I climbed the rest of the way out and scanned my surroundings like a meerkat.

Nothing seemed particularly unusual, but then...

Grwooooo...

The Undead that had been melting beneath the sunlight suddenly began stampeding in a single direction.

Many had already died, but there had been an absurd number of them to begin with. Even those that remained formed a staggering horde.

“Ugh...!”

I threw myself back into the pit to avoid being swept away.

The ground trembled. A few Undead tumbled into the pit, and I promptly smashed their heads apart.

After a while, the shaking subsided.

I climbed back up and surveyed the surface.

And then...

“...Huh.”

The sight before me left me speechless.

The countless Undead had gathered in one place.

Their bodies writhed and compressed, merging together until they formed an enormous sphere.

In other words, it was a colossal lump of flesh.

Hands protruded from every angle, twitching and wriggling like antennae.

More than its grotesque appearance, it was the sheer, mindless enormity of the thing that overwhelmed me.

Aaaaaa...

A low, infrasonic groan seeped from the creature.

The eerie vibration rattled my eardrums in the most unpleasant way imaginable.

Grimacing, I instinctively covered my ears with both hands.

That thing... is the boss?

That?

Fuck. It looks way too strong.

“...!”

The mass shuddered.

I barely had time to think that it looked like an engine revving to life.

Then it accelerated with terrifying speed and rolled straight toward me.

It was insanely fast.

Fast enough to send a chill down my spine.

I activated Leap and hurled myself sideways.

KRAKOOOOM!

“Guh...!”

The resulting shockwave knocked me off balance.

I tumbled across the ground, caught myself, then stopped time and began Mental Concentration.

Flame Strike.

Fairy Light Bullet.

I cast the spells one after another and launched them.

Three spheres of flame and five Light Bullets streaked toward the mass.

KABOOOOM!

Every attack struck its target.

But against something of that size, even Flame Strike’s explosion looked pitifully small, while the Light Bullets seemed little more than pellets.

Graaaah!

Still, the attacks appeared to inflict some damage. The creature shrieked as though in pain.

‘Did it swallow a goddamn locomotive or something...?’

Another wave of nauseating infrasound washed over me.

I was still scowling when I looked at the mass and felt my eyes widen.

The craters carved into its body by my spells were already writhing closed. Flesh filled the gaps, smoothing over the wounds in an instant.

Oh, come on...

That’s cheating.

Before I even had time to dwell on how unfair it was, another change occurred.

Holes opened all across the creature’s body, and it sprayed something in every direction at once.

FWSHHHHH!

A torrent of purple liquid rained down from above.

I scrambled out of its path.

The ground hissed and dissolved wherever the acid landed.

“Sh...”

What the hell is this now...?

I barely escaped the biochemical bombardment before whipping around to face the mass.

It was already rolling toward me again, refusing to give me even a second to breathe.

I burned another Leap and threw myself clear.

KRAKOOOOM!

Everything in its path was obliterated.

I had just finished rolling across the ground and was scrambling back to my feet when—

It was gone.

Where?

‘Where did it go?’

A shadow fell across the ground.

I looked up.

The creature was plummeting from the sky like a meteor, directly toward my head.

“...!”

Son of a—

It was too late to dodge.

I stopped time.

THUUUUD!

I Teleported to the maximum possible distance and desperately rolled away.

“Haa, haa...”

Despite its massive size, the creature bounced like a basketball and launched itself into the sky again.

Then it began falling toward me once more.

The instant Leap came off cooldown, I activated it and flung myself aside.

Flame Strike’s cooldown had ended as well, so I fired another blast at the descending mass.

KABOOOOM!

But just as before, the creature merely screamed before regenerating in a matter of moments.

Wait a second...

Something was wrong.

This thing was clearly not an enemy I could defeat.

The sunlight did not seem to affect it at all, and simply surviving would not be enough to clear the floor.

“Ha.”

It was coming again, already rolling toward me.

I dodged with Leap.

The pit.

I need to get back into the pit.

Crushed by the overwhelming disparity in strength, I lost all desire to fight and focused solely on escaping.

But it gave me no opening even for that.

The mass rolled past me, slammed on the brakes, executed a sharp turn, and came hurtling back like some grotesque circus act.

Fuck.

With both Leap and Teleportation still on cooldown, I had no choice but to dodge using my own body.

But the creature was so enormous that, without Leap, I could not completely escape its path.

WHAM!

For a fraction of a second, I saw death.

The edge of the mass had only grazed me, yet my body was sent flying as though I had been struck by a hundred-ton truck.

I soared through the air and slammed into the ground.

I tumbled for what felt like an eternity before crashing into a boulder and finally coming to a stop.

“Hrrgh...”

Through the unbearable agony, I looked down at my body.

My right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, and the ribs on my right side had caved inward.

The pain was so overwhelming that I stopped time.

The dizzying agony vanished as though it had been washed away.

‘...I’m fucked.’

That was the first thought that crossed my mind.

Why had a monster this absurdly powerful appeared as the boss?

And now, I thought I understood.

The mass had been created when all the remaining Undead on the field merged together.

In other words, there should never have been so many Undead on the surface in the first place.

When I had dug in and endured until night had completely fallen, that insane swarm had poured out.

That was the moment everything had gone wrong.

Before the Undead could accumulate on the surface in such numbers, I should have gone underground and activated the Sun Emblem.

Then far fewer Undead would have merged, and the resulting boss might have been something manageable.

Not this monstrosity.

It was absurd.

How was anyone supposed to locate the underground passage and descend immediately without being given any information?

Then again, this insane difficulty had never once hesitated to demand exactly that kind of unreasonable play.

I had gotten the very first step wrong.

That alone was the reason I had ended up in this situation.

‘Is this the end?’

The moment I released time, the mass would come rolling toward me again.

In my current condition, I could not dodge.

Teleportation was still on cooldown, and even if I somehow avoided one more attack, it would change nothing.

...I was already as good as dead.

Faced with my second death after the one underground, I felt calmer than I had before.

But was there truly no way to survive?

Was this really the end?

‘There isn’t.’

My attacks don’t work.

I can’t dodge.

What the hell am I supposed to do?

...Ah.

There was one thing left.

[Item: Plligas’s Blood Necklace]

A necklace infused with the blood of Plligas, a predator of the demon realm. Defeat the summoned Plligas to form a Master-Servant Contract. The necklace is destroyed upon failure. (Level 50+ recommended)

A necklace that summoned a Familiar.

But using it was practically suicide.

I had not tamed Plligas yet, which meant the creature would not be on my side.

Whatever.

I was about to die anyway.

This was no time to weigh the advantages and disadvantages.

I steeled myself and released time.

“...Gkh!”

The overwhelming pain crashed across my entire body once more.

Blood surged up my throat and burst from my mouth.

It hurt.

It hurt so much it was almost pathetic.

Why was I lying here, broken like this?

[Use ‘Item: Plligas’s Blood Necklace’?]

A message appeared before my eyes.

Fuck it.

Come out.

I made my final gamble.

Hissssss.

Dark crimson smoke rose from the necklace around my neck.

It gathered directly in front of me and began taking shape.

A massive four-legged beast emerged.

Blazing red energy rippled across its black body, while the bristling fur jutting from its hide resembled countless blades.

“Diul... ah...”

Before the creature had fully materialized, I desperately called out to Diul.

Diul gave what sounded like a sigh, then squeezed out the last of its strength to cast Concealment over me.

KAOOOOO!

A roar powerful enough to threaten my eardrums erupted through the air.

My entire body tingled.

Now fully materialized, Plligas looked around, searching for the one who had summoned it.

But I was already concealed.

Fortunately, the trick seemed to work. Even though I was directly in front of it, the creature could not find me.

KRRRUMBLE...

That was when the mass came rolling toward us.

Plligas turned to face it and unleashed another roar.

The moment Plligas kicked off the ground, a shockwave erupted beneath its feet.

It shot forward like a cannonball at terrifying speed, vaulted over the mass just before impact, and tore away a huge chunk of flesh with its jaws.

The mass screamed and wobbled past me, rolling wildly off course.

“...!”

Without pausing for even a moment, Plligas charged at the mass again.

I used Teleportation to put as much distance as possible between myself and the two monsters.

‘It actually worked...’

This was precisely the outcome I had been hoping for.

I had succeeded in turning them against each other.

The battle between Plligas and the mass was a kaiju war in every sense of the word.

Plligas was enormous in its own right, yet it was only about a third the size of the mass.

Even so, it clung to the creature and denied it the space it needed to roll, savaging it like a rabid beast.

It was like watching a tiger hunt an elephant.

With a recommended level of fifty or higher, Plligas was every bit as powerful as the description had promised.

WOOOOO!

Bitten, torn apart, and howling in agony, the mass unleashed another spray of acid.

Plligas was drenched in the corrosive liquid.

Its body began to dissolve, and the beast staggered.

The mass seized the opportunity and attempted to roll while Plligas was still latched onto it.

Plligas was crushed against the ground several times before it finally tore itself free.

GRAAAAH!

Even then, its ferocity showed no sign of fading.

It charged and ripped into the mass, only to be thrown aside.

Then it charged again, tore into the creature once more, and was hurled away again.

The cycle repeated over and over.

The two monsters continued fighting until, at last, the battle appeared to reach its conclusion.

Both Plligas and the mass had been reduced to ruins, but Plligas was the first to run out of strength.

I watched as the staggering beast scattered into dust.

[Kill Contribution insufficient. The Master-Servant Contract is voided.]

A message appeared before my eyes.

Voided...?

So this was what happened if I did not defeat it myself?

But it did not seem to count as a failure either, since the necklace had not been destroyed.

None of that mattered right now, though.

WOOOOO...!

The mass now resembled a half-eaten apple, chewed apart and reduced to a miserable state.

Deep within its exposed innards, at the very center of its body, was a section where the Undead had been packed together especially tightly, almost like a wick.

It looked like the creature’s core.

At least, that was what it seemed to be.

The mass began writhing from within, attempting to regenerate once again.

“GRAAAAAAGH...!”

I screamed and forced my trembling body upright.

This was my last chance.

My only chance.

Once my Willpower had fully recovered, I unleashed Flame Strike and the Light Bullets simultaneously, aiming directly at the mass’s core.

KABOOOOM!

My upper body was completely fucked, but my legs still worked.

I broke into a run toward the mass.

Every movement was so excruciating that I felt as though I might collapse at any moment.

But stopping meant death, so I clung to consciousness by the thinnest of threads.

The flames cleared.

I could see the core still wailing inside the creature. Roughly half of it had been blown away, but it had retained its shape.

This was it.

The final blow.

I activated Leap and launched myself toward the mass, then used Teleportation to enter its body.

With the mangled core directly before me, I unleashed Blade Storm.

KRAKOOOM!

The core was shredded to pieces.

Chunks of dead flesh rained down around me, and my body plummeted alongside them.

[Successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty, Floor 3.]

[Absorbing the Power of the Floor.]

[Level has increased.]

[Level has increased.]

[Level has increased.]

.

.

.

As the messages scrolled before my eyes one after another, I smiled and closed my eyes.

That was rough.

Really, truly rough.