Chapter 85: Vs The Throne Guardian
Chapter 85: Vs The Throne Guardian
The Throne Guardian’s frozen blade came down with immense force.
Mirko met it with [Impenetrable Fortress], the green mana barrier flaring to full strength. The impact echoed through the throne room, and fissures raced across the ice floor. The barrier held, but the Guardian pressed forward, its frozen blade grinding against the mana shield.
"It’s too solid!" Nathan called, [Hunter’s Insight] already mapping the construct’s structure. The layers of frozen armor were dense—thicker than the Magma Serpent Alpha’s scales. "No core visible. The armor is layered—we need to crack it before we can find a weak point!"
The Guardian swept its blade horizontally, forcing Mirko to sidestep. The frozen edge carved a trench in the ice floor. Elise’s Frost Golem intercepted the follow-up strike, both crystalline fists closing around the frozen blade and holding it. The two ice constructs strained against each other. The ice around their feet cracked and splintered from the pressure.
"Garrett!" Nathan called. "You and Red—break its legs! Bring it down!"
Garrett was already moving. "Red! Left knee! Hit it hard!"
Red charged. The Mad-Sheep’s armored wool gleamed in the pale blue light as it thundered across the ice floor, hooves finding traction on the slick surface. It lowered its horns and slammed into the Guardian’s left knee. Ice cracked in a starburst pattern. The Guardian stumbled.
Garrett followed a heartbeat later. Volcan came down on the exact same knee joint. The mace’s head erupted on impact. A thermal pulse of volcanic orange radiated outward, and the Guardian’s knee shattered—chunks of ancient ice scattering across the floor.
The construct dropped to one knee. Its pale blue eyes flickered.
But it wasn’t finished. Its frozen blade swept wildly in a desperate arc. Red ducked low. Garrett planted Volcan’s shaft in front of him, bracing it against the ice floor. The mace’s shaft caught the blade’s edge, the thermal energy in the metal resisting the killing cold. Garrett’s feet slid backward on the ice, carving twin furrows, but he held.
"I’ve got it!" he roared. "Hit it now!"
Mirko and the Frost Golem attacked from both sides.
[Aegis Strike] carved across the Guardian’s right shoulder, shattering the frozen pauldron. The Golem’s fists slammed into the Guardian’s chest, and the ancient armor cracked from collarbone to sternum. The Guardian’s pale blue eyes flickered faster.
"It’s destabilizing!" Elise called. "Keep pressing!"
Dillon’s katana flashed. [Quick Draw] found the gaps between the Guardian’s armor plates. His Cloud Serpent spiraled around the construct’s head, static electricity disrupting whatever ancient magic gave it sight. Kuro materialized on its back, her daggers driving into the base of its neck—severing the connections that let it move its sword arm.
The arm went limp. The frozen blade clattered to the ice.
But the Guardian wasn’t dying. It was preparing.
The construct’s chest plates cracked open, revealing a glowing core of pale blue light buried deep within its frozen torso. The cold in the chamber intensified sharply, frost racing up the pillars. Nathan’s breath turned to ice crystals in his lungs. The Winterhart cloaks shimmered frantically against the sudden drop in temperature.
"It’s going to self-destruct!" Elise called. "If it detonates, it’ll freeze the entire chamber!"
Nathan drew Moonlight. "Then we finish it before it does. Kuro—mark the core!"
Kuro materialized in front of the Guardian’s chest. [Assassinate] drove both daggers into the core’s housing. The shadow-forged blades bit deep, and the core flickered. But it didn’t shatter. The housing was too dense.
"Combined strike!" Nathan charged [Focus Shot]. "Everyone—on the core! Now!"
Dillon activated [Flash Step], appearing above the Guardian’s shoulder. [Thunder Edge] descended, blue-white electricity carving through the core’s outer layer, fracturing it with hairline cracks.
Elise’s [Glacial Lance] followed. The spear of absolute frost punched into the weakened housing and froze it from within, ice expanding in the fractures. The housing splintered.
Mirko’s tenth [Unstoppable Force] strike crashed down on the frozen fracture. The core’s housing shattered completely, exposing the blazing blue heart within.
Nathan had been charging for thirty seconds. Moonlight’s arrowhead blazed silver-white. He aimed for the center of the exposed core and released.
The arrow crossed the throne room in a streak of silver light. It punched through the exposed core—through the Guardian’s chest—through the frozen pillar behind it. The core detonated in a silent explosion of pale blue light, and the Guardian’s frozen body convulsed once. Its pale blue eyes flickered and went dark.
It collapsed into a heap of inert ice, its armor shattering on impact.
[Ding! Floor 1 Cleared!]
[Level Up! Nathan Cross: Level 40]
[Level Up! Kuro: Level 25]
[Reward: Throne Guardian’s Core Fragment (Rare Material)]
Nathan lowered Moonlight. His arms were steady. His mana was recovering. The throne room was silent except for the whisper of falling snow and the quiet breathing of his party.
Garrett leaned on Volcan, steam rising from the mace’s head. Red’s wool was slowly softening. Garrett’s arms were still trembling, but he was grinning.
"Good teamwork," Mirko said. She sheathed her sword and walked over. "You acted as both shield and battering ram. The Guardian could not withstand both at once. That is the role of a true tank! not merely to absorb damage, but to create openings for this knight to exploit!."
"High praise from the Knight," Dillon said, sheathing his katana. "So, Volcan’s first real test against a named enemy. How’s it feel?"
Garrett looked at the mace. The obsidian-black head still pulsed with warm volcanic light. "Like it was always supposed to be there. Like I’ve been fighting with one hand tied behind my back for years and I’m just now realizing it." He swung Volcan once, and the air around the head shimmered with heat.
The Floor 2 portal pulsed at the far end of the throne room.
"One floor down," Nathan said. "Seven to go. Let’s keep moving."
The party stepped through.
---
Floor 2 was a maze of frozen corridors, their walls carved with ancient reliefs—kings and queens, armies clashing, a great throne at the center. But here the carvings were more worn, more faded. The cold was deeper—Moderate ticking toward High. Visibility was reduced by a fine, drifting snow that fell from nowhere and vanished before touching the ground.
Glacial Shards came out of the snow like fish through water. They were floating crystals of ice—jagged, angular, sharp enough to pierce through stone. They moved in schools of a dozen or more, darting through the corridors with speed and unpredictability. Their touch froze flesh on contact, leaving patches of frostbite.
Nathan’s [Hunter’s Insight] traced glowing paths through the battlefield, revealing every incoming route before the monsters reached them.
"Fourteen contacts," he called. "Three groups. They’re trying to surround us."
His eyes flicked toward the narrow passage ahead.
"Mirko, funnel formation. Force them into the choke point."
Mirko activated [Impenetrable Fortress] and slid forward, the green barrier angling to create a narrow kill zone. The Shards flowed into the funnel. Elise’s [Mana Bolts] detonated among them, shattering their crystalline bodies. Dillon’s [Quick Draw] severed three in a single arc. His Cloud Serpent crackled overhead, static disrupting their flight patterns.
Garrett and Red held the rear. A group of five Shards had circled around through a side passage, emerging behind the party in a coordinated ambush. Red caught the first one on its armored wool. Garrett’s Volcan swept the others out of the air—thermal pulses melting them before they could strike.
"I see them," Garrett called. His voice was steady. "Keep pushing forward. We’ve got the rear."
Nathan’s [Mana Arrows] picked off Shards at range. Kuro moved through the shadows, her daggers flashing, marking the larger Shards with [Weak Point Sense].
The maze stretched on. The snow thickened. The cold deepened. But the party pushed through.
---
The Floor 3 portal materialized out of the snow, a vertical pool of pale blue light set into an archway of ancient ice. The cold was High now. The ice walls glowed with faint aurora light—green and violet rippling across their surfaces.
Nathan checked his party. Everyone was standing. No injuries. No close calls. Garrett’s Volcan still pulsed warmly. Elise’s Frost Golem was stronger than ever. Dillon’s Cloud Serpent was adapting to the cold. Mirko and Kuro were alert and ready.
But the cold was cumulative, and they still had five floors to go.
"The boss is on Floor 8," he said. "We have to pace ourselves. We’ve handled worse heat than this cold. We’ll be fine."
’The ice is manageable,’ Kuro observed. She was in humanoid form, her black hair stark against the pale blue glow. Her daggers were sheathed, but her eyes were still scanning the corridor ahead. ’But the true test will be the Butterfly. Ice Queen. We must remain—’
She stopped. Her head turned sharply toward the Floor 3 portal. Her hand moved to her daggers.
"Kuro?"
’Something is wrong, summoner’
The portal flickered. The pale blue light guttered like a candle in a storm—once, twice—and then it changed. The blue deepened to violet, then to crimson, then to something darker. The temperature around the portal didn’t drop. It spiked with something else. Something that felt like pressure. Like presence. Like the moment before a Tower Collapse.
"That’s not supposed to happen," Elise said. Her voice was calm, but her staff was already glowing. "Portal instability?. But There’s no reason for—"
The portal erupted. A wave of absolute, crushing stillness rolled outward from the archway and washed over the party. Nathan felt it press against his ears, his chest, his thoughts. The mental link flickered. Mirko’s presence dimmed. Kuro’s voice cut out mid-word.
And then, from within the corrupted portal, something spoke.
The voice didn’t seem to be human. But the voice was comprehensible. It was not the Tower. It was cold and old and utterly without mercy, and it spoke a single word that vibrated through Nathan’s bones:
"Interesting."
Then the portal stabilized and the crimson light faded. The silence lifted.
The corridor was empty. The Floor 3 portal pulsed with its usual pale blue glow, as if nothing had happened.
Nathan’s hand was gripped tightly on Moonlight. "What the hell was that?"