Chapter 167: The Mastermind
CRASH!
The fake world shattered like a pane of glass struck by a sledgehammer. The digital static and the binary screams of the dying illusion dissolved into a cold, suffocating darkness.
When Adonis finally opened his eyes, he was no longer in a ruins-filled city or a golden plaza. He was in a damp, lightless chamber deep beneath the foundation of the Golden Cube.
The air smelled of stagnant water and ancient, forbidden incense. In the center of the room, Millia lay unconscious within a circle of glowing violet runes, her breathing shallow and ragged.
Standing over her was the real Undead Master. He was much smaller than his illusionary counterpart, a withered husk of a man wrapped in tattered burial shrouds, but the terror in his eyes was palpable. He backed away as Adonis stood up, the Chaos Sword manifesting in his hand with a low, menacing hum.
"H-How?" the Master gasped, his voice no longer booming but thin and desperate. "The Mirror of Regret has never been breached from the inside! No soul can distinguish the illusion from reality once the essence drain begins!"
Adonis didn’t answer with words. He blurred across the stone floor, a streak of violet lightning.
CRUNCH!
His fist connected with the Master’s jaw, sending fragments of ancient teeth flying across the room. He didn’t use a sword art. He used raw, unadulterated physical violence.
He grabbed the lich by his tattered robes and slammed him against the wall with such force that the stone cracked in a spiderweb pattern.
Adonis grinned sadistically.
"You played with my head enough, Undead master. You made me relive the loneliest moments of my life just so you could feed. You used her face to keep me docile."
The Master tried to raise his hand to cast a spell.
"Death Art: Ribcage of the Damned!"
Instantly, spectral bones erupted from the ground to impale Adonis, but the moment they touched his skin, they turned to ash.
The Chaos Physique didn’t just resist the curse, it devoured it.
And thus, Adonis ignored the attack entirely, grabbing the Master’s arm and twisting it until the dry humerus snapped with a sickening pop.
SNAP!
The Master shrieked, a sound of pure agony that echoed through the chamber. "Stop! I was only following the decree! I was told to test the resonance of the Creator!"
"Oh really..?" Adonis smirked but didn’t stop.
Bang! Crack!
He delivered a brutal knee to the Master’s ribs, shattering the ribcage he had just tried to summon.
He dropped the mangled lich to the floor and began to stomp on his legs, one by one, breaking every point of articulation with calculated precision.
"Tell me, who sent you after me?" Adonis asked, his foot hovering over the Master’s skull. "Who gave you the script for my life? Who told you about my Secrets?"
The Master was a broken mess of shattered porcelain and leaking dark energy. He looked up at Adonis, saying weakly,
"He... He is the one who keeps the balance. He is the Architect of the Void. He told me that a glitch had entered the system... a ruler who shouldn’t exist..."
The Master opened his mouth to speak the name, his jaw hanging at a crooked angle.
But before a single syllable could escape, the temperature in the room dropped to absolute zero.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
The entire Golden Cube shook, not from a physical earthquake, but from a vibration that seemed to originate from the stars themselves.
Then, a voice, deep and resonant like the grinding of tectonic plates, boomed through the chamber:
"YOUR END IS NEAR, LIAM. EVERYTHING YOU CHERISH WILL DISAPPEAR STARTING TODAY!"
The name hit Adonis like a physical blow. Liam. Not Adonis. Not the Dragon King. The voice knew his true identity, the one buried beneath layers of fiction and rebirth.
"Who are you? "Show yourself!" Adonis roared at the ceiling, his Chaos energy flaring so brightly it blinded the broken Master.
The voice did not answer. Instead, the pressure in the room shifted toward the ritual circle.
Adonis spun around, his heart leaping into his throat.
"Millia!" he shouted as he noticed her figure convulse violently.
Her back arched off the cold stone, her fingers clawing at the air as if she were trying to grab a lifeline that wasn’t there.
Then a horrific, bubbling sound came from her throat, and then, thick black foam began to leak from her mouth, staining her pale skin.
"No... no, no, no!" Adonis scrambled to her side, dropping his sword. He pulled her into his lap, his hands trembling as he wiped the foam away, but it kept coming, more and more, smelling of rot and bitter almonds.
Millia’s eyes flew open, but they weren’t the beautiful, adoring eyes he knew. They were solid black, leaking the same dark fluid.
She looked at him, but there was no recognition, only a hollow, terrifying void.
"Millia, look at me! It’s Adonis! Your husband! Your sweetheart!" he screamed, his voice breaking.
He tried to funnel his Chaos energy into her to heal her, but the energy was rejected. It was as if her very soul was being rewritten, turned into a poison that his power couldn’t touch.
Her body felt colder with every passing second, her life force drained away not into the Cube, but into the void the voice had summoned.
"Everything you cherish will disappear," Adonis whispered, the words haunting him.
He looked at her dying form, and for the first time since entering this world, the Dragon King felt a fear that surpassed death. It was the fear of the orphan boy again,.the fear of being left in the dark with no one to share the pain.
"I won’t let you!" Adonis roared, his tears falling onto Millia’s face, mixing with the black foam. "I am the Author! I didn’t give you permission to take her! DO YOU HEAR ME?"
"heh heh..." The Master laughed weakly as his spirit dissipated. "The Architect does not ask for permission, boy. He only collects his what is due."
Thump!
Millia’s body went limp in Adonis’s arms. Her heartbeat stopped completely
"MILLIA!"
His scream echoed through the Necro-Lands like a cry of pure, unadulterated agony that shattered the last of the Golden Cube.
Above them, the sky split open, revealing a Great Eye of golden light that looked down upon the ruins with indifferent judgment.
The game had truly changed, and the stakes were no longer a kingdom, but the very existence of the woman he loved.