Chapter 53: Dark Liege
The six reanimated Exterminators shambled forward.
Their movements were jerky, uncoordinated and driven entirely by the thick strings of dark mist connecting them to the Calamity Lord sitting upon the throne.
They raised their rusted swords, their milky, dead eyes fixed on Hide.
Fuu pressed himself flat against the cold stone wall, squeezing his eyes shut, hyperventilating. "We’re dead. We’re actually dead."
Hide ignored him. He tried to wipe the blood from his chin, but realized that his hand can’t reach the face within the helmet, he sighed and stared at the approaching undead.
He didn’t move or take a stance.
He just stood there, the Abyssal Flame flickering low in his palms.
The first dead Exterminator swung its rusted blade toward Hide’s neck. The second lunged with a broken spear aimed at his chest.
At that exact moment, the translucent blue text of the system finally chimed.
[Adapting — 100%]
[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]
Counter Skill Generated
[Dark Abyssal Core — Rank S (Passive)]
— Generates an internal mana core capable of processing, absorbing, and neutralizing foreign dark/corrupted mana.
— Renders the host immune to dark mana corruption, absorption, and replication fields.
Hide closed the window.
He didn’t just feel the change; he saw it. around him as the air around him shifted. The thick, oppressive black mist that had been suffocating the hall suddenly recoiled from his body as if repelled by a magnetic force.
The heavy, sickening weight of the Calamity Lord’s aura simply ceased to exist for him.
Hide raised his right hand.
He didn’t bother using environmental mana this time. He drew directly upon his own Abyssal Flame and the Dark mana around him, letting the fire rapidly compress in his palm... forming a Mana Blast of orange and black flames
"Die again," Hide muttered.
He fired the Mana Blast.
The explosion didn’t just hit the first Exterminator; it ripped through the entire group. Because Hide’s new core was actively neutralizing the dark mana that held them together, the blast completely shattered their bindings.
The concentrated sphere of Abyssal Flame detonated in the center of the formation, vaporizing the dark mist and turning all six reanimated corpses into ash in a single, deafening shockwave.
The blast carried forward, striking the steps of the dais and cracking the stone.
The Calamity Lord shot up from its throne, the violet light in its eye sockets flaring violently.
"What... what did you do?" the skeleton hissed, taking a step down the stairs. It raised its hand, attempting to summon the dark mist back to recreate its servants.
Nothing happened.
The mist swirled uselessly around the base of the dais, refusing to approach Hide. It was as if Hide had become a black hole, an absolute void that the dark mana could not penetrate or replicate.
"Magic didn’t work," Hide said, his voice dropping an octave, vibrating with absolute malice through the dark helm. "So I think I will try my fists after all."
He exploded off the flagstones.
The Calamity Lord barely had time to react. It brought its arms up in a cross-guard, but this time, Hide wasn’t slowed down by the oppressive aura. Hide slammed into the skeleton like a freight train, his armored shoulder crashing through the creature’s guard and driving it backward.
The skeleton stumbled, its pristine ivory bones cracking under the sheer kinetic force.
Hide didn’t give it room to breathe. He grabbed the Calamity Lord by the collar of its tattered coat and drove his armored knee directly into its ribcage.
Crack.
Three ribs shattered.
The skeleton let out a high, screeching sound—a horrible, metallic noise that didn’t belong in a human throat. It lashed out, its elongated fingers forming into sharp blades of dark mana, slashing wildly at Hide’s face.
The dark mana blades hit the Carapace and instantly dissipated into harmless smoke, neutralized entirely by the Abyssal Core.
"Is that it?" Hide roared.
He caught the skeleton’s arm mid-swing. With a brutal, twisting motion, he planted his boot against the Calamity Lord’s hip and pulled. The heavy, polished bone of the creature’s arm snapped at the elbow, tearing free from the socket.
Hide tossed the severed arm onto the floor.
The Calamity Lord shrieked again, stumbling backward and falling against the steps of the dais. It looked at its missing limb, the violet lights in its eyes flickering wildly with something that looked suspiciously like panic.
"You asked me if I was bleeding," Hide said, taking a slow step up the stairs, looming over the fallen Lord. "I am. Now let’s see about you."
He reached down, grabbing the skeleton by the front of its skull, and tried to hoist it into the air, but it was way too large.
Its remaining arm clawed desperately at Hide’s gauntlet, but it was useless. Without its dark mana, it was just old bones.
Hide drove his other fist into the creature’s stomach, shattering its lower spine.
"Do you feel that?" Hide asked, his blue eyes burning with sadistic fury. "Do you feel pain, you leech?"
He slammed the Calamity Lord down onto the stone steps, raising his armored boot and bringing it down hard on the creature’s remaining leg. The femur shattered into a dozen pieces.
"Answer me!" Hide roared, stomping again, crushing the pelvis.
The skeleton thrashed weakly on the stairs, its violet eyes dimming. "Stop... you... you insignificant meat..."
Hide reached down and grabbed the creature by the neck, lifting it so they were eye to eye. "Wrong answer."
He plunged his free hand directly into the skeleton’s shattered chest cavity, searching for the dense, pulsing anchor. He ripped out ribs, tearing through the dark mana pathways, searching for the core.
But there was nothing there. The chest was empty.
Hide frowned, his eyes darting from the broken skeleton in his grip to the dais behind it.
The throne.
The throne made of fused human bones and dried skin, but he hadn’t noticed it earlier... that thing wasn’t just a throne. The Calamity Lord hadn’t kept its anchor in its body.
It had built it into the throne!
Hide threw the broken, thrashing skeleton onto the floor. He stepped over it, walking purposefully up the remaining steps toward the throne. He raised both hands, pulling the Abyssal Flame into a massive, concentrated point of energy, preparing to vaporize the chair entirely.
"No!" the skeleton screeched from the floor, trying to drag itself up the steps with its one remaining arm. "My court! My domain!"
"Fuck you," Hide snarled.
"Hold your fire!" a sharp, commanding voice rang out from the back of the hall.
Hide didn’t lower his hands, but he glanced over his shoulder.
Rol and Hues stood at the entrance of the massive hall. They were covered in beast blood, breathing heavily, their weapons drawn. Rol had his heavy-caliber sidearm pointed squarely at Hide’s back.
"I said hold your fire, you crazy bastard!" Rol shouted, his grey eyes sweeping over the shattered skeleton on the floor and the glowing throne. "Show me your identity. Are you a beast or a Human?"
Hide looked at the two Exterminators.
Then he looked down at the Calamity Lord, which was reaching weakly toward the throne.
"I don’t care," Hide said. "You can think of me as whatever you like."
He turned his hands toward the throne and unleashed the Mana Blast.
Rol threw his gun and pushed his body. He could not let an unknown creature take up all the rewards from completing the Spot dungeon.
The concentrated Abyssal Flame struck the center of the bone chair before Rol could reach anywhere near it. The explosion was absolute. The entire throne shattered into a million pieces of burning shrapnel, the massive, dark anchor hidden inside it detonating in a blinding flash of white light.
The skeleton on the floor let out one final, ear-piercing scream before its bones simply dissolved into ash.
[Calamity Beast (Master of the Dead) — Eliminated]
Experience points gained: 10,000
[Level Up]
Level: 8 → 9
Exp: 8200 / 2100
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 9 → 10
Exp: 6100 / 2300
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[You have gained access to Virtual adaptation space]
[Level Up]
Level: 10 → 11
Exp: 3800 / 2500
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Level Up]
Level: 11 → 12
Exp: 1300 / 2700
Level Up reward has been added to inventory.
[Spot Dungeon Cleared]
[You have Received a Talent - Dark liege]
End of Volume 1
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