Chapter 38: Breaking the Chains
The colossal Ancient Black Dragon filled the ruined throne hall, her serpentine body coiled through shattered obsidian pillars like a living cataclysm. Over two hundred meters of armored scales and rippling muscle blotted out the blood-red sky visible through the cracked dome above.
Vespera’s wings were so massive that each membrane was large enough to shade a city block if spread wide, casting the entire chamber in deep, suffocating shadow.
Her six golden eyes had merged into two enormous, slit-pupil orbs that burned like twin dying suns.
Hyun-woo stood amid the debris, his chest heaving, his torn clothes hanging in rags. Black ichor and his own blood streaked his soft, almost delicate face, yet his brown eyes remained sharp and focused.
The contrast was almost absurd: a pretty boy who looked like he belonged in a college drama, now facing down a living apocalypse.
“…Yep,” he muttered, straining his neck to look up at her. “She’s definitely a little too big.”
Vespera’s massive head lowered, her jaws parting to reveal rows of sword-sized fangs wreathed in corrupted black flame. Her voice slammed directly into his mind, laced with centuries of arrogance, hunger, and something far more fragile.
“Little consort… you wanted to talk? Then witness what I truly am!”
She struck.
[ Abyssal Breath ]
A concentrated beam of void-black flame erupted from her maw, erasing everything in its path. The air itself screamed as reality unraveled.
Hyun-woo took the full brunt. Skin and muscle vaporized instantly. His pain receptors were incinerated before they could even register the agony.
But before he could die, [Primal Adaptation] surged. Golden-red energy shimmered across his body as his flesh violently rewrote itself, growing heat-resistant scales for a fraction of a second before shifting again into something incredibly dense and tough.
He exploded out of the flames. With a powerful leap, he landed on her forelimb. The individual scales beneath his feet were the size of castle gates, yet he sprinted up her arm like flat ground, each step cracking the armored surface. At the joint of her wing, he twisted mid-air and drove a glowing fist forward.
BOOOOOOOM!
The impact was deafening. But as his fist met her scales, a spark of pure soul-energy flashed. Vespera’s Mate’s Claim skill, activated earlier in her humanoid form, was forcibly converted due to his Sex Beast class.
Now, supercharged by the physical contact and his Primal Adaptation, the forced soul bond began to work both ways.
A memory that wasn't his violently crashed into his mind.
Endless darkness. No light. No sound.
Just a hollow, aching hunger.
Vespera was just an egg, adrift in the Void, a child of a Sovereign with no equal and no mother in sight.
She drifted in the empty darkness for eons.
Then came the Tower.
With it came cold, unforgiving chains. The Masters of the Tower dragged her from the Void before she was even born, wrapping unbreakable authorities around her soul. A child of the Void, bound and caged. Turned into a Floor Boss. A prisoner forced to be a bloody spectacle for eternity.
Hyun-woo gasped, nearly losing his footing as the phantom weight of a thousand years of isolation crushed his chest. He felt everything as if he were living exactly what he saw.
Vespera roared—not just in physical pain, but in panicked violation. “GET OUT OF MY MIND!” She flapped her massive wing, hurling Hyun-woo into the air like a ragdoll. Mid-air, her golden eyes flared with runic light.
[ Gravity Singularity ]
The space around Hyun-woo warped. Gravity multiplied by a hundredfold, slamming him down through three floors of solid obsidian. The crater spiderwebbed out for fifty meters.
Before he could stand, Vespera’s tail whipped around faster than sight. He barely managed to cross his arms as the spiked appendage smashed into him, shattering his forearms and launching him across the hall.
He rolled to a stop, coughing up blood, but his body was already healing. His Sex Beast class thrummed violently. Infinite Libido and Primal Adaptation began feeding raw sexual and vital energy directly into his combat dominance. His torn muscles grew denser, his reflexes sharpening to an inhuman degree.
He vaulted off a broken pillar, launching himself right as Vespera swiped her massive claws through the air.
[ Void Rend ]
Her claws tore literal fissures in space. Black vacuums of destructive energy ripped through the pillars, sucking debris into absolute nothingness.
Hyun-woo narrowly dodged the spatial tears, using the floating chunks of rubble as stepping stones to close the distance. He slammed a heavy kick directly into the side of her jaw.
The impact sparked another violent memory transfer.
Centuries of slaughtering challengers, painting her domain black with blood.
Until him.
A powerful climber with gentle eyes and undeniable strength. The first being to look at her not as a monster, but as an equal. He defeated her, but instead of finishing the job, he spared her.
Bewildered by this mercy, she followed him. She took a vulnerable humanoid form—offering her draconic beauty, her absolute devotion. For a brief, intoxicating time, he made her feel safe. He made her happy.
"You..." Hyun-woo breathed out, landing in a skid as the memory faded, leaving a residual feeling of warmth in his chest. "Just who was he?"
Vespera froze. Her massive draconic frame trembled, her golden eyes widening in sheer disbelief before narrowing into pure, unadulterated fury.
She didn't want him to see that. And, to tell the truth, she didn't want to remember it herself.
“I SAID SILENCE!” she shrieked mentally.
[ Nether-Flame Spikes ]
Her wings unfurled, and thousands of crystalline dark-magic spears materialized in the air, raining down like a localized meteor shower.
Explosions rocked the throne room. Hyun-woo weaved through the bombardment, scales forming and retracting on his skin as he took glancing blows, his body adapting to the dark magic on the fly.
He forced his way through the barrage, grabbing onto one of the massive spikes embedded in the floor and vaulting himself directly toward her chest.
He struck her chest plate with both fists, and the final, most painful memory shattered his consciousness.
“I can’t handle you.” The words cut deeper than any blade. The sheer disgust in the climber's eyes.
He feared her obsession, her endless hunger, her insatiable desire.
He called her abnormal. A monster.
And then, the ultimate betrayal: the cold sting of a divine blade piercing her heart while she slept.
Retaliation was blind and bloody—she tore him apart with her bare hands, screaming in absolute grief.
To fill the agonizing void he left behind, she birthed her "children"—the Harrowers, hollow abominations that obeyed but could never love. It only left her feeling more alone than ever.
Hyun-woo staggered mid-leap as the crushing sorrow flooded his mind. "What the hell was that..." he muttered, the taste of her centuries-old heartbreak turning to ash in his mouth.
Vespera was thrashing violently, equally overwhelmed.
“What Have You Done To Me?!” she roared. The humiliation of her deepest trauma being laid bare drove her into an absolute frenzy. She had never wanted to remember something like that. She had never wanted to remember that bastard again.
She reared her colossal head back, drawing in every ounce of corrupted mana in the room for a point-blank, compressed [Abyssal Nova].
A sphere of pure annihilation formed between her jaws, glowing with world-ending light. No one had ever survived it. No one had ever dared run into it.
But Hyun-woo charged straight ahead.
Vespera’s eyes widened in shock as the tiny human leapt directly between her massive, sword-like fangs.
He ignored the burning heat of the charging Nova, grabbed the roof of her mouth with both hands to anchor himself, and poured every ounce of his infinite strength into a single, sky-splitting uppercut right into her palate.
[ Coup de Grâce ]
Golden-red energy exploded upward, completely bypassing her Void Scales and her physical defenses.
The force erupted out the top of her massive skull in a radiant pillar of pure energy that pierced the blood-red sky, scattering the dark clouds above.
Vespera’s cataclysmic scream shook the very foundations of the Tower floor.
The golden-red pillar shattered scales the size of warships, sending black blood raining across the ruined throne hall.
Her colossal body convulsed violently, her wings thrashing and smashing what remained of the ancient pillars into dust. Cracks spiderwebbed across her obsidian scales, glowing with blinding light as her Draconic Transformation completely destabilized.
With a deafening roar, the Ancient Black Dragon began to shrink rapidly. Massive bones cracked and compressed, wings folded inward, and coils of serpentine muscle collapsed in on themselves in a whirlwind of dark mana.
In seconds, the sixty-five-story nightmare was gone, reverting back to the vulnerable humanoid manifestation that crashed hard into the rubble below.
She was completely naked and gasping for air. Her perfect body was covered in bruises, deep gashes, and black blood.
Her massive H-cup breasts heaved with every labored breath, glistening with sweat. Her six golden eyes were wide with shock, her pupils dilated as she stared up at the ceiling.
For the first time in centuries, the Sovereign of the Black Veil looked… vulnerable.
Hyun-woo landed lightly a few meters away, breathing heavily but steadily.
Golden-red energy flickered across his skin as Primal Adaptation continued optimizing his torn body. He wiped blood from his soft, pretty face and looked down at the defeated dragoness.
“…You okay?” he asked, his voice surprisingly gentle.
Vespera tried to push herself up, but her arms gave out. She collapsed back onto the floor, her chest rising and falling rapidly. A weak, bitter laugh escaped her lips.
“You… actually beat me,” she whispered, her six golden eyes half-lidded. “Not even the strongest climbers of the past ever…”
Before she could finish, the sky above the shattered dome tore open with a mechanical screech.
A colossal, glowing white eye manifested in the torn heavens—the Tower Authority made manifest. Cold, impersonal, and absolute. Glowing chains of divine runes descended like serpents of light, wrapping tightly around Vespera’s wrists, ankles, torso, and throat. Each link dug into her skin and soul, pulsing with binding force.
[ SYSTEM ALERT ][ Floor Boss Vespera has been defeated. ][ Rebinding Protocol Initiated. ][ Return to designated domain. Eternal service resumes. ]
Vespera’s eyes widened in pure, animal terror—the exact same terror she had felt when the Tower first chained her eons ago.
“No… not again…” Her voice cracked, raw and broken. Tears—actual tears—welled in all six of her golden eyes. “I will not… go back to that emptiness… I refuse!”
The chains tightened brutally, digging deeper into her flesh and soul, forcing her body to levitate as they began dragging her essence back toward the closing portal.
Her wings twitched uselessly, black blood dripping from fresh wounds where the runes burned her.
Hyun-woo’s expression hardened. The memories he had glimpsed through their partial soul bond flashed through his mind. How she had suffered, her endless loneliness, the betrayal, the hollow children she created just to feel something.
Haaaah, why am I such a softie? he thought.
He got up and stepped forward without hesitation.
“Hyun-woo… don’t!” Vespera gasped, her voice desperate. She didn’t know what he was going to do, but whatever it was, it gave her a terrible feeling. “The Tower’s authority is absolute! You’ll…!”
He ignored her warning.
Grabbing the glowing chains with both hands, he planted his feet and pulled.
Primal Adaptation exploded to life. The Sex Beast class roared inside him, shifting his infinite stats into overwhelming physical power. Golden-red energy surged down his arms like molten sunlight. His muscles swelled, veins glowing as his body rewrote reality itself to defy the Tower.
CRACK.
One chain snapped.
Then another.
The mechanical eye above flickered, almost as if it were confused, as more chains shattered under his grip. The air warped. Reality itself seemed to protest, but Hyun-woo’s infinite-level power refused to yield.
With a final, defiant roar, he tore the last chain binding Vespera’s soul into pieces. The colossal mechanical eye narrowed once before the portal slammed shut with an angry thunderclap that echoed across the floor.
Silence fell over the devastated throne hall.
Vespera dropped to her knees on the cracked floor, staring at him in utter disbelief. Bloodied, naked, trembling, her massive breasts swaying with each shaky breath.
For the first time in her long, tormented existence, someone had broken the Tower’s chains… for her.
“You… you broke the Tower’s binding?” she whispered hoarsely. “Impossible. Not even the gods who are imprisoned here could do that.”
Hyun-woo scratched the back of his neck, looking mildly embarrassed despite being covered in blood and standing half-naked before a defeated Sovereign.
“Yeah, well… I don’t really want to see you cry anymore,” he said with a small shrug. “Especially someone with such a beautiful face.”
Vespera’s six golden eyes shimmered.
Something deep inside her, long frozen solid, cracked and began to thaw. Slowly, she pushed herself to her feet. Her clawed hands trembled as she stepped close, pressing flush against him until her hardened nipples brushed against his bare chest.
“…You are dangerous, little consort,” she murmured, her voice thick with centuries of suppressed emotion. Her hand rose, gently cupping his soft, pretty face with surprising tenderness. “Dangerous in ways I never expected.”
Feeling her heavy breasts against his chest, Hyun-woo’s ears turned bright red. Aren’t they a little too soft? Wait, what the hell am I thinking? “Can we maybe… talk about the ‘consort’ thing after I get some clothes?” he asked quietly. “I am getting a little embarrassed here.”
As he put his hand on her shoulder, he couldn't help but notice how unique her skin color was. A pure, flawless black, like a starless night sky.
A weak, genuine laugh escaped Vespera's lips—the first real laugh she’d had in centuries. It was soft, almost fragile.
Then, without warning, she pulled him into a crushing kiss.
It was hungry, desperate, and filled with eons of loneliness finally meeting its match.
Her tongue invaded his mouth with draconic passion, tasting of smoke, blood, and something sweet. Her massive breasts pressed heavily against his chest as she clung to him, her claws lightly pricking his back.
When she finally pulled away, her lips were swollen and her six eyes glowed with a soft, warm gold instead of a furious crimson. She rested her forehead against his, breathing shakily.
“I will not be your prisoner,” she said quietly. “But… I would like to try being your woman. If you will have someone as broken as me.”
Hyun-woo sighed, but a small, warm smile tugged at his lips.
Well, you're certainly much better at communicating than Ebonara, he thought, though he wisely didn't say that out loud.
“…We’ll take it slow,” he replied, gently brushing a strand of her crimson-silver hair back. “First, let’s get out of here. My girlfriends are probably worried sick. And there’s a gaming console waiting back home.”
Vespera blinked, momentarily confused. “Gaming… console?”
“Long story. You’ll love it. Euryale already does.”
As the two of them stood among the ruins—bloodied, half-naked, and strangely content—the System finally pinged.
[ System: Hidden Quest – “Sovereign’s Freedom” – Completed! ][ Reward: Vespera Egg. ][ Title Acquired: Breaker of Chains ][ Massive Contribution Points Awarded ]
Hyun-woo looked at the beautiful, exhausted dragoness leaning trustingly against him as he noticed the black egg safely deposited into his inventory.
*******************
Deep within the Tower of Nightmares, absolute chaos reigned on the mid-floors.
A black storm of destruction tore through Level 11 to Level 19 in an unstoppable rampage.
“WHERE IS MY CUTIE PIE?!”
Ebonara’s roar shook the entire floor.
In her full Queen-Class Arachne Scorpion form—eight massive black legs and a venomous tail dripping green death—she rampaged like a living natural disaster. Any monster foolish enough to stand in her way was skewered, crushed, or dissolved into bubbling sludge.
Behind her, the Three Gorgon Sisters moved with terrifying coordination.
Stheno laughed maniacally as she hurled glowing golden spears made of condensed petrification energy, turning entire hordes of Harrowers into stone statues mid-charge. “If that pretty boy is hurt, I’m going to turn this entire tower into a damn museum!”
Medusa, the eldest, floated gracefully, her snake-hair hissing with lethal fury. Her golden eyes flashed, petrifying anything that met her gaze. “Focus. We’re wasting time,” she said coldly, but her hands were clenched so tightly her claws drew blood.
The worry in her eyes betrayed her calm tone. She liked that bastard, even though he had only come into their lives five days ago.
Euryale brought up the rear, her emerald snakes writhing aggressively. She had grown strangely fond of the human during their short time together. “He better be alive… he still has my gaming console,” she muttered, slicing through a swarm of Level 15 monsters.
They had broken into the Tower the very moment Euryale reported that Hyun-woo had been dragged through the rift. No preparation. No waiting for permissions. They simply forced their way upward, clearing floor after floor with overwhelming violence.
Level 15’s boss—a giant Void Titan—lasted less than two seconds against Ebonara’s enraged assault.
Level 17’s labyrinth was turned into a straight corridor of destruction by Medusa’s gaze.
Level 19’s elite guards were turned into shredded meat and stone fragments before they could even scream.
In record time, the four monster women reached the entrance to Floor 20—Vespera’s domain. The Mother of Monsters’ lair.
The massive obsidian gates lay blasted open, the air still heavy with residual battle energy and the sharp scent of blood and void-flame.
They stormed inside.
The ruined throne hall was eerily quiet when they arrived. Shattered pillars. A cracked obsidian floor covered in massive craters. Crimson banners burned to ash. The ceiling dome was half-destroyed, letting the blood-red sky bleed through.
And in the middle of it all…
Hyun-woo stood half-naked, his torn pants barely hanging on his hips, his body covered in dried blood and black ichor. His soft, pretty face looked exhausted but entirely calm.
Leaning heavily against his chest was a woman.
And she was completely naked. Her perfect, voluptuous body pressed intimately against him, her massive H-cup breasts squishing softly against his torso. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck as she nuzzled into the crook of his shoulder.
Her six golden eyes were half-closed in something dangerously close to contentment, a faint, genuine smile gracing her lips.
One of Hyun-woo’s hands rested gently on her waist, while the other lightly stroked her long crimson-silver hair.
The scene looked far too intimate for a battlefield.
The four monster girls froze at the entrance of the ruined hall.
Ebonara’s eight gem-like eyes widened, the vibrant colors cycling frantically before instantly dying out. Her eyes turned into pitch-black voids.
The temperature in the room plummeted. A suffocating, murderous aura erupted from her, thick with a jealous obsession so heavy it made the air physically hard to breathe.
Stheno’s mouth fell open before twisting into a vicious snarl, her golden snake-hair hissing violently as she prepared to launch herself forward.
Medusa’s gaze went terrifyingly dead, her eyes glowing with a petrifying pale light as she coldly calculated the exact angle to turn the dragoness to stone without catching Hyun-woo in the blast.
Euryale’s emerald eyes twitched. “Hyun-woo… you have got to be kidding me.” He really is a character from a trashy adult novel.
Hyun-woo finally noticed them.
His face lit up with genuine relief, though it was quickly overshadowed by a nervous sweat as he felt the crushing killing intent rolling off Ebonara in waves.
“Oh! You guys came!” He waved with his free hand, forcing an awkward smile. “Sorry for worrying you. I got kidnapped and… well, things happened.”
Vespera slowly lifted her head, her six golden eyes narrowing lazily at the newcomers.
Instead of showing fear at their killing intent, a slow, fiercely possessive smirk spread across her face.
She tightened her arms around Hyun-woo’s neck, deliberately rubbing her massive breasts against his chest to mark her territory.
“My consort freed me from the Tower’s chains,” she purred, her hoarse voice dripping with smug satisfaction. “He is… quite impressive.”
Crack.
The obsidian floor beneath Ebonara shattered into powder.
She didn't speak. She didn't threaten. Ebonara simply vanished.
In a fraction of a second, she reappeared directly beside them.
Her fingers had elongated into razor-sharp, venom-coated talons, aimed straight for Vespera’s throat to decapitate the dragoness in a single, jealous strike.
The madness in Ebonara's pitch-black eyes was absolute. She was entirely consumed by the need to destroy the woman touching her beloved.
Vespera’s eyes widened, her draconic reflexes far too slow due to her exhaustion.
But Hyun-woo was faster.
Pushing his battered body to the absolute limit, he violently twisted his torso, shielding Vespera with his back and thrusting his hand up to intercept the blow.
Schllk.
Ebonara’s lethal talons stopped dead, digging deep into the meat of Hyun-woo’s palm. Bright red blood welled up instantly, dripping down his wrist and splashing onto the ruined floor.
The throne room fell dead silent.
“Ebo,” Hyun-woo breathed out, his voice exhausted but perfectly gentle. “Stop.”
Ebonara froze.
Her pitch-black, void-like eyes slowly locked onto the blood dripping from her own claws. His blood. She had struck him.
The sheer shock of seeing his blood on her hands hit her like a physical blow. The suffocating, murderous aura instantly evaporated.
The terrifying voids in her eyes shattered, returning to their frantic, gem-like colors as the yandere madness entirely broke, replaced by sheer, unadulterated panic.
“No… no, no, no,” Ebonara gasped, her talons instantly retracting back into soft fingers. Her hands trembled violently as she backed away, her breathing erratic. “I… I hurt you. Cutie pie, I… I didn't mean to, I swear, I just—”
“Hey, hey, look at me,” Hyun-woo said softly. He gently detached Vespera from his back and stepped forward, wrapping his uninjured arm around Ebonara’s waist and pulling her close. “I’m okay. It’s just a scratch. I'm right here.”
Ebonara buried her face into his chest, her hands hovering nervously as if she was afraid to touch him again. A small, distressed sob escaped her. “You're bleeding. You're bleeding and it's my fault.”
“I heal fast, remember?” he whispered, kissing the top of her head. “But please, don't kill her. She’s with us now. She was a prisoner too.”
Behind them, Stheno and Medusa had stopped their advance. Seeing Ebonara’s complete breakdown had thoroughly killed their own murderous momentum.
Stheno clicked her tongue, though her shoulders visibly relaxed. “Idiot pretty boy. But I guess that's what I expect from him. After all, he did save us for no reason, too.”
Medusa sighed, the petrifying light finally fading from her eyes. “Only he could tame a Scorpion and turn a slaughter into a soap opera.”
Euryale groaned loudly. “That damn novel protagonist.”
Vespera, who had been completely stunned that Hyun-woo had actually taken a blade for her, stared at his bleeding hand, then at the trembling Arachne in his arms.
“I…” Vespera started, her arrogant tone completely gone, replaced by a cautious, almost respectful quiet. “I will not fight your… collection. As long as I am not separated from him.”
Ebonara sniffled against Hyun-woo’s chest, glaring up at the dragoness with teary, colorful eyes. She was still fiercely jealous, but the madness was gone. “If you hurt him, I’ll feed you to my hatchlings. And I was here first.”
Hyun-woo let out a tired, breathless laugh, relieved that the immediate threat of a bloodbath had passed. He gently held Ebonara in one arm while Vespera clung to his other side.
“Alright… hostage negotiations are over. Can we please find some clothes and go home? I am very tired.”
The tension broke slightly.
Stheno walked forward and punched Hyun-woo lightly (by her standards) in the shoulder. “You’re such a slut, pretty boy.”
“Hey!”
Ebonara finally sighed and shifted back into her humanoid hybrid form, still grumbling as she approached. She looked Vespera up and down, then back at Hyun-woo.
“So, who is she?” Ebonara asked, genuinely curious now.
“She was a prisoner here. I'll give you the details later. But I was able to free her,” Hyun-woo replied.
“…You really freed her?” Ebonara asked quietly.
Hyun-woo nodded.
Ebonara stared at him for a long moment, then smiled—a soft, warm expression. “Of course you did.” She stepped close and hugged both him and (very reluctantly) Vespera in her arms. “Idiot. Don’t scare us like that again.”
One by one, the Gorgon sisters approached. Medusa gave Vespera a long, measuring look, then nodded. Euryale simply leaned against Hyun-woo’s other side, her snakes curiously sniffing at the dragoness.
Vespera, still wrapped around Hyun-woo, let out a small, content sigh.
For the first time in millennia, the Mother of Monsters didn’t feel alone.
Hyun-woo looked at the five ridiculously powerful, beautiful monster women surrounding him—some naked, some glaring, some smiling—and let out a tired but happy laugh.
“Alright… group hug done. Can we please find some clothes and go home? I still owe Euryale a full gaming session.”
Vespera raised an elegant eyebrow. “Gaming… session?”
“You’ll see,” Ebonara smirked, looking directly at Vespera. “You and I are going to have a long talk when we get back.”
***********
[ Author's Note: Vespera is a "Child of a Sovereign" born in the Void, but the Tower Masters chained her and turned her into a Floor Boss. By claiming the title of Sovereign, she is rejecting her status as a mere "prisoner" or "spectacle" of the Tower. She is asserting her royal, divine birthright. She isn't just a boss to be beaten; she is a queen demanding submission. ]