Chapter 44: [44] : The Apostle of Rot, Decaying World

Floor 9 was a massive labyrinth made of shifting stone walls. The system prompt told them they had to navigate the maze and find four hidden switches to open the final door.

Declan took one look at the maze, summoned his plus 30 Warden Halberd, and literally smashed his way through ten solid walls in a straight line. They reached the boss door in about forty five seconds.

"I do not think the developers intended for you to do that." Kendra muttered as they stepped through a jagged hole in the final wall.

"The developers can send me a complaint form." Declan replied.

He pushed open the massive towering black iron doors leading to Floor 10.

The final room was completely different from the rest of the Spire. It was not a dungeon room. It looked like the inside of a massive ruined cathedral. The ceiling was entirely made of dark red glass, casting a bloody light over the area. The floor was covered in a thick layer of white ash.

At the far end of the cathedral, standing in front of a shattered altar, was a figure.

It was not a giant monster. It was not a bug or a beast.

It looked exactly like a human player.

He wore long tattered gray robes that floated slightly in the air, defying gravity. His skin was pale and sickly, covered in dark rotting veins that pulsed with a faint green light. He did not have a weapon. He just held his hands behind his back.

A massive golden name tag floated above him. It had a different font than any other monster they had seen.

[Spire Master: Malthus, The First Apostle of Rot]

↳ Level: 50 Entity

↳ HP: ??? / ???

"Question marks for health." Sloane whispered, gripping her healing staff tightly. "That is never a good sign in a video game."

Malthus slowly turned his head. His eyes were completely pitch black, leaking a dark oily substance down his cheeks.

"You are not supposed to be here." Malthus spoke. His voice echoed through the massive cathedral. It did not sound like a normal character. It sounded incredibly annoyed, like a manager dealing with a broken machine. "The human livestock is not scheduled to reach this Spire for another three years."

"Plans changed." Declan said smoothly. He pulled his plus 20 Carnage Cleaver out of his inventory. The jagged red blade glowed hungrily. "I need your core."

Malthus looked at the cleaver, then looked at Declan’s pitch black Predator Coat.

"An anomaly." Malthus noted, his voice flat. "You carry corrupted code. You are disrupting the Grid assimilation process. Earth is meant to be fertilizer for the higher dimensions. You are a weed."

"And you talk too much." Declan sighed.

"Void Blink."

Declan vanished from the entrance. He teleported instantly, crossing the massive cathedral in a fraction of a second. He materialized directly behind Malthus, swinging the Carnage Cleaver in a vicious horizontal arc aimed right at the Apostle’s neck.

He expected the satisfying crunch of bone. He expected the massive bleed effect to trigger.

Instead, the blade simply passed right through Malthus’s neck.

There was no resistance. It was like swinging a sword through a cloud of smoke.

Declan stumbled slightly from the lack of impact. He spun around with a frown on his face.

Malthus had not even flinched. The red blade had gone right through him, but his body did not split. There was no damage number. There was no health bar drain.

"Physical attacks rely on the concept of mass." Malthus said slowly, turning around to face Declan. "I am an Entity of the Grid. I am not made of mass. I am made of rules."

Kendra panicked. She raised her plus 10 Sniper Bow from the back of the room and fired three arrows in rapid succession. The arrows flew with perfect accuracy, striking Malthus right in the chest.

They phased right through his gray robes and clattered harmlessly against the stone altar behind him.

"Oh, that is unfair!" Kendra yelled. "He has literal god mode on!"

"You cannot break a rule with a stick." Malthus stated coldly. He raised his hands. "You can only override it with a stronger rule. And your rules are pathetic."

Malthus spread his arms wide. A sickening green aura erupted from his body.

[Entity Skill Activated: Domain Expansion Decaying World]

The cathedral completely transformed. The white ash on the floor turned into bubbling toxic gray sludge. The stone pillars started to crumble and rot away instantly. The very air turned thick, green, and suffocating.

Declan felt a sharp burning sensation on his skin.

He looked down. His plus 10 Predator Coat, the item that had given him fifty points of absolute flat defense, was smoking. The dark leather was physically rotting away. The defensive stats were not just being bypassed. The item itself was being deleted by the environment.

[Warning: Armor degradation imminent. Defense falling]

A red number popped up in Declan’s vision.

[-20 HP]

Declan coughed, backing away from Malthus. His health bar was draining rapidly. The air itself was eating his health points.

"Sloane! Heal!" Declan yelled.

Sloane was standing near the door with Kendra. The Domain had not reached them yet, but it was expanding fast. Sloane raised her hands and cast her strongest healing spell. A bright green light shot across the room, wrapping around Declan’s body.

Normally, the spell would instantly restore his health to full.

But the moment the healing light touched the decaying air around Declan, it turned a sickly brown color and shattered into useless sparks.

[Notice: Healing effects nullified by Conceptual Law of Rot]

"It did not work!" Sloane screamed in panic. "The room is eating my magic! I cannot heal you!"

[-20 HP]

Another chunk of Declan’s health vanished. He was down to half health in less than three seconds.

He tried to use Void Blink to get out of the green aura, but the system flashed a new warning.

[Notice: Spatial movement restricted by Domain rules]

Malthus floated a few inches off the ground, watching Declan suffer with a blank expression. "You are just a glitch, Player V. And the Grid always corrects its glitches. Return to the dirt."

Declan dropped to one knee. The air felt like breathing in battery acid. His lungs were burning. His completely overpowered stats did not mean a thing.

He could not hit the boss. He could not heal. He could not run.

The system was literally suffocating him with a concept.

Declan gritted his teeth. A dark angry laugh escaped his throat.

"You want to play with rules?" Declan growled as he stared up at the floating Apostle. "Fine. Let us play with rules."