Chapter 90: Chapter 90: The Lich-King of Vane

The dark and miasma-filled hallway ended at a massive shattered archway leading into the final chamber of the Sunken Necropolis.

The air inside the room was so thick with necrotic energy it was physically difficult to breathe.

The chamber was a colossal circular throne room forged from pale white bone and cracked obsidian.

Glowing green runes lined the walls. They pulsed with a sickly corrupted light that illuminated the massive shattered sarcophagi scattered across the floor.

At the far end of the room, sitting on a throne of black iron, was the source of the rot.

[Zone Boss Spawn: Lich-King of Vane]

[Tier: Dark Demon]

[Level: 22]

[HP: 200,000 / 200,000]

The Lich-King didn’t look like a standard hulking boss.

He was skeletal and wore tattered ancient royal robes that seemed to be woven from shadows.

He wore a iron crown. He held a long twisted staff made of pale bone topped with a glowing and pulsing green crystal.

"Okay, he does not look that tough," Mei whispered and gripped her pan tightly. "I have punched bigger things."

"He is a Dark Demon caster," Dante said softly and did not step into the room yet.

"His physical stats are probably garbage, but his magic scaling will be astronomical. Do not underestimate him."

The Lich-King slowly raised his head. His hollow eye sockets burned with an intense sickly green fire.

He didn’t roar. He didn’t monologue.

The moment his glowing eyes locked onto the party standing in the archway, he simply raised his bone staff and tapped it gently against the floor.

Clack.

The sound was quiet, but it echoed loudly in the silent room.

The floor beneath Dante, Lila, and Mei instantly exploded into a massive geyser-like eruption of highly concentrated necrotic fire!

Dante didn’t even have to think. His [Chrono-Shift] talent allowed him to react instantly.

[Skill Executed: Meteor Stride]

He vanished in a blinding flash of white light and completely bypassed the massive explosion. He materialized thirty feet to the right safely out of the blast zone.

Lila didn’t teleport. She flicked her wrist and instantly cast [Astral Bridge].

A localized and highly pressurized gravitational platform materialized directly beneath her boots and those of Mei.

The platform acted like a localized elevator. It instantly and violently thrust both girls twenty feet into the air.

They completely avoided the necrotic fire that scorched the ground where they had just been standing.

"Nice save, blue hair!" Pip shrieked. He clutched tightly to the tunic of Mei as they hovered in the air.

"Do not call me that," Lila gritted her teeth and maintained the gravity platform.

The Lich-King didn’t look frustrated that his opening attack had missed.

The massive Dark Demon boss simply stood up from his iron throne.

He didn’t walk. He levitated off the ground and floated silently into the air until he was hovering fifty feet above the center of the throne room.

"He flies," Dante noted and looked up. "Of course he flies."

He was a melee fighter.

Aerial targets were his absolute worst nightmare, especially in a confined space where he couldn’t easily chain his teleportation skills without hitting the ceiling.

"I have got him, Boss!" Mei yelled from the gravity platform.

The duration was too short, and a massive physical swing would leave her completely vulnerable to a magical counterattack.

Instead, she wound up her arms and violently threw the [God-Slaying Skillet] like a massive cast-iron frisbee directly at the hovering Lich-King.

The indestructible pan spun rapidly through the air. It aimed perfectly at the skeletal chest of the boss.

The Lich-King didn’t dodge. He casually waved his bone staff.

A translucent green shield materialized in front of him.

The pan slammed into the magical barrier.

CLANG!

The [Perfect Block] passive of the skillet didn’t matter if it couldn’t actually reach the target.

The pan bounced off the necrotic shield without dealing a single point of damage and plummeted back toward the floor.

"My pan!" Mei cried and watched her primary weapon drop into the miasma.

"Focus!" Dante ordered. He triggered [Blink Step] to reposition as the Lich-King fired a rapid volley of glowing green necrotic bolts from his staff.

Dante teleported across the room and easily dodged the targeted projectiles.

The bolts hit the stone walls and instantly melted the ancient bone architecture into localized puddles of gray slag.

"Lila, drop him!" Dante yelled.

Lila didn’t hesitate.

She released her gravity platform, dropped safely to the ground with Mei, and instantly pointed her wooden staff directly at the hovering Lich-King.

[Skill Executed: Gravity Well]

She attempted to cast the high-pressure cylinder directly over the boss to crush him into the floor just like she had done to the Wraith-Knights.

The invisible gravitational force slammed down.

The tattered robes of the Lich-King fluttered violently, but he didn’t fall.

A massive glowing text prompt appeared directly over the head of the boss.

[Boss Passive Active: Ethereal Levitation.]

[Effect: The entity is completely immune to gravitational manipulation and physical grounding mechanics.]

"It did not work!" Lila panicked. Her mana bar dropped slightly from the cast. "He is completely immune to gravity magic!"

"He is a ghost," Dante gritted his teeth. "Physical physics do not apply to him."

The Lich-King looked down at the party. The glowing green fire in his eye sockets flared violently.

He raised both hands and lifted his bone staff high above his head. The crystal at the tip began to pulse with a blinding toxic light.

[Boss Ultimate Triggered: Soul-Rot Miasma]

The Lich-King didn’t fire a targeted bolt. He didn’t summon an explosion.

He released a localized room-wide curse.

A wave of thick sickly green mist instantly exploded from the crystal on his staff. It rapidly filled the entire volume of the massive throne room.

There was absolutely nowhere to hide. There was no physical projectile to dodge. The curse permeated the very air they were breathing.

Dante didn’t use [Aegis Deflection]. You couldn’t parry an atmosphere.

He stood his ground and let the green mist wash over his avatar.

The system interface flashed violently.

[Warning: Severe Curse Applied.]

[Effect: Soul-Rot Miasma.]

[Description: A highly concentrated curse. Drains 5% of Maximum HP every second. Reverses all localized healing effects into absolute true damage.]

Dante read the prompt. He didn’t panic.

His [Aetherial Nectar] buff triggered instantly. The permanent and absolute immunity to all negative status effects recognized the curse.

The green mist hit the gold armor of Dante and simply slid off. It failed to register a single point of damage or apply the localized debuff.

"Nice try," Dante smirked.

But then he heard a sharp and panicked gasp from behind him.

Dante spun around.

Lila and Mei were standing near the entrance.

They didn’t have the [Aetherial Nectar]. They didn’t have permanent status immunities.

The green mist enveloped them.

Lila dropped to her knees and clutched her chest. Her face turned pale.

Mei staggered and dropped to one knee beside her violently coughing.

Above their heads, the system interface flashed the horrifying continuous damage ticks.

[-5% HP]

[-5% HP]

[-5% HP]

Their health bars were plummeting.

The curse was designed to wipe an entire forty-man raid group if they didn’t kill the boss fast enough. It was a brutal and unavoidable damage-over-time mechanic.

"Aura!" Dante yelled. His heart pounded against his ribs.

The tiny silver fox materialized instantly. She didn’t hesitate.

She recognized her allies were taking critical damage and let out a sharp resonant chime.

[Skill Activated: Resurgence Wave] 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The massive pulse of concentrated Aether exploded outward.

It washed over Lila and Mei and fully intended to restore 50% of their maximum health and cleanse the debuff.

"Aura, stop!" Dante screamed. He realized the exact wording of the curse of the boss a fraction of a millisecond too late.

It was too late.

The silver healing wave hit the two girls.

The [Soul-Rot Miasma] didn’t just drain health. It reversed all localized healing effects into absolute true damage.

The massive percentage-based heal from the Grade 9 Doom Harbinger collided with the curse.

The restorative energy was violently corrupted and instantly converted into lethal damage!

Lila and Mei both screamed simultaneously.

Their health bars which were already drained by the curse were instantly shredded by the corrupted heal!

They both dropped into the critical red zone and hovered at less than five percent of their total health pools.

Aura let out a panicked and distressed chime. She was completely horrified that her heal had hurt them.

She immediately retreated into her pet-space. She refused to cast again and recognized that her utility was currently a lethal weapon.

"We are going to die," Lila whispered. Her voice was weak, and she struggled to keep her avatar upright.

Mei didn’t look cheerful anymore.

The Brawler clutched her chest and looked up at Dante with wide terrified eyes.

The curse ticked again.

[-5% HP]

They had exactly one second before the next tick completely zeroed out their health bars and triggered a True Death.

Dante didn’t try to use a skill to save them. He didn’t try to attack the boss to interrupt the cast.

He knew the math. He knew the timing was impossible.

"The talismans!" Dante roared and pointed directly at them. "Crush the crystals now!"

Lila didn’t hesitate.

She blindly reached into her pocket, pulled out the glowing blue crystal the City Lord had given them, and crushed it in her fist.

Mei struggled to move her hand, but she managed to crush her crystal a fraction of a second later.

The emergency extraction talismans triggered instantly!

A blinding column of blue light erupted around both girls and the tiny red dragon.

The teleportation magic completely bypassed the systemic lockdown of the boss room. It prioritized the hard-coded extraction parameters of the SSS-Rank quest item.

The blue light vanished.

Lila, Mei, and Pip were gone.

They had been successfully teleported back to the absolute safety of the eastern gates of Ironhold.

Dante was standing completely alone in the massive green-lit throne room.

The [Soul-Rot Miasma] was still heavily swirling around him.

The Lich-King was still hovering fifty feet in the air. Its glowing green eyes locked onto the lone player remaining in the chamber.

Dante let out a long slow breath.

He didn’t have his frontline brawler to block localized physical attacks. He didn’t have his gravity mage to pin targets to the floor.

He didn’t even have Aura.

He had explicitly ordered her to stay in her pet-space because her passive healing would accidentally trigger the true damage reflection of the curse on him if his immunity ever faltered.

He was completely and utterly isolated.

"Alright," Dante said softly and drew the [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. The gold sword gleamed defiantly in the toxic mist. "You wanted a solo fight. You got one."