Chapter 91: Chapter 91: The Dance of Shadows

Dante stood alone in the center of the throne room.

The thick sickly green mist of the [Soul-Rot Miasma] swirled around his gold armor.

It completely failed to penetrate the absolute immunity granted by the [Aetherial Nectar].

Above him, the Lich-King hovered fifty feet in the air. His hollow eye sockets burned with green fire.

The Dark Demon boss was completely untouchable by standard melee attacks. His [Ethereal Levitation] passive made him immune to gravity manipulation.

He was a flying cursing artillery platform.

The Lich-King raised his bone staff.

The glowing crystal at the tip flared. A massive volley of six highly concentrated necrotic bolts shot downward. It tracked the position of Dante with terrifying speed.

Dante didn’t try to block them.

[Skill Executed: Phantom Waltz]

The purple pulsating invulnerability frames enveloped the avatar of Dante.

He vanished from his position on the floor just a fraction of a millisecond before the necrotic bolts slammed into the stone.

They melted the floor into puddles of gray slag.

Crack.

Dante materialized fifty feet away and completely ignored the offensive portion of the Zenith-tier assassination skill.

He didn’t have a target within range, so he just used the teleportation to reposition safely while remaining completely untargetable.

Crack.

He teleported again and moved in a wide arc around the perimeter of the room. He dodged a second volley of necrotic magic.

Crack. Crack.

He continued the dance and effortlessly avoided the continuous magical barrage of the boss.

But dodging wasn’t dealing damage. He couldn’t reach the Lich-King, and his [Phantom Waltz] duration was rapidly expiring.

He needed to ground the caster.

Dante materialized for the final strike of the animation. He planted his iron boots firmly on the ground near the massive iron throne.

He didn’t draw a ranged weapon.

The [Bow of the Eclipse] was an option. But the area-of-effect damage of [Eclipse Volley] might accidentally trigger a massive cave-in and bury him under thousands of tons of stone and bone.

He needed disruption.

Dante raised his empty left hand. He pointed his palm directly upward at the hovering boss.

[Skill Executed: Cyclone of Ruin]

The F5 hurricane exploded into existence directly beneath the Lich-King.

The Zenith-tier wind roared. It completely drowned out the ambient hum of the necrotic magic. The massive dark purple vortex shot upward and engulfed the boss.

The Lich-King didn’t get sucked into the center.

His [Ethereal Levitation] passive prevented him from being physically manipulated by localized gravity or wind currents.

But the hurricane wasn’t just physical force. It was a massive chaotic disruption of the localized atmosphere.

The swirling winds violently scattered the necrotic mist surrounding the boss.

The intense localized pressure completely broke the concentration of the Lich-King.

His casting animation for a massive room-wide explosion spell was instantly interrupted.

The Lich-King let out a digitized screech of frustration. He waved his bone staff to dispel the hurricane, but the Zenith-tier skill stubbornly held its duration.

"You cannot cast if you cannot focus," Dante smirked. He watched the boss struggle against the wind. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Dante didn’t wait for the hurricane to expire.

He needed to bait the boss into a fatal mistake. He needed the Lich-King to close the gap on his own terms.

Dante formulated a incredibly risky gamble.

The primary mechanic of the Lich-King was the [Soul-Rot Miasma].

The boss believed that any entity standing in the mist was taking a massive 5% health drain every single second.

The system didn’t recognize the absolute immunity of Dante. It just saw a target standing in the kill-zone.

Dante dropped to one knee.

He intentionally slumped his shoulders. He let the [Dawn-Breaker Blade] rest heavily against the floor.

He let out a loud and highly convincing groan of pain. He clutched his chest piece as if the necrotic curse was actively eating away at his digital heart.

"Oh no, the curse," Dante muttered. He made sure his audio broadcast was picked up by the system of the boss. "I am rapidly dying."

He watched the boss through his peripheral vision.

The Lich-King stopped struggling against the hurricane. The glowing green fire in his eye sockets flared triumphantly.

The Gold-tier system processed the visual and auditory cues.

The target was grounded, incapacitated, and taking massive localized DoT damage.

The optimal tactical move wasn’t to continue casting ranged spells. It was to execute the target and secure the kill before the localized timer expired.

The Lich-King didn’t hover anymore.

The massive Dark Demon boss aggressively descended.

He dropped straight out of the sky and completely ignored the fading winds of the hurricane. He aimed to land directly in front of Dante.

As the boss fell, he raised his bone staff with both hands.

The glowing green crystal at the tip flared with absolute and highly concentrated necrotic energy.

He was preparing a point-blank execution spell designed to instantly zero out a low-health target.

Dante stayed on his knee. He waited until the absolute last fraction of a second.

The Lich-King landed. His tattered robes settled onto the floor.

He brought the bone staff down in a brutal sweeping arc. He aimed to strike Dante directly in the chest.

Dante didn’t dodge.

His eyes snapped up entirely devoid of any pain or exhaustion.

He didn’t use the Gold-tier broadsword.

His right hand shot up. The black brand on his wrist flared violently.

[Voidsever] materialized instantly and devoured the sickly green light of the room.

[Skill Executed: Aegis Deflection]

The golden hexagonal shield flared into existence exactly 0.2 seconds before the necrotic staff made impact.

CLANG!

The concussive shockwave of the perfect parry blew the remaining necrotic miasma completely out of the center of the throne room.

The execution spell didn’t just fail. It rebounded.

The Zenith-tier parry absorbed the massive and highly concentrated magical strike. It violently reflected 500% of the damage directly back into the Lich-King at point-blank range.

The boss didn’t stagger.

The sheer localized force of the reflection actually shattered the glowing green crystal at the tip of his bone staff.

[Status Effect Applied: Silence. Duration: 10 Seconds.]

The Lich-King was a pure caster.

Without his staff and with a ten-second Silence debuff completely locking him out of his spellbook, he was functionally useless.

He was just a skeleton standing in front of an incredibly angry Warrior.

Dante didn’t hesitate. He stood up and gripped Voidsever with both hands.

"My turn," Dante said.

He didn’t use a Zenith-tier skill. He didn’t need the localized damage multiplier.

He just used the raw unmitigated base stats of his Level 55 avatar combined with the primordial armor-piercing passive of the cursed greatsword.

He swung Voidsever in a brutal perfect horizontal arc.

The black blade didn’t meet any resistance.

It sheared cleanly through the ancient tattered robes and effortlessly sliced through the dark corrupted bone of the spine of the Lich-King.

[Passive Activated: Absolute Severance. 100% Armor Ignored.]

[-45,000! Critical Hit!]

The Lich-King froze. His jaw dropped open in a silent scream.

Dante didn’t stop.

He reversed his grip and brought the massive blade back in a rising diagonal slash that completely severed the right arm of the boss.

[-42,000! Critical Hit!]

A third strike drove the tip of the blade directly through the center of the ribcage of the boss.

[-50,000! Critical Hit! OVERKILL!]

The health bar of the Lich-King completely vanished.

The Dark Demon boss didn’t explode violently. He simply crumbled.

The ancient bones turned to dust, the tattered robes collapsed into an empty pile on the floor, and the sickly green light illuminating the room instantly flickered and died.

[Target Eliminated: Lich-King of Vane (Level 22 Dark Demon)]

[Experience Gained. Level Up!]

Dante watched his level tick up to 58.

The solo bonus for clearing an SSS-Rank containment boss was absolutely massive.

He let out a long satisfied breath and rested the tip of Voidsever against the obsidian floor.

The localized necrotic curse dissipated entirely and left the air cold and surprisingly clean.

"Aura, you can come out now," Dante said softly.

The tiny silver fox popped out of her pet-space. She floated happily down to nuzzle against his gold-plated shoulder.

She chimed softly and was clearly relieved that the toxic environment was gone.

Dante walked over to the center of the room.

The 100% drop rate guaranteed an absurd explosion of loot.

He vacuumed up the gold coins, the shattered fragments of the bone staff, and a massive pile of Dark Demon crafting materials.

He spotted a single highly ornate piece of gear resting at the bottom of the pile.

It was a heavy dark-iron crown identical to the one the Lich-King had been wearing.

[Item Appraised: Crown of the Usurper]

[Tier: Dark Demon]

[Type: Heavy Armor (Head)]

[Stats: +2,000 Magical Attack, +1,500 Magical Defense.]

[Passive: Grants the user immunity to all forms of magical Silence and Interrupt mechanics.]

"That is going straight to Lila," Dante noted and stored the crown in his void ring.

With the boss dead, the localized containment parameters of the Sunken Necropolis were officially lifted.

The heavy oppressive atmosphere vanished. It was replaced by the standard quiet ambiance of a cleared dungeon.

Dante turned toward the massive jagged iron throne at the back of the room. He fully expected to find a chest or an exit portal.

He didn’t find either.

Instead, the shadows lingering in the corners of the massive throne room began to compress.

They didn’t swirl or dissipate. They actively writhed and twisted together in a highly unnatural localized manifestation of pure darkness.

The Intuition stat of Dante didn’t just ping. It screamed with a localized intensity that rivaled the Annihilation-Tier dragon.

He tightened his grip on Voidsever and dropped into a low combat stance.

The compressed shadows slithered across the floor. They pooled together near a shattered ancient stone sarcophagus sitting behind the iron throne.

The lid of the sarcophagus had been blown off centuries ago.

From the absolute darkness of the ruined tomb, a figure stepped forward.

It wasn’t a massive hulking boss. It wasn’t a skeletal knight or a localized dragon.

It was a little girl.

She looked terrifyingly pale, and her skin was almost translucent. She wore a highly intricate dark gothic dress lined with faded silver lace.

Her hair was stark white. It fell in messy unkempt tangles past her shoulders.

But her eyes were the most disturbing feature.

They weren’t glowing with magic. They were solid unbroken localized pools of absolute blood-red.

There were no pupils. There were no irises. Just pure unadulterated crimson.

She stood barefoot on the floor and looked directly at Dante.

She didn’t roar. She didn’t trigger a massive AoE attack.

She simply tilted her head, her solid red eyes unblinking. She spoke in a voice that was entirely devoid of any localized emotion or pitch.

It sounded perfectly flat like a system notification reading text aloud.

"Why did you break my favorite toy?" she asked.