Chapter 92: Chapter 92: The Half-Soul Entity

Dante stood perfectly still in the center of the throne room and gripped the dark bone hilt of [Voidsever].

The pale little girl in the gothic dress didn’t move from her spot near the shattered sarcophagus. She just stared at him with those solid blood-red eyes.

Dante didn’t answer her question immediately.

He was busy looking at the system interface that had just forcefully projected itself into his vision.

The text wasn’t the standard red or gold. It was a blinding pure celestial white.

[Anomaly Detected.]

[Entity Identified: Erebus]

[Faction: Celestial (Sealed)]

[Level: 25]

[HP: 2,000,000 / 2,000,000]

Dante stared at the prompt.

Two million health points. On a Level 25 boss.

The Annihilation-Tier Cerberus Void-Dragon had possessed a massive health pool, but that was a server-wipe mechanic designed for thousands of players.

The Lich-King he had just executed had two hundred thousand.

This tiny barefoot girl had ten times that amount.

But it wasn’t the health pool that made Dante pause. It was the lore text scrolling beneath her stats.

[Lore Profile: An ancient Celestial entity sealed within the foundations of the Sunken Necropolis during the First War. The localized divine bindings were designed to permanently quarantine her power. She currently exists with only half of her original soul matrix intact, rendering her localized logic parameters highly unstable and incredibly volatile.]

"Half a soul," Dante whispered and lowered his sword slightly.

He understood the mechanics of the Zenith Protocol.

A boss with a ’highly unstable’ logic parameter didn’t operate on standard aggro tables or cooldown rotations.

They were wildcard events. They could randomly cast an ultimate attack at the start of a fight or stand perfectly still for ten minutes.

"I asked you a question," Erebus said. Her voice remained perfectly flat and devoid of any inflection. "Why did you break my toy?"

Dante looked at the pile of dust that used to be the Lich-King.

"He was leaking localized corruption into the swamp," Dante explained and kept his tone carefully neutral. "I had a quest to stop it."

Erebus tilted her head to the other side. "He was noisy. But he brought me shiny things. Now he is quiet."

She didn’t sound angry. She just sounded intensely focused.

She raised her small pale hand and pointed a single finger directly at Dante.

Dante didn’t see a casting animation. There was no magic circle or glowing aura.

His Intuition stat didn’t even ping.

He just felt an absolute crushing force physically wrap around his entire avatar.

It wasn’t a standard spell. It was raw unadulterated telekinesis.

The sheer localized pressure completely bypassed his massive defense stats.

He was instantly lifted five feet into the air. His iron boots dangled uselessly above the floor.

Dante gasped. The air forcibly expelled from his digital lungs.

He couldn’t swing [Voidsever]. He couldn’t trigger [Blink Step].

The telekinetic grip locked his spatial coordinates entirely.

Erebus slowly closed her tiny hand into a fist.

The pressure surrounding Dante exponentially increased. His gold armor began to loudly creak and groan under the strain.

[-5,000 HP!]

A massive chunk of his health bar vanished in a single sustained squeeze.

Aura was hovering nearby and immediately pulsed her [Resurgence Wave]. She healed the damage instantly, but the pressure didn’t relent.

"You are noisy too," Erebus said softly. "I will make you quiet."

Dante struggled against the invisible grip and desperately tried to trigger a Zenith-tier skill. But his casting animations were completely suppressed by the telekinesis.

He was mathematically helpless.

He was going to be crushed to death by a Level 25 child.

Erebus tightened her fist further.

Dante braced for the final impact.

But it never came.

The absolute crushing pressure suddenly vanished.

Dante dropped the five feet to the floor and landed heavily on his hands and knees.

He gasped for air. His health bar stabilized as the localized attack abruptly canceled.

He looked up and expected to see the boss charging another massive spell.

Erebus wasn’t looking at him.

The ancient Celestial boss was completely distracted.

Her solid red eyes were locked onto a pile of loot sitting a few feet away from the shattered sarcophagus.

During the chaotic slaughter of the Wraith-Knights by Dante in the courtyard, he had vacuumed up hundreds of items.

But earlier when he had killed the Magma Boar in the Frostfire Steppes, he had looted a pair of bright shiny Silver-grade boots.

He hadn’t bothered to equip them because his [Ash-Walker Treads] were better. They were just sitting in his inventory.

When the supernova had vaporized him and Aura had triggered the [Resurgence] reset, the system had randomly dropped a few unequipped items from his inventory onto the floor before it restored him.

The shiny Silver-grade boots were sitting near the throne.

Erebus completely ignored Dante. She walked over to the boots.

She didn’t use telekinesis. She crouched down and picked them up with her small pale hands.

The heavy iron boots were massively oversized for her tiny frame.

She looked at them closely. The silver metal gleamed in the dim light of the cavern.

"Shiny," Erebus stated. The flat emotionless tone wavered slightly to reveal a localized hint of genuine childlike curiosity.

Dante stayed on his knees and watched her in absolute disbelief.

A two-million-health boss possessing telekinetic authority that could casually bypass endgame armor had just canceled an execution mechanic because she saw something shiny on the floor.

The ’highly unstable’ logic parameter wasn’t a combat mechanic. It meant she had the attention span and emotional regulation of a toddler.

Erebus sat down on the floor. She awkwardly tried to slide her tiny bare feet into the massive heavy iron boots.

The boots were designed for a fully armored adult Warrior. They reached almost to her knees and looked completely ridiculous on her fragile frame.

She stood up and looked incredibly proud of her new footwear.

She took one step forward.

The heavy iron boots immediately tangled. She didn’t have the Agility stats or the physical leverage to walk in them.

Erebus tripped.

She pitched forward and was completely unable to catch herself. She fell flat on her face.

Her chin smacked against the hard obsidian floor with a loud thud.

The throne room went completely silent.

Dante didn’t move. He barely breathed.

Erebus lay on the floor for exactly three seconds.

Then, she slowly pushed herself up onto her hands and knees.

The solid red color of her eyes began to violently pulse.

The localized necrotic energy in the room which had dissipated after the death of the Lich-King suddenly flooded back in with terrifying intensity.

The massive stone pillars supporting the ceiling began to aggressively vibrate.

She wasn’t just mad. She was throwing a cosmic-level tantrum.

"Stupid!" Erebus shrieked.

Her voice wasn’t flat anymore. It was ear-piercingly loud and echoed with a dual-layered resonance that threatened to shatter the room.

"Stupid shiny things! Stupid floor! I hate it!"

She slammed her tiny fists into the obsidian floor.

The kinetic impact wasn’t a standard melee attack.

The entire throne room physically buckled. A massive fissure tore across the floor and completely destroyed the area where she had tripped.

Dante stumbled backward and avoided the fissure.

If she continued this tantrum, the entire Sunken Necropolis was going to collapse.

She had the raw power to physically delete the dungeon from the inside out and bury him under thousands of tons of stone.

He couldn’t fight her.

He couldn’t out-damage a two-million health pool while getting thrown around by telekinesis.

He needed to defuse the situation. He needed to pacify a highly unstable cosmic toddler.

Dante sheathed [Voidsever]. The black blade dissolved back into his wrist. He didn’t want to present a threat.

He opened his infinite inventory.

He frantically scrolled past the weapons, the armor, and the stat crystals.

He was looking for a very specific localized category of items he had ignored since he entered the open world.

Consumables.

During the chaotic slaughter in the Frostfire Steppes, he had vacuumed up dozens of random high-tier crafting materials and food items dropped by the mobs.

He found a small glowing icon in the ’Culinary’ tab.

[Item Appraised: Magma-Seared Meat Bun]

[Tier: Silver]

[Description: A high-tier food consumable. Recovers 500 Stamina instantly. Emits a incredibly savory aroma. Served piping hot.]

It was a random drop from one of the Magma Boars.

Dante didn’t hesitate. He pulled the item out of his void ring.

The meat bun materialized in his gauntlet. It was roughly the size of a softball wrapped in a soft steaming white bun.

It radiated a localized heat and smelled incredibly good.

Erebus was currently floating a few feet in the air. Her red eyes burned as she prepared to telekinetically rip one of the massive stone pillars out of the ceiling.

"Hey!" Dante yelled and stepped forward.

Erebus snapped her head toward him, her tiny face twisted in demonic fury. "I am going to squish you!"

Dante didn’t say a word. He just held the steaming meat bun out in his palm.

The savory aroma of the hot food drifted across the room and cut through the smell of the necrotic rot.

Erebus stopped floating.

The massive stone pillar she was currently ripping from the ceiling suddenly settled back into place.

The violent shaking tremors in the room completely ceased.

She slowly lowered herself back down to the floor, her solid red eyes locked entirely on the food in his hand.

The cosmic localized fury vanished instantly. The terrifying aura of a Level 25 Celestial boss evaporated.

She just looked like a hungry kid.

Erebus kicked the oversized iron boots off her feet to leave them on the floor and walked slowly toward Dante.

She didn’t use telekinesis. She just padded across the cold floor.

She stopped right in front of him and looked up at the massive gold-armored Warrior.

Dante knelt down and brought the meat bun to her eye level.

Erebus reached out with both hands, took the bun, and immediately took a massive entirely un-ladylike bite out of it.

She chewed thoughtfully. Her red eyes blinked slowly.

"Is it good?" Dante asked and kept his voice incredibly calm.

Erebus swallowed. She didn’t offer a system prompt or a grand speech.

"More," Erebus demanded and pointed a tiny finger at him.

Dante let out a long quiet sigh of absolute relief.

The cosmic tantrum was over. The apocalypse had been successfully averted by baked goods.

"I have plenty," Dante promised. He opened his inventory to pull out another stack of Silver-tier food items.

He sat down on the floor and casually fed a two-million-health boss.

The system awkwardly tried to figure out why the combat encounter had suddenly transitioned into a picnic.