Chapter 108: The Desolate Lord & The Ruinous Empress [1]

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Louis reached the Desolate Empire’s Capital in less than a day after arriving in the Second Layer. He knew stronger agents had likely passed through even faster, but he still felt a quiet surge of pride. His army began marching forward, commanded by Zorba, who had prepared dozens of enslaved souls ready for Spells at any moment.

The Undead Soldiers guarding the Capital slowly emerged from the walls. Blazing Skeletons, Frost Zombies, and Ectoplasm Ghosts advanced toward Louis and his Undead forces without hesitation.

The Skeletons unleashed enormous fireballs. The Frost Zombies conjured massive icicles. The Ectoplasm Ghosts charged their weapons with ectoplasm and ghostly energy, firing large bubbles of corrosive, soul-burning ghostly power. All three types of projectiles rained from the sky—a deadly assault capable of wiping out entire armies.

“Starting with a big attack right from the beginning, I see.”

Louis’s eyes narrowed sharply as he watched the incoming barrage. He released all the accumulated Despair he had absorbed across this Layer, then conjured a massive dome of Ashen Frost that swiftly transformed into pure light.

The dome quickly took the shape of an enormous castle—Frostbane Castle—as salt pillars rose and Louis poured more power into it, reversing the absorbed Despair into Hope and turning the darkness into radiant light.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As the elemental rain struck, Zorba and the rest of the Undead stared in awe. Louis singlehandedly shielded everyone from harm while they advanced. The glowing castle-shaped holy light barrier held strong, with Louis using his own Fantasy Heart as the core of this Spell Formation.

The power of the Ashen Frost Ability made forming such Spells far easier—something that would otherwise require creating a complex magic circle in almost no time, an impossible feat for him right now. This was one of the incredible advantages Sinners held over everyone else. Their Abilities and Incarnations turned them into entirely different threats.

Crack, crack…!

Louis knew the barrier could not hold forever. Small cracks appeared here and there, stirring slight concern. He swiftly ordered the entire Undead army to charge. With Zorba’s help, he sacrificed Souls to empower their movement speed, making them ten times faster than before.

The two Undead armies clashed violently. Explosions of fire, ice, and ectoplasm echoed everywhere. Louis leaped from Hecatoncheires’ shoulders. With sword and spear in hand, he dashed forward, thrusting his spear and slashing horizontally to unleash devastating attacks of blinding light. His aura constantly shaped into roaring, coiling dragons that ravaged the enemy Undead, triggering dozens of explosions across their ranks.

Louis rapidly carved a path through the enemy, devastating hundreds of Undead as he advanced and fully charging the Rune of Slaughter. The boost in power allowed him to unleash a devastating, concentrated long-range attack toward the Desolate Empire’s Capital Walls.

“Holy Dragon Lance Style.”

“First Form – Radiant Fang!”

By thrusting Gungnir forward, Louis released a ferocious draconic assault. A roaring dragon surged ahead, tearing through nearly a hundred Undead before slamming into the walls and buildings behind them. It punched straight through to the Desolate Empire’s Palace, leaving a massive hole.

BOOOMMM!!!

The explosion that followed caused the entire building to collapse. Both Zorba and Louis stared in awe. That had been merely the first form of his Holy Dragon Lance Style! A potent, focused, incredibly long-range attack amplified by the immense power of the Rune of Slaughter.

“W-Wha…! That’s impossible! How…?!” Zorba was shocked to his core but then broke into a wide, disbelieving smile. “Y-Yes! That’s my lord! His majesty, Prince Louis!” He cheered while laughing maniacally, leaping into battle himself. His skeletons fused around his body, forming heavy black bone armor covered in ghostly flames. He conjured a pair of long bone scythes and charged forward, slashing and tearing apart countless Undead. He used their souls to fuel his weapons, armor, and army.

The Salt Golems surged ahead, hurling dozens of Undead aside with swings of their weapons, shields, or powerful kicks. They were tough enough to withstand barrages of projectiles as long as the numbers remained reasonable. Louis’s barrier still protected them, though half of it had already vanished.

“Zorba, I’ll leave you to handle this. It shouldn’t be too hard with all these materials,” Louis said, referring to the Undead and Souls.

“Yes, master, leave it to me!” Zorba nodded eagerly. “Go ahead and defeat the Bosses!”

Zorba was reliable—something Louis deeply appreciated. The prince nodded and quickly transformed. He fused with the Necromancer Incarnation Fragment and the Pugilist, gaining a pair of skeletal wings that merged with his bone armor, along with two pairs of armored limbs covered in metallic claws and scales. His Fake Dragon Heart beat harder and faster, flooding his body with draconic energy and forcing it toward the Dragonoid form he envisioned.

“Still got twenty seconds left on the Rune of Slaughter before cooldown. I better use them well!”

Louis wasted no time. He reached the crumbling palace in five seconds and saw two figures emerging from the rubble. The Bosses had clearly never expected their entire palace to collapse like this—let alone from a single attack launched over a kilometer away.

“Who dares disturb my castle?!”

A giant rose from the debris—a massive skeleton, as though it once belonged to an ancient, mythological titan from Yggdrasil. Covered in pitch-black armor adorned with sharp spikes and red, eye-shaped jewels, the Desolate Lord stepped forward first. He raised his massive arms—each fifteen meters long—and manifested a pair of enormous black swords, aiming them at Louis, who hurtled toward him like a burning bullet.

“BEGONE.”

He swung furiously downward, attempting to swat Louis like an insect. Louis zigzagged midair with precision and pierced the Desolate Lord’s chest with Gungnir. The Boss’s failed strike shattered the ground, carving a massive crater through the capital just as Louis released his accumulated energy. The Rune of Slaughter erupted in a powerful pillar of light.

“Holy Dragon Lance Style.”

“Second Form – Celestial Claw!”

A massive golden claw surged the instant he thrust his spear, ripping apart the Desolate Lord’s torso and shattering two of his Cores instantly. The giant’s body crumbled into fragments.

With three seconds remaining, Louis attacked again—same form, same ferocity. A second claw descended. The Desolate Lord panicked and swung both swords upward, clashing against the giant claw-shaped spear aura.

“W-WHA…! WHAT SORT OF… POWER IS THIS—AAAAACK!”

Before the Desolate Lord could comprehend the situation, the attack struck his third and final core. His entire body exploded into charred bones and shattered armor. His massive swords clattered to the ground.

Louis sighed in relief. One Boss had fallen quickly—this would make the fight far easier. “In the game, these two bosses fight the player together. The Desolate Lord has massive defense and attack power, while the Ruinous Empress provides buffs, healing, and an enormous HP pool. She keeps him standing while he attacks the party—his strikes often hit three or more characters at once. And that’s without counting the endless waves of Undead reinforcements from every corner of the map. One of the toughest early-game bosses without question.”

But this was no longer a turn-based RPG. In reality, Louis could exploit the Rune of Slaughter’s overwhelming power to eliminate one boss as swiftly as possible. Gungnir released steam and began glowing red—she was exhausted, her ability to channel power visibly diminished.

“You need to rest. Return to my Soul for now. Well done, Gungnir.”

Louis unsummoned her quickly and gripped his Ashen Frost Sword instead. He turned toward the second figure lurking behind a towering pile of rubble. With a swift swing, he obliterated the ruins and revealed the Ruinous Empress—a giant woman matching the Desolate Lord in size. She wore a long metallic dress of black and red, her thin, nail-like limbs ending in long fingers. Her face formed a triangle, with long triangular metal pieces fused together as hair, glowing red and black. She had no eyes, only a mouth painted with red lipstick within her strangely shaped head.

While the Desolate Lord was clearly just a colossal skeleton, the Ruinous Empress’s design felt far more intricate. She seemed the true Grievance here; the Desolate Lord had merely been her strongest subordinate.

“You’ve won…! You killed him…! My shield… my castle is gone… my army is dying… what else do you want from me, human? Leave… go ahead, leave!” she roared in fury. Metallic tears streamed from her nonexistent eyes as she revealed the Dimensional Staircase.

“Before I leave, I need to kill you. How else will I obtain the Relics I require?” Louis sighed. He noticed a strong concentration of Fantasium lingering in the Desolate Lord’s remains, a Relic had spawned inside the corpse. He would retrieve it later. “If you want me gone, it will be after your death.”

“Monster… You humans…! You’re all monsters…! Don’t you understand?! We exist because we had no choice… our worlds… perished! Our lives… gone! Our kingdoms… reduced to ashes! Our people… undead… a fading dream, an agonizing, eternal despair…” she muttered. “And it will happen to your world too… yes… yes it will… hehehe… Hahahah… AAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

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