Reidar heard footsteps.

The sound was faint at first, muffled by the walls of the basement, but it was getting closer, coming from the corridor outside the chamber—the same corridor he’d just walked through to reach the room.

His Sky-Hunters had detected nothing, and the palace was supposed to be empty, yet something was there. Reidar’s hands went to his wand.

<Something’s coming.>

He reached into his mana and activated a skill.

[Skill Activated: Summon Shadow Sovereigns]

The Shadow Sovereigns materialized around him—five of them appeared first, then his perks kicked in. Boundless Legion doubled the count, bringing the total to ten Shadow Sovereigns standing in a loose circle around him.

Reidar’s mana dropped. Each summon cost one thousand mana, which meant ten summons used up ten thousand mana right away. However, his mana was already coming back, thanks to the Mana Siphon perk, and each Sovereign sent a small amount of mana back to him; it wasn’t a lot, but with ten of them active, it helped.

The footsteps grew louder. Closer.

“Block the door,” Reidar said. “Don’t let it in.”

The Sovereigns raised their hands.

[Skill Used: Wall of Night]

Shadows surged up from the floor in front of the doorway, condensing into walls of pure shadows. The wall stretched from floor to ceiling, blocking the entrance.

The Sovereigns didn’t stop there; they layered the skill, casting it one after another until five thick walls of solidified darkness stood between Reidar and the hallway.

Reidar moved toward the far wall. The room was small, maybe twenty meters across, which meant that if something broke through, he’d have nowhere to run.

The scraping stopped, and then the wall exploded.

A blade-arm punched through the barrier and tore it apart; the shadow dissipated into mist as the creature stepped into the room.

It was an Ignis.

The tag above its head then became visible.

—[Feral Ignis—Level 502]—

Reidar’s stomach dropped.

The creature filled the doorway, standing over eight feet tall and hunching because the ceiling was too low. Its body looked like a twisted version of the other Ignis, which said a lot about this specimen.

One arm ended in a massive stony fist, while the other was longer and bent, with fingers that had stretched into sharp blades made of chitin.

However, the most striking feature wasn’t its weapons or its size.

It was the clothes.

Clinging to the creature’s shoulders were the shredded remains of a lab coat. It was burned and stained with soot, but it was unmistakably a piece of clothing meant for a scientist, not a warrior.

It was tattered, burned, and barely recognizable, but it was there. And on the chest, stitched into the fabric, was a name tag.

The interface translated it.

[Zhen-Gora Thenn]

The author of the journal.

<No.>

This wasn’t just a monster. This was the author of the journal he had just read. This was the man who had spent six years trying to save his race, the man who had realized the Allied Worlds had abandoned them, and the man who had written the theories that might save Earth.

At that point, Reidar figured out what kind of destiny befell him.

The creature that had been Zhen-Gora let out a sound that was half-roar, half-scream. It locked its glowing eyes on Reidar. There was only the feral hunger of a predator that had lost its mind into them.

“I’m sorry,” Reidar said as the Ignis charged.

Reidar slammed his hand onto the floor.

[Skill Activated: Summon Undying Legion]

The Undying Legion skill activated. Skeletons began rising from the floor, bones assembled into armored warriors. Reidar’s other perks kicked in fast.

Because of the Boundless Legion perk, the summon count doubled.

Because of Grave Calling, the base number was higher.

Because of Legion Commander, the count increased further.

Over two hundred skeletal warriors clawed their way out of the stone floor in a single second. They filled the space between Reidar and Zhen-Gora, a wall of bone and rusted metal. But if that was enough, Reidar had no idea. It probably wasn’t.

They formed ranks, raising their shields and locking them together to create a wall of bone and metal between Reidar and the Ignis.

“Hold him!” Reidar said.

The Dread-Shields moved to the front. They locked their heavy shields together.

[Skill Used: Bone Wall]

[Skill Used: Taunt]

The Shadow Sovereigns moved as extensions of his will. In their hands there were Umbral Lances, and projectiles of condensed shadows shot forth, cracking against the Ignis’s rocky hide. Two others cast Grasping Shadows, and the floor around the creature’s feet erupted in tendrils of black energy that wrapped around its legs, trying to slow it.

The creature didn’t slow down, though.

Its blade-arms swept through the first line of skeletons, shattering bones and cracking shields as the Dread Shields exploded on death—Volatile Essence triggered automatically—scattering fire and bone fragments across the room.

[Your Summon (Dread Shield) has been destroyed.]

[Your Summon (Dread Shield) has been destroyed.]

[Your Summon (Dread Shield) has been destroyed.]

Three Dread-Shields shattered as soon as the creature’s weapons made contact, but the others were still there. The Ignis raised both blade-arms and brought them down in a cross-strike, shearing through four more skeletons. The Dread-Shields fought back, stabbing with their weapons, but the strikes glanced off the Ignis’s rocky hide, dealing minimal damage.

The notifications about his summons getting wiped out flooded in, which forced Reidar to dismiss them to keep his focus.

The explosions resulting from their death, though, could not be dismissed, and Reidar didn’t want to. The only problem was that they did minimal damage and did almost nothing to slow the monster down, but only slightly.

Reidar backed toward the far wall. There was nowhere else to go.

“Make more walls!”

The Shadow Sovereigns raised their hands again. Shadows surged upward, forming new barriers between the Ignis and Reidar. The walls were stacked, one behind the other, creating layers.

The Ignis smashed through the first wall. Then the second. Then the third.

<I can’t kill this thing. Not here.>

The level gap was too wide and the space between them too narrow. Twenty-two levels separated them. The Ignis was Level 502. Reidar was Level 480. His summons were weaker, and they were getting obliterated. Without the number advantage, Reidar could not bridge the gap between levels as he always did.

But killing the creature was a possibility if he got out of the room.

The Ignis broke through another shadow wall and got close enough that Reidar could feel the heat from its breath.

“Keep it busy!”

The Dread Shields surged forward. They activated Taunt again, forcing the Ignis to focus on them instead of Reidar. The creature turned, lashing out with both blade-arms. More skeletons died. More explosions filled the basement.

Reidar moved toward the door, needing to get out, but the Ignis noticed him moving and turned its head, locking its glowing eyes onto him.

The creature ignored the skeletons and lunged.

Reidar dove to the side as the Ignis’s blade-arm slammed into the floor where he’d been standing.

Reidar turned and sprinted for the far side of the chamber, where a narrower doorway led to a secondary storage room. Then his Volatile Essence perk triggered.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep