Chapter 197: Finale
Lucen pulled his hand back fast. "Yeah, note to self: don’t poke the glowing death rock."
Selindra didn’t look at him. "It’s a seal. The first layer."
Varik moved closer, arms folded. "Breakable?"
"Yes," Selindra said softly, studying the monolith’s shifting lines. "But the release won’t be quiet."
Lucen arched a brow. "Define quiet."
She turned finally, eyes gray and steady. "Everything inside this vault will wake when we open it."
Lucen muttered, "Cool. Nothing says fun like a welcoming committee."
Varik’s tone stayed flat. "How long."
Selindra studied the marks again. Her fingertips hovered just above the script, tracing without touching. "An hour, maybe two, to unwind them without damage. Less if brute force."
"Brute force it is," Varik said.
Lucen’s eyes widened. "Hold on, hold on. Maybe don’t smash the ancient cosmic curse rock? Just a thought."
Selindra’s lips twitched faintly, not a smile, more like disdain wrapped in restraint. "You think too small."
Lucen spread his hands. "And yet, still alive. Weird how that works."
But Varik was already stepping closer, drawing his sword with a low scrape of steel.
Lucen sighed. ’Right. Because subtlety’s overrated.’
Varik raised his blade. Mana condensed along its length, dense enough that the air warped, bending like heat haze. He didn’t need chants. Didn’t need theatrics. Just pressure.
The glyphs on the monolith flared in protest as the first cut struck, not sound, but a ripple that rolled through the chamber like thunder underwater.
The stars in the ceiling flickered. The cold air grew heavier.
[Warning: Vault Defense Activation Detected.]
Selindra drew her own blade now, a long, slim weapon that glimmered faint blue along its edge. She didn’t say anything, just shifted her stance, weight light on her feet.
The monolith cracked. Hairline fractures spiderwebbed outward, glowing faint white.
Lucen braced himself. Mana coiled in his veins, his fingers twitching. He didn’t even need the system to tell him what was coming.
The floor beneath them shuddered. Then split.
Out of the cracks came figures, not beasts, not constructs. Humanoid. Armored in jagged shards of crystal, faces blank masks with only faint pinpricks of red for eyes. Six of them.
Lucen gritted his teeth. "Great. Crystal zombies. Love the variety."
Selindra stepped forward without hesitation, blade lashing once. The nearest construct lost its arm before it even moved.
Varik moved next. His sword came down in a single arc, and two more crumbled like shattered glass.
Lucen exhaled, muttered under his breath. [Shockweave Bolt.]
Electricity burst from his palm, snapping across the chamber in a whip of blue. It caught one of the constructs in the chest, sparking across its crystal frame. The thing staggered, not destroyed but slowed, arcs crawling through its joints.
Lucen darted left, sliding across loose shards. [Piercing Flare.]
A spear of condensed white light ripped forward, punching through another construct’s torso. It dropped instantly, fragments scattering.
The remaining two lunged at him.
Lucen backpedaled fast, heart hammering. [Ignition Burst!]
Flame erupted in a sudden bloom around him, a wave of heat and pressure. The constructs staggered again, edges glowing hot.
Before he could strike again, Varik appeared, not even a blur, just presence. His sword swung once. The constructs didn’t fall so much as they ceased to exist, shattered into glittering dust.
The chamber went quiet again, except for the slow pulse of the monolith. Its cracks widened, light bleeding through.
Lucen exhaled shakily. "Yeah. Totally manageable. Not terrifying at all."
Selindra wiped her blade clean on the hem of her coat. "Those weren’t the guardians. Just a reaction."
Lucen stared at the still-glowing stone. "That was the warm-up?"
Varik said nothing. He raised his blade again.
The cracks spread wider.
And the vault began to open.
—
The monolith split.
The crack widened from hairline to canyon in the space of a breath. Light poured out, not the clean gold of mana, not the sharp silver of frost crystals, but something darker. Thick. Oil-black radiance seething like smoke. The chamber itself groaned, stone quivering under the weight of what leaked free.
Lucen’s system pulsed a warning across his vision:
[Vault Seal Integrity: Breached.]
[Anomalous Energy Signature Detected: Abyssal Tier.]
[Recommended Action: Retreat.]
Lucen muttered under his breath. "Yeah, sure. Let me just tell Varik we should all pack it up and go home."
The last piece of stone gave way with a deafening crack. The monolith collapsed inward, its shards sinking into the floor as though the vault itself swallowed them. What replaced it wasn’t an opening, not exactly. It was a doorless wound in reality, a sloping passage, blacker than shadow, cut downward into the earth.
The air thickened. Lucen could feel it pressing at his ribs like invisible hands. He swallowed, jaw tight.
Selindra’s eyes gleamed faintly gray in the darkness. "This is the true vault."
Varik said nothing, but he moved first.
The passage wound downward in a tight spiral, walls etched with glyphs that bled faint red light. Each glyph pulsed once when they passed, as though recognizing them.
Lucen kept his gaze fixed on the floor to avoid staring too long. Even then, the script burned afterimages behind his eyelids. His system whispered, static hissing at the edge of hearing.
[Warning: Prolonged exposure will destabilize mental equilibrium.]
He forced a crooked smile. "Guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t that stable to begin with."
Selindra glanced at him once, expression unreadable, but she didn’t reply.
The spiral ended suddenly in another chamber. Larger than the first. Vast enough that their glowstones barely touched the walls. The ceiling disappeared into shadow.
And at the center of the floor was a dais. Upon it lay the relic.
It wasn’t a weapon, or an artifact, or a crown. It was... a sphere. Roughly the size of a human head, suspended in midair. Its surface was liquid black, rippling and shifting as though it reflected things that weren’t in the room.
The air around it warped, bending light, pulling their eyes toward it without permission.
Lucen’s system went wild.
[Unknown Relic Identified: Abyssal Core (Fragment).]
[Warning: Direct Contact Not Advised.]
[Warning: Prolonged Visual Fixation May Lead to Cognitive Corruption.]
Lucen tore his eyes away, breathing sharp. "That thing is wrong."
Selindra’s jaw tightened. "That thing is why we’re here."
Before Lucen could answer, the dais shuddered.
Something crawled up from the floor around it, not constructs this time. Flesh. Blackened, twisted, with too many joints and mouths that stretched sideways across its limbs.
The guardians here weren’t crystalline soldiers; they were living remnants, corrupted and half-formed. Six of them again, taller than a man, their movements jerky like broken marionettes.
Selindra stepped forward instantly, blade raised. Her voice was level, calm. "These are the real guardians. Stay sharp."
Varik unsheathed his sword. Its aura filled the chamber, a crushing weight that bent the air.
Lucen’s fingers twitched, mana rising unbidden in his veins. He grinned faintly despite the crawling in his gut. "Guess we’re skipping introductions."
The guardians lunged.
Two straight for Selindra, their limbs slicing like blades. She met them with impossible grace, her blade flickering so fast Lucen barely saw the arc. One fell in half instantly; the other recoiled, its arm severed. Her movements were fluid, efficient, no wasted energy.
Varik moved against three at once. He didn’t dodge, he simply endured, his sword cleaving arcs so wide and heavy that the guardians broke against him like waves against stone. Each swing shattered limbs, bisected torsos. His presence was a wall they could not cross.
That left one barreling toward Lucen.
He smirked, raising his hand. [Shockweave Bolt!]
Electric arcs burst forward, slamming into the guardian’s torso. The thing convulsed, limbs spasming under the crackling current. Lucen followed instantly, thrusting forward. [Piercing Flare!]
The white spear of mana ripped into its chest, blasting a hole clean through. It staggered but didn’t fall. Black ichor oozed from the wound, sizzling as it hit the ground.
Lucen hissed between his teeth. "Persistent bastard."
The guardian swung a massive limb down. Lucen rolled aside, heat flaring under his skin. [Ignition Burst!]
Flame roared upward in a dome, engulfing the creature. Its screech was shrill, inhuman, echoing like nails on glass.
Still, it pushed through, burning but relentless.
Lucen’s grin sharpened. "Alright then. Let’s overdo it."
He raised both hands, mana coiling wildly. [Cataclysm Vector!]
The ground beneath the guardian ruptured. A surge of directional force slammed it upward into the air, flipping its massive frame before driving it back into the ground with brutal force. The stone cracked under the impact.
The thing twitched once. Twice. Then stilled.
Lucen exhaled, chest heaving. His system pinged.
[Level Up — 32.]
[Mana Pool Increased: +8.]
He blinked, a grin tugging at his lips despite himself. "Not bad."
But the chamber wasn’t quiet.
The relic pulsed. Once. Twice.
Then the floor itself began to split.
Selindra froze mid-strike, her blade still buried in a guardian’s chest. Varik turned sharply, sword angled low, eyes locked on the dais.
From beneath the sphere, a figure rose. Not flesh. Not crystal. Not human.
It had a vaguely humanoid shape, four limbs, a head, a torso, but its form was carved of shifting black stone, etched with abyssal glyphs. Its face was a void, no features, only two burning crimson points where eyes should be.
Lucen’s system screamed warnings he could barely read.
[Final Guardian Detected.]
[Power Signature: Abyssal SS-Tier.]
[Recommendation: Flee.]
Lucen muttered, throat dry. "Yeah. Sure. Just outrun the end of the world. Easy."
The guardian moved. Not rushed, just a single step. But the entire chamber quaked, dust falling from the ceiling.
Selindra drew back beside Varik, blade leveled. "This isn’t in the records."
Varik’s voice was iron. "Doesn’t matter."
Lucen swallowed, flexing his fingers as mana pooled desperately in his veins. "Cool. Guess I’m support fire, then."
The abyssal guardian raised one arm. The glyphs across its body flared, and the vault answered, every etched mark in the walls lighting in response.
The fight hadn’t even started, but Lucen’s heart was already hammering so hard it hurt.
’SS-tier,’ he thought, forcing his grin wider, hiding the tremor in his hands. ’And here I am, level thirty-fucking-two.’
He raised his hands anyway.
"Alright, big guy. Let’s dance."