Chapter 230: You can call me Mummy

All the torn pages of countless skill books slowly lit up around Kaelen and began swirling around him in a spiralling pattern.

It first began with a small wave, but as Kaelen tore more skill books and tossed them to the side—Mythic Skill Books, Divine Skill Books—a tsunami began forming around Kaelen like a spear of judgement.

It stretched so long and wide that it reached the surface of the water, while its tip descended upon the approaching army of merfolk and tore through their ranks.

It didn’t stop there. The tsunami drew bolts of lightning from the dark clouds above and pulled them underwater to form an electrifying current.

Whatever was caught up in the waves was instantly gnawed away by the terrifying bolts. Nothing could survive its current, and the sea had already parted in the middle of the tsunami, where Kaelen was now afloat as the storm raged all around him, flashing different colours from the various elements of all the skill books that had been used.

It was a kill zone.

Kaelen immediately steered the tip of the tsunami straight towards the castle below. Watching all this happen, the merfolk guarding the outskirts of the castle took to their tails and ran. But the storm was faster than they could swim.

SKD and the dragons weren’t idle either.

They fed the tsunami with their fiery breath, which disintegrated whatever was caught inside.

A series of kill notifications flashed across his vision. The Evolution Points didn’t come in millions. They came in trillions.

[You have killed a subject of the Sea Emperor]

[10,000× Reward Multiplier Triggered...]

[You have received 1,200,000,000,000 Evolution Points]

[You have received 600,000,000,000 Evolution Points from the Book of Kaelen]

[You have killed a subject of the Sea Emperor]

[10,000× Reward Multiplier Triggered...]

[You have received 1,500,000,000,000 Evolution Points]

[You have received 750,000,000,000 Evolution Points from the Book of Kaelen]

[You have killed a subject of the Sea Emperor]

[10,000× Reward Multiplier Triggered...]

[You have received 1,800,000,000,000 Evolution Points]

[You have received 900,000,000,000 Evolution Points from the Book of Kaelen]

[You have received (276) loot bundles]

[10,000× Reward Multiplier Triggered...]

[Quality or Quantity?]

At this point, it was obvious that Kaelen had the utmost advantage. Once the tsunami hit the castle, it was going to rip it right off its foundation and destroy everything within it.

When that happened, the first clear of the Eighth Floor would be his.

The battle was already won.

...

Kaelen suddenly widened his eyes as a sharp pain tore through his chest, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

At the same time, the tsunami began collapsing and losing its structure due to the lack of mana sustaining the skills.

Kaelen had exhausted his mana pool.

For the first time, he felt the side effects of losing Infinite Mana, and watching everything collapse before it even reached the castle where the merfolk had hidden away was like watching everything crash down with it.

"No..." Kaelen refused to accept it.

He dove straight into the tornado rings before anyone could stop him.

"Milord!" SKD shouted in shock.

The moment Kaelen stepped through, he was instantly struck by the full brunt of his own power.

The lightning. The flames. The destructive skills in the mix.

All of it came down on Kaelen as though he had stolen from the heavens.

His plan wasn’t to dance in the rings like a sadist, though. That would kill him. His plan was to swim across, accumulate all the damage, and take it straight down to the enemy.

And that was what he did.

He had never swum before, but he kept moving no matter how hard and painful it was to advance. His skin peeled and bled, but he gritted his teeth through it all, tore straight through the rings, and made a lightning-fast dash for the castle below.

SKD and the shadow summons quickly arrived behind him, and at the same time, the merfolk charged out of the castle in overwhelming numbers.

"Protect the Lord with your lives!" SKD shouted to the army, and they sped past him and Kaelen, using their heavy weight to their advantage to intercept the merfolk warriors.

Kaelen didn’t stop or engage with them.

He headed straight for the castle, and anyone who dared block his path was cut down by the Supreme Elder Dragon.

As the castle drew closer, Kaelen flew straight towards the most prominent building in the city, went straight through a window, and shattered it on impact like a falling star.

He fell straight into a lavish hall that held a throne and several knights waiting for him.

SKD charged in right after him and, without waiting for orders, dashed straight for the order of knights and began clashing swords with every one of them without letting anyone get past him.

Kaelen set his eyes on the figure seated on the throne and raised his hands.

"Maw of Annihilation!"

Lightning bolts and several other elements left his body and swirled straight into the colossal spectral maw that appeared before him.

The base damage, plus 50% of all the damage incurred in the tsunami rings. All of it was aimed at the figure sitting arrogantly on the throne.

"You have made a grave mistake, human—"

"Die."

Without waiting for it to finish its villainous monologue, Kaelen clasped his hands together, and the Maw of Annihilation shot forward at an incredible speed.

The figure didn’t panic. It calmly raised its staff, and a dome materialised around it.

"You’ll need more than that to kill a—"

Boooooooooom—!!!

A powerful shockwave from the clash shattered everything within the throne room, sending fragments of a familiar dome across the floor.

Kaelen shielded his eyes and waited for a moment.

Nothing happened. No kill notification.

He was about to step forward when a figure suddenly shot out from the explosion, heading towards him with a dagger and an ugly expression.

"Die!" the figure yelled in fury.

Kaelen was caught off guard, as not only had the boss survived, but it was also incredibly fast.

The figure closed the distance between them in an instant, its dagger raised above its head. But just as it arrived before Kaelen, it suddenly froze on the spot, and its eyes slowly widened in terror.

It slowly looked down at the hand sticking out of its chest, with its heart still beating, freshly ripped out of its body and resting in the perpetrator’s palm, whose fingers were coloured with blood.

Kaelen was stunned and tilted his head to see the uninvited guest standing behind the final boss.

It was a familiar face, yet the look on their face was something he didn’t recognise.

"...Saha?" Kaelen asked in confusion.

"Nah. My name’s Hara... or you can call me Mummy," she said with a maniacal grin as the water inside the throne room began drifting out.