Chapter 96: He’s Still Alive

Chapter 93

Katherine landed a short distance away, her feet touching the air before she gently lowered herself toward the battlefield.

For a brief moment, she managed to remain standing, her sword hanging loosely in her hand as her blonde hair drifted around her bloodied face. The emerald flames surrounding her blade gradually faded until nothing remained of their brilliant glow.

She had done it.

She had finally killed the dungeon boss.

But the thought had barely formed in her mind when her legs gave way, forcing her to collapse onto one knee.

"Kh... cough! Cough!"

Katherine coughed violently, blood spilling from her mouth and dripping onto the ground beneath her.

Her body was in a terrible state. Her armor had been wrecked, its once-pristine surface torn apart by countless attacks. Several pieces had broken away completely, exposing the injuries beneath, and in some places, the damage was so severe that the ends of broken bones could be seen protruding beneath her ruined armor.

Her back was a mess of pain, and her ribs had sustained devastating injuries. Every attempt to draw a full breath sent another wave of agony through her chest, making it increasingly difficult to breathe.

If not for the extraordinary constitution of an Elite-Level warrior, she would have died long ago. Even so, her condition was rapidly deteriorating.

Her healing potions were exhausted, her mana pool was completely dry, and her last attack had consumed nearly everything she had left. Even if she had possessed another healing potion, it wouldn’t have been enough to restore her from such a terrible state.

She needed proper medical attention, and she needed it immediately.

Katherine’s emerald eyes slowly began to lose their light. Her once-radiant features had turned deathly pale, and her breathing grew weaker as the loss of blood continued to take its toll. She could feel her strength slipping away, and her fingers gradually loosened around her sword.

Yet, despite everything, she slowly turned her head toward the headless corpse of the monster she had slain.

A faint smile appeared on her face.

At least that bastard had died by her hands. At least the monster that had threatened the city had finally been brought down, and the survivors would be safe now.

That was what mattered.

Even if she couldn’t survive, even if she had to pay for this victory with her life, she had done what she had set out to do. She had fought until the very end, and she had won.

Katherine’s smile lingered as she watched the monster’s headless corpse lying motionless on the ground.

The seconds slowly ticked by, and the battlefield remained silent. But as the moments passed, the smile on her face gradually faded, replaced by a subtle frown.

Something was wrong.

Terribly, dangerously wrong.

Her gaze shifted toward the system interface.

Why hadn’t she received a notification confirming the death of the Webfiend Lord?

She had slain it with her own sword, cutting its head off. There was no way she could have mistaken what had happened, yet the system had remained silent.

Katherine’s heart began to pound as a dreadful possibility slowly crept into her mind, one she desperately didn’t want to believe.

There was only one explanation she could think of for the system’s silence.

The dungeon boss...

Was still alive.

BA-DUMP! BA-DUMP!

Her heart slammed against her chest as she stared at the headless corpse, unable to tear her gaze away while the terrible realization settled over her.

Then it happened.

The corpse moved.

At first, it was only a slight twitch, a small movement that might have been dismissed as the final reflex of a dying creature. But the headless body soon began to rise, moving slowly and deliberately, as though the death it had just suffered were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

Katherine’s eyes widened.

"No..."

The words escaped her lips as a whisper.

The Webfiend Lord’s neck began to change. Grotesque tissues emerged from the severed stump, writhing and twisting as though countless living things were struggling beneath its skin. New organs began to form, their wet surfaces glistening in the light as they grew and merged together.

Flesh intertwined with web-like structures, and the mass expanded and twisted until it gradually molded itself into a new shape.

Before Katherine’s horrified eyes, another head began to form.

The transformation was swift. Within moments, the grotesque head had taken shape, its skull once again covered in countless eyes. One after another, those eyes began to open.

Click.

Click.

Click.

The sounds were faint, but to Katherine, each one seemed as loud as a death knell. The creature’s countless eyes turned toward her, their depths glowing with an intense, blood-red light.

The satisfaction that had once filled them was gone, replaced by unrestrained rage.

"I WILL KILL YOU!"

The Webfiend Lord’s voice erupted across the battlefield. Its roar was so deep, guttural, and deafening that the very ground seemed to tremble beneath it.

Katherine stared at the monster, unable to find the strength to react for a moment.

She had given everything she possessed, every ounce of strength, every drop of mana, and every remaining fragment of her stamina. She had endured injuries that should have killed her, fought through unbearable pain, and unleashed her strongest attack in a desperate attempt to end the battle.

And now, the monster had simply grown its head back.

A small, helpless smile appeared on Katherine’s face.

"So... this is where my story ends."

Her voice was barely audible.

She had tried her best. She really had.

But what kind of abomination could survive having its head severed, only to grow another one moments later? What kind of monster was she supposed to defeat when even her strongest attack couldn’t guarantee its death?

Katherine lowered her gaze, her body barely capable of moving. She had no mana left, no healing potions, and no strength to launch another attack.

Worse still, the Webfiend Lord was already charging toward her.

The monster didn’t waste another second. Its scythe and spear appeared in its hands, the silvery weapons forming from its webstrings as it rushed forward with murderous intent.

It wanted to tear the annoying human apart, slice her into pieces, and make her regret ever daring to challenge it.

The distance between them disappeared rapidly until the Webfiend Lord loomed over Katherine, its towering figure casting a shadow across her battered body.

She kept her head lowered, her emerald eyes dim and her breathing faint, before slowly closing them.

She had accepted her fate.

Her death.

She had done everything she could, and there was nothing left.

Yet the stinging pain she expected to feel as the monster’s weapons struck her never came. Neither did the eternal darkness she had imagined would follow.

Instead, a sudden, violent sound tore through the air.

BOOOOOOM!

Something had struck the Webfiend Lord with enormous force, sending its body flying backward at terrifying speed until it crashed into the side of a tall tree.

CRAAACK!

The impact snapped the tree’s thick branches in two. The Webfiend Lord’s massive body tore through the foliage before finally disappearing into the distance.

For a moment, Katherine could only stare, her eyes unfocused as her mind struggled to process what had just happened.

What...?

What had happened?

Who had sent the dungeon boss flying like that?

She tried to lift her head, but even that simple movement felt like an enormous burden. Her vision blurred before slowly clearing, and then she saw them.

Two figures had landed approximately a metre away from her.

Both were dressed in identical white outfits, and both possessed pure white hair that seemed almost luminous beneath the daylight. Their height, stature, and general appearance were practically identical, making them look like exact copies of each other.

They stood side by side with relaxed postures, as though they hadn’t just sent a terrifying dungeon boss flying with a single attack.

Katherine stared at them through her unfocused eyes.

Twins...?

The thought drifted through her exhausted mind. Were they twin warriors? Had two powerful warriors finally arrived to help her?

But when the two figures turned toward her, Katherine caught sight of their eyes.

Both possessed the same multicoloured irises, shimmering with a majestic light that seemed to contain countless hues. There was something deeply soothing about their presence, an inexplicable sense of calm that spread through the surrounding atmosphere despite the battle that had just taken place.

Their eyes were identical, their faces were identical, and even their expressions seemed almost perfectly synchronized.

One of the figures stepped forward slightly before both spoke at precisely the same moment.

"Rest now... we’ll take it from here."

Katherine’s thoughts shifted as she studied them more carefully.

No. Something wasn’t right.

The longer she looked at them, the more certain she became that these two weren’t twins at all. In fact, she had a strange feeling that they were one and the same person.

They shared the same aura, the same eyes, and the same voice. It was as though she were looking at a single individual standing in two different places at once.

Her exhausted mind struggled to make sense of it, but before she could think any further, one of the white-haired figures slowly turned his head toward the direction in which the Webfiend Lord had been sent flying.

His multicoloured eyes gleamed.

A second later, a powerful, mind-numbing growl erupted from the distance.

The dungeon boss was still alive, and it was furious.

Orion’s calm face slowly broke into a small smile.