Chapter 422 - 422: One Step Away

The true avatar in its current state was already menacing enough, but a closer look made it even worse. Some of the tentacles had mouths.

Rows of uneven teeth covered their undersides, while human lips opened between them and whispered in languages unknown to any of them. Some cried for help. Others laughed. A few repeatedly spoke Alexander's name. It was a truly unnerving sight.

[That's horrendous]

[The sound it's making is hurting my ears]

[I actually got goosebumps looking at it]

Lucen could not help but admire the design in an old game with outdated graphics. In fact, the outdated graphics somehow made the monster look even more eerie.

It reminded Lucen of a few cosmic horror films he had watched before. In the cutscene, Alexander heard the voices coming from the mouths of the true avatar that sounded like his fallen comrades.

"Alex, why are you still alive?"

"Alex, why didn't you save us?"

"I thought you would protect us no matter what."

"You failed us."

"Alex, it hurts, it hurts so much."

"You liar!"

Alexander lowered his head as the voices echoed in his mind, and his grip around Varkun's Greatsword loosened.

The voices grew louder in his mind. Some begged him to save them. Others cursed him for surviving when they had died.

The faces moving beneath the true avatar's skin changed to match the voices, becoming the people Alexander had buried throughout his journey.

The true avatar leaned closer. A woman's face emerged from its chest and opened her eyes. "You left us behind."

Alexander closed his eyes, but then his grip on his sword had tightened. "You might sound like them, but you aren't them!"

Alexander opened his eyes as he entered true burst mode. "They were strong both in heart and body. They will never say such things!"

Golden light erupted from the cracks in Kalderos's Masterpiece. It flowed across Alexander's battered armor like molten sunlight, burning away the black mist surrounding him.

The true avatar recoiled. The mouths covering its tentacles fell silent, but only for a moment. Then they began laughing with the voices of Alexander's fallen companions.

The woman's face stretched across its chest. Her eyes sank into two hollow pits, while her smile widened until the sides of her mouth split apart.

"Enough tricks, monster! It's time to end this!"

The true avatar answered by opening every mouth at once. No scream came from them. Instead, all sound disappeared.

The violet flames stopped crackling. Pieces of falling stone hung motionless in the air. Even the golden light surrounding Alexander seemed to slow as an invisible pressure descended upon the battlefield.

Alexander shifted his stance, yet his armor made no sound. It was as though the true avatar had stripped the entire world of its voice. The darkness behind the true avatar opened.

Countless pale eyes appeared within it. Some were small enough to resemble distant stars, while others were so vast that Alexander's reflection could be seen inside their colorless pupils. The eyes stared down at him.

[Is this game really from a decade ago?]

[F*ck that's creepy]

[It's like something straight out of the Cthulhu Mythos]

Lucen did not comment as he was so engrossed with the cutscene.

The eyes blinked one after another. Every time one closed, the battlefield changed.

For an instant, Alexander stood among the ruins of a burning kingdom. Another blink placed him upon a mountain of corpses wearing the faces of his companions. With the next, the ground disappeared completely, leaving him suspended beneath an endless sky filled with pale eyes.

Then everything returned to normal. The true avatar extended one hand toward him.

Its fingers appeared to cross the battlefield without moving. They grew larger within Alexander's vision until they seemed capable of closing around the entire world.

Alexander lowered Varkun's Greatsword and charged. His first step restored sound, and the ground broke beneath his boot.

Golden light streamed from his armor as he crossed the battlefield, looking like a falling star beneath that horrifying sky.

The true avatar drew back its black blade, and the two weapons collided. A deafening impact shook the screen. Golden and black light exploded between Alexander and the avatar, tearing apart the ground surrounding them.

Alexander was forced backward, but he remained standing. Several tentacles attacked from behind. Their mouths opened wide enough to reveal darkness filled with distant stars.

Alexander turned and severed the first tentacle. Golden flames burst from the wound, burning through the mouths that had been speaking with the voices of his fallen companions.

The avatar's black blade swept toward him again. Alexander raised Varkun's Greatsword. The two clashed, and Alexander got pushed back. It was at this moment that the camera returned behind Alexander, telling Lucen the cutscene was over.

The true avatar attacked before Alexander had recovered. Lucen made Alexander sidestep, evading the black blade. It passed over Alexander's body and struck the ground, splitting what remained of the battlefield.

Several tentacles descended immediately afterward. The mouths covering them abruptly stopped whispering.

Lucen remembered what had happened during the cutscene. Alexander jumped as the tentacles crossed the battlefield without moving. Their mouths snapped shut beneath him and swallowed another section of the ground.

"Sh*t things are getting tight."

[Those things are eating space!]

[The battlefield is almost gone!]

Lucen was close enough to the true avatar to deal significant damage. He used Thalara's Judgment to put most of his points into strength and his AP to use Alexander's strongest aura skill.

The change took effect immediately. His agility had dropped considerably, but the strength behind every movement became great enough to crack the ground beneath his feet.

The remaining aura inside his body gathered around Varkun's Greatsword.

"It's time for an all-or-nothing attack!"

The true avatar seemed to understand the danger.

Every face covering its body turned toward Alexander. Their mouths opened, and the voices of his dead companions overlapped in a desperate chorus.

"Stop."

"You cannot win."

"You will die here."

"Come and join us."

The pale eyes behind the avatar narrowed. Several tentacles became silent and crossed the battlefield without moving.

Alexander no longer possessed enough agility to avoid them all, but that didn't matter as Lucen decided to attack. He was going to use Alexander's ultimate move, which consumes almost all of Alexander's AP.

Seeing as the health bar of the true avatar was slightly below twenty percent now, with Alexander's current strength stat, it was possible that the increase in power created by the skill would be enough to finish this final boss in style.

Lucen activated the skill. Almost all of Alexander's remaining aura rushed into Varkun's Greatsword. Golden flames erupted from the blade, rising high enough to illuminate the countless pale eyes watching from beyond the darkness.

The tentacles reached Alexander first. Their mouths closed around him from every direction. Some tore into Kalderos's Masterpiece, while others swallowed the ground beneath his feet.

Alexander swung Varkun's Greatsword with the usual skill animation. The golden blade passed through the tentacles without slowing. Black flesh split apart, crooked teeth shattered, and the stolen voices transformed into screams.

The true avatar rushed through the severed tentacles and brought its black sword down.

Alexander blocked the attack. The collision shattered the ground around his feet and forced him backward. His heel stopped at the very edge of the battlefield as broken pieces of stone fell into the void.

There was barely enough ground left for him to stand. He could no longer retreat, and with most of his agility sacrificed, avoiding the next attack would be nearly impossible.

The true avatar advanced across the narrow strip of land. Its remaining tentacles spread behind it, their mouths opening as the pale eyes in the darkness grew large enough to cover the sky.

Alexander raised Varkun's Greatsword. Lucen could only see one path to victory, and that was to defeat the true avatar head-on.

[Win this!]

[I'll gift you a thousand if you win this!]

Lucen did not have time to read the other messages, as he was glued to the battle on the screen, and his hands were sweating a bit.

The true avatar's black blade came down while the remaining tentacles attacked from both sides, leaving Alexander nowhere to evade.

Lucen did not have enough AP to use any powerful skills, so he used the most basic one of them all.

It was the aura-infused downward slash. The very first aura-related sword skill every player learned.

Lucen activated the skill. Alexander stepped forward instead of retreating. The tentacles closed around him, their teeth tearing into Kalderos's Masterpiece, but the armor and his HP endured long enough for him to complete the attack.

Varkun's Greatsword descended. The golden blade reached first, before the true avatar's sword hit Alexander.

Varkun's Greatsword struck the true avatar's chest before its black blade could reach Alexander.

The impact staggered the creature and knocked its attack off course. Its weapon struck the ground beside Alexander, while the golden slash tore through the avatar's body.

Its chest opened, revealing an endless darkness filled with dying stars. At the center floated a small black core.

"I f*cking got you!"

Lucen pressed the button for a normal attack. Alexander swung Varkun's Greatsword toward the exposed core.

The blade touched the darkness, but at that exact moment, the electricity went out.

Lucen's monitor died, his computer stopped, and the livestream was cut off before anyone could see the result.

He stared at the dead monitor. When the electricity returned and the computer began restarting, he finally screamed.

"Motherf*cking bullsh*t!"