Chapter 286: [Freedom Dove] - Nerio’s part (38)
The others had just crawled out of the pile of cotton candy. Hearing Luis say that, they couldn’t help but pause for a moment, faces full of speechless disbelief.
The entire dungeon was now wrapped in mountains of candy, radiating an overwhelmingly sweet scent. Even the red hue in the sky faded a little.
Just moments ago, they had nearly been buried alive. The candy mountains had protected them, but now their bodies were covered in sticky syrup, making them feel unpleasantly clammy.
Still, it didn’t matter—at least they were alive, though their condition was far from good.
Bella and Susan were both unconscious, while the others were covered in wounds upon wounds, their strength completely spent. In the sky above, however, a fierce battle was still raging.
Leonard flapped his wings, his gaze cold and unyielding. Ever since Bella had unleashed her ability, he could no longer hear Lucian’s voice in his mind. His thoughts, for the first time, felt clear.
Just then, Luther’s toes suddenly split apart, transforming into sharp, poison-coated arrows glowing with a cold blue-black light that shot straight toward Leonard!
Leonard’s great wings beat once, releasing a surge of energy that exploded outward, blocking the deadly arrows.
At the same time, he spread his arms wide, and a blazing spear appeared in his hands—its flames set a portion of the sky ablaze.
His wings unfurled further, and flames began to crawl across his body like silkworms consuming leaves, soon engulfing him.
Leonard’s lips curved upward. Lucian was perhaps assimilating him, but for the first time, he felt an intoxicating sense that he could sweep away everything before him.
His wings spread even wider, growing until his wingspan exceeded ten meters, blotting out a portion of the sky.
He lifted the flaming spear, the fire growing ever fiercer, so hot that even he felt his arms were burning.
An illusory image of the spear appeared, its tip aimed straight at Luther.
In contrast, Luther seemed almost pitifully small.
The spider legs behind his back suddenly tensed, then burst into motion, his body shrouded in swirling red-black smoke.
As though infused with new energy, the spider legs surged and twisted together, forming a pair of skeletal wings—massive, and in no way inferior to Leonard’s angelic ones.
[They look like two male peacocks trying to show off whose tail is prettier...]
[We’re in an intense battle, and that’s what you’re commenting on?!]
[Whoever’s got the bigger wings wins, simple as that!]
[Hahaha, please stop, I’m trying to watch this seriously!]
[When will they add a "hide comments" feature?]
[When you stop commenting on yourself.]
[...]
A blazing red light split down the middle of Luther’s body, from his chin all the way to his groin, before tearing open!
A massive blade began to emerge—nearly a meter wide and seven meters long!
It shot out, carrying chunks of Luther’s flesh and blood.
Even his twisted face couldn’t hide his pain, yet he was laughing—as if this sacrifice was something he took pride in.
The enormous blade pointed skyward, radiating a torrent of dark energy.
Leonard smirked. "That filthy, slimy darkness of yours belongs in the sewers. But it’s fine—my flames were made to burn away filth like you!"
He raised his arm, muscles tightening, and his spear sliced through the air, cutting open space in a blinding streak of light that shot straight toward Luther!
Luther’s blade surged upward to meet it head-on!
The sky seemed to split in two—crimson clouds were torn apart, revealing a glimpse of clear blue beyond.
The two streaks of light collided like twin bolts of lightning!
For a split second, the entire world seemed to fall silent.
The humans below stared wide-eyed at the sky until Luis shouted, "Damian! Protect everyone!"
Damian flinched—then the entire dungeon began to quake violently. The sky rippled like a glitched screen, the scene trembling and warping.
The shockwave was so strong that buildings collapsed, the ground split open, rocks and debris lifted into the air like gravity had stopped working.
[Holy shit, that was insane!]
[Luther’s been burned to ashes!]
[Wait, wasn’t it Leonard who just got skewered?]
[Ha, seriously? There are still people hoping the monster wins?]
[Leonard can’t lose.]
That comment sounded almost prophetic. The blinding light in the sky gradually faded, and from the ashes of their clash, Luther’s body—now little more than a charred black skeleton—fell from the heavens!
Though his body wasn’t large, the impact carved out a deep crater over two meters wide, with cracks spiderwebbing in all directions.
Up above, Leonard’s shoulder and one of his wings had collapsed entirely, charred and burned down to exposed, smoking flesh. Blood dripped steadily from the wounds.
His face, half-eaten away by fire, revealed bone underneath—even that was still flickering with small flames. Just looking at him made one’s skin crawl in pain.
The group, led by Damian, finally crawled out of the dust cloud, still trembling with fear. They’d all have been wiped out if they had been a second slower!
What kind of battle was that supposed to be?!
Boom!
Leonard landed heavily, and though he only had one wing left, the gust it created swept through the area, clearing away rubble and dust until the ground around him was bare and flat.
Damian and the others were blasted backward, their faces blackened with dirt, but they didn’t even have the strength left to curse.
Staring ahead, Damian muttered, "So... we won, right...?"
At this point, the only one who could still speak was Luis.
He sat on the ground, brows furrowed, voice low and tense. "The dungeon’s system notification hasn’t triggered."
That shouldn’t have been the case. According to Luis’s observation, the monster Bella had taken down should’ve been the main boss of this dungeon.
Even if they hadn’t completed every objective, the dungeon should’ve closed once the boss died.
Unless... there was another possibility—something greater than Tom, even Luther.
[What the hell’s going on? We’ve never seen a sequence like this before!]
[Plot twist—Tom’s actually still alive.]
[No! He can’t come back after making me cry! I refuse to accept that!]
[Haha!]
[Wait—did anyone else notice that Luther just moved?]
[What? He’s literally just a skeleton now!]
[Monsters, man—what the actual hell...]
Bzzz... crackle... ssshhh...
[What the fuck?! Hey! What’s wrong with this damned stream?!]
From the viewers’ perspective, the scene suddenly distorts—like a broken TV screen flickering and glitching. Their voices barely had time to rise in alarm before the display went completely dark.
At that exact moment, inside the dungeon, Luther’s skeletal remains twitched—and then, crooked and trembling, began to stand.
Its warped frame looked like it could topple at any second, yet the hollow sockets of its eyes turned toward the humans.
Its body began to shudder in a grotesque rhythm, the rattling sound of bone echoing sharply through the silence.