The Final Castle stood as the sole structure atop the Final Plateau.
Compared with the Lich Towers and other Twilight Forest dungeons the group had passed, this fortress felt immeasurably grander.
Its subsidiary keeps formed a ring around the central citadel, much like satellite fortifications surrounding a capital city.
The primary tower speared straight into the cloud layer, its stonework a pristine white that lent it a strangely dignified beauty.
It must once have belonged to a civilization with its own brilliance and history.
Now, though its walls were wrapped in dense brambles, it did not appear ruined, merely lonely, abandoned by time.
The party stood before the castle's main gate, directly opposite the central tower.
Strange blue runes seemed to trace the exterior walls, but a closer look revealed that the "symbols" were merely colored bricks.
"It looks like the capital of some magnificent ancient kingdom, left to rot," Lumine murmured, though her grip tightened on her weapon.
"Places like this scream danger. But it does fit the vibe of a Twilight Forest final boss."
Tartaglia's eyes gleamed with excitement. He scanned every shadow, clearly alert for an ambush.
Ryen was equally cautious.
He drew both a machine gun and a spell staff before stepping forward.
"Stay sharp. I know roughly what kind of monsters spawn in the Final Castle… but the final boss? I have no idea.
Prepare for combat. We'll clear the outer rooms first."
He turned slightly.
"The main hall contains Armored Giants, stronger than the ones outside. We'll delete them with heavy firepower. No reason to take risks."
Ganyu tilted her head.
"Ryen… the Armored Giants are the same as the giant warriors we fought earlier?"
"That's right," he replied with a nod.
"Fully plated, wielding giant swords. Taking one down guarantees a sword drop.
But inside the Final Castle, their numbers can spike. I don't know how many will spawn here."
This castle felt… wrong. Far stranger than Ryen remembered.
The module had clearly been altered, expanded by the system itself.
Better to assume each person might be forced to solo a giant.
The group exchanged a silent look, braced themselves, and crossed the threshold.
The moment they stepped past the gate, an oppressive weight closed around their minds, a sensation as if something terrifying in the depths of the castle had set its eyes on them.
Ryen's expression darkened.
If anyone dared claim the Final Castle had no boss now, he would fight them on the spot.
"System," he muttered inwardly,
"before I left the last world, the Twilight Forest final boss wasn't even implemented yet.
Don't tell me you went and handmade your own."
The system did not answer.
But its silence spoke loudly enough: Ryen already knew.
This module was no longer behaving like "static programming."
It was evolving on its own.
"Ryen…"
Ganyu tugged lightly on his sleeve and pointed ahead, her gaze tense.
Inside the vast central hall stood over twenty Armored Giants.
Their hulking silhouettes loomed like iron towers.
Every one of them carried a giant sword, iron armor plates clattering as they shifted.
Their attack power was high. Their health pools were enormous.
Ordinarily, they were enemies to be focused down with overwhelming firepower.
But twenty at once?
Worse, they were standing so tightly together that isolating them was impossible.
The moment a fight broke out, all twenty would rush as a pack.
Barely inside the castle, and trouble had already arrived.
Ryen exhaled slowly. After a brief thought, he murmured:
"One per person… possible?"
Lumine raised her light machine gun with a bright grin.
"If I can use rockets, yes."
Ryen hesitated, then nodded.
"So long as you don't destroy the floor, and you can guarantee you'll hit only giants, go ahead."
Without further comment, Lumine slung the RPG launcher from her back.
Ryen lifted his own gun.
"Open fire."
In the next heartbeat, a storm of bullets roared through the hall, shredding the silence.
The giants reacted quickly.
Even under the barrage, they pushed forward, armored frames shrugging off the incoming rounds as they charged.
"Spread out! Maintain crossfire!"
Ryen called out sharply.
He scooped up Nahida, Klee, and Paimon in one sweeping motion and dashed sideways to reposition.
Under normal circumstances, their concentrated fire could shred a Lich King, let alone a group of giants.
But the problem wasn't toughness,
it was numbers.
Gunfire crackled through the hall.
Fortunately, because the giants were tall targets, everyone aimed upwards; no risk of friendly fire.
Ryen checked the trio of small figures clinging to him, Nahida nestled in his arm, Klee gripping his sleeve, Paimon perched on his shoulder firing her tiny elemental rounds with absolute seriousness.
Then he swapped to his master-tier staff, leveled it toward the densest cluster of giants, and intoned:
"Black Hole"
A blood-red blast of thunder detonated, swallowing four or five giants instantly.
That seemed to snap everyone into full rhythm.
Machine guns rattled relentlessly.
Rockets streaked across the air.
Spell staffs erupted with every manner of area spell, thunder blossoms, flame bursts, frost vortexes.
Though the giants were many, the group's coordination and sheer arsenal were overwhelming.
One by one, the giants collapsed into smoke.
After four or five minutes of nonstop firefights, the final armored giant crumpled and vanished.
The floor, however, was left cratered and torn.
From one of the pits, an unmistakable crackling echoed upward.
The sound of a Blaze.
"There are Blazes down here?"
Ningguang stepped beside Ryen, her tone curious.
Ryen nodded with a small smile.
"The Final Castle has a basement.
Blazes spawn there.
But this time, I think we shouldn't rush down to kill them."
"We already have Blaze spawners back in the Nether; Blaze Rods aren't exactly scarce for us."
Ningguang nodded in agreement, then glanced across the floor where giant swords lay scattered in piles.
"With this many giant swords, Azhdaha won't be short on weapons for a long while."
Azhdaha, who had been cheerfully gathering the colossal blades, nodded with satisfaction.
"Twenty-plus giant swords… enough to last quite a while. Although… could you all help me store some?
My inventory space is full."
Cloud Retainer and the others stepped forward, placing sword after sword into their personal backpacks.
"When we return to Teyvat, we'll need to build a dedicated domain to store these," she remarked lightly.
"There's no sensible way to keep them otherwise."
Ryen had already walked ahead, stopping before the staircase that spiraled to the very top of the main tower.
He stood quietly, fingers touching his chin, thinking.
Lisa approached with soft steps.
"You're not planning to explore the side towers this time?"
Ryen shook his head.
"There's no point. The side towers never contain truly valuable loot.
What matters is the final monster at the top of the main tower.
That's the only objective worth our time."
He turned to the group.
"Make sure your hunger bars are full and your health is topped off. And… Cloud Retainer."
Hearing her name again, Cloud Retainer rolled her eyes.
"I know, I know. I'll stay down here and watch the children.
You all go up."
Ryen grinned.
"You really are a seasoned babysitter now."
Cloud Retainer clicked her tongue.
"Next time we run the Twilight Forest, someone else is taking over.
I haven't even seen half the dangerous zone monsters myself."
"Next time," Ryen promised. "Thank you for this run."
He gestured toward the hall.
"No monsters spawn here for now. Stay with Klee and the little ones.
If anything goes wrong, evacuate out of the Final Castle immediately.
The outside mobs are only goblins and endermen variants, nothing you can't handle."
With a lazy wave, Cloud Retainer gathered the children and began constructing a small obsidian safe-room against a wall.
These impromptu bunkers had become something like her personal specialty.
Once the obsidian chamber was complete, Ryen crouched to rub Klee's and Nahida's heads.
"Wait here, alright? When we're done, we'll take you home."
Klee wrapped her arms around him with earnest warmth.
"Be careful, Ryen! Klee will be good and wait!"
For a moment he felt like a father heading off to work, leaving his daughters safely at home.
He chuckled and finally led the team up the staircase.
The Final Castle was riddled with dangers.
On the first floor, they had faced Armored Giants.
On the second, they encountered cultists, goblins, and even several Druid mages.
Compared with the giants, these foes were easier to dispatch.
In fact, Ei, Eula, and several others had been hoping to find Druids, each kill meant spellbooks, reagents, and rare drops.
After clearing the second floor, the group reached an unusual chamber.
According to Ryen, it was a parkour section, an odd term for most of the group, who were unfamiliar with such concepts.
But the layout, floating blocks, awkward jumps, narrow ledges, was easy enough for fighters of their caliber.
Beyond the parkour rooms lay an area made entirely of glowing, monochrome tiles.
"Stance Blocks," Ryen called them.
He didn't actually know what they did.
He harvested several anyway, Albedo could figure it out later.
Nearly half an hour later, after navigating convoluted staircases and narrow bridges, the group finally reached the top floor.
Here, the architecture changed entirely.
Purple stance-fields covered the ground, and the surrounding bricks were carved with strange, shimmering runes.
The oppressive sensation, the invisible gaze that had been stalking them since they entered the castle, vanished.
Yet no one relaxed; instead they drew closer together.
"This world's final creature…" Zhongli murmured, gripping his trident.
From somewhere in the darkness ahead, he sensed a lethal presence, quiet, but monstrous.
"So there is something here after all."
Ryen's voice tightened.
"I don't know its abilities.
I don't know its attack patterns.
We have no intel. So, "
Lumine grinned.
"So we rely on our own combat instincts, right?"
Ryen nodded silently.
A faint sound echoed from the dark, a slow, almost casual set of footsteps.
Then a figure emerged.
It was about as tall as they were.
Deep navy skin.
A beast-like dog head.
Hu Tao blinked.
"…A goblin?"
But Ryen's expression froze.
Through the system, he could see the creature's stats.
A number hovered above its head, a number he had never seen in the Twilight Forest before.
1024 HP.
The strongest goblin ever generated by the module…
and the final guardian of the Final Castle.
~~----------------------
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