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The darkness parted.
something vast began to rise.
Arthur felt it before he saw it.
A huge pressure, suffocating, primordial crashed into him like gravity. His boots ground into the bark-stone beneath his feet, shadows flaring instinctively around his body to keep him standing.
Then Nidhogg emerged.
Eight colossal heads rose one by one from the abyss, each carried on a serpentine thick necks, scales overlapping like layered plates etched with runes. Some scales glowed faintly, as if embers were trapped beneath them.
Its body was beyond comprehension coiled endlessly around the roots, gnawing into the World Tree itself. Each bite sent tremors through reality, splinters of bark the size of mountains cracking and falling into nothingness.
The heads were not identical.
One had jagged horns spiraling backward like a weird looking crown. Another had a maw split too wide, lined with interlocking fangs that never fully closed.
One dripped venom that hissed as it touched the roots. Another exhaled frost so cold it crystallized darkness itself. Eight minds. Eight hungers. One will.
Nidhogg's eyes, dozens of them, locked onto Arthur.
Arthur's breath slowed, controlled, but his pulse thundered in his ears. This wasn't the pressure of a god. This wasn't even the pressure of death.
This was a being beyond that.
The System chimed heavy,
CONDITION UPDATED.
[ Defeat Nidhogg completely
OR
Sever one head that contains the Primordial Darkness.]
Only one of the eight heads contains the Primordial Darkness.
The darkness is the necessary key to render your mortal vessel suitable to host the Black Heart.
Arthur exhaled through his nose.
"…Of course," he muttered. "I have to guess."
His eyes flared violet.
Enhanced vision surged layers upon layers of perception peeling back. Mana flows. Soul density. He scanned each head, searching for imbalance, for corruption deeper than the rest.
Nothing.
They all radiated the same impossible density. The very same. Whatever the Primordial Darkness was it was buried perfectly away fromthe grasp of any sort of super vision.
Arthur's jaw tightened.
"Not that easy huh," he said quietly.
Nidhogg answered.
All eight heads drew back
and screamed.
It wasn't sound alone.
It was conceptual violence.
The scream tore through the roots, through the abyss, through Arthur himself. The World Tree shuddered violently, cracks racing along its ancient bark. Arthur crossed his arms in front of his face as shadows exploded outward to shield him, the force still driving him back several steps.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
His ears rang.
His bones ached.
Arthur straightened slowly, wiping the blood away with his thumb. His smile was gone now replaced by something colder, sharper.
"…Yep," he said, voice steady despite the chaos around him.
"This isn't going to be easy."
Nidhogg's heads lowered in unison, jaws opening wide, darkness pooling in their throats as reality itself began to bend around them.
Arthur let the shadows rise.
Let the dungeon feel his intent.
"Come on then," he murmured, violet eyes burning brighter.
****
Nidhogg moved or rather charged commanding the space around him. All eight heads rose and spread in a terrible arc, forming a living crown of annihilation.
Arthur felt it an instant before it happened.
Power coiled.
The first head struck.
A beam of void-energy tore free from its maw pure absence given direction. It didn't burn or explode; it erased. Space folded inward around it, roots vanishing where it passed.
Arthur vanished in a blur, Speed Step carrying him sideways as the beam carved a canyon through the World Tree behind him.
The second head followed immediately.
White-gold light, blinding and absolute, lanced forward like divine judgment. Arthur skidded, planting his foot, shadows snapping upward as he raised a construct blade.
He split the beam in two.
Light got divided as shadow cleaved through it, the halves detonating on either side of him and showering the abyss with burning fragments.
The third head roared.
Black fire thick, viscous, crawling with screaming faces flooded the air. Arthur thrust both hands forward, shadows surging outward and forming a spiraling vortex. The fire was dragged into it, compressed, then hurled back into the darkness where it detonated uselessly.
The fourth head opened its jaws.
Frost poured out burning cold. The roots it touched cracked and died instantly. Arthur slammed his heel down, shadows hardening beneath him, anchoring his body as he phased partially out of the blast, the frost passing through his afterimage instead of his flesh.
The fifth head spat venomous lightning, jagged arcs that hunted him midair. Arthur's shadow ring glowed as he raised his hand, Shadow constructs forming floating barriers that intercepted the bolts, grounding them violently into the roots with thunderous cracks.
The sixth head unleashed a gravity pulse, invisible but crushing.
Arthur grunted as his body was slammed downward. He bent his knees, muscles screaming, then forced the pressure aside with Ruler's Authority, redirecting the crushing force into the ground beneath him. The bark-stone exploded into fragments, but he remained standing.
The seventh head inhaled.
Arthur didn't wait.
He surged forward flying towards it, his dark cloak snapping, shadows forming a spear in his hand as a sound-based blast erupted behind him so violent it shattered roots and sent shockwaves rippling through the abyss. Arthur rode the edge of it, barely escaping as the blast chased him.
He landed hard, boots skidding.
Seven attacks.
Seven narrowly avoided deaths.
His breathing was heavier now.
Then, the eighth head moved.
Arthur felt it too late.
No roar or charge.
Just a pulse.
A wave of something wrong a blend of shadow, corruption burst forward. Arthur threw his right arm up instinctively, shadows forming into a barrier.
Too slow.
The blast hit.
Pain exploded.
Arthur was hurled backward, crashing through twisted roots before slamming into the bark-stone floor. His barrier shattered like glass. Smoke rose from his arm.
He rolled once and stopped on one knee, clutching his right hand.
The shadows around it flickered.
His hand was burned badly. His veins glowing faintly violet as if resisting total annihilation. Blood dripped, sizzling where it hit the ground.
Arthur stared at it for half a second.
Then he looked up.
Nidhogg loomed closer now, massive heads descending, jaws dripping with power, eyes fixed on him with a cold look.
Arthur clenched his teeth, forcing his hand to steady.
"…This thing," he muttered, voice low, controlled despite the pain, "is seriously powerful."
He exhaled slowly.
"Much more than anything I've ever faced."
The dungeon's oppressive rules pressed against his awareness.
"One mistake," he continued, eyes narrowing, "and I'd be a corpse here."
His gaze flicked briefly to the empty space behind him where his legion should have been.
"And the dungeon rule still holds," he said grimly. "No shadow soldiers. No diversions."
A humorless breath escaped him.
"Wouldn't work anyway… not against something like you."
The roots groaned as Nidhogg advanced, moving closer, elemental energies gathering again in its throats.
Arthur straightened slowly, eyes glowing brighter as pain sharpened his focus instead of dulling it.
"…So," he said quietly, planting his feet.
"Guess I don't get time to recover."
Nidhogg struck forward with incredible speed. The World Tree's roots buckled as the serpent's colossal body forced its way closer, eight heads striking in overlapping patterns meant to overwhelm, crush the person it's facing.
Arthur barely had time to breathe.
The first head slammed down like a falling mountain.
Arthur met it head-on.
He abandoned finesse.
Shadow constructs peeled away from his arms as he clenched his fists, shadows compressing inward instead of expanding outward dense, brutal, heavy. He stepped into the impact and punched.
The collision detonated.
The shockwave ripped bark and stone apart, hurling fragments into the void. Arthur skidded backward, boots carving trenches, every bone in his arm screaming but the head recoiled.
Arthur grinned through blood.
"So you can feel it. That's a relief."
Nidhogg roared.
The roar rolled through the depths like a god screaming into existence itself. Arthur felt it crash into him.
The System screamed in response.
[STATUS EFFECT: FEAR – ACTIVE]
All Stats Reduced by 50%
Duration: 60 seconds
Arthur staggered.
His muscles felt suddenly heavier, slower as if the world had doubled its gravity just for him.
"…Tch," he muttered, planting a hand on the ground to steady himself. "Cheap trick. It's insulting to call it fear when I forgot what that means."
Nidhogg did not wait.
A massive clawed limb swept across the roots, smashing into Arthur's side and launching him through three ancient roots like a cannonball. He crashed hard, coughing, ribs cracking.
Before he could rise.
One head snapped down and bit into his injured right arm.
Arthur screamed.
Frost surged instantly, creeping up his veins, gnawing at muscle and bone. His shadows flared violently, resisting the freeze, but the pain was blinding.
The serpent lifted him off the ground like a toy.
Arthur snarled.
"Bastard!"
He braced his legs against the root beneath him and punched upward, driving his fist straight into the frost head's jaw. The impact echoed like a thunderclap. Scales cracked, but did not shatter.
Nigh-invulnerable.
Nidhogg answered with strength.
Another head slammed into Arthur's chest, folding him in half. A third followed, smashing him sideways. Arthur hit the ground again, vision blurring, breath knocked out of him.
This wasn't a battle of skill anymore.
This was survival.
Arthur forced himself upright, blood dripping from his chin, eyes blazing violet.
"…Alright," he growled. "Brute force it is."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want