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 !
/-\
Time had broken down here.
Arthur no longer knew how long he'd been fighting.
Minutes?
Hours?
An eternity measured in pain and will alone.
The battlefield in the world tree told the story his body could no longer deny.
Seven severed heads lay scattered across the abyss, wedged between the roots of the World Tree. Dark blood bled endlessly, sizzling as it ate into bark older than creation itself. Bark of the tree lay shattered everywhere, Arthur used more strength than he had ever used.
And still
Only one head remained on Nidhogg.
The one using gravity.
The worst of them, as it gave Arthur during his fight more trouble than anything else.
Arthur stood, barely.
His armor was critically damaged for the first time, torn apart piece by piece. His cloak hung in tatters, soaked through with blood that wasn't all his own. One eye was swollen shut. The other burned violet, dimmer than before, flickering as if struggling to stay awake.
His right arm still bound in that shadow-cast brace trembled violently. The construct had cracked, fractures of darkness spider-webbing along it. His legs shook under him, muscles screaming, threatening to fold.
He had done it.
By some cruel joke of fate.
He had beheaded every wrong head.
Arthur let out a hoarse, broken laugh that turned into a cough halfway through. Blood spilled from his mouth, splattering onto the root beneath his boots.
"…This is a bad joke," he muttered weakly. "You'd save the worst for last.. But not in this case.. I messed up."
Nidhogg loomed before him.
Seven heads gone.
Its body torn, scarred, bleeding.
And yet
It did not look weaker.
If anything, it looked patient.
The remaining head tilted slightly, its presence bending the space around it. Gravity warped, and the serpent's colossal tail drew back.
Arthur's instincts screamed.
The tail whipped forward.
Arthur forced himself to move.
He dove not fast enough.
The tail missed him by inches, but the wind of the strike was enough. The pressure slammed into him like a mountain, lifting him off his feet and hurling him across the battlefield.
He crashed into one of the World Tree's massive branches.
Hard.
The impact cracked bark.
Arthur slid down, leaving a smear of blood behind him, coughing violently. His vision blurred, stars bursting behind his eyes. He tried to push himself up.
.. and failed.
He dropped back to one knee, breathing ragged, chest barely rising.
The world swam.
For the first time since he'd put it on
The Shadow Ring flickered.
Just once.
Arthur's breath hitched.
"…Damn it," he whispered.
His fingers curled weakly against the bark, responding slower than they should, like tired limbs refusing to obey.
He lifted his head, forcing his eye to focus on Nidhogg as it advanced, each movement bending reality around it. The pressure alone felt like it might crush his heart.
Arthur swallowed.
His voice was barely audible now.
"…I'm losing consciousness."
His knees threatened to buckle.
Seven heads gone. Every wrong choice made.
One last gate standing.
And The Shadow Monarch was standing on nothing but stubborn refusal to fall.
The gravity around him tightened.
Nidhogg drew closer.
For a moment, it looked like Arthur would fall.
Then he stood perfectly.
Not because his body obeyed him, but because he refused to lose to a monster.
Blood ran freely down his face, dripping from his chin to the roots below. His chest heaved, every breath a struggle. One eye was swollen shut, useless. The other burned violet, sharp, furious.
Shadows gathered around his right hand.
They did not flow gently this time.
Darkness compressed, layered, sharpened forming a long, brutal blade of shadow, its edge uneven and alive, pulsing with Arthur's will. It looked less like a weapon and more like an extension of himself.
Arthur lifted it with a shaking arm.
"I will kill you... be sure of that." he said hoarsely, each word scraped from his throat,
"And move forward.."
The Shadow Ring flared.
An aura of shadow energy erupted outward, explosive and absolute. It rippled through the roots of the World Tree, the ground trembled.
Nidhogg's remaining head lifted higher.
The gravity around Arthur spiked.
The air thickened, crushing down on him like invisible hands trying to force him to kneel. Roots groaned. Stone cracked. Arthur's knees bent.
He took a step forward.
Then another.
Each movement felt like walking through a collapsing star.
"Yeah," Arthur muttered, blood bubbling at his lips,
"you're the worst one.."
The gravity head roared.
The sound didn't travel, it pressed. Arthur felt his organs shift, his bones scream as the force tried to implode him from the inside out. He staggered, shadow blade digging into the ground to keep him upright.
Then Nidhogg struck.
The head lunged, jaws snapping, gravity folding inward around them. Arthur threw himself sideways, the pull ripping chunks of ground free where he had stood.
He rolled, came up on one knee, and threw his shadow blade.
The sword warped mid-flight, stretching, splitting into three jagged lances that stabbed into the serpent's neck.
They hurt it.
Nidhogg recoiled, roaring, gravity fluctuating violently.
Arthur didn't let up.
He surged forward, shadows reinforcing his legs as he leapt straight into a crushing gravity well. His body slammed downward midair, bones creaking.
He punched through it.
Shadow energy detonated from his fist, tearing a hole in the gravity field just long enough for him to pass through. He landed hard on Nidhogg's neck, boots sinking into scale.
Arthur raised the shadow blade.
and the gravity head slammed him point-blank with a condensed singularity.
Arthur flew.
He crashed through two massive roots, coughing blood, vision exploding into white noise. He barely rolled aside before the ground where he lay folded inward, crushed into nothing.
Arthur dragged himself upright again, body trembling violently.
"…Still standing," he rasped. "That's gotta piss you off."
Nidhogg descended, its gravity head eyes were cold, calculating. It didn't rage like the others.
It measured him.
The space around Arthur twisted, folding, compressing.
Arthur grinned through broken teeth.
"Come on," he whispered. "Try harder."
He charged.
Gravity slammed into him like a wall, forcing him to his knees mid-speed step. Arthur roared in defiance and forced himself forward anyway, muscles tearing, shadows bleeding off him like smoke.
He reached the serpent.
Arthur drove the shadow blade into its jaw.
The blade pierced deep, anchoring him in place as gravity surged wildly around them. Nidhogg thrashed, smashing Arthur against its own scales, trying to rip him apart.
Arthur held on.
"I didn't come this far," he growled, voice raw,
"to lose to a gatekeeper."
He twisted the blade and ripped it free, carving a massive gash across the head's face. Dark blood sprayed. The serpent screamed, gravity collapsing outward in a shockwave that sent Arthur flying again.
He hit the ground on his back.
Didn't move.
For a moment or two
Then Arthur coughed.
Rolled. Stood. Barely.
Sword still in hand.
One eye blazing violet it refused to go out.
He pointed the blade at Nidhogg.
"…I'm still here."
Arthur stood there, swaying.
Blood dripped steadily from his fingers, splashing against the roots of the World Tree below. His shadow aura flickered, thinning,
And yet
He smiled.
A slow, crooked smile that had no business existing on a man this close to collapse.
"…I have an idea," Arthur muttered.
The gravity head of Nidhogg tilted slightly.
Arthur coughed once, spitting blood to the side.
"Reckless," he went on, voice low, almost amused. "And someone like Raven would absolutely slap me for even thinking about it."
His violet eye softened for just a heartbeat at the thought.
Then hardened.
"But…"
Arthur's fingers loosened.
The sword of darkness dissolved fading into nothing. Like a shadow peeling away into smoke and sinking back into his body. The sudden absence of the blade made him feel naked, exposed, horribly fragile.
Nidhogg reacted instantly.
The gravity around Arthur spiked, crushing down with renewed intent, as if the serpent sensed weakness.
Arthur didn't resist it.
He lifted his head slowly and looked straight at Nidhogg's eyes.
Arthur straightened, forcing his spine upright despite the crushing force.
"Try," he said quietly, voice steady in a way his body no longer was,
"To survive this."
/-\
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