The figure emerging from the dense, suffocating blackness of the dark looked as though it had stepped straight out of a nightmare.
Its footsteps blended with the sound of metal dragging across stone. Clink… scrrrape… clink…
It stood nearly three meters tall. Draped over its body was a red-and-gold bishop's robe—once magnificent, now rotted by centuries, hanging in tattered strips. But the true horror was not the garment; it was the body beneath it. The bishop's flesh was gray, bloated, and bruised purple. And from everywhere—its chest, its back, even its hollow eye sockets—thick, rusted chains burst forth. They dragged along the ground, leaving bloody trails behind them.
The system panel that appeared before me flashed with red warning lights.
[Boss: The Corrupted Bishop]
[Rank: B (Area Boss)]
[Status: Enraged / Sealed]
[Description: A soul that betrayed its god and was bound in chains for all eternity.]
Despite feeling the blood drain from his face, Lucas drew his sword. His hands were shaking, but his stance did not falter. He was a born leader.
"Everyone, behind me! Maintain formation! If we scatter, we die!"
The Bishop raised its head. It had no face—only a dark, endless void from which the chains emerged. And then… a sound rose from that emptiness.
It was not a scream. Not a physical sound wave. It was a psychic strike that assaulted the soul directly.
ZIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN!
The sound echoed inside my skull like glass shattering.
"Ahhh!" Lira collapsed where she stood, clutching her ears and screaming. Thin streams of blood trickled from her nose and ears. Jin Ryer's eyes rolled back as he vomited and fell to the ground. Titus, despite his massive frame, hid behind his shield, his knees buckling.
"Stop! Stop it!" the tank screamed.
Only Lucas and Elena (and, of course, me) managed to remain standing. The warm Sun Aura radiating from Lucas and the icy Mental Barrier Elena formed around herself protected them. As for me… my mind was already an Error, so the psychic assault felt like nothing more than an irritating burst of radio static.
"Attack!" Lucas roared, forcing his fear down as he charged forward. His sword shone like a sun tearing through the cave's darkness.
[Son of the Sun: Holy Slash!]
The blade carved a golden arc through the air and struck the Bishop's chest.
CLANG.
There was no sound of flesh being cut. Instead, a dull metallic impact rang out, as if Lucas had struck a diamond wall. His sword bounced back. Not a single scratch marred the Bishop's corrupted flesh—only a faint burn mark that healed within seconds.
"What?" Lucas staggered back in shock, barely regaining his balance. "Holy fire… doesn't work? It should be an Undead!"
Watching from the shadows, I slapped my palm against my forehead. Idiot, I cursed internally—at myself. You absolute moron of a writer.
When I designed this boss, I had written it specifically so players would learn mechanics: 'Phase one: 100% immunity to all elemental and physical damage.'
What did my notes say? "The Bishop draws power from its chains. Only by destroying the Seal Stones embedded in the temple pillars will its shield fall."
I cursed my past stupidity. I had written this mechanic just so readers would say, "Wow, what a difficult fight." And now that same mechanic was about to get us killed—because Lucas and the others didn't know.
In response, the Bishop lashed out with a rusted chain erupting from its chest, swinging it like a whip. Lucas tried to block with his sword, but the chain carried the weight of a truck.
BOOM!
The academy's top student was hurled through the air like a rag doll, slammed into the wall ten meters away, and collapsed. His sword flew from his hand.
"Lucas!" Elena cried out in panic. She flicked her hand, forming five ice spears in midair and launching them. The spears shattered before reaching the Bishop. The invisible barrier could not be breached.
Seeing his leader fall, Titus surged forward in a moment of courage—or sheer stupidity.
"You won't get past me, freak!"
He raised his shield and poured all his mana into his skin.
[Steel Wall]
His flesh turned gray, metallic. He became a walking tank.
The Bishop merely raised its hand.
Five thick chains burst from the ground, coiling like serpents around Titus—one around his leg, one his arm, one his neck. He was lifted into the air. His steel skin crumpled like paper under the inhuman pressure of the rusted chains. The screech of bending metal mixed with the crack of bones.
"L-let… go…"
Titus's face turned purple, his eyes bulging from their sockets.
If I didn't intervene, Titus would be dead in five seconds. His neck would snap. Then Elena, left exposed. Then the unconscious Lucas. And finally, me.
Grim, I said in my mind. Hungry?
Always, replied the tattoo on my arm, its voice like thousands of grinding teeth.
I took a deep breath. I had to keep my identity hidden—but secrecy meant nothing if I died. I lifted the veil from my eyes. The brown dye in my irises melted away, revealing the purple, cosmic flames beneath. The world became a Data Grid once more. And on the pillar to the right, I saw it—the faint purple glimmer Lucas had missed.
[Seal Stone (Shield Anchor)]
I couldn't attack myself. It would draw too much attention. My gaze fell on Jin, lying on the ground, covered in vomit.
"Jin!" I shouted, altering my voice—deeper, panicked. "The pillar on the right! Shoot it!"
Jin looked at me in confusion, barely conscious.
"What? Where?"
"Shoot it, idiot! The glowing stone on the pillar! Titus is dying!"
His archer instincts overpowered his fear. Jin reflexively raised his crossbow. His hands trembled, but his aim was flawless. He targeted the small purple rune on the pillar to the Bishop's right.
Whizz.
The bolt tore through the air and struck the rune.
Crack.
The stone shattered.
One of the chains binding Titus suddenly went slack, dropping to the ground as if its power had been cut. Titus collapsed, barely saved from suffocation, coughing violently as he gasped for air.
The Bishop hissed in pain. For the first time, its defense had been pierced. It turned its head toward the source of the attack—toward Jin.
That was the opening.
I burst from the shadows.
[Flicker]
The world froze for an instant. My stomach lurched. Distance collapsed to zero. In the blink of an eye, I was directly behind the Bishop. The stench of corrupted flesh and rust burned my nose. No normal weapon would work on it—my dagger would shatter. But my weapon was not normal.
My weapon was an Error that rejected the laws of the universe.
I placed my hand on the grotesque knot where the main chains emerging from the Bishop's back converged with its spine.
[Dimensional Chaos: Data Erosion]
"Delete," I whispered.
Purple, corrupted energy spread from my hand into the chains. The iron did not rust. It did not melt. It pixelated—breaking apart like a deleted file, dissolving into black squares before vanishing. Reality itself warped at that point.
The Bishop felt something Lucas's sword could not inflict: pain.
It let out a scream so violent that dust and pebbles rained from the ceiling. This was not the cry of a monster, but of a soul being torn apart. It blindly lashed a chain backward at me. It grazed my head.
But I was already gone.
Flicker.
I was back beside Lira, collapsing to the ground as if trembling—just as though I had never moved.
The Bishop staggered. The golden, semi-transparent Invincibility Shield surrounding it shook, cracked like glass, and shattered into thousands of fragments before fading away.
"Now!" I shouted, my voice once again that of a frightened, helpless rookie. "The shield's down! Lucas! Now!"
Lucas was slumped against the wall, dazed, blood running from his head. But he felt it—the weakening of the Bishop's aura, the suffocating pressure lifting. His heroic instincts drowned out the pain. He surged to his feet. His eyes blazed pure white. His body shone like a supernova piercing the cave's darkness.
[Son of the Sun: Dawnbreak (Ultimate)]
Lucas poured every last drop of mana, soul, and rage into his sword. The blade was no longer metal—it was a pillar of pure light. He crashed down upon the Bishop like a falling meteor.
This time, the sword did not bounce.
It cleaved through corrupted flesh like a hot knife through butter and plunged into the Bishop's chest—into its dark heart. Holy fire erupted from within the creature.
The Bishop howled one final time, its cry mingling with the sound of chains shattering. Its body broke apart in beams of light, turning first to ash, then to nothingness.
Silence returned. But this time, it was not the silence of death—it was the heavy, exhausted silence of victory. The cave sank back into darkness, lit only by the fading glow of Lucas's sword.
Lucas stood there, leaning on his blade like a cane, gasping for breath, drenched in blood and sweat. Titus moaned, clutching his broken arm. Lira, having recovered, slapped Jin's face in an attempt to wake him.
As for me, I stood in the corner, pretending to clutch my chest—while secretly guiding Grim to siphon the massive B-Rank energy released as the Bishop vanished, drawing it in like a vortex.
[B-Rank Energy Absorbed.]
[Chaos Reserve: 45%]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
Every cell in my body vibrated with energy. I felt my muscles repairing themselves, my bones hardening. The sensation was… intoxicating.
"We… we did it," Lucas said, hardly believing his own words. His voice was hoarse. "We killed that thing… Gods, we killed it."
"How did that even happen?" Titus asked, wincing in pain. "The chains… they just broke. And the shield… it fell on its own."
They all looked at one another. No one truly understood what had happened. They had won—but they didn't know how.
"I… I shot the stone," Jin said weakly, still dazed. "And then something happened. I think… I think I did it?"
"That alone wouldn't have been enough," said a cold, analytical voice.
Elena.
The Ice Queen wasn't celebrating. She was staring at the spot where the Bishop had vanished, sifting through the ashes with her gaze. There, on the ground, lay a single fragment of chain—the only piece left behind. It hadn't been burned away by Lucas's light. It wasn't cut or broken. Half of it existed; half of it didn't. The severed surface was covered in those familiar, reality-defying purple pixels, faintly crackling.
Elena slowly turned her head. Her gaze didn't settle on Titus. Not on Lucas. Not on Jin.
It locked directly onto me.
On the one who had "done nothing," huddled beside Lira, looking frightened.
There was no doubt in her eyes now. No fear. Only cold, absolute certainty—the look of a scientist who had just proven her theory. Her lips moved. She made no sound, but from across the cave I could read them clearly.
"I saw it."
I swallowed.
Grim chuckled in my mind, its voice metallic. I think we're in trouble, partner. This girl's too smart.
Yes. We had survived the dungeon. We had defeated its most brutal boss.
But the real battle was only just beginning.
My greatest secret was now in the hands of the academy's most intelligent—and most dangerous—student.