The anchor-axe slammed into the ground, obliterating the stone floor and sending a shockwave of debris and muddy water exploding outward.
Silas reappeared twenty feet away, perched precariously on the head of a crumbling statue. His heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs.
"Okay," Silas shouted, pointing his sword at the giant. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess you're not the welcoming committee!"
The Drowned King didn't answer with words. He answered with momentum. Despite his massive size, the boss moved with a terrifying, fluid grace. He ripped the anchor from the floor, the chain attached to it rattling like a death knell, and swung it in a wide, horizontal arc.
"Move!" Silas yelled.
He didn't wait for Elena. He trusted her instincts. He pushed off the statue just as the anchor's chain whipped through the air, decapitating the stone bust he had been standing on.
Silas hit the ground rolling. He was squishy. He knew that. One solid hit from that anchor and he would be paste. His Strength was 33; the King's was likely double that.
Think, Silas. You have the brain of a scholar and the face of a god. Use them.
He scanned the room. The pillars were his only advantage. The King was huge—twelve feet tall and broad as a barn door. He couldn't fit easily between the tight cluster of columns on the left side of the room.
"Elena! The pillars! Make him play chase!"
Elena was already a step ahead. She melded into the shadow of a column, flickering in and out of sight.
The King turned his burning blue eyes toward Silas. "VOID... CHILD."
"Void Child?" Silas scoffed, sprinting toward the cluster of pillars. "I am a Void Sovereign! I'm an adult! I pay taxes! Well, I avoid taxes, but the principle stands!"
The King roared and charged. The ground shook with every step.
Silas zig-zagged between the obsidian pillars. The King, fueled by mindless rage, swung his axe wildly. CRASH. A pillar exploded into shrapnel. CRASH. Another one fell.
The King was fast, but his size was a hindrance in the cluttered area. He was getting tangled in his own chain.
"Now!" Silas signaled.
He stopped running and turned to face the giant. He poured mana into his legs.
[Void Step - Maximum Range]
Silas didn't dodge away. He blinked forward.
He appeared directly on top of the King's massive shoulder. The giant thrashed, trying to grab him, but Silas was already moving. He drove Requiem of the Void into the gap in the King's neck armor.
"Tag! You're it!"
[Skill Activated: Void Consumption]
Silas didn't just cut; he drank. He siphoned a massive torrent of mana directly from the boss.
The King screamed—a sound that vibrated the water in Silas's boots. The giant's blue eyes flickered.
[Critical Hit!][Mana Drain Successful.][Temporary Stat Boost: Strength +5]
Silas ripped the sword free and leaped off the King's back, landing in a crouch. He felt a surge of raw power, but it was wild, unfiltered.
The King stumbled, one knee hitting the ground with a thunderous impact. He was panting, the ethereal blue light in his armor dimming.
"You... eat... souls?" the King rasped, his voice losing its thunderous echo.
"I eat whatever I want," Silas replied, gripping his sword tightly. "And right now, I'm in the mood for seafood."
But the King wasn't done yet. He slammed his fist against his chest plate. The runes on his armor flared a blinding crimson.
"THEN... I WILL... TAKE YOURS... WITH ME!"
The King began to swell. Water from the flooded parts of the room rushed toward him, spiraling around his body like a vortex. He was charging a suicide attack—a self-destruct sequence that would collapse the entire cavern.
"Silas!" Elena screamed from the shadows. "He's going to blow!"
"I can see that!" Silas yelled. "I have eyes! They're very pretty eyes!"
He looked at the swelling giant. He couldn't run fast enough. The blast radius would catch him.
He had one option. A crazy, stupid option that his 47 Intelligence told him was mathematically insane, but his Void Sovereign class whispered was possible.
He looked at the Abyssal Gate behind the throne. It was a swirling vortex of darkness. It was a hole in the world.
The Void is infinite, the Codex whispered in his mind. It can swallow anything.
Silas gritted his teeth. "Elena! Get behind the throne! NOW!"
He sprinted toward the swelling King. Not away. Toward.
The King expanded, light and water compressing into a bomb.
Silas slid to a stop right in front of the giant. He dropped his sword and slammed both hands onto the King's chest plate.
[Skill: Void Sovereign - Authority of the Abyss]
It wasn't a skill on his list. It was an instinct. A command.
"OPEN!" Silas roared, his voice echoing with a dual tone—his own, and the deep, cold resonance of the Void.
He didn't try to absorb the energy. That would kill him. He simply... opened a door.
Behind him, in reality, a tear in space ripped open—a miniature black hole.
The King's explosion erupted. But instead of expanding outward, it was sucked inward. The massive amount of energy, water, and light was vacuumed into the tear in space Silas had created, funneling directly into the Void.
The noise was deafening—a scream of physics breaking.
Silas felt his arms burning. His skin was cracking under the pressure. He was holding the mouth of a vacuum cleaner to a nuclear bomb.
"JUST! DIE! ALREADY!"
With a final, agonizing wrench, the King collapsed. The energy was gone. The body crumbled into dust and rusted metal, the explosion swallowed whole.
The tear in space snapped shut with a sound like a whip crack.
Silas fell backward, gasping for air. He stared at the ceiling. His health bar was flashing red. His mana was at zero.
[System Notification]
[Boss Terminated: The Drowned King]
[Experience Gained: Colossal.]
[Level Up! Level 31 -> Level 36]
[Title Acquired: Kingslayer]
[Warning: Mental Stability compromised. Affinity with Void increased.]
Silas coughed, rolling onto his side. "Ow."
Elena rushed out from behind the throne, her face pale. She knelt beside him. "Silas? Are you... are you alive?"
"I..." Silas wheezed, sitting up slowly. "I think I pulled a muscle in my ego."
He looked at the pile of ash where the King had been. In the center sat a glowing, translucent blue orb, hovering in the air.
"The loot," Silas grunted, crawling toward it.
It was a core. A Sovereign's Core.
[Item: Heart of the Drowned Sovereign]
[Grade: Epic]
[Effect: Can be integrated into the Void Sovereign Class Core.]
"Integrate," Silas commanded, touching the orb.
The orb dissolved into his chest. A rush of cold clarity washed over him. He felt his connection to the Void deepen, stabilize. He wasn't just a guy with a cool class anymore; he was building a foundation.
[Class Core Integration: 5%]
[New Skill Unlocked: Void Prison (Rank I)]Description: Trap a target in a cage of compressed space.
Silas stood up, brushing the ash off his cloak. He felt... good. Better than good. He felt like he had just leveled up twice and eaten a five-course meal.
He walked toward the throne. Behind it, the Abyssal Gate waited. It was a massive archway of black stone, filled with a swirling grey fog.
"So," Elena said, looking at the gate. "This is it?"
"This is the VIP entrance," Silas corrected. He looked at the gate, then at his status screen.
Name: Silas Vane
Level: 33
Rank: D-Rank (High)
Class: Void Sovereign
"We're getting stronger, Elena," Silas said softly. "But the Church knows we're here. And I don't think that King was the only guard dog in this world."
He turned to her, his emerald eyes glowing with a faint, violet light.
"Ready to see what's on the other side?"
Elena tightened her grip on her dagger. "As long as there are no more giants."
"No promises," Silas grinned. "But I promise I'll let you loot the next one."
Silas Vane stepped through the Abyssal Gate, and the fog swallowed him whole. The hunt had truly begun.