Greg's eyes narrowed dangerously. Facing Huang Quan as she pounced toward him once more, he stood his ground.
"Entwine!"
Five tentacles of pitch-black mana shot forth, nimble as serpents, wrapping tightly around Huang Quan's swinging sharp claws and mutated limbs. Although they were quickly corroded by the mucus oozing from her crystals, they succeeded in causing a momentary delay in her attacking rhythm.
Seizing the opportunity, Greg allowed the pitch-black armor to cover his arms and legs once more!
This time, he chose not to perform a long-range attack. Instead, he channeled most of his remaining mana into the armor, transforming into a streak of black lightning as he charged straight at Huang Quan, who was momentarily bound by the tentacles!
At the instant before they collided, Greg silently recited the trigger phrase in his mind—LV5 Whimpering, activate!
Huang Quan's crimson soulfire froze violently, and her frantic attacks ground to a clear halt. Though the effect lasted only five seconds, for an entity of her caliber, it was already a fatal opening!
Greg intended to use this moment to plunge his right hand—encased in 【Dark-Erosion Armament】—straight into Huang Quan's body, using the devouring power of dark-attribute mana to swallow up her internal soul power, thereby destroying her Soul Core.
However, beyond Greg's expectations, the instant his shadow-wrapped hand touched the shattered crystals covering Huang Quan's skin, the dark mana on his arm suddenly went wild, as if scenting an exquisite feast!
"Damn it, why did this power suddenly become so strong?!"
Greg tried to suppress it, but like a long-starved black tide, the mana used his arm as a bridge, frantically pouring toward Huang Quan and instantly enveloping her entirely!
"Arghhh—!!!"
Huang Quan let out an excruciating soul screech filled with endless agony and... an irresistible terror originating from the very source of her existence!
Her mutilated body thrashed and twisted frantically within the ink-thick shadow, but it was entirely futile.
The pitch-black shadow seemed alive, madly burrowing into her body through every crystal fissure and wound, aiming straight for her innermost core.
In the moment before her consciousness was swallowed whole, Huang Quan's wildly flickering crimson soulfire stared fixedly toward a vacant void:
"Lord... Demon King..."
"Please... be careful..."
"Your... daughter..."
The spiritual fluctuations snapped to a sudden halt.
The dense shadow surrounding her contracted sharply inward before slowly dissipating into the air.
Dissipating alongside it was Huang Quan's twisted, mutated body.
Not a single piece of wreckage remained on the spot, nor was there a trace of aura left behind, as though she had never existed at all.
Greg remained frozen in his thrusting stance, stunned.
The 【Dark-Erosion Armament】 on his arm slowly receded.
He looked down at his hand, then at the empty space before him, an icy and bizarre feeling sweeping across his heart.
"She was... eaten just like that?"
Although Greg felt no sympathy for her, witnessing a humanoid creature swallowed alive by his own mana still left him feeling slightly unsettled.
Yet this discomfort was quickly washed away by the sensations returning from his body.
A pure and colossal surge of mana, like a bursting dam, flooded back into Greg's body along the magical connection that had yet to completely retract!
Greg let out a low grunt, feeling his meridians ache slightly, but what dominated was the thrilling rush of being filled with power.
The faint silhouette of 【Dark-Erosion Armament】 that had just faded from his arm flickered several times. The armor seemed to trend toward transforming into a more complete state, but owing to insufficient energy or the lack of a key trigger, the evolution halted, and it completely faded away.
"Phew... phew..."
Greg dropped to one knee, panting heavily.
The battle just now—especially the final frenzy of shadow mana and the backflow of energy—had drained an immense amount of his mental and physical strength.
At this moment, his mana was nearly exhausted, and soreness and exhaustion washed over every part of his body.
"At any rate, even though the process went completely off the rails, it's finally over."
Just then, Greg recalled the words Huang Quan had uttered right before being completely devoured.
"Her last words... 'the Demon King's daughter'... that really must refer to Melina, right?"
Deduction-wise, since she was connected to Melina, was a Demon, and had appeared in human territory, she had to be an executive of the Demon King Cult!
Except unlike Rock Spike, who had made an appearance in the original game, Greg had known zero information about her beforehand.
However, given that her final words warned the Demon King to beware of Melina... that meant she had also discovered Melina's connection to the Mother of Depravity, and she clearly hadn't chosen to side with Melina.
Having reasoned up to this point, Greg's prior doubts were fully resolved.
The real mastermind behind this incident was without a doubt Melina. Her reason for pushing this event forward ahead of schedule was likely to eliminate dissension by using someone else's hand.
Although he didn't know why Melina had made arrangements that diverged from the original game's progression, her goal had indeed been accomplished.
"What a terrifying woman. As expected, it really is best to avoid getting involved with her as much as possible."
Greg suddenly recalled that many players used to complain that Melina, a heroine parachuted in only in Act Three, didn't deserve the Primary Heroine spot.
Yet Greg now felt that calling her "parachuted in" wasn't accurate at all, because from Act One onward, traces of her activity could already be seen everywhere.
"Whatever, thinking about this now is useless. I'd better hurry up and loot the place."
Catching his breath slightly, he pushed against his knees and stood up.
"Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack..."
Just then, a dense, chaotic flurry of footsteps suddenly echoed from the secret passage he had opened back toward the catacomb entrance!
Greg felt a surge of tension, forcing himself to stay alert as he stood tall.
"Did the undead outside that I didn't finish clearing follow the passage I opened and track their way in?"
Damn it, of all times... Looks like I'll have to deal with this immediate trouble first.
Rolling his stiff wrists and neck, he fixed a sharp gaze on the passage entrance. The meager mana remaining in his body began to slowly circulate, preparing him for any imminent battle.
The footsteps grew closer, accompanied by faint human voices.
Then, a familiar figure rushed out from the shadows of the passage. Her long gray hair was somewhat disheveled, but her refined face left no room for doubt—it was Victoria.
Their eyes met, and both froze at the same instant.
"What's going on? I just finished my fight over here! How did Little Gray fight her way all the way down here?"
Greg was bewildered, but he quickly noticed a blind spot.
Namely:
After running through the dungeon with him, Victoria's current level was far higher than it would have been at this point in the original game's progression! So even if the undead outside hadn't been weakened and she lacked Lilith's help, she actually did possess the strength to fight her way all the way here on her own!
What made Greg's scalp tingle even more was that after Victoria stepped out of the passage, a large crowd surged out immediately behind her!
Men and women alike, they appeared to be academy students—roughly ten to twenty of them—and many bore expressions of utter admiration aimed at Victoria.
They were excitedly discussing something among themselves, while curiously peering around the interior of the catacomb.
However, when everyone's gazes fell upon Greg standing in the center of the catacomb, and then swept to the scattered, massive armor wreckage of the Undead Knight on the ground beside him, as well as the surrounding battle traces left in the catacomb—
The entire clamorous catacomb suddenly fell into a dead silence.
Rate on N.U.
