Under the dual strike of Vivian's precise ice spikes piercing its brain and Greg following up with a sticky incendiary bottle, the final monster blocking their path wailed as it dissolved into fading specks of light.
The clamor of battle abruptly receded, leaving only their slightly hurried breathing, which sounded exceptionally clear in the unnaturally spacious, quiet environment.
Greg raised his head. With his view no longer obstructed, he was finally able to take in the full view of the temple at close range.
“Tsk. Look at this modeling, this atmosphere... the dev team was terrified players wouldn't realize this is the final boss room.”
Even though he was mentally prepared, and even though he had stared at its pixelated layout or rendered screenshots countless times before a screen, when the structure slammed into his sight in physical form—bearing the weight of ten thousand years of erosion and undeniable reality—a surge of fresh excitement and oppressive dread filled Greg's heart.
What stood before them was not a sacred, majestic temple in the traditional sense.
It looked more like a deformed creation carelessly cobbled together by some mad titan using shards of nightmares and the world's scars.
The building as a whole tilted at an irregular angle, covered in jagged fractures. It appeared ready to collapse to one side at any moment, yet was forcibly held in a bizarre equilibrium by an invisible force.
The stone forming its main structure was not a uniform ash-gray, but a murky, depressing blend of dark red, deep purple, pitch black, and vast patches of pale green moss resembling festering sores.
Countless reliefs of distorted human figures crawled across the towering walls and broken pillars. Their postures radiated despair and sacrificial horror. Under the dim, flickering light, they cast writhing shadows that squirmed like living things.
No matter how well it was rendered in a game, it was still behind a screen after all.
The feeling that even one's soul was being tainted by the sheer malice of the structure itself... could only be felt when standing right before it.
Greg licked his dry lips. Rather than fear, his amber eyes flashed with the light of a battle rush.
Whether he had been infected by Victoria or the increase in his strength had changed his mindset, he truly didn't dislike exploring dungeons so much anymore.
Vivian, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, felt completely different.
Having never been exposed to the concept of a 'game', her perception of the building stemmed entirely from the immediate impact of the moment.
A massive, icy, invisible pressure seeped out from the shattered temple like dense, viscous seawater. It weighed heavily on her heart, even causing a subtle, barely perceptible snag in the flow of her mana.
Her ice-blue eyes widened slightly, the distorted contours of the structure reflected deep within her pupils as an instinctual dread quietly welled up.
However, when her peripheral vision caught sight of Greg standing beside her without a trace of fear, the heavy pressure in Vivian's heart inexplicably dissolved by half.
An indescribable sense of security quietly bloomed within her.
As long as he was by her side, even the horror of this sacrilegious place felt manageable.
“Let's keep moving then.”
Greg's voice snapped her out of her brief daze. He cracked his neck with a faint pop and locked his gaze onto the main entrance that resembled the mouth of a massive beast.
“Everything blocking the way has been cleared. The final objective is right ahead.”
Without the slightest hesitation, he took the lead and walked toward the doorway radiating an ominous aura.
The massive stone doors covered in eerie reliefs were not completely closed, leaving a gap wide enough for only two people to pass through side by side. Beyond the gap lay an even denser darkness.
Greg extended both hands, pressed them against the bone-chilling stone doors, and exerted some force—
Screech... clack...
A grating sound of friction echoed in front of the desolate ruins, exceptionally jarring.
The doors were slowly pushed open to a wider gap. The thick, inescapable darkness behind them rushed out, bringing a stale atmosphere laced with a strange, sweet, metallic scent.
Vivian took one last look at the desolate, dead ruins outside and took a deep breath. Ice-blue mana swirled gently around her body to dispel the bone-chilling cold. She then quickened her pace to catch up, her figure disappearing into the temple's dark interior alongside Greg.
Behind the doors lay not an open, grand hall as one might imagine, but an exceptionally long corridor.
On both sides of the corridor were stone walls similarly covered in distorted reliefs, though these appeared relatively well-preserved, revealing faint, blurry scenes and patterns. Still, every figure exhibited a deeply unsettling sense of distortion and fragmentation.
An accumulation of untold years of dust evenly covered the walls and floor, as well as the long-extinguished lamps embedded in the stone, making the entire hallway feel even more dead.
The air was almost stagnant. Only their footsteps echoed down the cavernous corridor, traveling far before hauntingly bouncing back to form a creepy echo.
In the original game, there was a save point here. But in reality, no such thing existed, so Greg could only clear it in one life, without a second attempt.
“Speaking of which, my other half, isn't your constitution far too unusual?”
As they walked down the long corridor, Nightmare's lazy voice, carrying a trace of curiosity, sounded directly in Greg's mind.
“Even though you possess a Demigod's Godhood, taking that breath attack head-on without any Divine Protection and only suffering minor injuries... is simply unbelievable.”
Greg didn't slow his pace. A somewhat rogue-like smile appeared on his face as he responded in his mind:
“What's so strange about that? My body is extraordinary; I'm a once-in-a-lifetime martial arts genius. So accomplishing something like this is completely normal.”
He paused before continuing: “What, you want to learn? I can teach you! The secret is simple: ten push-ups, ten squats, and a one-kilometer run every day. As long as you stick with it, I guarantee you'll become as strong as me in no time!”
Nightmare fell silent for two seconds—a silence that felt heavy with a speechlessly blank stare.
Then, her cold voice resounded with a hint of gritted teeth: “...Are you teasing me like you would that stupid, shallow bitch Serafina?”
Greg replied: “Why put it like that? She's your full sister after all. Why do you hate her so much? Just because she used divine magic to give herself two blindingly huge treasure chests?”
Greg voiced the question that had been puzzling him for a while.
In their day-to-day interactions, he could clearly tell Nightmare wasn't a petty deity. Otherwise, their relationship wouldn't have evolved to the point where they could banter like this.
Therefore, there had to be some other underlying reason why their relationship had turned out this way.
Rate on N.U.
