“…” Stark’s piercing gaze was on the black fog ahead.
He was only bleeding from his shoulder (sniper monkey arrow hit him) since he hadn’t received damage since his encounter with the great serpent (a single hit would have been enough to kill him anyway), but he couldn’t deny that he was exhausted.
“Crimson Healing,” he mumbled while beginning to walk toward the fog, and his body surrounded itself with aura, mainly his shoulder though, as the wound on it closed.
“+20000”
He was back at full hp, and his [Crimson Healing] was put back on cooldown.
Stark thought he should really upgrade his HP healing the next time he gets skill points, but so as long as the final boss wasn’t another apostle then he would surely be able to get out of here, because yes, Stark actually thought of that possibility, and if one of them was here, why not two?
He arrived in front of the black fog, and as if it was foreshadowing what was bound to happen, the alarms in his head rang again.
[Tip because of low level: watch out for the snake and ape, you won’t win against them.]
The warning he had received at the start appeared again.
The snake was referring to the [Great Serpent], but… what about the ape.
He had never met anything resembling an ape except for the [Sniper Monkeys], and they couldn’t be it.
Which meant… that beyond the fog was the monster of the second warning.
“Clone Frenzy… Superior Clone,” he took 30 additional seconds to summon the [Superior Clone] beside him, then got ready.
Stark hesitated for a moment, but then he took a deep breath and stepped into the black fog, the clone following after.
The moment he did, the world around him changed completely.
~FWISH~
He emerged on the other side, fully expecting to see a boss room and a giant ape/monkey to be waiting for him.
But…
[WARNING!] a last warning came.
And…
[Aura too overwhelming, running isn’t even an option anymore.]
[Good luck.]
~SPLASH~
He noticed that the ground beneath him was filled with water, though it was such a small amount that it didn’t even reach the top of his toes.
He was a massive area, surrounded by trees with leaves on them, and the perimeter was delimited by massive mountain walls.
This was the arena for this boss.
[Fourth Zone: The Guardian Ape.]
“Oh?” the zone had the word ‘ape’ in it, confirming what Stark knew.
Yet there was nothing in the boss arena currently?
” I mean… huh…”
Normally the bosses would ALWAYS be present, the only time this didn’t happen was with the [Darkness Ghost] as he was hiding beneath Stark, but other than that a boss should always be present when the classifier enters the zone, right?!
And yet… there was nothing.
“…” the clone wasn’t smiling, and it actually seemed to be sweating, darting its eyes everywhere, trying to look for something.
“…?” Stark looked at it, the clone seemingly panicking and trembling, something that had never happened before.
“=(” it looked sad.
And then… it pointed in the distance.
“Huh?” Stark turned his head to look at whatever it was pointing at and…
~FWISH~
At that very moment, the world around Stark changed, his vision darkening, then coming back.
And when he was able to see once his field of view was back to normal… he found himself in a different location.
Well, not really.
He was still in the same area of the zone, nothing having changed: the water, trees and surroundings were the same.
But something was off about them: they were different in appearance.
The water wasn’t blue and sparkling anymore, instead completely red, color of blood, and trees had lost their colors, now dark with no leaves on them.
But… the worst of all… what made Stark and even his clone lose every ounce of confidence they had…
Was what was in front of them.
Because it wasn’t the [Guardian Ape], it wasn’t a calamity-level monster, actually, it wasn’t one, or two, or three, or even five monsters.
But 10 of them.
In the distance they all stared at Stark, yet he couldn’t see them since their figures were blackened, impossible to see.
[The Godless Demon Apostles – 10 remain]
And what actually confirmed what he feared the most… was that two of the figures were actually visible.
The first was… three giant moons in the sky with a single massive eye on them.
“Ohoh~”
“Heh~”
“He’s back!”
It was the [Crimson Moons Trio].
And the second…
“You got away human, but now, you shall die before our eyesss,” it was the [Great Serpent] he made less than ten minutes ago.
The other 8 figures didn’t speak, or move, or do anything, they just stared at the human, their eyes visible.
But suddenly…
~FWISH~
A pair of massive eyes, one oddly familiar, appeared above all of the apostles, a crimson vortex of aura spinning in them.
It was…
“Oh… Chosen…”
It was…
‘HOLY FUCK!’
“=(”
It was…
“Aren’t you the one that wanted this?” the massive figure, the boss of the apostles, asked, “Then… why are you scared?”
It was the [Godless Demon] himself.
His sole presence was enough to stun Stark, who couldn’t even imagine how he could defeat that thing, let alone ANY of the apostles in front of him.
The [Great Serpent] was emerging from beyond the mountains, yet still reaching them, meaning that its length was phenomenal, and the [Crimson Moons Trio] stared at Stark from above, in the now crimson sky.
But suddenly…
Stark was fucked, this was a trap, he had been set up!
Maybe they would make it fair by giving him a one on one, but any of the apostles beyond the fourth square of the second line was surely going to murder him in less than a second.
Stark’s journey… was over.
“Ohoh~” the godless demon laughed again, his demonic voice echoing.
But suddenly… right as Stark was about to despair…
“=)” the [Superior Clone] smiled again.
Immediately, Stark diverted his attentions from the godless demon and his apostles to his close, who had suddenly regained his confidence.
And seeing act like this, Stark retrieved some of his determination, because if his clone was smiling, then it meant that there was a way out of this.
Stark went back to seeing the monsters and… that’s when he realized it as well.
“…”
He realized…
“Hahahaha!” he laughed as loud as possible, taking some of the apostles aback, who immediately turned their heads toward [Godless], as they knew anyone who mocked their lord would suffer.
And yet… the [Godless Demon] couldn’t do anything.
“You may be real,” Stark pointed at them, “But you can’t hurt me, can’t you? NONE OF YOU CAN!” he smiled devilishly, actually defying the beings he knew could kill him.
Even the [Great Serpent] couldn’t hurt him even though he had been seen less than ten minutes ago.
The reason? Quite simple.
If the [Great Serpent] went back into the void less than ten minutes ago, then how is he back here?
The answer is also just as obvious: these things were only manifestations.
Yes, they were the real deal, and they could summon some of their auras, but other than there was nothing else they could do beside speaking to him and trying to intimidate him.
“Fantastic,” the [Godless] demon smiled, revealing a sharp row of teeth from beyond the darkness, “But you still need to fight something, don’t you?”
~CLAP, CLAP~
He heard clapping in the distance, and suddenly…
“GROOAOKKKS-!”
~BAM~
A giant white monkey emerged from beyond the mountains and rushed toward Stark’s location, smashing the ground.
~FWISH~
Stark backed away; and his clone did too, avoiding the attack.
And so…
“GROOOAZKKKK!!!”
“Let us see you fight, chosen,” Godless continued smiling as he and his apostles stood there, watching.
Yes, they were going to watch him fight the calamity-level boss of this rift.
Maybe they wanted to see how strong he was? Or check out his abilities for later?
Or maybe… they just wanted to put pressure on him.
Even though he wasn’t looking at them directly right now, he could sense their stares on him.
Judgmental, insulting, mocking, it was all of that.
And yet…
“=)” now that he knew they couldn’t hurt him, his confidence reached its peak, “Watch this, assholes,” he smiled at them.
“GROOAOSKK!”
[The Guardian Ape – Level 250]
[Rank: Calamity]
As expected, it was above [Boss] level.
But now that he had all the information he needed, he put ALL of his attention of the monster ahead, who kept moving around, sometimes on his two legs, becoming twice as large, and other times crawling on all four limbs.
And so…
“Come at me, monkey,” Stark smiled, the clone beside him already charging up a merged [Aura Smash] to send.
Having a clone as competent as Stark’s would be a blessing to anyone, as every time, even when Stark forgot because he was overwhelmed, then it would already be thinking about the battle that would occur, making it insanely reliable.
“GROOAKRKK-!” the guardian ape got up again, completing towering over Stark as it was more than seven meters in height, and weighted more than ten thousands kilograms, and yes you heard that right.
A single smash from its long arms would be enough to crush Stark, or any human at its level to be honest.
And yet…
“Let’s have fun in front of your masters, ape,” Stark positioned himself, ready to give it his all, and even though knowing these things were watching him, he had to remind himself that they weren’t real.
