Chapter 196: Confronting The Golden Sun Venerable’s Will
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“Aaaarrgghh!”
The Golden Emperor agonized, screaming to the heavens. His Martial Soul was split and then gained countless cracks, shattering into pieces bit by bit. At the same time, his metallic, golden body, which was of the same composition as his soldiers, was split open and burned to the point where it melted.
My sword attack didn’t stop there, quickly reaching the temple below and killing a dozen more Golden Soldiers while splitting half of the temple open, making the entire battlefield below us tremble. Thankfully, my friends seemed to have managed to escape the whole destruction.
“T-This can’t be… I… Just… how strong… how strong are you…?”
The Golden Emperor’s Martial Soul remained alive, even if split into pieces. His body was attempting to quickly regenerate, with countless golden metallic tentacles appearing. His Golden Ki erupted with as much power as he could muster, resembling golden flames.
“I split your soul, yet you want to keep fighting. Amazing, the warriors of Murim are truly admirable cockroaches, never knowing when to give up.”
“You’re too cocky, you damned woman!”
Maybe that comment was a bit too mean, but I didn’t care. I quickly pointed my sword against him as a sea of gold and tentacles attacked me. His entire body was constantly trying to reshape himself back to normal, but he couldn’t. His soul fragments were mixing with it and appearing as countless ugly, imperfect clones amidst the sea of liquid gold.
“{Golden Dragon’s Mirages}! {Eight-Layered Lotus Dance}!”
His clones appeared around me, pointing their sharp arms, which he had shapeshifted into swords, spears, and axes. Desperately and furiously, he unleashed a barrage of blows, which I blocked with my own Aura’s pressure, my Gauntlet, and Gram. Each blow wasn’t as strong as before, but there were dozens of them coming from all directions.
“This wasn’t supposed to go like this! Your world was among the weakest of them all! We planned this a long time ago, even… How is there someone so powerful amongst you pathetic, powerless mortals?! It doesn’t make any sense!” He kept crying. “Your world was powerless, magicless, and full of dull living beings! Yet it gave birth to someone like you?!”
“I am not the only one struggling and fighting to protect our “pathetic world”, Golden Emperor.” I answered, my eyes shone brightly. I channeled my Demonic Energy as well, fusing it with Celestial Energy. A mass of swirling chaos was conjured as I unleashed it as a powerful shockwave, shaping it into hundreds of black spears. “Everyone is doing their best to keep on living!”
BAAAM!
“Uuuggh…!”
The spears pierced all of his defective clones, corrupting them with miasma and making them disappear into ashes, slowly beginning to make his own body mass smaller. Just like I had done with Roy, the way was to slowly chip away at his body mass until he could no longer regenerate or fight properly.
“You persistent woman! We’ve worked so hard, and we’ve suffered so much! Our world is already ruined! Yet you dare look down on us?! Are your efforts and will to survive even remotely comparable to our memorable history?! To our great, majestic world?!”
As he furiously roared, his entire body shapeshifted again. The Golden Emperor gathered all his Ki and all his Martial Soul Fragments into a single place, transforming into the giant, golden statue of a long Chinese dragon with long whiskers and coral-like horns.
“Maybe your world was much older than ours; maybe your world was much stronger! But whose world is ruined right now?! Who abandoned their own world here, left to be ruined by the Apocalypse?!” I responded, and my fists unleashed a barrage of explosions of Chaos, Demonic and Celestial Energy spreading into eruptions of darkness and light. “You are the one who has no right to look down on us! Who are still fighting and still struggling to survive when you gave up everything already and decided to invade other worlds, simply attempting to regain a fragment of the glory your world once had!”
My gauntlet gathered all the Abyss Power I had gathered, as I combined it with the Martial Arts I had learned. My Aura erupted from my single fists, resembling a gigantic dragon clashing against the Golden Emperor’s claws and melting them.
“{Chaos Dragon’s Fangs}!”
“Uuuaagh! How dare you..! How dare you say that?! Our world… It was so glorious and beautiful! Our world…!”
He kept struggling, my fists unleashing the auras in the shape of giant dragons made of purple, black, and golden energies swirling together, opening their fangs and biting through his entire body.
“Your world was abandoned by the one you trusted the most, the one that has enslaved you in this dungeon, Golden Emperor.” I said, my fists piercing the last fragments of Martial Soul within him. “Your Venerable, the one you trusted the most, the one you perhaps thought of as your own father, left! And never came back, even as your world was destroyed, even as your world fell into pieces… Don’t you have someone else to direct all that rage instead?! Or did he brainwash you?”
“A-Ahhh…!” His eyes opened wide as his Martial Soul began to disappear into particles of light. Tears flowed from his huge, draconic eyes. “Father…”
He looked into the skies, full of sorrow. It was as if all the memories suppressed within him—all the emotions he once had—finally came back to him.
So he was indeed the Venerable’s son…
“Why… did you left… us…”
Crack, crack…!
“Please…” He looked into my eyes, as if finally regaining some fragment of sanity. “Ask him… For me… Why… Why did he leave us…” He grasped my hand as he slowly crumbled down into pieces.
CRASH!
I sighed. I knew this had to be done. He was a Dungeon Boss. I had to slay him without a doubt. He was… no longer alive to begin with. His father used his Soul and made him into a golem, enslaving him inside the Dungeon he made. The real monster was always him.
[You and your party have defeated [Golden Martial Soldier (B+ Rank)] x100 and [Supreme Golden Emperor (S Rank)] x1]
[You earned 3.000.000 EXP]
[EXP has been saved until your next Rank Up.]
[Congratulations! You and your Party have completed the Fifth Challenge of the {Golden Sun Venerable’s Trial}! You have passed all Trials!]
[You and your Party received the following Rewards]: [Ki Enhancing Pill (B Rank)] x20 [Golden Ki Pearl (B Rank)] x30 [Random Martial Arts Scroll (B Rank)] x3]
[You received the following rewards for slaying the Boss]: [Murim’s Martial Treasure Relic Box (S Rank)] x1 [Martial Soul Essence Of The Golden Emperor (S Rank)] x1]
[ERROR]
[An Unregistered Event has happened… Dungeon has begun to malfunction. Incapable of continuing beyond this point.]
[Critical Condition, the Dungeon Gate cannot be opened yet.]
[ERROR]
I should have guessed it! This bastard never ever planned that someone would actually defeat the Golden Emperor, didn’t he?
“Golden Sun!” I roared into the skies. “Show yourself, you failure of a father!”
RUMBLE!
The skies above us darkened for a moment. Yellow lightning surged, rumbling. The Golden Soldiers were all dead by now. My friends opened their eyes wide as they saw what was happening. Cosmic and Divine Powers began to surge from above. It wasn’t the real Constellation, though, but, well, his representative, or maybe a part of him.
“YOU…”
A giant made of golden light, lightning, and black clouds appeared. He had six bulky arms, three demon-like heads, and six halos of light behind his back. Wearing clothes made of white brightness. He seemed like the embodiment of pure divinity.
[The {True Dungeon Boss}: {Golden Sun’s Venerable Divine Will (SS Rank)} has manifested himself!]
[He has shown his true body, allowing you to learn he’s the True Boss of this Dungeon.]
[The Dungeon {Murim’s Abandoned Temple (B Rank)} has revealed its true Rank, SS Rank!]
[Once you can defeat the True Dungeon Boss, the Dungeon will be destroyed, and you will be able to leave.]
Of course, he was the final boss all along!
“Anna! What’s going on?!” Kevin ran to my side.
“Is he the actual final boss?!” Baihe cried.
“No way! But that guy took you so long to defeat!” Annabelle cried.
“He was never the final boss; it was all just a façade. The final boss was always in the skies, watching over us.” I explained. “He was hiding, never intending to ever show himself to begin with. Because he knows that if he dies, the Dungeon will be destroyed. We barely have ten minutes left of the Mirage Spray’s effects, and once that’s gone, we’ll have most of our power sealed again. We need to end this quick.”
“I can’t believe how far you would go…” The Will spoke. “It is truly incredibly amusing. For such lesser, pathetic little beings to think they stand a chance. I do not even need to come here personally. A Will is enough to kill all of you. This Dungeon is just the beginning. Many more will come. I will personally lead the conquest of your world. Be grateful; your world was probably destined to die. But once it is fully assimilated, you will rise and become an Apex World!”
“You’re evading the topic, isn’t it? How did you just abandon your own world? How did you leave everyone to die just because you wanted to become a Constellation, when you were the most trusted person in the entire world, someone everyone looked up to as their guardian and king?” I asked, his eyes squinting; there was clearly a reaction. “Are you not even touched a single bit after hearing your own SON scream like that?! What sort of monster are you?”
“…” He remained in silence. “I do not need to amuse you with any of this charade. But fine, I’ll tell you, maybe as your last wish. I left because I wanted to. I was tired of that world. I was tired of them! Of always relying on me, of always asking for my advice, of always asking for my protection. All of them are pathetic! Even my own son, grown in luxury and spoiled rotten, was but a lazy parasite in my family! He was finally given a new purpose—something to actually be proud of! I came back when the world was destroyed, but do you know how I felt?” He suddenly smiled. “I was rejoicing! I was finally freed of them! And I could finally use THEM however I wanted! Their souls were still there, I took them and shaped them into my obedient, eternal soldiers! And I’ll do the same in your world!”
“You’re a monster.” Kevin muttered.
“Fucker…” Baihe said.
“T-That’s so awful! You never loved your son or any of your friends or family!” Annabelle said.
“You never deserved the respect, love, and titles given to you.” I said. “Power makes right, yes. But there’s also a need to be a decent fucking person too, especially if you are of the Orthodox Faction! You rotten old man, I’m going to enjoy tearing you to shreds.”
I was fucking mad.
“Then come, children of Earth! Enough talking! Let this be your last battle! I will make sure to make it a memorable one!” He laughed maniacally. The black clouds around him rumbled. Golden lightning is surging endlessly. “Can you take this, though? {Golden Thunder Dragon}”
A sea of near-endless golden Ki surged from the skies, spreading across the black clouds. A gigantic dragon appeared amidst the sea of black clouds, made completely out of golden thunder, roaring furiously and descending towards us.
“ROOOAAARR!”
As it descended, I quickly summoned the rest of the sealed Death Apostles. Equipping them over my body as extra pieces of armor and turning Aim into a second sword. All while I summoned a third weapon, the Nameless Sword-Axe, which I held with my long, demon tail.
“Of course I can take it. Do you believe my confidence is without justification?” I smiled, and all three of my swords moved at the same time. I swung them with all my force as I leaped into the skies. My Auras, my Skills, and my Radiance all mixed together into their own ferocious crimson snake, made of crimson cosmic thunder. “{Thousand Blades}: {Uroboros All-Devouring Maws}”
BOOOM!
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