Chapter 11: An Unexpected End to a Monster's Adventure

(This chapter was uploaded on Tuesday 12/December/2023 8:00 PM, timezone GMT+3)

('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the notes at the end of the chapter.

"..." small moment of silence

"Talking"

"He-" Someone was interrupted.

'Thinking'

[Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names]

(Flashback)

(PoV)

(Line Break)

(Nephelont PoV) 

"Nah. I will fight Udaeus. There is no reason for me to believe that my father is here. The only thing I can trust you in is to lead me to where Udaeus stays. Now, if you could please lead the way, Miller" 

I can punish them if they lie to me while we are here. But once we come across more people, there is a chance I can't deal with all of them. Humans can make that terrifying human-wave tactic come true. And among those, hiding in a wave's folds, there is going to be a person stronger than I am. I will use them here and just let them go. By that time, any pursuit given could be wasted by my invisibility.

I followed Miller to Udaeus's room, what he called the throne room. I was walking behind all of them, to avoid any nasty surprises. Some wanted to inform this co-called father of mine in advance, but I refused. If I allowed them to get behind me, I might find an arrow through my scales. 

Oh! The nameless archer noticed my not-so-hidden glare of death. 

Moving on, we met a few very interesting monsters on our way there. An entire army of skeletons, a demon of mischief, some green skin they called hobgoblin rider that mounted a skeleton horse... Seriously, why a dead horse? Had it not had enough of life? 

We walked quite a distance away, passing through at least 13 other rooms and fighting our way through them. Of course, I fought while invisible. 

Allen, have I broken through the limit? I mean, I think I can sense that I have not, but I want to hope. 

'You almost broke the limit when you ate the magic stone of the Ogre Chieftain' 

Oh, yeah. The green muscles turned out to be ogres. And the bearded one was their chieftain. They told me that the chieftain was a rare monster that doesn't appear often, and that they were originally separated because they unfortunately encountered it. 

I guess they were lucky to separate from it somewhere in the middle.

By the way! I asked them for a bag to put my precious gems in! 

'Physical body' 

Oh! Yeah! I'm in control! Perfectly!

...

At least for now.

They told me that we were in a place called the Warrior's Room, that being the third wall of the 37th floor of the dungeon. We will now enter the second wall, called "The Knight's Room". It was supposedly the last one before we reached Udaeus. 

While on the way, I discovered that all of them shared my hatred for ooze, the slimy, gooey monster bastards. 

On our way through the Knight's Room, we encountered a monster who knew honor. It accepted a challenge from one of the adventurers, dismounting its ghostly horse to abandon an advantage and have a fair fight purely based off of their skills. It remounted its horse after defeating the person, who was left alive after his defeat. It looked at its weapon for a second before leaving just like that.

We also encountered an army of armored skelly boys. They were really acting the part of an army. 

Here, in the last room before Udaeus as they said, we found what they called living armor. It looked empty indeed. They were sets of armor carrying weapons and standing at the very far back, beside the entrance to Udaeus's room. 

I simply crushed them with my weight alone. 

"That was... underwhelming... Do you know how strong this should have been?" One of their party members asked me. 

"I know that feeling. I seem to be too strong for these monsters. The most threatening thing I faced was that ogre chieftain. But even he wasn't much of a threat because of my abilities. As for these, my weight, combined with the fact they were hollow inside, gave me an easy victory. 

Now, you can go and do whatever you want. I memorized the path I should take from the entrance of the floor to here. I could go up alone if I wanted to. 

And, thanks, Frugo Miller" 

I ignored whatever they wanted to say and entered the room. I blocked the entrance behind me with a crystal I found lying around nearby and hid my precious gems behind another one. 

"KIIIIKK!!" A sharp clicking sound came from somewhere behind me. 

It sounded as if a bunch of bones were cluttering and rattling against each other. I look behind to find a giant black skeleton with the features I was told about. 

"DIE! UDAEUUUS!" 

(3rd person PoV) 

"Leader, we should move quickly. It may take him some time to fight Udaeus. We could probably call captain Bell over here in the meantime" 

"DIE! UDAEUUUS!" 

"You heard him. Let's go" 

The team went through rooms in Bell's path until they reached the room that would be numbered #2-3-4-2-2-1 in Nephelont's map. It was the room that Bell was going through right now. 

"Captain Bell!" They called his name as they entered the room. 

"What happened to you?" Bell asked them as he took a couple potions out of his leg holster. 

"We found him. He only remembers his name, Nephelont Cranel, and says that he forgot his memories. He seemed to mistrust us. And as a result, we were forced to lead the way to the throne room and leave after he entered to fight Udaeus. After seeing his abilities, we deduced that the beam that made Udaeus screech was fired by him. We left him there in hopes he could survive until you reach him" 

Just as they mentioned the throne room being Nephelont's current location, a few figures disappeared from view. Ais, Eucleia, the quadruplets, Alfia, Meteria, Ludwig, Raya, Tiona and a few others went on their way to the throne room. 

"Thank you for the help, Ferd. You can go back and inform the others that he has been found. Go rest" Bell handed them the potions and ran after the rest. He used one of the spells he had been hiding for a long, long while. 

"Do you think I will rank up after this, leader?" 

"Maybe you all will. Going through such a hard thing and coming out alive, that should be enough for a rank up to happen" Ferd led the others to go see their god. They wanted to see if they would rank up after all that they went through. 

"I'm starting to miss the good old days, the days when Henryk dragged us to the dungeon to forcefully raise our ranks" Frugo was reminiscing on memories he made decades ago. He was now also scared to find Henryk coming back and checking his level, only to find a disappointing 6. 

"I have to become level 7 this time" Frugo knew that Henryk and his gang would return in a few days, seeing that Nephelont returned. 'Henryk's 'training' is not something I would ever wish even on my worst enemy' 

(Line Break) 

"Don't hog him all for yourself! Ais!" Tiona said. 

"He is my sun" 

"He is mine!" Raya added while racing against the two of them. 

They were going easy on her because they knew Eucleia was not going to let anyone reach him before her. She was already way further ahead from everyone else. The quadruplets were not far behind her. 

"[Ariel]" Ais was covered in white wind as she picked up speed. 

"OOOOHHHH!!" Tiona's eyes became red, going into her berserker state to compete with Ais's speed. 

"CHEATERS! THE TWO OF YOU!" Raya complained in frustration. She wanted to at least be the second person to reach her elder brother.

"Should we?" Ludwig asked Raya.

"JUST DO IT! WE CAN'T LAG BEHIND SOME CHEATERS!"

"[Outer beings of nightmares! Grant us your deformed blessing as we march for your selfish glory! As we spread madness obliviously! Following in your footsteps! Ludwig's war banner!]" 

"[Outer beings of nightmares! Grant us your deformed blessing as we march for your selfish glory! As we spread madness obliviously! Following in your footsteps! Ludwig's war banner!]" 

[Ludwig's war banner] was a spell that needed both casters to chant it in sync, or it immediately leads to a guaranteed ignis fatuus. The use of this spell fuses the casters to form what could only be described as a creature that crawled out from the most convoluted of nightmares and fever dreams. 

Ludwig and Raya became a deformity that stood between a human and a horse, with an extra mouth-like orifice filled to the brim with eyes that actually function like normal eyes, both Ludwig and Raya being able to see with them just fine. 

They stood at the same height as Eucleia and had more than too many extra limbs. They were also covered in tattered clerical robes. 

They made quick use of their extra limbs to gallop forward, racing to be as close to first place as they could. 

(AN: For those of you who know, yes. But for those who do not... well... Basically, Ludwig uses a spell in tandem with Raya to become "Ludwig") 

(Back to when Nephelont just started fighting Udaeus) (Nephelont's PoV) 

Allen, I leave managing mind to you. Make it as efficient as possible.

'Positive'

While on the way, I had the time to discuss things with Allen. 

From that, I knew that everything I did involving mind, except invisibility as that was managed by them, was massively inefficient and sluggish. I wasted too much mind over a needlessly extended period of time that I might be throwing myself at death fighting Udaeus. 

We agreed that I will train to be more efficient later, without Allen's help. 

Anyway, I entered the fight not intending it to be fair. Before entering, and behind the humans' backs, I stuffed my cheeks with enough magic stones to completely replenish my energy at least four times. I learned that the energy I use is called mind, and that everyone has it. 

"Kkkk!" Udaeus was smart enough to notice that I was thinking of another thing beside him, or so I saw it. If that's true, this thing can have a pride to wound. 

Although I admit it, that I want to fight him in a straighter way, I can't risk losing. 

I quickly made myself invisible and moved slowly. Considering that the place is made of crystal here, and not made of displaceable dirt, it was like I'm not even in the room. 

Udaeus spread one of his attacks underground, a massive dark spike, somewhere around where I stood a moment ago. 

He missed as I went in the opposite direction. I continued moving like that until it was nearly impossible for him to predict my location. 

I made two clones to see how he reacts to that. 

"KKKK!" It felt like he said, "There!". 

Udaeus lunged at the clone to the right, as it was closer. 

I order the other clone to spit light at him. It hit him in the face. 

"KKKKKKK!!" Oh! He got angry! His anger fueled his desire to deal with the first clone and turn to the clone that spat at him. 

"Kkk?" Udaeus watched as the sword passed through the target without meeting any resistance. 

Oh, my sweet summer child. You never dealt with clones before, did you?

The one he struck was given the order of exploding all of its mind into Udaeus's face point-blank. 

I ordered the remaining clone to strike him with a normal attack, which predictably phased through him. 

Udaeus attacked this clone as well. I made this one explode too. 

I made another two clones for him to play with. He attacked them in different ways, which they didn't explode to. I only made them explode to a certain attack of his. 

I made another two clones, and he got the gist of it during this time. 

He got the knowledge that they can't physically touch him and got the misconception that as long as he attacks them with only one particular attack, it will bait them to 'suicide'. Otherwise, they are invincible to him. 

I repeated this process a few more times and made sure to wear him off with the repeated explosions. 

"KKKKKKKKKK!!!" He's starting to lose it. I think now might be a good time to appear. 

I adjusted my size to his, like the clones I made. After that, I created another clone to explode like usual. 

"KKKK!!" This was an attack solely fueled by frustration and anger. 

*Crash**Rumple* The attack landed on the ground and failed to cut the enemy yet again. And as Udaeus expected, this clone exploded as well. 

Now, I come to play. I was acting like a clone, but I missed my attack on purpose. As Udaeus abandoned all logical thinking in favor of disposing of this pest, then made the same obvious swing with his sword, I held his arm from the wrist. 

My left arm, the one holding his right arm from the wrist, was stinging with pain. Stopping his attack with my barehand might have been too reckless. 

"KKKKK!!!" I may have miscalculated. Udaeus got a hold of one of my wings with his remaining arm. He tried to bite my neck once he got a hold of me, but my reinforced scales gave me time to react. 

I wrench him away from my neck by yanking at his horns. As my right arm was obstructed by the positions of our bodies, my left was the only arm free enough to do this. 

"KKK!" He was angry he couldn't bite a chunk off my neck. 

"HMMM!!" I abandoned holding onto his right arm as he started pulling at my right wing. I put the fingers of both hands between the long bones in his left forearm. I started pulling. 

When I saw that his bones were holding on, I started preparing for a more force-friendly approach. 

I tangled my tail around his spine and pulled to my right. As he fell, I put my left foot on top of his chest to pin him down. It was also to help me pull his arm with the strength of my entire body. 

"KKKK!?" He was stunned. He never thought he was going to fall on his back this easily. 

*Ting* He struck my legs, but he luckily struck my scales. 

"ROOAAARRR!!" I ignored him and started pulling my arms simultaneously away from each other and away from his body. 

"SCREEEEEEE!!" He was screeching in pain. He gave up attempting to injure me with his sword. He switched to striking me with his right hand. I could endure them for now, and so I did just that. 

I saw the space between the forearm bones widening, and then *Crick* 

Although the forearm bones made a cracking sound, they still held on. 

Allen. 

'Positive' 

With Allen's help, I spit a mini light bomb on his elbow. Allen helped me determine the strength needed to blow away Udaeus's bones. 

*Boom* *Crack* "SCREEEEEEEE!!!" 

I finally succeeded in separating his arm from my wing. Now that my wings are both free, I flew high. I will end this and see what those people want to say, spectating without doing or saying anything. 

This dimwitted Udaeus summoned lots of spartoi, but they weren't going to reach me at all from where they are on the ground. Seeing as that was the case, they gathered around Udaeus in an attempt to shield him from me if they could. 

Allen, help me with this. 

'Positive' 

"ROOOAAARR!" I roared as I shone for a brief moment then started absorbing all the light around me. It would most likely look like a ball of black void is floating in my place. 

I finished gathering all the light I could, using almost all the magic stones I hid in my mouth. The cloud of darkness that covered me for a brief few seconds was broken through by the light escaping the ball's constraints. 

'Physical body, the thing in your arm is very volatile. You either go now, or risk being the only one suffering its explosion' 

Then here we GO! 

"ROOOOAAARRRR!!" I roared again as I descended at Udaeus with this sphere of doom in my hand. 

"KKKKK!!" Udaeus tried to slap me out of the air when I got close enough, but that one he slapped was a clone I made to descend only a bit faster than I did. 

Udaeus was left in a position where he was exposed with no way to retaliate or escape. 

"EAT THIS! UDAEUS!" I slammed the ball of light right at his slim neck. 

*BOOOOOOOM* *Rumbleeeee* The air was pushed in all directions away from the center point of the explosion. It was such a strong gust of wind that a human would most likely find it hard standing unbothered by it. Otherwise, they may be blown back by the resulting force. 

As for me, who was staring point-blank at the thing, the explosion of all that compressed light energy sent me flying at a wall. It dazed me for a second, but I gathered myself. I walked out of the hole my body created with wobbly steps and shaking wings. 

I was glad to see that Udaeus was reduced to fine ash and a big magic stone. The surviving spartoi were easy to deal with. I just threw any punch or tail swipe with the weight of my body supporting the strike. 

I went to their magic stones and savored their bland taste. 

While the energy seeped through my body, I felt like something in me broke. I felt myself left feeling empty. I wanted to fill this emptiness with the energy of other monsters' magic stones. 

But for now, I got rid of most of my exhaustion. I should deal with the people standing at the ex- 

"My sun" A woman jumped at me and hugged my arm with both hands and legs, no weapons in either pair of limbs. 

Her voice calmed me down for unknown reasons. And when I looked at her, I recognized her. 

"Mommy?" Wait... that sounded somewhat wrong. 

 (End of Chapter)

Have a nice day, ladies and gentlemen.