Cardin The Third became enraged after his skill was interrupted twice in a row. He actually started swinging his scepter at us!

Thud thud!

Both He Yi and I felt a scorching pain when his scepter cut across our chests!

1764!

2109!

We were about to cry foul when we saw how much damage he had dealt to us in just one hit. It made no sense for a mage to have this much physical attack! Could he be one of those legendary close-combat mages?

But I shook my head immediately. That couldn’t be right, and speaking of which, I hadn’t checked the boss's stats until now. Considering how much damage he had dealt to Xinran, it made no sense for him to be a weakling.

I stared at Cardin The Third and summoned his stat screen. What I saw immediately drained the blood from my face.

Ruler of Floating Ice City Cardin (Purple Gold Rank Boss)

Level: 90

Magic Attack: ???

Defense: ???

HP: ???

Skills: ???

Introduction: The Cardin Family was a famous family during the later period of Spirit of Grief. Countless heroes had emerged from the family and fought against the undead. But after the Dragon Domain was turned into a wasteland, the final protectors of the human race, the Dragon Speakers, perished one after another. The cracks of hell were once again opened, and countless evil spirits took control of the continent. After a series of terrible battles, the Cardin Family barely managed to secure a patch of free land and establish the kingdom known as Floating Ice City. However, a thousand years ago, an evil undead magus managed to seize control of Cardin The Third's body and turn him into a powerful puppet.

……

Holy shit, it’s a Level 90 boss, a Level 90 Purple Gold Rank boss no less! I couldn’t see his stats at all, but it didn’t take much imagination to estimate how high they were considering that the boss was twelve levels ahead of me. No wonder he was able to make my life a living hell with just one low-level spell!

There was no way we could beat this boss at our current strength. Xinran’s help was absolutely necessary if we were to have any shot at completing this quest at all.

Swhoosh!

Xinran once again fired a bloody beam from the Dragonbone Spear and deleted over forty thousand HP from the boss's health pool. By now, the corrupted king had lost over three-fourths of his HP, and he should die in less than half a minute if Xinran kept attacking!

However, Cardin The Third waved his scepter again and shouted angrily, “O’ depraved purgatory of darkness, heed my call and heal my wounds with the strength of your fallen souls. In the name of Cardilla, I cast—Tenacity of the Dead!"

Swhoosh!

+160000!

WTF! Cardin The Third healed himself for 160k HP in one spell, meaning that he had a total of 640k HP. The health pool of a Dark Gold Rank boss was nothing compared to a Purple God Rank boss at all.

“Attack!"

It was looking to become a war of attrition, but there was nothing we could do except fight to the last. No one could’ve predicted that the boss would also have Tenacity of the Dead.

He Yi and I ganged up on the boss again after downing an HP potion each. Beiming Xue continued to slow him down with Freezing Arrows. In a battle like this, Freezing Arrow was a godly skill because it reduced the boss's casting speed by 35% or more!

Cardin The Third immediately channeled another spell after Tenacity of the Dead by stabbing his scepter into the ground in front of him. Suddenly, a ton of icy blades burst out of the earth and attacked everyone!

“Watch out!"

I grabbed He Yi and tried to dodge out of the way, but I was too late. Pain exploded from my legs as the icy blades punched through my legguards.

Behind me, Murong Mingyue let out a cry of surprise. “Not good…"

Pacha!

Murong Mingyue slowly collapsed to the ground as an icicle penetrated her body. She became the first player in our party to die since the start of the quest!

Everyone started panicking after we lost our priest. He Yi and I dropped to low health, and Beiming Xue was barely keeping out of harm’s way because she had high agility.

1784!

1698!

The boss's magic attack was just too powerful for us to handle; he hadn’t even used a single target spell except that one time he attacked me! I highly doubted that He Yi or I was going to survive if he decided to switch to single-target spells instead!

“Hmph!"

Eyes full of anger, Xinran snacked the boss right in the head before chanting, “Xinran offers a contract to the blades of death slumbering beneath the depths of hell. Awaken and devour everything—Ice Scythe!"

Crack!

Icicles burst out of the blade of the Dragonbone Spear and transformed into a humongous, bloody scythe of pure ice, cutting apart Cardin The Third’s flesh and bones and taking off an entire half of a shoulder. A horrific stench assaulted everyone’s nostrils as a shocking column of damage numbers appeared above his head—

107462!

118754!

127467!

……

The energy dealt over 300k damage in one go and completely emptied Cardin The Third’s HP. But for some reason, he was able to grip onto Xinran’s spear and laugh sinisterly, “My life is fueled by bottomless darkness! I am immortal thanks to it! Xinran, you are a denizen of hell yourself. Do you really think you have the power to kill me?"

Xinran cried out in shock, “You!?"

Suddenly, there was a flash of red light outside the palace hall, followed by the appearance of a female warrior. She was clad in golden armor from head to toe, and she was holding a sword with one hand. She slowly entered the hall and dropped to one knee. “How have you been, royal father?"

“What… you’re… Karinshan?! How is this possible?!!"

Cardin The Third shouted angrily, “I sealed your soul inside the tomb! How can you possibly be here?"

Karinshan raised her head and glared at him. “Cardilla, you bastard! How much longer are you planning to torture my father?"

Cardin The Third couldn’t stop himself from laughing sinisterly. “And why shouldn’t I torture your useless father as revenge, Princess Karinshan? You were the one who defeated Lord Pernilla, weren’t you? Hahaha, it excites me to think that the once mighty King of Floating Ice City is now as weak as a three-year-old child! At any rate, there’s no way you people can kill me! Just sit here while the Night Creatures plot their vengeance!"

Still holding onto Xinran’s spear, Cardin The Third suddenly raised his scepter and shouted, “I, Cardilla, offer a contract to the evil spirits slumbering in the depths of hell! With my life as the cost, heed my call and bring forth a forbidden spell of hell—Calamity Meteor!"

I cursed in my head. “This is bad! Is he planning to destroy the entire Floating Ice City?"

Cardin The Third laughed loudly. “Hahaha, the forbidden spell I cast with my life as the price is powerful enough to destroy the entire Floating Ice City! Once the barrier is gone, the Night Creatures will immediately attack Sky City and Wind City! This is the end of the alliance between humans and elves!"

“Damn you!"

Xinran coated her palm with a sheen of dark energy and slammed it into Cardin The Third’s neck. However, he still refused to die even though black blood was spilling out of his wound! Xinran was using the power of darkness, and it looked like Cardin The Third was surprisingly resistant toward it!

By now, the sky had turned blood-red in color. Then, countless burning meteors parted the clouds, raining destruction on the entire city!

BOOM!

A wall outside the palace and a group of guards rushing in from outside were crushed by a falling meteor. Even further away, more meteors were falling from the sky as if heralding the start of the apocalypse! The entire Floating Ice City was shaking under the massive spell!

Ding~!

System Announcement (Player Roaming Dragon Shout): What the fuck are you doing, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand? If you’re going to fail a quest, then fail it by yourself! Don’t drag the entire goddamn city with you! If the quest is beyond your level, you shouldn’t have accepted it in the first place, you trash!

……

I was a bit dumbfounded by the shout. To be honest, I didn’t think that it would affect the other players of Floating Ice City until now.

Beiming Xue consoled me. “Big bro, just ignore that guy. He knows how to taunt, but he doesn’t know how to lift a hand to change his situation. You’re the one who’s working to save Floating Ice City…"

He Yi also nodded. “Mn. At the very least, we had done our best."

……

Suddenly, Princess Karinshan rose to her feet and shouted at me. “Quickly! Kill Cardilla with the Blade of Kings, or the entire city will turn into rubble!"

Shivering with realization, I quickly pulled out the Blade of Kings and raced toward Cardin The Third like an arrow. The blade was glowing with holy energy, so I was certain that the weapon could deal a fatal blow to a master of the dark arts like Cardilla!

Puchi!

The sword penetrated flesh as I slashed Cardilla’s wounded shoulder. The point of contact between the sword and flesh let out smoke, as if his flesh was burning!

“Argh…"

Cardilla screamed in pain. The blow was clearly effective, not to mention that the quest already specified that the Blade of Kings was necessary to kill the undead magus.

“Hah!"

Xinran launched a powerful kick straight at Cardilla’s chest and sent a cyanish shadow flying out of Cardin The Third’s body. It was none other than Cardilla’s soul energy. The evil undead magus was so proficient at the dark arts that he was able to live even without a body.

Thump!

Cardin The Third’s eyes turned murky as he dropped to his knees. When he looked up and saw Princess Karinshan, he summoned whatever strength he had left in his dying body and formed an ugly smile. “Karinshan, my daughter, is that you? I’m sorry I’ve made you suffer for such a long time…"

Karinshan dropped in front of her father and cried, “Royal father!"

Cardin The Third lifted his hand in hopes of touching his daughter’s face, but his wilted hand started turning to ash right in front of their eyes. Looking away from his dissolving arm, he stared at Karinshan one last time before saying, “I recognize you, my daughter. You are forever the pride of my life…"

After that, Cardin The Third’s body dissolved completely and turned into a small hill of yellow ash.

……

“Aaahhhh…"

Karinshan cried like a baby as she knelt on the ground. She kept trying to hold onto the yellow ash that was once her father, but a powerful wind from outside was slowly but surely blowing it all away. No matter how she tried to cover the ashes with her own body, there was no stopping the cold wind from scattering the memory of Cardin The Third until all that was left was nothing.

……

Behind her, the battle still wasn’t over!

Xinran charged toward the cyan figure like the wind. It was Cardilla’s true body. Clearly, the powerful undead magus wasn’t going to die this easily.