Ank

We were finally there.

After jumping from flying rock to flying rock, at the very edge of the fake universe, Hunah, I, and everyone else have finally come to what seemed to be the boss room: contradicting all that I knew about the world, and probably just another creative decision of whoever made that part of the [Dungeon], there was another “planet”, solitary, far away from the sun, about the size of the moon (for sure, the real size being considerably smaller, and the image itself some kind of visual illusion), and almost completely immersed in darkness, if not for a single spot of red light on its surface.

Without thinking twice, very aware that, if we tried to rest, more monsters would show up, and the [Sunight Party] would be further endangered, we jumped from a flying rock and towards the “planet”. We were slowly falling, approaching the red light.

“…Ank, Hunah”, Jao called, frowning, as we descended to the last boss of the [Dungeon]. “I’m sorry. I… I’ve been just a burden for you two since the beginning.”

“It’s not only your fault, big bro!”, Tapa called out, tightening her grip onto her staff.

“We are too weak…!”, Nif added, grinding his teeth, equally frustrated.

“No, it is my fault”, the blue-haired human insisted. “We’ve been adventurers for so long already, but we’re still so weak…”, Jao closed his hands into tight fists, before staring at me, full of determination, and concluding: “I promise, Ank, Hunah: I don’t care what I will need to go through, but I will pay you back for what you have been doing for us here.”

Hiding a smile, I knew that what my sister and I have been doing there was worth it.

It didn’t take long after this for our feet finally touch the sandy ground, just outside the ring of red light; on the “planet” surface, I could see that, in actuality, it was much, much smaller than Incute’s snowy version.

Either way, Hunah and I strode forward, prepared to fight whatever awaited ahead, as the rest of the [Party] stood as far away, as I could sustain the armor I had summoned for them. Then, the curvature of the rocky sphere, as we advanced, revealed a very tall blue-skinned man at the center of a shinning red circle on a flat and circular rock, with thousands of unknown red inscriptions in it. He stared upwards, and to the darkness of the very edge of the universe, his hands on his backs. He waited cordially.

[Species: (D – boss, treppaned) Tallmen , Level: 159]

As the man turned around, his long and simple black robes spinning, I noticed the [Tallmen] had a small hole in the middle of his forehead, and I could see his brain straight through it. This, however, was expected, considering the type of enemies we’ve been killing up to that point, what really surprised me, was that the [Dungeon] boss spoke:

“Hello, invited ones… and friends. I’ve been waiting”, he smiled and stood still, calm.

I turned to the blue-haired human, asking, confused:

“I thought [Dungeon] monsters were not like actual living creatures, even the ones who are supposed to be intelligent”, I remembered the explanation Incute gave me a while back.

“Well… Yeah, you’re right”, he replied, getting visibly nervous.

“Hmph”, The (real) final boss left out a muffled laugh. “Please, invited one, I know you…”, he looked at Hunah too, before continuing: “…two have many questions. And I intended in answering them all since the beginning, if not for our terrible misunderstanding.”

“Man, you sent bizarre monsters to attack us”, Hunah pointed out.

“Ah”, the [Tallman] lift a finger, as if to correct her: “I sent bizarre monsters to invite you. They wouldn’t actually kill you two, though I recognize that their methods can be a little… inconvenient.”

“They wouldn’t kill the two of us?”, I highlighted. “What about the rest of us?”, I nodded towards the other three [Party] members.

The [Tallman] didn’t answer. He didn’t even spare the [Sunight Party] a glance.

“…Yeah, I don’t care what your intentions are inviting us, but we refuse”, I said.

“I bet he called you to watch the twins having sex!”, The fox girl accused, surprisingly serious.

“What the- Tapa, you okay?”, Jao asked, concerned, as Nif looked away.

“Well, that’s a shame. We’ve even put strong spells so only those who already sympathized with our cause would be invited here…”, the [Tallman] sighed, shaking his head in negative. “To kill you all is truly a waste, but at least I’ll finally get some new toys”, He quickly threw a hand upwards, and from the darkness above, three bodies fell onto the ground:

[Species: Flowermen (Treppaned Experiment) Level: 104]

[Species: Mushroon People (Treppaned Experiment), Level: 101]

[Species: Grassmen (Treppaned Experiment), Level: 106]

As the [Level: 159] boss, and its three [Level: 100+] minions dashed forward, Hunah covered her whip in the red energy, and slashed against the opponents, while I called forth a [Jaguar Headed Serpent, Level: 90], and two [Urayuli, Level: 30]; while the first monster had a very self-explanatory name, and grew to fifteen meters long, the second type of summoned creature was a 3 meters tall muscular humanoid covered in fur, and with arms that reached its ankles, vicious and strong enough that it was an efficient fighter even without weapons.

“[Summon: Copper Weapon]”, a metallic pickaxe was the last thing I conjured before the first of the enemies reached us.

Just like the other three newcomers, the [Mushroom People] one used adventuring clothing, but, uniquely, fought with a wooden baton, and it was my first opponent: the agile enemy bashed with its baton in a quick succession, and while I had enough [Strength] and [Perception] to avoid its hit a single time, I managed to not have my eyeball exploded just because my [Jaguar Headed Snake] bit into the body of the baton user.

Once I thought I had the advantage, however, and was about to dig my weapon straight into the hole that exposed the opponent’s brain, a red laser came out of nowhere, and pierced straight through my right forearm, ignoring the armor, and pushing me back. Looking for the source of the attack, I saw that the (real) and smiling last boss had smoke coming out of the hole in his forehead.

“Graw!”, my limbless summon screamed, as it was forced to let go of the baton user; which slid under the grasp of my two other creatures, and quickly reached me again, already with a hit incoming.

Thankfully, the laser had passed right in between my ulna and radius bones, and I still had a good control over my limb, and I managed to surprise the opponent by hitting his weapon away; and already aware of the [Tallman]’s lasers, I grasped onto the clothing the mushroom guy was wearing, and put him in between myself and the boss.

The [Tallman] shot straight through the head of its underling, beheading and killing it instantaneously.

“Fuck”, I cursed, holding onto my bleeding ear, helmet dissolved in a cloud of magical particles; my copper armor apparently useless against the (real) last boss attacks.

“Give up; abandon your companions and accept your place between us already, invited ones”, the [Tallman] offered once again. Showing me his hand, he added: “All of this power, and more can be yours… and you know you need it to complete your objectives.”

“Yeah, but we can get this power by killing you and yours”, I replied, straightening up, and letting the beheaded corpse fall to the side.

“Oh? And, how do you plan to do so?”, the [Tallmen] talked back, his smile growing wider, as red light started to shone through the hole in his head; I had no place to go, nothing I could do was able to stop his attacks, I was completely surrendered to the enemy’s mercy.

“I had underlings too, right? I ask myself: where did they go?”

Once the last boss realized what I was talking about, his eyes widening, he quickly turned around, but, by then, Hunah’s whip was already coming for his head; all of my summons had been sent to help her, and so she managed to quickly deal with the 2 monsters that went after her.

The [Tallman] tried to use his laser attack on the skeletal weapon, but Hunah’s skill gave life to the whip, and the weapon moved away from the unstoppable beam of red light; in a desperate attempt to avoid the attack, the (real) last boss jumped up and backward, but was caught in the middle of his body anyway.

Surprisingly, my sister’s attack broke the enemy’s shield in a single hit; though, if he was really a person, he should have invested his points, like Tapa explained, mostly into [Magic] and one more [Attribute] perhaps, so maybe his defense really wasn’t just great.

In any case, a second time the enemy turned around, surprised and despaired, for I had jumped after him, and already had my pickaxe raised over my head, and falling towards my target.

A new, but visibly weaker, quickly put together, laser beam was fired from the hole in the (real) last boss’ forehead, and heated up my weapon to the point the metal started to melt away, before vanishing into magical particles.

“[Summon: Copper Weapon]”, I conjured a new one, but the red stream of light kept coming, and I used the [Spell] a third time: “[Summon: Copper Weapon]”, and a fourth time: “[Summon: Copper Weapon]”

And, then, I finally reached the enemy, and dug the partially melted tip straight into the [Tallman]’s neck, tearing up skin, flesh, and bones, smoke and blood gushing out of the wound, before I completely beheaded the (real) last boss.

My feet touched the ground, and I caught my breath, checking my energy reserves, spent from this fight, and the previous ones until I found the boss:

HP: 902/1415

MP: 914/ 3550

SP: 132/720

“You okay?”, I heard Hunah stepping closer; she didn’t look much more energized than I. I just hummed in agreement, and lift a thumb up.

“Ank, Hunah!”, I heard Jao jogging towards us, followed by the others. After confirming we were okay, he smiled “You really did it! When we get back to the city, we need to commemorate.”

“The tradition is that the [Party] leader is the one who buys the drinks!”, Nif was quick to add, holding his money pouch tight.

The blue-haired human smile grew larger as he said back:

“You heard, Ank, Hunah: you better not spend everything in junk before paying us a drink!”

“Okay, oka-”, my eyes widened, as I the message settled in. “Wait, what?”, maybe I was interpreting something wrong.

“Actually, the three of us have been talking about it, and… we decided that you two, or one of you two, should be the new leader”, Jao explained. “We’ve been taking orders from you to stay alive in this [Dungeon] since the beginning, after all”, he shrugged, concluding. “Who knows, maybe this is what the 10th Guild Master intended from the beginning, by trying to give you all experience in a [Party] and everything.”

I was speechless, and looking at Hunah, she didn’t seem much more eloquent either, both of our mouths opening and closing, but no sound coming from it.

I wish one of us had been the one to talk next:

“Congratulations!”, the body-less head of the (real) last boss spoke, its eyes widened, a euphoric expression on his face. “Oh~! Congratulations! You... killed the sacri- sacrifices! A...nd-” as his voice faltered, and his eyes became more distant, losing their light. the red circle beneath us started to shine stronger. “I… Wish… I could... see Them.. t...”, as the head finally died, the red circle shone at its fullest, so intense we all had to turn away.

Then, a familiar sound echoed behind us, and once the light diminished to a bearable intensity, and I looked back, I saw a massive red portal.

From it, a boulder, too similar to the ones that we were camping onto up to that point, came off. Its surface, however, soon started to crack, and as pieces of rock moved around to reveal a monstrosity of flesh, teeth, and eyes withing:

[Species: True God, Type: Voider (D - boss), Level: 201

HP: 20.000/20.000 (20.000)]