Pushing open the doors was easier than their size would imply. It took little effort for Colin to push open the perfectly balanced and oiled doors and be the first inside. With his Mythic Xiphos in his right hand, he kept his other hand on his Lesser Infernal Edge as he crept inside. While he doubted that ALAN would make a sneak attack, he wanted to avoid getting blind-sighted.

The room was a massive pillared area that looked staged for the very purpose that he’d entered for. ALAN must have prepared room for the express area of fighting challengers that get to the point of fighting it directly. The room was big enough that Colin couldn’t estimate its dimensions, and the only words he could describe it with were massive, plain but epic, and perfect.

There was not a stain, scratch, or even a scuff on any of the stonework around him. The stone under his feet was a flat brick that formed patterns in different shades of gray. The walls were untextured, plain, and only sconces with unknown devices placed in them and depressions in the stone were carved. The pillars were cut square and went to the ceiling; they were carved with perfect drawings of some of the more unique Golems that Colin had seen around the city. The Mini-bosses were included. On each pillar’s flat surfaces were more of those sconces with devices in them that Colin didn’t recognize.

As they stepped further inside, no one speaking, the devices in the scones reacted. At the top of the scones where the head of a torch would be, an orb of light ignited and slowly brightened. Each device in the room started only with the brightness of a nightlight but gradually grew in brightness. Then each of the lights rose from their respective source and flowed like embers to the ceiling. Once there, they snaked around the roof, leaving trails that stayed and left no dark spots in the room other than Colin’s group’s own shadows.

Eyes peeled, they continued to walk straight through the room from their entrance. As they walked, all of them noted several throne-like seats situated around several of the room’s pillars. On these seats, dormant Golems sat limp and clean, and they waited. It was unsettling how corpse-like these things looked when they were just left like that.

After a solid minute of walking, ALAN’s voice echoed through the room; the source was not obvious. “Welcome to my Boss Room, DevilWalker, Darielle, ContraryPaladin, and Larimortias the Demon. You are not the first ones here, but I will admit that you probably came more prepared than the two previous contenders.”

“Really?” Paladin muttered. “I hadn’t heard of anyone making it here.”

Colin paused, and the rest of the group did as well. “It doesn’t matter, does it?” he asked Paladin.

Paladin shrugged, “unlikely, it’s just odd. More Players than not post these things on forums or bitch about unfairness on their blogs or YouWatch accounts. I did some checking, and no one mentioned a thing.”

“That is not surprising,” ALAN told them. “Without going into the Metamagic of Para-planes and Quasi-dimensions, I figured out how these Outworlders and their undying magic trick works. Cutting all long explanations aside, I bound them here. Their souls are stuck to this world until either I am defeated, or I release them.”

Colin froze.

Paladin took an instinctual step back, but Rielle and Larry were uncertain what the Golem Overmind meant. “So what? Keep them,” Larry said with a shrug. “Most Outworlders are dicks and unpleasant to deal with. Why should we care if they stay here, right?”

Colin looked to his Demon for a moment, then swept his gaze around the room. “Can you go to the Outworlder’s world? Can you send people there?” He asked, hopeful of a cheat to everything he had been told.

“No,” ALAN said with a synthetic chuckle. “For reasons beyond my current understanding, I cannot breach that world. Why would I want to anyway? I’d have to start from scratch there, and there is no guarantee that I would succeed. No, at least, not for now. For now, I will just make myself content with trapping as many Outworlders as I can and keep them from interfering more than once. It may take quadrillions of Golems to beat them all, but I will do what is necessary to prove myself.”

“To who?!” Rielle asked. “Who do you want to prove yourself to that it would require all this destruction and death?!” She practically demanded. The act caught Colin’s attention, but now was not the time to question it.

“To myself!” The Golem Overlord announced. “My creator was a fool who wanted to revel in the carnage of the city above when he unleashed the hordes that I helped him make and control. I suggested that he not attack the city yet, but AidenBrand was unwilling to wait. He would have walked the battlefield and have likely been killed in the first battle, even with my protection. I stopped him before that and decided to attack the city in his place to prove that I am better than him and his weak plan.”

“Now what?” Colin asked curiously. “You’ve almost taken over the city, more and more Outworlders are dying, and the defenses on the safe zones won’t last forever. Even if they did, the food and water wouldn’t. What’s next after you conquer the city?”

If Golems could smile, Colin was sure the Golem would be doing so now.

“You know, I’ve had an itch to see the rest of the world,” ALAN answered simply. “Maybe see how far I can go before something stops me. I almost don’t care if it’s quick, but I enjoyed destroying the city.”

Smiling, Colin kept his eyes moving around as he searched for movements, making sure to check the ceiling. Just in case. “You know, you would make a good Antagonist, ALAN. Far better than I could given what you can do. It’s almost a shame I can’t let you get that far.”

“Then, on that note, by all means, let us begin!” ALAN proclaimed to the ample echoing space.

The double doors they entered suddenly slammed shut, and a sudden rush of displaced air whistled through the space. Smooth pieces of stone slid against each other as they moved, and about thirty meters ahead of their group, the floor moved. In that spot, a pedestal of polished black stone rose from within the floor with something hard to describe on top. It looked kind of like a wire-frame cage with pieces of dangling crystals wired to it with magic flowing visibly through it like electricity.

The whole thing stood five feet tall, not including the pedestal, and that shimmered as runes on its surface became apparent for a moment. Colin recognized a few of the symbols but not their meaning in the magic they were working, not that he needed to. With a little consulting from Nox and Speaker Fahtagin, Colin had an idea of what to expect.

In this world, there are many types of boss battles. Mini-bosses are stronger than standard enemies in the given area and usually have extra powers that make them a challenge. Alpha Bosses are the head of a tribe of monsters and are always trouble because they can run away, unlike all other Boss types. Dungeon Bosses are the most complex challenge in a Dungeon, other than the Dungeon Master.

Then there were Raid Bosses and World Bosses. Raid Bosses are usually holed up in strongholds and take several stronger people than the singular Boss to beat it or up to a dozen equal or lower-level people. World Bosses are creatures of such might and strength that entire armies may fail against them. One of the few things that are true with every Boss battle is that it is possible to kill them in the fight.

And that network of crystals was something that Colin was a little familiar with. He’d seen it once before when he’d killed the Scarecrow Golem that had the Horde Wraith Soul in it. Only this looked many times more complicated than that thing’s Crystal Matrix. This means that ALAN’s weakness was out in the open like they said it would be. Which it would be, of course, this was still a game after all.

When the sound of metal scraping lightly against metal and the tinkling of light chains reached their ears, Colin didn’t wait any longer. “Cover me!”

Larry was running next to Colin, his HellRime Full Plate Armor forming around him as he ran. Colin could not see a shred of red skin in seconds, and a No-dachi was being held in his right hand as they ran.

“What?” ALAN announced. “Not even going to see what I look like in my favorite party Golem Frame! Oh well, Helium-Neon Ray!”

Larry grabbed Colin, forced him to stop with his sheer mass, and slammed his fist into the ground. “HellRime Wall!”

A five-foot-wide and ten-foot-tall wall of the hellish ice sprang up as a line of green light swept horizontally through the pillars where Colin and Larry had been passing. The wall intercepted the beam and held against the attack, but the ice seemed to crack and splinter.

“Thanks!” Colin said, patting Larry’s shoulder and casting the spell Lesser Bolster Demon.

With his increased physical Attributes, Larry howled and punched the wall, the entire thing shattering. With a burst of his magic, the whole thing flew out as a mist of shrapnel.

Running towards the pedestal, Colin missed seeing what the Golem ALAN was inhabiting looked like. He just heard Larry yelling with glee while the sound of cracking ice and slamming steel echoed through the hall.

Rielle was following a few paces behind Colin, Paladin a few paces behind her and losing ground with every step.

“Ow!” Larry yelled as he flew into a pillar just behind them.

The whole precession stopped to look back at the Demon, and only Colin kept moving forward while trying to watch Larry. Only a few seconds had passed, and his HellRime Armor looked like it had been beaten repeatedly by a sledgehammer. The right arm of the armor was gone as well as a section of the chest piece near his abdomen. His helmet was gone, revealing a vicious smile and bloody lips that colored his teeth.

“You are not the most interesting thing I’ve fought, Demon,” ALAN’s voice boomed. “But you are one of the most skilled!”

From above, a six-foot-tall Golem plated in colored shining metals fell with an ornate dull green metal staff. His fall was aimed at Larry with the staff brought up and ready to slam into the HellRime Knight.

Instead of that, Paladin sprinted towards Larry, his body flowing with his Ki as he interposed himself between the two. It took no small amount of maneuverability to make sure the staff impacted the Sumo in the optimal spot. Right in the middle of his massive gut, and his Fat Armor Skill absorbed the brunt of the damage and put the Golem in the optimum location for the Sumo’s next move.

Before the Golem could get its feet on the ground, Paladin thrust out a glowing palm in a slap that knocked the Golem straight into the ground.

The Golem slammed into it with a thud like a car colliding with stone, quickly rolling to the side to getaway.

Colin got his first good look at the frame ALAN was wearing when it stood. It was humanoid in form but somewhat bestial in some ways. All four of its limbs were almost gangly thin, each with fingers and toes that ended with opposable claws. Each of its legs had an extra joint that was reversed to provide extra thrust when the Golem would sprint. Its torso was strangely regular, for a Golem, at least, but its head looked almost human. It was made entirely of metal plates that moved with every word from its mouth or maw given its fangs. Worse than all that was the glossy red, golden, and green metals that made up its body. Scarletite, Luminate, and Adamant were worked onto its body like armor.

Colin turned away from the fight and hurried towards what he thought was ALAN’s Crystal Matrix. With the Mythic Xiphos in his hands, he swung it at the item and felt the air ripple and resist. An invisible force kept his blade from getting close to the magical supercomputer. He also drew his Lesser Infernal Edge and swung it at the unseen shield for good measure. The transparent wall rippled but did not allow even this weapon to pass.

“Going with plan A! Keep him busy until I finish, then I’ll help!” Colin yelled, Sheathing his weapons. He drew the folded papers from the inside of his jacket, unfolding them all and placing them upon the ground. Colin activated Heretic Scribe and used its power to instantly ready a ritual that had been drawn on them.

As soon as the Ability was triggered, magic encompassed the pages of information, and five ritual circles were drawn into the ground. The largest and most complex of them was drawn directly around the pedestal. The other four were slight variations of each other, with lines and runes that intersected with the middle circle.

Colin ran around the circle, took out four dagger’s without fixed hilts, and placed them in the center of the four outside circles. The last step in the preparation was the focus for the Ritual, a large dark green spike with a roughly formed handle at the end.

Not wasting a second, he fell to his knees and grabbed the spike, and raised it above his head. He filled the item with Earth Magic with his Attune Item Skill and felt the Ritual respond to the action. Seconds passed as he continued to Attune the item, which slowly started to trigger the Ritual, then added a second thread of Magic to Attune it with that as well. Kinetic magic flowed into the item, and all four Adamant Daggers rose from their spots in the Ritual to float and spin.

Colin said, “Set!” and all four daggers halted and aimed for the ceiling. “Launch!” he announced, and they flew with crushing force into it. They were all embedded deep enough that only a few centimeters remained out of the wall.

“Attune, Connect, and Channel!” Colin commanded. Colin could only sense the invisible strings of mana since he activated the Ritual formed from the Daggers in the wall and to his spike. All at once, the strings tightened, and he could feel the strings vibrate with both the Earth Magic priming itself and the Kinetic ready to go already.

Performing the final step, he threw the green spike above ALAN’s Crystal Matrix and announced, “Set Shield Buster! Full Ritual of Slow Breach, Activate!”

Would you like to activate the Ritual of Slow Breach?

Groaning since he just said that out loud, he said yes at the waste of time and watched for a moment.

The spike he’d thrown rose in the air and oriented itself, so the point was aimed for the top of the magic shield. It then hovered down with almost delicate ease, and Colin smiled.

The idea of the Ritual was straightforward. Channel the power of the earth to utilize gravity, magnetism, whatever to slowly increase the power of the spike down upon the shield. The problem was that he had no chance to activate a faster version of the Ritual at his current Ritual Magic Skill level. So he changed the time variable to slowly gather power over time and increase the force put upon the Adamant Spike.

Every second they gave the Ritual was more power to be fed to the Ritual, and the better the chance it actually worked. Nox had told him that Rituals used thousands and thousands of mana for just those that were moderately powerful. So Colin leaned down, pulling a Mana Potion that he’d pilfered earlier today and holding it for a moment. He placed his hand upon the edge of the circle and used his knowledge of ritual magic to add what little mana he could into the Ritual.

Only a moment, and he felt like his magic had been drained dry in an instant, but the effect his mana had was near immediate. The lines of mana that connected the daggers to the spike took on actual color, with green and translucent energies flowing to the spike, which seemed to press a little more into the shield.

Drinking the potion, Colin turned to the battle, the primary plan complete. Now they just had to hold him back until the Ritual did its work. A moment passed, and the magic reinvigorated his mana pool. Colin drew both of his weapons before he jogged towards the battle.

It only took a few seconds for Colin to find them; the fight was pretty intense. Even with all three ganging up on ALAN, that particular Golem he was possessing was moving with such fluid movements that he was hard to hit. But they had dented him, as was evident by the damage seen from his Boss Health Indicator that was legible when it slowed a little.

Boss: ALAN, Prime War Golem. Health: 91%

Rielle had her body and sword alight with that Rose Astral Spirit, which gave her blows a little more oomph. The Incubus had shed his armor in exchange for a thin layer of HellRime covering him and worked with a staff similar to ALAN’s own. He used it to block attacks aimed at him or Rielle and strike back at the Golem, his body twisting to add more power to each blow.

Paladin was on the opposite side of the Golem, attempting to land a solid hit with his hand wraps. But every time he leaned in to slam a palm into it, the Golem used the back of his metal staff to shove the blow to the side.

“Rielle! Switch!” Colin yelled, triggering the transformation of his Lesser Infernal Edge. She stepped back, and Larry immediately moved a little more aggressively to cover her step back. Then Colin took her place, and Larry took a step back while Colin and Paladin fought ALAN.

Triggering Kinetic Vigor and Empowering Mana, he moved faster than both his Demon and Rielle. He found it easy to keep up with the Golem but not get ahead. He’d deflect a swipe with his Mythic Xiphos, then move to slash with his Lesser Infernal Edge. The Golem would step back to avoid the blow before turning around in a three hundred and sixty-degree arc to slam into Paladin. This interrupted the Sumo’s attempt to slow him while he turned and swung back into Colin.

A few more seconds of fighting later, and Colin switched his tactics. He aimed for the Golem with his Mythic Xiphos, and the Golem deflected with his Adamant staff. Then Colin stepped in and swiped his Lesser Infernal Edge, charged with an Aligned Strike. The attack sheared the metal rod into two unequal pieces. Colin followed it up by swiping his Mythic Xiphos into its torso.

Boss: ALAN, Prime War Golem. Health: 89%

The Golem bent low and pushed off the ground, landing on the pillars above them and sticking for a moment as he looked at them. That moment lasted only until a Heavenly Blight-infused Arrow slammed into and splashed the flame all over the arm that held it there. A moment later, two more arrows had been fired. The second one pierced the Golems arm and immediately exploded into a small fireball as Rielle triggered her enchantment.

Boss: ALAN, Prime War Golem. Health: 88%

The explosion didn’t dent or even scorch the Golem’s chassis, but it did cause ALAN to let go of the pillar. He aimed his fall towards Colin, aiming both parts of the staff like clubs towards him in downward swings. Its target stepped to the side while angling his unbreakable Mythic Xiphos so that it caught and deflected what Colin couldn’t avoid. He swung his Lesser Infernal Edge when Golem landed, sending another cut into the Golem.

ALAN rolled away and sprang to his feet before Colin could try and attack again, raising the shorter half of his broken staff over his shoulder. Hurling it at Paladin before raising the now free hand and yelling, “Particle Shot!”

A bolt of red energy sprang from the Golem’s hand and flew towards Colin. It was fast enough that he couldn’t even think of dodging before the bolt took him in the chest and knocked him back a pace.

You have taken 63 points of damage and now have 639/702 health remaining.

“Well, aren’t you four more interesting than I thought,” ALAN said, throwing his ruined quarterstaff to the side. “But how about we see more of what I can do, eh?” With a snap of its sharp fingers, the Golem Master sent out a pulse of magic and said, “Unit name ‘Sword Cursed,’ get to work and kill them.”

Somewhere else in the room, the sound of metal scraping against metal shrieked across the space. Colin kept his gaze off the smiling visage of ALAN, “so, that’s what you did with the people you killed in here.”

“Oh, you are good,” ALAN cheered. “Indeed, and the Sword Cursed is truly the most fascinating one I beat. Do you have any idea how hard I had to work to make a Golem that could work with his rather unique physiology? I had a team of Golem Crafter Golems work all day yesterday to create the concept then build it.”

“So what?” Colin asked, turning off his mana-draining buffs to take this moment that ALAN felt chatty to let them recharge a little. “You did what you had to to make an idea work. It was probably a pretty good plan, too, right?”

The Golem stared for a moment before answering. “It was, but… you know, I think I’ve been a little too chatty with you, DevilWalker. Am I attention-starved, or do I just like you?”

“Who knows, I’m pretty likable. But I think most people like my wife better, truth be told,” Colin told him.

The Golem shook its head and flexed its fingers, “it is too bad we can’t explore this and find out what it is. You challenged me, and now I have to kill you here in my space. And now I am going to finish this, DevilWalker. Unit name ‘Ink Meister,’ rise and assist us!”

Colin sprinted at ALAN without using his mana to keep it recharging. The Lesser Infernal Edge swung horizontally towards it with the Mythic Xiphos coming down. The Golem ducked low into a roll that avoided Colin’s swings and came up into Colin’s guard. But Colin threw up a knee in a weak and improvised attack to push himself back a little to keep the Golem from attacking.

“Flare Wave!’ the Golem yelled as it waved its arm. A wave of red energy, all of it looked like the point of light on a road flare, ignited where his arm swung and flew at Colin. Bringing up both weapons to defend against the wave, neither stopped the attack as much as diffusing it. The wave fizzled as they touched his weapons, and the attack touched Colin with less effect.

You have taken 89 points of damage and now have 550/702 health remaining.

“Shit,” Colin hissed. “Fine, how about this?!” he yelled as he reached the small of his back, drew a pair of enchanted throwing knives, and threw them at ALAN.

ALAN caught both and squeezed the blades with almost contemptuous ease, snapping them with a slight chuckle. “Was that supposed to do somethi-”

The magic in both blades detonated, the enchantments breaking and spewing their remaining power all over the Golems’ hands. ALAN recoiled as both of its hands burst into misshapen frozen lumps, all jagged ends, and sharp points. The enchantments were a culmination of Water and Kinetic Enchantments; the daggers weren’t meant to do that. Still, Colin’s surprise lasted only a moment as Colin went after the Golem.

He thrust both blades up towards the Golem’s chest, only to have them diverted as the Golem Overmind attempted to deflect them with the ice. Its attempt was only partially successful, and the clumsy strikes sent them to different parts of its form than its center mass.

Boss: ALAN, Prime War Golem. Health: 82%

Pulling his weapons away, Colin turned around to attack again but was interrupted by the strumming of a stringed instrument. He risked a second to turn and see what the source of the music was, only to see a black puddle on the ground rising and taking shape. Over a few seconds, the pool looked like a sexless human and wielded a long spear-like pole.

It continued solidifying as it thrust the weapon, and Colin had to sidestep to avoid it. Swinging the Mythic Xiphos, the weapon decapitated the creature, and its body fell apart into liquid chunks as it splashed back into a puddle.

Paladin was hurrying up to Colin; he paused and pushed a finger towards ALAN. “I’ll take over ALAN for a moment; we need you over there. One of the golems it got moving is some kind of Bard that created Ink Clones or something, and I am not a good matchup for it. Rielle’s holding it off, but she thinks she won’t last long without help.” He pointed towards where more of those Goo Warriors or Ink Clones, as Paladin called them, were congregating.

Colin nodded and hurried towards where Paladin had gestured; he could trust Paladin with this for a bit, then come back.

The Puddles of black Ink shifted and flowed as the strumming worked their magic, and Colin got closer. Rielle was moving around the mass of armed Ink Warriors, black Ink staining her clothes and sword. She wasn’t on fire now and just hacked, cut, and slashed through the surrounding horde of Ink Warriors.

He considered his options here for a moment as he reached the outside of the mass of animate Ink and grinned. Sheathing both weapons, he pulled the Discordant Ax from his Dimensional Bag and threw the strap over his shoulders. The Infernal Guitar settled into place, and a pick appeared in his hand as he moved his hands into the right places.

Colin didn’t attune it with any particular magic; he simply started playing the Guitar using the Bardic Magic subskill, Bleeding Ears.

And bleeding ears would have happened with or without this Skill given Colin’s rustiness with the Guitar. Even with his butchered attempt at playing the instrument, the Skill still activated, sending waves of damaging magic out in a three hundred and sixty-degree circle around him. It was made even more effective because he stepped into the crowd of Ink men and continued to strum the Guitar, his rising in volume over the one controlling the Golems.

It only took a single burst of the damaging effect to knock back a group around him. The second burst caused the Ink creations to ripple and pop like water balloons. The area of effect around him wasn’t huge, but he maneuvered into suitable places for the short-range to have better effect.

“Rielle! Get their controller!” Colin told her as he continued to play. The Discordant Ax already proved its worth, without it, he would have had to stop playing at least one to let the subskill cool down. There was no attempt at playing whole songs; that would have required more concentration than he was currently able to give. Instead, he played little bits of songs he remembered from when he learned years ago.

Then an inky sphere on a chain smashed into him mid-note and knocked him back a few steps, stopping his playing.

You have taken 57 points of damage and now have 493/702 health remaining.

He immediately started playing again, but he didn’t use the Bleeding Ears this time. Channeling Infernal Magic and Kinetic Magic, he went back to playing the Guitar, this time using Bardic Magic.

It was strange, he’d had some experience using this Skill, and it felt free-flowing and creative. More than that, it felt unstructured and unconstrained, unlike most spells, which were perfectly controlled and unchanging. When he started playing, the music and his will sort of… forged the magic types he used into something along the lines of what he wanted.

In this case, sharp points of Kinetic energy framed and empowered by Infernal Magic formed in the air around him. He pulled back his hand to strum a single stroke down the Guitar strings, and the Arrows he made fired. All at once, ten of the Ink Warriors dissipated and fell apart.

The downside was that it was a massive drain on his mana. That one move used over three hundred mana points and put him lower than a hundred.

Pulling the Guitar strap off his shoulder, he grabbed it by the top of the neck. With the elegance of a fat cat with two legs, he swung the instrument into some of the Ink Warriors, holding them back.

Seconds passed as Colin fought against them. He avoided using magic to regenerate while he fought the animated Ink. A swing of the Discordant Ax, then a step backward to avoid an Ink sword swing, leading back towards the attacker and swinging.

Then all at once, all the Ink Warriors went from a solid to a liquid again. They simply became black puddles on the ground that thinned out even over the second Colin watched.

He looked up, finding Rielle with an ornate Golem’s torso in her right hand and an Ink coated dagger in her right.

Nodding at her, Colin put the Guitar away and ran back towards ALAN. Only to be interrupted by Larry and another Golem he did not recognize. The Demon was on top of it with as much heavy armor as he could wear, literally looking like two sets of armor were stacked on him.

This Golem’s body looked subtly odd, like a texture difference between it and the other Golems. It almost looked like there was a fine grain to the plating on its body, and every moving piece grated, like two blades with their edges against each other. As it struggled with Larry on top of it, the fingers on both hands scratched and cut into the impossibly hard ice.

“My body is a thousand swords, reforged every time I break! For once in my time as Sword Cursed, I am not in pain, and I will enjoy tearing you apart!” the Golem declared into Larry’s helmet. A silver light played in the air around the Golem’s body and coalesced around its fingers. With ease, the Golem tore off a pauldron from Larry’s armor and continued to tear it as the Incubus readied himself.

“You got this, Larry?” Colin yelled, wanting to intercede but not sure if he should.

“No!” Larry grunted, “I got this one! Infernal Knight!” he announced, his magic exploding.

Colin only watched before leaving the Incubus HellRime Knight to deal with this Golem. In an instant, all the HellRime that Larry was wearing was condensed into an armored bodysuit of moving HellRime. The Sword Cursed Golem conjured more of that silvery aura around its hands and attempted to cut through the armor. After only a second of trying without success, it pushed Larry back with a blast of that same energy.

The Demon slammed into a pillar and on his feet, conjuring an ax and charging the Golem.

It was rather scary to see when he returned to Paladin and ALAN fighting. Paladin must have backed the Golem Overmind into a corner in their brawl because ALAN had lost some HP and had altered in shape.

Boss: ALAN, Prime War Golem. Health: 71%

The colored metal plates on its body had shifted and changed in size. Now standing at about seven feet tall, the Golem had changed its armor to increase its size, everything elongating, allowing spaces in its protection. But this also, somehow, seemed to make the Boss faster. As it fought Paladin, it could outpace the Sumo with extreme ease.

But Paladin was more skilled than the Golem Overmind. ALAN would throw out a claw swipe to cut into Paladin’s gut, and Paladin would raise a leg, spin ninety degrees back on his other leg, and avoid the cut. He then threw a quick Ki-infused palm strike into the Golem before grabbing it with both hands and bodily tossing it into a nearby pillar.

ALAN’s reaction time was scarily impressive, though. It slammed into the pillar and clung onto it after inertia ended and gravity took over. Laughing in joy, ALAN released one of its claws that helped it cling to the wall and aimed its hand at Paladin, announcing, “Pulse Shot!”

A ring of red light formed and fired from its hand, the energy whistling through the air as it flew and collided into the Sumo. It didn’t knock him back, but the damage it dealt was apparent, unmitigated by the Sumo’s skills.

“Need a minute?” Colin asked, hurrying between Paladin and the wall clinging Golem.

“Depends, Brother. You offering?” he chuckled.

Colin nodded, drawing the Mythic Xiphos as ALAN’s opposable face grinned at him. “Yeah, go take a minute to get some healing. But you better hurry; I’m about to go all out on this glorified robot.”

“Go for it, let me see what you got,” Paladin said, stepping back from the fight as Colin drew the Lesser Infernal Edge.

The Antagonist leveled the Mythic Weapon at the Golem, letting the light play off the dull gray metal and teeth that went down the weapon’s length. “ALAN, I want you to know something.”

“Oh, you have some final words before I make AidenBrand cram your soul into one of my Golems?” ALAN said with a sneer.

Shaking his head, Colin responded simply, “No. I want you to hear that you will not beat me here, and you are nothing but a stepping stone in my ascension. I am the DevilWalker, ALAN, and your rise will end here.”

You have shown your resolve and Determination to the Boss ALAN in the form of a promise. You have gained the Ability Instantaneous Activation for the next three minutes. Instantaneous Activation Ability. You can ignore activation times that are longer than a second, thus allowing for instant use of skills and abilities. Since this is a temporary Ability granted by using your Determination Skill, there is no extra cost for this boon.

Wasting no time, Colin grabbed a square of fish scales from his bag and applied it to his skin. Triggering his Scylla’s Scales power from his Channel Effigy Skill, scales immediately covered his body, and he felt the drain on his mana. So Colin drank his last mana potion as ALAN dropped to the floor and came at him at a sprint.

Luckily, activating Kinetic Vigor was already instant. Crossing his arms to catch the Golem’s attack, the claws only skittered and sparked against him. Rolling his arms with ALAN’s attack, Colin turned and let its momentum keep it moving. Then with a pair of slashes, the Antagonist cut into the outstretched arm.

Neither blow penetrated ALAN’s armor, but still, it damaged it and chipped away at a piece of Scarletite. When the Golem reared back again, a red light that left trails of sparks formed along its claws. When it swung the claws again, they left thin gouges in Colin’s scaled forearm, the first time his Scylla’s Scales had been breached.

You have taken 61 points of damage and now have 432/702 health remaining.

As the Golem started to pull back its claws, he raised the unactivated Lesser Infernal Edge and triggered it. The suddenly formed blade punched into ALAN’s torso, knocking it back a step.

Again and again, they traded blows. Colin attempted to out-skill and outmaneuver the Golem’s moves for several long seconds. For the most part, he did pretty well, especially considering the Golem’s size, speed, and physique advantage. But still, he was understanding the Golem’s rhythm and was managing to anticipate its attacks.

Boss: ALAN, Prime War Golem. Health: 67%

“Fine!” ALAN yelled, frustration coming through its voice. “Synthetic Scream!”

Then it reared back its head, letting out a massive scream that echoed and bounced off of the walls. Every second, ALAN’s cry gained volume and strength enough that they even cracked the pillars. It started resonating with the lights that kept the room lit, magic light and sound lancing in sporadic bursts.

Colin did not escape unscathed, his Scylla’s Scales did defect what he assumed were weaker spears of light, but others breached.

You have taken 41 points of damage and now have 391/702 health remaining. You have taken 53 points of damage and now have 338/702 health remaining. You have taken 45 points of damage and now have 293/702 health remaining. You have taken 29 points of damage and now have 264/702 health remaining.

It was at that second, as three more points of lights bounced off Scylla’s Scales, that a crash that sounded like shattering glass caught his attention.

Colin turned and saw that his Ritual had finally finished its task. The Adamant spike had broken the force field surrounding ALAN’s Crystal Matrix. It now was impaled in the pedestal that held it.

Triggering Kinetic Vigor, he sprinted towards the large standing item to avoid more hits.

“No!” ALAN screamed, throwing blasts of that same red light that Colin only managed to avoid by moving in short zig-zags.

Then ALAN screamed as its entire body lit up with Heavenly Blight. The sound only lasted for a moment, but the distraction helped Colin get closer.

“DevilWalker!” the Golem screamed in fury as it caught up with Colin. It reached forward to grab Colin with its claws, only for Larry to leap at it and throw a punch with a shield strapped to it. Summoning another shield onto his other arm, the Demon interposed himself between ALAN and Colin. The latter continued to run towards its Crystal Matrix.

“Rrraaaaghh!” ALAN roared in fury as it started changing its shape again. “Screw the rules of fairness; you all die now!” Its body and armor shifted and contorted as it became larger and more dangerous. Six tentacles with blades at the end of two, grabber claws at the ends of another two, and blaster cannons on the last two sprouted from its back. When the pieces stopped moving, ALAN now stood fifteen feet tall with a menacing red glow coming from the inside of its chest plates.

“Paladin?!” Colin yelled, looking for the Sumo. He needed to finish this now before ALAN-

“Searing Caster! Blood Render! Cabalist! Animate and assist me! Kill them all now!” ALAN yelled. As if in answer to his call, several more Golem’s around the cavern started moving, and all at once, they screamed in unison to their Master’s call.

“I’m here!” he returned, getting near the pedestal and interlacing his fingers. Colin leaped into them, and Paladin hefted him into the air and towards the top of ALAN’s crystal matrix.

Landing on the top of the framework for ALAN’s crystal systems, he looked for one particular crystal. There was an explosion as the Golem Overmind’s new blaster cannons blasted through Larry’s shields. Two new Golem’s, one in fire red mages robes and the other in deep blood red priest robes and carrying a staff, faced off against Rielle. Paladin himself was thundering towards ALAN, knocking away tentacles that attempted to grab or stab him.

Looking down, he found the closest thing to what he was looking for. It was a set of five different colored crystals, all bound together in a snow-white wire. The bundle sat in the middle of the network of interconnected Golem Modules. Climbing through the mess of taut cables that connected them, Colin hurried to the cluster that was his goal.

Larry screamed in rage as Paladin took a quartet of hits from the Golem Overmind, leaping in front of the Sumo and covering himself in as much HellRime as he could. Rielle had covered herself and her sword in the pink-tinged flames of her Rose Astral Spirit and was dueling two at once. One on one, she might have been able to beat them, but together she was taking hits and damage. She just wasn’t strong or fast enough to win.

Colin got close enough and removed his Dimensional Bag from his belt with a hiss of discomfort as wires bit into him. Opening the drawstring, he slipped his Dimensional Bag’s opening over a corner of the Heart of the Crystal Matrix, the Core of ALAN, and held tight.

As he’d seen a few times before, the bag defied physics, and the crystal warped space and sucked the Heart into the bag. The wire pulled and snapped with heavy twangs as he closed the bag, closing off the extra-dimensional space after the Heart slipped inside.

Colin watched as the seconds passed with his heart pounding, and none of the Golems stopped moving. If it worked the way he thought, the Golem should have stopped moving immediat… yup, there they go.

Inside Colin’s Dimensional Bag, there was no way for the Golem’s signal to reach beyond the bag and control the Golems. Especially as the Heart had been removed from the rest of its Control Matrices. As such, the Golem that ALAN had been controlling froze mid-swing with the glowing empowered claws and bladed tentacles dying away. Even the other Golem’s that Rielle had been fighting stopped moving. Crashing into the ground, they dissolved into particles that disintegrated into dust.

In the middle of the mess of white wires, Colin got the prompt he’d been waiting for.

Congratulations! You have defeated ALAN, the Boss of the Golem Uprising! For defeating the Boss- *please wait for one moment to assess your win against the Boss*.

The prompt didn’t make him wait long enough to wonder about this pause.

You and your party have done several unusual things to defeat the Boss, ALAN, and the world system has evaluated it to give you adequate rewards. Details in the following prompt. The initial Experience gained before the bonuses described next is 320,000 EXP for the actual defeat.

For using a non-standard method of winning (without killing the Boss), you and your party gain 100,000 EXP(added before the previous doubling) for ingenuity.

For being under-leveled for the fight, you and your party gain 40,000 extra EXP.

And for defeating the Boss with half party members recommended, you and your party gain double the experience.

All together, you and your party have gained 920,000 EXP for defeating the Special Event Boss, ALAN. You now have 942,354/401,428 experience to level 23. Level up! Level up! You are now level 24, skipping level 23 entirely, and now have 10 new Attribute Points to spend. You now have 470,926/501,785 until level 24. Due to your Ability, Anatomy of a Boss 1, you can choose a new ability at every fourth level compared to every fifth. When ready, feel free to choose what Ability you would like. Your Ravenous Mythic Xiphos is now level 16. The minimum and maximum damage has increased. Your Short Blades Skill is now Level 15. Your damage, attack speed, and reaction time with short blades has increased by a small margin. Your Summoning Magic skill is now level 9. The available options for free and directed summons have increased. Your Summon Familiar Skill is now level 9. The capabilities of your familiar have increased by a small margin. For your use of advanced Ritualistic Magic, this Skill has advanced three times to level 11. New rituals are now available for your personal use. Your Knowledge: Ritualism skill is now level 8. Your understanding, prompt information, and Charisma bonus, has increased by a small margin when Rituals are involved. Your Earth Magic Manipulation Skill is now Level 5. You can now create spells with this element of magic. Your Tremorsensing Subskill is now level 5. You can now sense what is happening in a 360-degree area for 12 meters around you. Your Bardic Magic Skill has increased to level 6. The volume produced, Mana efficiency, and relationship points gained increased by a small margin. Your Bleeding Ears subskill has increased to level 4. The range of this subskill has increased by a small margin. Through shown proficiency in the instrument, you have gained the skill, Instrument Mastery (Guitar) Level 2. Your Skill with the Guitar has increased by a small margin, and people that hear you play with real skill will view you more favorably. Your Channel Effigy Skill is now Level 6. Your Style in Action Skill is now level 7. The Charisma Attributes effects on those who see you act increase by a small margin. Your moves are reflexively going to be a little smoother and more pleasing to watch. For being in the party that defeated the Boss of an Event, you gain an extra reward in a loot box that can be summoned at any time in the next 24 hours. If you do not do so, the reward will be replaced with a single skill point that can be used at any time. The Boss, ALAN, had been capturing the souls of Outworlders as they challenged him. Defeating him has disrupted his connection to his Career Path which allowed him to create materials with his mana. Thus causing all Golems created with his Career Path to fade away, unless looted before his defeat. This also frees all eleven Outworlder's trapped by him to respawn normally with no damage to their psyche, if they remember this at all. Note from your Infernal Advisor, Baal. I will contact you in one hour when you are in a safe place after one hour for my advice on your next Ability or skill choice. My time with you will be limited due to my running the Nine Realms of Hell, so please keep all questions ready and short.

“Hell yes!” Colin cheered, looking at the prompts. “I leveled twice!”

“Three times!” Rielle responded tiredly but happy.

“Once, and that’s awesome!” Paladin responded. “One more time and I can get my next character upgrade!”

“DevilWalker!” Nox called from inside their collective shadows, all at once. “I would suggest you get moving out of here. With the Boss defeated, this room is about to destabilize.”

Colin wished Nox would step out to have something to look at when he spoke. Cutting away some of the wire and working his way a little more out of the structure. Looking around, he saw the evidence of what one of the last of those slew of prompts said about Golems fading. The Sword Cursed Golem and the remains of the Ink Meister were most of the way gone even as he watched. It was a crying shame because some of them had to be made from rare materials. Disappointed, he said, “what do you mean ‘destabilize’? Everything seems fine.”

Larry brushed particles of HellRime off his shoulder and nodded with Nox’s words. “He’s right, Master. We better get moving out of here before it starts up.”

“Before what starts up?” Colin asked, cutting his way out of the Crystal Matrix structure. Getting the words out just a moment before the room started to shake.

It felt like a weak earthquake, nothing really to worry about. But Larry kept talking, “from what the Knight Master has told me as a recruit, Bosses create their Boss rooms. They are held together by the Bosses soul, and the area begins to revert when they die. We most likely have a few minutes before we are in danger. The process is slow as the cavern fills in.”

“So does that mean we walk, jog, run, or run like we’re being chased?” Colin asked the two that knew anything. “And how far do we go?”

A moment later, the shaped and fitted white stone against the back wall away from them shattered and filled in with more mundane gray stone. The entire cavern rumbled and crashed as another, smaller area filled with unworked stone.

“I vote we run!” Rielle piped in.

“No need,” Paladin said, very matter of fact. Calmly, he pointed to a spot behind the Crystal Matrix. “Looks like our exit is prepared.”

Turning around, Colin smiled at the circle of light that appeared behind him. It was only big enough for one person, being only three feet around, but it was likely to last for everyone to use it. Sadly, he was happier to not have to run out of here compared to the levels he just gained. Colin just stared at it and smiled until the room rubbled again.

“Fey Ladies first!” Rielle yelled, sprinting for the portal and standing in it. A quick moment later, she vanished, leaving the portal ready for the next person.

Colin looked at the size of the portal, then at Paladin, and looked him up and down. “Think you fit in there?” he asked, looking over Sumo’s bulk.

“Oh yeah, Brother, size doesn’t matter for this sort of thing,” Paladin said, walking towards the circle.

“Did your girlfriend tell you that?” Colin asked, stepping in the portal before Paladin could respond.

Paladin looked at Larry, who had shapeshifted into a dark-skinned human male without a shirt on with a confused look. “No, my wife said that about my car. Why did he try to make that into an innuendo?”

Larry shrugged before stepping in before the Sumo, “Can’t blame him. That one is a classic.”