(Zack)

I rip the sword out of my side and shove it into the Fallen Adventurer which stabbed me, then twist holding up my sword to catch the punch of the Demon Kobold King. It has a lot of power behind that punch, and even with my Blessing of Strength and Blessing of Body active, I take a little damage as it slides me back.

"Fireball!" I snarl, the flames exploding between our hands, dealing significant damage to myself in addition to a little bit to the beast. "You're so ugly, your mommy and daddy dog thought you were a pile of shit when you were born and tried to bury you!"

The Demon Kobold King snarls at the insult as it pulls it massive fist back for another punch. I jump up into the air, zip towards it, and kick it in the chest with both feet with all my might. The beast stumbles back a few steps. I'm almost fucking done with this thing.

So fucking close. Nik should be here soon. I hope he makes it in time, because I'm almost out of Mana and Health. This fucking status affliction is annoying, it's canceling my Health Regen and negating my ability to recover Health through Skills. Fucking Fallen Adventurers and their fucking Skills.

Soaring away from the Demon Kobold King, I locate my Zack's Blood spear and pull it towards with me with telekinesis as I soar higher up, before diving towards the Demon Kobold King as it moves to avoid the attack, having learned from experience with my Impact Drop hitting its other hand and several other monsters and the ground not to allow contact.

That's right, beast. Fear me.

Its attempt is just a little too slow, and I manage to strike its shoulder. Unfortunately, it's not the shoulder with the good arm. Fortunately, Impact Drop doesn't give a fuck and still puts a giant fucking hole into it, blood, bone, muscles, and other bits of gore flying everywhere in a spray behind it.

The Demon Kobold King stumbles back towards the hole. So fucking close, but I'm still moving forward.

I impact it, shoving the beast the last little bit needed to send it down the hole before I jerk to the side to avoid it grabbing me as it falls.

As I start to fly back, its tendrils of black-and-red demonic energies appear. Fuck!

They grab me even as I try to escape, pulling me with it. Struggling, I attempt to break free, but as with the last two times they snared me, it doesn't seem like that's going to happen unless I manage to fight it for a minute or two again. And I don't think I have the energy left for that.

My Demon Form fades away, its time up, and my fight weakens even more. Only moments later, my Blessings both fade, weakening me further. Fucking wonderful. If I die here, Alexander, I will haunt you in the fucking afterlife. I will come back as the ghost of an infuriated dragon and ensure that every last moment of the rest of your miserable, pathetic, wicked little life is spent in torment.

Even if I can't do much else, there's something I can do. Holding out my hand, I use my telekinesis again, pulling my spear back towards me. The tendrils of demonic energy do give me enough freedom for that.

Mustering up what energy I have left, I adjust my position so that I'm nearly hugging the spear with its tip aimed down. There's a lot of force going into this drop, unless the Demon Kobold King moves the tendrils so that I don't hit it.

My plans are ruined moments later as they force their way between myself and the spear, forcing it out of my hands. Even my telekinesis isn't enough to pull it back, the strength of the tendrils too great.

Fucking hell.

Down, down, down we fall, passing by the kobolds still ascending the fucking ladders leading up to the floor we were on. Our descent continues until the Demon Kobold King finally lands hard on its back on the path of the space beneath the hole, from which multiple ladders are leading down to. A moment before I impact, a thought comes to me, a thought I hadn't thought of before, but it's something I've already done, even if not quite the same.

I pull my Spook Sword from my Inventory, the last of my special swords still within it, the rest scattered around in the chamber up on the level we just fell from.

"Transcend Limitations," I say, feeling a power well up within me. "IMPACT DROP!"

You have transcended the ordinary limitations of what is possible. Impact Drop is effective.

A moment after that notice appears, I slam into the Demon Kobold King, my Spook Sword driving down into its chest, a little too low to pierce its heart. That doesn't matter, though, as there's a spray of blood as the Skill multiplies the force of my impact of both my sword into the Demon Kobold King and the Demon Kobold King into the ground.

A massive damage notification hits me, and blackness fills my vision. When I come to, however, I'm pleasantly surprised to find I'm still alive. Three fucking Health left. The Demon Kobold King is still alive, and I'm laying in its fucking insides as it moans in agony, the damage I dealt to it too much for it to properly move its arms in an attempt to kill me.

Struggling to my feet, barely able to move, I grab my Spook Sword and raise it up, aiming at the beast's exposed heart.

"I am the incarnation of hell itself," I tell the dying beast. "Even in the final moments, my enemies shall know suffering."

I bring my sword down, cutting into its heart, and I wiggle it as best I can. Eventually, the beating stops, and I drop to my knees, reading the notifications that appeared in my vision.

Demon Kobold King Slain! Subclass Kingslayer now Available! You will now permanently take 10% less damage from all Demonic Kobolds! +1 King's Bounty +1 King's Blessing +1 Zack Noruva Kingslayer Sword Due to the rarity of a King Monster's death, the Subclass increases in Level even when not active. Subclass: Kingslayer is now Level 2. For being the one to deal the final blow to the Demon Kobold King, you have earned extra rewards! +1 Demon Kobold King's Heart +10,000% Class Experience +Total Recovery

All of my Health and Mana restore with those notices, and the status effect that fucking Fallen Adventurer gave me disappears. The bonuses for that aren't the greatest, but I don't give a fuck. I'm alive. I'm fucking alive.

I pass out again, coming to only a few minutes later with a little bit more of my energy returned.

Standing once more, I pick up the Spook Sword and slash it so that the blood slides off. Once that's done, I summon its sheath to me with my telekinesis, then inspect it. It's covered in blood. Fuck it, I'll do an actual cleaning later. I send both into my Inventory.

Looking around, I see the kobolds and demon kobolds alike staring at me in fear. Good. I may be running low on energy, but I have plenty of strength left. That, or adrenaline.

Either way, I'm completely glad that worked. It was only a suspicion, and I didn't realize Big S had a fucking notice for it, but I guess it's not something he'd never thought would happen. That, or he added it in after I showed up and proved that 'impossible' is really just something saying 'I'm possible' in a squeaky little voice.

Like Luca's voice whenever he gets frightened or anxious.

Transcending limitations… I've done that every time I do a Power Jump. I literally transcend the limitations of mortal existence and exit reality with my soul. I've used my true mana to take on my draconic form, even though that's apparently not supposed to be possible. I've performed the big daddy of Zero Downs when I summonsed that meteor, contested only by people like Luca and Nathan, who did the big granddaddies of all Zero Downs with their shit.

I've fought off the Blood Scar.

All of those are things where I transcended limitations. I'm not the first to do it, either. How many times has someone transcended them without the notification? I know of at least two – Luca and Nathan. There have to be others.

But all I care about right now is the fact that I transcended the limitations of the Skill, allowing me to use both the impact of my sword and the impact fucking Demon Kobold King with it.

Looking up, I see plenty of monsters still ascending, most above the allowed Level for up there.

Stretching my sore, achy, tired muscles, I use Demon Form once more. Flicking my tail, I inhale deeply, then exhale as I flap my wings, soaring straight up. Time to slaughter these fuckers. Every last one of them with whatever strength I have left in me.

(Gavin)

All I can do is stare in horror at the absolute slaughter that occurred. Just what in the Boundary happened here? Did a powerful team show up and save Zack while we were running and on our way back with the team?

"INCOMING!" Max exclaims suddenly, and before I can try to figure out what that means, something soars up out of the ground, making me realize that this chamber must have a hole in the floor, hidden by all the bodies. "Eek! Scary demon!"

That is a demon! I feel myself freeze up in fear. The demon is rather short, with crimson skin that marbles into its black wings, a pair of black horns and golden-brown hair atop its head and a slender, spade-tipped tail coming out of its waist. Most of that's obscured by the blood and gore covering it, though.

"Yay!" Luca exclaims excitedly, which confuses me.

The demon briefly glances at us with those disturbingly familiar blue eyes, then extends both of its arms.

"That's Zack's armor," Braden mutters.

"No it's not," I shake my head. "It's only similar. Why aren't we running? We need to run."

I can't get my legs to move. An absolute terror is filling me, and it's all I can do to talk and not scream. Sacred Crystals, please let us make it out of here alive.

"That's the armor he was wearing today," Braden frowns, staring at the demon. "He was wearing it on his way down here. It's different than his usual set. What's the demon doing wearing it?"

"That's Lord Zack!" Luca exclaims, bouncing as a plethora of weapons begin to rise up from the ground.

I recognize the Frost Sword and Zack's sword, but there are several others. Some similar to his sword, one that's black and white, but otherwise similar, a holy sword, and a series of knives to match each sword.

The weapons begin to shift around as the demon stares down.

"I am death incarnate," that voice is Zack's, but the coldness in it sends a chill down my spine.

The swords and knives suddenly shoot down beneath him, and I realize there were kobolds there. Do some of those kobolds have horns?

The swords and knives butcher the ones I can see, then disappear out of view. Fireballs appear and shoot down as well, along with purplish Wind Spikes, bursts of shadows, and orbs of what looks like blood.

The demon uses Skill after Skill without rest, using far more than I thought anyone could use at once. As it does that, I try to puzzle together what's happening.

Luca called him 'Lord Zack', which… sounds like an upgrade of his usual title for Zack. He's wearing the armor that Braden said Zack was wearing today, which I apparently didn't notice was different. It has the same hair and eyes as Zack. And the same voice.

And used a variation of his 'I am the incarnation of hell itself' comment he makes sometimes. And his Fireballs and Wind Spikes are violet, just like Zack's. And he's using telekinesis, which only Zack has, as far as I know. No one's mentioned anything about monsters being able to use it.

But then, no one mentioned that demons are here.

"Oh, shit," a familiar voice says, and I look over to see Nik standing there, along with Travis, an alchemist from the market district, the ranger I've seen training Braden, and Jesse, only Jesse's dressed in black and dark blue leather, knives, pouches, and bombs strapped across his body. "Zack's going to pass out as soon as he finishes that."

"He'll be pissed if we don't recover his weapons," Jesse comments, his voice just as deep as when Lord Light of Earth showed me the vision of him being more serious.

"And he just confirmed to me that we need to," Nik sighs.

Telepathy.

That is Zack? But that's a demon!

The demon's eyes begin to droop closed as it stares down, then its body turns slack. It falls, and the next thing I know, Nik is there, floating in the air with a pair of leathery black wings sprouting out of his back, holding the demon.

"We'll get the weapons," the alchemist suddenly flies, no wings, as Jesse sprouts a pair of demon wings and flies beside him. "You take the kids to the safe room nearby until Zack recovers. Knowing the brat, he'll wake shortly."

"Probably," Nik snorts, then looks at us. "You guys probably have a lot of questions."

"We'll also handle anything he missed before passing out," Jesse adds, then the two soar over to where Nik is and drop down.

Definitely a hole there.

"I don't even know where to start with my questions," I tell Nik as he returns to us with the demon. "How can that be Zack?"

"Because," Nik says. "Zack is the sole Adventurer in possession of the Rank 3 Class of Demon, which allows a Skill that transforms him into a demon."

"A Rank 3 Class?" I ask. "But that would mean-"

"That he has Ascended?" Nik smiles. "Yes, Gavin, Braden, Max. Zack has Ascended. He is currently the highest-Level Adventurer in all the Boundary, and one of the most powerful of them all."

As I try to process that, I realize that he left out mention of Luca, who was excited at seeing the demon and called him 'Lord Zack'.

"Luca," I say, and our healer looks at me. "You've known?"

"Yeah!" He grins. "Lord Zack went one-two-boom! And with a flick of his tail, the big, mean kobold died!"

"Luca," Nik says in amusement. "You saw Travis and me fighting it with Zack. And I'm the one who did the finishing blow."

I take it this is the fight Luca and Zack were talking about earlier?

But still…

"Zack's only thirteen," I say. "And he's not even been in the Boundary for a year. How could he already have Ascended?"