As they drew closer to their destination, Lia could feel the Lord of Monsters’ presence growing. No one else seemed to be able to, but Lia knew she wasn’t imagining things. There was an oddly familiar tinge to the feeling, but Lia just brushed it off as it being Worship; the Lord of Monsters drew nigh-universal fear and respect, it made sense that it would accrue some Worship, just as Rose’s weapon had.
Yet, despite the presence growing, no more attacks came, right up until the cave came into view. The moment Lia saw it, she knew the Lord of Monsters was waiting within; it was just about where Amelia had predicted it would be, and the presence Lia was feeling radiated from within.
Lia told everyone to get to the deck, then sent out a mental ping to Amelia via her swarm management Skill. A few moments later, Amelia and Rose appeared right outside of Miki. “May we board?” Rose asked.
“Go ahead.” Miki replied.
Lia met them on the deck, giving them an anxious smile. “This is it, right?” She asked. “I can feel it inside, but no one else can.”
“Yes, this is it.” Rose replied. “And I’m not surprised they can’t feel it, that’s normally a Hero thing. You’ve just reached that power level naturally.”
“So, are you ready?” Amelia asked. “You’re going to be the center of this operation, the rest of us will be playing support.”
“No, but I don’t think I’ll ever be.” Lia admitted. “So, we might as well get it over with.”
“And that alone makes you braver than any Hero.” Rose replied. “Fear wasn’t a luxury we were allowed to have. Just remember, Amelia and I will be on standby on the off chance you can’t do this without us.”
“Any tips?” Lia asked.
“It’s different every time.” Rose said. “That being said, it’s often grotesque, so don’t be caught off-guard by its appearance. Feel it out for a bit before you go in for the kill, and when you do, be decisive about it; it tends to have incredible regenerative abilities, and you don’t want to get into a battle of attrition with it. Oh, and mental attacks are ineffective, so don’t bother.”
“Also remember that modeling wax won’t work on it.” Amelia added. “Just kill it, and kill it fast. And if you can’t…well, it was supposed to be my job in the first place, so no big deal. But I know for a fact that you’re capable of killing it yourself.”
“If you say so.” Lia said. “Everyone, stay in Miki and buff me from afar. Rose and Amelia, keep Miki safe while I fight.”
“Can do!” Amelia said cheerfully. “Let’s do this thing!”
“Um…if I may, may I directly participate as well?” Izumi asked. “This is also my task, in a way, and I’d feel bad if I didn’t help.”
“Oh, yeah, no problem.” Lia said, a little relieved that she wouldn’t be entirely alone. “But if Rose or Amelia tell you to stop fighting, then you need to stop.”
Rose nodded. “We’ll only do that if you’re in serious danger.” She said. “Just stay cautious and you should be fine.”
With that taken care of, Lia, Rose, Amelia, and Izumi disembarked, staring down into the maw of the cave. “It feels even more oppressive outside of Miki.” Lia said, shivering slightly. “Let’s go.”
The cave was, thankfully, short. Just a minute or so after entering, it opened up to an unnaturally round chamber with a large mound in the center of it that Lia could feel had to be the Lord of Monsters. As they neared the mouth of the chamber, Amelia snapped her fingers and dancing flames spread around the walls of the chamber, illuminating it in a flickering light. Lia took the opportunity to try and analyze it to view its stats, but that was, somewhat predictably, blocked.
At that, the Lord of Monsters stirred, uncoiling itself to reveal its full, horrid form. It was a series of enormous heads of various humanoids facing upwards, the tops of their heads connected to the bottom of the next one’s chin. Long, greasy black hair fell from the gaps between the heads, and two arms sprouted from each head, one where each ear would normally be.
It uncoiled itself and let out a screech in a multitude of voices, rearing up like a centipede to show that each head had a second face on the underside, their faces masks of agony. As it did, Lia and Izumi entered the room, watching the abomination carefully.
It made the first move, dashing towards Lia with supernatural speed, and she responded by throwing the Pyromancer’s capstone Skill at it, the lance of fire directly impacting it as Lia magically shunted herself out of its way.
Izumi was next, slamming down on one of the faces with a hammer of magical wood then quickly darting away before one of the hands reaching for her could grab her. The eyes on the faces Lia and Izumi hit glowed an ominous purple then detached, the nerves dangling as they flew into the air and began to shoot magical projectiles at Lia and Izumi.
Lia activated the Stairway to Heaven, making sure to keep her eyes on the Lord of Monsters as she climbed. Both heads that had been hit rotated so that the underside was facing upwards, the motion dispelling the fire on the burning head. That didn’t come as much of a surprise to Lia; though the fire was supposed to be very hard to get rid of by normal means, the Lord of Monsters was by no means normal. If all it took to kill one was a max level Pyromancer, then Heroes would be superfluous.
A bolt of wood flew through the air and struck one of the floating eyes, popping it before homing in on another one of the eyes. The Lord of Monsters let out another screech in response, rearing back up and splitting in two, a sickening pop sounding out as the segment that was rearing up detached, hands gouging into the wall of the cave as it skittered up towards Lia.
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Lia’s mind raced as she analyzed the situation. “Izumi, does your special Analysis Blessing work on this thing?”
“Yeah!” Izumi called back. “Just stats, though! It looks to be rocking like thirty thousand in everything and like three hundred thousand in the resources, and its max HP split in half when it split!”
Lia chose to switch to telepathic communication on the off-chance that the Lord of Monsters was capable of understanding them, broadcasting her thoughts to both Izumi and the people inside Miki. Izumi, prepare a big attack, I’m going to do the same. We’re going to try and take out that one down below in a couple of quick hits, I think it’s just going to keep splitting further and further if we don’t. Everyone in Miki, buff us up as best you can.
The segment of the Lord of Monsters that had climbed up towards Lia speared out from the wall, aiming directly for her with all of its hands glowing an eerie purple. Lia responded by making the step of the Stairway to Heaven that she was on vanish, then casting a gravity-intensifying spell on herself, rocketing her downwards much faster than was normal.
She was able to get below the Lord of Monsters just before it grabbed her, but wasn’t ready for it to completely halt its momentum, dropping down just in time to grab Lia as she was halting her descent. Lia hurriedly chopped off the arms grabbing her with a blade of light, but it was too late. There was a wrenching sensation almost like when Ira had attacked her all those months ago, but less…lasting.
A quick check of her status revealed that she hadn’t taken any damage, and that none of her stats had been diminished, but the Lord of Monsters twitched, the faces on the segment that had grabbed her beginning to rotate rapidly before suddenly stopping, resolving into Lia’s own face, staring back at her mockingly.
All of a sudden, the Stairway to Heaven was wrested from Lia’s control, flying out to support the segment, the power it was granting Lia inverting and beginning to debuff her instead. Lia was barely able to catch herself as the step she was on flew out from underneath her, quickly slowing her fall so she didn’t take any significant damage. Everyone hold on; it took the Stairway from me, and I can’t put it away. I’m going to have to use Magicbane to stop it, but it shouldn’t take more than a second or two.
“Got it!” Izumi barked back. “Go!”
Lia didn’t waste any time, activating Magicbane, the capstone Skill of the Mage. Her body swelled with power as her physical stats were massively boosted, and an antimagic field emanated from her, washing over the area and canceling any ongoing Skills and spells. The moment the Stairway vanished, Lia canceled Magicbane and activated Pure of Body, the Monk’s Capstone Skill, her physical stats skyrocketing to almost one hundred and twenty-five thousand at the cost of a massive amount of Stamina.
Buffs, now! Lia ordered. Her power swelled once again as Double Trouble, the capstone Skill of the Synergist, hit her, and the effects of all of the Skills she was using were doubled. It was an additive bonus, her stats were now at two hundred and fifty thousand instead of over six hundred thousand, but it was enough.
She activated Psychic Dominance, the capstone Skill of the Psychic, providing a further doubling to her psychic effects, then charged up Psychokinetic Blades, another Psychic Skill that created a blade of force that added her Strength and Magic together for use in damage calculation, and dashed forwards towards the segment of the Lord of Monsters that was after Izumi.
In a blur of motion, she swept out, cutting down the length of the Lord of Monsters like she was cutting a very long bun. The segment halted in place, shuddering as its top half slid off of its bottom half, then fell still. Lia hurriedly deactivated her Skills, skidding to a stop next to Izumi. That took three-quarters of my Stamina. Between it and the Stairway, I’m just about out, so I can’t do that again. She said. Is that segment dead for real?
“Yeah.” Izumi whispered back, her eyes glued to the segment that had attacked Lia earlier. “I can–“
She forcefully pushed Lia away as a hand reached for her, the head it was attached to tethered to the main body of the Lord of Monsters by a single greasy hair. Lia scrambled away as the head began to spin like some sort of grotesque flail, then made the snap decision to use a razor-sharp gust of wind to cut the strand of hair connecting the head to the rest of the segment.
It flew in the direction it had been going, and as it impacted the stone wall, Lia cast a spell to make the stone grow outward so that it was encapsulated the head. She quickly cast a follow-up spell, compressing the stone inwards with a wet crunching sound. There was no further movement from that head, so Lia turned back to the main segment, which Izumi was skillfully leading around the room.
Izumi, keep it distracted. Lia ordered. I’m going to cast a really powerful spell, but I’ll need some time to charge it up. If you can do that, don’t say anything, if you can’t, shout.
Lia waited a moment for a response, then set to work building the spell. Lia normally used Skills to shorten or eliminate this part of spellcasting, but spells built like this had an extra oomph to them that spells cast in other ways didn’t have. And it needed the oomph; this was a special spell that Lia had requested Amelia design for this fight, one that aimed for raw destruction against everything in a wide area that wasn't part of the swarm. It was a last resort, but Lia did not want this fight to last any longer.
Shortly after the she began the process of casting, the Lord of Monsters turned its attention away from Izumi and towards Lia, but Izumi tackled it, armor made of wood encasing her as she impacted the beast. Its hands began to glow and reach for Izumi, but Izumi quickly deactivated her armor and propelled herself backwards out of the reach of the hands.
There was a moment of hesitation, and then the Lord of Monsters seemed to jump slightly, a sick wet pop sounding out as every single segment detached and began to crawl towards Lia from every angle.
A ring of glowing shields appeared in the air around Lia, the Aegis’s capstone Skill flashing into life and rebuffing the attempts of the Lord of Monsters to get at Lia. The segments scuttled about, crawling up an invisible dome around her, the shields’ light fading by the moment as the Lord of Monsters relentlessly chipped away at the barrier.
It bought Lia the time she needed, though, and she was able to finish casting her spell just as the barrier broke, every last drop of Lia’s Mana and Blood Money fueled into one spell. The name of it, not that Lia had known it had one, rose unbidden to her lips. “Death of the Sun.”
The world went white. Sound vanished, the sensation of the ground Lia was standing on vanished, everything vanished. There was a moment of eerie stillness before the wind returned with a roar, an unfathomable tempest rushing towards the area she had designated as the center of the spell.
Light died. The whiteness of the explosion was seemingly sucked into the center of the spell along with the wind and every other part of the world, leaving Lia floating in a featureless black void…no, black was the wrong word. This wasn’t black, it was nothing.
The light came back first, followed by a furious roar of sound and a wall of wind hitting Lia and sending her flying back until she impacted something soft…Rose, judging by the feel of the arms that grabbed her.
She was above ground, she realized. The sun could be seen shining down onto an enormous, perfectly circular crater that had been carved into the landscape, a small black sphere resting in the very center. “Izumi…?” Lia croaked.
“I got her.” Amelia said. “I…probably should have asked Connie for help testing this one, the effects were a bit more pronounced than I thought with Worship in the mix…”
Amelia’s voice trailed off. Or, no, she was still talking, it was Lia’s awareness that was trailing off, the sight of a level up window appearing just moments before Lia lost consciousness entirely.