"One million?" Trin asks.

"Roughly, some of them are slightly lower than that, but that's the gist of it," I explain.

"I can't believe five hundred thousand was actually lowballing it..." she raises her hand to her chin in a thinking pose, "With my current power I'd be useless against something like this, got an idea?"

"I could temporarily boost your stats, but I don't think I can go much further than a third of what the looming shadow has without your menu, and subsequently, the system, gets pissed off."

"Could you transfer every point into one stat?" Trin asks

"Mhh... The menu doesn't seem to care where the points are allocated, just the raw amount, so probably? But that would make everything else useless, are you sure you want to min max?"

"I have a pretty funny idea, it's the only way I can see myself win against something that outmatches me this hard," Trin smirks and cracks her knuckles, "what about skills, did you check that?"

"The system blocked me from checking any more info after I saw its stats, I could break in, but you did tell me to not piss it off."

"So we're basically in the dark then, stats doesn't tell us much and records on the looming shadow are basically non-existent, combat wise anyway."

This is it. We'll kill the dragon, then I'll die and go somewhere else, yup, simple, that's the plan.

"You look worried," she waits for me to answer, but I don't. She sighs, "Communication is important, it really is. I'm worried too, you know? I might die there, just because you can't-"

"I won't let you," I mutter under my breath.

"Mhh?"

"I won't let you die," I say a little louder. I'm not sure why I care so much if the story is near its end, but the thought of her dying because of me makes me feel terrible.

A warm, caring smile spreads across her face, the same one I saw when I first met her at the tavern. But this one is real, it's really for me, I hate it, I don't want to feel like this again, "Then I won't let you die either."

****

Our mountain guide is a skinny, tired looking middle-aged man. Trin said a guide was necessary to scale a mountain that breaks time and space, and this village worshiped the dragon, so we were lucky to have one nearby. Although I'm a little annoyed at the fact he only agreed to meet us in the middle of the night.

"So, which one is the virgin?" the guide asks.

"It's him," Trin points at me without a second thought.

I don't deny her statement, she's not entirely wrong either.

"Aye, it's pretty uncommon for outsiders to participate in the whole virgin sacrifice tradition, I don't think Ratundest cares much about semantics like these, anyway," the guide looks up at the massive pitch black mountain, "You wanna know why it's called the 'golden mountains' if it has no color resembling gold?"

"I forgot it was even called that, honestly. I just call it the 'shadow mountain' and people know what I'm talking about," Trin says.

"It's 'cause of this," just as the guide finishes his sentence, a perfectly white line can be seen descending from the top of the mountain. It contrasts the inky blackness of this massive landmark perfectly, the line then separates itself into multiple golden strokes that spread themselves across the mountain like paint on a dark canvas. After a while, one of those lines gets closer to us, and the guide simply walks on it, gesturing at us to follow him.

"You can't climb the mountain, you'll just fall right through to who knows where. I'll tell you when you can get off..." the guide yawns, to him, this must be a daily occurrence, but both I and Trin can't stop looking in awe at the light show that presents itself before us.

It takes a couple of hours of walking on the constantly moving path until the guide tells us to stop, then he walks in a part off the white road we were following, right into the darkness. After patting the invisible floor, we follow him quietly for a little longer before he starts speaking again. "We're here, I'll take my leave. If you want to get out, you'll have to negotiate with Ratundest, and that's no longer under my jurisdiction."

Stolen novel; please report.

And just like that, we're alone again.

Silence, unbearable silence. But even in that darkness I can still see her perfectly and I assume she can too, so it's not all bad?

"Strangers?"

A word that comes from a million mouths, a voice with a thousand different tones. I can't describe what it sounds like. I'm not even sure what it said. I expect Trin to be terrified, but she looks defiantly at the darkness.

"Friends? Knowledge must be protected! Power that is not earned, what is your name, your name?"

"What is it saying," Trin asks, raising her fist into a proper combat stance.

"It's actually hard to understand even for me, something about knowledge, friends and power?"

"Gibberish then."

"Pretty much."

"Killing intent? Sorry friends! Sorry friends! I'm so sorry friends! Knowledge must be protected! It must be protected!"

Trin suddenly slams her foot on the ground, but no sound can be heard.

Until the ground starts moving, that is.

A terrible cacophony can be heard, singing, screaming, laughing. It all mixes together in an unholy orchestra of colossal proportions. I can see eyes of all shapes and sizes reveal themselves in the darkness. Something almost cleaves me in half and I barely manage to dodge it in time, it's not as fast as the combat machine back in the tower, but the fact I can't differentiate the dragon from the empty void makes this infinitely harder.

I can see Trin jumping around with incredible agility, but I barely manage to keep myself up as I can feel the ground I walk on changing texture for every step I take. I'm not entirely sure how to even fight something like that, it's like trying to punch the ocean to death, where do I even begin?

I go for the most obvious weakpoint of any living being, the eyes. Eyes are usually near the brain, or at least squishy enough that you can use them to get inside. But every time I reach for an eye, it closes and I end up passing right through it. This doesn't really feel like a dragon fight.

"HEY LEAVE! KEEP AIMING FOR THE EYES, IT'S PISSING IT OFF!" I can hear Trin shout from afar, "TRUST ME, I'VE GOT A PLAN!"

I trust her, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried for her. I want to cheat a little bit, just to guarantee her safety. But that'd mean I wouldn't trust her then, so I'll believe in her.

I keep aiming for the eyes, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference, but I do notice an increase in the number of attacks from...well, everything, as far as I know. It doesn't feel like I'm doing any real damage, and the more time passes, the harder the fight becomes. The eyes are now throwing spells left and right, and it's only a matter of time until I make a mistake.

I think I'm screwed, the dragon was holding back, and it's only now considering me enough of a pest to actually try to properly wipe us out. I can't even try to hit its eyes anymore, I put all of my energy into dodging. Should I cheat a little? Give myself more power, active a few skills, just to survive longer?

But no, I won't cheat.

You want to know why?

The Angel's Descent

As long as you stay in the air, you will constantly gain momentum proportional to your agility.

If you land on a living being, you will inflict damage proportional to your momentum.

If this attack does not land on a living being or does not kill your target. The damage will be transferred to you instead.

This skill is restricted to the monk class.

"When an angel descends from heaven, the price is no more or less than a single life."

Because I trust her.

A silent wail can be heard by no one's ears, but it can be felt. And then a white flash lights up everything else around me, red, blue, green, purple, yellow. The colors then all converge at a single point, and I can see her in the middle, throwing one simple uppercut, frozen in place as if time had stopped. A single explosion destroys the esoteric prison we were entrapped in, as the night sky reveals itself and a single message present itself before us.

Ratundest the Looming Shadow has been slain.

Title gained: [Budding God Slayer] [Dragon Slayer]

No stat points will be given as the system suspects foul play, but the titles are still valid.

I can hear her annoying laugh as we both fall together in the giant crater where the mountain used to reside. And as we both rapidly approach the ground, I can't help but feel stupid that I doubted her for even a second.