Chapter 24: Two Heart in One

A hand grabbed me from behind.

Before I could react, pain lanced through my back like lightning.

A blade.

My body stiffened. I turned my head, breath catching in my throat—

"Baba… Kong…" I gasped.

That hideous, disfigured face, covered in blackened boils and lumpy muscle. His grin was a cracked mess of jagged teeth and stitched flesh. His eyes red and soulless.

"You shouldn’t have come here," he hissed, before slamming me into the wall like a broken doll.

CRACK!

My back hit the stone hard, but that wasn’t the worst part.

The Nova Bloom… was still in my hands.

"Shoot—! No—NO—!"

The spell, still unstable, began surging in size. I couldn’t release it. My hands were locked, fingers twitching involuntarily. The magic was forcing itself to grow, without my control.

My skin began to burn.

Electricity crawled up my arms. My vision blurred. My body shook as the bloom expanded.

"Glitch—cancel—glitch—!" I gasped, trying to phase out—anything to dispel it.

But phasing made it worse.

The magic reacted violently with my glitching form. My body began to unravel. I felt myself stretching in and out of reality, like a thousand tiny needles pulling at my soul.

Pain.

Agonizing, nerve-splitting pain.

Every atom in me screamed.

"K-Katarina… Weiss…" I croaked.

They were already running toward me. Aster was right behind them.

"We need to stop it—he’s going to explode!" Aster shouted.

Weiss tried to sever the tether between me and the bloom, but every swing of her katana only sent waves of distortion across the surface.

Katarina’s voice was trembling. "I don’t have a spell to absorb this—I can’t—! Jack, hold on—!"

Too late. The sphere was growing out of control.

And then—

"[BEEP] it, RAAAAGH!!"

Terrence.

He roared like a beast, eyes blazing. He ran toward me at full sprint, his warhammer tossed aside, both hands clutching a length of solid steel pipe he’d picked up mid-run.

With a mighty swing, he struck the Nova Bloom with the precision of a baseball pro hitting a 200mph pitch—

CRACK!

The bloom detached from me in a shockwave of light. My hands snapped back as if ripped from a vice.

The sphere flew across the chamber—

And slammed directly into Baba Kong.

"Wha—?!" was all he managed before—

BOOOOOOM!!

A blinding, explosive wave of energy ripped through the far wall of the chamber, vaporizing Baba Kong and everything near him. Stone shattered, fur burned, and air twisted with static and smoke.

I collapsed forward, body smoking, arms limp.

I was free.

Terrence was panting hard, still in his batter’s stance. "…Did that work?"

I couldn’t even speak. I just let out a weak chuckle and slumped over.

"…Yeah," I finally managed. "That worked."
Suddenly, the doors behind us burst open with a thunderous crash.

Everyone who had been separated earlier surged into the chamber, weapons at the ready, eyes blazing with determination. Without hesitation, they joined the fight, reinforcing our side in the clash against the towering monstrosities.

Katarina knelt beside me, casting healing magic into my battered body. Her hands glowed with warm light, mending torn skin and broken bones. But right now, I didn’t care about my health. My injuries were the least of my concerns, because at last, I’d figured something out.

Now, the real battle had begun.
Two boss-level monsters stood before us: the grotesque Goryguari and the blindingly fast Baba Kong, one born of decay, the other of chaos.

"That really—really worked…" I muttered to myself, eyes wide. "If I can’t throw the ball… then I’ll just hit it."

I turned toward Terrence, a sudden grin stretching across my face. "You gave me the idea! Thank you, Terrence!"

Terrence blinked, clearly baffled. "I did?"

"I can’t throw the Nova Bloom ball physically after conjuring it—it’s unstable and anchored to my palm," I explained quickly. "But if I hit it instead, like I’m playing baseball… that should work."

While the others continued their assault on the two monsters, I stood up. My legs still ached, but my resolve burned hotter than any pain. This was something I had to try.

I opened my stat menu.

Strength: Normal
Not good enough.

Activating my glitching ability, my body distorted like corrupted code, my limbs flickered, numbers surged unnaturally. I redirected every available stat point into raw strength. The price was steep: my defense dropped to near nothing. One blow could end me.

But if this worked, it wouldn’t matter.

I focused energy into my palm, channeling the unstable surge of magic.

"Nova Bloom."

A glowing sphere bloomed into existence in my hand, pulsing and unstable. It stung to hold—like gripping a sun made of glass and lightning.

I bit down the pain.
The Nova Bloom didn’t explode on contact—it had a timed fuse based on how much mana and energy I pumped into it. If I could manipulate that timing…

Maybe I could turn it into a weapon that was more than just a bomb.

Katarina turned to me, concern in her voice. "What are you doing?"

I didn’t answer.

I simply showed her.

Across the chamber, Baba Kong laughed a shrill, unhinged cackle, flashing across the battlefield with inhuman speed. It wasn’t attacking seriously. It was mocking us, like we were a joke.

Fine. Laugh while you still can.

I threw the Nova Bloom ball high into the air, timing it perfectly. As it descended, glowing and unstable, I gripped my Dangatana tightly.

With one clean motion, I swung upward.

CRACK!

The impact wasn’t what I expected.

Instead of launching the ball, the Nova Bloom merged with the blade. Its energy wrapped around the weapon, transforming the swing into a slicing wave of raw magical force.

It wasn’t like hitting a ball, it was like slicing through space itself.

The arc of energy shot forward, impossibly fast.

Baba Kong couldn’t dodge.

The strike hit it dead center, bisecting it cleanly through the chest, ripping through what should’ve been its heart. The creature froze midair.

Then fell.

Smoke rose from its body.

"I… I killed it." My voice trembled. "I actually killed one of bosses!"

Cheers broke out across the chamber. Some warriors raised their blades, others shouted in victory. All that remained now was the Goryguari.

One more step before we confront the being behind this nightmare: Niobeorth.

But something wasn’t right.

I looked again.

Baba Kong’s health bar… was still full.

"What…?" My breath caught in my throat. I turned back.

The body was gone. It stood there again—unharmed. As if nothing happened.

"I don’t get it… Did I not kill it?"

Aster appeared beside me, panting. "It’s no use," he said grimly. "No matter how many times you hit it, it doesn’t take damage. Adrian fought that thing too—nothing. Its health never goes down."

My thoughts raced.
A boss that can’t be killed? That doesn’t make sense.

In games, when a boss is invincible, it usually means one of three things:
Either we’re too weak…
Or we haven’t found its weakness…
Or worse, its weakness isn’t even part of its own body.

Then it hit me.

I remembered the Goryguari’s uvula—the grotesque heart-like organ pulsing at the back of its throat. It didn’t look right. It had a strange, dual structure. Like… two hearts fused together.

That’s when I realized the truth.

Baba Kong’s heart isn’t in its own body.
It’s connected to Goryguari.

"Katarina! Weiss Shi! Terrence! Aster!" I shouted, calling them over. I quickly explained everything. Understanding lit up in their eyes.

They relayed the message to the others still fighting:
Destroy the uvula, destroy the shared heart. Kill them both.

I took a deep breath, gripping my weapon tighter.

"We need to distract Baba Kong. Keep it occupied. I’ll go for Goryguari’s throat."

Terrence gave me a smirk. "Don’t worry, man—we’re always careful."

With that, everyone sprang into action.

Warriors moved to intercept Baba Kong, forming a wall of magic and steel. While their blades clashed and spells lit the air, I made my move—

—charging straight toward the Goryguari.

My defense was dangerously low.

One strike from Baba Kong, and I was done for.

No second chances. No retries.

I turned to Weiss Shi, urgency sharp in my voice.
"Weiss—I need you to use Venue Shift. Teleport me in front of Goryguari. Right now."

Without hesitation, she nodded and cast her spell.

A flash of light and I vanished from the battlefield.

In the blink of an eye, I stood before the gaping maw of Goryguari. Its jagged teeth were stained with venom and rot. Inside, the disgusting, swollen uvula pulsed like a second heart. This was it. The link. The key to killing both monsters.

I took one step forward—

And then it appeared.

Baba Kong, grinning, sneering, materialized in front of me like a nightmare on repeat.

"What the hell—?"

I turned around, my heart dropped.
There were more.

It wasn’t like Barnaby’s illusion magic. These weren’t fakes.
These were clones.
Exact, living replicas of Baba Kong. Six of them. All snarling. All real.

"Damn it!"

Weiss Shi leapt into action, intercepting the copy in front of me, drawing it away with a flurry of attacks and teleportation bursts.

I clenched my jaw, summoned the energy into my palm.
Nova Bloom.
I charged it up and dashed into Goryguari’s mouth, deeper into the throat of the beast.

And there it was.
The uvula, pulsing, twitching.
I could feel the fused heart hidden inside it.

I raised my hand, ready to end this—

—but another Baba Kong clone blocked my path, swinging its jagged claws toward me.

"You’re really pissing me off…!"

I activated Splitting Jack, letting my body glitch, phase, and ripple like corrupted code. The clone tried to hit me, again and again—but every swing passed through me like I was made of mist.

Desperation poured off the monster like sweat. It knew what I was about to do.
And it was terrified.

I kept charging the Nova Bloom.

One minute. That’s all I needed.

One minute to finish everything.

My heart pounded. My arms shook from the magic. The Nova Bloom was glowing brighter than ever—unstable, fully powered.
This is it.

But Baba Kong wasn’t done.

Snarling, the clone stabbed into the soft flesh of Goryguari’s throat, rupturing some internal sac. Suddenly—

HSSSSSH!

A cloud of purple gas erupted into the chamber.

Shit. I held my breath.

I knew what that gas did. I’d seen it before.
One breath and I’d lose all control. My mind, my body, my Magime.

I had to act now.

I deactivated my glitching ability, my body stabilized, solid again.

I threw the Nova Bloom ball into the air—

—and just as Baba Kong lunged up to swat it away, I struck it with my Dangatana, slashing his arm to knock him aside.

But there wasn’t enough time to hit the ball properly. Something was missing.

Then it hit me.

A trick I hadn’t used in forever.

I caught the glowing ball in midair with my free hand, my palm burning from the unstable magic, and jammed it into the hilt of the Dangatana.

The blade began to tremble, vibrating with raw power. The weapon hissed, the veins of the blade glowing like magma.

Baba Kong lunged forward.

He knew. He knew exactly what I was about to do.

He was going to use his body to block the shot. To shield the uvula with himself. A suicide defense.
That’s how far Niobeorth’s spawn would go.

But I was already moving.

I stabbed forward with all my strength, driving the Dangatana directly into Baba Kong’s chest. Into the empty space where its own heart should’ve been.

And then, I twisted the hilt.

The Dangatana shifted, transforming into gun mode.

"Go to hell," I whispered.

And I pulled the trigger.
BANG.

The Nova Bloom shell fired point-blank inside Baba Kong’s body, no chance to dodge, no space to defend.

It tore through his chest.

It pierced the uvula.

And it obliterated the shared heart.

A scream, one last, horrible scream, ripped from both monsters at once.

Then silence.

Baba Kong and Goryguari… were dead.

The air was still.

My vision blurred.

And then—

The purple gas engulfed me.