Chapter 27: The Floating Fortress

Two weeks have passed and we prepared ourselves for our next battle. We geared ourselves up, we leveled up, restocked, and armed to the teeth with every possible item we could carry.

Mainly thanks to my glitching abilities.

Since we entered this world through our pods, we still had access to certain features of our original HUD, one of them being the shop, so I took advantage of it and I exploited that, buying as many items as I could afford. Honestly, I felt frustrated that I hadn’t thought of this earlier, back in the Dungeon of Bones, or even at Khaterinth Mountain. It could’ve saved lives and  It could’ve saved a lot of time.

But hindsight always hits hardest after the battle.

Now I am armed with the Nova Dangatana Ver.3, a fully upgraded version of my makeshift weapon, thanks to Katarina, enhanced by both tech and magic, I felt stronger than ever. And not just physically. I felt it in my spirit. In my will.

Honestly I am all fired up, the fire was building inside me it’s full of pure strength and determination.

During that time, I managed to re-establish contact with Judeth back in Omnikuro. For whatever reason, I hadn’t been able to reach her during the events at Khaterinth. My HUD had gone quiet. No calls, no messages. But when I finally did get through, even if only for a short while, she told me something that reignited everything:

Jarrod is still alive.

My mission is not over yet. It never was. I will reach my goal.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t piece together a real strategy for this final confrontation. We were in the dark. The final boss was a complete mystery.
At the very beginning, Merewyn revealed the five names of the five bosses we faced, however we don’t know who was the fifth boss, since Baba Kong and Goryguari were classified as one.
Its name was unspoken, its location it was unknown at first. Except for one thing, we knew where to look.

Located in the North.

A direction that meant little to the locals of Ashalondaria. No kingdoms existed there. No mapped cities. Only a village, surrounded by cold wilderness.

And today… we set off for it.

We were meant to leave in two weeks, but the barrier began to weaken and those sustaining it fell ill. Our departure was moved up, while we hunt the last of Niobeorth’s monsters, the Queen and her people will work to strengthen the barrier.
We were fifty in total.
Sixteen players and Thirty-four warriors.

I had to make the decision to leave Ysanthe behind. Even though I’d worked hard to raise her level and stats, I couldn’t bear to risk her life in this battle. Not when I didn’t even fully understand what was going on between her and Adrian. Something about the way she acted around him… it wasn’t normal.

But for now, all I could do was trust her to stay safe.

We gathered in the castle courtyard, standing in perfect formation beneath the overcast sky.

The people of the kingdom surrounded us, citizens, refugees, fellow players. Even Ysanthe stood among them, silent, clutching her Flower Flate. All of them watched us with the same mixture of hope and fear, because this mission… it could determine the fate of both our worlds.

And then the Queen stepped forward.

Her voice rang through the courtyard, rich with both power and sorrow:

"All of you who stand before me now… You are the last flame in a world swallowed by shadow. A world that once thrived with laughter, green fields, songs, and warmth… now lies trembling beneath the heel of Niobeorth.

I have watched kingdoms fall. I have lost daughters, sons, friends. And yet, I still believe.

Not just in fate. But in you.

You are not just warriors. You are survivors. Carriers of stories and hearts too strong to shatter. I do not ask you to return victorious, I ask you to return whole. To bring back what this world has lost. To restore it.

And if you can… please save those still trapped. Save Lady Merewyn. Save the kidnapped villagers. Save your fellow players. Save the world.

And above all… please save my daughter.

For all our sakes, go, and may every god known and unknown walk with you."

A deep silence followed. Some bowed their heads. Some clenched their fists.

And then, without a word, Weiss Shi stepped forward, beginning the incantation for the Venus Shift.

Teleporting fifty people at once wasn’t something anyone could do alone. Katarina stepped beside her, extending both her hands, magic swirling in glowing arcs around them.

The spell circle flared to life.

As the wind began to stir and the ground pulsed beneath us, I looked around. One by one, I saw every face, faces filled with fear, with resolve. Each of them carried the hope of someone, of something. Each of them desperate for freedom.

Then my gaze fell on Ysanthe.

She was standing still, clutching her Flower Flate tightly against her chest. And suddenly, it began to glow, just faintly. Flickering.

It felt like a signal, but I couldn’t understand what it meant, until I realize it was Morse code.
.- -.. .-. .. .- -. .. ... -.. . .- -.. .- -. -.. .. .- -- ... --- .-. .-. -.--
I quickly activated my HUD, switched to camera mode, and recorded the moment. It was a message. One she couldn’t say aloud except relying through a code.

And before I could process what it meant,
The Venus Shift activated.

The world around us broke apart into shards of light.
And then, we reappeared.

Before us loomed a castle, enormous, ancient, and eerie. The structure reminded me of a gothic architecture or Dracula’s haunted castle, it was twisted by time and shadow. Its stone walls bled red under the snowfall, the sky overhead a churning sea of darkness. The village surrounding it was silent. Empty. Dead trees reached toward us like fingers. Not a single soul remained.

The ground was painted with the memory of blood.

Durgan stepped forward, his brow furrowed. "There’s no record of this kingdom. Not even a single whisper or rumor."

Serana crossed her arms. "Which means one thing… Niobeorth created this place. A fortress meant for this so called final boss."

I stared up at the massive gates, feeling the weight of something pressing down on us. The village was ransacked. Nothing but ruined homes and broken carts.

They were all taken.

I noticed Durgan’s strange behavior. His shoulders were tense, his usual gruff confidence weighed down.

“Are you all right, Sir Flamegüter?” I asked.

When he turned to look at me, he quickly forced himself back to normal. “Aye, it’s nothing, Sunny. Just this strange feeling gnawing at me head. Like I should know this place better… yet none of it makes a lick of sense. Bah, maybe I’m just weary. Maybe I just want this all to be over.”

“Don’t worry, Sir Flamegüter. We just have to defeat the final boss, then Niobeorth will fall.”

His frown eased, and he gave a rough chuckle. “That’s the spirit, Sunny.”

The castle gate groaned, and slowly lowered.

We all looked to one another, then moved forward without a word.

The moment we stepped inside, the floor trembled.

Then it roared.

An earthquake?

The ground convulsed, shaking so violently that none of us could stay on our feet. Gravity shifted. I lost my balance, falling forward—

—and nearly went headfirst out a broken window, if not for Diana’s quick reflexes. She grabbed my collar and yanked me back.

And that’s when we realized.

The entire castle was lifting into the air.

It was floating.

We rose higher and higher way past the mountains and suddenly through the clouds. Straight Into the blackened sky like a veil had been pulled over the world.

The shaking stopped.

We stood up slowly, breathless and disoriented.

"Is everyone alright?" Adrian called out.

Before anyone could answer, a glow filled the entrance behind us.

A system prompt appeared in our shared HUD.

[New Objective: Find the Final Boss]

You don’t have to tell me twice.
“Of course that’s what was going to happen.”
However confusion passed through the group.

"Find?" I whispered. "Not defeat?"

I looked around myself it doesn’t feel like we are inside in a fortress.

It was a tomb. A maze and or trap.

Somewhere in this twisted castle, the last of the 205 players may still be alive. Jarrod has to be here. My best friend who has been waiting for almost a month. I hope he’s ok.

And the final boss is watching somewhere in the depths of his domain.

We decided to split into two groups, even tho it wasn’t a good idea, but the reason is partly out of strategy, and also because we had two maps.
One was the old-fashioned paper map I’d picked up at the Dungeon of Bones.
The other, a digital minimap glowing faintly in my hand from Khaterinth.

Adrian took command of one group. Diana led the other.
Twenty-five in each.

I ended up with Adrian, half of Terrence’s gang, Katarina, Durgan, and Galtor.
The rest followed Diana.

At her request, our team used the digital minimap, so we peeled away in opposite directions.

The corridors swallowed us in silence. Our footsteps echoed off cold stone, the sound bouncing into the shadows. Somewhere, water dripped in slow, steady intervals. A faint draft whispered through broken windows.
Nothing else.

It was the kind of silence that made you paranoid, every step we took felt like bait for something lurking in the dark. And the worst part? We couldn’t tell if danger was near… or if it was watching us already.

As I guided the group, eyes locked on the minimap, Galtor spoke up behind me.
"So you’re the squirt who saved my life?"

"Uh… yeah?"

He squinted at me. "You also the one who put Grulk Ironjaw on his back?" His tone was flat, but his gaze, sharp and heavy, made my stomach knot.

"Umm… yeah?"
Oh no. He’s going to kill me for humiliating his guy, isn’t he?

Instead, he grinned. "Think you can do that again? He could use a little more punishment for disgracing my clan."

"Oh. Uh… okay, I guess?" I laughed awkwardly.

Adrian’s voice cut through. "Focus. Stay alert."

Galtor still gave me a thumbs up.

We kept moving. The minimap was empty, no monsters, no survivors. Just blank halls and locked rooms.
It was unsettling. Where is everyone?

Terrence finally groaned. "This is [BEEP] ridiculous. Not even one monster to fight."

He wasn’t wrong. The last time we faced a boss, there weren’t any low-level monsters either, but at least we knew where the danger was. Here, there was… nothing.

There was no movement in sight. No noise.
Just the heavy, suffocating quiet of an empty castle.

I couldn’t help but wonder, was the other group wandering just as aimlessly?

Eventually, the corridors opened into a large, arched chamber. Massive double doors loomed at the far end, their blackened wood carved with twisting patterns.
My gut told me the boss was on the other side, even though the minimap showed no such icon.

As we reached the doors, the other group arrived from the opposite side.

They were also in our same situation
They have not encountered any monsters nor survivors.

Just the same empty, hollow silence.When we pushed the great doors open, I had hope to see at least soul in this room, because it feels like we are the only one in this place.
The stench of damp iron and despair hit us like a wall.
The sight before us froze my breath.

Thirty-five people were crammed into a massive cage suspended high above the chamber chains groaning under their weight and two champions were held by robes. Pale faces, limp bodies, lifeless eyes closed. they were all unconscious, dangling in the shadows like broken dolls.

My gaze darted from face to face, searching, until I found her. Princess Alina. Relief stabbed through me, but just as quickly, dread. My eyes swept again, desperate for another familiar figure. Jarrod. But… he wasn’t there.

We worked quickly, lowering the cage with painstaking care. One by one, the prisoners were freed, players, villagers, all barely clinging to life. Not one of them stirred.

Katarina clutched Alina’s limp body to her chest, her shoulders shaking. Tears streaked her face as she whispered words I couldn’t hear.

Strangely, the one person I’d expected to take Alina in his arms, Adrian, stood off to the side, expression cold. He didn’t move to help, didn’t even look at her. His eyes were sharp, unreadable. Was it anger? Not at her… but at what Niobeorth had done to her? I couldn’t tell.

Fortunately the thirty-five people who were inside the cage, were still alive.
But the Two champions were not so lucky. Their bodies hung high above, suspended by the neck, their armor shredded, skin marred with deep, unhealed wounds. The dim light caught on blood-stained steel, making the scene even more harrowing.

Durgan’s voice was low, almost reverent, as he looked up. "Korrvax Emberslash… and Edan Dunaveil."

No one spoke after that.

With silent care, the four champions climbed to bring them down. There was no ceremony, no words spoken aloud, only the heavy, unshakable weight of loss.

When their feet touched the ground, we laid them side by side. Helmets removed, weapons placed at their chests, they were given the only thing we could offer now. Respect.

The castle was ours now or so it seemed. No monsters. No boss. No enemies. Just an eerie, unnatural stillness.

Jarrod could still be out there. Somewhere or maybe nowhere.

While the others tended to the unconscious, I set out with Terrence and Durgan to search deeper. 

We eventually stepped into the courtyard, and the scale of this place became clear, towers rising into the clouds, black stone walls stretching endlessly. And yet, not a soul.

Then I saw it, a faint glimmer of light flickering from the direction of the chapel.

"You see that?" I asked.

They both nodded.

We made our way toward it. Terrence reached the great church doors first and, without hesitation, drew back his foot to kick them down.

I grabbed his arm. "Dude. It’s a church."

He froze. "…Oh. Right." And instead, he simply pulled the door open.

I gave him a flat look. "You knew it was unlocked, and you were still going to break it?"

"That was before I realized it was a church," he said, sheepish.

Durgan gave an approving nod. "Well done, my boy. Respect the churches."

I sighed, pushing the doors wide.

Inside, bathed in dim golden light, was Lady Merewyn, on her knees, arms spread wide, shackled by thick chains. Her body flickered faintly, as if her very being was bound to the light itself.