Chapter 38: The Final Boss

"Katarina? Are you alright?"

"Of course I’m alright. Why shouldn’t I be?" She let out a small giggle, far too light for the moment.

But she wasn’t alright. Anyone could see it, her movements, her tone. She was being controlled, acting like someone else entirely.

"You shall all come," Katarina said brightly. "Father and Mother are about to execute the spy."

"Father and Mother?" I asked, confused.

"The king and queen, of course. Who else would I mean, Sir Gygaverne?"

Terrence raised a brow. "Who the [BEEP] is Gygaverne?"

"That’s me," I muttered.

"Really? I thought it was Knockout. Come to think of it, Knockout sounds like a stupid surname anyway."

I ignored him, more concerned with Katarina. How did she know my real name? The only person I had ever told… was Diana.

"Why did you call the king and queen your parents?" I pressed.

"Because they are, silly."

Serana frowned. "What is she talking about?"

"It’s a long story," I said quickly.

Katarina smiled sweetly, took my hand, and began dragging me forward. The others hurried after us.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked.

"To the Grand Hall," she replied.

Exactly where we needed to go. She dragged us through and through. Many people we passed by, were praising us as heroes.

When we arrived, the hall was packed. Almost the entire kingdom was gathered. From the dais, the king and queen presided, their faces cold and regal.

The queen rose, her voice carrying like a blade through the silence.
"The traitor has been seized. The hour of judgment is upon us."

My stomach turned as I saw who knelt at the block, Diana. Hands bound behind her back, head bowed.

"She stands guilty of espionage," the queen proclaimed. "Guilty of the abduction of Princess Alina and Lady Merewyn, and of the grievous crime—the slaying of Adrian. For these transgressions, the crown decrees death. Unless you reveal us their location."

I tried to call out, but Diana’s voice rang out first. "I will never tell you where they are. You can kill me now!"

What is she saying? Even she was being forced to act, like a puppet in this twisted game. She is playing the role of spy for the dark lord.

The queen’s eyes narrowed, "Very well." like a hawk sighting its prey. With a single, imperious gesture, she commanded, 
"Executioner. Do your duty."

The hooded man stepped forward, hefting a massive axe.

The crowd chanted. Behead her. Behead her.

“This is barbaric, they are acting away from their own proper morals,” Durgan expresses disgust on they were forced to portray.
The axe lifted high.

"No—!" I glitched through the mass of bodies, reappearing at the block. The axe began to fall, but my Dangatana was already drawn. I was still glitching, my Nova Bloom flaring uncontrollably. Steel met steel, then a shockwave exploded outward.

The blast ripped through the Grand Hall, knocking everyone off their feet. The brainwashed collapsed into unconscious heaps. Even the king, the queen, and Katarina crumpled. Serana caught her before she fell.

I looked around, stunned. Everyone was down. Except me.

The others stared at me with wide, uneasy eyes.

"What?" I asked, then glanced at my right arm. It was glitching violently, sparks of broken code spreading like fire. My Dangatana burned with blinding light, still charged with Nova Bloom.

"What’s happening to me?" I demanded.

Takayuki’s voice crackled through the link. "Wait—I think I know, it’s because—"

But his voice was cut off.

The air thickened. A shadow stepped into the hall.

Niobeorth.

His face was still hidden, but his presence was suffocating.

The others attacked instantly. However, with a single raised of a finger, he froze them mid-charge, suspending them in the air like dolls.

I gritted my teeth and pointed my Dangatana at him, though the pain in my arm grew unbearable.

"You know it won’t work on me," Niobeorth said calmly. "Why don’t you look more closely?"

I pulled up his stats. Infinite. Every number, every bar maxed out beyond reason. Health is Infinite. Level is even Infinite. This cannot be possible.

Niobeorth brushed the queen’s throne with his sleeve as if polishing it. Then he turned his covered face toward me.

I kept my Dangatana pointed at him. “Put them down and face me, you coward!”

Niobeorth flicked his fingers. Everyone hanging in the air cried out as pain tore through them.

I pulled the trigger, but the Nova Bloom in my arm jolted me like a lightning strike. My aim broke, and the shot blasted past him.

He didn’t even blink. With another flick, the torture stopped, leaving the captives gasping for air.

The sting from the Bloom burned through me. My hand shook.

Niobeorth rose slowly, brushing dust from the throne as if nothing else mattered.

“Why are you doing this?” I demanded,

He glanced at me with cold amusement. “I told you,” he said. “This throne must be clean. Even the smallest speck of dirt offends me.”

“Would stop mocking me! And answer the goddam question” I shouted. “Why are you really doing this?!”

“So foul mouthed you are,” Niobeorth’s eyes hardened, his voice low and cutting. “And I told you this kingdom is full of filth. And I will not let filth remain.”

“I’m warning you, I’m trying to hold back, but your presence is already enough to anger me, so another mockery and I’ll shoot you again, i’m not going to miss,”

Niobeorth looked at me, and then finally he decided to speak. With a clear grin at the end of his lips, “if you insist. In every person, there is a story," he said. "And in every story… there is a beginning. I bled for this land. I led the charge against the Dark Lord—and in the end, it was my magic that struck him down."

His voice was steady, almost proud. But then it darkened.

"But do you know why I was strong enough to face him? …Because his blood runs in me."

I froze.

"Yes," Niobeorth continued, almost savoring it. "I am his son. The son of the Dark Lord everyone in this land feared."

He spread his hands as though confessing to the heavens.

"I thought I could bury that truth with his corpse. I thought I could live free of his shadow. But when the war ended, the people looked at me not as a savior… but as the next monster. Due to my dark magic being the same as my father, they all quickly realized that I was his son. Whispers began follow to me everywhere, He is his father’s heir. He carries the darkness."

His tone sharpened into venom.

"Do you know what it feels like, hero? To give everything—only to be feared by the very people you saved? And in time, their fear became truth. The dark power awoke within me… and their hatred only fed it. So I stopped resisting. If they would see me as the Dark Lord’s heir, then that is what I shall become."

His eyes gleamed.

"Ashalondaria is my game board now. And with the Everett Stone, soon every world will kneel."

I leveled my weapon at him. My Dangatana tilted, shifting into gun form, Nova Bloom charging at its core. I could end this.

"So you did all this because some people thought you would become like your father?"
The question hung in the air. I let the silence stretch, tasting it, then answered slowly, each word a deliberate incision.

"You know… you could have proved them wrong in another way. Like—" sarcastically and humorless, "—not enslaving the entire kingdom."

Niobeorth spoke then, and the name had barely left my lips before his quiet, mocking laugh cut through me. He took a step forward, as though the Dangatana in my hands meant nothing. The light along its edge shimmered, but the chill that filled the air came from him, showing that he doesn’t have an ounce of care.
"Do you remember that Floating Fortress?" I asked, voice low and threaded with ice. "The one everyone thought was… unknown?" I let the question hang as I closed the distance. My fingertips brushed the blade; it thrummed, answering me.

"It wasn’t made by me." I kept my gaze fixed on Niobeorth. "It belonged to a small kingdom in the north—one you all decided didn’t exist." I smiled again, but there was no warmth in it. Only memory and appetite.

"They came to Mondunion and took me." My jaw tightened. My hand tightened around the hilt until the knuckles showed white.
 "They chained me like an animal, dragged me through filth because I wore Krad’s blood in my veins. They wanted me to suffer for him—wanted to make his son pay for what he has done."

The room seemed to listen. A faint clink from my blade punctuated the sentence. I could feel the old weight inside me shifted, like something is burning up.

"I was broken." The admission was a blade hidden inside another. "Until I couldn’t take it. So I let him in. I closed my eyes for the barest heartbeat, and when I opened them they were empty as a grave. I let my father’s shadow guide me. I chose conquest over reason."

Niobeorth stepped back, his hand flying to his throat. He swallowed, eyes were wide open, his face a mask of raw, childlike fear. Fear was honest… or at least it looked that way. He knows that I’m not falling for his act.

"And do you know why no one remembers that kingdom?" My voice dropped, and it carried, certain, absolute. "Because I removed it from history. I erased their names, their prayers, their memory—everything but the fortress. The rest I carried away as lessons."

“What about the villagers? Those who were taken hostage in the Floating Fortress?”
"The villagers were… unfortunate." I shrugged, a small motion that made the word sound like an afterthought. "Wrong place. Wrong time."

My blood was boiling, I really couldn’t control my self, Lady Merewyn’s words were repeating in my head over and over, I honestly don’t know how long should I even hold it, so I gave him a warning.

"Remember that," I said, my voice calm but cutting. "Remember what happens when mercy is replaced with memory." 
When I said those, my mind drifted to the first time I heard this phrase. Is this what you truly mean Adrian? Is this it?
I pointed the Dangatana at him. I was about to pull the trigger.

Niobeorth said, “So noble, to slay your enemy in the name of freedom… yet you are no purer than the world you claim to save. You and I aren’t so different after all. Pull the trigger.”
But Takayuki’s voice rang sharply in my ear. "Wait—don’t shoot!"

"Why?! This time I’m sure I won’t miss"

"Because Niobeorth is fusing with the Everett Stone," Takayuki said quickly.

My grip tightened. "How can you tell?"

"While I was offline, I read through your vision. The energy of the Everett Stone is inside his body."

Niobeorth smirked. "He’s right. I can hear every word. After all, I still control Onlife."

"You’re listening to our conversations?!"

"Of course. I only have control over this world. Yours is beyond my reach… for now. But soon, it won’t be. Just as it was for the other five."

"Other five?" I muttered.

"You didn’t think I created those monsters, did you? I simply invited them—and claimed them as mine. Merewyn tried to stop me, tried to do the same, but I silenced her. Then I made Him send 1,025 players into my world. I expected to enslave them… but instead, I enslaved Onlife itself. A game turned reality."

My chest tightened.

"And since I could not control you, I made it a game. One rule, if you die here, you die in your world. Just like your dear Jarrod. And soon… Diana."

"Shut up!" I raised the Dangatana, its glow blinding.

Takayuki’s voice cut in, urgent. "Stop! If you kill him, you’ll never return home!"

My eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

"Niobeorth’s body is merging with the Everett Stone. If you destroy him, the Stone will shatter—and with it, your path home."

“Well even if I did hit him, Niobeorth stats proved that I won’t even make a dent on him.”

“It doesn’t matter, even if he doesn’t sustain any damage, the blast from your Dangatana could destroy the Everett Stone within him, without even killing him,” Takayuki further explained.

"But… why is my Everett Stone different? Why is mine still intact?"

Takayuki spoke fast. "It’s not about connection. It’s about origin. The Stones in Ashalondaria and Omnikuro created a bridge. Once opened, it links only those two places. Even if one Stone is destroyed, the other sustains the passage."

"Then why were everyone else’s destroyed when you shattered the main Stone in our world?"

"Because I linked to Onlife—the core of all connections. When I destroyed it, every Stone tied to it collapsed. But your glitching ability disrupted the effect. That’s why your Stone still functions. That’s why It gave you a way back."

Niobeorth tilted his head mockingly. "Are you finished talking, hero? Or do I have to entertain myself by tearing you and your friends apart?"

I steadied my aim.

He smirked. "Then… allow me to make the first move."

With a sweep of his arm, he cast off his hooded cloak. In the next instant, he was gone.

I barely had time to raise my Dangatana before searing pain cut across my body. His speed was unreal, too fast even for me to track.

"Behind you!" Judeth’s voice screamed.

I couldn’t react in time.

Niobeorth’s long blade burst through my chest from behind, the steel jutting out before my eyes. My knees buckled. I tried to glitch, but the pain drowned everything, raw and real, burning through me.

He stepped forward, now standing before me. His skin was pale as bone, scars carved across his body, long dark hair draping down. He didn’t look at me with triumph, only with the weight of a warning.

Without a word, he raised his sword. Green energy pulsed from his heart, flooding into the blade until it glowed like venom. Then his voice cut through the silence:

"I could have killed you at any moment. All this time… I was only toying with you."

He drew back, ready to strike.

But a sudden blast of turquoise energy streaked through the hall. Niobeorth twisted away, dodging.

I turned, Ysanthe stood there with her staff in hand, the same one she had used against that Minotaur.

"You… helped me?" I managed, voice weak.

Niobeorth said nothing. In a blink of a second, he was suddenly behind her.

The green-charged blade tore through her back, erupting from her chest, just as it had with me.

It happened too fast. I couldn’t warn her in time, I couldn’t even move.

Ysanthe’s eyes widened, shock freezing her in place. Then, slowly, her gaze found mine.

For an instant, the world fell silent.

Her lips moved, shaping words without sound.

I am sorry.