Chapter 20: Cocytus

The realization struck me like a blade to the chest as my eyes fixed on the horizon, north of Lahir, an inferno raged unchecked.

Smoke churned upward in towering black columns, twisting into the sky like the breath of some colossal beast.

Flames leapt hungrily from tree to tree, devouring the ancient canopy in a storm of fire, the once-lush sea of green reduced to a writhing ocean of embers.

Even from above, the heat seemed to claw at my skin, and the air trembled with the forest’s dying roar.

Lily’s group, astride Serafina, was descending toward the defenders when a sudden burst of fire swept across the battlefield.

With a thunderous rumble, mounds of stone surged upward, forming walls that absorbed the flames.

From my vantage, I counted five, perhaps six… Zombie Dragons looming in the distance.

But among them, countless smaller silhouettes swarmed toward the defenders.

“Janbo, faster!” I urged, my grip tightening.

As we closed the distance, their forms sharpened,hordes of Undead Lizardmen, surging in waves.

The two red dragons fighting alongside the defenders unleashed torrents of fire, reducing the front ranks to smoldering ash.

Or so it seemed.

To our dismay, the creatures pressed on, their charred scales proof of their resilience.

Like their draconic kin, the lizardmen possessed a natural resistance to flame.

Still, the wall of fire slowed their advance, forcing them to trudge through smoke and heat.

I recalled what Rion’s documents had said, Lizardmen dwelled near Flogas, their settlements only a few kilometers from the Dragon’s Graveyard.

They were intelligent, usually avoiding conflict with humans.

Yet here they were, twisted into mockeries of themselves, driven to war by undeath.

“Silvia! What are you doing here? I thought you went to Ethra to deliver an important message to High Priestess Selena’s !” a man’s voice rang out as Janbo landed carefully near Serafina.

“And what of Gerrard and Albert?” he demanded.

“Uncle and Albert went ahead to deliver the important message to the High Priestess,” Silvia replied quickly.

Hekken let out a weary sigh, the fight draining from him the moment his gaze met his daughter’s anxious eyes.

Before the silence could linger, Father Damian stepped forward, his steady stride carrying a quiet reassurance, as though his presence alone might ease the weight pressing down on Silvia’s father.

“Father Damian!” the man called out in surprise, seeing Zid’s dad approach through the chaos.

Father Damian gave a weary but resolute smile. “I came to lend you a hand, Hekken.”

Hekken’s gaze shifted, then fell upon me. “And this young man, is he your son, Zid?”

“Yes, this is Zid,” Father Damian answered as we walked closer.

“The flow of time is a strange thing,” Hekken murmured.

“Who would have thought that your little Zid and my beloved daughter would one day stand beside us on the same battlefield?”, he added.

Lily, who was waiting beside Serafina, followed us closely behind as we walked towards Silvia’s location.

“Silvia, who are these people?” Hekken asked, his eyes falling on me and Janbo, who had already returned to his regular form.

“Guildmaster Rion sent them,” Silvia explained.

“We’ve come to lend our strength,” Reimei added, drawing her bow with practiced ease.

“She is the daughter of Hio and Ria… and that young lady over there is Leo’s child,” Father Damian revealed, his words striking Hekken with visible shock.

But before he could speak, a cry split the chaos of war.

“The left flank has been breached!”

From the smoke and fire, the Undead Lizardmen came, a seething tide of scaled corpses, their charge relentless and unbroken.

One of the defending red dragons, its breath exhausted, was forced to abandon its flaming breath and strike with its massive claws instead.

About ten of the creatures slipped past, only to be engulfed in Serafina’s fireball, the explosion shaking the ground beneath us.

But the Undead Lizardman has high resistance to fire attack and just quickly gets back to their feet as if nothing happened.

“May the light of God drown my body in His grace, Fourth-rank magic: Holy Aura!” Zid and Father Damian chanted together, their voices rising above the chaos.

“Black Steel Katar,” I uttered quickly, summoning the dark-bladed weapon.

“Zid!, use this!” I called, tossing the weapon to him.

Without hesitation, he seized it and charged headlong into the horde, his aura blazing.

Father Damian caught my eye and smiled.

For a brief moment, I noticed the gleam of silver gauntlets encasing his hands, ancient, battle-worn, but brimming with power.

“We’ll deal with the Lizardmen,” he declared.

“I’ll thin their numbers from the front,” Reimei said, already knocking a Blessed Arrow from her enchanted pouch.

“Janbo, assist the red dragon on the right flank!” I ordered, spotting the great beast staggering, its strength waning.

“Woof!” Janbo barked in reply before dashing across the battlefield, his gray form a streak of light as he leapt toward the fray.

“Thank you… for the aid,” Silvia’s father said, approaching Lily and me.

His sword remained clenched in his right hand, though his body bore burns and wounds, each mark a testament to the brutal struggle.

“If only we could bring down those Zombie Dragons, the tide might turn.

Without them, the three Liches wouldn’t be able to maintain this endless flood of Undead Lizardmen,” Hekken growled, frustration heavy in his voice.

“If only Guildmaster Rion is here, he could easily freeze the hordes of monsters”, Hekken added.

I almost raised my hand to volunteer, until Uncle Jin’s warning echoed in my mind.

My Lunar Armor, the very set I wore now, had no magical resistance whatsoever.

One step into that blazing inferno and I’d be reduced to ash.

My gaze drifted toward the burning forest, its flames devouring all in their path.

Who would have thought Liches would twist their weakness into an advantage?

Lily could endure the flames, yes, but she lacked the power to bring down those towering undead beasts.

Then it struck me. I still had one free pull left today.

“Phone,” I whispered. In a shimmer of light, my device materialized in my hand. I quickly tapped through the Divine Gacha app, heart pounding, and rolled for the Armor gacha.

Please… something that resists fire.

Just as when I obtained Cocytus, the screen flickered with an unusual animation.

My breath caught. Another super rare.

Azure Archmage Armor Set (SSR).

I skimmed its description in disbelief:

Magic Resistance +50%.

Additional Ice Resistance +50%.

Ice Magic Damage +100%.

Perfect.

“Raki, what are you doing?!” Lily’s voice broke through, panic laced with urgency.

The defenders were buckling under the relentless onslaught, their lines straining to hold.

“Uncle Hekken,” I called out, “pull your people back, inside Lahir’s walls!”

Hekken’s eyes narrowed. “And what are you planning, young man?”

“I’ll deal with the Zombie Dragons. And the Liches.”

Lily snapped at me, her voice sharp. “You can’t! That armor of yours has no magical resistance!”

I only smiled faintly, feeling the Azure Archmage set begin to gleam faintly in my inventory.

“Lily, stay with Reimei. Don’t let her try anything reckless,” I said firmly.

Then I turned to Hekken. “Uncle Hekken, can it be done?”

His eyes hardened, and without hesitation his voice boomed across the battlefield: “Everyone, fall back! Pull the line closer to the settlement!”

The defenders began their retreat in steady formation.

By some miracle, Zid and Father Damian had already crushed the group of Undead Lizardmen that had broken through earlier.

“What’s going on, Raki?” Zid demanded as he ran toward me, confusion plain on his face. He’d heard Hekken’s command but didn’t yet see the plan.

From atop the walls, Reimei’s gaze locked on mine as the defenders poured back within Lahir’s fortifications.

“Don’t let anyone near me,” I warned them all.

Then I whispered the invocation: “Dice, Strength, Speed, Magic… roll.”

Three colored dice spun in the air before me.

Five for Strength.

Six for Speed.

Five for Magic.

Not perfect, but enough, once the multipliers kicked in.

“Azure Archmage Armor Set, switch!”

A brilliant light engulfed me, my Lunar Armor dissolving in a shimmer of silver.

In its place, azure brilliance wrapped around my body,the robes and plates of the Archmage Armor, radiant with frost-touched runes.

I surged forward toward the retreating line. Janbo padded up beside me, his eyes steady, loyal.

“Guard them, Janbo. I’ll be back.”

“Woof”, He barked once in reply, and I vaulted over the defensive line into the tide of Undead Lizardmen.

“Cocytus…” The name left my lips in a whisper, and the world seemed to hold its breath.

A surge of light erupted in my grasp, coalescing into a greatsword of glacial blue.

The blade sang as it solidified, radiance scattering like shards of frozen starlight across the battlefield.

When its edge kissed the earth, the very ground screamed a cracking, splintering cry as frost devoured flame on the burning field.

The scorched soil crystallized, blackened embers hissing into silence beneath a spreading tide of white.

Fire-wreathed corpses froze mid-lurch, their snarls preserved in grotesque statues of ice, brittle limbs shattering at the faintest tremor.

Above, wings beat against the chaos, Janbo’s lupine silhouette bounding through smoke, Serafina and the crimson dragons sweeping down in arcs of power, their talons carrying the last defenders into safety behind the walls.

Across the settlement, a veil of light shimmered into being, the same divine barrier I had once seen in Elira, its holy radiance quivering like glass against the tide of ruin.

A breath escaped me, sharp and cold.

Vapor spiraled into the air, drifting like mist over the grave I had carved from fire.

The battlefield, once a furnace, now lay drowned in silence and frost.