Chapter 140: Boss Fight 8
On the opposite side of the crater, the monster was barely standing.
Its sleek, muscle-bound body was hunched forward, one knee pressed into the dirt while thick streams of black blood poured freely from the massive burns the chains had left across its chest and arms.
The dark purple aura that had been suffocating the air for the past twenty minutes was almost completely gone now, reduced to a faint, sputtering glow that flickered like a dying candle around its shoulders.
Its split visor was cracked down the center, the jagged smile nowhere to be seen.
Up on the ridge, the demon girl slowly exhaled through her teeth as she took in the full picture below.
Both of them looked like they were about to collapse. The massive explosion from their final clash had blown a fresh crater into the already destroyed ruins, the surrounding ground scorched black from the violent collision of holy and corrupted mana.
’Unbelievable,’ she thought, her eyes moving between the two broken figures.
She hadn’t expected him to win. She knew how strong that beast was, and honestly, she had been fully prepared to watch him die down there.
Yet this human had fought it for nearly twenty minutes straight.
He had tanked its full-powered strikes, matched its speed after awakening the Goddess fragment, wrapped it up with his chains and actually drained a significant portion of its mana before getting thrown off.
And in the final exchange, when the beast tried to execute him with everything it had left, this maniac had mixed the stolen corrupted energy with his holy resonance and punched back hard enough to send a gate boss flying.
’He did really well,’ she admitted to herself, the words feeling strange even in her own head. ’I genuinely did not think he had this in him.’
She glanced at the demon boy, who had not moved a single inch since the explosion. His arms were still crossed, his expression still perfectly flat as he stared at the aftermath below.
"You were right," she muttered, not looking at him directly. "He grew."
The boy did not respond.
Down in the ruins, Hajin’s arms were shaking badly.
He was still on his hands and knees, his right arm completely useless, the corrupted blood he had been coughing up now forming a dark, ugly pool in the dirt beneath him.
The golden mark covering his entire right arm had stopped glowing, the intricate lines fading into a dull, burned-out grey that looked more like scars than anything divine.
The Goddess Resonance was gone. His timer had either run out or been forcefully shut down by his own body to prevent his core from melting entirely, he couldn’t tell which.
All he knew was that he had nothing left, just a broken body kneeling in the dirt while his vision slowly went dark around the edges.
He forced his head up, his single open eye locking onto the monster across the crater.
It was trying to stand.
Its legs were trembling, its arms hanging limply at its sides as it slowly, painfully pushed itself upright.
The cracked visor turned toward him, and even without the jagged smile, Hajin could feel the raw, stubborn killing intent still radiating from the thing like heat from a furnace.
After everything he had thrown at it, after every strike, every stolen drop of mana, after matching its strongest punch with his own, the beast was still trying to get up.
’You have to be kidding me,’ he thought, a bitter, exhausted laugh dying somewhere in his throat before it could reach his lips.
He planted his left hand into the ground, his fingers digging into the dirt as he tried to push himself upright. His legs shook violently underneath him, barely holding his weight as he got one foot under his body, then the other.
He almost made it before his knee buckled on the second step and his body pitched forward, the ground rushing up to meet him, but a pair of arms caught him before he hit the ground.
A familiar warmth wrapped around his chest, steadying him as a burst of golden light faded from the air.
"You idiot," Vella whispered, her voice cracking as she held him up from behind.
She had materialized from the ring on pure instinct the moment the Goddess Resonance deactivated and she felt his connection nearly flatline. Her hair was a mess, her eyes red and glossy with tears that were already streaming down her cheeks, but through all that, she was smiling.
"You did a really good job," she said, her arms tightening around him while her voice wavered between a laugh and a sob. "You did so good, Hajin. But please, let us help now."
He leaned into her, his legs barely supporting him while his breathing came out in short, ragged gasps. He wanted to say something stupid, make a joke, deflect the way he always did, but the words wouldn’t come.
He just stood there, held up by the one person who had been watching from inside the ring the entire time, feeling every hit he took through their connection, unable to do anything but wait.
If Vella was this worried about him, if she had forced herself out of the ring like this with tears running down her face, then Juna and Loccy were probably losing their minds right now trapped somewhere, unable to manifest after he had forcefully unsummoned them earlier.
He grit his teeth.
His mana reserves were practically empty, his core burned out and barely functional, but he reached down deep and scraped together the thinnest thread of energy he could find.
Two bursts of golden light exploded from his chest.
Juna materialized first, her wings flickering weakly as her boots hit the ground, her face already twisted into an expression caught between fury and overwhelming relief.
Loccy appeared right beside her, stumbling slightly as her single wing sputtered to life, her eyes immediately locking onto Hajin with a look that made it very clear she had been screaming inside for the past twenty minutes.
He looked at the three of them, Vella still holding him up from behind, Juna standing rigid in front of him, Loccy trembling at her side, and the weight of what he had put them through hit him all at once.
"I’m sorry," he said, his voice low. "For pulling you out of the fight like that. For making you sit there and watch while I almost got myself killed."
He swallowed hard, the taste of blood still thick in his mouth.
"Can you forgive me?" he asked. "And help me out one more time?"
He braced himself for the explosion. Juna had every right to be furious, he had forcefully unsummoned her mid-battle without a single word of warning, ripped her away while she was still trying to protect him, and then nearly died alone while she could do nothing but feel it happen.
But the explosion never came.
Her rigid expression slowly cracked, her jaw trembling as the fury drained out of her face entirely. Her wings flickered, her fists unclenched, and for the first time since he had summoned her into this world, tears spilled down her cheeks.
She didn’t wipe them away. She just smiled, a genuine, wobbly, completely unguarded smile that looked nothing like the fierce, proud warrior he was used to seeing.
"I am just glad you are alive," she said, her voice breaking halfway through as more tears rolled freely down her face.
She took a breath, steadied herself, and then her smile sharpened into something far more familiar.
"You owe us a delicious meal after this," she said, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand before turning to face the barely standing monster across the crater. "But first, let’s clean out the trash."
