Chapter 90: Boss Monster: The Ice Queen Butterfly
The Floor 8 portal dissolved, and The Party stepped into a cathedral of light.
The chamber was breathtaking, capped by a vaulted dome of clear ice that caught the aurora lights, refracting it into slow, hypnotic waves of violet and green. Beneath their boots, the polished floor was a dark mirror, reflecting the party as though they stood above a frozen underworld. The air didn’t just feel cold; it felt heavy, stealing the heat from their lungs so rapidly that every breath crystallized into a fine mist. Their cloaks, battered from seven floors of escalating extremes, flickered with the desperate, dimming shimmer of failing enchantments.
At the center of the chamber, waiting on a dais of rimed frost, was the Ice Queen Butterfly.
She possessed a lethal, indifferent grace. From the waist up, she resembled a monarch carved from glacial runoff—her features sharp, regal, and entirely unmoving. Below the waist, she flared into a monstrous insectoid form. Four wings of translucent, diamond-hard ice extended from her back, trapping the aurora’s shifting light within their razor-thin edges. Her compound eyes were multi-faceted jewels, reflecting the party a dozen times over.
She made no sound, but the moment her gaze locked onto them, the Tower’s interface chimed.
[Ding! Boss Encounter: Ice Queen Butterfly.]
[Threat Level: High Class Boss.]
Mirko’s sword slid from its sheath with a ringing hiss. "A beautiful creature," she murmured, the blade catching the green light from above. "But elegance does not win wars. This Knight has broken wyrms and arbiters. An insect with delusions of grandeur is nothing new."
Focus, Mirko, Kuro’s voice slid through their minds, cool and pragmatic as her daggers slipped into her hands. It’s a High Class boss, Save the eulogies for when she is dead.
"Confidence establishes dominance, little shadow!"
"It also gives away our position," Nathan said, drawing Moonlight. The Tyrant’s Eye swirled in the riser, a vortex of silver mist against the colorful glare of the room. "Standard spread. Keep your feet under you. Let’s see what she’s got."
On the dais, the Butterfly unfolded her wings.
She didn’t lumber like the Pyre Wyrm or stomp like the Throne Guardian. She glided. Her wings carried her across the mirror-smooth floor in a terrifying blur, faster than anything they had encountered. Without [Hunter’s Insight], Nathan would have only seen a smear of refracted light.
As she moved, her wings beat a deadly rhythm—SHING-SHING-SHING—throwing a massive, sweeping fan of crystalline shards across the chamber.
"Scatter! Don’t let them cluster!" Nathan barked.
The team split instantly. Elise threw her hands up, her [Mana Shield] blooming over herself and Dillon, the curved barrier deflecting a barrage of ice upward into the dark. Garrett slammed Volcan’s heavy shaft into the ice, shielding Red as shards sparked against his weapon. Kuro simply vanished, [Shadow Meld] dropping her into the dark reflection beneath the ice.
Nathan rolled beneath a whistling projectile, the wind of it leaving a rime of frost across his cheek. [Hunter’s Insight] flared, charting the boss’s trajectory. "She favors clockwise sweeping! Mirko, intercept!"
Mirko didn’t hesitate. She activated [Impenetrable Fortress], her green mana barrier igniting like a beacon as she slid perfectly into the creature’s path.
The Butterfly didn’t attempt to dodge. She slammed into the shield like a freight train of solid ice. CRACK. The impact sent spiderweb fissures racing through the mirrored floor. Mirko gritted her teeth, her boots carving deep furrows backward into the ice, but the line held.
"I am immovable!" Mirko roared.
She triggered [Aegis Strike]. The pent-up kinetic energy detonated outward in a shockwave of green-and-silver light, carving directly across the Butterfly’s torso. The creature shrieked and was thrown backward, skidding violently across the floor in a spray of shattered crystal.
But the triumph was short-lived. The ambient frost in the room immediately surged toward the boss. Cracks in her armor sealed over. The chipped edges of her wings smoothed out. The Tower itself was feeding her.
"She’s drawing on the environment!" Elise yelled over the ringing echoes. "If we don’t out-damage her regeneration, she’ll outlast us!"
"Then we don’t let her breathe," Nathan said, knocking an arrow. "Full press. Elise, ground her wings. Dillon, Kuro—harass her flanks!"
Dillon launched himself forward. Above him, his Cloud Serpent coiled through the air, static electricity snapping from its scales. It dove at the Butterfly, blinding her with flashes of arc lightning. Using the distraction, Dillon triggered [Flash Step]. He materialized right beside her, his katana flashing in a [Quick Draw] that carved a deep, jagged canyon across her left wing.
From the shadow cast by Dillon’s strike, Kuro erupted. Her twin daggers bit deep into the exact same fissure Dillon had created. SHINK-SHINK. The crystalline membrane spider-webbed violently, throwing the boss off balance.
Sensing the pressure, the Butterfly’s multifaceted eyes flared blindingly bright. She launched herself straight up toward the vaulted ceiling, and the temperature in the room plummeted past the point of pain.
The aurora overhead pulsed, syncing with the beating of her wings. It didn’t snow; instead, a heavy, suffocating cloud of [Cryogenic Mist] cascaded from her body, rolling down to the floor in hungry, creeping waves of absolute zero.
"Flash-freeze effect!" Nathan warned, scrambling toward higher ground. "Do not let that mist touch you!"
Elise slammed her staff down. Her Frost Golem roared, punching the floor. Jagged walls of pale blue ice erupted in a semicircle around the party, acting as temporary dams against the rolling mist. "It’s eating through the barriers!" Elise called out, her breath pluming. "Bring her down!"
Dillon didn’t wait for a second order. His Cloud Serpent spiraled upward through the freezing fog, detonating against the Butterfly’s chest. As she flinched, Dillon [Flash Step]ped onto the apex of Elise’s ice wall.
[Thunder Edge] ignited.
Lightning wreathed his blade in a blinding blue-white fury. He leapt into the void, bringing the katana down like a thunderbolt onto her already-fractured left wing. KRAK-BOOOOOM. The resulting thermal shock of lightning meeting super-cooled crystal was devastating. The wing didn’t just break; it detonated, raining down like discarded diamonds.
The Butterfly spiraled, shrieking, but managed to catch herself on her remaining wings.
It wasn’t enough. Kuro was already there. Carried upward by [Invisibility], the assassin clung to the boss’s back. With clinical precision, she drove [Assassinate] into the joints of the remaining wings. The shadow-forged steel severed the delicate magical tendons.
The boss spasmed, then plummeted, crashing onto the dais hard enough to shatter the ancient frost.
Struggling upright on her four insectoid legs, her ruined wings dragging behind her, the Butterfly raised her hands toward the ceiling. The aurora descended. Ribbons of shifting violet and green light cascaded over her, wrapping her in a cloak of the living sky
Suddenly, she was everywhere. Three identical versions of the Butterfly stood on the dais, their images distorted and refracting like mirages in a desert.
Dillon lunged, but his katana swept harmlessly through empty air. "Illusions! I can’t find the real one!"
Nathan squinted, his [Hunter’s Insight] screaming with conflicting data. The light was actively bending around her. "Elise, can you strip it?"
"I can’t dispel the light, but I can find her weight!" Elise raised her staff, not at the boss, but at the dais itself. She fired a volley of compressed [Mana Bolts]. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM. The magic cratered the ice beneath their feet.
As the floor fractured, the cracks spider-webbed outward—except in one specific spot, where the physical weight of the invisible boss forced the cracks to bend and warp unnaturally around her true position.
"There!" Nathan yelled. "Garrett, crack her open!"
"On it!" Garrett charged alongside Red. The Mad-Sheep lowered its armored head, slamming into the Butterfly’s invisible legs with a sickening crunch. As she stumbled, visibly flickering into reality, Garrett brought Volcan down in a brutal, sweeping arc. The mace’s immense thermal pulse erupted against her side, violently converting the ice to steam.
Her veil flickered.
"Keep hitting her!" Nathan ordered.
Mirko’s [Aegis Strike] slammed into her chest. Dillon’s [Thunder Edge] scored across her shoulder. Kuro materialized, driving her blades into the creature’s spine. Under the relentless, compounding pressure, the [Aurora Veil] shattered completely, dissolving into harmless motes of light.
Crippled and cornered, the Butterfly’s multifaceted eyes locked onto the center of the room. She raised her hands one last time.
The light in her palms intensified into a terrifying, singular point of pure whiteness. The air around them literally stopped moving, solidifying into frost. If that spell detonated, the entire cathedral would become a solid block of ice, with them trapped inside.
"Hit her with everything!" Nathan roared. "Now!"
Mirko stepped forward, planting her boots deep into the ruined ice. She pushed [Impenetrable Fortress] to its absolute maximum, her aura flaring brilliantly against the oppressive cold. She looked up at the towering boss, and incredibly, she smiled.
"You...You are a terror of the frost," Mirko declared, her voice ringing clear over the mounting hum of the boss’s spell. "But I have stood against a Blazing adversary! You are just another name etched upon my sword!"
She unleashed her tenth [Unstoppable Force]. The accumulated kinetic energy of every blow she had taken during the fight channeled into one apocalyptic strike. Her blade connected with the Butterfly’s chest, splintering the boss’s glacial armor wide open.
Dillon followed instantly, riding a streak of lightning that carved through the exposed cavity. Elise hurled a [Glacial Lance] of absolute zero, perfectly countering the boss’s internal magic and stalling her regeneration. Kuro drove her daggers into the base of the creature’s neck, severing her motor functions, while Garrett and Red smashed into her flank, the thermal pulse of Volcan shattering the frozen heart within.
Through it all, Nathan had been holding his breath, drawing back Moonlight for sixty agonizing seconds.
His arms shook. The Leyline Ring burned against his skin, feeding a desperate torrent of mana into [Focus Shot]. The Tyrant’s Eye swirled furiously in the bow’s riser, blindingly bright. He could barely see the edges of the room, but the shattered, gaping core of the Butterfly was painted clearly in his mind’s eye.
Now, Master, Mirko’s voice echoed in his mind, fierce and absolute.
Nathan let go.
THWOOOOOOOOOM.
The arrow tore across the chamber, a solid beam of silver light. It was the physical manifestation of an hour and forty-seven minutes of brutal, flawless teamwork. The shot punched cleanly through the Butterfly’s skull, exiting the back of her head and embedding itself deep into the frozen throne behind her.
The brilliant white light pooling in the boss’s palms sputtered out. Her compound eyes dimmed, flickering once, twice, before going totally dark.
Slowly, the Ice Queen Butterfly pitched forward. When she struck the floor, she didn’t bleed; she shattered into a million fragments of glittering, harmless light.
[Ding! Ice Queen Butterfly Defeated!]
[Ding! Floor 8 Cleared!]
[Ding! Tower of the Frozen Throne: Full Clear!]
[Overall Clear Rank: A]
[Clear Time: 1 hour 47 minutes.]
[Level Up! Nathan Cross: Level 42]
[Level Up! Mirko: Level 39]
[Level Up! Kuro: Level 27]
[Reward: Butterfly’s Frozen Heart (Legendary Material).]
[Reward: Aurora Wing Fragment (Rare Material).]
Nathan slowly lowered Moonlight. His muscles spasmed in protest from the massive mana drain, but the Leyline Ring was already humming, working to stabilize him.
The cathedral was totally silent. Above them, the aurora had calmed to a gentle, ambient glow, the Tower’s malice bleeding away with the death of its champion. The scarred, cratered floor was already beginning to mend itself.
Mirko sheathed her sword with a sharp, satisfied click. "As I said. A beautiful insect, but an insect nonetheless. And we crushed it."
You spent the first half of the fight comparing yourself to a fly swatter, Kuro noted, shifting back into her rabbit form and hopping onto Nathan’s shoulder. Her tiny chest heaved with exhaustion.
"It was a metaphorical swatter, Kuro! An imposing, armored swatter."
I do not think you know what a metaphor is.
"I am a Knight. I dictate what words mean through conquest."
Garrett leaned heavily on Volcan, wiping sweat from his forehead as steam billowed from his mace. Red stood beside him, the thick armored wool slowly softening back to normal. "A-Rank," Garrett chuckled, out of breath. "I’ll take it. I’m officially naming this one the ’We Didn’t Freeze to Death’ clear."
"Spot... On," Dillon muttered, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
Elise walked over, leaning lightly on her staff. Despite her usual composure, there was undeniable relief in her icy blue eyes. "First High Class clear since Ashwick," she said quietly. "First of six. We’re on schedule." She allowed herself a small, tired smile. "And no one shattered this time."
"No one shattered," Nathan agreed, a weight lifting from his chest. "We’re actually getting good at this."
He looked toward the far end of the room, where the exit portal was already swirling to life. The oppressive cold of the room was entirely gone now, replaced by a crisp, manageable chill.
"Let’s go home," Nathan said. "One down. Five to go."
The party moved toward the exit, their banter falling into an easy, exhausted rhythm. Mirko marched proudly at the front, with Kuro a warm, reassuring weight on Nathan’s shoulder.
But just before stepping through the portal, Nathan paused, glancing back over his shoulder. He looked past the mending floor, toward the empty dais and the ruined throne.
He remembered the voice from the portal. The distinct, invasive feeling of being watched. The word interesting that had vibrated deep in his bones.
Whatever entity controlled that was, it was still out there. Still watching. And eventually, it would speak again.
Tightening his grip on his bow, Nathan turned his back on the throne and stepped through the portal, leaving the frozen cathedral behind.
