Chapter 143: Chapter 143: The Phalanx Commander
Dante pushed deeper into the Mists of Carnage.
The environment was rapidly deteriorating from a simple bone-littered wasteland into a claustrophobic nightmare.
The colossal ribcages and massive shattered skulls formed jagged tunnels and archways.
The thick red mist clung to his gold armor and left a faint metallic condensation on the plating.
He pulled the dark gray [Spatial Stone] out of his inventory and rolled it over his knuckles.
It was a Holy-Forbidden artifact.
It was a literal developer-level fast-travel node that completely bypassed the rigid geographic restrictions of the Zenith Protocol.
He could use it to instantly teleport back to Ironhold, the Astral Emporium, or his corporate penthouse without triggering any localized transit cooldowns.
"I will save this for emergencies," Dante murmured and slipped the stone back into his void ring.
He didn’t want to leave the forbidden zone yet.
The SSS-Rank investigation was technically complete, but he still hadn’t found what he actually came here for.
He needed a Class Advancement that wouldn’t reject his cosmic weight.
He walked down a particularly narrow pass formed by two massive decayed femurs.
The path opened up into a sprawling circular arena. The floor was completely smooth and paved with tightly interlocking polished white bones.
Standing at the far end of the arena waiting for him was a towering figure.
It wasn’t a standard mindless undead grunt.
It was a massive heavily armored general easily twelve feet tall.
It wore tarnished bronze plate armor that pulsed with a sickening toxic purple light.
It possessed four arms. Two arms held a massive reinforced tower shield, while the other two gripped a long jagged spear that crackled with dark magic.
[Zone Boss Spawn: Undead Phalanx Commander]
[Tier: Dark Demon]
[Level: 30]
[HP: 250,000 / 250,000]
"Another Dark Demon," Dante noted and drew the [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. "The system really loves putting these guys at the end of hallways."
Erebus was walking a few feet behind him and stopped.
The tiny Half-Soul Celestial looked at the towering boss, then looked at the half-eaten meat bun in her hands.
"He is ugly," Erebus stated flatly. "And he smells like old dirt."
"Stay back," Dante told her. "I do not need you accidentally turning him into a footstool before I get the experience points."
The Phalanx Commander didn’t roar or issue a grand scripted monologue. It recognized the localized threat instantly.
The boss slammed the butt of its jagged spear against the polished bone floor.
CLANG!
The sound echoed violently across the arena.
The floor didn’t crack. It rippled.
[Boss Mechanic Triggered: Call of the Legion]
Hundreds of glowing ethereal summoning circles erupted across the entire arena.
Dante watched as an entire army of Undead Hoplites pulled themselves out of the floor.
There were at least three hundred of them.
They formed up instantly and locked their bronze shields together in a massive impenetrable wall that completely shielded the Commander from frontal assaults.
"You guys rely way too much on adds," Dante sighed.
He was standing perfectly healthy at 25,500 HP thanks to the recent heal of Aura.
He didn’t want to spend twenty minutes playing a slow methodical game of attrition to chip through three hundred shields just to reach the boss.
He wanted to clear the room immediately.
"Aura," Dante called out. "Get ready to top me off."
The tiny silver fox popped out of her pet-space and hovered over his shoulder. She let out a sharp chime and understood the command.
Dante gripped his broadsword tightly.
[Skill Activated: Blood Sacrifice]
He didn’t hesitate. He voluntarily burned 90% of his massive health pool.
His health bar plummeted from 25,500 down to a terrifyingly fragile 2,550 HP.
The agonizing drain ripped through his avatar, but it was instantly replaced by an overwhelming intoxicating surge of raw unadulterated physical power.
[Attack Power increased by 900%.]
The massive army of Hoplites began their synchronized rhythmic march forward.
The wall of bronze shields and jagged spears closed the distance and fully intended to skewer him.
Dante didn’t back up. He raised his empty left hand and pointed his open palm directly at the center of the advancing army.
[Skill Executed: Cyclone of Ruin]
Because of [Chrono-Shift], the Zenith-tier wind skill had zero mana cost and triggered instantly.
The F5 hurricane exploded into existence.
The deafening roar of the wind completely drowned out the synchronized marching of the undead army.
The massive dark purple vortex expanded violently and covered nearly the entire arena.
The Undead Hoplites didn’t stand a chance.
Their heavy bronze shields were completely useless against an omnidirectional vacuum.
The front lines were violently ripped off their feet and sucked directly into the swirling vortex.
With the attack power of Dante currently sitting at an astronomically inflated value due to the [Blood Sacrifice], the baseline physical damage of the hurricane was mathematically devastating.
[-145,000! OVERKILL!]
[-145,000! OVERKILL!]
The red damage numbers flooded the air in a solid unreadable block of text.
The three hundred Hoplites weren’t just tossed around. They were instantly flawlessly pulverized.
Their bronze armor shattered into metallic confetti. Their skeletal forms were ground into fine white dust by the sheer overwhelming kinetic force of the Zenith-tier wind.
In less than five seconds, the massive summoned army was completely erased from the server.
Dante dropped his hand and canceled the skill.
The hurricane instantly collapsed. The deafening roar vanished.
The arena was completely empty save for a massive glittering mountain of dropped loot.
And standing at the far end of the room completely exposed was the Phalanx Commander.
The Dark Demon boss stared at the empty space where its impenetrable army had just been standing.
The Gold-tier system visibly hitched. It was entirely unable to process how three hundred heavy infantry units had been systematically deleted in a single frame.
"Just you and me," Dante said. His voice was completely calm.
Aura pulsed her [Resurgence Wave].
The massive percentage-based heal washed over Dante. It instantly restored his health bar back to 25,500 and completely negated the risk of his berserker buff.
The Commander roared in fury. It didn’t try to summon more adds.
It lunged forward and crossed the arena with terrifying speed.
It raised its massive crackling necrotic spear and thrust it directly at the chest of Dante.
[Boss Ultimate Triggered: Abyssal Piercer]
[Warning: Unblockable True Damage.]
The spear moved like a localized blur.
Dante didn’t try to dodge. He didn’t use [Blink Step].
He raised the [Dawn-Breaker Blade] and turned the flat of the gold sword to meet the incoming strike.
[Skill Executed: Aegis Deflection]
The golden hexagonal shield flared into existence exactly 0.2 seconds before the necrotic spear made impact.
CLANG!
The concussive shockwave of the perfect parry shattered the polished bone floor beneath the boots of Dante.
The unblockable ultimate attack hit the invincible shield and was completely violently rejected.
The 500% reflection multiplier triggered instantly.
The massive wave of kinetic force slammed directly back into the Phalanx Commander.
The heavy bronze tower shield of the boss crumpled inward like tin foil.
The impact staggered the twelve-foot-tall monster. It threw its four arms wide open and completely exposed its chest.
Dante didn’t wait.
[Skill Executed: Phantom Waltz]
The purple invulnerability frames flashed. He vanished.
Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.
Five instantaneous teleporting strikes hit the Commander from every conceivable blind spot.
The 900% attack power boost from the [Blood Sacrifice] was still actively ticking.
The [Dawn-Breaker Blade] sheared through the heavy bronze plating and dealt massive catastrophic true damage.
[-220,000! Critical Hit! OVERKILL!]
The animation ended. Dante materialized behind the boss and smoothly sheathed his sword.
The Phalanx Commander stood frozen for a single second. A massive glowing cross of golden light appeared across its chest.
Then, the Dark Demon boss violently exploded into a massive shower of blue and silver polygons.
[Target Eliminated: Undead Phalanx Commander (Level 30 Dark Demon)]
[Experience Gained. Level Up!]
Dante watched his level tick to 70.
He had effortlessly dismantled the boss room.
He turned around and prepared to vacuum up the massive pile of loot scattered across the arena.
The air directly in front of Dante rippled like a disturbed pond.
A spatial rift tore open. It didn’t crackle with blue energy or pulse with void magic. It was jagged, glowing with a deep, sickly, blood-red light.
A hand reached out of the rift.
The hand wasn’t armored. It was pale, covered in glowing, intricate crimson tattoos that pulsed like open wounds. The fingers gripped the edge of the spatial tear, violently ripping it wider.
A figure stepped out of the red rift and into the bone arena.
It was a man, tall and heavily scarred. He wore no upper armor, exposing a torso completely covered in the same glowing crimson tattoos. He wore ragged, dark gray trousers and carried no visible weapons.
His face was partially hidden beneath a tattered hood, but his eyes burned with an intense, unnatural red light that rivaled Erebus’s.
[Entity Identified: ???]
[Faction: ???]
[Level: ???]
Dante’s eyes narrowed. The system was completely blanking on the identification. The entity was projecting a localized cosmic weight that actively jammed the Zenith Protocol’s scanning algorithms.
"You are a difficult anomaly to isolate, Outworlder," the man spoke. His voice was a harsh, scraping rasp, sounding like two rusted blades grinding together.
"Your localized spatial footprint is incredibly dense. But you made a mistake lingering in the Mists of Carnage. The blood spilled here acts as an excellent conduit."
Dante didn’t draw the [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. He knew instantly that standard Gold-tier gear was useless against whatever this was.
He held out his right hand, the black brand flaring.
[Voidsever] materialized, the primordial greatsword letting out a low, predatory hum as it devoured the ambient light.
The tattooed man looked at the black sword. His glowing red eyes widened slightly, a flash of absolute, unadulterated greed crossing his scarred face.
"The shattered blade," the man whispered, taking a slow step forward. "I have scried its location for centuries.
I watched it pass from hand to hand, useless and dormant. And now, it is bound to a mortal shell. You have accomplished the impossible, boy."
"I get that a lot," Dante said, his voice flat. "Who are you?"
"I am a remnant," the man stated, his tone dripping with ancient arrogance. "A forgotten sovereign of a much older war. I have watched you through the glass.
I have analyzed your localized combat logs. You possess zero cooldowns. You manipulate space. You hold the Harbinger and the Half-Soul."
The man stopped ten feet away. He didn’t drop into a combat stance. He simply opened his arms, gesturing grandly to Dante.
"You are a convergence of anomalies," the man declared. "You are the perfect vessel. I have waited tens of thousands of years for a candidate capable of handling the absolute, unmitigated burden of slaughter."
Dante didn’t lower his sword. "Vessel for what?"
"For a legacy that will make the system itself bleed," the man promised, his red eyes burning intensely. "You seek a Class Advancement. You seek power that does not reject your cosmic weight. I can offer you that power. I can grant you the strength to completely overwrite the Zenith Protocol."
The system interface suddenly popped up.
[Hidden Class Quest Triggered: The Blood-Soaked Inheritance]
[Classification: Mythic (World-Altering)]
[Objective: Accept the remnant soul’s offer and inherit the forgotten legacy.]
[Reward: Hidden Class Advancement.]
