Chương 76: Chapter : 76

Naomi scrambled up onto her elbows. She looked at the spot where she had just been standing. She saw the blood. She saw Ken lying on the floor, gasping for air. Her heart completely stopped. Her eyes went wide with absolute shock and total despair. The lazy, annoying farm boy. The useless coward who hid in the garbage. The guy who complained about his shoes and begged for cheeseburgers. He had just thrown himself in front of a fatal blow to save her life.

"KEN!" Naomi screamed, her voice tearing with pure heartbreak.

"Ken!" Princess Iris and Sayma shouted at the exact same time, completely horrified. Vane pulled his hand back, the cursed spear dissolving into smoke. He laughed cruelly, looking down at the bleeding boy.

"How touching. The little peasant sacrificed himself. Don't worry, little girls. You will join him in a second!" But Vane didn't realize that the fight was already over. Lying on the floor, Ken kept his face turned away from the girls. His eyes were cold, sharp, and entirely focused.

"Well, getting stabbed was definitely not on my schedule today," Ken thought to himself, gritting his teeth.

"This is going to completely ruin my favorite shirt. I am ending this right now." While everyone was screaming and looking at his bloody shoulder, Ken secretly moved his uninjured right hand under the cover of his own falling body. He pointed his index finger directly at Vane's chest. He didn't just gather a tiny blue spark this time. Using a high-level biological transmutation spell, Ken secretly shifted the bones in his finger, transforming the tip into a literal gun barrel.

He pulled on a microscopic drop of his ocean-like mana, compressing it so tightly it was heavier than solid steel. Pew. He fired. The hyper-compressed magic bullet was completely invisible. It didn't make a loud noise. It didn't glow. It looked like absolutely nothing. But it hit like a freight train. The invisible bullet flew across the room and flawlessly threaded the needle. It hit Vane directly in the center of his chest. The bullet effortlessly pierced right through Vane's new, thick, armored scales.

But Ken didn't just shoot him randomly. He aimed for the exact same spot the Sovereign had slashed the night before. CRACK! The invisible bullet violently blew open the massive, near-fatal wound that Ken had left near Vane's heart. The thick scales shattered into a million pieces. Dark blood exploded from Vane's chest as the old wound was ripped completely wide open. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"GAAAAAH!" Vane shrieked, stumbling backward in absolute agony. He clutched his chest, dropping to one knee. As the pain ripped through his body, Vane felt something else. The magic bullet wasn't just physical. It carried a tiny, microscopic trace of the caster's mana. Vane felt that signature. It was the exact same dark, overwhelming, god-like magical signature he had felt last night in the pitch-black penthouse. The signature of the monster with the purple eye mask.

Vane gasped for air, his toxic green eyes wide with pure, unfiltered terror. He slowly lifted his head and looked past Naomi. He looked directly at the goofy, messy boy lying in the pool of blood on the floor. Ken looked back at him. Just for a split second, Ken dropped his lazy act. His dark eyes stared right through Vane's soul, cold and merciless. Vane realized the truth. The lazy coward wasn't a coward at all. The goofy boy was the masked monster from the dark.

"You..." Vane choked, pointing a shaking, bloody claw at Ken. He opened his mouth to scream the truth, to expose the boy to the rest of the room.

"You are the—" But Vane never got to finish that sentence. Before Vane could utter another single word, Princess Iris stepped forward. She had watched Ken take a fatal spear for her team. She had watched her friend bleed on the floor. The overwhelming grief, anger, and absolute desire to protect her people shattered the mental block inside her mind. Princess Iris dropped her silver rapier. She closed her eyes and firmly clasped her hands together in prayer.

Her dormant Royal magic, the legendary power of the Belmontia bloodline that had been asleep her entire life, finally woke up. A blinding, brilliant pillar of pure white light exploded from Iris's body. The light was so intense and so warm that it pushed all the dark, toxic Curse magic right out of the room. Behind Princess Iris, the light gathered and solidified. A radiant, ten-foot-tall Angel made entirely of pure white energy materialized in the air.

The Angel had massive, glowing wings and held a giant, beautifully crafted holy sword in its hands. Naomi and Sayma shielded their eyes, completely awestruck by the sheer, majestic power of their Princess. Princess Iris opened her violet eyes. They were glowing with bright, holy light. She looked directly at Vane.

"You will hurt no one else," Princess Iris declared, her voice ringing out like a choir of bells. She swung her arms down. The giant Angel behind her mirrored her exact movement. The Angel raised the massive holy sword high into the air and brought it crashing down. The blade of pure light drove straight into the gap of Vane's violently reopened chest. Vane let out one final, screeching roar as the holy magic flooded into his corrupted heart, completely splitting it in two.

The dark curse holding his mutated body together instantly broke. In a burst of blinding white light, Vane's monstrous form crumbled away, disintegrating into a pile of harmless, gray ash on the concrete floor. The giant glass tank was broken. Vane was dead. Suddenly, a loud, magical chime echoed from Sayma's communication device. The automated voice of the Upper Council's tracking system spoke clearly into the quiet room. Target eliminated. B-rank mission complete. 20 points secured for the 13th Unit.

Just as the announcement finished, the heavy double doors of the penthouse burst open again. Laxmi, Luna, and Zinia sprinted into the room, panting heavily, ready to help fight the boss. But they stopped in their tracks. They saw the pile of ash. They saw the glowing Princess. And then, they saw the blood.

"Ken!" Naomi cried out, tears finally streaming down her face. She dropped her daggers and scrambled across the floor, sliding on her knees until she reached his side. Sayma and Princess Iris rushed over immediately, their faces pale with panic. Ken was lying flat on his back in a growing pool of red blood. His shoulder looked terrible. But internally, Ken was perfectly fine. He had already secretly stopped the bleeding using his own magic, and he had neutralized the toxic curse poison before it could spread.

He wasn't in any real danger.

"Okay, they beat the boss, we got the points, and my secret is completely safe," Ken thought happily to himself, listening to the girls panic around him.

"If I stay awake, they are going to ask me why I jumped in front of a spear. That sounds like a very long, very emotional conversation, and I am way too tired for that." Ken looked up at Naomi's tear-stained face. He gave her a weak, goofy, completely fake smile.

"Did we win?" Ken mumbled softly, making sure his voice sounded tired and weak.

"Good... now I can finally take a nap..." Ken let his eyes flutter shut, and he let his head loll to the side. He slipped seamlessly into a totally fake unconsciousness.

"Ken! No! Stay with us!" Naomi sobbed, grabbing his good hand and holding it tightly against her forehead. Sayma quickly kneeled down, her hands glowing with warm healing magic, pressing them frantically against his shoulder.

"He is still breathing! We need to get him back to the estate right now!" As the team scrambled to pick him up and carry him out of the Doom Tower, Ken Eliot completely relaxed. He was being carried, which meant he didn't even have to walk down the fifty flights of stairs. Despite the bloody shirt and the crying girls, the lazy boy was actually incredibly comfortable. He had saved his team, defeated the boss, and kept his devastating secret completely hidden. It was an absolute victory.