Chương 88: The Promise

I was just about to close my eyelids and accept a permanent, free-of-charge subscription to the eternal dirt nap when a sudden frequency cut right through the static in my rattling skull. It was a voice echoing straight out of my personal history vault, the literal only chapter of my previous life back on Earth that didn't completely smell like hot garbage.

"We are absolutely going to cross paths again, Arthur, you can count on it," the familiar voice echoed softly against my fading consciousness.

"I am going to beat this miserable illness once and for all, and then I am going to track you down wherever you are. You are never going to have to navigate the miserable depths of loneliness by yourself ever again... because I am going to be standing right by your side." The only human being on that entire planet who actually looked at my broken, messy personality and accepted me exactly for the absolute disaster I am.

My ultimate partner in crime, my absolute best friend, was still out there in the cosmic ether actively waiting for our grand reunion. Fueled by a sudden, ridiculously intense surge of raw, unadulterated stubbornness that completely defied all laws of biological damage, I forced my pulverized joints to lock up and aggressively hauled my battered frame back onto my two boots.

With a sharp mental click, I manifested my unpainted Training Prototype-7 revolver directly into my remaining left hand and squeezed the trigger twice in rapid succession, sending a pair of heavy rounds screaming across the clearing. Naturally, because Kullervo's bloated observation statistics were still functioning at peak efficiency, the fifteen-foot bipedal colossus casually avoided both incoming projectiles with two microscopic, infuriatingly small tilts of his wooden upper torso.

"Take your filthy, overgrown garden weeds off her neck this exact instant!" I screamed into the pollution-choked air, my raw, bloody throat tearing under the sheer, furious volume of my voice as I demanded immediate royal emancipation. I dragged my heavy boots forward through the boiling purple sludge, attempting to close the gap and manually fix my abysmal accuracy rating, but my firearms were apparently firing nothing but pure disappointment.

Every single shot I unleashed just zipped harmlessly into the thick purple smoke, completely failing to dent our giant wooden landlord's pristine armor plating. The exact microsecond I shuffled deep into his personal space bubble, Kullervo decided he had officially tolerated enough of my low-yield irritation.

The fifteen-foot bipedal colossus hoisted his massive, trunk-like club arm high into the choked air, centering the business end of that petrified oak weapon directly over my rattling skull like a supreme cosmic hammer preparing to whack a highly persistent mole. This impending downward swing had the unmistakable, heavy-duty musk of a final boss finisher written all over it, the kind of structural impact that would permanently erase my character data from the server.

"You must move out of the way... Arthur... please..." June choked out through the suffocating pressure of his grip, her regal British accent completely cracking as her eyes widened in sheer horror. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Unfortunately for our resident princess, my biological battery was entirely tapped out of mechanical juice, and my leg muscles had effectively joined a union strike.

Executing a sleek, high-speed anime dodge out of the danger zone was a statistical impossibility. I turned my head to lock my eyes directly onto her trembling face, letting the full, unadulterated weight of my grim situation radiate through my gaze.

"I am physically incapable of doing that," I wheezed right back at her, my voice sounding like a broken accordian getting crushed under a semi-truck. Kullervo didn't waste a single millisecond on dramatic hesitation, violently driving his colossal club arm straight down toward my face with the terrifying momentum of a falling skyscraper. It looks like my grand, highly unscripted adventure in the Endless Dungeon of Eteria is officially reaching its final chapter right here in the literal mud.

Honestly, it is a massive shame because my free trial of this bizarre alternate dimension was completely, ridiculously short-lived. It looks like... I am never going to make good on that grand promise to see your face again... Julius. The absolute final image my fading brain cells managed to pull from the memory archives was the vivid picture of a blonde haired kid from my past.

He was sitting securely in his medical wheelchair, looking completely frail from his long term illness, yet he was casting the brightest, most genuinely heartwarming smile directly in my direction as if telling me everything was going to be completely fine. I fully committed to the inevitable, closing my eyes and preparing to welcome the incoming structural erasure of my skull, when a sudden, physics-defying burst of violent movement exploded into the small gap between me and Kullervo.

A terrifying, high speed red blur aggressively rushed straight into the immediate danger zone, slicing a colossal piece of heavy black iron directly across the giant wooden colossus. I instantly recognized the fundamental mechanics of that wide horizontal arc, it was undeniably the baseline framework of the Brutal Cleave skill.

Except this specific execution was operating on a completely separate, hyper lethal tier, moving with a manic physical velocity that was infinitely faster, deeply violent, and inherently fatal. The jagged, crimson aura bleeding off the matte step blade was so overwhelmingly potent that it actively warped the surrounding purple smoke, radiating a spectacular wave of pure aggression that completely redefined the tactical atmosphere of the entire battlefield.

Our fifteen-foot wooden landlord actually managed to utilize his bloated observation statistics to dodge what should have been an immediate ticket to the lumber yard, but he wasn't quite fast enough to escape completely unscathed. The high-powered crimson arc sliced heavily into his petrified oak shoulder, instantly cleaving through the thick root network and severing the right arm holding June as if it were nothing but a twig under a lawnmower.

June dropped straight into the bubbling purple mud below, her royal profile violently collapsing into a heap as she began desperately clutching her throat and coughing up a storm to clear her lungs of the toxic congestion. Realizing that his tactical monopoly on the clearing had completely dissolved, Kullervo leaped backward to create some immediate distance, instantly trying to flex his torso to activate a defensive Miasma Vent to hide his shame.

Unfortunately for his survival rating, our mysterious savior completely denied his request for a tactical retreat, executing a blisteringly fast follow-up horizontal slash that cut right through his casting animation and smacked into his heavy bipedal frame. The massive wooden colossus completely lost his balance from the raw kinetic impact, heavily tumbling across the wet ground like a dropped bundle of petrified firewood.

A sudden voice cut right through the ringing in my eardrums, a remarkably high-pitched female frequency that was absolutely packed to the brim with a level of supreme, unwavering confidence you usually only hear from an anime protagonist who just unlocked her true power theme song.

"You have Rekka's absolute deepest gratitude for successfully securing a sufficient amount of operational time for Rekka to take the stage, Arthur-sama," she announced with a smooth, theatrical flair that completely reset the entire emotional mood of the clearing.