Chương 353: Chapter 339

The monster, her clothing floating around her, surrounded by black tentacles made out of sludge, with dark gray snow falling around them, made the entire scene look rather depressing – and dangerous. The empress – or rather the echo of the empress who once was – looked at them with eyes tainted by cosmic forces from beyond the boundaries of the planes, shining with eldritch green light.

That light radiated outward, forming an aura that created fissures on the ground with every step, neon green light and smoke spilling from the cracks.

"Every step I take shatters the world!" she shouted, her voice echoing as a much deeper voice repeated her words. For a split second, the battlefield seemed to still – then she raised her leg high and slammed it into the ground. The impact hit like a thunderclap. The earth didn't just crack – it split.

A jagged fissure tore forward from beneath her foot, racing across the ground with terrifying speed, neon green light blazing from within as smoke poured out behind it – allowing Sam to sense the colossal amount of mana bursting forth. The garden floor ruptured in its wake, stone and soil thrown aside as the attack carved a deep, widening scar straight toward the team.

"Move!" someone shouted. The team scattered in different directions, barely staying ahead of the oncoming rupture as it chased them across the arena, the ground collapsing where they had stood just moments before. It illuminated the garden in a sick, green light, giving a deathly pallor to the empress and foreboding feeling to those standing against her. Sam glanced around, taking in the situation. His experienced eyes analyzed the battlefield before them.

Based on the size of the battlefield, the team should have been much larger – but he had faith in his friends. He landed between two cracks in the earth and quickly assessed the others. Katie surged forward as always, crackling with eldritch energy in a different hue. Her greatsword swung down – but a tentacle of sludge and snow snapped upward, coiling around the blade and hurling her into the air. Not wasting an opening, Isabella rushed in.

Her twin longswords flashed in a precise, flowing pattern as she tried to break through the monster's defenses - but more tentacles rose from the fissures, intercepting the strikes. The empress lifted her hand, and giant icicles formed instantly in the air, long and slender like spears - then shot toward Isabella. She twisted and bent around them, barely avoiding each projectile with sharp, controlled movements.

At the same time, Dan raised his magical club, his chest slick with sweat beneath his own sweltering aura, and unleashed a probing barrage of plasma. Orbs detonated on impact. Spears screamed through the air faster than any bird. Waves of energy erased what little greenery remained. Massive beams tore forward with a roar like a fighter jet. The projectiles converged on the empress – but she moved through them with unnatural grace, slipping between explosions while deflecting Isabella and Katie's attacks.

The three of them fell into a deadly rhythm, circling and striking in tandem. Melody was whirling around, using his sword to parry any stray shot heading for the healer. Clarissa's staff moved around like a conductor's baton. Buffs, heals, and shields cascaded over the team in rapid succession, while occasional debuffs lashed out toward the monster. Sam moved with the team, cutting down tentacles as they erupted from the fissures.

His blade carved through them while he fired off beams of void at the empress – each one either absorbed or deflected by her defenses. They knew they were making progress only because she wouldn't stop shouting about their inevitable doom – and because her voice was starting to crack with strain. It was repetitive, as the boss had to focus on surviving. The empress raised a shield of dark gray snowflakes, absorbing another beam, then unleashed a screech that forced everyone back, clearing space around her.

Sam felt the mana gather around her at an alarming rate as black sludge began to collect above her head, streaming out of the air and the fissures in the ground. The pressure in the air thickened, heavy enough that he could feel it pressing against his skin. He made a split-second decision.

"Bunker!" He launched himself toward Clarissa without hesitation. The others reacted instantly. Katie dropped back from the front line, Isabella disengaged in a smooth retreat, and Dan cut off his barrage mid-cast as all of them converged on the healer's position. Sam hit the ground beside Clarissa first, turning immediately as the others closed in tight around her. There was no wasted space – everyone packed together in a compact formation. Just as they practiced.

A hexagonal barrier snapped into place around them. Sam didn't wait. He thrust his hand upward and forced his mana outward, compressing it into the densest void energy he could manage. The dark energy spread across the shield's surface, reinforcing it with a second layer that pulsed faintly with power. Beside him, Isabella began to hum, the soft sound threading through the tension as her buff settled over the group. Sam felt it immediately – his mana flow steadied, recovery accelerating.

Dan slammed his club into the ground. The impact sent a wave of warmth rolling outward in expanding circles, which rose and solidified into concentric walls of hazy light around the group, layering defense upon defense. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Katie stepped in close to Clarissa, placing her metal-gloved hand firmly on her shoulder.

She murmured her incantation under her breath, and yellow energy surged between them, reinforcing the healer at the core of the formation. Done. Just in time. The mass of sludge above the empress surged, then collapsed inward before launching downward. It fell like a meteor. The sky seemed to darken as it descended, a writhing mass of black and gray streaking toward them, trailing smoke and corrupt energy.

The first layer of void shattered instantly, torn apart as the sludge slammed into the shield with overwhelming force. The collision sent a violent tremor through the formation, the ground beneath them cracking further as the pressure drove downward. Sam felt it immediately – his mana was being ripped away, siphoned out in massive chunks as he struggled to maintain the reinforcement. At the same time, a wave of gray, freezing energy lashed out from the empress, crashing into Dan's outer barriers.

The first layers shattered on impact, breaking apart like glass under strain. The next layers flickered violently – but held. The sludge pressed against the barrier, spreading across its surface, grinding forward inch by inch as if trying to force its way through. The hexagonal panels flickered under the strain, cracks of light forming where the pressure was greatest. Sam gritted his teeth and pushed harder, forcing more mana into the void layer, stabilizing it just enough to keep it from collapsing entirely.

For a moment, it looked like it might break through. He watched with rapt attention, ready to push more mana into it. But then… it held. The sludge lost cohesion, its energy bleeding away as it finally dispersed across the surface of the barrier, sliding off in thick, useless streams. The pressure vanished. Sam let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Too soon. The empress saw the failure – and her fury spiked.

"Foolish mortals! You hide behind your shields like a child behind their mother's skirt! I shall erase you from this plane and let the cold consume what remains of you!" Sam reinforced the barrier, forcing more mana into it.

"Well, we hit the second phase… yay…" Isabella muttered barely pausing her humming. The empress slammed her foot down again. The fissures widened, and more sludge and otherworldly matter surged out, rising into massive, pulsing globes above her. She smiled – more like snarled – and raised her arm. Her skin was visibly turning ashen gray. Then she brought it down. The barrage began. They had no choice but to hunker down and try to survive the barrage.

The team braced as sludge bombs rained down, mixed with volleys of icicle spears. The shield trembled under the assault, but it held. Sam's void absorbed the worst of it. Clarissa's barrier stabilized the structure. The others reinforced where they could. Impacts shook them—but nothing broke through. They burned cooldowns and stamina, but they held. Eventually, the empress realized it, too.

"ENOUGH!" she shrieked. Sam watched as more and more of her body continued to gray, her nails lengthening, her hair slowly draining of color, while her eyes blazed with dangerous green energy.

"If you won't bow before me, then I just need to use more POWER!" She inhaled deeply, green smoke streaming directly into her through her nose and mouth, straight from every fissure. Sam recognized the shift. Phase transition complete. He stopped channeling mana, the barrier instantly breaking into a thousand tiny shards.

"Go!" He surged forward, blade first, the others breaking formation with him.

"Burn it!" he called out. Behind them, Clarissa staggered as the shield collapsed, Melody catching his mistress and keeping her upright Sam zig-zagged through Dan's plasma fire, closing the distance. Katie and Isabella raced alongside him, all three of them locking onto the empress. She responded immediately – arms sweeping wide. Each motion conjured spinning clouds of crystalline gray snowflakes that condensed into vertical crescent-shaped blasts, tearing through both earth and air as they surged forward.

Isabella dodged the one aiming for her with an incredibly acrobatic move. Sam conjured a quick void shield, blocking most of the energy. Katie just laughed and smashed through the one aimed at her. They reached the boss monster together. Metal met graying flesh. Katie's greatsword hammered into her defenses. Isabella's blades slipped through openings in rapid succession. Sam darted in and out, targeting weak points. Time blurred. Wounds accumulated. The empress slowed.

Her tentacles weakened as the team pressed the advantage, wailing on her relentlessly. No HP bar—but Sam could feel it. Final quarter. He met Isabella's gaze. He nodded. Between two twirls and a pirouette, the young woman returned his nod. Satisfied, he returned his attention to the boss and called out.

"Katie! Let's finish this!" The unhinged girl let out a giddy laugh.

"Yeah! Let's show her who's the boss!" The empress snarled, power surging again as she focused everything on Sam and Katie after hearing his call.

"As if I'd let you, foolish mortals!" Dan intensified his bombardment, locking down her movement. Any attempt to shift was met with searing plasma. Clarissa stayed back, stabilizing the team and healing any damage that slipped through. Simultaneously, Sam and Katie fought on the edge, barely holding as they pushed damage through the monster's defenses. The empress, now completely gray, with dirty-white hair, her eyes almost losing their green luster, yelled out, her voice slightly wavering.

"HAH! You are too weak, mortals! I shall be the only one who–""GAHK–" Her eyes went wide as she looked down. The sound cut off violently. Her body jerked. For a brief, disorienting moment, everything seemed to stop. Her eyes widened as she looked down. Two blades had pierced straight through her chest. The tips protruded from the front, slick with blue blood as it began to spill from the wounds, dripping down over her tattered clothing. Behind her stood Isabella.

Her stance was low and steady, both arms extended forward, her twin longswords buried to the hilt. Her body trembled – not from weakness, but from the sheer force of the ability she had just unleashed, energy rippling visibly along the blades. An ultimate attack – extreme speed paired with unparalleled piercing ability – landed with pinpoint precision. The empress tried to move. She couldn't. The attack had pinned her in place.

"NOW!" Sam roared. The silent moment shattered. Katie was already moving, a manic grin splitting her face as she surged forward, greatsword raised high. Dan's barrage intensified, plasma crashing into the empress from all angles, locking her down even further, leaving her no room to escape. Sam closed the distance in a blur, void energy gathering along his blade as he drove in from the front. Steel, plasma, and void collided against her body in a single, overwhelming surge of force.

The empress screamed – raw, furious, and desperate – as cracks of green light began to spread across her gray, corrupted form. Her power flared wildly, then stuttered. For a moment, it looked like she might break free. Then the cracks deepened. Light burst through them. Her scream warped, stretching into something inhuman as the energy holding her together began to collapse.

The fissures around the garden lost their neon green glow, and the same smoke that she inhaled began to escape through those cracks on her body. The green glow radiating from inside her flickered violently – not unlike when a generator powering a light was running out of fuel. Then, the glow vanished. Leaving behind an empty silence that felt heavy.

Her eyes widened, and Sam could see as her mind and body fractured at the same time, the empress fracturing – pieces of gray sludge began to drip from her body – as her shape began to unravel.

"Nooooooooo!" Her voice echoed out, distorting as her body collapsed in on itself, dissolving into sludge and smoke and a brief flash of faded green light. Then– Silence.