Ch.142142. Sacred Mausoleum of the Dead

The mid-boss was an Eye Angel wearing seven heads like a crown.

This being, which I’m calling an Eye Angel for convenience, used modified versions of the abilities of all the angels we’d encountered so far.

“Watch out for the feathers! Don’t block them, dodge!”

The Eye Angel first unleashed a shower of feathers like those of the Baby Angel.

It rained down blue and red feathers like the Baby Angel’s arrows from its seven pairs of wings.

The effects of those feathers were obvious without needing to see them.

There were basically two ways to respond.

Either dodge them, or if you couldn’t dodge, just close your eyes tight and take the hit.

Like the Baby Angel’s arrows, there was no physical impact, so this part was manageable.

The problem came next.

“Don’t take your eyes off it.”

Like the Woman Angel, the Eye Angel fired lasers at anyone who wasn’t looking at it.

The power of the laser was manageable for the party’s tank Sunhwa or the vanguard Amon, but it was deadly for the other members.

The Eye Angel’s pattern didn’t end there.

“Sonia, can you hit the head whenever you get a chance?”

“Leave it to me.”

The head on top of the Eye Angel had been singing since the battle began, and it was obvious what would happen if we didn’t attack that head periodically.

The Eye Angel would sometimes close its eyes, and when that happened, Amon would warn the party.

“Everyone hold your breath!”

According to reports, when the eye closed, if you made a loud noise, it would charge at your position with near-teleportation speed.

Its power was incomparably greater than the laser, so it was recommended not to try testing it at all.

Its defensive abilities were impressive too.

“That fat face makes it hard to attack.”

Seven heads circling above the eye.

Any attack coming from the direction the fat head was looking at would be completely devoured by that head.

It was essentially like a barrier rotating around the eye, making it difficult to approach or attack.

And as the battle dragged on, the angel with faces on both front and back turned the party’s equipment into currency, while some attacks were avoided through the young-faced angel’s future sight.

“Kathy. How are the threads?”

“Not working. Every time I try to set a thread, that fat head keeps cutting it.”

“Sonia, how’s your ammo?”

“Half of it’s already turned into paper money. I don’t think I can keep this up much longer.”

The longer the battle continued, the more Amon’s party was at a disadvantage.

Finally, Amon chose to retreat.

“That’s it for today. I’ll hold it off while you withdraw.”

A retreat that shows your back to the enemy is the most dangerous moment.

They had to be especially careful heading to the exit because of the enemy’s ability to fire lasers at those who turned their backs.

The companions left the boss to Amon and carefully began heading outside the boss room.

After all party members had left, just as Amon was preparing for his own safe withdrawal.

An unexpected situation suddenly occurred.

“Amon! What are you doing? Come on!”

“I don’t know! For some reason, I can’t run away!”

Amon panicked as his legs froze like stone.

Kathy noticed the Eye Angel’s eyes curving like crescent moons and clicked her tongue.

“How is that thing even considered an angel?”

She tied Amon’s limbs with threads and pulled him toward the exit.

The Eye Angel didn’t just watch this happen.

It approached to cut Amon’s threads.

Sunhwa tried to check the approaching Eye Angel with her sword technique.

“Void…”

Seeing something in her future, Kathy reached out to stop her.

But Sunhwa’s sword was much faster, and the result was something she hadn’t expected at all.

“Sli… huh?”

Blood spurted from Amon’s chest.

Seeing the red blood gushing from a wound that looked like it was cut by a sword, the group immediately realized it was the Eye Angel’s doing.

“It can reflect attacks too?!”

Sonia exclaimed in shock.

But this wasn’t the time for that.

“Get Amon out now!”

Sonia and Kathy immediately re-entered the boss room.

While Sonia formed a fire barrier with divine magic to hold off the angel, Kathy grabbed Amon directly and barely managed to escape the boss room.

And so, the party’s first try ended in failure.

*

The party’s condition after the retreat was terrible.

“Ngh… you get used to sword wounds after a while, don’t worry.”

Amon lay in the infirmary, trying to act nonchalant.

“We’re more or less okay too.”

The remaining Sonia and Kathy were also in no better condition than Amon.

Seeing them, and realizing their own relatively unharmed state, the siblings hung their heads.

“I’m trash…”

Sunwoo blamed himself for being useless in this raid.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”

Sunhwa blamed herself for making the attack that wounded Amon’s body.

Getting the siblings out of self-blame mode was going to be a bit of work.

“Neither of you did anything wrong, so why are you apologizing?”

Amon comforted the two, reverting back to formal speech now that they were outside the dungeon.

“We didn’t have any information about the Eye’s unique patterns to begin with. The fact that we got this information without anyone dying is already a great achievement.”

As he said, the probability of an explorer party returning after facing a new pattern is extremely low.

Considering this, getting this information at the cost of just a sword wound on his chest was a big gain.

“So cheer up and let’s discuss our next approach.”

After Amon’s encouragement, the siblings regained their spirits and began discussing strategies against the Eye Angel.

“First, I think everyone should continue handling the heads they were responsible for before.”

There was no problem up to this point.

It would be somewhat tricky, but with good cooperation, they could handle it.

But the problem was the Eye’s own abilities.

It could freeze Amon’s body the moment their eyes met, and it could also reflect attacks coming at it.

Assuming it had other abilities as well, they needed a new strategy.

“How do we…”

Amon pondered, sitting on the hospital bed.

Suddenly, his eyes fell on Sunhwa’s two swords.

Looking at those swords with meaningful eyes, Amon turned toward Sunhwa.

“Maybe we can beat this more easily than we thought.”

*

A few days later, Amon’s party challenged the Eye Angel again.

The second try went very smoothly.

The first time is always the hardest; naturally, the second time was much easier.

The party broke through each of the seven angels’ patterns and slowly worked on defeating the angel.

When the Eye Angel’s eyes curved like crescent moons, Amon shouted to the party.

“Everyone out!”

[…?]

The Eye Angel showed bewilderment.

Regardless, Amon’s party quickly left the boss room.

When the angel’s eyes returned to their round shape, the party came back and attacked the angel.

During their attack, the angel couldn’t show the power it had demonstrated before.

Seeing this, Amon was certain.

‘So it copies the abilities of those it has seen.’

The reason Amon couldn’t move that day was because it had copied Kathy’s red threads, and the reflection technique that slashed his chest was a copy of Sunhwa’s swordsmanship.

Amon suggested leaving the boss room as a countermeasure to the angel’s ability.

‘Of course, smoke or flash bombs would work too, but…’

Was there really any need for that?

Just leaving the boss room when its eyes curved like crescent moons was enough to neutralize its ability.

‘A boss that gets stronger the stronger and more numerous its enemies are.’

It was understandable why the Holy Knights had stopped at this mid-boss.

Holy Knights usually form teams of dozens, so they would have had no chance of defeating this boss.

With such thoughts, Amon cut off one of the seven crown heads of the Eye Angel.

“Now your precious barrier is gone.”

That head was the fat one that had been making the Eye Angel nearly invincible until now.

Once Amon dealt with that head, the Eye, now without means to protect itself, was nothing more than a huge target.

Afterward, the Eye Angel tried to resist in its own way, but it eventually perished under the party’s merciless bombardment.

“Finally, finally we did it!”

Amon smiled warmly as he watched Sonia visibly rejoicing.

He left his companions to celebrate their victory and examined the boss room.

“Let’s see… where are the stairs to the next floor…”

Amon began looking around the boss room walls for a door to the next floor.

Until then, his heart had been pounding with excitement.

“We’ve already dealt with the boss. Is it some kind of secret door?”

He tilted his head, feeling along the walls.

“If it’s not a mechanism… maybe the boss dropped a key or something?”

He examined the place where the boss had fallen several times.

Only after this series of actions continued for an hour could Amon face reality.

“This… this is the end…?”

The Eye Angel they thought was a mid-boss was actually the final boss of this dungeon.