Chapter 44: Archon Conquest (6)

Something was off.

In Rookie’s wide, round eyes, a deep unease had settled.

In her dilated pupils, the figure of the Great One was fully reflected.

[How delightful!]

Stagger, stagger—

The Great One’s body wobbled slowly.

Arcon’s laughter echoed across the battlefield, followed by his confident voice:

[Let’s end this now.]

The end.

That was what Arcon’s words meant.

The power to command monsters—
To lead the King’s Legion—

The Great One had, at last, submitted to Arcon’s might.

The swaying came to a halt.

Arcon’s voice, heavy with desire, spilled out over the air.

Like a child handed a brand-new toy.

Like a master eager to test out his new servant.

[Come to me, my loyal thrall.]

Arcon gestured.

And the body moved in response.

But—

A strange, subtle unease began to ring louder and louder.

The anomaly came quickly.

Arcon’s s*ave—

No. The one who had been Arcon’s s*ave—

The Great One, suddenly stirred his mana.

His steps did not falter.

He continued forward, perfectly carrying out the order given to him.

–KU-GOONG…!

The ground trembled.

With every step, the earth shook.

His footprints sunk deep into the ground.

Stones embedded in the floor began to lift, carried by the rising tide of mana—unable to resist its purity.

The sheer force emanating from him overwhelmed even the remnants of the legion.

But this wasn’t just any army.

It wasn’t a typical military formation.

It was a legion robbed of all reason.

A mindless army that moved only by instinct and command—

Formed by Arcon’s will.

And yet…

The Great One had never bowed.

This wasn’t submission.

This was entertainment.

A fleeting diversion for the most powerful race born of the gods.

The being who once gifted magic to humankind.

He was simply playing.

The ground rumbled again.

And then—

Arcon’s voice cracked through the chaos, full of panic.

[What is this…?! Obey my command!!]

The tremor in his voice betrayed him.

The closer the distance between them shrank,
the louder Arcon’s unease became.

His cries grew shrill, tainted with fear.

A real hound doesn’t bark.

Only a frightened pup warns its enemy to stay away.

[A-Attack him! Keep him back!]

–KIIEEK!

The gargoyles that had clung to the ceiling launched themselves into the air with a screech.

Their twisted bodies dove toward the Great One.

Creatures stripped of all sanity, moving only to obey commands, bled crimson mana from every pore.

But—

The flicker in their wings.

Their shaky maneuvers.

It wasn’t discipline—it was panic.

Was this desperation? Terror?

Their battle cry devolved into discordant shrieking.

It wasn’t a roar of war.

It was a cry for survival.

A plea for mercy.

And then it happened—

Mana, compressed to its very limits, surged outward from the Great One, engulfing the air.

[9-Star Magic: Aether]

Intense?

No—

This was something far beyond intensity.

A completely alien force spread through the space.

9-Star Magic.

A divine spell infused with a fragment of godhood.

The incantation painted itself across the sky.

[W-What is this… Y-You… What are you?!]

---

The atmosphere shifted.

This was no longer mana.

It was the force of 9-Star Magic: Aether.

The gargoyles that had been charging forward recoiled in horror.

Instinct.

Their instinct was so strong, it overrode even the commands forged through Arcon’s crimson power.

Aether.

A force similar to mana—but fundamentally mythic in nature.

Long ago…

When the gods created life and nurtured its growth.

That moment of creation became legend.

Aether was the miracle, the divine phenomenon that seeped into the world through mana.

And now—
That myth had manifested in the present.

–KRAAAHH!

The gargoyles melted.

Literally melted.

Like butter to flame—their bodies lost form, disintegrating as if they had never existed.

Aether.

The cosmic energy.

The same force the Creator once used to shape the universe and breathe life into existence.

With a mere flick of the wrist—
Lesser mortals could only return to what they had once been.

Back to nothingness.

Back to the place they came from—

Before life.
Before consciousness.

Back to the void.

Aether, infinite in power, was like that.

If it could create, it could just as easily unmake.

And all lesser creations were subject to its rules.

“A-Aah… Aaahhh…”

Terror.

Not just instinctive fear—but something deeper.

Something hardcoded into the genetic makeup of anything created by the gods.

Arcon’s body began to collapse.

His knees touched the ground.

He bowed—not out of reverence, but crushed by sheer force.

He trembled in awe of the Great One’s power.

Rookie’s mouth hung open.

Her blank, hollow eyes stared at a living myth.

The force displayed here was so immense, it made her forget Arcon even existed.

A sword?

No—
A wave of crimson-black energy burst outward.

Raw, intense power that radiated outward like fire.

[7-Star Magic: Mana Burst]

Simple, but refined.

And that simplicity made it all the more devastating.

Arcon’s crimson energy surged toward the Great One.

Stones cracked.
The ground quaked.

It was a brutal, urgent attack aimed squarely at the Great One’s throat.

It wasn’t a sword.

It was magic.

And the panic in Arcon’s casting was clear.

He poured out his very essence—his source of power—to execute this.

7-Star Magic: Mana Burst.

It howled forward like a massive tidal wave.

Fueled by fear.

By instinct.

By the desperate will to survive.

It carried everything Arcon had.

And the moment it reached the Great One—

[Basic Magic: Dispel]

[D-Di… Dispel…?]

Arcon mumbled in disbelief.

Rookie echoed the reaction—dumbfounded.

Dispel.

Not even a ranked spell.
A basic magic. One that didn’t even qualify as 1-Star.

Dispel was the reverse of spellweaving.

Its purpose?
To unravel magic, cancel it out.

Sounds powerful on paper—like it could be invincible.

But reality said otherwise.

Why didn’t it have a rank?

Simple.

Because it was inefficient.

Using another spell to overpower or counter an enemy’s magic was always the better move.

To use Dispel, you had to first analyze the enemy’s spell—
Then reverse it.

And on top of that?

You had to use more mana than the caster did.

By every standard of efficiency—
Dispel was a losing bet.

And that was the point.

This moment—was a demonstration of the gulf between the Creator and His creations.

Between the Great One and Arcon.

A single Dispel had undone everything.

Arcon’s voice collapsed into stunned despair.

7-Star Magic.

A high-tier spell—

Even boosted by his crimson power, it was not something Arcon could afford to throw around casually.

And yet—

The Great One had erased it with a single basic spell.

His power, his magic, his everything—

Crumbled.

His legion, his sorcery, his domain—

All undone.

[Th-This can’t be…]

---

The once-imposing voice cracked.

Whether out of fear or despair, Arcon’s body collapsed—just like Rookie’s had earlier.

This was the same Arcon who had once led a legion.

Now, he faced overwhelming power.

He fell to his knees.
Consumed only by the desire to survive.
The image of a king seated on his throne—was gone.

[I-I don’t want to die…! Gghk, I don’t want to die!!!]

A childish wail.

His once-deep voice now trembled with desperation.

And the cosmic force that had once allowed his very existence…

Began tearing him apart.

His limbs melted.
Arcon’s entire form crumbled.

It didn’t take long for the king of the legion to turn into nothing more than a melting pile of slime.

---

[Dungeon Boss “Arcon” has been eliminated.]

[The dungeon is collapsing.]

KU-GU-GUNG—

With the king gone, the dungeon began to fall apart like its ruler.

The ground and ceiling shook.
Stones fell in heavy chunks.

The dungeon was collapsing.

---

The perspective shifted.

From third-person, observing me from above—
To first-person, inside my own head.

The passive skill Sleepwalking (EX) hadn’t ended.

But for exactly one minute, I had full control over my body.

I was lucky.

Arcon’s power only worked on beings with consciousness.

While in Sleepwalking state, I was running on pure instinct.
His powers were useless against me.

If I hadn’t had this skill?

I didn’t even want to imagine what would’ve happened.

The very first thing I did was dispel Aether.

My first-ever use of a 9-Star magic.

Its potential was… terrifying.

I’d analyze it later.

Right now—I needed to escape.

Maybe it was the power I’d just unleashed,
but even I was getting chills from myself.

Glancing back—
I spotted Rookie.

Still on her knees, face soaked with snot and tears.

Drool leaked from her mouth, trailing down her chin in strings.

Hygienically—and visually—repulsive.

Anyway.

I pushed my near-exhausted body forward.

Time to cast escape magic.

[8-Star Magic: Return]

Normally, teleportation is a 7-Star spell.

But the one I used was slightly special.

It let me select a target and open a violet dimensional gate for spatial transport.

A shimmering portal of purple light swirled in the air.

As long as I stepped through it, I’d escape the collapsing dungeon.

Just a few more seconds…

And the one-minute timer would be up.

That’s when it happened.

I was just about to step into the portal when—

“W-Wait! Take me with yooou!!!”

Did she finally come to her senses after I dispelled Aether?

Rookie was sprinting toward me, drenched in tears and mucus.

Honestly?

That face—

Was scarier than Arcon’s.