Chapter 117
Chapter 117
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 117
Chapter Title: Invincible? Pattern
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Invincible? Pattern
Adelin Winter.
Empire's Greatest Sword, successor to Belhart, noble Knight of the Sun.
Since taking up the sword, she had never once doubted defeat, nor imagined an enemy she couldn't cut down.
Only one.
Except for the door right before her eyes.
‘……Not this time either, huh.’
Adelin's hand trembled faintly.
She remembered.
Long ago, as her comrades fell one by one, the moment she had charged toward that door with blood pouring from her mouth.
To save her comrades, to sever the root of evil lurking within.
But the world had not permitted her.
As if an invisible wall blocked her path. No, as if the very existence of 'Adelin Winter' was incompatible with crossing beyond it.
The door had always repelled her.
No matter how much she honed her blade or awakened new insights, it was futile.
She could slice falling meteors from the heavens and cleave mountains, yet she couldn't surpass that single weathered iron door.
It was as if someone whispered in her ear.
‘You are not the protagonist.’
You are merely a byproduct, meant to prop up this world until the true protagonist arrives, then vanish behind the curtain when the time comes.
The glory of piercing the Demon God's heart is not yours.
The director called the world had forcibly dragged her off the stage and seated her in the audience as a mere spectator.
What use was being the sun?
All she could do was sit in the seats, waiting for the actors to take the stage.
From that moment, she had scoured her surroundings for raw gems that could become actors.
In the hope that even if it wasn't her, someone illuminated by her light might shatter that door.
Then one day.
A boy plummeted from the sky.
The gray-clad boy said to her: Teach me the Arts.
Show me the view from the stage.
She naturally assumed it wouldn't work. She had seen and taught countless raw gems before.
One-third died, one-third never made it to the stage, and one-third ended up seated beside her.
She thought the gray boy would be one of them.
Yet the gray boy had seized the role of actor through his own power.
And so, perhaps.
That day, when she plunged into the Demon God's Dungeon—vowing never to enter again—to rescue the boy.
When she saw him surrounded by monsters, his body covered in wounds, gasping for breath.
That was when Adelin resolved to become the boy's light.
A light as brilliant as the sun.
What a lavish honor.
Isn't it fine? By shining on the boy from behind the curtain, I shine too.
But now, in this moment?
The boy was pushing her forward instead. Telling her to take the stage together.
Suddenly, she recalled the words of her longtime friend and aide, spoken before entering Luidel.
‘You owe your steps forward to Haribal now. Stay with that child, no matter what it takes.’
Taking steps forward didn't mean finding vicarious satisfaction by teaching him.
It meant stepping onto the stage she had long abandoned.
If there was one thing even the sun couldn't do.
‘Capture the sun in its own eyes.’
“I'm tense. This is my first time beyond here…”
“No need to be nervous.”
The boy—Haribal—said calmly.
“I've been in three times already. Nothing special.”
“Yeah?”
Kreeeak.
The door opened, and thick darkness yawned wide.
Adelin held her breath and stepped into the darkness seething with vicious demonic energy.
Bracing for the sensation that the world would reject and repel her at any moment.
Step.
The cold touch against her sole.
The sticky, heavy air clinging to her skin.
She wasn't repelled.
She wasn't rejected.
Right now.
Adelin's feet were unmistakably inside the boss room boundary.
At last, she was certain.
‘As I thought… you are my sun.’
The gray sun fallen from the sky was leading the halted sun back into the heavens.
“Instructor.”
“……Yeah.”
If you are my sun, let me ask.
Can I illuminate that darkness?
“Think we can finish before dinner and head back? Can you wrap it up quick?”
The sun answered.
That illuminating darkness was the sun's very reason for being.
A smile brimming with ecstasy spread across Adelin's face.
The Empire's Greatest Sword gripped her hilt.
“Yeah. Today, I'll live.”
For the first time.
The sun ascended the stage.
⁎⁎⁎
[Unique Ability - Action Rewind 0 / 3]
[※Unique Abilities can only be used in boss fights.]
As we entered the boss room, a dazzling sight unfolded, too brilliant to keep our eyes open.
From the cavern ceiling to the floor, packed without gaps: gems of every color and glowing veins of ore.
Dronium would be mixed in there somewhere.
No need to sort them one by one, though.
‘Break through here, and it's over.’
Defeat the mid-boss, and we could set up base camp.
Then laborers could enter safely to mine. Enedor would be among them.
Sever the boss's head, and the quest was as good as done.
Screeech!
At that moment, a chilling rupture echoed through the air, like tearing cloth.
The center vein split open, and from the rift, a shadow slithered out.
A monster resembling a manta ray, its body covered in sparkling ore.
Keeieeek!
The manta screeched and charged the vein.
Crunch! Kwajik!
Then it began devouring the ore like cookie crumbs.
That thing was one of the culprits that turned this crystal mine into a wasteland: the Gluttonous Manta.
After frenziedly gorging on ore, it descended to the floor, belly full.
Soon, flattened against the ground like a rug, another shadow appeared atop it.
A pale-skinned humanoid demon in noble-like attire.
The monster, gripping a staff carved from human bones, mounted the manta's back naturally.
Demon Dungeon mid-boss.
Marquis of Desire - Forneus.
It gazed down at us with its narrowly slitted eyes.
Then, licking its lips, it tapped the manta's back with its staff.
Kiiiii!
The manta slapped the floor and, like sinking into water, slipped into the bedrock.
The demon floated up with a smile.
‘Hah. Annoying right from the start.’
Forneus was a single entity combining demon and manta.
Hit them separately, and health was shared; strike both at once, and deal double damage like with Necredin.
Forneus activates one of two patterns randomly on encounter.
First: Riding the manta to charge with a body slam.
Lure it behind a rising gem pillar, and it headbutts the pillar into grogginess— the so-called freebie pattern.
Second:
The潜航 pattern, where the manta dives underground like now.
In this state, the manta vanishes from the map, loses targeting, and can't be attacked.
In other words, invincible.
It swims underground and bursts from below for an airbone.
Jump to dodge?
Then the airborne demon unleashes magic barrages.
But the spells target not us, but the veins scattered everywhere.
Its mana shots refract into dozens of lasers upon hitting crystals, scattering everywhere.
Red ruby: flame laser.
Blue sapphire: freeze laser.
Yellow topaz: paralysis laser.
Pattern name: Laser Circus.
A bullet hell begins.
Dodge lasers of different attributes flying from off-screen in a 3D game while watching for the manta below?
Poor PC specs even caused lag from light effects, making it an indescribably shit pattern.
No lag in reality, but one wrong hit and you're dead all the same.
Prayed desperately for the first pattern.
Looks like the shit one started instead.
“Hmph. Tucking tail already?”
Glanced at Adelin.
Unlike my anxiety, she hadn't hidden her excitement since entering the room.
Of course she'd be thrilled. Her only reason for joining the Stormstrike Squad was to conquer the Demon God's Dungeon.
And now she could personally enter the boss room and take its head? Unbearable.
Let her enjoy.
One concern, though.
In the original, her feats were just mob cleanup; never seen her in a proper boss fight.
‘Still, it's Adelin.’
The Empire's Greatest Sword has a reputation; surely she'd pull her weight?
“Luna. Magnetize as much as possible on openings. This fight, you and I focus purely on supporting the instructor.”
“Got it.”
Instructed Luna and immediately fell back.
Time for the encounter opener.
The airborne demon had a demonic shield up, and the diving manta was invincible.
‘Melt the shield with Luna's magnetization first?’
That instant.
“Empire's Greatest Sword, Adelin Winter.”
Adelin stepped forward boldly, raising her sword to point at the floating demon.
“From this moment, I shall sever your head.”
With the declaration of war, gems rose above all our heads.
Combat begins.
‘Excuse me?’
Wasting the precious encounter opener on taunt lines? Was gonna magnetize and one-shot to start.
But wasted chances can't be helped.
No sooner had the taunt ended than Adelin's gem glowed.
Adelin's turn.
With her Abyss Core equipped, Adelin's stats were overwhelmingly beyond what five black shards could match.
I gave her no orders on purpose.
Not just trust she'd handle it—my clumsy directions might hinder her.
Above all, I didn't know her true capabilities.
Adelin's Abyss Core was [Rising Sun], absent from the original.
More precisely, an item described only as ‘Abyss Core equipped by Adelin,’ like Corona.
No clue on effects. It dyed the blade sunlight-like when activated, though.
‘Burn dot from fire attribute? But Luna has that.’
Her Arts too.
In the original, she used only Golden Slash and White King Descent.
Golden Slash for mobs, ultimate White King Descent to clear the path for the protagonists.
Her role ended there.
Then no appearances until epilogue.
Wondered how she'd fare in turn-based.
“Huuu…”
Adelin dropped her sword tip to the ground and took a deep breath; heat gathered around her one by one.
“Sunrise.”
A small sun rose above her head.
The blazing sun shape slowly transferred to the turn gem hovering over her head…
Tsssk!
Upon contact, it began melting the gem.
The molten gem split into four small ones, orbiting her head.
Wait. No.
[Sunrise]
[User gains four additional turns.]
‘Four extra turns?’
Base turn plus weakness break added just two max per round.
Fail to break, and honestly one action per turn.
Until now, more than two turns required groggy or Hyperion buffs.
Plus, no cooldown on that Art.
Meaning Adelin could solo four actions per turn raw.
What bullshit cheat.
As I reeled in shock and fluster.
Adelin raised her sword high behind her back, then aimed at the ground.
“Belhart Style 1: Iron Wall Slash.”
She swung with full power.
Kwaaaaaang!
In a flash, the entire boss room screamed.
Overwhelming force split the bedrock like tofu; a massive fissure from sword tip spread across the room.
And from the split earth's gap.
Keeieieieek-!!
The hidden manta was forcibly dragged out.
“Ah! Refreshing! This is a boss fight!”
Seeing it, my jaw dropped, Luna's too, even the airborne demon Forneus gaped.
Invincible? Pattern.