Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Glass Cannon
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A purple explosion swept through the surroundings.
The blast that detonated right in front of Eden's face was tremendous in power.
Part of Eden's arm and shoulder blew clean off.
It was because Eden wasn't in his right mind, leaving his durability weakened.
Yet his face showed not the slightest change.
He was a doll.
A mere broken body posed no problem at all.
In that interval, Leyzon vanished into the shadows once more.
Within the pitch-black darkness.
An acrid purple poison permeated the air around them.
Poison inflicted no meaningful damage on the doll that was Eden.
So he dismissed it as inconsequential.
Far off, a red shadow flickered.
Black darkness shot toward it like an arrow.
The darkness morphed into jagged black coral reefs, engulfing the shadow.
But the red shadow simply vanished amid its ripples.
Unlike before, it didn't expel Leyzon.
However, Leyzon knew full well.
Time was on Eden's side.
Eden was a curse doll.
Meaning the curses stacked ever higher with every passing moment.
Curse.
A ritual invoking calamity and misfortune.
In Dungeon Replay, curses were debuffs.
And while debuffs couldn't reduce stats to zero...
...stacked enough times, they could drive them perilously close.
Curses had no stacking limit.
Thus, the greatest caution when facing a curse shaman was their accumulation.
Eden was the Curse Demon King.
To him, cursing was as natural as breathing.
More curses bloomed relentlessly throughout the space.
Each time one flowered, Syria's shadows grew sluggish.
Syria's red shadow split apart, manifesting in spots all around.
Darkness punished each one without fail.
But Syria was a Fallen Lv. 19 Vampire Queen.
Her shadows multiplied faster than Eden could shatter them.
Pong!
In that instant, the red shadows spat out orbs in unison.
They were the fierce poison blood spheres brimming with the purple venom from moments ago.
The moment countless tiny orbs poured forth en masse...
Eden's mouth gaped impossibly wide.
Threads dangling from his lip-ends snapped with sharp cracks.
Darkness surged from every direction, coiling around him.
Atop the darkness, glaring yellow talismans flickered into existence one after another.
At the same instant, light seeped from the fierce poison blood spheres.
Fierce Poison Explosion
[Mass detonation initiated]
Leyzon's voice echoed from somewhere, and the orbs detonated, engulfing everything.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
Within the sweeping blast...
Eden, shielded by darkness, cracked his eyes open.
Numerous, but weaker than before.
In exchange, the purple poison thickened dramatically.
Soon enough, it had swelled to mingle with Eden's own darkness.
Pong!
Then the red shadows spat fierce poison blood spheres anew.
Explosions and poison.
Even as those two proved futile, Leyzon repeated the maneuvers.
Eden harbored doubts.
To topple Eden, actively deploying Syria would be far more effective.
Yet Leyzon refrained from using her.
Leyzon was a peerless necromancer.
But an insurmountable level gap yawned between him and his undead.
He surely knew that.
Still, he deliberately shied from a direct Syria-Eden clash.
"Leyzon-nim... you hate the idea of Syria and me fighting, don't you?"
Eden had glimpsed Leyzon's intent.
A head-on bout between Syria and Eden...
...would rage unabated until one decisively fell.
The Curse Demon King.
Eden Yuphéra.
He too was Fallen Lv. 18.
Syria might be Lv. 19, but...
Their collision promised catastrophe.
Thus Leyzon fought personally, sparing Syria.
A choice befitting Leyzon, who doted on his undead.
"But that approach..."
Crunch!
Eden hoisted his vacant shoulder; an arm sprouted forth.
He slammed it downward.
"...won't end this."
The instant his darkness-charged fist met the ground...
Thousands of lips erupted from the encircling gloom.
Mournful wails reverberated from them.
The darkness flared and howled.
Earth and sky inverted.
Trees towering over ten meters soared skyward like splintered reeds.
Fallen Lv. 18.
Darkness rampaged, proclaiming the might of Silver Hero grade.
Amid shards of tree and earth...
A red shadow darted at blinding speed.
A distinct pulse of life emanated from within.
Eden's head snapped around.
His gaze locked rigidly on the shadow.
Found you. Leyzon.
Eden reversed his grip.
Darkness reshaped into a hand trailing him.
Curses concentrated dozens-fold in his fist.
Grab!
His hand unfurled; thousands of darkness-forged hands erupted skyward.
Venom-laced fingers pursued the fleeing shadow.
The red shadow fled desperately...
...but black hands devoured every inch of space, inexorably closing in.
The moment it lost escape and was cornered...
Eden's black hands pounced.
Crack!
The red shadow shredded beneath the onslaught.
What tumbled free was a Sword-Tooth Clan boy.
Eden froze.
Hanok Wilbria.
Leyzon's shield warrior.
Tears streaming, Hanok thrashed across the ground.
"Le-Leyzon-nim! I did all I could!"
Hanok evaded the black hands with Wolf Leap [A] and bolted.
Eden did not pursue.
Instead, his eyes bulged wide.
Since when?
There had been a clear life signal—he struck accordingly.
Yet out came...
Hanok?
Whoosh—
A peculiar wind stirred.
Blood-flecked strands of Eden's hair whipped aside, baring his eyes.
Purple poison mists danced on the inbound gust.
In the void choked with inky blackness...
An uncanny current stirred.
Then, amid the shredded shadow-fragments, a mouth formed.
"Eden, seems you forgot one crucial detail."
It was Syria's voice.
She scoffed.
"You're Leyzon-nim's undead. Every thought of yours might as well be cradled in his palm."
Thud!
A rumble rose from below.
Beneath the devastated earth Eden had wrought...
Verdant blue-green foliage sprouted improbably.
At its heart...
Leyzon gripped the Staff of Abundance, entwined with [Undying Life].
The instant Eden unleashed Curse of Foul Evil in pursuit...
Leyzon had already slipped from the shadows to stand here.
He had instead seeded Hanok into Syria's shadow for transit.
Leyzon's scheme from the outset.
Undead instinctively hunted life.
In this mayhem, Eden was bound to track vitality.
Leyzon, however, could conceal his.
[Black Mask].
It rendered his form imperceptible.
Akin to perception-dampening magic.
Thus, Hanok's brimming life force shone while Leyzon's was utterly masked.
Eden, blind to Hanok, took the bait hook, line, and sinker.
Leyzon had the breathing room to prepare while Eden chased the decoy.
From the surging lush greenery...
The glow in Leyzon's staff intensified.
[Undying Life]'s power pulsed robustly nearby.
"Attribute Fusion: Dragon Scale."
Poisonous winds howled fiercer.
Leyzon's black locks streamed in the gale.
"Attribute Fusion: Corpse Gas Emission."
Corpse miasma wove into the gusts.
Soon, it billowed outward in all directions.
Leyzon's ring—Harmony Magic Power—blazed fiercely.
Vast mana drain spiked his spell potency repeatedly.
Ominous mana currents radiated from him.
Yet even for Leyzon, this surge was freakish.
It dwarfed his mana ceiling.
Courtesy of one clever exploit.
At Leyzon's feet...
Thorn vines coiled his legs.
These were Bush of Certain Death, a northern poison plant.
Its thorns felled victims with instant unconsciousness and foaming seizures.
Now snaring—and piercing—Leyzon's legs.
Legendary gear, Agreasil Elves' relic.
[Undying Life]'s innate: 'Primeval Life'.
It could sprout any flora.
Leyzon chose Bush of Certain Death.
Venom flooded in.
Excess mattered not to Leyzon.
He bore Poisonous Constitution [C].
All that toxin transmuted via Poison Recovery [B].
'No need to guzzle poison manually.'
Endless recovery refilled his mana.
Plus Primeval Life's bonus.
'Stamina Recovery +100%.'
Against the Sword Saint...
Leyzon's chief agony had been mana circuit burnout.
Stamina regen fixed that in real-time.
'Meaning...'
While Primeval Life endured...
'...near-infinite mana at my command.'
Leyzon's lips curled into a manic grin.
He was a madman unbound by scruple or method.
Eden lashed curse-laden darkness to halt him.
Too late—he found it unresponsive.
"...Why?"
Eden looked up, baffled.
He beheld the unforeseen.
His eyes widened gradually.
Within his curse-darkness...
Leyzon's fierce poison mingled.
"Ah."
A groan escaped him.
Eden realized why Leyzon had sown futile poison.
Eden was Leyzon's undead.
Meaning...
Just as Leyzon fused Syria's blood magic via attributes...
From start to finish.
Eden had danced to Leyzon's tune.
Rumble!
Eden's darkness obeyed Leyzon's spell, converging.
The colossal gloom funneled toward Leyzon alone.
"What I mean is..."
Leyzon's mask shed, face bared.
Sweat-beaded, yet his lips bore that signature vivid smile.
Leyzon's frame shrank; his hair hue shifted.
Leyzon's burgeoning mana merged with Syria's.
Detonative mana rupture quaked the realm.
Power now beyond even Leyzon's grasp.
In Dungeon Replay days, Leyzon obsessed over builds.
Born a perfectionist, excelling at all.
He maxed out even in-game.
Real-time guide scrutiny.
Builds crafted, refined, deployed endlessly.
Though a decade past...
His mastery endured in memory.
And now.
Leyzon's opus—all builds converged here.
'This build's name...'
Leyzon beamed radiantly amid erupting light.
"Glass Cannon."
The ultimate one-shot obliterator.
Build: Glass Cannon.
With his proclamation, Leyzon unleashed the finale.
"Fierce Poison Explosion."
The supreme glass cannon launched.
――――――――!
An explosion outpacing sound itself devoured all.
Firepower to rattle Yggdrasil itself—the mightiest tree worlds away.