Arknights: Soul Knights of Terra — Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Small Monster? Big Monster!You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

A massive Snow Ape dropped from the cavern ceiling, its jagged claws tearing through the freezing air straight toward Leader’s skull.

Leader didn’t even bother to turn around. He simply reached one arm backward.

His molten fingers clamped around the beast’s throat with bone-crushing force, choking its vicious roar into a pathetic, suffocated wheeze.

Scorching flames erupted from his palm. The ape managed a single, agonizing shriek before the immense heat flash-fried it into a blackened husk. Leader discarded the smoking carcass like trash, hurling it across the cavern. It flew like a cannonball, slamming directly into a distant miner who was just condensing a crimson energy projectile.

The collision detonated the unstable energy in mid-air. The blast shredded the miner, scattering debris and ash across the frozen floor.

A barrage of jagged ice spikes and glowing energy bolts rained down from both sides of the passage. Yet, the moment they entered the molten domain radiating from Leader’s body, they vaporized into harmless steam.

With every step deeper into the Dungeon, Leader’s molten form expanded. His stature grew taller, the intense light spilling from his volcanic fissures burning brighter. But there was no pride in his blazing eyes—only a mounting, volatile fury.

[Mental Chat Group]

[Leader: I’ve finished clearing the fourth room! What’s going on? Why is this Dungeon so huge?!]

[Second: Same here! This Dungeon isn’t just a few floors like in the game; it’s basically a giant maze!]

[Fourth: There’s a treasure chest in the room I’m in!]

[Second: Forget about the treasure chest! Finding Ifrit is the priority; who knows what kind of hellish things are in here!]

[Fourth: Holy crap!!!]

[Leader: Why are you yelling so loud?!]

[Fourth: This thing is a Mimic! It tried to bite my head off the moment I got close! It almost got me!]

[Leader:…Everyone be careful. Third, recall your Shadow Crow; I don’t need help here!]

[Third: Received.]

[Second: Understood.]

[Fourth:…Got it.]

The brief exchange ended. Leader shattered a crystal bug blocking his path with a casual backhand, then suddenly stopped.

Three branching paths loomed ahead of him.

“Damn it!”

With no time to hesitate, Leader chose the left passage and prepared to charge.

Just then—

A violent roar made the entire Dungeon tremble. A localized blizzard whistled through the corridors, flash-freezing fresh ice crystals onto the stone walls.

Leader turned around abruptly, his burning gaze locked firmly on the middle passage.

The Flame Demon Fragment drifted through the dead silence of the middle passage. Its innate hellfire, rather than recovering, withered under the relentless, biting frost.

Even the chaotic, primitive consciousness of the Fragment recognized the lethal threat of this environment. A primal instinct screamed at it to turn back. But as it hesitated, a faint, hazy glow appeared at the end of the corridor.

‘Is it the exit?’

Incapable of complex thought, the sheer impulse to escape the cold took over. It dragged its increasingly dim, flickering body toward the light.

Passing through the archway, the space suddenly opened up.

This was no ordinary room. It was a colossal natural cavern. The dome stretched tens of meters high, feeling empty and oppressive. Broken stone pillars and the debris of ancient, unknown architecture littered the corners.

But the most striking feature was the snow-covered mountain resting in the very center of the chamber.

The Flame Demon Fragment scanned the perimeter vigilantly. No moving enemies. It needed time to recover its strength, and this place looked deceptively safe. It floated inward, seeking temporary shelter.

However, the moment it crossed the threshold—

A massive steel floodgate slammed down from the ceiling behind it, crashing into the floor and sealing off the only exit. The deafening impact echoed through the cavern, shaking loose a shower of ice dust.

The Flame Demon Fragment paused. ‘?’

Accompanied by the boom of the floodgate settling, the entire space eerily came alive.

No, it didn’t come alive.

Something was waking up.

A low, rhythmic breathing echoed through the cavern, churning up swirling cold winds. The temperature plummeted to absolute zero. The already weak flames clinging to the Fragment shrank violently in the sudden cold current.

It waved its arms angrily, trying to dispel the agonizing frost, posturing to provoke whatever entity was playing tricks on it.

‘Who dares to—’

The thought died before it could fully form. Its movements froze entirely.

A mountainous shadow rose slowly from behind, completely swallowing the Fragment and its pitiful, flickering light. The sensation of being dwarfed by such an immense presence was terrifyingly familiar.

The Fragment turned its gaze stiffly. Everything in its line of sight was pure white.

‘Is it a wall?’

In that moment of doubt, the flames on the Fragment contracted to a mere spark. That wall… was pulsing.

It wasn’t a wall.

The Fragment looked up, tracing the pulsing white mass upward. The first things it met were two colossal eyes hanging high in the gloom, burning like blood-red lanterns. The crimson light radiated primitive brutality, piercing down as if examining a pathetic insect.

Illuminated by the faint light of the dome, a hideous giant face covered in black, leathery skin and deep wrinkles emerged. Snow-white hair cascaded like a thick cloak over its neck, shoulders, back, and arms, swaying slightly with every massive breath. Bulging, corded muscles shifted beneath the white fur, radiating apocalyptic physical power.

It was merely squatting, yet its sitting height already exceeded twenty meters.

The source of the shadow was the undisputed overlord of the ice plains. The boss of the Snowfield Dungeon—

The Snow Mountain Great Ape King!

The beast unleashed a roar that shattered the air. The sound wave carried a localized blizzard of ice crystals and snow foam, sweeping across the cavern. The ground quaked, and the steel floodgate groaned under the pressure.

The Fragment’s flames flickered violently, a dying candle in a hurricane.and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

As the violent cold wave hit, the Fragment instinctively condensed a desperate pillar of fire, launching it at the giant.

The Ape King’s blue-black palm, wrapped in thick frost, swiped casually through the air. The scorching fire pillar was swatted away like a harmless nuisance. The giant palm continued its descent, pressing straight down.

The Fragment hurriedly drifted backward, barely dodging the slap. But the moment the Ape King’s palm touched the ground, a forest of massive ice spikes erupted from the stone, expanding outward at blinding speed.

Unable to evade, the flame body was instantly impaled. The kinetic force of the spikes carried its unstable form backward, slamming it brutally against the steel floodgate.

The Flame Demon Fragment let out a hollow roar of absolute unwillingness before its flames completely dimmed and faded into nothingness.

‘[Fragment: Is the outside world this magical now? What did you all eat to get so big?!]’

‘[Ape King: Your daddy once told you, in the Dungeon, you’re nothing but a weakling.]’

With the Fragment’s destruction, Ifrit’s petite, unconscious body rolled down the base of the floodgate, coming to a halt on the freezing floor.

She opened her eyes with agonizing slowness. All she could see was the giant palm of death blotting out the cavern ceiling.

‘What is this…’Feeling the utter weakness of her own limbs, Ifrit’s awe of the monster that lived inside her vanished.’You aren’t strong at all… Saria… Big Monster… even that big gorilla… you can’t beat any of them…’

Ifrit struggled to push herself up, but her body refused to obey. Bone-chilling frost was already spreading rapidly up her limbs. Half of her cheek was encased in a layer of solid ice. One of her eyes had already frozen shut, her vision blurring into dark, hazy fragments.

She couldn’t escape.

The giant palm slowly descended, casting a shadow over her fading vision. Ifrit stopped struggling. She let her eye close.

‘So sleepy…”If I just fall asleep like this… that wouldn’t be too bad… right… sleep…”Silence… hasn’t told the bedtime story yet… the last story wasn’t finished…”The hero defeated the monster, the villagers were able to continue living happily, and the hero set off on a new journey…”Silence… why do the people in every story have to wait for the protagonist to save them?”Hmm… probably because saving people in distress is the hero’s job.”What? That’s just because they’re too weak!”…That’s part of it too. Ifrit, don’t you like hero stories?”It’s not that, I just…”Ahhh! I’m going to sleep! Tell the rest next time!”I just…”I just don’t believe a hero will come to save me…”After all… isn’t killing monsters the hero’s job?”But… I…”I don’t want to die!!!’

Ifrit stared fixedly at the descending giant palm with her one unfrozen eye.

Unwilling. She was so unwilling.

‘I don’t want to die yet… I haven’t heard Silence finish the story. I haven’t seen if Saria’s injury healed. I haven’t thanked Big Monster yet. I haven’t!!!”Not yet…’

Tears finally spilled from her eye, instantly freezing into solid beads of ice against her cheek.

“Silence… Saria…”

Ifrit closed her eye, waiting for the end.

‘Save me…’

The expected sensation of being crushed never came. The destructive giant palm had stopped in mid-air, halted by its owner’s sudden confusion.

Ifrit suddenly felt her skin warming up.

‘Is it because I’ve been frozen stiff? Am I hallucinating?’

No. The temperature in the cavern was actually rising.

The solid ice encasing her limbs was melting rapidly. Not only that, but the thick frost covering the ground and the walls near the floodgate was thawing at an impossible rate. Water dripped onto the stone, instantly hissing as it evaporated into billowing white steam.

Ifrit forced her eye open. The Snow Mountain Great Ape King let out a furious, deafening roar.

It was a warning. The beast had sensed a lethal threat.

Something was approaching.

Boom—!!!!

Reflected in Ifrit’s wide eye, the center of the massive steel floodgate suddenly buckled inward, groaning under immense pressure.

A second later, the dented metal glowed a blinding cherry-red, superheating until molten iron sprayed outward. The liquid metal shot directly over Ifrit’s head, arcing toward the Ape King in the distance.

The Ape King roared, exhaling a terrifying cold wave that froze the incoming lava mid-air, sending blackened chunks crashing to the floor.

But at the glowing breach in the floodgate, a massive hand forged of scorching lava reached through.

Accompanied by the ear-splitting shriek of tearing metal, the molten hand gripped the edge of the breach and pulled. A second lava-forged hand grabbed the opposite side.

Scorching light flooded the cavern. The steel in contact with those hands softened and warped, tearing apart like wet paper.

Through the steaming mist, a dangerous, blinding red light pulsed, as if a miniature sun was being born underground. A familiar, overwhelming warmth washed over Ifrit, carrying an aura of absolute safety.

The Snow Mountain Great Ape King roared again, ripping a massive ice spike from the ground and hurling it at the uninvited guest.

The projectile didn’t even make contact. It vaporized into nothingness the moment it entered the intruder’s high-temperature domain.

A roar shook the cavern—but it didn’t come from the Ape King. It erupted from right above Ifrit.

The terrifying sound wave blew away the dense steam, revealing the towering figure standing in the breach.

His hard, obsidian-black body radiated leaping flames. Between the heavy plates of his carapace, liquid lava flowed like blood, cooling, cracking, and melting again in an endless cycle. Twisted, majestic demonic horns swept back from his head, leaving trails of crimson embers in the air.

There was no time to mourn the fallen Flame Demon Fragment.

Arriving at the battlefield was the stat monster of Vitality Hall. The savior of Terra. Undoubtedly the strongest of the four roommates.

Rhine Lab’s strictest father.

Leader.

[Explosive Flying Shield]

Boom——!!!

A blinding flash illuminated the entire cavern. The giant ape, struck squarely in the face by a molten meteorite, suffered the skill’s secondary stun effect. The beast’s eyes rolled back, and its colossal body collapsed backward with an earth-shaking crash.

Leader stepped forward, firmly shielding Ifrit behind his massive frame.

Ifrit stared blankly at the broad, burning back standing between her and death.

The girl who had always been called a monster never expected that the one to save her wouldn’t be a shining, glorious hero.

It was the Big Monster, who was worried sick about his small monster.

Leader let out an devastating roar.

“What do you think you’re doing to my kid, you overgrown beast?!”You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.