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ArabicArknights: Soul Knights of Terra — Chapter 41
Chapter 41: A World of Pain
“You have got to be kidding me!”
Vane threw his hands up, his crimson eyes wide with theatrical disbelief. “Boss, you are actually playing dirty right now! When Second suggested this exact same plan before, you were the one who shot it down the hardest. How come you get to be a massive hypocrite the second it’s your turn?”
“Be serious for a moment.” Gregor’s deep, rumbling voice echoed through the Vitality Hall, carrying the weight of grinding stone. “You two should be able to see what is happening to her.”
“He’s right…” Gusi murmured, his tone heavy with quiet anxiety. “Ever since we arrived in this world, Second’s emotional state has been dangerously unstable.”
Vane crossed his arms, leaning back against the stone wall. “I originally thought it was just her body failing to adapt, or maybe some baseline anxiety about waking up in a completely alien environment. But now…”
Before the meddlesome vampire could finish his thought, Gregor reached out and physically shoved him aside, silencing him with a heavy hand to the shoulder. The towering Paladin turned his glowing gaze toward Gusi.
“You noticed the shift as well.”
“Yes,” Gusi replied, the candle flame resting upon his horn flickering erratically in the draft. “I honestly thought that after you spoke with her, Boss, her temper had cooled down. But over the last few days… that underlying, venomous irritability of hers is bleeding through every word she says.”
Vane peeled himself off the wall, brushing off his coat, his expression finally dropping its usual comedic edge. “Well, think about it. Second has been stuck in that absolute hellhole, Kazdel, for days now. Fighting, bleeding, and killing around the clock in a war zone—who wouldn’t be in a foul mood? Isn’t it completely normal for her to be on edge?”
“That is exactly why I am worried,” Gregor said. He let out a slow, heavy sigh, exhaling a cloud of glowing embers into the cool air of the Hall. “I am not concerned about her physical safety. With her abilities, she is more than capable of slaughtering anything that threatens her. What worries me is her mind. In a place like Kazdel, madness is a contagion.”
The embers faded into ash on the floorboards.
“If she stays in that bloodbath for too long,” Gregor continued, his voice dropping to a grim register, “she will be assimilated by it. Or worse, the sheer pressure will push her into a complete psychological collapse.”
“Boss, you’re definitely overthinking this.” Vane waved a hand dismissively, trying to inject some levity back into the suffocating atmosphere. “What kind of catastrophic breakdown could Second possibly suffer? Out of all of us, she’s always been the most ruthlessly rational one!”
“Rational…”
Gregor did not agree or disagree. His burning gaze drifted across the room, settling on the small, sleeping form of Ifrit, who was currently dead to the world on one of the Hall’s couches.
“Forget it,” Gregor muttered, turning back to the others. “What do you think about my proposal?”
“I think I’ll just sit back and watch—ack!”
Vane’s habitual snark was cut brutally short as a wave of blistering heat radiated from Gregor’s armored form. The vampire swallowed hard and instantly changed his tune. “I mean, I completely agree! Boss, you go speed-run the Dungeon. If you don’t finish in time, just bail and come back. If you do clear it, it’ll be a massive surprise for Second!”
Gusi, however, slowly shook his head. “I really don’t recommend doing this. If Second finds out we went behind her back without permission…”
“Then we just make sure she never finds out!” Vane bounded forward, throwing an arm around Gusi’s shoulders. “Third, you worry way too much. Second won’t be logging back in until tonight. That is more than enough time for Boss to solo a Dungeon run. With his raw output, a quick sweep is guaranteed.”
“She will find out eventually,” Gusi insisted, his brow furrowed.
“So what if she does?” Vane shrugged. “Look, I hate sounding like a nagging parent, but we are doing this for her own good.”
Gusi fell silent. The flame on his horn wavered, casting long, dancing shadows across his face. Finally, he let out a defeated breath. “Fine. But I am going with Boss.”
“I do not need—”
“What if you get lost?” Gusi interrupted.
“I will smash through the walls one by one,” Gregor replied flatly.
“And what if you go berserk?” Gusi countered. “See? You don’t have a plan for that.”
Without waiting for Gregor to argue, Gusi turned and walked purposefully toward the Dungeon portal at the back of the Hall. “With me there, my constructs can siphon off your excess energy to suppress your core. Besides…” He paused, glancing back over his shoulder at the two of them. “I am strong enough now. I can actually hold my own in a fight. Stop trying to leave me behind.”
Gregor stared at the Druid’s back. His molten face remained entirely unreadable, but the heavy, rattling sigh that escaped his chest spoke volumes.
“I actually hope,” Gregor murmured softly, “that I never have to rely on you all for something like this.”
He offered no further resistance, his heavy, thudding footsteps following Gusi toward the swirling vortex.
“Wait, what about me?” Vane blinked, pointing a pale finger at his own chest as he realized he was being left behind.
“You stay here,” Gregor ordered, not bothering to look back. “Keep an eye on Ifrit. And when Second checks in, handle her. Do not let her get suspicious.”
Before the vampire could formulate a protest, Gregor and Gusi stepped through the portal, their figures swallowed by the rippling light.
“Are you kidding me?” Vane stared at the empty archway, letting his arm drop in pure frustration. “Everyone gets to do the cool stuff. I want to go murder things in a dungeon too…”
Grumbling under his breath, he turned away from the portal. “Whatever. I guess I’ll go take care of the Little Fire Dragon. I haven’t even made breakfast yet.”
He pivoted on his heel, fully intending to march into the kitchen and salvage his morning. Instead, he froze.
Sitting upright on the couch, wide awake and staring directly at him with unblinking intensity, was Ifrit.
Vane stared in deadpan silence.
Ifrit blinked slowly.
Panic seized the vampire’s chest. He plastered on a sickeningly sweet smile, desperately trying to salvage the situation. “Oh! You’re awake! Are you hungry? Big Brother Vane is going to go make you some—”
“I’m going to tell Big Sister Vera.”
“No! Wait! Little ancestor! Lady Ifrit! You absolutely cannot say a single word!”
After a frantic, humiliating negotiation, Ifrit finally agreed to keep her mouth shut. Her terms were absolute: Vane had to eat all of her vegetables for the next three days, and her gaming time in the Hall was now entirely unrestricted.
However, the fragile contract shattered almost as quickly as it was forged.
Meanwhile, deep within the Dungeon.
It was difficult to comprehend how such a vibrant, overgrown ecosystem could thrive buried beneath the earth. Towering trees stretched upward into the artificial gloom, their thick canopies intertwining to create a dense, suffocating woodland arena. The largest among them easily breached twenty-five meters in height.
And right now, that massive tree was aggressively beating something to death.
Boom!
The colossal, wildly thrashing construct summoned by Gusi slammed its heavy wooden limbs into a barrage of crimson energy bullets tearing through the air. Bizarrely, the glowing projectiles were the retaliatory strikes of the enemy tree.
Snap!
The energy bullets detonated on impact, scorching the air with ozone, but Gusi’s giant construct merely lost a few strips of bark in the exchange.
“This is a disaster…”
Gusi stood at the far edge of the clearing, his massive, mutated claws raking nervously against his own skull. The bone-on-bone friction produced a horrific, teeth-grinding screech. “Why did she check in early? We haven’t even been down here for twenty minutes!”
“Just our luck,” Gregor’s voice rumbled, laced with the distinct exhaustion of a man anticipating a massive headache.
The thought of facing Vera’s inevitable, razor-sharp interrogation upon their return made Gregor’s molten core burn hotter. His glowing eyes locked onto the Dungeon Boss across the clearing—the Christmas Treant.
If this overgrown, festive monstrosity hadn’t ambushed them the second they stepped into the biome, the resulting noise and energy spikes wouldn’t have alerted Vera through the mental link.
Boom!
Another volley of crimson energy tore through the brush, intercepted flawlessly by Gusi’s defensive timber.
Gregor glanced sideways at the highly distracted Druid. “How about I take over from here? You have practiced your micro-control enough for today.”
Gusi, who had originally demanded the vanguard position to test his new combat limits, had entirely lost his fighting spirit the moment their cover was blown.
“Yeah… Boss, you just handle it.” Gusi took two heavy steps backward. With a flick of his wrist, thick, mutated vines erupted from the soil, rapidly coiling around Gregor’s armored legs and waist. “Let’s just execute this thing quickly and go face the music.”
“Understood.”
Gregor did not fight the encroaching vines. This was the exact failsafe they had discussed. Gusi wasn’t restraining him to assist in the fight; the parasitic wood was primed to aggressively siphon off any catastrophic energy overflow, preventing Gregor’s volatile core from going completely berserk.
At a mental command from Gusi, the defensive wall of timber blocking the Treant’s line of sight violently parted.
The Christmas Treant froze for a fraction of a second, its glowing, bulbous eyes locking onto the towering Paladin that had suddenly been exposed. Enraged, it hoisted its four massive wooden hammer-limbs high into the air and brought them crashing down against the earth.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
A chain of localized earthquakes ruptured the soil. Tangible, rippling shockwaves tore through the forest floor, ripping up roots and boulders as they surged directly toward Gregor.
“Apologies,” Gregor murmured, his voice devoid of pity. “But I am not in a very forgiving mood right now.”
Facing the catastrophic seismic wave, Gregor didn’t even attempt to dodge.
Domain Expansion.
Damage Absorption.
Energy Conversion.
ROAR!
The shockwaves slammed into Gregor, but instead of shattering his frame, the kinetic force was instantly devoured. His body erupted. Molten rock expanded, his armor fracturing and reforming as he rapidly mutated into a terrifying Lava Giant.
Just as his height threatened to breach the thirty-meter mark, Gusi’s parasitic vines clamped down hard, violently draining the apocalyptic excess of thermal energy flooding his system.
Gregor’s expansion violently halted, stabilizing at twenty-three meters. He was shorter than his absolute limit, but the hyper-condensed pressure radiating from his frame was exponentially more lethal.
The Lava Giant raised his right hand, thick, magma-dripping fingers splaying wide. The air warped from the heat, and a colossal Lava Battle Axe materialized directly into his grip.
“You are going to suffer,” Gregor stated.
Provoked by the powerful aura of death, the festive lights strung across the Treant’s massive trunk began to strobe with frantic, blinding intensity.
Shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo!
A blinding, dense curtain of crimson energy bullets erupted from the Treant’s canopy, screaming toward Gregor like a localized meteor shower.
Gregor didn’t flinch. He simply planted his feet and swept the giant axe in a brutal, horizontal arc.
A crescent wave of superheated Lava Sword Energy tore from the blade. It met the incoming barrage head-on. The dense wall of energy bullets vaporized the instant they touched the molten wave, hissing out of existence like ocean spray hitting a volcanic reef.
The Lava Sword Energy didn’t even slow down. It carved through the air and slammed directly into the Christmas Treant’s trunk.
Screech!
A horrific, tearing wail echoed through the cavern as the molten slash nearly bisected the monster. Boiling sap and burning splinters rained down across the clearing, igniting the underbrush.
HUM!
Driven into a state of absolute frenzy by the lethal damage, the Treant abandoned its ranged assault. Realizing its magic was useless, the boss executed a maneuver completely at odds with its lumbering, top-heavy anatomy.
It violently drove its four hammer-limbs deep into the bedrock, using them as anchors to horizontally launch its entire massive body forward.
It became a living battering ram, hurtling toward Gregor with a terrifying velocity that defied physics. The sheer mass and speed of the suicidal charge carried enough kinetic force to effortlessly shatter the reinforced concrete pillars of a Terra mobile city.
Gregor watched the incoming blur of wood and rage. Calmly, he raised his free hand, fingers spread wide, and met the absolute center of the Treant’s charge head-on.
Nothing happened.
There was no explosion. No shockwave. The instant the Treant’s momentum made contact with Gregor’s palm, every single ounce of kinetic energy was swallowed into the void of his core. The colossal monster came to an abrupt, physics-breaking halt, suspended entirely in mid-air, held by the face by Gregor’s single, unyielding hand.
The Christmas Treant hung there, completely paralyzed.
Gregor’s burning eyes stared down at the rigid, trembling wood in his grasp. The space behind his massive shoulders began to warp and tear. Two additional, magma-fueled arms ripped their way into existence.
All four massive hands closed tightly around the haft of the Lava Battle Axe. The liquid fire coursing through the weapon pulsed like a boiling heartbeat.
Then, all four arms swung.
There was no technique. No martial elegance. It was nothing but the purest, most brutal application of overwhelming violence. The Lava Battle Axe blurred into a localized storm of destruction, entirely engulfing the paralyzed Treant in a vortex of liquid fire and crushing force.
The execution lasted less than two seconds.
When Gregor finally lowered his weapon, the deafening roar of the battle was replaced by the quiet crackle of flames. All that remained of the Dungeon Boss was a smoldering pile of pulverized charcoal scattered across the scorched earth.
With a heavy rumble, the ground split open, offering up a gilded treasure chest alongside two glowing portals.
“We have secured enough food and armaments for now, correct?” Gregor asked, his extra arms dissolving back into ash as he shrank down to his standard Paladin form.
“Yeah,” Gusi replied, walking over to the chest. “Thanks to the woodland biome, we bagged plenty of wild boars. We won’t be short on rations for a long time. As for weapons, we stripped all the firearms and heavy crossbows off those goblin camps earlier.”
Gusi kicked the chest open, his shadow stretching out like a living puddle to swallow the loot whole.
Gregor gave a curt nod, his heavy boots crunching over the charcoal as he bypassed the loot and walked directly toward the dark-colored portal leading deeper into the abyss.
“Let’s move,” Gregor commanded. “Next level.”