Ethan leaned against a cracked pillar, blood dripping from his split lip, chest heaving.
He wiped sweat off his brow with the back of his trembling hand.
"Fucking hell…" he muttered. "That… was a mini boss?"
He glanced up and called out the system window with a shaky swipe of his finger.
A familiar blue glow filled the air before his eyes.
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
[Mini-Boss Defeated: Warlord's Remnant]
[Level Up! → Level 35]
[+20 Stat Points Earned]
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked: Conqueror of the Remnant]
[New Content Available: Warlord's Past Memory]
Would you like to watch the Memory of Warlord Vandelion Greythorne's Last Battle?
[YES] [NO]
Ethan stared at the last line, blinking.
He exhaled slowly.
"…Hell yeah. Let's see what secrets you're hiding, big guy."
He tapped [YES].
At once, the stone chamber blurred, swallowed by spiraling shadows.
Ethan felt his body sucked into a cold vortex. The roar of the dungeon vanished, replaced by a
deafening silence.
When color returned, Ethan was no longer in the dungeon.
Instead, he hovered unseen in the sky above a battlefield.
Black clouds churned like boiling tar overhead. Purple lightning forked downward, shattering
stone towers. Rivers of flame crackled across the earth below.
Hundreds of corpses lay sprawled across cracked marble.
Dark mages in black robes hurled spells of midnight fire. Armies of skeletal liches marched behind
them, eyes burning blue.
And standing alone amidst the chaos… was a man.
He was a towering figure clad in shining white-obsidian armor. Silver hair spilled around a stern,
scar-lined face.
In his grip burned a massive black sword — Warlord's Fang.
It radiated an aura so fierce, the air shimmered around it like heat haze.
Kaelrith Duskban, the true Warlord.
He planted his sword into the ground, glaring at the endless tide of enemies.
"Darkness… Demons… none of you shall breach this realm."
A monstrous archdemon emerged from behind the lich ranks — a towering fiend with four
crimson wings, scales of iron, and horns curled like rams. Its voice echoed like a thousand
screams layered together.
"Warlord… this world shall drown in abyssal night!"
Kaelrith narrowed his cobalt eyes.
"Then come, filth. Test your fate."
The archdemon roared and hurled itself forward, talons crackling with infernal energy.
The dark mages screamed incantations, sending black magic swirling like hurricanes toward
Kaelrith.
Kaelrith slammed his gauntlet to his chest. A surge of white lightning exploded from his body,
blowing away the nearest liches in a shockwave of divine force.
Then he raised his sword high.
"—Ascend, Imperator Umbra Divina!"
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
[Skill Revealed: Imperator Umbra Divina]
[A legendary war art known only to Warlord Kaelrith Duskban and his rightful successor.]
[Coalesces radiant sword aura with shadow dominion, transforming each strike into a divine
execution imbued with soul-cleaving darkness.]
[Deals true damage, bypassing defenses.]
[Cost: Massive Mana. Usable only once per day.]
Ethan's eyes widened, watching in pure awe.
Kaelrith's blade ignited with blinding white and abyssal black light fused together.
He blurred forward.
With a single mighty swing, he sliced straight through a wall of black magic. Liches exploded into
piles of bones.
The archdemon swung its claws, but Kaelrithsidestepped impossibly fast. He swept the
sword horizontally—
—and cleaved the archdemon clean in half.
The demon let out a bloodcurdling shriek as its body dissolved into crimson mist.
Flames and black lightning tore through the battlefield. The remaining mages fled, shrieking in
terror.
Kaelrith stood alone in a field of smoldering ash, chest heaving.
Ethan floated closer, eyes wide.
"Holy shit… He's insane…"
But before the Warlord could even breathe, something shifted in the smoky darkness.
Black chains, inscribed with runes of ancient origin, erupted from the ground and coiled around
his limbs.
His sword dropped from his grasp, clanging against marble.
"What… is this sorcery?!" Kaelrith roared, struggling.
Dark mages emerged from the shadows, eyes wild with hatred.
"Your strength… has ended. Perish in eternity, Warlord!"
They raised a jet-black crystal shaped like a coffin. A sinister chant rose as the mages poured
their mana into it.
The coffin snapped open, sucking Kaelrith inside like a whirlpool.
He bellowed in rage, clawing at the chains.
"No…! I cannot fall… Not yet—!"
But it was too late.
A final pulse of dark energy sealed the coffin shut.
Ethan watched, horrified, as the coffin faded into shadow, leaving nothing behind but Kaelrith's
dropped sword…
…and a faint red wisp — a tiny fragment of the warlord's soul.
It floated gently through the air before drifting down into darkness.
The world went black.
When Ethan opened his eyes, he was back in the dungeon chamber, kneeling on the stone floor,
breathing heavily.
Sweat clung to his skin as he stared at the system window still hovering in front of him.
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
[You have witnessed the final memory of Warlord Kaelrith Duskban .]
[New Skill can be attained: Imperator Umbra Divina]
[Condition: Prove your soul and strength worthy in the coming trials.]
Ethan sat there, mouth hanging open.
"Holy fuck…" he murmured. "So that's what happened to him… He got trapped here. And that
skill…"
He clenched his fist, trembling.
"I'm gonna get that skill. I have to. True damage, soul-cleaving strikes… It'll be a total gamechanger."
A tired grin spread across his lips.
"Besides… sounds flashy as hell."
He shut the window, shoved himself up off the floor, and dusted off his cloak.
"Time to clear the rest of this damn dungeon. I'm coming for you, Mr. Lich…"