The Mist Queen's HP ticked downward until it dropped below seventy percent. The glow in her amethyst eyes darkened, her aura swelling as the abyss within her stirred more violently. The throne room quaked under the weight of her presence.
Kaito tightened his grip on the his blades. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, but his gaze never left the Queen. She was far from finished.
Her staff glowed with silver-red sparks as she lifted it high. A pulse of psychic energy rolled outward, invisible but crushing. Kaito's vision wavered, his body growing heavy under the weight of her will. He pushed mana into his steps and activated Wind Wheel Steps, his form flickering as he broke through the wave. The marble beneath his boots cracked as he launched himself upward.
He twisted in midair, raising his blade overhead. Energy swirled around it, and three slashes of light carved forward in rapid succession.
Aerial Claw Slash.
The three strikes descended in a triangle pattern, ripping toward the Queen with deadly precision.
The Queen reacted instantly. Black frost gathered around her and rose like a wall of ice, the white shards laced with abyssal energy. The first two slashes carved through, shattering the ice in a storm of shards. The third pierced deeper, forcing her to raise her staff to block. The impact cracked her defense and left smoke trailing from her robe. Her HP dipped further, though her glare only hardened.
Kaito landed lightly on one knee, already moving. He dashed forward, ready to press the assault.
The Queen spun her staff, her voice echoing in his mind. A surge of psychic magic struck like a spear, and his surroundings shifted. The throne room dissolved into shadows, replaced by a vast, dreamlike field of mist. In front of him, the Queen's form changed. No longer cloaked in abyssal shadow, she appeared as a woman of beauty, her silver hair flowing, her amethyst eyes soft and inviting. She reached out her hand, her voice like honey.
"Submit. You cannot win. Stay by my side, and your pain will end."
Kaito's chest tightened for only a moment. He had heard about her illusions in his past life. Countless players had been trapped by them, their minds broken until they were helpless. But he had come prepared.
Mana flared violently around him as he raised his blade overhead. Electricity surged along the edge, thunder crackling in the air. He brought it down in a powerful arc.
Blazing Thunder Clash.
Lightning exploded outward in a five-meter radius, shattering the illusion like glass. The Queen's false form splintered into pieces, and the throne room rushed back around him. The wave of thunder struck her directly, throwing her backward into her cracked throne. Her HP bar dropped sharply, chunks of health burning away as arcs of lightning scorched her body.
She hissed, clutching her staff, her voice filled with rage. Darkness pulsed outward, and skeletal arms erupted from the ground once more. This time they were larger, twisted by abyssal energy, their fingers tipped with claws of bone. They surged toward Kaito like a tide.
Kaito's blade glowed as he activated another technique. He swung with a precise motion, his blade gleaming with silver light.
Deflecting Edge.
The strike cut across the leading claw, deflecting its force sideways. The redirected attack smashed into the floor, sending fragments of marble flying. He spun with the motion, cutting through the second arm before it could seize him. The deflection had created just enough space to escape the tide.
But the Queen was relentless. She raised her staff and chanted. Abyssal energy flared, forming into wraith-like soldiers clad in broken armor. They roared silently, their eye sockets glowing red as they charged at him.
Kaito exhaled sharply and activated Mirror Phantom Blade. A clone of himself shimmered into existence beside him, its sword glowing faintly. The doppelganger rushed forward, slashing into the wraith soldiers, distracting them with a storm of attacks. For a moment, the battlefield tilted in his favor.
But the Queen's staff pulsed once more. A wave of abyssal fire surged outward, burning in cold blue. It tore through the phantom clone, shattering it instantly. The doppelganger's fragments faded into mist, leaving Kaito alone against the summons.
He gritted his teeth and pressed forward, weaving through the skeletal soldiers with Wind Wheel Steps. He slashed left and right, his blade carving arcs of fire and lightning as he forced his way through. Each strike dropped a wraith, but the strain weighed on his body. His HP bar dipped further as stray attacks slipped past his guard.
The Queen raised her staff again. This time, black water coiled upward like a serpent, twisting through the air before striking down at him. He rolled aside, the impact carving a deep scar in the marble where he had stood.
He countered with Aerial Claw Slash once more, leaping high and carving down three slashes of light. The serpent shattered under the impact, scattering into a black mist.
Her HP bar flickered again, dipping further toward fifty-five percent. But her body glowed once more as she cast Heal, the abyssal version of the spell bathing her wounds in green-black light. Slowly, the bar ticked back upward.
Kaito pulled another Minor Regeneration Potion from his belt and drank, the steady warmth filling his body and keeping his health from falling into the red. He could not let up.
His eyes sharpened as he rushed forward again. Sparks of lightning danced across his blade as he slashed in furious succession. The Queen blocked with barriers of gray earth, but each one cracked and splintered under his relentless pressure.
The battle raged on, balanced and brutal. She countered with silver-red lightning that split the air, white frost that spread across the floor in jagged sheets, and illusions that tried to twist his mind. But each time, he pushed through, breaking her defenses with speed, strength, and the sharp focus of his reborn soul.
At last, after another furious exchange, his blade cut through her defenses and struck her shoulder, forcing her back. Her HP bar flickered downward again, finally reaching the halfway mark.
[HP: 721,000 / 1,442,000]
Kaito's own HP hovered at a dangerous point, kept alive only by the regeneration potion still working in his veins. His breathing was ragged, his arms heavy, but his grip did not falter. He lifted his sword once more, his eyes fixed on the Queen.
The fight had reached its second phase.
The moment her health bar dropped to half, the Mist Queen's amethyst eyes blazed with fury. Her voice cracked through the throne room like thunder, heavy with rage and faith.
"Wild creature! You dare wound me? You dare stain the throne of my palace with your insolence? You will pay the cost in blood!"
Her staff struck the floor, and abyssal runes spread outward in a perfect circle, covering a five-yard radius around her throne. The black patterns pulsed like veins, each rune dripping with corrupt energy. The marble cracked beneath them as if the very earth recoiled from what she was summoning.
Her voice rose, shrill and fervent, like a fanatic in worship.
"O great Succubus Queen, empress of the seven hundred and seventy-seventh floor of the Endless Abyss! I, your most faithful servant, kneel before your majesty. I call upon your shadow to crush the beast who dares oppose me. Grant me your strength, grant me your wrath, and let me strike down this sinner in your name!"
The circle glowed brighter, abyssal energy surging upward like a fountain of smoke and fire. It wrapped around the Mist Queen's body in coils, her black robes flaring as if alive. The pressure in the throne room doubled, then tripled, filling the air with a suffocating weight.
The flames of abyssal power rushed into her like a tide, fusing with her staff, her hands, even her eyes. Her pupils burned crimson, and the amethyst glow of her irises deepened into a blinding purple-black haze. Every breath she exhaled spread corruption, the mist thickening around her until the whole chamber trembled with her presence.
The marble floor groaned, chandeliers above rattled, and cracks raced along the walls as though the throne room itself might collapse under the weight of her borrowed power.