Chapter 74—The Leviathan’s Chamber.
Chapter 74—The Leviathan’s Chamber.
The subterranean cavern vibrated with a low, bone-chilling resonance as the second beam of blue light shot up into the granite ceiling.
Deep within the flooded tunnels, the spatial water surged violently, its currents churning into white froth as ancient mechanisms, dormant for centuries, roared back to life. The air grew heavier, thick with raw mana density that made the lungs of normal hunters burn with every breath.
CLING!
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[DUNGEON ANNOUNCEMENT!]
SEALING ANCHOR 02: ACTIVATED!
SEALING ANCHOR 03: ACTIVATED!
PROGRESS: [3 / 4 Anchors Online]
WORLD BOSS AWAKENING RATE: 75%!
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"Anchor three is down!" Ren called out, shaking his head in absolute disbelief as he retracted his mapping drones. "Kaelen, at this rate, we’re setting a record that the System forums will never believe. You literally bypassed three separate forty-minute raid puzzles by just overwhelming the core locks with spatial mana!"
"Puzzles are designed for those who play by the game’s rules," Kaelen replied smoothly, his boots gliding through the knee-deep, glowing water toward the final corridor. "I do not play games. I dismantle them."
Beside him, Lyra raised her staff slightly, her sharp eyes detecting a sudden surge of heat radiating from the main entrance tunnels behind them. Her golden hair fluttered in the warm draft sweeping through the damp cavern.
"They are moving fast, Kaelen," Lyra whispered, her voice calm but vigilant. "The magic signatures of Aurelius’s army are entering the third sector. They are ignoring the dungeon mobs entirely, using heavy paladin vanguard shields to rush directly toward our location."
"Let them rush," Kaelen purred softly, a dark, lethal smile curving his lips as he glanced over his shoulder. "An army running in fear and rage is an army that exhausts its mana before the real fight even begins."
He turned his gaze ahead. Before them opened the grandest chamber of the Sunken Labyrinth—a colossal, dome-shaped aquatic amphitheater spanning over eight hundred meters across. At the center of the flooded arena, submerged under fifty feet of crystal-clear water, rested a massive, ancient metallic monolith wrapped in glowing crimson chains: Anchor Four.
Standing guard around the final anchor were no ordinary dungeon spawns. Four massive, crab-like aquatic leviathan sentinels—each over thirty feet tall, clad in heavy obsidian shells and wielding giant water cannons—scanned the entrance with glowing red eyes.
𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
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[HOSTILE ENTITIES SPOTTED!]
MONSTER TYPE: Deep-Vault Leviathan Guards (Level 148 Mini-Boss)
QUANTITY: 4 Units
PASSIVE: [Iron Hull—80% Physical/Elemental Resistance]
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"Mini-bosses guarding the final anchor," Ignis grinned, rotating his shoulders with a loud crack as flames surged around his claymore blade. "Leave the left one to me! I’ve been waiting to test my new stat boosts from the Sector 0 clear!"
"Tsubaki, take the right flank," Kaelen commanded quietly. "Lyra, provide support.""Understood!"
Tsubaki replied, melting into the shadow of the nearest granite column.
"Flame Art: Solar Meteor!" Ignis bellowed, leaping thirty feet into the air above the water. His claymore erupted into a towering pillar of white-hot dragon fire as he brought it down with all his weight onto the first sentinel’s head!
BOOOOOOM!
The impact exploded like a mortar shell, vaporizing a massive crater of water and sending superheated steam roaring through the amphitheater. The heavy obsidian shell of the mini-boss cracked under the pure physical momentum, sending green blood spraying across the stone tiles!
Simultaneously, two thin, black crescent arcs sliced through the water on the right flank. Tsubaki materialized behind the second mini-boss, his black katana already clicking back into its sheath with a crisp, lethal sound.
CLICK.
SKRRRRASH!
The thirty-foot sentinel was sliced cleanly into three geometric pieces, its massive body collapsing into the water with a deafening splash!
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[MINI-BOSS ELIMINATED!]
TARGET: Deep-Vault Leviathan Guard (1/4)
TIME ELAPSED: 4 Seconds!
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"Holy Sanctuary!" Lyra shouted, slamming her golden staff into the stone floor.
A blinding dome of immaculate solar light expanded across the arena, catching the third and fourth mini-bosses in a wave of pure divine purification. The holy light burned through their aquatic armor, blinding their sensors and reducing their movement speed by sixty percent.
Before the weakened mini-bosses could recover, Kaelen took a single step forward into empty air.
SLICING WHISPER—
Kaelen appeared directly between the two giant sentinels. He didn’t even draw his sword. He simply raised his right hand, two fingers coated in a thin, razor-sharp edge of pitch-black spatial void, and swept them horizontally through the air.
SWOOSH!
A razor-thin line of distorted space expanded outward in a three-hundred-degree arc. The heavy obsidian shells, iron hulls, and massive water cannons of both mini-bosses were cleaved cleanly in half, as if made of paper!
BOOM! BOOM!
The massive remains crashed into the flooded floor, dissolving into glowing golden experience particles that flooded into the party’s status bars.
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[ROOM CLEARED!]
All leviathan guards eliminated!
EXP DISTRIBUTED: 2,400,000 points!
LEVEL UP!
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Kaelen walked calmly up to the central platform of Anchor Four. He placed his dark-gloved hand against the final sealing chains and injected a single surge of pure Void Origin mana.
CRACKLE—BOOOOM!
The ancient chains shattered into dust. The fourth beam of brilliant blue light shot straight into the cavern ceiling, completing the ancient magical circuit!
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[WORLD SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT!]
All anchors activated!
The sunken labyrinth of Aethelgard is fully unlocked!
WORLD BOSS AWAKENING: Abyssal Leviathan — Abzu (Tier-EX)!
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SKRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR—!
The entire eight-hundred-meter amphitheater violently began to shake. The water level rose at a terrifying speed, churning into a massive, dark whirlpool at the center of the arena. From the bottomless trench beneath the flooded floor, a terrifying, abyssal roar echoed—a sound so loud and dark it shook the very foundations of the subterranean floor!
A massive, shadowy figure over two hundred feet long, clad in dark blue dragon scales and glowing crimson fins, began to rise from the depths.
"IT’S AWAKENING!" Ren shouted, bracing himself against the spatial turbulence as his console flared with critical warnings. "The World Boss is spawning!"At that exact moment, the heavy stone archways at the rear entrance of the amphitheater shattered into a million pieces.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"THERE THEY ARE!" a harsh, bellowing voice roared through the steam.
Surging into the grand amphitheater came a massive tidal wave of golden steel—over five hundred elite players clad in glowing sun-gold plate mail, high-tier archmage robes, and silver executioner banners!
Leading the massive army was High Lord Aurelius. His level 155 Paladin aura flared like a miniature sun, his glowing golden broadsword pointed directly at Kaelen’s chest. His eyes were bloodshot with absolute, murderous fury as he saw the shattered remains of the mini-bosses and the awakening world boss before them.
"KAELEN!" Aurelius roared, his voice echoing like thunder across the cavern. "You butchered my vanguard! You defied the Radiant Covenant! And now you stand before my floor’s world boss!" Aurelius swung his broadsword, bringing his five-hundred-man army to a halt in a massive, sweeping battle formation that completely encircled the entrance and flanks of the amphitheater.
"You have nowhere left to run, boy!" Aurelius sneered arrogantly, a dark, victorious grin spreading across his face as his archers and mages began channeling high-tier spells. "You are trapped between my five hundred elite warriors and a Tier-EX World Boss! Sign over Sector 0 and surrender your gear, or I will bury you in this dark ditch forever!"Silence settled over the vast arena, save for the roaring whirlpool of the awakening Leviathan rising behind Kaelen.
Lyra stepped up beside Kaelen, her staff glowing with steady, unwavering holy light. Ignis gripped his flaming broadsword, his eyes burning with combat excitement. Tsubaki melted into Kaelen’s shadow, ready to strike at a second’s notice.
Kaelen didn’t turn around to face the five hundred players immediately. He slowly adjusted the dark cuffs of his coat, his expression calm, bored, and utterly unbothered by the army surrounding them.
He then turned his head slightly, his dark violet eyes gleaming with lethal, god-like condescension as he looked at High Lord Aurelius.
"Trapped?" Kaelen purred softly, his low velvet voice carrying easily across the vast cavern, cutting through the roaring water and the shouts of five hundred men.
Kaelen slowly reached down to his waist, his slender dark fingers wrapping around the hilt of the Void Blade.
"You brought five hundred men into an enclosed subterranean chamber," Kaelen whispered, a dark, chilling smile gracing his lips as the black blade slid one inch out of its sheath, illuminating his eyes with pitch-black spatial fractures. "You did not corner me, Aurelius... You simply brought yourselves to the executioner’s block."
Behind him, the massive, two-hundred-foot Abyssal Leviathan, Abzu, burst out of the water with a deafening roar, its terrifying crimson eyes locking onto the five hundred golden knights!
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[WORLD EVENT INITIATED!]
THREE-WAY BATTLE: Sovereign Faction VS The Radiant Covenant VS Abyssal Leviathan!
Zone status: absolute carnage.
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