Insomniac Player

Damien tightened his grip on the First Blood Dagger as he approached the throne.

The Lord of Ironfall sat motionless. Unlike the Knight Commander, he wore no armor, just faded royal robes hanging off a thin frame, a rusted crown sitting crooked atop silver hair. His skin looked pale enough to see through, like whatever had kept him alive had run out a long time ago.

He lifted his eyes slowly. Empty ones. They landed on Damien, and something like a smile crossed his face, lonely and worn thin.

"So. Another challenger."

His voice came out dry, cracked, like it hadn’t been used in centuries.

Damien raised the dagger, cautious.

"I know why you’re here." The Lord nodded, almost gentle about it. "I’ve been waiting."

That caught Damien off guard. "...Waiting?"

The old man closed his eyes. "My people are gone. My kingdom, gone. My family turned to dust a long time ago." He looked around the empty throne room like he was seeing it for the first time. "And still I remain. The system keeps me here, ruling over ghosts."

A faint, broken laugh escaped him. "Tell me, young man. What kind of king rules an army with no people left in it?"

Damien said nothing.

The Lord leaned forward. "Kill me. End this."

Damien scanned him head to toe. "You’re not going to fight?"

"I’ve fought long enough." He pushed his robes aside, exposing his chest. "Please. Grant me peace."

BOOOOOOOOOM!!

The whole castle shook. The Commander, closer now.

The Lord’s smile turned bitter. "He still protects me. Even now."

Damien’s hesitation lasted a single heartbeat. Then he stepped forward and drove the dagger into the old king’s abdomen.

The Lord gasped, quiet. Damien didn’t stop, dragging the blade upward through flesh, toward the heart. The Lord’s body jerked once and went still, a peaceful expression settling over his face as his voice faded to almost nothing.

"...Thank you."

His last breath left him. The light went out of his eyes.

The throne room exploded at that exact moment. The massive doors burst inward, and the Knight Commander filled the entrance.

His crimson eyes found the throne first, then Damien standing over the Lord’s body. Something moved behind that visor for the first time, raw and uncontrolled, and a roar tore out of him loud enough to shake the walls.

RAAAAAWWWWWWWWHRRR

Blue windows flooded Damien’s vision.

➤[Boss Eliminated.]

➤[Raid Objective Complete.]

Another notification followed, its border burning crimson.

➤[Emergency Notice]

➤[Residual Demiboss Entity Detected.]

Damien squinted. "...Demiboss?" Before he could chase the thought further, one more window opened.

➤[Gate Completion Condition Updated]

➤[The registered gate owner, ’Sleepless’, must successfully escape the gate alive.]

➤[Failure will result in Gate ownership being voided and the Raid remaining unconquered.]

"...What?" He stared at it blankly. Escape? Wasn’t this already over?

The party channel exploded with Doctor Smoke’s voice, frantic in a way he’d never heard from her.

"SLEEPLESS!"

"RUN!"

"NOW!"

He turned on instinct. The Commander was already on him, the rust-covered greatsword already falling.

BOOOOOOM!!

He twisted sideways just in time. The blade hit the floor instead, marble detonating outward, stone fragments cracking past like gunfire. A fraction of a second slower and he’d have gone down with the floor. "...Fast."

The Commander wrenched the sword free and swung again immediately. Damien ducked under it, close enough to feel a few strands of hair get clipped off. He didn’t even consider fighting back. He ran.

The Commander followed, every footstep shaking the castle around them, the gap between them shrinking with every stride.

"...He’s faster than me." Damien clenched his teeth and pulled up his status window.

➤[Available Stat Points: 9]

"...All into Speed."

Speed: 37 → 46.

Warmth rushed through his legs, muscle turning light under him, and the floor cracked beneath his feet as he pushed harder.

The Commander stopped gaining on him. "...Good." Not faster than him. Just even. That was enough to survive on.

He tore through the corridors while the Commander plowed straight through walls behind him rather than bother with the turns, whole sections of the castle collapsing in his wake.

◇◇◇

Outside, Doctor Smoke’s party had nothing left to give.

Madam Marvel had burned through nearly all her mana. Delulu’s rifles had gone quiet. Naked Nun’s breathing had turned ragged.

Doctor Smoke’s eyes cut toward the castle. Something in the air shifted, a pressure lifting all at once, like a held breath finally let go.

"...He killed the Lord." She felt it before she could explain how. "Retreat! Now!"

An Elite Knight lunged at Delulu. Doctor Smoke’s fist knocked it aside, then pressed a crystal into the girl’s hand. "Go!"

Delulu hesitated only a second. "...Bestie, you’d better survive." The stone shattered, and gold light swallowed her whole.

Madam Marvel vanished next. Then Naked Nun, who looked back at the castle one last time before the light took her. "...Don’t die, sexy."

Doctor Smoke stood alone.

The Commander had already stopped caring about her entirely. Every knight, every remaining Elite, every soldier still standing turned toward the castle, chasing Damien instead.

She smiled, bitter around the edges. "...That idiot actually did it." A pause. "Sorry. Can’t help from here." She crushed her Return Stone, and the battlefield went empty behind her.

◇◇◇

Damien burst out through the castle entrance and stopped dead.

Every street, every rooftop, every intersection turned toward him at once. Three hundred ordinary knights. Ten Elites left standing. One Knight Commander.

Steel roared to life around him, and he ran without a second’s hesitation, speed carrying him through the narrow streets like something the wind had picked up.

The Commander stayed on him, tearing through whichever house stood in the way rather than slow down for a corner. Damien cut hard into a nearby building instead of fighting the straight line, holding perfectly still inside while the pursuit swept past him.

He waited. Minutes crawled by. The sound outside thinned out slowly.

He checked his skill window. Shadow Dash, twelve minutes left on cooldown. "...Too long."

He waited it out, every minute stretching longer than the last, the noise outside fading further and further away.

Then, cooldown complete.

He exhaled. "...Now."

He triggered Shadow Imitation. Darkness pooled beneath his feet and swallowed him whole, even his breathing gone quiet inside it. He moved through abandoned houses, down narrow alleys, past ruined walls, unnoticed, part of the dark itself for as long as the skill let him stay that way.

Then it ran out, and the shadows let go.

He stumbled forward. "...Damn." He’d made it outside the city walls, the gate exit only a few hundred meters off now. "...Almost." He sprinted.

A furious roar rolled out behind him across Ironfall. The Commander had found him again, but instead of chasing, he raised the greatsword and threw it.

The blade spun through the air faster than Damien could outrun, tearing through everything between them. He heard it cutting the wind and glanced back, just enough to see the rusted edge already filling his vision.

"...Shit!"

He triggered Shadow Dash without thinking, his body breaking apart into black lightning.

CRAAAAACK!!

The greatsword passed through the space he’d occupied a heartbeat earlier. He landed dozens of meters ahead, momentum still carrying him forward, the gate shimmering directly in front of him now.

One leap. Another. He crossed the boundary.

The world twisted hard around him, his body thrown forward out of his own control, and he hit solid ground, rolling once, twice, ten times before finally skidding to a stop nearly twenty meters out.

His lungs clawed for air.

"...haa... haa... I’m alive."

Blue light filled his vision.

➤[Level Up.]

➤[Level Up.]

Another notification opened beneath it, its border glowing gold.

➤[Gate Raid Successfully Cleared]

➤[Gate: The Rusted Blade]

➤[Primary Objective: Completed]

➤[Gate Break Threat: Eliminated]

➤[Registered Gate Owner: Sleepless]

➤[Ownership has been formally recognised.]

And...

➤[Congratulations.]

➤[You are now the rightful owner of the Gate ’The Rusted Blade.’]