Chapter 108: The Apex Doors
Her untextured gray cloak whipped violently in the storm. Her character model glitched with heavy green static. The sheer volume of particle effects from the debris and the wind physics was putting too much strain on her Anomaly code.
"Rendering algorithms failing," Isolde stuttered, taking a clumsy step backward. Her boots actually slipped on the black glass stairs. She was physically getting pushed toward the edge of the bottomless chasm.
"Hey, grab on!" Levi yelled over the deafening roar of the wind.
He reached out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her forward. Isolde stumbled into his chest. She didn’t hesitate. She wrapped both of her hands tightly around the thick, pitch-black fabric of Levi’s Platinum-tier [Mantle of the Long Night].
She used his physical character model as an anchor to ground her glitching code. The green static slowly faded from her eyes.
"I cannot maintain artillery protocols in this environment," Isolde said, her voice shaking slightly as she buried her face into the back of his cloak to hide from the wind. "My spatial awareness is compromised."
"Don’t worry about it," Levi grunted, wrapping one arm around her to keep her steady while gripping his Platinum scythe in the other. "Just hold on. I’ll do the heavy lifting."
He didn’t just stand there. He knew exactly what was waiting for them on these stairs.
Dropping down from the platforms above were hundreds of [Spire Sentinels - Level 60 Elites]. They wielded massive, jagged halberds and were completely immune to the wind effects.
Levi ran the math. He was Level 55. The Sentinels were Level 60. That was exactly a five-level gap. The Level Suppression penalty was sitting at 25%.
’Four thousand, two hundred and seventy damage per basic strike,’ Levi smirked, looking up the massive staircase. ’Against an eighty thousand health pool. I don’t even need skills.’
But he did need defense to protect Isolde.
"Platinum Ward of the Abyss!" Levi shouted.
He forcefully expanded the radius of the skill, wrapping the 10,110 HP shield entirely around himself and Isolde. The howling wind and debris instantly bounced off the dark-matter dome.
Isolde let out a small, relieved exhale against his back.
"Hold tight," Levi commanded.
He kicked off the stairs. With 1,736 Speed, he didn’t just walk. He became a terrifying, one-armed black blur charging straight up the side of the tower.
The first group of Spire Sentinels thrust their halberds downward to block his path.
Levi didn’t even slow down. He swung the Sovereign’s Deathknell in a rapid, brutal upward arc.
[-4,270] [-4,270] [-4,270]
He hacked right through their armor. He didn’t bother using Reaping Arc or Guillotine. He just used basic physical strikes. His attack speed was so fast he landed four hits a second.
The 25% Lifesteal from his weapon instantly regenerated the tiny bit of mana drain from his Siphon Aura and patched any chip damage the Sentinels managed to land on his shield. He completely out-healed their damage output just by aggressively carving them to pieces.
He battered the first Sentinel down to the 20% execution threshold in seconds.
"Soul Harvest."
The pitch-black spectral guillotine dropped, instantly decapitating the Elite.
[Movement skill cooldowns reset.]
He didn’t use Hollow’s Traverse to teleport. He couldn’t risk leaving Isolde behind. He just used the mana refund mechanic to keep his fuel tank topped off. He slashed, hacked, and executed his way up the stairs.
It was an absolute, grueling marathon.
The Vertical Gauntlet lived up to its name. The VR stamina engine pushed Levi to his absolute physical limit. He was fighting on a narrow staircase, fighting against heavy wind physics, dragging another player behind him, and swinging a heavy scythe non-stop.
His real-world arms burned with lactic acid. Sweat pooled inside his NerveDive helmet, stinging his eyes.
Hours dragged on. Five hours. Eight hours. Ten hours.
Levi didn’t stop. He couldn’t. If he stopped moving, the Sentinels would swarm them and crack the shield. He popped Greater Mana Potions with his thumb, chugging them while side-stepping halberd thrusts.
Thousands of Level 60 Elites shattered into polygons as he climbed higher and higher into the dark clouds. The sheer repetitiveness of the combat turned his brain into a machine. Slash. Dodge. Execute. Climb.
At the twelve-hour mark, his boots finally hit flat ground.
The stairs ended. They reached a massive, open-air platform near the very summit of the Midnight Spire. The toxic wind suddenly died down, replaced by an eerie, dead silence.
Levi dropped his scythe onto the black glass floor. He fell to his knees, completely exhausted, gasping for digital air. Isolde let go of his cloak and stepped back, her avatar no longer glitching.
Before Levi could even speak, the massive backlog of experience points finally processed.
[System Notification: Slain thousands of Spire Sentinels. Gained 160,000,000 XP.]
The golden pillar of progression light crashed down from the dark sky. It completely engulfed Levi. The twelve hours of agonizing physical fatigue were instantly wiped clean. His burning lungs relaxed, and his health and mana pools snapped perfectly back to 100%.
[System Notification: Level Up! You are now Level 56.]
Levi let out a massive sigh of relief and opened his status menu.
The 160 million XP added to his previous 10 million gave him exactly 170 million XP. It easily paid the 160 million cost for Level 56. He now had 10,000,000 XP carrying over into his next bar, which required 170,000,000 XP.
He had 5 new free stat points. He dumped them straight into Strength.
His permanent Strength bumped from 2,560 to 2,565.
He ran the final offensive math. 2,565 multiplied by two gave him a base attack of 5,130. Add the 500 Attack from his Platinum scythe, bringing it to 5,630.
Apply the 20% class passive.
His new permanent Total Attack hit exactly 6,756.
Levi dismissed his UI and looked across the platform. Standing thirty yards away was a massive set of frost-covered double doors.
"We made it," Levi said, picking his scythe back up. "The boss is right behind those doors."
***
The swirling, toxic black wind suddenly died.
Levi stepped off the final jagged glass stair and his boots hit flat, solid stone. The transition was so abrupt it actually made him stumble forward a half-step. Behind him, the howling gale of the Vertical Gauntlet was still raging, but the air on this specific platform was entirely dead. There was no wind. There was no ambient noise. The absolute silence was heavier than the storm.
Floor 100. The Apex of the Midnight Spire.
Levi let his Platinum Scythe of the Eclipse slip from his fingers. The heavy weapon clattered loudly against the smooth black glass floor. He didn’t care about the noise. He just dropped straight to his knees, his virtual chest heaving violently as the NerveDive helmet simulated his complete lack of oxygen.
His real-world arms were shaking. Swinging a heavy polearm for twelve straight hours while dragging another player up a spiraling staircase had completely bottomed out his physical stamina. The golden level-up light from earlier had restored his in-game stats, but the mental exhaustion of maintaining that level of focus was a totally different beast.
He swiped his hand through the silent air, pulling up his inventory screen. He needed to take stock before he even thought about moving forward.
He scrolled past the massive piles of silver coins and high-tier crafting materials he had hoarded. He found his consumables tab.
"Five," Levi wheezed, staring at the numbers. "I have exactly five Greater Mana Potions left. And ten standard health potions."
It wasn’t a great supply for what was about to happen. His Platinum Ward of the Abyss cost 500 Mana a pop. Hollow’s Guillotine was 100. Phantom Step was 20. If this fight dragged out for half an hour, he was going to run his 5,160 Mana pool completely dry, and five potions weren’t going to save him.
His equipment durability was holding up nicely, sitting around 85% thanks to the self-repairing properties of high-tier gear, but his mental bandwidth was severely in the red.
He dismissed the inventory screen and just sat back on his heels, resting his forearms on his thighs.
Thirty yards away, sitting at the very end of the massive open-air platform, was a set of colossal double doors. They were forged from dark iron, but they were completely covered in a thick layer of glowing, jagged frost. The cold radiating off the metal actually caused digital mist to roll across the floor.
Behind those doors was Kaelen, the Night King.
Levi heard a soft scraping sound. He turned his head.
Isolde was kneeling on the glass floor right next to him.
She looked terrible. The server was struggling to process her presence this close to the final boss. The ambient proximity to a massive, unique entity like the Night King was putting a horrific strain on her Anomaly code.