Overwhelming Firepower

Lucen took control of Alexander and first checked if he could do something with the fallen bodies of their comrades.

He tried interacting with each one of them, hoping to see if one of them was still alive or if he could at least loot their equipment, and nothing happened.

”Guess I can’t do that.”

[HE’S LOOTING THEM LMAO]

[BRO DIDN’T EVEN CHECK IF THEY WERE ALIVE]

[No hesitation]

[Alexander would never do this. Immersion ruined]

”What are you guys talking about? I checked whether they were alive and attempted to secure their equipment to give to their families. That is exactly what a responsible leader would do.”

[SECURE USEFUL EQUIPMENT 💀]

[Professional grave robber]

[It’s what they would have wanted]

[Take Cael’s sword]

”I can’t take anything; it won’t let me,” Lucen responded as he kept on trying to interact with the corpses.

He felt a slight pain in his chest as he looked at their dead faces, but that was simply proof of how well the game had made him care about each character.

He had spent hundreds of hours following their stories, learning their personalities, and watching them struggle through every route.

Lucen stopped checking their bodies, seeing as he could not interact with them using any item he had, nor could he start a dialogue. So he started looking around.

The area did not resemble any location he remembered from Aerok. The ground was black and uneven, covered in deep cracks that faintly glowed violet. Broken weapons and pieces of armor were scattered everywhere, but there were no enemy corpses.

In Aerok, monsters left corpses behind because players could harvest them, and if you leave them behind, other monsters feast on them. It was one of the amazing innovations of the game for its time.

Yet there was nothing here. So either Alexander’s group was defeated by a super hidden boss, or there was something else going on. Lucen slowly moved Alexander as he looked around the scenery.

”It’s really amazing how they’re able to fit so much content in a fifteen-year-old game.”

[Maybe the developers were aliens]

[The data on the disc could not have enough space for this]

”The data on the disc definitely shouldn’t be enough for this,” Lucen agreed.

He guided Alexander across the weird space. The violet cracks brightened beneath his feet, then dimmed once he passed. Lucen changed direction several times, watching how they reacted.

”This feels like they’re pointing somewhere.”

[The cracks?]

[Really?]

[You’re overthinking it]

[Follow them]

Lucen followed the glowing lines toward the edge of the battlefield. A low sound echoed through the game. It sounded like something breathing beneath the ground. Through his headphones, it truly sounded like it was happening there in the room.

The breathing grew louder, and the violet cracks suddenly shifted. It truly was turning into a horror game.

[What is that?]

[It’s getting creepy]

Lucen stopped Alexander. The glowing lines continued moving even though the character remained still.

They slid across the black ground, crossed over one another, then curved away from a patch of empty earth several meters ahead.

”This isn’t pointing to something. Those things seem to be avoiding something instead.”

[Is a boss battle coming?]

[You didn’t check what Alexander’s equipment is]

[Yeah, I want to see what kind of equipment he has now]

”Oh right, should have done that at the start.”

Lucen opened the equipment menu. Unlike the battlefield, the interface appeared normal.

Alexander was wearing armor Lucen had never seen before. He had been so distracted by the unknown route that he had forgotten to inspect the character’s equipment.

The sword he was holding was called Varkun’s Greatsword. The armor was called Kalderos’s masterpiece. The amulet was Velmira’s tear. The ring on the left hand was Thalara’s Judgment, and the ring on the right was Naerith’s blessing.

Alexander’s entire equipment set was something unknown and new, but the names came from the five deities worshiped throughout Norvaegard.

He then looked at Alexander’s level, which was maxed out, and with his current equipment set, this was the strongest Lucen had seen Alexander in.

With this equipment, Alexander could probably defeat even the evil adult Golden Dragon with ease.

Lucen grew excited to see what this version of Alexander could do. ”With these stats, I can’t even imagine what kind of boss is going to face us.”

[Damn, this Alexander makes the final boss look like a baby]

[Plot twist, Alexander is the true final boss]

[What kind of secret true endgame boss needs Alexander to be this strong?]

Once Lucen exited the equipment menu, he noticed that the breathing sound had disappeared.

The silence came so suddenly that even the chat slowed.

Lucen pushed the controller forward. Alexander leaped aside. The patch of ground the violet cracks had been avoiding vanished.

There was no explosion. No collapsing earth. One moment it existed, and the next, a perfectly smooth section of the battlefield was simply gone.

[What happened!]

[THE FLOOR GOT DELETED]

It was at that moment, from the deleted part of the area, that something came into everyone’s view.

At first, Lucen thought the game had failed to load the creature properly.

A mass of black and violet pixels rose from the empty space. Its outline constantly broke apart, pieces of it appearing in different places before snapping back together.

Lucen could not determine whether it was crawling out of the ground or whether the missing section had merely revealed a part of something that had always been there.

The screen distorted around it. Several limbs appeared for a fraction of a second, but their number changed whenever Lucen tried to count them.

Something resembling a head split open along its center, revealing shapes that might have been teeth, claws, or neither. Lucen could not look at them long enough to decide.

A health bar appeared above the creature, but its name was nothing more than a corrupted string of symbols: %^*@$#.

The game’s low resolution should have made it look ridiculous. Instead, Lucen felt his stomach tighten.

His fingers became cold around the controller. Every instinct in his body told him to stop looking at the screen.

[WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT]

[WHY DID MY CHEST JUST HURT]

[Anyone else suddenly feeling sick?]

[That thing is pixelated. Why is it still terrifying?]

[THIS IS AWESOME]

Even Lucen, who was feeling a sense of dread, was getting excited. To think that the game developers used the outdated graphics to their advantage to make this monstrosity.

The creature inspired genuine fear merely by appearing on the screen. It had to be the developers’ masterpiece, their obra maestra.

Lucen did not know if this would be the only time he got to see this boss or not. If he lost here, it’s possible that this route will never appear again. So he needed to win at all costs; this just made him feel even more excited.

Lucen licked his lips as he focused on the screen. ”Alright then, let’s do this!”

[Come on! f*** this monster up!]

[Show us another flawless victory!]

[Did you guys notice that the thunderstorms suddenly stopped?]

[I wonder what kind of equipment this boss drops]

[This guy really looks utterly disgusting]

In the chat, there were a few talking about the thunderstorms, but Lucen ignored that as he was now focused on the boss before him.

Lucen controlled Alexander to charge forward. The creature’s body broke into black-violet fragments, then reappeared beside Alexander. The screen screamed with static.

A line of distorted text appeared. [MENTAL POLLUTION DETECTED]

Before Lucen could react, five lights ignited around Alexander. The equipment Alexander was wearing shone brightly, and text appeared. [Mental pollution resisted.]

The distorted whispers vanished beneath the clash of metal and violet static. ”As expected of God-tier equipment!”

Lucen drove Alexander forward. Varkun’s Greatsword erupted with golden fire. The first slash passed through the creature, but the second struck something hidden inside the distortion.

The health bar moved by a single pixel; you could barely tell at all.

”It bleeds!” Lucen shouted, although nothing resembling blood had appeared.

[This boss is insane!]

[If it bleeds, it can be killed]

[As long as it has a health bar, you can kill it!]

”Strap in guys, this might take a while.”

Lucen then began dodging and attacking when he saw an opening. This kind of gameplay was nothing new for players of Aerok or any Souls-like game or other similar games.

Lucen realized that attacks would not be enough. The creature’s health barely moved, and after a few minutes, it healed all the damage Alexander had inflicted

The battle looked impossible, but impossible bosses were usually built around certain rules. Lucen only had to find those rules before Alexander died.

Either this boss was something you needed to lose to, or there’s a certain gimmick to damage the boss.

Lucen could not risk losing to the boss, as this might be his only chance on this unknown route. He needed to look around and remember what items he had, andfigure out what each piece of equipment actually did, since there was no description added to them.

Lucen grinned as the stakes were high, and the difficulty of the boss was absurd. As expected of his favorite game.

”Alright then! Challenge accepted!”