Debuff Master

“Tsk… I swear, this is why I can’t stand that bastard, Acheron. Just how many horrific experiments on living beings did he have to conduct to create those things?” Deus grumbled, frowning deeply as he glanced at the knights wearing the Guardians' uniform.

It seemed that Deus had been viewing Acheron with contempt since his younger days.

“Well, considering he even turned his own body into that bizarre mess… I mean, he’s neither male nor female now because of all those experiments he had carried out on himself.

"If he’s capable of doing that to himself, then imagine what he can do to the bodies of other people.”

“Wait, what? You've been referring to her as 'him.' Isn’t she a woman?” Siegfried asked, sounding utterly baffled.

The Acheron he knew was a woman, albeit with a somewhat androgynous air.

“Keke! A woman, my ass! He's always been a man!”

“...!”

“It’s only later that he transformed… into that.

“But seriously, creating these enhanced humans on the level of Grandmasters? The amount of experimentation he has done on them must be insane. Just how many innocent people’s bodies did he desecrate for this? Damn it… He’s really disgusting!”

Deus gnashed his teeth and glared at the enhanced humans clad in the uniform of the Guardians.

“Anyway, you go on ahead. I’ll handle things here and catch up later,” Deus said, motioning him forward with his chin.

“Huh? Are you planning to face them all alone?”

Siegfried hesitated. He could not just leave Deus alone to face these many enemies, as at this point in time, he had yet to attain the power of invincibility.

Regardless of his strength, facing fifty knights enhanced to Level 450 seemed like an impossible fight.

However, Deus’ confidence was unshakable.

“I’ll win. Well, I might have to go all out, but trust me—I’ll win,” Deus said with a confident smirk.

“But…”

“You're only going to get in the way if you stay here, so just go ahead. I’ll catch up soon. You’re free to stay if you want to die here. Anyway, just hurry up and leave.”

With that, Deus stepped toward the Level 450 enhanced knights that Acheron had created.

“Please go ahead. There’s no need to worry,” Inzaghi said with a reassuring gentle smile, urging Siegfried to move forward.

“If you say so…” Siegfried reluctantly decided to keep moving. Before leaving, however, he placed down his debuff fields, Blaze Field and Shadow Hell, to support Deus in his battle.

“At least let me help with these. I will see you later.”

“Yeah, see you.”

Leaving Deus behind, Siegfried headed deeper into the heart of the castle where the boss, the Immortal Alchemist, Acheron, awaited him.

Boom! Boom! Rumble!

Thunderous noises echoed in the air behind Siegfried, and it was followed by rumbling noises as structures collapsed behind him.

It quickly became evident that the battle between Deus and the enhanced knights would destroy at least half of this place.

***

[Alert: 51 minutes and 7 seconds remaining!]

[Alert: 51 minutes and 7 seconds remaining!]

Meanwhile, the timer for the quest "Pursuit and Annihilation" was still ticking down.

Rumble!

The otherworldly energy permeating the fortress grew stronger and stronger as Siegfried approached the depths of the fortress. Soon, it was weighing down on just about everything.

‘I need to hurry!’ Siegfried picked up the pace. Of course, he was not delusional enough to think that he could defeat the Leader of the Church of Osric, Immortal Alchemist Acheron.

His sole objective was to stop or disrupt the Fusion Ritual and prevent Acheron from merging with the Soul Fragments of Apocalius.

The path leading to Acheron was anything but easy.

Siegfried was sprinting down the corridor with Hamchi by his side when he almost tripped over something but managed to regain his balance just in time.

“Ack! What the hell was that?!” he shrieked and looked back.

But before he could even understand what had happened…

Sssk! Sssk! Sssk!

Dozens of hands emerged from the stone floor and reached out to him to try and drag him into the floor.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just the floor.

A myriad of stone-like arms burst out of the ceiling as well, and they were clawing at him in a grotesque and eerie manner. The scene was something straight out of a horror film—a bizarre spectacle of hands trying to catch their victim.

‘T-This is crazy!’

Siegfried unleashed Wave of Oppression in a panic. The skill immediately weakened the movement of the hands conjured by alchemy.

Just as Deus advised, Wave of Oppression was highly effective against anything created by alchemy.

“Hamchi! Get on!”

“Kyuuu!”

With Hamchi perched on his shoulder, Siegfried spread out his +10 Black Crow Wingsuit and flew down the corridor.

Wave of Oppression was disrupting the hands, but their sheer numbers made it difficult to deal with them. In addition, it would take too much time to do so.

At the end of the corridor, Siegfried ran into another massive iron door.

“Damn it!” Siegfried cursed. The door was similar to the gate he had encountered earlier, which was sealed shut by the will of its creator.

Deus had easily opened the gates, but the problem was that Siegfried couldn't do the same thing as he had done. Deus had willpower strong enough to command the gate to open, but Siegfried was not sure whether he could replicate the same feat or not.

“Open… open…” Siegfried focused his will entirely on the iron door even as the hands were closing in on him.

“Hurry up and open it, owner punk! Those hands are coming! Kyuuu!” Hamchi cried out.

“Shut up! I’m concentrating!” Siegfried snapped back. He then ignored Hamchi’s frantic yelling and pushed his concentration to the absolute limit.

‘The door will open. It’s opening. It must open. Open… open!”

Swoosh!

Siegfried felt a sudden shift in his surroundings, and he instinctively opened his eyes.

To his shock, everything had changed.

Hamchi was gone, and the countless hands had vanished as well. Even the corridor itself had vanished, leaving behind only an endless, dark void. He was standing all alone in an unknown abyss.

Just then, a system message popped up in front of his eyes.

[Inner World: Realm of Consciousness]

“What in the world is this place..?” Siegfried muttered after reading his current location.

Then, he activated Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance to observe his surroundings.

“What the hell?!” Siegfried screamed out of shock.

In this infinite realm of nothingness, this endless abyss, there was only himself and one other individual.

[Boss: Immortal Alchemist Acheron]

The Leader of the Church of Osric, Immortal Alchemist Acheron.

***

Amidst the boundless abyss known as the Inner World: Realm of Consciousness, Siegfried came face-to-face with none other than the Leader of the Church of Osric, Immortal Alchemist Acheron.

“This must be your doing, Acheron. What are you plotting?” Siegfried spat, and his voice was filled with disdain.

Acheron looked serene and unmoved as he addressed Siegfried in a firm voice. “Siegfried van Proa. Why do you persist in this struggle? Do you not see the futility of it all?”

“Spare me the theatrics,” Siegfried growled and gripped his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp. Then, without hesitation, he hurled the weapon toward Acheron with all of his strength.

Swoosh!

As if mocking his efforts, however, the +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp vanished midair, dispersing like smoke only to reappear in Siegfried’s hand.

“Neat little trick you got there,” Siegfried snarled sarcastically with a smirk.

“Resistance is futile here. I would suggest having a dialogue in this place rather than anything else,” Acheron said, his gaze fixated on Siegfried.

“What would I have to discuss with a madman like you? There’s nothing you can say that will interest me.”

“You call me mad, yet I ask, who here denies reason? This world… has already fallen into ruin.”

Siegfried raised a brow and sneered, “Oh, here we go again. Another ‘the world is broken, and I’m the only savior’ speech. You nutjobs are all the same. Do you take classes from the same place or something?”

Acheron ignored the sneering and lifted his hand to conjure a series of vivid haunting images that unfolded before Siegfried’s eyes.

The first image displayed a battlefield…

A dying soldier with his abdomen pierced by a spear was sprawled out on the bloody and muddy ground. His lifeless eyes stared into nothingness as he uttered his final words.

“Mother…”

“War,” Acheron said in a grave tone. Then, he waved his hand again, conjuring another scene. This time, it was a village consumed by despair.

“P-Please! Have mercy! We have given everything we have! We won’t last the winter without this—!”

“Silence!”

“M-My children will starve!”

“It’s the lord’s orders! Only death awaits those who refuse to pay their taxes!”

“Ack!”

A tax collector struck down a starving farmer while his family wailed in anguish. Then, a group of soldiers came in and seized whatever meager provisions they had left in their house.

“Greed,” Acheron said coldly.

The scenes shifted, revealing countless atrocities of senseless violence, corruption, and unending despair.

“Do you see it now? This world is no more than a cesspool of failures,” Acheron said, his tone unwavering and cold.

“A failure?”

“The creatures of this world that were blessed with intelligence have been corrupted by endless greed, senseless violence, madness, envy, hatred, and corruption.”

“Well, I have a newsflash for you. Life sucks, and it’s the same everywhere. Welcome to reality,” Siegfried said, sounding bored.

Acheron sounded no different from a third-rate villain often found anywhere, but the only difference was that he had the power to create a new world.

“Why didn’t you just go on a world tour and preach your gospel or something?”

“Do you truly fail to understand my vision?”

“How can I see the vision of a madman?” Siegfried sneered in response. Then, he shook his head and smirked, “No, no… That’s not right."

“Hmm?”

“You don’t want to cleanse this world.”

“...?”

“You just want to become a god.”

“What did you say?”

Siegfried didn't miss the shift in Acheron’s expression. The Immortal Alchemist had been maintaining a neutral expression during their whole discussion, but his emotions were revealed on his face for the first time just now.

“Be honest with me. You just want to become a god, right?” Siegfried asked, snickering in an annoying way.

“A god…”

“You’re drunk on your near-omnipotent powers, so you want to play god now and create a new world just to feed your ego.”

“That’s so preposterous that it’s not even worth responding to.”

“I knew it. You’re so delusional and narcissistic that you decided you wanted to become a god. Cleansing and purifying this world? Nah, that’s just an excuse to justify your own twisted mind.”

“Shut… that filthy mouth of yours.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“I will make you shut them.”

Acheron waved his hand once again and conjured hands from within the abyss that latched onto Siegfried.

The hands grabbed Siegfried with such force that he felt like he was going to get crushed.

“Why? Did I hit a nerve? Go on, tell me I’m wrong. Say it to my face that this isn’t about saving the world. It’s about you wanting to own it and be the one who rewrites the rules,” Siegfried pressed on. Then, he grinned and taunted, “It’s just you and me here, so you can be honest with me~”

“If that’s what you think is the truth, then so be it.”

“No, it’s not what I think. This is the truth. Facts! You went around acting like some cult leader for centuries, so you must have felt that you wanted something more. And that’s probably how you even fooled yourself with your own delusions.”

Siegfried taunted and annoyed Acheron.

‘Yeah, this bastard is just a lunatic wanting to be god. That’s all.’

He had confirmed from this short exchange that Acheron was nothing more than a madman.

How had he confirmed that?

The subtle twitching of Acheron’s eyebrows whenever he was taunted by Siegfried told the latter everything he had to know—Acheron was just trying his best to maintain a calm and composed facade.

“Did you mention endless greed a while ago?” Siegfried asked. Then, he put on the most annoying and punchable face in history before taunting, “Were you talking about yourself? You weren’t satisfied being some cult nutjob that you started desiring to become a god.”

“You dare…” Acheron muttered, his voice trembling. Then, he growled, “You dare call me greedy? You dare insult the creator of the new world?!”

Acheron was extremely composed and rarely showed his emotions. He was the epitome of calmness, and it wouldn't be strange for someone to call him a robot rather than a person, so the sight of him growling in anger and wearing his heart on his sleeve was truly unprecedented.

Siegfried smirked and pressed on, “Creator, my ass. What kind of creator wastes centuries trying to–”

It was then.

Fwooosh!

A blue flame ignited from the abyss and engulfed Siegfried.

“I, the God of Genesis, hereby smites you with divine retribution for your foolishness—” Acheron's face stiffened, noticing something amiss just as he was about to burn Siegfried to death.

Siegfried was still smirking and grinning despite being engulfed by the blue flame.

“...!”

Acheron was shocked. Siegfried was not burning at all. This was a realm he had created within his own consciousness, so he was omnipotent and an absolute authority in this space.

In other words, he was no different than a god who had created this world. He had technically created this world, as this was all happening within his own consciousness, so how… how was Siegfried van Proa going against the powers of a god?

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