Greg's eyes sharpened. Facing Huang Quan as she lunged at him again, he no longer retreated.
"Entwine!"
Five tentacles formed from pitch-black mana shot out, flexibly coiling around Huang Quan's swinging claws and mutated limbs. Although they were quickly corroded by the slime seeping from her crystals, they successfully caused a momentary delay in her attack rhythm.
Greg seized the opportunity, and the pitch-black armor covered his arms and feet once more!
This time, he didn't choose a long-range attack. Instead, he funneled most of his remaining mana into the armor, turning himself into a bolt of black lightning as he lunged at Huang Quan, who was slightly restrained by the tentacles!
At the moment they were about to collide, Greg silently recited the trigger word in his mind! LV5 Whimpering, activate!
Huang Quan's crimson soulfire suddenly froze, and her frenzied attack movements came to a visible halt. Although the effect only lasted five seconds, for an entity of her level, it was a fatal opening!
Greg intended to take the chance to thrust his right hand, covered by the Dark-Erosion Armament, directly into Huang Quan's body. He planned to use the devouring power of the dark attribute to consume the soul power within her, thereby destroying her Soul Core.
However, beyond Greg's expectations, the moment his shadow-wrapped hand touched the shattered crystals on Huang Quan's surface, the dark mana on his arm seemed to scent an exquisite feast and suddenly went into a violent, uncontrollable frenzy!
"Damn it, why did this power suddenly become so strong!?"
Greg tried to suppress it, but the mana was like a long-starved black tide. Using his arm as a bridge, it surged frantically toward Huang Quan, instantly enveloping her whole body!
"Aaaaagh—!!!"
Huang Quan let out a soul-shattering screech of extreme agony. This scream was filled with endless pain and... a source-level, irresistible fear!
Her mangled body struggled and twisted violently within the ink-thick shadows, but it was futile.
The pitch-black shadows seemed to possess a life of their own, frantically burrowing into her through every crystal crack and wound, aiming straight for her core.
In the moment before her consciousness was completely swallowed, Huang Quan's flickering crimson soulfire stared fixedly at a void in the distance.
"Demon King... Lord..."
"Please... beware..."
"Your... daughter..."
The fluctuations stopped abruptly.
The thick shadows surrounding her suddenly shrank inward and then slowly dissipated into the air.
Huang Quan's distorted and mutated body vanished along with them.
No wreckage was left behind, not even a trace of her aura remained, as if she had never existed.
Greg remained in his thrusting posture, stunned.
The Dark-Erosion Armament on his arm slowly receded.
He looked down at his hand, then at the empty space ahead. A cold and eerie feeling washed over him.
"She was just... eaten?"
While Greg felt no sympathy for her, seeing a humanoid creature devoured by his own mana still left him feeling slightly unsettled.
But this discomfort was quickly diluted by his body's feedback.
A massive surge of pure mana, like a bursting dam, flowed back into Greg's body through the mana connection that hadn't fully retracted!
Greg let out a muffled groan, feeling his meridians throb with a slight pain, but it was mostly the pleasure of overflowing power.
The phantom of the Dark-Erosion Armament on his arm flickered a few more times. The armor's form seemed to show a trend toward evolving into a more complete state, but it eventually stopped and faded away completely due to insufficient energy or the lack of a key catalyst.
"Huff... huff..."
Greg dropped to one knee, gasping for air.
The battle just now, especially the berserk dark mana and the energy backflow, had taken a massive toll on his mental and physical strength.
At this moment, his mana was nearly empty, and soreness and fatigue radiated from every part of his body.
"In any case, though the process was completely off-script, it's finally over."
Greg then recalled Huang Quan's final words.
"Her last words... the Demon King's daughter... she must have been referring to Melina, right?"
Deducing further, since she was connected to Melina, was a Demon, and had appeared in human territory, she must have been an executive of the Demon King Cult!
Unlike Rock Spike, who had appeared in the original story, Greg originally had no information about her.
But since her final words were a warning for the Demon King to beware of Melina... it meant she had also discovered Melina's connection to the Mother of Depravity and had clearly chosen not to side with her.
With this reasoning, Greg's previous doubts were answered.
The true mastermind behind this incident was undoubtedly Melina. Her reason for pushing the event forward this time was likely to use others to eliminate her opposition.
Although he didn't know why Melina had made an arrangement that deviated from the original plot, her goal had indeed been achieved.
"What a terrifying woman. It's definitely best to avoid getting involved with her as much as possible."
Greg suddenly remembered that many players used to say Melina, the heroine who only appeared out of nowhere in Act Three, shouldn't have been the Primary Heroine.
But now, Greg felt that the idea of her just appearing out of nowhere was incorrect, because her shadow had been visible everywhere since Act One.
"Whatever, no use thinking about that now. I should hurry up and scavenge."
After catching his breath, he stood up, bracing himself on his knees.
"Tap, tap, tap, tap..."
Just then, a flurry of dense and chaotic footsteps suddenly echoed from the secret passage he had opened at the tomb's entrance!
Greg tensed up, forcing himself to stay alert as he stood.
"Is it the undead I didn't clear out following me in through the passage?"
Damn it, of all times... it looked like he would have to deal with more trouble first.
He shook out his stiff wrists and neck, staring sharply at the entrance. The little mana he had left began to circulate slowly, preparing for a potential battle.
The footsteps grew closer, accompanied by faint human voices.
Then, a familiar figure was the first to burst out from the shadows of the passage. Her gray hair was a bit messy, but her delicate face was unmistakable: it was Victoria.
The two of them locked eyes and simultaneously froze.
"What's going on? I just finished the fight here. How did that little gray-haired brat find her way here?"
Greg was confused, but he quickly noticed a blind spot.
And that was:
After following him on a dungeon run, Victoria's current level was far higher than it should have been in the original timeline. Even if the undead outside hadn't been weakened and she didn't have Lilith's help, she was indeed strong enough to fight her way here on her own!
What made Greg's skin crawl even more was that after Victoria stepped out of the passage, a large group of people surged out behind her!
There were men and women, all appearing to be academy students, about twenty of them in total. Many of them were looking at Victoria with expressions of pure adoration.
They were excitedly discussing something while peering curiously at the interior of the tomb.
But when everyone's gaze fell on Greg standing in the center, then swept to the scattered remains of the Undead Knight's massive armor and the traces of battle throughout the tomb—
The noisy tomb suddenly fell into a dead silence.
Rate on N.U.
