MTLNOVEL chapter 409 - Tenth Floor Boss
For the past few hours, Taufik had only one focus, cataloging every boss monster within the first ten floors of the Realm Gate.
Now, he stood at the edge of the tenth floor's boss chamber.
And it was different.
The air here was thick, too thick. Every breath clung to his lungs like molded wood, like damp rot buried under centuries of silence. Even his skin felt it, the way one might sense a grave long forgotten.
The forest had gone quiet.
Unnaturally quiet.
No birdsong. No insect sprites. Not even the whisper of wind through the trees. Just a dead, heavy stillness that pressed down like a judgment.
Ahead lay a clearing ringed by massive, petrified trees, giants long dead, their bark split open like old scars.
Sickly green light pulsed faintly through their withered veins, casting an eerie glow over the ground. The soil beneath his boots throbbed with a rhythm, slow, deep, as though something enormous slumbered beneath the forest's skin.
Then he saw it.
A towering colossus of root, bark, bone, and ancient sorrow. Its form was half-merged with the land, one arm rooted deep into the earth, as if even now it tried to hold dominion over this ruined temple of nature.
Antlers like fractured moons crowned its deer-like skull, and within its hollow chest, a sickly green heart flickered, dim, unsteady, like a dying lantern at the end of time.
Taufik stood still, unreadable. Only the faint reflection of the system interface shimmered in his eyes.
---
[Boss Monster Identified: Virelyth, the Hollowheart Warden - Level 150
Threat Classification: Cataclysmic Entity
Type: Corrupted Spirit Beast
Engagement Status: Dormant
Caution: Waking the Warden without proper preparation may result in instant annihilation]
---
"...So floors one to ten are all forest-themed," Taufik muttered, arms crossed, tone dry.
He didn't need to fight it.
Not yet.
This was the final node. The last piece of data for the first to the Tenth floor of the Infinite Tower. And yet, he couldn't look away from the towering form before him.
"Look at you," he whispered, stepping just a little closer. His shadow slid across the mossy threshold of the boss arena. "A protector twisted until it became the very thing it once stood against..."
Virelyth did not move.
But the clearing breathed. A slow, seismic exhale. The world shuddered, almost imperceptibly as if the forest itself recognized him.
Taufik's gaze sharpened.
"So this is what becomes of a world that loses its god"
---
[Warning: Aggro Radius Breached - Warden's Awareness Rising…]
---
He stopped at the edge of the roots.
Analyzing.
Its massive ribcage, if it could be called that remained cracked open, revealing the Hollowheart within. Exposed. Not weak… but vulnerable.
"That core... It's not just for show. It's feeding directly from the realm's mana circuit," he muttered, fingers glowing faintly. He traced sigils into the air, quick calculations, theory forming mid-spell. "If I had five seconds of silence and elevation… I could pierce it straight through"
Then, his eyes narrowed.
A glyph.
Carved deep into the roots at its base. Old. Faded.
"...A divine mark," he murmured, voice tight with unease. "It was sealed. But the binding's broken"
As he stepped back...
The roots beneath his boots twitched.
Not from wind. Not from spell. But something... reflexive.
Above, the hollow skull ignited. Two viridian flames roared to life in its eye sockets, and the Hollowheart flared, its green light now burning bright behind ribbed armor.
---
[Aggro Triggered - Virelyth Awakened]
[Realm Collapse Protocol Initiated: No Escape Until Boss is Defeated]
---
The world roared.
Taufik froze midstep. His voice didn't tremble, but there was a flicker in his smile.
"...Heh," he exhaled, tilting his head slightly. "So you weren't sleeping. You were watching"
The forest detonated into chaos.
Virelyth rose, its body groaning like an ancient mountain waking from death.
Roots tore from the ground like snapping chains.
Vines cracked outward.
Petrified branches splintered.
Bark peeled and twisted into wicked shapes.
From its chest erupted a wave of psychic static that shattered the air... soundless, yet deafening.
A corruption aura flooded the clearing, choking, withering, burning the life from the world.
Taufik raised a single hand.
Darkness swirled into a compact sphere, crackling with unnatural force.
The corruption wave surged forward-
Then froze.
And shattered mid-air like brittle glass.
Taufik's eyes gleamed. "Let's see if you're more than bark and rot"
In an instant, Virelyth slammed its massive arms into the ground, unleashing a barrage of twisted Nature Spikes.
The terrain ruptured with thorny death.
But Taufik had already vanished, blurring upward like a shadow uncaged.
High above the beast, suspended midair.
He conjured a black lance of light.
And dropped it.
It plunged straight into the Hollowheart.
A direct hit.
Virelyth staggered, a haunting, wordless shriek echoing through the trees. Its bark split open, but even as the wound sizzled, the bark grew back, sealing it shut.
"...Regeneration," Taufik muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Interesting"
He landed, cloak swirling.
Above, the sky cracked open, green lightning branching like veins across a bleeding wound in the heavens.
Virelyth roared again, a guttural, ear-splitting cry that shook the canopy. Its wrath had truly awakened.
Taufik stood still.
Unshaken.
The mountain of rage before him didn't faze him. If anything, it amused him.
In one swift motion, he drew his katana from the Inventory.
A soft *shing* echoed as the blade caught the lightning overhead.
Taufik smiled, not a confident smirk, not a battle-hardened grin, but the kind of smile a boy wears when he unwraps a brand-new toy.
"…First, let's see what your weakness is"
As he spoke, the blade burst into flames.
"SwordMagic: Fire Form-"
The ignition came with a sharp *whoosh* fire coiling up the steel like a living serpent. But this was no mundane flame.
It was a fire shaped by sheer will and intent.
The fire painted long shadows across the ruined forest floor.
Bark blistered just from the pressure, and the mist that clung to the clearing evaporated in furious hisses.
Then Virelyth charged.
Faster than it had any right to.
Its massive antlers scraped the sky, and every step shattered the earth, pulverizing ancient trees like twigs.
But Taufik had already moved... He was beneath it.
A single, fluid motion. One upward slash across the beast's foreleg.
The blade connected.
A shockwave of fire erupted from the wound.
And for the first time... The bark didn't regenerate.
The flames clung to the wound, feeding off the beast's spirit, burrowing deeper into the enchanted wood like a nest of angry wasps.
"Fire," Taufik muttered. "Confirmed... you're weak to it"
---
[Elemental Vulnerability Discovered: FIRE]
[Regeneration Temporarily Suppressed]
---
"...Noted"
Virelyth howled, the sound resonating with such soul-deep anguish that even the trees screamed in reply.
Then, it drove both fists into the ground.
Taufik's danger sense screamed.
---
[Rootveil Prison: Active]
---
The Earth erupted.
Bark and bone coiled into a cage around him, twisted like ribcages, like something grown instead of built. Roots screamed from the soil, locking him in a shell of darkness.
Then-
Hallucinations.
Eyes.
Voices.
"You were too late... always too late"
"You abandoned them. Why?"
"Why? Why?? Why??? Why?!!"
But Taufik didn't blink.
Illusion was a child's game to him.
His eyes began to glow, radiant, crystalline. The All-Seeing Eyes flared to life, piercing through all falsehood.
No trick of the mind would work on him.
He gripped the katana and drove it into the ground.
"SwordMagic: Fire Form - Blooming Execution!"
A ring of fire exploded outward. A blooming lotus of heat and death.
Illusions vaporized in the wave.
Roots blackened and cracked, snapping like bones under the weight of a god's fury.
The prison collapsed into embers.
And through the settling ash, Taufik stepped forward.
Unburned.
Unbowed.
Unstoppable.
Virelyth shrieked again.
The sound twisted the very air, and the ground responded. The forest floor writhed and split into a carpet of diseased vines, pulsing with unnatural life.
From grotesque blossoms, clouds of glowing Blinding Spores erupted, bursting like fungal fireworks.
Taufik's vision flickered with threads of gold.
---
[Status Effect: Confusion - Resisted]
---
His flame surged in response, flaring bright and wild. The inferno around him incinerated the spores midair, their dust curling into nothing.
His blade, his katana, throbbed with purpose.
Then-
Taufik vanished.
A blur of movement, his Flash Step left scorched air in his wake as he reappeared directly before the Warden's twisted, mask-like face.
With a shout, he drove his katana straight into Virelyth's eye socket.
A geyser of green essence exploded outward. The monster howled, staggering backward, crashing into a wall of ancient trees. Bark shattered. Wood screamed.
The false armor peeled away in chunks.
Beneath it pulsed the Hollowheart, a grotesque core burning with viridian fire. Veins of raw mana spilled out from it, threading into the forest, making the very air unstable... chaotic.
Then the Warden raised its arms.
High above its head, the sky fractured.
---
[Final Skill: Realm Annihilation - Charging: 15 Seconds]
[Warning: Spatial Lock Active - Escape Disabled]
---
Taufik narrowed his eyes. His body trembled, not from fear, but from anticipation.
"…Second phase?" he whispered to his blade.
In his hands, the fire dimmed, giving way to brilliance. A radiant white glow bloomed around the edge of the katana, intense and pure.
Then he stepped forward.
"SwordMagic: Fusion - Fire and Light!"
....
...
..
.