novelraw Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Ch.68 Found
A vast blue lake.
I stared intently at its calm surface.
Unnervingly pristine and transparent—so much so that not even a single fish could be seen.
Here in the frigid Arctic, this lake should have already frozen solid, yet it lay as tranquil as a summer day.
Seeing it in person gave me chills—literally.
I pointed Levi’s Dagger toward the lake, and my undead penguins waddled straight toward it.
“How about sending ten in first, just to test the waters?”
A tactic impossible in any ordinary game—but attempting it in reality sent a thrilling mix of fear and excitement coursing through me.
It was an unfamiliar feeling.
—Plop.
The moment the penguins entered the lake…
—Whoosh!
A towering column of water erupted, and from it emerged a translucent female figure.
She was enormous.
I knew she’d be big, but the actual Queen of the Ocean dwarfed even my wildest imagination.
She must’ve been as tall as a five-story building.
A woman sculpted entirely from clear water—this was the Queen of the Ocean, the boss mob guarding the Trident of the Sea God.
—“Aaaaargh!”
Her deafening roar nearly split my eardrums, forcing me to clamp my hands over my ears.
“Bone Arrow!”
I drew Levi’s Dagger and fired multiple Bone Arrows, but the Queen of the Ocean simply swept her right arm wide.
A massive wave surged forth, sweeping away both my arrows and the penguins.
“Bone Armor!”
Grayish-white bones erupted from the ground, interlocking to form a cage-like prison around me.
—Splash!
“Ugh!”
The wave crashed down hard on both me and my Bone Armor.
I absolutely couldn’t let myself get sucked into the lake!
The tsunami that had just pushed me away now reversed direction, violently pulling me toward the lake.
“Ughh!”
I nearly lost my footing and got dragged in, but thick bones anchored my body in place.
“Phew! Cancel!”
For a split second, I couldn’t breathe under the crushing tide—now I gasped for air, panting heavily.
This was way harder than I expected.
All the penguins I’d sent into the lake had been flung back out. I silently commanded them all to charge in again.
—“Kraaah!”
The Queen of the Ocean shrieked furiously—apparently furious at the ‘defilement’ of her sacred lake.
“Damn it! Bone Spear!”
A sharp, massive bone lance pierced through her—but since it only struck her watery form and missed the true fairy within, it dealt negligible damage.
Ugh… and on top of that, it’s freezing…
The icy Arctic wind cut straight through my soaked clothes, chilling me to the bone.
I had to finish this fast—my body was shivering uncontrollably, beyond my control.
The Queen of the Ocean swung her arms wide again, summoning another wave.
I had to dodge.
“Bone Wall!”
The earth trembled as bones twisted upward from the ground, forming a massive barrier. I leapt atop it.
“Whoa—!”
Was it the water pressure? The wall shook violently—
—Crack!
and collapsed with a grotesque sound.
—Plop!
If I got dragged in now, I’d really die.
A warning flashed in my mind. I slammed Levi’s Dagger hard into the ground.
The immense water pressure yanked at me—and I was pulled toward the lake.
“Please stop… just stop…”
Even as I prayed while being dragged, Levi’s Dagger carving a furrow in the earth—the pressure suddenly vanished. I scrambled to my feet.
“Cough… cough…!”
Every inch of my body ached.
Her attacks covered a wide area, and her waves were both fast and powerful.
The water shielding the Queen of the Ocean made her extremely difficult to defeat with my relatively weak magic.
Not to mention—the core fairy herself possessed dragon-tier magical resistance, making conventional spells practically useless.
The orthodox approach would be physical attacks, but I had little confidence hitting a fairy hiding somewhere within that watery body.
What should I do?
As the Queen of the Ocean began another attack motion, I cast Bone Armor again—and layered a Barrier on top.
This should hold back the water, right?
For now, I just had to endure.
The boss mob’s wave crashed down, smothering my Bone Armor.
But my feeble Barrier couldn’t withstand the pressure—
—Crash!
and shattered, allowing a torrent of water to flood through the cracks in my Bone Armor.
“Ugh…!”
Just hold on. An opening will come.
When the tide finally receded, giving me a brief reprieve, I glanced at the penguins.
Out of hundreds, only about ten had managed to reach the Queen of the Ocean in the lake.
Just a little more…!
—Splash!
Another massive wave slammed into my Bone Armor.
I lost count of how many times I’d been hit.
Gasping for breath like I was being waterboarded, my mind grew foggy.
—“Grrraaah!”
Furious that I refused to be dragged in, the boss mob screamed like a madwoman.
“Ugh… damn it… my head’s already killing me… why the hell are you screaming like that?”
I muttered under my breath—
—Splash!
and another colossal wave engulfed my Bone Armor.
—Creak…
An ominous sound echoed.
***
Thick, lightless fog.
Clearly a technique created with Levi’s Dagger.
“Ah… seriously. I’m not even dying.”
Death meant nothing to someone like me, who possessed infinite regression.
In fact, I always used the knowledge gained right before death to secure the best possible outcome.
And yet… I didn’t feel bad about it at all.
The moment she gained this ability, the organization demanded a sacrifice from her.
Selena readily accepted—no, volunteered—believing it was divine providence.
She felt grateful that she could be used greatly to correct this broken world.
Selena had always stepped forward first into danger.
After all, even if she died, she’d simply return ten minutes into the past.
Maybe that’s why…she felt a strange flutter of excitement and warmth at being protected like this.
“Idiot… I’m not dying anyway.”
‘Still… not a bad feeling.’
But that didn’t mean she’d just sit here idly.
Selena had enough confidence in her own strength.
First, she needed a way out of this fog.
Since it was fog, maybe it was vulnerable to wind?
“Wind!”
A strong gust blew—but the black fog merely rippled, refusing to disperse.
“What do I do…?”
Selena bit her nails anxiously.
She worried—what if Hans had already fallen?
Hans possessed the power of Equality and other divine forces.
She couldn’t just abandon him.
She had to recover the divine power—even if it meant regressing again.
“Ugh! You idiot! If you die, I’ll have to die too! We absolutely have to take down the Guardian together!”
She searched desperately for a way out of the black fog.
“Wait… what if I try heat?”
Even if the fog wasn’t made of water, maybe heat would still affect it.
It was the only idea she had.
“Fire Well!”
Scorching flames began to illuminate the surroundings.
The fog seemed to thin, ever so slightly.
‘Just a little more…!’
“Fire Well!”
‘The fog really is clearing!’
“Fire Well!”
The lake came faintly into view.
‘Perfect. Now’s my chance.’
Selena sprinted toward the lake with all her might, terrified the black fog might trap her again.
“Hah… hah… Hans?”
She scanned the area for him—but he was nowhere in sight.
The first thing she saw was a massive cage of bones being pounded by relentless waves, and undead penguins scattered both inside and outside the lake.
Instinctively, she knew—
Hans was inside that huge bone prison.
But with holes all over it, water must be flooding in…
‘Could he really still be in there?’
Worry for Hans overwhelmed her.
‘Please… please be alive.’
She dashed toward the cage—
—Crack!
just as the bones shattered with a loud crash.
“No!”
Bones and a man were flung out by the force of the water.
Selena immediately sprinted toward Hans, who was being sucked into the lake by the current.
***
Swept away by the powerful waves, I fought desperately.
Death in the lake meant only agony—so I thrashed, clawing at anything to avoid being dragged in.
I stabbed Levi’s Dagger into the ground, but it wouldn’t hold.
Was this really the end?
Just as I resigned myself to fate—something grabbed my arm and pulled me from the raging current.
“Selena? How’d you get here?!”
“You idiot! After locking me away like that, you show up looking like this?!”
Selena had driven a long sword deep into the earth to anchor us both.
“Why’d you come here? It’s dangerous!”
I glanced sideways at the Queen of the Ocean—she was already winding up her next attack.
Time to play my last card.
Though it might kill Selena too if I wasn’t careful.
“Corpse Explosion!”
The undead penguins swimming toward the Queen of the Ocean swelled up—then detonated in all directions.
—Boom!
—Bang!
Blood, flesh, and white bone fragments sprayed everywhere.
—“Kyaaaah!”
A high-pitched female scream filled the air—was the core fairy finally exposed?
I couldn’t see her. Better retreat for now.
I wrapped my arms around Selena to pull her back—
“Hans, wait! Look over there.”
The Queen of the Ocean writhed in pain, shrieking.
The lake had turned red—from undead blood.
Could she be vulnerable to poison?
Undead blood carried potent toxins.
If that was causing her core fairy agony…
Fairies had strong magical resistance, but I couldn’t recall if they resisted poison too.
Yet the way she screamed suggested her poison resistance wasn’t high.
Then this was my chance.
I sheathed Levi’s Dagger and said,
“Selena, I’ll destroy that boss mob. When the fairy emerges from its body, you finish her off.”
“What?”
I pulled Kirke’s Staff from my spatial bag.
“That damn watery bitch—I’m about to blow her body apart. When the fairy pops out, you take her down.”
I’d freeze this entire lake solid.
“Stella Frost!”
At my incantation, the sky trembled. Space warped—and a colossal ice meteor slowly materialized above.
A spell of absolute cold capable of freezing everything.
If Meteor represented the pinnacle of fire magic,
Stella Frost stood at the apex of ice magic—literally summoning a cosmic ice meteor.
Perhaps the strain of wielding power beyond my capacity…sapped all strength from my body.
—Thud.
“Hans?!”
“I’m fine! Focus on the boss mob!”
If I missed this chance, there might not be another.
I had to end it—here and now.
I could feel the Queen of the Ocean’s panic as she saw the massive ice star plummeting from the sky.
She unleashed a tremendous geyser upward—
—but the moment it touched the meteor, the water froze solid.
—Kraaang!
The meteor plunged into the lake, instantly flash-freezing it.
“Hah… hah…”
Where was the fairy?
The meteor had frozen even the Queen of the Ocean solid.
Was the fairy trapped inside the ice too?
“Ugh!”
My head throbbed as if it would split open.
“Hurry… before the ice melts… find the fairy…!”
“I found her.”
“What?”
Selena shot forward and lunged at the frozen statue of the Queen of the Ocean—
—Slice!
cleaving the massive ice figure clean in two, as easily as slicing through cabbage.
—Crash!
As the shattered ice collapsed in all directions, I lost consciousness.
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