CHAPTER 92: RANK II TRIAL 3

The scream of the Monarch was not just sound—it was a blade.

Glassless windows shattered, towers cracked further, and even the revenant corpses split like paper under its echo. Rhys dropped to one knee, blood running from his ears, his vision ringing with static.

Bounce snarled, silver aura flaring, his mane blazing like moonfire to shield Rhys from the worst of the impact. Puddle floated higher, her halos spinning furiously, weaving a protective barrier of light and shadow that deflected the lingering shockwaves.

The Monarch stepped into view.

It was titanic, twice the size of the Juggernaut, its body a tapestry of rot and shadowed flesh stitched with veins of starless black fire. Wings torn and ragged still beat with crushing force, and its talons gouged trenches into the cobblestones just by moving.

Then the system’s voice rang, cold and merciless:

[Boss Encounter: Monarch of Night – Calamity Incarnate]

Objective: Endure or Destroy.

Rhys spat out blood and rose, Verdant Scholar flaring emerald runes as if answering the challenge. "Endure? No... we finish this."

The Monarch lunged.

Its talon scythed down like a mountain falling. Bounce dashed forward, Moonstep igniting beneath his claws. He blurred, intercepting, silver claws slashing against the black talons in a burst of sparks. The clash sent shockwaves tearing through the ruins, ripping stone up in slabs.

"Silver Rend!" Rhys shouted.

Bounce obeyed instinctively—his claws lit in arcs of silver light, carving deep gouges into the Monarch’s wrist. The creature shrieked, a void-sound that bent the air.

The Monarch retaliated. Its wings spread wide, then snapped downward. From the sky fell feathers—if they could be called that—shards of obsidian and fire, raining like spears.

"Puddle!" Rhys barked.

"Aqua Veil—Expand!"

A shimmering dome of water burst outward from Puddle, catching the first volley. But the feathers burned through water like acid. She twisted her other hand—"Shadow Maw!"—and the ground itself rose, gaping black jaws snapping closed, swallowing volleys of feathers whole.

Even so, half the city square was obliterated in seconds. Towers collapsed. Streets caved in.

Rhys dashed forward through the chaos, his aura surging. "Emerald Step!"

He vanished in a flash of green and reappeared at the Monarch’s ankle, Verdant Scholar flaring.

"Scholar’s Sever!"

His blade drew a line of green fire that climbed the Monarch’s leg like a burning vine, exploding upward as it reached the knee. The monster stumbled a half step, its talon gouging a trench the length of a street.

Bounce leapt, vaulting off falling rubble. "Silver Fang Barrage!" His claws struck in a storm, each hit a miniature explosion of moonlight, shredding the Monarch’s shoulder. Flesh and shadow splattered, reforming slower this time.

The Monarch roared. Its chest split open, revealing a ribcage that was not bone but a swirling abyss. From it came tendrils of shadow, tipped with screaming faces.

"Shit—!" Rhys braced.

The tendrils lashed. One caught Bounce mid-air, slamming him into the ground with bone-cracking force. Another darted for Rhys, too fast—

"Divine Reflection!" Puddle’s voice rang like a bell. Her halo flared, light exploding outward. The tendril struck the barrier and recoiled, snapping back toward its master. For a moment, the Monarch’s own abyss devoured part of itself, shrieking in fury.

Rhys seized the opening. "Scholar’s Verdict!"

He thrust Verdant Scholar forward, emerald runes circling his body like scripture. The blade released a concentrated beam of green light, piercing straight into the Monarch’s chest wound. The abyss writhed, screaming faces dissolving in the emerald glow.

The Monarch reeled back but countered instantly.

"Oblivion Howl."

It screamed again—this time focused. A cone of black sound swept across the plaza, disintegrating stone, turning revenant corpses to dust, and hurling Rhys backward through two walls.

He slammed to the ground, coughing blood, but pushed himself up, blade still in hand. His vision blurred red. His ears bled freely.

"Not...done..." he growled.

Bounce staggered up beside him, his body broken but his eyes burning silver. Puddle descended, aura flickering, nearly spent.

Rhys raised Verdant Scholar, meeting both their eyes. "One last push. Together."

They moved.

Bounce howled, unleashing Lunar Domain, a circle of silver light that spread across the battlefield, empowering Rhys’s strikes and strengthening Puddle’s spells. Puddle raised both hands—light and shadow spiraled, merging into a single unstable core.

The Monarch lunged again, its abyssal chest gaping wide, black fire flaring to consume them.

"Now!" Rhys roared.

Bounce leapt higher than ever, his claws glowing with the force of the moon itself. He struck the Monarch’s face, blinding one eye in a cascade of silver fire.

Puddle hurled the unstable orb into its chest. "Equilibrium Burst!"

The orb detonated—half golden radiance, half void, the balance collapsing into pure annihilation. The Monarch staggered, its abyss torn wide open.

Rhys charged, every vein burning with emerald light. He leapt, Verdant Scholar blazing like a green sun.

"Verdant Scholar—Final Theorem!"

He plunged the blade into the abyssal core. Runes erupted across the Monarch’s body like vines, weaving, constricting, then exploding outward in a storm of emerald fire.

The Monarch screamed, wings shredding to ash, its body unraveling into dust and starlight. The explosion tore the sky itself, ripping crimson apart to reveal the first pale light of dawn.

Silence.

Rhys fell to one knee, Verdant Scholar buried in the ground before him, his chest heaving, his vision dim. Bounce collapsed beside him, battered but alive. Puddle drifted down slowly, her light guttering but steady.

Then it twitched.

The broken abyss inside its chest did not close. It widened.

Black fire surged from the wound, pouring like tar, crawling over its body. Its rotten flesh sloughed off in strips, molten shadow dripping like wax. Beneath the ruin, a second form stirred—leaner, sharper, forged in pure void. Its ribs jutted like blades, its wings grew jagged, and the burning eyes flared white-hot.

The Monarch rose taller than before. Stronger. Faster. The very air bent around it, devouring the dawn Rhys had forced into the sky.

"Shit..." Rhys muttered, his knuckles white on Verdant Scholar. "It’s not done."

The beast blurred. One moment it loomed before them—the next, it was on top of him. A talon crashed down, faster than before, faster than something that size should move. Rhys raised his blade just in time, the impact rattling his bones, the cobblestones beneath him splitting apart like glass.

Bounce roared, leaping onto its arm. His claws, lit with silver light, dug deep, but the Monarch’s shadow skin burned back, eating into his paws like acid. With a brutal twist, the monster flung Bounce aside. He smashed through a spire, the rubble collapsing in a cloud.

"Bounce!" Rhys shouted, but the Monarch pressed harder, forcing him down.

Puddle intervened—"Abyssal Grasp!"—dark tendrils lashed upward, binding the Monarch’s legs. For a heartbeat, it faltered. She followed with "Light Bullets!"—spheres of radiance hammered into its skull, sizzling across the void-flesh.

The Monarch reacted with something new. Its wings snapped outward, and instead of feathers, streams of black fire whipped across the plaza. They weren’t projectiles—they were rivers of night, slicing through stone and light alike.

The tendrils burned away. The buildings collapsed. Puddle shrieked as one stream grazed her aura, cutting it to ribbons.

"Puddle!" Rhys barked, pushing with every muscle in his arms. He twisted, rolling out from under the talon, then slashed upward—Verdant Scholar screaming with emerald light. "Emerald Break!"

The blade cracked across the Monarch’s arm, cleaving a gouge that bled molten shadow. The monster reeled, but instead of weakening, it only grew more frenzied.

Its chest opened again—this time wider. Not just tendrils, but a storm of screaming faces poured out, thousands of them, swirling in a vortex that consumed the square. The wailing drowned out thought. The air itself bent, dragging Rhys toward the abyss.

"No—!" He slammed Verdant Scholar into the ground. Emerald vines erupted, anchoring him against the pull. His teeth bared, every muscle straining. "Bounce! Now!"

From the rubble, Bounce emerged, bloodied but blazing, his silver aura flaring brighter than ever. He launched upward in a blur, his claws igniting into a radiant storm. "Silver Fang Barrage!"

He ripped into the Monarch’s ribs, tearing shadow apart, each strike sending bursts of silver fire into the vortex. The screaming faces burned away one by one.

Puddle raised both hands, her halos spinning at a furious speed. "Equilibrium Burst!" The unstable orb of light and shadow formed again, but this time larger, unstable, shaking with raw power. She hurled it into the exposed chest.

The orb detonated. The blast lit the ruins brighter than the false dawn, ripping chunks of shadow-flesh away. The Monarch shrieked, staggering, its wings shredding as light consumed its abyss.

Rhys seized the final chance. He sprinted, body screaming, vision blurred. Emerald runes crawled up his arms, his chest, his blade. "Verdant Scholar—Final Theorem!"

He leapt high, the world slowing around him. The Monarch’s single burning eye turned, its maw opening to swallow him whole—

And Rhys plunged the sword into its core.

Runes exploded outward, weaving across its body like chains of emerald flame. They constricted, burning, then erupted in a storm of vines and fire.

The Monarch’s scream shook the world, louder than ever—but this time it was not power. It was death.