Encounter 31: wraith vs God!
Underground Chamber – Academy's Forbidden Summoning Hall
The summoning hall groaned. The air thickened, not with heat or cold—but with rot. As if time itself was warping around them.
The sigils pulsed erratically on the stone floor, vomiting arcs of blackened mana. The glowing cracks in the ground pulsed like veins, fed by something deep beneath.
Ardan Grey and Principal Thorne stood ready. The chains that once sealed this place had already been broken. There was no turning back now.
A sickening snap echoed through the cavern as space twisted.
Then came the stench—a wave of decay, like a thousand corpses blooming in fast-forward.
And she arrived.
Xexaria.
But she wasn't whole.
Her form didn't walk in—it pushed through reality.
A hulking, monstrous shape, twenty feet tall at least. Vaguely humanoid—but wrong. Her legs weren't legs. They twisted and flowed like roots or tendrils. Her arms stretched too long, bones cracking and reforming under melting flesh. Parts of her flickered between corpse and crystalline parasite. Her head was crowned with jagged, rotting horns, and dozens of eyes blinked in and out of existence across her form.
And she was leaking—parts of her dissolving, failing to hold. As if the world was rejecting her very presence.
> "So this is the price of haste," she crooned. Her voice echoed in multiple tones at once—woman, child, corpse.
> "You've wounded my arrival, little Sage."
Thorne flinched slightly.
Ardan's eyes narrowed.
> "Sage?" he asked. "Who the hell are you talking about?"
Xexaria's massive head lowered, six of her flickering eyes focusing beyond them.
> "The one who shattered the chains. The one who builds without magic. The one whose blueprints ripple even across dimensions."
> "The Black Wraith. Or should I call him... Great Sage of Collapse?"
She tilted her grotesque head.
> "I came for your world—untainted, lush, ignorant. I came to feast."
"But he... ruined it. He delayed my form. He fractured the ritual. My vessel is imperfect."
The cavern trembled beneath her weight as she leaned closer. Each breath she exhaled carried waves of corruption. Stone cracked. Steel withered.
> "Still… I will not leave empty-handed."
Thorne raised his staff. His voice low, ready to summon fire.
> "Then we'll send you back broken."
Ardan, blade drawn, stepped forward too.
> "You want the Sage?" he growled. "You'll have to rot through us first."
Xexaria laughed—or perhaps glitched. The sound twisted through the air like gurgling echoes in a sewer pipe.
> "Then bleed for him."
The moment Xexaria stepped forward, the floor cracked beneath her bulk. Her partial manifestation twisted reality around her—walls dripped like wax, torches flickered out, and magic itself bent unnaturally.
Principal Thorne struck first.
> "🔊 [Elemental Sequence: Earth Break—Flame Storm!]"
He stomped his foot, and a ring of stone pillars erupted around Xexaria's lower body—then exploded in a chain reaction as fire surged from beneath. A towering gout of flame swallowed the malformed god's legs, roasting the corrupted flesh.
But she didn't scream.
She swayed with the impact, her body deforming, limbs shifting in new grotesque directions.
> "Oh, fire… how quaint." she rasped.
Her left arm bloated, splitting into dozens of tendril fingers, each ending in snapping, jagged mouths. They shot toward Thorne—
Clang!
A blur of steel intercepted.
Ardan Grey danced between the tendrils, his black-bladed spear slicing through them, severing flesh, only for the pieces to writhe and regrow seconds later.
> "She's regenerating too fast!" Ardan barked, flipping back as another tendril slammed into the ground where he stood a moment before.
> "She's not supposed to be here," Thorne muttered, already preparing another spell. "This plane is rejecting her—but not fast enough."
The roof shuddered again. More arcane veins spread across the walls like fungus. The room was warping by the second.
Suddenly—
> "𝘎𝘳𝘳𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘏!!!"
Xexaria screeched, and from her torso, a spectral wave of corruption erupted—a cone of psychic energy laced with soul-breaking despair.
Both men stumbled.
Thorne's shield cracked. Blood ran from Ardan's nose.
> "Keep moving!" Ardan shouted. "Don't let her anchor!"
The two flanked her—Ardan hurling mana-laced javelins he conjured with stolen magic stones, while Thorne cast a ring of petrification under her, trying to slow her down.
> "Sage… you hear me, don't you?" Xexaria's voice echoed not just in the room, but inside their minds.
> "You think you've sealed me in flesh and chain. You've only delayed the decay."
> "This world will know rot. It will learn to kneel."
She reared up—
And with a maddening twist, a second face burst from her shoulder, screaming curses in a dead tongue.
BOOM!
Thorne blasted her again, throwing her massive body backward—slamming her into the half-formed summoning gate that now flickered with unstable power.
> "If she touches that fully... she'll stabilize." Thorne gasped.
> "Then we don't let her get near it," Ardan replied, stabbing a rune-sigil into the ground.
He whispered into a small communicator—a single crystal earpiece. His voice gruff, but hopeful.
> "Rolien... hurry the hell up."
Outside the Warped Academy Grounds
The courtyard was barely holding together. Faint tremors rolled under the stone paths as cracks spread like veins across the walls of the school. The air smelled of burning magic and old blood.
Rolien—masked, armored, and ready—skidded to a halt near the student evacuation line.
> "Knights!" he called, voice masked and distorted. "I need two squads to start immediate evacuation toward the southern hills. No questions. Just move."
The guards saluted out of instinct—his presence, his tone, his gear—they screamed authority. Whoever this man was, he wasn't someone to defy.
He turned, eyes scanning for...
There. Near the fountain.
Sophia.
Bloodied. Slumped. Her once-pristine hair matted with dust and red. Beside her were Leto and Mira, also wounded but holding firm. A faint golden glow flickered around them—the Crown Prince stood over them, palm hovering mid-air, casting emergency healing spells.
Their eyes met.
Even through his helmet, Sophia recognized him. Maybe it was the posture. The stillness. Or just that pull she always felt when he was near.
> "We've already sent an emergency signal to the capital," the Crown Prince said without looking up. His voice tight. "Reinforcements will arrive in thirty minutes."
Rolien gave a small nod and turned to leave—but a hand caught his prosthetic arm.
> "Please..."
Sophia's voice was weak. "Save the others."
She was gripping Punchline—the cold surface of his drake-forged prosthetic.
Rolien paused. No words. Just a glance.
Then... another nod.
And he dashed.
Faster than any human should. A blur of black and red, disappearing between the broken hallways like a wraith vanishing in the dark.
Sophia smiled faintly, her eyes glistening.
> "Come back to me, my hero..." she whispered.
---
Dormitory Wing – Rolien's Room
The door didn't just open—it exploded inward from a kick.
He moved fast.
Straight to the hidden compartment beneath his bed—voice activating the seal.
> "Authorization: Black Wraith. Clearance Zero-One."
The floor shifted.
A metal vault rose.
He opened it.
Inside lay the prototype—the forbidden piece of engineering he'd hoped to never use unless it was the end.
> Groteus Arm: Gerberra
A massive black gauntlet, lined with red mana vents and serpent coiling marks from its integrated drake core. Power lines sparked like nerves twitching to life.
> ❗[System Alert: Prototype Detected. WARNING: Stability 42% — Orecalcum not present. Fire Core stress at critical limit.]
> ❗[Skill Access Unlocked: Hauling Punch – Ignition Ready]
❗[Hummer Strike – Shockwave Variant Enabled]
❗[Flame Detonator Core – Unsafe. Manual Override Required]
> "...Just don't blow up in my face," Rolien muttered, strapping the prototype onto his right arm. His second Punchline now replaced.
Then he reached under the tray. One last thing.
A black case. He popped it open.
> A new sword, forged using scraps of the Groteus scales and fang bone.
> ❗[Weapon Acquired: Crimson Fang – High-density mono-melded drake alloy. Heat-resilient. Built for cutting through abominations.]
He slung it across his back and grabbed his experimental Beretta, slotting it into his thigh holster.
> "Let's end this."
He steps out of the dormitory window, standing tall on the burning rooftops of the academy.
Behind the smoke and crumbling stone...
He sees the fire and corruption rising from below.
He jumps.
Underground – Summoning Chamber
The world trembled.
Magic warped.
Stone cracked.
Xexaria screamed.
Ardan and Principal Thorne held their ground, both badly injured, barely managing to shield themselves from the twisted goddess's unraveling presence.
> "She's not even stable!" Thorne spat, raising a crumbling earth wall to block a sweeping arc of psychic fire. "She's a half-formed mistake of a god!"
> "And still strong enough to kill us," Ardan muttered, spear in pieces, blood dripping down his cheek.
Just then—
BOOM!
A streak of shadow and fire smashed through the ceiling.
A figure dropped down like a meteor.
Black Wraith.
Cloaked in all-black tactical gear, ghost mask painted in bone-white. On his right arm: the grotesque, ominously glowing Gerberra gauntlet—veins of deep crimson coursing across its surface like molten lava.
As his boots hit the stone floor, a chime echoed inside his skull.
> ❗[WARNING: You are now linked to a power beyond this dimension.]
❗[Gerberra System Engaged – Core Power: UNKNOWN SOURCE]
❗[All Stats: Temporarily Amplified x41]
❗[WARNING: Exceeding time limit will cause bodily degradation.]
A holographic window shimmered in front of his eyes:
---
> Status: [Rolien Edric Grey]
Class: [Unknown]
Level: 29
• STR: 182 → 7,462
• AGI: 201 → 8,241
• END: 175 → 7,175
• DEX: 198 → 8,118
• VIT: 160 → 6,560
• INT: 93 → 3,813 (Locked)
Equipped: [Gerberra – Prototype Core Arm]
Power Source: [UNREAL ENGINE: OUTSIDE TIME]
System Link: STABLE [38:00 Minutes Remaining]
❗Skill Tree Partially Unlocked:
– Hauling Punch (Ignition-Enabled)
– Hummer Strike [Shockwave Variant]
– Detonator Grasp
– Overload Detonation (⚠️ LOCKED)
System Commentary: "Congratulations, you absolute lunatic."
---
Rolien's breath misted through the mask.
> "Tch. Let's get this over with."
Across from him, Xexaria twitched, her unstable eye sockets twisting toward him.
> "You carry a scent… forbidden… forged in the fracture…"
> "You're damn right I do."
Gerberra hissed as heat built around the punch core.
He turned to Ardan and Thorne.
> "Get out of here. I've got 38 minutes before this thing either kills her... or kills me."
Thorne: "You'll never last that long alone!"
> "I don't need to. I just need her to fall first."
Xexaria lets out a scream that cracks every wall in the chamber.
Rolien, unfazed, clenches his fist as Gerberra ignites, crimson flame coiling around the limb like a dragon unchained.
> "C'mon, freak. Let's see if a god can bleed."
🔔 System Notification – Special Mission Unlocked!
> [High Priority Mission: THE GODBREAKER'S GAMBLE]
(Status: ACTIVE – Timed Challenge)
---
> ❖ Objective:
Engage and survive against the unstable Outer God, Xexaria: The Incomplete One
(Estimated Power: A+ to S-, Reality-Tier Unstable)
---
> ❖ Sub-Objectives:
• Survive for 38 minutes without critical system failure
• Defeat or fully repel Xexaria
• Protect Principal Thorne and Commander Ardan
• Prevent further manifestation of the Summoning Seal
• Avoid excessive structural damage to the foundation
---
🎁 Mission Completion Rewards:
✅ If Survived (but did not defeat Xexaria):
• +3 Levels
• +1 Permanent Stat Bonus (choose one stat to increase by +100)
• Title Unlocked: "One Who Faced the Unseen"
• Partial Unlock: Gerberra Core v1.5 – Stability Protocol Update
• New Gear Blueprint: "Severing Railknife" (Prototype sword-tech inspired by dimensional edge)
---
✅ If Xexaria is Defeated or Sealed:
• +5 Levels
• +3 Permanent Stat Bonuses (choose three stats to increase by +150)
• Title Unlocked: "Breaker of Gods"
• Full Unlock: Gerberra Core v2.0 – Chain Charge, Phantom Pulse, Eruption Break
• New Gear Blueprint: "Dimensional Bunker Rifle – Gungnir Type-R"
• System Upgrade: Tactical HUD v3.0
• Hidden Reward: [Class Advancement Unlock – Pending]
---
🕛 Time Remaining: 37:59
💀 WARNING: Exceeding system limit may lead to fatal backlash. Proceed with extreme caution.
---
Rolien's mask chirped.
The numbers flashed bright red.
He exhaled once through gritted teeth.
> "Beat a god or burn trying… got it."
The ground shook again as Xexaria's full form started pulling itself free from the summoning circle, shrieking in fractured tongues.
> "THEN 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘… 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧 𝗦𝗔𝗚𝗘…"
> "Yeah, yeah," Rolien muttered as Gerberra's coils roared.
"But when I'm done, call me something cooler mud lady!."
To be continued...