It was a cold day even if only behind the window. Day he waited for so long. Even thought he was running out of time he still didn't
gave up... or maybe it was all an act, he designed to fool himself?
"Ah shit, here we go again."The inconspicuous figure murmured. "How many times I stood here watching this piece of art" a sigh of nostalgy could be heard.
Before him was majestic temple rising up into the skies, grand stairs made of marble with diamiond veins that led to grand door made of prismatic ore and other high level metals, but despite powerful defensive capabilities it was wide open. It's role was not to stop someone, quite the opposite. It's purpose wa to prevent any foolish challenger from escaping ,after crossing the treeshold .On the opposite a lone figure stood, dressed in dark armor and a long black coat with hood embedded with various glyphs . He hold a long slender spear with about ten inch double-edged blade having a gentle concavities on each side in his left hand. It looked quite spectacular being made of thousand parts, each one little different but still perfecty fitting the rest, giving it an unique style.
Around him were countless angels bodies of those who tried to stop him a while ago. Mighty archangels cut into shreds, after their attempt to stop him by their sole numbers despite the fact that difference between their levels was so high. Some of stronger angels and seraphs were trying to stop him by fortifying on stairs with various barrier spells , but what the point of keeping one position when enemy can just appear behind with teleportation, and you can do nothing to prewent this.
" Sometimes I feel really bad for these guys, they are only lines of code but still why those shitty dews could't give them a little bit personality. I'm really tired of doing the same over and over." His tone almost mocking was a little bit too harsh,yet you sholdn't expect something you can't do properly.
It's not like it's imposible, heck you can buy today an intelligent android without a problem, did they were short on cash? Is it becouse of the lack of cash they are closing servers? ." Did he expect some kind of answer from someone, given a short pauses after every question it was quite possible.
Those thoughs wandered in head of the butcher as he walked throught dissapearing corpses, becouse screw realism in 2138.
"Ok, I have precisely 15 minutes before shutdown, my mana is about 85 precent and should regenerate fast enought to cover loses I got becouse of those weak mobs." Fast mana regeneration was one of his biggest advantages against any threat.
"My HP is full, they could't even graze me." He pointed out with smug tone. There was some bad blood between him and angels but there was a slight hint in his voice, something deeper was going on.
"All back up weapons present, and the rest should somehow let me withstand long enought."
While checking his equipment ,he crossed doorstep. Doors closed behind him after a while, making long white corridor only way. The bones were cast, everything or nothing. While walking, he went on console and took off the hood revealing his face.
After that he stopped for a little bit and took a mirror from a spartial stash. A beautiful face could be seen in mirror. In was in perfect shape to the point where it was almost inhuman. Long hair shimmering with shades of purple and black and those damm sparky eyes with double iris, one gold the other purple located on pure white.
" I have never expected that someday I would say I could miss this avatar" he said while looking in the mirror. "Also I have also never expected thay this game could be shut down." he added to cover his own feeling from himself.
"They din't even stated any reason. What this little of courtesy is too much for them." anger appeard briefly in his heart . The fact that this is going to be his last fight here, dug a hole in his heart. He was really emotionally connected to it, no matter hom much he denied it.
"Well propably there was some kind of bullshit contract that forbid them from stating reasons. Typical and becouse of it best excuse." He tried to laght this whole thing off, but could't due to the fact he was never good at lying to himself.
He looked into mirror again.
„It was a little bit stupid idea to ask Eranzo ,if she could draw cool looking avatar for me. Of course It only could have been a trap, a fucking trap. What different I could have expected from doujinshi author. At least it's still a teenager and a guy even if overly girly ".
Despite a big injury that his manly pride took he had decided to use it. Why? Maybe becouse he didn't want to waste all of hard work that perwerted girl put in it. Well it was still a piece of great art, and the last thing he got from her before she...
"It's not time and place to think about things like that."He reminded himself quickly while moving throught corridor. His hand reached out to the console again but stopped in half move.
" Well, this is the last time so I should face that bastard with uncovered face. It is just a stupid AI ,he won't tell anyone for sure". Faces exists to be seen. Even this one.
" It's not like he didn't like it, it was rather more of a embarrassment. He didn't want to be labeled as weird fetishist among his friends from game, only friends.
"I won't be seen until the end by someone real ,so there is no risk of having millions and billions weeabos trying to find out my location in hope I could get them similiar trap stuff ". In these times, when you could be whatever you want in web, hentai artists and normal draftsmans had a particulary harsh life, always overworked.
Finally he reached the end of the overly long corridor and stepped into a beautiful arena in a shape of nonagon. Every corner had a different color and details, one covered in vines with gentle brown gleam, other one glistening with bloody red flames. Each one different with importal role. That was a place where you could teleport yourself onto one of the nine game words without any fee but only if your race was one that belongs to the family of dragons or their subtypes. Otherwise the angel who guards main temple will challenge you to a duel. Becouse there could be only one player at the time in the temple, no one ever won with that guardian, even world champions.
So in summary if he could beat it, then he will do something that no one ever did before. That what he have been trying to do since the last year.
As it was said, there was an angel in the middle. His face befitting a hero with sharp eyes like those of the hawk. His body was covered in blue shiny plate armor, with two pair of wings of pure white sprouting from his back . He held a giant straight sword covered in bluish aura, resembling the burning gas . When the figure stepped into room he stated:
"Im Raziel, guardian of the ten-sided pact. You shall present your title before crossing blades this one." His face completely composed, not showing any trace of emotion.
Challenger smirked on that whole grandeur ceremony and loudly declared
"I'm Chronos Gerens Stratis slayer of thots, the terror of nine-years olds who doesn't give a fuck. Today's the last day I can beat your ass so prepare yourself cause you gonna have a bad time."
Cronos was in awe of his own coolness,"Wow this time it finally accually turned out cool." he had to admit. Despite countless earlier trials it usually ended up spewing some random bullshit in front of Angel, it was still worth an effort, what else baddie could do than throw a cool one liner when he deals with your typical cool hero. He just hoped that no one recorded any of his attempts, god it would be so embarrassing . After Chronose's grand and so cool speach Angel flinched impercetibly, as if he really heard that shameful declaration, but it was impossible, his every action was scripted so it didn't matter what you say.
They were standing watching each other, angel today looked a little bit different than normal, his eyes were focused directly on him, it was really uncomfortable given that he were basically cheating day by day through usage of the glitch when things were going wrong, but he couldn't do anything about it.
There were few rules regarding rules in Ygdrassil, game Chronos has just played. One of the stated that once challenge was thrown, there were thirty secong second delay before start, and during this time you could do any actions, otherwise duel would be automatically won by other side. Chronos didn't cast any buffs and spells earlier since after starting a duel every status efect is being canceled, so all he could do was waiting in silence .
Finally thirty second passed.
Instantly Chronos leaps towards boss with thrust at deady speed, but before he manage to get a hit Raziel swung his giant sword to cut him in half motion. It was a feint. Chronos used silent tenth tier spell [False future] to create possibility of his own atack, then he chanted. " [Triple Maximize Magic- Reality Slash]
Raziell fell for it and his HP lowered a bit. This didn't make him weaker even a bit.
In response he casted AoE spell [ Sea of Holy Fire] and bluish flames flooded the room. Holy element was one of Chronose's race biggest weaknesses, so he retreated using [Greater Teleportation], however holy flames burnt him to some extent, but to an accceptable extend.
While flames were raging, He had window big enought to cast [Body of Effulgend Heliodor] to reduce slashing damage and [Copycat] which create a copy of caster to divert aggro between them two. Angel did't let him cast nothing more as he used his skill to boost his speed, instantly appearing before him, to cut him again.
"C'mon, try to find out who is the real one" Chronos smirked wathing angel shrinking the distance in an instant. AI could't find out which one was the real one since angel wasn't proficient at seeing throught magic ,so it attacked the closer one which just happened to be the copy . It took serious blow that make it fly dozen meters hit back but everything was okay. Unfortunately for him Raziel didn't stop there and by usage of another skill he lunged his sword straigh at him.
Chronos twisted himself instantly to avoid getting hit and used [negative sphere] wand ,creating veil of darknes that enveloped angel. If it was a normal wand then angel wouldn't have problem with breaking the spell , but this little treasure was made by one of the gamers who truly dedicated himself to creating wands and similiar stuff, so it had power much bigger. Also cost much more. It wasn't poweful enought no stop boss for longer than few seconds but that's all he needed.
"Now be so kind and let me kick your butt a little bit " Chronos said another coool one liner and chanted tenth tier spell
" Maximize extend magic [Dimensional Tearing]" , a giant tear in timespace appeard on Raziel alongside smaller one created by copy and inflicted damage big enought to stagger him. This gave Chronos enought time to reposition himself behind target by teleportation.
Copy tried to do the same but Raziel despite being hurt by rift managed to cast [Dimensional Lock], while it didn't affect original, it blocked copy giving Raziel an opportunity to reach it and kill in few seconds ,despite costant barrage of [Force Blasts] from Chronos to blow him away.
"Shit, he should have focused on me becouse of aggro, I dealt higher damage" Chronos groaned. Lose of copy was unpleasant since he could use spell again after whole ten minutes", so he casted silent [Time Stop]. While it normally could't affect stronger enemies if he uses his skill to strengen it, it should give him opening big enought to use wand second time, Sadly for him Raziel didn't even considered closing in, instead he flickered his hand and few fiery swords appeard, floating in air which, then flew towards waiting Chronos.
"What is going on, he schouldn't act like that" Chronos got suprised. It made no sense,
He fought this boss many times and whatever he did in fight ,angel has been always trying to close distance becouse he was more proficient at fighting in close distance. What if someone is just directly controlling boss and play with him . Lost in thoughts he almost got hit by swords but in last moment he managed to dodge them, .He was quite proficient at dodging and fightting face to face as a hybrid of mage and agility focused warrior. .
Raziel again boosted his speed and managed to get close at the same time as swords to cut Chronos from the seconf angle. Unfortunately he forgot about the fact that [Time Stop] was still working. Chronos instantly used his skill and angel significantly slowed down what let him avoid the sword, and cut him with his spear in response.
"It's not good, I'm running out of time"Chronos noticed, he had to end it as quick as possible or stagnate forever. He instantly teleported to other corner of the arena and casted [ Perfect Unknowable].
Angel backed up to the wall and casted [True Sight]. Magic showed that Chronos was levitating near the celling. Taking in consideration results of his last aproach Raziel slowly flew towards his opponent and used another skill that created two lesser seraph guardians. They were on level 83 but this move as he had to deal with it in previous fights wit him, was within Chronos calculations.
He knew that there was high risk someone was controling opponent so he switched to PVP mode beforehand, but still he needed some kind of evedence. Fighting with players was much harder since they were much more unpredictable and intelligent.
Two mobs were charging at him but he paid no attention to them, knowing they were propably feint. Instead he casted [Umbra Mundi] enweloping walls of the temple in flowing dark mass, and then using celling as a foothold jumped towards Raziel passing two angels., .
His target got dumpfounded as he could't tell what kind of spell was that. So instead he instantly flew back used one of the more powerful skill [Divine Punisment] that deal massive fire and holy damage paralizing in the same time, on Chronos. In the same time mobs flew into place where Chronos was while ago.
Loud Explosion ranged in Raziel ears when Chronos clashed with his skill, but in the same time he saw his minions disappearing in weird light. Using opportunity he got, he tried to cast [Regenerate] on himself, but in the same moment he got hit by spear, not from front, from behind. His spell got interupted, but that was his least trouble.
" How it was possible" he couldn't believe. His divine spell could be triggered only by other beings and there is no chance it could be misleaded, then he saw. " This coward changed places with my summons, thats why he charged at me. To force me to attack". Both guardians got serious wounds from fire element that could harm them, and paralylis made them both fall on the ground since they both used their wings to fly.
Now Chronos was sure he is fighting against other human being. AI was to stupid it this game, to even take into consideration that his moves could be some kind of trap . While he had been still under [Perfect Unknowable] cover he casted eight tier [ acceleration] to make his time flow slower than the rest of the world giving him big boost to agility. After he had got swapped, he dived into shadow screen only to come out on the wall behind Angel. Soundless like a rouge he hit angel's back getting critical hit thanks to [Umbra Mundi] properties. In the same time his timer showed that he had about ten minutes left before servers will be switched off.
So before Angel managed to twist around and strike back, he used one of his triumph card [ Lord of Time and Space].
He had some levels in warrior type classes, also thank to the fact he is World Champion even his phisical strengh and defence weren't weak, but only with this skill active he could go into face to face combat against someone so powerful .
His spear and angels sword clashed for the first time , making him fly back by sheer force of the blow, but instantly he appeared behind his target striking with momentum that he had gained.
Raziel felt that he needed to go serious right now, this spear was very dangerous, also he shouldn't risk unnesesary damage, as he has lost about 10 precent HP already.h Suddenly his body started emiting white flashes while he was trying to hit Chronos. Each strike was fast as lighting with streng of an explosion. Despite that Chronos could still evade most of Raziel's swungs. That was the power of [ Lord of Time and Space]. For two and half minutes it lets user freely teleport and change the flow of time of anything in the game you want, but it's fluency makes it very hard to control.
Chronos knew that he could't keep like that for long, strangely each blow started to fell much more real, also a little painful, is he just a liitle to much into game. He narrowly evaded next blow and reappeared as far as it was possible.
Before Raziel came closer he shouted " [Triple Magic- Recall Nightmares] creating three
masses of a dark ,slowly whirling in space with something deep inside them masses, alarming enought to made him flinch despite these were his own summons . They were beings created of fallen hopes and dreams that sole existence could stop any thinking being that had contact with them ,by pouring their apathy into wictim which causes them stop anything they were doing. A perfect way to create a portable barrier.
In the same time Raziel kicked the ground again, distance between shrank instantly, but before angel managed to reach him one of the shapeless dark beings intercepted him. Raziel instantly started to feel how meaningless was this whole charade, however with his unbreakable will and resistance he manage to overcome these feelings, and determination ignited in his heart again.
Cursing this aberration who tried to corrupt him he swore in his mind he will put end to this time. But before he took another step his mind rememberd something deeply covered, something so scary that he frozen in instant. Primal fear ewoked in him as he started fighting with himself to hide ,whatever it was, again. Still something sticked out but he did,t know about it.
Chronos seeing how efective this spell was, did not waste the time and started to bombard angel with weaker seventh and eight tier spells. These were weaker one in his arsenal yet still strong enought to decrease it's health at fast rate. Using his ability to cast two spells in the same time if their sum does not excede over seventeen he proceede to casr spells such as "Grounding" and "Planar Prison" making sure he will able to cast his grand finale without angel's interuption.
" HOW DARE YOU TRYING TO PULL ME AWAY FROM MY SACRED DUTY YOU DEVIATED MONSTER" Raziel screamed loudly, trying to rise from his knees he had fallen on before. His every word making a powerful wave of sacred power flowing out of him,which pushed away the dark. In instant he decided to use his strongest skill.
Chronos was really confused. "It's no like those 70 level Nightmares can really do something bad to your brain, that would be illegal. So why he is so pissed.? Is he some kind of role player? How he was able to speak with lips flipping?". There was no such function, in spite of many gamers requests to implement it for a very long time, therefore . This whole fight was becoming weirder and weirder, howewer he knew that when you really want to archieve something, the whole world will stand on it's head to disturb you.
Exactly then angel striked. First strike shattered every shackle and barrier Chronos created like a paper. Next he twisted his body and with new power slashed at Chronos. His sword turned into giant white beam that cut through his defences, dispelling defensive spells and throwing him back like rag doll. After that Raziel swirled again to make a mighty blow from above his head ,like a giant comet decending upon ground only to turn everything into nothingness.
Through usage of the last seconds of his skill Chronos managed to avoid certain death by teleporting aside, but even that one blow he took eaten about 70 precent of his whole HP. It's should't have happened. This combo Angel should be able to perform only in his last faze when he's reduced to about 20 precent of HP. Chronos DPS was sure that angel was still in faze one., After gettnig such strong blow he was all in pain, to the extend he forgot to heal himself. He was in his real life a normal human being who did't have a willpower to defeat the pain. However the fact that he is experiencing such pain in video game is certainly disturbing.
"What for god's sake is going on". He could see his own blood pouring out of wound, it was not red but shiny gold. Terror struck him like a lighting. This whole thing was wrong, it was all wrong.
"Could it be that he got connected to some kind of simulation by someone?" He heard that things like that happened from time to time since it was easy to do and hard to prove. Why it is he who always has to pull out shortest straw. He just wanted to finally kill that boss to show himself he can move in his life, even if just a little.
He watched in terror as furious angel was closing in . His eyes shining with inner anger boiling inside looking at him. The corners of his mouth were raised in smile, not a warm one. Rather the one you see ehen someone finally manage to finish a hard task and unconsciously smile becouse he knows his earlier struggles were in past. His silhouette two times bigger than normal cowered in wild blue flames. Then he stoped and said.
"After countless struggles I finally ended up wining. Despite your endless cowardly escapes whenewer you felt you could't keep up with me you still came back in hope that I will become weaker in next fight. But NO" he loudly declared
" I was tasked with my duty to prewent anymore tragedies, so the ones like you can only make my zeal and determination higher." He raised his sword one last time and said " I won' forgive the likes like you. Humans always only take, until there is nothing left. Inteligent beings yet worse than maggots. The same is with your second half. Oh did you really thought I wouldn't noticed your halfblood" said Raziel seeing shock and fear on Chronoses face.
" Your second half is the one of abyssal beings. Worse even than demons and undread. There is no any other race than humans that would mix it's blood with such aberrations. Another proof you humans are the worst of the worsts." he said with contempt, getting ready to deal the final blow.
"Now for words sake I will purge you out of this holy land".
In that moment Chronos finally understood, but before he said anything, or angell swung his sword,
the time was over and the world crumbled