’Clang!’
Simon kicked off the floor and charged, the Greatsword of Ruin leading the way.
"By the way," Nirti began, pulling a syringe from her belt and plunging the needle into her own neck. She thrust her left hand forward. Though her palm was bare of any magic circle...
A spear of white bone materialized out of nowhere, stopping inches from Simon’s face.
’What the—!’
He snapped his head to the side with pure animal instinct. ’Scraape!’ Sparks flew from Pier’s helmet as the bone shot past his eye.
"Did you really think I’d be easy just because you got rid of the Dungeon Master?"
Simon skidded to a halt, staring at the object that had nearly impaled him.
’A bone?’
A pure white bone extended from her palm like a pole. But it didn’t stop there. Smaller bones branched off from the main shaft like the limbs of a tree.
’Bone Creation Magic!’
[Be careful, boy!]
A forest of white bone erupted from the air, twisting like metallic pipes as it swarmed toward Simon. He contorted his body frantically, dodging and weaving while hacking at the skeletal appendages with his greatsword.
’Thud.’
Nirti kicked off her shoes, her bare feet planting firmly on the floor.
"The immortal soldiers, the chimeras, the Dungeon Master... none of it matters." Her eyes blazed. "In Tarados, I am the strongest!"
At that same moment, Pier’s warning screamed in his mind. [Below you!]
White bones erupted from the dungeon floor like a bed of thorns. Startled, Simon leaped back as the spikes grew endlessly from the spot where he’d just been standing.
’She’s using her leg bones...!’
This time, Nirti thrust both arms forward. Two strands of bone shot out, multiplying in the air before raining down on him.
’Was Bone Creation Magic always this versatile?’
Simon ran, swinging his greatsword in a desperate frenzy. But no matter how many bones he shattered, Nirti seemed to feel no pain, her only reaction a flicker of surprise. She seemed puzzled that the bones severed by the Greatsword of Ruin refused to grow back.
Simon twisted at the waist, his sword carving a clean circle through the air. The jungle of bone was sliced diagonally, but new spikes immediately burst through the pressure of his swing, lunging for him again.
’Clang!’
Pier’s bone armor shifted, deflecting the lethal, spear-like bones.
’Thanks, Pier!’ Having narrowly avoided a fatal wound, Simon broke into another sprint.
"It’s useless."
A fence of bone shot up from the floor, blocking his path. He had no choice but to change direction and go around.
’She’s as strong as I expected.’ The Blood Cult incident. The Ice Dragon Karisa. Now Tarados. She was a key figure, intimately connected to the masterminds of every crisis. Her strength was undeniable. Even with the power of a legion commander, he was barely holding his own. More than that, she wasn’t a student; she was a professional necromancer, forged in the fires of countless battles.
’Woooong!’
Nirti began to vary her attacks. Floating, blood-red eyeballs emerged from her subspace, their gaze locking onto Simon. He immediately felt his movements turn sluggish.
’A curse that activates on sight!’
At the same time, having cornered him against the wall, Nirti unleashed ten jet-black flame spells. The dark fire engulfed him.
Dozens of bone spears plunged into the heart of the explosion. Nirti finally lowered her arms.
"Is that all? You have great power, but you lack experience." She stroked her chin. ’He’s not an agent from Kizen. Could he be Simon Polentia? Or Kajan Edvalt?’
’SHIIING!’
A clean line sliced through the fiery aftermath. She raised a wall of bone to defend herself, but the five eyeballs floating around her burst simultaneously.
’Thump!’
Simon charged out of the smoke.
"It’s pointless to keep trying."
Nirti’s ’Bone Creation Magic’ once again began to consume the space, but this time, Simon’s charge was different. He moved with cold precision, creating openings with sudden stops, his greatsword swinging with only the most essential, deadly motions.
’Sword path, habits, patterns.’
The twisting bones closed in, but now their movements were familiar.
’In the end, a human is controlling them! Analyze and counter!’
His movements were dazzling, almost supernatural, as he dodged the rain of white bone by a hair’s breadth.
’Thump!’
He kicked off the floor and shot upward, running along the ceiling of the lab, beyond the reach of the spikes rising from below.
"Tch!"
She needed more bone. A hole tore open in the front of her shirt, and her own ribs burst forth.
’Jet-black and...’ Simon thought, calmly extending his left arm. ’...mixed with Cloud!’
He detonated the two fiercely rotating powers in mid-air. A jet-black smokescreen instantly concealed his body.
’Pathetic tricks!’
Nirti paused her assault, her eyes narrowed, waiting. Soon, the tip of a greatsword pierced the smoke.
’Got you!’
The moment the blade revealed Simon’s position, Nirti unleashed every bone in her body in a single, frontal assault. The skeletal spears tore through the smoke.
However...
Simon was already on the ground. He had bypassed the smokescreen, shedding Pier’s armor to charge her directly.
’What? Then that greatsword is...!’
The smoke cleared to reveal a skeletal Pier, grinning as he held the greatsword aloft. The feint had been perfect.
’Phantastus Original – Sleep’
Like a bolt of lightning, Simon flashed past her, his hands brushing her abdomen and back. A twofold curse, instantly applied.
A wave of dizziness washed over her. Her limbs grew heavy, her strength draining away.
’A Sleep curse?’
It was a potent one, too, strong enough to make her eyelids droop in the middle of a life-or-death battle. She calmly activated the Cancellation magic circle inscribed on her body and thrust out her right arm. Pier’s bones flew to Simon, wrapping around his own arm before the Greatsword of Ruin snapped into his waiting hand.
He charged.
’Reckless! Is he putting too much faith in that curse?’
She countered, launching a spear of bone meant to impale him. But Nirti had overlooked two critical things. First, her Cancellation hadn’t erased the ’Sleep’ curse. And second, because of the curse, her attack lacked its full, devastating power.
Simon twisted, weaving between the bones, and brought the greatsword down from over his head with all his might.
’SHIIIIING!’
Her shoulder and right arm were severed in a single, clean strike. She let out a horrifying scream. Simon couldn’t press the attack, forced to retreat from the new wave of spikes erupting from the floor.
’The bones altered the blade’s trajectory!’
"Gah! Guhhhhh!" Nirti clutched her severed shoulder, her body trembling. As a researcher of immortality, she could have regenerated a limb, but a wound from the Greatsword of Ruin could not be healed.
"You think this is enough!"
She abandoned the severed shoulder bone, instead forcing another bone through the wound, extending it like a new arm.
A nearby test tube shattered, and the arm of a chimerized monster flew through the air, attaching itself to her stump with a wet ’thwack’.
She reinforced the grotesque limb with ’Bone Creation Magic’ then charged, swinging her new arm. Simon raised his greatsword to block.
The force was immense. Despite his guard, Simon was sent flying backward. Pier shot toward him like an arrow, encasing him in bone armor just as he slammed into the far wall.
Watching the dust settle, Nirti lifted a syringe with a trembling hand and injected herself again and again, fighting off the drowsiness with stimulants and numbing the pain with analgesics.
’Phew...’
But as Simon rose to his feet, seemingly unharmed, her eyes filled with caution.
"I hate to admit it, but you’re Kizen through and through." She grinned. "The more I see of you, the more of a waste it seems to kill you. Why not work for the Elder? He has a soft spot for talent. He’ll even forgive the atrocities you’ve committed so far."
[What nonsense are you spouting in the middle of a fight?] ’Chk.’ Simon rested the greatsword on his shoulder, his formless cloak fluttering around him. [Your ’Order’ exploited innocent people and conducted forbidden experiments. You want me to work with you?]
"Everything is for a higher cause," Nirti insisted. "And I can let other things slide, but hearing you call those Tarados bastards ’innocent’? That I find grating." She leaned against the wall, her voice turning cold. "The Gold Mine Dungeon was said to have been destroyed decades ago. Do you know how it still remains?"
Simon’s legs hadn’t fully healed; he was barely able to stand. He decided to use the conversation to buy time. [You researched Kal’s ability to control dungeons. You must have used that technology.]
"What are you talking about? We can control a dungeon with that power, but we can’t recreate one that’s already vanished." She spread her arms. "This dungeon was never destroyed in the first place."
Decades ago, when immortal ’dungeon addicts’ emerged and ravaged the city, a party of five adventurers was hired by the local lord to conquer the dungeon. They fought their way to its deepest chamber and killed the Dungeon Master. Or so history recorded.
"The truth is, the Dungeon Master was immortal, just like the other monsters. The adventurers couldn’t destroy it, so they sealed it away. Once the artifact’s power contained it, the Master’s room closed, the dungeon’s power vanished, and the monsters stopped appearing. Everyone assumed it was over." She took a slow step forward. "When the gold stopped flowing, the people, blinded by greed, forgot who had saved them and brutally murdered the adventurers. Only one, a woman, survived, thanks to the sacrifice of her comrades. And in her belly—" Her voice dropped to a low whisper. "—was a baby."
Simon’s pupils trembled. [...No way.]
"Yes, that’s right." Nirti’s mouth twisted into a monstrous smile. "Those adventurers were my parents."
The woman, having lost her husband and escaped the dungeon, fled from the vengeful residents of Tarados to the neighboring territory of Ebrun, where she gave birth to Nirti alone. But she was weak, and her mind was shattered by grief and hatred.
"I’m sorry, Nirti. Mommy is so, so sorry."
When Nirti was three, her mother hanged herself. Orphaned, she wandered the back alleys and slums, surviving by eating trash and catching rats. She was exploited for labor, subjected to disgusting acts, and beaten by drunks. She was barely surviving when she was sold for a few coins.
"From now on, this is your home."
It was an illegal research facility run by necromancers. There, she endured experiments no human could withstand. But while the other subjects died, Nirti survived, fueled by pure hatred. The researchers performed the final procedure, implanting a ’Core’ that turned her into a necromancer. One month later, Nirti, fully awakened, massacred every last person in the facility.
"As I was wandering, the ’Elder’ reached out to me. His ideology and purpose aligned perfectly with my own." She spread her arms. "I joined the Order and became a powerful necromancer. And then I returned to the Gold Mine Dungeon. My mother had often told me the Dungeon Master wasn’t truly dead!"
Simon listened in silence.
"So I built my lab here and decided to create an immortal army." Her enraged mouth stretched into a terrifying grin. "Tarados! Tarados! This hateful city! I’ll make them suffer exactly what I suffered! I’ll starve them, infect them, make them crawl in the filthy streets, and in the end, I’ll use them as test subjects! Just as they ruined my life, I will return every ounce of my pain to them!" She burst into wild laughter. "They. All. Deserve it!"
He remained silent.
His legs were slowly recovering. Simon let out a long sigh and took a step forward. [Your past is tragic, that’s true. But the people who murdered your parents are almost all gone. Why must their descendants pay for their crimes?]
"Don’t be ridiculous!" she shrieked. "Then why did I have to endure that horrifying past? Why? For what reason? There is no reason for the evil in this world! I’m just returning what was given to me! I will destroy Tarados, then this kingdom, and then the Alliance!"
[...Just returning it?]
At those words, the last trace of pity vanished from Simon’s eyes, replaced by ice. [You’ve gone too far, Nirti.]

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