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  [The Instance Dungeon has bee a focal point for a special World Event: {Invasion of the Outer Ones}!]

  [The First of Many, {The Unending Crimson}, has takehis Instance Dungeon and mutated it acc to his wishes.]

  [Defeat the Boss to stop him before the entire vilge of Elderbridge is overrun by monsters.]

  The system message that popped up right in front of Paul and Chris quickly shook them to the core. The reason why the Dungeon had ged so much was because of a damned World Event, no less.

  They couldn’t tell if they had immense luck or terrible luck, as they were fighting whatever an “Outer One” meant. They didn’t have much of an idea, but the title alone was strangely ominous already.

  “It seems you’re quite shaken about what has happened,” the Skeleton Lord said. “But be at ease; I do not pn to kill you or something. After all, I know what the result will be without even having to fight you. I have yet to fully ma within this world, but this vessel of mine carries enough power.”

  “What?!” Paul asked in disbelief.

  “He’s lying, isn’t he?” Chris was suspicious.

  “Well, little fmes, I did imply that I have prepared you food challenge... And as you see, it is here,” the Skeleton Lord smiled. “All the skeletons—I've gathered them here for your pleasure. However, I am well aware that you’re otherworldly souls, pyers, as they’re called, is it not?”

  “This guy…” Paul thought. “Why is he talking with so much freedom? Is the knowledge about pyers so widespread for them to easily tell us apart even with our extensive backgrounds?”

  “How do you know that?!” Chris btantly asked, giving away the answer already.

  “Hah, it is quite easy; you see, you just answered that question,” the Skeleton Lhed. “But this further firms it. Pyers… Your existence has only been as new as a week, yet you’re already shaking the Realms, right? We are quite ied in your kind. So, how about we resolve this peacefully? I am well aware that your link to your bodies is thin, uher pyers. You ’t revive, isn’t it?”

  “We have no obligation to ahat-”

  “How did you know that?!” Chris asked, gasping.

  “Chris! Stop answering like that; you’re just making it obvious!” Paul facepalmed.

  “Ah… Hahah, my bad,” Chris ughed nervously.

  “Hahaha! Aren’t you quite the endearing little pair of fmes?” The skeleton ughed. “Well, what do you say? I have a proposal to make.”

  Paul and Chris remained silent, not knowing what to say. While Chris actually didn’t know what to say, Paul was thinking.

  “A tract with an outer one? Is this part of the game’s event?” he thought. “No, I ’t just give in so easily.”

  He quickly g the skeleton lord’s crystalline eyes.

  “Before we make a decision, we would like to know what you want to offer us.”

  As the young vampire man talked, the skeleton lhed once more.

  “Yes, of course, my dear little fmes. I shall tell you.”

  The skeleton raised his bck bony cws, f a mass of crimsohat theended into the form of a scroll, a tract of sorts.

  “I am pnning on taking ahold of this dungeon and making a raid into your realm,” he said. “Of course, you pletely skip the suffering and the fact of dying altogether by being my generals. How about it? You two possess great potential; I’ve seen you fight this eime. In exge, you will lead my army into Elderbridge a everything abze; make sure to let the fire e every single life, crystalizing everything.”

  “What? That’s nuts…” Chris muttered.

  “But…” Paul muttered. “I guess it’s tempting.”

  “What?! Why would you say that?” Chris wondered.

  “It’s a game after all,” said Paul.

  “Exactly!” ughed the skeleton. “Whatever happens to this world or not, it doesn’t affect yours, right, otherworldly souls? My dear little fmes! You mustn’t let whatever attat your bodies had to that pitiful realm hold you back from making a lot of your lives! I promise you riches, power, territory, armies, and everything you want! Even… I could even heal you from your terrible Curses.”

  “You ?!” Chris wondered.

  “Of course I ! My existence goes beyond this world’s ws, and it could even go beyond the pitiful gods that have cursed you,” the Skeleton Lord spoke. “So? Will you take the tract? Killing those people... It shouldn’t be too hard for you, shouldn’t it? It’s not like they’re anything to yht?”

  “That’s… well…” Paul seemed to be more tempted than he had imagined.

  However, the memories of the day he spent with little Camil came to his mind.

  It was only a day, perhaps, but she was still someone deeply attached to Vd.

  Paul was someone who was really empathetic, despite how he used to act otherwise.

  “Of course, we won’t take it anyway! Who cares about your dumb tract?” Chris frohe skeleton lord. “Killing all the people of Elderbridge? Are you insane?!”

  “Chris…” Paul looked at Chris with surprise.

  He had never expected his friend, who was even more detached from the world of the game, to be so adamant about not taking the deal.

  After all, wasn’t he the one always saying that it was a game? What about this sudden ge?

  “Is this your respohen?” the skeleton wondered. “You, vampire… What do you have to say about this? I have yet to hear your answer.”

  “…” Vd remained silent and then looked at Chris.

  “e on, do you eveo doubt? This city belongs to your family, right? And your sister and your mom are here. It might be a game, but everything’s too realistic. We got a pretty good run, and I don’t like bad endings,” Chris smiled. “So let’s fuck him over instead.”

  Paul looked at Chris with both disbelief, frustration, and, somewhat, a bit of relief.

  That’s right; why was he even thinking otherwise? He might’ve gotten a bit too greedy. But he also doesn’t like corruption routes in video games.

  Seeing how this video game’s NPCs are all intelligent, self-scious AI, even the gods, and this outer thing, they were much different than any character in any video game.

  “Yeah, you’re n.” Vd smiled, his eyes shining bright red as the helmet of his armor covered his face. “We’re not taking your tract, Unending Crimson.”

  “…”

  The Obsidiaon Lord, covered in crimson crystals and fmes, remained in silence, his sharp red eyes gring at the two without saying a single word.

  His cws, sharp as metal, started grasping the tract made of fmes tightly, cracks spreading through all of it.

  Crack, crack…!

  CRASH!

  The tract broke into pieces, leaving nothing behind but fmes that slowly dissipated. The Obsidiaons in the room quickly started to move, their red crystal eyes all pointing at the dhampir and his incubus partner.

  “I was hoping these two little fmes could bee big, bzing fires that could burn that entire realm into ashes for me and create a beautiful of red crystals,” sighed the skeleton lord. “I was wrong. A shame, really. But I suppose you must all die. Bee the fuel for my children. BURN!”

  With a furious roar, the skeleton lord pointed his cws at the pair, and the skeletons immediately charged towards them.

  Yes, over fifty skeletons, all charging against them at the same time!

  “Chris, get above! {Stone Wall}!”

  Vd quickly smmed the floor with his leg as three Stone Walls surged, not to protect him but to disrupt the army of skeletons charging towards them as they emerged below them.

  RUMBLE!

  The Stone Walls served their purpose, as several dozens of skeletons were surprised by the emerging walls and were sent flying into the air, the stones shattering some of their crystals and weakening their skeletons, enough for Chris to quickly take advantage of that.

  Almost synizing together, within that split sed, Chris flew into the skies and quickly imbued Light Esseo his magic bow—this essence, which was born from his Heavenly Core, and bined with the Fire Arrow Spell!

  “{Holy Fire Arrow}!”

  Three Holy Fire Arrows, bzing with golden fmes, were fired quickly, nding on the skeletons while still in midair. Explosions of holy fmes engulfed their bodies, shattering them into pieces.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  “Oh?”

  The Skeleton Lord simply sat down and watched, his i growing as he saw Paul and Chris' quick teamwork and synization.

  “BURN TO ASHES, VAMPIRE!”

  The skeletons quickly swarmed Vd’s entire body without letting him even make a siep forward. His armored body was stantly assaulted by several pierg spear attacks, explosions of crimson fmes, and physical blows and kicks.

  CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

  Yet Vd seemed like an unmovable sentinel, activating the Ara from the rest of his accessories; the weight his magic caused made him almost impossible to flinch!

  “Chris, fire Ice Arrows at me!”

  “What? But…!”

  “Do it!”

  Chris gritted his teeth as he imbued more Ara into his bow, preparing several Ice Arrows and firing them in quick succession. The spear-shaped ice shards pierced the bodies of the skeletons, who were all together, swarming Vd at the same time.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  Explosions of frost spread out, freezing their bodies and slowing down their movements. Some of them became ht paralyzed as their joints froze and were stuck together.

  “Thank you! Now…!”

  Vd quickly jured a spell without using his equipment, one simply named "Geomancy." It was a Tier 2 spell that let magis utilize the strong elements of their surroundings to activate powerful maions.

  Using a few thousand Ara from his equipment, he quickly jured the stro Geomancy Spell he could unleash. The frost spread everywhere, gathering together, and then...

  “{Geomancy}: {Icicle Garden}!”

  The id frost moved on their own, growing into hundreds of sharp icicles impaling the bodies of dozens of skeletons at the same time, destroying, and shattering them apart oer another!

  “HELL YEAH!”

  Chris celebrated as he saw Paul destroy almost half of the remaining skeletons with their teamwork. However, Paul looked into the skies as he withstood the icicles, trying to pierce his armor.

  “Chris, e down quickly!”

  “Eh?! Ah!”

  Chris gasped as he saw another of those giant, fused skeletons capable of flight chasing him, and then a sed, and a third!

  “Fuck, screw this shit!”

  Chris flew down towards the ice as a veil of phantasmal shadows enpassed him—only a sed before a giant cw was to tear him to shreds!

  “Heretics that do not embrace the crimson fme are not deserving of the ember of life!”

  The skeletons all recited the same thing, coordinated, and attacked the pair, desding from above and causing loud tremors, tearing through any Stone Wall that Vd had jured.

  CRASH! CRASH!

  BAAAM!

  The three giant skeletons used their bzing wings to rapidly catch up to Chris, attempting to tear him to shreds with their cws, yet the Incubus stantly jured illusions, fooling them a couple of times.

  “They’re clearly targeting Chris!” Paul thought as he battled against the st dozeons, which were much more cautious.

  Six of them were attag from a small distance, firing explosive crystal spears at him, while the other six remained even farther away and dispersed, juring magic circles and unleashing a bombardment of fireballs.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  “{Winds of Speed}!”

  While resisting the barrage of attacks and seeing his armor’s durability going down, Vd quickly decided to act, imbuing his body with spiraling, fast winds and rushing towards the closest skeleton.

  “If you’re not going to get closer anymore, then I will!”

  He twisted his entire body while in midair, smming the skeleton’s head with his hard, armreaves while activating the boot’s spell.

  “{Shining Beam}!”

  BOOOM!

  A beam of blinding light engulfed the skeleton and two others nearby, the light easily burning through their bones and turning parts of their bodies into ashes, making them colpse onto the floor.

  “Heretic!”

  “You who don’t accept the fme!”

  “You must die by the fire!”

  The magi skeletons jured their magic again, this time going all-out, bining it together into a massive fireball of over teers i, and ung it directly towards Vd while he fought the other spear-wielding undead.

  “Shit…”

  BOOOM!

  The fmes engulfed Vd entirely, his surroundings quickly bei abze as the stone floor rapidly started to melt by the iy of the heat!

  “Fuck, Paul?!”

  Chris was maneuvering in the air, evading three giant flying skeletons at ond quickly rushing to his help, only to be attacked by the trio once more.

  Redy stantly floated around him, adding ara yer of prote as the small yet mighty bzing wolf parried their blows with explosive bzing howls.

  No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get to Paul!

  This was the iion of the Unending Crimson; notig their great teamwork, he decided to separate them and take them down individually.

  “Fuck, it burns like hell!”

  Vd felt his skin beginning to rapidly boil as the temperature of his arman to skyrocket, and the fmes stantly burhrough his entire body.

  “It’s over for you; give up,” the Unending Crimson spoke through the Skeleton Lord’s voice. “Just die and bee oh my fmes!”

  “Hah, as if!”

  However, although Vd was suffering terrible burns, he smiled.

  Aivated his magic, with Ara surging from his body in tremendous quantities.

  “{Geomancy}: {Bzing Rain}!”

  FLUOSH!

  The fmes burning him stantly suddenly obeyed his and as they were forcefully imbued with thousands of units of Ara.

  The fmes then lifted from the ground, being dozens of giant fireballs and rapidly b the three flying skeletons chasing Chris!

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  “What?!”

  Even the Skeleton Lord was shaken by such a strategy, and as Chris finally got a breather, seeing the three flying skeletons colpsing, he didn’t waste this opportunity.

  “Redy!”

  “Woof!”

  The bzing wolf quickly imbued itself into his bow, being a gigantic arrow of fmes.

  Light Essence was then fused into him, turning him into a giant Holy Fire Arrow.

  FLASH!

  The arrow rushed through the wind at lightning speed, reag the three flying skeletons at once.

  BOOOMMM!!!

  The trio of flying skeletons instantly fell into pieces from the sky, while Paul quickly took care of the remaining skeletons, flying through Float aroying them with rapid kicks imbued with Shining Beam.

  “Hahh… We did it…” Chris gasped for air. “Fuck…”

  “Not yet; we’re not do…” Vd looked at the oting over his throne. “You’re fighting, or what?”

  The Unending Crimson was fasated. “Magnifit! Your fmes burn sly... It will be a pleasure to see them burn out."

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  Pach