Chapter 8. Boss fight

Axel awoke on cold stone, disoriented. The grey sky was gone. So was the forest. He stood within a dark massive circular chamber and perfectly symmetrical. Strange glyphs pulsed on the walls, dimly illuminating the space in a rhythm like a heartbeat.

The ground beneath him felt both organic and artificial, like flesh embedded with circuitry. The air was dense, almost liquid. Even breathing felt like a risk.

His sword was still beside him.

Again, he was forcedto do something he didn't want to.

Then came the interface, not NEX's voice, but the other one:

< Synchronization complete.

< Combat Trial: Initiated.

< Objective: Survive.

And following it, NEX:

> Environmental lock confirmed.

> Communication latency increased. Assistance limited.

"Of course," Axel muttered. His grip tightened on the hilt.

A low rumble echoed through the chamber. The symbols on the walls turned red. Something was coming.

He took a step forward but then froze. From the ceiling, suspended by nothing, descended a figure. With a massive width, humanoid in shape, but lacking a face, just a black helm, it seemed some kind of robot or golem.

Its body was black stone interlaced with flowing purple light born from a sigil in the middle of its chest, then forming runes that shifted across its limbs.

Axel raised his sword again.

> Threat level: extreme.

> Structural integrity: unknown.

> Defensive protocol advised.

The thing didn't wait.

It launched too fast for a body that big.

The first blow knocked the air from Axel's lungs.

He was thrown across the chamber, crashing against the wall with a dull crack. Pain bloomed down his spine.

> Impact registered: Musculoskeletal damage: minor.

The creature closed in. Not like a beast driven by its impulses but as an efficient and lethal machine designed to eliminate, to kill.

Axel clumsily rolled aside, barely evading a downward slash that split the floor. He scrambled upright, retaliating with a desperate swing. The blade hit the creature's side but it bounced off.

The creature's armor was very dense, and he didn't have enough strength. His arms trembled.

Then he listened to NEX:

> Vital signs unstable.

> Suggestion: retreat—no escape route available.

"I noticed!" he growled.

He waited, panting. Then he notticed something: after every three attacks, the creature halted, it was like he was following a pattern.

The following time, Axel didn't dodge. He let the first two strikes come, blocking one and absorbing the second. The third he slipped under.

He drove the sword upward. It sank slightly, but it was enough to disrupt the creature's posture.

He jumped back as light cracked down its side. It hissed it was not in pain, but in error.

The fight spiraled into chaos.

Axel lunged, ducked, rolled, slashed. His arm caught a glancing blow and blood sprayed. His leg gave out once but he kept going.

It wasn't training. It wasn't grace. It was desperation.

And finally, he saw it. One rune near the neck that was brighter than the others.

He leapt, used a fallen slab as leverage, and drove his sword into the weak point.

The golem shuddered and then...

BOOOOOM

...exploded in countless frangments.

Silence returned.

< Challenge complete: Gate cleared

The chamber pulsed once, then dimmed. Axel staggered backward, clutching his side. His sleeve was soaked red.

> Hostile creature neutralized.

> Fusion: 0.297%

> Reward granted: Core Fragment – [Undesignated]

A small object floated above the corpse. A fragment of obsidian crystal, jagged and faintly glowing. It drifted toward him.

He tried to move and tried to reject it, but the shard embedded rapidly into the hilt of his sword with a quiet click.

> Foreign element integrated.

> Monitoring initiated. Effect: pending.

The weapon pulsed with faint light.

> Status update available.

-----

Name: Axel

Rank: F --> F+

Strength: F --> F+

Agility: F+

Mana: F-

Stamina: F- --> F

Intelligence: E

Luck: F- --> F+

Skill: –

Physique: –

Oath: –

Grimoire: Corrupted Sword (Core Fragment [Seeded – Effect Unknown]) <-- NEW

Job: –

Trait: Persistence

Tag: Deviant – Survivor 

Fusion: 0.297%

Status: Adapting Combatant

System Integrity: Degraded

-----

Axel dropped to one knee, breathing raggedly. Blood dripped onto the floor.

"I'm… still alive."

> Hemorrhage detected.

> Medical support unavailable.

He laughed dry.

But then, without warning, the monolith in the center flared.

< Trial concluded.

< Re-integration process initiating.

Then came the pull.

The floor beneath him glowed with the same rune-light from earlier. Energy swirled, wrapping around his limbs like invisible wire. It wasn't teleportation. It was reintegration.

And it burned.

"No, wait—!"

He screamed as the system dragged him back.

His body contorted, bones cracking into place, something inside his spine twisting unnaturally. Skin rippled. His chest felt like it was splitting open.

> Morphological adjustment incomplete.

> Anomaly status maintained.

Light swallowed the chamber.

He collapsed onto grass, but it wasn't that place.

The sky above was blue, not gray. And the light was real sunlight, warm and golden.

Voices echoed arround him.

"What the hell is that?!" "Someone's here! Over here!"

Axel blinked. Faces blurred into view.

People, actual people.

Their clothes were a mix of robes, leather armor, and woven fabrics inscribed with rune-stitch patterns. There was no sign of modernity. No tech. Just magic channeled through carved symbols and luminous ink.

"Is he breathing?"

Someone knelt beside him. A woman's voice, cautious but clear. "He's alive. But... his body… what happened to him?"

> Environment scan complete.

> Civilian presence: confirmed.

> New node detected.

Axel tried to speak but instead he coughed blood.

One man backed away. "His spine—did you see that? That's not a natural mark. That's not a native rune set."

The woman beside him shouted, "get him stabilized first."

Axel's vision dimmed again. His ears rang. Above, the people spoke in hushed, clipped tones some of them were truly worried, but for the rest, they were just suspicious.

But at least they didn't kill him, and at least that meant that not everyone and everything wanted him to be exterminated, it a way, it was the first good thing it happened to him since he appeared in this world.

One last window floated before his eyes:

< Integration successful (partial).

< Welcome to Aetherreach Citadel Outskirts.

Then, he lost consciousness.