Chapter 71: A Puppet

  I reawakened with Checkpoint – right before stepping into the portal.

  Goren had just followed Gaelith inside.

  But I didn’t move.

  Instead, I collapsed to my knees, clutching my chest.

  Gaelith’s sword hadn’t just killed me – it had burned me from the inside. And it still did.

  I felt like my blood was boiling, like my organs were melting. The death itself had been swift, but the feeling that followed my respawn was excruciating.

  I was sweating profusely, my breath coming heavy, my muscles trembling as I fought to stay conscious.

  I clenched my teeth, trying to calm myself, but the pain was endless.

  Then –

  A single thought pierced through the agony.

  Yana.

  Her image flickered in my mind – it was from the day I told her we should split up.

  What a fool I was…I wasted two years in which we could’ve been together.

  The thought - though painful - brought me back to my senses. Slowly, my breathing steadied. My heartbeat slowed. The pain still lingered, but it was no longer all-consuming.

  I forced myself to take deep breaths, grounding myself in the now.

  I needed to warn them, so we could prepare for our fight against Lysandra.

  This was it. If we would defeat her, we won’t even have to fight Erebus.

  I pushed myself back to my feet.

  “How does Goren remain sane after dying so many times…” I muttered to myself, wondering if he was sane to begin with.

  I stepped into the portal, but as I passed through, a new thought struck me.

  If this what one death feels like…What will happen when I recall all of them at the same time with Total Recall?

  ***

  The battlefield was chaos.

  Three Priestesses of Axul blasted us with surges of magic all at the same time, and from different directions.

  I used Enhanced Dash Step to constantly evade and stay ahead of the incoming attacks.

  The most frustrating part was that they weren’t actually real. As Gaelith said earlier, these priestesses were just summons. Attacking them was useless, and with that bit of information it made sense why.

  The only way to get them down was to find the puppeteer – Lysandra. But she was hiding.

  “Aren’t you related to her or something?” Goren called out from across the room. “Can’t you just sense her?”

  Gaelith, standing not too far from me with his sword in hand, shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”

  The words had barely left his mouth when a sharp crack echoed from above.

  I lifted my gaze.

  High above, it looked like the ceiling cracked, but it wasn’t made of stone – it was ice. Suddenly, a storm of icy, blade-sharp shards plummeted toward us – her signature magic.

  I reacted quickly and summoned Wind Wall to protect myself.

  The descending shards struck the wind barrier, shattering against it, raising a frosty cloud and dropping the temperature.

  To my right, Gaelith stood confidently under a glowing, golden barrier that blocked the attack. He didn't even flinch.

  Goren, on the other hand, likely had no barrier-like abilities in his arsenal, but he improvised. His body rose from his own shadow where he found refuge, releasing a chuckle while he’s at it.

  But we didn’t have time to catch our breaths because the priestesses resumed their attacks.

  Surges of magic screamed through the air, forcing me back into motion. As I dodged, I tried to look for Lysandra around the chamber, but she remained hidden – Distance Gauge not picking her up – leaving Gaelith as our best bet in finding her.

  And then the temperature plummeted even lower.

  A strong, howling, frosty wind blasted through the chamber, instantly covering everything it touched in ice. But before it could reach us, Gaelith threw himself forward.

  His sword glowed as he once again summoned his golden barrier. The frigid wind slammed against it like a wave crashing against a rock. The chamber trembled, ice creeping across the floor and walls, but the three of us remained untouched behind Gaelith’s barrier.

  Beyond it, the entire chamber was covered in thick layers of ice and snow.

  The wooden table – or what was left of it after the previous attack – was completely covered in ice. Even the shattered remains of the strange metallic device Lysandra used to haunt adventurers were now entombed in a layer of ice.

  Goren’s gaze snapped toward the source of the wind – the stone bath.

  “She’s there.” He said, pointing forward.

  Before we could respond – he was gone.

  Then, in a blink of an eye, he materialized at the center of the room, standing on the stone platform that had once served as a bed, a dark metal sword in his hand. He immediately drove the weapon into the stone.

  At the end of the room – where the bath was – magic erupted. A pillar of energy shot from beneath the ice, shattering the frost with a deafening blow. The force of it fractured the ice and stone floor beneath it as the column of magic surged upward, slamming into the ceiling and shaking the entire chamber.

  A Priestess of Axul appeared out of thin air, aiming her hand at Goren as she released another beam of magic.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Gaelith moved quickly. He stepped between the attack and Goren, blocking it with his radiant blade.

  Goren barely spared a glance. His focus remained on our invisible target.

  He drove the sword even deeper.

  The magic pillar suddenly expanded, growing in intensity and becoming more chaotic. The cracks grew more extreme, and I wondered if Goren realized he could burry us alive if he’s not careful.

  Then, suddenly – an explosion of magic.

  A blast of raw energy went off at the heart of the column, sending a shockwave ripping through the chamber. The frozen walls shattered around us, and the floor groaned beneath our feet. A wave of frost and dust surged around us.

  As the smoke began to clear, a figure stood at the heart of the destruction.

  Tall. With dark, messy hair that covered her pale, white eyes. Cloaked in tattered, rotting robes.

  The High Priestess of Axul – Lysandra.

  Goren’s attack, despite its power, seemed to not damage her at all.

  I watching her silently, trying to anticipate what she would throw at us next.

  Her lips moved, her voice sounding as dead as she looked.

  “Noctyra…”

  Goren looked genuinely baffled.

  “Hello! He had nothing to do with it!” he called out, eyes locked on Lysandra. “That was me!”

  I rolled my eyes. Maybe he was insane after all.

  Lysandra didn’t react to him. Her decaying lips moved, but again, the same whisper drifted from her throat, devoid of emotion and life.

  “Noctyra…”

  Gaelith’s gaze hardened, and he stepped forward. “Today I’ll finally rid the world of you.”

  Goren let out an exaggerated sigh, rolling his eyes. “Okay, I’m done with this.”

  Without another word, he blinked forward, reappearing right in front of Lysandra, daggers in both hands, slashing toward her.

  But the blades never landed.

  Just before the steel could meet her, the air around her rippled, and suddenly it was solid – an unseen barrier, stopping Goren daggers as if they struck a shield.

  Lysandra didn’t flinch. Didn’t even look at him. Instead, she flipped her rotting hand in a slow motion.

  The ground beneath Goren shuddered, and then jagged ice spikes erupted from below, piercing straight through his body.

  But he reacted quickly, his body dissolving to dark mist before he reappeared next to us, whole and unharmed, shaking his head.

  “That was too close.” He muttered, dusting off his sleeve.

  Seeing how she didn’t move, I channeled a Charged Wind Arrow and shot it at her. But again, the invisible barrier around her repelled it, and the attack exploded on the wall next to her.

  That’s not how I expected this fight to go...I thought we were stronger than this.

  “Another unhittable menace…” Goren muttered.

  “Allow me to deal with her.” Gaelith suddenly said.

  I frowned. “You said it yourself – she’s too dangerous. Together we have a better – “

  “I need this.” He cut me off, his voice quiet but firm. There was no hesitation, no doubt.

  His gaze flickered back to Lysandra’s still figure. She watched us silently, not attacking. Was she waiting for something?

  “I already killed her once.” Gaelith said, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword. “And I did a terrible job at that. She’s still standing after so many years, still bringing more death and more ruin. I should have stopped her long ago. Way before the ritual…” He let out a breath, his expression filled with regret. “Instead of running away and forgetting about her and the Axul, I should’ve faced her. Maybe then, we wouldn’t be here now, with the fate of our world hanging in the balance.”

  For a moment, silence stretched between us. Even Goren remained quiet as he watched him.

  Then, I gave a slow nod. “Alright. But remember – we need the key. I have to deal the finishing blow to make sure it drops.”

  Gaelith met my gaze and nodded. “It won’t take long.” His fingers flexed around his sword. “I understood something just now.”

  With that, he turned and strode toward Lysandra.

  She didn’t react. She didn’t move – even when he closed the distance and stood just two steps away from her.

  “You once told me you didn’t need me breathing to descend Erebus into my body.” Gaelith began, exhaling slowly. “You said that my body could serve as a vessel even in death.”

  Lysandra just whispered again. “Noctyra…”

  “And yet you never tried to kill me once since you’ve become like this.” Gaelith’s voice dropped lower, almost like he was speaking to himself than to her. “Why?”

  Still, she didn’t answer.

  His eyes narrowed. “Because you’re not her.” He took another step forward. “The Lysandra I knew was a ruthless woman – one who defied death to keep serving her master. But the current one – you – just a puppet. You’re working on instincts, on the passive commands your former self left when she chose to become this instead of simply dying.”

  He glanced toward the broken remains of the metallic voice apparatus. “One of those commands likely was to operate that machine – to haunt the lost adventurers who wandered into this tomb, to lure them deeper.” His gaze flickered back to her. “And another…was not to harm Noctyra.”

  Lysandra’s dead lips barely moved. “Noctyra…”

  Gaelith nodded to himself. “That’s why you never attacked me directly. Not before. Not now. When you were alive, you claimed you could use my corpse to summon Erebus.” His voice sharpened. “But this version of you can’t.” He exhaled deeply. “I never had to strip away your magic to slay you. You wouldn’t have resisted either way. You didn’t care. You knew it didn’t matter. That, like every other beast you created in this cursed place, you’d keep resurrecting regardless of how many times I’d kill you.”

  “But now, there’s someone who can end this for good.” He turned his head slightly. “Aidan. Come closer.”

  I nodded, approaching slowly. As I did, Gaelith raised a hand, pressing his palm against Lysandra’s forehead.

  The moment his skin touched hers, a golden light flared to life, spreading over her entire form. Her body jerked, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t move. The golden hue covered her and locked her in place. It seared through her decayed flesh, and she trembled as her HP ticked downward, steadily dropping.

  By the time it reached 10%, I was already next to them.

  “Do it.” Gaelith said.

  I didn’t waste a moment.

  I swapped Silverfang for Lightning Claw as I approached her from behind. The blade crackled with lightning as I drove it forward, sinking it deep into her back.

  And then, for a single, fleeting moment – her milky white eyes cleared, and she looked human again.

  Gaelith released his magical hold on her, gently lowering her body to the ground.

  With her last, dying breath, she whispered.

  “Why would you want to stop God…”

  Then, the light in her eyes faded, and her body glowed brightly, dissolving into thin air.

  The System reacted this time.

  [High Priestess of Axul - Defeated]

  [+66,666 XP]

  [Level Up! You have gained 1 Skill Point]

  [From this point on, any additional XP will directly upgrade your core stats]

  My heart raced at the message, but before I could focus on leveling up one final time, Goren spoke.

  “What did she drop?”

  I snapped back to reality, checking the drops – but there was only one.

  A single ice shard.

  The System identified it as a Key Item called: Axul’s Ice. But it had no description.

  “Is it the key you were looking for?” Gaelith asked calmly.

  I shrugged, summoning the Darknessbound Core from my inventory.

  Bringing Axul’s Ice next to the Core, I waited – hoping for a reaction, maybe a System message, just like when it had crafted Lightning Claw for me.

  But nothing happened.

  “I don’t think so…” I muttered, in disbelief.

  “What the hell?!” Goren shouted, dropping to his knees, frantically searching the ground for something – anything – we might have missed.

  Gaelith sighed, rubbing his face. “I can try looking for it, like I did for the third shard in the past.”

  Goren jumped to his feet. “Why didn’t you suggest that sooner?!”

  “You were convinced Lysandra had the key…” Gaelith replied, his voice measured. “I trusted your knowledge.”

  I handed him the Darknessbound Core. “Will it work?”

  “I’ll try my best.” He took it from me.

  Meanwhile, I turned to my System, allocating my final skill point into Déjà vu.

  [Skill Upgraded: Déjà vu lvl.10]

  [Congratulations – You have maxed out the Déjà vu System!]

  [You’ve unlocked: ‘Total Recall’]

  I quickly opened my skill list – and there it was.

  8. Total Recall – Activate: YES / NO?

  Remember Everything.

  My mind raced at the possibility.

  And yet – I was also afraid. Afraid that the memory of so many deaths would overwhelm and crush me.

  What if remembering everything ends up as a mistake?

  But then…I thought about how close we were. How at this stage, having my memories intact would help me end this faster.

  I took a deep breath, and mentally selected YES.

  Suddenly, a burst of information slammed into my mind.

  Too much.

  Too fast.

  Too sharp.

  Too painful.

  All I could do was scream in agony as I felt like my consciousness was being ripped apart.