Leo was momentarily awestruck by Cecelia's display. The power and speed she had exhibited was on par with him at full power. He and Cain met eyes and a brief understanding was made.

They both wanted to be the one to end this.

The Queen reeled, retreating backwards as green coated chunks of flesh fell from her. It was possible she would bleed out with time. But why wait?

Leo and Cain got to the dying Queen at the same time, attacking in tandem. One fist glowing with blue light. Two hatchets coated red in the light of blood.

A small veil of sand rose up in a vain attempt to stop them.

It wasn’t enough.

A crackling hiss and hum of power hit at the same time, extinguishing what little life-force the Queen had left. Tiredness overtook the lot of them as the most anticipated notification graced all of their eyes.

You have slain: Antling Queen - Level 90

Experience increased for defeating a higher level enemy

+14340 Store Credits

And of course, with the kill, came more notifications.

Your Elemental Adept Class has reached level 72

Stat points distributed

+3 Free Points

…

Your Elemental Adept Class has reached level 74

Stat Points distributed

+3 Free Points

Anchored Progression:

+3 All stats, +6 Free Points

Ellie has reached level 68

Stat points distributed

+3 Free Points

…

Ellie has reached level 70

Stat points distributed

+3 Free Points

Ellie’s gains from race:

+15 Free Points

Bond of Unity Skill selection available

And finally.

Finally.

Antling Queen Slain: 1/1

Quest Complete!

After weeks of trials and tribulation.
The Queen has been slain.
Her antling horde no longer has a figure to lead them, and soon, will be nothing more than a memory.
You have fought well, endured hardship, and earned your place as a ruler.

But there can only be one ruler.

Who will take the throne?

Rewards granted: Title.

+50,000 Store Credits

One D-rank Essence Crystal

The Queen’s Territory Orb has been dropped.

The Queen’s Key has been dropped.

Title gained:

Vanquisher of the Brood Queen

+5% All stats

+5% Stamina and Mana Regeneration

Bonus to damage when fighting against insect type creatures

Leo threw his free points into Will, since it was by far his lowest stat. Not gaining any from either his class or bond.

But after that, Ho-ly-rewards!

The title alone was incredible. Another five percent to all his stats was an amazing reward. Although, after all the things he’d had to do to get here, it almost felt a little lacking. But before he could think further on it, his eyes were quickly drawn to the items that the Queen had dropped at the top of the stairs.

In the air, floating beside the Queen’s corpse, two items had appeared.

One was a small orb, barely bigger than a baseball. It was white in colour, shining brightly in the light of the purple moss. Next to it was a key made of crystal, sharp jagged lines cut into it. It gave off a sickly feeling, like something told him he shouldn’t touch it.

Both Cecelia and Cain moved at once towards the stairs. Then stopped.

They looked towards each other, eyes sparking with impending conflict. Leo got a real bad feeling after reading the quest complete message. And this confirmed it.

But before he could intervene. A sense of incredible danger flared. Coming not from the Queen.

But behind him.

~

As the Queen fell, Ruby could only watch on in lip-biting frustration. Her attacks weren’t doing as much as she hoped. And if not for that hairy beast, she’d have likely been killed already. Both Leo and Cain were above her, and now that smug bitch Cecelia was also revealed to be a monster of her own accord.

It made her blood boil.

Fire tingled at the ends of her fingertips. Rising in power she kept hidden. The reason she had returned to fight the Queen, and support the scum that was the camp of Leo, was for one reason.

To carry out the will of her god.

After she had forced Gareth to abandon Cecelia’s plans of an alliance and forge their own way in the tutorial, the god that had blessed her, Pyronis, was not pleased. He wanted her to get close to Leo, befriend him and protect him and his dragon. When she’d told him to go fuck himself, he’d demoted her blessing down a tier.

That pissed her off even more.

Who did he think he was? Claiming himself to be her god, to bless her, telling her how thankful she should be that he was bestowing it on her. He hadn’t started that way, but after she’d refused to get all cozy with Leo, he’d become more intense.

“Greater powers than I are after this boy and his dragon. His safety is of utmost importance. Do not disappoint me.”

Greater powers… huh.

The words did little to instill a burning desire to please the god. If anything, she was more determined to not give him his way.

He remained quiet after that, not speaking while she explored the inside of the Frozen Fortress dungeon. The peace was pleasant, for a while. Upon reaching level 40, Ruby had been offered a skill, one that spoke of purity of flame. It was easily the best skill she had seen, which made her take it instantly.

After choosing it, she began hearing her own voice in her head like a devil on her shoulder. Speaking of her power. Her talent.

Her destiny.

It grew louder as the days inside passed. They spoke such delicious words. The pride of fire. The potential of what a true flame can do. At some point, the voices in her head—which were usually her own—started to sound different.

They morphed. Darkening as the intensity of them rose. Each time she felt them grace her thoughts, it just felt so… pure.

Upon leaving the frozen shit-hole that was the dungeon, coming out of it with a massive amount of levels, a signature skill, and a new weapon, Ruby had run straight into the bane of her existence, and the voices she had grown so used to and expectant of, had vanished. Leaving her feeling empty. Empty and angry.

As soon as she looked upon him, Pyronis had been in her ear, spouting shit about how it was her “chance to reconnect and grow closer.”

What happened to the voices who whispered her such sweet futures?

It had instantly pissed her off, making her taunt some random guy who made her skin crawl. She just wanted to burn them all.

Burn every last one of them.

After agreeing to follow him back to his camp to defend against a swarm, she had been content enough. A chance to show off after all her gains. To take out her anger while also giving Pyronis what he wanted. If not for nothing, it would at least shut him up.

The fighting had died down quicker than she had a chance to show off. Some idiot girl had used a skill combined with Leo to devastating effect. But had hurt herself in the process.

The way Leo had reacted after she had just casually joked about it had made her beyond furious. The way he somehow clamped down on her soul the way he did. How exposed, how vulnerable she felt.

It made her tremble with fear.

After the reaction and subsequent exit from anywhere near that monster, Ruby had received a tirade of backlash from her god.

“How could you be so foolish!”

“Don’t you know how important he is!”

“Go back and apologise at once!”

Noise.

So much noise.

A system message appeared as she wished for it all to stop.

Would you like to renounce the blessing of Pyronis?Yes/No
Warning: This cannot be undone. Any skills or bonuses will be lost or changed.

Fuck the power. Fuck the bonuses.

She chose yes with all the enthusiasm she could muster.

Instantly, all of the power she felt left her, as did the voice of the annoying old man. Her skill, Flame of Pyronis, remained, but she could feel it was less connected to her than before. Almost as if whatever power it drew from to grow and advance was severed, from infinite ocean to mere pond.

Whatever. She had more skills.

The next evening, as if by some divine intervention. Ruby felt a connection show itself once more. The same tingle she got from Pyronis, but different. Stronger. The voice was the one she heard inside the dungeon. A dark, mellow voice of unbridled truths.

“It appears to be much less noisy now with that pathetic excuse for a god finally gone. Impure swine.”

“Pledge yourself to me. Do my bidding. With my strength behind you, you can rule that planet of yours and more.”

Ruby felt electric. It was everything she could have dreamt of. She didn’t like the idea of pledging herself to anyone, but she could capitulate for true power… For now.

She accepted, and her whole world changed.

Up until this very moment, where she currently stood, staring down at a dead queen, a group of clowns who call themselves fighters, and finally…

Her—His enemy.

She drank a potion she’d bought from the store, enhancing her power further.

Her hand rose, power growing within. Flame coiled at her fingertips, steady and silent.

The enemy caught on as the words left her lips. She grinned.

“Purging flame.”

~

Leo reacted quickly, even as stunned as he was. His hand slammed downwards, raising walls of earth that blocked the attack. At least for a moment.

The power of the flame seemed to consume the mana in his walls, breaking them down like they weren’t magical at all. Like loose dirt against an inferno. Everyone reacted quickly after, shouting and casting as Ruby turned her hand against them all.

Ashley’s barrier rose, but even that started to crumble quickly under the power of the fire.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Leo called above the noise of the flame. He couldn’t believe she would be so brazen as to attack them like this.

She grinned even wider. Her face was devilish as her teeth were shown. Both of her eyes lit up with red flames.

“Cleansing the world of the impure!” She laughed maniacally.

“Impure?” Leo pondered it for a brief moment.

Then it hit him like a ton of bricks, like it should have when he'd first made the brief connection. He looked at Ellie.

“Cindralus.”

Like a fire had been lit in his own gut, Leo’s rage started spilling out. He knew someone would eventually come for his head, and not just for being strong, like Cain had. They would come for his head to put an end to his little companion.

Killing her for no more reason than she was alive.

His storm awakened, already barely restrained. It crashed into everyone, all at once.

It was domineering in its strength. But Leo was still in control of his sanity for now.

He crashed through Ashley’s barrier like it wasn’t there, directly into the unceasing flames. They scorched against his skin, burning flesh like his Stoneskin wasn’t even there. It didn’t last long, Leo Spark Dashing into the air above the flames.

Ruby’s hands came up to chase him, but he was already descending, fist clad in blue lightning.

Her eyes widened in alarm, a shield shooting up over her body as the fist connected. Sparks danced across the shield before breaking entirely.

After using the shield, she had to cancel the cast of her Purging Flames. Now exposed, Ruby tried to cast again, a short range blast that would ward off attackers close range.

Leo felt the power of the instant cast spell coming. His Nerveflash told him about it, and told him to jump backwards.

He ignored it.

Heat washed over him, followed by a blast that knocked the wind out of him. Ruby attempted to flee backwards, but a hand shot out of the flames and grasped her.

His grip tightened as she screamed in outrage.

“No! Let me go!”

The flames dispersed, leaving a burned, but fairly intact, Leo. His chest armour granted him fire resistance, and whatever fire she had used this time was not like the purging flame that had burned him before.

“You just tried to kill me. Kill Ellie. And you did it for him,” Leo said, voice cold and full of rage.

“He told me what you are! Told me what you all are!” Ruby screamed, voice strained. “Impure scum that deserves no more than to be cleansed by fire!”

She started frantically rambling as Leo held on.

“You will all burn under the weight of his purity! Every last star system, every planet, they will all capitulate to the ruler of everything! His name will be burned into the minds of every living creature! You will be cleansed!!”

She kept preaching, over and over like she was possessed. Her mind was broken, eyes unfocused. Whatever Cindralus had done to her was consuming her mind completely. Obsession like none other.

Leo took a deep breath, calming himself. He wasn’t filled with rage as he carried out what he had to do.

His heart was filled with unease, and pity. She was unwell. Whatever had happened to her throughout her life that caused her to be this way, and now corrupted by the very enemy who wanted him dead.

“I’m sorry, Ruby.”

She stopped as the words came out, her eyes gleaming with some sanity for a moment before moistening. “I–”

He didn’t let her finish. In a swift move, Leo summoned a Frost Lance, and spiked it directly through her heart.

She gasped in pain, her health bottoming out quickly as her consciousness faded.

Everyone looked on, unmoving, and unreactive. Even Ed, who was Ruby’s party member, did not begin healing her. He just watched her as her lifeforce dwindled.

Leo looked down at her, blood forming at her lips. Something inside him wanted to save her, wanted to give her a second chance, or maybe it was a fourth or fifth chance by now.

But he couldn’t do it.

Healing light started to fill him as Ashley placed a hand on him. It was steady, but slow. She wasn’t a healer anymore, even if she had the ability to do so. His vitality had long eclipsed a basic touch heal.

“You did the right thing,” she said softly.

“I’m so done with this place,” he said, eyes closing.

“We’re almost done. Just one last hurdle,” she replied, head on his shoulder.

They turned, facing the rest of them. The end was in sight.

A notification appeared as they walked, one he’d never thought he’d see and not in a good way.

You have slain: Human, Pyrebound Apostle - level 79, Ashweaver - level 43

Increased experience for defeating a higher level enemy

+72943 Store Credits

Your Elemental Adept class has reached level 75

Stat points distributed

+3 Free Points

Anchored Progression:

+1 All stats, +2 Free Points