Nobody slowly stood up. His body still ached from the fall. The darkness around him felt different from the dungeon above. He could feel it.

Nobody looked forward. Then froze.

At the far end of the enormous throne room sat a woman.

No. Not a woman. Something far more terrifying.

Seated upon a throne forged from dark stone and twisted gold, Demoness Aconite radiated a presence that made even the air tremble. She leaned slightly to one side. One cheek resting against her knuckles. One long leg crossed gracefully over the other.

Her posture looked relaxed and effortless. Yet somehow it felt as though the entire room belonged to her. Like a queen observing an insect.

Her endless black hair flowed over the throne like living darkness. Green energy moved through it like cursed lightning.

Dark emerald garments wrapped around her flawless figure. Golden chains hung from her body. Dozens. Each chain shimmered beneath the poisonous green light filling the chamber. They swayed gently. Like trophies collected from countless fallen enemies.

Behind her an ocean of green light spread across the throne room. Like a corrupted halo.

Nobody felt a chill run through his body.

The demoness smiled with being amused. As if she had been expecting him.

Then....

the system appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[WARNING] ⚠︎⚠︎

FINAL STAGE BOSS DETECTED

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody immediately pointed at the screen. "...What?"

The system continued.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[BOSS IDENTIFIED]

Name:

Demoness Aconite

Class:

National-Level Threat

Threat Level:

EXTREME

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Skills:

■ Infinite Poison

Description:

Generates limitless poisonous energy.

■ Endless Sea of Poison

Description:

Corrupts and poisons entire battlefields.

■ Stingers of Poisonous Hell Flame

Description:

Creates poisonous flames capable of poisoning a person to death with extreme pain

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody stared. Then stared again. Then stared a third time. "...I am fked."

The system remained silent.

Nobody slowly looked toward the demoness. Then immediately raised both hands. "Miss. You look human. Please don’t kill me."

Then....

Aconite laughed. A soft laugh. Which somehow made her even scarier. "You are interesting."

Nobody didn’t know whether to be happy or terrified. So he chose terrified.

The demoness slowly leaned forward. Her emerald eyes examined him carefully. "At first...I thought you were another hero."

Her smile widened. "I have killed countless heroes."

Nobody swallowed. "That’s not a comforting sentence."

Aconite ignored him. Her gaze remained fixed on his face. Or rather the lack of one. "Yet...You possess no facial features."

Nobody awkwardly scratched the side of his head. "Yeah. I get that a lot."

The demoness tilted her head. "Curious. I am very curious now." Then she slowly lifted one hand.

Nobody immediately regretted saying she was human.

Her fingers were not human. Sharp demonic claws extended from each finger. Long and deadly. Covered in poisonous green energy.

The air hissed around them.

SSSSSSSS.

The poison itself seemed alive.

Nobody instantly took three steps backward. "Never mind. You are definitely not human."

Aconite chuckled. The poisonous energy dancing around her fingertips intensified. "You thought otherwise?"

Nobody immediately answered. "For three seconds. Maybe four."

Nobody slowly entered a combat stance. His heart pounded and his palms sweated. Every instinct screamed at him to run. But there was nowhere to run.

This was the final stage.

Nobody pointed a crowbar at her. "Okay. You are a stage boss."

Aconite raised an eyebrow. "And?"

Nobody forced confidence into his voice. "I have to beat you."

The demoness stared at him. Then she smiled. A smile that revealed rows of sharp, predatory teeth.

The smile sent chills down Nobody’s spine.

The room instantly became heavier. The pressure increased. Cracks spread across the floor. The poisonous aura around her expanded. Green lightning danced through the throne room.

BOOM.

Nobody nearly lost his footing.

The demoness looked down at him. Amusement shining in her eyes. Then she spoke. "Will you now?"

Nobody tightened his grip on both crowbars. His heart pounded violently inside his chest. Unfortunately there was nowhere to run.

In front of him sat a National-Level Threat. The odds couldn’t have been worse.

Nobody swallowed. Then forced himself into a fighting stance. The blue glow of his crowbars illuminated the poisonous throne room. "Come at me."

Aconite remained seated on her throne. Completely motionless. One leg crossed over the other. One hand supporting her cheek. As if she were watching a play.

Nobody frowned. "...Why aren’t you moving?"

No response. The demoness simply continued smiling.

Nobody pointed a crowbar toward her. "What? Scared?"

The poisonous green light surrounding the throne room flickered. For a brief moment..Aconite actually looked amused.

Then she laughed. The kind of laugh that made people nervous. "It seems..." She slowly sat upright. "...you do not fully understand the situation you are in."

Nobody immediately answered. "No. I understand perfectly. I’m about to get murdered."

The demoness chuckled. "At least you’re honest." Then she raised one finger. The air distorted. Green poisonous energy gathered above her hand.

SSSSSSSSSS.

Several floating metallic stingers materialized around her. Long, sharp and deadly. Each one glowed with toxic green flames.

Nobody’s confidence dropped by thirty percent. "...Okay. Those look dangerous."

The system appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[WARNING] ⚠︎

High-Level Poison Construct Detected

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody pointed toward Aconite. "Do what you like. I’ve survived worse."

The system remained silent. Apparently it disagreed.

Aconite smiled. "Very well." Then..she flicked her finger.

WHOOSH!

Three poisonous stingers shot toward him. Their speed was insane.

Nobody barely reacted.

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

His crowbars moved instinctively. All three stingers were knocked aside. The metallic projectiles embedded themselves into nearby walls.

BOOOOM!

Green poison exploded outward. Melting stone instantly.

Nobody stared. "...That’s terrifying." Then he grinned. "Ho ho...You thought that could hurt me?"

The grin on Aconite’s face widened. Which immediately worried him. The demoness slowly tilted her head. As if waiting.

Nobody suddenly felt something cold behind him. His eyes widened. "...Wait."

A metallic sound echoed.

SHINK.

A sharp pain exploded through his body.

Nobody froze. Then slowly looked downward. A poisonous stinger was protruding from his chest. It had appeared behind him without any warning.

Without him noticing. Nobody stared. "...Oh."

Aconite smiled calmly. "What were you saying again?"

The poison immediately spread. Green veins crawled beneath his skin. Agony shot through every nerve. "AAAAAGHHHH!" Nobody collapsed to one knee.

The system instantly appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[STATUS EFFECT]

Poisoned

Health Decreasing

Current Condition:

Critical

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nobody coughed. Blood splattered across the floor. His vision blurred.

The throne room spun.

Even breathing became difficult.

Aconite watched everything silently.

Nobody tried standing but failed. His crowbars trembled. The poison was eating through his body rapidly.

The demoness slowly raised her hand again. More stingers appeared.

Ten.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Hundreds.

Green poisonous light illuminated the entire throne room.

Nobody’s face lost all color. "...That’s cheating."

The system remained silent.

Even it seemed concerned. Aconite snapped her fingers.

More stingers emerged. A deadly storm. A sky made entirely of poison.

Nobody looked upward. Then immediately regretted it. "...I am so dead."

Aconite spoke softly. "Correct."

The stingers rotated. Aligning toward him. Every single one. The pressure alone felt overwhelming.

Nobody struggled to breathe. His body was failing. His health continued dropping. The poison continued spreading. He couldn’t dodge. Couldn’t run.

For the first time he genuinely believed he was about to die.

Then....someone appeared.

Without warning. Standing directly in front of Nobody. A familiar figure.

White fur and relaxed posture. Hands inside his pockets. It was Ren Lexion.

Nobody blinked. "...Ren?"

The demoness’ smile disappeared instantly. The atmosphere changed completely.

Aconite slowly sat upright. Her eyes narrowed. For the first time..she looked serious.

Meanwhile the countless poisonous stingers finally launched.

WHOOSH!

WHOOSH!

WHOOSH!

A deadly storm rushed forward. Enough poison to erase entire cities. Enough force to annihilate armies.

Yet Ren simply lifted one hand. Then moved.

Nobody couldn’t even follow it.

Time itself seemed to stop. One moment the stingers were flying. The next..every single one had vanished.

Gone and caught. Hundreds no thousands. All of them.

Frozen between Ren’s fingers. Held effortlessly as though they weighed nothing.

Nobody stared. His brain stopped functioning. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"...What."

"...What?"

"...WHAT?!"

The stingers shattered.

CLINK.

CLINK.

CLINK.

Thousands of metallic fragments fell harmlessly onto the floor.

Aconite stared. Ren stared back.

Nobody continued malfunctioning. The poison was still hurting him. But confusion had temporarily replaced pain.

Then..blue pixels appeared above Ren’s hand. A carrot materialized.

Nobody blinked. "...A carrot?"

Ren casually took a bite.

CRUNCH.

Another bite.

CRUNCH.

The demoness remained motionless.

Nobody remained confused.

The entire throne room remained frozen.

Then Ren finally looked toward Aconite. Chewing casually. As if he wasn’t standing before one of the most dangerous beings imaginable. Then he smiled.

"What’s up, duck?"