Dungeon King: The Hidden Ruler-Chapter 76: [The Heir of Thornspine 8] Burn Protocol Initiated

Below, NekoNekoNyan’s newest clone somersaulted forward, scythe raised to plunge into Ostreva’s chest.

"If I can’t play with you, I’ll just end your pet project first."

As NekoNekoNyan surged forward—aiming straight for Ostreva’s chest, Raven didn’t flinch. He reached into his coat, popped a health potion with a smooth flick of his thumb, and let the warm burn stabilize his system. It was only a second—but it bought him calm.

"Root Trial Lattice!"

The roots surged.

From beneath the tiles, thick gnarled limbs exploded upward again, catching the latest batch of NekoNekoNyan duplicates mid-charge. One halted mid-lunge, another spun into the air before being yanked back down by a twisted root around her ankle. All motion, frozen in a snare of nature’s fury.

"Oh come on! Are you just gonna keep doing that!?"

NekoNekoNyan raged, her real form barely dodging the last flare of bark. Her scythe gleamed in the dim, fire-tinted light of the ruined laboratory. But her rage turned tactical.

NekoNekoNyan didn’t panic.

No, she pouted—then smirked like someone pulling petals off a daisy. One of her trapped clones, held tight by thick roots, let out a glitchy whine.

"Let’s fix that again, girls."

She twirled her finger once in the air. A signal.

The bound duplicate to her left jolted as if shocked—then lunged, scythe swinging. It sliced clean through another entangled twin. The struck clone vanished in a puff of violet mist.

And where it disappeared... another form shimmered into place.

A new NekoNekoNyan, fully unbound.

Raven’s jaw tightened. Not from surprise. From confirmation.

Another clone attacked.

Another flicker of smoke.

Another clone appeared—outside the radius of Seneschal’s Root Trial Lattice.

The cycle repeated—swift, brutal, calculated. A dance of self-destruction and rebirth. And with every step, her laughter rose, amused and venomous.

"Oh look," she chirped. "Now this one’s free. Isn’t she adorable?"

The freed duplicate dashed to the side, cutting down another clone, triggering yet another summon. Like a viral chain reaction, each burst of violence bred another clean slate. Outside the root grid. Ready to kill.

"She’s weaponizing her own bindings," Raven muttered. "Chain-killing her pawns to counter the mass stun."

It wasn’t just a summoner skill—it was abuse of mechanics. A logic loop of aggression and replacement. Dirty. Clever.

Efficient.

Raven’s eye followed the spread.

Five. Six. Seven freed already.

The air shimmered with illusion trails, the field growing more chaotic by the second. His gaze flicked to the Regal Bloom still ticking on her—the venom bloom working, but not fast enough.

This couldn’t go on much longer.

He exhaled once.

Time to change the equation. But the formula is there.

Her new duplicate has the same HP amount of her real body when it’s summoned.

And now the new duplicate only has 75% of their HP bar full when summoned.

"Clever," he muttered. "But not invincible."

Raven rose to his feet.

"But I wonder, what happens when everything just burns you right away?"

He snapped his fingers.

The floor shook.

Faint tremors first. Then louder. Heavier.

The cracked veins of lava below pulsed with a sudden brightness.

The tiles fractured.

A shockwave burst outward.

Then, like a god from beneath the earth—

Emberforge Titan rose.

Lava hissed from his joints. His silhouette blocked the ceiling light as he stood, three times taller than any player model. His face was a molten furnace-plate, and his voice sounded like ancient gears grinding against rusted steel.

NekoNekoNyan froze.

For just a blink.

Then her eyes darted toward the newly risen colossus—one of her clones already twitching at the overwhelming heat radiating from the Titan’s furnace-core.

"What the fuck? Did you just summon a freakin boss?"

The Emberforge Titan’s shoulders rolled, releasing a metallic groan as molten slats shifted down its arms. Lava dripped from its forearms like burning sweat.

It raised its hand.

"Commencing Burn Protocol."

A low hum began to rise. Heat shimmered around its chest plate, pulsing like a heart about to explode. The air in the lab grew hotter. Scrolls blackened and curled at the edges. The broken vats groaned, glass cracking again under rising pressure.

NekoNekoNyan’s smugness wavered.

Her newest clone blinked at her, then exploded as the Regal Bloom DoT finally reached lethal.

Raven didn’t look back at the fading duplicate. His eyes were locked on her real self.

"You wanted to play, Neko?" he said softly, too low for her to hear. "Let’s see if you can survive the final round."

In a raging scream, NekoNekoNyan turns her full attention to Lady Ostrava. This DoT must be stopped first before handling the colossus.

Three duplicates break formation, surging toward the matriarch in a direct line, scythes raised, eyes filled with the intent to deny Raven his prize.

NekoNekoNyan’s cold voice echoes, full of venom:

"No more experiments for you, freak."

Just before contact, Ostreva’s eyes flicked open. Her limbs didn’t rise. Her voice, faint and fragile, seeped through the poison haze.

"Hunted by the hive."

A sickly glyph formed in the air—branding one of the clones in a pulse of green.

Her final words were brittle, but carried a cruel benediction:

"Even in the afterlife my curse stays with you, love."

Her body collapsed as three scythe cuts where she stands—her final act complete.

Lady Ostreva’s body begins to disintegrate—roots curling inward, petals closing like a wilted flower. She slumps forward, vanishing into a spore-laced bloom that fades into ash.

NekoNekoNyan’s real self snarls:

"Tch. Damn weed."

The marked duplicate jerks violently—then detonates.

A burst of fungal spores explodes outward, poisoning the other two clones on impact. Their bars tick down rapidly. The DoT spreads—doomed to chain onto any newly spawned duplicates if left unchecked.

And Raven watched it all—expression blank.

One more card down. One more turn closer to checkmate.

The Emberforge Titan’s core pulsed once—then twice, brighter.

Its arm rose.

"Firestorm activated."

A roar of pressure. The air cracked. The lab’s tiles exploded in concentric rings as a furnace wind blasted outward. Fire surged from every crack, turning the arena into a blooming inferno.

The moss that once claimed the floor shriveled instantly. Crates collapsed into ash. Ancient scrolls combusted midair.

And in the far corner, they stood.

Duskrunner was safe on the height of a platform, hiding, ready to strike at a single command.

Meanwhile -

Root-Soul Ascendant—planted like a dying tree, unmoving.

Ironbark Seneschal—arms outstretched, shielding Root-Soul.

Both plant-born.

Both flammable.

The flames licked up their legs first, then their limbs, their backs, their faces of bark and bloom.

Root-Soul’s voice faltered, her layered whispers unraveling into a quiet hum. She turned her head toward Seneschal, who still stood unmoving—his bark-crusted face unreadable beneath that mask of hollow eyes.

The knight did not run. He never ran.

Raven saw it all from the ceiling shadows—teeth clenched, breath tight in his lungs.

He whispered, "I’m sorry. I can’t defeat her without your sacrifice."

As fire claimed them, the two didn’t scream.

Seneschal turned—just enough to nod once.

Root-Soul’s head tilted back—her eyes meeting Raven’s, understand the final act of the sovereign.

They knew.

And then they were gone—consumed in the blaze, reduced to flickers of light in the storm of ash.

The explosion from Hunted by the Hive left smoke in the air and poison in the lungs. The two surviving duplicates reeled—status bars hemorrhaging under the compounding effects of Regal Bloom and Spitebloom Rash. Their outlines flickered. Then—disappeared into rot.

From the ash, two more shimmered into place.

They barely lasted a heartbeat.

Meanwhile, the battlefield stank of scorched fungal matter and charred bloom. Even the tiles below hissed with the chemical reaction of decay meeting fire.

For a moment, NekoNekoNyan hesitated.

Then her real body jerked upright. Her hand pointed—a quick, dismissive gesture. One of the newly summoned duplicates turned its scythe inward—not to strike, but to cast.

Then she raised her hand—grinning.

Another clone repeated the gesture—scythe turned inward, spell cast outward. The heal pulsed again.

A green pulse of healing washed from their fingertips, arcing straight into her body.

The bar ticked up.

15%... 25%... 30%...

The next duplicate spawned from a flicker of smoke—mirroring that exact health level.

Raven’s eyes narrowed to see this development.

NekoNekoNyan strategy was working.

The loop of poison and flame had slowed.

And she—NekoNekoNyan—was regaining ground.

If he let this stretch out, she’d stabilize entirely. Reset her field. Reset her strength.

That was the moment—the shift from attacking strategy to defense strategy.

A counter opportunity.

Raven made his move.

From the rafters above, Raven’s eyes locked onto her—centered between the debris, the ash, the ruin she helped birth.

He shifted his weight. Whispered to the fire-lit void:

"You don’t get to undo this."

The chain spun once—whistling through smoke—and fired.

CLANK.

It latched into scorched tile, right beside NekoNekoNyan.

With a violent pull, Raven launched himself downward like a projectile.

She turned—too late.

CRACK.

His boots slammed into her chest, knocking the air from her lungs, followed by a hand choking her neck and driving her body into the laboratory wall.

The impact carried her backward, a slam, into the stone. Cracking the fungus-covered limestone.

"—Guh!"

Her scythe clattered to the floor.

Raven’s face hovered inches from hers. Beneath the mask, his voice was cold as iron.

"Game over, you shitty cat."

Then—he kicked off her torso and backflipped into the smoke behind, disappearing like a wraith.

The moment Raven vanished into the smoke, the temperature in the chamber surged.

From the gloom left behind, a shadow loomed—towering, molten, divine.

Emberforge Titan’s arm ignited.

His gauntlet roared with internal pressure as fire coiled beneath its plated knuckles. Tubes of brass bulged with steam. Glowing vents snapped open across his elbow and shoulder like a furnace preparing to vent a god’s wrath.

NekoNekoNyan’s eyes widened.

From her battered position against the wall, she looked up -

Too late.

The titan’s fist descended in silence. For just a second, all noise vanished.

Then -

BOOM.

The fist connected with the floor in a hellish detonation—a Hell Fire release. The impact cratered the tiles, sending molten rock and alchemical shards flying in every direction. A bloom of white-hot flame erupted outward, swallowing her, her duplicates, and the entire corridor in searing, soundless fire. freёnovelkiss.com

The shockwave shattered what little glass remained. The overhead walkways twisted and collapsed. The scent of scorched silk, hair, and blood filled the air.

Even Raven, tucked into the shadows above, felt the heat kiss the edges of his cloak.

He didn’t flinch.

The titan’s fist smoldered, embedded in the floor.

Of NekoNekoNyan, there was no trace left to gloat.

Only flame.

And silence.

Raven pull up his player interface once more, and push the same button he push earlier before the fight.

Record button.

He don’t know what to do with this recording yet, but this might be useful one day.

Could be.

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