I Die to Rise: Resurrection System-Chapter 88: The Sun Knight! [Part 1]
From Rook’s hands spilled the material that his body was made of now. He shaped it swiftly, raising a towering wall that held back the advancing flow, buying precious minutes.
Rook leaped and stood atop his volcanic stone wall, arms crossed, watching the lava churn below. Lava rose relentlessly, lapping at the barrier’s edges. In moments, it would crest and spill over the top, continuing its relentless surge.
Without hesitation, Rook jumped over the wall and dove straight into the lava.
The heat was beyond anything natural. Even transformed into living basalt, his body protested the intense heat as he submerged completely.
He pushed deeper, swimming through the molten rock with powerful strokes, searching for the source of the leakage.
It only took four agonizing minutes but he found it, fractures in the tunnel walls, fissures where the black swans had destabilized the geothermal structure. Lava poured through them like blood from open wounds.
Rook placed his palms against the first crack. Volcanic material flowed from his hands, matching the tunnel’s composition perfectly, sealing the breach like molten solder. He moved to the next fracture, then the next, working with methodical precision despite the agony radiating through every nerve.
One by one, the fissures sealed.
Finally, Rook kicked upward, breaking the surface of the lava and hauling himself back onto his wall. Steam rose from his body as he stood, arms folded, staring back toward the sealed door now completely submerged in molten rock.
"Not good," he muttered.
If Kurt and Sam were still in there, they were on their own.
***
Back in a darker, colder place, Kurt pushed the massive door open and stepped through into a chamber so vast it defied comprehension.
The room stretched out like six football fields stacked end-to-end in both length and width. The ceiling disappeared into darkness hundreds of feet overhead. And at the center of this impossible space sat a golden egg.
It was enormous, easily thirty feet tall, polished to a mirror shine, pulsing with that rhythmic heartbeat sound they’d been following.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
"What the actual—" Kurt’s almost finished cigarette nearly fell from his lips.
Beside the egg stood a knight.
Eight feet tall, clad in gleaming golden armor that looked like it had been forged from sunlight itself. A massive shield strapped to one arm, a greatsword clutched in the other.
And surrounding both the knight and the egg were hundreds of monster corpses, manticores, chimeras, wyverns, trolls, all slaughtered with brutal efficiency.
The knight’s helmet turned slowly toward them, twin black gaps where eyes should be staring with cold assessment.
As though its stare was the trigger, a notification flashed in Kurt’s vision, bright red, urgent.
[ALERT: HOST HAS LEFT B-RANK DUNGEON]
[ALERT: HOST HAS ENTERED POCKET S-RANK DUNGEON]
Kurt waved his hand through the notification like it was a glitch or perhaps he didn’t read it clearly. "That can’t be right. Must be a load of bollocks, that."
Another notification appeared immediately, confirming the first and completely changing Kurt’s facial expression to something unreadable.
[NEW SYSTEM QUEST]
[Primary: Clear S-Rank Dungeon]
[Reward: +25 Points]
[Sub-Quest: Defeat Sun Knight]
[Reward: +25 Points]
Sam grabbed his arm. "Kurt? What is it?"
Before Kurt could answer, the Sun Knight that just stood there staring at them, moved.
It charged with impossible speed for something so massive, closing the distance in two long strides. The greatsword came up, shield positioned perfectly for defense.
"Sam, behind me!" Kurt roared, throwing both hands forward.
Fire Lord activated. Flames erupted from his palms in a roaring torrent, a wall of heat that would’ve incinerated lesser monsters instantly.
The knight didn’t slow down. It raised its shield, the flames hit the golden surface and were absorbed. The fire flowed into the shield like water into a sponge, disappearing completely, and the knight kept advancing.
Kurt barely had time to register this before the shield came up in a devastating upward bash. The rim caught him square in the chest, and suddenly he was airborne.
Kurt rocketed upward, slamming into the ceiling that was supposed to be ridiculously high up with bone-shattering force. Stone cracked, then gravity reasserted itself, and he plummeted back down, hitting the ground hard enough to crater it.
"KURT!" Sam screamed.
Kurt pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, spitting blood. Every rib felt cracked. His left arm wasn’t responding properly. But he raised his right hand toward Sam, gesturing for her to stay back.
The Sun Knight observed this gesture. Its helmeted head turned from Kurt to Sam, then back to Kurt. Processing.
Then the flames it had absorbed transferred somehow to its blade. The shield’s golden glow flowing into the greatsword, and the blade ignited, wreathed in Kurt’s own fire.
With a swing, an arc of flames erupted from the sword, carving through the stone floor as it screamed toward Kurt.
The heat was unbearable, and Kurt could see his own technique being used against him, faster, stronger, more controlled than he’d ever managed.
Kurt’s hands ignited. He threw himself forward, reached into the flame arc with both hands, and parted it. Fire split around him, scorching past on either side, singeing his coat. Sweat poured down his face, and his palms blistered even with Fire Lord active.
The knight charged again.
This time it was a blur, so fast Kurt’s enhanced perception barely tracked it. The greatsword came down in a brutal overhead swing.
Kurt crossed his forearms in front of him. Bone King activated as sharp blades of bone erupted from his forearms, coated immediately in the yellow glow of Strength Aura. He braced for impact.
The sword dropped down like it weighed a million tons, cratering the ground beneath his feet to an absurd degree.
Kurt felt something *break* inside him. Blood erupted from his mouth. His body arched sideways from the force, and he was hurled across the chamber toward Sam’s position.
[HOST HAS SUFFERED NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE]
[+3 Points Awarded]
Kurt hit the ground and rolled, wheezing, tasting copper. Goddamn this knight because everything hurt like hell. He tried to push himself up, but his arms gave out.
The Sun Knight walked toward him slowly. Methodical with no rush.
Then it stopped, turned, and looked at Sam, changing the direction of its slow stride and walked toward her instead, raising its massive sword.
"No—" Kurt gasped, trying to move, but his body wouldn’t respond.
The knight positioned itself over Sam and raised the blade high, preparing to thrust down.
The range of his portals wouldn’t cover this distance, it had to be direct teleportation. He decided in an instant and teleported directly in front of the descending sword, dropping into a crouch over Sam’s trembling form.
The blade punched through his back, drove through his entire torso, and emerged from his chest in a spray of blood.
Pain was all he felt, but even then, Kurt grabbed the blade’s tip with one shaking hand, holding it steady, stopping it from being pushed deeper into Sam beneath him.
Blood poured from his mouth. A few drops landed on Sam’s face, her eyes wide with terror and... already changing.
Kurt looked down at her, grinning through the pain, and gave a weak wink. "Told you..." he rasped. "I wouldn’t... leave you."
The Sun Knight could have pushed the blade deeper. Could have killed them both with one more effortless thrust.
Instead, it pulled the sword free.
Kurt’s body convulsed. More blood gushed from the massive wound. The knight took several steps backward, watching them carefully but not attacking.
Perhaps it realized that the girl was to Kurt as what the giant egg was to it, and would let them go? No... Kurt wasn’t that lucky.
Kurt struggled to his feet, arms spread wide despite the hole in his torso leaking blood like a punctured water balloon. "Alright, mate... it’s just you and me now."
He waved his arm at Sam, gesturing for her to get away.
The Sun Knight’s black eye-gaps narrowed at this gesture, lifting its blade again, but Kurt collapsed. Blood pooled beneath him, spreading across the stone, and his vision faded to black.
[DEATH REGISTERED]
[Deaths: 16]
[Resurrection in 20 minutes]
The Sun Knight watched Kurt’s body go still. Then it sheathed its greatsword with a metallic shnk, turned away from Sam completely, and walked back to the golden egg at the center of the chamber.
It positioned itself beside the egg like a guardian resuming its post, and simply stood there.
Sam knelt on the stone floor, tears streaming down her face, staring at Kurt’s corpse. She knew he’d come back. The system always brought him back. And yet, that knowledge did nothing to stop the rage.
The air around her twisted violently, invisible pressure surging outward in erratic gusts. The Sun Knight turned slightly, as if noticing.
"Fuck..." Sam choked. "...you." Her eyes flared, two burning stars, and an unseen force detonated outward.
The knight was ripped off its feet and slammed into the wall, stone cracking beneath the impact as it was pinned there, armor grinding against rock.
Sam screamed, and the pressure intensified. The golden armor buckled inward by inches as the knight struggled. One arm tore free from the indentation, trying to override the intense force, and was immediately smashed! back into the wall as her scream continued.
But just as Lizzie had warned, her body couldn’t handle it. Blood spilled from Sam’s nose. Her knees buckled, and she slumped to the floor on her knees.
The pressure vanished, and the Sun Knight dropped heavily to the ground with a thunderous thud.
Slowly, it rose. It looked at Kurt’s body. Then at Sam. And without a single hostile movement, it turned back toward the egg.
If there was a god Sam prayed to, she should thank it... because it made no move against her even after all that.
But one thing was clear to her. One truth was undeniable. They were clearly, hopelessly outmatched.
And she couldn’t understand why the knight hadn’t killed her too.
