Reincarnated into a Doomed Novel as an Unknown Extra-Chapter 69: The Fourth Challenge
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[Challenge Objective: Kill the duchess]
[You have 5 minutes before the fourth challenge starts]
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A screen appeared within my vision. I paid it no mind as I scanned my surroundings first.
I was standing in a place that seemed to be a throne room.
Or what was a throne room.
The floor was covered in blood, both red and green. The roof was broken, showing a big hole that revealed the green sky.
Scratches, blood, and old burn marks covered the walls, with many holes that could even let an elephant pass through.
I stepped forward and brought my hand to a hole, and as expected, a barrier stopped me from passing through, ensuring that I wouldn’t run.
I focused my gaze on the throne at the end of the room.
A green skeleton was sitting on the throne, with yellow and green fungus covering its entire body.
I took a random rock from the ground, covered it in flames, and threw it at the skeleton.
*Crack!*
The rock was shattered completely after hitting an invisible barrier.
’It’s... her.’
She was the duchess who I had to fight. She had no soul currently, but that may not last for a long time.
Unsheathing Yamato, I pointed the tip of its blade at the skeleton and stood motionless.
After 2 minutes, the silence began to shatter.
A green light surrounded the corpse as it began to regenerate. Flesh, organs, and veins started reforming with a visible speed as blood surged through her body again.
A layer of grey skin spread over her body and silky green hair grew on her head. Finally, a black armor with green runes inscribed on it covered her body.
A black two-handed sword materialized in her hands, covered in green flames and leaking a dark aura.
Unlike all the corrupted monsters I had seen before, she had 2 glowing green eyes instead of empty sockets or flames.
Our eyes locked as our killing intent and aura pressure clashed in the air. All I wanted was to hear a specific sound.
And I didn’t have to wait too long...
*DING!*
Once the challenge started, I unleashed a beam of cold flames from Yamato.
The duchess turned into a mist of flames and dodged the cold beam before materialising beside the frozen throne.
In an instant, she swung her sword — a wide, blazing slash flew toward me.
I turned into my spectral form, expecting the slash to pass through me, but...
*BOOM!*
The slash exploded once it touched me. The impact sent me flying to the barrier.
*BAM!*
As my back hit the barrier, I realized a horrifying fact...
’That’s not aura... nor mana’
The only energy I knew about that could use the power of both aura and mana was the anti-mana that the demons used — but this energy was different.
*Swoosh!*
Another blazing slash came toward me, but I turned into a parrot and dodged it immediately.
Just then, a barrage of green slashes flew at me, she kept slashing the air as if she could do that forever.
Dodging in the air, one thought echoed in my mind.
’I have to get closer.’
With a strong swing of my wings, I launched myself forward, ignoring the pain of the slashes that scratched my soul.
Once I became close enough, I turned into my humanoid form.
I used my left arm as a shield against the last green slash, which was ripped off immediately. I raised Yamato to the sky, and with fire covering it, swung it at the duchess.
Her eyes widened as the blade penetrated her armor then cut from her shoulder, passed through her chest, and reached her stomach, leaving a frozen cut that even affected her soul.
She turned into a mist of green flames to run. I tried to catch her but found myself holding only a severed hand.
She shed her own hand to run away like an octopus.
When she materialized again, her hand returned as if nothing happened, but the cut in her chest remained.
A theory formed in my mind.
’Her regeneration isn’t passive.’
She needed to feel her injury to heal it, and because her soul was severed with that injury, she couldn’t feel it, leaving the injury as it was.
I turned the aura that covered my sword into a soul aura to maximize the soul damage.
*Clank!*
The duchess suddenly charged at me, deciding to fight directly. Our swords met in an instant as I blocked her slash.
I tried to bend her sword, but I was outmatched by her strength as she kept pushing me backward.
I made a burst of flames under my right leg sending my knee to her stomach, but she met my kick with her own knees, making cracks spiderweb across my leg.
I kicked again.
*CRACK!*
And again.
*CRACK!*
Each time, the cracks in my leg would spread even more, threatening to break anytime — but suddenly.
*BAM!*
"Hrk—!"
Her leg didn’t move this time, leaving my knee hit her stomach like a cannon and forcing the air out of her.
My past kicks were aiming at her soul which was weaker than her body, once it broke, she couldn’t feel her knee anymore.
Seizing the opportunity, I twisted her sword aside and broke her jaw with an upper kick.
I expected her to fly away, but all of a sudden, she gripped my arm and used it to push herself forward and kick my head.
*BOOM!*
As I crashed into the wall — I moved my head to the side instantly, dodging a flaming sword that hit the barrier, then rolled on the ground running away from a barrage of spears.
I pointed my sword at her and unleashed a beam of cold flames that caught her arm. She cut her arm instantly, but the soul damage stopped it from regenerating.
Covering my sword in fire, I lunged at her. Once the tip of my blade touched her sword, a small explosion erupted on impact, making the duchess stumble backward.
All of a sudden, a pillar of green flames erupted under, burning my soul and filling my mind with dark whispers.
I ignored the pain, and resisted the corruption as I held my sword with both hands, enhanced it with my soul affinity, and slashed horizontally, cutting both the duchess arms.
My hand emerged out of the flames as it grabbed the duchess head. Then with all my strength, I began to pull her soul out of her body.
She tried to resist, but all she could do was kick me with her remaining leg as she kept losing her feelings with each passing second.
*Thud!*
Eventually, her body fell motionless on the ground.
Her soul stared at me, and I stared at her as well.
I didn’t see fear, terror, shock, or nervousness. All I saw was surrender, acceptance, submission... and a hint of guilt.
Putting her in my abyssal pocket, I fell on the ground beside her corpse.
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[Congratulations! You finished the fourth challenge! Get ready for your rewards]
[The end is near. Please enter the portal above the throne when you are ready]
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’I did it...’
I defeated the duchess in my first try.
Alone.
No one helped me. No one died because of me. No one sacrificed himself to save me.
I... did that on my own. Without any artifacts, without my body, and without dying.
I wasn’t pathetic anymore. I wasn’t useless like before.
I brought Yamato close to me, his cold blade resting on my chest.
’Yamato... can you see this?’
.....
’....I won.’
