The dark god truly deserved the title of dark god.
After the Monster Hunt progress was fully charged, a dazzling red light suddenly shone before Allen.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that the red light staining everything within his line of sight was actually a series of footprints.
Tentacles, mid-air, the tower's body, all the way to the dark god's giant eye...
At a glance, there were probably more than ten thousand of them.
The blood-red footprints encircled the tower, blooming like bloodlotus flowers in the sky, making the sinister, giant-eyed dark god appear even more demonic and terrifying.
"Luckily," he thought, "after the Monster Hunt progress is filled, it no longer counts toward the duration. Otherwise, walking this many steps would probably require at least level 10 of Monster Hunt."
He gently stepped on the first red footprint on a tentacle, then followed the unseen rhythm, stepping five more times.
"Swish!"
The red light shot out from the giant eye, grazing his disheveled hair and splitting the tentacle beneath his feet in two.
Allen stood on the severed part, and it began to plummet.
However, he didn't rush to blink. He casually leapt, stepping precisely onto the tip of a tentacle that was flailing due to a spasmodic instinct.
The next footprint was seamlessly connected by another tentacle.
He stepped on this footprint and bent over.
"Poof~"
The massive pressure gathered above his head, as if solid, pressing the air into an explosion.
It was the first time Allen noticed that when magical power reached a certain concentration, it not only had color but also emitted light.
It wasn't red, but gray...
As though the ashes of despair, thick and oppressive, wafted through the air like volcanic eruption remnants, the life force of everything having perished.
"Familiar..." Allen frowned, stepping on the next red footprint. "Where have I felt this sensation before?"
He closed his eyes in contemplation, spinning to dodge an attack and swiftly evading the gray pressure that followed.
"Whoosh~"
The pressure surged like a rising tide, coming at him with great force, but always just a bit too short, as if it would be within reach if only it moved faster.
Yet the desperate gray light, no matter how quickly or violently it surged, seemed to always fall short.
Sometimes it was no more than a hair's breadth.
This drove the dark god into a fury, causing it to lose its original lofty stance.
"...Overstepping... rebellion... blasphemer..."
The air surged with intense mental waves.
Yet Allen's seemingly casual steps not only allowed him to dodge the red light and the desperate pressure but also the mental waves that could potentially cause harm, effortlessly.
Monster Hunt was always so reliable.
As long as he survived the buildup of progress and didn't deliberately resist his body's natural instincts, no matter how strong the opponent, in the end, they would be completely killed.
Of course, it wasn't without side effects.
Not only did the mental waves that came at him become fragmented and incoherent, like the ramblings of a madman...
But the footprints beneath his feet, before his eyes, and those floating in the sky, forming a vast stairway up to the blood-red tower, all seemed to suggest one thing.
Monster Hunt had its limits.
"…Gray… Despair…"
His steps didn't stop, and his deep blue cat-like eyes stared blankly at the incoming, yet suddenly halted, desperate light.
It was as though a flash of lightning split through his mind, instantly clearing away all the fog.
"I remember now!" His eyes lit up.
The remnants of resentment...
The temporary source of magical power at Hudson's Castle had spewed black elements.
Although it wasn't as gray as what he was facing now, the despair and eerie feeling were strikingly similar.
"What connection could there be between these two?" Allen furrowed his brow. "Could it be that the giant-eyed dark god comes from the world behind the magical source...?"
His thoughts surged but came to a halt.
He knew that once he thought of the magical source at Hudson's abandoned castle, the tenuous connection would have to be noted for now, but couldn't be deeply explored.
After all, months ago, when he sent off Francesca's mother, Sadia, after absorbing the first shard of the Ard Gaeth Gate, he had visited the abandoned castle.
But at that time, the magical source, spewing black elements, had already disappeared along with the absorption of the shard.
"Roar!"
A sudden beastly roar broke his train of thought.
Allen looked in the direction of the sound.
At some point, the powerful red light and the enormous pressure had disappeared, and the chaotic mental waves in the air had subsided.
A large group of ghouls, climbing up the blood-and-flesh tower and tentacles, scrambled toward him.
The flesh piled up like maggots wriggling.
With sharp, jagged teeth and filthy yellow saliva spewing from their mouths, they were even more disgusting and grotesque than maggots.
"Looks like they're switching to a swarm tactic, since single-target attacks are ineffective?" He glanced down, a smirk on his lips.
This strategy wasn't bad.
After all, when the ghouls swarmed up, he might dodge one or two of them, but could he dodge them all?
Even in Monster Hunt mode, it should be impossible.
Moreover, as soon as he was forced to cut through the ghouls or use magical sigils, even the slightest hesitation would trigger another furious assault from the dark god, crushing him and the surrounding monsters into meat paste.
"Too bad, it's already too late for them!"
The moment the dark god changed its strategy, it was already doomed!
Allen's previously relaxed demeanor shifted.
In a flash, he changed direction, leaping from the end of a waving tentacle like an arrow shot from a full bow, piercing straight toward the blood-and-flesh tower.
He didn't need to dodge every attack from the ghouls.
Monster Hunt had only one target…
The dark god's life!
"Woo~"
The wind howled in his ears.
The disordered, irregular footprints had mostly disappeared, leaving only a clear path of blood-red prints encircling the blood-and-flesh tower, forming a visible stairway.
Monster Hunt was waiting for this very moment!
The tentacles and the slime secreted from the flesh tower were not only too slippery for him to stand on, but could those corpse-eating creatures be immune to it?
No!
They couldn't!
Otherwise, how could the corpse-eating creatures, which had almost piled up in the center of the valley, only now be climbing madly along the flesh tower?
Therefore.
If they could crawl up the seemingly smooth flesh, then Allen could too, even faster and stronger.
And with the dark god halting all attacks…
There was only one path left between Allen and ultimate victory!
"Thud… crack…"
The thick slime underfoot quickly dried up, and when he dashed to the tower with hollow eye sockets, the tentacles were even drier than the ground of the valley.
Then, he sidestepped and dodged the black claws of a giant corpse-eater, flipping backward in mid-air.
The iron boots of the Witcher's armor securely gripped the blood-flesh tower, which had hollow openings.
Then.
Allen flicked his wrist, spun a sword flourish, and began running up the vertical tower, defying logic, sprinting toward the dark blue sky.
"Ha!"
He let out a triumphant roar.
Seeing the blood-red footprints clinging to the flesh tower before him, Allen didn't even realize that the "Boots - Tread of the Wastes: Negates adverse effects of terrain such as swamps, quagmires, and snowy fields" from his Witcher boots also granted immunity to gravity.
After stepping on the nearly ninety-degree angle of the flesh tower, the incredible feeling of weight shift made him feel a sense of freedom, as though he was unbound by anything.
"Clap, clap~"
The rapid footsteps echoed beneath him on the flesh.
Even while running up the tower in a way that defied reason, Allen's speed easily left the corpse-eating creatures, who were swimming up from behind, far behind.
"Roar!"
The monsters in the valley let out loud, intimidating roars.
The dark god seemed to realize that something was wrong.
The flesh tower attempted to secrete slime again, the giant vertical pupil quivering as it began to brew crimson light, and the gray pressure materialized, distorting the air and pressing down on him again...
But it was too late!
The elf tower was only sixteen or seventeen levels high, which sounded tall, but including the high ground beneath the tower, it was only about a hundred meters.
By the time the dark god realized something was wrong, Allen had already reached the middle of the tower.
When his feet started slipping and the red mist and pressure appeared, the giant eye, filled with shock, anger, and a touch of fear, was already close at hand.
Yes.
The dark god was afraid.
As it watched that small figure draw nearer, it felt fear.
It didn't understand why it was afraid.
After all, allowing such a tiny insect to approach wouldn't hurt it in the slightest, even if the ritual was incomplete and its abilities were flawed.
How could a mortal harm a god?
But from those cold, ice-blue eyes, it saw death.
No!
For the dark god, it seemed there was still time.
"Whoosh!"
The crimson and gray light intertwined in a destructive spectacle, tearing through the air, slamming down.
Allen just needed to keep climbing, there would be nowhere to hide, and he could only turn to face the mad corpse-eating creatures.
"Blink?"
The deep blue cat-like pupils reflected the approaching red and gray light, and he thought of a skill.
But the blood-red footprints on the flesh tower passed straight through, so dangerous that the Witcher's sharp senses kept alarming him, the psychic and pressure waves targeting the dark god's giant, blood-red eye.
It was like telling him...
Don't hesitate, just go for it!
Considering the perfect record of [Monster Hunt], and how the footprints had led him in circles, never using Blink to teleport directly to the target, Allen took a deep breath, then opened his eyes wide.
He was gambling!
"Ah—"
He opened his mouth in a savage roar, his forehead veins bulging as he stared directly at the gray-red light and the sinister giant eye, not hesitating but accelerating his pace.
"Thud, thud, thud~"
The hurried footsteps mixed with the howling wind around him.
When he was only five meters away from the dark god's destructive light, the skin exposed to the air felt goosebumps rising as if there was no way to escape. Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him.
His mouth slightly opened.
The golden energy in his blood suddenly began to stir, mixing with the four-colored magical power that had entered his system.
But it was different this time.
The golden energy, just separated from his blood, seemed to sense his anger and resolve, vibrating as if about to boil.
The beastly energy was now tinged with blood.
Soon, it merged with the four-colored magic from the mutated organs, turning into red in an instant.
It wasn't the red of fresh blood.
It was the red of fury, the kind that would burn the world down.
"Yir..."
The heavens and earth began to resonate violently.
At the moment the wild, roaring energy was unleashed, the gray-red light faltered, and the sturdy, rough flesh of the tower rippled around the witcher.
The intense pressure suddenly exploded.
The interwoven gray-red light, the gray suddenly disappearing.
"...ulr..."
Another strange roar rang out.
Fury and savagery.
The intense pressure of "Beast Roar: Berserk" also disappeared at that moment.
Along with it, the already weakened crimson light also vanished.
Between Allen and the dark god, there was nothing but empty space, a clear path.
The giant eye, many times larger than the Witcher, suddenly contracted into a line.
The entire valley seemed to fall into an eerie silence.
It seemed like it wanted to do something, but by this time, Allen had already taken a step and was standing before the giant eye.
His cat-like pupils, filled with coldness and fury, glanced at it, as if it were a dead object. Then, with another step, he kicked off the crimson eyeball, leaping high into the air above the giant eye.
"Whoosh~"
Hot breath burst from his nostrils, as if to ignite the air.
A mighty force that burned his limbs and bones filled every corner of his body, igniting every cell.
The sword trembled with excitement.
Balmur longed for this moment, desiring to once again assist its wielder in achieving a rare feat after so many long years.
Allen agreed.
And so.
Balmur stopped trembling, obediently flipping through the air with Allen's movements. The ancient sword tip flickered with a cold, sharp light, pointing directly at the giant eye.
The giant eye seemed to sense something.
It dissipated the misty red light and gray fog, raising its gaze to quietly watch the witcher.
The witcher then saw his own reflection in the crimson pupils.
"Hiss~"
He took a deep breath.
He pulled the sword close to his chest.
Then...
Thrust!
In that instant, as fast as lightning.
"Boom~"
A loud explosion rang out, the energy coursing through his body gathered in his hands.
Suddenly, the magic mixed with red light points was naturally triggered. Instead of spilling out of his body, it instantly fused into a primordial magic-like green.
With a loud roar, the energy quickly gathered on Balmur's ancient sword body, blade, and tip, and in an instant, a thick green beam shot out.
In the blink of an eye, it struck the center of the dark god's giant eye, the heart of Allen's reflection.
"Zzzt~"
A faint sound echoed as the green beam merged into the eye, leaving behind a black, charred, and unfathomable hole.
For a moment, the world went silent.
"...I will return... the miracle..."
Suddenly, the deep and mighty voice of the dark god echoed in Allen's mind, sounding even more divine than when it first appeared.
But...
It would return?
What a classic villain line...
The next moment.
The voice in his mind abruptly stopped.
The vertical pupil trembled violently, widening, as if it had discovered something unbelievable.
"...No... this is impossible... how can a mere human..."
"Boom!"
It was as if countless bombs suddenly exploded, interrupting it.
A blinding, incandescent light, brighter than any magical flash, burst from the scorched hole, quickly spreading across the entire flesh-covered tower.
Cracks of light began to appear on the tower's surface.
At that very moment, a sensation of intense weakness and dizziness, stronger than when "Beast Roar: Berserk" had been used before, overwhelmed Allen. He felt as if he were about to die, but suddenly realized something.
As long as the [Monster Hunt] progress bar was full, no matter what happened, he wouldn't die...
But...
But.
But!
"But it doesn't come with after-sales service!!!"
Allen screamed in terror.
Amidst the earth-shattering roar, the blazing sun blazed before his eyes...
It bloomed!
.....
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