Inside was a throne room.
And the Fairy King waited.
Oberon.
He towered above his throne, a giant of a humanoid, muscles like coiled steel beneath skin black as polished obsidian. His face was monstrous. Almost human. Almost. A single eye, wide and glowing like a dying star, stared us down. It didn't blink. Just watched. As if it already knew how we'd die.
His wings stretched out behind him, broad, veined, and gleaming like the wings of a Dysphania palmyra moth, beautiful in a way that made your skin crawl. Iridescent and deadly.
The air changed the moment we stepped forward. He only moved his eye. But the pressure hit us like gravity doubled.
Tension crackled. My heartbeat slowed.
Oberon suddenly grinned.
Then a system window popped over its head:
[DUNGEON BOSS]: FAIRY KING OBERON - (LEVEL 100)
We fought Oberon.
We fought it for hours with lots of casualties.
Finally, his health hovered at thirty percent.
"What a fucking monster, wiping out 296 players…" I thought, panting heavily. "And I'm running out of HP potions. FUCK!"
Adam raised his lance, which seemed to be a divine weapon. Then he activated a skill: Banner of War. A crimson aura enveloped us. Our strength spiked.
"Time to clip those wings," Leon said as he activated a skill: Soul Chain. Dark chains surged from his blade, striking Oberon and grounding him, preventing any aerial escape.
Claire stepped forward, pulsating with pink radiant light. "I'll let this beast feel loved," she said. Then she activated a skill: Pure Love. A massive pink beam shot forth, piercing Oberon's barrier and disrupting his attempt to regenerate.
Oberon's health plummeted to twenty percent as he crashed to the ground.
"I'm gonna go for the final blow with a kiss," Claire smirked, charging towards Oberon with haste, activating a skill: Pure Love. "Y'all have my back, right?"
"How greedy..." I said. "Real greedy..."
"Claire, get back!" Adam shouted. Then he activated a skill: Banner of Defense. A green aura enveloped us. Our magic and physical defense spiked. "Something's not right!"
"Claire, listen to me!" He shouted once more.
"Go for it, Claire!" Leon yelled with excitement. Then he activated a skill: Soul Chain. "I'll make the fairy king unable to fly. You'll be safe."
"Leon!" Adam yelled at Leon.
Claire's attack struck Oberon, enveloping the area in dust.
As it settled, Oberon's form darkened. Wings bigger. And as it settled, Oberon's form darkened, his wings expanding. From his wings, sharp seeds erupted, flying like jagged arrows straight at Claire. They plunged into her body with sickening thuds, embedding deep beneath her skin.
"CLAIRE!" Adam shouted. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"
"The attack hit me, but it didn't do any damage," Claire replied. "I'm a world-ranked player after all. This is nothing."
Then a system warning flashed:
[FAIRY KING OBERON IS ENRAGED!]
"Enraged," I thought. "...Just like the leviathan hermit"
Oberon's voice rolled out, heavy and cruel, echoing off the stone like a funeral bell.
"Bloom and rejoice. For you have been reborn as a child of Mother Nature."
Claire looked down.
Something was wrong.
Her hands trembled as she stared at her stomach, eyes widening. The skin there… it shifted. Subtly at first, like the twitch of a muscle under strain. Then again. A slither. A bulge. Something inside her was moving, writhing, pressing outward as if her body was no longer hers.
"Uhm, guys... I'm getting a funny feeling inside my body," she said, trying to sound calm, but her voice cracked halfway through.
Claire's breath hitched. She staggered. Her fingers dug into her stomach as panic surged up her throat. Then she saw it. Her skin bulged. Just beneath the surface. A shifting lump, wriggling like a cocoon about to hatch. And then it did. A sudden crack. A sharp pressure exploded outward from her sternum. Her body twitched violently. And she screamed. It didn't even sound human. It was high and scraping, like a metal fork dragged across a porcelain plate. Her back arched as her mouth opened wide, eyes blown with terror.
My eyes widened. "What the fuck is happening to her…" I said, slowly.
Then, from deep within her chest, a monstrous flower erupted with brutal force, swelling grotesquely to the size of a car. Petals, thick as blades and wet with black sap, unfolded one by one, forcing her ribs apart. And it kept blooming. Spreading. Growing. And she kept screaming until her voice was gone. Until there was nothing left of her but the flower.
My eyes widened, jaw dropped. "Shit!" I shouted. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"
"CLAIRE!!!" Adam and Leon's screams collided, thick with horror and disbelief.
"You do not make noise in front of the king!" Oberon roared.
Scarlet thorns erupted from the floor, impaling Adam, who got caught off guard.
And just like that, Adam was killed in an instant.
"Punishment for those who are not obedient," Oberon said, smiling nastily.
The same attack nearly got me and Leon, but I used my spirit dagger's skill just in time, and Leon activated a skill: Death Shroud, which granted him a brief moment of invincibility.
"Hey, Kid," Leon said. "Let's end this before this monster ends us."
"Yeah..." I replied, gripping my dagger tightly. "Oberon's HP is at fifteen percent now. We should be able to kill him in one blow."
"Die, intruders!" Oberon shrieked, launching massive stone shards toward us. "For you were not invited but still came!"
Leon raised his divine shield: Medusa. Then he activated its skill: Medusa's Gaze. "Seize your eyes, Fairy King Oberon." he said as the shield reflected the shards right back.
Oberon blocked the reflected attack with a leaf-like barrier and activated a skill: Tree of Life, summoning a giant plant that produced a shiny droplet of water, healing some of his lost health points.
"His HP came back to twenty percent..." Leon said, trembling. "And I'm running out of MP. Do you think we can make it alive, Kid?"
"Definitely. Oberon got hurt so bad when I struck him earlier physically," I said. "I think physical attacks are more effective against him. Try using soul chain, and let's charge at him together with all we've got."
Leon's eyes widened, pupils dilating like he'd just seen a ghost. His expression faltered, mind sinking into memory, like he was reliving something only he and a handful of survivors had ever seen and lived to speak about.
And then it hit him. A flashback.
The fifth dungeon, Volcanica.
They were buried deep inside the dungeon's molten core, where every breath tasted like burnt iron and ash. The air hung heavy, thick with the choking stench of scorched copper and brittle bone dust that scraped raw at their throats. The jagged obsidian walls pulsed with a slow, menacing heartbeat, a faint, blood-red glow that seemed alive, exhaling heat and whispers of fire through fractures that spiderwebbed like veins across the cavern. Beneath cracked stone platforms, pools of molten rock churned and hissed, bubbling like the earth's own boiling blood. Each step they took felt like dragging their souls across a searing grate, painful, relentless, and impossible to ignore.
At the center, the dungeon boss, Helios, the Sun Devourer, Spawn of Ash, erupted with a deafening roar that shook the very bones of the chamber. His four massive wings, forged from molten light, tore through the stone ceiling like burning blades, shattering it to reveal a fiery sky that churned and flickered with the fury of a dying star.
Around them, chaos reigned. Nearly a hundred players fought for survival amid the hellish heat. The air was thick with desperation. Healers collapsed in gasping, broken heaps, their skin clammy and slick from sweat, unable to stem the relentless burn stacks that seared flesh like acid. Warriors sweltered in armor that felt more like a furnace, metal scorching hot against cracking skin beneath. Mages, faces contorted in pain, were cut down mid-spell by flaming javelins that screamed through the air like vengeful meteors. Assassins, silent and deadly, were mostly fallen ghosts flickering out in the inferno.
After an hours of battle, twenty remained out of ninety players. And Helios was on twenty percent hp.
Leon was down on one knee, his body slick with sweat and dirt. His halberd burned red-hot in his grasp, the heat pulsing through his fingers like live wire. A metal shield he wielded was cracked from edge to core, spiderweb fractures marring its surface, the weight of absorbing too many flame pillars etched in every splintered line. His health bar blinked on the brink, a threadbare whisper of life clinging stubbornly. His MP was spent—empty, evaporated into the suffocating heat and endless fight. Every inhale tasted like ash; every heartbeat thundered like a war drum in his ears.
Helios rose into the air above the altar, his wings forming a burning sigil in the sky, activating a skill: Total Destruction. A single fireball, massive and pulsing with black-violet energy, spiraled down toward the remaining players like divine punishment. Leon didn't run due to shock. He accepted that there was nowhere to go. And just before impact, the meteor split in half. Not shattered. Sliced. Clean. Precise. It broke apart midair.
And through the storm of dust and fire, A woman walked.
She was wrapped in a moss-colored veil that trailed behind her like vines in a hurricane; her presence silenced the dungeon itself. Her hair was a living cascade of the earth: loam brown, lichen green, riverstone black, shot through with flickers of silver like starlight trapped in roots. In her hand, she held a divine weapon: Oceania. Its hilt was black stone, embedded with three azure gems, each pulsing like a heartbeat. The blade itself looked like a flowing wave, translucent, endless, and alive, held in a frozen arc, always moving, never spilling.
And then came the system ping, projecting across the dungeon:
[WORLD RANK PLAYER DETECTED]:
[Player 3]: [Isola Ashur] – (Level 80) – [World Rank 2]
[Class]: [Wave Child]
Leon's eyes widened. "W–World Rank 2?" he stuttered.
A beat of silence passed.
Then the remaining players shouted. Their faces lit up.
"NO. FUCKING. WAY."
"Dude—DUDE! It's the real world rank 2 player we've seen from the leaderboards in the game when we were still playing as gamers! WE'RE SAVED!"
"THE WORLD RANK 2 PLAYER IN FLESH! SHE WAS A RAID BOSS BACK THEN!"
"THAT ONE OF ONE CLASS. THAT ONE OF ONE WEAPON... THAT AVATAR. IT'S HER!"
A roar of voices tore through the battlefield like crashing thunder. Ragged cheers, shaky laughter, and even tears breaking free. One archer, his leg burned raw and crawling on scorched earth, dropped to his knees and kissed the ground as if it were a sacred promise. Nearby, two healers clung to each other, their shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. A lone warrior slumped backward against a broken stone, his voice barely a whisper, "Thank God..."
Then she moved.
Helios roared, fury igniting the air as he unleashed twelve blazing spears of fire. The heat warped the space between them, thickening the air until it shimmered like a mirage.
But she was gone. No shadow. No form.
She flowed through the battlefield like water, slipping past flames and steel with liquid grace, and blinked forward, gliding through the air as if carried by an invisible current, bending around fire and heat like a cool stream cutting through molten rock. The blade in her hand gleamed with a shimmering blue light, alive and flowing like a river. Soft, powerful, and unstoppable. Then she reappeared before the boss. Her movements were smooth and fluid, impossible to hold or catch, like water slipping through clenched fists.
She vanished again.
Only a whisper of a cut remained. Sharp. Clean. Like a rushing stream carving stone.
Her blade sank deep into Helios' armored chest, slicing through as if it were nothing but soft moss.
The fiery roar faltered, caught in the sudden stillness.
Then came the system message in gold:
[FIFTH DUNGEON: CLEARED]
"Leon! HEY!" Leon snapped back to reality as my voice entered his ears. "This is not the right time to space out."
Leon nodded. "My sincerest apologies," He said. "Now, let's get back to business."
"Such assumptions, mortals, you think I'm inferior to physical attacks?" Oberon sneered, launching a sky beam from his mouth. "A king does not have a weakness!"
Leon activated his divine shield's ability, blocking and reflecting Oberon's attack. As it hit Oberon, Leon activated a skill: Soul Chain to paralyze him.
"Now, Kiddo!" Leon shouted. "Finish that stinking moth!"
Without hesitation, I lunged at Oberon. "THIS IS IT!" I thought. "THIS IS THE OPENING I NEEDED!"
But Oberon anticipated the move, releasing a shockwave that sent me flying. My health point plummeted, and darkness edged my vision.
I heard Leon's fading voice. "Kiddo!"
He made me drink a greater HP potion. "Don't you die on me, Kiddo. We're clearing this shit together."
I coughed. "One more time..." I said, standing my ground. "One last fucking time."
"I have to use it this time. I need to," Leon thought.
Oberon activated a skill: Tree of Life to heal himself again as the Soul Chain effect wore off. But before the droplet reached his head, a crimson slash hit him, interrupting the healing process.
A system window appeared over the dungeon boss's head:
[FAIRY KING OBERON'S HP: 5%]
I turned to see Leon holding a crimson longsword with a mouth-shaped handle that sucked blood from his arm. It was his hidden divine weapon: Bloodthirsty Sword. The sword drains the user's health points to conjure an attack equivalent to the lost health points, with a bonus random effect.
Leon, on his knees with minimal health and shouted, "THAT INSECT WON'T BE ABLE TO MOVE FOR A FEW MOMENTS, KIDDO. A RANDOM EFFECT IS CURRENTLY APPLIED TO IT, AND I'M SURE IT'S A STUN EFFECT SINCE IT'S ON ITS KNEES. EXTERMINATE IT NOW!"
My eyes locked onto the stunned Oberon, and I sprinted towards him, gripping my dagger tightly. It was a gamble. No one knew what bonus effect was applied. Stun effect or not, I was going for the kill. I kept my spirit dagger's activation at bay to avoid repeating past mistakes. As I came near Oberon, I realized he couldn't move or use skills.
A system window appeared above his head:
[Fairy King Oberon - Immobilized]
"Immobilized… How unlucky for the fairy king," I thought. "I'll try copying that girl's ability. Maybe it'll work this time. The boss is already as good as dead anyway."
I leapt into the air, hand raised. "Copy skill: Pure Love." I said.
A system window appeared:
[New Skill Detected]: Pure Love
Copy Skill:
[Y/N]
"Yes," I said, calm and composed, and a bit of excitement. "Copy!"
[Skill Copied: Pure Love]
[Quick Burst Damage]: [Y/N]
[Full Burst Damage]: [Y/N]
I chose the first option to avoid a long casting time that could leave me vulnerable.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" Leon's voice rang out as a surge of pink magic energy flowed through my body.
"That move," Leon muttered, panting heavily. "It can't be... It's Claire's…"
I aimed my right hand at Oberon.
"Fairy King..." I said, slowly. "Exterminated."
A massive pink beam erupted from my palm, slicing the air like a pure blade of light. The immobilized fairy king could only widen his eyes as the attack struck him, erasing his existence from reality.
"This kid is something else…" Leon thought, his eyes in shock. "He might become a potential candidate…"
Then came the system message in gold:
[DUNGEON CLEARED: TREASURE ROOM UNLOCKED]