Chapter 81: Death of the Fallen Angel
The Shadow Monument boss chamber was quiet.
Way too quiet.
The only thing people outside of it could hear were the slow footsteps of Judicator as he headed toward his display to rest: he couldn't deny the battle against Stark put a toll on him.
Behind him, Stark stood up, a wide smile on his face although he was completely serious on the inside.
'Heh~ not as hard and painful as my accounting exam back then,' he shrugged, even finding the time to joke in such a situation.
Although Stark was revived thanks to his [Chosen One] talent, it didn't mean he didn't feel anything, actually, it was the total opposite: he was in constant pain.
But it was only physical, his mental fortitude too strong to succumb to such things.
"Clone Frenzy!" wind blew through his hair as he calmly lifted his arms and summoned his clones beside him.
They had the same tired eyes and blank expressions on their faces, just looking at Stark, knowing what they needed to do.
'Let's get this over with,' one of the clones nodded, they couldn't talk, but Stark just guessed thanks to its body language.
'Alright... kill this asshole,' the other one smiled.
"Damn right," Stark winked, his opened eye glowing not with a crimson... but blue aura?
"""DOUBLE ASSAULT!!!""" all three activated the legendary skill, and without a single second of doubt... dashed toward Judicator, who wasn't suspecting a single thing.
Inside the rift, people could still see Judicator's figure head toward its display.
"How long do we have to watch this guy?"
"Just open the damn boss area already, I wanna see who goes next!"
People were getting impatient after seeing Stark's death, knowing that it was already over for the 'bunny-masked guy' that had caused so much trouble.
"..." Lana shook her head frantically, unable to understand how THE Stark, the one that had always been so confident, could lose while he had only started his journey.
Maybe he had truly pushed his luck.
She kept looking at the floor for a good minute, not accepting reality.
Until...
"Hey, what is that...?" someone suddenly said, pointing at their screen.
"Yeah, there's something weird on my screen?"
"Me too! What's that in the back...?"
People began to speak about weird things, and quickly, all the others decided to check their screens.
And it was true: behind Judicator, three small points appeared, heading at incredible speed toward him.
The camera zoomed out...
~FWISH~
And right behind Judicator...
"HOW?"
"NO WAY?"
Three Stark(s) could be seen behind him, all their eyes glowing with a deep aura.
But their aura had changed, it wasn't only crimson anymore, no... now it was also blue, resembling some kind of blue fire that could never go out.
The life-threatening situation, his talent usage, his determination, and the upgrade of his [Domination] skill, all of that led to Stark's aura to change.
It was almost purely visual, but to him, it meant that he had grown.
"...?" Lana's eyes widened as she saw Stark smiling right behind an unsuspecting boss.
And then... the fight continued.
"It's over..." he whispered at the fallen angel's ears, sending a chill down its spine.
"...?" Judicator didn't have the time to turn around that...
~SWASH, SWASH~
Stark's two clones grabbed the angel's wings and ripped them right off his back, their increased strength enough to do that easily.
"AHHHHHH!" the angel shouted in pain, losing his balance as he had lost two of his most important things, "Y-YOU LITTLE, HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD-"
He didn't have the time to finish his sentence that Stark punched his face.
"-15837!" his stats were still upgraded from [Anger of the Fallen], and his body still dyed in that platinum texture that increased his defense.
And yet... that punch hurt like hell.
Stark's hand didn't hurt this time, his entire fists, face, and body surrounded by that crimson/blue fire as his auras were now mixed.
Of course, Stark's clones didn't just sit around and do nothing while their leader punched Judicator, they just dropped the pitch-black wings on the ground as they were useless now, and dashed at the angel, who fell to the ground from the punch.
"Y-YOU, YOU FUCKING CHEATER!" Judicator shouted as hard as he could, trying to get up, and sending his scythe toward the human.
But Stark didn't even bother to avoid it.
Instead...
~GRAB~
He grabbed the scythe's handle and broke it using his hands and knees.
"No more weapons," Stark looked at Judicator while throwing his scythe away in front of his face.
"I-I still got my-" Judicator tried to dash toward Stark with his crimson blade, after all Stark couldn't have that much HP after being cut in half.
But the clones both grabbed Judicator's shoulders, stopping him from moving.
And once he looked back to see what was happening...
~SLAM~
One of the clone's smashed his face while the other took the blade from his hands.
"-13724!"
The angel was unarmed and stepped back, trying to back away from the clones as he felt that even they could defeat him.
"You can't run," Stark appeared under Judicator and punched his jaw from below, sending him flying toward a pillar.
"-21721! -3937!"
By this point, both of his ultimate skills had been nullified, meaning that his skin was back to normal, and his stats too.
'How... is this... possible' he lay against the bottom of the pillar he had landed against, his body too weak to do anything, and his eyes slowly closing, 'I... I killed him... and yet...'
Stark and his clones were advancing toward Judicator, a blank expression on their faces.
"M...Monster..." this was the only word he could utter as Stark's face was now right in front of his, a wide smile spread across it, one that made his skin crawl.
"No matter what you try, even if you kill me again, and even if you reincarnate to another rift... i'll be sure to find you and end your miserable life..."
Boss monsters aren't supposed to feel fear, their sole goal was to cause trouble to classifiers from their sheer confidence, and yet... even he, an apostle of the 'Godless Demon', could see that this boy was something else...
"Angel's Eyes!" his eyes glew bright, and he smiled as he looked at Stark's face, "I knew it..."
Even in the thousands, millions or even billions of different moves that could happen in that very moment, even if he summoned back his weapons in hand or activated his ultimate skills.
Hell... even if he got back all his HP, wings, skills, and weapons...
In not a single one of those visions did he win.
"Bye bye," Judicator just put his head down as he saw Stark ready to charge his final punch, accepting his fate.
~BOOM~
The explosion shook the entire rift, sending tremors through the air.
"-69372!" Judicator gasped in pain before smiling.
"Y-You... are... going to die at some point... do not worry..." then he closed his eyes, and his body disintegrated into a pile of white ash.
Nobody in the outside audience dared to cheer or celebrate, the atmosphere was heavy, and the silence was deafening.
[The BOSS of the Secret Rift has been defeated by REDACTED!]