Three health bars showed up above the boss. One could see them clearly during the fight.
Beracah was gone with a pair before anyone noticed.
A shape broke free from above - silent, sudden - not a shout nor flourish - only motion. Feet struck bone. Weight followed. Down went the Abyssal Sovereign, jaw smashing tile, dust puffing like breathless gasp. Stone split beneath. A numeral rose. Color: rusted blood.
Half past thirty-eight thousand horsepower. Stagger hits every two seconds flat. Power rolls in waves, timing just off beat
Just two seconds. Enough time, really. It happened fast.
Inside the wobble of its stance, he slipped forward. Already turning - low to the ground, sliding just within range so those jagged claws missed each time, fingers guiding a dark-edged weapon down the crack between metal plates. A cry tore loose from the Sovereign. Nothing like agony. More like insulted pride. As if stunned history had found it once more.
Bosses found themselves acting differently around Beracah.
Third bar," he muttered under his breath. Just like that, it started again
The walls trembled. Out came the armor, cast off like burnt husk - next came jagged spines pushing through its back, then fire splitting wide where a heart should be. Heat hit fast, sharp. Anyone weaker might've stepped back, tried to think, maybe ducked behind stone.
Beracah stepped forward.
Down went the swing, broad and sweeping, trying to carve space. He slipped beneath it, edge leading, found the soft spot where bone parted. Steel punched through. He stayed fixed as the thing jerked wild. Each spasm drained its life - chunk by chunk. A crushing blow sent him flying. Wall met back. Impact rang out. Off he sprang, touching ground upright.
Health stands at 614 out of a possible 2,200. When hitting a wall, damage dealt increases by 40 percent
Down. He saw it but stayed calm. Then the Sovereign charged.
A step to the side came first. The arm reached too far, so he took it. Momentum did the work, flipping him up and over. Down went the blades, right where light cracked through thick hide. They stayed buried deep.
Empty sat the third bar. It held nothing now, just space where something had been.
The Sovereign collapsed.
Sound faded out like a radio turning down. Stillness settled where voices had been.
✦ ✦ ✦
A haze still hung in the air when the finish message lit up.
═════════════════════════
Dungeon Complete Final Stage Cleared
Boss Abyssal Sovereign Level 99
Outcome: SOLO CLEAR
Bonus First Access Beta Release
════════════════════════
BETA PLAYTEST COMPLETE.
Appreciation goes out to everyone who joined Ensylium. Your time spent here matters more than words can say.
Please exit your immersion pod to conclude
the session.
════════════════════════
Beracah went through the lines again after finishing them the first time.
Eleven hours down inside that dungeon, pushing forward without pause. Most likely his actual body had gone stiff - neck locked up, gut growling, exhaustion pooling deep behind the eyeballs. A shower would hit right about now. Food too. Then maybe two full days just lying still.
Out came the pod display. The comms tab got a tap next. Then the emergency contacts unfolded - old instinct, really, just muscle memory by now, born back in beta testing days when brain links flickered too much to trust without a quick call home.
The number was punched in quick. A few digits, then silence waited on the line.
ERROR
Wrong number. That one's not in service. Try again later
in the world of Ensylium.
Please Check Your Regional System Directory
Check here if you need ways to get in touch that actually work.
His eyes locked onto the display.
Dialled again.
ERROR
Wrong number. That one's not in service. Looks like it never got set up. Try checking the digits again. This line is not active. Seems nobody uses that code. Not assigned to any phone. Dial something else instead
in the world of Ensylium.
Nothing happened when the pod released. It just sat there, stuck.
The screen twitched when he hit the manual override. Not grey like it should be, but that odd green hue from inside the game. A moment later, he checked the external network signal. Nothing came back. Outside the game, he attempted to open a regular browser window.
Inside the game client, nothing else existed.
For a second, he stayed completely motionless.
He turned his head slowly, noticing things now. Not just glancing - actually seeing - the room where he had stayed so long. Eleven hours passed like minutes until this moment. What surrounded him came into view at last. Surfaces beneath his feet. Panels on every side. A glow above, steady but strange. Each part stood out clearly for the first time.
Stone made up the walls. Not smooth, but ancient blocks hewn unevenly, threaded with strands of blue fungus that breathed light into the blackness. Underfoot: soil. Actual ground - or something close enough - packed tight, webbed with roots, hiding scraps of the lab's first metal floor beneath. From one distant edge, a tree rose. Growing right there. In what once measured humidity and temperature down to fractions.
Now his pod sat sunken into stone, more hollow than seat. Shaped like royalty but worn down - vines snaking through its bones. Metal parts softened by moss, pulled inward by soil and time, as if the ground remembered what belonged to it.
Out of the vehicle he came, inch by inch.
Something felt off about the air. His legs moved properly - the neural link prevented muscle loss while he was immersed, it always did - yet the scent didn't match. Like frost on stone, like mountain caves deep in the game world. He remembered that sharpness from icy peaks coded into missions long ago. This breath held a flavor that belonged nowhere near here.
Out came his steps, slow, heading for where the chamber door once stood. Now just an arch - old stone shaped by hands long gone, ivy tangled through its frame. A path began there, rising into dim daylight, thin and hazy above.
Up came the status screen. Old routine taking hold once more.
[PERSONAL STATUS]
Beracah Petra
Level : ERROR
Null Class Unregistered
Emperor of the Undead
System Flag Active Session
Abyssal Depths Sub Layer 9
Last time checked, it had been running for one thousand ninety five days. Fourteen hours passed since then. Thirty two minutes more than that. The clock kept ticking without pause
Three times he checked when the meeting started.
Three years almost. A thousand ninety-five sunrises passed. That many evenings too. Days stacked like old letters. Not quite four full turns of the calendar.
Three years.
It had to be eleven hours since he climbed into the pod. That much felt certain because he recalled beginning the session clearly. Sync checks came back to him too. Even the meal right before diving stuck in his mind. Could have slipped toward twelve by now. Time dragged like wet cloth.
One thousand and ninety-five days.
Back he glanced, toward the stone walls. There stood the tree. Glowing fungi pulsed nearby. This place had taken the server room in, folded it under layers of root and moss, as if it never left.
That glitch kept running through his mind.
Out here in Ensylium, that number doesn't show up anywhere.
Still. The line stays silent when dialed. Outside connections just drop without warning. Even that usual message about restricted zones fails to appear.
Nothing like that can be found. Inside Ensylium's realm.
Reality faded around the number, just as it did around the hospital, the city, every detail tied to that phone call - each bit now distant, untethered, somehow gone.
Because it had.
Quietly, the knowing showed up. Much like frost creeping through glass - slow at first, then sudden, filling his ribs as if it lived there long before words gave it space.
Still going, the match carried on without a finish in sight.
The world had.
He remained outside Ensylium, untouched by its pull.
Everything else was gone, taken in without a sound. The quiet swallowed it whole.
Three years passed before he finally saw it.