The bridge of light felt solid beneath their boots, but it hummed with an unstable, violent energy. As they crossed the threshold into the colossal cathedral, the temperature skyrocketed.
It wasn't the heat of a fire; it was the suffocating, purifying heat of absolute light.
The interior of the cathedral was breathtakingly massive. The ceiling was lost in a haze of golden mist, and the shattered stained-glass windows depicted scenes of ancient, forgotten gods. At the very end of the nave, hovering above a shattered altar of white gold, was the Dungeon Master.
It was not a humanoid with feathery wings. It was a terrifying, biblically accurate nightmare.
A colossal cluster of six interlocking golden rings spun violently in the air, covered in dozens of unblinking, glowing white eyes. In the center of the rings burned a core of pure, incandescent light that forced Aria to shield her face just to look at it. Six massive wings made of pure plasma erupted from its core, scorching the marble pillars around it.
[Dungeon Master: Seraph of the Final Judgment (Lv. 40 - Boss)] [Warning: The Boss emits a 'Purifying Aura'. Dark-attribute entities will take continuous damage.]
Aria's skin began to blister just from standing in the room. "Level 40," she gasped, falling to one knee as the sheer pressure crushed the breath out of her lungs. "Elias, my mana is boiling. I can't even activate stealth in this light."
Elias stepped in front of her, shielding her from the blinding glare. The skin on his own hands was beginning to crack and burn, but his face remained completely devoid of emotion.
"Domain of the Monarch," Elias commanded.
A wave of absolute, freezing darkness erupted from Elias's shadow, clashing violently against the Seraph's golden light. The floor of the cathedral split into two distinct halves: a realm of blinding white and a realm of pitch black. The suffocating heat around Aria vanished, replaced by the comforting, icy chill of Elias's aura.
The Seraph's dozens of eyes all locked onto Elias simultaneously. A mechanical, booming voice echoed directly into their minds.
"ABOMINATION OF THE ABYSS. RETURN TO THE DUST."
"Talk less," Elias said. "Arise."
The cathedral erupted. Elias summoned his entire legion. One hundred shadows poured out of the darkness. Thirty Shadow Trolls roared, Iron hoisted his massive battleaxe, Blood drew his crimson claymore, and Eclipse, the Void Chimera, shrieked as it took to the cavernous ceiling.
"Kill it," Elias ordered.
The Shadow Legion charged, but the Seraph reacted instantly. Its six plasma wings flared, unleashing a torrential rain of golden light-spears. The holy barrage was devastating. Shadow Trolls were vaporized upon impact, their dark mana sizzling into nothingness. Even Eclipse had to retreat, its wings smoking as it narrowly dodged a beam of concentrated holy fire.
"Its defense is absolute," Aria shouted over the deafening explosions. "Anything made of dark mana evaporates before it even touches the core!"
Elias's eyes narrowed. "Not everything. Inquisitors, form up."
The twelve newly extracted Shadow Inquisitors marched to the front line. Unlike the trolls, their jagged halos glowed with a corrupted white light. They didn't evaporate. Because their souls possessed the Abyssal Light trait, they were partially immune to the Seraph's holy aura.
"Clear a path!" Elias barked.
The twelve Inquisitors swung their greatswords in unison. A massive shockwave of black and white fire tore through the golden light-spears, creating a temporary, split-second tunnel through the Seraph's absolute defense.
"Blood, Iron, hit the rings," Elias commanded.
Using the tunnel created by the Inquisitors, the Elite and Commander shadows surged forward. Iron leaped, slamming his axe into the outer golden ring, shattering three of the glowing eyes. Blood materialized directly above, driving his crimson claymore into the inner ring with devastating force.
The Seraph shrieked—a sound like grinding metal—and its rings faltered, exposing the blinding core of light in the center.
"Spatial Step."
Elias didn't wait. He vanished into Blood's shadow and materialized mid-air, directly in front of the Seraph's exposed core.
The heat was instantaneous and agonizing. Elias felt his skin charring, his hoodie turning to ash, but he ignored the pain. He channeled every single drop of his Epic-tier mana pool into his right hand, condensing the abyssal energy until his fist looked like a miniature black hole.
With a brutal, primal roar, Elias plunged his arm directly into the core of pure light.
The clash of absolute darkness and absolute light created a silent, localized vacuum. For a millisecond, the entire world lost its color. Then, the shockwave hit.
BOOM!
The golden rings shattered into a million pieces. The blinding light violently imploded, sucked into the void of Elias's fist, before exploding outward in a shockwave that shattered every stained-glass window in the cathedral.
Elias was thrown backward, crashing heavily onto the marble floor.
[You have slain the Seraph of the Final Judgment.] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] [You have reached Level 27.]
The cathedral went dead silent. The golden mist faded, leaving only the dark, cooling shadows of Elias's Domain.
Aria rushed to his side, her eyes wide with shock. Elias's right arm was horribly burned, but as he sat up, the passive regeneration of his high-level stats was already knitting the flesh back together.
"You're a lunatic," Aria breathed, looking at the crater where the Dungeon Master had been.
Elias didn't answer. His eyes were locked on the center of the crater.
A massive, pulsating orb of pure, unblemished white light hovered above the shattered marble. But thick, dark-blue smoke was desperately trying to claw its way out of the light, struggling to form a shape. The soul was resisting the extraction.
[A Divine Entity's soul has been detected.] [Warning: Extraction probability is extremely low. Failure will result in severe mana backlash.] [Do you wish to attempt extraction? (Yes / No)]
Elias stood up, pushing past Aria. He walked to the edge of the crater, staring into the blinding light.
"You served the Gods," Elias whispered, his voice resonating with the absolute, chilling authority of the Monarch. "But the Gods are not here. I am."
Elias raised his hand. "Arise."
The cathedral trembled violently. The white orb fought back, releasing arcs of golden lightning that scorched the floor. But Elias didn't flinch. He poured his sheer willpower into the command, forcing his abyssal mana to wrap around the divine light, crushing it, suffocating it, until the light finally surrendered.
The orb turned pitch black.
The smoke violently expanded, taking the shape of a magnificent, six-winged seraphim. But instead of golden plasma, its wings were made of a breathtaking, starry darkness. It didn't have eyes; it wore a smooth, faceless mask of pale white bone. In its hands, it held a massive spear that glowed with an impossible, blinding black light.
[Extraction Successful!] [Commander Grade Shadow: Fallen Seraph (Lv. 40) has joined your legion.] [Title Earned: Defiler of the Sacred]
Aria fell to her knees. She couldn't comprehend what she was looking at. A creature of absolute holiness, corrupted and bound to the will of a human. It was breathtaking. It was terrifying.
Elias looked at his new masterpiece. "Your name is Seraph."
The six-winged angel of death bowed its faceless head.
Elias turned to Aria, the burning ruins of the cathedral reflecting in his cold eyes. "The Gate is cleared. Grab the Dungeon Core. It's time to go home."