Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?

Temude thumped his fist against his chest in salute, and in that instant many of the things that had puzzled him before suddenly became clear.

Why could Leon, whose strength was at most on par with his, maybe just a hair above, defeat Gwyn? Because the other side had already been scorched within the Initial Firestove until most of his power and sanity were burned away. Now he looked like a manipulated walking corpse!

"Burn yourself to keep the whole world going... that really is some warrior shit!"

"Boom!"

Temude suddenly roared and stamped a foot down. The ash‑covered ground instantly, under the pull of gravity, exploded in a long line of straight, stabbing earth spikes surging toward Gwyn, razor‑sharp rock spears that could rip open anyone they touched in an instant.

The Gwyn who’d seemed so sluggish before suddenly burst forth with speed and strength at the moment he sensed danger. He swung his Great Sword and severed the spikes that had already reached him; the sweeping arc of his swing threw out a broad wave of flame that shattered every spike it touched.

But that still didn’t completely cancel the move. That earlier earth‑spike attack carried Temude’s Fighting Qi; in that instant he only needed to use the Fighting Qi‑to‑Magic Power conversion tech developed by Younka and could instantly convert his Fighting Qi into Magic Power, then unleash new Gravity Magic!

The Gravity Ball formed from Magic Power detonated right beside Gwyn. Beyond direct damage, it wrenched up the ground; rocks ripped from every direction slammed together and compressed around Gwyn as the center, forming a pyramid‑like structure that locked the enemy tightly within.

Because Latan’s popularity in Warrior Country was simply too sky‑high, the entire Warrior Country from top to bottom had begun imitating and studying him. Temude and the other warriors had poured all their magic specialization into Gravity Magic.

Their offensive options might have become a bit single‑minded, but at least when it came to the raw power of Gravity Magic, they had absolute confidence.

The pyramid began spiraling upward under gravity’s control, and Temude’s two Shattered Star Greatswords were charging up, ready to deliver an aerial execution to the trapped Gwyn.

But just as he kicked off, the Great Sword suddenly broke out of that theoretically unbreakable cage; the instant cracks appeared, surging flames blew it apart completely.

Gwyn’s figure appeared within the fire, looking nothing like some decrepit old man on death’s door.

"Knew it wouldn’t be that simple!"

By now Temude had already rushed up to him, the two massive ultra‑heavy swords chopping down at Gwyn’s head from above!

That Great Sword symbolizing the High King’s status slammed aside the two Shattered Star Greatswords with even greater force.

The deafening impact boomed out. Feeling that power from across the clash—weak now, yet still titanic—Temude showed a blood‑hungry grin and in a heartbeat ramped up his attack speed, and Gwyn on the other side didn’t fall behind in the slightest.

The thunderous rumble of weapons crossing echoed through the entire Initial Firestove. The two fought from sky to ground, then into a wild brawl all over the arena. Huge‑area, high‑power moves came one after another; violet Gravity Lightning and red flames crisscrossed. If any other living thing had been here, it would’ve gotten clipped by the AOE in seconds and died on the spot.

"Hahaha, now this is a warrior’s duel!"

As Temude laughed, a few more wounds opened up on his body. He had no time to bother with them, no time to drink from an Elemental Bottle for Recovery, but under the effect of the King’s Soul those wounds immediately began to heal—much more slowly than Leon’s, though.

That was because he hadn’t gone full blast trading blows with Gwyn from the start. He was keeping the amplification from the King’s Soul within a certain range, ensuring his body could stay in the most optimal state for a long time.

The one most likely to go Berserker was the one who chose to go slow and steady, while Leon had gone in hard from the first exchange, passion blazing, all guns out.

Temude didn’t have any flashy Combat Skills to use in this fight; almost everything he excelled at was technique for straight‑up frontal combat. That was what matched his idea of warrior spirit.

But because of that, he witnessed a side of Gwyn that Leon had never seen.

Ridiculously long combo strings; a body that was almost impossible to stagger; an attack drive pushed to the extreme with blistering speed; and flames whose damage reached all the way to Skyrim.

Most importantly, he would keep repeating the same sequence—repeating the very multi‑slash chain Temude was worst at handling!

If he’d had a little Round Shield with Bounce Back, he could’ve shut all those attacks down. But Temude hadn’t brought one; he hadn’t even trained his Bounce Back all that well.

So the difficulty of his challenge against Gwyn was in a whole other league from Leon’s!

Realizing this, Temude immediately pulled back the output of the King’s Soul and dedicated himself fully to fighting a war of attrition.

Lightning flashed, thunder crashed, firestorms exploded, dust roiled. The core of the Initial Firestove pulsed violently, and each pulse would cut off dead a short while later, only to restart again a few minutes after.

Each cutoff meant Temude had been killed and sent back to the bonfire to try again.

No one knew how long it went on. The turmoil coiling around the furnace core finally started to quiet, not chopped off abruptly, but slowly winding down.

Within the core, Temude and Gwyn were both missing arms and legs, their bodies in a state of catastrophic, near‑terminal injury.

The thirteenth challenge—this was the best he’d done.

"Hah—aaah!"

He charged straight at Gwyn. The latter swung his Great Sword once more, but this time Temude neither dodged nor flinched. He raised his other Shattered Star Greatsword to block the Great Sword coming from the side. The overburdened Shattered Star Greatsword snapped with a crack, but the other blade at that moment slammed hard into Gwyn’s chest, the jagged stone and lightning along its edge tearing that desiccated body apart.

Temude’s whole body felt like it had passed straight through Gwyn. The unstoppable momentum drove him forward quite a distance before he could stop. He turned, and saw—

Gwyn, back to him, slowly sinking to his knees.

But before those knees fully touched the ground, he had already turned to a cloud of Ash and scattered into nothing.

Seeing this, Temude toppled with a "thud" onto the ground, gasping for breath in huge gulps. He forced down the last mouthful of his Elemental Bottle with all his strength, and the feeling of release finally welled up in his chest.

"Finally won..."

Relief flooded his heart, but he didn’t linger on the feel of the ground; he scrambled to his feet at once.

The light points scattered across the ground from Gwyn’s death he scooped up in their entirety, securing them firmly on his person. After making absolutely sure there would be no mistakes, he turned his gaze to the bonfire.

The bonfire that housed the Initial Fire was flickering weakly, perhaps soon to lose even that flicker, needing more mighty souls to be thrown in as Firewood.

But Temude had come to snuff it out.

He swung a Shattered Star Greatsword sideways into the bonfire, but instead his own blade was burned and damaged by the flames, while the Initial Fire remained completely untouched.

What was this?

He tried many methods after that, but not a single one could extinguish the flame. If what Kas had called "extinguishing the fire" didn’t mean physically putting out the Initial Fire, then what was he supposed to do?

It was then that Temude subconsciously turned his head toward a certain place—the entrance he’d come through.

Gwyn was dead, and the mist blocking the main gate had entirely dispersed. Now he could walk straight out.

And he noticed that in the darkness beyond the gate, a pair of blood‑red eyes had lit up. Those eyes he knew very well.

They were the eyes of the Dark Great Snake Kass.

As soon as he fixed on them, pair after pair of blood‑red eyes lit up in the dark. He immediately felt like something had set its sights on him—out there in the dark were many beings identical to Kass.

They were welcoming the arrival of the King of Darkness, welcoming his coming.

"So that’s it..."

Temude understood something. He glanced at the bonfire, then finally stepped forward, walking toward Kass who waited outside the gate.

The moment he stepped out through the gate, the faint flame still flickering within the Initial Firestove...

vanished.

"It is so good to see you return triumphant, my king."

In the darkness.

The many World Snakes lining the path lowered their heads to Temude in welcome.

"And now, true darkness will spread across the entire world."

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