Bab 49: The death of Kokakola

The initial plan of waiting for the dungeon reset was never a good plan. At best, it could only be considered as a last resort, only if there were nothing else worth trying. That was what Mays thought. The chances of that dungeon reset plan was only fifty-fifty after all.

Mays himself was not sure if beating the scarecrow as he did would count as combo hits either. This was the very first time he tried it. If it didn't work, he was ready to try his other plan. He didn't spent one hour trapped inside the barrier for nothing. His mind kept rolling, looking for whatever possibilities he could unravel all for the sake of surviving.

He came with a determined mind, forfeiting his own life for his loved one. If possible, he wanted to stay alive and get out of this place together with Ria but he knew that the chances for that to happen was extremely low. Because of that, he made up his mind to sacrifice himself to ensure Ria's survival.

But now, that very small chance appeared when one of his crazy idea proven to be effective. When his combo count increased after every hit of his landed on the scarecrow, Mays couldn't hide his excitement any longer. He grinned like a fool as he attacked the scarecrow nonstop. He also started a meaningless talk with Kokakola just to distract him during the meantime.

Now, the table was completely overturned. Kokakola was like a punching bag, beaten continuously without retorting. Mays himself might not aware of it yet but the reason why he was so overwhelming right now was not because of the celestial form alone. It was actually a synergy between the celestial form and his family's martial arts.

"Sonic Slash!"

Kokakola was sent flying mid-air. Mays was ready to finish him since his time was almost up. It was now the ninth second of his celestial form. There was only one second left before he would be paralyzed. He already weaken Kokakola enough in these nine seconds. He was sure that his last attack would send this vampire lord to the underworld once and for all.

"This is the end for you, Kokakola! Flaming Thunder Slash!"

A normal [Flaming Thunder Slash] was deadly enough the way it was. [Flaming Thunder Slash] empowered by celestial form was not something anyone could withstood. Mays's target was Kokakola's neck. He wanted to kill this vampire lord right away.

"Klok! Klok!"

Without any sign of resistance, Kokakola's head rolled over after it was decapitated. Mays himself was shocked by how easy it happened. He thought that at least this vampire lord would have some sort of final trick.

"Eh?"

Even Shalala who stood at the side watching the fight was startled. She never thought that this human in front of her would be that overwhelming. In fact, never before in the history of this world existed a human whom highhandedly killed an insane boss.

In these ten seconds, she was conflicted whether to butt in and stop the human from killing Kokakola or not. In the end, she gave up on that notion after she was given a deathly glare from Mays who was observing his surroundings. His gaze which was filled with intense killing intent made her hesitated.

She didn't feel like she could win if she was to fight against that human. Obviously, she didn't know the fact that Mays could only fight in that state for only ten seconds. If she did, she would already stepped in and stopped Mays from doing what he wanted.

"IT'S TOO EARLY TO BE HAPPY HUMAN!"

Kokakola's voice resounded all over the domain. It didn't came from his decapitated body but from the air. If one were to look closely, they would notice that there were some kind of eerie smoke ball at that part of the air.

"I WONT GO DOWN ALONE! SUFFER WITH ME HUMAN! CURSE OF MORTAL!"

Right after Kokakola finished talking, his body of hazy smoke ball dispersed right away. It then reappeared all over Mays, engulfing him and slowly entering his pores. Even his armor and weapons turned black when it came into contact with that curse.

"This curse…"

"AND MY FINAL PRESENT FOR YOU, TAKE IT! DEMONIC CORPSE EXPLOSION!"

Before Mays could finish his line, Kokakola's voice once again echoed all over. This time, even Shalala's face turned pale. She didn't know what skill Kokakola just activated but she knew that it was life threatening even for her.

Kokakola's former body was emitting an extremely strong life force, an accumulation of life force for hundreds of year. Even someone like Shalala wouldn't escape unscratched if she took that destructive force head on.

"Sorry but I'll be taking my leave first. Reincarnation Cocoon!"

Reluctantly shifting her gaze from Drasca who was still wrapped in the light pillar, Shalala released her own magic power as well. A huge cocoon with the size of normal human wrapped her whole body before it started shrinking bit by bit.

Shalala never considered her life forfeit ever since Mays casted the domain. This skill was the reason why. She could just release all her energy and then be reborn back in her dukedom. The only reason why she had not considered doing so was because of Drasca. She didn't plan to save her own hide while abandoning her companions.

The situation right now was not something she could have predicted. For an insane boss to sacrifice his life just to kill a single human had never before happened in this world. It was even a top insane boss to boot.

Shalala already made up her mind. Her life was the most important to her. She felt bad for Drasca but there was nothing she could do about it. As the cocoon shrink more and more, Shalala's consciousness left her body leaving only its carcass of empty body behind.

"Heheh, this is it for me I guess. I don't regret it one bit as long as you survive, Ria. Please live a happy life."

His celestial form was finished after he decapitated Kokakola. His body condition right now couldn't be described with mere worst. Alongside the effect of [Paralyze] which disabled his body movement, he was also under the [Curse of Mortal] status. His current body prowess was only at silver rank, around one third of his usual, while all his armors and weapons were rendered useless. They were all tainted black, disabled.

Mays closed his eyes as he lie down. He wanted to at least relax his mind during the last moment of his life. As the surrounding grew hotter and hotter, he realized that Kokakola's body had reached its limit and it would explode any moment now.

Both [Curse of Mortal] and [Demonic Corpse Explosion] were skills in HeavensTale. Mays obviously knew about them. They were also skills from different event boss but there was one thing in common among these skills which was the fact that those bosses were all vampires.

As he lost himself in his own thought, he noticed that the surrounding temperature suddenly turned warm. It was the comforting type of warmness, not the harming type. Mays felt that he wouldn't mind being engulfed in this kind of warmness till the moment his life run out.

He couldn't lie to his heart. It didn't matter how determined he was, his yearning heart wouldn't be fooled. Deep inside, he wanted to survive this calamity and immediately rushed back to Ria. He wanted to tell the tale of a brave young man who defeat a great demon for the sake of his loved one and bragged about it all day long.

"Maaaaan… Despite my determination, I still want to see Ria's cheerful smile one last time."

He wanted to express how much he loved her. He wanted to embrace her and stay by her side forever. But all those were just wishful thinking. Too bad, there was no cure for regret.

------------------------------------------------------------

"If you really think so, then immediately dispel this domain."

"Eh?"

Mays opened his eyes when he heard that somewhat familiar voice. He was shocked when he noticed his body was guarded by a coiling dragon, enveloped by a bright light. He knew who this dragon was, it was Drasca. An ancient looking dragon like those from Chinese mythology, the Heaven Crystal Dragon.

"Faster human! I couldn't hold on much longer!"

"Er… Em!"

Mays closed his eyes as he focused his mind. He willed for the domain to disappear and it dispersed right away. These domain skills were really a wonder. They were indestructible yet it easily disappeared at the will of their caster. Magical indeed.

Drasca was heavily injured from the early burst and middle burst of Kokakola's [Demonic Corpse Explosion]. She thought she could withstood all three explosion stage but apparently she looked down on Kokakola's life force too much. Two consecutive burst already injured her fatally and the third one would without doubt killed her.

She thought that Mays already passed out and wouldn't open his eyes after overexerting himself hence she decided to shield him. She was even determined to die since there were nothing else she could do at the moment. In the end, thanks to him being awake, she finally saw hope on surviving this ordeal.

"Astral Teleportation!"

Both Drasca and Mays turned transparent after her skill was casted. They both disappeared right away before the third and final burst impacted them. The third burst was way stronger than the first and second one.

The whole five kilometer radius of the area was turned into nothingness after the explosion. A large area of land were scooped out leaving nothing underneath. The flying fortress was no longer existing after the explosion.

All the surviving spirits were safe since they were not within the perimeter. They were all shocked by the loud explosion which echoed all over the area. Minerva and the other three spirits of Ria immediately rushed into the cave to check on their master's condition.

Syaitona and the rest of Mays's spirits were staring at the source of the explosion with a worried look on their face. Damia was gripping her fist tightly, holding herself from going to the site and look for her master. It was shown on each of their face how worried they were right now.

Somewhere far away at the sky in the middle of demon continent, an enchanting dragon together with a human suddenly appeared out of thin air. They were falling down from the sky at a rapid pace before then landed on top of a mountain.

Drasca was shielding Mays most of the time as she was still in her dragon form. Exhausted and heavily injured as she currently was, she couldn't even use any skill at the moment. Her energy was mostly drained back when she was enveloped by the light pillar inside Mays's domain. She didn't have time to recover when Kokakola suddenly resorted to mutual destruction by sacrificing his own life.

Crashing down without a cushion, Drasca threw up a mouthful of blood. That landing made her already fatal injury more severe. Without slowing down, Drasca then rolled over the mountain, smashing into boulders and trees on its path.

It continued for minutes before she fell into a deep ravine in the middle of the mountain range. Once again, Drasca braced all impact while she shielded Mays who was still paralyzed. Mays was obviously dumbfounded by Drasca's action.

There was no reason for her to go that far to shield him. In fact, there was nothing going on between them either. The moment she arrived at City of Trickery back then was the very first time Mays had seen her. Why the hell would she go this far just to ensure his safety?

"Drasca? Why are you doing all these?"

Mays who couldn't understand the reasoning behind her action asked for an answer. He knew that he wouldn't find it even if he keep thinking. Only Drasca herself knew why she did all these.

"I… sorry…"

Rather than an answer, the last thing he heard from Drasca was a heartfelt apology before Drasca's lost consciousness. Her large dragon body which was on the same size with Flamence shrunk down into the size of human's forearm.

Only now Mays realized that the two of them were falling down. Mays didn't notice when but his paralyzed status was apparently already over. He stretched his arms and grabbed Drasca before he embraced her tightly. He was doing the exact same thing she had done for him, shielding her from further impact.

At the very least, Mays was lucky that they landed into a deep underground waterfall. The water cushioned their fall enough for them to keep their life intact. Mays lost consciousness soon after. He didn't loosen his grip on Drasca even after he lost his consciousness.

--------------------------------------------------

Hallel had not meet humans for years. After the Great War, she was stranded here in demon continent with no means of going back. She drifted for months before she finally reached one of the portal gate of demon continent, Demonfall Forest. She tried to break through once but she failed.

There was unexpectedly a gold ranked insane boss guarding the portal gate. She tried her best and managed to kill all the guardian except the insane boss. But, she was hurt so bad from their clash hence she decided to give up and escape instead.

She waited for months while hiding from the insane boss for the dungeon instance barrier to disappear before she could leave the area. Challenging a gold ranked insane boss alone was a foolish errand for sure.

These days, she spent her time doing whatever she wanted. She was without a direction for three years when finally she happened to get a crude, ancient map about a certain powerful treasure. She couldn't fully understand everything written on it but after forcing several locals from nearby duchy, she managed to get the gist of it.

Even back in HeavensTale, Hallel was not a money warrior. She was always tight on gold. Because of that, she never waste her gold on mounts nor spirits. She used most of the gold she gained in game to enhance her gears. She was without a doubt an exemplary for those other non-spender in game who managed to rise to the top on her own.

She didn't even have any flying mount. That fact itself was already a clear note on how tight on gold she was in the game. True real dragon mounts were rare and several of them couldn't even be bought using gold.

But those weaker one with lesser boost like the flood dragons, wyverns or Pegasus were attainable using golds. Hallel was too poor that she didn't have any of those. At the very least, she still had several other decent mount like the Horned White Tiger and Armoured Ancient Mammoth which were both excelled in agility and strength respectively.

Her journey to find the hidden treasure started after she confirmed the certainty of the map. There were a total of seven marked location on the map and she had gone to five of them. There were only two left. Unexpectedly, one fine day when she had just woken up and washed her face at nearby river, she saw a floating human body drifted by the current.

She saved the person without hesitation. It was a rare chance to meet another human in this continent after all. She brought the injured person into her current dwelling cave as she started taking off the armor piece on him one after another.

"Whoa… his body is well toned."

As Hallel carefully treated the wounded person, she unconsciously feel attached to the perfectly shaped body of the man in front of her. She had never seen anyone with a perfectly toned body aside from those she saw in televisions and books from earth. This was also her first time touching them using her own hand and surprisingly, she found that it was pleasurable for her to do so.

At first, Hallel decided to help this person because she wanted to acquire information from him. This was the very first human she met after several years. She wanted to know if there was a human expedition or something going on at the moment. She of course wanted to go back to the human continent.

But at the moment, she had a different thought in her mind. She wouldn't really mind if she stayed stranded here on this continent as long as she would be together with this person. The more she looked at the relaxed sleeping face of this person, the more she felt she was drawn to it. This typical Asian face was by no means handsome but it had its own charm for sure. This was unexpectedly a love at first sight for this rough yet innocent girl, Hallel.

From the injured man's equipment alone, Hallel was sure that this person was the same as her, a former HeavensTale player. Though the equipment were something quite different from the game, she could recognize the space belt even after it changed color to pitch black.

There was also a small dragon which this injured person held tightly even after he fainted. A small, crystal clear white dragon. It seemed that this dragon was without a doubt something precious to this person. After observing the small dragon, Hallel couldn't find any injury on it and decided to just let it be.

Sun sets and the surrounding area turned dark as night approached. With just the feeble light from the campfire, Hallel who already had her dinner sat nearby the injured person while observing his condition.

Again, before she knew it, her hand was already on top of that injured person chest, faintly sensing the heartbeat. Slowly caressing the body, she grinned without saying anything. She even chuckled several time, enlighten by whatever she was currently fantasizing.

Unbeknown to even herself, the small dragon who was put beside the pillow actually opened its eye for several seconds, observing her entire action. After deducing that she had no ill intention, the small dragon once again closed its eyes to focus on its recuperation as it was still fatally injured and yet to healed.