Spiral of Madness: Ascension of the Villainous Dragon Prince-Chapter 109: The Desolate Lord & The Ruinous Empress [2]

The Queen, capable only of healing and buffing with her spells, appeared to have given up on fighting. But Louis never lowered his guard. He pointed his sword at her, then reversed it. He knew she was an undead-type Grievance—her weakness to Holy Light was notoriously severe.

By reversing his Ashen Frost Sword, he transformed Despair into Hope. Ashes turned to holy light, and his blade became a flowing pillar of celestial energy. The longer he wielded this element, the closer he felt to his mother.

"Enough."

Sword Energy surged from him. Louis swiftly adapted the Holy Dragon Lance Style into a pure Swordsmanship art and rushed forward. He swung downward. A gigantic holy dragon fang manifested from his sword energy and roared toward her.

"Nnnghh!" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

As he had expected, she hadn’t given up yet. She swung her metallic claws upward, resisting the long-range attack, but it ultimately scorched her hands, exploded through her body, and blew both arms into pieces. She clicked her tongue, leaped away from the next strike, and used her Healing Magic to swiftly regenerate her lost limbs.

Then she aimed at Louis with her hands. Her nails extended into incredibly long metallic talons painted red. Ghostly red flames surged around her, igniting the surroundings. Her slashing attacks tore through walls, buildings, and even allied undead without discrimination.

"Hahaha! Hahahahaha! I am not so weak, see?"

"I know that."

Although the Ruinous Empress began battles in the game primarily as a healer and buffer, if the player killed the Desolate Lord first, she would enter a berserk rampage—attacking anything nearby with burning claws. Her assaults grew fiercer the more undead soldiers fell, as she absorbed their souls to fuel her power.

"I am not him, but the memories of that guy... he really hates you to death."

Louis swiftly leaped away from the blazing claws. He used his wings to maneuver agilely across the skies, evading her long-range fiery slashes. Then, leveraging the weight of his bone armor, he kicked downward, striking her head and sending her crashing to the ground with an immense, rumbling tremor that cracked the earth beneath.

"GAAAAHH!"

As she screamed in fury, her Fantasium Aura erupted. A dark energy tried to invade Louis’s Fantasy Heart, flooding it with Despair and Agony—which Louis, in turn, welcomed and absorbed. His face twisted into a smile as he reversed Despair into Hope once more, using her mental infection as the bridge straight to her own Fantasy Heart.

"W-What are you doing—AAAAAGGGHHHH!"

The Ruinous Empress screamed as blinding light flooded her entire body. It pierced her chest and exploded outward, forming a burning pillar that erupted from her torso. White salt poured from the wound and her mouth, halting her momentarily as confusion and agony overwhelmed her, she couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

"Y-You’re a Grievance too?!"

"No, I am a Spiralwalker."

Louis kicked her chin, launching her into the skies. He followed immediately. His sword gleamed with holy light and Nirvana Flames as he swung it dozens of times, slashing through her body and carving into her hardened armored shell, reaching her cores.

CRASH!

The first core shattered. The Ruinous Empress reacted violently, kicking Louis in the face with her sharp metallic heels. The blow shattered the bony armor covering his head and sent him tumbling downward. But Louis gathered energy, kicked off the air, and closed the distance again. He seized her legs and drove her back toward the ground.

BAAAM!

"Gaaaahh?!"

She vomited black blood as her gigantic body slammed into the earth. Louis lifted her once more and slammed her down repeatedly. In a desperate bid to break free, she swung her burning claws at him—only for Louis to hurl her into the walls, collapsing them as he evaded her strikes and closed in again.

The Gravewalker emerged behind him, catching up and punching her downward. She crashed to the ground, and Louis followed with a kick that sent her skidding left—smashing through several buildings one after another.

"Y-Youu...! Nnggh...! Agh...!"

She groaned, struggling to regenerate the destroyed core, but the Gravewalker gave her no respite. He summoned a ten-meter-long Ashen Frost Icicle Spear and drove it through her stomach, halting regeneration and coating her in ice that reversed into holy light, burning her from within.

"Nooooooo!"

As she screamed in torment, Louis descended from above. He beheaded her with one sharp horizontal slash, then swiftly targeted the remaining two cores—destroying them with two precise stabbing attacks that tore through her weakened, cracked armor.

"Aaahhh...! My...! Empire...! No...! Noooaaaaaggghhh!"

She screamed until the very last moment. Once the final core shattered, her existence ceased. Her metallic body collapsed into a heap of rusty metal. Louis stood motionless for a moment. He noticed a soul emerge once again, but he quickly dispersed it with his sword—ensuring the strange flower inside his soul wouldn’t consume it.

Yeah, he could have attempted to turn her into an Undead, but his Spiral Fragment was simply too weak. Even Zorba was only Tier 9—they would have little control over her, and she would likely break free to kill them. It wasn’t worth the risk.

Eating her soul was out of the question. Louis had no desire to fall unconscious again while experiencing her memories, then fighting a battle of souls to reclaim control of his body.

There was something far more important now.

"It should be here."

He tore open her metallic chest, revealing a metallic heart that released ghostly flames. The Ruinous Empress was a golem of some kind—or something akin to living armor, a haunted suit of metal. A bizarre, fully metallic type of undead where a ghost possessed an inanimate object.

This metallic heart was no mere scrap. It exuded a powerful surge of Fantasium; it was a formidable Grievance Relic known as the Ruinous Flame Heart. When infused with Fantasium, it would begin to pump, generating a burning forcefield capable of protecting the user and nearby allies while harming any foe who tried to destroy it.

It was also possible to implant it into a person and replace their heart with this one, turning them into an artificial sinner—a mechanic Louis had learned existed in this world through the information he had gathered.

By implanting it as a new heart, the artificial sinner would gradually develop powers similar to those of the Ruinous Empress: a metallic body, blazing claws, and healing and buffing magic. However, it would also twist their mind. Eventually, the person risked becoming a new Ruinous Empress if they failed to control the power.

It felt strong, but the risk was far too great. Louis did not even consider it. He quickly pocketed the heart into his shadows and moved toward the Desolate Lord. Inside his broken ribcage he found the Relic: a small skull made of red crystals, the Ruby Skull. This Curse Item allowed the user to curse someone by sacrificing something of their own. For example, if the user sacrificed one eye, the target would become blind. If the user sacrificed one arm, the target would lose both arms.

The sacrificed body parts could never be restored, no matter what. Yet Louis saw potential in it. If he could force someone else to use it on his enemies, he could easily cripple them while sacrificing a non-important life. Unfortunately, it did not work on Undead or anything similar; it required a human user.

"It’s not bad, but I don’t really care much," Louis nodded. "With this I have four... well, five relics. However, I will keep the ring, so I’ll continue to the Third Layer until I get a fifth Relic. Then I’ll perform the Descent Ritual and reach Tier 7."

Tier 7 was incredibly close. Louis could already taste the power it would bring. With Tier 7, he was certain he could change the future of the battle against Soma and reduce the losses—while saving Tisha’s life. Yet he was also considering bolder ideas: dealing with the Gardener, or perhaps even using the Gardener against Soma. For that insane plan to work, he would need extensive preparation.

Above all, Louis understood one truth clearly: he needed strength.