Dark Fantasy Guide for the Summoner - Chapter 70

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 70.
The Fairy King Lukbara III
Just for a moment, I’d entertained such a thought.
Would Lukbara as a Shadow truly be stronger than the original Lukbara I’d known?
Wasn’t it possible that his weakened state had made him weaker instead?
‘Fat chance.’
In the space where I’d been standing just after rolling away from the attack, dozens of blade-like projections wreathed in sickly cyan light pierced down.
It was like watching an entire archer company loose their arrows at once.
‘Fairy King Lukbara.’
During his time alive as a Delver, his epithet was Master of the Thousand Swords.
He wielded countless blades carved from light itself with perfect freedom—but after death, he naturally couldn’t perform at his living level, and the number of swords he could control had dropped to well under half.
That was the setting, anyway.
Screeeee!
But whether it was a thousand or two, three hundred—to me right now, any number was impossibly vast.
I darted about like a deranged flock of migratory birds, evading the cascade of descending blades.
Crash-boom!
The Necromancer’s desk and chair toppled, sending hundreds of papers filled with complex equations scattering like flower petals.
The pursuing blades shredded every bundle in their path.
Now that I thought about it, the game had offered no way to disable the Thousand Swords either.
The ideal strategy was to field a tank to hold the line while the party mounted the real offense against Lukbara himself.
Was that why?
Once you managed to close in, actually fighting Lukbara became manageable—or so it should have been.
“—!”
A fist the size of a boulder eclipsed my vision.
I bent my spine backward to its limit, sliding out beneath the punch like I was executing a desperate dodge.
Boom!
The solid ground crumbled like a biscuit.
One hit landing would be a death sentence, without question.
‘This level of physical power—he never had this before.’
Lukbara’s combat style had always been to unleash his Thousand Swords in all directions while his main body slipped away with cunning evasion.
But now his enlarged form was pursuing me directly as well.
Roooooooaaaarrr—!
A howl that felt like it would rupture my eardrums.
Though his complexion had turned ashen, the Lukbara in my memory had retained his beautiful features even in life—but standing before me now was nothing but a mass of grotesque muscle.
A creature utterly transformed.
‘Damn.’
There was no more time to weigh my options.
I withdrew the elixir from my bag.
[You consume the Soul Hunter’s Elixir.]
[All stats increase.]
[For 10 minutes, damage dealt to Undead-type enemies increases.]
[For 10 minutes, damage received from Undead-type enemies decreases.]
I doped myself with a potion that cost two hundred thousand points.
As my physical abilities surged upward, a violet glow began to shimmer around the scythe in my grip.
Immediately after, Lukbara raised his right foot, as if to stamp me flat, and I swung the scythe.
Squelch!
His ankle came clean off with little resistance, but the severed surface immediately began to bubble and churn, and a new foot sprouted forth instantly.
‘What the hell.’
A lizard, then?
Not grafting the severed limb back on, but simply regenerating in place.
This definitely didn’t look like ordinary Undead.
Screeeee—!
Another barrage of Thousand Swords came crashing down, and I wove through it.
The situation was dire, but fortunately I still had one more tool at my disposal.
‘You could call it a silver lining.’
Or better yet: a blessing in the midst of hardship.
Either way, it was an advantage that had emerged when the enemy transformed into a Shadow instead of remaining as ordinary Undead.
[You summon Alto, the Ashen Lizard.]
This better be worth your keep this time.
* * *
Alto touched down from the summoning circle and immediately scanned his surroundings.
There was no time for a verbal briefing, so I activated the Heart-to-Heart Connection skill.
“Ugh……!”
Rather than relay instructions, I was hammering the current situation directly into his mind.
It was far more intuitive than explaining with words, and it saved precious seconds.
The moment Alto finished absorbing the situation, saliva dripping from his maw, Lukbara unleashed another barrage of Thousand Swords.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!
Alto bounded clear without difficulty, then bared his teeth at Lukbara.
“That entity doesn’t seem to be a common Shadow.”
“Good eye. It’s fused with an Undead.”
“A Shadow and Undead fused together? How is that even possible?”
How should I know?
Alto didn’t seem to expect an answer anyway; he threw himself fully into combat.
[The Ash Lizard, Alto, casts the skill Last Ash Fire.]
Pale flames flickered across Alto’s entire body before he rocketed forward like a cannonball toward Lukbara.
Boom!
Lukbara’s jaw fell slack at the impact.
Was it the Undead nature?
No blood or spittle flowed, yet the damage had clearly landed.
Crack!
The enraged Lukbara seized Alto’s body.
Alto roared and pushed his flames higher, but Lukbara held firm even as his hand charred away.
Crunch!
Veins bulged across the back of Lukbara’s hand.
As his grip tightened, Alto let out a terrible cry of agony.
‘Damn it.’
If I lost Alto here, whatever slim chance I had would evaporate entirely.
I rushed toward Lukbara even as the Thousand Swords pursued me, but he kicked off the ground and sprang upward, clinging to the ceiling with an agility that defied his bulk.
“…….”
For something built like a mountain, this creature moved with unsettling speed.
And how was he even sticking to the ceiling with that mass? The laws of physics meant nothing to him.
‘Too high.’
Even with the elevated stats from the elixir, I couldn’t reach him.
But.
[Activating Whisper of Gale Wind.]
[Casting the special skill Leap.]
What would happen if I used this?
In the game, Leap was merely a special skill unlock, but now it would be different.
‘Since this became reality, jumping high is absolutely within reach.’
So, if my reasoning was sound, the Leap skill would have adjusted to match this real environment.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason to list it as a special skill in the item description.
The most plausible possibility was an enhancement to jumping power.
Maybe I could jump twice as high? With that hope, I pushed off the ground…….
“……?”
The ceiling was still out of reach.
Well, I’d jumped higher than I remembered being capable of, but that was probably just the elixir’s effect.
‘What the hell.’
Was this a scam?
But something felt wrong.
Just before my rising body was pulled back down by gravity…….
For some reason, my feet found purchase in the empty air.
I pushed my legs down one more time mid-flight.
My body shot upward again.
‘Double jump!’
I never expected the adjustment to work like this.
Far better than a simple boost to jump height. With this, I could even change direction mid-air and perform other tricks.
Thanks to the two leaps, I finally reached Lukbara perched on the ceiling.
Slash!
First, I severed the arm holding Alto.
Almost at the same moment, I felt a chill sweep in from my right side.
In the moment I caught sight of dozens of blades from the corner of my eye, I understood that evasion was impossible.
[Activating Iron Wall Resolve.]
[Casting special skill, Iron Wall Stance.]
My entire body stiffened as though turning to stone, and the Thousand Swords barrage hammered against me relentlessly—but
my defense had skyrocketed by 1,000 percent, more than ten times over, so it didn’t hurt.
Thud-crash!
I plummeted downward as if battered by rain, then slammed into the ground.
[Special skill, Iron Wall Stance, has been deactivated.]
The moment the message appeared, I immediately swung my scythe and knocked aside the remaining Thousand Swords.
Alto, who had fallen similarly, screamed again and charged at Lukbara.
‘How am I supposed to bring him down?’
Judging by how easily I’d severed his arms and legs, his inherent defense wasn’t particularly high.
‘He’s lost the armor he wore before, his intellect is gone too.’
In exchange, he’d gained tremendous raw strength and regenerative power.
In such a state, he might not die even from conventional Undead-slaying methods like beheading or crushing his skull.
After all, a Shadow’s weakness lay in special metals or moonlight.
‘……If I use Wild Force, I could deploy Last Ash Fire myself.’
But I didn’t think now was the time.
In the first place, the Thousand Swords had locked onto me as their target, so it wasn’t easy to find an opening to strike at Lukbara.
‘Damn it…… I need to buy time somehow.’
Just Alto and me.
The two of us alone couldn’t devise a strategy to manage this.
That was the moment.
A deep, grinding sound.
My gaze shifted to the Undead trapped behind the iron bars.
“……!”
Come to think of it, Lukbara was a Shadow right now.
If that was true, couldn’t I use these Undead as well?
Without even time to verify, I swung my scythe and cut through the iron bars in one motion.
Screeeech!
The liberated Undead poured onto the battlefield like a torrent. Some charged toward me, but most scattered in all directions.
Shriek!
That was when the Thousand Swords’ trajectory shifted.
The unified swarm of Thousand Swords suddenly split apart and scattered in all directions.
Screeeech!
The Shadow’s inherent trait had manifested—they perceived everything but themselves as enemies.
As the Undead were pierced through by the Thousand Swords, the battlefield descended into several times greater chaos.
‘……This reminds me of the old days.’
The game’s opening cutscene.
Back then, I’d released Magical Beasts to hold back that squid Shadow.
What I’d just released were Undead instead, but the situation was similar.
In any case, thanks to the Undead’s tragic sacrifice, I’d gained a sliver of breathing room.
I had to exploit this gap to chip away at Lukbara somehow.
Roooooaaaarrr!
Lukbara continued roaring and thrashing about, maintaining his exchange with Alto.
Alto held his ground using Last Ash Fire, though barely holding on…
Compared to Godrak, who had refused to even approach the Ash Fire, he fought well.
As though the flames held no fear for him whatsoever.
‘……Is he hoping I’ll think that?’
Did that creature even possess intelligence?
There was something unsettling about the way he threw his body at the attack with such excess.
Lukbara seemed intent on protecting his head at any cost.
It might be a trap, but I didn’t have the luxury of deep analysis anyway.
I charged into the battlefield where Undead and Thousand Swords were tangled together. At first glance it seemed I was throwing myself into chaos, but that wasn’t quite right.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
For deflecting or blocking the cascading Thousand Swords, this place was actually advantageous.
Of course, my true goal was to bury my presence in the chaos of this battlefield.
Screeeech!
I struck down the charging Undead, and when the Thousand Swords flew at me, I either bounced them away with my scythe or used the Undead as a shield.
All the while, I steadily closed the distance between myself and Lukbara.
A few moments later, when the distance between us had narrowed to barely a breath’s width……
Tap!
I drove my front toes hard into the ground and kicked off.
In an instant, Lukbara’s massive frame consumed my entire field of vision.
Screech!
At that moment, Lukbara whipped his arm backward.
Does this bastard have eyes in the back of his head too?
[Activating special skill, Leap.]
Propelled upward once more by the artifact’s power, I landed on the back of Lukbara’s hand, then sprinted down his forearm.
[Activating skill, Wild Force.]
[Designating Alto, the Ash-Fire Lizard.]
The stats I’d torn from Alto, combined with the additional attack power granted by the Soul Hunter’s Elixir.
The essence of my scythe, honed through insights gained from my battle with the Death Knight.
Layered atop it all, the Last Ash Fire buff that proved especially potent against shadow entities.
My scythe, now imbued with every ounce of power I could muster, severed Lukbara’s neck in a single stroke.
Thud.
The Fairy King’s head fell away.
At the same moment, the Thousand Swords that had woven through the air around us dissolved into fragments of light and vanished.
“……!”
Alto stared at me with wide, astonished eyes.
[Shadow, ‘Lukbara, the Twisted Fairy King,’ sustains critical damage.]
Did I do it?
That’s what the message seemed to be asking.
“…….”
Something felt wrong.
The message that had just appeared.
‘Critical damage, not defeated?’
Then it happened.
Bubble-bubble……
From the severed edge of the neck, foam-like bubbles churned and boiled.
I’d seen a similar phenomenon just moments before.
When I’d severed his leg.
Squelch!
A face suddenly erupted from the severed surface.
Watching the melted, twisted, shriveled visage rapidly restore itself to its original form was grotesque beyond mere revulsion.
[Shadow, ‘Lukbara, the Twisted Fairy King,’ revives.]
[Shadow information updated.]
⁝
[「Lukbara, the Twisted Fairy King」―→「One Who Seeks Eternal Rest」]
[Shadow, ‘Lukbara, the Twisted Fairy King,’ obtains a new form.]
[In the depths of the inner abyss, ‘One Who Seeks Eternal Rest’ awakens……]
Damn it. I should’ve known.
That shadow bastard is starting to shed the shell of Lukbara and crawl free.
Roooaaaaahhh―!
The resurrected Lukbara swept through the surrounding area with tremendous force.
If my instincts weren’t deceiving me, he was faster and stronger than before.
‘Then his defense went up too, didn’t it?’
It wasn’t uncommon for monsters to gain increased stats with each revival.
The swarm of Thousand Swords that had reappeared was already slaughtering the surrounding Undead anew.
It wouldn’t be long before they annihilated the Undead horde entirely and turned their attention to me.
“…….”
The Necromancer’s words suddenly came back to me.
She’d said that at my current level, I’d just meet a dog’s death.
‘That was an accurate assessment.’
The woman was clearly unhinged, but when it came to analyzing combat strength, her judgment was sound.
‘This creature cannot be killed with my current power.’
How can I be so sure without fighting to the bitter end?
If someone asked that, I could only answer with a gamer’s instinct.
You know, when you play games long enough, you eventually reach that moment of clarity.
When you synthesize the boss’s remaining health and remaining time, calculate the total damage you can typically deal, assess your own condition—and realize there’s no path to victory.
This battle can’t go on like this—or so the feeling comes, that we’ve reached the limit. It’s the impulse to hit retry.
“Sigh……”
I can no longer see the Fairy King in that form, yet even in such a state, he still wields the Thousand Swords.
In other words, though his name has changed, his true identity remains unchanged: Lukbara, the final boss of the Royal Tomb.
‘Then……’
There’s still a chance.
Whoosh!
The ash fire that Alto spewed engulfed Lukbara’s entire body.
Lukbara let out a cry of agony and tore at his own skin with his bare hands.
‘Madman.’
He strips away the clinging flames like that—a countermeasure only the Undead could execute. Truly.
But could such self-inflicted damage actually be whittling down his own health?
[Shadow, ‘One Who Yearns for Eternal Rest’ has reached 60% health.]
[Shadow, ‘One Who Yearns for Eternal Rest’ sings of death…….]
It comes.
Phase 2 of despair.
The primary culprit behind the absurd difficulty of Fairy King Lukbara.
–
Kreeeeeeaaaahhhhh!
Boom……!
With a chilling shriek, three urns suddenly fell from empty air where nothing existed before.
They resembled burial urns, but they were vast enough to contain the now-colossal Lukbara.
Crack…….
The moment a fissure ran through the urn, a message appeared.
[The melody has reached the far end of death’s ravine. Beasts of Twisted Bones and Ashes answer the call…….]
I beheld three newly summoned creatures.
[Lv.50 ‘Guardian of the Sea Tomb, Tebatis’]
[Lv.50 ‘Fanged Hound, Biaunus’]
A woman with a cat’s face and a man with a dog’s face.
And last…….
[Lv.50 ‘Soaring Bone-Eagle, Perus’]
A massive eagle hovering at a high point with wings spread wide.
Unlike the cat and dog bearing human features, this creature’s form was that of a true, great bird of prey.
Which meant―
[Subjugation Success Rate: 2%]
Only that one alone could be subjugated.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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