The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 2

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

The boss wants to die.
Episode 2
Even with an expert’s escort, it would be impossible.
The air of the Demonic Realm carries poison damage, inflicting continuous harm.
Even if I died once per second while pushing forward, I’d only respawn at the Sanctuary, making it all pointless.
‘I’ve never seen a bug like this before.’
While I was lost in thought, the man—who hadn’t taken his eyes off me for even a single second—suddenly produced a mace.
With my equipment window open, the information about what looked like an insignificant mace scrolled across my vision.
[Primordial Mace.
An all-purpose tool used by the Primordial God to create the world in an age before evil existed.
Its form changes according to the user’s nature.
— User: Akt Hebgenia (Novice Priest)
— Form: Mace
— Enhancement: +10 (Cannot enhance further.)
— Grade: Legendary]
And it was Legendary at that.
The mythical grade that supposedly existed only twice in the entire game!
‘I’ve only heard rumors about it secondhand, even after six years grinding as the Final Boss……!’
A grade that nobody believed actually existed in physical form.
I had no idea what he’d used to enhance an already-complete Legendary weapon, but somehow it was fully enhanced.
‘Wait, hold on!’
Novice priest or not, the moment I saw that weapon, I sensed something was wrong and straightened my stance.
‘If I handle this carelessly, my body will just run off and kill the player on its own again.’
I hated being controlled.
If I had to fight anyway, I wanted to fight by my own will.
Without hesitation, I activated a skill.
[Helrod has summoned the Gate of Hell! Time remaining before space is devoured: 10 seconds!]
Whooooom—
A black shadow began to creep ominously across the floor.
The edge of the gate tearing up through the ground was adorned with demon horns, befitting a gateway to the Underworld.
The moment that gate was completely pulled up from the depths below, the man would be finished.
Yet when he saw the pitch-black gate that would drag him to hell, he showed no reaction whatsoever.
He simply stood there.
Watching me.
‘Is it not enough?’
And why was he looking at me like that?
As if he’d just met a first love he’d been longing to see, he stared at my face with an intensity that could burn through it.
[A Veil of Darkness spreads above Helrod’s head.
The god’s eyes are obscured; sacred magic will not work for 10 seconds.]
[Helrod, unfurling his Wings of Evil, soars toward the sky.]
I was brimming with the will to cut short his breath in a single stroke.
The man tilted his head back as far as it would go, tracking my ascent to the ceiling.
His thick brows were slanted crookedly by the dazzling glow of the chandelier above.
There was something frightening in his gaze.
He didn’t look like a player who’d come for boss loot.
Rather, he resembled someone trying desperately to grasp a sky they could never reach—obsessively, fixatedly so.
[7, 6…….]
The man glanced briefly at the Gate of Hell erupting from the ground, then finally moved.
His lustrous white hair swayed and rippled as his legs advanced with bestial fluidity.
Despite his massive frame, he seemed neither lumbering nor clumsy—his height made all the difference.
He moved with a smoothness as if his black shoes were wheeled.
The man drew out what might have been a white rod—mace or something else entirely—with the grace of flowing water.
Then he tapped lightly against the Gate of Hell as it continued to manifest.
Tap, tap—
It made a sound like a child’s toy.
What was he trying to accomplish with that?
I hovered uncertainly in the air, watching the absurd spectacle unfold.
To be honest, I was openly observing him.
There was nothing particularly threatening about it.
No matter how Legendary a weapon this man wielded, the fact remained he would die by my hand.
Wouldn’t you agree?
I’m an evil god.
And that man is a healer-priest.
A novice priest, at that.
A level-ten nobody standing before the Final Boss—surely the outcome isn’t in doubt, is it?
But then.
Pshhhhh…….
The gate of hell deflated like a punctured balloon and collapsed flat against the ground.
‘What the—?!’
I tore my eyes so wide I thought they might pop out of my skull.
[The Primordial God’s Divine Power returns Helrod the evil god’s domain to its primordial state!]
[The evil god’s Divine Power vanishes, reverting to primordial form!]
[The Wings of Evil lose their strength!]
Whoooosh, crack!
“Argh!”
I, who had been cruising the sky with such ease, plummeted like a shot bird.
I crashed spread-eagle onto the floor of the Grand Hall, and only then did the pain come screaming.
I swallowed my embarrassment and pushed myself up.
Scalding blood gushed from my nose. It had been ages since I’d hurt like this.
“Ugh!”
As I shook my head, trying to clear the daze, I heard him exhale deeply nearby.
When I looked up, the man was standing just out of arm’s reach, staring down at me.
The moment his warm breath touched my cheek, gooseflesh erupted across my entire body.
“Get your face away from me!”
Like a wary black panther, I bared my fangs in a menacing display and recoiled sharply.
Blood trickled from my nose, dripping onto the floor in small drops.
The man watched the sight for a moment, then asked quietly.
“Are you all right?”
His voice resonated like the toll of a bell.
There was a low, clear tone to it that carried a weight impossible to defy.
I deliberately furrowed my brows and shot back.
“What?”
“Your nose.”
“What do you—”
“I can lend you a handkerchief.”
Before I could even process what was happening, the man reached into his pocket.
I stood there for a long moment, watching what he was doing.
And then it hit me.
He was genuinely worried about me—the Final Boss.
Something inside me began to boil.
“A novice priest actually dares to fret over me in the middle of combat? How absurdly arrogant!”
I narrowed my vertically-slit pupils to their absolute limit.
I flexed my finger joints, eyes wide and predatory like a raptor about to snatch its prey.
Crack-crack-crack!
Upon hearing that sinister sound, the man muttered something like a lament.
“Looks like I’ve made you angry.”
I raised my black-lacquered nails to their sharpest points.
[Helrod the evil god has deployed the Light-Rending Claws. Unarmed attack power increases by 10% for 10 minutes.]
Without hesitation, I lashed out at him with my nails.
Shhhhhhiiing—!
A dark afterimage tore through the air with a vicious sound.
I was stunned.
Air? I was supposed to rend him!
Not empty air!
‘How did he dodge that?!’
It wasn’t even a flashy evasion.
The man simply tilted his head—that was all it took.
A novice priest shouldn’t be able to slip past my strikes through reflexes alone.
Unless he already knew every move I was going to make.
“How about we talk instead of doing this? Hmm?”
The man attempted to negotiate in a gentle tone.
Affectionate words and now he wanted to talk? It made no sense.
I still couldn’t figure out why he’d been acting that way toward me since earlier.
Staring at me with such intensity, worrying whether I’d get a nosebleed…….
“Why what?”
I held my nails up to the light.
‘Could there be something wrong with my nails?’
Light flashed across them, revealing an edge sharper than any blade.
They looked fine.
So it really had just been luck that he’d dodged my attack.
“We can talk all you want after you’re dead.”
I shot toward him like a bullet.
“Ugh……!”
The man barely blocked the attack with the Primordial Mace, but the overwhelming difference in strength sent him skidding backward and slamming into the wall.
Crack-crack-!
Fissures spiderwebbed across the stone, and debris tumbled down.
I thought his breath would be cut off instantly and he’d revert to the Sanctuary, but somehow the man endured the blow.
Looking closer, I saw a One-Time Shield Artifact was protecting him.
I curled up one corner of my mouth and laughed.
“It would hurt less if you just died in one shot, wouldn’t it?”
I tapped his cheek with a black nail, gently.
“What should I do with you? Want me to watch while you play house with that cute Legendary toy mace of yours?”
I wanted to torment him more for being such a nuisance before finishing him off, but something told me I couldn’t afford to drag this out.
So I decided to end it right away.
It was a simple matter.
All I had to do was tear apart the pitiful player already in my grasp…….
Click-!
The incident unfolded in an instant.
The moment I felt something wrap around my neck, I lowered my head to see what it was.
A necklace dangling with silver chains.
A ring of black lace material was wrapped smoothly around my throat.
‘What is this!’
I irritably checked the item’s identity.
[Primordial Leash.
A leash the Primordial God once used to tame sinners. Can subdue the target.
― User: Akt Hebgenia (Novice Priest)
― Target: Helrod
― Reinforcement: +10 (Cannot be reinforced further.)
― Grade: Legendary]
‘Legendary again?’
Before I could even take action, the leash seeped into my skin like water.
I panicked and felt frantically, but there was only bare flesh.
I bent my neck to look at the mirror-polished floor of the Grand Hall.
I could just barely make out something like a faint pinkish tattoo in a lace pattern rising on my skin.
It was so perfectly integrated with my flesh that I felt no sense of foreign presence at all.
“What…….”
As the leash seeped in, the chains disappeared with it.
But when I tried to scratch it away like a tattoo, the chain appeared in my hand.
It seemed to work by hiding normally, then revealing thin silver chains whenever the target tried to escape.
‘What is this……!’
I irritably yanked at the translucent chain caught in the tattoo.
The sacred chain infused with the Primordial God’s power gleamed with an enigmatic light.
The man murmured with satisfaction.
“Thank goodness. That we don’t hurt each other any further.”
Whatever the man was muttering, my attention was entirely consumed by the leash.
“This can’t be. There’s no way it could withstand my power……!”
I leaped backward and tried every trick to slip the leash off, but it didn’t budge an inch.
Whether I raked my nails to claw the tattoo away or poured strength into breaking the chain, nothing worked.
As if it nullified all of the demon god’s Divine Power.

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