Adam triple-fused his barriers and fired the projectile at the Tower Crawler floating in the middle of the glass chamber.

The projectile zipped through the air, but swerved around the giant eye at the last moment before flying down in to the ramp they'd followed up, piercing it and then continuing through the Tower's wall.

On the opposite side of the chamber, Gladwyn was shaking James, trying to get him to return to consciousness after his weapon skill had bled him dry of Mana.

Adam resummoned his barriers just as the black cosmos beyond the glass walls pulsed with a purple-pink light again.

Then the floating eye shot out six tendrils, one of which struck the small spherical chamber holding the Dimensional Splinter.

It's using it for energy!

Adam immediately ordered his barriers to attack the tendril while shaping them into sawblades and inducing a spin so that they could cut through anything, but they passed right through.

"I can't hit them!" Adam yelled to Gladwyn. "I have no idea what's coming, but stay on guard!"

James was finally coming to, but Adam knew from experience that the hangover following Mana Exhaustion was brutal. He'd triggered it so many times while training on Interim Island that he had built up a slight resistance to it, but he could tell James hadn't been quite as diligent.

The cosmos pulsed again and this time the purple-pink light flew through the tendrils and into the eye in the centre of the chamber.

Then the glass walls exploded under and around them, and they all plummeted into the black cosmos, getting pulled in the same direction as they fell. Adam spun head-over-heels while he heard James shouting behind him. He managed to get his barriers to stabilise him and wrap around his body like a protective pod.

Adam spun around to see where they were flying to after realising they were leaving the top of the tower far behind. The glass flew alongside them in large square panes, and ahead, like a guiding light, was the Dimensional Splinter. It was now inside the giant eye of the Tower Crawler.

I think we fucked up by fighting the boss inside the hidden chamber… Adam realised.

Suddenly the eye came to a halt and the glass all came together to form a large platform that Adam was pulled towards, his barrier pod slowing his fall while his two friends fell down next to him, landing with grunts of pain, though he was fairly sure they hadn't taken any actual damage.

The eye floated above the platform, staring down at them menacingly.

Then it lowered down and hovered three metres above them before purple-pink light rushed through it and started forming a body below it, the eye serving as the head.

< < Secret Optional Stage Objective > >

< Defeat the Avatar of Alepheria >

Oh shit, we triggered the Secret Boss!

Adam removed the barriers from himself and positioned them in front of him and his friends. James was on his knees, but had the fragment from the crystal he'd damaged in the hidden library chamber, and as Adam watched he consumed it using his Cowl, regaining Mana and powering up his Spellblade.

"It's a Secret Boss," Adam told Gladwyn.

"Emelia didn't mention anything about this," he muttered.

"We must have triggered it somehow. There's no way she didn't know about the glass chamber," Adam replied.

"Alright! We've gotta focus here," Gladwyn said.

James got to his feet with their help.

"I see a lot of Mana within the boss," he said and Adam turned to look at it.

The eye had manifested most of its body and it looked humanoid, although it had two arms on either side of its narrow torso, as well as two tails like the one Gladwyn had, and a pair of wings. It looked like it was using several of the Grafted Relics from the Stage.

As they watched, energy floated through its body, coalescing within the two left arms and turning into a greatsword in its hands. The handle was long enough for four hands to hold and the blade was wide and two metres long, although thin like a wafer and lacking a crossguard. It glowed pale white, and a purple-pink fist-sized tadpole swam through it like it was water, bouncing back and forth within the blade.

"They really like to use the word 'optional' when we don't have a way to leave," Gladwyn commented, moving out in front of them and readying his shield.

The Avatar finished forming and put its four hands on the handle of the greatsword, before immediately leaping forward with a rising slash.

A strange thrumming sound came from Gladwyn's shield as he absorbed the strike.

"That's right, focus on me!" he taunted.

The Avatar paused, inclining its eyeball head at him curiously.

"You are nothing before me."

James surged around Gladwyn and sliced his yellow-orange-glowing blade through the Avatar's right leg, severing it. Its body was made of the strange purple energy, but it was clearly susceptible to physical and magical attacks.

Before the boss could turn on the Spellblade, Gladwyn launched forward, slamming his shield into it and knocking it back.

The Avatar stumbled a step, but then its leg instantly regrew.

Adam shot all three of his barriers at it, having quickly shaped them into cones.

Instead of trying to cut them out of the air, the boss seemed to allow them to pierce its head and torso.

He didn't take the opportunity for granted though and immediately unfurled his barriers, exploding its body. He commanded them to reshape into cones and fly through the body again, but even as the boss staggered it managed to slice through two of them, immediately destroying the barriers.

James went in for another attack, cutting through both of its legs, as well as its two tails, and knocking it to the ground. Before they could take advantage and pile on the damage, the Avatar flapped its wings, lifting into the air and immediately recovering all the damage.

Adam shot his remaining barrier at its head where it once more pierced and unfurled to destroy the eye, but like before, it recovered a moment later and destroyed the barrier by grabbing and absorbing it somehow.

"It's not working!" Adam exclaimed.

Stolen novel; please report.

"I can see that!" Gladwyn fired back, moving in with another shield bash, followed up by his sword.

Just like their magical weapons, his sword did a lot of damage to the Avatar, but it immediately healed back to full a moment after. Then it went on the offensive.

The air thrummed as its glowing blade struck Gladwyn's shield again and again, but it seemed to at least be focusing on him, which helped James and Adam attack it from the sides.

Adam resummoned his barriers and fused two together. Since the wandering eye was locked onto the Dimensional Splinter inside the head of the Avatar, he could concentrate enough to carefully fuse his barriers.

While he prepared his next attack, James performed a grasping gesture with his hand and absorbed some of the purple-pink energy into himself and his Spellblade. It turned his sword ethereal like the boss and made it immediately switch its focus to him.

"Oh shit," he muttered, before going on the defensive, blocking and deflecting a series of strikes with his sword, but he was pushed back with every attack, the edge of the glass platform under them rapidly approaching.

Adam finished his triple-fusion and shaped his barrier into a sword like what the Avatar carried, and then commanded it to attack the boss. Since he didn't fire the barrier off like a bullet, it didn't shoot away from him at the command, but it did move insanely fast. Fortunately, the handle portion of the blade was relatively slow as it swung, keeping the barrier within Adam's range of control while the blade zipped through the air.

James expelled the stolen energy from his sword in a slashing attack and the Avatar immediately lost interest in him, flapping its wings and leaping for Gladwyn with an overhead strike.

He caught it on his shield, while Adam's sword carved through the boss repeatedly, causing it to collapse, only to rebuild itself around the sword, over and over.

Even though the boss was focused on Gladwyn, it kept a watch on Adam's sword, continually manoeuvring its blade out of the way of it.

That's weird… Adam thought.

But before he could put two-and-two together, the Avatar stabbed its greatsword into Gladwyn's shield, knocking him back several metres. Then it turned and took to the air, flying to the exact centre of the glass platform and hovering five metres off the ground.

"Witness my power."

The Avatar swooped up into the air, lifting its sword directly above its head with all four arms holding the handle, before spinning around and flying down tip-first, striking the platform.

Oh shit!

A ring of white energy shot out from the centre of impact and expanded out to hit all three of them.

The Stone Mask on Adam's face exploded into dust.

[You have been afflicted with Wither. The damage of the next attack dealt to you is increased by 50%.]

Adam felt the skin on his body become flaky and dry, tightening around his mouth and eyes.

Gladwyn and James both let out gasps of pain, and the Shield Wall quickly downed a healing potion before running over to the Spellblade and giving him the last one he had in his Potion Belt. The Sanctuary Defender's Robes he'd worn were gone, since it only took two hits to destroy the Relic and this was the second time he'd taken damage since equipping it.

Adam himself had only one healing potion remaining, but it wouldn't matter, since the next hit might be fatal. As Emelia had said, the attack would just have to deal 65 damage to kill him.

"How much damage did that do!?" Adam yelled to his friends while sending his sword-shaped barrier back in to occupy the boss. The sword had a large crack in it, but the ring attack hadn't dealt enough damage to it to trigger Fervour.

With a gentle motion, the Avatar cleaved through Adam's barrier with its white blade, destroying it immediately.

It lifted its greatsword into the air.

"No more of this. It is time for me to return to my tower."

The glass platform rumbled under their feet and suddenly some of the large panes just fell away into the black cosmos.

"Move!" Gladwyn shouted, and he and James basically threw themselves off the square they'd been standing on, just as it fell away.

Then the entire platform started to fall away piece by piece.

Shit, we're running out of time!

Adam focused on the epiphany he'd been so close to grasping.

He summoned three new barriers, feeling Mana Exhaustion creeping up on him. He had lost count of how many times he'd summoned since his last break, but he could tell that he only had enough Mana in the tank for one more after this.

The way it was moving its sword was strange…

There's gotta be a reason for it.

The sword was clearly the way the Avatar manifested its unique power. The eye and the rest of the body kept regenerating every time they damaged them, but it was possible that they just needed to do it enough times to really kill it.

The glass under Adam's feet started shaking and he hurried to the one next to it as it fell away.

No, there's something weird about the sword.

Gladwyn was defending against the Avatar and James continued his hit-and-run strategy, though he clearly didn't dare absorb its energy again, since that pissed it off.

Wait a minute.

Adam fired a lance-shaped barrier at the Avatar, aiming for its sword, while keeping the other two in reserve.

The boss pulled its blade out of the way, allowing itself to be pierced by the projectile rather than let it hit its weapon.

I got it!

"Guys! Target the sword!" Adam yelled.

Then he did something foolish to give them the chance to do what he couldn't.

He fused his barrier with its energy.

The lance embedded in its large eyeball head turned into purple-pink energy and Adam recalled it, sending forth the other two barriers, aiming them for the white-glowing sword as well.

Predictably, the Avatar lost interest in Gladwyn and immediately focused its attention on Adam.

But before it could leap at him, Gladwyn's tail wrapped around its leg, stopping it. James loped forward, slicing a fiery blade through its slender four-armed body, cutting through the arms and making it lose the grip on its weapon.

"I will turn you into simpering slaves!" the Avatar roared in indignation.

"It's Alepheria's soul that's in the sword!" Adam yelled, directing his barriers down into the greatsword, while hopping from his glass platform to the next as it started shaking.

The Avatar's body quickly regenerated the damage, but Gladwyn shoved his shield into it and used his Spring Boots to launch them both away from the sword.

"No!" the boss screamed.

Shit! Gladwyn won't survive that!

Adam diverted one of his barriers away from its repeated stabs into the greatsword, sending it off towards the Shield Wall flying for the edge of the glass platform, while shaping it into a simple hand that could grab him. At the same time, James absolutely smashed the shit out of the Avatar's blade with his own magical sword.

Each hit was like a hammer on an anvil, producing white sparks and echoing loudly across the black cosmos.

Adam's barrier hand grabbed Gladwyn just as he fell down below the platform, quickly lifting him back up. The Avatar also recovered and used its wings to fly towards James and its sword.

The energy-fused purple barrier didn't seem to do any damage to the sword, so Adam commanded it to intercept the furious Avatar. It flew off and smashed into the boss' right wing, sending it off-course and down through one of the holes in the platform. The Avatar healed the damage quickly and flapped its wings to get back up, only for its other wing to be clipped by Adam's sentient spell on its second pass.

The barrier carrying Gladwyn deposited him right next to James, and he didn't waste a second joining in on beating the shit out of the white greatsword.

"I will kill you!" the Avatar screamed, its voice distorting and warping.

Then James' sword struck that strange purple-pink tadpole that swam around the surface of the blade, and the sound was like all the windows in the world exploding all at once around them.

< < Secret Objective Complete > >

< Defeated the Avatar of Alepheria >

The Tower's illusions have all been dispelled.

Adam blinked and was suddenly on the floor of a small spherical chamber with the ramp to the corkscrewing stairwell leading down nearby. He sat up and saw that James and Gladwyn lay on either side of him.

"We should've definitely just gone for the painting," Gladwyn deadpanned. "I lost my Armour Relic for that…"

"Look," James said, drawing their attention to something that lay on the floor near them.

"It wasn't all for nothing," Adam said with a grin. "We found you a new sword."

< < Secret Weapon Obtained > >

< The Avatar's Shattered Blade (Epic) — Soul blade formed from the dying essence of a mad witch >

< Unique Skill ( Soul Resonance ) | Summon an expanding ring of soul energy that bypasses all defences >

"It's not even my birthday yet," Gladwyn joked and lifted the sword off the floor.

It was half the length of the Avatar's greatsword, with the other half of the blade snapped off unevenly, producing a strange jagged edge at the tip rather than a single point. The handle was still long enough for four large hands to hold, which gave the weapon a strange look. The tadpole or whatever it had been wasn't anywhere to be seen, but Adam was beginning to realise it was somehow the thing responsible for keeping the Avatar alive. Although it was quite obvious in hindsight, he hadn't expected the weapon to be the boss' weak-point.

Adam looked around, the Dimensional Splinter wasn't anywhere to be seen and even his wandering eye had lost track of it, seeming to once again be panning around aimlessly, occasionally staring at James. It apparently didn't care about the soul blade, which was curious. There also weren't any chests in sight, which was a bit disappointing, but if the Avatar had truly been a Secret Boss, then they were likely to get a lot of bonus Points and perhaps some kind of extra reward at the end of the Stage.

"How much time is remaining?" Adam asked his cube.

[13 hours 49 minutes.]

Gladwyn had a shit-eating grin on his face and was holding the new sword in his hands.

"Shall we?" he asked, indicating the ramp down.

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