Chapter 275: The Minotaur is Dead, Our Time Is Up

The group kept looking back and forth between Leon and the corpse repeatedly, as if their brains were struggling to process what they were seeing.

"It’s only been... what... thirty seconds?" Violet muttered quietly, genuine shock appearing on even her usually calm face. "How?"

"I cut his neck," Leon replied simply, his grin widening slightly. "Then he died."

"...Right," Violet sighed after a few moments. "Good job, I guess. One more threat down."

"We still need another base though," Oasis groaned tiredly. "This one’s completely destroyed..."

"ARE YOU PEOPLE SERIOUS?!" Godrick roared suddenly, looking completely outraged as he pointed toward the corpse. "We’re just moving past the fact that this human killed the minotaur in seconds?! There’s definitely something wrong with him!"

"He’s getting results," Violet replied calmly. "So honestly, I don’t care how he does it."

"...I actually agree with Godrick this time," Alicar admitted while wiping blood from his cheek, his expression unusually serious as he looked directly at Leon. "Leon is... strange."

The elf narrowed his eyes slightly.

"He never seems afraid of anything, and he keeps accomplishing things that should realistically be impossible. Defeating the [Forsaken General], finishing off the [Spider Mother], and now killing the [Forsaken Minotaur] before we even escaped the building..."

Alicar shook his head slowly.

"It doesn’t feel real."

Once again, everyone’s gaze landed on Leon.

And once again... Leon gave them the same answer as before.

"I’m getting out of here."

Godrick groaned loudly and grabbed his own face in frustration.

"At this rate, this lunatic is gonna challenge the [Forsaken King] tomorrow!"

But Leon immediately raised an eyebrow.

"Tomorrow?" he repeated. "Why would I wait until tomorrow?"

The others blinked. Leon shrugged casually.

"I’m planning to kill him today. This assessment has already lasted way too long."

"SEE?!" Godrick pointed at him furiously. "THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! HE HASN’T EVEN BEEN HERE FOR A FULL DAY!"

Even the others looked speechless now.

And honestly, they had every reason to be. Because they could all feel it.

Leon had grown tremendously stronger between yesterday and today.

"So..." Violet smiled faintly after staring at him for a few moments. "You really plan to kill the [Forsaken King] today?"

"Yeah," Leon nodded simply. "I want to finish this quickly."

"And exactly how do you plan to do that?"

Leon thought about it for a second. Then he shrugged again.

"I don’t know," he replied casually. "Maybe I’ll just drop a meteor on him or something."

The others stared at Leon as if he had completely lost his mind once again.

What the hell did he even mean by "dropping a meteor" on the [Forsaken King]?

None of them could tell whether he was joking or serious anymore, and honestly, that was the most terrifying part.

Because with everything Leon had done since arriving in the city, they genuinely couldn’t dismiss the possibility that he might somehow actually be capable of doing something insane like that.

Godrick looked like he wanted to say something, but after watching Leon casually kill the [Forsaken Minotaur] in less than thirty seconds, even the demon seemed unsure of what to argue anymore.

"Well..." Oasis sighed as she looked around at the destroyed remains of their base, trying to focus on the more immediate problem instead of Leon’s increasingly absurd statements, "We still need a new base now."

She rubbed her forehead tiredly.

"Most of the decent buildings in the city were already taken or destroyed a long time ago, so we’ll probably have to settle for something smaller, and then I’ll need to spend time rearranging everything again..."

"We could move closer to the [Forsaken Castle]," Violet suggested while glancing toward the corpse of the minotaur lying across the street. "Now that this thing is dead, that entire area should be significantly safer than before, and it’ll also give us access to more opportunities to grow stronger."

The others slowly nodded after hearing that. It made sense.

The closer they moved toward the castle, the more dangerous the enemies would become, but at the same time, those enemies were now the only remaining source of growth left in the city.

Almost everything else had already been wiped out.

The [Forsaken Legion] was gone. The spiders were extinct. The [Forsaken Minotaur] had just died.

At this point, the group could feel it clearly. Their journey through the [Forsaken City] was slowly reaching its end.

Whether that ending would be victory or death... None of them knew yet.

Oasis quickly summoned her [Holographic Map], the blue projection appearing once more in front of the group as they gathered around it to decide where to head next.

"I’ll scout ahead from above," Violet spoke while pointing toward the area surrounding the [Forsaken Castle]. "Once I find a suitable building, we’ll move there together and clear out any monsters nearby."

Everyone agreed immediately. But right as the group was about to start moving, Leon suddenly spoke again.

"If I kill the [Forsaken King]... does everyone clear the assessment?"

The others instantly stopped walking. One after another, they slowly turned around to look at him.

Leon’s expression was completely calm. There wasn’t even the slightest trace of humor on his face.

He was serious.

"Probably," Violet answered after a few seconds of silence. "The system never specifically explained it, but I assume anyone still alive in the city at that moment would complete the assessment and receive rewards based on their contribution."

"...Good."

A wide grin spread across Leon’s face the moment he heard that answer, his thoughts already beginning to align together into a plan.

"Then let’s go find that new base."

But before anyone could even take another step—

Ding!

A dark system panel suddenly appeared before all of them.

Unlike the normal blue panels they were used to seeing, this one was completely black, with writhing tendrils of darkness curling around its edges as if the panel itself was alive.

[The darkness has decided to consume this city after all these years, pray for your souls, for they will now be eternally forsaken.]

"...Huh?"

"What?"

"This is new..."

RUMBLE!

The entire [Forsaken City] suddenly began to shake violently.

Buildings trembled. The streets cracked. Dust fell from rooftops as the ground itself rumbled beneath their feet.

Without wasting even a second, Violet immediately released her wings in full, their purple aura erupting outward as she launched herself high into the sky to inspect what was happening.

The others waited below anxiously.

And only a few moments later, Violet returned.

The usually calm dragon girl landed heavily on the ground, and for the first time since Leon met her...

He saw genuine panic in her eyes.

"...Our time is up," she muttered quietly.

Everyone froze.

"There’s a massive wall of black fog closing in from every edge of the city," Violet explained quickly, her expression tense. "It’s moving toward the center, and based on the feeling I got from it... we absolutely cannot touch that thing."

Hearing that immediately made the atmosphere heavier.

"Are you sure the fog is dangerous?" Godrick frowned. "Maybe it’s just some kind of pressure or restriction—"

"I felt death just from looking at it," Violet cut him off sharply. "Not danger. Death. If we get near that thing, we die."