Dust settled slowly across the destroyed temple floor.
Kaizen stood there panting like he had just run a marathon, watching the massive crater he had created in the wall. His arms were shaking from the recoil of that hit.
'Did I get him? Is it finally over? Do I get the experience points and loot now?'
CRUMBLE.
A stone fell from the crater. Then another one. Then a whole chunk of wall.
A hand, gauntleted in black corrupted steel, gripped the edge of the crater from inside.
Sir Cassiel pulled himself out of the hole in the wall.
He looked absolutely terrible. His helmet was completely gone, revealing a face that was half-handsome fallen paladin and half-bruised bloody mess. Blood was dripping from his nose and mouth. But his eyes, his eyes were different now. They were not leaking that black tar anymore.
They were glowing with a furious, unstable golden light that flickered like a dying candle trying desperately to stay lit.
[BOSS PHASE 2: ACTIVE]
[Attribute: Heavenflare Trigger]
[Warning: Boss has entered Berserk State. Attack patterns will become erratic.]
The cursed katana in his trembling hand suddenly ignited. It was not fire. It was pure, searing holy light that crackled and sparked like captured lightning.
"You..."
Cassiel spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor, his chest heaving.
"You possess significant impact for such a weak creature."
Kaizen looked down at the Rusty Pan still clutched in his hands. It was warm to the touch, almost hot, like it was a living thing.
"You are not so bad yourself, old man," he whispered to the piece of cookware like it was his best friend. "Who knew rust was the ultimate armor? I should write a review. Five stars. Would block legendary swords again."
Cassiel stepped forward. The ancient stone floor actually melted under his boots, turning into molten liquid from the sheer heat radiating off his body.
"But impact alone is not enough!" Cassiel roared, his voice echoing off the walls. "You cannot bludgeon away my sins with a kitchen tool!"
He charged forward like a rampaging bull.
This time he did not vanish using speed. He did not try to be tactical or clever. He just used raw, overwhelming power that made the air shake.
WHOOSH.
He swung the blazing katana in a wide arc. A massive wave of concentrated golden light slashed through the air toward Kaizen.
Kaizen threw himself to the side in a desperate roll.
BOOM.
The marble pillar behind where he had just been standing completely disintegrated into dust and rubble.
'Okay, new rule. Do not try to block the energy beam attacks. Definitely got it. Blocking physical hits good. Blocking magical lasers bad.'
Kaizen scrambled to his feet, already moving. He was not fighting anymore. He was dancing now. Weaving between strikes. Ducking under slashes. This was survival mode.
Cassiel had become a walking storm of violence. Slash. Thrust. Cleave. Overhead chop. Horizontal sweep.
The golden light trailing from his blade was carving glowing lines through the air.
Kaizen parried what he could with the pan.
Clang.
Multiplier: 2x
Clang.
Multiplier: 4x
But it was getting harder with every exchange. The pan handle was getting slippery with his own sweat mixed with blood from where his palms had split open. Cassiel's strikes were becoming wild and erratic, coming from random angles.
'I cannot catch them all.'
Kaizen gritted his teeth while barely deflecting a strike that had been aimed straight for his ear.
'His attack angles are changing too fast. He is not fighting with technique anymore. He is just swinging.'
He watched the glowing blade come at him again, the light reflecting in his eyes as his mind raced faster than his body ever could.
'If I could just nudge it slightly.'
He thought desperately, his heart hammering so hard it felt like it might crack his ribs from the inside.
The idea struck him like lightning, so sudden and so obvious that it almost made him angry he had not thought of it sooner.
'I don't need a fireball. I don't need lightning bolts. I don't need anything flashy or impressive.'
Kaizen realized, his thoughts finally snapping into a sharp, focused line.
'I just need the tiniest push.'
'Telekinesis.'
All he needed was a finger's worth of force, barely anything at all, just enough to shove the blade two inches to the left so that it would slam into the center of his pan instead of cleaving straight through his face.
Nothing else would work in this situation, because Pyromancy, Cryomancy, and every other flashy elemental spell were completely useless against someone this far above him. No matter how skilled an F-ranker was, throwing a fireball at a D-ranker was basically asking to be humiliated, because the spell could be brushed aside with a casual swing of the opponent's hand.
That was how the ranking system worked.
And to make things worse, all of the basic elements were naturally weak against holy light magic anyway, which meant Cassiel was practically built to ignore everything Kaizen could throw at him.
He needed something different.
He needed Kinetic Arts.
He needed magic that did not care about elements or affinity or flashy visuals, magic that dealt purely with momentum, force, and vectors, magic that let him interfere directly with the movement of things.
Axiomancy.
The thought burned itself into his brain.
'If I survive this nightmare,' Kaizen swore to himself, teeth clenched as the blade descended, 'I am absolutely learning how to move things with my mind.'
'That is priority number one. I don't care how much I have to beg, I will find that drunk professor and crawl if I have to.'
But there was a reason Axiomancy was not sought after like other branches of magic, and there was a reason that professor had no students under him despite being an S ranker himself.
Still, if Kaizen really wanted to keep this ridiculous cheat of a weapon alive, if he wanted to survive in a world where raw stats decided your fate, then learning Axiomancy was not optional anymore.
It was necessary.
CLANG.
He barely caught another overhead strike. The vibration traveled through the pan and rattled his entire skeleton.
Multiplier: 8x
"Just give up already!"
Cassiel screamed while stumbling slightly. The massive 28x multiplier hit from earlier was clearly taking its toll on him. He was wobbly on his feet. His breathing was coming out ragged and desperate.
"Let me wallow in my darkness in peace!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"No!" Kaizen shouted back while his lungs burned.
He spun around at the last second, placing the pan flat against his back just as Cassiel swung a horizontal chop aimed at his spine.
BONG.
The sound rang out like a giant bell.
Multiplier: 12x
Kaizen used the impact like a springboard to propel himself forward instead of getting knocked down.
"You are acting like a spoiled brat, Cassiel! Oh boo hoo, I killed the kids, I am so irredeemable, nobody can ever forgive me!"
Kaizen ducked under a wild haymaker punch that would have taken his head clean off.
"They were already dead anyway! The demons had completely possessed them! You saved their souls from eternal torture!"
"I ENDED THEIR LIVES WITH MY OWN HANDS!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"YOU FREED THEM FROM A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH!"
Kaizen jumped up and slammed the edge of the pan into Cassiel's shoulder with everything he had.
CLANG.
Multiplier: 15x
Cassiel dropped heavily to one knee with a pained groan. The golden light flared up around him, burning Kaizen's exposed skin and making it blister, but he refused to back away.
"You want someone to blame for what happened?"
Kaizen panted while circling the staggering boss like a predator.
"Fine! Blame the demons who invaded! Blame the gods who did not answer your prayers! Blame the game developers who coded this tragedy into existence!"
"I... I cannot forgive myself..."
Cassiel wept openly, his cursed katana slowly lowering to the ground.
"I am nothing but a monster wearing the skin of a holy knight..."
He looked so incredibly small right now. The giant suit of armor looked way too big for him. He was not a terrifying boss anymore. He was just a broken old man crying in the ruins of his past.
Kaizen stopped his aggressive circling.
He walked slowly up to the kneeling Paladin, his footsteps echoing.
He looked down at the D-Rank Boss who had been terrorizing this place for five thousand years. He looked at the tears still streaming down his face.
"You cannot forgive yourself?" Kaizen asked softly.
He raised the Rusty Pan high above his head. It was glowing white-hot with all the stored kinetic energy, humming with barely contained power.
"That is perfectly fine."
Kaizen gripped the handle with both hands so tight his knuckles turned white.
"Then I will just have to do it for you."
Cassiel looked up with wide, surprised eyes full of confusion and something that might have been hope.
"I forgive you, you complete idiot."
WHAM.
Kaizen swung down with absolutely everything he had left in his body.
The pan connected perfectly with the top of Cassiel's head.
[CRITICAL HIT]
[Multiplier: 15x]
[Accumulated Kinetic Energy Released]
[Total Damage: 450%]
The Paladin's eyes rolled back in his head. The unstable golden light shattered into a million tiny sparkles that floated away like fireflies. He did not go flying across the room in a dramatic arc this time.
He just slumped forward slowly.
Face first. Straight into the cold stone floor.
Thud.
Complete silence returned to the ruined temple.
Kaizen stood over the unconscious boss, his chest heaving like a bellows, still holding the smoking pan that was now radiating heat.
"Therapy session officially over," Kaizen wheezed while trying to catch his breath. "That will be five thousand crowns plus tip."
He looked at the pan.
"And you, my rusty friend, are getting a promotion to main weapon."