Inside the Tacet Field, the Crownless stared at them.
Two Rovers, descended from the sky, had torn straight through its killing barrier, ripped open the cage it had been given to savor the destruction of its prey. An impossible thing. And yet...
"Black hair. Golden eyes. Ah... yes. I remember now."
If it was these two, then it made perfect sense.
The moment it laid eyes on them, something erupted from deep within the Crownless's Whisperin Core. A resonance that neither death nor dissolution could erase. Some thread of fate so deeply woven that this newborn Tacet Discord found itself drowning in memories from a life before.
My past life's memories are attacking me!
Understanding followed. These were its mortal enemies. These were also its oldest acquaintances. It didn't know why one had become two, but he, she, they were the same as before. No question.
Time to greet an old rival.
In a blink, the Crownless closed the distance, appearing before them as if it had teleported. Its voice ground out like stone on bone.
"Have you... seen my crown?"
Steel answered for them.
The clash split the air.
A pale fist met two swords in a burst of sparks, and the shockwave threw all three combatants apart.
"We haven't seen your crown."
"But we can see your death."
Their voices were cold and sharp, stripped of every trace of the warmth they'd shown Yangyang and Chixia.
The Crownless, having exchanged its "greeting," did something unexpected. It raised a skeletal hand to its skull-like head in what looked almost like a rueful laugh, shaking it slowly from side to side. Then came a move burned into every player's memory: the zero-frame startup instant-kill punch.
A normal attack hiding a lethal finisher. A fist so fast it left nothing but a white afterimage, the same move that had made countless new players watch their health bars evaporate. Now, experiencing it firsthand, Rover understood something with perfect clarity.
They nerfed this thing so hard in the game.
The killing intent hit like a wall.
This was what real mortal danger felt like. No screen, no respawn, no UI to soften the blow. A terror only possible when a monster like this stood before you in the flesh.
But things were different now.
Inhabiting a Rover's body had pushed his physical capabilities to near-superhuman levels. His enhanced dynamic vision tracked the strike, and his body reacted on instinct. He tilted his head, letting the fist graze past, and in the same motion brought his sword around in a vicious counter.
From the opposite side, she drove her blade straight at the Crownless's heart.
The creature reacted to both. Two pale hands shot up, catching their slashes bare-handed, each one powerful enough to bisect an Elite Class Tacet Discord in a single cut. Its defensive strength was staggering.
Instead of retreating, it pressed closer, leveraging the raw physical superiority that came with being a Tacet Discord. It fought like a seasoned martial artist, trading punches and kicks at close range with both Rovers, every blow landing with bone-rattling weight.
No set pattern. Can't memorize the moveset like in the game.
Incredibly strong. We'll need everything we've got to win this.
The probing was over. The Crownless outclassed the strongest Tacet Discord they'd faced so far, the Chasm Guardian, by orders of magnitude. The fact that it could use hand-to-hand combat technique already placed it in a league far beyond any ordinary creature.
She couldn't help but marvel at the absurdity. She'd barely been awake for any real length of time, and here she was fighting a boss this brutal.
Still... she didn't feel like they'd lose.
Not from confidence in her own strength alone.
Because he was right beside her.
"No holding back. Echo, resonate with me!"
He went first, channeling the Temporal Mandate through his palm and unleashing it point-blank. The Crownless had pressed in too close, leaving itself no room to dodge. Time seized its body mid-motion, locking it in place.
"Now!"
"On it!"
The instant the Crownless froze, she threw herself into the most ferocious assault she could muster. Three seconds. Three seconds where this enemy was nothing but a living target.
Her sword became a blur of afterimages. When those three seconds expired, dozens of slash marks covered the Crownless's body.
"RRAAAAAAGH!"
The time-stop broke, and the Crownless felt a chunk of its health vanish in an instant. It howled and reared back for another swing.
But...
"Echo, resonate with me!"
Her hand blazed with temporal energy. The Crownless, still pressing forward, had no room to evade. Time froze again.
Another three seconds of absolute control.
This time it was his turn. The Originite: Type II became a storm of afterimages, and the Crownless got a firsthand lesson in what it felt like to watch your health bar disappear.
The Crownless had no words.
The creature that countless new players had respectfully dubbed "Big Bro" felt, for the first time, like it was fighting cheaters. This is broken. This is so broken.
And with that realization came another. All those years ago, a single Rover had been enough to defeat its original self. Now... it was staring down two of them.
Granted, they seemed weakened. Freshly awakened. Operating at a fraction of their full power, maybe less than a hundredth.
But two Rovers? Come on. That was dirty.
Had this been any other Tacet Discord, the alternating time-stop barrage would have left nothing but dust. Only a boss with health to spare could've tanked it, and even then, the Crownless was reeling.
"Again! Here we come!" they called in unison.
This can't go on!
Cornered, the Crownless threw everything it had into the fight.
Its fist rocketed out in another zero-frame punch, but this time with several times the force. A crescent of violet energy erupted in its wake, a shockwave stretching dozens of meters across the field.
Everything in its path disintegrated under the wave of Havoc.
Both Rovers reacted fast enough to pull back, but the edge of the blast still caught them, biting into their bodies. Then, from behind...
"Rejuvenating Flow!"
A soothing chill washed over their wounds. Baizhi, who had already administered emergency treatment to herself, stepped into her role without hesitation. The healer was on the job.
She may have been the one they'd come to save.
But she wasn't about to stand on the sidelines.
Relief flickered through both Rovers' eyes. They'd nearly found their footing against the Crownless and were beginning to seize control of the fight, but having a dedicated healer changed everything.
They could afford to be reckless now.
In a corner no one had noticed, a small glowing blue butterfly watched the battle with frantic intensity. It fought down the urge to intervene, and when Baizhi's healing washed over the Rovers, it let out a quiet breath of relief.
Still, it murmured to itself, wings trembling.
I could help with healing too, but... it's not time for us to meet. I have to hold back.
The Rovers had recovered and were readying their next assault when the Crownless's presence shifted. The tattered violet cape at its back twisted, reshaping itself into a pair of dark purple-black wings.
Its eyes burned with an eerie violet glow. One stomp against the ground, and a lance materialized in its grip, obsidian-dark and pulsing with violet light.
The sky above the Tacet Field darkened. Sun and moon vanished behind a pall of shadow, and an apocalyptic pressure crushed down over the battlefield. Baizhi's legs gave out beneath her.
Yangyang and Chixia, who had rushed from the valley but couldn't breach the barrier, felt the air leave their lungs and their will to fight drain away.
Only the two Rovers stood unaffected.
They studied the Crownless with grim focus.
Dark wings spread wide. A lance of shadow and violet flame. Pale armor that clung to its frame like a knight's plate. And that skull of a head, hollow and terrible. The Crownless looked like something born from a fallen order. A death angel stripped of grace.
Recognition sparked in Rover's mind.
"Careful. It's entered phase two."
"I know. But we're not going to lose."
She tightened her grip on the Originite: Type II, stance set and ready.
Across the field, the Crownless completed a spiraling ascent, then banked hard and dove, lance aimed squarely at him.
"So fast!"
His pupils contracted. The speed was like a fighter jet from his previous life, almost too fast to track with the naked eye. But before the lance could reach him, he released the Temporal Mandate centered on his own position.
Time stopped in a sphere several meters around him.
The lance crossed into the frozen zone and halted dead, suspended in empty air. She didn't waste a breath, launching into her attack. But this time the Crownless adapted. It abandoned its weapon, pulling free and using its wings to reposition in a blur of motion.
Those dark wings granted it incomparable speed. In the space between blinks, it circled behind her.
"Behind you! Watch out!"
Five clawed fingers pressed against a point three inches from her spine. Energy gathered at its fingertips, hideous and dense. The move triggered an instant flash of recognition. That's the one-inch punch from the beta. They cut that from the live version!
She was already preparing to release her Temporal Mandate, but he'd identified the attack first and moved faster.
His Pangu Terminal's Grappling Hook fired.
The cable caught her around the waist, and he pulled with everything he had.
She flew toward him and crashed into his arms.