This pure, unreasonable, large-scale attack finally forced Aiden to halt his high-speed assault. He retreated violently, widening the distance significantly.
An opening!
While forcing Aiden back, Udaeus began to frantically accumulate magic, launching the last remaining mountains of swords as if intending to surround Aiden completely.
The ground rumbled. Multiple layers of bone pillars over ten meters tall erupted from the earth without any gaps, forming a small, semi-circular wall with an opening only at the front.
This cage was a dead end that cut off all of Aiden's escape routes.
Udaeus demonstrated astonishing combat intelligence.
It forcibly placed Aiden at a distance where he couldn't close in, successfully baiting and trapping him within its absolute attack range.
After completely exhausting all its Bone Stake capabilities, Udaeus violently pulled its left arm, holding the black greatsword, behind its back.
It was a thrusting stance that concentrated all its strength and magic into a single point, purely for destruction and speed.
For Aiden, trapped in this semi-circular dead end, there was only one path forward to escape. But before he could flee, the black greatsword's thrust would arrive a step sooner, piercing him thoroughly.
Shoulder, elbow, and wrist.
The three core joints shining with dark purple light in Udaeus's left arm had reached their absolute peak brilliance.
Aiden looked up at the Floor Boss, who was certain of victory, but the corners of his mouth curved up slightly.
His knees sank sharply, accumulating power to the limit. Immediately after, amid a crisp sonic boom, he launched himself into a backflip at an angle that defied physics.
He locked eyes with the ghost fire, which was severely shaken by shock.
"—Everlasting Flames, maximum output."
The flames around him shed all impurities in an instant, transforming into a pure white that seemed capable of swallowing all light.
Answering Udaeus's devastating roar and the air-tearing pitch-black greatsword released with its magical burst, Aiden transformed into a beam of pure white light.
The white light and the pitch-black blade clashed head-on.
A face-to-face collision of certain-kill against certain-kill.
Udaeus's three core joints erupted like three supernovas exploding simultaneously, releasing an unprecedented dark purple radiance, while Aiden turned into a pure white storm that swept away everything.
At the point of impact, the dark purple glow and the pure white shockwave violently clashed and consumed each other. For a moment, neither side could gain the upper hand.
"Flames, submit to me."
Wrapped in pure white light, Aiden let out a low whisper that sounded like a divine oracle.
As if responding to his will, the pure white flames became denser, and their power surged once more.
The stalemate was broken. The slowly retreating black greatsword caused Udaeus's ghost fire to flicker. It roared, pouring all its remaining magic into the sword without reservation.
The core joints' radiance intensified again, and the two sides returned to a deadlock.
Completely engulfed by the pure white flames, Aiden's figure could no longer be seen; there was only a column of white light raging wildly.
That extreme, scorching heat distorted space and engulfed everything, as if it wanted to burn all creation to ashes and return it to original nothingness.
Then, Aiden poured in even more power.
The pure white instantly swallowed the purple-black.
Crack—
The tip of the black greatsword was thoroughly melted and destroyed by the pure white flames. The pure white light advanced unstoppably, piercing through the pitch-black blade, and then skewering Udaeus's massive left arm and shoulder blade.
With a muffled explosion, Udaeus's entire left arm crashed to the ground.
Listening to the monster's mournful cries filled with pain and reluctance behind him, Aiden stabilized himself in mid-air, turning around to deliver a white slash.
However, the battle did not end there.
What followed was an hour-long deathmatch.
In the eyes of Riveria and the others in the distance, they witnessed a shocking battle to the death worthy of remembering for a lifetime.
The Labyrinth King's regenerative abilities were simply too terrifying. That severed arm actually regrew time and time again under the surge of magic.
Even though Aiden repeatedly destroyed its body and severed its bones countless times, as long as he didn't thoroughly shatter that massive core Magic Stone, he couldn't truly kill this monster.
And since Aiden's goal here was to acquire that high-purity Magic Stone, how could he possibly destroy it on purpose during the fight?
This turned the battle into a long, grueling war of attrition.
The white flames and pitch-black bones collided, shattered, and regenerated over and over again.
The entire Floor Boss room on the 37th floor was completely leveled in this terrifying deathmatch.
Finally, after a full hour, the moment Udaeus's regeneration speed noticeably slowed down, Aiden seized the opportunity.
A slash of ultimate brilliance cut across the sky.
This strike dealt the true fatal blow to this immortal monster.
A broken jaw, several shattered ribs, and the massive horn on its head forcefully snapped off.
Udaeus, its entire body covered in cracks, let out a hoarse, wheezing scream from its jaws that could no longer close.
That sound became its final echo as its colossal body slowly crashed to the ground.
The massive pitch-black frame fell backward from its severed lumbar vertebrae, kicking up a sky full of dust.
Through the dust, Aiden, holding Godslayer: Surtr which still shone brightly, walked step by step toward the Skeleton King.
The pelvis connecting it to the ground was completely severed, meaning Udaeus could no longer launch those endless Bone Stakes.
The battle seemed to have reached its conclusion.
Perhaps as an offering to the scattered skeleton warriors on the ground, several pitch-black, tombstone-like bone spikes surged from the earth, as if holding a silent funeral for their king.
Aiden wove through the gaps of these black tombstones, leaped up, and landed steadily on the monster's massive chest.
Having lost its arms and all offensive methods, Udaeus was now like a collapsing mountain of bones.
As the vermilion ghost fire flickered weakly deep within its dim eye sockets, Udaeus watched helplessly as the white-haired boy stood upon its chest.
"Phew... what a pain."
Aiden exhaled softly, shaking his slightly numb arm.
If he had aimed for that massive Magic Stone core from the very beginning, he probably would have ended the battle long ago.
But to leave this high-purity Magic Stone intact, he had to endure a bitter, hour-long struggle with this terrifyingly resilient Floor Boss.
Godslayer: Surtr, burning with pure white flames, was raised high, and then brought down cleanly.
The moment the blade sank into its skull, the ghost fire in Udaeus's eyes thoroughly dissipated.
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