Reborn As The Minor Villain In A Romance Fantasy Novel - Chapter 232

Chapter 232: Boss Room
Luna gritted her teeth as she tried to feel the momentum of every clone… the air around her was chaotic, full of flickering signatures of movement.

Every single one of these damn clones behaved identically… they had the same speed, same rhythm, same force which made them a perfect mimicry.

It made her thoughts tighten into knots.

‘They’re wood clones… they have to be. Lucius has been spamming them like crazy lately.’ She thought as she analyzed the battlefield. ‘But where are the real ones?’

Suddenly… all at once, every clone froze.

The abrupt stop sent Luna’s squad shooting forward, the momentum carrying them past the halted clones.

Vanessa twisted mid-air, her blood-coated hand already raised and a wooden javelin screamed toward her face.

She slapped it away with a burst of blood force but the moment it hit the mountainside, it detonated like a planted charge.

BOOM!

The explosion rippled across the cliffs, shaking the squad violently. Vanessa clicked her tongue and steadied herself, her hair whipping around her face.

Rita steadied herself beside her, floating in place as she turned toward the oncoming wave of clones.

Her expression hardened, and holy mana flared around her body.

“None of them are real.” She announced loud enough for the squad to hear.

She lifted her palm, her holy magic gathering into a concentrated spear of radiant power. “They’re all wood and the Lucius clones in them aren’t giving off warmth…”

The holy spear roared through the air with a divine whistle before slamming into the swarm.

The resulting explosion was massive… a burst of pure holy power ripping through the fake bodies. Wood splinters dissolved under the light as holy force obliterated the clones.

[@Justice4Saintess: GO SAINTESS LET’S GOOO!!!]

[@HolyHot: She carrying fr]

[@ClericEnjoyer: Bro that spear was CRAZY]

[@VanillaVengeance: Light’em UP!!]

[@SaintessSimp777: marry me]

Yet… one survived.

Barely.

A Becka clone limped out of the burning holy mist, half her wooden body was charred and one arm missing entirely.

But she grinned like the unhinged menace she was trying to imitate.

“Look up…” she croaked.

They looked.

A gigantic ball of fire… easily the size of a building descended from the sky above like a miniature sun breaking through the clouds.

“Sick fuckers.” Vanessa muttered darkly, her blood surging around her arm as she readied a shot. She manifested a bow of blood and drew an arrow, the crimson energy vibrated with lethal force.

She was just about to fire… but Becka’s severed wooden arm suddenly shot toward her face like a homing missile.

The impact made Vanessa’s head jerk to the side, staggering her.

Her arrow fired early and went downward.

Straight into the mountain instead of the incoming meteor flame.

“Nuh-uh…” the Becka clone hissed with a psychotic little grin. “We’re all going down together.”

Then the sky exploded.

A roaring inferno overtook them, swallowing everything in a firestorm.

Luna felt the shockwave tear across her body, the momentum shredding her sense of direction and then everything went white.

…

Meanwhile, Lucius and the Supreme Squad were already on the mountaintop where the true staircase rested.

Ayela was still feeding him… this time grilled skewers while the others laughed as the explosion echoed behind them like fireworks.

“They really fell for it.” Becka giggled with a little bit of gremlin energy.

Lucius didn’t even look up from his food. “As expected. Those clones kept them busy long enough for us to sneak to the mountain’s backside. Honestly? Too easy.”

That was exactly what happened… Lucius deployed dozens of wood clones as a distraction while he and the Supreme Guild took a hidden route circling the mountain.

It was completely legal and unfair as well.

As for the giant flame orb?

Just Becka’s fire fused with a chunk of Dimensium.

A terrifying combination that would’ve vaporized normal Awakened instantly, but Lucius knew Vanessa and Rita were durable enough to survive. He also used space to help them out a bit, it was all for theatrics after all.

One member of the Supreme Guild flew up carrying a mountain-sized pile of monster cores.

“Boss, I’ve gathered everything!” he announced proudly. He then attempted the signature noble laugh, placing his hand near his mouth.

Lucius stared at him blankly.

“Only do that when we’re on camera,” he said flatly. “It sounds very weird.”

The man blanched. “Y-yes sir!!”

Ayela thought, ‘Maybe he’s finally feeling ashamed… Took long enough.’

Lucius looked toward the distant horizon.

He could sense them… Vanessa, Rita, Luna, the entire squad all flying toward them fast.

Some of the Awakened’s clothes were a bit torn from the explosion but they were alive and flying.

The drone panned dramatically toward Lucius.

[@FLHYPE: SUPREME GUILD FIRST AS ALWAYS]

[@CommonerSquad: rip losers 😭😭]

[@LuciusNation: GOD KING CLEARING FLOORS]

[@BeckaWife: MY GUILD BETTER THAN YOURS]

[@TeamLucius: gg ez no diff]

The angry women landed.

Immediately, Lucius and the Supreme Guild started their obnoxious synchronized laugh… that noble laugh they practiced for no reason except pettiness.

Vanessa clenched her fists, wanting nothing more than to punch all of them through the mountain.

Lucius stood from his throne-like seat on the platform, one leg crossed casually over the other.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist.” he said mildly. “Before we move to the next floor… we split the loot.”

He pointed to the right where fifty cores were gathered.

Ten rolled toward Vanessa’s squad.

“We’re giving according to contribution,” Lucius continued. “You killed ten. Split them however you want… that’s your problem.”

Then another Supreme Guild member hovered upward holding Supreme Man by the hair like a lifeless ragdoll.

His entire body was red from lava exposure but, annoyingly, alive.

Becka lifted the guild’s cores into a storage bag, handing it to Lucius who made it vanish instantly.

With loot sorted, Lucius approached the staircase.

“Head on up when you’re ready, Commoner—”

But before he could finish the insult… The stairs began glowing.

A sudden suction force exploded outward.

Every single Awakener…

Supreme Guild, Vanessa’s squad and even the Saintess’s group alike… was yanked upward in a blinding stream of light.

…

Lucius opened his eyes.

Everything was black.

There were no stairs. There was also no ground and no sky either.

It was just dark.

He floated alongside the others who were just beginning to regain awareness.

“Where are we?” Lucius asked as Ayela drifted beside him.

“We… we… we…” Ayela’s voice cracked.

A new energy surged outward, bathing the void in a pale blue glow.

Then…

A monstrous centipede the size of a skyscraper materialized from the darkness, its segmented body stretching endlessly into the void.

“Are in the Boss’s floor.”

Dozens of glowing eyes snapped open.

The monster shrieked.

“Aren’t A-rank dungeons supposed to be about ten floors upward?” Lucius asked as he observed the void-like arena around them.

Ayela gave a stiff nod.

“Yes… but these days some dungeons aren’t fully developed. We don’t know what caused the change, but this dungeon is clearly one of them. We haven’t even reached the tenth floor and we’re already facing the Boss.”

She swallowed as she looked at the A-rank centipede.

Even calling it a centipede felt insulting… it was a skyscraper-sized serpent with chitin armor and glowing shale-like eyes peering down at them.

“Boss,” Becka called out, floating beside the others. “Should we… have a truce with the other Guilds? So we can do this together?”

Lucius didn’t even hesitate.

“No.” He stepped forward on the floating platform he stood upon. “Just prepare your strongest spell… and the same for you, Ayela. We’re getting the last hit. Everyone else just has to survive until then.”

Becka nodded with a feral grin.

Rita, floating a distance away, clasped her hands together and raised them skyward.

“My Goddess… please lend me your strength.”

A burst of holy energy erupted around her, shining like a sun in the middle of the darkness. Light gathered and swirled around her form until even her hair glowed like white fire.

At the same time, Vanessa inhaled sharply and extended both arms.

All the blood she’d collected from earlier battles surged outward in a crimson storm, condensing into hundreds… no thousands of thick, bullet-like masses.

Their eyes met.

Rita nodded.

Vanessa nodded back.

The plan was set.

But the monster was not taking this quietly.

The centipede shrieked… a horrible, metallic screech that shook the darkness around them. Then the creature’s chitin plates shifted, peeling apart just enough to reveal hundreds of tiny pores forming along its armored skin.

Ayela’s eyes widened. “Brace—!”

Too late.

The pores glowed, and then…

SHRRRRRRK!!!

A rain of mana-infused needles erupted from its body. Thousands of them. They shot out with the speed of sniper rounds, filling the sky in every direction like a deadly storm.

If even one hit, an Awakener with a weak defense would be shredded instantly.

But someone was already moving.

Luna’s eyes blazed bright purple.

“Momentum Shift!!!”

She flung out her hands and the air around her distorted violently.

The needles, inches away from piercing allies… curved.

Every projectile bent mid-flight, redirected in a spiral pattern until their velocity stacked and multiplied. Their direction flipped.

Then…

CRRRKKKKK!!!

The entire storm of mana needles reversed course and fired straight back into the centipede’s own body. The sheer force bent some of the chitin plating inward as the creature convulsed from the impact, letting out a rattling, furious squeal.

Rita seized the opportunity.

She raised both palms, and above her head, a radiant structure made of pure holy light unfolded like a celestial gate.

“Jacob’s Ladder!”

The golden rungs materialized one by one, humming with divine frequency as the ladder extended upward.

A holy suction force pulled the monster’s energy upward, destabilizing its mana core.

Vanessa was already mid-chant.

“Blood Bomb!”

Her cloud of blood bullets ignited with dense mana, glowing violently as the projectiles shot forward like a crimson meteor shower.

Luna saw them and her instincts kicked in again.

“Momentum… SHIFT!!”

The bullets accelerated, each one leaving a sonic ripple behind it as their speed magnified tenfold. Shockwaves burst around Luna, feeding her energy again.

The barrage hit the centipede’s body like artillery fire…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Chunks of its armor were ripped away. Holy suction tore its spiritual balance apart. The creature shrieked again, its massive body twisting and thrashing in agony.

And then…

All of Jacob’s Ladder’s divine energy reached critical density.

The entire structure pulsed once… twice… and detonated.

A column of holy light swallowed the monster’s upper half while the blood bombs inside its wounds synchronized, each explosion chaining into the next.

A final, massive explosion engulfed the head of the centipede…

KRRAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH——!!!

And the monster’s head disintegrated.

[@TrioPeak: THESE THREE ARE INSANE TOGETHER]

[@TeamworkOnGOD: bro this synergy is illegal]

[@MomentumMama: LUNA CARRIED SO HARD OMG]

[@SaintessSupreme: Rita’s holy explosion was BEAUTIFUL]

[@BloodQueenSimp: VANESSA IS JUST BUILT DIFFERENT]