The gates of the Nether Crypt rumbled open, and a tall, white figure emerged through the widening gap.
Dustin stood with his hands clasped behind his back. Golden radiance swirled around him, turning the night sky bright as day. The black mist seeping through the doorway instantly dissipated when it touched the glow.
“Trying to run?” His voice cracked like thunder through the passage. “When you massacred tens of thousands of innocent people, did you think this day would never come?”
A vicious gleam flashed in Lucan’s eyes. He hurled the human skin upward and shouted, “Crimson Rite-unleash!”
The strip of human skin expanded in midair, swelling into a massive red curtain. Twisted human faces writhed and screamed across its surface, stretching the flesh as they clawed from within.
At that instant, the Cryptbound Twelve struck in unison.
Bone blades, whips, and spears tore through the air as twelve blurred shadows -each one howling with razor-sharp force -charged toward Dustin.
“Child’s play.”
Dustin snorted and flicked his right hand casually. The seemingly effortless gesture whipped up a golden gust of air.
All twelve bone weapons shattered like glass, and the Cryptbound Twelve were sent flying backward. They slammed into the stone walls with bone-crushing force, and their blood sprayed across the surface in bright, sickly-red splatters.
Lucan’s eyes widened in shock. He quickly formed hand seals and shouted, “Spectral Formation-merge as one.”
The fallen Cryptbound Twelve jerked upright like broken marionettes. Their bodies twisted at impossible angles as the twelve figures fused instantly into a nearly 30-foot-tall Necro Tyrant.
Its eyes burned with eerie green flames, and it gripped a massive axe forged from countless skulls. The dripping toxin on the blade hissed as it corroded deep pits into the ground.
“Come and test our covenant’s supreme divine power.” Lucan’s voice echoed from inside the Necro Tyrant, laced with arrogant laughter.
As it advanced with earth-shaking steps, the Necro Tyrant brought its massive axe down on Dustin with bone-crushing force. The air warped in its wake, and the feral spirits bound to the blade shrieked like banshees.
However, Dustin didn’t flinch. He slowly raised his right hand as golden light gathered in his palm, condensing into an orb the size of a bowling ball. Mysterious runes crisscrossed on its surface, each rotation sending tremors through reality itself.
“Crush!” Dustin roared.
The golden orb streaked toward the Necro Tyrant like a comet. When they collided, time seemed to stop.
Blinding light engulfed the entire passage, and the feral spirits shrieked in agony as they dissolved like snow in a furnace.
The Necro Tyrant’s massive axe shattered first, followed by its towering body breaking apart piece by piece.
The screams of the Cryptbound Twelve rang out one after another, but not a single body remained. In the end, they were reduced to nothing but dust.
Lucan rushed out from the cloud of bone dust. He had shed his human form into something nightmarish. It was a writhing mass of flesh and blood, studded with dozens of blinking, lidless eyes.
“I’ll take you down with me!” he howled.
The grotesque blob exploded into billions of razor-thin blood threads that surged toward Dustin like a crimson tsunami. Each thread carried Decayspit, the world’s deadliest poison. A single drop could melt a grandmaster into a puddle of liquid.
But the golden light around Dustin suddenly flared brighter, forming an impenetrable barrier. The blood threads struck it harmlessly, like raindrops hitting an umbrella.
With a flick of his finger, Dustin fired a concentrated beam of golden energy and pierced the black bone core hidden within the flesh mass.
“No…” Lucan’s agonized scream echoed along the passageway.
The bloody mass withered rapidly in the golden light until his original human form reappeared. At that moment, he had nothing left to fight with. He slumped to the ground, his eyes flickering between fear and bitter rage.
Dustin slowly approached him and stared down at the mastermind of the chaos. ” Your Skull Covenant has committed countless atrocities. Your reign of terror ends today.”
Lucan suddenly laughed maniacally. “You really think it’s over just because you killed us? Ebon already knows what happened. He will avenge us and ensure Dragonmarsh pays for our deaths.”
Dustin’s expression darkened, and he conjured a golden light in his palm. Lucan’s laughter died in his throat as his body dissolved into a wisp of blue smoke and vanished.
With every threat eliminated, Dustin turned toward the depths of the Nether Crypt. This underground hellhole had claimed countless innocent lives. The skulls embedded in the walls bore silent witness to unspeakable horrors.
He drew a deep breath and released his full power without restraint. Golden energy roared through the passages like a raging river.
The sturdy stone walls crumbled like paper in the surge of golden light. Altars, hidden chambers, and prison cells inside the crypt -every last trace of evil was wiped out in the storm of golden light.
A final thunderous crash shook the earth as the entire Nether Crypt collapsed. The mountain above it came tumbling down in an avalanche of rock and debris. When the dust settled, Dustin had already vanished into the night sky.
A thousand miles away in a hidden valley, Ebon sat cross-legged in meditation. His eyes suddenly snapped open as the bone pendant around his neck cracked and shattered into pieces.
