A loud voice suddenly vibrated through the entire space around them, speaking a foreign tongue.

Even with Cedric’s translator, he couldn’t make sense of the gibberish that the emerging creature was rumbling.

"Ah... the scent of silver and sunlight. The Sleeping Queen of the Damned shall not have her rest disturbed."

Cedric frowned.

’She’s just blathering gibberish. This really does remind me of some final boss from a Souls game...’ he thought with a gulp, running two fingers along the flat of his sword in preparation for the battle.

The nodachi suddenly caught on black fire, and the dark flames licked hungrily at the edge of the blade.

But Cedric didn’t stop there.

Right from the moment he had arrived here, he knew he had stepped into the nest of creatures called the Lemures of the Sleeping Golem, and truly, this beast emerging was their mother... the Sleeping Golem itself.

And so, he had to go all out or risk being crushed entirely.

His eyes, both the sclera and the irises, suddenly turned pitch black as he expelled a vast amount of mana into the air, and the sheer pressure was enough to make the surrounding space look gray.

Then, he raised two fingers of his other hand toward the sky and muttered under his breath.

"Black moons. Plunge us into a night of decay."

Suddenly, a small black fire sparked into life high up in the air. Then, it began to twist and expand, growing larger until it was the size of a carriage. But it didn’t stop there and continued to bloat and feed greedily. Only when it had expanded to the size of a small building did it stabilize, looming over the battlefield like a dead star.

Simultaneously, dozens of small embers the size of orbs appeared scattered around the primary mass. They then began to silently revolve around the massive sphere like a ring of planets around a moon.

The world around them turned a dark gray, and with the dozens of ravens swirling through the monochromatic air, the scene looked entirely apocalyptic.

At that moment, the creature’s voice boomed once more:

"The sun has always been a weeping eye... oh, how she hates being seen. Arise, my stone-born children. Shake off the dust of your long slumber and tear the false sun from their flesh!"

Cedric and Athena, who were already on their toes, suddenly grew even more alert. The ground had already been trembling due to the monster’s arrival, but after the creature spoke, violent movement erupted all around them.

The fractured marble obelisk, the monolithic stone sarcophagus, and even the cathedral’s bell tower that Cedric had seen earlier all split open, revealing dozens of emerging monsters identical to the first creature he had killed.

The stones were fused into parts of their bodies, acting as if they were a living, ossified armor.

Cedric’s eyes darted around as more and more of the Lemures broke free from the avenue’s ruins.

Then, he looked ahead in anticipation as the Sleeping Golem itself fully rose to its feet.

Unlike her lesser spawn, this beast was more than fifteen meters tall, and her colossal frame was entirely covered in all sorts of debris, with the majority being the very cobblestone streets she had torn through.

The only part of her body that looked flesh-bound and vulnerable was her massive, emaciated head, which perfectly resembled a twisted aye-aye.

The creature raised both hands into the air. And in response, massive rocks and sharp debris began to lift from the ground toward her. They then began to orbit her like a violent storm of jagged asteroids.

Cedric swallowed hard as he stared up at this boss queen.

His heart was racing, but at the same time, he couldn’t help the fierce grin tugging at his lips.

’This is going to be one hell of a boss fight...’

***

...

..

.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three large rocks slammed into the ground in rapid succession, shattering the cobblestones into lethal shrapnel. Cedric, who had rolled to avoid the last of the three that had been targeted at him, immediately rolled again and jumped to avoid a fourth that crashed down at where he was.

He had barely recovered his footing, however, when a fifth slab that was the size of a wagon suddenly descended from above, smashing violently into the earth where he had stood a millisecond prior.

Fortunately, in the nick of time, he had swapped places with a raven and was now suspended in the air with his sword of flames raised above his head. Without wasting any time, he brought it down in a powerful downward slash, and a massive crescent of black flames cleaved through the air toward the giant’s head, which was the only vulnerable part of this armored golem.

But of course, the creature anticipated the strike, raising both hands up to form a heavy stone shield, blocking the fiery arc and causing it to harmlessly disperse behind her.

The problem now was that after that slash, Cedric was vulnerable. Before he could even drop back to the ground, a stone pillar coming from the side smashed into him like a battering ram.

Despite twisting his torso and raising his hands to cushion the impact, the sheer force of the blow shattered his guard and sent him hurtling through the air like a broken doll.

He crashed heavily into a crumbling stone archway, and of course, the weakened structure immediately collapsed, burying him beneath a cascade of masonry and rubble.

Suddenly, the air became thick with hundreds of swirling daffodils. It was as if a vibrant spring meadow had bloomed in the heart of the apocalypse, and the majority of them rapidly melted into a thick emerald mist that flowed directly into the rubble Cedric was buried under.

Of course, many of Cedric’s bones had shattered from that devastating impact, and he was definitely on the absolute brink of death. But as the rejuvenating mist seeped through the cracks in the stone, the crushing weight felt lighter, and his fractured body desperately began to piece itself back together.

However, the Sleeping Queen was not stupid. Although she had been momentarily distracted by the sudden appearance of daffodils, she immediately corrected her focus. She tilted her head and raised a single hand slightly.

In response, many of the floating debris suddenly whipped through the air, rushing toward the mound of rubble that Cedric was trapped under to crush him once and for all!