Ariel - The Crowned Lion

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Ariel couldn’t help but smile at her companion’s bluntness. To be fair, she’d walked this road too—at least two or three quests in, back when the chain was half-written and the reward was bugged. As Acanthus turned away, Ariel offered the wounded mother a short bow, formal and unhurried. “I’m in the same boat,” she said calmly. “Started this before it was finished. Got updated. We lost interest.” Her gaze lingered a moment on the dragon’s exposed wounds before stepping past her. She only showed a slight smirk before she vanished. No system alert. No flash of light. One step forw

Ariel stared at the terminal’s glow, unsure of how she would write the message. A growl from a silent observer in the corner helped her stop overthinking it. She took a look on the intel she got from the student who boldly claimed she was a legitimate 'scout'. It was a meaty report, that's for sure. Glyndebourne’s horror echoed in written as cold facts: chains, blood on cobblestones, the hollow eyes of victims suspended like macabre art. The «Midnight Ripper» turned safety into slaughter, at least outside the safe zones. However, more than the two page lore dump in front of her she skimmed o

A hush falls over the chamber as Dracul’s roar echoes into silence. Roots recoil, vines droop. Mother Nature staggers—bark plates cracking, fungal blooms shivering. Ariel inhales the cavern’s charged air, mouth tasting moss and lightning’s ghost. Shadowflame stirs beneath her ribs—an ancient hunger now tempered by cold resolve. Millicent’s daggers gleam at her side, but Ariel needs no secondary strike. She steps from the alcove into fractured light—slivers of dawn filtered through cavern faults. Quartz veins refract scattered beams onto wet rock. Each refracted shard burns like a promise.

Ariel exhaled sharply as vines coiled around her wrists, binding them before she could react. Her katana shifted at her hip, a promise thwarted. Shadows danced with afterimages of her planned strike, lost in the tangle of writhing roots. The blight’s slow poison threaded through her veins again—HP slipping away in silent puncture. She tasted iron and moss. Her crimson cape’s Risky enhancement flared, igniting a brief surge of adrenaline in her chest. It amplified her desire to tear then apart, but she could not strike through these bonds. Couldn't risk a bad move now. In the distance

A chilling creep slid over Ariel’s boots. In a pulse, fibrous roots snaked up her ankles, winding upward like living shackles. She twisted to free herself, but each movement only drew tighter coils. The vine’s grip was insidious—silent in its swallowing of her steps into the sodden soil. She tasted the tang of damp earth on her tongue, felt the echo of blight’s burn in her veins. Her heartbeat fluttered, caught between lingering guilt and raw exhilaration. Her crimson cape’s Risky enhancement flared, tingling against her spine with spartan resolve, yet the moment was tainted by strangulat

Ariel paused a dozen paces from Mother Nature’s form, silver eyes drinking in every detail. Bark‑woven limbs arched like ancient pillars. Moss‑braided hair tossed spores into the bioluminescent gloom. Roots writhed across the chamber floor as if alive. Her breath stilled. She watched the subtle swell in the vine‑woven chest—the slow rise of a living statue preparing to move. Millicent slipped beside her, fingers brushing Ariel’s shoulder. No words. Just a steady nudge toward a battered section of bark‑flesh where the amber eyes offered a glimpse into something softer, almost human. Ariel’

First light fractured through moss‑draped stalactites as Ariel led them back to the pedestals. Dawn’s pale glow painted the cave mouth in muted greens and golds. Six keys hung at her side—tender trophies from distant trials. Each pulsed faintly, as if eager to join the door. Millicent moved beside Ariel, matching her pace. The obsidian daggers at her hips gleamed with promise. Neither spoke. Words felt unnecessary when the world held its breath. Dracul and Darius brought up the rear, shoulders squared. Their armor and coats still bore last night’s damp. Yet both carried themselves wi

The teleport gate’s glow died behind them. In its place, dusk stretched across Floor 1 like a half‑remembered dream. The forest encroached, branches draping overhead with the weight of years. Each footstep pressed into soil that had first met them on day one—players untested, hopeful, naive. Now, the same path felt charged, like a living thing that recognized them and whispered warnings. Ariel led the way, kimono clinging damp to her form, crimson cape darkened by mud and mist. Her weapon rested at her side, silent but alive—a promise settling beneath her ribs. Shadowflame’s faint warmth

Dracul’s defiant roar echoed across the shattered lake, a raw counterpoint to Taneuma’s sputtering, enraged whinnies. He was a bulwark, a storm anchor woven from pride and pain, holding the beast’s dying fury entirely upon himself. Ariel breathed. In. The scent of ozone, steam, and scorched earth. Out. The lingering static, the tremor in the ground. Her weapon lowered smoothly to her side, its obsidian tip kissing the surface of the disturbed water, sending out tiny, perfect ripples. This wasn't iaijutsu. This was kensho—seeing the essence. The final cut required no flourish, no cloak

The world didn't slow. It bent around Ariel, the frantic dance of lightning and steel resolving into crystalline clarity. She saw the afterimage of Taneuma’s evasion, the precise point in space it had occupied milliseconds before Dracul’s frustrated swing. That was her canvas. Stepping forward wasn’t merely movement; it was a transition through fractured time. Nihilim’s Wrath cleared its black-lacquered saya with a whisper, not the roar of shadowflame, but the pure, chilling song of moonlight on river-polished steel. This wasn't about consuming darkness; it was the absolute, unadorned truth of

Shadows clung to Ariel like a second skin. Nihilim’s Wrath trembled in its saya—a live wire of hunger. Dark flame licked the scabbard’s rim, whispering of defences unmade. Dracul’s taunt hung in the air, holy light painting him a perfect beacon. Taneuma took the bait, lightning gathering in its maw. She moved. No flourish. No war cry. A single fluid motion— calculated Iaijutsu. The blade cleared the saya as shadowflame lingered. Steel met Taneuma’s crackling flank. Silence. For one fractured second, voltage and void warred. Then shadowflame consumed. Midnight fire boiled th

Birches thinned to reeds, then surrendered to barren silt. Before them stretched the Lake of Reflection—an immense mercury mirror, blindingly bright and treacherously depthless. Nihilim’s Wrath burned against Ariel’s hip, its shadowflame writhing like a chained beast scenting freedom. Dracul halted, knuckles bone-white on his weapon's hilt. "No clouds. A sniper’s sky." Millicent knelt, pressing her palm flat to the damp mud. "Energy convergence confirmed… focal point dead center." Her coat’s grey-blue hem darkened as water seeped into fabric. Darius unclipped his supply pack. "Trench lines? Ca

The teleport gate’s light bled away behind them, Coral’s rustic warmth shrinking into the birch forest’s embrace. Ariel led, her kimono stark against the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy. Creek water chuckled over smooth stones—a sound too gentle for the gut feeling she had. False peace, she thought. Floor 22’s serenity was a held breath, a fragile illusion before the storm. Every rustle of leaves, every birdcall felt like a countdown. Dracul’s emerald-trimmed coat rustled as he scanned the canopy, his gaze sharp and wary. "A sky this blue feels like mockery," he muttered, the wor

The music reached her like an echo underwater—muted, distant. But something in it resonated. A note drawn across bone, or maybe memory. Whatever it was, it settled just beneath her ribs, and for a moment, her stance firmed. Then came the change. Belregor shimmered. The code stuttered—and Mina stood where he had been. Not her stance. Not her silence. But her face. Hair swept in a ponytail, one eye patched, the other gleaming red. Even in mimicry, it wasn’t right. Too rigid. Too deliberate. Like an actor wearing a borrowed mask. Ariel’s breath caught, but she didn’t move. The inst

Ariel gave a soft exhale that might’ve been a laugh. “Traditional scouting. Can’t remember the last time I saw anyone actually peel back shrubs.” She angled a glance at Acanthus, her voice low and lightly amused. “Honestly? It’s refreshing. My Searching skill used to feed me clean data—heat signatures, movement trails, elevation dips. Like cheating, but earned.” A short pause. “Now I’m just watching a k... man toss rocks and praying I catch the scent before he does.” Her attention drifted back to the ridge as she stepped ahead. Wind curled around the stone edge, carrying the faint

Silence hung like a blade above the rapids as Nihilim’s Wrath descended. Then—it awakened. Shadowflame erupted. Not the dormant cold, but violet-black fire screaming from the steel—a vengeful exhalation after years of silence. It swallowed the falling blade, howling like Mortha’s ghost. Suterusu’s golden eyes widened—not fear, but recognition. Shink. The cut was clean, but the aftermath was annihilation. Shadowflame devoured the panther’s neck, spreading faster than pixels could dissolve. Fur blackened. Muscle carbonized. The head tumbled, but the body didn’t just shatter—i

Rapids churned waist-high around us, the falls’ thunder shaking stone. Suterusu paced like trapped lightning, its health bar a throbbing wound of orange and crimson. Dracul stood healed—Oath raised in defiant challenge, thorns gleaming like broken glass. Time to end this. Ariel dropped into Jumonji-gamae, the two-handed iai stance. Nihilim’s Wrath slid home into its scabbard with a whisper. No shadowflame stirred. Just cold steel and colder intent. Breathe. The world narrowed. Rapids slowed to viscous syrup. Suterusu’s panting breaths echoed like bellows. Millicent’s dagger hand tremble

Mist bled from Ariel’s form as she emerged downstream. Dracul’s failed RAW A strikes hung heavy in the air, holy light guttering against Suterusu’s phase shifts. Impatience. But his thorns had marked the target. Now. She flowed forward, Nihilim’s Wrath a silver blur. No stealth, pure speed. Shink. The blade bit deep behind the foreleg. Black ichor bloomed on wet fur like dark flowers. A brutal chunk of yellow health vanished, the bar plunging into pulsing orange. Below half. The sword hummed in her grip, no shadowflame, but smug satisfaction vibrated up her arm. Really? Ariel suppres

Mist clung to Ariel’s heat-haze outline as Suterusu coiled, muscles bunching like storm-clouds. Dracul’s Focused Howl still vibrated in the humid air – a noble’s challenge swallowed by the rapids’ ceaseless thunder. The panther lunged, liquid shadow streaking toward Dracul’s throat. He pivoted sharply, boots skidding on moss-slick stone. Claws whistled past his ear, close enough to stir blonde strands – pressure, not contact, but the wind-rush passed his ribs. His stamina bar thinned to a frayed blue thread. Ariel emerged. Silent as canopy shade, Nihilim’s Wrath lashed upward in a silver

Thick jungle air swallowed them as they stumbled from the temple’s corpse-breath. Ariel’s fist clenched around Suterusu’s scale—obsidian shard torn from the panther’s flank during its ambush. Cold as river stone, yet burning with predatory cunning. Her ribs throbbed a dull echo of its pulse. Millicent shuffled behind, oversized coat snagging on vines. Darius pressed a monogrammed handkerchief to his weeping burn, carrot-orange uniform trim stark against mossy gloom. "Just a sting," he murmured, eyes flicking to Ariel—quick, concerned—before fixing on the emerald choke of foliage ahead. Dr

Jungle heat pressed like a sodden blanket, thick with the scent of rotting orchids and wet iron. Ariel ascended moss-choked stairs, vines thick as Darius’s forearms crushing stone moths under serpentine weight. Sunlight fractured through the canopy, dappling ruins that drank light. Millicent adjusted cracked glasses, her scanner’s whirr muffled by the green weight. “N-No life signs... but the air’s got these... shiny bits. Like crystal wasp venom.” She tucked a loose grey-blue-trimmed ponytail behind her ear, avoiding eye contact. Darius dabbed his brow with a monogrammed handkerchie

Final Rewards: Ariel EXP: 15237 [Total]| 5676/5 *10 +2500 (Quest) +5% (Firm Anima R5) +5% (Assist System) Col: 21540 [Total]| 12600 (Loot) +630 (Guild Treasury) +5000 (Quest) +2285 (para lv. 5) +5% (Firm Anima R5) 2x Guild Token [Total] | 1 transferred from Dracul 1 Mon Tanos Key 2x T3 Perfect Consumable | 247610a | 247610b 2x T3 Perfect Shield/Armor | 247610c | 247610d Dracul EXP: 6496 [Total]| 5676/5 *3 +2500 (Quest) +5% (Firm Anima R5) +5% (Assist System) Col: 0 [T

Chaos below. Dracul’s light flashed like a strobe in the titan’s chest – relentless, irritating, diverting. Corruption writhed, torn between healing the crown and shielding its heart. Instinct’s whisper: The bindings fray. Strike now. Ariel rose. Bruised ribs protested. Blood crusted her temple. Nihilim’s Wrath felt heavier. Colder. Still silent. It doesn’t matter. The edge was hers. The Valley’s trust was hers. Millicent tracked the corruption’s panic. "It’s destabilized! The fissure... it’s vibrating! Like a plucked wire!" The Colossus raised its left foot. The crown ti

The Colossus settled. Millicent’s breath hitched. "Gait stabilized! Right foot planted... left rising in five!" Opportunity. Ariel moved. Not a dash – a flowing glide over treacherous rock. Nihilim’s Wrath slid free without a whisper. The head weak point yawned before her, fissures wide from her first strike, corruption boiling within like molten tar. Shirajishi-ryū: Stone’s Embrace. The blade didn’t slash. It pierced. A single, perfect thrust into the nexus’s deepest crack. SHK-K-KRUNCH! Obsidian screamed. Light – pure, white, and agonizing – erupted from the wou