Nothing is Impossible

Lesli watched Atlas fall to the ground, and then Lars running over to Atlas and kneeling by him before standing up and talking to the final boss. Lesli was worried. What was going to happen now that Atlas was out of commission? She had watched Atlas's fight with the Minotaur and it was terrifying, to say the least. They were both monsters, and she could barely keep up with their fight, only seeing flashes of black and purple, as well as a little pink that were constantly in motion.

She watched Atlas stand up, and her heart soared in her chest. He was still alive! The next second was one that Lesli would have nightmares about for the rest of her life. Atlas's scythe swung faster than she thought possible, and Lar's head tumbled off in a spray of vivid blood, followed closely by his body. Her breath caught and she fought the urge to hurl.

Nex cried out in heart rending anguish, and Dane only watched in obvious horror. Nex had been dating Lars secretly, she knew that much, and Lars had saved Dane from becoming a slave, paying money to save him from the caravan the Dane had failed to steal from, showing mercy to Lars where others would have been unforgiving and harsh.

And now he was dead, killed by the very person that Lars had introduced to them just a day or two previously. Killed by her former boyfriend no less. Lesli felt rage bubble in her chest. How dare he turn on them! How dare he act like he was better than them! Lesli had been dating Jay, and everyone in their group but Atlas had known it, but none of them had said anything because Lesli had been too distraught, and they didn't want to say anything unless she was okay with it.

He had killed Jay too, making him go to an unearned early grave. Lesli couldn't believe that he refused to take the blame for something so obviously his fault! He had been the one who had driven Jay to do all those things, and while he had chosen his own actions, Atlas had been the one to provoke them.

All of these thoughts ran through Lesli's head in the span of a second, her mind skimming over all the reasons she should hate Atlas, and causing her grief and rage to explode, simmering over until sparks of fire literally appeared around her due to her connection with mana.

She gathered it around her, and she created the most powerful fireball she possibly could, infusing it with every drop of mana and every ounce of willpower that she could muster. She threw and screamed forward, the size of an inflated beachball and with all the fury of the sun.

Atlas's armor shifted, becoming more robust and tanky, and the fireball crashed into him. There was a chiming sound and the fireball was suddenly hurtling back at her, its power undiminished and actually seeming more potent now that it was aimed at her. She tried to jump out of the way, but the fireball hit her arm, charring it to a crisp and exploding, burning her entire body instantly, mouth open in incredible agony as she screamed in pain.

As darkness descended, she had one final thought. She should have never let Jay convince her to come into this dungeon.

Fire consumed her vision, and she died.

***

Dane watched as fire consumed Lesli, his heart growing cold as he realized he would most likely die here unless they could somehow snap Atlas out of the state he was in. Dane didn't know if it was a skill or if the Minotaur had done something to Atlas, but in the end, it didn't really matter.

Dane concentrated on his Scurrid Rockmaster, using his favorite buff spell, Enhance. This made the target's skills become twice as strong for 15 seconds. He took control of the Scurrid, making it use Boulder Cannon. The rock quadrupled in size, and shot towards Atlas with all the force of a fighter jet, slamming into Atlas and sending him flying. Dane cursed in goblin and jumped to the side as the rock was reflected, zooming back at the same speed and hitting his Scurrid, turning it into bloody chunks of flesh.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Dane gasped in pain as his summon was forcibly returned to the Life Realm, breaking his concentration and sapping away quite a bit of his mana. He coughed out blood and then glanced up, only for the cold steel of Atlas's scythe to meet his neck, sending his head spinning with a wide eyed expression on his face.

***

Nex looked at all the carnage, a tear trailing down her cheek. This was not how any of this was supposed to go. Lars was supposed to use the fame from clearing a dungeon as the leader to become a guild officer. He had promised to marry her whenever he had become more financially stable.

He had been training for this moment for weeks, fighting everyone in the arena he possibly could to become strong enough to take the party leader exam, after passing, he had gathered together all of the friends who had survived the caravan excursion. They had just been missing one member, and then Atlas had appeared, as though a gift from the heavens themselves.

Nex had been in full support of Atlas upon meeting him, even after sensing the present aura of death that seemed to hang around him. Deep inside that cloak of death was a wellspring of light and energy, but it was blocked out by the creeping death, preventing it from fully coming through. There were also the mysteries of the void inside of him, however small. The void was just as powerful as death, but it wasn't nearly as evil aligned. If Atlas chose to embrace the void, it would benefit him much more than embracing the death inside of him.

There was also the aura of a king, or maybe an emperor inside of Atlas, but that had been found more recently, after the fight with the hidden boss. Atlas was a well of energies that most couldn't even touch, but he was too low a tier to even fully utilize all of them. He was a monster now, but he would be a behemoth in the future, maybe even making it to godhood.

That was mindblowing to Nex, as she knew just how many gods there were. Barely more than 10,000 people had made it to godhood, and only about 7,000 of them were still alive. They were immortal, but they could still be killed in battle.

She looked at Atlas, who had not stayed still after killing Dane, but was now rushing towards her. She used Elven Obscurity and vanished completely from Atlas's senses. He paused, eyes still closed in deep sleep, and spun on his heels, charging the minotaur. The minotaur laughed, voice echoing in Nex's mind.

Tell the human that it was the system who commanded me to do this, otherwise I would never have thought to use my sleep spell on him. I much prefer this path, as I was promised that I will be resurrected in another dungeon if I do this. The amount of death killing his friends has generated… truly a sight to behold. My death will only strengthen his connection with death, and he will become the system's perfect reaper, and I will get to feast on more young minds, without having to die here.

Nex's eyes opened wide in shock. The system itself had told this system what to do? That was absurd.

The Minotaur laughed at Nex's shock, blocking Atlas's scythe slash with his horns and speaking in Nex's mind.

It wasn't the Great System, but rather just an agent of Stero, the system of monsters that spoke to me. Atlas is not nearly good enough to attract the attention of the Great System, but two of the sub systems have noticed him. Stero and Geo, the system of dungeons, due to his actions here. He is still just one of many though.

The Minotaur looked like it wanted to say more, but Atlas finally managed to land a blow on the Minotaur, causing its flesh to become attacked by debuffs and Atlas's skill that caused a slow death to his enemies by sapping their lifeforce.

The Minotaur grunted in pain, but Atlas followed up by slashing through its arm before finally decapitating it. The Minotaur's head rolled across the floor, its horn flickering before dimming completely.

Dungeon Completed! Rewards Pending…

You may now leave the dungeon, but your rewards will be halved and given to your teammates if you leave before the rewards have been dolled out.

Nex's skill ran out, and Atlas spun around and teleported to her scythe swinging brutally. Nex left the dungeon with a thought and light surrounded her, teleporting away before the scythe could reach her neck. It pained Nex to leave without getting everything she could, but it was this or die, and she planned on living a long fruitful life.

One thing was certain however. She would never enter a dungeon again.