New Game Minus: The Complete LitRPG Fantasy Trilogy

by Sarah Lin

  Gathering mana in his greatsword, Bloodwraith swung in an arc of force that struck the eye. It gave no indication that it had taken any damage whatsoever, but the eye slid over to stare at him. Bloodwraith tried to move, but he wasn't fast enough: the eye's gaze bound him in place, searing through his body. He felt like he might be able to break out if he reached for his barbarian rage, but thought that losing his reason might be fatal in this battle.

  Fortunately, Gharavi attacked next, a bolt of lightning blasting through the eye. Though it didn't show any damage, the golden eye did shift toward her. But Gharavi had been expecting that and dove behind one of the obelisks surrounding the room.

  Retreating to another obelisk, Bloodwraith glanced over at her. She gave a nod - so the eye wasn't capable of binding someone through solid objects. It reacted very quickly to attacks, however, and he wasn't sure if they had successfully dealt much damage to it. When he examined the eye's box, it wasn't particularly helpful.

  [Godseye

  Health: ???/???

  Note: Dungeon Boss]

  Across the room, Izzy helped Danniah stand back up and get to cover. For a start, perhaps they should test how well the eye dealt with physical attacks. He gestured for Izzy to wait and she nodded, so while the eye was still searching for Gharavi, Bloodwraith prepared a burst of force.

  He stepped out from behind his obelisk, released the burst into the eye, and immediately ducked back. An instant later he felt a surge of magic wash past him, but the obelisk deflected it. Soon after, he heard footsteps across the floor and hoped that the eye didn't notice. When the mana faded, Bloodwraith glanced out.

  At that exact moment Izzy was leaping into the air, directly at the eye. It was already turning toward her, its iris glowing even brighter. Izzy tried to bring her knives down into the eye, but cried out as the force seized her just before she arrived. Was she actually feeling pain? Bloodwraith wasn't sure, but he couldn't help but attack to free her and saw Gharavi moving as well.

  Izzy was faster than both of them, her teeth clicking together. The sound was audible in the silence and then the eye began to twist violently, shuddering and spinning. Though Izzy fell, Danniah caught her and helped her back to safety.

  When the eye stopped contorting, it didn't appear damaged in any way, but Bloodwraith was certain that the bite had had an impact. Then they were making progress, the only question was how they could keep striking it. Currently the eye was slowly rotating in a circle, scanning the entire room for them. At least its position seemed to be fixed in the center of the room.

  While they distracted it, Gharavi had gathered her usual collection of three elemental spells. She fired them off in rapid succession, but she wasn't fast enough. Even as she was releasing the third spell, the eye was swiveling toward her, so she was forced to duck behind the mirror nearest her.

  There was a blinding gold flash. The mirror snapped into shards with a loud crack, but the Godseye began to shudder again.

  Had the mirror reflected its attack somehow? No magical spell worth its salt would be reflected by a mirror, but that seemed the most logical conclusion. Bloodwraith frowned as he watched the strange eye, considering their next option.

  Since the mirrors worked so effectively, it was worth trying again. Bloodwraith moved to the nearest mirror, released a burst of force from around it, and braced himself as the eye turned on him.

  Once again, there was a flash and the eye shook in apparent pain. He was wide open, but since the eye took several seconds to recover, he was able to retreat to another obelisk before it could fix him with its gaze.

  Bloodwraith and Gharavi traded off dodging behind mirrors and luring the eye to focus on them. Each time they lost another mirror, but the eye took further damage. As they proceeded, the eye seemed to glow dimmer and dimmer. Eventually he stood behind the last mirror and repeated the process one final time.

  As it contorted, the eye began to close. The dark lids shut, the eye rose higher in the chamber, and for a moment the room was silent. Izzy and Danniah had been hiding out behind an obelisk, letting them take care of it, but now Danniah stood up.

  "Uh, did that do it? Because th-"

  She was cut off as a tone sounded through the room. The eye burst open again, blazing brighter gold than before. Except this time, the black surface surrounding the eye shifted to become bright red. Staring at the transformation, Bloodwraith realized too late that it was looking toward him and couldn't move fast enough.

  Again he was frozen in place, but he realized that the eye was no longer just staring. A huge jet of flame burst from it, striking him in the chest and knocking him back against the wall. But before he could fall, he was frozen in place again, and there was another flame forming...

  A massive spike of ice speared through the eye. It should have resulted in a spurt of blood, yet the eye only twisted about. Gharavi prepared another spell and launched another spike of ice, but even as she cast the spell, the eye was changing.

  Its shell turned from red to blue and suddenly both spikes of ice dissolved. The eye swiveled down to look at Gharavi and a massive hail of ice shards flooded out. She would have been impaled by them if Danniah hadn't leapt into the way to defend her. But the onslaught of ice made even Danniah stumble and the two of them were forced to retreat behind an obelisk.

  To buy them some time, Bloodwraith launched another burst of force and then dodged away from the ice. There had been no visible sign of damage from his spell... considering how violently the eye reacted to most other things, he suspected that he was doing no good whatsoever. The message regarding this "boss" was that its designer thought most players would be too stupid for it, so perhaps this was an enemy that couldn't be defeated with brute force.

  Unfortunately, the eye seemed to be moving even more quickly than before it changed color. Gharavi managed to get a bolt of lightning off from behind an obelisk, but it didn't do any good and she was pinned down by ice a moment later. Clearly they needed a distraction.

  "Da!" Abruptly Izzy was beside him, having crept around the room. "Up!"

  It was worth a try, at least. Bloodwraith set down his sword and cupped his hands for Izzy to step into. Across the room Danniah was moving out from behind cover, trying to distract it again, so they made their move then. He heaved upward as Izzy leapt and she soared into the air directly toward the eye.

  Even with the distractions, it nearly wasn't fast enough. But Izzy barely managed to skate over the top of the eye, biting as she went. Again the eye hissed and twisted, though it didn't change color.

  When Izzy landed, she was immediately pinned in place by the eye, but she'd bought Gharavi enough time. Coming out from behind her obelisk, Gharavi released a searing bolt of flame so intense that it left a line of light across his vision. The Godseye twisted about in mock pain, but they all knew that it would be attacking again soon.

  This time the eye's body turned white, then it began releasing bursts of lightning. Not just in the direction it looked, but from all sides. All of them were forced to hide behind obelisks, pinned down by the relentless bolts of lightning. Normally Bloodwraith would have waited for the monster to exhaust itself, but he wondered if the Godseye could keep attacking forever.

  One of them wasn't affected, however. Meara walked out into the center of the room and the eye immediately sent an entire thunderstorm of bolts at her. They did no good and the eye stared as if confused. All Meara did was wave... but then the eye began looking away, as if realizing that she wasn't a threat.

  Gharavi had been ready, however, slinging multiple elemental spells while it was still distracted. She managed to duck behind her obelisk again, but unfortunately none of the spells did any good. The creature seemed to have specific vulnerabilities that changed each time... Izzy's bite had always worked so far, but she had traits to help her pierce magical defenses. If the traditional three elements didn't work, then what was left?

  When Bloodwraith dared to look from behind his obelisk, he saw
that Gharavi was trying to catch his attention. When they locked eyes, she gestured at him with her wand. Well, he supposed that it was worth trying...

  Preparing an attack in his sword, Bloodwraith stepped out from behind his obelisk, raised his sword... and was immediately frozen in place by the eye's gaze.

  It hurt even worse than before. Gharavi fired a spell at it from the side, but the eye simply ignored her and kept focused on him. Worse than that, it was beginning to sling bolts of lightning. Feeling the pain all over his body, Bloodwraith realized that he would die if he didn't manage something soon.

  So he reached inside himself and drew on his rage - but for only a moment. The new surge of strength was enough for him to cut down, and the line of force slashed through the Godseye. This time it reacted, twisting even more violently than before. All of the lightning and other spells disappeared as the eye spun around in circles, rising higher and beginning to close.

  But it didn't seem dead yet. Bloodwraith drank the largest potion he had and kept his gaze on the Godseye as it rose to the highest point in the chamber.

  Abruptly the eye's coloring changed to glittering steel. The lids opened again, revealing a steel iris, then they slammed shut.

  And the eye disappeared.

  For a moment they were all shocked, then without warning the Godseye blinked into existence beside Gharavi. She had a split second to move before it opened, then the steel gaze fixed on her. Immediately she screamed out in agony, body frozen in the middle of her stride.

  Bloodwraith stepped out from cover to launch a burst of force, but the eye turned on him almost immediately. He thought he might be yelling, but he couldn't hear himself over the pain that shot through his mind. Even if he hadn't spent his rage already, he couldn't think clearly enough to gather it again.

  Then suddenly the pain cut off and he fought to orient himself again. Gharavi lay on the floor, struggling to rise. Izzy had jumped onto the back of the Godseye, biting down... and this time, he saw blood in the center of the vast eye.

  But a moment later it blinked out of existence again, dropping Izzy to the ground. This time they were more ready, looking for it to appear at any moment.

  When the steel eyelids appeared beside Izzy, she reacted even faster, leaping away and moving to the other side of one of the obelisks.

  Except the steel eye opened and the obelisk melted away. Izzy was immediately frozen in pain - Bloodwraith wanted to help, but he was still struggling to recover himself.

  Danniah rushed across the room, brandishing not her shield but a large shard of glass from one of the broken mirrors. It was a clever idea and Bloodwraith silently complimented her as he prepared his own attack.

  Except when the eye turned on Danniah, the mirror did no good. She screamed out in pain, fingers locking around the useless mirror shard.

  Gharavi was barely getting up, Izzy was still down, and Bloodwraith himself was exhausted. He saw Meara off to the side, concerned but unable to do anything. As Danniah screamed, Bloodwraith realized that it was finally time. Ever since defeating Raigar he had been conserving the Scepter of Annihilation for an opportune moment. If he didn't use it now, he might never get a chance.

  Reaching into his bag, Bloodwraith pulled out the Scepter, aimed it at the Godseye, and-

  The eye vanished, reappearing beside him. Before he could move the Scepter to aim at it, he was frozen in place by the agonizing pain. Even if he had the strength to tighten his fingers and activate the artifact, the beam would fire uselessly into the ceiling. He gritted his teeth and tried to force himself to move through the agony, but he could barely make himself tremble.

  By sheer willpower, he moved the scepter a hair at a time, closer and closer to aiming directly at the eye, even as its gaze tore into him...

  Then he felt something collide with his armor, knocking him across the room and sending the scepter flying from his hands. He hit the ground and slid all the way to one of the walls, struggling to pull himself back up. Did the eye have a secondary attack? No, that didn't matter - what he needed to do was get to the Scepter as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, just getting to his feet was difficult.

  Fortunately, the others had begun to recover. Gharavi sent a bolt of lightning shearing through the Godseye and this time it reacted in what seemed like pain. Before her second bolt could land it disappeared, appearing beside her and opening its steel lids again...

  Izzy was ready, throwing herself directly into the eye. Her knives stabbed in and her teeth snapped down, resulting in a spurt of blood.

  A moment later she was flung to the ceiling with a loud crunch, then she collapsed to the ground and did not move. The sight of her fallen body forced Bloodwraith to his feet. He had lost his sword at some point and searched for either it or the scepter, but he was dazed and it was a struggle to focus.

  Meanwhile, Danniah charged at the eye. It turned to look at her, bloodshot gaze striking her... but not pinning her in place. Though Danniah screamed, it was a sound of defiance, not pain. She made her way toward the eye, step by step, then swung up violently.

  The eye twisted backward in pain and Danniah didn't let up, striking over and over. When the eye tried to strike her with its secondary attack, she raised her shield and only fell back a step before attacking again. When the eye closed itself against her attacks, she just kept striking, her mace burning brightly as she slammed it into the steel sphere repeatedly.

  "Bloodwraith." He heard Meara's voice behind him and turned, expecting to see his sword or the scepter. But instead, she handed him a long shard from one of the mirrors.

  For just a moment he stared at her in surprise, but there was no time for questions. He grasped the shard and began to run, not toward the eye but toward where he expected it to move.

  Even as he ran, he saw the eye disappear before Danniah's blows. It reappeared behind her, pinning her in place with its gaze again. She cried out and stumbled, but the Godseye was obviously struggling. That didn't mean it wasn't fast, swiveling toward him.

  Too late. Bloodwraith drove the shard of glass deep into the center of the eyeball.

  Despite that, its glare still tore into him at point blank range. Yet though it locked him in place, that meant he kept the shard driven deep into the eye. Soon after, Gharavi rushed up from behind, stabbing another mirror shard into the eye. The glow of the steel iris faded and the pain decreased slightly. Bloodwraith grunted and drove his own shard deeper.

  As Danniah rose to her feet, Meara gave her another shard. She charged in, piercing the eye from a different angle. It twisted violently, impaled by three different shards, but seemed unable to escape. Yet its twisting movements became so violent that they threatened to pull the shard from his hands.

  Then all at once, the Godseye crashed to the ground. The ominous power that had surrounded it from the very beginning vanished, leaving it only a strange, unnatural eyeball.

  For a time the three of them stayed holding their shards, partially out of fear that it would rise again, partially because the pain had made their bodies lock up in position. Yet he thought, or at least hoped, that it was finally over...

  [Victory! You received 231,666 EXP and one Godseye Body.]

  "That's the right box." It hurt to speak, but Bloodwraith forced it to let his companions know. Having said that, he immediately fell over.

  It was a strange sort of pain, spread evenly over his entire body instead of focused on a few injuries. Yet it went deeper than his body, as if his soul itself ached. As he lay there, staring up at the ceiling, Bloodwraith cursed whichever box god had designed that thing.

  Fortunately, Meara soon came to help him drink a potion, which helped immensely. She had also recovered his sword and the Scepter of Annihilation. When he sat up he discovered that the others were recovering as well. Izzy appeared to have broken multiple ribs and several limbs, but she seemed perfectly cheerful about it, letting Danniah carry her around while she recovered. Gharavi was sitting next to the Godseye corps
e, examining it.

  When Bloodwraith limped his way closer, she immediately looked up at him. "This... I don't know what it's made of, but it's valuable. I can use this."

  "I wanna eat it!" Izzy struggled closer, staring up at Gharavi with large eyes. "Please? There are some parts you don't need, right?"

  "Well... I'm mainly interested in the metal parts. You can have the rest."

  "Yay!" Izzy tried to lunge at the eye, but dropped as Danniah blanched and wasn't able to support her anymore. This didn't bother her and she began snapping her teeth toward the eye, using her ability to eat pieces of it despite the distance.

  Bloodwraith still hurt a bit after several potions and he was definitely exhausted, but he didn't want to sit and rest. They had finally finished the entire dungeon and defeated the last of the challenges it contained... what was left? There was no passage onward, so what would they do next?

  Surely they didn't need to go back and defeat the monsters they had trapped on the first floor. Though Bloodwraith knew that they represented a significant chunk of power, he didn't want to walk all the way back down. Now that they had finished the challenge, all he cared about was escaping the dungeon and stopping the Outsiders.

  "Looking for this?" Gharavi saw his uncertainty and pulled something from the heart of the metal part of the eye... another plate, just like the others from the third floor. Bloodwraith took it gratefully and began looking for a place to put them.

  Meara found it first, a circle in the center of the room. He was fairly certain that it hadn't been there before, but it could easily have appeared after the fight. The circle contained three indentations that pointed toward one another. Fingers trembling a little, Bloodwraith put the last three plates into place.

  At first nothing happened, but then the circle began to glow. Just in case there was some further surprise, Bloodwraith backed away from it, but the circle simply lit up with white light. Before he could figure out its purpose, a box appeared in front of him.