Chapter 12: The End

Nina walked lightly up the steps. The chaotic snowflakes that had broken through the window followed in her footsteps, leaving a trail of flame. Her scarlet eyes caught sight of Anna hiding behind the embers, and the corners of her mouth curved upward in a greedy smile.

"What a clever little girl. Knowing you couldn't win, you ran and hid here. If it weren't for that boy's astonishing brute strength, it really would have been quite troublesome to deal with you for a while!"

Huh?

The final boss's remarks left Ember somewhat surprised. The way she had spun the black umbrella earlier to smash the room did not look like something that could be stopped by a mere iron door. The voice that rang out from behind instantly answered his doubts.

"She is not as omnipotent as you think! This space is merely her dwelling, but she is by no means the master of this space. She is like a terrestrial spirit from certain legends, yet she is far more evil than ordinary terrestrial spirits. The grievances accumulated within her body terrify me. If not for the spatial suppression preventing her power from expanding infinitely, we wouldn't even have a chance to struggle."

Anna's voice trembled slightly, unable to conceal her inner dread. Facing Nina directly subjected her to immense pressure sufficient to cause suffocation.

Because of the bloodline curse Nina had cast upon the Mapleblood family, Anna suffered from a sense of weakness akin to the separation of soul and body. For some reason, this feeling had suddenly become incomparably intense. Previously, when facing Nina, she could take special potions against soul-separation symptoms to suppress the weakness originating from her bloodline, but now that was no longer possible.

If Ember were to turn back, he would see that Anna looked as if she were running a high fever of forty degrees Celsius—her cheeks flushed, her lips pale, her gaze turbid, and she was drenched in cold sweat. Yet she clenched her teeth and rallied her spirit, preventing herself from collapsing into exhaustion, and continued to explain to Ember.

"This space is very special. It is not merely an aggregation of resentment; there are also the auras of many entities that conflict with her, such as the iron door on the fourth floor, the elevator parked on the second floor, and a certain item hidden in the first-floor conference room. Those who successfully escaped before probably relied on these things."

At this point, Anna looked at Ember's back. "You should have been to the conference room, right?"

"Of course, it was I who warned about the situation in the conference room!"

Nina answered the question for Ember with an expression of displeasure. "If he had died directly in the conference room, that naturally would have been for the best, but the result exceeded my expectations. His strength is much stronger than those people from before. He truly lives up to being a special existence carrying the fire seed! And your performance wasn't bad either—at least you didn't collapse the moment you saw me, losing even the ability to play house with me, and doing nothing but endlessly beg for mercy. How utterly disappointing!"

"You must know that only every few decades or centuries do I have the opportunity to project the Snow School into reality and capture you and your clansmen. Finally coming out for a breath of fresh air, I naturally want to play to my heart's content. When I'm occasionally happy, I might even deliberately let a few lucky escapees slip through the net."

Like those villains who died of excessive talking, Nina began to rattle off secrets at length. "However, you aren't so lucky. I can sense that the outside world is changing, causing the resentment space to loosen so that it can project reality continuously and stably. A few days ago, I successively encountered several tricky entities that turned my place upside down. I haven't found a way to deal with the changes yet, and then I happened to run into you. Swallowing your bloodlines and fire seeds is a fine opportunity for me to enhance my strength."

"Guess what... Will I show mercy and let you go too?"

Hearing this, Anna's heart sank to the bottom. Only now did she understand that every time the Snow School appeared, it meant family members had to undergo a test of life and death. Many people mysteriously vanished because of it; though minimal records remained, they seemed to have vanished into thin air. As for those who miraculously escaped, they probably suffered complete amnesia due to the bloodline curse, remembering no details whatsoever.

The family had indeed noticed the legend of the Snow School, but had never found concrete evidence. Coupled with the excessively long intervals between each appearance of the Snow School, they had never taken the legend very seriously.

Ember, however, expressed puzzlement at Nina's words. "Since you want to swallow us up, why not just attack directly? Why deliberately let me stay on the first floor and find the items to counter you?"

"Naturally because when I committed suicide, a shred of ridiculous kindness still remained within me! Otherwise, everyone of you who entered the Snow School would have made a one-way trip with no return!"

Nina showed a resentful expression, her eyes seeming to emit fire. "Might as well tell you, that kettle actually contains the tears I shed when I died, which is why it possesses a suppressive effect against me. This suppressive effect even extends to the entire first floor. Staying near the conference room for too long drops my strength quite a bit. Similarly, the second floor is the same; the residual kindness, in its confrontation with me, sealed the true snow umbrella inside the elevator, naturally aiming to leave a sliver of a chance of survival for people like you."

"The third and fourth floors are entirely my domain, especially the fourth floor. Because the moment I decided to jump from the building, my resentment also reached its peak, causing the place closest to the roof to gather a massive amount of grievance and anger." Nina looked at Ember with a mocking gaze. "You shouldn't have smashed that iron door, nor should you have let me walk here without obstruction!"

"Because that was a will barrier deliberately set up by the residual kindness to prevent me from being infused with grievance and anger. You must not have noticed that when I distributed the keys, I didn't even dare to touch the iron door key!"

Nina slowly raised both arms, causing Ember to suddenly feel as though a heavy weight were pressing down on his shoulders, making his body significantly heavier. "Here, my resentment can operate perfectly without being plagued by weakness! And during the time I was talking with you, I have already mobilized a massive amount of resentment and completely taken charge of the fourth-floor space. If you want to escape, you can only defeat me! Of course, you can pin your hopes on that kettle of tears, but do you think I will give you this chance?"

"No wonder..."

Ember had previously thought that with Nina's character intelligence, she wouldn't waste her breath for no reason. It turned out that while they were stalling for time, the opponent was not slacking off either.

He quietly asked Anna, "Are you ready?"

The pale-faced Anna stubbornly replied, "Just a little longer!"

"Then I'm going in first, you need to push harder!"

With that, Ember leaped forward with continuous bounds, attempting to approach Nina. But the latter was already prepared, gently waving her hand to deploy a resentment barrier in front of her, forcing Ember—who had collided with the air wall—to stop midway.

[Prompt: Your strength attribute is nine points, reaching the minimum threshold to break through the "Resentment Barrier"!]
[Prompt: A natural number within "eleven" will be randomly drawn. If the result is "eleven", you will break through the "Resentment Barrier".]
[Prompt: The draw result is "seven", judgment failed, you are blocked by the "Resentment Barrier".]

The failed judgment prompt instead made Ember realize that the final boss was not unassailable. He decisively used the active biological soft-flesh arm to attack the resentment barrier, hoping to pass the judgment directly. However, Nina gave him no such opportunity. A dazzling ring of fire appeared from beneath her feet and spread rapidly in all directions. Even though Ember noticed it in time and hurriedly used continuous leaping to dodge, he was still clipped by the fire ring and sent flying backwards, instantly losing a third of his health!

"Such high attack power!"

As Ember crawled up from the ground, he saw Nina gathering another wave of fire attacks. Protected by the resentment barrier, she could unleash firepower unscrupulously. If he and Anna failed to find a way to break the deadlock, they would sooner or later be worn down and killed here by the final boss.

Hastily gulping down a healing potion to restore his health, Ember felt his shoulders sink abruptly. He strode forward, charging into the resentment barrier. The violent rebound caused Ember to undergo five consecutive judgments within a split second, and the success probability granted by his strength bonus also slightly increased, ultimately leading him to hit the low-probability event. The invisible wall shattered with a roar, no longer able to obstruct his advance, and his whole body broke free like a shackle, rushing straight toward Nina.

Just as Ember was about to take out the kettle, a black snow umbrella appeared in Nina's hands once again. Ember had no choice but to give up, while Nina seized the opportunity to throw the black umbrella, turning it into a ferocious dragon of fire that bit down on Ember who was close at hand.

[Prompt: "Dragon Breath" from the legendary boss "???" deals 33 points of collision damage to you!]
[Prompt: "Dragon Breath" from the legendary boss "???" deals 35 points of bite damage to you!]
[Prompt: "Dragon Breath" from the legendary boss "???" deals 34 points of fire damage to you!]
[Prompt: "Dragon Breath" from the legendary boss "???" deals 39 points of crushing damage to you!]

A single attack instantly triggered four types of judgments, taking away most of Ember's health in one go. Fortunately, his health pool had increased considerably; otherwise, he wouldn't even have survived a single wave of attacks. More seriously, the blazing fire dragon showed no intention of stopping, biting Ember and slamming him into the wall with a strong momentum of mutual destruction. Ember's strength was unable to break free from the dragon's jaws, rendering even his healing potions unusable.

At the critical moment, he could only shout to Anna, "Do it now!"

In fact, before Nina appeared, he and Anna had discussed countermeasures. The latter had said that as long as she was given enough time, she was confident she could severely injure Nina. Therefore, Ember and Nina had thought along the same lines, tacitly stalling for time. However, Nina was about to beat him to death, yet there was still no movement from Anna's side—how could he not be anxious?

Fortunately, Anna ultimately resisted the intense shadow of the bloodline curse and successfully completed the accumulation of mental power. Cupping her temples with both hands, she concentrated her mind onto a single point between her brows, then unleashed a psychic spike. It flashed silently like lightning, instantly piercing through the resentment barrier and stabbing directly into Nina's mind!

As an aggregation of resentment, Nina naturally would not die from this, but Anna's powerful blow caused her to suddenly lose consciousness. Not only did she release her control over the space, but the fire dragon's breath also dissipated accordingly.

Ember, falling to the ground and miraculously saving his life, immediately downed a healing potion and then made a strange movement.

With a flick of his left hand, the abnormal accessory soft-flesh glove suddenly turned into dark-green tentacles. Working together with the active biological soft-flesh arm, they gripped the ground tightly with strong stickiness. Then, half-squatting with a lowered center of gravity, his body arched backward continuously, causing the two arms transformed into tentacles to tauten like a slingshot. The moment his arms reached maximum tension, Ember suddenly kicked off with both legs, combining with the powerful elasticity erupting from his arms to soar away with a whoosh!

This was the brand-new special effect originating from the abnormal accessory [Soft-Flesh Gloves]—[Soft-Flesh Slingshot]!

......
[Soft-Flesh Gloves] (Abnormal Equipment)
Equipment Type: Accessory
Equipment Effect 1: Health +50, Sanity +30
Equipment Effect 2: Soft-Flesh Slingshot (Must be used in conjunction with the "Active Biological Soft-Flesh Arm", charge for 0.5 seconds, leap forward up to 15 meters, dealing area damage and knock-up effects equivalent to the strength attribute to all targets within two meters upon landing.)
Requirements: Perception Level 5, Agility Level 2
Description: This glove perfectly inherits the transformation effect of the abnormal item "Active Soft-Flesh", capable of switching between the main body and tentacles. Once the tentacle state is activated, it can coordinate with the "Active Biological Soft-Flesh Arm" to perform various combat maneuvers. It is a rare special existence among abnormal accessories that can directly affect combat.
[Active Soft-Flesh Set 4/4, the keepsake "Gluttonous Desire of Active Soft-Flesh" gains a certain effect bonus.]
......

The appearance of [Soft-Flesh Slingshot] gave Ember another composite mobility skill that combined both damage and crowd control. The moment Nina recovered her consciousness, she was horrified to find that Ember had already arrived in front of her. His feet slammed heavily onto the ground, and the shockwave knocked her flying into the air. By the time she finally stabilized her center of gravity and landed smoothly, she found that Ember had vanished without a trace, leaving her counterattack without a target to vent upon.

Wait!

Nina suddenly felt something was wrong. Lowering her head to look down, she was stunned to find herself trapped in a pool of dark-green sludge. From her perspective, she could vaguely make out that the surface of the sludge revealed a huge, ferocious, and terrifying face, staring at her bewildered self with a pair of narrow black eyes, its blood-smeared maw split into a bizarre smile.

Not good!

A warning alarm sounded sharply in Nina's heart, and she hurriedly mustered her flame power to resist. However, she did not know that the set ability Ember obtained after gathering the complete four-piece set of active soft-flesh was a hard control effect that was immune to damage and un-interruptible. In terms of control effect alone, it was even more domineering than the knock-up caused by the soft-flesh slingshot. Unless Nina possessed an invincibility ability similar to the Golden Sun Body, she was bound to be enveloped by the suddenly surging dark-green sludge.

At this very moment, Ember, having activated the set ability, briefly lost his human identity and transformed into an "Inferior Biological Mutant". His appearance resembled an oversized, plump balloon, sweeping Nina along as he bounced down toward the lower floor, landing directly on the flight of stairs connecting to the third floor.

Puff!

The balloon burst upon hitting the ground, and Nina fell out, plunging into a paralyzed state. Ember also recovered his human form. In a flash, he took out the kettle and splashed its contents all over Nina, immediately extinguishing the majority of her flaming dress and instantly dispersing the suffocating pressure emanating from the legendary boss.

Yet, even at this point, Ember did not stop his actions. He rushed forward, grabbed Nina in a bearhug, and successfully passed the strength check. With the pace of bypassing a floor in two steps, just as "Continuous Leaping" expired, he forcibly dragged Nina down to the first floor of the teaching building. Although the kettle carrying the tears was no longer present here, just as Nina had stated, this place still possessed a suppressive effect, subjecting Nina—whose strength had just plummeted—to double suppression once again.

"Quick!"

Dragging her exhausted body, Anna ran to the staircase landing and launched a storm-like assault on the final boss alongside Ember. With her strength plunging to rock bottom, Nina had no room to resist whatsoever. Following a head-smashing blow, her death was announced. Just like Kalie, amidst a piercing scream, she exhausted the fire within her body, leaving behind only blocks of black charcoal.

[Prompt: You have killed the legendary boss "???", and obtained a massive amount of contribution points!]

Hoo...

The kill prompt made Ember let out a heavy sigh of relief, but he knew that now was definitely not the time to rest. The snowflakes outside had not stopped yet, and he had to get the snow umbrella as soon as possible. Scooping the two items dropped by Nina into his waist pouch, Ember and Anna found a crowbar in the storage room, then pried open the elevator parked on the second floor, successfully finding the real snow umbrella.

"Let's go!" Ember said with a sense of relief.

"Mhm!" Anna nodded heavily, a smile blooming on her pale face.

The two shared a single umbrella, walking side by side as they stepped out of the building. Wind and snow could not touch them; with the protection of the snow umbrella, even stepping into the snow had no effect. The blinding, vision-obscuring snow filling the skies also parted paths for them one after another.

Just as they were about to step out of the school gate, Ember suddenly snapped back to his senses and asked Anna, "Are you really the Anna I know?"

"No."

"Then who are you?"

"Do you really want to know?"

Seeing Anna's inexplicable counter-question, Ember's heart tightened. Suddenly realizing something, he hurriedly took out the class roster, only to be stunned to discover that Anna's name... had also undergone an anomaly!

And when he raised his head, where was there any trace of Anna before him?

He stood alone in the snow, his right foot stepping out of the school gate, and his left foot about to land. The instant he officially left the Snow School world, endless thoughts flooded his mind. He suddenly recalled that in his haste to get the snow umbrella, he had overlooked some subtle discrepancies: startling though the heat of the second-floor elevator was, it was still somewhat inferior to the first floor. So, how had the snowflakes falling on the third floor produced such a bizarre phenomenon?

Ember wanted to turn back to check, but his left foot came down anyway.

A violent gust of wind whipped up the swirling snow, filling his field of vision with pure white...