A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 5695

At the array's core lay a mound of freshly slain bodies, already liquefying—flesh melting into pure ebony ghoul energy that the formation drank like wine.

The corpse-reek on this floor had thickened into a tangible fog, clinging to the lungs with suffocating weight.

Jared's voice cracked the tomb-like silence. "What happened? Where did the corpses go?"

A siren screamed inside Jared's mind, cold and metallic. Not good—something's terribly wrong.

"Kid, your last intrusion woke something inside the tower," the Vermilion Demon Lord warned, his tone knifing through the gloom. "It has sped up its feast on ghoul energy. It either wants its strength back—or it's preparing a ritual."

As he spoke, the black light at the array's heart swelled like an eclipse. From that glare rose a monstrosity three stories tall, sculpted entirely from boiling ghoul energy.

It had no face—only two crimson points burning where eyes should be, exhaling violence and death in heavy waves.

"Intruder...die!" the Corpse King hissed, the words arriving as a rasp inside the skull rather than through the ears.

An arm fashioned from rancid ghoul energy swept toward Jared, its claw larger than a chariot. Every inch of air it touched blistered and peeled away, as though the atmosphere itself were rotting.

"A mere corpse-fiend dares block my path?"

Although startled, Jared kept his head clear. The Dragonslayer Sword left its sheath in a burst of blinding gold. The Golden Dragon Aura rolled out with the blade—light made tangible and furious.

"Golden Dragon Banishment!" he roared.

A dragon-shaped wave of sword energy thundered forward and rammed straight through the Corpse King's chest.

The fetid mist sizzled like frost under sunlight, dissolving around the gaping hole.

"Unless we shatter that array, it cannot be killed," the Vermilion Demon Lord barked.

Jared's brow tightened. He hammered the formation, but the lattice was welded to the tower itself—unyielding stone, iron, and ancient spellwork.

I can't continue fighting him!

He made the decision in a heartbeat, sliding past the Corpse King's swipe and sprinting for the staircase that spiraled toward level two.

The Corpse King rushed after him, but an unseen force at the stairwell throat slammed it back, leaving it howling in impotent fury.

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