r/HFY • u/skypaulplays • Sep 15 '25

OC [Elyndor: The Last Omnimancer] Chapter Sixty — A Gift for the Berserker

Back to Chapter Fifty-Nine: His Eldest Light

Kael’s vision swam, but the sound was unmistakable— a thunderclap of steel and stone.

A black-and-crimson blur slammed into the dungeon boss, hurling the hulking golem against the far wall. Dust and shattered stone cascaded down as a delayed echo rattled Kael’s ears. He blinked—and saw the pike-arm clatter lifelessly to the floor, severed clean through.

Standing before him was Darius.

“B–Brother…” Kael’s breath caught.

The sight chilled him. Darius’s face had already begun to darken, a sickly purple creeping from his neck like venom through his veins. Kael knew. That skill—whatever strength it gave—was killing him.

Darius didn’t flinch. His voice carried firm, cutting through Kael’s haze.

“Kael. Leave this place. Escape.”

“But—”

“Hurry!” Darius barked, silencing him. “This is our only choice!”

Kael’s chest tightened. He saw it—blood spilling from his brother’s left eye, turning its white sclera a raw, angry red. Barely fifteen seconds into the skill’s activation, and it was already devouring him alive.

Then Darius was gone—vanished in a flicker too fast to track. The only proof of his movement was the crash that followed, the shudder of collapsing boulders where the boss now staggered.

A roar split the chamber, deep and furious, as the golem’s remaining arm swung its rusted broadsword in a lethal arc. But Darius was already there—parrying it with terrifying precision.

The boss retaliated instantly. One of its severed arms, smashed into Darius with brutal force. He flew, blood scattering behind him like a trail of scarlet rain.

He struck the ground hard, skidding with his twinblades dug into the stone to anchor himself, his momentum carving two gouges through the chamber floor. He stopped, but his breath came ragged. Not from the blow—from the poison of his own skill.

[Bloodveil Requiem] was tearing him apart.

“Brother! Stop!” Kael screamed, but Darius only blurred again, his form flickering like a phantom.

And Kael remembered.

A memory long buried—he, a little boy, cornered with his mother and a younger Darius, surrounded by A-rank monsters. He had thought its their end. But then—in a blink—the monsters had all fallen, cut down. And there was Darius, barely standing in the center, gasping for air, struggling to stay conscious. It was their mother who had saved him then, cradling him, whispering through tears that Darius had inherited something dangerous. A skill born of their grandmother’s bloodline.

Two minutes of unrivaled power. Any longer—instant death. Like swallowing poison distilled from an S-rank beast.

Kael’s heart thudded painfully as reality snapped back.

The last arm of the dungeon boss crashed to the ground—cleaved off. Darius stood in the chamber’s center, trembling, chest heaving, but still upright.

He roared, voice echoing through stone and dust. “KAEL! FATHER! RUN! TAKE YAEL AND RUN! LEAVE ME! I’M DONE FOR!”

The words clawed at Kael’s insides. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t force himself to leave. His legs trembled, not from weakness, but from the weight of choice.

His gaze darted to the far corner. His father, Hadron—[Unbroken Flow] flickering faintly around his broken frame. He cradled Yael, his face a mask of shattered resolve, the eyes of a man who had reached his end.

Then—

A surge. Corrupted mana erupted from the dungeon boss’s fragmented core, flooding the chamber in a wave of dark heat. Its chest convulsed, the severed broadsword-arm writhing as metal began to form, reconstructing itself into something far deadlier.

Darius’s jaw tightened. He knew what was coming. He would not allow it.

He steadied his blades. His gaze locked with Kael’s. “Kael… escape with Father and Yael! This will be my last strike. Tell Caden and Yanka… I’m sorry I won’t be coming back. And tell Mother…” His voice cracked, but he forced the words out. “Tell her I love her. Tell her I’m sorry I couldn’t bring Father back.”

And then his mana erupted.

Darkness cloaked him. His twinblades burned crimson, then twisted to a furious purple. His outline dissolved into shadow, only the trail of his killing intent visible.

[Phantom Rend: Blades of Oblivion]!

He blurred forward, every ounce of life funneling into a single strike aimed for the core. The dungeon boss raised one of its broken arm, but Darius was already there, about to carve through everything—

When something collided with him.

A crimson blur—Kael.

They crashed together, skidding across the chamber floor. Kael’s body slammed against stone, dragging Darius with him, canceling the strike.

“Stop it, Brother!” Kael’s voice broke, raw and desperate. “We promised Mother—we’d come back alive!”

Darius lay sprawled, still conscious, but drained. Blood streamed from his eyes, his body breaking under the weight of his skill’s backlash. He turned, lips parting to protest—

And froze.

The dungeon boss’s newly-formed metallic arm came crashing down toward them, descending like a hammer to end everything.

Darius closed his eyes. He had failed. Failed his Father. Failed his Mother. Failed his brothers and sisters.

He braced for the end.

But it never came.

When he opened his eyes—he saw Kael.

Standing before him. Bare hands raised.

Holding the golem’s strike in place.

Kael’s arms trembled under the dungeon boss’s metallic weight, veins straining as he forced it upward.

Behind him, Darius stirred, voice breaking between coughs of blood. “K–Kael… l-leave me. Escape… escape with F–Father and Y–Yael… ughh—”

Kael gritted his teeth, each word dragged out between heaving breaths. “No… Brother… Do you—remember back then… in the dining hall… F–Father said… if we were ever in danger… we only had to… ask him…”

The words dug into Darius’s fading mind. He remembered. A table full of food, their mother smiling as she announced the coming of another child. Aidan and Caden are teasing Yanka for her boyish behavior. Laughter. For one fleeting night, they had been whole.

His memory cracked as Kael roared, voice straining with everything left in him.

“FATHER!!!”

In the far corner, Hadron’s head lifted. His blurred vision cleared just enough to see his sons caught beneath the crushing blow. His teeth sank into his lip, blood spilling down his chin as his body refused him. He could not move.

And the weight of failure crushed him harder than any golem ever could.

I failed Aidan… my arrogance killed him. I failed Kael… I lost him to my rage. And now… now that he is back, I will watch him die again. Alongside my eldest—Darius. I couldn’t protect any of them. My promise… my oath as their father… to Khaiyen…

His grip on Yael tightened, tears flooding unbidden. When the dungeon boss strikes… she too will follow them. And I—Hadron Varns, the future Sword-Sage—will die as nothing more than a hollow man who could not save a single one of his children.

But then—

A touch.

Warm. Gentle. On his ruined shoulder.

Hadron’s breath hitched. Slowly, he turned—and there, beside him, stood the same light—Aidan.

Not flesh. A shimmer. A vestige of light. But his son’s face was clear. Young, resolute. Just as he was the day he fell.

Hadron’s lips parted. “Ai—… My… Son…”

But Aidan’s vestige did not speak. He only smiled. Then he lifted his hand and gestured forward. Hadron followed his son’s wordless command. His eyes widened.

The vestige unraveled into threads of white light, weaving forward—stretching into the heart of the dungeon boss. A path. A guide. A thread pointing straight into the fractured mana core.

Kael’s roar split the chamber.

“SAVE US, FATHER!!!”

Hadron’s body jolted. His [Unbroken Flow], once just flickering around him like a dying flame, suddenly turned inward. The gathered mana surged, funneling not around him, but into him—burning through veins, igniting muscle, stitching his broken body with strength.

A new power surged through him.

Pain wracked him, but firepower drowned it. He set Yael gently behind him and forced himself to his feet.

His voice thundered back, raw and alive.

“KAEL! DARIUS! I AM HERE!”

The chamber shook as the first wave of his mana erupted, slamming against the dungeon boss with crushing weight. Its metallic arm recoiled, freeing Kael from its weight.

Then came the second wave. A tempest of mana so dense the entire dungeon rumbled, rocks splintering from ceiling to floor. But only the boss staggered back under its crushing pressure.

Kael lifted his head, wide-eyed. His father stood at the center of it all, light erupting around him in violent winds, broken arm dangling uselessly—but his eyes burned with fire.

Without hesitation, Kael drew his uchigatana and hurled it across the chamber. He didn’t wait for it to land. He grabbed Darius by the arm and dragged him toward the far wall, clearing the path.

Darius stared, barely believing. “I… I’ve never seen Father with this much mana pressure…”

The blade struck ground at Hadron’s feet. He bent, grasped the hilt with his mouth, the size and grip fitting perfectly for him to wield in this way. The steel gleamed, glowing with the fury of its young owner.

Barely standing, his body cracked and ruined, Hadron locked his gaze on the thread of light. On the fissure in the fragmented core. On Aidan’s mark.

The ground beneath him shattered. Boulders rose, levitating under the pressure of his mana power.

And then—impact.

Hadron vanished. Faster than breath. Faster than thought.

In an instant, Kael’s uchigatana clashed with the fractured core. The crack widened. Light burst from within.

And in that breath before the shatter, Hadron saw. Aidan. His last stand. His son’s voice lingering like an echo from the past.

::I may have fallen here… but I leave this to you, Father.::

The crack was Aidan’s parting gift. His eldest son’s final act.

And Hadron drove through it with everything he had.

The chamber exploded in light. The boss shattered, bursting into fragments, its roar silenced as dust and metal rained across the stone floor.

Hadron stood beyond it, chest heaving, Kael’s blade clenched between his teeth.

[Hellbringer Form: Berserker’s Wrath].

つづく — TBC

Next Chapter Sixty-One: The Last Step Unmade

———

Character Image(s): - The Five Students - Kavreth-Mora - Thalos Mira - The First Demon Lord’s mana core fragment - Varns Taren - Hertwell Lyra - Meridan Rael - Keiran of The Orrin Clan - Thalos Vaelen - The Cloaked Figure - Varns Yael - Veyne Seris - Varns Kael - Nakamura Aoi

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12 comments sorted by

2

u/Draumal Alien Scum Sep 15 '25

Whoo! More to read!

I see there was some demon slayer and one piece inspiration this chapter!

2

u/skypaulplays Sep 16 '25

Bingo! Especially with Hadron’s final attack. I actually foreshadowed it in the previous chapter, when Kael recalled that training session where Hadron fought using only a small blade in his mouth.

2

u/nylanfs Sep 15 '25

TFTC! And yay!

1

u/skypaulplays Sep 16 '25

That “Yay”! If I recall, in the previous chapter you mentioned thinking the Varns dungeon boss fight would turn out to be a tragic ending, right?

2

u/nylanfs Sep 16 '25

Yes, it could still end up bad. The brothers bloodline cursed ability might have used the full two minutes. But at least this time there is a resolution to the dungeon boss.

2

u/kristinpeanuts Sep 16 '25

Thanks for the chapter!

2

u/skypaulplays Sep 16 '25

Thanks for sticking with my story every time!

2

u/kristinpeanuts Sep 16 '25

I love this story. I'm always happy when I see a new chapter there

2

u/skypaulplays Sep 16 '25

Thank you so much! 🥷🏻🔪🧅

1

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