Arknightcraft Modpack
Chapter 497: Black Hole VS Swamp
Steven turned around after giving a clean, decisive demonstration of what being 'curbstomped' meant.
He looked at the girl who had just moments ago resembled a flawless sculpture—now reduced to minced flesh scattered across the swamp. Yet there was no joy of victory on his face.
She was strong enough to boldly claim herself a god, after all.
If a being like that could really be deleted that easily, Steven would honestly start wondering whether he'd accidentally left Creative Mode on.
Even though Yamato had absorbed a Red Alloy Ingot, it still wasn't a blade with conceptual one-hit-kill authority like First Hassan Azrael. Expecting it to outright erase something that claims to be god was asking a bit too much.
And sure enough,tThe moment the girl's body shattered, the entire swamp began to riot.
The mud churned.
The waters boiled.
It was as if Rusalka herself hadn't expected this stranger to be this reckless—or this shamelessly efficient. Not only had he skipped all formalities, he had actually insta-killed her avatar.
From deep within the swamp came a furious howl, eerily similar to a child's enraged scream—like a kid seeing their beloved toy being smashed to pieces.
At the spot where the girl had been lying, an enormous hand burst out of the swamp, clutching the shredded remains of the avatar like scraps of meat.
At the same time, another massive hand erupted beneath the Minecrafter feet, breaking through ice and sludge alike, reaching up as if to crush him whole.
The attack range was absurdly wide, and dodging would've been a hassle, especially since getting splashed by that foul-smelling sludge was unavoidable either way.
So Steven made a choice.
A miniature black hole swallowed him whole.
When he reappeared, he was already floating high above the swamp, clad in his Evol Armor, calmly observing the scene below.
The colossal presence hidden beneath the swamp finally revealed itself in full.
To Steven's surprise, its true form looked nothing like the youthful, seductive Rusalka he had just cut down.
Instead, it resembled a gigantic dead infant.
Gray-white skin. Rotting flesh piled grotesquely across its bloated body. Any trace of innocence was long gone, replaced by sheer, suffocating horror.
Only now did the HP bar in Steven's vision—previously labeled [Avatar of the Dead Waters – Rusalka] finally empty completely.
In its place appeared a new one.
[The Resentful God of Dead Waters – Rusalka]
"So… you're coming out in your main body to throw hands with me?" Steven raised an eyebrow.
He had expected a phase transition, maybe a dramatic retreat, or at least some threatening last words before disappearing.
Instead, he chopped down the avatar—and the very next moment, the boss logged in with its main account.
The pressure radiating from the massive dead infant was immense—second only to that mysterious oceanic god he had once encountered beneath the sea, the one that still hadn't even revealed an HP bar.
Compared to this thing, even a bundle deal of Sea Terrors and Collapsals wouldn't come close.
And yet—
Steven smiled.
Relaxed. Almost relieved.
Because one thing was now certain.
Yes, compared to the average native in this world, this thing has enough strength to proclaim itself as 'god.'
But even among god-like beings, there were levels.
It might be only one tier below that ocean deity in sheer presence, but that single tier gap was a chasm.
The difference was something like 1000 to 1.
At the very least, this was not the kind of opponent that made Steven think, "Yeah, this would take days without Creative Mode."
And that alone made things a whole lot more comfortable.
And more importantly, this thing had a physical body.
That meant two things.
First, it could fully unleash its power without restriction.
Second—and far more crucial—it could be hurt.
Unlike the Deathless Black Snake, which was nothing more than a mass of will and consciousness that could only be destroyed by brute-forcing commands, this gigantic dead infant actually existed in the material world.
As long as his attacks could break its defenses, then killing it was not just possible, it was inevitable.
That, more than anything else, was why Steven could still smile.
What he feared most were enemies with no tangible form, things without a clear target. But something like this—big, solid, and very much there—was basically a living training dummy tailor-made for him.
Smile aside, Steven didn't get careless.
He cautiously widened the distance between himself and the monster. It was fast, but not so fast that he couldn't react. What truly demanded caution was the trademark ability of gods in this world—their so-called Authority.
But just as Steven paused, the massive dead infant clearly had no intention of waiting.
With a roar that seemed ready to shake the entire snowfield, the creature—previously sprawled across the swamp—curled its enormous body inward.
Then, like a colossal meteor made of rotting flesh, it launched itself toward Steven, blatantly violating every known law of physics.
"Tch. Newton would have a field day if he saw this."
Steven muttered the complaint under his breath, shaking his head as the flying meat mountain hurtled toward him.
With that size, dodging was flat-out impossible. He didn't have fancy evasion skills, no i-frames, no dodge rolls to save him.
Fortunately, Steven knew one simple truth:
The best defense is offense.
His hand tightened around Yamato once more.
Already too fast for the naked eye, his movements—amplified by the Evol Armor—now approached something bordering on light speed. No one could see him swing.
And yet, in the very next instant, the world itself seemed to fracture.
Silver-white lines crisscrossed the sky like an enormous net, filling the entire space.
The charging mass of flesh froze in midair.
Those same gleaming lines had appeared across its body.
Then—Steven sheathed his blade.
The sky shuddered, as though reality itself had been sliced apart, creating a bizarre scene reminiscent of a broken texture glitch.
The gigantic meat mountain trembled.
Chunks of flesh slid loose along the silver lines, threatening to scatter into a rain of blood and gore, but before it could fully fall apart, something intervened.
Between the severed pieces, thick blood vessels rapidly grew, writhing and reconnecting, forcibly stitching the monster's body back together.
Already grotesque beyond words, the dead infant now looked like a crudely sewn ragdoll—somehow even more horrifying than before.
And in the blink of an eye, it slammed straight into Steven, sending him flying.
Before Steven could be knocked completely out of its reach, the gray-white monstrosity stretched out a massive hand and seized his armor-clad body.
Then it dragged him straight down from the sky, plummeting toward the swamp below.
The tremendous impact instantly wiped Steven's HP to zero.
Even with the armor absorbing part of the blow, this strike was more than enough to outright kill him while he was still in Survival Mode. Just as Steven was about to meet an undignified end—
Crack
The doll-like charm clenched in his hand suddenly shattered.
Consciousness surged back in an instant, dragging him forcefully out of the brink of death.
Despite still being firmly gripped by the dead infant, and despite his HP continuing to drain, the smile on Steven's face only grew wider.
That hit had hurt, there's no doubt about it.
But it had also proven something very important.
This thing could be damaged.
And more than that, Steven had now figured out what its so-called Authority actually was.
His gaze flicked to the status panel in his field of vision, locking onto the debuff labeled [Corrosion X], then shifted to Yamato—now completely drained of durability after just a single exchange. Fortunately, in the SlashBlade system, a weapon at zero durability didn't instantly shatter. Otherwise, Steven would've had a real headache on his hands right about now.
The power of decay gnawed at his body, but as a Minecrafter, his existence was already something close to immortal. As long as the Minecraft world itself still existed, concepts like lifespan, erosion, or fading into nothingness simply didn't apply to him.
At worst, his gear and weapons might suffer under this Authority.
Ironically, the thing that hurt him the most was still that earlier, purely physical impact.
Now that he had the information he needed, Steven had already decided how this fight would end.
The fact that he was still trapped in the monster's grasp? That was just him waiting for the right moment.
The dead infant, meanwhile, seemed confused. Why hadn't the human in its hand withered into dry bones and crumbled into dust under the influence of Corrosion?
Yet its killing intent never wavered in the slightest.
Due to certain ancient agreements, gods like it could only interfere with Terra through avatars—unless someone actively provoked them.
And this mysterious man hadn't just provoked it.
He had marched straight into its territory and started swinging.
Even if the authorities of Ursus came knocking afterward, it would have more than enough justification to explain itself.
From the very start, this mysterious man had clearly come here with the intent to fight to the death.
This mysterious man did have some skill. That much was undeniable.
But in the end, he still didn't understand the gap between a human and a god.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have ended up like this—clutched helplessly in its grasp.
Just as the dead infant was considering how best to dispose of this infuriating opponent—
Something felt… wrong.
Its eyes widened.
Why hadn't it felt the impact of landing yet?
It should have already smashed into its swamp—the very heart of its domain.
A flicker of unease crept in as it looked down.
Beneath its feet, there was no swamp nor land.
Only an abyssal darkness so deep it defied description.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M