The Last Legendary Weapons Master: Rise of the strongest player-Chapter 63: Level Ascension (1)

The world around Ethan warped once more, reality folding in on itself as the final fragments of Mathius’ memories unfolded before him.

The strange Night Lord he had seen moments earlier vanished along with the previous vision ... yet Ethan could not move past what had happened.

Cold sweat slid down his back.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears, rapid and unrelenting.

"How did he recognize me? How did he see me? These are nothing but memories..."

Ethan pressed a hand over his face, trying to steady himself.

"The Night Lords are different. I suffered endlessly against them in the game... There were times I nearly lost hope because of them."

"But I only ever faced them as bosses. I know nothing of who they truly are—only fragments from their cutscenes..."

His encounter with Gladios, Wisdom of Night had shaken him far more than he cared to admit.

Yet he forced himself to move on.

Mathius’ memories had entered their final phase.

The phase after his transformation—into a gray-skinned, white-haired ravager.

"What are you trying to show me... Mathius?"

Ethan muttered with a frown.

"There’s no way you dragged me here just to make me relive your pain... You must have wanted to convey something."

A message. Anything.

Over the next fleeting minutes, Ethan witnessed Mathius’ life after becoming a monster.

Freed from the Blood Curse of the Heart, he had fallen instead to the Curse of Darkness.

Yet in that twisted rebirth, he had gained something.

Freedom—from Ardyn.

Mathius had been strong. A knight of King rank.

Because of that, he retained fragments of his true self even after his transformation.

And it showed.

In the years that followed, he built an entire army of monsters—forming a legion under his command.

The most striking truth?

Every single one of those monsters had once been Heart.

Men and women like him ... who had lived for years as slaves beneath the ruling family of Ardyn, exploited until their final breath.

Mathius led that monstrous legion not under the will of the curse ... But out of vengeance.

His hatred for Ardyn burned so fiercely that it endured even beyond his humanity.

He became obsessed with freedom.

Enslavement became his deepest trauma.

And in his terror of ever becoming a slave again...

He crowned himself king of his legion.

He would become the highest authority.

The one no one could command.

Ethan watched with an expression devoid of emotion.

Mathius’ legion was powerful. It quickly reached the borders of Ardyn.

But that path led him to clash with those he had once fought beside.

The Hearts.

The first line of defense against the curse.

The warriors Ardyn had used as shields to protect their kingdom.

Mathius’ march halted before the city the Heart inhabited at that time.

Ethan stared at it, puzzled.

It was not Ashvarn.

But it resembled it greatly.

Unable to breach the city, Mathius established his stronghold directly before it.

That was the day the Legacy Dungeon—the very one Ethan had slain him in—was born.

For months, war raged.

Mathius’ vast monster legion against the formidable Heart hunters.

The battlefield roared with bloodshed.

Humans and monsters alike fell in staggering numbers.

Watching from the sidelines, Ethan exhaled slowly.

"Mathius... You thought becoming a monster would make you free."

"But you only chained yourself to a different kind of slavery."

As he spoke, he watched Mathius slaughter hunters who stood in the path of his vengeance.

"You became a slave to the Curse of Darkness. A slave to the urge to kill humans. To the point you butchered your own kin under the excuse of revenge."

Ethan did not want to see more.

But he needed to witness the end.

The conclusion of the man who had lived and died as a slave.

The scene shifted once more.

The final day of the war arrived.

The months-long conflict ended in a single day.

When the true monsters appeared.

Hunters of the Heart.

All of them King rank ... like Mathius himself.

They had been absent, used by the ruling family of Ardyn in wars against other kingdoms.

But as the curse’s borders destabilized, Ardyn sent them back to crush the uprising.

Among them—

One figure seized Ethan’s attention above all others.

A knight clad in full golden armor.

His face completely concealed.

His strength.

His speed.

His movements.

All existed on an entirely different plane.

Overwhelming power.

An oppressive presence that dominated the battlefield.

Watching in stunned silence, Ethan realized one thing with absolute certainty.

"This isn’t King rank..."

"It surpasses it."

At minimum, High King rank.

Equivalent to level 70 or above.

Like Asterion Heart.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that man ended the war alone.

He was ruthless.

Arrogant.

Absolute.

The vision shifted one final time.

Ethan witnessed the moment Mathius lost.

The last battle unfolded in the throne hall where Mathius had entrenched himself ... the place where he had cemented his authority as King of Monsters.

The golden knight crushed him effortlessly.

Completely.

But he did not kill him.

He possessed a peculiar ability—the power to summon weapons from nothingness and hurl them with effortless precision, like arrows... or, more accurately, like missiles.

With that power, he pinned Mathius in place, forcing him to kneel before his own throne. Then he bound him with those immensely powerful golden chains.

"I will not kill you. Death is a freedom you do not deserve."

Ethan heard the golden knight’s cold voice echo deep within his mind.

"Before the throne you built with your own hands... rot there for eternity. A pitiful slave who cannot even end his own life."

What the golden knight did was a slap across Mathius’ very existence—a cruel return to zero.

In the end, he had never escaped slavery at all.

Ethan felt his rage, his despair, as he thrashed against the golden swords and chains, utterly unable to free himself.

As the years passed, his monsters returned to life—because in Ordeal, monsters always resurrect so long as the controlling boss remains alive.

Yet they could not save Mathius.

The golden knight had sealed the gate with those same chains.

And so, even those mindless beasts were freer than Mathius himself.

The wretched king who spent the remainder of his existence imprisoned...

Until Ethan arrived.

A man not even level ten had slain a King-ranked monster.

It was a humiliating end—yet it granted him release.

Only then did Mathius understand.

He should have died from the beginning.

Rather than transform into a monster.

Rather than commit what he had committed.

It was a miserable tale—one unworthy of being told, or remembered.

At first, Ethan gained nothing from it.

But in the end...

Everything changed.

The true meaning of those memories was not Mathius, nor his pitiful life ...

But the golden knight.

Ethan watched in stunned silence as, after defeating Mathius, the knight strode toward the throne.

At first, he did not understand why.

But moments later, the golden knight did something that shocked him.

Something Ethan had never known—despite all his experience with the game.

The golden knight moved the throne.

A hidden path revealed itself beneath it.

A concealed stairway leading into the unknown.

The knight descended through it.

Moments later, the empty throne returned to its place, sealing the entrance completely... leaving Mathius alone to rot.

That was the conclusion.

The story of a boss Ethan had lived through so vividly he had felt every emotion the man carried throughout his life.

And it ended in a way that opened a new path for Ethan.

As the memories concluded, darkness dragged him back toward reality. Seconds later, he opened his eyes once more and found himself standing inside the royal hall of the present.

"I only saw you as a tool for leveling up, Mathius Heart... yet I ended up witnessing your memories. And all they did was strengthen my resolve to break free from this curse."

Ethan slowly regained his senses.

The first thing he felt was a cold, metallic weight in his human hand.

His eyes widened as he looked down.

A katana.

Black in color, with deep violet hues shimmering faintly across its sharp, frigid edge.

The mere act of holding it sent a shiver down his spine. He did not even need to see its stats.

One glance was enough.

He knew... This weapon was extraordinary.

The weapon born from Mathius’ soul.

"Amazing... I’ve never seen a weapon like this before. Could it be one of the Great Katanas?"

Ethan muttered as he opened his Player System interface.