"The final opponent approaches at last..."
"The ritual draws to a close... your wish is about to be granted..."
"You have come this far, and those who wish to stop you will now attempt to do so... Time is short, so hasten your journey..."
"The last one!"
"The group I saw that day is probably nearing this place too. I wonder what plot twists their arrival will bring?"
"I don't believe deals with demons can be made that easily. I'm so excited!"
"I need to speed up my pace in defeating the last colossus!"
Mo Zhi exclaimed excitedly, dusting off her hands after her consciousness took over Mona's body.
"This week has been incredibly tough!"
A week had passed since she defeated the only two flying colossi, the Sky Serpents. During this time, she had smashed the fourteenth and fifteenth colossi.
It was precisely these two colossi, with their strong offensive urges, that made Mo Zhi appreciate the thirteenth flying colossus even more.
Despite being ranked so late in the sequence, it had never initiated an attack on players throughout the encounter.
The fiercer the colossi she defeated later, the stronger Mo Zhi's sense of guilt became.
However, Mo Zhi was an old player who had experienced hundreds of games. She was adept at concealing her emotions and pushed these thoughts aside to focus on the task at hand.
Now,
Only one thing remained – defeating the final colossus.
Charge! Charge! Charge!
"Luobo, gogogo!"
Mo Zhi waved her hand, and the little ox-horse Luobo eagerly rushed before her.
After nearly half a year of companionship in the game world, the understanding between the person and the beast had become flawless.
Riding on horseback, Mo Zhi steadily raised the Sword of Yesteryear, its concentrated beam pointing towards the location of the final colossus.
Her nearly month-long arduous journey was finally approaching its end.
Being able to witness Mona's King Vaal resurrected with her own eyes had also been her long-standing goal.
This trip seemed to be very far; just the journey took her two days and two nights in the game world.
Entering the canyon southeast of the temple, she took the right fork out of the valley and continued forward.
Then, she descended southward down a slope, and a colossal ruin loomed in the distance.
The entrance to the ruins was a stone gate. Before the stone gate, on a circular stone platform, light was shone onto a circular hole in the giant gate to open the passage to the ruins.
At the end of the passage, there was a staircase leading upwards. Beside it was a record monument. After Mo Zhi completed the recording, she rode her horse upstairs.
On the uppermost level, there was a broken bridge, and they were blocked before it.
Mo Zhi dismounted to examine the crack in the broken bridge.
"Damn it, I've finally arrived!"
"It took me so long to find this place!"
"But... this huge crack... it's not easy to cross."
Mo Zhi looked around. There were no tools to build a bridge or anything similar. The nearest forest was encountered a day ago. Should she go back to chop down trees and return?
No, no, no!
Mo Zhi quickly dismissed this idea; it would be too time-consuming.
"Jiu oh oh~~"
As Mo Zhi pondered, the perceptive little ox-horse made a sound.
"Oh my, how could I have forgotten about you!"
Mo Zhi slapped her forehead. Right, she wasn't alone. She had encountered similar difficult passages before, but never had a gap been this absurdly wide.
However, the little ox-horse paired with the system couldn't be judged by ordinary standards.
She had to leap across the bridge at full speed to save as much time as possible.
With that, she measured the distance of the broken bridge and, with the help of the physics knowledge from her viewers, Mo Zhi backed up nearly eighty meters for a running start.
"Giddy up!"
Cracking her whip, the little ox-horse Luobo's powerful limbs pushed off, and a sense of acceleration akin to a Ferrari followed closely.
Mo Zhi gripped the reins tightly, staring intently at the gap. About half a meter from the gap, Mo Zhi decisively raised the reins: "Jump!"
*Screech!!*
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!*
Luobo's magnificent form traced a graceful arc above the broken bridge, landing steadily on the broken bridge edge on the opposite side.
"Awesome! Luob—"
Before Mo Zhi could finish her praise, she felt her body sink, the bridge was collapsing!?
The next moment, a deafening sound echoed:
*Rumble!*
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!*
"Moo!"
As the person and the horse were about to fall into the valley, at the critical moment, Luobo pushed off forcefully with its hind legs, kicking its rear end back, and Mo Zhi was thrown off the horse's back, falling in a parabolic trajectory onto the solid bridge ahead.
The little ox-horse Luobo, however, fell into the deep valley along with the falling rocks.
"No!!"
The series of events stunned Mo Zhi. When she reacted and tried to reach out to pull Luobo, it was already gone.
"Luobo!!"
"Nooo!!"
Heart-wrenching roars echoed through the valley, the echoes traveling far, far away.
On this solitary journey, the only solace Mo Zhi found in her heart was this little ox-horse that had silently accompanied her.
It had carried Mo Zhi across mountains, through rivers, across deserts, and over straits, helping her evade the colossi's pursuit, traversing jungles and cliffs, always responding to her call without complaint.
A truly reliable companion!
Every time she escaped danger or started a trek, she would pat its shoulder as a reward.
Affection was forged through shared hardships, especially at the ends of the world, in this desolate place.
When she was nervous, lonely, or in need, a simple whistle would bring Luobo running to her. This feeling was something that an outsider's perspective in a movie could never convey.
But now, she had lost it!
Tears of regret welled up, blurring her vision and soaking her heart.
The thought that at the last moment of falling into the valley, Luobo's concern wasn't for its own safety but for using its last bit of strength to send her to safety.
That sorrowful feeling surged like a tide, relentlessly stimulating Mo Zhi's tear ducts.
*Rumble!*
At this moment, the weather, which had been unchanged, erupted with thunder and lightning, and a torrential downpour began, relentlessly washing away the tears on Mo Zhi's face.
'My god, I'm actually moved by a horse!'
'This... this atmosphere of sadness is absolutely incredible!'
'I never really paid much attention before, but the horse had already become an inseparable part of the player.'
'Honestly, everyone says this game has a heavy sense of loneliness. I never felt it when the horse was with Mo Zhi, but seeing Mo Zhi's empty surroundings now brought tears to my eyes!'
...
The audience, unexpected by such a sudden turn of events on the path to finding the colossus, offered words of comfort to the heartbroken Mo Zhi.
"I must defeat the final colossus!!"
"I must!!!"
Wiping away her tears, Mo Zhi clenched her fists, her fingernails digging into her palms, her knuckles turning slightly white.
Her resolve had reached its peak!
After crossing the broken bridge, Mo Zhi directly climbed the wall ahead, ascending to the highest point along the giant rocks.
Climbing the grassy wall on the left to the summit, she then moved left, continuing to climb the giant rocks to a platform passage. The exit was an open-air platform.
Finally, she climbed up to the very top along the stone pillars on either side of the platform. Looking down from the ten-thousand-meter summit, Mo Zhi's legs started to tremble.
Driven by a surge of resentment, she had unconsciously engaged in extreme sports?
*Boom, boom, boom!!*
Following the source of the booming sound, Mo Zhi's eyes widened instantly, her mouth opening so wide that an egg could fit inside.
She saw:
On the intermittently lit summit, a dark and eerie palace stood majestically. Two bright points of light resembled the all-consuming eyes of a hellish king!
By the light of the flames, Mo Zhi saw a giant hand slightly shift.
Her gaze followed the hand upwards, and Mo Zhi froze on the spot!
That 'palace'...
Was it... was it the final colossus??