Debuff Master

[Touch of Death]

[A powerful single-target attack skill of the Debuff Master.]

[This skill may only be used against a single target afflicted with the debuffs of the Debuff Master. It deals 2,500% of the Debuff Master’s Attack Power.]

[There is a chance to instantly kill the target upon a successful hit.]

[Cooldown: 1 hour]

[Mana Consumption: 50% of Maximum Mana]

[Warning: The skill can miss, and it will go on cooldown if it misses the target.]

Touch of Death allowed Siegfried to deal 2500% of his Attack Power as damage to his enemy. Siegfried considered Touch of Death as his Ultimate skill after he had discovered that it dealt forty percent more damage compared to Torrential Flower Rain.

Of course, the overpowered skill didn’t come without any weaknesses. He could only target one enemy among his many debuffed enemies, and he would still lose fifty percent of his Mana even if the skill failed to hit the target.

However, this skill was definitely worth the risk, judging by its power alone. It was strong enough to kill the Level 299 boss monster, Balrag, in a single hit.

Siegfried reckoned that even a powerful Master wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed after getting hit by it.

“You have to make them weaker than you, and then…”

“Kill them in one blow. It wouldn’t look cool if you have to hit them twice, so it has to be in a single blow.”

The Touch of Death was truly a skill befitting of Deus’ teachings to Siegfried.

“Touch of Death…?” Ingrid muttered.

“Yes.”

“That name… fits it perfectly.”

Ingrid found the name to be a bit childish, but she had no choice but to acknowledge it after seeing its destructiveness. Such a childish Chuuni name was permissible, as the skill killed Balrag in a single hit.

[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 231!]

Siegfried leveled up thanks to the Experience Points he had earned from Balrag.

[Alert: You have completed the Quest – ‘Escape From Eternity Isles’!]

The quest completion message popped up in front of his eyes.

“Can we finally leave this place…?” Siegfried muttered when all of a sudden…

Flash!

A bright light flashed in the skies above the Eternal Isles, and pillars of golden light shot up from the ground. There were exactly thirteen pillars of light, and their locations were exactly the places where the cursed knights spawned.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The cursed knights appeared one by one, including the ones who had fallen in battle.

“Thank you. Thank you so much…!”

The highest-ranking knight among the cursed knights approached Siegfried and earnestly thanked him.

“We are finally free from this island, thanks to you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Siegfried replied.

“We would have been stuck here for thousands—no, perhaps even until the end of the world if it hadn’t been for you.”

“Please don’t do what you did ever again,” Siegfried said with a smile. “Do you see what came of it? You got imprisoned and tortured for eternity.”

“All of us greatly regret what we’ve done, and not a day has passed in the last six hundred years that we haven’t regretted our actions.”

“That’s great, then.”

Siegfried believed that these knights had received enough punishment.

“Shall we escape from this place first?”

“Yes, all of us wish to leave this place even a fraction of a second sooner.”

“Let’s go.”

Siegfried led the knights deeper into the demon’s base, where a vast open field was located, and there was one large airship at the center of the vast field.

“W-What the hell?!” Siegfried was shocked after seeing the airship that was supposed to take him out of the Eternal Isles.

***

Siegfried was truly stupefied to see the airship

Why?

It was all because the airship that was supposed to break through the spell surrounding the island and take them out of here was in a pitiful state.

In fact…

Pffwaaah!

A portion of the airship crumbled after Siegfried shouted in surprise.

It was so old that mere sound waves were more than enough to make a portion of its hull crumble. The engines were also so rusted that it was difficult to tell whether it was an engine or a pile of scrap.

“Oh my god…!”

“Kuheok!”

“Is it truly impossible to escape…?”

“There was no way out of this island to begin with…”

“Noooo!”

The knights fell on their knees and despaired after seeing the state of the airship.

Despair.

They had been suffering over the past six hundred years, only for hope to come one day, but it turned out that the airship that was supposed to get them out of here had become nothing more than a pile of weathered old junk.

And the fact that the airship model was from six hundred years ago made it extremely clear that nobody was getting out of there…

This was a huge oversight from the Dragon Lord, Gerog.

The Dragon Lord had never imagined that the knights would one day defeat the boss monster, so he didn’t put much thought into the airship that was supposed to be their way out of the island.

In addition, the airship was nothing but a mere decoration to give false hopes to the traitors. Gerog was also confident that they wouldn’t be able to reach it after he set the power balance dead-equal to fifty-fifty.

“Damn it… What kind of a dragon misses things like this? Wait, perhaps the dragon was convinced that escape was impossible.”

“Haha… Probably…” Ingrid laughed in disbelief before asking, “What should we do?”

“What else? We should at least build a raft and get the hell out of here. I think the spell around the island has been lifted, so it should be fine now,” Siegfried replied.

“Okay, let’s build a raft then,” Ingrid nodded and agreed.

Rumble!

A rumbling sound abruptly echoed from up above.

‘Huh? What’s that sound?’ Siegfried wondered as he looked up at the clouds that covered the sun and brought darkness upon the island.

However, the clouds that covered the sun looked nothing like the clouds.

‘A d-dragon?!’ Siegfried was stunned after seeing the creature in the sky.

The dragon in the sky was at least five hundred meters long with glistening golden scales, and it looked far stronger than the dragons he had ever seen so far.

The powerful being looked down at Siegfried.

— There’s no need to make a raft. The curse has been lifted, but only an airship can get past the spell around the island.

“Are you…?”

— Yes, I am the Dragon Lord who punished those traitors six hundred years ago.

Explore the extended edition on pawread dot com.

“Ah, I see…” Siegfried muttered in an unimpressed tone. He then grumbled, “You should have paid more attention to the airship…”

— Hmm… I truly apologize for that. I never imagined that those traitors would be able to escape from the Eternal Isles, so I did not bother paying attention to the airship.

“So?”

— You insolent…

Gerog almost raged at Siegfried’s curt responses, but he couldn’t get mad at all.

“If you lay a single finger on my disciple, then I will lay a finger on you, too.”

— …?

“I’ll beat you to a pulp and stuff you with cotton. Then, I’ll hang you in my house as a piece of decoration. Got it?”

Deus threatened Gerog by saying that he would turn the latter into the world’s first stuffed dragon if he were to lay a single finger on Siegfried.

“Hold on… Should I stuff you and open an exhibit instead? I won’t have to worry about money to buy booze for the rest of my life, then! Kekeke!”

— H-Hiiik!

“So you better be on your best behavior, got it?”

— Y-Yes, Elder-nim!

Gerog could not dare to touch Siegfried after having a taste of Deus’ beating.

‘I should’ve just let those traitors escape after a few years, then I wouldn’t have to suffer this shame… Ugh…’

Gerog regretted being so sadistic about the punishment, but it was too late.

The milk had already been spilled.

—Ahem!

Gerog swallowed his anger and cleared his throat.

—You have successfully lifted the curse, so I will give you a new airship to leave.

The Dragon Lord waved his hand, and an airship appeared in the empty field where Siegfried and the others were located.

“Oh!”

“Wow!”

“That’s an airship?!”

Everyone was shocked after seeing the new airship.

‘Wow! Jackpot!’

Siegfried was stupefied upon seeing the new airship’s details.

[Huracan]

[A super airship created by the Dragon Lord himself.]

[It is equipped with fourteen cylinder engines that run on S-Grade Mana Stones, which allows it to fly at ferocious speeds.]

[It is capable of stealth and equipped with powerful cannons, making it extremely powerful not only in air-to-air combat but also in air-to-ground combat as well.]

[The hull is crafted from Mithril, which has bestowed upon it extremely high durability.]

[This airship can be used as a ship in waters as well with a maximum capacity of three hundred passengers.]

The airship that Gerog had decided to give him shone in a silver light that made it look far more elegant than most airships. The airship also looked like a shark, which made it appear extremely fierce.

“Are you really giving me this as a gift?”

—Yes. I don’t need it, so you can use it even after you’ve escaped the island.

“Oh!”

Siegfried was delighted after receiving the Huracan as a gift. ‘Wow! How much is this? I’m pretty sure even the empire doesn’t have something like this!’

The Dragon Lord had created the airship out of boredom, but it was a masterpiece without equal on the continent.

— Go, you are now free.

“Thank you!”

— Then, this Dragon Lord will excuse himself now.

Gerog opened a portal with warp magic and disappeared far away from the Eternal Isles. He went as far as he possibly could, afraid that Deus would come back and take him home as a pet.

“Let’s go!” Siegfried exclaimed at the cursed knights after receiving the super airship, Huracan, from the Dragon Lord.

***

Shwooooooosh!

The Huracan zipped through the air like a jet, and the Eternal Isles turned into a small dot before completely disappearing from view.

The leader of the knights approached Siegfried and earnestly thanked him.

“Thank you so much. We can now close our eyes in peace, and it’s all thanks to you.”

“Huh?” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion and asked, “What do you mean close your eyes in peace? You just escaped from the island; you’re finally free.”

“Escaping from the island does not grant us freedom but peace.”

“Huh?”

“We have been prisoners for the past six hundred years, and it is now time for us to rest,” the knight said with a bright smile.

The cursed knights started fading one by one as their bodies disintegrated after losing the sustain of the Dragon Lord’s mana.

However, none of the knights were crying. They were grinning at Siegfried.

Rest.

These knights wished for nothing but rest, and they would finally be able to rest.

“Thank you for giving us eternal rest.”

“Not at all; please rest well. You’ve suffered a lot,” Siegfried replied.

“We plan to do that. Although we have no idea if we’re going to heaven or hell…”

“You already paid for your sins, so you probably won’t be going to hell.”

“I hope so.” The leader started fading as well. “I guess I don’t have much time remaining. But I can’t simply go like this; I want to give you a small gift before I depart.”

“A small gift?”

“Here, take this,” the knight said and passed an hourglass to Siegfried.

[Alert: You have obtained Hourglass of Miracle!]

It was the quest reward for clearing the Escape From Eternal Isles quest.

“What is this?” Siegfried asked while staring at the hourglass.

“It will allow you to turn back time,” the knight replied.