SSS Awakening: I Can Create Skills By Will-Chapter 31: Cracks Toward Freedom

The awakeners felt it immediately.

A chill ran down their spines, not fear exactly, but awareness. The battlefield felt different. Clearer and quieter. Their hands stopped shaking and their breathing steadied.

"What is that..." someone whispered.

"Why does it feel like... like standing near him makes it easier to breathe?"

Arthur didn’t hear them as he concentrated on the boss who felt the opposite.

It froze for a fraction of a second, instincts screaming as something heavier than it pressed down. Rage flared and it charged anyway, muscles bulging as it forced itself forward.

A death charge.

Arthur stepped off the pillar.

He landed lightly, blade low, eyes calm.

"Oh," he said, voice carrying. "You still want this?"

The boss roared, sound tearing through the air.

Arthur then moved.

Intent Step carried him forward, not away. He slipped under the first swing, close enough that the creature’s breath washed over him. His blade traced a silver arc, carving deep into flesh as he passed.

Slash.

The monster staggered.

Arthur pivoted, foot snapping out to crush its knee joint.

Crack.

"Too slow," Arthur said.

The boss swung wildly. Arthur weaved through it, movements elegant, almost lazy. Each step felt guided, like the battlefield itself was aligning around him.

The aura followed.

Pressure pressed down on the boss, its movements growing heavier, coordination slipping. Its roar fractured into snarls as instinct failed to keep up.

Arthur laughed softly.

"That’s it? You chased me for this?"

He vanished again, reappearing behind the monster, blade plunging into its spine. Tainted mana seeped out as intent flooded the wound, his authority tearing through its corrupted structure.

Boom!.

The boss thrashed, smashing the ground, halberd whipping in a desperate arc. Arthur rode the shockwave, sliding across rubble, then kicked off and launched himself upward.

He landed on the monster’s shoulder.

Up close, its eye locked onto him, burning with hatred.

Arthur leaned in.

"Look at you," he said, almost kindly. "All that power and no spine."

He drove his blade down.

The Sovereign’s Domain surged.

And the monster’s instincts collapsed.

Its body froze.

As Arthur twisted the blade and released everything.

A sound like a bell cracking echoed across the battlefield.

KRRRRAAAASH.

The boss’s core shattered.

Energy imploded inward, then burst apart in a violent cascade. Arthur flipped away as the massive body collapsed, hitting the ground with a thunderous crash that shook the ruins.

Silence followed.

The awakeners stood frozen, eyes wide, mouths open.

Arthur landed, straightened, and rolled his shoulder like he’d just finished stretching.

"Haa," he sighed. "That was starting to get boring."

Behind him, the boss lay dead.

And the battlefield held its breath.

For now, only one thing mattered.

Arthur stood alone, his Sovereign Domain settling around him like a throne no one else could see.

The moment the boss hit the ground, something felt... wrong.

Not dangerous. just empty.

The massive corpse lay still, dark energy leaking out in slow, dying wisps. For a single heartbeat, the battlefield stood frozen, as if the dungeon itself did not know how to react.

Then the skeletons began to fall apart.

It started small.

A bony arm missed a swing and crumbled into ash mid air.

A skull fractured, empty sockets flickering before dissolving into drifting motes.

Then another.

And another.

Like puppets whose strings had been cut, the risen dead collapsed one after another. Bones clattered across the floor, then softened, then faded entirely, leaving nothing behind but faint grey dust that scattered under weak currents of dungeon wind.

The awakeners stared.

One of them dropped to his knees, weapon slipping from numb fingers.

"It’s... it’s stopping..."

Another watched a skeleton disintegrate inches from her face.

"They’re disappearing!"

Relief hit like a wave.

Someone laughed. Loud. Broken. Almost hysterical.

Someone else started crying.

Weapons fell.

People slumped against shattered walls.

A few raised their fists into the air and screamed without words, just raw sound spilling out of chests that had been compressed by fear for far too long.

"We’re alive!"

"WE’RE ALIVE!"

The shout spread.

Laughter mixed with sobbing.

Some hugged each other without knowing names.

Some simply lay on their backs, staring at the ruined ceiling like they had just woken from a nightmare.

Arthur stood apart from it all.

As he rested with his breathing was heavy.

He exhaled slowly.

Then again.

The tight pressure in his chest loosened, just a little.

...That was close.

Closer than he liked.

He watched the group from a distance, their celebration messy and imperfect but real.

Good.

They had earned it.

For a few seconds, he let himself enjoy the sight.

Then a voice cut through the noise.

"Hey."

It wasn’t loud.

But it carried.

A slim mage, face pale and streaked with grime, pointed toward the far end of the chamber.

"The seal."

Silence crept back in.

But it wasn’t from fear or panic

Dozens of heads turned at the same time, as thry lookec at the oppressive structure that still stood. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

it was cracked and dim, but not gone.

Dark veins pulsed weakly across its surface, struggling to hold shape.

Someone clicked their tongue.

"yeah, it really isn’t over."

A warrior tightened his grip.

"Then we finish it."

There was no need for a speech, or long discussion as they moved.

Like a tired but stubborn tide, the awakeners charged.

Fireballs flew first, wind blades followed after. Spears of ice slammed into the seal’s surface.

Blades, hammers, arrows, and fists joined in.

Boom! Crack! THUD!

Every hit landed with more emotion than technique.

Anger. Fear. Grief. Frustration.

Everything they had bottled up since being dragged into this place poured into their attacks.

As the seal shuddered in response. Thin fractures spread like spiderwebs across its surface.

With each crack, a hiss of black mist leaked out.

Tainted mana.

It rolled across the ground in sluggish waves, carrying a stench that burned the nose and coated the tongue with bitterness.

People coughed. Some gagged. A few staggered back, clutching their stomachs.

But none of them stopped.

"Don’t slow down!"

"Hit it again!"

"Break this damn thing!"

A lightning bolt slammed into the seal.

CRACK!.