My Avatar Is Becoming the Final Boss-Chapter 58: Twins

The lights went out completely at that moment, and the entire Roppongi EX Theater was devoured by the beast known as “darkness.” Only a faint candle flame flickered on the stage, casting the twisted shadow of the Spider Demon’s movements on the wall.
“This is creepy as h*ll…” Ji Minghuan thought.
He stood in the aisle leading to the stage, with audience seating on both sides.
The Queen Piece guarded at his side, cold flames flickering in its pupils.
He remained alert to every stir of wind and rustle in the vast theater. Shadows on the wall clearly swayed, but the Spider’s limbs couldn’t be seen in the dark—only faint rustling sounds could be heard.
At that moment, Ji Minghuan released Tianqu from within. The black-and-white loop formed around him.
He raised his hand and touched the spinning chess pieces, summoning all the remaining ones at once—three Pawn Colossi, one Rook Colossus, and one King Colossus.
The reason there were two extra Pawn Pieces was that Ji Minghuan had unlocked the "Recruit Pawns" skill in the skill tree, gaining two brand-new Pawn Pieces.
The iron Pawns raised their greatswords and knelt by his side; the Rook Colossus spun, loading shells with a mechanical clatter from the barrel; the King Colossus stood like a cripple, motionless, holding its scepter high.
With Tianqu active, Ji Minghuan’s mind also gained an "overhead view"—he felt like he was standing on the ceiling, looking down at the center of EX Theater.
Just like a player watching the moves on the board.
This perspective covered a circle with himself at the center and a radius of thirty meters. Ji Minghuan’s chess pieces could only operate within that circle—essentially, the "board." The player could always observe the whole board but could only manipulate pieces within it.
Once outside the board’s range, pieces would automatically return to the black-and-white loop at his side.
The only piece exempt from this rule was the "Queen Colossus."
He had tested this earlier, and it matched Xia Pingzhou’s memories: the Queen could act outside the board’s range, which was why it could take out all the theater’s cameras one by one.
As the "King Colossus" appeared in the aisle, black-and-white light rose from its scepter and formed an invisible barrier that enveloped Ji Minghuan.
This was the King Colossus’s special power: as long as it remained on the board and wasn’t destroyed, the player couldn’t be harmed on any level.
With the King’s protection, Ji Minghuan could now observe the battlefield with the board perspective without concern.
His vision was blurred in the darkness, and at this point, his eyes only got in the way. So he simply shut them and relied solely on the "board perspective" in his mind to perceive the theater.
Like wearing night vision goggles, he could see every detail in the dark—the Spider Demon’s body slid across the ceiling at times, crawled across the northwest seating area at others… She moved unpredictably, a phantom drifting from place to place, attack direction unknown.
The hoarse singing still echoed through the theater: “蝶々は二つに分かれど、心は一つ。” (Though the twin butterflies are split, their hearts are one.) She was singing a famous line from the kabuki play The Diary of the Twin Butterflies of the Pleasure Quarters, a tragic tale of twin sisters in love.
Interwoven with the singing were the crisp snaps of her joints twisting—click, clack…
Ji Minghuan remained unfazed.
He quietly calculated his next move. Each time the Queen Colossus used "phasing," it needed about 10 seconds to cool down.
Having the Queen protect the King using “phasing” was certainly an option.
But it would also be like cutting off his own arm—after all, the Queen was the strongest of the four basic pieces. A player couldn’t rely on defense alone. Sometimes, the best defense was a strong offense.
Suddenly, in his board view, the Spider Demon appeared.
She was hanging upside down by a strand of silk from the ceiling right above Ji Minghuan’s head, launching a dive attack, crashing down like a deformed mountain.
“Rook.”
Catching that instant, the Iron Rook subtly adjusted its cannon and aimed upward.
BOOM!—a deafening blast. A dark shell shot out of the barrel and struck the demon midair. Fire burst out like fireworks.
The Spider Demon shrieked, her hoarse crooning replaced by a piercing scream.
Flames like liquid spread over her thick fur, engulfing her body. Every one of her limbs twisted with a crackling sound, like strings of firecrackers popping off.
At that moment, the Spider Demon was less than a meter from Ji Minghuan.
The explosion happened dangerously close. Under normal circumstances, he would’ve been caught in the blast—best case, scorched bald. But thanks to the King’s protection and the black-and-white barrier, he was completely unharmed.
Taking advantage of the momentum, Ji Minghuan commanded the Queen Colossus to leap from the audience seats toward the ceiling.
Like a dancing swan, she spun midair, gathering momentum. The twin daggers in her hands drew a sharp arc, forming a gleaming crescent.
Hiss— The Spider Demon suddenly opened her mouth midair and spat a mass of silk, wrapping herself in a cocoon.
The move not only snuffed out the fire on her body, but also blocked the Queen’s assault—the Queen’s daggers only carved grooves into the cocoon. The sticky silk absorbed much of the impact like a circular swamp—the harder you struggled, the deeper you sank.
“Don’t attack the cocoon—cut the silk that’s holding her up.” Ji Minghuan gave orders using his global view.
Before gravity could drag the Queen down to the audience seats, she flicked her right-hand dagger like a backhand throw.
Riding a chill wind, the dagger drew a silver arc through the air and sliced the silk that suspended the cocoon.
A screech echoed through the theater as the spider cocoon tumbled from the air.
And waiting directly beneath it were the three Iron Pawns, ready in formation.
The Pawns raised their giant swords high, blades pointed toward the falling cocoon—like ancient soldiers poised with spears, ready to skewer a lone enemy. The Demon inside would be riddled with holes.
However… just as Ji Minghuan thought victory was assured, a malformed creature appeared in his board view.
His heart jolted. He opened his eyes and looked up—there on the ceiling crawled a monster identical to the Spider Demon, except this one had a man’s face instead of a woman’s. What was the same were the twisted, grotesque expressions on both their faces, like vengeful spirits freshly dredged from hell’s sulfur springs.
“Wait… there’s more than one Spider Demon?” Ji Minghuan murmured.
Then it hit him—that line the Spider Demon had sung earlier: “Though the twin butterflies are split, their hearts are one…” The lyrics had foreshadowed it all along: lurking inside the theater was a pair of twin Spider Demons.
At this moment, the Queen had just landed from the air, the Pawns were surrounding the fallen cocoon, and the Rook hadn’t finished loading its second shell.
That left the King Colossus completely alone.
And from the shadows, the second Spider Demon dropped down, claws whirling on its eight legs, shrieking as it dove straight at the King.