Before Poduria could finish her sentence, the grim truth of her words struck Orioros like a thunderbolt. His face first registered shock, then horror, and finally, he broke free from Leotrus's embrace and his friends' grasp. Shrieking and crying in anguish, he pounded his head against the ground before attempting to flee, blood streaming from his temple as he wailed:
"Oh… oh… my Roiran! I didn't know! What have I done?! I didn't know! I swear I didn't know! What have I done! What have I done! I didn't know! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
As Orioros cried out and attempted to flee, specks of the glow from Aurelia's fading body followed him. The onlookers watched in sudden shock and piercing silence as Aurelia's form dissipated into the glow, leaving nothing behind but a clean floor. Kneeling before her, Armis bore the weight of pity-filled gazes from everyone.
Then, as Aurelia's face began to disintegrate into the glow, a green light enveloped Armis's body. Initially drawing stern gazes from those watching, the scene soon filled them with horror and apprehension as Armis began to rise to his feet.
As time seemed to freeze, every motion slowed to a crawl, and the air became stagnant. Only Alan's eyes captured the full horror of the spectacle unfolding before him. Armis moved with a blurring speed, even in Alan's slowed perception, as he lunged toward the crying, shrieking Orioros, who was attempting to flee.
When time resumed its normal pace, shock and horror filled the onlookers as Armis suddenly appeared in front of the terrified Orioros. With both hands, Armis clutched Orioros's head tightly.
In a heartbeat, Armis locked eyes with Orioros, his gaze filled with a potent mix of vengeance and anguish. Orioros barely had a moment to comprehend what was happening before Armis sprang into action. With a surge of raw strength, Armis drove his knee into Orioros's gut with bone-crushing force, the impact sending shockwaves through Orioros's body.
A sickening crack echoed through the air as a joint of Orioros's spine broke, tearing through his back like shrapnel. Blood sprayed, splattering Leotrus's face, who watched in horror and disbelief.
The shockwave of the blow rippled through the crowd as Armis didn't pause for a moment. Without waiting for Orioros's blood to stain his armor, Armis stretched Orioros's head and neck, swiftly twisting it with minimal effort. In an instant, Orioros's neck snapped backward, tearing his soul from his body.
Leotrus could only hear the sickening sound of Orioros's final breath and the bones snapping, crushing flesh, but he felt something deeper—the weight of Orioros's lifeless body hitting the ground with a resounding thud.
In that moment, Leotrus sensed the absence, the void left behind by his lover's departure. With each passing second, it felt as though a part of his own soul was being torn away.
As the crimson glow shifted towards Armis, absorbing even the remnants of Orioros's fading form, Leotrus was consumed by a torrent of emotions.
The same pain and anguish that Armis had felt when Aurelia drew her last breath now surged through Leotrus. But alongside the grief, there was a fiery anger, a seething rage that mirrored Armis's own. In that moment, Leotrus found himself propelled by the same relentless fury that had driven Armis to mercilessly end Orioros's life.
Leotrus, without even bothering to roll up his sleeves, summoned his knives and hurled them at Armis. But much like his pained screams, his attacks seemed futile against the figure now standing stoically, absorbing the glow emanating from Orioros's fading body.
Refusing to give up, Leotrus lunged forward, knives in hand, ready to strike at Armis. But just as suddenly as he had attacked, he came to an abrupt halt.
A sudden chill filled the air, sending shivers down everyone's spines. A wretched laugh echoed through the chamber, piercing their ears and forcing them to cover them in a vain attempt to escape the sound. The grim twist of events came to a halt as the voice spoke:
"OH MY DEVIL!!!!!"
All eyes turned toward the source of the words, a mix of a demonic shriek and a woman's voice coming from above. They looked up, feeling a terrifying swing of emotions, shock and apprehension mingling as they beheld the demonic presence above them.
There stood a woman, her skin grey as ash with scales covering her legs and hands, which extended into dark, demonic talons and claws.
Her heavy breasts were obscured by a grotesque growth resembling a blouse. Her slender abdomen was covered in burn marks twisted into etchings resembling the ancient characters on the door. A loincloth made of the same disgusting growth covered her nether region, while her legs were marked with the same burned etchings.
Her long hair swirled like snakes around two giant horns atop her head. Her face bore four demonic eyes, long, pointy ears, and dark lips, behind which lay a jaw filled with sharp teeth. As she spoke, her long, demonic tongue hung out.
Hovering above them with bat-like wings stretching from her back, she said, "You humans are entertaining! He was right; a little bit of envy within each of your hearts is enough to spark a flame of chaos in your cowardly souls. But oh my devil, I didn't expect this to happen. Oh, I feel so SATISFIED!!!!"
She yelled out, touching and embracing herself suggestively, contorting her body in a bizarre manner. Everyone watched silently, their previous grief replaced by horror and apprehension at the sudden appearance. She laughed once more at her terrified audience before waving mockingly and speaking in her wretched voice:
"Well… I am going to need more of that, so please come find me in the main council room as soon as—"
———THWACHHKKK——THWOOPP——
Her words were abruptly cut off by a resounding impact that broke the wind behind him, destroying the floor where he stood. In an instant, Armis lunged at the demon, grabbing her head with skull-crushing force, his fingers digging into her skin and eliciting her green blood. With a death glare and gritted teeth, Armis's entire body was enveloped in the same blinding light Alan had seen when Armis had killed and absorbed Augustus.
Everyone watched in stunned silence. The fading sound of Armis's ascent and the impact of his grip on the demon's head filled the air, but all sounds faded as Armis spun and, with a throw so forceful it broke the wind and left sound behind, hurled the demon through the giant wooden gate connected to the large stairway.
The impact shattered the gate into a hundred pieces, filling the air with an explosion of wind and debris so deafening that everyone covered their ears and squinted their eyes once more against the sudden blow.
As the dust and air began to settle, a shriek from the demon filled the silence. The shining form of Armis lunged into the shattered opening with blurring speed. The silence returned, punctuated only by the sounds of settling debris and the labored breaths of those left behind.
Alan took slow, deep breaths, looking around. Every face stood expressionless, each person struggling to process the whirlwind of emotions and the bizarre turn of events. Grief, shock, and confusion mingled in the air, leaving them all in a state of stunned silence.
Then, suddenly, Leotrus's rage resurfaced. The absence of Orioros's breathing, his aura, and his touch pierced Leotrus's grieving heart like needles. Without a word or glance to anyone, he bolted, eliciting startled gazes from everyone as they watched him follow Armis through the opening created by the destruction of those wretched and painful moments.
Alan watched Leotrus cross the threshold and disappear into the darkness. His gaze shifted to Longiseus, who acted quickly, picking up one of the knapsacks. Addressing Arian and Lady Roartad, Longiseus commanded, "Quick, gather our stuff and follow him. We can't leave him alone right now, not with that monster..." Longiseus shot a subtle but clear side glare at Alan, revealing his changed intentions.
Blood surged in Alan's veins at the sudden gesture. He looked around and called out to Relecta, who was standing still, tears in her eyes as she gazed at the spot where Aurelia's body had lain. "Relecta!" Alan's sharp call snapped her back to attention. Turning to Lyco and Poduria, he shouted, "Lyco! Poduria! Forgive me, but we don't have time to grieve. Gather our belongings. We have to follow Armis before anything else happens. C'mon!"
Alan shot a final glare at Longiseus, who, with Arian and Lady Roartad, had already gathered their belongings and started up the large stairway. Though still drowning in grief, the urgency of the situation was clear to everyone.
They quickly gathered and stuffed whatever they could find into their packs. With Alan leading the way, they moved swiftly towards the stairway, ready to face whatever awaited them ahead.
Alan ran at full speed, leading Relecta, Lyco, and Poduria, who were just steps behind. Ahead, Longiseus led Arian and Lady Roartad, chasing after the rage-driven Leotrus. Longiseus called out, urging him to stop.
"Leotrus! Leotrus! Please stop! More bloodshed isn't going to help anyone! Leotrus!"
"I don't care, Commander! I will make him pay! I will kill him with my own hands! Just like he… just like h—" Leotrus's words trailed off, but his pace did not.
They made their way through devastated hallways and destroyed rooms, leaping over debris. The destruction told a story of Armis's relentless pursuit of the demon.
As Alan ran, he glanced at the faces of his friends. Their eyes were devoid of emotion, filled only with confusion. Should they feel sadness, anger, or horror? Their features were a blur of indecision. They followed Alan with dread in their hearts, anticipating what fresh hell awaited them and how it would toy with their emotions. Only Alan and Longiseus displayed any clear emotion. Longiseus wore a mask of desperate helplessness as he tried to reason with Leotrus. Alan's face was stern, his mind racing as he took in the ruined walls, torn drapes, and shattered furniture.
"This is a castle," Alan mumbled under his breath, the realization sinking in as he remembered his earlier conversation with Orioros. The destruction around them confirmed it: the hallways, the rooms, the remnants of doors, chairs, and drapes. All of it pointed to a place that had once been grand but was now a shadow of its former self.
But the structure wasn't the only thing supporting Alan's statement. As they moved through the rooms, Alan noticed something else: they were no longer encountering the large gates or stairs akin to the early floors. Dread and apprehension tightened their grip on Alan's heart as he realized they were not in what they used to refer to as 'Relic Castle' anymore. He wasn't even sure if they were still climbing upward.
The ever-changing territory they were traversing was becoming a reality he couldn't ignore, filled with horrifying facts that confirmed his earlier, perhaps insincere, warnings to Longiseus.
As they entered through another destroyed wooden door into a dimly illuminated, debris-filled hallway, Alan noticed another striking change. Despite the constant chaos that spoke of Armis's struggle with the demon, the area was not shrouded in shadows anymore. The creatures of the shadows, which Orioros had shown him earlier, were nowhere to be found. Everything—every brick, every stone—was clear and visible, devoid of the eerie darkness that had previously enveloped the castle.
Alan's eyes darted around the now-visible surroundings, the clarity revealing the full extent of the castle's ruin. His companions followed, their footsteps echoing in the silence, every face marked by the same mix of confusion and dread.
The absence of shadows and the clear visibility of their path did little to ease their anxiety; if anything, it amplified the reality of their situation. They were no longer navigating a mysterious ruin but a tangible, crumbling fortress where their fears took solid form.
Even after what felt like an hour of running, the rage within Leotrus didn't abate. Everyone except him, Longiseus, and Alan seemed to be feeling the toll of their relentless pace. Yet, Leotrus charged ahead, mumbling like a madman, eerily similar to Orioros.
Longiseus's desperation didn't waver; his constant yelling and urging of Leotrus to stop continued unabated. Alan, oblivious to the shouting, kept his focus on the surroundings, noting hints and signs of their new terrain. He had counted nine giant destruction openings and large destroyed wooden gates they had passed through. If his theory was correct, then any moment now—
"LEOTRUS, HALT NOW!!! That is an order!!! There is a demon with him, and I will not let you risk your life for such useless t—"
"IT IS NOT USELESS!!! AND I DON'T CARE, COMMANDER!!!" Leotrus broke through Longiseus's desperate attempt to stop him, his rage propelling him forward even faster. He yelled back in anger, "I don't know why you're not as angry as I am, Commander, but I don't care! I will avenge Orioros! I will kill that demon as well if I have to, BUT THAT MAN IS GOING TO DIE TODAY!!!"
"We are just as angry, Leotrus!!!" Arian exclaimed, adding his voice to Longiseus's efforts to halt their companion. Lady Roartad echoed the sentiment, speaking in a similar tone, "Yes, Leotrus. Please stop. Let us talk. We will find a way to ease your grief, but what you are doing will achieve nothing."
"YES, IT WILL, I W—" Leotrus's retort was cut short as he suddenly stopped, frozen amidst the debris of large stones. The earth beneath their feet shivered, trembling intermittently. Each stone on the floor beneath them shook, sending waves of dread through their hearts.
Everyone halted, feeling the dreadful tremors. They slowly walked toward Leotrus, who had become motionless, the knives slipping from his hands with a clang drowned out by another tremor.
As they entered a chamber resembling a council room of a castle, its already ruined structure had been devastated further. Green liquid covered every wall, inch of the floor, and even the destroyed remnants of a stone table and wooden chairs. The red drapes had been painted green with the same liquid. When they realized the origin of the liquid covering the chamber, their eyes widened with horror, their lips and throats drying in terror.
Armis stood before them, covered in a new form of armor made of strong-looking obsidian from head to toe. His arms were no longer covered with simple plates but proper gauntlets adorned with small spikes and heavy coatings of obsidian on his fists.
His head was encased in a helm, with a crown-like crest and a blue sapphire embedded in it, resting on his head. Only his face, with rage-filled glowing eyes and bulging veins, was exposed. His legs were encased in hard obsidian, and his boots had strong heels.
With those heels Armis relentlessly stomped on the back of the demon, holding tightly onto her nearly torn-off wings. With each stomp, he expanded the crater beneath the creature, filling it with more of her green blood. Lyco, standing beside the stunned Leotrus, managed to move his lips through the dread enveloping his body. "So… still think you can kill him?"
Lyco spoke with grim sternness, his eyes fixed on Armis along with everyone else. Armis had finally halted his stomping, freeing the floor from the tremors.
He grabbed the demon by the neck, his fingers digging into her bruised and gashed skin. She was a pitiful sight: one side of her abdomen was missing, the growth on her breast had been torn off, leaving a gaping wound on her chest. The upper side of her face had been punched through, leaving a hole where her eye used to be, extending to her ear and half her temple.
Armis lifted her above his head, keeping his grip on her wings with one hand. With a powerful yank, he elicited a painful, bellowing shriek and a splatter of green blood from her back. He tore her wings off along with much of her back skin, exposing her green, bloody muscles.
The demon screamed in agony as Armis threw her back onto the floor. Her screams of pain echoed as Armis walked towards her.
Noticing Alan and the others watching her torturous demise, humility and desperation filled her tone. Pleading with her remaining eye, she wept, "Please! Please save me! Save me from this monster, he will kill me. I don't want to die! Please! Please! I will tell you! I will tell you about the wish! You can use it to revive your friends! Please save me! PLEASE!"
As Armis raised his foot in a blinding rage, ready to stomp through the demon, Alan caught onto her words. He quickly moved through the group and bellowed from the top of his lungs, "ARMIS! HERO GOLIATH! Halt!"
As if on cue, Alan's words pulled Armis out of his rage. He stopped suddenly, taking a step back. The demon lowered her face, taking bated breaths of relief as she began to calm down. Alan crouched before her. Seeing him, she raised her gaze, and Alan, looking into her eyes with a stern expression, asked, "Come on, tell us now. What is this wish you are talking about?"
"Yes, yes," the demon stammered, eagerly complying as she sat up staggeringly. "The wish, it is a reward you receive after conquering the Monster Lord of the 100th floor. You can use that wish for anything—immortality, immense power, even the revival of the dead. It can grant you anything."
"Just like the legends," Longiseus remarked as he came through the group, his expression contemplative as he gazed at the demon. Hearing Longiseus's remark, her eagerness grew, and she explained further, "Yes, yes, the legends are true. Once you all get through these trials, you will prove yourselves to the king, and he will grant you that wish. Now, please, I have told you what you wanted to know. Let me go, let me live, please, I beg you, let me—"
———thwouppphhhhh———
The air had just begun to fill with contemplation and surprise when suddenly Armis filled every eye with horror once again. Without even letting the demon finish her pleas, he kicked through her head so hard that it exploded in a burst of green blood and pieces of bone and flesh, the resounding echo filling the whole chamber for a moment. Almost deafened, Alan's stunned eyes and hearing returned to normal when the demon's lifeless body fell to the ground with a thud.
"What the hell, Armis? Why would you do that?!" Alan yelled at Armis in anger.
"What do you mean? We got what we wanted. It served no use to us anymore," Armis replied in a stern tone, picking up the lifeless body of the demon. Holding it near his armor, black specks of glow emerged, seeping out of the demon's body. Armis's armor began absorbing the demon's form as it dissipated into a blue speckled glow.
Watching the eerie spectacle in apprehension and horror, Alan tried to form a retort through his fear of the unexpected.
"Yeah, but… we could have gotten more from her."
As his armor completely absorbed the demon's body, Armis grunted aloud. Etchings and markings similar to those on the demon's abdomen began appearing on Armis's obsidian armor, only in a white hue. After another loud grunt, Armis took a deep breath. He opened his fist, revealing a Lord Orb to Alan, and replied sternly, "This is the only thing we needed from it."
He began to walk away towards the gate on the opposite side of the chamber, the gate leading to the next floor.
Everyone stood in surprise and apprehension as they watched Armis hold the orb near the gate. Suddenly, a flash of bright crimson light enveloped the chamber, momentarily blinding everyone. As the light faded, the rocks and debris of stone behind them began to move. One by one, the rocks and stones reassembled, forming an unyielding gate—a solid slab of stone, reminiscent of the one they had encountered on floor 50.
As the gate slowly reconstructed behind them, no one turned to watch the mystical spectacle. Their hearts were too heavy with the despair they felt, their eyes fixed ahead where the next gate crumbled at Armis's feet. This created another opening, another passageway leading them further into their harrowing journey. They looked onward, gazing into the unknown with only a faint hope that one day, some fateful day, this journey would reach its end.