Episode 21: Floor 50 (4)
The path to the corridor.
A narrow passage opened into a wide space with five branching paths.
Only one led to the corridor.
Reach it, obtain the key, and face the boss.
Preparations had to be made before the battle began.
“Caligo.”
“Yes, Sage!”
“Take this artifact.”
“Ooh, the chalice?”
“It suits you.”
Among my summons, only Caligo has non-attack skills, making him the only one able to use this artifact.
“Let’s move. This passage leads to the corridor, then the audience chamber.”
“I’m honored, Sage!”
A bloodbath awaited in the Corridor of Blood.
They’d fight desperately to stop me from reaching the audience chamber.
But I felt no tension.
《Entering the Corridor of Blood.》
Because Lucifer and his followers were here.
***
The Corridor of Blood was a gallery of horror and madness.
Endless red stone pillars stretched from ceiling to floor, obscuring vision like a blood-soaked forest.
‘Yeah, this vibe. Still reeks after all this time.’
The air was suffocatingly heavy and sticky.
The stench of blood stung the nose, and the ground squelched underfoot.
Countless soldiers stood in formation, clearly terrified, having rallied their entire force.
Hertia, scanning the surroundings, spoke.
“Master, as expected, the door to the audience chamber is hidden. A cheap trick.”
“Right.”
The door to the audience chamber was, of course, concealed.
To find it, a gimmick had to be solved: three statues in the corridor’s center.
Place the correct weapons in their empty hands.
Among the countless weapons the fodder soldiers wield, choosing wrong triggers a brutal penalty.
“Hertia.”
“You called?”
“Kill the gold-trimmed archer in the enemy’s center and take their weapon. Then throw Iron at the spearman.”
“…Yes!”
No big deal for me, naturally.
My next command followed.
“Caligo, you and Temina take the head of the frontline swordsman captain.”
“Heh, just what I wanted!”
At my command, all four summons charged into battle.
Hertia led the assault.
Swish.
Hertia raised her fingertips.
The air quivered as a black curtain rose like mist from her body.
A faint smile graced her lips.
“Let’s play hide and seek.”
Snap!
Black mist spread among the soldiers, eerily absorbing light and blocking their vision.
One by one, soldiers vanished into the mist without a scream.
The archer captain, panicked, raised a glowing bow to draw attention.
But even as he tried to issue orders, his body wouldn’t move.
Hertia smiled at the flustered archer.
“Pathetic.”
Her curtain’s threads began piercing the archer captain’s heart.
“Guh!”
“Offer it. My Master desires your bow.”
Violet-black flames flowed along the threads, burrowing into the archer’s heart.
The captain collapsed without resistance.
Thud!
《Gatekeeper Archer Captain succumbs to critical damage.》
The surrounding soldiers faltered, leaderless and confused.
Hertia acted first.
Snap!
A swirling black vortex gathered the soldiers, grinding them down methodically.
“Aaagh!”
“Hah! You scream well. But no time to dawdle.”
Hertia’s eyes sharpened.
She stretched out her hand, using the artifact’s power to hurl Iron toward the corridor’s far end.
Iron charged at breakneck speed.
“Aaah! G-Get out of the way!!”
Knocking aside frontline swordsmen, Iron barreled toward the spearmen.
The spearmen braced with lances forward.
But their spear tips bent on contact with Iron.
BOOM!
Iron stopped only after crashing into the corridor’s wall.
His body was so heated that the surrounding blood boiled, sending up steam.
“Eek!”
Iron, startled, scrambled to his feet.
Before him lay the spearman captain, crushed like dough.
《Gatekeeper Spearman Captain fails to escape ‘Shock’ state and succumbs.》
Caligo slipped through the swordsmen, charging the captain.
“Haha! Perfect setting to test my new power!”
Lime-green flasks scattered into the air from his hands.
“Shower time!”
Temina’s bullets shattered the airborne flasks.
Splatter—
The toxic liquid hit the swordsman captain and his troops.
Sizzle…
The potent venom melted armor and flesh, fusing them together.
“Aagh! My body!!”
The poison vaporized, dissolving not just bodies but lungs and organs.
“Gurgh…”
“Grrk…”
Swordsmen collapsed, foaming blood.
The captain, witnessing their deaths, glared at Caligo with eyes full of rage and fear.
“Haha! Don’t feel too wronged. The enemies we meet later will die far more painfully!”
Amid the burning, crushed, and melting enemies, Oh Hyun-woo walked toward the statues.
His summons, carrying the retrieved weapons, followed.
“The bow.”
“Here, Great One.”
Creak.
“The spear.”
“Y-Yes…!”
Click.
“The sword.”
“Here it is, Sage!”
Clank.
Soon, each statue held its rightful weapon.
With a grinding sound, the three statues rotated, then rose, forming a spiral staircase to the audience chamber in the ceiling.
Rumble.
As the door opened, Caligo buzzed with excitement.
“Finally, the audience chamber! I can’t wait to see how long the next test subject lasts!”
“It’s a traitor claiming kingship. This isn’t for your amusement,” Hertia retorted.
I glanced at the bickering Hertia and Caligo, then spoke quietly.
“Let’s go. You can argue after the fight.”
***
The audience chamber of Floor 50, Tower of Strife.
Varg trembled with unease.
The chamber’s blood-red air, usually a testament to his authority, now felt ominous.
“No way…”
He muttered, voicing his fear.
“Could Lucifer have returned?”
Lucifer.
The demon Varg feared most in his long life.
The agony of his eight legs being torn apart in a vortex of red wings still haunted him.
‘If not for my master, I’d have been finished back then.’
Karmar de Lavle, his creator, had resurrected him from Lucifer’s slaughter.
Without that grace, Varg would’ve crumbled to dust like his soldiers.
Yet, the terror lingered deep within him.
“…No. Lucifer’s gone.”
Varg reassured himself.
‘This isn’t his world. That demon couldn’t have followed me here!’
But he couldn’t shake the dread tightening his chest.
He tried to dismiss it as some reckless adventurer, but fear gnawed at him.
Then—
SLAM!
The chamber door burst open, and the commander stumbled in.
Varg was stunned.
“Why are you here?! Didn’t I order you to kill the intruders in the corridor?!”
The commander, trembling, bowed low.
“F-Forgive me! The corridor battle is over, I came to report…”
“What? Oh! They must’ve been weaker than I thought. Good work.”
Relief washed over Varg.
The corridor housed hundreds of his elite troops, the best in the Tower.
A battle ending in under ten minutes? His fears seemed overblown.
But the commander’s next words twisted his expression.
“…The opposite! The corridor forces are annihilated! They’re heading here now!”
“What?!”
Varg’s voice quaked.
“Hundreds of elite troops, stronger than those in the library, wiped out? Who are they?!”
The commander, face pale with terror, tried to continue.
“The enemy, th-they, urgh, ggrk…!”
He couldn’t finish.
Convulsing, violet-black flames erupted from within, exploding in a spray of blood.
BOOM!
As Varg stood frozen, unable to wipe the blood from his face, a sound echoed.
Click.
The clack of high heels rang through the chamber.
A woman in a black dress, stretching languidly as if bored, stepped forward.
“To call this an audience chamber? Quite filthy,” she sneered, frowning.
“But I suppose it suits a king of vermin.”
Following her, a red-haired man chuckled.
“Even vermin are useful for my experiments. Especially vampire creations, right, Varg?”
Witch of Apocalypse Hertia.
Liberator of Death Caligo.
Faces Varg could never forget.
‘Damn, damn it!’
He suppressed his trembling.
It wasn’t the worst-case scenario yet.
The Seven Sins were bitter rivals, always at each other’s throats.
Without a unifying force, there was room to exploit.
Calming himself, Varg spoke slowly, a sly grin forming.
“The Witch of Apocalypse and Liberator of Death together? Quite the sight.”
He continued, smirking.
“But, Hertia, did you know? Caligo—”
“Enough,” Hertia cut him off coldly.
“I have no time for your petty schemes. He will arrive soon.”
“He…?”
Varg’s words caught in his throat, shock rendering him speechless.
‘If she speaks of someone so reverently, could it be…?!’
Then, a man emerged, accompanied by a massive golem and a woman with a red parasol.
An unfamiliar face, but the aura was unmistakable.
He spoke slowly, his voice familiar, his greeting chillingly nostalgic.
“Long time no see.”
He smiled softly.
In that moment, Varg was certain.
That demon resided within this man.
The Lord of Pandemonium.
Master of Ten Thousand Demons.
The Undefeated Fiend.
“Lucifer…”
The vampire’s nightmare had returned.