The bars rose up from the ground, making an awful grinding noise as they retracted into the ceiling. There was another loud rumbling as the earth shook once more.

Xavier let his body sway slightly from side to side, imagining as though he were a captain on a ship.

The reason for the earthquakes had nothing to do with the tectonics of the planet and everything to do with the assault that was currently going on against the Dark Lord’s city.

Xavier chuckled, remembering Justin’s reaction at hearing that the enemy on this floor had called himself a Dark Lord. Justin had started mumbling questions about whether or not Voldemort might be real and out there somewhere in the Greater Universe.

Adranial had simply stared at him. At first, she’d taken his questions seriously, asking who this Voldemort he referred to was, until Siobhan had mentioned he was speaking about a villain from a children’s book series.

“Adults read them too!” Justin had protested.

The conversation had quickly moved on.

When the bars were high enough, Xavier slipped under them and sped forward.

Adranial had been sure to tell him, several times, that there was no reward for the best time on this floor. Xavier knew that.

He was also ignoring that.

He wasn’t trying to complete the floor as fast as he possibly could—he was simply intending to get more Participation Points than all of the other parties.

And he didn’t need to kill them to manage that.

The second Xavier reached the surface he stopped. Looked around. There were two ways that he could go about this—well, there were likely hundreds of ways, but for his particular purposes, only two.

The first of those ways was that he could try and mind control all of the other parties with Willpower Infusion. If he prevented them from moving forward, then he wouldn’t have to worry about them getting any points at all.

But there was a problem with that. There were some items that would prevent him from mind controlling others. If something like that were to be in the possession of one of the other Champions, he might feel compelled to kill them.

No. He didn’t need to stop the other Champions. He just needed to be faster than them.

Adranial had given them an extensive layout of the area, the city, and the fortress that the Dark Lord Altruin would be within. She hadn’t been able to draw a map of the area or the blueprints of the castle—that was something the System prevented, as details of the Tower of Champions weren’t permitted to be recorded by anything but someone’s memory, which made the passing down of floor details an important oral tradition in all the sectors around the Greater Universe.

With the knowledge of exactly where the enemy city was, Xavier sped forward.

Now would be a great time for me to learn how to fly.

It would certainly be easier if he had a vantage point from above. But Xavier didn’t need to have the ability to fly for that.

Sprinting forward, Xavier leapt up into the air. He hadn’t performed a jump like this in some time—he hadn’t needed to—so he couldn’t help but be surprised by just how damned high he soared.

The strength in his muscles had improved almost unimaginably since he’d blasted through all of those dungeons. The wind whipped past it, and he felt the sensation of seeing everything around him—to 100 metres—to be very strange in the air. There wasn’t a whole lot to see up this high with the Farscope. Though he’d become accustomed to the new ability, it was a little disorientating using it while moving this fast. He imagined it would be even more disorientating when he was back on the ground and actually had things that he could see.

His normal vision, however, was a different story. From this high, he could see the city of Altruin quite clearly. It sat in the middle of a wide, grassy plain, with cultivated land surrounding it. The land was walled off—presumably to prevent local beasts from getting into the farms. There was a strange quality to the place, and it took him a moment to realise why that was.

The architecture reminded him of old gothic buildings. The structures were dark, and the buildings had tall, sharp spires.

The castle itself was what drew his eye most, to the point where he didn’t even bother to look down and try and spot the other parties in the area.

They will be able to see me, however, assuming they think to look up.

The castle was far larger than Queen Alastea’s had been. It stood in the middle of a much larger city, as well. There was something resting at the top of the tower. Something large. Xavier narrowed his eyes, squinting to try and tell what it was.

It shifted, unfurled its wings, and everything became clear.

Yep. That’s a dragon.

Its wingspan was massive. Each wing was as large as the tallest tower of the castle. It made the outrageously big castle look small in comparison. More like a toy. One that the dragon could knock over at its whim, like a toddler knocking over Legos.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Xavier was impressed. He knew about the dragon, of course. Adranial had told him everything she could about this place. She’d said the dragon was large, but he hadn’t gotten the impression that it was quite this large from her description alone.

Xavier smiled. His plan was an obvious one, even if it had taken him a moment to come to it. The problem with listening to Adranial’s knowledge and advice when it came to the Tower of Champions’ floors was that she was speaking from the perspective of an elite Champion. And while elite Champions had different tactics to weaker Champions who were making their way up the floors, that didn’t mean those plans would suit him.

Xavier wasn’t an elite Champion. He was something altogether different. Something, he perhaps arrogantly presumed, that the Tower of Champions had never seen before.

It took a long while for Xavier to fall back to the ground. When he did, he leapt straight back into the air again. It took him a few leaps before he made it inside the city. When he was coming up over the massively tall wall, he found the collective alliance laying siege to one large section of it—it looked as though they were making good progress, but it would take them a while before they made it through. With the help of the Champion parties that were no doubt on their way, they’d get through the defences faster.

But by that time the floor would already have been completed. Xavier would make sure of that.

Arrows and spells came up to hit him. Xavier was moving too fast for them. He heard the swoosh of flames and the hiss of arrows as they passed by somewhere behind him.

Even if they did hit, they wouldn’t do him any damage, so he wasn’t at all worried about them.

Xavier glanced back over his shoulder at the collective alliance. He supposed part of the objective included helping them attack this city.

He cast Willpower Infusion—a spell that had, as of late, become his favourite. Purple mist flowed out from him and sunk to the ground like a cloud of fog on a chill, London morning. He grinned down as he watched the defending army panic. The army was predominantly made up of human Denizens, though there were the occasional demonkin among their ranks. He couldn’t help but wonder how they’d gotten there.

Xavier breathed in deeply when he felt his spell overtake all of their minds, feeling his own mind expand. In mere moments, the majority of the enemy army was under his control.

This is what true power is.

He made the army turn upon itself.

Here, he was not so worried about loss of life. This city was a dark one. An evil one. Those in the ranks of the Dark Lord Altruin were the enemies of peace, just as those who had been in the Lord of the Endless Horde’s army had been.

And he intended to deal with them swiftly.

The defending army did not scream as they tore themselves apart. They did not shout. They simply fought and died. It was strange seeing so many die so silently.

Xavier turned his attention away from the carnage. It was not something he needed to see.

He landed on top of a building, swiftly kicking off it. The Dark Lord Altruin, according to Adranial’s information, would be on the back of that dragon. The dragon wasn’t to launch off its perch on the castle until the collective alliance had breached through the walls, something that would have taken them a while yet if not for Xavier’s help.

It would still take a little more time for them to breach the walls, even with the majority of the defending army already lying dead on the ground.

Xavier looked at his notifications briefly as he soared through the air toward the massive dragon with its black-stone wings extended. Just as he’d suspected, he didn’t gain any Mastery Points from the enemies he’d just destroyed. It wasn’t something that he minded.

But he did acquire their souls.

I could kill the Dark Lord from here. One Soul Strike should do the job.

But if Xavier was going to go straight to the enemy, he wished to look the man he was about to kill in the eye before he went through with the execution.

Adranial had shared the results of many accounts of the clearing of this floor, what she’d never mentioned was whether or not someone had actually spoken to the Dark Lord. Xavier wasn’t sure what he might gain from such a conversation—or perhaps, an interrogation—but who knows what secrets might be hidden here.

He frowned inwardly, wondering why he cared about what secrets this E Grade “Dark Lord” might hold.

As he neared the castle, the dragon’s eyes turned toward him. The dragon leant forward, almost like a sprinter waiting for the gun to go off. As the dragon moved, Xavier spotted the rider on its back. The Dark Lord Altruin. The man instantly reminded Xavier of the Lord of the Endless Horde.

He wore similar armour, had a similar sword…

The Lord of the Endless Horde had been the strongest Denizen in his little, weak sector. Clearly, this Dark Lord Altruin—though even weaker than the Lord of the Endless Horde—was in a similar position. At least on this world. But it was strange to find that he looked so similar to the other man.

What if…

This was an entirely different universe to the one he’d been in when he’d defended Queen Alastea’s castle from the Horde, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t the same sector he’d been in, just on a different timeline.

He was probably just imagining connections, however. This man wasn’t the same man that he’d fought in the past. And even if he was to one day be the Lord of the Endless Horde, what would it matter?

Xavier had seconds thoughts about speaking to this person. There was nothing that he could gain from interrogating someone so much weaker than himself—just as he would have gained nothing from learning the Lord of the Endless Horde’s secrets.

Their approach to living within the Greater Universe was antithetical to his own.

The dragon launched from its perch, earlier than any of Adranial’s accounts had ever mentioned. Perhaps Xavier coming over the wall and decimating the man’s army had counted as a breach of the walls. Considering it was something even more sever, he supposed that wasn’t a surprise.

Xavier couldn’t help but smile as the beast neared. He narrowed his focus, looking straight at the man on the beast’s back. The helmet the man was wearing obscured him from Xavier’s vision quite effectively, but Xavier was still able to see his eyes. What he saw in them was a deep rage. The Dark Lord had clearly not expected this.

Xavier, gripping Charon’s Scythe in both hands, did not bother trying to dodge the stream of fire that came forth from the dragon’s open maw. He simply took the damage. The attack caused a great deal of smoke to permeate the air, but it didn’t prevent Xavier from being able to see—his Farscope could easily pierce smoke, after all.

Xavier came through the other side of the attack, entirely unscathed. He could feel that his robes, which were nowhere near as powerful as himself, had caught fire in places. He didn’t bother trying to put them out. The warmth was rather pleasant.

As Xavier came out completely undamaged and was now visible to his enemy once more, he saw the look in the Dark Lord’s eyes change. The rage that had been bleeding out of them turned to something else.

To fear.

I’ve looked him in the eyes now. No need to talk to him.

Xavier slashed his scythe-staff in a wide arc that cut straight through the dragon—the dragon that hadn’t even had time to try and block his attack, retaliate, or get out of the way. His blade sliced through the massive beast like a hot knife through butter and kept going until it reached the Dark Lord.

Xavier’s attack cut Dark Lord Altruin’s head clean off.