It was a demon all along.

That black-haired thing I sent to the ninety-ninth floor was a foul demon this entire time. A being that should no longer be allowed to exist in this world. A being that should have disappeared from this world along with Demon Queen Gluttony twenty-four years ago when Lady Kokoro ran them out of the ruins of the Capital, never to return...

“Lady Kokoro...”

I wonder what she would say if she knew I had allowed one to live, let alone escape the prison she so graciously allowed me to take charge of as its warden. Although, it is not unlike her to have already known about a demon in our midst. There is a reason she’s known as the Omniscient Overlord. Perhaps she had already anticipated all of this from the start. Though I can’t possibly fathom the inner machinations of our all-knowing Queen, I trust her wholeheartedly to do what’s best for both the country and its people...

I claw my way up from the depths of the Spire until I’ve reached a mostly intact floor. After that demon had attacked, the resulting devastation collapsed the ground beneath my feet, plunging me into the Spire’s depths and allowing the demon a chance to escape. Presumably with the rest of the inmates of ninety-nine along with it. Are they its hostages? Does it plan on eating them later? I couldn’t possibly fathom the actions of a mindless demon either. A being that only lives for hate and destruction... I would like to give chase to its escape this very second, however...

“Gyahahaha!” A booming laughter cuts across the demolished floor. Standing across from the collapse, a huge, hulking savage stands, staring back at me. It’s Lust—another being that should not be allowed to exist. She had also been engulfed in the demon's attack and plunged into the floor. Although bloodied and beaten just the same, unlike me, Lust looks relatively uninjured.

Pain wracks my entire body with each heavy, laboured breath. Many of my bones are broken, including the still-broken rib that was snapped by the Cursed demon in our fight the other day. I should have just killed it then and there...

I stand to my feet and stare back at Lust across the abyss. Even though my body may be broken, I will not break. For as long as these feelings of rage burn within me, for as long as Lady Kokoro still has a use for me, I will keep fighting. I will be Wrath.

To think that, the very feelings I had set out to atone for will be the ones guiding my final moments today, to pay back the one who freed me from them in the first place.

Forgive me, my Queen...

Flames begin to spread across my fur as the anger consumes me. They spread up my arms, down my back, from the tips of my claws to the end of my tail—engulfing the entirety of my body. Letting out a sharp howl, I lunge across the abyss at Lust.

“Gyahaha! Truly wonderful!” she bellows, laughing cheerfully as we connect.

As I slash and tear at her with all my might, she counters with rapid kicks of her own. Charging, tackling, and grappling one another through walls, floors, and ceilings, we rise and descend the Spire as our fight continues on. Each one of my swipes appears to harmlessly slice through nothing but skin and outer flesh, and in return, each one of her heavy kicks ruptures muscle and shatters bone.

It’s a losing fight, I know. But any amount of time I can buy, any amount of damage I can deal... It has meaning. If she doesn’t already know by now, the news of Lust’s awakening should surely reach our Queen soon. Every second I delay Lust is another second Lady Kokoro has to enact a plan to deal with her.

Ducking beneath a high kick slicing its way over my head, I dig my claws into the back of Lust's raised leg and rake them across her exposed thigh. In response, she lets out a bizarre, high-pitched cry—

“—Gyuu~!”

—and instantly slams a palm against the bottom of my jaw, sending me up into the high ceiling, bursting through onto a whole new floor.

What floor even is—? No, I suppose it doesn’t matter what floor this is now. The Spire is in a state of total disrepair. I doubt even the ingenuity of the dwarves would be enough to fix this prison to the way it once was.

As Lust climbs up through the opening she made in the floor, I painfully scramble back to my feet. We move to lunge at one another once more, before—

An explosion erupts from a floor far below us, rocking the entirety of the prison. The force of the explosion sends a quaking tremor rumbling up the length of the tower, triggering a chain reaction of multiple more tremors rattling across each and every floor.

Lust immediately turns her attention away from me and looks down toward the floor at her feet, the cheerful grin on her face slowly contorting into a warped expression of pure ecstasy as she begins to pant heavily.

“Hello~? Are you in here, pumpkin?” a woman’s voice calls from somewhere below us. It’s a gentle voice—almost kind. But the eeriness of its calming tone as it somehow pierces through the screeching and groaning of the damaged Spire is deeply unsettling. “Mommy’s here to pick you up from prison! It’s time to come home now, pumpkin!”

I find my flames die down and flicker away as the voice chills me to my core. My legs are shaking and sweat won't stop pouring from my blood-matted brow, stinging my eyes with crimson beads as they roll down my fur and drip against the floor.

Despite the contorted smile on her face, I find Lust in much the same state. I can see her legs shake and quiver uncontrollably as a puddle begins to form beneath her. Bizarrely, I’m not smelling any fear from her though, but... arousal? Hmm. After all those kicks to the face, my nose must no longer be working as it’s supposed to...

“Ah... This is... This is...” Lust pants heavily as she stares down towards the source of the voice. “This is—!”

Suddenly, something reaches up from the floor, gripping her foot and sucking her down below the ground and out of sight.

“Tch. Wrong one.” A woman clicks her tongue from somewhere beneath my feet, followed by the crashing of something heavy being tossed against the walls of the Spire, bursting through them and out into the outside world beyond.

“Hmm. It must be...” the voice hums, and then trails off into the distance.

Rooted to the spot in fear, I hold my breath as I strain my ears to the sounds below, the ear-splitting wails of the tower becoming nothing more than background noise at this point.

This immense aura... A creature who can dispel Lust so simply and so easily... A creature that can evoke such a primal fear from its unseen presence alone... I can only think of one being capable of something like that. It’s—

“This one!” a woman calls from directly at my back. Before I can even turn around, a hand grips me by the scruff of my neck and lifts me off the floor, leaving me to dangle helplessly in the air. Slowly, they turn me around to face them.

A tall, black-haired woman stares down at me with piercing crimson eyes as she taps a blackened claw to the side of her pale cheek. Her towering height alone is intimidating, but the two horns sprouting from atop her head stand the length of the average man’s arm, adding to the imposing and inhuman figure of an already demonic being. A demon. And not just any demon...

“Demon Queen Gluttony...” I squeak from within the firm grasp of her claw.

“Oh, my. This won’t do,” she says, shaking her head softly. “I promised my little Liquor Trish that I wouldn’t get into trouble. I was planning on letting you live if you told me where Pepper was, but I can’t have you telling people I was here, can I? What to do, what to do...”

In response, I can only dangle helplessly in the air. Unable to speak or move a single muscle.

“Oh, how about this? If you tell me where Pepper is and promise not to tell anybody that I was here, I’ll promise to let you live. You’re supposed to be the current Wrath, right? It’ll be our little secret. As two of the Seven.” She places a finger over her lips and gives me a sly wink.

It’s a known fact that all demons are mindless, rampaging beasts. It’s unsettling to see one behaving in such a confusing manner, but peering into the mind of a deranged animal is an unfathomable task. I imagine its speech is just a sick, hollow imitation of the countless victims it killed over its entire lifetime. Either way, somebody needs to alert Lady Kokoro about the reappearance of the Black Death so that she may drive it from this land as she did twenty-four years ago. I need to escape here alive at any cost... I need to warn her...

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Pushing my fear aside, I speak to the beast.

“Your daughter is—”

“Gyahahaha!” A booming laughter suddenly interrupts me. Descending from the ceiling, a dark, hulking figure drops in from above, planting a devastating axe kick down into the Demon Queen’s shoulder and forcing her to drop me. The entire floor below our feet collapses beneath the force as the three of us fall down through the Spire once more.

When we finally stop falling, and the dust clears, I find myself sprawled across the floor, looking up at the two giant women locked in a grapple to the death.

“Ah... My beloved Gluttony. It really is you...” Lust pants, gazing up longingly into the demon’s eyes. Scowling, the demon simply looks down at her with apparent annoyance and clicks its tongue.

“Truly a wonderful day! A dream come true!” Lust continues to beam. “One hundred floors of worthy opponents to greet me from my long slumber! Wrath and Gluttony included! ‘Tis the highlight of my entire life thus far! The pinnacle of my existence!”

“Always such a pain...” the Demon Queen grumbles back as she grapples with the large elf.

Unlike Lust, the Demon Queen has a certain elegance to her. Her movements, her physique, the way she carries herself, even the form-fitting, sleek and slender suit of blacks and reds she wears has an imposing yet regal quality to it, appropriate for one crowned ‘Queen’ of her species. Lust on the other hand is nothing of the sort. A mountain of pure muscle whose every movement, action, word—and even thought—is an eruption of reckless force, delivered with nothing but explosive strength and sheer power.

“Oh, and I mustn't forget!” Lust adds, her yellow eyes practically glowing with ecstasy. “Exchanging blows with the small, red-eyed one was a pleasure like no other! Yes, Pepper Black, the Daughter of Glutt—!”

At those words, Gluttony shoves her fist through Lust’s torso in an instant—no longer the previous picture of elegance she was just moments before—punching a hole straight through to her back. Blood spews wildly from the openings as Lust begins hacking up mouthfuls of sick and gore. As Gluttony retracts her bloodied arm from the body, Lust immediately collapses to the floor, crumpling wetly into the crimson puddle quickly pooling below her. A fatal wound with no chance of survival...

“... gyu.. gyu...” An incoherent gurgle is all she can splutter out as she convulses violently in the pool of her own blood.

“If I find a single hair missing on my daughter’s head...” Gluttony glares down unfeelingly at the convulsing body of Lust at her feet. Her voice no longer has a gentle or playful edge to it, but a chillingly cold one instead. “I will personally slaughter every single living creature across this entire land.”

The Demon Queen’s eyes suddenly flick to mine, sending a painful shiver burning across my entire body.

“Do you understand?”

Looking over the body of Lust—a smile still plastered across her face as she quivers in a pool of her own blood steadily gushing from the gaping hole punched straight through her—I swallow back the blood pooling in my own mouth and attempt to speak to the beast once again.

“I—”

“—GYUUUHUUUUUUN~♥!!”

... Eh? ‘Gyuhuun’...?

Before I can say a word, a bizarre howl erupts from Lust as she latches onto the demon’s leg, dragging herself across the pool of her own blood and wrapping herself around Gluttony’s body. Both blood and saliva are drooling wildly from the corners of her warped smile and her glowing eyes look to be almost in a trance. Seemingly unfazed by the mortal wound she attained, her muscles bulge as she attempts to crush the Demon Queen in a devastating chokehold.

“How do you keep—? Why must you always...?” The demon groans as she attempts to claw the savage off of her.

This is my chance.

Using this sudden opportunity, I scramble across the floor and begin making my way down the Spire, the sound of fighting echoing out behind me. Sprinting down the stairs on all fours, I quickly find myself back on the first floor. Or what remains of it at least. As I sprint down the hallway and past my office—

I’m suddenly struck by a heavy blow, flinging me through the open doors of my office and crashing through my desk in an explosion of books and paper. As I lay against the floor in a dazed mess, Gluttony steps into the room with me, ducking beneath the low door frame as she massages her neck and mutters to herself.

“That damn elf. If she’s not dead this time, I swear...”

Her horns scrape against the low ceiling of the small room as she struts towards me, leaving two long gashes trailing behind her in the stone. Reaching me, she slams a large, black boot against the side of my head.

“Forget it,” she says. “I’m sick of this place now. I’ll find my little pumpkin on my own.”

—And then she presses her foot down.

Being crushed beneath this beast’s heel would be an effortless task for them. I understand that I’m only moments from death. I can feel it. There’s nothing left that I can do. Even if I were to somehow overcome this primal fear gripping my emotions and clouding my wrath in the very next moment, what would that achieve? My flames would be nothing more than a warm breeze to this beast... This is the end. And I must accept it.

In my last moments, my only hope is that I was able to delay this beast’s rampage from claiming just one more innocent life before Lady Kokoro is finally able to deal with it, as I’m certain she will...

As the pressure builds against my skull, and the consciousness leaves my body, I notice something in the corner of my eye flutter gently down and place itself delicately in my outstretched claw. It’s... a letter. A letter from my desk. In my office...

It’s her letter. The one I couldn’t deliver because it contained no address...

With the last of my strength, I raise the letter up above me, offering it to the demon.

“Hm...?” Lifting her foot ever so slightly, she snatches it curiously from my hand. Opening it, her eyes scan over the page as she reads in silence. After she finishes, she breathes a little sigh and then lifts her foot completely from my head, clutching the letter tightly to her chest.

“I see...” she says simply, turning back towards the door as she wipes something from her eyes. Dust, perhaps. Reaching the hallway and turning the corner back to the Spire’s entrance, I catch one last glimpse of her face. There’s an eerily gentle smile across her lips, and her cheeks are stained wet below her puffy, reddened eyes.

Is she—? No. It must just be my imagination...

“Hmm... I wonder where that silly girl of mine ran off to now...” she says, pondering to herself. “Maybe I’ll try looking over by...”

—and then she leaves, her voice trailing off around the corridor.

....

Somehow, I live. Every bone and muscle in my body is broken and shredded, but somehow... I live.

I can’t lie around here any longer though. I have to force myself to move. I have to tell Lady Kokoro about what happened here today. It's possible she may already be aware and has already foreseen such an event, but it is still my duty to report it all the same. I'm certain the one hailed as the Omniscient Overlord will know what to do. She's the one who drove the demons from these lands twenty-four years ago, and she's the one whose insatiable ambition fuelled by her boundless wisdom has earned her a title as one of the Seven—Greed. There is nobody in this world more capable of dealing with the Demon Queen than Queen Kokoro la Peppyseed herself. Of this I am certain.

As I drag my broken body across the floor and finally pull myself to my feet—

I hear the Spire let loose one last cry. Its final death throes.

A cacophony of explosions rings out in every direction, and every inch of wall, ceiling, and floor shatters around me in an instant. Without a moment to even react, the entire Surstrom Spire crumples in on itself, collapsing out across the lake below...

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Dear Mom,

It’s me! Pepper! How are you? I’m doing great!

I’m sorry I didn’t come home when I was supposed to. I know you would’ve been worried when Trish came back alone. I’m sorry for worrying you so much. I hope you don’t blame Trish. Even if it was her idea to split up in the first place, it’s something I would’ve done on my own anyway.

Ever since I heard the stories of you and the others, I’ve always wanted to leave for the Outside and do all the things I’ve always wanted to do. Make one hundred friends and kiss one thousand girls! On the mouth! I still haven’t kissed any girls on the mouth yet... But I have made a bunch of friends!

Right now, I’m in prison! I accidentally sexually harassed a bunch of women on my first day in town and they sent me here as punishment. But don’t worry though! It’s like a super cool tower that goes all the way up into the sky! One hundred floors tall! They even put me on the ninety-ninth floor, near the top, in a place called the Curse Ward! It’s really neat!

There’s a bunch of people like me in here. People with Curses. They’re all really great and every single day has been lots of fun! One day I want to bring them down to meet you and the others. My first friends. I hope you like them as much as I do!

I hope you and the others are doing okay. I miss you all a lot.

Please tell Olive to send some of her cooking, because the jerky I make still isn’t at her level yet and I really miss it!

Tell Trish that I miss hearing her fun stories too. There’s a library and a bunch of books in here but it’s always more fun when Trish tells them. Especially when she’s been drinking!

Tell Beans I miss pinching her cute, puffy cheeks when It’s time to wake her up for breakfast every morning. And tell her to stop sleeping on the toilet or her hemorrhoids will flare up again!

And tell Koffy I miss brushing her hair every day. It’s hard for her to do it herself so you guys need to take turns and help her do it instead! I don’t want to come back home and find it full of knots!

As for when I am coming home... I don’t know yet. Sorry. But I promise I won’t be too long! I promise to be back home one day and bring my new friends along with me. So try not to worry too much. I’ll be fine! I promise!

Love you all lots and lots and lots and lots.

xoxoxoxo

Your little pumpkin,

Pepper!