Ace continued his adventure in the dungeon for a few more days. At this point he has naturally conditioned a routine inside the dungeon, waking up, eating monsters he had slain and drinking from random fountains and springs he came across. Nevertheless, he successfully acquired some relics in the dungeon, including a set of dark leather armor with defensive plating, various jewelry increasing certain stats, and a new sword to replace the greatsword he had taken from the minotaur.

"Darklin, blast them now!"

Currently, both Ace and Darklin were fighting one of the defensive mechanisms of the dungeon. The moment Ace finally made it to floor 75, he was greeted by several elemental cubes all firing their respective elemental blasts towards the two.

Darklin found an opportunity to follow Ace's command and breathed out his dark flames onto the blue cube. However, this was intercepted by its allies, who absorbed the flames and redirected them onto Ace. Although the flames did nothing to Ace thanks to his Dragonblood abilities.

Amidst the flames, Ace threw his sword towards one of the cubes, successfully taking it down. He ran towards the fallen cube to retrieve his weapon. However, the other cubes stood in his way.

With no weapon, he relied on his magic, using his affinity for Dark magic. He formed a dark spear and threw it, taking another cube down.

"Dark Nova!" Darklin charged enough magic to end the fight once and for all, firing a dark beam to every cube in the vicinity.

"Couldn't you have done that earlier?" Ace asked in a tired tone.

"It takes time to charge up that spell. If I were in my prime, it would be instant."

"And if you gain enough levels, will you be in your prime?"

"In due time, after all I spent everything to bring you back to life."

"Sorry, I'll stop complaining."

Ace went up to a nearby cube and inspected it. He felt the mana in the dungeon slowly flowing into the strange mechanism, knowing that it would someday repair itself to fight any new intruders.

All the cubes were guarding a hallway that led to a giant door. Ace knew what this meant when he counted the floors he had cleared. The other day, he had gone past floor 70 with the option to potentially return to the surface. Yet, knowing how close he was till the end, he continued.

"Floor 75... I heard from my trainer that this was where the previous heroes before me died."

"Would it be wise to progress further?" Darklin asked.

Ace took a few steps toward the door until he answered.

"... It took a very long time to get to this floor. We'll waste too much time going back now. Besides, we're close to the end. We have to see it through."

"What will we expect?"

"According to their information, this door here only opens if there's a hero in the vicinity. Behind it is a giant golem that took down the entire hero party. It may sound like an exaggeration, but there's only one way to find out.

"I can only see two outcomes. We live or die. Ace, is this really wise?"

"If the king escaped death, then we can too. Let's go in."

"Let us be careful then."

Before them was a giant door with a magic symbol on it. The symbol began to glow the moment Ace was near the vicinity, slowly opening itself to a giant room with a kneeling golem at the very center. The golem itself was around 5 meters, made out of various metals that would be difficult to penetrate.

Ace looked around the room and saw only the golem. Behind the golem, there was another hallway, but other than that, the room only had the golem inside with no sign of any rotting bodies surrounding the iron giant.

"If there were dead Heroes here, there should be rotting corpses around this thing. Do you think the Dungeon cleaned them up?" Ace turned to the Dragon.

"I would not know. I only assume that it absorbs the life it spawns back into its mana crystals."

"That would make sense. But if the Heroes died to this thing, where would their bodies be?"

Trying to peek at the hallway behind the golem, Ace noticed that the hallway itself was protected by a magic barrier, assuming that it opens the moment the golem is defeated.

'If there are no dead bodies, where else could the Heroes have died? Either the dungeon absorbed them, or the information about the Heroes is false, yet it wouldn't make sense Olivia is confident in this information.'

Ace thought hard but knew that he should only worry about himself for the time being. He took a step forward, and immediately the golem's eyes lit up, detecting Ace's presence. The golem stood tall, with both sword and shield at hand, and charged towards Ace and Darklin.

"Darklin, try to use your Dark Nova if you can. I'll draw its attention as usual."

"Understood."

Ace ran towards the right side of the room, while Darklin flew towards the left. To keep the golem's attention on Ace, he constantly fired a barrage of dark flames as a way to aggravate the giant enemy. Despite the constant barrage, the golem merely put up its shield to block the incoming flames. Ace tried to look for any possible weak point using his previous experience with the Dungeon's mechanisms. They all relied on a core crystal to power themselves.

'The chest...!'

After finally locating the golem's core crystal, Ace moved onto the offensive and delivered the first attack.

However, the golem saw this and counterattacked, blocking the attack and shield-bashing Ace in the process. His body flung into the air, colliding towards the wall.

"Ugnh...!"

Even after taking heavy damage, Ace was able to move. If it weren't for his increased stats, a normal person would have died from such a blow. After trying to stand up, the golem was still on guard with Ace. Knowing that the golem had completely forgotten about Darklin, Ace shouted.

"Now, Darklin! Go for its legs!"

After hearing Ace's words, Darklin followed his instructions and emitted a dark pulse. The attack wasn't enough to destroy the legs, but it was enough for the golem to fall.

"[Utility Arts: Quickstep, Overdrive]"

With consecutive use of his Arts, Ace dashed and imbued his sword with mana, making a final attempt to destroy the core crystal.

"[Offensive Art: Quick Edge!]" The Art Ace used was a simple yet quick slash attack where the edge of the blade is strengthened. Although this ability was typically used for daggers and shortswords, Ace compensated with an overwhelming swing with his sword.

"!!!!!"

The golem noticed its vulnerability and formed a magic shield around itself, deflecting Ace's attack in the process, but this didn't stop Ace's attack. He jumped back, holding his hand out, gathering the mana from his body to form a spell. After a second, several dark flames came out of his hands, all aimed directly at the fallen machine.

'[Dark Flame Barrage]!'

Consecutive fireballs all travelled, draining away the shield with Ace knowing that the shield can only take a certain threshold of damage. Likewise, Darklin joined in attacking from the rear.

Crack...!

Both of them heard a subtle crack during the barrage of flames, Ace gripped his sword tightly for another offensive attempt. Imbuing his blade in mana again, he took it a step further and enhanced the blade with dark magic temporarily.

'[Unique Art: Dark Fury]'

Ace dashed towards the golem as it still held up its shield.

"It's over!" In a few seconds, Ace let out a flurry of attacks with his sword. His movement and attacks were so quick that Darklin could see after images of Ace making the motions of slashing away the shield. The moment Ace finished his attack, his blade glowed a bright purple indicating the final attack of his unique art, he delivered a dark elemental slash breaking through the shield, and causing it to malfunction.

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"To me Darklin!" Darklin did what Ace asked, jumping on his shoulder whilst Ace stepped back taking a defensive stance.

The golem began attacking randomly, unable to function properly.

"Let us do a final attack Ace,"

"Yeah let's finish it."

Both of them joined together for a joint attack, they joined their attacks together burning the golem at a high temperature. Both Ace and Darklin's flames went from a bright purple to a blood-red flame with Ace coining the move [Hellfire Inferno]. With Darklin's teachings, Ace has learnt a variety of ways to use his flames alongside a variety of spells for any situation. But with Ace's mind, he has thought of a lot of cooperative attacks with Darklin syncing up powerful combinations to increase.

The golem began to melt away leaving only its core on the ground.

Ace walked up towards it and noticed that the burnt down golem began regenerating at a slow pace. The material of the golem was made out of a special mana-imbued metal capable of regenerating as long as the core was intact.

"You said this dungeon was made by Artes right? He's quite the craftsman to make all these mechanisms. I can't even destroy the core completely if I tried."

"Indeed, he made this dungeon and many more. Of course, he provided many of its relics for the potential heroes. Whatever is at the end of this whole thing it should be beneficial when we fight Vumor."

"I hope so. But still... even though this thing made me crash towards the wall, this thing didn't feel as strong as what Razor explained. I would imagine a group of coordinated Heroes can take this thing down with a few injuries of course."

"Perhaps you are simply too strong?"

"I doubt it. Something just doesn't add up, the dead heroes supposedly on this floor that had died by this Golem. If ten heroes fought this thing, this would've been handled much more effectively."

"I can see your point."

"Did you have suspicions of the king?" Darklin asked.

Ace paused, realising a key to what might have truly happened here.

"Now that you asked, I guess we can find out there."

Ace and Darklin walked towards the hallway guarded by the Golem, with Darklin perched on Ace's shoulder. However, as soon as Ace stepped in, he and Darklin both noticed the foul stench in the air.

"I think you know where the dead bodies are," Darklin said.

"Obviously. But if they're up ahead, how did the Heroes die there instead of the floor behind us?"

"There's only one way to find out," Darklin replied.

Ace began to walk slightly faster to investigate the dead Heroes he had heard about from Razor. The information he had about the Heroes was all strange, such as why the King was the only survivor and how the Heroes were presumably killed by the golem. After a short walk, Ace and Darklin found themselves in a giant room similar to the one housing the golem. The walls were adorned with engravings and pictures conveying a story. In the center of the room was a stone platform with a hole big enough to fit the blade of a sword. It had some inscriptions on it, but its surroundings showed a different story.

As Ace and Darklin approached the platform, they noticed that twelve different bodies were scattered around it. Darklin remarked, "Clearly, they weren't killed by the golem."

"If they had been, their bodies would be crushed or unrecognizable, given that its sword can probably slice someone in half," Ace replied.

As both of them checked the bodies, there were no signs of crushed bones or any injuries made by the golem. Ace noticed that two of the bodies held similar armor to Ancel and Dave, the only difference being its bulkiness and the number of ornaments their armor showed. They did not look like regular paladins but rather of a high rank.

"One of them is David for sure, but the way they died..."

"A sword slash," Darklin answered for Ace.

Slash marks and stabs were seen all over the bodies near Ace. The sword's strength easily cut through the Paladin's armor. Remembering the news about how the Heroes died, Ace focused on a sentence Razor had said.

'All the king got was some fancy sword, for several lives to be lost.'

"...So that's how it is..."

"What is?" Darklin asked, genuinely confused about what Ace was referring to after seeing the bodies first-hand. It made sense why things were unusual at the Golem fight, why their bodies weren't there, and the cause of death of the bodies here.

"...I don't know. Was there writing on the platform?"

"I believe so. I will go ahead and read it for you," Darklin said.

"Please do. I'll check on these bodies. Someone I know might want some of their possessions," Ace replied.

Ace scavenged what he could from the dead Paladins, looking through their magic inventory and accessories. What caught Ace's eye was the ring on the Paladin's finger, it looked much the same as Olivia's. When Ace saw the ring, he noticed that the ring itself was an artifact to increase its wearer's stats. After fiddling with the Paladin's magic inventory, he found something interesting.

"This is a painting," Ace said, holding up the painting that showed the Paladin without his armor and what was presumed to be his lover. Ace knew who the woman was in the painting, confirming that the body he had just looted was David's.

"I guess I'll only use this ring for a short while until I give it back to Olivia. But before that, everyone here needs to be cremated," Ace said as he began to line up the bodies and cover them with whatever rag he could scavenge from their capes and hoods.

Darklin flew towards the stone while on his end, and after spending a few seconds reading the text, he relayed the information to Ace.

"I think I understand why there are dead bodies around the platform."

"Tell me what you've read."

"The sword that was once here was one of Artes' masterworks named the Infinity Blade. The blade holds the ability to absorb the strength of those slain by its edge."

"Huh? A bit abrupt to kill the Heroes immediately. But if that King were to see me now, would he have done the same to me?"

"Perhaps. Being cautious is a good thing, it's a good thing you decided to stay in the dungeon a little longer. You learned something valuable in this dungeon."

"Hah... haha... so you're saying he could do the same to me."

"Maybe. But I do have a suggestion."

"What is it?"

"Either you find allies, or we hunt for the other masterwork items Artes has left behind in the other dungeons."

"Then we'll do that. But I'm not sure if Razor will help me, I doubt Olivia can, given her position. I'm not surprised that the King was messed up."

"This will be tough, it's just the two of us, and the fact that we don't know how long it will take for Vumor to eventually break his seal is troublesome for our preparation."

"And how will we know when he's coming?"

"It depends on the frequency of encounters with the Fallen. At best, I hope we have at least a few years if not less than that."

"I knew it would take a while for me to get out of this world."

Ace let out a sigh. He looked over to the other bodies, picking up certain equipment. He grabbed a short sword from one of the corpses and was finally in full offensive capability.

"Let's cremate these bodies. I still need to get what I can to survive. I'll have to carry this Paladin's ashes to someone," Ace said as he began lining the bodies, covering them with whatever rag he could scavenge, from their capes and hoods, as he placed them over their faces.

Darklin perched on Ace's shoulder as he went from body to body. Ace checked for anything useful from their magic inventories, such as gold pouches, potions, accessories, and weapons he could switch out.

"There's one more body there," Darklin pointed out.

A mage's body was further away from the majority of the bodies near the stone platform. The person wore a large robe, with two tomes on the ground beside them. As Ace approached the body and took off the person's hood, his eyes widened.

"No way..." His heartbeat increased, and he began to breathe heavily at the body in front of him.

"Ace...?"

Ace focused his eyes on the multiple slashes and stab wounds on the body. When he noticed the particular hairstyle of the dead person, Ace dropped to his knees.

"Luna...? That can't be you... right...? It can't be you..."

"Ace... this could be anyone."

"No girl wears their hair like this. That's Luna's hairstyle... the hair color matches. It has to be her!" After coming to terms with the body before him, Ace stood up and took a deep breath.

"I will give you some space to grieve." Just as soon as Darklin was about to head towards the other bodies, Ace spoke up.

"Luna... how...? Why..." His hands began to shake, and memories of Luna began to surface in his head. "Why does everyone I love... always leave me...?"

Ace started to break down, breathing heavily all of a sudden. His body shook, and the strength of his voice trembled. His eyes were fixated on the sight of her body, and he couldn't think rationally.

"WHY...?! WHY...?!-"

Darklin shouted, "Ace...! Get yourself together!" in an attempt to snap him out of it.

With no time to grieve, both of them felt an ominous aura emanating from Luna's body. The corpse stood up and blasted a mana wave, pushing both Ace and Darklin back.

"UGH...!" Both of them groaned in pain as the dead Luna summoned both tomes to their hand, and they floated and rotated around her.

"To think you're still alive Ace!"

Ace was surprised by the corpse talking to him. He was more focused on the fact that it was Luna's voice. However, her voice was wrapped in a demonic tone, making Ace realize who it was.

"How the hell are you here?!" Ace shouted.

"He sensed your negative emotions. If he's capable of that, then his seal is more weakened that I thought." Darklin answered.

"How troublesome... I thought I managed to avoid you entirely Darklin..."

With Vumour taking over Luna's body, Ace was more than angry knowing that his friend was now converted into Vumour's Fallen. With both weapons in his hand, he took a stance at the Fallen Luna, waiting for his chance to strike.

"GET OUT OF HER BODY!" Ace shouted as he dashed forward to aim for the Fallen Luna's neck, but she emitted a mana barrier, causing him to jump back.

"Just die Ace- aaaH..." Struggling to keep control of Luna himself, Vumor's presence had left the area, leaving only the Fallen Luna fixated on responding to Vumor's desires to kill Ace.

"Did Vumor himself just leave?" Darklin questioned what had just happened.

"It doesn't matter! He's fucking controlling her!"

The Fallen Luna held out her arms towards Ace. Both of her tomes opened and fired a water elemental spell and an electric spell.

"...Run..." The Fallen Luna quietly muttered.

"[Utility Arts: Quickstep, Overdrive]!" Ace shouted with all his might.

With Darklin on his shoulder, Ace ran sideways, allowing Darklin to fire multiple dark projectiles towards the Fallen. However, the Fallen Luna simply blocked them with a mana barrier, attempting to cast another spell.

Darklin noticed the hesitation in her arms, as she could barely hold out her hand to cast her next spell.

"GET OUT OF HER NOW! [OFFENSIVE ART: TWIN EDGE]!" Ace dealt a two-hit combo towards the Fallen Luna. Despite Ace's speed, the Fallen Luna managed to dodge the first attack and blocked the second attack with her mana shield, but the barrier received a crack in the process.

Luna held out her hands again, signaling one of her tomes to summon icicles towards Ace while using another of her tomes to try to bind Ace with a magical rope.

With Darklin's support, he simply burned the icicles with his breath attack, while Ace repositioned to get away from the rope. He fired a Dark Javelin when he had the chance, but his attempt was futile the moment Luna used one of her tomes to absorb the spell. The tome lit up as it sucked Ace's spell, magically creating a new page.

Luna used the tome that absorbed the Dark Javelin and fired a barrage of her own, causing Ace to make an evasive maneuver.

Holding grief throughout his whole body, Ace was determined to take down the Fallen Luna to give her a proper farewell in the end.