Ranad, Rosendun.
7:05 p.m. 17 th Zelyr 1092.
“Hot!” Zuri complained as she fanned her flushed face. The Hell floor definitely lived up to its name. The entire floor was encased in searing hot flames, some of which were white-hot! Everyone present knew they would instantly perish if they came into contact with the white flames.
Fortunately, the Hell Floor had floating rocks interspaced between the fiery hell. These floating platforms were like blood vessels connected by thin, vein-like tunnels. These tunnels provided the only safe passage through the flames to other platforms.
Just like the Death Floor, twelve purple pillars shone on far-off platforms. The warriors turned to look at Kashi and Zuri who had just stepped through the gate. Strangely, the door remained open, with the portal still spinning, which indicated that someone remained on the floor below.
Brilith was the first to notice the missing Hektor. “Where’s the barbarian?”
Kashi smiled as he responded, “Hektor wants to spend some time to increase his level. He’s a bit behind most of us. Don’t worry. We’ll take care of our cores.”
Brilith’s gaze narrowed. She felt like the daeben was toying with her, but she could not find any point to pin him down. Frustrated, she snorted and looked away. “Do not forget we are on a time limit. Do not slow us down with your antics.”
“Su—” At that moment, Kashi’s eyes shone as he received a level up notification. A broad smile appeared on his face as he grinned and said, “Sure.” He then pointed at the twelve tunnels attached to their platform. “You guys should split up to save more time. Each platform will have about forty to fifty devils and demons. With what you’ve shown, it should not be too difficult if you plan your teams well.”
With those words, Kashi surprisingly walked ahead with the Hopeful Maggots, taking the lead. “Zuri, go with Shadow and Larsial. Shokō and Syèl will take one tunnel each, and I’ll take the last one. Watch out for the devils’ illusions. Those can be a real pain to deal with.”
Truthfully, Kashi’s warning was more toward Sonic and Brilith’s teams. Shokō and Syèl were monsters. Ninety percent of illusions would fail on them. As a werewolf, Zuri was extremely resistant to most magic and elemental attacks, including illusions of course. The werewolf magic resistance was one of the major reasons vampires created blood arts. Blood Arts was closer to witchcraft than it was to magic. As a result they were much more effective against werewolves. Finally, Shadow and Larsial were assassins. The assassin class had to avoid illusions and traps during assassination missions, so they had many methods to detect and dispel illusions.
Both Brilith and Sonic shared Kashi’s sentiments, so they split their teams accordingly.
On Brilith’s side, RustyReaper stuck with Nightslayer, and Honne-Onna went with GrizzlyDiamond. Shockingly, Rono took a channel to herself, which suggested there was more to the little rogue than first met the eye. Finally, Brilith, as expected, took a channel to herself.
At the other end, Sonic and Gentle Breeze took one tunnel each. The berserker, Tempest, teamed up with their archer, Rolling Hail and their tank, Storm, teamed up with the assassin, Crow. Strangely, the usually crass Crow kept his mouth shut around Storm. The two seemed to have a peculiar history.
Once the teams were set up, everyone charged into their respective tunnels without delay, but Kashi held back Syèl for a second. He then whispered into the vampire’s ears. “Finish quickly and double back to my channel. If I’m not at my core in thirty minutes, destroy it and move on with the others.”
Syèl revealed a sneaky smirk. “You’re up to something, aren’t you?”
“You could say that.” Kashi grinned. “There’s something I need on this floor. If it works out, I might unlock something nice.”
“You’re pretty greedy.” Syèl rolled his eyes. Kashi did not say ‘level-up,’ but rather ‘unlock.’ This meant that Kashi was hoping to undergo something akin to an evolution. “You’re already a cheat-like existence. You still want more?”
“Says the Vampire Prince,” Kashi snorted. In terms of tiers of existence, Syèl’s Vampire Prince status just about edged Kashi’s Half-Draconian, Elder Dragon status. Kashi did not mind however, because, just like Syèl, he still had plenty of space to grow.
Syèl laughed as he conceded Kashi’s point. He then patted the daeben’s shoulder, before running into his tunnel. “Whatever you’re planning, stay alive!”
“Of course!” Kashi called as Syèl disappeared into his tunnel. The daeben then took a deep breath as his eyes glowed with a deep green light. “I know Yggdrassil,” muttered Kashi as he tapped his heated chest. “I can feel it too.”
Kashi first confirmed no one was around, and then tapped the ground with his foot. Shockingly, rocks broke off the platform and began to wrap around the daeben until he turned into a golem. Kashi’s Earth Control had rapidly increased thanks to his training in Serisis. Making a rough construct like this was child’s play.
However, due to the nature of Kashi’s mission, he needed to completely encase himself, thereby shutting off both sight and smell. He left a bit of room to store some oxygen, but that would only last him for ten to fifteen minutes. Kashi needed to complete his mission in that time or he would choke to death.
Kashi utilized [Mind’s Eye] to spread his consciousness outside the golem. He immediately suffered a headache as the searing heat assaulted his senses, causing him to nearly fall over. “Like hell I’m going to give up here.”
The coalition might be doing their best to prevent Razznik’s return, but Kashi was not so optimistic. He firmly believed Razznik would make an appearance. He could match Razznik as he was now. He needed to surpass his limits, no matter the risk.
Steeling his resolve, Kashi chuckled as he walked to the platform’s edge. The golem ‘gazed’ at the sky-high and then shockingly jumped off. The flames swallowed the golem, leaving nothing behind.
Oblivious to Kashi’s actions, Brilith and the others passed through their respective tunnels and came upon the first platform.
Immediately she exited the tunnel, Brilith was shocked to find a vast plain in front of her. Several elves bowed their heads in reverence, worshipping and offering their prayers upon her.
Brilith’s lips twitched, and a hint of anger flashed through her eyes. “You think you can trick me with this much?” She sneered as she sniffed a dark-purple flower that appeared in her hand. Immediately, the ‘reality’ before her stripped away like a hazy mist, revealing a small village with small, stone houses.
A group of strange creatures were gathered at the village front, staring warily at Brilith. Some of the creatures were humanoid, but had red skins and long, pointed horns. Others looked more like mutated monsters, horrible and deadly.
“Devils and Demons.” Brilith observed the lanky, red-skinned humanoids. These should be the lesser devils Kashi mentioned. Indeed, their illusions were effective. If Brilith did not have a Heart-Calming Rose, she might have needed to expend some effort.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“But why do they look so weak?” Strangely, whether it be the Lesser Devils or the Demons, they looked either too old, too young, too injured or too weak. Brilith could not spot a single healthy-looking combatant amongst the group.
This village looked… That’s right, it looked like villages left behind after the able-bodied warriors left to battle a great foe.
“H-how?” A Lesser Devil coughed up blood as he stared at Brilith with shock and fear. “How did you break out of Desire Infinitas so easily!? No, where did you come from!?”
“Desire?” Brilith’s brow rose. “Was that supposed to show me my desire? That crappy thing?” Brilith’s gaze turned frosty as she raised her hand. “You have to offer at least the world to satisfy me, don’t you think?”
The Lesser Devil’s eyes quaked with fear as thousands of green vines broke out of the ground. “Wait! Please! There are child—Uak!”
A giant trunk crushed that Lesser Devil to paste. The other devils either fled in panic or angrily charged at Brilith with the demons.
Faced with the charging enemies, Brilith snorted as her vines shattered them to pieces without suspense. Brilith confidently walked through the village, ignoring the villagers’ cries as they were either pierced or crushed. She finally made it to the other end, and walked through the tunnel, leaving a pool of blood and flesh behind.
However, Brilith failed to notice the blood begin to flow upwards in small rivulets, as if attracted by something up the tunnel.
Similar scenes played out across several tunnels as the warriors fought past the first platform. Some slaughtered the entire village, while others only killed those that blocked their path. Of the entire entire invading party, only two tunnels were left unscathed.
The first was, Sonic’s channel. Rather than fight, he ran past, outright ignoring the Lesser Devils. The Lesser Devils, in turn, could not dream of keeping up with his speed, so they reluctantly let him pass.
Elsewhere, Zuri stunned Shadow and Larsial by befriending the Lesser Devils in the first platform. Freed from the Summoned’s usual mentality of ‘kill NPCs to progress,’ she freely chatted with the Lesser Devils, seeing them only as interesting foreigners.
Through their discussions, Zuri, Shadow and Larsial learned the truth of this floor. The Hell Floor had twelve platforms per channel. The dungeon cores were located on the twelfth platform at the end of each channel.
Each dungeon core regularly spat out hordes of demons and devils, but due to the limited platform space, the newcomers always fought the old, intending to slaughter them and take their place. After countless centuries, a group of Lesser Devils managed to kill off invaders long enough for their civilization to grow.
As the Lesser Devils grew old and bore children, they began relocating their weaker brethren to the early platforms. The stronger Lesser Devils and Demons stayed at the later platforms to fight off the invading Lesser Devils borne from the Dungeon Core.
As long as the Dungeon Core remained, these Lesser Devils were doomed to a cycle of never-ending war and torment. Hence, when Zuri explained that she was there to destroy the Dungeon Core, they were all too eager to help her!
The Lesser Devils escorted Zuri, Larsial and Shadow, preventing their brethren on later platforms from attacking them.
Gugugugu! “Hmm?” In a separate channel, Syèl curiously gazed at a three-meter floating ball of blood. Intriguingly, clumps of blood kept ‘pulling’ out of the ball, but Syèl firmly held them in place. He looked at the tunnels with intrigue in his eyes. “Something wants this blood?”
“Let’s go say hi, then.” Syèl revealed a deadly grin as he put his hands in his pockets and then walked into the next tunnel. Around him, dozens of desiccated corpses crumbled to dust and ash.
Meanwhile, several dozens of meters the platforms below, a stone golem painstakingly waded through a black sea. Within the golem, Kashi had to resist the urge to scream as his skin repeatedly peeled off, and was then forcefully healed.
The black sea was not really a sea, but a thick, unbelievably dense clump of flames. The stone used to create the platforms were plucked from the hottest parts of the Netherworld, and were thus impervious to these flames. However, what little heat sipped through the seams was enough to roast Kashi alive! If it were not for his Heat Resistance, Regeneration Rate, and Yggdrasil, he would definitely have perished long ago, becoming a daeben kebab.
“Ugh. I hope no one moved it, or this would all have been for nothing!” Kashi angrily murmured to himself as he climbed onto a solid patch of rock floating on the black sea.
Truthfully, the Hell Floor was not always this intense. While it was always hot, Razznik’s obsession with screening only worthy challengers caused him to steal an incredible flame from the Netherworld.
This was a primordial flame that existed long before humes were created. Legends state that Ferulic used this flame to mold the world as we know it. However, because its existence was too dangerous, he consigned it to the Netherrealm, where it could run rampant without destroying all of creation.
Razznik plundered the flame from a massively fortified city in Netherrealm, and then used it to power the Hell Floor. Even Razznik did not attempt to control the flame as it was impossible for him of that time. Instead, he let it burn freely, and just raised the platforms to a level where the heat was slightly bearable for ‘strong’ people.
Unfortunately, the primordial flame required many sacrifices to keep its fire lit. The flame consumed the lifeforce and mana of humes and monster to stay lit throughout countless millenia. No living being could offer up the mana it needed to stay lit, so all its wielders had to rely on sacrifices. In the Netherrealm, these sacrifices were never-ending and of the highest quality, but the same could not be said for the Hell Floor.
The Lesser Devils’ lifeforce barely kept the primordial flame lit. It had otherwise lost most of its power, which was the only reason Kashi was able to walk through its core flames, even with the coat of armor.
However, Kashi did not care that the Primordial Flame lacked its original power. At the end of the day, all the flame wanted was mana. Who could claim they had more mana at their disposal than Yggdrasil, the World Tree?
“Hmm? Is that?” Kashi steps hastened as he approached an altar on the floating platform. A man-sized, four-meters long statue of a Water Spider with a tutsi bowl on its back stood atop the altar. The bowl contained a black clump the size of a basketball.
Kashi’s eyes went wide as a stream of energy gushed from his heart. He knew this was Yggdrassil expressing its intense desire.
Kashi did not stand on ceremony. He climbed onto the statue, and then approached the flames. “Here goes nothing.” Kashi gritted his teeth as a portal appeared above the fiery clump. However, the portal had barely scratched the flames when it exploded, causing Kashi to cough up blood.
In the confusion, Kashi’s concentration slipped, and a tiny crack appeared in the golem armor’s leg.
“ARGH!” Even Kashi could not stop his scream as his right leg burned to dust in an instant. Blood seeped out of the daeben’s eyes as he quickly bent over and covered the crack with his hand. However, he then began to choke as the momentary heat had consumed all the oxygen in the golem armor.
“Damn it! Like hell, I’m failing here!” Kashi gritted his teeth and once again raised his hand, summoning another portal. This time, however, he screamed with a bloody gaze as he ‘crashed’ the portal onto the flame in one fell swoop.
The flames, as if incensed by Kashi’s audacity, instantly erupted and charged at the portal. Predictably, Kashi’s portal began to shatter, but just before the backlash hit him, pure, green energy erupted and forcefully held the portal together until it successfully swallowed the clump.
Once the flame disappeared, Kashi’s golem exploded as flames burst out of his every pore, exposing the daeben to the harsh, burning world. The unconscious daeben fell into the tutsi bowl, which then closed up like a web, or a cocoon.
[Deliver the First Fire]
The statue suddenly trembled as the tutsi bowl closed and then charged across the black sea with the prize in its tutsi bowl.
Meanwhile, a war once again raged within Orez, as Yggdrassil assisted Orez to forceful subdue the Primordial Flame.