My next trip into that particular dungeon was destined to be the last. As a zero-to-thirty dungeon, if I got enough experience to hit level 30 on the trip, my level would hover at 29 until I left, at which point I would level up to 30, and all other experience was lost.

I, uh, didn't know that until I looked it up on Wikipedia. It was useful information. I checked some of the references but they were just news articles, seemed legit. Apparently that rule applied at all levels, which was a bummer to some people in longer dungeons, since they could just hit a cap at some point.

I hadn't gotten my transceiver, so I checked in the floor 5 Town for messages, since it had been a couple days, but there was nothing--no DM and no replies, plus no new threads from the mysterious second Soulforged. That was a little bit of a weight off my mind. If he'd replied right away and I just didn't get it, I would have felt like a heel.

The dungeon was as unremarkable as my last run, but this time I didn't stop at 25. It was a 50-floor dungeon, but I'd gotten pretty familiar with it. I did grind every boss above 24 more than once just to collect loot to sell, but having fought them all before at a much lower level, now, I didn't feel quite so put out.

And then it was floor 49, and I was facing the Devil again, this time for real.

His intro was different than the first time I came through. He sat on a bone throne in front of a lavafall, with screaming demon faces occasionally thrashing about in the lava, in what I hoped was just an overdramatic visual effect. All that was pretty new.

More interestingly, his sword was new. The one I'd gotten from him last time was a mostly normal-looking, but obsidian black greatsword with a couple crystal spikes on the crossguard, and its most important feature was the added death aura that had (no points for the pun, I know) quite a killer effect on low-level enemies. Even with against higher level enemies--and everyone I fought was higher level than me--it was a potent source of extra damage.

The new one had a broad fan at the tip of the sword, meaning it couldn't be used for piercing at all, though the edges of the fan had points that you could perhaps use like an axe. It was also significantly heavier, and there were a series of jewels set into the blade, straight up its spine. The crossguard prominently featured a devil's skull, one that was pretty much the same as the item his earlier version had dropped, including being three times the size of my own.

So, it was a kind of nice sword, in general. Not really my style, but I'd definitely try it, assuming that's the loot he dropped. At that point I was already level 29, with a lot of unspent class points, but I spent no time thinking about that, and instead crouched down and tried to get back into the suicidal-hunter mindset that had been so successful the first time.

It was hard to go back to, even after a good run in the dungeon. It would be easier if the fights before had been hard, but I knew those fights. This was new, and I needed to treat it as such.

To my surprise, though, the Devil just stood up from his throne and placed the broad tip of his sword on the ground, facing me with a scowl. "I remember you, mortal," he said. "You've caused me no small amount of grief. My father is quite upset with my... prior performance. I am sure you understand."

I felt like I had a deer-in-the-headlights moment, but I loosened up as fast as I could. "I didn't know dungeon monsters had memories from prior lives."

"Yes... I would not have, except that you've triggered my final form." He gestured vaguely to me, and for some reason, my inventory popped up with the Devil's Skull item. "There is one thing in particular that item does--it raises my intelligence by 50 and wisdom by 100, either or both of which I must be what grants me this unique perspective. An interesting discovery, if meaningless."

I kept my crouch, watching him, wondering when the fight would start.

"I suppose you're only interested in the fight. And, look at you, at the level cap already. This will be the last time we talk, for shame." The Devil picked up his massive sword and mimicked my pose, the weapon looking weightless in his hand. "Then again, I suppose--who would ever want to talk to the Devil, right?"

"That is a problem," I admitted, and without further ado, popped on my boots of Air Dash and moved.

I kept a watch on his eyes, but made my first approach a dash left, then right, then forward-right, and left to try to hook behind him. He was watching; he could keep up with my speed. I materialized one of my Devil's Swords just long enough to swipe at his face, but he dodged it easily, making a lazy backhand swing with his massive sword as a counter.

I moved back far enough to miss it, then pressed forward with all the speed my telekinesis could provide, materializing another Devil's Sword in my other hand for just a moment, aiming to thrust into his chest. He dodged, but not fast enough; the tip caught him, and tore a wound across his chest as I moved past him.

The devil hissed at me, moving to keep the sword between us. "So you're really not interested in redemption, then?"

I paused and squinted at him. "What does that even mean?"

"Ah, so you are interested." A sharp-toothed grin spread over the Devil's face. "Not a great way to show it, I must admit--"

"One thing most people in this country learn," I dashed forward again, trying to aim a bladestrike at the Devil's left elbow; I missed, but caught his forearm instead, "is to never trust a devil," I dashed upwards, reorienting myself in midair, and then dashed again straight for the Devil's head. He lost track of me for just that moment, and I materialized both swords long enough to do a twin-blade scissor chop to his head. Effective, but not as lethal as it would be in reality, of course. With my momentum stopped by the strike, I immediately dashed away, getting my feet on solid ground and getting ready to dodge again. "Especially when he offers a deal."

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The devil shook his head, looking very disoriented, and stumbled back. "Fool," he spat. "You ought to know as well as anyone, it's only a name. I am a creature of this dungeon, and--"

I threw one sword, then another, then the two flambards I received from the skeleton on floor 4--those were all the duplicate weapons I had with enough attack power to hurt this guy, although the flambards didn't do much except distract him while the greatswords dematerialized and were on cooldown. It was a short cooldown, but not zero, and I didn't want to be caught without them.

"Now see here!"

"Blame your father, the Administrator," I snarled. "Do you honestly not understand our history, devil? You were summoned because I betrayed evil soul-eating monsters. The administrator allows men to be evil, and punishes us if we are inconsistent. Because I desired redemption, I was supposed to die. Now you, in the same guise, want to tell me that you can offer redemption?"

"Well then what do you want?" for a moment, I could swear that the Devil seemed frustrated, as though this really was intended to go another way.

"Nothing that you can give me," I said. "A world without death. The power to change things. Hope. All gifts I wouldn't accept from a devil. I'm not interested in being betrayed again."

The Devil hissed at me, but his shoulders sagged. "Does it really not mean anything to you that I--"

"It doesn't." I leveled my translucent blue sword at him. "Why would I ever trust a devil?"

I might have thought that statement broke the devil's heart, but if it did, it was only for a moment. After that, he was angry. And finally, he started taking the fight seriously. He started emitting a death aura, so I summoned my cloak, which gave me immunity to the effect, and resistance to the damage; he summoned lava harpies as adds, which I mostly ignored, and he started making real efforts to hit me with his big broad-tipped sword.

But as you'd expect from a sword that massive, his swings had huge momentum, and that left him open to a counter with every swing. And me, I taught lessons on critical bladework and moving with telekinesis.

He hit half health pretty quickly, although I think I would have easily still succeeded at a lower level, maybe even on my first trip in, although his motions were faster and more adaptable than they were when I first fought him.

And then the phase change occurred. I watched him carefully, wondering.

My last blow had sent him reeling back, and since it was a critical blow to the head, one of his horns snapped off, and he grabbed at his head theatrically. "Very well," he said, and removed a pair of pince-nez glasses that in all honestly I hadn't even noticed on his face. "We'll do it your way." And with that, he...

He... threw away his sword.

I realized almost too late what had to be coming next, and put everything I had into a dodge, ending up sliding on my side, but I avoided a massive firey punch, one several times faster than he could have done while trying to maneuver that stupid large sword. I thought for a moment he might have moved into a more carefully developed fighting style, but when his head snapped around at me, I realized he was berserk. Faster, but dumber.

I dodged the next blow, and activated stealth, I hung on the wall for a moment to test if he noticed me, but he didn't, or not right away. With his higher mental stats, he probably would have noticed, but raging... maybe not?

I used telekinesis to leap up, and lined up my fall to deliver a double-demon-sword straight chop to his brain-pan. That kicked me out of stealth, but left me behind him, and that kind of heavy chop usually had a stunning effect. Usually... but less likely if the enemy had higher stats, or was in a rage.

As soon as my feet hit the ground, I brought both swords up to make an X across my chest, and he punched me half a moment later, hard enough to throw me across the room. I got my feet under me as fast as I could, and leaped for the walls again, this time using my boots to wall run as I waited for my stealth to come out of cooldown.

He got in front of me, but I saw him coming, and threw one of my swords at his face. He knocked it away, but I was moving away from him at an angle, falling towards the middle of the room. Just to be safe, I summoned a heavy leather armor that I'd put a minor regeneration charm on; not enough to save me if I got pinned, but it might keep me from getting one-shotted if the devil got a lucky break.

He made a fast dash for the ground, and from there dashed towards where he expected me to land--which didn't help him much, since I was a telekinetic. I summoned the broach too, just to make sure I wouldn't get hit, and was clear across the room by the time he understood why he'd missed.

He shouted in rage. In that moment when he was looking away, I activated Stealth again, and vanished most of my items to reduce the penalty. I stepped carefully and quietly, watching him search around, ready to dodge or fight.

He did seem to understand something was wrong, this time. Finally, though, he decided on a course of action--a new move I hadn't seen yet. He reached one hand towards his throne and then snapped it back.

The noise that came from that direction really inspired me to get the hell out of dodge, and I went straight up, which was a good decision--a wave of lava from the falls spread over the ground. It wasn't real, bone-melting lava--or maybe it was, but dungeoneers would mostly take damage from it as opposed to becoming immediately crispy critters. For me, though, I just moved to the wall and watched for a moment, still in stealth. He seemed to be keeping a keen eye out for footprints in the hot rock.

A few seconds passed, then a few more. I realized kind of late that this might just be how things were, now. I considered, looking at him. He didn't have a lot of health left, but he was definitely out of one-shot range. Maybe three good attacks?

I studied the arena, and nodded. I could do three in a burst. I let myself slide down the wall, then did a telekinetic charge for his head, two swords lined up to skewer his head, which of course they wouldn't really--

Uh, unless my stealth broke early and he turned his head at just the wrong time and they went straight into his eyes. That... could happen, I guess. Implausible, but, could happen.

"Critical bladework" usually just covered damage-crits, but the 'system' of the dungeons did recognize some kinds of injuries, mostly to joints, hands, feet, eyes, ears, lungs, heart, back, genitals, and your asshole, for whatever reason. (Again, not my own particular knowledge. The Wikipedia article on that is extensive and also highly disturbing.) So two blows to the eyes was a serious thing in addition to being a slightly higher than normal damage-crit.

Which, uh, meant that he screamed. And when I dashed away and reached the wall, I realized he was crying, and no longer in a rage.

"Why would you do-hoo-hoo thi-hi-hiiiisss," he whined. "All I wanted was to set you free-hee-hee..."

I made a face and threw a sword through his. Was I... supposed to have sympathy for the devil? Was that a thing they wanted to happen? Because that didn't seem like a thing that should happen.

With his death, the arena cleared of lava, and my inventory popped up again. One of the Devil's Skulls was removed from my inventory. And for the drop...

I blinked as I reached down and picked up off the ground, something that looked like a cheap fake-angel-halo toy, except painted black. The item description said, "Fallen Angel's Halo." It had... actually very impressive stats, but something was off about the whole fight, and I didn't like it.

At this point I had three more skulls, but did I really want to fight an opponent who was going to try--that was going to remember crying the last time he fought me?

I looked up at the ceiling, not really having a better reference for where to look when I said things like this, and said, "Administrator... I have questions."

And just like that, I was in an empty white void... again.