Chapter 74
There was a faint but unmistakable trace of fear in the warriors’ footsteps as they charged toward the Blood Knight.
It was utterly impossible.
It was unthinkable for those soldiers of Sahad to feel fear the instant battle began.
Such weaklings could never have survived among the elite sent to the Tower, let alone somewhere in Sahad’s back alleys.
It was absurd to think they had been frightened by witnessing a noble adviser’s head being severed.
They had witnessed far worse scenes countless times, and committing such acts was practically their specialty.
“So this is a demonkin…!”
The reason for their fear was simple.
They belonged to a generation that had never once experienced the threat of the demonkin.
Five hundred years ago, the Hero had imprisoned most of the demonkin in the Tower, so the desert people had last fought demonkin long before even the Emperor of Sahad appeared.
Therefore, the very existence of demonkin was unfamiliar to them.
Of course, during this expedition, they had carved their way through the demonkin from the 60th floor to the 98th.
But they had fought those battles knowing the monsters’ weaknesses and patterns, thanks to the information about the Tower provided by the advisers.
The difficulty had been predictable and manageable.
By contrast, the red knight before them satisfied none of those conditions.
It was an unknown monster, and its movements were on an entirely different level from those of the monsters before it.
Unprecedented.
Therefore, this was the first moment they truly felt fear of the demonkin.
Ssshhh-
The blood mist gushing from the cut at the neck of its red armor stained the greatsword’s blade red.
Then the Blood Knight crossed its arms and raised the greatsword diagonally behind its back.
“Attack!!”
Kaaang-! Ching-!
The Blood Knight’s greatsword and the warriors’ curved swords collided, sending sparks flying.
“Get around it! Go for its back!”
The warrior captain issued another command.
Ssshhh-! Thud!
A warrior trying to get behind the Blood Knight was knocked away by its backspin.
Then, using the momentum of that rotation, it swung its greatsword at the warrior in front of it.
Kaang!
Just like that, the Blood Knight fended off attacks from two warriors in an instant.
‘This thing… For a monster, its swordsmanship is far too refined.’
The warrior captain watched the trajectory of the Blood Knight’s greatsword, inwardly aghast.
Swoooosh-! Boom!
Its movements were clean, precise, and free of any unnecessary motion.
It was like watching the swordsmanship of a well-trained human knight.
Moreover, it was using swordsmanship perfectly suited to the current situation of one fighting many.
It retreated while fighting, forcing the battle into a series of one-on-one engagements.
As the exchange continued in that manner, the warrior unit’s momentum began to fade.
‘Against something like that…’
This would never have happened if the entire warrior unit had been in perfect condition.
That thought crossed the warrior captain’s mind.
Even though the monster before them possessed extraordinary skill, it was an opponent they could have defeated if their unit had not consisted solely of wounded fighters from the slaughter on the 84th floor.
What was most unfortunate of all was the warrior captain’s own condition.
‘The poison is spreading…’
The warrior captain panted heavily.
The wound on his shoulder, where he had been struck by an elven warrior’s poisoned arrow on the 84th floor, was blackening and burning.
Less than ten seconds had passed since the battle began.
The warrior captain made his decision.
“Retreat!!”
Without the gold coins, there was no point in killing this monster even if they managed to defeat it.
According to the advisers, the Demon King’s Tower allowed them to open the door and flee to the lower floor without killing the monster.
He backed away and pointed his curved sword toward the entrance to the 100th floor, indicating their direction.
It was then, just as the warriors maintained an orderly defensive formation and tried to fall back toward the door.
Kwaaaang-!
The red-armored monster leaped forward at tremendous speed and stood blocking the door, their escape route.
As though it had understood the warrior captain’s words.
“This thing… Does it understand human language?!”
The warrior captain shouted in shock.
There was nowhere left to run.
“Break through!! Cut that thing down and get out!”
A desperate resistance began.
The warriors tightened their encirclement.
Soon, they succeeded in plunging their curved swords into the gaps in the red armor all at once.
Thrust! Thrust!
“It worked!”
But their joy was fleeting.
Shuaaaaaaak-!!!
Blood mist burst from the cut surface of its neck and from its wounds.
Then the Blood Knight adjusted its grip on the greatsword and spun once, sending the warriors flying in all directions with screams.
“Gaaaaaah!”
“My arm…!”
That was the moment the tide turned.
The battle that followed became a one-sided slaughter.
Each time the Blood Knight’s greatsword cleaved through the air, the warriors’ limbs fell away one after another.
The Blood Knight targeted the wounded first.
Slash-!
Shields split apart, and curved swords broke.
Though the warriors risked their lives to inflict countless wounds on the red armor, the monster seemed incapable of feeling pain and slammed down its greatsword without the slightest hesitation.
Slaaaash-!
Kaaang-!
At last, every member except the panting warrior captain lay dead on the floor.
“You… monster…!”
The warrior captain staggered as he raised his curved sword.
Elf poison.
The pain gnawed at him as though it were burning through his entire body.
The Blood Knight approached slowly and mercilessly.
The greatsword rose high into the air.
Slaaaash-!
“Heh, I never even caught a glimpse of the gold coins… not even a mirage…”
With that final murmur, his consciousness went dark.
Year 421 of the Sun God’s calendar.
The first warrior unit sent to the Demon King’s Tower by the Emperor of Sahad was annihilated just like that.
*
*
*
Meanwhile.
The second party to enter the Tower, a fifty-person group led by Expedition Commander Kael, came in twenty-four hours later.
Kkigigigik-
At last, they opened the door to the 60th floor, the first floor where monsters were present.
Titan Mantis.
A mantis monster of overwhelming size blocked their path.
The old woman was the first to shout when the monster suddenly appeared.
“Why has a monster from the 61st floor come down one floor?”
Everyone began to grow confused, but Kael calmly assessed the situation and immediately issued an order.
“Everyone, assume battle formation! Take your positions as instructed!”
<Kieeeeeek-!>
The party soon moved according to the plan they had prepared in advance.
Even while ascending floors without monsters, they had prepared mock battle plans through the floor after next every time they climbed another flight of stairs.
That was because Kael had insisted on it.
- How long are they going to make us do this stupid crap!!
Those who had objected to Kael on the grounds that it was a waste of time could not hide their sheepish expressions.
“I’ll cut it down!”
The descendant of the Hero leaped to the very front, his holy sword shining.
But.
“Please step aside.”
“You stay put.”
The captain of the Holy Knights and the Tower Master of Ram blocked his path.
“A chance to use the holy sword to its fullest has finally arrived! Why are you stopping me?”
“Holy Knights, eliminate it!”
Ignoring the boy’s words, the captain of the Holy Knights gave the order, and the gold-armored knights charged forward in perfect formation.
Their swords, imbued with holy power, knocked aside the mantis’s enormous scythes before driving their attacks into it.
Kaaang-! Swoooosh-!
Before long, the defender of the 60th floor collapsed.
Afterward, they reached the 61st and 62nd floors.
From that point onward, monsters began to appear, but they cleared them all without difficulty.
*
They soon arrived at the final floor permitted by their fatigue.
The troublesome 84th floor.
But the traces of the slaughter carried out by the Sahad Empire and the elven warriors who had entered first had completely vanished.
Perhaps the revived monsters had cleaned everything up; they were the only ones there to greet them.
Therefore, they had no way of knowing what had happened there.
However, after defeating the monster on the 84th floor and setting up camp, quite a few people began to speculate that the others had already fallen.
They could not imagine those greedy people refraining from fighting one another in that situation.
“It’s a good thing we weren’t the first party to enter…”
“You only realized that now? Can you think of anything worse than a gathering of leaderless men?”
While several groups exchanged such idle chatter, the rest period Kael had set came to an end.
*
From then on, their advance proceeded smoothly.
The information about the Tower provided by the surviving old woman played a major role.
But Kael’s leadership stood out above all else as he compiled that information into strategies and tactics and immediately issued orders.
After that, dozens of fighters worked together to achieve a stable ascent without a single casualty.
“Was it Kael? For a figurehead expedition commander, he has fairly useful command skills.”
Someone muttered that.
“The ones who entered ahead of us may have already fallen apart, don’t you think?”
“They must have. They should have reached the 100th floor yesterday, but we still haven’t seen so much as the tip of their noses!”
Even that fact was becoming certain. No shadow carrying gold coins had appeared anywhere.
Thus, the people who had been anxiously worrying that their share of the gold coins might disappear stopped complaining, and the party became completely stable.
The only unusual thing was that whenever a battle broke out, the Holy Knights and the Tower Master of Ram stepped in to prevent the descendant of the Hero from participating directly, leaving the boy furious and unable to understand.
“Why are you preventing me from showing what I can do? By what authority do you…!”
“As I told you, you are under the protection of the Holy Kingdom.”
“Why don’t you rest for a while? I’m also responsible for protecting you.”
“Even the Tower Master of Ram? Why?”
That made the atmosphere in the expedition somewhat disorderly.
But it was nothing more than a minor commotion.
This was a large party of fifty people.
As the climb continued, the expedition commander’s authority gradually began to be recognized, and the party’s system solidified.
*
When they reached the 98th floor, a lava-coated golem blocked their path.
“Execute the plan!”
The party moved according to Kael’s command. By then, they were perfectly coordinated.
The mages of the Mage Tower Alliance, led by the Tower Master of Ram, raised their staffs in unison.
“Cyclone!”
“Tempest!”
Wind-attribute spells unfolded one after another, creating a huge vortex in the chamber of the 98th floor.
The raging gale tore the lava covering the golem’s body away and flung it into the air.
Sizzleee-!
Once the lava coating had been stripped away, the golem’s defenses plummeted, and it crumbled beneath the ensuing assault by the mercenaries and Holy Knights.
Afterward, they arrived at the 99th floor, but just as on the floors up to the 59th, there were no monsters.
That meant they had overcome every obstacle.
“At last…”
The expedition’s gazes all converged on one place.
The door leading to the 100th floor.
The surviving old woman stepped forward, leaning on her cane.
“Those with the greatest strength, step forward.”
Recalling her memories from four hundred years ago, she explained.
“As I mentioned before, the door to the 100th floor will be weighed down by the enormous amount of gold coins beyond it. Only the strongest among you can force the door open and reach the 100th floor.”
A mercenary swallowed hard and muttered.
“…I still can’t believe there are enough gold coins piled up to keep the door from opening.”
A dozen or so able-bodied men, including Kael, approached the door and placed both hands against it.
“Push together on my signal. One, two, three!”
“Hraaah-!!”
The warriors threw their entire body weight against the door.
But.
Crash-!!
“Huh?”
“Agh!”
Contrary to what they had been told, the door swung open far too easily.
The men, who had used all their strength from the start because they had been told it was incredibly heavy, lost their balance and tumbled headlong onto the floor of the 100th floor.
Kael rolled across the floor as well, then hurriedly rose and looked ahead.
“What… is this…?”
There were no enormous gold coins blocking the door.
They had been told that the gold would pour out like a burst dam when the door opened.
But not a trace of that golden light remained.
“The gold… The gold is gone!!”
“It’s completely empty!”
Those who had been swollen with greed fell into despair.
Kael, on the other hand, calmly examined the ten corpses sprawled across the chamber.
His gaze was fixed on the monster standing ahead.
It was not the master of the 100th floor described by the old woman.
A headless knight in red armor.
A monster with that appearance stood at the exact center.
‘Was that monster the one that annihilated the warriors of Sahad…?’
The monster began to move.
Kael immediately adjusted his grip on his sword.
An unknown monster.
Since it took the form of a knight, it would presumably display swordsmanship.
What level of strength did it possess, and what techniques would it use?
Kael focused every nerve on the monster’s movements as he considered those questions.
The knight in red armor soon took a stance.
It crossed its arms.
Then.
It raised the greatsword it held diagonally behind its back.
Kael could not believe the move the monster had made as it took that stance.
“Uh…?”