Chapter 257: Sixty-Fifth Floor, Dragons’ Grave (5)

[Complete the Beastfolk Alliance’s request. Time remaining: 150 hours 4 minutes.]

The reason I could speak with such certainty was, of course, due to my sheer strength.

For quite some time, I had scaled the tower through nothing but my absurd power alone. There had been a handful of moments where I struggled, but most of the time, that was against enemies that weren’t meant to be defeated.

Due to my previous experiences on this planet, I had already gauged how strong I was compared to the so-called masters and powerful opponents here. Back on the forty-second floor, the fiends protecting the demon egg had all been low-rank except for Shogal, who had been a mid-rank fiend.

There was no need to mention my fight against the Empire’s most powerful swordmaster, which had been nothing more than a good training match. Even if I encountered a high-rank fiend lurking in this cavern, I wouldn’t be worried about my odds.

I am more concerned about the possibility that the beam wasn’t caused by the legacy.

The chances were slim, but I couldn’t rule it out entirely. The tower commonly misled climbers, after all.

Imagine the violet beam is just some new weapon the cultists crafted. Ugh, I better not be wasting my time.

That was why, regardless of the circumstances, striking swiftly and finishing this in one stroke would be my best course of action.

I expanded my senses, confirming that nobody was stationed near the entrance.

No guards posted. Isn’t that a bit arrogant?

Strangely, I had sensed more patrols on the way here than at the entrance itself.

Hmm. They have to be pretty confident in their ability to detect would-be intruders.

That assumption worked in my favor. It meant infiltrating the area would be effortless.

I pulled off the dust-colored fabric concealing me and confidently rose. “Let’s move.”

***

Langley watched as Nameless strode forward, his presence perfectly matching the one he had displayed two weeks ago. That steadfast figure made all worries fade just by looking at him.

“Kugh!”

“Ghak!”

With a swing of his axe, two—no, three demon worshippers crumpled to the ground.

After he dispelled the illusion veiling the canyon, the enemy came pouring out. Dozens of cultists surged through the cavern, their sheer numbers overwhelming at first glance.

She had almost stepped back instinctively, but Nameless unhesitatingly walked forward in complete silence—not even his steps made a noise. He then easily carved through flesh with his axe.

From that moment onward, it was a complete slaughter.

Calling this a battle would be an exaggeration.

Even now, with the fight still unfolding, Langley never doubted what the outcome would be. More cultists were spilling out from the depths of the cave, but that didn’t scare her in the slightest—she wasn’t in danger.

Thump, thump.

Her heart pounded. No, it wasn’t just beating fast—it was hammering against her ribs. If she was being honest, her accelerated heartbeat had started during the dragon carriage’s fall.

“Haa...”

Langley knew that in moments of tension or terror, the intense emotions and accelerated heartbeat could be mistaken for something else—infatuation. She had gone through countless missions and trained to be an agent. Even in Black Butterfly, they deliberately separated agents after high-risk operations for this exact reason.

However, despite knowing all that, she couldn’t stop the rapid thudding in her chest.

Her vision blurred, demon worshippers fading into the background, while Nameless sharpened into focus. She shook her head to force herself to snap out of it.

This is just an illusion.

Maybe it was just some latent beastfolk survival instinct manifesting.

However, she immediately refuted that reasoning. She didn’t feel this way when the strongest Sheath, Redirun, appeared, or when she faced other formidable warriors.

Her thoughts tangled. She could no longer pinpoint when exactly this had begun.

When did it start? Was it when we plummeted from the dragon carriage? When we pretended to be lovers? Or even further, like two weeks ago? Was it when I witnessed him fight Redirun? Or when he saved my life?

She had no idea. Regardless, the more she dwelled on it, the clearer it became that she had fallen for Nameless.

Of course, he doesn’t seem to care in the slightest.

Even as the cultists fell like autumn leaves, he didn’t so much as break a sweat.

Oddly enough, admitting it left her mind feeling sharper and clearer.

So what?

Though she was a former agent of Black Butterfly, she told herself that duty alone couldn’t dictate human emotions.

“Kuh.”

A groaning cultist lay sprawled near her feet. She kicked him hard in the head before picking up the pace, following after Nameless.

The situation changed moments later. From the depths of the cavern, grotesque figures with crimson skin and spiral horns emerged.

Fiends?

She had only ever heard of such creatures in legends. For a brief moment, her mind flashed back to the past.

Kalin. The demon’s corpse.

Nameless had mentioned that he had found a demon there and killed it. She had suspected that the demon worshippers were connected, but she hadn’t expected actual demonic entities to appear. They were nothing more than mythology to her.

Yet now, they stood before her, all too real.

A cold dread gripped her, fingers tightening around the dagger in her hand. However, the tension didn’t last long.

“What the hell are you—

Keuk

!”

Nameless swung his axe mercilessly, embedding it deep in the fiend’s torso.

Of course.

Once again, relief washed over her.

Then, Nameless suddenly turned mid-stride. She barely had time to register his face as a violet light flashed behind him.

“Ah— Guh!”

Before she could get a word out, he had lunged and tackled her out of the way. His weight bore down on her, knocking the breath from her lungs. A beam of energy seared through the air where she had just stood.

Langley stared up at him, dazed—although if it was from the impact or his closeness, she didn’t know.

Nameless grinned, utterly unfazed. “I don’t fall for the same trick twice.”

Not wasting another moment, he pushed himself off the floor and sprinted forward.

His afterimage lingered in the air like a phantasmal guardian. The last time she had seen him move, it had been like a raging storm. Now, he was like lightning itself.

She felt her heart skip a beat before beating even faster.

Fiends howled in agony.

***

With all the fiends slain, I interrogated one of the high-ranking cultists.

“So, this is the dragon’s legacy? This relic-looking thing?”

“Y-yes, that’s correct.”

Since these scum were trying to submerge the entire continent into a sea of blood, I hadn't bothered holding back when swinging my axe. Still, with so many of them around, a few had inevitably survived.

Not that it mattered. Taking lives took a psychological toll on me.

Other than Trozen, who had barely counted as human by the time I killed him, I had yet to kill another Earthling. Hence, I wasn’t sure if that would have a greater impact on me. At this point, though, I was fairly certain I could overcome it without much difficulty.

Considering Ha Hee-Jeong had likely eliminated most of the more despicable climbers beforehand, such a situation seemed unlikely to arise. In the past, I had wrestled with the morality of her actions, but not anymore. Everything she did was for me and Earth.

If anything, I was grateful.

Despite not being prompted, one of the cultists kept rambling on. “T-the fiends—no, the damned fi-fi-fiends forcibly en-enslaved us and made this dis-discovery.”

His voice trembled violently. He was visibly riddled with fear, making it clear that he was anxious about his fate.

Earlier, I had alluded that I would spare him if he talked. Naturally, that was a lie. I had no intention of letting any of them live.

Forced subjugation?

It could be true, but these men were criminals to begin with. They were not petty thieves or swindlers either; they were murderers and rapists—outcasts who had committed atrocities severe enough to be unwelcome in any kingdom on this continent.

The only mercy I could offer them was death.

I pressed on. “Why did you attack us? Were you trying to kill the dragon?”

“W-we... were trying to capture it! The fiends said dragons could be used as sacrifices! They took the legacy for themselves, too! I swear, we had nothing to do with it!”

Just as I thought. It all revolved around the dragon.

At this point, there was no reason to continue the interrogation. I had already pieced together enough of the picture.

The fiends had come to the Dragons’ Grave to garner a force capable of overthrowing the continent. Though the demonic entities had subdued the criminal inhabitants by force, given their depraved nature, many of those outlaws had willingly pledged themselves.

Before the surrounding kingdoms and empires could react, the cultists had seized control over all of the Dragons’ Grave. They had even expanded their influence beyond this wasteland, kidnapping adventurers and ordinary people.

The cave was filled with the broken remnants of their victims. Those individuals’ suffering went beyond what words could describe. Langley was tending to the few survivors, trying to provide what little comfort she could.

“I see. You did well."

“P-please. You said you’d spare me!

Gah!

”

My axe cut cleanly through his neck.

The demon worshipper’s head rolled across the dirt. His body collapsed as a small fountain of blood spurted from the severed neck.

I considered myself a decent person. That belief had not wavered, even as I climbed the tower. That didn’t mean I would waste compassion on such filth.

“Ughh.”

Even so, a faint unease lingered within me. Perhaps it was a remnant of my modern Earthly sensibilities, an instinct that had yet to fully fade.

Not that I see it as a flaw.

At the very least, it meant I was still human.

I made my way over to Langley. She had been offering water to a half-naked man, but she looked at me as I approached.

“Oh... hey.”

“You heard most of it, right?"

“Yes.”

Her expression darkened slightly as she looked at the legacy in my left hand. It was a spherical artifact, pulsating with a sickly purple hue—a sign of its corruption.

“You found it. The contamination will be a problem, though.”

“Maybe not. There may be a way to fix it.”

I thought back to the Core of Decay stored within the mimic. It was meant to absorb decay, but it had absorbed demonic mana in Kyuntriachae’s castle. Although I couldn’t be certain that demonic mana and demonic energy were one and the same, it was worth testing since they were both translations.

Even if that didn’t work, I wasn’t too concerned. Demons had been commonplace in this world in the past, and the tower would always leave a route open for climbers. If the dragonkin truly saw this as a sacred artifact, they would likely have a way to restore it.

That, however, wasn’t what I was racking my brain over.

How will we transport these survivors?

I had already decided to escort them to the nearest city. If I abandoned them here, they wouldn’t last more than a few days.

Even though I had provided them with some of my food and water, their emaciated bodies had been worn thin by prolonged suffering. They couldn’t recover overnight.

Leaving them to fend for themselves wasn’t an option—not morally or by my own conscience.

Since retrieving the legacy had taken less time than expected, I wasn’t pressed for time either.

Should I use Two-Way Portal?

That seemed like the best solution.

I wasn’t sure if teleportation magic existed in this world, but it hardly mattered. I was unlikely to return here, and whatever questions it raised would remain unanswered forever.

At that moment, a presence stirred at the entrance of the cave. Someone was approaching.

Just one person.

I had already dealt with every enemy in the cave, including those who had come from behind.

Are they a scout who was stationed elsewhere?

I readied myself for battle and turned toward the entrance.

Moments later, the figure stepped into view.

A dragonkin.

“W-what the hell happened here?”