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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 85
"You're wrong. That's not it."
[…Not it? Unless there's a shift in the perception of the Four Realms, no new First Seat could've appeared.]
The devil spoke in a low voice.
[As expected, you're not a First Seat of the Four Realms. To dare mock me.]
A chilling, soul-piercing force radiated out.
A pressure so intense, it seemed as if Chris's body would be torn apart at any moment.
A sharp sense of danger surged through him, but Chris did not back down.
This was where it really began.
"No, I wasn't lying."
[You call this the truth? Absurd. I've already stated the true names of all the Four Realms.]
"I don't think so. Isn't there a name you didn’t mention?"
[What nonsense. I've spoken all the true names.]
"You should think carefully. Are you really sure you've mentioned them all? There's definitely one name you left out."
[What are you…? That’s impossible…]
For a moment, the devil flinched.
It remembered.
The name it had failed to mention.
"Now do you see? What you've overlooked?"
Chris stepped forward.
Toward the devil.
The closer he got, the more his presence changed.
Something entirely different from before.
An indescribable pressure poured out.
A force unbelievably identical to the spiritual pressure the devil had exuded earlier.
The devil’s voice trembled at the weight of that soul-bound force.
[H-How… What is this feeling…?]
"Yeah, that's right."
Chris’s lips curled into a smile.
At that moment—fwoosh—a fierce energy erupted from him.
A power the devil knew well.
A power it could never mistake.
It was its own energy.
"My true name is Istaroth. I am your true form. You fake."
The devil's eyes bulged wide as if they would tear open.
Its soul suddenly began to thrash about wildly.
And then, something astonishing happened.
[Th-This…! Impossible. It… It can't be. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!]
With a scream, the devil began to disintegrate into the void.
A horrifying—
Incomprehensible scene.
Chris let out a long breath.
'Good… it worked.'
The reason this happened was simple.
It was because that Devil was not the true body, but a fake—a clone.
And it wasn’t just him. All the high-ranking bosses in this underground garden were clones of individuals who once existed in reality.
‘The moment they begin to question their own existence, they are immediately destroyed and reset.’
Chris had learned this back when the Hero’s party challenged the 28th floor.
The boss of the 28th floor was a supreme-level intelligence possessing insight that could pierce through the truths of the world. Bizarrely, it endlessly questioned its own existence, repeatedly perishing and regenerating.
‘It was a horrifying sight.’
Chris felt a renewed chill toward the beings who had created this underground garden.
Transcendent beings who existed at the highest realms of both Gehenna and the Celestial Realm.
Why had they constructed such an eerie labyrinth?
‘In any case, I was worried, but the gamble paid off.’
He let out a long breath.
From beginning to end—
Chris had performed that act in order to make the Devil question its own existence.
Of course, it had been a very dangerous gamble.
If he hadn’t possessed one particular tool, he would never have dared attempt such a thing.
‘It would’ve been impossible without the Emblem of the Constellation.’
It was a sacred relic he had smuggled away during the ancient relic expedition with the Venomous Demonic House.
The Emblem of the Constellation was also known by the alias “Emblem of Concealment.”
In other words, it was a relic with camouflage functions.
‘One of its key abilities is to mimic the essence of the opponent.’
It wasn’t just some illusion magic that mimicked outward appearance and presence.
It temporarily altered the very essence of one’s soul to mirror the target’s.
Of course, if the Devil had been in its complete state, even the Emblem of the Constellation wouldn’t have deceived it.
However, its perception had been sealed, and thanks to the groundwork Chris had laid through his performance, it had been fooled.
Just then, an unfamiliar voice echoed through the air.
It was the voice of an attribute-less spirit bound to the ruins.
[You are the first to clear the 27th floor!]
[Your name, achievements, and title will be recorded in the Hall of Honor of the Underground Garden!]
Text began to shimmer in the air.
It was the record to be engraved in the Hall of Honor.
Christian von Baron Khazar
Achievement: First Pioneer of the 27th Floor
Title: “The One Who Mocked the Devil”
Chris whistled inwardly.
‘That’s quite the title.’
Not bad at all.
If word of this spread outside, not only the Dark Demonic House but the entire Southern Magocracy would be thrown into chaos.
And then came the voice he had been waiting for.
[You have received the bonus for the First Clear Achievement!]
‘Nice!’ Clearing the 27th floor was a feat no one had ever accomplished before.
Of course, someone on the level of a Demon King could clear the 27th floor through orthodox means.
But once someone reached Demon King level, they bore too many responsibilities to recklessly take on such dangerous challenges, which is why the floor had remained unconquered.
Fwoosh!
At last, the reward Chris had been hoping for was granted.
It was a small wooden box.
With a heart pounding in anticipation, he opened it and found a ring inside—one he recognized.
A murky gray ring engraved with five circular symbols. A faint glow hovered around one of the symbols.
‘Vampiric Ring.’
An upper-tier relic.
One of the highest-ranked among countless relics.
‘It’s powerful already, but it’s a growth-type relic that becomes even stronger over time.’
It had been the favorite relic of Rania, the 9-star Archmage of the Hero’s party—its performance was unquestionable.
‘Especially something that suits me perfectly.’
Chris could make better use of this relic than even Archmage Rania.
Though it was only at the first stage of release, using this relic allowed Chris to temporarily amplify his power by over 30%.
Once the second stage was unlocked, it could boost his power by more than 50%.
And beyond that, each additional stage of release would grant even more abilities—an extraordinary relic.
‘It’ll be my trump card.’
Chris momentarily thought of the First Prince, Sherad.
Could he truly kill him?
‘Not yet. But it won’t be long.’
With a little more growth—
Once the Vampiric Ring unlocked more of its power, he would be able to take Sherad’s head.
‘I will kill him.’
Chris made a silent vow, his eyes heavy with resolve.
Either way, it was about time to return.
If he delayed too long, the Devil that had been destroyed would reset and resurrect.
‘I need to return via teleportation, so I’ll find the key first.’
He already knew the location of the 27th floor’s key from when he explored it with the Hero’s party.
After pocketing a suitable treasure to gift Ruina, he was just about to activate the teleportation.
‘Hm? What’s this?’
As befitting the top-floor key, the 27th floor’s key had additional functions.
It had the ability to observe the conditions of lower floors when teleporting, and Chris let out a dumbfounded sound.
“Why are they making a mess down there?”
Jupien, Marisa, and Kashmir.
Even Simon was there.
They were locked in a bloody battle against the boss of the 17th floor—the Spider Queen Tarantula.
And they were all on the verge of decapitation, in a critical state.
* * *
“Watch out!!”
KWAANG!!
With Kashmir’s shout, a massive explosion swept through the area.
Jupien, already disheveled and a complete mess, scowled.
“Your magic’s too flashy.”
“S-sorry.”
“Don’t apologize—just block them properly.”
The baby spiders birthed by the Spider Queen were swarming in without end.
They were called “babies,” but each one was the size of a foal.
Their individual strength was only around that of a 1-star rank Devil beast, but the story changed when their numbers reached hundreds, thousands—no, seemingly infinite.
No matter how many were killed, more and more appeared without end.
And worse, the real problem—
Their mother, the Spider Queen herself.
Her upper body above the waist resembled a human.
In fact, her face even looked like that of a captivating woman.
But from the waist down, she was a complete monster.
Her grotesquely massive body, as large as a house, was connected below.
Dozens of legs squirmed like enormous spears.
A 6-star rank Devil beast.
That was the overwhelming presence of the Spider Queen, Tarantula.
“This is troublesome. I thought the numbers didn’t add up.”
Spurt!
A jet of blood burst from Simon’s shoulder.
He’d been wounded by the silk sprayed by the Spider Queen.
“To think it would be this much of a loss.”
They had come to rescue Christian, but Christian was nowhere to be found—only a deadly battle with the Spider Queen awaited them.
Simon stretched out his hand toward the baby spiders charging at him.
Wuuung!
The spiders’ faces began to swell—then burst like balloons.
It was Blood Burst, a hemomancy spell that caused explosions using the blood within the opponent’s body.
Hundreds of baby spiders were annihilated in an instant, and silence fell for a moment—but only for a moment.
Soon, more and more baby spiders began crawling out again.
And alongside them, the Spider Queen loomed, casting out threads of ‘Will-Weaving Silk’ as she waited for her chance.
Simon smiled faintly as he thought to himself.
‘How annoying. Why the hell am I doing this to myself?’
At this rate, they would all be wiped out.
‘There is one way.’
Simon quietly observed his companions fighting desperately around him.
Jupien, Marisa, Kashmir.
Children of three prestigious noble families.
‘If I offered them up as blood sacrifices, taking down the Spider Queen would be easy.’
Hemomancy wasn’t dark magic, nor was it sacred magic.
It was Arcane Art.
A bizarre sorcery that used blood to manifest various phenomena, without any specific form.
Because of that, it included spells and techniques not found in either black or white magic.
Among them, Simon’s specialty was Blood Human Sacrifice.
A technique that offered another’s blood as a tribute to amplify one’s power.
‘All of them carry noble blood—the effect should be excellent.’
Gulp.
A sudden, overwhelming thirst for blood surged up within him.
He felt the urge to sink his teeth into their throats right that instant.
There was no hesitation.
Simon had always been the kind of scum who treated the lives of others like insects.
However—
‘If I do that, I’ll become an enemy of Prince Christian.’
Simon furrowed his brow slightly.
Of course, even if he killed them, Christian wouldn’t know.
But would he really stay unaware?
That mad young lord who could deduce everything from even the faintest trace?
‘Well, even if I became Prince Christian’s enemy, I wouldn’t really mind. No, that might be interesting in its own right.’
Imagining Christian trying to kill him, Simon let out a quiet chuckle.
That scenario seemed rather entertaining as well.
But—
“I might have to introduce them to Idrinne later, and that would be a bit troublesome.”
Fwoosh!
With a wave of Simon’s hand, a rain of blood poured down.
The baby spiders struck by the blood let out sizzling sounds as they burned and met a gruesome death.
“Can you three hear me?”
The three perked up their ears.
“At this rate, we’re all going to be wiped out. Of course, I have a way to survive—but the three of you will definitely die.”
In the end, if the worst came to pass, Simon would use their lives as sacrifices.
“So let’s come up with a strategy. Lady Jupien and Lady Marisa, please suppress the baby spiders.”
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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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