Chương 48: Chapter 42 - The floor 25 incident (part 3)

I glared at her and started funneling mana to her.

"Then stop wasting it on being flashy. Be more efficient with it." Elsha gasped, inspecting her nails, harp resting against her hip, while around the entire horizon, twenty-four overseers poured out of the torn ground and oriented on us like compass needles.

"I am being efficient as it's reasonable."

"It's been like twenty minutes. If you didn't go wild with visual effects of the spells, you'd have spent half." I pushed two hundred million mana into her.

"This is the last refill. Finish the fight with it."

"You need to do more breathing exercises." She rolled her eyes, plucking strings on her harp.

"And you need to complain less." The rock snake overseer from floor six towered from the ground, launching its house-sized head at us, hundreds of tons of sheer mass. Elsha glanced at it. Her eyes flashed up. The overseer exploded, turned to rubble in a split second, rocks flying in all directions away from us. She turned toward me.

"Was this efficient enough for infernal majesty?"

"It was all right."

"But it was boring. You really need to budget more mana for the presentation. Especially when I'm involved." The wounded hydra had dragged itself back onto the fortress walls, down a few heads and leaking lightless blood, regrouping. The others came on from every direction at once, steel and glass and stone and books and everything else the overseers were made of, each of them the size of a freight train, most of them bigger. I pushed mana into shields. Shields of Deepest Sorrow.

The fastest overseer snake crested the nearest hill, a thing of fused basalt with magma glowing in the seams between its scales, and it opened a mouth wide enough to garage a bus. A torrent of magma exploded from its mouth toward us.

"Chill down." Elsha plucked a string. The magma solidified mid-air. The entire snake did; all the magma lost its light, turned into pure stone, which was covered with frost. She glanced at me.

"Was that unflashy enough for the spoiled prince?"

"On the border." The ground exploded underneath us, the steel snake from floor 22 bursting out, mouth open wide. It threw us into the air. Elsha floated to the side on her seat of pink petals. Astarielle did her best to float aside. Ashy spun mid-air, catching me with the side of the humongous blade, trying to direct me from its jaws. Too slow. The jaws started snapping shut. A crescent of pink light slashed from Elsha, beheading the overseer. The jaws stopped. But I fell. I hit the top of the walls.

My shields absorbed most of it, but I still felt the impact.

"Nah," Elsha snapped.

"I can't do it." She raised her hand.

"Here, have the angriest orb." Pink energy formed a massive floating orb above her. It started firing slashes of pink light into the overseers, ten per second. But those weren't strong enough to kill, only blowing off chunks of their sides. The steel and books-made snake, floor 18 overseer, fired a swarm of energy disks. Ashy tried to shield me off. Some got around her, hitting my shields. They blocked both, but some of the energy got through, pain flashing through me. Damn it.

The hydra opened all its mouths, releasing a flood of pale, thick mist. Like syrup, it washed over the walls, and over me. Its corrosion hit my shields, pushing them to their limit. The mist caught ablaze, all bursting into pink flame at once. That got a bit through, overheating me in an instant, lightly burning my skin before the fire passed. The overseer burned up ahead, devoured by pink flames.

"Friendly fire!" I shouted.

"Stop complaining, already!" Elsha shouted back, dodging a massive laser beam released by another overseer. It still hit Ashy, forcing her to shift into human form, landing next to me.

"That's why I taught you how to make shields. Use my teachings without whining." She ran her hand over her harp, ten thousand motes of pink light forming around her. Ashy barely stayed on her feet, her side burnt.

"Owie! Hot! Hot! Hot!" She rubbed the burnt shoulder. A torrent of wind, sharp as blades, hit us. It shredded Ashy, forcing her to unsummon. It also strained my shields, a bit getting through, cutting my shoulder. It threw me back and slammed me into a wall. That rattled my bones. I fell down ten feet, landing on one knee, grunting with pain. I deactivated the automatic resummon from Ashy and Astarielle. That would just waste mana.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Elsha waved her hand.

"Ten thousand tears of obliteration!" The motes curved through the air, filling the floor with a barrage of explosions. The overseers grouped up, some shielding others. The explosions tore apart the front row, annihilating almost a dozen of them. Ten overseers remained. They all opened their mouths, energy flashing at each of them. The energy intensified, conjoined the energy orbs, and it fired at Elsha. With a flick of her wrist, a shield wreathed her.

I lowered my shields, ran behind the sturdiest piece of wall I could see, and pushed all power into shields of deepest sorrow. The final energy orbs hit Elsha's shields and exploded. The explosion thundered through the floor. The ground exploded, the first set of the walls too, the wall next to me as well, the shockwave hitting me from a ricochet, throwing me aside. Astarielle got deleted as she floated around. I hit a rock; it shattered under the impact, and I hit a wall.

Pain shot through me, blinding me for a second. I fell, barely landing on my feet. Elsha floated where she was. She had a little bruise on her shoulder. With a frown, she glanced at it. She vanished and appeared among the snakes.

"Passionate flare." Energy exploded from her like a nuclear explosion. I had no way to dodge. But a pink shield covered me, the explosion leveling part of the floor. Before the dust even settled, an immense swarm of pink notes appeared around Elsha.

"Hundred thousand tears of obliteration." The motes bombarded the overseers, annihilating them to nothing, and then half of the floor too, as they had nothing to hit. Barely anything other than a ruin of the Anvil remained on the floor. Elsha floated to me. She waved her hand. A pink wheel spun around me. All my wounds healed, everything reverting to how it was before the fight began. I smiled.

"Thanks." She smirked.

"You know the proper way to thank me." Yeah. I pushed thirty million more mana into her. That left me with five million mana. Barely over one percent of my total capacity, but enough for now. She clicked her tongue.

"You still have some mana left." I unsummoned her. She turned into a figure of pink petals, which drifted into the air. I exhaled. Damn it, I always knew she was strong. Too strong to summon for any normal occasion. But now, as I stood as the only living lifeform remaining on the floor, I found a new appreciation for what the word strong meant. I headed up the fortress. All the old paths were gone, but new ones were made from the explosions. On the way, I summoned the Lantern of Endless Suffering.

No souls drew to it. Hmph. The overseers apparently didn't have a soul, or if they did, the tower took them before I had the chance. I unsummoned the lantern. I heaved a bit when I reached the summit platform. The waystone stood ahead, covered in soot. As I walked to it, notifications flashed before my eyes.

[ENEMIES DEFEATED — FLOOR 25 CHIEF OVERSEER GUARDIAN: PALE HYDRA (OVERSEER) (x1)] [ENEMIES DEFEATED — FLOOR OVERSEERS (SUMMONED REINFORCEMENTS) (x24)] [ENEMIES DEFEATED — PALE ARCHWARDEN (1x), ARCHWARDEN ROYAL GUARD (x8)] [ENEMIES DEFEATED — ANVIL GARRISON (PALE WARDENS) (x14, 238)] [ENEMIES DEFEATED — SIEGE FORCES (ORDU, MARAVAL, TAGAN) (x31, 614)] [ENEMIES DEFEATED — INDEPENDENT COMBATANTS (x2, 847)] [ENEMIES DEFEATED — LOCAL FAUNA (x196831)] [ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED – SLAYER (score over 250 000 kills on a single floor)] [PERK UNLOCKED – CHOOSE A PERK UPON FLOOR COMPLETION] [Drops: Cloak of the Wanderer (Legendary) (x1), Tower Warden Essence (Epic) (x1)], Hydra Crown Scale (Epic) (x1), Overseer Core Fragment (Rare) (x25), Overseer Scale Plate (Rare) (x18), Massive Serpent Fang (Rare) (x31), Warden Commander's Sigil (Rare) (x6), Pale Steel Ingot (Rare) (x84), Siege Banner Fragment (Rare) (x12), Resonance Shard (Uncommon) (x246), Anvil Stone (Uncommon) (x189), Dark Elf Runeblade (Uncommon) (x57), Hordesman's Composite Bow (Uncommon) (x43), Various Common Materials (x6, 218), 847 gold, 4, 291 silver, 128, 604 copper] A tower of loot appeared before me.

Finally some decent loot. I climbed the tower to get to the cloak. When I touched it, the stat screen flashed into view. Item: Cloak of the Wanderer Class: Legendary Effect: Wearer gains 50 % damage reduction against attacks from behind. Wearer is seen as a native on all floors to both natural and magical means. Wearer suffers no penalty for traversing the old paths. Hmm. I didn't know what the last part meant. Still, this looked great. I picked up the cloak, tossing it over my shoulder. I summoned Ashy.

She cost only fifty thousand mana to summon, so ferrying items to Hell through her was a lot more efficient than through Astarielle, who cost six times more.

"Wow!" She shouted.

"Is that all for me? That's so awesome!"

"I'll have the items back for Earth later." I motioned at the pile.

"We are taking everything rare or better." Fifteen minutes of summoning, unsummoning, and resummoning later, I had both the epics and all the rares. All right. Now, the fun part ended, and it was time to face the consequences. I climbed down the loot pile and touched the waystone. It lit up. [FLOOR COMPLETED – 25] [NEXT FLOOR – 27] [1/1] [PLEASE SELECT YOUR PERK] [WOULD YOU LIKE TO MOVE TO THE NEXT FLOOR?] Hmph.

Since I had all the people needed for the next floor in place, and the timer paused on this floor, I could go ahead to the next one. I focused on the perks. About a dozen options flashed before my eyes. I scrolled through them. Three of them caught my attention: Retry king – once per floor, rewind to the floor's start. Always welcomed – suffer no penalties for time spent on a floor. The greatest hint – Once per floor, receive a hint. The first option was obviously the strongest perk, getting a rewind.

Though it didn't specify its scope. Option three sounded interesting, because the hint could be anything. But it could also be something terrible. But the second option meant I wouldn't ever have a timer again. On the larger floors, the timer was a major issue, especially considering I was chasing Peace, who suffered from no such penalties. Also, I could move to the next floor immediately. Not just because of looking for Peace, but also because my return to Earth wasn't going to be great.

I just zeroed out my entire team. Intentionally, with no excuse other than my own goals and ambitions. They were going to despawn into pods, but still. Moreover, I wiped out the floor, committing a war crime in just about every moral framework that existed on Earth. I was likely going to stand trial for that, or at the very least, have to avoid one. And then there were going to be the consequences for summoning Elsha.

Even if my physical form suffered no side effects, which I very much doubted, everyone saw me summon her. That turned me into a major risk, one they were likely going to mitigate. Meh. I had nothing to return for. And with a bit of luck, the pod would lose track of me once I moved up the floors without coming back. Well, nothing except for Cassandra. But the Hutriel contact thing was suspicious enough. She could wait until I returned with Sarah. I returned to the loot pile and stuffed my pockets with golden coins.

If I were going to travel as a local, I could use the money. I drew the cloak of the wanderer over my shoulders, and touched the waystone again. From the perk selection, I chose Always Welcomed. [WOULD YOU LIKE TO MOVE TO THE NEXT FLOOR?] [YES]