Chương 37: One Down, Five Remain

When Aura landed on the upper ledge of the first Demon Spire, the island felt wrong beneath my feet in a way I could not immediately explain. Danger was familiar. It was a beast lunging from the dark, a blade aimed at your throat, or a fireball already halfway to your face. Those were threats I understood because they had shape, intent, and something obvious to kill. This was different.

The ground beneath us looked like cooled volcanic stone, yet faint crimson veins pulsed beneath the black surface with a slow, unnatural rhythm. The red fog surrounding the cliffs behaved no better, curling around the base of the spire before drawing back in sluggish waves, almost as though the island itself were breathing. Then there was the tower. It did not look as though anyone had built it.

The structure seemed to have forced its way up from the island itself, twisted and malformed, as though the land had grown something it should have rejected. The tower spiraled upward into the crimson clouds, its black, twisted form resembling the horn of some long-dead god. Jagged ridges wrapped around the exterior, while enormous skeletal formations protruded from the structure like ribs fused into stone and obsidian.

Dark red fractures stretched from its base toward the summit, glowing faintly beneath the surface like blood trapped inside an ancient wound. Calling it ugly had been generous. The moment my boots touched the upper platform, I felt the pressure radiating through the surrounding air and stone. It was nowhere near strong enough to hurt me, but it was certainly powerful enough to become irritating. The others noticed it as well. Celeste stepped from Aura's back and immediately frowned.

"That's revolting." Adrian rolled one shoulder while resting a hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Dense demonic energy." Malcolm slowly surveyed the structure around us.

"Everything feels heavier." Beside him, Vera stood with Vesper perched upon her shoulder, the crimson familiar's crystalline feathers drawn unusually tight against her body.

"It's making Vesper restless." Aura had already returned to her smaller form and landed lightly beside me. For once, her usual enthusiasm had disappeared. Her violet eyes remained fixed upon the dark entrance ahead.

"I dislike this place."

"That means your instincts still function." There's no way any rational person would enjoy being here. Nadia and Rowan were the last to leave Aura's back, and both had become noticeably tense the moment we landed.

"This is it," she murmured.

"I remembered this feel all too well." Rowan nodded beside her.

"We came here once in the future, but by then the entire spire was heavily fortified. The inside was worse." My attention shifted toward the dark opening leading into the upper chamber.

"So we begin here and work our way down." Adrian examined both the doorway and the surrounding platform.

"No visible guards."

"They may be inside," Nadia answered.

"Or stationed farther below."

"Then we should stop admiring the architecture. It's already offending me." Celeste smiled. Mother is leading us into a demon tower. How romantic." I looked toward her.

"Not for you." She laughed anyway. We entered the spire. The first chamber was broad and circular, resembling a watch platform built into the tower's upper crown. Broken arches lined the outer walls, offering narrow views of the sea through skeletal openings in the black stone. Red crystals protruded from the ceiling and cast a dim, bloody glow across the room.

Ancient runes covered the floor beneath us, intersected by deep channels worn through the stone as though energy had been dragged along the same paths countless times over the centuries. At the center of the chamber, a spiral passage descended around the interior of the tower and vanished into darkness below. Apparently, our path led straight down through the bowels of the spire, which felt uncomfortably close to raiding hell itself. Wonderful…

The moment we moved deeper into the chamber, the runes beneath our feet flared to life, and the first demons emerged almost immediately. They dragged themselves free from the walls and floor as though shadows were being peeled away and given flesh. Their gray-black bodies were unnaturally thin, with long limbs, hollow crimson eyes, and arms containing far too many joints. Despite their starved appearance, every movement was sudden, violent, and fast.

"Watchers," Rowan warned.

"They are quick." Adrian moved first. His sword flashed through the dim chamber, and the nearest demon's head spun from its shoulders before the creature had fully committed to its lunge. Celeste followed without hesitation. Lightning erupted from one hand and arced through three Watchers at once, consuming their bodies in violent white flashes. Malcolm drove one foot into the floor.

Gravity crashed across the left side of the chamber, slamming two demons flat against the black stone with enough force to shatter bone. Vera lifted one hand. Vesper launched from her shoulder in a streak of crimson light and split apart mid-flight, becoming a small murder of crystalline crows. They tore into another cluster of Watchers with shrieking cries and razor-edged beaks formed from hardened blood crystal. Aura looked genuinely offended that everyone else had begun without her.

She snapped her fingers before releasing a concentrated stream of dragonfire toward the spiral passage below. Three Watchers scrambling upward along the walls had just enough time to reconsider their choices before becoming ash. I folded my arms and watched the others work for all of three seconds before one of the creatures sprang at me from behind a broken pillar.

I caught it by the face with one hand, its skull fitting comfortably in my palm, and drove it into the floor hard enough to crater the black stone beneath us.

"Pathetic." The chamber fell quiet soon after. The Watchers had possessed numbers but very little substance, and once the last of them collapsed, everyone regrouped without needing to be told. Nadia released a breath.

"There were many more in the future."

"Then we arrived early enough for this to matter," Adrian replied.

"Exactly," Rowan agreed. I walked toward the spiral descent and looked down into the darkness. The passage continued lower along the interior wall until even my vision could no longer follow it.

"Stay alert. We go all the way down, destroy whatever powers this place, and leave before the tower decides to collapse dramatically around us." We began the descent. Broad corridors, circular halls, and chambers caught somewhere between temple and fortress filled the upper levels. Each floor wrapped around the same immense central shaft, and through gaps in the inner walls, a faint red glow pulsed somewhere far below. As we moved deeper, the spire gradually changed.

Stone and black crystal gave way to something far more disturbing until the lower levels no longer looked constructed at all. They looked infected. Bone-like growths protruded from the walls, while slick red membrane covered sections of the ceiling. In several places, the floor yielded slightly beneath our weight, giving the unpleasant impression of flesh stretched across stone.

Black-red flames burned inside twisted braziers, and demonic symbols covered nearly every surface: summoning marks, sacrificial circles, and script none of us could read. More enemies waited below. Not merely Watchers this time. On the third level, a pair of enormous horned demons smashed through sealed doors and charged into the corridor. Their bodies were wrapped in armored hides, while their forearms widened into brutal cleaver-like blades.

"Breakers!" Nadia shouted. I couldn't help but smile at such a ridiculous name, and the other thought was… who came up with these names in the first place? One of the Breakers charged directly at me, lowering its shoulder as though sheer mass would be enough to solve the problem. I let it hit me. Its momentum died on contact. For a brief moment, the demon simply stared down at me, confusion managing to show even through its grotesque features.

I smiled in return and drove my fist straight through its chest, tearing through armored hide, flesh, and whatever passed for a ribcage. Violet ruin spread from the wound almost instantly, devouring the creature from within until its torso burst apart in charred fragments and dark blood. The second Breaker turned on Malcolm. He grinned.

"Too slow." Gravity twisted around the demon's arm, dragging the strike violently downward until the limb smashed against the floor and snapped at the shoulder. Before the creature could recover, Adrian was already there. His blade passed cleanly through its throat. By the fifth level, we encountered something considerably more unpleasant. Floating creatures resembling enormous eyes hovered within rings of black fire.

The moment we entered the chamber, they began shrieking psychic static through the air, forcing whispers and pressure against our minds. Vera faltered first, one hand rising sharply toward her temple. Celeste cursed.

"Mental attack." Before I could move, Vesper changed. The crimson crow landed firmly upon Vera's shoulder before expanding into her humanoid form. Her crystalline body stretched upward, becoming slender and distinctly feminine, with crimson hair, red eyes, and broad wings formed from hardened blood crystal. Vesper immediately wrapped one arm around Vera and spread her crystalline wings wide, a crimson aura pulsing outward from her body.

"You will not touch her," she hissed at the floating eyes. The effect was immediate. The psychic pressure warped around Vera as though striking an invisible barrier, unable to reach her no matter how violently it pressed forward. Interesting… Adrian took advantage of the opening and eliminated one of the eye creatures with a thrown blade. Celeste raised both hands, summoning a violent web of lightning between the floor and ceiling until the entire chamber became a cage of white-blue death.

Malcolm increased gravity around the remaining creatures and dragged them downward, allowing Aura to flood the floor with dragonfire until the room smelled unpleasantly like burned marrow. I looked toward Vesper.

"So you can be useful." The familiar met my gaze before giving a single nod. Vera smiled faintly.

"That may be the nicest thing you have ever said to her."

"Don't exaggerate." By the eighth level, the tension weighing on Nadia and Rowan had deepened into something closer to dread. Nadia slowed as we passed a cracked doorway stained with old, dried blood, her attention locking onto it with unmistakable recognition.

"You remember this place." She nodded uncertainly.

"Not clearly. Just…" Her hand pressed against her chest.

"The feeling." Rowan moved beside her.

"This is where we lost people in the future." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I looked through the doorway. The room beyond resembled an old barracks. Broken altars stood between rusted iron hooks and lengths of chain, while deep scratches covered the walls beneath layers of dried blood. Noted…

"We lose no one today." Nadia's eyes snapped toward me. For a moment, she simply stared. Then she lowered her gaze.

"Yes… Lady Vaust." Celeste had somehow managed to remain silent for nearly an entire minute before leaning closer.

"That sounded very motherly." I kept walking.

"You're one comment away from becoming trap bait."

"I would survive." My head shook at her immediate answer and complete nonchalance. We continued lower. The deeper we descended, the hotter the air became. The entire spire seemed to throb around us now, waves of demonic energy pulsing through the walls like blood through arteries. Every so often, the structure released a low groan, and crystal dust sifted down from somewhere above. A vast chamber stretched across the width of the tower, its center hollowed out into something resembling a ritual arena.

Six narrow bridges crossed an enormous inner shaft glowing with crimson light, while a sealed door of black metal and bone dominated the far wall. A massive demon knelt at the center of the chamber like a statue waiting for permission to move. Even while crouched, it stood nearly twice the height of a man. Layered black-red armor covered its body, enormous horns curved forward from its skull, and a burning core glowed visibly through gaps in the plating across its chest.

The demon carried no weapon because it had no need for one. The moment we stepped onto the first bridge, its eyes ignited and the massive creature rose to its full height, sending a tremor through the entire chamber. Malcolm stared up at it.

"That seems unpleasant." Nadia's face had gone pale.

"That was not awake last time."

"Lucky us." The demon answered with a deafening roar and charged, shattering the bridge beneath its first step.

"Move!" Adrian barked. We scattered before the broken stone could collapse beneath us. Adrian rushed straight toward it and intercepted the first swing with a reinforced block. The impact detonated through the chamber, sending a shockwave across the bridge. Malcolm twisted gravity beneath the demon's footing, disrupting its next step just enough to force it off balance. Celeste seized the opening.

Ice and lightning braided together between her hands before crashing against the creature's knees, freezing one leg in place. Vera and Vesper attacked from range. Crimson crystal spears struck the glowing seams between the demon's armored plates. Aura transformed in a burst of gold-white light, her small form vanishing as her true dragon body surged into the chamber. The spire barely had enough room to contain her, but fortunately, there was still plenty of space for violence.

She slammed into the demon's side with enough force to resemble a collapsing wall. Her claws tore across its armored ribs before her jaws closed near the shoulder and dragonfire poured directly into the exposed joint. The demon bellowed and hurled her away. Aura crashed through one of the bridges, shattering it beneath her weight, before spreading her wings and launching herself back into the air with deeply offended pride. I couldn't help but cheer for my youngest daughter.

The demon drew both fists back, clearly intending to crush Adrian and Malcolm beneath them. I stepped forward.

"Enough." Violet ruin gathered within my palm. This time, I did not release it as a beam. I condensed the energy into a dense sphere and drove it directly into the glowing core exposed within the creature's chest. The effect was immediate. Its armor split around the point of impact as red-black cracks raced through the plating. Primordial Ruin poured into the opening and began consuming everything beneath it. The demon howled and staggered backward, giving Adrian the opening he needed.

He launched himself upward and drove his sword through the fracture with both hands as Malcolm increased the gravity around the blade, forcing it deeper while Celeste poured lightning directly into the wound.

"Vesper!" Vera shouted. The familiar shattered into a murder of crystalline crows and plunged through the opening Adrian had created. One after another, they detonated inside the demon's core in bursts of blood-red glass. Aura descended from above at the same moment, both claws slamming into its shoulders while her jaws closed around one enormous horn. The demon froze. Its entire body suddenly expanded.

"Back!" Everyone moved. The creature detonated. Black-red gore and burning fragments tore across the chamber, cracking two more bridges and sending debris spiraling into the glowing shaft below. Silence followed. Then Celeste laughed breathlessly.

"That was fun." Adrian slowly exhaled while flicking dark blood from his blade.

"You possess a dangerous definition of fun." Malcolm rolled one shoulder.

"She's right." Vera turned toward him.

"You enjoyed that?" He smiled.

"A little."

"Psychotic," Rowan muttered. Nadia was no longer paying attention to any of them. Her gaze remained fixed upon the massive sealed door beyond the remains of the guardian.

"That's it. The bottom chamber is beyond those doors." We approached. Aura returned to her smaller form, looking simultaneously annoyed and pleased with herself. A scrape now marked the edge of one horn. Celeste noticed immediately.

"Oh no, your little horn is damaged." Aura's expression twisted with immediate offense.

"It's not little." Celeste's smile only widened.

"If you have to defend its size, I think that answers the question." Aura opened her mouth to retaliate, but I placed one hand against the door before the argument could gain momentum.

"Later." Both of them fell silent as I pushed against the door. It opened with a deep, grinding groan that echoed through the chamber, releasing a wave of unnatural heat that washed over us. This was not the warmth of flame or stone. It carried the weight of concentrated power, sacrifice, and something buried far below that had no business existing there. Beyond the threshold waited an enormous chamber.

It extended far beyond what the dimensions of the upper tower should have allowed, as though the spire's foundations had been carved into an underground cathedral. Six angled channels descended from the surrounding walls toward the center like veins feeding a heart. And at the center stood the device… It looked like a machine designed by a cult with a personal hatred for nature.

Bone, iron, black crystal, and pulsing crimson spheres had been fused into a towering construct that was neither fully mechanical nor entirely organic. Great rings rotated around a vertical core that plunged directly into a circular pit beneath the structure. Demonic energy surged through it in visible waves, flowing from the surrounding walls into the rotating rings before being forced downward through the central shaft. Nadia's voice barely rose above a whisper.

"That's it." Rowan stepped beside her, his expression grim.

"The dark creature is supposed to exist beneath this continent. These spires feed it." I studied the machine more carefully and recognized the same rhythmic pulse that had followed us throughout the descent. Every surge of demonic energy confirmed the same unsettling truth: all six spires were feeding power downward, like needles driven into the world to sustain whatever slept beneath the continent.

"If we destroy all six," Nadia explained, "his rebirth will still happen, but he will return much weaker. Nowhere near the strength had he possessed in our future." Celeste stared up at the construct with visible disgust.

"That is disturbingly efficient." Adrian moved several steps farther into the chamber, his gaze sweeping over every shadow, passage, and exposed section of the machine. His expression tightened.

"Too easy." He was right. There were no guards stationed around the device, no cultists maintaining it, and no demons waiting beside the pit. Which meant the chamber was not actually unguarded. Before any of us could react, the pit beneath the machine erupted and two colossal hands slammed over its edge. A horned upper body hauled itself from the darkness below, rising high enough to dwarf even the guardian we had destroyed above.

This creature was something else entirely, built from more than brute strength and armor. It had four massive arms, a torso split by glowing magma-like fractures, and a skull-shaped face crowned with broken horns. Its lower body remained partially submerged within the pit, bound to the depths by thick chains of demonic energy. Perhaps it was a warden or some twisted kind of priest, but whatever its purpose had once been, one thing was immediately clear: it was very much awake, and its roar shook the entire chamber.

Malcolm stared upward.

"There it is."

"Yes." My gaze remained fixed on the creature.

"There it is." I echoed his words and felt an indescribable emotion. The battle began instantly. One enormous arm tore free from the pit and slammed downward, sending a shockwave across the chamber. Adrian intercepted the worst of it, reinforcing his body as he positioned himself between the impact and Nadia and Rowan. Malcolm responded by compressing gravity over the demon's left side. The creature snarled and fought against the increased weight, but its movements slowed. That was enough for Aura.

She transformed again and attacked from the flank, driving both claws into its side. With one violent wrench, she tore away a section of outer plating. Celeste immediately targeted the exposed flesh. Fire, ice, and lightning twisted together into a spiraling torrent that struck the opening with unstable force. The demon screamed. Vera and Vesper moved together. Vesper split into crimson crows while Vera directed the flock toward the glowing chains connecting the demon to the central pit.

"Break those!" Rowan suddenly shouted.

"The chains are stabilizing it!" That was useful information, and Malcolm reacted immediately by shifting his gravity toward the nearest chain. The metal-like energy shrieked beneath the pressure before snapping apart, but instead of weakening the demon, the severed connection seemed to strengthen it, allowing one of its arms to tear completely free from the pit. Adrian looked toward Rowan.

"Wrong chain."

"Would have been useful to know that earlier," Malcolm snapped. Nadia winced.

"Memory problem!" The demon surged upward, ripping two more chains free on its own and hauling more of its massive body from the darkness.

"Wonderful, now it's more mobile."

"It's also less anchored!" Rowan called.

"If we kill it now, it cannot draw as much power from below!" I looked toward him.

"That's the sort of information you should lead with." I launched myself directly at the demon's face just as one of its enormous arms swung toward me. I met the strike head-on, bone cracking and flesh tearing at the point of impact before the force hurled me across the chamber, through one of the outer crystal pillars, and into the wall hard enough to crater the stone. A moment later, I stepped out of the rubble fully healed, a smile already spreading across my face. Adrian and Malcolm attacked together.

Adrian carved through the tendon behind one knee while Malcolm increased gravity over the same leg, forcing the limb to collapse. The demon dropped partially to one side. Celeste immediately encased its lowered arm in thick layers of ice, freezing the entire limb against the floor before driving lightning through the frozen mass. Cracks raced from the wrist toward the shoulder. Aura bit down on the opposite arm and pulled. Vera raised one hand.

"Vesper!" The familiar shifted into her humanoid form and rose above the demon, crimson wings spreading wide. Behind her, dozens of crystal crows formed in the air until they resembled a blood-red storm.

"Go." The flock descended. They hammered the demon's skull, eyes, mouth, and exposed wounds without pause, exploding into shards of crimson crystal before reforming through Vera's power. The creature thrashed violently beneath the assault. Nadia and Rowan remained toward the rear, not from cowardice but necessity. Nadia called out remembered weak points, chamber mechanisms, and warnings whenever another fractured memory returned to her.

Rowan contributed where he could, throwing silvered blades into exposed wounds and helping Celeste track the battlefield whenever too many threats moved at once. Nadia and Rowan had proven useful enough, but before I could give them much more thought, something within the machine shifted. The rotating rings suddenly accelerated as demonic energy surged through the central core with growing intensity.

A heavier pulse rolled through the chamber from somewhere beneath the island, deep enough to be felt through the floor. Adrian noticed the change first.

"The device is accelerating." Nadia's face drained of color.

"If the guardian dies, the spire may release all of its remaining energy underground at once!" Vera looked toward her.

"Meaning?"

"Destroy the machine too!" Rowan shouted.

"That just makes it easier." I gathered ruin in both hands. The demon tried to intercept me. Aura slammed into its chest from above and forced it backward against the edge of the pit. Malcolm multiplied the weight bearing down upon its upper body while Adrian carved upward through one of its lower arms and severed the limb cleanly.

Celeste unleashed a concentrated torrent of all three elements into the rotating rings, cracking the structure and tearing away part of the outer casing until the inner core was finally exposed. It still was not enough. I moved past the others and landed directly in front of the demonic machine, only to discover that it looked even worse up close.

Suspended within the spinning rings was an enormous crimson crystal shaped almost perfectly like a heart, each pulse driving another wave of demonic energy downward into the depths below. Of course it had a heart. I hated symbolism. Behind me, the demon roared and lunged toward the machine, but Adrian intercepted it before it could reach me.

"A little busy." The creature brought one massive fist down on Adrian, forcing him to one knee beneath the impact. Malcolm immediately reinforced the space around him with gravity, helping him hold his ground while Vera and Vesper struck at the demon's eyes and Aura poured dragonfire across its back. Then Celeste shouted my name. That was all the opening I needed. I planted both palms against the exposed core.

"Primordial Ruin." Violent destruction surged into the machine, not as a beam, but as something far more invasive. My power flooded the crystal heart, tore through the rotating rings, spread into the channels carved across the floor, and plunged down into the shaft beneath us. Everything it touched began to fail. Amethyst fractures raced across the construct as bone split apart, black crystal shrieked beneath the strain, and iron twisted out of shape.

The enormous heart shuddered once, then again, before finally shattering under the force of Ruin. The chamber erupted into chaos. Every channel feeding the device ruptured at once, sending red-black light bursting upward from the six grooves carved into the floor. Behind me, the demon released a roar that sounded disturbingly close to panic as the power sustaining its body began to collapse. Aura threw herself backward while Adrian grabbed Malcolm and dragged him clear.

Celeste wrapped Nadia and Rowan within overlapping elemental barriers, and Vera called Vesper back just in time for the familiar's crimson wings to close protectively around them. I turned toward the demon. Its body was already coming apart. Without the machine feeding it, its massive body had begun to destabilize. The magma-like fractures across its torso widened until entire pieces of armored flesh broke away.

"Finish it!" Adrian struck first, his sword carving cleanly through the creature's throat as Malcolm compressed gravity around its upper chest and crushed the ribcage inward. Celeste immediately drove a spear of lightning and fire through the opening, while Aura tore away one horn and half the demon's face in the same violent motion. Vera and Vesper followed with one final storm of crystalline crows that plunged directly into the exposed core.

I raised one hand and released a condensed blast of violet ruin straight through its skull. The demon exploded. The force of its destruction sent a violent convulsion through the chamber. The pit collapsed inward, the ruined machine tore itself apart with a shriek of failing crystal and metal, and fractures raced across the floor before climbing rapidly into the surrounding walls. Nadia stared around wildly.

"The spire is collapsing!"

"I did mention that possibility earlier."

"Mother!" Celeste shouted.

"Leave!" Adrian barked. Excellent advice and none of us wasted time arguing with it. We ran. There was nothing graceful about our escape. We moved like a raid party that had successfully killed the boss only to discover that the dungeon itself had taken offense and intended to bury us with it. Perfect… The moment we reached a chamber large enough to accommodate her true form, Aura transformed without breaking stride.

Gold-white light tore through the corridor as her massive dragon body surged into existence, smashing through the surrounding walls while the levels below us collapsed into the central shaft. One by one, we launched ourselves onto her back. Aura drove her wings downward with tremendous force and surged upward through the crumbling spire. Another powerful stroke carried us higher, and with the next, she burst through the upper crown just as the structure split apart around us. We soared into the crimson sky.

Below, a massive fracture tore down the center of the Demon Spire. Red light spilled from the widening cracks before fading rapidly, and the entire structure folded inward with a long, terrible groan. Floor after floor collapsed into its foundations until nothing remained but a shattered black ruin scattered across the island. As the spire died, the crimson fog surrounding the cliffs began to thin, and the oppressive pressure that had weighed upon the island weakened with it.

The first needle had been pulled from the world, and as I watched the ruins shrink beneath us, the scale of what remained settled into place. One spire was gone, but five more still waited. Beside me, Nadia released a shaking breath.

"It really worked." Rowan stared at the destroyed spire with tears gathering in his eyes, and this time he made no effort to hide them.

"The future changed." Celeste's hair had become a disaster of wind and battle, yet she still managed to laugh softly.

"We're absolutely doing that five more times." Malcolm groaned.

"Why did I know you were going to say that?"

"Because she is insane," Adrian replied.

"Because it was fun," Celeste corrected. Vera leaned against Malcolm while Vesper, still in humanoid form, settled near her feet before gradually shrinking back into the shape of a crimson crow.

"I would prefer the next one with considerably less collapsing." Who wants to run for their life after the deed is already done? Aura's deep voice rolled beneath us.

"I preferred the collapsing."

"Of course you did." My gaze drifted beyond the others toward the dark line of the distant horizon, where the Demon Continent waited beneath the fading light. Five spires remained, and somewhere beneath all of them slept the creature that had supposedly killed me in another future. Yet as I stared toward that distant land, one thought refused to leave me. The first spire had been too easy.

The spire had not been effortless to destroy, but it had fallen with far less resistance than I expected from something responsible for empowering a future Demon Lord. Perhaps we had simply reached it early enough that its defenses were still incomplete. Or perhaps something else was at play. I didn't like unanswered questions, especially when they involved creatures capable of killing me. Still, a slow smile touched my lips. Whatever waited beneath that continent could sleep a little longer.

I intended to take away its power before it ever had the chance to wake.