105 Chapter 33 - Fifth Floor Boss (1/2)
Kenji awakened in a cold sweat.
\”Wha- what happened, where are we?\” Kenji said and rocketed up in his cot. Patting himself down he found a distinct lack of wounds and found himself in a little room made of leaves.
Beside his bed lay Ellie, fast asleep in her chair, with her head resting on the bed.
\”What...?\” She murmured as her sleepy eyes slowly opened.
It all came back to them, of what Kenji had done. He knew now she would return to her hatred of him, if anything, she was foolish for ever letting go of it. Of trusting him. It had been their undoing.
\”Grand Master...I...\” Ellie struggled to well up the words.
Kenji flinched, waiting for the other shoes to drop. Waiting to be told he would be sentenced for his failures.
\”I'm so sorry!\” Ellie burst into tears, each rolling so sadly down her cheeks to splash in the fibrous sheets. \”It was m-my fault, Rams and the others....they're dead because of m-me-\”
\”Hey, Ellie, it wasn't your fault. You didn't know I would become that powerful, and the plan was supposed to rely on me getting to grips with the script. If anything the fault is mine, ok? So don't blame yourself, no good will come of doing that,\” Kenji said, feeling as if should be crucified, set afire or at least lightly scolded.
Instead Ellie stared at him shocked. As if a candle said it wasn't meant for light, or a fireplace had claimed to make rooms colder when roaring.
Wiping away her tears, that stern look of hers returned, and she stood tall.
\”I'm sorry Grand Master, I should not have shown you that. The Raid comes first, so give the order, what do we do next?\”
Still perturbed, Kenji nodded. Better to focus on the task at hand.
\”Update me on what happened after the boss was defeated, and how I am so fully healed. Please.\”
\”As soon as you killed your...yourself, a chest appeared. Inside we found a scroll of healing, I used it on you right away,\” Kenji nodded, understanding flooding him. No simple magic could have healed his true body so quickly, he had just gotten lucky. \”We also found some equipment, the best of it being the [Soul Anchor].\”
\”We still have that?\” Kenji raised his eyebrow, a deep aching sorrow filling his heart.
\”We do,\” Ellie said with wet eyes, \”the Spirit Warriors have told us the souls of our comrades still remain in there. The ability activated on it is torturing them, producing huge amounts of mana, but at the cost of grinding down their souls for f-fuel.\”
Kenji sprang to his feet, \”and did they say how to stop it?\”
\”They said it can only be broken with a high-level weapon. A Corrupt Spirit weapon to be specific, but there's only one place we could get it and we don't have the manpower anymore...\”
\”We do. We have me, I'll do it,\” if Kenji had caused this problem, these deaths, this pain....then he was sure as hell that he'd be the one to fix it. \”I'll fight the fifth-floor boss alone, when the Green Overlord becomes available again I'll go on in and use it.\”
It was currently stored at the peak of its power, if with that bloodlust to kill all adventurers. Still, Kenji just needed to be able to take down the Fifth-floor demonic boss, if no one else came he wouldn't have to worry about endangering his allies.
\”You can't go alone. What if we lose you? The Hero Guild would crumble, Tenko might stay lost forever and Mistress Violet would be forced to bear the burdens of leadership without aid. Almanac might be put in charge!\”
Kenji smiled at that last part, not thinking Almanac that bad of a guy.
Ellie's soured features claimed otherwise.
\”Ellie, keep the others safe, will you? And just know, whatever happens, I've always believed in you. You'll be a greater leader,\” hauling himself to his feet, Kenji felt the Green Overlord copy strong as ever in his [Forbidden Slot]. Ellie trailed after him, so Kenji turned to the Sun Elf Queen and ran around a corner.
In an instant, he activated his invisibility ring and sent an illusion of himself forward.
Ellie followed the illusion, pleading, rationalizing, and trying everything she could to be involved.
But Kenji was already gone, blasting along the trails of light, following them to their end. The Jailor's Office arose ahead and beside it a great crack in the earth that marked the entranced to the Fifth Floor Boss Chambers. Entering, Kenji found dark stairs that descended between walls lit with flickering blue. No Hellflame here, just this strange blue that winked intermittently down far as Kenji could see.
Fluttering down on a blast of wind, Kenji was surprised to find the torches resist his wind as he passed. In moments he reached down hundreds of stairs, before landing before a great pulsing wall of magic.
Red and orange lines crisscrossed in a demonic summoning circle, a stone tablet before the circle blazing with its own words of warning.
'Beware, this is the point of no return. Defeat the beast, or be consumed.'
\”Simple enough,\” Kenji muttered and fluttered on through.
He stood in a huge platform of black basalt, from the sky dangling with a thousand chains, while rivers of lava cut the platform off from far away tunnels. The path behind him had vanished as if kenji had entered a portal, while another blazed on the platform's other side just as he had entered.
\”Who dares challenge a Lieutenant of the Damned?\” roared a deep voice of crackling bone and power. From the portal emerged a muscular demon of pale blue skin, it's body bound in several chains, it's wings locked together and its eyes blinded with an iron helmet that held the chained demon's restraints in check. \”I may be bound, but I am still a greater power than your measely capacity can possibly handle....oh? There is but one challenger?\”
The Demon Lieutenant's yellow teeth drew back in a grin.
Just as Kenji had expected. His time in the Green Overlord's mind was long while they had fought the other four, and he was well aware that fighting the boss alone raised the chance of receiving the higher tear loot.
Freeing the demon would guarantee it.