Heavenly Demon's Footsteps
There was no answer.
Whether some seal had been placed on him, or someone had threatened him into silence—Yujin didn't really need to hear it either way. He already knew.
The twentieth floor. That was the end of the territory this one managed. Which meant the only creature who could have stirred up this kind of trouble here was Didascalia.
Elijah—no. Zaigot—answered not with words, but with movement. One step at a time. Painfully slow.
Hssss—hsssssss—
Death poured off him. He killed the already-dead plain a second time. The black earth darkened into a deeper, absolute pitch.
Must be from eating all those zombies. Nasty stuff.
How many had he swallowed, exactly? If he'd devoured every last one of those things from that apocalypse world—tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, plus the mutants and the boss monsters—then Zaigot would have grown strong beyond imagination. Nowhere near what he used to be. Level was one thing, but his physical specs alone might have hit the absolute limit.
Fusion [C] was that kind of skill.
And he probably won't die easy, either.
Yujin ran through the traits and skills the thing was likely carrying.
Think of him as roughly a beggar-zombie class, and I won't be far off.
The kind of vitality and regeneration that kept coming back no matter how many times you put it down. Stronger than that, of course—he'd eaten players, not just zombies.
Yujin walked to meet the thing that was slowly closing in. The distance between them shrank. Ten meters. Seven. Five.
Zaigot struck first.
Fwaaaaaah—!
The skin barely stitched over his frame split with a wet tearing sound and stretched out like rubber. A completely unexpected attack—but Yujin didn't flinch. He twisted his body aside.
Whssht—!
The hand skimmed past his cheek.
Offensive power: high.
A nail had left a scratch on his face. Meaning the force packed into that body was enough to wound his own.
Swaaaaaah—!
Before Yujin could even snap his twisted body back into place, the Heavenly Silk Thread [C] drifting through the air around him moved first.
Shhk—!
It cut with almost insulting ease. Zaigot's outstretched arm separated cleanly from his body and thumped onto the ground.
Defense: low.
But Yujin's brow furrowed. The severed arm was already regenerating at a blistering speed.
Regeneration: top-tier.
That was close enough to call super-regeneration—and that was a B-grade skill. A troublesome opponent. High attack power, and regeneration more than enough to make up for the paper-thin defense.
What if I just carve him to pieces in one go?
He shook his head. Even before he'd ended up looking like this, the man had already been torn apart and killed once—and he'd come back. Simply cutting the body to shreds wasn't going to finish this.
"You're thinking too hard."
The thing finally opened its mouth. The voice was thick with mockery. Yujin's expression hardened.
"Your mouth smells like shit."
He meant it. His nose felt like it was rotting off. Zaigot's face twisted; the torn skin crumpled in on itself until he looked genuinely hideous.
"Die."
He threw both arms wide. No—what unfurled was his skin. The flesh over his torso split open with a wet rip and came lunging straight at Yujin.
"Urgh."
It was revolting. It had been the same in the first timeline, but right now he genuinely felt like he might throw up. Yujin gagged and threw himself backward.
Pssssssssssssht—!
Once again the silk threads shredded the oncoming skin to ribbons.
Durability's still garbage, at least.
Watching the thing regenerate in the blink of an eye, Yujin narrowed his eyes.
"Hey. Zaigot."
"…Zaigot?"
The creature tilted its head at the unfamiliar name. Yujin made him an offer.
"Just tell me where Didascalia is. I'll let you live this time."
He meant that too. If the bastard would just point him at that fucking son of a bitch, he was genuinely willing—just this once—to grit his teeth and spare him.
But of course.
"The one dying today is you."
Words were useless.
"Haaah."
Yujin exhaled a long breath.
"Then don't."
He'd offered a chance, and it had been refused. That left only one option—kill him for real.
The energy that had been drifting lightly around Yujin grew heavy.
Kuuung—
As if gravity had doubled in an instant. Zaigot hauled up his mana and braced for the sudden change—but he didn't look tense. He seemed to believe that with his abilities, he simply could not die.
He had no idea how empty that belief was.
Yujin watched him quietly, then lifted one foot.
"I'll give you this much—the survival instinct that clawed you all the way up here is real. But here's the thing."
The raised foot began to descend, slow and deliberate.
"You did something you should never have done. What you're about to pay is the price for that. And I'm pretty sure it won't come cheap."
His foot touched the earth.
Also known as the Heavenly Demon Dominion Step — a sovereign tread that shakes heaven and earth.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr—!
Heaven and earth convulsed. That was no exaggeration, no metaphor. Sky and ground—everything between them—shook.
Krrk—, krrrrrk—!
Zaigot's body crumpled. Like something caught in a hydraulic press.
"Th-this is—?"
Shock flooded the torn face. He thrashed to escape the force crushing down on him, but it was impossible. It was simply too heavy. He couldn't run. He couldn't so much as move a finger.
Another step.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG—!
His body slammed into the ground. He was crushed past any human shape. Dead black blood and fluids burst outward like a ruptured water balloon.
"W-wait—wait a second…!"
Now he wanted to talk? Too late.
Yujin looked down at him and took one more step.
————————————!!!!
There was no sound after that. As if a devil vast enough to blot out the sky had simply stepped on an ant, he ground Zaigot's body into nothing.
Regeneration? Impossible. The difference in rank was absolute. Carving a body to pieces with silk threads and a footfall from a being that had touched the heavens were not the same thing. There was no trace of Zaigot's flesh left. Pressure beyond imagination had vaporized even a body that approached super-regeneration.
And the final step.
Fwaat—!
He vanished. A man once called one of humanity's hopes—now erased from the world in the ugliest form imaginable. All of it beneath the footsteps of the Heavenly Demon.
Yujin stared at the empty spot where the creature had been, then opened his mouth.
"Fuck. That was fucking exhausting."
Thud—
His body started trembling hard. Every last drop of mana was gone. Four steps. That was all it had taken to empty him completely.
"Crazy…"
The power was so overwhelming there was nothing to say but that it was monstrous. And the mana cost matched it—completely insane.
"Yeah. Can't spam that one."
One use and he was ready to collapse. Best saved for the truly critical moments—or until he bulked his mana pool up several times over.
"Ugh. I feel like death."
Zaigot had already vanished from Yujin's mind. A disgusting creature, sure, and one that had managed to startle him for a moment. That was all. Something like that wasn't a threat. Maybe it would have been in the first timeline. Not now.
This is a problem.
Yujin sighed inwardly. He hadn't expected the mana drain to be this extreme, and firing it off without thinking had been a mistake. Because his real enemy wasn't Zaigot—
"It's been a while, Player Seong Yujin."
—it was this bastard.
The figure that had appeared in midair fluttered a pair of dainty little wings as he looked down at Yujin. That grotesque, twisted smile was filthy enough to make murderous intent surge just from looking at it.
"What even are you, really? I never imagined you'd be able to kill even Player Elijah once he'd ended up like that."
"So it was you after all."
Yujin forced his shaking body as still as he could and answered as calmly as he managed. The bluff was already blown, though. He could tell from the way the smile deepened.
"That's right. It's me. I thought you might have guessed."
He was practically vibrating with glee.
"You should've prepared something better. You really thought that trash was going to kill me?"
"Hmm."
His gaze drifted to Yujin's fingertips.
"It doesn't look like it had no effect at all, does it, Player Seong Yujin?"
"If you're so confident, come try me."
Yujin snorted a short laugh and closed his hand around the Soulrepose Sword [C].
The Heavenly Silk Thread…
Drained of mana, the threads that had been swimming through the air had dropped to the ground.
Whatever. They wouldn't have helped much anyway.
He swallowed the disappointment.
"You know better than that. An Administrator can't just kill a player whenever he likes—and you know that very well, Player Seong Yujin."
The Tutorial Floor had been a bit of an exception. Didascalia's lips twitched. Whatever he was cooking up, it was written all over him.
"Then get lost. If I have to keep staring at that disgusting face of yours, I'm going to throw up."
"I'd love to, but I still have a little work left to do."
Damn it.
So this wasn't over. Zaigot hadn't been the only thing he'd prepared.
"The Dream Garden was destroyed rather unexpectedly. It was such a beautiful place, and seeing it ruined like this makes me so sad. Don't you agree, Player Seong Yujin?"
He was laying the bait.
What is he playing at?
Yujin ran the angles as fast as he could, but nothing concrete surfaced yet.
"As a Manager of the Tower, I simply can't leave this ruined garden as it is. The other players have a right to enjoy that pretty scenery too, after all."
"Ah."
He knew what the bastard was about to do.
"You son of a bitch."
Didascalia smiled.
"So I prepared him. The master of this garden—the Flower Keeper."
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG—!
The dead earth split open, and a giant of enormous size forced its way up through the crack.
The Flower Keeper. True to the name, a boss monster that tended every flower in every garden of the Dream Garden. Like the Earth Dragon, it only appeared under certain conditions—and yet here it was.
"Oh my, how careless of me. I had no idea there was a player here. Such a shame, but it can't be helped. Please be careful not to interfere with the Flower Keeper's work. When his flowers are damaged, he gets… very angry, you know?"
Didascalia sneered.
…Damn it.
Under normal circumstances it wouldn't have been a problem. The Flower Keeper was an Earth Dragon–class boss, but Yujin could handle that. The problem was his current condition. He could barely hold a sword, never mind fight. His mana was completely dry, and his stamina was gutted. He could not take this thing on like this.
This was the real trap Didascalia had prepared.
The Administrator's lips moved, forming silent words.
Do die well, Player Seong Yujin.
As if he meant to watch Yujin's death with his own two eyes, he floated through the sky, circling overhead.
And then—
Hwaaaaaaaaaaah—!
Light burst out, riding a blaze of burning dollar bills.
Financial Healing [C]
Vivian had arrived.