Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Those Gathering at the Demonic Palace
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'That should be enough.'
Krash, who had waited until Pendal unleashed his full power before deliberately shattering it in kind, lifted his foot from Pendal's chest. The man's face burned red with humiliation.
But Pendal showed no sign of getting up.
It was as if staying down like that was less embarrassing.
Leaving Pendal like that, Krash shouted toward the onlookers.
"I'm Krash Valheim. I'm recruiting conquerors to take down Rakcheon and head to the eighth floor together."
All eyes turned to Krash in an instant.
"Come anytime. I'll take anyone who knows the Demonic Palace well. That is, if you want the achievement of advancing to the eighth floor together."
With that, Krash turned away.
He glimpsed Pendal's gang rushing over to help their leader up, but he paid it no mind.
Instead, he thought of the one woman who had watched him throughout the fight.
'Lacradian.'
The swordsman who could be called the Demonic Palace's final glimmer of light.
If Pendal was the darkness, she was the palace's light.
The light that every conqueror admired, hoping she'd one day conquer the palace.
And during the year Krash had spent in the Demonic Palace long ago, she was the swordsman whose name he'd heard the most.
Though by then, Lacradian had already set aside her sword and faded into a washed-up has-been.
Pendal had remained in the darkness, but Lacradian, being the light, had eventually lost that shine and crumbled.
Having abandoned her blade, she was now just a merchant running a small shop in the palace.
Crimson Garden alighted on Krash's shoulder and asked just then.
Krash chuckled lightly at the question.
"That's what I'm waiting for."
Pendal's skill, Lioner.
A lightning-based ability that Krash could confidently declare Pendal barely knew how to use.
Krash intended to steal it.
The dials that had appeared for Pendal numbered three in total.
The first was envy.
Ironically, this condition was already met simply because Krash was a Valheim.
The second was rival.
In some way, Pendal had to truly see Krash as a rival.
'Another vague one.'
In the fight just now, Pendal's second dial hadn't activated.
It didn't mean the guy had genuinely acknowledged Krash from the heart.
'Plenty more chances anyway.'
The moment he did acknowledge him as more than a rival.
Krash decided to wait patiently for that.
He'd keep running into Pendal until he finished his business in the Demonic Palace anyway.
The reason Krash bothered recruiting a team to descend into the Demonic Palace wasn't just because it was tricky alone.
It was also to lure Pendal.
Back in his days staying at the Demonic Palace.
Because he was a Valheim, Krash had gone through something similar.
Of course, it hadn't been Krash who fought that time.
The one who clashed with Pendal was none other than Mokgung—no, Anix Graiza.
Hearing Belokin Valheim had obtained the Thunder Citadel, Anix had led Krash and the Staron group to the palace, hoping to snag some scraps.
Pendal had naturally picked a fight with Anix that day, only to get crushed in the end.
Even after, he'd relentlessly thrown himself at Anix without regard for means, but ended up shattered again and fled the palace.
Thanks to that, Krash remembered Pendal's tendencies, techniques, and traits well.
Remembering such things was Krash's specialty, after all.
That's why crushing Pendal had been easy.
Anyone else might not have managed it so smoothly.
'The situation's completely different now, though.'
Krash figured Pendal hadn't changed much since then.
'Even harsher results will come if they must.'
Of course, those results wouldn't be pleasant for Pendal.
In the darkness, Krash's eyes gleamed quietly.
To cut to the chase.
The situation didn't resolve so easily.
Krash gazed quietly at Bianca, who was reading the new book he'd bought her.
Unfortunately, no one had shown up to join his eighth-floor conquest.
Pendal had clearly lost to Krash.
But that didn't change the fact that Krash was ultimately leaving the Demonic Palace.
Pendal wasn't disappearing either.
So no conqueror wanted to side with Krash, now thoroughly hated by Pendal.
"You've got some on your mouth."
Krash didn't mind much, wiping the face of Bianca, who had chocolate from the batch he'd bought a couple days ago smeared on her lips.
Bianca's face bobbed along with his hand.
She seemed accustomed to whatever he did now.
Then Bianca turned to look at him.
"Are you going to keep waiting?"
"Something like that."
The still-young Bianca didn't fully grasp what goal Krash was pursuing each time.
She was simply by his side.
It wasn't bad, but sometimes she wanted to help him.
"Is there nothing I can do to help?"
Krash's eyes widened briefly before he let out a slow chuckle.
"What could you possibly help with?"
Unlike Krash, Bianca had zero knowledge of combat.
But curious what this little one might offer, Krash asked with interest. Bianca stood and promptly plopped her bottom right in the middle of his chair as he sat.
At her sudden move, Krash froze as her soft hair brushed his front.
"They say human warmth eases tension."
"...You read that in a book?"
"Yes."
A curt reply.
Still, she seemed pleased—her legs visible under the table swayed gently back and forth.
Krash gave her an exasperated look and slowly stroked her head.
Her legs swung a bit faster.
It reminded him of a puppy's tail.
'Without suppressing her emotions, she's expressing herself more vividly bit by bit.'
Having lived her whole life repressing feelings, seeing Bianca like this felt rewarding in its own way.
"Um..."
Just then, a voice reached Krash's ears.
Sensing the one he'd been waiting for had arrived, he turned.
There stood a woman.
Her black-and-gold bound hair and the sword at her waist.
The only one in the Demonic Palace who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Pendal alone.
Lacradian.
As if she'd trained until morning.
Her clothes were covered in dust.
Yet her emerald eyes shone vividly all the same.
Finally, the guest he'd waited so patiently for had come.
Krash kept his expression neutral as he regarded her.
But regardless, Bianca remained seated before him.
Krash tapped her shoulder, but she just pressed her bottom down harder.
No intention of budging, huh.
A bit embarrassing, but figuring it was just childish stubbornness, Krash decided to talk anyway.
"Something you need?"
Lacradian opened her mouth cautiously at his question.
"I'd like to help with the eighth-floor conquest."
As expected, the words he'd been waiting for.
Krash narrowed his eyes slightly.
"You'll end up enemies with Pendal. You okay with that? He'll almost certainly try to interfere."
After getting crushed by Krash himself, if Krash succeeded on the eighth floor too?
It'd be unbearably infuriating for Pendal.
He wouldn't just sit idly by, obviously.
Lacradian surely knew that.
Yet her eyes didn't waver.
"Doesn't matter. Pendal and I are both cowards. Once the eighth floor's cleared, he'll tuck tail and hide."
Pendal and Lacradian had once conquered the Demonic Palace as teammates.
So they both knew.
How they'd been broken by the eighth floor's Rakcheon, that ghostly monster.
"You're a coward too, but you wanna go to the eighth floor with me?"
"Yes. To escape being one."
That was enough.
"Alright. Lacradian, let's go together."
"...You knew my name."
"You know mine too. Anyone aiming for the eighth floor would have ears for that much."
Lacradian didn't deny it.
"But this is just the Demonic Palace entrance for me. It's riddled with traps, and I doubt you can disarm them all alone."
"I have an expert acquaintance for that."
Krash grinned at her quick wits.
He wasn't a total newbie to the entrance himself, but he didn't know every trap either.
"Perfect. Looking forward to your help too."
Preparations were complete.
Now it was just conquest time.
Time to topple Rakcheon and claim the Thunder Citadel.
And while at it, Pendal's skill too.
Word spread like wildfire: Lacradian, the light of the Demonic Palace, was teaming up with a Valheim direct descendant.
And why not? Krash had always been recruiting, and now Lacradian had shown up herself.
After Rakcheon obliterated Icarus—the team including Lacradian and Pendal in the past.
Lacradian hadn't entered the palace since, devoting herself solely to sword training.
Everyone believed she'd return someday, but she never did.
And as her fame gradually faded.
She was entering the palace with a Valheim direct descendant, of all people.
"Didn't Pendal get crushed by that Valheim direct descendant?"
"Is a Valheim really that impressive? Maybe Lacradian's just riding his coattails to regain her fame?"
Some dismissed her that way.
But those who knew her past prowess in the palace and Rakcheon's monstrosity all shook their heads.
If that's all it took, she'd have gone back ages ago.
Lacradian had seen new light through the Valheim direct descendant.
Everyone thought so.
Bam!
Pendal, hearing the news, slammed his fist on the desk before him.
In the dim room with sunlight peeking through blackout curtains, Pendal ground his teeth, a bandage on his jaw.
"L-Lacradian, that bitch... after seeing me like that, she sides with that bastard?"
Pendal felt betrayed by Lacradian.
Broken by Rakcheon just like him, yet attaching herself to Krash right after witnessing his defeat.
He couldn't make sense of it.
Pendal harbored an inferiority complex toward Lacradian deep down.
Unlike him, infamous for his thuggery to the point of being called darkness, she'd always swung her sword like radiant light.
Even broken like him, her holding the blade seemed stubborn—and terrifying to him.
If she rose again after falling alongside him, he'd plummet pathetically.
And now she was returning to the palace.
With the Valheim direct descendant who'd humiliated him, no less.
Grit!
Pendal ground his teeth again and raised his fist.
Then punched himself in the face with a thud.
"Shit."
Enough wallowing in inferiority.
Even getting beaten by a Valheim was fine.
"...You think I'll just sit here?"
There was one goal he'd always chased.
To one day topple Rakcheon himself—for that, he'd even formed Pendal Road.
He wouldn't let Rakcheon fall to anyone else.
'No more hesitation after today.'
Ironically, news of Lacradian and Krash challenging Rakcheon reignited his will to face it again. Pendal's eyes gleamed.
He strode past the shattered desk and flung open the door.
His Pendal Road gang, gathered outside, flinched and scattered before him.
"...We're entering the Demonic Palace."
At his words, they began turning back to him one by one.
Despite forming Pendal Road to challenge Rakcheon, hesitation had always held him back—until now.
The eyes of every Pendal Road member changed.
"Boss, you've finally decided."
"Haha, yeah! Can't let them steal our prey."
"Our boss is ugly, but damn if he ain't great at this!"
As Pendal Road's morale soared, Pendal swallowed a hollow laugh and glared.
"Yeah. We'll crush Rakcheon before those bastards and claim the Thunder Citadel."
In that moment, the entire Demonic Palace began to stir.