Chapter 241: 41st Floor: The Decisive Battle (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 241: 41st Floor: The Decisive Battle (2)
Without a word, they rushed at each other.
Chris was the first to attack.
He charged forward, unleashing a blade of golden Aura.
KRRRRRACK!
The energy tore through the floor, flying toward Shota as if to slice him in half.
But Shota, having anticipated the attack from Chris’s preparatory stance, sidestepped it with a light step to the right.
Maintaining his forward momentum, he raised his sword and charged.
The exchange naturally flowed into Shota’s counterattack.
Even for a Swordmaster, taking a direct hit from an Aura-infused blade could be dangerous.
Chris parried the sword as it thrust straight for him.
Clang!
Their swords, both cloaked in golden Aura, collided.
Or so it seemed.
Anticipating the parry, Shota spun his body in the same direction Chris had deflected his blade, transitioning into a spinning slash.
Clang!
Startled by a sword technique he had never seen before, Chris barely managed to block it. His center of gravity was off, however, breaking his posture and forcing him back.
Shota pressed his advantage, following up with an overhead slash.
Chris naturally raised his sword to block, but then—
Shota’s foot suddenly shot up.
“Huh?”
By the time Chris saw it, it was too late.
Shota’s foot wasn’t aimed clumsily at his leg or torso.
It was aimed at the one weak spot that could neutralize a man in a single blow!
A kick to the balls!
THWACK!!!
The entire audience was stunned.
In the sacred Crown Prince Contest to select the next emperor, a kick to the balls during a battle between Swordmasters?
But when the Emperor saw it, he laughed heartily, slapping Layla’s bottom with amusement, so no one dared to object.
In that brief opening, Shota followed through with his original overhead slash.
KABOOM!
“Guuuaaaargh!”
Unfortunately, a kick to the balls wasn’t a silver bullet against a Swordmaster. A warrior of that caliber could cloak any part of their body in Aura, and it would instinctively gather at the point of impact.
That didn’t mean it had no effect.
His balls may not have burst, but most of the shock was transmitted.
Chris, hunched over with his legs squeezed together as if he had to take a shit, barely managed to block Shota’s sword.
If Chris’s Aura had only been on par with Shota’s, his head would have been sent flying. But the difference in the quality of their Aura allowed him to just barely defend.
Aura was a crystallization of mana that could create miracles.
Even when clashing with the same force, Chris’s purer Aura pushed Shota’s sword back.
And yet, Chris was the one being driven back.
Shota’s swordsmanship was completely unpredictable.
In fact, it was a stretch to even call it swordsmanship.
It was simply a continuous stream of attacks meant to kill his opponent.
Shota used more than just his sword.
He would look left while slashing right, feign frustration at the shock of their Auras clashing, then suddenly thrust his sword forward.
He used his expressions, his gaze, even his feet to corner Chris.
He had learned well from Lee Do-hee how to fight like a complete bastard.
“You son of a bitch! With those cheap, dirty tricks!”
But Chris wasn't a complete idiot.
Though startled at first, he quickly adapted to Shota’s bizarre style. As the pain in his groin subsided, he regained his composure.
CLANG!!!
When their swords met head-on, Shota was sent skidding backward.
“Ah, I guess this isn’t enough after all.”
“The games are over, Shota!”
The momentum had shifted to Chris.
He charged forward to finish Shota off.
But Shota just watched him, a smirk playing on his lips.
“Right. Let’s end the games here.”
“What?”
A golden energy began to surge from Shota’s body.
A vast, immense power welled up.
My jaw dropped at the sight.
“Eh…?”
Wait, now? He’s breaking through his Upper Dantian now?
The Emperor, also realizing what was happening, stopped the fingers that had been fucking Layla’s pussy and his eyes widened.
It didn’t take long.
In a brief moment, a golden light flashed in Shota’s eyes, and it was over.
“You bastard! What kind of trick is this… Gack!”
KABOOOOM!!!
When Shota’s sword clashed with Chris’s, it was Chris who was sent flying back.
The Aura was different from before.
A pure, powerfully condensed golden Aura—the kind used by Swordmasters—was now blooming from Shota’s blade.
How did he deal with that?
*
Three days ago.
On the fourth day of his training, Shota had an epiphany.
‘Mmm...’
He had actually broken through his Upper Dantian while fucking Lee Do-hee.
It turned out the claim that his Upper Dantian would be stimulated every time he orgasmed was no lie at all.
In a moment of, ‘Huh?’, his Upper Dantian had swung wide open.
He could see the realm of the Swordmaster and beyond.
He himself didn’t know how he’d done it.
All he had done was deliciously fuck her pussy while imagining the oral formulas Lee Do-hee had taught him, and his Upper Dantian had opened.
However, Do-hee, dazed and delirious after the fifth creampie from the Breeding Press, was just flopping like a fish and moaning, “Nnggghhh♡.” Her consciousness had completely ascended to the heavens, and she failed to notice Shota’s rise in power.
‘Hmm… should I hide this for now?’
He didn’t want the training to end just yet.
When would he ever get another chance to be alone with her like this? Wanting to fuck Lee Do-hee for even one more day, Shota intentionally closed his Upper Dantian.
Frankly, anyone else would have considered this an act of madness.
How could someone lower their level of mastery at will?
Closing an Upper Dantian that had already been opened? Wasn’t that completely insane?
But Shota had done it—this crazy, unprecedented feat. All because he wanted to fuck Lee Do-hee for two more days.
It wasn’t for nothing that Shota had displayed such baseless confidence.
And in his duel with Chris, he had wanted to try winning once more at a lower level.
He had his reasons.
Shota wanted to inflict an even greater humiliation upon him.
In the past.
There had been people who, while not exactly fond of Shota, were at least somewhat friendly or comfortable around him. But every single one of them had been fired or killed by Chris.
It was sorrowful.
He was saddened by the fact that he was born a prince, born with a curse.
Still, he had to endure it.
To live, to survive alongside his mother, he had to live as quietly as a dead mouse.
Not everyone in the Imperial Palace had ostracized him.
Some, out of pity or a sense of kinship with someone less fortunate than themselves, had approached him.
‘Hmph, you’re shorter than me now, big brother.’
The Third Princess, Brillint, was the only member of the royal family who joked and teased him. She was a warm-hearted person with no interest in the throne.
But after declaring her withdrawal from the line of succession, on her way to her mother’s family estate, she fell into a trap set by Chris. She was brutally raped and miserably killed by knights disguised as bandits.
‘Hey, kid, if you’re having a hard time, just say so. You’re a man… puff out your chest!’
Fardis, a knight who guarded Layla’s detached palace for a pittance of a salary. He was uneducated and lacked manners, but he was a man with more heart than anyone.
He went missing on his way home from work, only to be discovered as a rotting corpse in a sewer.
Countless others, people who were just living their ordinary lives, had died. So many had died.
Chris had taken most of them.
His had been the life of a loser, who did nothing but lose.
But the Shota of today was different.
He would lose no more.
A golden Aura surged not just from his sword, but from his entire body.
He had broken through the wall and now saw the world with new eyes.
“You wouldn’t know, Chris. The pain of living while holding your breath!”
“Grk… You bastard, what the hell are you doing?!”
Chris charged again.
But when Shota casually parried his sword, Chris staggered, finding even that simple block overwhelming.
“Do you… do you think I’ll lose like this?!”
Chris felt a sense of crisis.
He couldn’t deny it. He was no longer a match for Shota.
But he couldn’t give up.
“That is my place. The throne is mine!”
‘You must become the Emperor.’
‘Endure it! For the revival of our Termion family!’
‘If you fail to become Emperor, you will die a miserable death.’
‘If you cannot even endure this, how can you possibly become Emperor?!’
From a young age, he had been brainwashed, receiving every form of education and enduring every pain to become the Emperor.
Eliminating competitors?
He had done some of it himself, but most of it was carried out by assassins hired by his family.
It was too late to turn back now. So many people, including his own brothers and sisters, had already died because of him.
And now, after all this, you’re going to stand in my way? Why!
“I’m… I’m desperate too!!!!”
Chris’s form vanished for an instant.
It was a footwork technique using the Termion family’s secret art, the Shadow Step.
His form blurred as if moving sideways, then disappeared, only to reappear from above.
“Haaaaaaah!!!”
He expanded his Aura to a three-meter blade and, pouring all his mana into it, struck down!
“Don’t make excuses, Chris! You’re just another perpetrator.”
Shota also expanded his Aura to its maximum and leaped into the air.
Their swords, imbued with golden Aura, swung toward each other.
“Die, Shota!!!”
“It’s over, Chris!!!”
The blows, carrying everything they had, collided in mid-air.
KRRRRACK!!!! KABOOM!!
The force of the impact sent a gale-force wind all the way to the spectator stands, and a blinding golden light flashed.
It was over in an instant.
Thud.
Shota and Chris landed with their backs to each other, having passed in the air.
And the result was, of course…
“Aaaaaaaargh!!”
Chris’s left arm was gone.
Blood streamed down, staining the white floor red.
His sword was also shattered in two, the broken hilt still clutched in his right hand.
“Aaaargh… No, I must become the Emperor… the Emperor…”
With his remaining arm and broken sword, Chris tried to attack Shota again, but—
Slice!
As if swatting an annoying bug, Shota swung his sword and cut off Chris’s other arm.
“Ah… I…”
SLICE!
Finally, he cut off both of Chris’s legs.
Losing his balance, Chris’s torso fell to the floor.
“NO!!!!”
Just then, a sharp scream came from below the grandstand.
The owner of the scream was none other than Chris’s mother, Crusilla.
The Emperor’s official wife and the Mother of the Empire.
She was a 7th-Circle Mage in her own right.
As she began to gather her mana to do something—
“Who dares interfere with the sacred Crown Prince Contest?”
Thwack!
“Ah?”
A knife, thrown from somewhere, was embedded in her chest.
Her ornate dress began to stain red with blood, spreading from her heart.
“Wh-Why?”
Who would throw a knife at the Empress?
No one, of course, except the mad Emperor.
“Interfering with the Crown Prince Contest is punishable by death, at minimum. It seems you were unaware.”
She was the Empress, after all.
Though they hadn’t often shared a bed, she was his wife, the woman who had borne his son.
The mad Emperor simply threw a knife, killed her, and resumed fingering Layla’s pussy.
‘Ah… I was nothing to him. That whore… that Emperor’s plaything was his real woman…’
That was her last thought.
Thump.
“M-Mother!!!”
Chris, collapsing with his limbs severed, witnessed the scene.
“How… How could you!!!”
He writhed, a mere torso of flesh, trying to do something, anything, but there was nothing he could do.
Stab!
“Guaaaaaargh!!!”
Just like his mother, Chris died with Shota’s sword piercing his heart.
In a single moment, the Empress from the powerful Duke Termion’s family and the Crown Prince candidate met a miserable end in front of everyone.
The arena fell silent.
“……”
“Hmm…”
As no one dared to move in the frozen atmosphere, the Emperor stood up.
He hooked an arm around Layla’s pelvis, tucking her against his side, while his other hand caressed her pussy as he ascended the platform.
Her dress was practically all the way off, putting Layla’s soaked pussy and asshole on full display for all to see.
‘Wow…’
It was absurd, but I had to admit, Layla’s large ass and plump, swollen pussy were a little arousing.
“L-Let go of me… you crazy bastard…”
Layla, apparently finding this too shameful, struggled, shaking her large hips and kicking her legs.
Smack!
“Heeng!! Nnggaaaaaah!!!”
She was easily subdued with a pussy spanking.
The Emperor ignored her words and kept walking.
Thud. Thud.
On his way, he kicked Chris’s corpse aside and stood face-to-face with Shota.
Shota found himself face-to-face with his mother Layla’s plump pussy.
“I hereby appoint Shota as the official Crown Prince.”
He needed no grand pronouncements.
‘Wow… the Emperor really is a fucking lunatic.’
Then, he pushed Layla’s large ass and pussy toward Shota.
“Your mother is pleased. Do you have anything to say?”
“……”
Layla’s pussy and asshole were twitching open and closed.
Her face, visible behind her rear, was flushed bright red, and she didn’t seem to be in any state to speak.
‘That bastard is the real deal…’
Everyone, myself included, was aghast at the Emperor’s insane obsession with Layla.
“……Hand my mother over.”
“Ahem, I shall make an exception for today. Use her well and return her.”
With that, the Emperor handed over the pussy… no, Layla, to Shota.
“Shota…”
“Mother…”
The two embraced on the platform. As the Emperor made his exit, people began to clap, cautiously at first.
The time had come to welcome the new power.
[Ding~]
[You have cleared the 41st Floor Trial. You have achieved the True Ending: ‘Emperor Shota.’ The reward grade will be increased.]
Finally, I had cleared the 41st Floor Trial.
And with the True Ending, no less!
‘An SSS-Class reward…’