Chapter 180 - [Tower of Lust, Floor 46] Enter the Knights of the Gold Sun, NTR, and Hypnosis!

A cheerful BGM was drifting in from somewhere. Even with their blades gripped and their stances set, the black knights made no move to attack right away. For some reason they were seething at the sight of me, and then they pressed their backs to one another and began striking poses.

Oh, it's that bit again. Self-introduction time?

"We are the Three Jet-Black Brothers!"

See? I keep telling you—these bastards all run the exact same playbook.

They were so goddamn ridiculous I nearly forgot to put my gauntlets on, and they just carried on with the introductions. First to step forward was the hulking knight standing in the center.

"Ha! What even is pure love!? Every woman in this world would do just fine to find her happiness beneath an alpha male's crotch! Staying with some boyfriend packing a thread-thin dick and having joyless sex all for the sake of 'because I love him'—the sheer audacity! I am the golden sun who shall deliver those poor, pitiable women! The constellation known as [Knight of the Gold Sun]!"

Once he finished, the gaunt knight on the left took his turn.

"Does having a goalkeeper mean the ball never goes in? Is pure love the only road to happiness? No matter how blissful a couple may look, there are always parts of each other they secretly despair over!! What is so wrong about having that sorrow healed in another's embrace!? The one at fault is the lover who neglects their partner—and just as much, the one who lets themselves be stolen for failing to please them! I am the champion of every affair in this world! [Knight of NTR]!!"

He too raised his blade high toward the upper left, golden tail feathers gleaming. At last the fat knight on the right settled into his stance, lifting his sword high to the upper right to mirror the angle—a pose that seemed to symbolize, of all things, a pair of wings.

The instant the system windows flickered past one after another, explosions erupted behind their backs. They held poses they clearly believed looked magnificent, killing intent rolling off them in waves.

"Die! Hong! Chang! Ki!"

"You who would disturb our paradise—!"

"You invading bastard~~~!!!"

The knights scattered in three directions, then came charging—left, right, and dead center—in a formation aimed at me and me alone.

"Three Brothers 3P Attack!!"

"Those technique names are so fucking tacky!"

"Waaah~!"

Ian leapt skyward first and slipped off the line of attack. I alone mistimed it, thrusting out both fists and my right foot to meet all three of their strikes at once.

I had a vast reserve of aura and even the Madame's golden buff layered on top of that, and yet their blows came heavy enough that my stance nearly tipped.

Ugh~! You bastards! How are you this fast and this heavy with attack names that stupid!?

Oh, right—they were constellations. Nothing to laugh off.

In a heartbeat I checked the fit of the revolver gauntlets I'd just equipped and went over to the offensive.

Clack!

"Th-this bastard!"

"To eat our attack and still—"

I crammed aura into the gauntlet's cylinder, packing the empty chambers in place of gunpowder, spun it, and detonated the charge as the hammer fell.

TA-ANG!!!

"Hoooork!?"

"Nwaaaaagh!"

The revolver gauntlets spat fire. Using aura for bullets and the detonation's recoil for the swing, I sent two of the knights flying. The last one was holding me off with his blade—for him, I didn't even need to bother with a kick.

"Kghuaaaaaaak!!!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I turned my head and drilled him point-blank with my eye beams. It was output that would have killed a succubus outright, but the knight came away without a wound—only his armor glowing an angry scarlet.

"You okay? Hurt anywhere?"

"You knew about these guys. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'd only ever heard about them in reports. Never actually met one."

"What report?"

"According to the report the vanguard team on floor 41 filed, if a fight drags on too long in this stretch of floors, constellations like that come crashing in. But you know how the front line was already dug in on 41, right? By the time I got there, constellations and whatnot had all melted away—everyone figured they were simply gone."

"So the ones who were supposed to be on 41 are squatting here."

Constellations suddenly popping up to sabotage floor clears? Unbelievable.

"That witch up there might be a different story, but you—we can never, ever let you pass!"

"Even if it costs us our very lives!"

"We shall most absolutely never permit you to clear floor 50~~!!"

..................

...What the hell even are they?

"Changki?"

"Ah, hold on. Don't hit them with any skills yet."

I lowered my fists and rolled my shoulders, letting the tension bleed out.

"You there! You're not seriously asking because you don't know, are you!?"

"I'm asking because I don't know, jackass! You're supposed to be following the Tower Lord's orders—what are you doing running amok down here!"

"Hah! What an insolent whelp!"

The Gold Sun Knight, who appeared to be their leader, stepped forward. He drove his longsword into the ground with a mighty crunch and glared at me, arms crossed.

"You there—Hunter Hong Changki! So it is you who has been clearing the Tower in league with the Pure Love forces of the lower floors!?"

"That's right! What about it!"

"You must have noticed by now! We loathe those people! Their kinks, their doctrines, their conduct—all the way down to their faces! There is not one thing about them our instincts can stomach, so we have waged battle after battle to strike them down! As you can see, this is nothing but an empty lot—right up until you lot arrived, this ground was the arena where our two factions settled things!"

"So what do you want me to do about it? You're not the local alley-bully of some apartment block—did you seriously just ask me to hand your playground back?"

"I am not talking about anything so trivial!!!"

I crossed my arms in turn, and the two knights behind him roared along with him.

"With your push through the lower floors, your influence has begun to seep into the upper floors where we dwell!!"

"Indeed~! You've even been winning over the High Succubi of the lower floors—do your names not now rise and fall in the gossip of every floor up here as well~!?"

"...Huh?"

Our influence is reaching the upper floors...? Our names are being bandied about...? Wondering what on earth that meant, I shot a glance to my side.

"I think they're talking about the residential zones up above."

"...The floors where the constellations live, and the safe floors we haven't managed to open yet?"

"Probably? I read the report Seongyeon wrote—you were on great terms with the constellations here, and your gate-clearing speed was no joke either. Since we've been actively recruiting the safe floors too, they've apparently gotten antsy."

"What is there to be antsy about? The Tower Lord already rammed the order to clear the Tower down the surface world's throat—why are these tenant bastards throwing a fit?"

"Who are you calling tenants!!!"

Ignoring their shrieking, I pricked up my ears and asked again, in essence, what exactly their problem was. The Gold Sun Knight, fronting for the group, draped his right arm over the crossguard of the blade still buried in the ground.

"Hey, can you not follow a simple conversation? This isn't a matter for the Tower Lord to stick his nose into. This is the momentous contest that stakes the pride of our Corruption Faction against the Pure Love Faction—and the very survival of the Tower itself!"

"Pride or whatever—what could be so important that you have to announce it in language that grandiose?"

"Ha, so you're even slower upstairs than you look? You'd understand the moment you heard it. When the two factions clash, the victor gains the deciding authority over the Tower's disposition. It amounts to an election campaign, much like the ones held in the country you peopl—"

"Whoa, fuck. Do not bring up elections at a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time like this."

Where did this bastard get off, spouting dangerous shit like that.

The Gold Sun Knight read the room and cleared his throat awkwardly.

"—Ahem! In any case, you know there are High Succubi in charge of each floor, yes? They too hold different factions according to their leanings, same as we do. Now—what do you suppose we intend to do about that?"

"...Crush the rival faction. Absorb the High Succubi governing each floor into your own. And dye the Tower of Lust in the colors of Corruption. Am I warm?"

"Now you're finally starting to follow!"

With that he clapped his hands—clap, clap, clap. Now that I finally had some idea what was going on, the knot in my chest loosened.

"Think of how you appear from where we stand! You join hands with the Pure Love Faction, usher humans into the safe floors, and now mean to begin exchanges on the level of entire nations!? And you've even solved the supply of vital essence, the single greatest problem this Tower has ever had~!?"

"Well, it's not as if it couldn't be done. Once the structure pays you simply for having sex, the people outside—especially the jobless—would welcome it with open arms."

An age was coming in which a person could earn a living just by having sex or offering up their vital essence. I had no idea how much vital essence running the Tower actually required, but the day the jobless and the shut-ins vanish from this world might not be far off.

"THAT IS EXACTLY THE PROBLEM!!!!!"

And that was exactly why those guys were insane.

"So in the end, you want to stuff the Tower ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chock-full of Corruption leanings and enjoy yourselves, and invade the surface to build a world of your own. That about right?"

"It goes beyond that! This is a struggle for survival! If your Pure Love Faction wins, there will be no place left in existence for us of the Corruption Faction!!"

"Then just live. Who's kicking you out?"

"How are we supposed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠live in a world where men and women canoodle blissfully with one another!!!!!"

"...Fuck."

In the end, it had all come back to their sexual preferences. The Knight of Pure Love had been the same, but not one constellation up here was right in the head. Perhaps because this was a Tower steeped in lust, it was overrun with fools who treasured their own kinks as though they were their reason for living.

"The linchpin of the Tower's clearing is you!"

"If you die, the clearing of the Tower halts."

"And then those Pure Love fools will surely never dare show their faces again~~!!"

And so they raised their swords once more.

"Three Brothers 3P Attack!!"

"Like I keep saying, those technique names are so fucking tacky—!?"

Sword met gauntlet, sparks sprayed, and the ground sank beneath the impact. What truly grated was that for all their idiotic technique names, their skill was the genuine article.