With a Light Heart
Yujun was able to leave the kingdom with a light heart. Heminine had packed him a great deal of food out of gratitude—or, more precisely, because he had asked for it and she had given it.
Wherever I go, the kingdom's food is delicious.
Before setting out for Sky Prison, he said his goodbyes to Heminine. He even caught a brief glimpse of the Illusion King's true form, and it looked nothing at all like Dr. Sammington. True to one of the illusion race, the beauty was startling enough to make the eyes fly open. The Illusion King, of course, was a man.
Sorsin and his lot, who had come looking for the banquet hall, glared with cutting eyes, but they didn't dare rush him. They had already been thoroughly thrashed by him twice, and Heminine was on the verge of ascending as the new Illusion Queen. There was nothing they could do.
"Thank you."
Heminine, soon to be Illusion Queen, said it with a smile.
"I have to go to Sky Prison."
"I know. I'll give you the key."
"I need a key? Am I supposed to open a door?"
"It's a little different. We call it a key, but it looks like this."
Yujun narrowed his eyes at the small ring she produced.
"An item?"
"Yes. You can only reach Sky Prison if you have this."
"There's no separate warp gate?"
"There is. But without this ring, the warp gate won't activate."
"So it doesn't run on mana?"
"Right. It's a different energy."
"What kind?"
"We don't know either..."
"Hm."
Could it be Chaos?
When he had crossed from the Continent to Sky Prison before, Chaos had served as the warp energy. If it wasn't mana, the odds were high it would be the same this time.
If I absorb it again, I'll really be in trouble this time, won't I?
Taking the ring, Yujun turned without hesitation. They had already exchanged messenger contacts, and he had no reason to linger.
The warp gate was smaller than he had expected, and aside from the single member of the illusion race minding it, there was no one else.
"A human? What business brings you...?"
"The Illusion King gave me permission. Said I could use this place."
"This warp gate leads to Sky Prison. It's dangerous to go alone."
"So people usually went in groups?"
"Members of the royal family go from time to time, for tours, or as training."
"Ah. So that was the purpose."
"And without the ring, you cannot go to Sky Prison."
"You don't need to worry about that."
Yujun held the ring up for him to see.
"Ah—"
The illusion-race attendant faltered, then nodded.
"Understood. Please, use it."
"What? You weren't going to run the warp gate for me?"
"I merely guard this place."
He had been standing there with such an air that Yujun assumed there was something to him. The letdown was immediate. Ring in hand, he stepped up onto the gate.
The moment he poured mana into the ring, a faint fragrance rose and the gate began to vibrate. And Chaos took form.
Again?
This time, too, the value of Chaos was 3.
Vmmm. Vmmmm.
For an instant, Yujun was tempted.
No...
But the total amount present across the gate itself seemed negligible. If he got greedy here, he might never reach Sky Prison at all. Having pictured something dreadful, Yujun shook his head.
Sky Prison.
The reason it bore the name of a prison was simple. This was where criminals from many dimensions were confined after their crimes—and the crimes in question were not the ordinary kind. Not murder, robbery, or arson. As a rule, the ones imprisoned here were players who had destroyed a planet, or committed crimes on that scale.
Because the scale of those crimes was so vast, the number of inmates was not, in truth, very large. What was certain was that every single one of them was a tremendous heavyweight.
And then there were the wardens who watched and managed such inmates.
Keta of the demonkin yawned without pause.
"Been pretty quiet lately."
"Even with more players than ever."
At his fellow warden's words, Keta gave a bitter smile.
"Something I've been thinking. Feels like we're slowly turning into a spectacle for the players. You don't see it that way?"
"A spectacle? We're stronger than they are. What are they gonna do about it?"
"At first I thought the same. But listen. Does it make any sense to station over a hundred wardens just to watch fewer than twenty inmates? Don't you think it's less because they're strong, and more because there's some other purpose?"
"Keta. Don't tell me you're suspecting the Director."
"What? You little—where do you get off saying something that'll get us killed? It's not suspicion, it's..."
"It's suspicion, all right."
"...Tch."
"Actually, me too."
The warden leaned in and whispered at Keta's ear.
"I thought it was strange."
"Oh, you too? What part seemed stran—"
"Kidding, you idiot. You. I'm telling the Director every word you just said."
"What? Hey. Please don't."
"Then watch your mouth. He might be listening to all of it."
"...I was rash."
"As long as you know."
That was when it happened.
KRA-KOOOOM—!
An explosion violent enough to shake the entire sky island tore through the air.
"Wh-what?"
"Emergency! Emergency!"
A warden with a familiar face was closing in at tremendous speed.
"What's with him?"
"No idea."
"I said it's an emergency!"
"Yeah, but why?"
"The Blood Lord has escaped!"
"...What?"
"For real?"
"Can't you see the mess right now?"
"Hah... of all people, the Blood Lord broke out? That's never happened. An inmate escaping..."
"Well, today's the day. Anyway, move. Fast."
"Wait. So we're going to stop the Blood Lord right now?"
"What else would we be doing?"
"We're fucked."
Keta's face hardened in an instant.
The Blood Lord.
As the name suggested, he was a lord. A being who had once plunged the Infinite Tower Continent into terror, and though his kind now teetered on the brink of extinction, he belonged to the vampire clan, famed for living forever.
Marcus, the Blood Lord, known as the last surviving vampire, wore a slow, viscous smile.
Soon I'll be able to meet my children.
Living eternally, he had been fated to spend that endless life locked in a prison, unable even to die. Marcus was not tame enough to accept such a fate quietly. He had been laying his escape for decades, and at last he had undone the seals and restraints on his body and broken free. Killing the warden who had heaped insults on him the whole time was merely a bonus.
Sky Prison never once hid the inmates. It put every one of them on display. As a means of making an example, the effect was quite certain—but whenever Marcus recalled the humiliations of all those years, his teeth ground with rage.
"How long has it been since I tasted the outside air..."
The transparent cells where the prisoners were kept might as well have been a tourist attraction. No small number of players had come to mock him, curse him, and jeer, and Marcus remembered every one of their faces. He could not say that had nothing to do with his decision to escape.
Swarming in like a pack.
He had no idea how long he had waited for this moment. The wardens seemed to think he was greatly weakened.
"Foolish bastards..."
Marcus had, on the contrary, grown stronger than he had been before his imprisonment. Incomparably so. The wardens as they stood now could never hope to suppress him. Was there even anyone in this Sky Prison who could withstand his attack? He was that confident.
My blood power has risen eightfold, at a rough guess. Satisfying.
He had not grown stronger by sitting still. It was thanks to the ceaseless cultivation of an EX Tier blood art he had obtained by chance before Sky Prison took him. The art inflicted horrific pain on the body merely by being trained, to the point that even Marcus, whose endurance was formidable, screamed from time to time. The wardens had taken that for proof that his mind was gone.
For someone locked up over a hundred years, the body is light.
First he would reduce Sky Prison to rubble. Otherwise, what would have been the point of enduring all this time?
"There he is!"
"If we don't put him down early, a written reprimand won't be the end of it. Stop him with your lives."
Five wardens charged first to subdue him. Moths diving into a flame.
Tens of thousands of blood droplets took their places in the air. Bubbles of qi boiled, swelling in an instant and multiplying their force. Before anyone noticed, the bubbles that had settled beside the wardens burst.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
A tremendous explosion blanketed the area. The wardens who took the blast head-on had no chance of surviving it. Their bodies were torn to pieces, not even a shape remaining.
"Not knowing their place..."
The Blood Lord, Marcus, sneered. Wasn't the sight of those smug wardens simply too ridiculous?
He had decided to turn Sky Prison into a wasteland, and one task had to come first: freeing every prisoner confined within it. He was terribly eager to see just how much chaos would descend on this Sky Prison, which had boasted a near-invincible, absolute barrier.
"What's all this racket?"
Manuela muttered. The city above the prison was in an uproar.
"Those vibrations don't feel right."
At Do Jiyun's words, Paranet stopped.
"My lady, and you, human—get behind me."
"Huh? All of a sudden?"
The moment Manuela asked, bewildered, Paranet drew his sword.
"GRAAAAAH!"
"Aaaah!"
A gigantic troll, six meters tall, revealed itself. It trampled the players in the streets and rampaged with its fists, and not a single player stood to fight. Those who had were already long dead, pounded into paste.
The troll was not merely large. It was agile, and it handled mana well besides. The troll Rakkuak was a player, and a prisoner who had been confined in Sky Prison. He had been locked away for a very long time before getting out.
Sky Prison was a place where being confined once was the end—a prison you could not leave until you died. Praying for release was nonsense. There was nothing to be gained by standing out, but the troll race controlled its rage poorly compared to other species, and it was simply too hard for Rakkuak to swallow his anger and stay still. His wits might have been a little lacking, but the power he possessed was the real thing.
Having slaughtered dozens of players in the blink of an eye, Rakkuak soon turned his attention to the conspicuous Paranet.
"I think we should run."
At Do Jiyun's words, Paranet shook his head.
"It is already too late, human. My lady, withdraw but a little. I would have your support by way of your buffs."
"Okay."
Do Jiyun tried desperately to stop him.
"Are you insane? Every single prisoner of Sky Prison is a heavyweight. Players who make it as far as Sky Prison are already at a considerable level, and even they are getting crushed without putting up a fight."
"The problem is that there is nowhere to flee."
"What?"
"The prisoners have already all been released."
Between Horidan's Ring and the set items Yujun had given him, Paranet's stats were absurdly high. He had already grasped the shape of things through his senses, and he judged that taking Rakkuak down here was the best course.
The time has come to put the Heavenly Demon Divine Art my lord bestowed upon me to proper use.
It was a bitter shame that his lord was not at his side. Looked at the other way, though, this was also one of the rare chances to be of help to him. Cloaked in Manuela's powerful buffs and blessing, Paranet kicked off the ground and leapt.