The Devil in the Basement (3)
There was no time to celebrate the growth of the Nameless Spear Art.
Kugugugugu!
The dungeon's landscape began to twist.
Like paint bleeding into water, the outlines blurred and the space scrambled itself into chaos.
"Rir! Get in!"
"War! Woof!"
I called Rir—who had been gnawing on skeleton bones again in the meantime—into my shadow, then crouched low, shielding my body as best I could.
Gradually, the dungeon contracted, shrinking in on itself.
All I did was shatter the barrier that had been laid over this dungeon.
I hadn't destroyed its core yet.
In other words, the boss of this place was still alive.
I kept my guard up and stared straight ahead.
Kuung…!
When the warping of space finally ended, the dungeon revealed its true form.
The labyrinth that had seemed to stretch on forever had collapsed into a single, somewhat cavernous hollow.
"So this whole place was disguised as that maze."
It had been a barrier of considerable caliber, all right.
Had I never learned Baekho Banse, my odds of ever escaping would have dropped dramatically.
Hududuk!
White bones came cascading down from above.
Not skeletons—human bones, dressed in all manner of clothing.
So these were the ones who never made it out of here.
Scattered among them were skulls wearing the same black moon or white sun armor as mine.
"A labyrinth where even corpses are trapped for eternity. Whoever designed this must have been real piece of work."
"…'Piece of work,' is it? Somewhat unfortunate choice of words."
An answer to my muttering came from somewhere in the dark.
In an instant, the air froze over.
"I have done nothing wrong. I merely set a rat trap to keep out intruders…."
Something stirred within the darkness.
Someone was walking slowly toward me.
"I never imagined a human would actually solve this."
"…Who are you?"
At last, it stepped out into the light.
Jet-black hair slicked back, a monocle.
A scholarly-looking man in his mid-twenties wearing a crisply tailored suit.
…or something that merely resembled one.
I gripped my spear on instinct.
That thing is strong.
His long years of training spoke for themselves.
The man before me was a formidable opponent indeed.
Even fighting at my current condition, I couldn't put my odds above fifty-fifty.
"You want to know who I am?"
The man shrugged and tossed the question back.
"Well now. There are many words that could describe me. Master of forbidden things, sovereign of nobility, the eye that beholds eternity, broker of cages and scales…."
The man, who had been rattling off his own titles without pause, met my eyes.
Pupils like an abyss.
So dark they seemed to hold every shadow this world had ever known.
"Fine. Let me put it in a way you'll understand."
The man smiled faintly.
"I am the former ruler of Halheim, one of its three Demon Archdukes—and also the core of this dungeon, and the master of the barrier you just broke."
He spoke his true name aloud.
"I am Dantalion."
Demon Archduke.
One of the three 'true nobles' who ruled Halheim.
No wonder he looked so strong.
He was one of the demons who had carved up an entire world into three.
Considering that Balrok, a mere Baron, had been anything but weak, a Duke's power had to be beyond any comparison.
"Good timing. Let's have a chat."
Tak!
Dantalion snapped his fingers, and a leather sofa materialized out of thin air.
He flopped down onto it and grinned, looking thoroughly pleased.
"What's so funny?"
"It has been three hundred years since I last met an interesting being. How could I not be delighted?"
There was no hostility in his bearing whatsoever.
If anything, he almost seemed friendly.
But he's a demon all the same.
I kept my tension coiled, ready to move at any moment.
"Don't worry. I have no particular desire to attack you. I've never had any interest in opposing humanity as a whole to begin with."
"Could've fooled me, judging by the body count you've stacked up here."
"I did not kill them. They crawled in here of their own accord and destroyed themselves."
Dantalion sighed as he looked over the mountains of white bone.
"I warned them clearly. Told them not to come here."
"And you still killed them with your barrier, didn't you?"
"Do you personally free every rat you catch in a mousetrap?"
"…"
He gave a slight nod.
"This place was mine from the very beginning. It was they who built their homes on top of my land without permission."
"Funny, considering I hear the dungeon's entrance only started appearing fairly recently."
"It seems mana has begun pooling in this underground as well. Overflowing mana drills holes to escape through. Ones that look, coincidentally, like entrances and exits."
I had no idea dungeon entrances were generated by such a mechanism.
"Not that knowing would do you much good. The 'Gates' that appear in your world and dungeons operate on entirely different principles, Lee Tae-hyun."
"…!"
Dantalion called me by my name as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Not to mention the fact that I wasn't from this world, either.
Apparently reading my shock, Dantalion narrowed his eyes and spoke.
"This eye shows me far more than you'd imagine. My followers once called it the Watcher's Eye."
"So you peeked through all of my memories with it?"
"That was the intent."
Having said that much, he pressed a hand against his eye and grimaced in discomfort.
"However, your memories simply stop at a certain point. I cannot see beyond it."
"You can't… see them?"
"That's right. This is a first for me."
He smacked his lips, looking intrigued.
"Beyond that point, it's as though everything has been marked forbidden."
…Somehow, I had a feeling I knew exactly where that 'point' was.
Regression.
It seemed that demon couldn't read my memories from before my return.
Thankfully, it looked like he hadn't completely emptied my pockets after all.
"In any case, fascinating. A powerless human who not only crossed dimensions but managed to shatter my barrier."
"Let's talk about me some other time."
I cut him off brusquely—if I let this drag on, we'd be here until sundown with me doing nothing but listening.
"What were you doing down here, Dantalion?"
"Shouldn't you already know? The demons of Halheim who fled across dimensions to escape the Demon Monarch… I am simply one of them."
So even a being of his caliber had been forced to run.
Just how strong was the Demon Monarch?
"The Demon Monarch devoured every demon in his path. In the end, only two of us could stand against him."
"You and the other Demon Archduke."
"Precisely. The three of us were bound by an unspoken covenant."
To check one another, so that no single one could rise above the rest.
But the Demon Monarch's power had grown to surpass the other two combined, and with the balance broken, chaos had swallowed Halheim whole.
"In the end, the last of us was devoured by the Monarch. Seeing no future left in that place, I fled here to scheme for what remained."
A faint trace of killing intent flickered through Dantalion's voice.
"But I can never defeat the Demon Monarch now."
"Why not?"
"Because I am dying."
He placed a hand on his own chest.
At once, great and small cracks spreading across his entire body came into view.
"In my battle with him, my soul was damaged."
"Soul damage…"
"I spent an age down here mobilizing every scrap of wisdom and knowledge I possessed to heal it. But in the end, the only answer I could reach was 'impossible.'"
It was hard for me to wrap my head around.
An attack that destroys the soul itself.
Was the Demon Monarch really capable of something like that?
"My soul will soon crumble to dust. My ego will vanish, and my existence will fade beyond the edge of this dimension."
And it was at that very moment.
A strange light swept through Dantalion's eyes.
"But then, I met you."
"…Me? What about me?"
"Being of another world. Take me with you."
"…?"
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Why would I suddenly take you anywhere?
"Do you want to be revived as a spirit body?"
"Useless. The collapse of my soul is inevitable. My death cannot be avoided."
"Then what exactly do you want from me?"
"I will die, but the rank and power of a 'Demon Archduke' can be preserved."
Dantalion's finger pointed straight at me.
"Take that power for yourself."
Take the power of a Demon Archduke.
"Is that even possible?"
"Entirely possible. I have spent three hundred years planning for contingencies—this scenario among them."
"If I take your power, it won't come with some side effect like your ego taking over my body, right?"
"Impossible. My ego will vanish along with my soul. After that, what remains is nothing more than a massive aggregate of power and rank."
…These conditions were almost suspiciously good.
Getting the power of Dantalion—who looked strong at a glance, and looked far stronger the longer you stared—free of charge.
"Then one more question."
Which was exactly why it felt fishy.
"Why on earth would you hand your power over to me?"
He was a demon, after all.
No demon gives away something like this without taking something in return.
"Naturally, there is a condition."
Dantalion fiddled with his monocle, lowering his brow.
"In my stead, slay the Demon Monarch."
"The Demon Monarch?"
"He drifts across every dimension, accumulating power wherever he goes. He will certainly arrive in your world one day."
As though savoring the memory of a truly loathsome enemy, the veins on Dantalion's forehead bulged.
"Kill that thing without fail, and shatter his soul. That is my price for the power I am giving you."
Somehow, I felt I could understand Dantalion's rage.
The pain of losing your homeland to a Monarch and wandering the worlds—I had lived through it too.
And that pain never fades with time.
It only grows deeper.
This was a rage that had festered for three hundred years.
Dantalion, even in death, was reaching out to me to see his vengeance through.
"…Fine. I've already made that promise to others besides you, anyway."
"A wise choice."
Dantalion grinned and rose from his seat.
"Then let us begin the transfer at once."
"Right now?"
"The state of my soul is worse than you imagine. I transcended the fear of death long ago—is there any reason to delay further?"
He closed his eyes and pressed his palms together.
"It was a short acquaintance, but a pleasant one, Lee Tae-hyun."
Tuduk! Tuk!
His body began to split apart, jets of pitch-black energy seeping from the gaps.
His soul crumbled, dissolving into powder and fragments like dry earth.
"…Ah. One last word, before I go."
Before his soul vanished entirely, Dantalion left behind words like a final testament.
"Soon, a Monarch will be born from among the two princes."
"…What? A—a Monarch?!"
You could have led with that, you absolute—!
"Hey! Don't go—tell me more!"
"How… peaceful…."
"Which one becomes the Monarch?! What's he going to do—?!"
There was no answer.
Pasuk!
Dantalion's soul disintegrated completely and was gone.
All that remained was a deep, vast power, like the flames of a shadow.
The power of the Demon Archduke 'Dantalion' is being bound to you.
Shuuuuuk!
Dantalion's power forced its way into the heart where Flame Soul had taken residence.
"Kkeok?!"
It felt as if my heart had been carved out whole.
Flame Soul is expressing displeasure!
On top of that, Flame Soul took an instant dislike to the new intruder, rampaging wildly and radiating waves of heat.
"Please… just…! Do you want to watch your master die?!"
Just as I was starting to feel bitter—wondering why my pain tolerance was apparently the only stat that leveled up these days—
The power has settled into your body.
Flame Soul grumbles and cedes its place to the new power.
The pain subsided, and the power adapted fully to my body.