The Prison of the Mad God
"The final gateway will take place in the 'Sanctuary.'"
GuGu's voice sank heavily.
The playfulness had vanished.
"The Sanctuary was originally a holy place, but it is now severely contaminated by fallen spirits."
Fallen spirits.
Contaminated Sanctuary.
Just hearing the words conjured a musty stench.
"The mission is simple. Purify the Sanctuary. The one who achieves the highest contribution will receive the top score."
GuGu added a warning.
"But be careful. It's extremely dangerous there. The fallen spirits are ferocious, and the Sanctuary's air will gnaw at your mind and rot your body."
There was no time limit.
But the longer you stayed, the closer you came to death.
And above all.
"You can't stop midway until the Sanctuary is fully purified. There's no place to run. If you're going to give up, now's the time."
A do-or-die setup.
Live or succeed.
It was brutal, but no one harbored the seed of surrender.
Anyone who would back out now wouldn't have entered the tower in the first place.
"Very well. Good luck, then."
Clap!
With GuGu's applause, the world flipped upside down.
Whoosh!
Before the dizziness of spatial transfer faded.
A nose-piercing stench assaulted me.
The smell of rotten eggs.
No, it was the reek of corpses decaying into mush.
"...Hmph."
I wrinkled my nose and looked around.
The sky was bruised purple, sickly and mottled.
The ground was dead black.
Twisted, withered trees stood like ghosts in a forest.
It was an endless maze-like terrain.
And between them.
Kieeeek!
Krrrar...
Monsters in the form of pitch-black mist writhed.
The fallen spirits.
Even at a glance, their numbers were insane.
Thousands? No, easily tens of thousands.
Purify all these?
Insanity.
With normal methods, it would take years—impossible.
That was when it happened.
"...Of all people."
A sigh came from beside me.
I turned my head.
There was a person.
Just one.
Random transfer, huh.
The over 5,000 seeds had been scattered far and wide.
The one who landed next to me was an elf woman.
She openly grimaced at me.
A gaze full of contempt.
Probably because I scored zero on the Disaster Aptitude Evaluation.
She must think a deadweight had stuck to her.
Instead of responding, I studied her face.
Cold features.
Skin pale to the point of pallor.
Her eyes were icy blue, her eyebrows snow-white.
On her back was a massive bow as tall as she was.
Strange runes etched into the bow's body.
Familiar.
I'd seen her somewhere before.
Not just because she's an elf.
That unique aura.
Cold yet sharply murderous.
I rummaged through my memories.
Humanity's last desperate squad.
When we staked our lives to climb the tower.
In that hellish path where we slashed, stabbed, and burned countless foes.
Ah.
I remembered.
If her face had a few more scars.
If her eyes burned with a bit more venom.
It was her.
"Frost Tribe?"
The elf woman flinched and glared at me.
"...How do you know of our tribe?"
A sharp reaction.
Just as I thought.
Normal elves love forests and prefer warm places.
But the Frost Tribe is different.
They were born and raised in lands of eternal blizzards.
Thus, far tougher, crueler, and more exclusive than other elves.
And above all.
The mid-boss of the 50th floor.
Definite.
Back then, on the tower's 50th floor.
The sniper who nearly annihilated us in the blizzard-swept snowfield.
Elusive stealth.
Arrows that unerringly burst heads like watermelons—a nightmare.
Far trickier and more vicious than the floor master. That was this woman.
Seria.
I even remembered her name.
The memory was that traumatic.
"Whoa, whoa. No need to be on guard. I've just heard of your rare tribe."
I shrugged.
The elf didn't drop her suspicious glare but soon lost interest and turned away.
"...Just don't get in my way."
She drew her bow.
Without even nocking an arrow, the air around her chilled sharply.
As if she'd decided to thoroughly ignore me, she strode ahead.
The fallen spirits sensed her presence and swarmed.
Kieeeeeek!
Black mist clumps bared fangs and charged.
Seria's eyes gleamed coldly.
Ping! Piping!
Her hands were a blur.
It was as if she'd skipped drawing the string.
Three arrows flew simultaneously, embedding in the spirits' foreheads.
Splatter!
The chill infused in the arrows exploded.
The fallen spirits shattered without a scream, frozen solid.
Clean work.
She had the makings of a 50th-floor nightmare.
But I couldn't just stand idle.
My promise to Heimdall.
An overwhelming first place.
Simply passing wouldn't cut it.
Tailing this elf for scraps wouldn't satisfy him.
I stopped and scanned around.
Purify the Sanctuary.
Sounds noble.
But hunt down tens of thousands one by one?
That's the worst strategy.
A waste of time and stamina.
Grasp the examiner's intent.
The real goal of this test isn't 'hunting' but 'resolution.'
In other words, head to the Sanctuary's core and eliminate the source.
Moreover.
Are those spirits really fallen?
I narrowed my eyes.
My mage's knowledge detected something off.
Spirits are pure lumps of nature.
Unlike humans, their ego is faint.
They rarely corrupt or harbor malice on their own.
Usually, a spirit's state follows its contractor's 'state' or 'intent.'
Then the answer's obvious.
These tens of thousands of spirits.
Their mana waves were linked like fine threads to one source.
A single contracting entity.
A massive being deep in the Sanctuary.
Its mind broken, or perhaps deliberate.
That's why even its subordinate spirits seemed deranged.
And.
I closely observed their movements.
Until Seria fired, they just circled.
Not aggressive.
Defensive, even.
As if trying to scare intruders away.
-Don't come closer.
-This place is dangerous.
That's what it felt like.
Only after her preemptive strike did they bare hostility and counterattack.
What if I don't attack?
Test the hypothesis.
I acted immediately.
Shing.
I withdrew the mana cloaking my body.
Erased my killing intent.
Voided hostility and fighting spirit.
Perfect disarmament.
In that state, I stepped toward the spirit horde.
"Are you insane?!"
Seria shrieked in horror.
To her, I must look like a madman.
Walking into that ferocious mist of his own accord.
But.
Shoooo...
The moment the pitch-black mist touched my body.
The spirits parted ways.
No attack.
No biting or cursing.
They merely brushed past me.
As if I were invisible.
Simple reason.
No hostility.
They're guardians of the Sanctuary.
No need to expend energy excluding a non-attacking intruder.
I turned back and waved.
"Good luck."
"...!!"
She couldn't follow.
She'd already fired arrows.
Spilled blood.
To the spirits, she was a clear 'enemy.'
Kieeeeeek!
"Damn it!"
The spirits surged at Seria again.
She spat curses and fired her bow relentlessly.
I left the commotion behind and strolled leisurely.
The mist was clearing.
I walked for a long while.
The Sanctuary looked like an endless maze from outside.
But finding the way was surprisingly simple.
Gaze.
If there's one contracting entity for the spirits.
The contracted spirits instinctively face their master's direction.
Like sunflowers to the sun—their consciousness fixed there.
If I'd been hostile from the start, I'd never have noticed.
Blinded by killing intent, I'd miss their subtle shifts.
But I treated them like air.
So I could see.
The end they subtly glanced toward through the mist.
This way.
I advanced without hesitation.
The mist lifted, rotten trees vanished.
And finally.
Clack.
The feel underfoot changed.
Not the sticky swamp.
Smooth marble floor.
I'd arrived.
As expected, first place.
I looked up and surveyed.
Then furrowed my brow.
It's clean?
GuGu said contaminated Sanctuary.
But the scene before me was the opposite.
A spotless white temple.
Brimming with holy aura.
Corruption? Contamination?
Not an ant in sight—pristine.
I delved deeper into the temple.
Soon, I encountered a presence.
"...?"
Vast wings.
Feathers blindingly white.
Floating in the air—a 'angel' straight from myth.
She hovered with eyes closed.
As I approached, she slowly opened them.
Golden pupils pierced me.
[What an unusual guest.]
The angel's voice echoed in my head.
[You didn't harm a single one of my children.]
Children.
The mist spirits outside.
I inwardly sighed in relief.
If I'd killed even one on the way?
Combat would have started the moment I entered.
The problem was.
She's strong.
Insanely so, at a glance.
Angra on my shoulder had its fur bristling.
Fighting her alone? Certain defeat.
I kept my tension and asked.
"Why block the path?"
The reason for using spirits to bar entry.
The angel's expression darkened.
She turned back.
[This is a place you should not come.]
Behind her.
In the temple's deepest part floated a pitch-black sphere, about three meters wide.
A horrific aura, opposite the surrounding holiness.
[This is a prison.]
The angel gazed sadly at the sphere.
[Long ago, we sealed a god who lost his reason and went mad.]
Mad God.
The puzzle clicked.
Seeds break through spirits.
Kill spirits, angel rages and attacks seeds.
After fierce battle, kill angel?
Guardian of the seal vanishes.
The examiner's intent was to eliminate the angel.
Otherwise, they'd have said help the angel kill the mad god from the start.
But they scared us into attacking spirits.
To make the angel see seeds as enemies.
Why?
To kill the angel and devour the sealed mad god.
GuGu wants the mad god itself.
To retrieve it, probably.
But.
No need for that.
Following intent won't get top score.
Nor did I plan to kill the angel.
Such fine firepower? Why?
Answer's simple.
I stepped toward the angel.
"Then just eliminate what's inside there, and it's solved."
[...What do you—?]
I lowered my voice, serious tone.
"Noble one."
I met the angel's eyes squarely.
"Join me in slaying the mad god inside there."
[...!]
The angel's eyes widened.
Not guard the seal, but kill the sealed one.
A proposal defying common sense.
"Alone, it must have been tough, but together, it's possible."
I pointed at the black sphere with a smile.
"Something like that's just baggage. Let's clean it up neatly."
Curious what was inside, too.
But the real biggest reason was separate.
My right hand's itching.
The golden rune embedded in my right hand.
Invisible to others, but clear to me.
Golden threads from the rune stretched madly toward the black orb.
A disaster inside.
A substantial one.
The angel's pupils wavered.
But soon, a faint smile curved her lips.
[...Bold one.]
She spread her wings wide.
Holy light filled the temple.
Not refusal.
[Very well. I shall honor the will of one who respected my children.]
The party was formed.