Heaven Realm
Well, now that I thought about it, it made sense—if familiars were free from restrictions, that'd be too weird. This constraint had to be the core gimmick of the entire 15th floor area, so bypassing it that easily wouldn't fly.
I'd summon the sword spirit again next time. That giant horned rabbit wasn't some big deal anyway. It wasn't particularly strong compared to the floor level—even ordinary challengers with halved stats could take it down in a party. It was no match for me, even if all my stats were cut in half; my specs were still way above the floor's baseline.
"Kkweeeek!"
The horned rabbit that had one-shotted the sword spirit came charging at me with momentum. I casually kicked it away.
Crack!
A sharp bursting sound rang out as the rabbit flew high into the air. I stepped off the cloud floor and leaped after it.
The amplified jump power from my Leap skill propelled me higher than the rabbit I'd kicked. Then another kick. Twisting my body mid-air, I slammed my heel down on it. The rabbit crashed straight into the cloud floor.
Boom!
"Kyuu..."
It had some tough hide—my Rolling Thunder heel drop hadn't quite finished it off. Not high durability per se, but it seemed to reduce physical and impact damage. Still, it couldn't move after that hit, so a quick stab would end it.
Shing.
I pulled a Steel Straight Sword from my inventory, wrapped it in mana, and was about to slit its throat when—
"Hey, you! What do you think you're doing?!"
A shrill voice shouted from the sky. Looking up, I saw a female NPC who looked like a local—pure white clothes that fit the cloud world perfectly, pure white wings, and pure white... wait, why was she flying around in a skirt? Anyway, this all-white visual of an NPC was pointing a spear at me with one hand.
"Tormenting a cute divine beast like that—you're a real nasty piece of work! And you call yourself one of the heavenly tribe?!"
I'd pegged her angelic look right; after demons, now it was the heavenly tribe. But why was she calling me heavenly tribe? I didn't look like an angel. And who was tormenting who? That horned rabbit had come at me first, trying to kill me. Not that it'd have succeeded.
"Put that weapon away right now, or I'll bring down heavenly punishment... Huh? What?"
The heavenly woman stomped toward me, furrowing her brows, then blinked in confusion.
"Where are your wings...? Uh, uhhh? No way, are you a human from the earthly realm?"
"Yeah."
"Eek! Kyaaaaah! Mooooom!"
The heavenly woman who'd appeared out of nowhere screamed and flapped away.
Hmm. What the hell was the deal with humans here to get that reaction? Fear? Just surprise? Hard to tell. Whatever, not my first rodeo with this kind of thing.
Worst case, how bad could it be? High elves level?
"Guess I'll wait a bit."
I plopped down on the cloud floor and opened the community to search for 15th floor info.
I'd just never paid much attention before, but there was a ton of info dumped on the Heaven Realm. Details on the field-wide constraint, quests, and heaps of research on the area itself.
The constraint on challengers seemed structured to unlock progressively via quests or special consumables. The labyrinth zone was themed around ruins tied to the Heaven Realm's origin story.
From what I read, it wasn't exactly paradise despite the heavenly tribe and Heaven Realm name. Not that big a deal. So what if their wings were pigeon wings?
"Oh, here they come."
While scrolling the community with my mana deployment maxed out, I picked up a few presences.
Flap, flap.
A few heavenly tribe members were flying over from afar. Including the woman who'd bolted earlier. She'd flown off yelling "Mooooom!" and come back with a man and woman—parents, probably.
I waited patiently for them to approach.
The woman from before pointed at me accusingly again. "Angela, is this the one you meant?"
So the first heavenly I'd met was named Angela. The one I figured was her mother landed in front of me. Flowing white one-piece outfit typical of the heavenly tribe, striking blue eyes, and cloud-white hair. Flying everywhere must be routine; she didn't care if white flashed under her fluttering skirt.
"Amazing. You're really from the earthly lands?"
This time, the male heavenly I pegged as Angela's father spoke up. Same outfit as the other two—a burly guy in a flowing white skirt. Fuck.
I remembered some troll on the community posting a "eye candy" pic zoomed in on a bulging male crotch. Now I knew where it came from. Heavenly dude upskirt shot... Didn't wanna know that.
"Yeah, that's me."
I rubbed my forehead and gave a rough reply. The two whispered to each other in disbelief.
"Then, knocking out that divine beast over there... that was you?"
I nodded vaguely, and they looked even more shocked.
"Dad, it's not a lie! I saw it! I thought some wandering heavenly was bullying the divine beast!"
"This is something else. How could an impure earthly human... against a divine beast..."
"Indeed, dear. Should we tell the priests?"
I already knew from the community why they were freaking out. The entry constraint to the Heaven Realm: impure earthly beings couldn't stand against divine beasts. But challengers teamed up to fight them, earning praise from the heavenly tribe for their strength and courage. They'd hype them as mighty warriors and hand out quests naturally.
But I'd soloed their "divine beast"—the horned rabbit—to near death. People cheer strugglers under tough odds, but they wary of overwhelming solo powerhouses.
"What should we do...?"
Yeah, what now.
I figured a fight was brewing when they talked about calling priests, but surprisingly, nothing happened.
"Ah, if it's okay, would you like to stay at our house for the night?"
Far from it—they straight-up invited me to their village.
Apparently, most challengers who reached the 15th floor got this treatment. It was baked into the floor's lore.
To the heavenly tribe, the Heaven Realm was paradise, a pure haven for the unstained. Earthly humans were impure, but not discriminated against. Instead, they saw them as pilgrims come to cleanse their sins, treating them as honored guests. Pilgrims walking the path to shed impurity, sprout wings, and be reborn as heavenly tribe—something like that.
"Rest easy. Helping on your journey to cleanse impurity is a great joy for us."
Angela's mother, Lady Angelos, welcomed me inside and said that. If a pilgrim cleansed and ascended, the heavenly hosts who hosted them shared the honor.
"A strong warrior like you will surely become one of us."
This was Angelos's husband, Mr. Dalpion. His innocent smile grated. Inviting a strange man into a house with a pretty wife and daughter while grinning like that—hospitality has limits.
"This is awkward."
I was being treated well, but honestly, it sucked. No malice from them, but the situation was off.
All this hospitality stemmed from their conviction that heavenly tribe were superior to impure earthly humans.
But knowing the truth about the heavenly tribe and Heaven Realm from the community... well, it was pathetic.
"..."
The elf quest backdrop kept overlapping in my mind. Theirs was doomed to tragedy too.
Why were all the Tower of Trials' backstories so fucking creepy? Some self-proclaimed archaeologist challengers studying floors had a theory: each floor was a slice of a real other world, and we were experiencing fragments.
Tying that to my goal of freeing Elenoir's soul across floors... left a bitter taste.
The 15th floor had tons of lively NPCs too. Were they like Elenoir?
No way to know for sure—just idle speculation.
Anyway, regardless of their plight, I'd hunt the hidden boss here too. I'd play nice for now, but in the end, I'd wreck the place.
"Demon Realm was better."
I would destroy the Heaven Realm.