Asmodeus
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Quest Issued
Subjugate Hell’s First Floor
Objective: Kill 72,000 demon soldiers, defeat the archdevil Asmodeus
Reward: ???
Asmodeus.
One of the kings of Hell, a great archdevil commanding seventy-two demonic legions. The embodiment of lust.
“You’re not here to kill me?”
“That’s correct.”
With a androgynous beauty that could have turned even a man’s head, Asmodeus tilted his silver hair and looked at Kim Jun with obvious interest.
“Then why have you stepped into this place?”
“Like I said, I came to talk.”
Before his regression, after his second awakening, Kim Jun had possessed overwhelming power. When he marched into Hell to break through the upper floors, demons were nothing more than monsters to be put down.
Unlike the surface world, Hell held a more fundamental power of destruction in its depths. Here, Kim Jun had trampled everything beneath his feet without so much as a second thought.
He was no longer as absurdly overwhelming as he had been before his regression, but he was still more than capable of standing toe-to-toe with Asmodeus.
I can’t make the same mistake twice.
And yet Kim Jun regretted that past, ever since he reached the seventy-sixth floor and encountered the fallen kingdom of knights.
“Ho. A human I can’t quite read, are you? Very well, then. What is it you want to speak about?”
“I’d like to receive the power of Hell.”
“For free?”
Asmodeus sneered, but Kim Jun had already drawn out a card Asmodeus would never have expected.
What Kim Jun knew was not mere strategy information.
It was a deep secret unknown to anyone in the Tower, one kept only by Asmodeus and the Tower’s architect.
“I know about your pain.”
“…!”
Thebes on the fifth floor, Artemis on the twenty-fifth, Kaldion on the fiftieth, and Aurelia on the seventy-sixth.
In the beginning, Aurelia had been a forward base for the Tower’s conquest.
Powerful knights and mages were stationed there, supporting all hunters heading for the upper floors.
But that belonged to a distant past, a history long since erased.
Now Aurelia was a ruin strewn with corpses, a place where not even the shadow of its former brilliance remained.
As if some collective corruption had taken hold, everyone there obeyed the orders of the princess who had become a demon with blind devotion.
The knights who had once protected the kingdom were now wraith knights, and the mages had been tainted by dark magic as well.
Only one purpose remained to them.
To slaughter every intruder without distinction, hunter or monster alike.
And at the center of all that tragedy stood Asmodeus.
“You know my pain?”
For the first time, emotion colored Asmodeus’s voice.
“Yes.”
“If you lie, I’ll kill you here and now.”
“I know.”
Kim Jun spoke slowly.
“Princess Sarah of Aurelia. The woman you loved.”
Asmodeus’s eyes trembled.
Sarah had been the only daughter of Barat, king of Aurelia. Beautiful and wise, she had been the perfect princess, beloved by the people.
But a cruel fate awaited her.
As the war between Aurelia and the monsters of the eightieth floor dragged on for centuries, the kingdom was bled dry.
When it could no longer hold out, King Barat made his final choice.
A political marriage.
He would offer his daughter to the ruler of the monsters on the eightieth floor, in order to end the war and secure the kingdom’s survival.
Sarah had been only sixteen at the time.
“That night, you couldn’t bear it.”
Kim Jun’s voice rang out softly.
“You couldn’t just watch the woman you loved be violated by monsters.”
That was why Asmodeus possessed Sarah.
“How do you know that?”
Asmodeus’s voice dropped lower.
“Your once-brilliant golden wings slowly began to rot.”
“Y-you….”
“The price of breaking the Tower’s rules. But that wasn’t the end of it.”
Kim Jun went on in a low, steady voice.
“When King Barat brought the second betrothed to her, you had to choose again.”
Asmodeus’s fist trembled.
“Would you watch Sarah be defiled, or would you endure the agony of your wings darkening even further?”
“Enough….”
“You chose pain. Even after the second possession, when half your wings had turned black.”
In spite of the torment of his decaying wings, Asmodeus had gone on eliminating every monster that tried to steal Sarah’s innocence, one by one.
Ghouls, wraiths, undead lords… every last monster.
But the more times it happened, the longer the possession lasted, and each time Asmodeus’s magic seeped into Sarah’s body and soul.
“And finally….”
Kim Jun delivered the last blow with his words.
“Sarah despaired at her fate. Abandoned by her father, endlessly sacrificed as a offering to monsters.”
That was when it happened.
As Sarah’s despair erupted, the magic that had accumulated within Asmodeus surged violently.
Her mana twisted into madness and destruction, and that power swept across Aurelia.
The king, the knights, the people—everyone was consumed by Sarah’s frenzy.
The glorious base city became hell overnight.
“In the end, Sarah lost the very self you had fought so hard to protect.”
At Kim Jun’s words, Asmodeus lowered his head.
“Right now she’s nothing more than a boss monster on the seventy-sixth floor, killing every visitor who comes her way. That wasn’t the outcome you wanted, was it?”
“I only… wanted to save her….”
Asmodeus’s voice shook.
A long silence followed.
Below them, only the sound of flowing lava could be heard.
Then Kim Jun spoke again.
“Asmodeus. Make a contract with me.”
Asmodeus lifted his head.
“I heard you out. But what do I gain from this? What possible benefit is there for me, trapped in this hell for thousands of years?”
“I’ll free Sarah’s soul.”
“Impossible.”
“It’s possible.”
After a brief pause, Kim Jun pointed somewhere in the air.
“Give me that.”
“…What are you?”
“Someone who’ll be useful to you.”
What Kim Jun pointed at was a strange object hovering behind Asmodeus’s throne.
At first glance, it looked like nothing more than the hilt of a sword floating in defiance of gravity.
But on closer inspection, something was off.
No blade could be seen extending from the hilt, and yet there was no mistaking the presence of something there.
The air quivered faintly, and now and then light bent in unnatural ways.
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◈ Type: Sword
◈ Effect: Cannot cut anything of the material world, but can cut things of the soul world.
◈ Special Effect: Purifies fallen souls and restores them to their original form.
Melchizedek’s Formless Sword. With this sword, Sarah’s soul could be purified and released.
“Hahaha! You think you can reach the seventy-sixth floor?”
“That’s why I need your power.”
“…”
Asmodeus fell into thought for a moment.
At present, Kim Jun’s strength was equal to his own, if not greater.
If Kim Jun had simply wanted power, he could have killed Asmodeus and taken it by force.
But he hadn’t done that.
Even with the easy path before him, he had chosen the difficult route of persuading Asmodeus.
As for how he knew such old stories, Asmodeus couldn’t tell. There must be circumstances he couldn’t speak of.
“Making a contract with a demon means putting your soul on the line, human.”
Asmodeus warned him.
“I know.”
“Aren’t you afraid?”
“Not at all.”
At Kim Jun’s flat answer, Asmodeus gave a quiet laugh.
“Pfft. Not concerned in the slightest, are you?”
Slowly, he took Kim Jun’s wrist.
Ding—!
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Hidden Quest Issued
Quest Name: Contract of the Abyss
Content: Make a contract with Asmodeus and save Sarah’s soul
Objective: Purify the corrupted soul of Princess Sarah of Drakenhart (76th floor)
Reward: Skill Deus Ex Machina, Weapon Melchizedek's Formless Sword, Dark attribute acquired
Would you like to accept?
[YES]/[NO]
The terms of the contract were clear.
If Kim Jun succeeded in purifying Sarah’s corrupted soul on the seventy-sixth floor, his own soul would remain safe. If he failed, his soul would be trapped in Hell forever.
Perhaps for eternity.
But Kim Jun felt not a trace of fear.
Before his regression, he had climbed to the hundredth floor alone without any information at all.
Now that he knew everything, there was no way he would die on some measly seventy-sixth floor.
Besides, the contract would give him something else as well.
Kim Jun, who had only possessed the fire attribute until now, would also gain the dark attribute.
With those two attributes, even the heavenly regions that lay ahead would be within his reach.
Without the slightest hesitation, Kim Jun selected [YES].
Hwooooooo—!
At once, black-and-red mana began to whirl between Asmodeus and Kim Jun.
The entire underground floor trembled, and a vast magic circle spread across the ground, centered on the two of them.
It was the moment the power of the contract bound the two souls together.
Contract completed
Skill Deus Ex Machina acquired!
New attribute acquired: Dark
Item acquired: Melchizedek's Formless Sword
“Skill information.”
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Skill Information
Deus Ex Machina
Grade: EX
Type: Summoning / Contract
Effect: Temporarily borrow and use the power of contracted transcendents
Duration: 5 minutes
Cooldown: 7 days
Restriction: Requires the consent of the contracted being
Detailed information available.
Hmm. Show detailed information.
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Contractable slots: 5
Slot 1: Asmodeus - Great Archdevil of Lust
└ Effect: For 1 minute, all of your attacks deal fixed damage
Slot 2: Empty
Slot 3: Empty
Slot 4: Empty
Slot 5: Empty
- A new slot can be added by contracting a new Transcendent and filling all favorability requirements
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After checking the skill information, Kim Jun muttered to himself.
Up to five contracts? Then…
Several possibilities flashed through his mind.
In Hell, there were other great archdevils besides Asmodeus, and in Heaven, there were archangels. Even stronger beings waited in the Tower’s upper reaches.
It might be more effective to forge alliances through contracts than to force everything by sheer power.
Before his regression, he had solved everything with force. But this time, there was no harm in considering another way.
Especially when he faced that being on the hundredth floor, he would need every possible source of strength.
“Ah, I can tell what you’re thinking, but not everyone is as cooperative as I am.”
“I’m aware of that too.”
After a moment of silence, Asmodeus spoke again.
“Kim Jun. I ask you again.”
His voice trembled. The dignity of a great archdevil of Hell was gone entirely, leaving only the desperate plea of one man.
“When you reach Sarah… I will use all my power to help you until then.”
Asmodeus bowed his head.
“Please. Please save her. Lead me back to her side.”
“…”
Suddenly, a memory from before his regression swept through him.
Back then, Kim Jun had beheaded Asmodeus without knowing a thing, simply to grow stronger.
But the last words that left Asmodeus’s mouth as he died were something Kim Jun would never forget.
Sarah…
Even with his head severed, even as his final breath left him, that was the only name he called.
“I promise, Asmodeus. I’d rather not be dragged down into Hell.”
Kim Jun grinned.
14
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