Demon King

Black Palace – 2

A few days had passed. The world was still rife with war, and the world’s population was declining at an unprecedented rate, but it still showed no signs of slowing down. The indiscriminate occurrence of dungeons had succeeded in giving some people a sense of crisis, but it wasn’t enough for just a few people to want to fix it. Rather, those people were prevented from dealing with the dungeons out of fear of a counterattack while they were busy.

Therefore, humans stood on the frontlines with weapons to kill each other and not the monsters. The great laws that they desperately held onto since the Great Fusion were broken. It was expected; humans would soon divide and quarrel unless there was some absolute strength to give them direction and force them to cooperate. However, many absolute powers had fallen into the elves’ embrace and took the power of a Chaos Soul, and thus were destroyed by Rebellion.

There were still such existences, such as myself or the warriors I met a while ago. But neither of us had any intention of mingling with those bickering humans. We had more important things to fight for. So, in the end, humanity came to walk a path, only a razor’s edge away from destruction. Would they stop? Would they feel a sense of crisis by the time their population dipped below one billion? Who could say?

Humans can’t think of turning back, even when they know they are wrong.

“Brother?”

“Yeah?” My sister’s call brought me back to reality. I was taking in the sight of the ruins before me after we were finished with the dungeon, waiting for the record to finish spinning. However, the needle’s rotation was starting to take longer to slow down, which meant only one thing.

“I think this next one will be a little far away. This area seemed to have been taken care of.”

“Brother, would you like to take a break first? You look exhausted.”

“Do you need one?”

“I’m okay.”

“I’m alright too. When we’re done, we can rest a little bit.”

“When will it end?” The dungeon absorption was going smoothly thanks to the addition of the three teams made up of two Rebellion members, and three additional teams made up of higher-level monsters. With the dungeon we just cleared, it was likely we had just finished up with Asia. It was a bit slower than I expected at first, but we were still rushing through them. It was just that the number of dungeons that appeared was beyond my imagination.

“What about that heroic uncle?”

“They’re going pretty fast, thanks to Solas.” That self-proclaimed warrior looked quite young to me, but I suppose to her, anyone older got the title of uncle.

“No, it has become difficult to judge a person by appearance since the Great Fusion. Even your body has changed so much from your level rising, then you also have class changes or evolution…”

“Right.”

“So, except for my brother, all men are uncles and all women aside from Jia are aunts.” I was afraid of the iron conviction with which my sister declared this.

“Come on, let’s go quickly, brother.”

“Okay.” There were very few survivors in the ruins. Most of them were injured or dying, a horrific group of humans that we paid little mind to. We were getting used to such sights by now. Ignoring them, we opened the gate to our next dungeon.

The moment we entered, a strange feeling came over me.

“…” We didn’t stop moving; it was just a momentary feeling like something was off. My sister grabbed onto my arm, looking up at me.

“What’s wrong, brother?”

“Hmm…” I spread out a dozen blackmines for our safety before placed my hand on one of the dungeon walls.

“I’ve seen this before.”

“Well, it’s not weird to see similar environments given how many dungeons we’ve been through.”

“Hm…I don’t think that’s it.” The corridors, walls, and ceilings looked like obsidian. The air flowing through the corridor we were in felt too familiar.

[Gyahahahaha!]

A squid-like monster popped up from the floor made of crystal as I was lost in thought. It was an advanced monster, just shy of the upper system.

“I remember this place.” A few of the blackmines rushed him as if waiting for the monster to appear.

“This is a Black Palace.”

“The Black Palace? In Seongbuk-gu?”

“No.”

“There’s two of them?”

“There are at least seven of them.” I awoke in district 7, after all. I increased the number of blackmines around us. Unlike the 7th district, this one had high-level monsters right from the get-go.

“Seven?!”

“Yes, how many times do I need to say it?” I originally intended to find other areas of the Black Palace, yet I hadn’t found a single one despite all of the dungeons we had cleared. Eventually, given all that had happened so far, I forgot all about it. But now it was showing up once more.

“The Black Palace…where you first opened your eyes…”

“Not this one, though. Maybe there are other fallen here.” I muttered bitterly as I recalled my days as a goblin. More than that, I remembered the voice of my poor partner, Fate, who died without reason.

“…No.”

“Brother?”

“It’s nothing, let’s keep going.” The difficulty of this dungeon was terrible, so I wondered if I could even survive if I appeared as a fallen in any other place. We were encountering higher-level entities that didn’t appear in any other dungeon. This dungeon didn’t have a boss room at the end of the first floor or the second. Perhaps there wouldn’t be one on the third or fourth, either. That meant we couldn’t take the shortcut strategy we’d been using so far.

“Brother, move!”

“Don’t worry about it.” Amid countless monsters, a ridiculous amount of energy was gathering on the ceiling. Immediately before she called out to warn me, I managed to recognize it. I drew the energy towards me and pierced the ceiling. A giant centipede above me fell, crushing me as it endured my attack. It had a half-rotten body, emanating both the energy of death and life.

“Brother!”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine!” I infused Predation into the Goddess’ Touch, expanding it with the Flame of Destruction above my head.

[Gyaaaaah!]

The centipede let out a roar as it collided with the crystal. Its body was torn apart, a noxious gas poured up from its body, making the obsidian passage hazy.

“Don’t breathe it in! It’s lethal to us as well!”

“…!” She kept quiet, understanding my advice.

“I think it’s a mutated one that made it to the higher system.” I thought that there wouldn’t be any difficult foes among the undead, but I was wrong. Another monster that shouldn’t exist was wriggling towards me now. I awakened the energy of Predation even more intensely. This new centipede emanated more poisonous energy, but I was a Belkatina. I absorbed the mana, clearing the passage enough for my sister to breathe.

“Brother, what should I do…”

“Si-yeon, step back now. It’s dangerous.”

[Ahhhhhhhhhhh!]

The centipede twisted its body angrily, widening the narrow passage as it slammed through. Maybe there weren’t many of these guys in this dungeon, but this one was disastrously strong. It almost felt like a waste to kill it here.

[Kugyaaaaah!]

It rushed at me with its jaw wide open, but I was prepared with Annihilation in hand. I grabbed onto one of its massive fangs as it tried to bite into me.

“Brother!”

“Khh!”

[Kugagaaak!]

I focused my new magical power on my arm that was holding him back. It was confused by the physical force blocking it, trying to lean further up to push me down, but I used that momentum to lift it. It filled the dungeon with a tremendous roar of pain.

[Kyaaaaaaaah!]

“I’ll give you an opportunity.” The centipede stopped screaming at my quiet muttering. Monsters that had reached the level of a higher system usually had some intelligence.

“Die or obey me.”

[Kyaaahah!]

It struggled again, terrible energy emanating from its body to try and harm me. ‘Fine by me.’ I grabbed it once more by the teeth with one hand, slamming my other into him with a loud bang. With a sound like a cannon firing, my hand sunk into its body. Blood oozed out around my fist, absorbed by Predation.

“Changed your mind yet?”

[Kugyaaaah!]

Its voice was weakened. I raised my fist once more, and it stopped resisting completely.

“Oh, brother.”

“It’s a waste to kill it.” I activated my Domination skill, wondering if it might make one last attempt. It didn’t resist as the spirit of Dominance overwhelmed it, however.

“Okay. Go back underground and wait quietly. I’ll give you orders later.”

[Kuooo.]

I felt like it nodded at me before it was absorbed by the gate that opened on the floor.

Only

“Brother.”

“Were you hurt?”

“No, not that.” She raised her hand to point across the passageway. As a result of the massive centipede’s struggling, the corridor had expanded. Far off in the distance, I could see the dungeon’s boss room. Right on the seventh floor, just like in District 7. I felt angry at how easy it had been here to get to the seventh floor, marching forward with my sister to the huge iron gate. I kicked it open without a key, a bit surprised to be greeted by an odd sense of dignity emanating from the boss room.

[Ahhh. You are finally here.]

A huge monster, bound by chains to the dungeon walls, greeted me. I could feel a headache forming.

“Finally…?”

[Yes, King of Devils. Satan. The time has finally come to raise the banner of revenge!]

And the last piece of a past no one had told me of greeted me.