Kind Demon King

(Tyranny of King is activated. Your agility increases by 5 for 1 minute.)

(Tyranny of King is activated. Your strength increases by 5 for 1 minute.)

I pulled my sword from Lupus’s eye socket as its options were activated, filling me with power. I needed that power since Lupus, angered by me putting a sword through his eye tried to gore me with his claws. I had to move my sword with only my wrist to block his attack. Considering Cruel King’s Longsword weighed a ton doing it caused a jolt of pain to shoot up from my wrist to my shoulder. My pain wasn’t for nothing. I managed to parry his strike and cut his forearm.

The most damage I caused to him wasn’t born out of my own strength. I used Lupus’s own momentum and wide movements to open wounds. Most wounds weren’t deep but that wasn’t my focus. Void already was eating him, causing his regeneration to overwork. If I kept adding more and more wounds he will reach his limit in no time. Of course, if I was the only one causing damage it would take hours for him to reach his limit. But Blanche and Duncan were still with me, fighting. Unlike me who could just open small wounds, their attacks actually left remarkable damage.

“Just go down!”

Duncan shouted, his voice filled with frustration and desperation. It was normal since that mark spread to a wide area of his body. Unlike his, the stain on Blanche was smaller. Maybe she had some kind of resistance or slowed it with magic but I could see that she wasn’t going to last longer. predation of the void wasn’t our only concern. Currently, I was in the best condition and I had:

The wound on my shoulder was reopened and was bleeding.

My ribs were at least heavily bruised.

My wrists, elbows, and shoulders hurt. Every strike I parried or somewhat mitigated caused them to scream with pain. They were basically time bombs. Every movement I made could cause them to dislocate.

A claw strike landed on my torso and I was bleeding. My lower body was soaked with blood and my vision was getting blurry.

While I had countless bruises and scratches besides those, they were like mosquito bites compared to the above. And my wounds were the lightest. Half of Duncan’s face was gone and he had a hole in his stomach for example. While most of Blanche’s movements were just after images for me, I could feel her body release cold air. She was about to go in that magic-related seizure thing. She was also covered with blood, though it was hard for me to pinpoint her wounds. She was moving too fast and I was too busy trying to survive, rather than looking at Blanche.

I dodged another mana-based wave. Lupus’s claws hit my shield. A loud ringing noise filled my head. My left shoulder which held my shield was crushed. The pain was so intense that I only let out a noise before swinging my sword. In pain, I swung my sword while putting all of my weight behind it. Normally that kind of overcommitment should have caused me to die but it didn’t. My sword cut through Lupus’s now rotten throat. He raised his claw to strike me down but Duncan’s twin axes were plunged into his kidneys. He then lifted those axes into the air with Lupus and slammed him to the ground. His attack was so ferocious that I fell ass-first to the ground due to the shock waves. I tried to get up but all the feeling in my legs was gone.

Lupus with half of his fucking throat gone, his fur and skin falling and two axes stuck in his body tried to get up. Really? Thankfully, a bolt of blue lightning pinned him to the ground. Blanche plunged both of her weapons into his throat. With another flash of lightning, Lupus’s head was sent flying.

(You conquered the ninth floor of Wolf King’s Tomb. You can pass the second floor without battle next time you visit here.)

(You carry mana compatible with this dungeon. All stats increases by 1.)

I wanted to throw my hands in the sky. Holy shit, we did it!

I forced myself to stand up. Everyone was nearly knocked out. Percavel and Agatha were already unconscious and I just hoped they didn’t die due to void stuff. Blanche and Duncan were on their knees. I limped towards Blanche. Her eyes were closed. Duncan on other hand held the hold in his stomach. If I could just reach Blanche, I could pull healing potions from her bag of holding.

(Ninth and tenth floors must be conquered back to back.)

(You will be transported to the next floor.)

Are you fucking kidding me? This can’t be happening! If the next floor had even the weakest monster at its entrance all of us would die! I tried to move more quickly. Yet my body betrayed me as I fell down. I tried to lift my head but my vision was warped as the familiar feeling of moving to the next floor encapsulate me. I tried to resist but I found myself in a different place. I lifted my head and looked around. No one was here. While I was grateful that no monsters were here to eat my ass, nobody was here to save my ass too.

“Shit.”

Without any healing magic or potion, I was going to bleed out. I looked down as my body lost more and more vitality as I bleed escaped from my chest and shoulder. My head fell down. The only thing I could see was a pool of blood forming under me. The last thing I thought before darkness overtook my consciousness was “Wow, I can’t believe I had this much blood left in me after all that fighting!”

With darkness came memories.

I was used to it. I don’t know why.

Maybe because I felt guilty?

Or maybe my mind was hopeless.

Hopeless for today. Hopeless for tomorrow. It looked for something good, something salvageable. I was so hopeless about things that my mind couldn’t help but show me the past every time I went to sleep.

Then why? Why do you show me things I don’t want to see? I don’t want to remember?

“Please, stand down. Please, as a warrior and soldier have your pride and accept your sins. Please, don’t force my hand.”

I begged as I looked at the heavy suit of armor in front of me. I didn’t wear my helmet. I thought that if he saw my face he would feel regret. I knew it was a foolish idea. He was gone too far.

“Hahahahahahha!”

He was huge. A titan made out of bionic and mechanical enhancements. What was once a man, he now was what could be described as a killing machine. Even his DNA was changed.

Many went mad, were crippled, or died when they were given that much boost yet he stood in front of me. Even I wasn’t enhanced to his level. I couldn’t. And now he was an enemy. He spat on the ground.

“My God! For once in your life, stop behaving as if you are superior!”

He stomped his feet to the ground. Ground shook. His loud and frantic voice hurt my ears.

“…”

“Look at how you talk! How you behave! Always! Always! You behaved as if you are better than all of us! Have you ever looked at your own face when you spoke to us? Your eyes! Only thing I can see when I look at your eyes! You look at us like we are nothing but a piece of trash on the ground!”

My face was still.

“I neve-“

I tried to explain myself.

“Shut up!”

He cut me off.

“Even now! Even now!”

He pointed towards me.

“You speak as if you can just take me on! Defeat me! Do you know how much I sacrificed? I even had this armor stuck in my body, damn it! Just so I could get on your level! Just so I could stand on your level!”

“Is this why you betrayed humanity? Did you slaughter those civilians and soldiers because of something that petty?”

Calling my voice calm would be wrong. It just lacked any emotion.

“Of course not.”

I took a step forward towards him. My helmet closed on itself.

“Shu-“

He tried to scream for me to shut up. But a single shot from my firearm hit his helmet and sent his heavy frame stumbling back.

“William H.G. Truman. I sentence you to death with the authority given to me by Collective Human Resistance for desertion, misuse of power, creating a terrorist group, murder, and many more. Do you have anything to say before your punishment?”

He laughed.

“Even now you don’t admit it! Just admit you saw us as trash!”

“I never saw my battle brothers as inferior, William. The arrogance you see when you look at me is nothing but your inferiority complex and low self-esteem.”