Deciding to hang back and observe first had been a genuinely good call.
There had been no warning whatsoever.
An unidentified explosion erupted from the intruder's body.
If I'd gone charging in without knowing anything, I would have stepped right into that AoE's blast radius and been reduced to cinders.
Instead, I was able to burn the exact range of that technique into my eyes.
That was all thanks to the Treasure Keeper holding one of the intruders in its grip.
And because of that, I'd been able to calmly deal with the other one—the one who looked like the real threat.
The Treasure Keeper appeared to be badly injured from the explosion, though.
Even so, it was still holding on.
"Treasure Keeper! Good work! Keep holding him tight!!"
I shouted from atop Barang's back.
If not for that thing, I would have had to face the intruder with that broken skill head-on.
What was the cooldown on that technique?
What were the activation conditions?
Before I could properly think any of that through, I went ahead and started stacking Death Mark.
*Fwish—!*
[ – ]
The first stroke was carved into the chest of the man trapped in its grip.
I had no idea when he might use that explosion technique again.
I rode Barang through the air, circling outside the blast radius.
Then, a killing intent surged from the Treasure Keeper's body.
⟨That one is the blood kin of my enemy! I'll tear him to pieces!!!!!⟩
*'Blood kin?'*
It seemed there was some old grudge tied to a past intruder.
Anything related to intruders was worth knowing, so I made a mental note to ask about it once this situation was resolved.
I kept my distance outside the explosion radius, timing twelve-second intervals as I stacked Death Mark.
*Fwish—!*
[ – – ]
*Fwiiish—!*
[ – – – ]
The moment the third stack landed.
The Treasure Keeper seemed to have recovered a sliver of strength—it raised its ruined hand high and brought it crashing down, trying to crush the man in its grip.
That was precisely the moment.
"Huh?"
From the man's chest, a blinding light exploded once more.
*KRABOOOOM—!!*
The second explosion swept through the cavern.
After the searing flash faded enough to open my eyes—
"…"
The Treasure Keeper was revealed.
It was a wreck.
The torso that had taken the explosion head-on had been charred to cinders.
All three keys had clattered to the floor, and of its six arms, only one barely retained its shape.
It was little more than a pile of rags.
And yet, with that last remaining hand, it refused to release the intruder's waist.
Blood gushed from the mouth of the man dangling in the air.
"…!"
In that instant.
The scattered fragments of clues in my mind snapped together into one.
The activation condition for that explosion technique.
I understood.
I drew a breath and shouted.
"Treasure Keeper! That explosion triggers when he takes physical damage! Stay still!! I'll kill him myself!"
Death Mark hadn't triggered the explosion—that confirmed it.
The Treasure Keeper stopped attacking.
Whether it had actually understood my shout, or whether it had simply run out of the strength to move at all, I couldn't tell.
Still, it hadn't been completely beaten.
It was still clutching the man.
But the next moment—
The situation got worse.
"G̸̢̛͔͈̮͋͞h̴̛͌͛͢…̸̧̛͕̇̊!̶̡͙҇́̈́͊"
The man trapped in the Treasure Keeper's grip rolled his eyes back and let out a guttural shriek.
He began desperately prying apart its crushed fingers with everything he had.
"…!"
The Treasure Keeper's last grip was on the verge of being torn open.
*Claaang—! Crash—!*
To make things worse, the sound of clashing blades erupted from behind.
"What?"
I turned my head.
Dozens of skeletal figures were surging in like a wave, swarming and binding the Blood Knight.
"Where did those skeletons come from…?"
Behind that mob.
The white-haired old man who should have been cut in two was standing there.
That was someone I had killed.
He was alive again.
That alone was unexpected—but what was more startling was that the scythe's anti-resurrection effect hadn't worked on him.
No. That wasn't it.
The scythe's effect had worked.
Far in the distance, atop the pile of gold coins, the old man's bisected corpse still lay where it had fallen.
One glance around the room gave me the answer.
One of the men who had appeared to be his subordinate was nowhere to be seen.
An illusion swap. Or a substitute puppet.
The life that remained as a corpse had been the subordinate's.
It must have been done before the scythe connected. The Void Scythe's power was said to be absolute, after all.
*'I thought the experience felt a little thin…'*
I'd assumed the old man was the core of the intruders because he'd been the first to summon undead—but the reason the experience had trickled in like pocket change was exactly this.
The Blood Knight was pinned down by the sheer volume of skeletons, unable to move an inch.
The skeletons weren't particularly strong opponents for the Blood Knight, but the old man who appeared to be a necromancer was continuously resurrecting them from behind, making it impossible to break through.
The only corpse that couldn't be revived was the one I had killed with my scythe.
In that case, if I flew over and cut down the skeletons with my scythe, it would be simple enough—their resurrections would be stopped immediately.
But I couldn't go help over there right now.
The Treasure Keeper was about to go down.
That couldn't happen.
I still hadn't found the last lock hidden somewhere in the pile of gold coins.
If the Treasure Keeper died here, the chance to open the Golden Chest would be gone forever.
And on top of that, it seemed I wouldn't even be given the luxury of waiting for the next twelve seconds.
*Crack—! Crunch!*
Under the man's strength, the Treasure Keeper's finger joints were being bent and snapped apart.
It was obvious that man would break free before the next stack could accumulate.
I had to kill him right now.
But it was a dilemma.
To do that, I had to swing the scythe myself.
I couldn't throw the scythe from outside the blast radius to kill him.
I absolutely had to dive inside the explosion's range.
And before that, I'd need to separate him from the Treasure Keeper.
Impossible. Too many conditions.
If I stalled any longer, the Treasure Keeper would die and the lock would vanish.
Even if I separated the Treasure Keeper and dove in to kill him myself, I'd be caught in the explosion that would detonate the moment he died.
Both forks in the road were wrong answers.
Then…
I had to carve out a new path.
I had no choice but to punch straight through the middle of the dilemma.
The solution had been in my head from the start.
It was only my inner hesitation that had kept it from showing itself.
I seized Barang's reins with a rough grip.
"Charge. Maximum speed!"
*ROOAARRR—!*
Barang beat its massive wings and tore through the air.
I pumped more mana through the reins, pushing the speed even higher.
*Shhhhheeeeew—!*
We flew at a speed I'd never reached before.
Like this, we were far faster than the griffin on floor 96.
I hurtled straight toward the struggling man.
Twenty meters.
Fifteen.
Ten.
The closer I got to the target, the more I felt the heat radiating off his body.
Just as the Treasure Keeper's crushed fingers finally reached their limit and were about to be torn apart—
I yanked the reins hard and shouted.
"Barang! Snatch him—gently!"
Barang skimmed the ground and shot forward, extending both forelegs.
And closed them around the man's throat.
"G̴̢͕҇̎͂̊aaACK—"
*Thwump—!*
The man's body was wrenched free from the Treasure Keeper's grip.
Barang immediately beat its wings upward and rocketed vertically toward the cavern ceiling.
Altitude climbed in an instant.
Below my feet, the half-dead Treasure Keeper shrank away into the distance.
At this distance and height, even if the man used his explosion technique, the blast wouldn't reach the Treasure Keeper.
First condition: cleared.
Altitude reached its peak. For one suspended moment, Barang's ascent stalled against gravity.
I threw myself off Barang's back.
And at the same time, I gave the order.
"Barang! Drop him and get clear! Get out of the blast radius now!"
Barang kicked off the air and shot backward with ferocious speed.
*Good.*
Now there were only two of us in the air.
The instant we began to fall, pulled downward by gravity—
"Black Shift."
*Hmmm—!*
Black mist coiled around my body.
Spatial leap.
Where I appeared after crossing through space—
Right in front of the nose of the man falling just slightly below me.
Suspended in midair, I pressed my body flush against his.
An instant.
His dilated pupils and my gaze crossed.
In those two eyes, drenched in shock, the silver-haired Death God was reflected with perfect clarity.
I brought the blade of the Void Scythe—gripped tight in both hands—right up against my own throat.
The sensation of a pulsing vein reached me, just once.
My neck.
And the neck of the man whose body was overlapping mine.
Aligned in a single straight line.
"Death's Edge Invincibility."
I drew the scythe across.
*Shhhhhhhhk—!*
Two heads were flung into the air.