Thud—!
The lava golem collapsed.
The finishing blow had been Prince Marwan's.
He straightened the scarf wrapped around his head.
"Easy. Is this finally the last floor?"
Alcamus, who had been providing support from the rear, came running up.
"Oh, Your Highness! You haven't been burned by the heat, have you?!"
Marwan scoffed.
"I'm going to become the Sun God soon. You think a little lava is going to bother me?"
"Truly the next sun of Sahad! Heh heh heh!"
Alcamus fawned shamelessly, and they made their way to the next floor—floor 99.
But for some reason, there were no monsters there at all.
Just like the floors in the middle stretch had been.
Up through floor 59, the floors had been empty of monsters. This was that same phenomenon, repeating itself.
It struck them as odd, but it didn't matter much.
Floor 100 was right in front of them.
Marwan tilted his chin up with greedy eyes and gestured to the lackeys trailing behind him.
"Good. Bring it."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
A lackey dropped to one knee and lifted a small chest with both hands.
When Marwan opened it, inside sat glass vials filled with a yellow liquid.
The Sahad Emperor had returned from the tower bearing trophies alongside myths of his own heroic deeds. Those stories and relics were passed down only to those of Sahad's bloodline.
Treasures handed down through the imperial family for generations.
This elixir was one of them.
In the Demon King's Tower it was sold under the mundane name of Fatigue Recovery Potion—an unpopular item, at that—but there was no way Marwan could have known that.
Marwan downed the elixir in one go.
"Good."
The accumulated fatigue vanished, and vitality surged back into him.
He tossed the remaining vial to Alcamus.
"Oh…! Your Highness! To bestow upon me this precious elixir a second time… This Alcamus, moved to tears by Your Highness's grace, shall be loyal until his very bones shatter!"
Alcamus caught the elixir.
"Hurry. We need to clean out the Golden Chest before the Human Coalition Expedition's vanguard comes crawling into the tower."
Monopoly. The treasure of floor 100 had to be his and his alone.
At last, they arrived before the door to floor 100.
"Open it."
At Marwan's command, four lackeys rushed forward and pushed against the door.
"Nngh…!"
But the door to floor 100 didn't budge an inch.
Alcamus tapped the floor with his staff.
"Hmph. His Highness has given the order. Why can't you open it?"
"T-that is… the door is too heavy to push…!"
"Useless lumps of meat who can't even open a single door—I'd get more use out of you as undead thralls."
As green magical energy gathered at the tip of Alcamus's staff, the lackeys went pale and scrambled back.
At that moment, Marwan raised a hand to stop Alcamus.
"Move."
Marwan stepped up to the door.
He placed both hands on either side of it.
Hssss—
As he drew a deep breath, an overwhelming aura of fighting spirit erupted from his body.
The result of having absorbed the martial prowess of his elite warriors.
Crack! Creak!
The muscles in Marwan's arms and shoulders swelled, unleashing monstrous strength.
BOOM—!!
By his strength alone.
Prince Marwan forced the door open.
CRASH—!!!
In that instant, an unimaginable quantity of bright yellow gold coins came pouring through the gap like a dam had burst.
"Ohhhh!"
"There really is gold…!"
The lackeys' eyes went wide at the sight of the cascading coins.
But Marwan's gaze wasn't on the gold coins at his feet.
The moment the door swung open, he raised his head.
What his greed-glazed eyes fixed upon was the enormous Golden Chest at the very back of the room.
And then, in turn—
He turned his gaze to the monster standing before it.
'Treasure Keeper.'
A six-armed giant matching the description in the legends of the Sahad Empire—the same figure depicted in the myths of the Sun God.
But soon, Marwan's brow furrowed.
'Something's off.'
According to the myths, the creature was supposed to hold a key in each of its six hands.
Yet right now, only three keys were in its grasp.
And there was another fact that was maddeningly strange.
'Why are there other monsters on this floor?'
Beside the Treasure Keeper stood a headless knight in crimson armor and a massive wolf with bird's wings.
It was nothing like the records stating there was only one monster per floor in the Demon King's Tower.
The plan was to restrain the Treasure Keeper and search through the gold coins for the locks—having monsters like those around was going to be a problem.
Marwan turned his head and asked—even though he was the only one here who had actually read the Sahad myths himself.
"Alcamus. What in the world are those things?"
"……"
No answer.
When Marwan turned to look again—
Thump.
Alcamus had collapsed to the floor and was trembling violently.
His pupils were blown wide.
His face had gone white, drained of color by sheer terror.
He raised a thin, shaking finger and pointed at the red-bodied monsters standing in the distance.
"Th-th-those are…!"
For some reason, the sight of Alcamus paralyzed with fear sent a chill crawling down Marwan's spine as well.
"What's wrong with you, Alcamus? Answer me!"
Marwan barked, and Alcamus's jaw chattered as he forced out the words in a voice barely above a whisper.
"That red body… those are undead thralls crafted through the ultimate necromantic technique…! Spirit Blood… a pinnacle technique I thought existed only in theory…"
Marwan's expression twisted with contempt.
"You're losing your nerve over something that trivial… Get up. Now!!"
But Alcamus did not obey Marwan's command.
Instead, he scrambled backward in an ugly, crab-like retreat.
"N-no, Your Highness…! If the monster of floor 100 is a necromancer who commands thralls like those… w-we cannot possibly win…!"
The moment those words reached him, Marwan felt his blood run cold with fury.
"You useless old man! Did I bring you here so you could make me lose my nerve?!"
Marwan grabbed Alcamus roughly by the scruff of his neck.
Whoosh—!
And hurled him straight into the interior of the floor-100 chamber.
"Aaaargh!"
Alcamus tumbled across the floor, screaming, and passed out.
Marwan raised his curved blade and shouted.
"That Treasure Keeper is no necromancer!"
Marwan radiated killing intent and took his battle stance.
And then—
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The six-armed giant, the Treasure Keeper, began charging.
As if it knew exactly who the leader of this group was, it came barreling straight for Marwan.
'Fast.'
Marwan's pupils dilated.
This was not the lumbering giant described in the myths.
"Hold it! Alcamus! Bind it!"
The undead thralls Alcamus had summoned moved to block the Treasure Keeper's path.
But—
CRASH—!
The Treasure Keeper didn't even slow down, sweeping the undead aside with one hand like brushing away insects.
And in an instant, it was right in Marwan's face.
Alcamus passed out again, and even Marwan went pale.
"No one said it was this strong…!"
Grab—!
"Ugh…!"
There was no time to dodge. No time to swing his blade.
That was how fast it was.
The Treasure Keeper's thick hands seized Marwan's torso in a vice-like grip and hoisted him into the air.
Prince Marwan was caught, completely unable to move.
⟨▣▣ ▣ ▣▣▣ ▣▣▣!!⟩
The Treasure Keeper roared something in that state.
A demon's blood-curdling voice.
Listening to that cry, watching Marwan thrash helplessly under the crushing force, Alcamus—who had been watching from behind—let out a shriek of horror.
"The, the Wrath of the Sun God…! Hiiieee!!"
Alcamus scrambled desperately toward the door to flee, but the door had already slammed shut.
Alcamus ran madly toward the inner part of the room to survive. Even in the chaos, he somehow grabbed the hand of the nearest lackey and dragged him along in the retreat.
Marwan, dangling in midair.
The Treasure Keeper extended its remaining four hands—the ones not occupied holding Marwan.
Slowly.
One layer at a time.
It peeled away the scarf wrapped around Marwan's face.
A mask.
Something the Treasure Keeper had seen four hundred years ago.
It belonged to the one who had opened the Golden Chest.
The Treasure Keeper, in a state of extreme agitation, let out a shriek.
⟨▣▣▣!!!⟩
And then—
Crack! Crunch!
The Treasure Keeper began crushing Marwan's torso with its grip.
"Aaaargh…!"
Blood burst from Prince Marwan's lips. Even having become a superhuman, he could not break free from this level of force.
A threat to his life.
The moment of crisis as one of the Sahad imperial bloodline was about to be snuffed out.
Hmmm—
A blinding light exploded from Marwan's chest.
The automatic defense system the Sahad Emperor had inscribed into the hearts of his descendants.
The Wrath of the Sun God—the very thing Alcamus had fled from in terror—had activated.
KABOOOOM—!!!!!
As if the sun itself had descended upon Marwan, a spherical burst of light expanded and detonated.
Fwssss—
The lackeys caught in the blast radius evaporated into ash.
CRASH—!!!!!!!
Tens of thousands of gold coins piled on the floor were sent flying through the air like a storm.
Only Alcamus, who had fled to a distant corner and wrapped himself in layer upon layer of bone shields, barely managed to survive.
Slowly—
The acrid smoke and golden afterglow faded.
"Hah… haah…"
In the wake of the Wrath of the Sun God's sweep—
Marwan hung in midair, drenched in blood, drawing ragged breaths.
His gaze dropped downward.
The Treasure Keeper.
He could see the state of the monster that had taken the Wrath of the Sun God head-on.
Three of its six arms had been blown off, and black blood poured from its gray torso.
And yet—
The Treasure Keeper still held Marwan's waist in its remaining arm, refusing to let go.
"This… can't be…"
Marwan's eyes wavered with despair.
"Even the Wrath of the Sun God… didn't kill it instantly…!"
The very moment Marwan was struggling in disbelief—
Rustle—
Far away, from within the bright yellow mound of gold coins that had been torn up and scattered by the explosion—
Slowly—
A silver-haired girl emerged, a black scythe in hand.
Her snow-white skin and jet-black dress were utterly out of place against the golden backdrop.
The eyes of Alcamus, cowering in the corner, went wide.
"Ah… aah…!"
Alcamus looked back and forth between the girl and the red thralls arrayed behind her—
And immediately slammed his forehead to the floor.
"So you are the legendary necromancer who commands these magnificent thralls…! Please, I beg of you, take this lowly one under your wing…! If you spare my life, I will devote every last breath to being your hands and feet…"
Alcamus didn't even finish the sentence.
The girl threw her scythe—
Shhhhk—!
And split him in two.
The corpse of Alcamus, upper and lower halves separated, tumbled across the gold coins.
"……"
Marwan hung in midair, taking in the scene with his own eyes.
As if he refused to believe any of this was real.
"…I was supposed to become… the Sun God…"
***