[Mission Completed]
[You have succeeded in your objective: slay the boss monster]
That cold, mechanical voice infiltrated my mind, an echo devoid of humanity, rising from the very depths of the Tower of Paradise.
It was the voice of the tower, an unforgiving judge proclaiming our triumph from its pedestal of absolute indifference. A cruel reminder that, though we had defeated the monster, this victory tasted of ashes and spilled blood.
I rose with effort. Blood dripped from my wounded shoulder in a hypnotic rhythm, each drop marking the seconds slipping through our fingers like sand. My eyes, trained to assess every threat, scanned the chamber turned mausoleum of fractured marble and mutilated bodies. The survivors watched me with that pathetic mix of relief and bewilderment, as if expecting me to have some magical solution for this disaster.
"Tend to the souls and heal your wounds," I ordered. "Let's move before it respawns."
They obeyed in silence, their faces etched with the marks of exhaustion, fear, and that shadow of doubt looming over us like a harbinger of death. It was predictable. Humans always needed clear orders when chaos overwhelmed them.
"…More than half are dead," someone muttered through gritted teeth, gazing at the battlefield.
The corpses lay scattered like broken dolls, many cleaved in half, their organs spilled onto the floor in a grotesque symphony of destruction. The blood had formed pools that reflected the dim light like mirrors of an unyielding hell. It was the logical outcome of facing a superior enemy without proper preparation.
"Those who were farther away were annihilated," another justified with the characteristic coldness we developed to survive. His words lacked emotion, a reflection of how this damned tower had hardened our souls, turning pain into a distant echo and death into just another statistic.
"Did it target the ones farthest away?" someone else asked, their curiosity bordering on disbelief, as if seeking to understand the logic behind the massacre.
"It was highly intelligent, despite being a monster," Eric commented, and I detected in his voice something I couldn't quite decipher at the time—a mix of admiration and something darker. "On another note, you're incredible, Arceus."
I ignored his remark. My mind was already processing the variables of the tower's next floors, each designed to be more lethal than the last. There was no time for empty praise.
"Unfortunately, there's no time to mourn them," I replied with the brutal directness that defined my approach. "Let's regroup and move to the next—"
A sharp, treacherous pain exploded in my back, as if a lightning bolt had pierced my flesh. My words choked in my throat as a searing heat spread from the point where a sword had penetrated my armor. I turned, bewildered, my mind grappling with disbelief as I faced the traitor standing before me, his sword gleaming with my own blood.
"Arceus!" Raymond's roar echoed through the chamber.
"Arceus!" KathyIn's cry was tinged with worry, her face drained of all color.
The attacker, whose face I once considered an ally, laughed with a malice that cut deeper than his blade.
"Thank you for everything," he said, his voice laced with cruel joy, as if my pain were a trophy to take home. "Thanks to you, I got this far. But, you're still here, and…"
"Traitor! I'll kill you!" I roared, my fury erupting like a volcano. Without thinking, my left arm moved on instinct, my fingers closing around his head with a force fueled by pure rage. I was ready to crush his skull like a walnut.
"W-wait! I-I only did what they told me to…! E-Eric!" His voice broke, but his words were lost in the whirlwind of my wrath.
Before I could fully process his confession, a new pain struck me with the precision of a lightning bolt. Two more swords sank into my flesh from behind, piercing my armor with the ease only enchanted weapons could achieve.
The world tilted dangerously, and I fell to my knees, my hands instinctively clutching my stomach as blood poured between my fingers, hot and sticky, forming a pool that mingled with the remnants of the previous battle. My armor, already damaged from the fight, was no match for those magic-infused blades, forged to cut not just flesh but enchanted armor.
"…Why?" I gasped, my voice barely a broken whisper, each word a struggle against the pain consuming. M My eyes sought Eric, who stood before me, his silhouette framed against the dim light like an unforgiving judge.
"The reason is obvious," Eric replied, his voice as cold as mountain steel, a mocking smile twisting his face as he looked at me with the disdain reserved for insects. "We want everything you have. We don't need your help anymore."
A cold, bitter laugh escaped my lips, a sound that echoed through the chamber like the resonance of my own disbelief. Of course. I should have seen it coming. Human nature was predictable in its greed.
"Idiot, do you think you can climb higher with your skills?" I said, my voice trembling with pain but laced with all the contempt I could muster. "You're people who don't even know yourselves…"
"You'll be dead soon," Eric interrupted, his tone devoid of any emotion, as if my agony were merely a minor inconvenience to his plans. "You're dying, but your mouth is still so lively. We'll worry about ourselves. You worry about you."
Damn it. Everything was a mess, even in this critical moment. The betrayal burned worse than the physical wounds, a poison seeping into my soul like acid. I was tired, exhausted by this cursed tower, its trials designed to break the human spirit, the blood and death defining every step upward.
I wanted to kill them all, those traitors who had turned our struggle into a pathetic farce. How did it all begin? My mind wandered to a past that felt like it belonged to another life, an echo of simpler times. Ah, yes… It was that day I arrived in this world.