The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 449: The Sun

Chapter 449: The Sun

Inside the crystal tower, they found a dungeon. But not a dungeon composed of natural habitats, one that seemed entirely made up of maze-like caverns with only one way in and one way out.

Even looking for the edges of the dungeon proved futile, as all they found were walls of dark purple crystal, so close to black the color would appear so without light.

And then there were the denizens.

Monsters clearly made up of mundane, corrupted creatures and strange dungeon denizens. They stalked the halls, as if perpetually hungry, attacking the group as soon as they neared, swarming and biting things with terrifying shrieks and moans.

Despite her role, they found no adventurers that Janice could charm and kill. Only the corpses of some, and something worse than corpses for others. Corrupted people, their bodies bloated and torn. Most were slow stalkers, but some were so far gone that they were covered in spikes and pulsing, poisonous veins.

It fell to Rain and Lucifer to take those poor souls down. The worst were those who retained enough human thought to use cries for help to lure them, repeating the same screams or words over and over. The monsters didn’t attack them, but they did gather where the corrupted people were to wait in ambush. Eventually, the group ignored all cries unless they discovered it was the only way to advance.

By Janice’s counting, there had to be at least fifty stories worth of floors going up, but as with "normal" dungeons, the inside was far larger than the outside, so there was no telling how many floors they had ahead of them. They assumed they were near the top because they scratched the floor numbers into the exits and entrances, and now they were at forty-seven.

Rainier brought down his blade on the skull of a massive raven-like monster, spilling its insides in a plume of purple-green blood.

Unexpectedly, the corpse continued thrashing, even in death, pulling Myrti onto her belly as the chain of her kusarigama was tugged away.

"Drop your weapon!" Rain shouted as he leaped in, stabbing for the cluster of corrupted veins that indicated where the monster’s heart would be.

Myrti quickly obeyed, rolling away from the beast and cradling her scraped arm as Rain stabbed and stabbed until the body stopped moving.

His exertions left him panting for a few moments, during which Janice took the chance to be her usual critical self.

"Putting the child up front was a waste of time. At the very least it would have been more efficient to let Lucifer and I help."

"She’s my apprentice," Rain growled. "If you don’t like it, I can take the last few floors without you."

"Don’t be absurd," Janice snapped back. "I can have you executed with a word to Maledict for your insolence."

Sahaja, meanwhile, quietly picked Myrti up with her lower arms and healed her. She’d evolved them a few floors ago, and while, initially, Sahaja despaired at becoming more demonic, the extra pair of hands had grown on her, and she’d taken to them with some degree of happiness. And as a former adventurer, she’d quickly fallen into her old roles as a healer maven, with the added capacity of being able to cook while studying her old healing notes.

Myrti buried her face in Sahaja’s green and black fur to keep from crying out as the bleeding stopped and her wounds closed.

"You haven’t killed a single thing since we got here. Are you sure you’re up for it?" Rain scoffed. He was provoking her, he knew, and by proxy, he was also aggravating Lucifer.

It was the demon who interrupted on behalf of his paramour.

"Don’t think I won’t kill you if you keep this up, boy. Do you want to see your precious Kir? Because if you don’t do your job you’ll be the second lover of his that I get to kill."

At those words, Rain’s whole body tensed. "What did you do to Kordia?" he demanded.

Lucifer quirked a smirk. "The foxkin girl? Nothing. I’m talking about the sheepkin man he replaced you with."

You know nothing about our relationship, Rainier thought. There was no infidelity because Kir, Kordia, and Rain had all agreed to be free in pursuing other paramours. He fully intended to keep loyal to them and to tell them about the other relationships he’d had as a slave to Heaven.

But now he had a new resolve.

Whatever else happens, you two are dead.

Rain didn’t know any sheepkin males, though a few females had approached him during his time at the Norneau Mages Academy. Knowing Kir, Rainier’s boyfriend had likely suffered quite a lot, losing someone he cared about.

"Fine," Rain said, immediately forcing himself into a form of calm as he carefully suppressed his killing intent. "We all fight together. I’m not leaving Myrti out while she still has room to grow."

"So be it. I look forward to seeing if she survives to the end." Janice scoffed. "Next time, try to keep the heartstone intact. Those are useful."

One of the rules that had changed compared to "normal" dungeons was that instead of random natural environments and difficulties on each floor, each now got progressively harder.

There were also no signs of architecture like what one could find in the deeper layers of regular dungeons; if one didn’t consider the mazes to be the work of some malevolent intent. In each exit room, there was a shield of force that prevented exit while the most dangerous creatures on the floor were alive.

They’d ascended floor after floor. Battle after battle.

And so they did for one more floor, facing a massive chimera that seemed comprised of a half-dozen corrupted beasts at the end of the next floor.

The monster was been able to spit out five different elements as it attacked, and its skin was clearly hardened by enhancement magic. The worst head of the beast was an overgrown human face, extended by a neck on the beast’s shoulder, who kept shouting "I will destroy you!"

Cutting that off disabled most of the chimera’s magic, but not its enhancement magic. The fight only grew harder as the monster was able to consolidate all of its mana for speed, durability, regeneration, and power.

Covered in both golden and red blood, Rain panted as he used both hands on his sword to block a downward swipe from an eagle-taloned claw. The corrupted eagle head was too stumpy to peck at him, but it tried anyway.

"Hold it for a little bit longer!" Lucifer shouted as Janice sent a lightning spell crackling down her whip to strike out another of the monster’s eyes. Myrti tried for an eye as well, but her kusarigama couldn’t penetrate the beast until its durability-enhancing head was disabled.

The nimble bard swept in and stabbed, going for the many jugular veins at the base of its trunk-like neck. It wouldn’t kill the thing, but it would disable at least one of its heads for a time.

They’d slowly worked out which veins were attached to the heads controlling different expressions of its mana. The one head they hadn’t located was the one controlling its regeneration. Even though the monster hadn’t been able to regenerate its human head, its newfound resilience made cutting off heads impossible in a single swing.

Lucifer’s blade found mark after mark, his enhanced swiftness and agility more than a match for the monster’s own. After so many battles, Rain knew Lucifer would be the biggest obstacle between him and killing the two lovers. Janice fought like an opportunist but was better at using spells from a distance than in a melee.

But at the last head he could reach, Lucifer’s blade sliced, only to reveal that it didn’t have any effect on the monster at all.

And it was then that Rain saw an opportunity...

"It has to be one of the heads in the middle!" Rain shouted.

"Hold until I get out!" Lucifer shouted back as he leaped above a swiping claw.

Rain ignored the order, tilting the claw above him away and enhancing for a massive leap into the cluster of heads while they were occupied with Lucifer.

He sent lightning along his blade as he aimed for the head in the middle, an iguana-like one with razor teeth and eyes that looked in multiple directions.

A winded cry of pain sent satisfaction streaming down Rain’s spine as he heard Lucifer take a hopefully disabling hit, right as he cleaved through hide and bone, sending a stunning surge of true lightning searing through the monster’s body before striking at one of the topmost heads.

"Lucifer!" Janice shouted before putting her all into a massive flamethrower spell that seared into the cluster of heads and even burned at one of Rain’s legs. The pain was quickly dulled, and his godflesh regenerated itself as he leaped to avoid getting even more burnt.

Twisting in the air, Rain brought his claymore down on the monster’s back, severing its spine and drawing shrieks of agony as the monster flopped forward onto its chest.

Even then, the monster still fought, its sole remaining trio of eyes focused on Janice. But the work was done, the monster was not regenerating.

Rain strode forward and cut off one of the heads that had an eye remaining, and the beast responded by swiping a foreclaw in his direction that missed as Rainier stepped closer to its body and within its reach. The offending limb followed the head, and the monster collapsed even more, unable to hold itself upright.

Enraged, Janice wielded both of her whips with lightning as she tore into the monster, swearing vociferously as she landed blow after blow, starting with one eye and then practically carving her way through the last remaining head that could see.

The fight never went out of the chimera, even as Rain began hacking away at the base of the monster’s giant neck, until with a final, gurgling set of shrieks and coughs, the heads fell away from the body.

All at once, exhaustion came over Rain as he realized he’d spent most of his mana. He fell to a seat, barely keeping his sword in hand as Sahaja started to make her way forward to heal Lucifer.

Wanting to assess the damage, Rain forced himself back to a stand, using the tip of his sword on the ground to reach his full height before straining to walk around the hulk of a corpse.

Lucifer lay with his head on Janice’s knees, bleeding from a massive wound on his right side that had clearly punctured a lung.

For a moment, he thought about finishing the couple then and there, but then Sahaja gave her prognosis.

"I-I can heal him. But I don’t think he’ll be able to fight for a few floors."

Good... that’ll give me time to assess the next floor and see if I still need him.

"Then we rest until he can," Janice replied, glaring up at Rainier. She clearly wanted to chew him out but held her tongue as Sahaja put her body between Janice and Rain, blocking her view - probably intentionally.

"Rain, look!" Myrti suddenly called from the side of the room nearest the exit.

Rain turned and approached her, discovering that she was in a smaller room that led to the stairwell. On each side of the room were weapons, armor, and gold. Some of the former glowing with magic. As soon as he saw this, Rain realized that they had to be from the dead adventurers. The corrupted ones had retained their gear, but none of them had held weapons that he saw, even if some were wearing their weapons.

He even recognized a few bits of armor from the corrupted people they’d killed.

"There’s so much treasure here!" Myrti giggled as she dug up a finely filigreed rapier that looked to be enchanted with sharpness and durability. It was also slightly rusted from the blood on its edge, meaning it had to have come from one of the first parties to enter the dungeon ahead of the demonic group.

"Take a look here, I’ll check upstairs for a moment," Rain said before carving the number 48 into the archway leading out with a knife.

He started up the smooth, arced walkway. But about halfway there he saw something he hadn’t in what felt like months.

Daylight.

And at the top of the walkway, he found the first sign of civilization. A place of grey and white marbled flooring, the tiles polished smooth. Long archways of blue-green stone formed in the shape of arched pillars that let light into the spaces between. In the center of the room, was a spiraling staircase of polished ruby so deep in color the only thing it would need to look like blood was a little bit of water. But what it led up into was a black void, speckled with stars and painted with nebulae, a light ripple emitting from where the stairwell met its watery surface.

Rain yelled down the stairwell. He felt certain that this was the end of the dungeon.

"Myrti, have everyone come up, it’s safe!"

"Okay Teach!" she shouted back.

Rain took a position on the archway side of the stairs, bending his knees slightly as the sound of footsteps began to echo up.

Myrti was the first to arrive, and Rain told her to wait by the staircase up.

Then came Sahaja, helping Lucifer from his left as the demon limped his way up, Janice helping from the opposite side.

"Where the fuck is-" Janice said as she looked at the middle of the room for Rainier.

She was cut off as Rain shoved Sahaja out from under Lucifer, his sword swinging across with all his mana poured into pure speed.

Sahaja tumbled but landed on her back after a single roll, right as a pair of heads rolled down to meet her. Lucifer’s head landed against the tigerkin demoness’ hip, but she reacted just in time to catch Janice’s head in her upper hands.

She shrieked, then shouted, "What have you done?!"

"Hopefully, I’ve freed us."

"No no no! They’ll kill my family! My friends! That’s why I came here!" Sahaja quickly descended into hysterics as she dropped Janice’s head and wept. Rainier caught one look at the surprised face of his handler before it rolled into the darkness.

The moment it looked like she was stabilizing, Rain growled out, "Here’s what’s going to happen: We need to get our stories in line. If you cooperate with me, I’ll make sure you’re alright, whatever happens. That story will be that they died to the monster we just killed. Got it?"

Sahaja glared up at him, before nodding her head.

That look of pure hatred finally sparked Rain’s realization.

He didn’t care.

He’d gotten what he wanted, and he didn’t care about the consequences to someone innocent.

His heart had finally turned to stone.

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