Chapter 13

Thousands of years in the past, the western imperial capital was at the height of its majesty—a capital full of dazzling, brilliant light thanks to the advent of magic culture. Light flooded the city at night, and myriad towers stretched toward the sky. However, the magical infrastructure that supported this splendor included a number of incantations that were forbidden in modernity. The metropolis greedily devoured the earth’s natural energy, inviting ruin. The king did not heed his oracle’s advice, for he, too, was intoxicated by the powerful light of their civilization, just as his subjects were. In the end, the world took the capital down with it. All flora went extinct in a single night, buildings turned to sediment, and the magic light dissipated. The city quickly turned into a wasteland that neither beast nor insect could inhabit, and the newly appointed king abandoned the city without hesitation. Their destination lay even farther to the west than the new capital, and as such, it become known as the western wasteland. Which brought us back to the present. The “western wasteland” was filled with verdant green, to the point that it had become a veritable jungle. Green in every direction, as far as the eye could see. Overhead, branches and leaves created a canopy, and the undergrowth was thick, enough to trip you up. The party’s field of vision had been steeped in green for over two days. “Is this what a wasteland is supposed to look like?” Crim was exhausted as they spoke. They were floating, so they couldn’t complain about their feet hurting, but their wings kept getting caught on tree branches. And they were having a hard time breathing, likely due to the humidity. “They say this place was at peak wasteland over a thousand years ago.” Zel was plodding forward smoothly, like he was on skates. “Back then, an elf reigned as king, and he pushed forward a revegetation plan, but the growth-acceleration magic they used must have worked a little too well. When people were convinced that something had to be done about it, a different species was elected to rule. The result is the abandoned forestation you see now.” “He was probably just slacking off. Elves are usually a little careless.” Stunk wasn’t having as easy a time as Zel but was definitely used to poor footing. “We have much longer lifespans than other species, so our perception of time is different. I can’t really speak for myself, but most elves are terrible at keeping appointments.” “Zel, you’re not like that at all. If anything, you’re quite diligent.” “Not adhering to a strict schedule can land you in trouble. Especially at succubus joints.” Extension fees were nothing to sneeze at. Zel’s reasoning held water. “Everyone! Over here, over here!” Kanchal cried out from his position on point. As a halfling, he was hidden from view by the undergrowth, and the group finally caught a glimpse of his head as he jumped up and down. As Crim and everyone caught up with him, the thick jungle parted. What lay before them was a bottomless gorge that seemed to lead straight to Hell. The threshold of its sudden, jutting precipice was stagnant, dim, and dark. Oooo…ooo…oooooo… Antithetical to the dense jungle, a dry wind chilled them to the bone as—like a wail of lamentation—it traveled up from the crevasse. “Look, the tower’s over there.” The tower was just before them. Dingy and black, jutting from the floor of the gorge, its zenith was level with their line of sight. A worn-down sign hung from the outer wall of the top floor. The lettering was from antiquity, meaning they couldn’t understand it, but the image of a scantily clad woman was also clearly depicted. “It must say Sleeptopia in ancient lettering, right?” “The sign definitely ruins the ominous presence of the gorge.” “Really? I actually think the weathered sign adds to the eerie vibe of the place…” “Yeah, like a rusted, old treasure chest.” They didn’t sound very nervous. “But you know…it’s hardly at the end of the sky, right?” “Yeah, it’s practically at ground level.” “Do we really need to climb up from the bottom? Maybe we can get in from above?” Stunk exchanged looks with Zel. “I’ll check it out.” Zel cast magic on a tree leaf and gave it the power of pseudosight. If he closed his eyes, he could see what the leaf was “seeing” on the inside of his eyelids. The leaf rose on the wind in a spiral trajectory and allowed Zel to observe the tower from top to bottom. “…No dice. I can’t find any windows, and there’s no rooftop entrance.” “That means we’ll have to climb up from the first floor, just like the informant at the district office said.” “I brought some rope.” Kanchal tied a thick rope around a tree trunk and chucked the other end down into the gorge. Wow, everyone’s so reliable in a pinch. Crim was impressed. Stunk and the others were very different people when they were on a genuine adventure. The difference between these stalwart adventurers and the depraved Neanderthals who regularly drowned themselves in booze and women was like night and day. In these situations, they commanded the adept skill of a proficient artisan in their workshop. “Crim, you use the rope, too. Even though you have wings, if you get blown around by the wind, it could be dangerous.” “Understood. I’ll be careful.” Stunk even summoned the composure to look out for his companion. This was such a far cry from his usual, hopeless self. Each time they shared an adventure, Crim always wondered just who this person standing in front of them really was. As Crim climbed into the gorge with their own rope, they unexpectedly sighed aloud. “What’s wrong? Did the rope rub up against your crotch and make you feel good?” “N-no—! Even I get lost in thought sometimes, you know!” Never mind. Stunk was a worthless degenerate at his core. “At your size, you’d probably get your dick stuck on all sorts of things, eh, Crim? Oh, the horror.” Who pissed off the halfling? “This gorge is teeming with darkness, isn’t it? Must be uncomfortable for an angel.” “Yes…yes, that’s right. I knew you’d understand, Zel.” “Be sure to get all that doom and gloom outta ya when we reach Sleeptopia. The longer you hold it in, the better it’ll feel later on!!” “Oh, Zel, I guess you are just like the rest of them after all. But I knew as much already!” Every member of the crew had something skeevy to add. It was almost refreshing. “Come to think of it, this girl at a joint I hit a while back said that ol’ Crim here came as much as an elephant.” “Do you have huge balls, too? Man, that’s just not fair.” “He sure doesn’t look like he has big nuts…” There was no end to the lewd talk. Unbelievable. “Hey, Crim? Is it true you can fill an ale mug to the top with one load?” “Shit, he’s not denying it. That’s amazing, Crim!” Crim had had enough and desperately wanted to fly back to Ye Pubbe. Kiii! A shrill cry rang out. When Crim turned around, a black figure wrapped around their face, completely covering it. “Gwahhh—!!” In their confusion, Crim let go of their rope, and their thin frame was cast into the air. Their wings were frozen in place from shock, rendering them flightless. The first to move was Stunk. With his index finger, he flicked a stone at the black figure wrapped around Crim’s face and landed a direct hit. Spooked, the creature flew away. It was a bat. Kanchal reflexively let go of his rope and grabbed onto Crim in midair. “Kanchal, what are you doing?! You can’t fly! That’s absurd!” “I’ll be just fine. Stunk, do the thing.” “You got it.” Before Crim knew what was happening, a new rope was lashed around them and Kanchal. It had a weight on the end, which Kanchal threw and Stunk deftly caught. Stunk held both the angel and the halfling aloft with one arm while they returned to their original ropes. Zel didn’t move an inch the whole time. He pushed a leaf to his lips and stared at the bat flock gathering in the darkness of the gorge. “…Okay, I told them not to mess with us.” “Does your telepathy magic come with a translation function?” “As if I have time for such trivial matters. I simply shook the leaves by blowing a leaf whistle and produced a sound only they could hear.” The rescue operation was over almost before it began. Stunk, feeling like the alpha wolf, offered advice to Crim, who had been careless. “Talking shit is one thing, but you do need to be careful.” “But, um… No, you’re right. I’m sorry.” Stunk and the others had been the ones talking shit, but Crim was the only one who had let their guard down. All things being equal, Crim had endured the stressful situation reasonably well. Maybe these guys…aren’t such worthless beings after all. The crew managed to climb down into the gorge without further incident. They were worried their ropes wouldn’t be long enough on the way down, but they nevertheless safely reached the floor of the gorge. Maybe the ropes were all magic items that expanded and contracted freely? Darkness spread endlessly before them, understandable given that their depth was roughly equivalent to the fifty or so stories of the tower. It wasn’t only the fact that sunlight had a hard time reaching them. Even Crim could feel an unnatural level of repulsion in the air. Standing in this land, full of nothing but boulders and dry earth, Crim’s frail body shuddered. “D-doesn’t this place make you feel funny?” “You think? It’s not that bad for me… Though, I guess it is a little off-putting.” Kanchal and Stunk weren’t affected whatsoever. “Humans and halflings aren’t species that have any particular aversion to the dark. They’re hardy, or perhaps tenacious, or maybe the dark just takes some getting used to. In any case, this gorge is filled with a potent magical aura, so we shouldn’t linger for too long.” Zel could feel the magical power here, too, but he wasn’t as unnerved as Crim. “Okay, let’s hurry up and get inside.” On Stunk’s command, the group of four all turned to confront The Dying Tree in the Ruined City. Looking up at the sealed tower from the darkness below, the structure was far more ominous than when they’d peered down at it from above. Rather than a tower, it looked like a tree too long steeped in a noxious miasma and had rotted away. “So this is the ancient tower that was sealed away by the demon lord…” The front entrance was open wide. The second the company stepped inside, they felt like they’d been licked with a tongue of decay. Originally, The Dying Tree in the Ruined City stood close to the succubus district of the new capital. It was a flowering symbol of the sex industry and included innumerable succubus joints jumbled throughout. Its original name was probably something like the Happy Tower, the Ero Tower, or the Perv Palace—or at least, that’s what Stunk thought. One day, the tower had been ripped from its roots and thrust again into the ground of the western wasteland. The impact caused the ground to split, sending rocky crags jutting out in all directions. This was a formidable feat of manual labor and strength by the ruling regime at the time. The demon lord took exception to this edifice. He despised the succubus joint on the top floor so much that he sealed it off for thousands of years, so that no one could enter. The stone interior of the tower was especially cold. Zel shivered as he drew a rough sketch of it. “If the district official’s claim is true, then time flows more slowly inside the shop… This could get tricky.” “Don’t say such terrifying things… That would mean it wouldn’t just be old women; it would be thousand-year-old grannies. Instead of a succubus joint, we’d be walking into an all-you-can-eat buffet for the grim reaper.” Kanchal held himself with shaking arms. Stunk sighed heavily and looked incredulous. “You guys are way too absorbed in their age. Who cares as long as they’re hot?” “Stunk, your eyes have clearly gone to shit!” “Quit trying to drive up the demand for older elven females! Elf-specialty joints are full of older women, and you can’t just carelessly walk in!” The company’s banter was no different than in the typical pub. The only one wearing a serious expression was Crim. “We’re still on the twenty-third floor…” Each cluster of floors in The Dying Tree in the Ruined City had a different theme. Floors one through three had a simple layout that included a large opening in the middle of the floor. From there, the levels turned into labyrinths, lattice-work hallways with systematically organized doors or hallways full of dead ends that required one to find secret passages; the construction was all over the place. The twenty-third floor in particular was a maze. If you spread out your arms to the right and left, your hands would hit the walls of the winding, narrow passageways, which occasionally had a room on either side. “This tower isn’t really invested in bringing in customers at all…” Judging from the tower’s overall architecture, it didn’t make sense for it to be this convoluted. The stone interior was lifeless and bare, even accounting for the wallpaper and carpet that had become worn down and dilapidated over the years. “I guess I see why the district office went out of their way to give us this job.” Stunk spoke as he led the charge. In addition to their goal of finding Sleeptopia, their side mission was to investigate The Dying Tree in the Ruined City, meaning they had to explore each floor thoroughly. Their formation consisted of Stunk at the front with his sword drawn, Zel behind him in cartography mode, Crim holding the lantern, and the halfling Kanchal, with his acute senses, serving as their anchor at the rear. “I guess creating a rough sketch right now isn’t gonna be too useful.” Zel shrugged and chuckled dryly. “What do you mean?” “Can’t you feel it from the flow of magic in this place? The layout is changing as we proceed.” Hearing this, Crim put their hand on the wall. They felt a magical energy throbbing against their palm like a beating heart. “Does this mean…the wall is alive?” “It must have been a machination of the demon lord. He created the entire tower to be a certain species of golem.” Stunk sighed as he exclaimed, “Hey, hey, we can’t afford for this thing to get up, walk to some unknown land, and leave us stranded!” “The tower itself won’t be able to move. It’s limited to interior transformation. The walls and floors can move gradually, meaning the interior has changed over the past couple hundred years.” Against an elf’s perception of time, a couple hundred years wasn’t all that long. “I think you’re right. Looking at the scratches on the floor or the thickness of the dust that’s piled up, I’m sure we’ll be fine for a day or two. Mapping out the place once every five years would probably be enough.” Kanchal stooped down to investigate the floor and picked something up, lifting it high. “The most annoying thing isn’t the tower itself; it’s this stuff here.” Kanchal held a needle covered in dust—or maybe it was a thick, rough piece of hair. “You’re right.” Stunk waved his unsheathed sword back and forth. “Yep.” Zel quickly put away his rough sketch and drew his bow. Crim was the only one who couldn’t tell what was going on. Two doors were open on either side of the hallway just ten meters ahead. Footsteps quietly echoed down the entryway on the right. They belonged to black fluffball monsters that walked on two legs. By human standards, they were no bigger than children, but they had circular, black fuzz on their face and arms, too. Their red eyes burned brightly, and the fangs protruding from their pursed, circular mouths glinted ferociously. “Mmmm, bobobo—!” Fluffballs appeared in succession between the doors. The group could also hear quiet footsteps in the hallway behind them. “Wh-whoa, there are so many of them!” “Judging by the footsteps, I’d guess there are at least thirty.” “What if they’re the girls from Sleeptopia…?” “Then that’d be a total rip-off. Okay, I’m ready for this. Let’s kill ’em.” Stunk walked forward, unevenly wavering to the right and left. The black fluffballs hesitated in response to his tottering stagger. “Eeep—!” In a flash, Stunk stepped toward them and closed distance with alarming speed. The creatures couldn’t keep time with the extreme change in tempo. Shink! Stunk’s sword entered the first black fluffball’s mouth and exited through its scalp. Stunk took another step forward with lightning speed. Squik! Stunk swung his sword horizontally and sliced another cleanly in two. His blade ripped into the one behind it, slashing its eyeballs. Another farther in the rear chirped in a low, angry tone, brandishing its club. In that instant, one of Zel’s arrows pierced its head, leaving it lifeless. “Zel, I’ve got these covered, so watch our six.” “Got it.” Zel nocked another arrow and turned around to see four black fluffballs tumble onto the ground in unison. They’d been tripped by a well-placed trip wire, courtesy of Kanchal. “Nice play, Kanchal. I owe you an order of beans from Ye Pubbe.” “Beans? Cheapskate. I want meat, you hear me?” Arrows continued penetrating the heads of the horde in perfect tempo. At the vanguard, Stunk continued whipping up a maelstrom of blood and viscera. Although aberrant, his swordplay was masterful. Even in the narrow passageway, he stayed away from the walls and avoided his enemies’ attacks, accurately delivering killing blows to their vitals. It was a one-sided battle. The black fluffballs had no chance. “There’s the last one.” The final monster took a single, piercing blow to the heart. As Stunk wiped the blood from his blade with a cloth, he didn’t give off the slightest air of emotion. His movements were as natural as if he were washing his face in the morning. “Are these things worth any money?” “There are accessories made from monster bones, but I really don’t think we can sell these things.” “Their fur’s probably worth something, depending on who we sell to…but thinking about how long it’ll take to skin them all…” Crim swallowed a heavy lump in their throat, standing some distance from the other three as they rummaged through the corpses. Everyone’s used to this…to killing… They’re even having a casual conversation afterward. A chill ran down Crim’s spine. Having only known the world of Heaven, the providence of life in this world was strikingly hideous. “…Ahh…” In that moment, Crim saw something: a pair of tiny eyes peering at them from the direction from which they’d come. Was it a baby black fluffball? It looked so weak, and it was trembling. Crim’s heart ached. “Um, uh, let’s go on ahead, everyone!” Crim passed by their three compatriots—still rummaging through the bodies—and proceeded down the path. In order to draw their attention, the angel brought down their feet heavily, making sure their footsteps echoed. “What the hell, Crim? What’s gotten into you?” Dubious stares gathered on Crim as they fumbled for an excuse, their eyes tearing up with indecision. “I…I just can’t wait to get to Sleeptopia.” “Oh, is that it? Pfft, you horny little angel.” Stunk’s big smile showed he was convinced. The remaining two followed suit. “If you’re about to blow, we really shouldn’t be the ones making you hold it in.” “Your sex drive must match your cock. I mean, it’s huge after all.” “Y-you guys! You’re always saying stuff like that! But I know you’re all the same way!” The party started down the path again. When they came to a bend, Crim glanced behind them. The baby fluffball had run toward the corpses of its slain kin. The image had been burned into Crim’s mind for eternity. Ever since falling to this world from Heaven, Crim had seen countless monsters, both living and dead. Why now, under these slightly different circumstances, had their heart been shaken so? “This tower is really dragging me down.” Stunk screwed up his mouth as he grumbled, and Zel answered with “Yeah. Like I said earlier, this place is brimming with powerful dark magic. Having an angel close to us is mitigating the effects a little, but Crim has to be feeling it.” “Yeah, you’re right… He does seem pretty bummed.” Spotting a stairwell ahead lifted the group’s spirits, albeit slightly. “If we take that, we’ll have cleared up to floor twenty-three, all on foot. Still halfway to go.” The company began plodding toward the stairs at the end of the passageway. Just then, Kanchal’s ears twitched. “Everyone, run!!” The tower swayed violently, and the stone floor lurched unsteadily in opposite directions before settling once again. It wouldn’t have been surprising if the entire floor collapsed. It wasn’t affecting Crim, who was floating in the air, but Zel had completely lost his footing. Stunk was jumping up and down effortlessly—despite his size—but didn’t have the recourse to lend anyone else a hand. “Are even the traps automatically generated in this infernal tower…?! Kanchal, we need rope!” “I’m counting on you, Zel!” Kanchal handed one end of the rope to Zel and then, despite the powerful shockwaves, sprinted full speed toward the stairwell, reaching it safely. “Mmmm, bobobo—!” A black fluffball threw something from behind them, landing a direct hit on Kanchal’s head. “Shit…!” Kanchal fell onto his face, and the rope slipped from his hands before the stone floor collapsed beneath him. He was completely swallowed up. “K-Kanchal—!!” “Mm, bobo, mm, bobo—!” The baby black fluffball was jumping up and down behind them. It’s the baby from before…! A portion of the wall directly to the side of the creature was caved in unnaturally. Was it some sort of switch that activated the floor? The stone beneath the fluffball was untouched. “Ohh shit, this is bad.” Stunk stooped forward and slapped the floor to check its stability before lurching forward. He wasn’t as quick as Kanchal, but he proceeded diligently, picking up the fallen rope. Stunk jumped over the section of the floor through which Kanchal had fallen and reached the stairwell. “Mmm, bobo—!” “Oh god, that was close.” The black fluffball threw something at Stunk, and it grazed his face before hitting the stairwell, exploding with a wet crunch. Next came a pair of white eyeballs, followed by a severed head. The baby fluffball was flinging its slain compatriots’ body parts at them and having a hell of a time doing it. “Why aren’t you properly mourning the deceased?! Don’t you have a single shred of love for your friends and family? I can’t even sense any hunger for revenge from you! You’re just playing around, aren’t you?! I couldn’t be more disappointed!” Crim’s disheartened words were overpowered by the ferocious rumble of the floor. The foothold was all but lost. Crim floated in place and coughed convulsively from the storm of dust and smoke ravaging them. The stairwell Stunk had reached was just outside of the area of destruction, and Zel was clinging tightly to the rope Stunk held. “Mm, bobo—! Mm, bo, mm, bobobo—!” The severed heads of black fluffballs continued raining down upon them from beyond the cloud of smoke and dust impeding their vision. It was a pointless battle lacking compassion for both friend and foe, but as long as the baby monster’s line of sight remained impeded, it couldn’t attack them directly. “If we can get a second to breathe, we’ll beat it.” Zel wrapped the rope tightly around his arms and legs and skillfully nocked an arrow. His shot ripped through the cloud of dust and smoke, and a pitiful cry of “Mm, bo—” rang out. They could hear the black fluffball crumple to the ground. “Phew, let’s go.” Stunk pulled up Zel and spoke without waiting for the smoke and dust to dissipate. “W-wait, Kanchal is still falling…!” …And it’s because I felt pity for that monster. Stunk was blunt: “He’ll be fine! It’s Kanchal, after all.” “It sounded like a number of floors below us collapsed, too! He could’ve been crushed by the rocks that caved in after him…” “Nah, he’ll be fine. It’s Kanchal you’re talking about.” “But, but…! Yeah, Kanchal is spry and skillful, but he’s not as tough as you, Stunk, and he can’t use magic like Zel…!” Stunk and Zel looked at each other and slapped Crim on the head and shoulder in tandem. “You simply don’t know how tenacious halflings are. Unless they’re directly confronted with swordplay, they won’t die so easily.” “As a species, they’re like one giant mass of survival instinct. Although they don’t have innate magical ability like elves, they make up for it by having insane survival skills ingrained deep in their bones.” Stunk and Zel weren’t making light of Kanchal by any means. The reason they weren’t worried was simply because they trusted him that much. Kanchal is so different from me… I can’t do anything. Kanchal was infinitely more reliable than Crim, who couldn’t even use their angelic powers properly. Crim could read this through Stunk’s and Zel’s demeanor and was both relieved and ashamed at the same time. “By the way, what happened to the lantern?” Stunk looked at Crim’s hands as he spoke. “Ahh… I might have dropped it in the commotion earlier.” “Despite that, it’s kind of bright in here, don’t you think?” The group of three turned, curious as to the source of light. The remnants of the collapsed floor were overly bright and radiating heat. The floors below them, now strewn with debris, were on fire. “…Come to think of it, there was a floor covered in oil down there. Do you think it caught on fire when the lantern fell?” Zel analyzed the situation coolly. “Umm… Well, is Kanchal…?” “Let’s put it out, for starters.” Zel extinguished the flames with magic, and the three waited for a moment. They didn’t even hear a whimper from him, much less see any hint of him coming up through the floor. “…Halflings are tough as nails; he’ll be fine! Right, Zel?” “Yeah, we have faith in him, so he’ll be fine for sure! Okay, let’s keep heading up!” “Ahhhhhhh, it’s all my fault…!” The group climbed farther up the tower, practically scrambling to escape. The preceding floors had been narrow passageways and low ceilings all the way to floor thirty. All the monsters they’d encountered had been small, and many of them ran away when Stunk brandished his sword. From floor thirty, the ceilings began getting higher and higher. The passageways also widened, and larger monsters started to appear, though they posed no problem for Stunk and Zel with their sword and bow. Floor forty. The ceiling was so high that they had to crane their necks to see it, and the entire floor was a circular grand hall. They didn’t see another set of stairs going up anywhere. “Judging from the height of the ceilings so far, we’re definitely nearing the top floor.” Zel put his roughly drawn map back in his breast pocket. “That means it’ll be waiting for us: our final test.” Stunk held up his sword and readied himself for their test. “…Damn, it’s big.” A giant monster was waiting in the middle of the floor. What was so giant about it? Its mouth. Really, all they could see was one massive, gaping maw. The span of the creature’s jaws could have easily swallowed three whole horses. Each of its fangs was practically a great sword. Each of its molars was a war hammer, made for smashing and grinding to a pulp. “Here it comes!” Stunk grabbed Crim by the hand. His sense of perspective was skewed, and he couldn’t tell how much distance was between them and the monster. Chomp! They escaped the massive teeth by a hair as it bit down on thin air. Now looking from the side, the party realized this monster was indeed all mouth. It had an ovular head as big as a barn, and its body—roughly 70 percent the size of its mouth—was shaped like a watermelon. It also had limbs like tree trunks and a reptilian tail, but all focus went immediately to its head. The monster’s name might as well have been “Gaping Maw.” “Brrawwr—!” The Gaping Maw moved sluggishly moved on its four limbs, but its neck rotated quickly. Chomp! The monster bit down on thin air again, before sticking its neck out farther to snap once more. As if angry from having one hungry for too long, it thrashed its neck from side to side, chomping ferociously and looking for prey. Chomp— Chomp— The beast repeatedly bit down. “Ahh, gahh, wahh! It’s biting, it’s chomping, it’s gnashing, it’s stomping!” Crim was getting a full-frontal view of the monster’s fang-filled maw opening and closing. If Stunk hadn’t been holding them by the arm, they would have been the monster’s lunch by now. “Okay, well… Shit— This thing is no joke!” Stunk’s voice didn’t properly convey the anxiety he should have been feeling. Even as he ran around in a huff, he calmly assessed the monster’s movements out of the corners of his eyes and, with an air of composure, said, “Oof… Ugh… Well, that was something.” “How can you be so calm at a time like this?!” “I’ve never seen this monster before, so we need to figure out how to attack it. Hey, Mr. Smarty-Pants Elf, any ideas?” The sound of flint emitting sparks crackled in their ears. Zel had retreated in the opposite direction of Stunk and Crim and was firing arrows from a distance. The Gaping Maw’s parched, gray outer skin effortlessly deflected his arrowheads. “Gahh, it’s hard as a rock. There’s no way this thing is a natural. I cast a spell to buff my arrows, but they’re not even scratching him.” “If I tried to slash it with my sword, the blade would probably break, so no thanks. Is this thing derived from a golem?” “Ohhh, well, if that’s true…then that means—” “Yeah, that’s definitely what it means.” Stunk and Zel had reached an arbitrary agreement, and Crim didn’t have time to even ask. They were drenched in a cold sweat. It was all they could do to escape the bloodcurdling bites of the Gaping Maw. “Wow, it’s really going after Crim.” “Huh? Me…? Wait, you mean I’m the target?” “If you weren’t, we would’ve already dropped you off somewhere safe.” “The monster is likely drawn to the light-based magic it senses in Crim.” They couldn’t have been more wrong, but both Stunk and Zel looked satisfied thinking they were right. Even if I know why it’s targeting me, I still won’t be of any use… Crim was nothing but baggage on this journey. All they did was drag their feet endlessly, and they were even responsible for Kanchal’s sacrifice. They were a parasite. The Gaping Maw looked like the incarnation of their self-loathing. “This golem is a gatekeeper created as a set with the tower. That’s why it doesn’t want to let the angel pass.” Zel took a small bottle from his breast pocket and tipped it slowly to the side. A few drops splashed onto the stone floor. “What do you—? Ahh— It’s biting, it’s chomping—but wait, we’re still okay…! Um, what does this all mean?” “It means you’re the best decoy possible!!” Stunk grabbed Crim and slung them forward with his whole body. The pitiful angel danced through the air. “Uwaaaahhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh—!!” Crim was headed for the monster’s head at an alarming speed. Chasing after them, the Gaping Maw looked up. “Beat your wings as hard as you can, Crim! Fly and get away!” “Gahhhhh— I’m going to d-d-die—!!” Crim was incapable of forward propulsion. Stunk’s powerful throw accounted for at least 80 percent of their current velocity. However, the monster’s movements were dull and listless. Because it had been chasing after its targets back and forth on a horizontal plane for so long, it couldn’t respond quickly to vertical movement. “Brrawwr—!” The Gaping Maw completely changed directions and lifted its head to clamp down on Crim’s wings, but it lost its footing and slumped to the ground. Its front right foot had been adhered with some sort of sticky goo, and it couldn’t extricate itself. It was the exact spot where Zel had emptied a few drops from his bottle. “I got him, Stunk!” Stunk sheathed his sword and took a trap from his belt. Zel rejoined him and recited an incantation, tapping Stunk’s scabbard while he did. Stunk’s sword and scabbard glowed with a faint red light. “We better go in for the kill.” Stunk slid between the monster’s legs without hesitation, planting himself as firmly as possible before drawing his sword and scabbard together. Their red light drew an arc, and at the second of impact, an explosion erupted. The monster’s rear left leg was pulverized instantly, its massive frame teetering to one side. “Brrawwww—!” The Gaping Maw reacted with a slam of its tail, but Stunk hunkered down and managed to sidestep it. Stunk applied another raging blow to its remaining rear leg, and it, too, was demolished. “Incredible…” Crim was looking down from their position high against the ceiling and watching the battle with the Gaping Maw unfold. Once again, they were left in awe of Stunk’s and Zel’s battle prowess. The red glow that surrounded Stunk’s sword and scabbard was probably some kind of assist magic to make it stronger. Being able to destroy a mass of stone with swordsmanship was one thing, but using such basic magic to completely turn the tables was an incredible feat by Zel, too. Why am I even here…? Now that Crim was out of harm’s way, the sense of self-loathing that gripped them only intensified. Crim sighed and relaxed. In that instant, the Gaping Maw’s body shuddered and contracted in a spiral shape. “Ehh—?” The monster’s neck was outstretched, its mouth extending toward them. The angel had let down their guard and couldn’t react in time. “Crim!” “Dodge!” The rows of swordlike teeth gathered just below Crim’s feet. The angel didn’t even have a moment to beat their wings. They thought they were done for. “I don’t think so!” An angry voice exploded close to Crim, and a piece of the stone ceiling fell. A humanoid figure fell through the hole and grabbed onto Crim, pushing them out of the way. Chomp—! The Gaping Maw once again bit down on thin air. “Why the hell were you dilly-dallying? You’ll get yourself killed!” Crim’s savior didn’t hesitate for a moment as he used his tiny hand to throw a grappling hook attached to a rope to the side, where it latched onto a joint in the wall. Using the grappling hook as a focal point, he used centrifugal force to push them away in an arc, landing away from the monster. “Kanchal! You’re alive!” “I’m a bit scorched, but yeah, I’m alive. And I only have a little singed hair to show for it!” Kanchal smelled like a barbecue pit, but he was as energetic as ever. Halflings were indeed tough as nails. “Hey, Stunk, Zel. Something was shining on that thing’s head. I think it was one of those shiny whatchamacallits that make golems work.” “If that’s true, then we’re ready to wrap this up. Do it, Stunk!” Zel recited a new incantation and tapped Stunk’s scabbard again, imbuing it with a magical glow. “You got it; be right back.” Stunk rushed off with his blade at his side, stepping onto the monster’s tail to run up its back, soon reaching its head. Before the beast could even bare its fangs, Stunk had landed another blow with his sword and scabbard. “Brawww…” The light of Stunk’s scabbard collided with the glow on the monster’s head, both extinguishing in unison. The monster shattered into an ocean of gravel before dissipating into dust. After Kanchal fell through the floor, he happened to find a secret passage. He’d crawled through a tiny opening and climbed up, and up, and up until finally reaching the interior of the ceiling of the grand hall. “It doesn’t look like there’s a normal staircase to get up there, so we’ll have to go through the ceiling.” “Easy for you to say! It’s way too narrow for us!” “Yeah, you’re obviously speaking from a halfling’s perspective! What is this, a prank?!” Stunk and Zel felt like they were getting whittled down to the bone as they crawled through the tight, suffocating space. “I…I can barely fit …! I keep getting stuck…!” “What’s wrong? Is your massive cock getting in the way?” “You better not get addicted to dragging your big ol’ dick along the ground like a dog. You won’t be able to get off from normal stuff anymore.” “Yeah, this is the perfect time to be a halfling. The right man, in the right place—it’s a crucial concept. Now do you see that bigger isn’t always better?” “No, I’m talking about my wings!” The three nonangels continued cracking jokes as they crawled. Finally, they saw a door above their heads and heaved a collective sigh of relief. Bursting out from below, they threw open the hatch, and a dry wind blew through their hair. They had a clear view of the dense forest surrounding the gorge. They were on the roof now. “Zel… Sleeptopia is supposed to be on the top floor, right?” “Yeah, but I didn’t see a sealed gate… Judging by the map I roughed out, there was no space for it in the grand hall below.” “Maybe it’s already been destroyed, and they simply never informed the district office?” As the three veterans shook their heads in confusion, Crim raised their pointer finger. “Could that be it…?” The crew all followed Crim’s finger. In the sky overhead, an unnatural beam of light hovered above them. It was a ring, with inexplicable letters lining it both inside and out—a magic seal approximately the same circumference as the roof of the tower. “That must be the sealed gate…!” “I see… This thing is probably impossible to see from the outside. It was created so that when you climb the tower from the bottom, you’re essentially fulfilling some magical ritual, and when you reach the top, it appears.” “Okay, so that means we just need to open it, right…?!” Zel nodded and raised his hands to the heavens. “Sleeptopia will definitely be up there. That gate must be the entrance.” This was most certainly the succubus joint at the end of the sky. The party’s cheeks were all flushed red with excitement. “Um… Umm…!” Crim took the opportunity to speak up loudly. “I will do my best to bring everyone up to the gate! I don’t have my angelic powers back yet, but I can still fly a little bit!” Crim didn’t know if they were strong enough to carry another person while flying. Even so, they wanted to help their friends even if only a little. “Wow, you’re really putting yourself out there.” Stunk laughed fearlessly and clapped Crim on the shoulder. “Young angel Crimvael, this is your time to shine. To the skies!” “Yeah, there are things that only you can do.” “Crim, we need your talents here. This the reason we saved you.” Everyone patted Crim on the shoulders—even Kanchal, on his tiptoes. They’re all counting on me…! I can be counted on! Crim’s expression beamed with delight as they made two fists, determined to succeed. “If there’s anything I can do, just let me know!” “In that case, why don’t your rub one out and shoot for the gate up there?” Stunk bared his white teeth in a humongous grin. The group fell silent. Crim lost their train of thought. They couldn’t believe how white Stunk’s teeth were even though he smoked regularly. Ha-ha-ha! They no longer knew what was going on. “I heard from the district office. The seal is broken when it comes into contact with the semen of a deity or an angel.” “Wha…? Ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha—!” Now Crim understood, and they burst with manic laughter. “I d-didn’t hear anything like that!” “That’s because we didn’t tell you.” “If we told you, you wouldn’t have come along.” Of course they wouldn’t have. Why would they have said yes to that? The very idea flew in the face of logic and common decency. “The demon lord hated Sleeptopia so much, he created a seal that would never open under any normal circumstances. Gods and angels don’t just come down from the heavens every day, you know.” “But you’re telling Crim to jack off and blow their load onto the seal? That’s not something you would ask of a god or an angel.” “Yes, that’s right! But isn’t it—? But you know— Huhhhhhhhhh?!” The flustered angel’s cry gained impetus on the updraft of the gorge and was ferried to the heavens. Their hair flapping in the wind, the men of the surface had cherubic smiles on their faces. “However, we have you, our dearest compatriot. You have our undying trust!” “Use the power of our shared bond to open the gate to Sleeptopia!” “Crim, you can do it! I’ll let you see one of my prized succubus recordings!” Kanchal pushed a crystal letter containing an obscene video into Crim’s hands. The group of three lifted Crim high in the air, as if making an offering to the heavens. “Come on, Crim! Show us what you got!” “That’s right, that’s right! Jack off, jack off—!” “Beat off, beat off—!” “Gahhhhhhhhh—!! You’re all idiotssss!!” Crim didn’t want to do it! They didn’t want to defy their angelic sanctity and pleasure themselves in front of others. They had a strong sense of shame already. This was borderline torture. But… …they couldn’t help feeling indebted to their party. Thinking of the trouble they caused in the tower, refusing and running away wasn’t even an option.