Side story 27 – The hero finally faces the Demon King, and suspicions deepen

A horde of enormous monsters advanced forward. They were grotesque-looking apes, covered in scales with countless tentacles emerging from their necks instead of heads.

Heinz, whose Attribute Values had been enhanced through Heroic Spirit Descent, slashed through one of them with a Radiant God Swordsmanship martial skill.

“Evil-destroying Radiant True Strike!”

The monster’s body was split cleanly into two pieces, sending purple blood spraying into the air. But the other apes continued closing in, unperturbed by the death of their kin.

Another of the apes let out a roar that was unintelligible to humans, and swung both of its abnormally long arms down at Heinz.

“Heinz, don’t concern yourself with the small fry! Hundred Roaring Shining Fists!” shouted Jennifer, unleashing a series of fist-blows that pierced the ape’s hard scales.

“Jennifer’s right, you need to finish off that evil god! My knife and bow don’t have enough power to take him down!” said Edgar, looking up at the enormous, grotesque-looking Elder Dragon that was flying in the sky above them.

The Elder Dragon, the boss of this floor, had the overall shape of a hand, with five one-eyed heads.

“Alright!” Heinz told his companions.

“I shall support you,” said Diana, and then she offered a prayer to Mill, the goddess of slumber. “My goddess Mill, suppress the power of slumber… Full Ability Awakening!” she chanted, casting an enchantment on Heinz that awakened the power that was sleeping inside him.

Perhaps becoming aware of this, the evil god’s five eyes were filled with killing intent and it opened its mouths, pointing their fangs towards Heinz. An evil light, different from the blue light used by Heinz, ignited in the evil god’s throats and expanded in an instant.

But Delizah forcibly drew the evil god’s killing intent towards herself with a Flaming Light Shield Technique martial skill. “Super Provocation!” she cried.

The projectiles of light unleashed from the evil god’s five pairs of jaws were all aimed at the small Dwarf woman. Each of these projectiles contained enough power to annihilate a modern fortress without leaving a single piece of rubble behind, and they closed in on Delizah with a speed that would make them impossible for her to avoid.

But Delizah raised her Orichalcum shield and doubled both its defensive power and magical resistance with her martial skills. “Radiant Steel Wall, Radiant Steel Form!” she shouted, withstanding the evil god’s attacks and holding her ground.

This seemed to infuriate the evil god; even though the effects of Super Provocation had worn off, it tried to release projectiles of light in Delizah’s direction once more.

But its attention was too focused on Delizah. Heinz, using a Magic Item to climb into the sky, raised his sword.

“Transcend Limits, Transcend Limits: Holy Sword… Luminous Slash!” he shouted, cutting the evil god in two.

The evil god shrieked and struggled in vain with its four uninjured heads, but in the end, every single head was slashed off its neck by Heinz’s blade.

After defeating the grotesque, giant apes that had appeared with the evil god, Heinz and the rest of the Five-colored Blades treated their injuries. Now, they were sitting on the stairs to the fiftieth floor, having a meal.

“So, that was the 49th floor. Considering what the heroic spirits were saying, I still can’t see the end being anywhere near,” said Heinz.

“You’re right. In fact, it was as if the real challenge is only just about to start,” said Edgar.

In this Dungeon, they were returned unharmed to a safe ‘town’ whenever they died, but during their runs, they had to treat their injuries and recover from their fatigue on their own. The most efficient way might have been to simply kill themselves and return to the ‘town’ after clearing a floor, but… none of them actually did it.

Even if they knew they were not really dying, the pain that they felt was real, and if they became too accustomed to this abnormal situation, there was no guarantee that their senses would return to normal when they left the Dungeon.

In any case, this was a trial given to them by a god, designed to make them surpass the champion Bellwood. Using such a cunning method would go against the expectations of the god who had given them the trial.

“Joshua was kind of like, ‘You’ve got a long way to go.’ What about the rest of you?” Heinz asked.

“Gorsh was similar,” said Jennifer.

“I think Firlietta was the same,” said Diana.

They were talking about the heroic spirits, who descended upon them through the Heroic Spirit Descent Skill that they had gained. It seemed that the heroic spirits standing in their way on the 30th floor was a trial for that purpose.

As the heroic spirits were former humans, they had a more powerful consciousness than many familiar spirits. Thus, when