Chapter 932: True Horror Revealed
The variety of monsters Arthur and Rishia encountered continued to expand, moving from goblins to hobgoblins, then kobolds, orcs, trolls, and ogres. It was the usual lineup one would expect from dungeon-focused video games, all of them, of course, ’horror-fied’ by Raikis’ hand, turning them into creatures that wouldn’t look out of place in a horror movie.
Their opponents’ power levels increased as well, gradually climbing from the Half-Deity Realm up to the Superior Stage of the Mid-Tier Deity Realm.
Aside from that, nothing else about the floor changed.
There were no traps or anything similar, only winding, labyrinth-like pathways and monsters that dropped the stones they used to unlock skills and techniques, which Arthur had taken to calling ’Runestones’.
Neither of them knew how long they’d been moving through paths that seemed endless, repeating the monotonous cycle of combat and rest without pause, with their enemies steadily growing stronger and forcing them to stay alert.
Arthur’s Authority of Time, which normally passively told him how much time had passed, was sealed, so he had no way of knowing whether it had been days, weeks, or months.
Food wasn’t an issue for Arthur or Rishia, since they’d reached an Existence Realm where eating was a choice rather than a necessity. In their current state, this limited self-sustenance meant they could go for years without food and remain fine.
Eventually, the paths appeared to come to an end, leading them into an open chamber with a single black treasure chest trimmed in gold sitting at its centre.
Its lid was slightly ajar, making it clear it wasn’t locked, and at the sight of it, Arthur turned to Rishia and asked,
"What’re the odds that thing’s a mimic?"
"I doubt it. We haven’t seen traps of any kind on this floor, so I don’t think one would suddenly show up now," she replied.
"But that could’ve been a setup to make us lower our guard so we’d get caught by a trap right before what very clearly looks like the end," Arthur countered, gesturing toward the large, ornate double doors a few metres behind the chest that practically screamed ’Boss Room’.
"That’s possible too..."
Rishia let her words trail off as she scanned the room, checking for anything that looked dangerous.
Calling her ’exhausted’ didn’t even begin to cover it.
Her fatigue wasn’t physical but mental, the natural result of fighting nonstop for so long against eldritch-type creatures in a place that looked identical in every direction, with no way to tell how much time was passing.
On top of that, she was nowhere near her full power, because while she’d unlocked far more techniques, not a single one of her Authorities or Unique Abilities had been unsealed.
The same was true for Arthur, who, after getting lucky with his Anti-Divine Gravity Authority, hadn’t seen another ’A’ runestone since.
The godslayer picked up a small rock from the ground, then coated it with divinity and hurled it with all his strength at the treasure chest in the centre of the chamber.
A loud sound echoed as it hit, and the chest tipped over and fell to the floor, spilling its contents across the stone.
"Just two Runestones? I’m starting to doubt this is the boss room."
As he spoke, he used his Authority to lift the stones and pull them toward him, his expression brightening slightly when he saw the ’U’ and ’E’ carved into them.
"Okay, maybe it is the boss’s room."
He picked up the ’E’ stone and tossed it to Rishia, who caught it and looked at him with a questioning glance, prompting him to explain himself.
"The sooner we get cosmic energy back in our kit, the better. If I use that one, it’s a 50-50 chance between my cosmic energy and anti-divinity, so you’re clearly the better option since you’re guaranteed to recover your cosmic energy with it."
Holding up the ’U’ stone, he continued, "As for me, every one of my Unique Abilities is strong, so whatever I get is bound to be useful."
His reasoning checked out, so Rishia agreed and used the runestone he’d given her, while he activated the one in his hand.
But while Rishia’s expression brightened just a little as her cosmic energy returned, Arthur silently crouched down, burying his face in his palms.
"Whyyyyy??"
"? What’s wrong?"
Rishia threw him a confused look, and in response, Arthur muttered in a voice so quiet that even with her heightened hearing, she barely caught it.
"I got my most useless Unique Ability..."
"Didn’t you say all of them were powerful?" Rishia asked, one eyebrow lifting.
"They are! But this is the most useless one I could’ve recovered right now!"
Arthur jumped to his feet, clenching and unclenching his fist as a silver light surrounded his palm.
’Seriously? Core Absorption of all things? Fuck this RNG!’
He clicked his tongue in irritation, annoyed that the ability he’d gotten was the one he almost never used because of its side effect of introducing impurities into his soul.
Turning to Rishia, he asked, "Should we keep going or take a short rest? The next fight’s definitely gonna be harder."
"Let’s keep going. We’re still in pretty good condition," she replied, stepping toward the doors and pushing them open.
However, the moment a gap appeared between the double doors, a wave of foul cosmic energy burst out from the room, and Rishia reflexively stepped back, the doors slamming shut and sealing the energy inside.
Arthur’s face contorted with instinctive revulsion at what he sensed, and Rishia’s complexion drained of colour, her chest rising and falling as she stepped backwards.
"What the fuck was th—? Rishia, you okay?"
Arthur’s expression changed again, moving from shock to worry at Rishia’s odd state, but just as he reached toward her, she slapped his hand away on reflex, leaving him blinking in confusion as she ran her fingers through her hair.
"Rishia?" Arthur called out, and after taking a deep breath, the dragon regained her composure and finally spoke.
"Sorry, that brought back horrible memories."
Arthur was dumbfounded, to say the least. Rishia was the serious type who refused to show any weakness regardless of the situation, and she had always maintained that rigid personality, which over the past few days, weeks, or months, or however long they had been inside this tower, had only been reinforced in his mind.
Because of that, it was only natural that he was taken aback by how shaken she looked right now.
After a moment of silence, Arthur asked slowly, "Do you...know what’s behind that door?"
Rishia nodded and replied with a name Arthur never expected to hear in a place like this.
"Cosmic Horror."
"Huh?"
Arthur was confused.
He knew what Cosmic Horrors were. They were the spawn of the Void god that came from beyond the Cosmos, from the non-existence that served as the blank canvas upon which the reality that was the Cosmos was painted, and their sole purpose was to spread the influence of the Cosmic Force of Chaos across the Cosmos.
What he couldn’t wrap his head around was why Rishia was telling him that one of those things was waiting behind the door in front of them.
"Are you sure?" he couldn’t stop himself from asking, and Rishia turned to him with cold eyes.
"Did you not feel that revulsive cosmic energy that disgusts your very soul?"
The only answer to that was yes. Arthur had felt that revulsive cosmic energy, but his mind hadn’t linked it to a Cosmic Horror right away since he’d never seen one in person before.
Rishia had.
"It’s the same feeling as that thing."
"What thing?" Arthur asked.
"A Dark Young," Rishia replied. "The one in the Valmone universe."
Arthur remembered Wyndella mentioning that a Dark Young lived in the Abyss Labyrinth in the Valmone universe, and judging by Rishia’s reaction, she’d clearly faced it before, and the experience was one she never wanted to remember.
Unfortunately, whatever waited behind that door had dragged those memories back to the surface.
Looking toward the door, Arthur couldn’t help cursing under his breath.
"Raikis, you crazy bastard, are you trying to kill us?"
Dealing with ordinary monsters altered into eldritch things was one issue, but facing an actual Cosmic Horror was an entirely different matter, especially when their mere presence gnawed away at the sanity of anyone who perceived them.
But then Arthur remembered something Berlal had told him shortly after his battle with Valkalonex, when she explained that the reason the Machine god King of the Valmone universe hunted him was that he had once destroyed an Aspect Fragment of Valkalonex.
She had said that not all of its fragments held Deity-level power, and some were mortals, and as he recalled this, the common sense and logic his mind had ignored due to fear of the existences known as Cosmic Horrors immediately returned.
Not all Cosmic Horrors were on a level where even Ultimate existences couldn’t kill them and could only force them back beyond reality.
