PtM 18 - Chapter 21: The Final Floor

2/3 this week!

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With the assistance of his friends, Huxian was able to greatly accelerate his conquest of the Santana Dungeon. Three floors fell in less than an hour, and by the end of the second hour, they’d cleared the 45thfloor, securing enough energy for Huxian to break through to the late fusion realm and late law stitching realm.

His increased strength enabled them to clear three more floors in the next hour, leaving only two floors between their group and the dungeon’s core.

“Crap, they finally made a move,” Huxian said. “Pull out all the stops. We need to clear this dungeon, and fast.”

“Everything okay, boss?” asked Silverwing.

“Nothing I didn’t anticipate,” Huxian said. “Solana and her saint friends just tried to teleport into the dungeon using their back door. We have until they break through my spatial blockade to end this.”

“We’re already making pretty good progress,” said Gua. “Can’t we just use more explosives?”

“I already used up almost everything,” said Huxian. “And I need the rest to deal with the final boss.” He hardened his heart and made a difficult decision. “We’re going to need to make some sacrifices.”

Eight tails shot out to form eight portals. Hundreds of peak manifestation realm demons poured out from his tail space, and ten times more painted demons of a similar realm joined them. Each one consumed a precious medicine that artificially elevated their cultivations to the fusion realm.

The wheeling formation they were accustomed to glowed fiercely as they split up to conquer the 49th dungeon floor. The demons knew what was at stake and threw themselves at the enemy. To die for their cause was their honor, and they knew that Huxian would similarly honor their sacrifice and provide for their clans and descendants.

“Gua, Miyue, I’ll teleport you,” Huxian said. He swapped out their two armies to provide a better matchup. “Lei Jiang, I’m going to build a bridge to get you deep into that group you’re nibbling away at.” Lei Jiang and the lightning aligned beasts he controlled transformed into a ball of lightning that shot through a narrow slit and space to appear at the center of the enemy abyssal army.

A storm-like explosion ensued from the clash, and when the dust cleared, ten percent of the group’s fusion realm demons were gone. As for the abyssal demons, they’d been wiped out to the last.

“Again!” Huxian commanded. Lei Jiang gritted his teeth and led another suicidal charge, leaving him with less than half of his original demons. But he didn’t complain, as similar losses were occurring in the other armies.

Demons were used to slaughter, and their hierarchy was rarely broken. Greater demons rarely asked for lesser demons to throw down their lives. They were champions of their elements and tended to lead from the front. To do anything less would be greatly dishonorable.

By the time they cleared the 49th floor, only a third of their army remained. And of those, over ninety percent had expended all their energy and wouldn’t be able to assist them on the next leg of their conquest.

If Solana and her goons catch up, we’re finished,Huxian thought. This wasn’t fair to you, but I had no choice. He’d seen the future. He knew what would happen to Mendin if no one stepped out to protect it.

Huxian checked on the spatial traps he’d laid out for Solana and the other saints level demons. The markers he’d left were still present, which meant that the enemy had yet to breach through the initial layers.

Strange, thought Huxian. They should be making at least some headway.

“Good work, everyone,” Huxian said. “Retreat to my tail space, and we’ll take it from here.” Thanks to the sacrifice of his region’s demons, Huxian and friends had relatively intact energy stores, and would be able to exert their full strengths in the final battle.

Huxian and friends flew through the stone door at the end 49thfloor and entered a winding staircase. The staircase was many times deeper than the ones before and led him into a small room with an ornate door.

Huxian directly tore apart the door using his mastery over space. A cloud of abyssal energy poured out from the dungeon walls and accumulated at the center of a gigantic room. A startlingly powerful opponent took shape.

“A second level saint?” Gua exclaimed. “That’s so unfair.”

“Why do you think Solana never managed to clear this place?” Huxian said. “Actually, the guardian’s weaker than I expected. Probably because all those blood clones are still outside.” It hadn’t ended well in his future memories when the blood clones had retreated into the dungeon. Conquering it had been many times more difficult than now.

“Stop shaking in your boots and fight, Gua!” said Lei Jiang.

“Fight, fight, fight!” echoed Bifang. Seven colored flames filled the room and stuck onto their not-yet-complete opponent. Flaws immediately began to appear in its construction, greatly weakening their foe from the onset.

“Fight!” said Jadefall, invoking hellfire to bolster their offensive prowess and boost their morale.

“Don’t die…” said Wu, casting a holy spell that reinforced their demon armor and fought back the creature’s paper aura.

“Let’s fight,” said Huxian. He took out a crystal ball with a single white speck of blood, then crushed it.

Purelight filled the 50th floor, and immediately began suppressing the enormous paper tiger, their final opponent. Its body was three kilometers from head to tail. Its torso and paws were covered in magnificent platinum armor.

Saint-level demons could suppress lesser demons without even speaking a word. But thanks to the sea of purelight that Huxian had obtained from Baleful Vision, they were able to resist the intense bloodline pressure.

“Everyone, assume your positions!” Huxian said. His body expanded as he fused with his manifestation, becoming a giant eight-tailed fox a half kilometer long.

“Heaven, converge!”

“Earth, converge!”

Wu and Jadefall shot into their respective tails.

“Swamp Converge! Mountain, converge!” Gua and Mr. Mountain joined them.

“Fire! Water! Wind! Lightning!” His size grew with each addition to a final size of a kilometer and a half, with the aura of a first level saint beast. His armor was no longer black and white, but a mosaic of ten colors. As for his Demon Dao projection, it was no longer aligned to only the spatial element. A nine-colored law projection bearing the power of nine Dao Lords had replaced it, and with it, he was able to forcibly cut off the Paper Tiger’s connection to the dungeon core and its infinite supply of abyssal energy.

Huxian howled and threw himself at the creature. He used no tricks. He used no traps. Every toy at his disposal had already been used, and it all came down to this final, brutal struggle.

The Paper Tiger was much larger and much stronger than Huxian. His bloodline was infinitely purer, despite its diluted state, and he was therefore enraged by the fox’s provocation.

The fox and the tiger fell to the dungeon floor. Huxian was quick, but the tiger was heavier. It was only thanks to his eight coiling tails that he was able to gain the upper hand.

Ten-colored claws tore through the paper tiger’s platinum armor, cutting out chunks of flesh and blood and gore. But the paper tiger was strong, and Huxian’s tails were unable to restrain it forever. It twisted its body and bit down on Huxian’s neck. Red blood sprayed onto the dungeon floor and mixed with the paper tiger’s own white blood.

“You think you’re worthy of killing me?” Huxian growled.

“Says the fox who relies on the Purelight Hegemon’s blood essence,” spat the paper tiger. “White Paper Absorption!”

“Spacetime devouring!” countered Huxian. A maelstrom of spatial energy appeared in the room and drew Huxian’s blood back into his body.

“You’re doing very well, even considering that drop of blood,” said the Paper Tiger. “But do you think it alone can restrain me?” The tiger began burning its blood essence. This took Huxian by surprise, because the dungeon’s guardian had a special identity. It was a blood clone, and every drop of blood consumed couldn’t be replenished.

“You suicidal maniac!” Huxian exclaimed.

“Victory is everything,” growled the paper tiger. “Paper world! White Paper Reconstruction!” A white aura broke past Huxian’s own ten-colored laws and pushed back the Purelight Hegemon blood’s influence. Their fight devolved into a territory battle.

Huxian immediately fell on the back foot. His own territory exceeded the paper tiger’s, but he could no longer stop the paper tiger from drawing on the dungeon core. Abyssal energy surged into the blood, healing its wounds and replenishing its strength.

But it was the second ability that took the cake. Paper tigers were extremely gifted in copying all techniques they encountered. This included Huxian’s Spacetime Devouring ability. A counter-maelstrom appeared and began gobbling up their mingled blood. The Paper Tiger’s wounds healed over, taking away what little advantage Huxian had been able to gain.

“You like devouring stuff?” Huxian asked the clone. “Fine. Eat this!” He threw another crystal sphere at the Paper Tiger. The tiger was proficient in copying, but this did not mean it had full control over the copied abilities. It wasn’t able to avoid the crystal sphere and swallowed it like it did everything else.

“What have you done?!” The Paper Tiger’s aura soared violently, and black stripes appeared on its pristine white fur. “The Inkwell Ancestor’s bloodline?! Are you insane?!”

Huxian immediately fell into a disadvantaged position, but this disadvantage soon faded as a third party join their battle. This individual was none other than the will of the Inkwell Plane, Melody. She immediately initiated a hostile takeover of the blood clone’s body.

Powerful as the Paper Tiger was, this was the Inkwell Plane. Paper was originally weak to ink, which was why it had gone through the trouble of eliminating the Inkwell Ancestor in the first place. Its eyes turned black as a familiar and distinctly feminine presence took control.

“My, my, my,” said the possessed blood clone. “What have we here. Imperial blood? A powerful dungeon core that I’ve been trying to get my claws on for years? Oh, and a stupid fox that doesn’t know better than to summon me.”

“Wait, you’re saying I’m stupid to summon you?” Huxian said. “I helped you out. The least you can do is thank me.”

“I really don’t know what else to call you,” said the possessed blood clone. “You should know my relationship with Clear Sky and should know that I am not an ally. You left the chicken coop open, so to speak, so how can I not help myself to some tasty chicken?”

Huxian paled. “It’s my mistake. Show mercy!”

The possessed paper tiger frowned. “You’re up to something. You’re always up to something. You must have laid a trap for me somewhere, and since I sense nothing in my surroundings, it must be… inside blood! Is that spatial energy? Elder Zhong, you crooked merchant –  you tampered with my blood!”

The blood clone doubled over as a fourth entity joined the fight and took over its body. This entity was a parasite with no will of its own, but was extremely effective against demonic will. “You have thirty seconds” said an aged voice from the blood clone.

“More than enough,” said Huxian. “Many thanks, Elder Zhong.”

He pounced onto the blood clone and activated Spacetime Devouring. The creature’s demonic energy, blood essence, and demonic will poured into his body without restrain.

Like before, Huxian kept the best portion for himself and used the dregs to forcibly increase the cultivation of his friends. Their cultivations did not break through, but they did reach the peak of the late fusion realm. They only needed a single step to reach peak fusion.

Thirty seconds was an extremely short amount of time, and it wasn’t long before the Melody reassumed control of the blood clone. She was greatly weakened and isolated from the outside world, but still a great threat.

“I was foolish in thinking you would play fair,” said Melody. “Well done, little fox. You deserve a prize for your acting skills. I was hoping to claim this dungeon, but it appears that is no longer possible. Oh well. I’ll take your little life as a consolation prize.”

The blood clone’s energy spiked and began to destabilized. Space and time warped as its energy reached a critical mass, then exploded. The void shattered, and the Santana Dungeon teetered on the edge of destruction.

A nine-layered spatial shield sprung up around Huxian. Three layers immediately shattered, and three more broke in the next three seconds. In the end, the spatial artifact Huxian had painstakingly build couldn’t resist the explosion and broke. Huxian went flying into the dungeon wall.

“Are you alright?” said Wu as she emerged from Huxian’s tail space. “Be healed!” A soft, golden glow appeared on Huxian’s human form and began mending his body and his battle robes.

“Don’t bother,” said Huxian. “We don’t have time to loiter. Let’s get to the dungeon core before any other variables pop up.”

They ran to the end of the dungeon, and were about to go through the open door, when suddenly, a golden formation appeared to block their way. Three saint-level demons walked out from the floor’s entrance.

“Why hello there, Eight Directions,” said Solana as she emerged from the entrance to the 50th floor. “You look like you just got mauled by a tiger and bitten by a turtle. Perhaps I can be of assistance?”

Huxian hissed. “How did you do it? The barrier should have held for at least another hour.”

“That’s actually interesting question,” said Solana. “Originally, I didn’t stand a chance at making it through on time. But suddenly, the energy the Inkwell Plane started actively helping me. It even provided me with your exact coordinates, saving me quite a bit of time.”

Well played, Melody, thought Huxian. Well played. You couldn’t claim the core, so you handed it off to someone else. Solana’s potential was limited compared to Huxian, and once she broke her restraints, it would be easy to take back everything for herself.

“Well I for one am happy that you’ve come,” Huxian said to Solana. “Aren’t we all very happy?”

“Yes, we’re beyond joyful,” said Wu. “Thank you so much for your timely assistance.”

Solana laughed. “It seems I underestimated you all. Most demons would self-destruct after their hard-fought plans went to waste.”

“It was a gamble, and we lost,” said Huxian. “Also, there’s nothing certain about taking over the dungeon core. But with three saints to help us, it’s as sure thing. All we ask for is a small consolation prize.”

Solana looked Huxian and his group over with a calculating expression. “It’s not an easy decision you’re making, and I have to admit that your help is necessary. Rest assured – I will not forget your contributions.”

Huxian and friends were tired, but there was no way Solana would let them rest. “We should get moving,” said the Grand Priestess. “We vanished so suddenly that the blood clones will start panicking. Anything could happen if they concentrate their energies and retreat into the dungeon core.”

“How about a five-minute break?” asked Huxian.

“I’m afraid even five minutes would expose us to unnecessary risk,” said Solana.

The two stood off for a good thirty seconds before Huxian finally gave in. “Fine. You’re the boss. I just do what I’m told.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Solana. Her trio surrounded Huxian and friends and led the way into the depths of the Santana Dungeon.