Chapter 83
It was time. He had to activate the key.
“But… can I really do this?”
Kashmir clenched his fist tightly.
He had no choice. For his mother’s sake.
If he didn’t obey the order, his mother would die.
But when he looked at Christian, who was smiling at him with that familiar, almost teasing grin, his hand simply wouldn’t move.
This was the first person who had ever truly acknowledged him—someone who had willingly come forward and accepted him.
How could he possibly be the one to send such a person to death?
His heart dried up with unbearable conflict, unable to choose either path.
Suddenly, Christian’s expression darkened.
“Wait a minute… what’s this? Something’s wrong.”
“Huh?”
“Everyone, be careful!”
“!!”
Without warning, chaos erupted.
The ceiling of the underground garden’s seventh floor began to tremble violently.
The space warped, twisting like a vortex.
Kashmir’s eyes widened.
‘Is this a teleportation phenomenon?! But why now?’
Teleportation.
A secret recently uncovered about the underground garden.
If you possessed the key to a certain floor, you could instantly transport yourself to a connected floor.
The problem was that the seventh floor was linked to the seventeenth floor.
A floor so dangerous that only six-star demons could survive there.
No one present could possibly live through it.
If the teleportation triggered, they would all die.
‘Why is this happening when I didn’t activate the key? Someone outside must have!’
Kashmir’s face turned pale as he realized the truth.
Archduke Schwarz.
It had to be him—he must have found some way to activate the key remotely.
“Everyone, get out of here!!”
But it was too late.
A blinding light began to descend upon them.
There was no way to escape.
Then, another unexpected event occurred.
“Everyone, draw your magic power!”
It was Chris shouting.
At the same moment—
BOOM!!
A fierce explosion erupted right in front of the others.
The blast wave swept over them, hurling them outward.
Kashmir collapsed to the ground, trembling, and slowly lifted his head.
‘Did Archduke Christian save us?’
If it hadn’t been for that timely dark magic, they would have been caught in the teleportation and lost.
‘Then what about Christian?’
Inside, he saw Christian still standing in place.
“Ah, no…”
Did Christian sense Kashmir’s gaze?
He smiled faintly.
Flash!
The teleportation activated.
“No!!”
And just like that, Christian vanished.
Leaving everyone behind.
In the darkness, Chris closed his eyes.
This feeling was familiar.
‘It’s not the first time. When I came with the hero’s party, we also moved through teleportation like this.’
Back then, the fact that floors in the underground garden could be connected by teleportation wasn’t a secret.
Although now only a few floors, including the seventh, had keys, at that time most floors had keys, allowing them to save time during their exploration.
‘Anyway…’
Christian opened his eyes slightly.
No!!
Christian!!!!
Voices called to him from beyond the void.
Urgent cries, as if someone feared he was dead.
Chris tilted his head in confusion.
‘Kashmir’s understandable, but why are Jupien and Marisa like this? Didn’t they both dislike me? They don’t need to worry this much.’
In truth, this whole situation was a setup he had planned.
Seeing Kashmir hesitate, almost about to confess without activating the key, Chris had secretly triggered it himself.
‘I already knew how to activate the key from the last time with the hero’s party.’
Chris glanced around.
Pitch-black darkness brushed past him like light.
‘If I keep moving like this, will I end up on the seventeenth floor?’
He looked at the void surrounding him.
A space filled only with darkness.
‘Teleportation in the underground garden works similarly to a gate.’
The principle of spatial movement was simple.
You pierce through the back of one space into the void, then pierce through the back of the destination space to emerge into reality.
The problem was the void itself—the middle passage.
The void was full of unpredictable variables that no spell could calculate.
The gate’s role was to eliminate those variables.
The teleportation here worked the same way.
Normally, the moment you step into the void, countless unexpected variables would appear, but here, it was as calm and peaceful as a silent universe.
That meant one thing.
‘I can use this.’
Chris pulled out an item he had prepared.
The Scissors of Space, crafted by Archmage Lenin.
Normally, this useless trinket was rendered unusable by the void’s variables, but now it was different.
The key’s teleportation blocked the void’s variables.
Using these scissors, he could cut through space and move wherever he wanted.
‘Of course, if I miscalculate the coordinates, I’d become lost in space, requiring enormous calculations.’
Even an archmage would struggle with that.
But for Chris, it was simple.
His genius shone through in calculations as well.
No one in this world could surpass him in pure computational power.
‘Now!’
Chris swung the scissors.
Based on his vast calculations, the coordinates were set precisely.
A fleeting gap appeared.
Without hesitation, Chris leapt through.
The shock of crossing space briefly darkened his vision, then cold air brushed his skin.
He had succeeded.
‘Did I arrive where I wanted?’
The answer came immediately.
Cold.
An overwhelming pressure crushed him.
It was different from the pressure he’d felt when meeting Nogazu before.
Spiritual pressure.
The weight of a being of a completely different caliber, as if his soul was being trampled underfoot.
His soul screamed in terror.
Forcing himself to look up, he saw it.
A figure bound from head to toe in chains.
Thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of sacred nails pierced every inch of its body, immobilizing even a single finger.
Chris swallowed hard and whispered the figure’s identity to himself.
‘A demon of Gehenna’s fourth realm.’
Yes.
This was the twenty-seventh floor of the underground garden.
A floor prepared for nine-star demon lords.
Meanwhile, back on the seventh floor.
Those left behind wore stunned expressions.
“What on earth just happened?”
Marisa’s face was as pale as a corpse.
Suddenly, the space distorted and Chris disappeared.
If Chris hadn’t pushed them away, they would have suffered the same fate.
‘What happened to Chris? Could he be dead?’
Marisa’s heart pounded wildly.
Her consciousness wavered.
Then, Jupien acted unexpectedly.
Clang!
She drew her sword and pointed it at Kashmir’s neck.
“Princess Jupien? What are you doing?”
“This bastard’s the culprit.”
“!!”
Jupien spat coldly.
“Since we arrived on the seventh floor, he’s been acting suspicious. Tell me—what have you done?”
Marisa’s expression hardened as well.
Flash!
Poison boiled up in her hand.
A torture poison.
“Is that true, Prince Kashmir? If you don’t answer, you’ll be trapped in a state where you neither live nor die, enduring endless agony as your veins, nerves, and intestines are torn apart.”
Kashmir still looked stunned.
Even as Jupien’s blade cut into his neck and the poison seeped through his skin, he didn’t resist.
“…It’s already too late to save Archduke Christian.”
“What do you mean?”
“…I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.”
Kashmir bowed his head in despair and revealed everything.
Jupien and Marisa’s faces stiffened as they listened.
“If it weren’t for Archduke Christian, we would have all died the same way. Damn it, I let someone like him die.”
Jupien frowned.
Smack!
She slapped Kashmir hard.
His cheek flamed red.
“Shut up, you pathetic fool.”
“……”
“Christian isn’t dead yet. I’m sure of it.”
Jupien’s confident words made Marisa and Kashmir exchange puzzled looks.
“I’ve never met anyone as despicable, annoying, and sly as Christian. There’s no way he’s dead, even on the seventeenth floor.”
It was baseless.
But strangely convincing.
Marisa agreed—there was no way that bastard Christian would die so easily.
‘No, he has to be alive somehow. If he dies so senselessly, I’ll never forgive it. I’ll even poison his grave.’
Marisa gritted her teeth.
Jupien said, “Then open the gate again.”
“Yes, but… if we go to the seventeenth floor, you’ll all die.”
Still, Jupien was resolute.
“He’s a pain in the ass, but he’s still my brother by blood. I can’t just let him die like this.”
“…I’m coming too.”
Marisa said reflexively.
It wasn’t a wise choice.
As Kashmir said, the seventeenth floor was beyond their ability to survive.
If they set foot there, they wouldn’t make it.
But—
‘If Christian dies like this, I’ll be furious. I won’t be able to stand it.’
More than anything, both the last time and now, it was Christian’s help that had saved them from disaster.
How could she call herself a confident mage if she pretended not to notice such kindness?
That’s how Marisa justified her decision.
“I…”
Kashmir bit his lip hard.
His heart was burning with turmoil.
He wanted to go save Christian too.
But if he couldn’t return from here, Christian’s mother would face death.
‘Damn it, why am I such a coward?’
Though it had been brief, the words Christian had spoken to him echoed in his mind.
The one who truly accepted him.
The first to call him a friend.
‘Damn it all.’
In the end, Kashmir made up his mind.
“…I’ll go with you.”
He might regret it later, but this time, he decided to follow his heart.
Just then, an unexpected voice stopped them.
“Wait. It wouldn’t be wise for only the three of you to go.”
“Chief Butler!”
Jupien’s face showed surprise.
Simon, the pale-faced vampire with striking looks, had appeared silently behind them.
“Hmm. This is troublesome. I expected something would happen, but I didn’t think it would be this.”
Simon frowned.
His rank was lower six stars.
Meanwhile, the 17th floor was a place where mages of middle six-star rank—those who had mastered ‘willpower’—challenged themselves.
So, on the 17th floor, they would surely face opponents who wielded willpower perfectly.
Even Simon would find such foes difficult to handle.
‘This doesn’t add up. This mission seems like a bad deal.’
Simon narrowed his eyes.