Horror Castle (4)

Horror Castle (4)

The sudden weightlessness sent all the blood rushing to his head. His hands flailed blindly twice, but unlike in the stairwell before, he caught nothing to steady himself. He simply fell through the hole that had suddenly opened beneath his feet.

Pei Renli had clearly just saved someone's life. He wasn't asking to build a pagoda for it, but did he really have to be this unlucky?

It was as if he had fallen into darkness. His vision blurred, leaving nothing but pitch black; he could not even tell whether his eyes were open or shut.

But perhaps good deeds really were rewarded. The fall lasted only an instant. Pei Renli felt as though he had passed through a viscous membrane. The thought that something had licked his entire body had barely surfaced when his feet struck something hard, like a floor.

Judging by the sensation, he had fallen at most two or three meters. But a fall was still a fall, especially when it came without warning. There was no way to stabilize his posture.

He landed almost spread-eagled on the ground. Whether he had been badly rattled by the impact or not, pain throbbed through many parts of his body, while a carsick sort of dizziness washed over him.

But his reason clearly understood that this was not the time to lie there groaning. He had to get a grip on the situation as quickly as possible.

Gritting his teeth, he rolled over from his stomach onto his back. His attempt to stand failed. Through his eyelids, he could see a blurry, flickering layer of light, like torchlight.

At least that proved there was light nearby, rather than the absolute darkness from before.

Just as he lay there catching his breath and prepared to try standing again, a shadow blocked the flickering light. At the same time, an indescribable stench spread through the air, more choking than rotten eggs.

Assaulted by a smell that could practically be called an attack, Pei Renli was completely jolted awake from his slight dizziness and snapped his eyes open.

Then he saw a thing straddling him, its face a sickly blue-green, with numerous rotting, stinking patches on its skin. It made muffled groaning sounds like a zombie from a movie. It was so close that he could clearly see maggots faintly wriggling over its body.

"Holy shit!"

As someone from the information age, he had seen stranger things before. But those had been on a screen, not face-to-face like this.

The visual impact was not as terrifying as the ghost from before, but it was far more disgusting.

Especially when he opened his eyes and saw the zombie open its huge, decaying mouth, dripping foul saliva, exposing yellow teeth as it prepared to bite him. The urge to yell holy shit was unusually intense!

There was no time for any proper response. Pei Renli instinctively shoved upward with both hands, trying to keep the thing from taking a bite out of him. But he immediately discovered that this zombie-like thing had the same freakish strength as a zombie. With Pei Renli's ordinary physique, he quickly felt himself losing the struggle.

But because he had raised both hands, he discovered that he was still clutching the short rod he had found in the room. He must have been so tense earlier that he had not noticed he was gripping it tightly.

A twist in the middle of the rod would deploy a sharp, silver-plated spearhead. With quick reflexes, Pei Renli finally twisted the mechanism with his left hand just before he could no longer hold on.

With a wet squelch, the spearhead pierced through the zombie's chest. It felt more like stabbing through tough leather. But the thing not only looked like a zombie; it apparently possessed the same advantage of being fine as long as its head remained intact. The spear through its chest barely counted as an injury and did not stop it from trying to bite Pei Renli.

As that mouth, its gums exposed, drew closer and closer, Pei Renli struggled to lean backward. That was when he noticed that there were actually quite a few people nearby. Some stood in small groups, while others stood off to the side surveying their surroundings. Several looked familiar—he had seen them while fleeing down the corridor earlier.

"Help!"

Yet they all shared one thing in common: they turned a blind eye to Pei Renli's cries for help. At most, they gave him a glance before pretending they had seen nothing.

His arms were becoming less and less able to support the zombie. Even the spear through its chest had merely delayed it slightly. Just as he was about to be bitten, a flash of light struck the zombie's left side.

The light seemed solid. The moment it hit, Pei Renli felt the weight on his hands vanish. The shattered light turned into specks of powder and drifted down like stars.

Whatever the case, it had at least kept Pei Renli from being bitten. He hurriedly scrambled to his feet.

The struck zombie lay not far away beside him. Its limbs twitched a few times before going completely still. Its side, where the flash had hit, still glittered brightly, as if the light had burrowed into its body and begun burning from within. In just a second or two, the foul-smelling zombie transformed into a human-shaped pile of ash. The short spear embedded in its chest lost its support and fell to the floor with a clang.

What the hell? Was that really magic?

The thought flashed through Pei Renli's mind, and then he saw someone in a brown cloak standing before him...

It was the person he had knocked down not long ago.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. You saved me once earlier, too."

The other person removed their hood, revealing a face...

That was still impossible to identify as male or female.

Not only was their voice difficult to gender; even their appearance gave no clue. They were probably a little shorter than Pei Renli's 178 centimeters, but it was impossible to tell whether they were a man dressed as a woman or a woman dressed as a man. Especially with their entire body hidden beneath a wide, heavy cloak, there was no way to see any secondary sexual characteristics.

That did not really matter. An ambiguous gender was better than horns growing from their head or some Lovecraftian minotaur. At least they looked like a perfectly normal human, which was a good thing.

--The bar for what counted as good was really getting lower and lower...

They extended their right hand toward Pei Renli and said:

"Hello, I'm Philfi. I'm a novice who only became a Demon King within the past month."

Even their name gave no clue about their gender. If it had included something like "Lily" or "Nina," obviously feminine words, it would have been easier to tell.

The other person was acting quite friendly. After hesitating briefly, Pei Renli reached out and shook their hand, introducing himself.

"Atlas."

He gave a false name because "Pei Renli" sounded somewhat strange compared to the Lavna and Philfi he had encountered so far. Besides, Atlas was not entirely a fake name.

As mentioned before, Pei Renli had a godfather and godmother. When his own father had struggled with naming him, his godmother had given him a childhood nickname: Atlas.

Apparently, it also had some meaning like "the brightest star in the night sky." Pei Renli did not really believe that, though. He thought she had simply found it amusing.

When he played games, he usually named his characters that as well. It could be considered an alias, but not a completely false one.

After exchanging names as a simple introduction, Pei Renli immediately asked:

"Do you know how to escape from this place?"

Philfi had just mentioned having been a Demon King for a month. No matter what, they had to know more than Pei Renli, who had barely crossed over before being thrown into the Demon King Arena.

"I'm not entirely sure, but according to the notes left behind by the Demon King before my predecessor, there are only two ways to leave Horror Castle."

Look at that—they actually had notes!

Pei Renli's previous Demon King had not left behind a single clue. He had only just wanted to ask Lavna when he got thrown here.

"What two ways?"

--Bzzzz!

Philfi was about to answer when a violent buzzing sound and intense shaking interrupted them.

It was like an earthquake, though without the same amplitude. Pei Renli spread his feet and lowered into a half-crouch to keep from falling.

--Crack!

--Crack!

Then came the sound of stone breaking apart. The two turned toward it and saw several enormous, clearly visible cracks suddenly split open in the floor not far away, followed by the entire section collapsing.

The people who had been standing there left behind only the trailing notes of their screams before vanishing into the darkness below. Perhaps it was an illusion, but Pei Renli could even see the gray mist that had surged through the corridor earlier appearing within that darkness!

"Quick! Get to the corner!"

When a collapse occurred, the corners were relatively safer. Especially when Pei Renli saw the cracks spreading rapidly in every direction like a spiderweb, blindly running around was hardly a wise choice.

Fortunately, Pei Renli and Philfi were not far from the wall. They rushed over in a few quick strides, pressed themselves against it, and covered their heads with both hands.

The others were not idiots either. Aside from some who were probably terrified and ran off in panic, only to occasionally be swallowed by holes opening in the floor, more people followed suit and pressed themselves against the walls.

The shaking grew more violent, and the thunderous roar, as though the entire floor were about to be torn apart, became stronger and stronger!

"We're too far behind! According to the notes, the higher up you go in Horror Castle, the safer it is! Usually, it only ends once the number of people reaching the top floor reaches a certain amount, or the number of deaths reaches a set number!"

The noise was growing so loud that even standing close together, Philfi had to shout for Pei Renli to hear.

They truly were far behind.

Pei Renli had been shoved down the stairs, meaning he had already been heading downward. Then he had immediately fallen through a hole in the floor. If the six hundred novice Demon Kings thrown into Horror Castle had rankings, they were probably among the very last. And the ones even further behind them...

Most likely, they were already dead.

In that case, remaining crouched where they were would only mean waiting for death to arrive. Pei Renli protected his head while darting his eyes around, hoping to find a safe route out.

Then, an ominous cracking sound and trembling came from both the wall they were leaning against and the ground beneath their feet...

A crack spread from beside their feet to their side, as though cutting through the wall.

It was currently balanced on a very delicate equilibrium. If its center shifted even slightly, the wall they leaned against, along with a large section of floor beneath them, would topple outward.

And Pei Renli was not the only one who had heard Philfi speaking just now.

While searching for an escape route, Pei Renli immediately saw a humanoid crocodile-like creature near them move quickly along the wall. Then, without hesitation, it kicked the wall the two of them were leaning against.

The balance had already been extremely precarious. That kick merely accelerated the collapse. A great deal of dust fell as the crack widened, and Pei Renli could clearly feel his body involuntarily tilting downward.

To make matters worse, the far stronger shaking made it impossible for him and Philfi to jump away. They could only watch helplessly as the wall behind them broke free, taking a large section of flooring—and the two of them—with it.

In that instant, Pei Renli understood.

The guy who had pushed him earlier had not been wearing crocodile-skin gloves. He himself was practically a humanoid crocodile!

"I bought a watch last year! It's super wear-resistant!"

Unable to fight gravity, Pei Renli raised his middle finger in tribute. Then intense weightlessness engulfed him, and his body spun half a turn until he faced downward.

That seemed to be outside the castle. Gray mist howled past beneath him. Remembering the miserable sight of those swallowed by the mist before, Pei Renli could only widen his eyes and shout:

"Hope your whole family stays healthy!"

The gray mist below drew closer and closer in his vision, nearly filling his entire field of sight.

--Ding!

A sound like a phone notification suddenly rang beside his ear, though he had no idea where it came from. At the same time, the gray mist filling his vision was shrouded by a layer of milky white spiritual light. Then it seemed to be torn apart, replaced by a carpet covered in intricate, exquisite patterns. Pei Renli could even see the dried mark left by a large puddle on the carpet.

"Your Majesty the Demon King!"

Lavna's alarmed voice rang out immediately after.

--Thud!

"Oof..."

That sounded painful...