I turned my eyes away from the beautiful, ashen underworld and looked at Uburka. “I know someone who thinks like that.” “I know someone who thinks like that,” I repeated. The Tower master felt that everything was her responsibility. Well, actually, she made it so that everything was her responsibility. “But I’m not her,” I said calmly. On a distant rocky mountain, a white beast stood tall. Its roar pierced through the fog. Small green creatures that were afraid of the beast could be seen flocking around it. They clung to the bottom of the rocks, seemingly unsure whether to climb to where the beast was or stay put. I held my sword up. “I decided to go down a different path from that person. Of course, you are allowed to blame me. The mistakes you make, the curses you hear, you may think these are all my fault for choosing you as my species. I sent you into this world for seemingly no reason and raised you. Maybe that is how you feel. It’s okay to blame me, but... Come back when you become stronger than me. If you can make yourselves happier than I made you, then come at me!” With a chuckle, I swung the holy sword. Shiny, the Goddess of Protection, shone brightly, living up to her name. The ashen, dark clouds were cut in half, the blue sky coming into view through the gap. “If you can make yourselves more lovely, cool, intelligent, and beautiful than I did, then sure, I’ll gladly admit my failure as a parent! Until then, I am the strongest daddy ever!” I clenched my right hand. “Estelle!” Estelle was already kneeling beside me. She had been waiting somewhere other than the Hunters’ waiting room so she could appear whenever I called her. “I, Estelle, am here as your advisor, Master.” “It’s raining. Doesn’t it look a bit shoddy?” I grinned. Estelle glanced up. Despite the raindrops befitting the rainy season of the region, she seemed indifferent, as if she were looking at a drizzle falling on the streets of her neighborhood. I laughed and held out my right hand. “Clear it!” With a smile, Estelle held my hand tightly. “Yes, Master.” Aura resonated from our clasped hands. It wasn't just that the red and black aura mixed and became stronger. We circulated the aura within ourselves as one while having the same image in mind. We pictured a bloody downpour that had befallen a continent. Demonic Heaven Formula Arts. Radiant Rain of the Tragic Sky. “Was your primordial fear so terrible, Terras?” Estelle questioned my children. “Did the sky in those days, when you knew nothing at all, seem gloomy? Is that why only premonition and unease stirred within your hearts, making you so afraid that you could not come out of your huts?” “You don’t have to fear that anymore!” she shouted. It rained. The resentment of the villagers who had been unjustly burned to death and the screams of countless deaths in the empire were contained in the bright-red rain that fell in the Asuras’ Demonic Heaven Formula Arts form. Drops of blood pierced through the thick fog and reached the ground. Before the fog could restore itself, another drop of blood fell, mercilessly eating away at the fog. “The horrors you are about to face are even more dire!” Estelle yelled. The fog couldn’t withstand the blood rain. Raindrops burst, subsided, crushed, and tore the fog to pieces. When the Asuras’ form was destroyed, the ground was revealed, devoid of any mystery or magic. “We constructed this form with all our might...” “Unbelievable, ugor. Our collective aura should have overwhelmed them.” When the bare ground was revealed, so were the Terras; they were panicking. They had probably planned to hide themselves in the fog and, using the low visibility to their advantage, attack me with swords and axes. However, they failed before they could even do anything. With my chest held high, I said, “The fiftieth floor of the Tower and up are filled with masterful fighters from all over the universe. You don’t think all of them will be like me and my colleagues, do you? We talked to you guys and understood each other. Even now you fight me, not because you don't like me, but because you want a breathtaking finale." Estelle’s autumn rain had already melted all the fog. My children were looking at me. “But those on the fiftieth floor will be different,” I said. “The princess said that each Tower’s quests are different, but from the thirtieth floor onward, they are generally similar. To accept you as equals and cherish you as children, we Hunters first have to accept all of you as real people. Not as NPCs or dungeon dwellers or anything like that, but as living beings.” How many Towers would have such a mindset at the ready, though? Back when the Black Witch was ranked second in the hierarchy, people had considered the Tower as some kind of game. “How many other Hunters do you think wiped out their own species and cleared the fortieth floor?” As I thought of the fourteen Asuras who had fallen to the Fire Emperor before my regression, I looked at the hundreds of thousands of Asuras now gathered before me. “If there were one such Tower, that means there are at least tens of millions of Hunters who live there. With ten Towers like that, that makes it hundreds of millions of Hunters. If there are a hundred Towers, there would be tens of billions of Hunters. They would all be standing on top of the countless corpses.” Before I knew it, the vassals of the Death King Clan had gathered around me. Kim Yul looked down as he tied up his long hair with the hair tie I had given him, while Sylvia Evanail clasped her hands together in front of her and stood quietly and obediently. They didn’t care about the gazes of millions of people looking up at them. Estelle’s autumn rain soaked all of us. “Those Hunters don’t see you guys as people,” I went on. “They will kill others before their victims can even scream.” Steam flowed out from the Terras’ shoulders. Their skin was spitting out the warmth of their hearts. My children, my treasures who had studied the demonic cult’s doctrine and danced in Cavefire plays, knew better than anyone what I was talking about. “Those guys will pompously call themselves winners.” Like the Fire Emperor used to. “A swarm of fans will worship those guys as heroes.” “You will meet them in the world beyond the fiftieth floor.” I raised my hand and pointed to the red sky. If that wasn’t hell, then where was hell? [The quest is in progress.] [The Bloodborns have begun voting.] The Black Witch landed without making any sound. She stood right next to me, impassively staring at the bloody world. “Death King is right.” “It’s hard to see it as our fault. The wolves that appear in the hunting grounds are called monsters. If you read the names of people in the Aegim Empire with a mind-reading Skill, they are marked as NPCs. Well, that may be because the Aegim Empire has already been destroyed and restored.” The corners of the Black Witch’s lips curled up, making less of a smile and more of a sneer. “People commit murder even if they don’t have a reason. If nothing stops them from killing, then it’s no different from giving them a free pass for a massacre. If the Death King is right and the world beyond the fiftieth floor is a battleground for all the Towers’ melee, then it would be harder to find someone there who isn’t a murderer.” The Black Witch turned her head. Bats were hanging from the branches of the lush palm trees. “I’m sorry for getting in your way every time you tried to conquer the continent despite being your mother, but this universe is bigger than you think. There are more enemies you have to face than you can imagine. Of course, there will be monsters you cannot defeat. You have watched the other species for thousands of years. The Terras will never betray you first, neither will the Fingills and the Skians. Now, even the Shellmounts and Sylvans don’t have a reason to turn their backs on you. Children, your mission shouldn’t be fighting against these innocent species for hegemony on this small continent. Instead, unite and fight the enemies who will threaten your world.” The Black Witch smiled gently. The bats flapped their wings. [All votes have been counted.] [Choice 2 Voting Percentage: 02.45%] [Choice 1 Voting Percentage: 97.55%] [The forty-third floor has been cleared!] “We share an alliance of blood,” the Black Witch said softly. We cleared even the forty-third floor, far surpassing the highest floor reached before my regression, the fortieth floor. The stages that had brought down even the Fire Emperor and the Black Witch were being cleared one by one, but that wasn't all. [The quest is in progress.] [The concubi have begun voting.] I blinked and turned toward the Black Witch. The concubi weren’t originally included in the species we cared for. She met my eyes and smiled faintly. “Gong-Ja, sometimes you think too lightly of me.” “There are others who are running around trying to clear the floors. It’s not just you. I told you that I used up all my species points last time trying to recruit the concubi, so I had no choice but to be eliminated. Have you ever thought about why someone like me would risk being eliminated?” [Choice 2 Voting Percentage: 00.00%] [Choice 1 Voting Percentage: 100.00%] My jaw was on the floor. “Not a single objection...” “Well, let’s just say that I’ve successfully signed some contracts. Even if we’re friends, we have to respect the confidentiality of our contracts. Right?” the Black Witch asked with a wink. [The forty-fourth floor has been cleared!] I smiled back at her before turning toward my son. “Uburka, as you may know, I don’t think choosing your species was a mistake. Even if I were to be born again or return to the moment I chose you guys, I’d still choose and raise you again. You are my best children, just like I’m the best father for you.” “I know, ugor,” Uburka said with a nod. “I know, Daddy, but...” I grinned. “Do you think my burden is too heavy? Do you want to lessen the burden? Is that why you challenged me to a duel? So you can fight alongside me? Well, there is no need for that. Just as I am the whole world to you, you’re as valuable as the whole world to me. You see and feel the world the same way I do. We are people of the same universe.” I grabbed Uburka's hand and looked at the Terras lined up behind him. “My dear friends, beyond the fiftieth floor, there will be people who didn’t have the luck we had. Some will think of us as lucky and will treat all of this as a mere game to become tyrants and monarchs—a mere game to gain a life of pleasure.” [The quest is in progress.] [The Terras have begun voting.] “In the name of Demonic Heaven, with the dance and flames of Cavefire.” [Choice 2 Voting Percentage: 00.00%] “Let’s show them who we are,” I said. Uburka remained quiet, but his silence wasn’t eerie. This was his way of agreeing with me. His fangs had always been sharp, so it didn't take long for him to chew and digest my words. “Will you kill people who deserve to die, Daddy?” he asked. “We will save those who deserve to live.” “How can we know who should live and how they would live a fulfilling life?” I took out my dagger and tapped its taped handle. “With my death. And with that person’s life.” “Is that so?” Uburka muttered, nodding. He silently grabbed the hand with which I held my dagger. [Choice 1 Voting Percentage: 100.00%] [The forty-fifth floor has been cleared!] I stroked Uburka's arm. “It's okay. We are stronger and more capable than those of any Tower. We’ll be able to save countless worlds and people.” I looked down. From now on, my children would help others who are at their wit’s end, and everyone was going to call them Asuras. One day, they would become Heavenly Demons. I reached out my hand to my children. “Climb the Tower with me.”