Return of the S-class Young Master

Losing Is Gaining

FOURTH FLOOR – SEIRYO

Staggering into the fourth portal, blood dripped from Cielo’s eyes. His vision was reduced to a mere shadow of things as his sclera refused to return to normal—still in a bloodshot state.

Though he could only see things around him in a black-and-white perspective, he could still pretty much recognize a bolt of lightning piercing through the empty sky when he saw one. And this time, the first thing he noticed right after entering the fourth floor, was the rain of lightning bolts that littered the blackened skies.

Contradicting the lively skies, the vast land below it was deprived of anything.

No signs of life.

There were only a handful of rocks and pebbles beneath his feet. The land was so dry that cracks–big and small—littered around him.

‘I cannot use the God’s Eyes just to look for the fourth beast. Like the third one, I cannot feel the presence of monsters. With the way my eyes are about to reach the final limit, I can push through two last death commands at most.’

The land shook. Cielo had to steady himself to stop himself from slumping down.

Roar!

The roaring sound was first heard before the dry land before Cielo turned into a gigantic quicksand, swallowing anything that would fall down in a blink of an eye.

Cielo jumped away from the quicksand before him. His vigilance had reached its highest peak, ready to jump away should the land he was standing on would become like the growing quicksand from his north.

Roar!

This time, the roar became louder. The fluctuations of energy and the smell of death wafted the air around Cielo.

On cue, a colossal fat worm with spike-like projections at both ends appeared from the center of the quicksand. With its appearance that towered over Cielo, the continuous suction of the quicksand finally ceased.

‘This is like the Mongolian Death Worm I heard from my grandfather! Only this time, it is much bigger and meaner… but despite its size and ferocity, Cielo was still reluctant to admit that this was the boss of the fourth floor. For some reason, it did not raise his vigilance and sense of crisis as the other three did.

The death worm opened its enormous mouth, exposing hundreds of spike-like teeth. Its large mouth sucked the air, sucking the pebbles and sand into its hollow mouth. With its roar, the air shook and the land trembled.

‘I cannot waste my death command without the assurance that there are no more of this kind. And the boss is yet to show its face, I do not believe that something this shallow is the fourth floor’s boss.’

“Show yourself!” Cielo looked around as he screamed. “Don’t hide like a coward behind this dummy!”

Veins bulged around Cielo’s neck and forehead as he turned his body around from all directions. He wanted to end this sooner. If he would drag it, he was afraid that his eyes would collapse on him.

The death worm’s roar answered Cielo’s provocative yells.

A shadow loomed slowly behind him. Before the death worm could dive and suck Cielo as it did to the pebbles and sand, Cielo had long leaped to her right.

Roaring from missing its target, the death worm launched an onslaught of attacks toward Cielo.  Exhausted from fighting one floor boss to another, Cielo’s dodging ability was significantly reduced.

The more aggressive the head-dive attacks of the death worm—with the intention to eat Cielo raw—the more tired Cielo became. Sweat trickled down his spine and chin. His shoulders and chest heaved up and down in sync as he tried to catch his breath every time he would roll and jumped.

Roar!

‘Damn it! When will the boss appear? At this rate, I will be crushed before I could even use the death command on that son of a bitch.’ Cielo thought as he dropped his body on the ground when the tail of the death worm attacked him from behind.

‘It will be bad if this worm uses the sand around us,’ Cielo gritted his teeth from his train of thought. Wiping away the sweat from his chin, he closed his eyes when the urge to use the God’s Eyes came into him like a wave.

‘Not now!’

As if the brainless death worm heard Cielo’s thoughts, it dove right into the soft spots of the land around them which was mainly covered by sand.

“Shit!”

The second urge to use the God’s Eyes was harder to fight back. It came into him by instinct, as if it was already part of his body.

The tangy taste of blood dripped down his throat. He had to bite his tongue hard to stop himself from spewing the death command.

Boom!

Too occupied with stopping himself to use the remaining death commands of the God’s Eyes, it was too late for Cielo to realize that the land he was standing on had become soft and that sand surrounded him. Sucking his body starting from his feet, he had already tilted by the ankles.

“Damn this!” These were the last words Cielo—who was doing his best to climb up from sinking—had spoken before he was swallowed by the death worm.

Springing up from the depths of the sand, the death worm swallowed Cielo completely.

For Cielo, it was too quick. The transition was too quick that the next thing he knew, he was already lying cramped inside the death worm’s stomach.

“What the fuck is this?”

His exposed skin that touched the stomach’s innards turned reddish purple; it was as if his skin was being slowly peeled off by the mere exposure through skin contact.

‘No. It is not the inner skin of the death worm, but that dark-colored acid.’ Cielo thought after wandering his gaze.

Even his clothes started to disintegrate! Though the colossal death worm had a spacious digestive area, with each movement the monster would make, it would push him to the lower area where a pool of corrosive acid was waiting for him!

Cielo trudged to the other side where he came from. But the slimy innards of the death worm seemed to such his feet, making it hard for him to take a single step away from his original spot.

“One at a time. I can do this one at a time. Let us not think about the death command. I can still do this!” Cielo chanted like a mantra to himself.

Limited oxygen supply. Acidic air. Forceful steps. Poisonous steam execrating from the innards of the death worm. It was no wonder how Cielo had doubled the level of his exhaustion.

Looking back at the boiling dark-colored pool of acid that would surely reduce him to a pile of bones, he closed his eyes and maintained his calm breathing.

“Five steps. Think of it this way, I am already five steps away from this damn monster’s mouth. Keep it cool. Keep it cool, Cielo.”

While talking to himself with his eyes closed, the insides of the death worm squeezed in. For a moment, Cielo opened his eyes only to see that he was about to be crushed by the inside wall of the death worm’s body.

“Shit!”

Before the walls around Cielo could squash him to death, a roar resonated followed by the turbulent flow of the wind from the outside. Pushing him back, Cielo was inched into the pool of corrosive substance behind him.

“This damn bastard is sucking again!”

The five feet difference Cielo was able to do was reduced to one foot. Craning his neck to see the dreaded fact that he was inches away from death, a decision had been made.

“Burst!”

Boom!

Hundreds of piles of lumps of flesh flew to the skies. The colossal death worm popped like a balloon as soon as the death command was uttered.

Among the piles of lumps of flesh, Cielo was thrown as well. He skyrocketed like the rest and plummeted with the pieces of what were left of the colossal death worm.

He landed with a thump on a big chunk of death worm. Crimson ink trickle down his eyes like tears as the color of his sclera had turned to the worst.

Now, Cielo was down to his last death command. No. Even calling it his last attack was a bit over the board. Cielo knew fully well of his body. No matter how much he tricked himself, he knew damn well that if he used his God’s Eyes one more time, there was a possibility that he would lose his eyes forever.

He inhaled deep, filling his lungs with air; then he exhaled quite excessively—more like an excessive sigh. With his eyes now open, the severity of the black-and-white vision turned for the worst case scenario.

“You are at your limit,” said a voice akin to a sage.

The shadow that covered his line of vision became clearer. “You finally decided to show up, huh?”

“I have been watching you, Cielo of the Regalia Clan. I watched you slaughtered my brethren. Watched you killed Byaku, Genbu, and Suzako.”

Cielo stood before the floating dragon with horns and elongated body without a pair of wings. “And now it’s your turn.”

“At the expense of your eyes, I know. I told you, I am watching you the entire time.”

The dragon landed. “Indeed. It is my turn.”

The frown deepened when he saw the dragon closed its eyes. There was no hostility in his stance and in his energy. In fact, the aura Cielo felt around the fourth boss was calming—soothing the chaotic depravity in his mind.

“Kill me now and lose your eyes, only then will this floor be cleared, for the great portal is within my soul.”

‘I don’t like this.’

“You may not like it, but that is your conscience talking—the last strand of boundary between the balance of righteousness and malediction in you, Cielo Regalia. Losing is gaining. Kill me and be on your way to the top floor.”