As he said such words, tendrils of the sky started falling down. Pallad could hardly block and send the one toward him off to the side, causing the ground to crumble, the long black spike getting stuck. Bariton and Shammus managed to dodge their own, while Clara and Judine used a shield related spell to either dispel their own or deflect it.
The ground itself was being pulled apart, and Bariton saw that happening first. He quickly pulled out some rope from his inventory with stakes and put them in the ground and tried to hold everything together himself.
While the god and Bariton were playing Tug of War, the party was able to launch attacks, but the void surrounding them solidified to block these almost effortlessly. Bariton watches the battle just trying and figuring out how to win.
It seems unbeatable, but the tower has never given them an unbeatable foe before. Not one that can’t be beaten in some way or another, whether the method involves sacrifice is varying.
But this one can’t involve sacrifice, if there’s one thing that he noticed in the forty floors he had completed before this one was that the tower loved variance. So that one wasn’t it. He then noticed that the arm was made of void.
“Clara!” Bariton yelled out, as she looked back over, “Enchant Judine’s arrows with the Holy Element! Or Light!”
Clara’s nod was all Bariton needed to know they were set to win. Judine’s arrows kept flying towards the opponent, but Bariton was slowly losing grip. The void moved around to block the arrows, but these ones have dual enchantments.
They explode first and then shoot out a light pellet. Bariton knew how incredible a feat it was to make those, which is why he egged on Sornid to make them. He never thought he’d lose one of the greatest Damage Dealers they had access to, let alone when he was paired with the greatest healer.
But oh well, that just meant another target to burn after getting stronger. The arrows destroy the void with the light pellets and then explode when they get close, allowing for an opening for Shammus to exploit.
Pallad also got the same opportunities with the up close battles, but those are far too risky right now. Pallad definitely has his hands full with blocking all the attacks of the void for the team, getting constantly healed by Clara.
This plan was damn near perfect, but Shadowing was slowly adapting to it. Therefore, Bariton had to switch it up. Shadowing Voices finally adapts to the arrows, allowing them to hit then tearing them out before the explosion.
But the land split up with ease. As if someone suddenly let go, and Pallad was holding a sword that wasn’t the slaughterer’s sword, he can tell that much. He broke through it far too easily that another god could not have made it.
He finds out just as quickly as to where the one holding together the land had gone. He feels an arrow pierce his skull on the front and a sword through his spine, piercing his heart. Bariton was the one holding the sword, but it’s special effect that stopped regeneration around the wound and Bariton’s high Dexterity allowed it be truly fatal.
Bariton’s critical chance was almost high enough to always land a fatal blow, and against someone who always regenerates you need fatal blows. Bariton quickly flies away, his wings returning to his back.
“Found out the activation for these,” Bariton says as he lands, tossing the sword back to Pallad who catches it easily. “But I’d recommend finishing him off for me.”
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Pallad nods solemnly, an oddity Bariton hardly notices, but it must be what floor 40 did to him. As it gave them all a slightly new outlook on life. As he watches his party members slaughter Shadowing Voices quickly he simply awaits the victory message.
The sky returns to normal at the exact same time as the victory was certain.
[You Win!]
[You earned…]
Bariton knew the earnings from that was useless, it was the actual drops from this man that mattered. And it seemed the party knew the exact same things. The actual rewards weren’t all too much, but there was something interesting to Shammus.
He looked down at the item, and silently equipped it. It was a little necklace that was supposedly called the [Voidstar], a Mythical item that allowed him to control the void as if it were a typical element.
And he put it nice and under his shirt. The rest of the party also got small items, Pallad getting a new blade called the [Voidmeiser’s Ancient Blade], another mythical item that allowed the user to tear through reality and cut into the void once a day.
He left it as a sword on his hip, while Clara got a new staff, [Voided Staff], once again a mythical item that allowed the user to link people through the void, and allows healing magic to travel without the need to see and is cheaper to send it over.
Judine got something just as useful; [Abyssal Bow], another mythical weapon that allowed the arrows to be sent to the void like a subspace as it flew, allowing it to technically gain more speed and unpredictability as the exit portal was also controllable.
But Bariton declined the reward, especially since it’d be more useful with the [Voidstar]. The [Eye of The Void] was truly something that helped out someone with control of the void. It allows the user to see the void as the underlying thing it is, and thus see areas with less connection to it.
And despite declining the reward, he now had something better than a mythical item. The experience of the battle, and the strategies that these items are able to create. With Shammus capable of controlling and seeing void, he was able to make new tools.
Pallad’s abilities to cut into the void allowed him another strong tool for cutting and tearing through enemies with high defense, and then using the Slaughterer’s Sword to disable regeneration of the area cut.
Clara’s healing was now much more efficient, travelling through the void, which with Shammus’s ability to move it allowed the two to work together to deliver the healing where it belongs.
His small smile gave it away to the rest of his party that he was plotting, so they just simply grabbed the scruff of his clothing to drag Bariton to the next floor. It was a shorter trip for the floor than others, and yet he continued scheming all the way to the next area.
The rest of the party set up camp around Bariton, Shammus his sleeping bag on the floor beside the flame. Judine began placing the hooks for the tent slightly further out. Pallad swings his sword consistently each time, a practiced motion he repeats over and over.
Clara prays to her god, making another makeshift grave for Sornid. A new nightly routine she’d repeat until the tower was over. Until whatever killed him was gone. Until that beast was able to be feasted upon by them.
Clara looked upon the light of the system, but her eyes were drawn to her level. Level 1500. It’s an impossibly high number for someone who used to be a pacifist to reach, only killing monsters she knew full well were only going to cause problems.
But now she was the one who led to Sornid’s death. She felt as if all she knew beforehand was gone, and the passionate man who used to fill the air with the scribbling of a pen on paper had joined it.

