"Tell me exactly which god you serve. If you happen to worship a deity I personally know, I might actually consider sparing your pathetic life," the entity asked.

Vlad tightened his grip on his hilt and kept his silver blade angled toward the light. "You will certainly despise my answer. I bow to absolutely no one, and I serve no god."

"A royal who rejects the heavens." The voice expanded its volume to fill the endless void. "Mortals trapped within this domain can never leave. Fortunately for you, your divine ichor makes you incredibly useful. Help me locate a specific item lost in this ruin, and I will grant you safe passage back to your own world."

The glowing hands suddenly swept outward, illuminating the unconscious forms of Zoro and Miro lying motionless on the unseen floorboards.

"I am the victim of a catastrophic tragedy." The entity struck the invisible floor, shaking the entire domain. "I fulfilled my divine duty by slaughtering every last heir of the Eden bloodline. I prepared to harvest their accumulated grace. Absorbing that collected power would have instantly elevated me to the grand rank of an archangel."

One of the massive hands formed a fist and punched the unseen ground again. A shockwave of white light rippled across the dark canvas.

"However, a rival deity intervened in my glorious ascension." The glowing fingers flexed sharply. "That jealous god blessed a lowly heretic with absurd strength. The armored insect somehow managed to inflict a fatal wound upon my perfect vessel."

Vlad narrowed his eyes and tracked the rippling light across the void.

"I poured out every last drop of my remaining ichor just to preserve my own life." The void vibrated violently with the spoken words. "While I lay completely broken and weakened, that same rival god played a final, cowardly trick. The deity sealed my consciousness inside this fractured dimension. The containment process remained entirely incomplete. The leaking divine magic infected the entire kingdom, twisting every single corpse into a rotting, undead abomination."

The voice redirected its focus entirely onto the royal swordsman. "The heretic Paladin stole my ascension. Tell me, little prince. Has that corrupted knight finally been defeated?"

Vlad didn’t say anything in response.

"That heretic stubbornly clung to his pathetic vows long after his soul faded." The disembodied voice echoed across the void, rattling the invisible floorboards beneath Vlad’s boots. "He rose from the dirt as an undead abomination and paced tirelessly around the palace and this secret chamber. His endless patrol trapped me inside this ruined vault for centuries. He maintained his foolish guard duty even in death."

The twin constructs of solid light drifted closer to the silver armor. "I spent those agonizing centuries gathering my scattered grace. I eventually recovered enough divine power to manipulate the spatial coordinates of this realm. I created a dimensional distortion and swapped his location with the upper labyrinth to finally free myself."

Vlad tightened his grip on his hilt and tracked the glowing appendages.

"Opening the vault doors restored half of my true strength," the entity continued. "I simply need the gemstone of the royal crown to completely recover my archangel status. The artifact is hidden somewhere inside this very chamber, locked away behind a secondary spatial seal."

"I, as a being of divine bloodline, can’t interfere. But someone such as you with a royal bloodline can." One of the massive glowing hands pointed a finger directly at the royal swordsman. "Find the crown for me right now. Retrieve the jewel, and I will graciously allow you to return to your mortal world."

Vlad let out an arrogant chuckle. He shifted his stance and raised his silver blade. "You expect me to play fetch for a crippled pigeon hiding in the dark. I would rather cut you to pieces and take my chances finding the exit myself."

The glowing constructs flared with blinding intensity. The massive hands shot forward, attempting to crush the royal knight into dust. Vlad sidestepped the initial strike, bringing his weapon around in a vicious upward arc.

The pristine metal sparked against the solid light, failing to cut deeply into the dense magic.

The second hand swept horizontally across the void. Vlad channeled his golden aura and leaped backward, barely clearing the massive appendage. He landed hard on the unseen floorboards, his boots skidding across the invisible surface.

He raised his sword to parry a swift downward chop. The kinetic impact drove him to one knee and cracked the very foundation of his defense.

"You possess a mere fraction of my true strength," the entity taunted from the shadows. "I am showing you profound mercy by prolonging this exchange. I can snuff out your spark whenever I please."

The glowing constructs suddenly vanished into the pitch-black surroundings. Vlad pushed himself back to his feet and scanned the absolute darkness. He continuously tracked the void, waiting for the inevitable ambush.

A brilliant flash illuminated the space once again. The twin constructs of solid light hovered high above the invisible floorboards.

One glowing fist squeezed tightly around Miro’s limp waist. The other clamped securely onto Zoro’s dark cloak, leaving the unconscious mage dangling over the void.

At the same time, Solomon brought the massive executioner’s sword crashing down onto the skeletal knight’s skull. The pristine steel shattered the rusted helmet instantly and cleaved straight through the monster’s ribcage.

He casually rested Eden’s Penance against his shoulder and stepped over the scattered remains.

The owl hovered closely behind his back while projecting the translucent chat interface across his vision.

[LazyCat: your damage output is literally insane right now. you just one-shot a palace guard!]

[GoonLord: WHERE ARE YOU EVEN GOING?! THE PALACE IS THE OTHER WAY!]

"I am trying to find loot," Solomon explained while navigating a descending flight of broken marble stairs. "Since the paladin was left undefeated, and this place was his original location, he must be guarding something really important, right?"

He kicked a rotting wooden door off its hinges and stepped into a flooded corridor. Three mutated cave spiders dropped from the damp ceiling with their fangs bared.

Solomon swung the giant sword in a devastating horizontal arc to bypass their hard carapaces entirely.

The kinetic force ripped the arachnids into pieces and splattered green blood across the stone walls. Solomon wiped a stray drop of venom from his cheek and continued his march down the winding tunnel.

The inherited memories of the ancient knight guided his footsteps perfectly through the dark maze. He bypassed three collapsed intersections and entirely avoided a massive pit trap hidden beneath the murky water.

[User12: bro is navigating this place like he built it himself.]

[NewbHunter: I bet the S-Rank sword comes with a built-in map or something.]

[LoreMaster: Royal vaults usually contain legendary artifacts. This stream is about to make history.]

[GamerGuy: Does that mean this dimension is about to be cleared?]

A squad of corrupted beastmen stepped out from the shadows ahead and raised their rusted halberds.

Solomon completely ignored his own fatigue and launched himself forward. He ducked under a thrusting polearm and drove his fist directly into the lead monster’s chest plate. The impact caved the armor inward and sent the beastman crashing into its allies.

He utilized his momentum to spin on his heel and bring the greatsword around. The divine steel easily sheared through the remaining monsters in a single fluid motion. Gray ash rained down into the puddles as Solomon marched past the fading corpses.

The narrow corridor finally opened up into a massive underground cavern constructed entirely from polished black stone.

Solomon stopped walking and stared at the towering obstruction blocking the far end of the room. Two colossal vault doors forged from pristine white steel stretched up toward the ceiling. Complex golden runes covered the entire surface of the barricade.

"We finally made it," Solomon announced to the hovering drone. "This is the royal vault."

He walked up to the towering doors and gripped the hilt of his weapon with both hands. The paladin had explicitly promised that channeling the Imperial Sword Arts through the relic would unlock the seal. Solomon planted his feet and prepared to push his golden aura into the blade.

A sudden tremor violently shook the entire cavern. The black stone walls began to crack and splinter like fragile glass. Bright white light spilled through the widening fractures as the spatial dimensions around the vault actively collapsed inward.