Spiral of Madness: Ascension of the Villainous Dragon Prince-Chapter 104: The Desolate Empire [3]

He laughed wildly as he spread his arms and let magic rain down relentlessly. The destruction brought him a strange, liberating joy—the kind he had long suppressed. To unleash everything without restraint felt exhilarating.

Against these Entities, he had nothing to hold back.

Well, except the Fortress Guardian.

"Filthy... Invader...! The Empire...! Shall not fall...! As long... as I live!"

A giant skeleton over ten meters tall rose from the rubble, roaring furiously while blazing with soul flames. Unlike the others, it had a bulky frame, a large skull crowned with sharp, demon-like horns, cracked black armor draped in animal pelts, and a pair of burning greatswords.

And yes, it could speak.

It wasn’t quite a Level 3 Entity, but a Peak Level 2—far stronger than the lesser foes. Louis looked down and smiled, firing icicles and Void Bullets from above.

"You can talk? Pity."

Louis felt no real remorse—especially since it would respawn later anyway. He continued his assault, but the Guardian roared. Flames surged from its skeletal jaws as it swung its burning swords, shattering the icicles and deflecting the void bullets.

"Pitiful magic...! Won’t do!"

RUMBLE!

Charging blazing energy into its legs, the Guardian leaped skyward, reaching for Louis’s leg. Louis evaded swiftly and pointed Gungnir at its head. His aura surged, bathing his skeletal wings in light and giving them the appearance of feathered, angelic wings.

"Aren’t you getting a bit ahead of yourself, my friend?"

BOOOM!

With a single, concentrated thrust, Louis pierced the creature’s head. The rest of its body exploded in an instant. The powerful Guardian died before it could unleash any other technique or power, collapsing into scattered pieces of bone across the fortress.

The remaining Undead quickly lost their morale. Some began surrendering, kneeling and dropping their weapons to the floor. Louis observed the scene with faint amusement, noting how much of their past-life traits lingered even after death.

"Don’t worry. You will revive later."

Louis showed no mercy. He spread his Sword Aura into multiple long-range slashing attacks, cutting through dozens of Undead Soldiers. Even those who had surrendered met a swift end, sliced into countless pieces.

As he walked forward, Louis kicked aside a pile of rubble and approached a hidden path. He descended into the basement of the ruins, where a group of Undead guarded the way. They panicked and attacked, hurling fireballs. Louis deflected them effortlessly with his sword and then pierced their skulls with his spear.

"Here it is."

A Treasure Chest awaited him. Every fortress city held a low-quality chest said to contain some random item or artifact. The best possible reward was the Skeleton Soldier Ring, which would allow him to summon up to ten Skeleton Soldiers. He hoped for it, but since the contents were random, he kept his expectations low.

"Ah, I should have expected this."

When he opened the chest, no relic appeared. What he received wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best either.

"A Rune Stone..."

It was a small, palm-sized purple stone with a powerful Rune embedded within. Such stones could be applied to equipment to grant the effects of the Rune.

He examined its details and learned it was a [Rune of Slaughter], increasing Attack Power the more he killed within a one-minute window.

After the minute passed, the bonus would vanish—so it was an interesting, high-risk skill.

"I could use it to slaughter a large group of weaklings, then charge the power and obliterate a boss with one attack... Yes, it’s not bad at all."

Nodding, he placed the Rune Stone against Gungnir and let her absorb it.

FLASH!

Gungnir emitted a glowing purple light as the Rune imprinted itself into her metallic body.

Runes could later be extracted once he entered the Academy if he no longer wanted the effect.

Each piece of equipment had a limited number of Rune Slots. For those that could grow, the slots increased with each Rank.

Gungnir, currently Rank 1 Soul Gear, could hold only one Rune for now.

"Speaking of growth, how strong are you right now, Gungnir?"

Louis checked his status again. Gungnir had reached 86% Growth. Once she hit 100%, she would qualify for Rank 2. He would need materials and a skilled Blacksmith to assist.

After reuniting with Zorba, they performed the same Soul Exchange Exploit to seize control of a large quantity of Souls—as many as their own Souls could handle—and quickly raised an army of around fifty Skeletons from the bones of the fallen.

Beyond that, the Fortress Guardian’s Soul was fed to Hecatoncheires, making it grow stronger. Louis wasn’t certain whether the Guardian would respawn without its soul present. Once he left the Dimensional Labyrinth, he would keep watch to see if anything changed.

"Alright, we’re done. Let’s keep moving. Sinners don’t need much sleep, Zorba, so I hope you’re not feeling tired already."

"Not at all, master! Please lead the way!"

"Good."

Louis nodded and marched forward with his Undead army. After two hours of flying through the skies, they reached the next area: the Sapphire Shield Fortress. The Undead awaiting them wore ice armor and radiated powerful freezing auras.

The Fortress Guardian was already active—a tall female zombie roughly the same size as the previous one, with long white hair and gleaming blue eyes. Half her face exposed bone. She wielded a pair of frost spears and looked down on them with contempt.

"Invaders... shall be... executed...! No mercy...! No mercy...! No mercy...!"

She repeated the words in a monstrous hiss as her army of Undead charged. Unlike the skeletons, these were mostly zombies—though many had exposed bony parts, they were largely encased in ice.

"How fascinating! Zombies now?! And they’re in a permafrost state?! This is truly marvelous!" Zorba clapped with delight.

"This guy..." Louis rolled his eyes and looked ahead. "Gungnir, I’ll let you have some fun. Try out your new Rune."

Gungnir obeyed. She turned into a blur of yellow light and vanished from his hands, reaching the army of Frost Zombies and impaling dozens at a time.

The more she killed, the more a powerful dark purple ghostly aura surged from within Gungnir and Louis. A number appeared above his head, displaying the kill count.

The higher the number rose, the stronger the accumulated energy became.

"So it works like that too."

While smiling faintly, Louis noticed the Fortress Guardian leaping toward him. Her twin frost spears gleamed brightly.

"PERISH!"

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