Chapter 53: Apostle of the First Floor

"..." Nio and Moros descend to the 1st floor. The first floor is an immense labyrinth that seems to have no end; each wall shifts so that the targets inside remain trapped forever within its expanses.

’Yomo must be around here...’ Nio thinks of the strange Apostle who protects the first floor. Yomo has the appearance of a young girl with completely red skin, long blood-red hair, and deeply red eyes. The sclera of his eyes are completely black, and he has large red horns.

He has large breasts and a small frame, along with four long red and black tentacles sprouting from his back, but in reality, he is a man, so his physique is quite deceptive.

Since he is a [Blood Beast], Nio really wanted to avoid talking to Yomo. First, because being a blood beast, his instinct often overrides his reason, and second, because of the invasive attitude she created in his Lore.

Yomo "Likes to Hug" literally everything — not because he needs to, not because he enjoys it, but because it lets him gauge whether he can crush that thing or not. Which means that if his Lore follows the original, he will try to hug Nio in a ridiculously invasive and insistent way.

’Haa... I hope he doesn’t try to hug me. He’s a creepy guy. Not to mention he has some of the sickest tastes among all the apostles... and he’s not trustworthy at all. In the Lore, he killed and devoured everyone he ever loved, hugging them until all their organs burst while being intimate with them... it’s a disgusting level of psychopathy...’ Nio glances around the labyrinth, waiting for him to appear.

’Damn my taste for Gap Moe. It seemed cool to make a guy who looked like a pretty girl and liked bizarre things involving blood and death. Who would have thought it would blow up in my face someday...’ She hears a snapping sound, and suddenly Yomo drops from the ceiling right in front of Nio.

"Nio!!! It’s so good to see you... Moros, you too." Yomo rushes toward Nio, who dodges. Yomo doesn’t redirect his movement, grabbing Moros and hugging him, but the force bursts Moros’s body, turning him into jelly on the floor.

"You bastard!!" Moros screams at Yomo, who crushed his body. Since Moros doesn’t die from something so simple, Yomo didn’t even try to hold back.

"Come on, Moros, no need to be so uptight. It’s just a hug between colleagues. Nio—"

"Don’t try to hug me, or I’ll blow your brains out." Nio threatens him before he can try to grab her in a hug to rub himself against her.

"Ah... fine... what do you want here, Nio? You usually ignore the first floor! I haven’t seen you in millennia!! I’m going to get hurt feelings." Yomo speaks in a whiny and flirtatious tone while Nio instinctively gives him a look of pure contempt.

’Disgusting womanizer...’ For the first time, Nio feels what it’s like to be a woman and receive lecherous stares from someone despicable. And Yomo is the perfect picture of a despicable man, even if he strongly resembles a girl.

’I should have stuck with the idea of making Yomo a cute brat who loved Azalea and did everything for her like a lovesick bitch, instead of turning him into this bloodthirsty, sleazy aberration.’ Nio scratches her eyelids because she needs help from him, of all people.

Unlike the counterintuitive model of her island, the reality is that the island, being outside the heavens, breaks the model Nio had in her head. If someone invades Nio’s palace, normally that person would have to invade from below, climbing floor by floor until reaching the palace.

From above, it was supposed to be impossible to invade because of the defense system beneath the island, but since the island fell, the 9th floor is already exposed to anyone and is the floor with the fewest natural defenses. Thus, invaders would easily skip the first eight floors.

That being the case, Yomo, who protects the first floor, is useless as a defense, because no one will even reach the first floor unless they accidentally open one of the doors on the sixth floor and get teleported to the first floor.

With that in mind, she prefers to send Yomo to the Ortyr Kingdom, because Yomo is a genius, a brilliant strategist, and someone who could charm the elite and steal information by pretending to be a noble woman while using magic to hide all his inhuman traits.

"Look, Yomo, I have a mission for you. I’m going to let you leave my palace. I want you to visit a kingdom and gather as much information as possible. If you can, get involved in politics, the criminal underworld, and illegal business, and dominate everything from the shadows!!"

"I’ll let Moros go with you."

’Although having Moros here observing everything is very useful, the reality is that Moros in the palace will just get in the way most of the time because of his childish attitude. It’s better to give him something to do, and with him, Yomo can easily uncover things about the kingdom.’ Nio thinks everything through carefully before speaking.

"Oh!! A mission from Nio herself. That sounds interesting. You hear that, Moros? We’re partners." Yomo says as Moros disentangles himself from him and pulls away.

"Yeah, I heard. You don’t need to talk to me like that." Moros’s distaste for Yomo is palpable.

’I guess everyone detests someone with a personality as shitty as Yomo’s...’ Nio feels a bit of shame. She wrote Yomo’s Lore when she was still very young; he was one of her first NPCs, so he took on some of the most embarrassing parts of her life.

"Let’s get a few things crystal clear here! Yomo, you are not to annihilate the Ortyr Kingdom, you are not to massacre thousands of people, and you are not to go around doing whatever you want!! I don’t want to draw attention... my wife doesn’t know where I am, but if you cause chaos, she will find out." With everything she has discovered, Nio knows she has enough military power to dominate the Theocracy, the Empire, and the Ortyr Kingdom.

However, if she does that, it will create a beacon. Typhon has no idea where Nio is, and that is the one advantage Nio will never give up. That’s why she exercises such caution, even with so much power on her own and with her NPCs.

"Understood, Nio!! I will carry out this mission with my utmost effort!!" Yomo says with a smile, but with a very fake look in his eyes.

’He will undoubtedly betray me if he gets the chance... but with Moros by his side, he won’t have any openings to betray me. Moros will tell me everything he does.’ That’s why Nio decided to send Moros with him — not just because he won’t be useful in the palace, but because he will keep an eye on someone more problematic than the human invaders near the palace perimeter.