Chapter 26: True Cost of a Soul

The doors open, and the intense heat of the thirty-third level hit Dante straight in the face. The entire entry sector was a boiling lake of red mineral fire fluid, the stone walls melting and dripping down into the sludge.

But Dante didn’t care about the heat. His eyes were locked entirely on the figure standing on the raised stone platform in the center of the lake.

It was Kenneth.

The S-Rank Mage was holding a long staff carved from a dense blue crystal, his silver guild robes stained with ash. He wasn’t smiling. His face looked older, worn down by the same corporate stress that had ruined Dante’s past life.

When Kenneth saw Dante’s face under the black hood, his hand tightened around his crystal staff so hard.

"I told Marcus he was a fool," Kenneth said.

"He threw a fake funeral, drank expensive liquor, and claimed the dragon killed you. But I knew. I knew no beast on that fifty-fifth floor could kill Dante Grey without a real fight."

Dante stepped out of the lift, his foot touching of the burning stone. He didn’t rush forward. He looked at Kenneth with a piercing stillness.

"You were the one who calculated the core layout for the raid, Kenneth," Dante said, his voice low, vibrating with an anger he had kept buried for months. "Marcus did the talking, but you were the logic. I shielded your mana channel three times during the ascent. I gave you the ancient sapphire core from the deep level so you could reach S-Rank. And you still betrayed me?."

Kenneth’s jaw tightened, a shame and defensive fury crossing his features. "And what were we supposed to do, Dante? Live under your shadow forever? Every time we cleared a floor, the news text only mentioned your name! The investors didn’t even look at our contract reports! You were a god, and we were just the porters carrying your extra potions! Marcus offered us a seat at the top table. Survival isn’t personal, Dante. It’s just business."

"Business," Dante muttered, his fingers curling into tight fists. "Then let’s look at the balance log."

"Do you think I came down here unprepared?" Kenneth roared, slamming the base of his blue crystal staff onto the mineral platform.

’Abyssal Domain: Space Isolation.’

A translucent boundary wall erupted from the floor, sealing Dante, Yenna, and the reptile inside a fifty-meter box.

Instantly Dante’s vision violently glitched. The ambient energy dropped to absolute zero. The space logic was completely frozen. Dante could feel his SSS-Rank Limitless Mana Well coiling tight inside his chest, but the boundary stopped his mana from expanding outside his skin. He couldn’t project his hellfire or use his core matrix to alter the walls. He was restricted entirely to the raw strength inside his frame.

"I spent a time studying your old combat logs and your skills and everything this time you are climbing floor i was watching everything Dante!" Kenneth shouted, his silver robes flying as he channeled his core matrix. "Your new defense trick relies on a direct strike loop! You want people to punch you so you can reflect the force! So, I am not going to touch you!"

Kenneth pointed his staff at the floor directly beneath the giant alligator.

The ground under the reptile’s feet instantly dissolved into a pool of liquid. The twelve-meter beast let out a sound from its teeth, its front legs sinking into the boiling trap. Yenna lost her balance, her body sliding off the scales toward the red fire fluid below.

"Zero!" Yenna called out, her claws digging into the dark scales as she tried to hold her position.

Dante didn’t hesitate. He used his Void Step to glide over the empty air, catching Yenna’s wrist with his left hand and pulling her up onto the solid ledge behind him. But the sudden movement to save her left his back completely exposed.

Kenneth layout was perfect. He didn’t shoot a projectile spell. Instead, he altered the atmospheric pressure inside the grey box, multiplying the weight of the air around Dante’s lungs by three hundred times.

The invisible gravitational weight slammed into Dante like a falling mountain. Because it was a status alteration rather than a physical strike, the Vajra Mirror Body did not trigger. Dante’s knees buckled, he slamming hard into the stone. A burning ache spread through his chest as the air was forcibly crushed out of his lungs.

He couldn’t take a breath. His muscles strained, the energy from the ten thousand absorbed cores fighting against the immense gravity trying to flatten his spine.

"You brought baggage to a solo climb, Dante!" Kenneth mocked, his eyes wide with a manic, desperate triumph as he raised his staff to cast the final containment grid. "That cat-kin is your anchor! Without your mana projection, you’re just a broken hunter gasping in group!"

Dante stood under the crushing force , his chest heaving, sweat dripping down his jawline. He looked straight at Kenneth’s face—the face of the friend he had shared campfires with for two long years. The absolute realization of the betrayal hit his heart, burning hotter than the fire fluid below.

"You always talked too much when you were scared, Kenneth," Dante rasped out, his voice dangerous through his teeth.

He slowly pulled his right hand out of his pocket. His hand looked empty, but his fingers locked onto the invisible grip of the Seven-Sins Asura Blade. On his middle finger, The Asura’s Eye of Fate opened its dark eye.

A red text dot appeared right at the junction where Kenneth’s hand gripped the center of the crystal staff. That was the absolute structural weakness of the entire space isolation array.

Using every ounce of the physical strength he had harvested from the vault, Dante violently broke through the gravity pressure. He didn’t run—he used his Void Step to launch his body through the air like a spear, his empty hand driving the invisible blade straight toward Kenneth’s throat and staff.

Kenneth’s eyes stretched wide with sudden terror. He tried to pull the staff back to form a shield, but Dante’s movement was too fast, fueled by pure, unadulterated fury.

SLASH.

The invisible blade struck the red weakness dot. The blue crystal staff violently shattered into a thousand tiny mineral shards. The grey boundary wall vanished instantly, the space logic returning to normal with a loud pop.

But the blade didn’t stop. cutting straight through Kenneth’s silver robes, slicing deep into his shoulder and pinning his body against the wall behind the platform.

"Ahhhh!" Kenneth screamed, dropping to his knees, blood splashing onto his clothes as he clutched his ruined shoulder. The crystal shards cut into his face, his pride and his magic completely shattered in a single second. He looked up at Dante, his teeth grinding in pure agony. "If you kill me you won’t survive either!. Kill me then! Go ahead! Marcus is already S-Rank! You won’t make it past the forty-fifth floor!"

Dante landed on the platform, his invisible blade resting right against Kenneth’s neck. His face was completely dark.

"Marcus won’t save you, Kenneth," Dante said, his voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. "And do you really think i will not kill you because of Marcus."