Ding! Ding! Ding!
[You can extract something from the “Guardian of Nightmares.”]
[You will receive your reward for completing this tower shortly.]
Alex exhaled deeply, his breath misting faintly in the dark atmosphere as the realization finally sank in.
He had done it.
He had conquered the [Tower of Nightmares], the impossible tower that no one else had ever managed to defeat.
For the first time in who knew how many years, someone had shattered the illusion of its invincibility.
And that someone was him.
Honestly, he owed a lot to his [Blood Arts] and to Astolf.
Without the overwhelming advantages they had given him, from the relentless blood blades to the constant assistance, he might have been the one lying defeated instead of standing victorious.
He also couldn’t help but feel a small wave of relief that the nightmare Alex hadn’t copied some of his most devastating abilities, like [Threads of Fate] or [World Cleaver].
If it had, there was no doubt he would have been crushed without a chance to retaliate.
Still, that didn’t matter anymore.
What mattered was that he had won.
With steady steps, Alex moved forward, and before him, a new panel materialized, shimmering faintly in the broken black and purple air.
[Extract something from the “Guardian of Nightmares”]
[Eye of Nightmares (Forbidden)]
[Description: A twisted eye that allows the user to glimpse into the fears of others. You cannot use it.]
[Heart of Endless Dread (Forbidden)]
[Description: The Guardian’s blackened heart, radiating a heavy dread that saps courage, weakens resistance, and spreads despair to all nearby. You cannot use it.]
[Veil of Silent Depths (Forbidden)]
[Description: A piece of nightmare-forged cloth that cloaks the wearer in complete silence and shadow, erasing their presence from both senses and memory. You cannot use it.]
“Nice,” Alex muttered sarcastically under his breath, squinting at the floating choices. “So I can’t use any of these. That’s… incredibly helpful.”
Still, rather than rush a decision, he glanced upward at the crown resting lightly on his head, the [Crown of Calamity].
“You think you can absorb any of these?” he asked aloud, not really expecting much but willing to try anything. “They’re forbidden, but maybe they could still be useful.”
The crown remained silent for a moment, as if deliberating, before a small text prompt appeared.
[Unfortunately not, these items cannot be absorbed.]
Alex sighed. “Figures.”
With little other choice, he hovered his hand over the options, taking a moment to think.
He couldn’t use any of them directly anyway, so it was better to pick the one that sounded like it had the most potential value.
Without much hesitation, he tapped.
Ding!
[You have extracted the “Heart of Endless Dread” (Forbidden Item)]
Honestly, he would have preferred the [Eye of Nightmares].
If it had been possible to merge it with his [Cursed Eyes of Truth], he could have gained a terrifying new layer of ability.
But it wasn’t meant to be.
Instead, he now held the pulsating, blackened heart of the Guardian in his hand, cold, heavy, and radiating a nearly tangible aura of despair.
“Inventory time,” Alex muttered to himself, pulling up his [Digital Inventory Watch], intending to store the heart away like he had done with countless other trophies.
However…
Fwish! Boom!
A sudden gust of dark energy burst above him, making Alex’s wings flare out instinctively to brace himself.
From within the swirling shadows, a familiar figure emerged—Astolf, the Undead King.
The skeletal figure hovered lightly in the air, radiating far more power than usual.
His hollow sockets glowed brightly with eerie green flames, and his bony hands were clasped behind his back.
Astolf gazed at the heart in Alex’s hand with a strange intensity.
“May I take it?” the Undead King asked calmly, his voice rattling slightly with an ancient echo. “I think… I might be able to do something with it.”
Alex raised an eyebrow in confusion, glancing from Astolf back to the pulsating heart.
After a brief moment of consideration, he shrugged. “Sure. Go ahead.”
Without hesitation, he tossed the heart upward.
A massive skeletal hand, larger than before, erupted from the ground and caught the heart delicately between its fingers.
Alex watched curiously.
He had no idea why Astolf wanted the heart, but it wasn’t like he had any use for it.
If the Undead King could make something useful out of it, all the better.
Astolf brought the heart closer to his face, his expression unreadable as always.
“For an undead being like me…” he began, his voice low and thoughtful, “…a heart like this could be invaluable.”
The heart was pitch black, with deep purple veins running across its surface, each pulse sending out faint waves of dark mist.
And then, without any warning, Astolf did something completely unexpected.
He opened his skeletal mouth, and ate the heart.
Alex blinked, frozen in surprise for a moment. “What the hell…” he muttered, watching with wide eyes.
The heart slid down Astolf’s throat—or at least what passed for a throat—and Alex could clearly see it drop into his ribcage.
With no flesh to conceal it, the heart was fully visible, sitting there, pulsing faintly inside the skeleton’s chest.
For a second, Alex half-expected it to simply fall through and hit the ground.
But it didn’t.
Instead, just as it settled in place, the heart suddenly stopped moving.
“I knew it,” Astolf whispered, almost to himself.
His voice, usually calm, now carried a strange note of excitement.
“Amazing…”
Fwish! BOOM!
The heart exploded inside his chest with a burst of violent energy, sending a shockwave that threw Alex backward several meters.
Flapping his wings hard, he managed to stabilize himself midair, coughing slightly as he was blasted by the force.
Dark mist flooded the area, thick and heavy, hiding Astolf from sight.
Alex didn’t call out.
He trusted Astolf enough to know that whatever was happening was intentional.
Instead, he narrowed his eyes, advancing carefully toward the source of the explosion.
Crack! Zap!
The sounds of raw, uncontained energy split through the mist as the transformation continued.
And then…
Fwish! Fwish! Boom!
From within the dense fog, a figure emerged.
“Here it is…” Astolf’s voice rumbled, filled with a new weight. “Power…”
And it was Astolf—but at the same time, it wasn’t.
Alex narrowed his eyes, observing closely.
The Undead King’s form had changed noticeably.
He was still skeletal, but his frame was slightly larger, more robust.
His arms had grown thicker, his shoulders broader.
Most striking of all, embedded right in the center of his ribcage, was the [Heart of Endless Dread], pulsing steadily with a deep purple light.
From that heart, countless small tendrils of dark energy stretched out, anchoring themselves into his bones like veins.
Astolf’s body, once pure white bone, was now crisscrossed with glowing purple cracks, and one of his eye sockets now burned not with green fire, but with deep purple flames.
Alex couldn’t help but be a little impressed.
The Undead King’s aura had changed dramatically.
It was still him, but now his presence seemed heavier, denser, far more menacing—like a dormant storm barely being contained.
It was also a little disgusting seeing the heart pulse like that openly in his chest.
“Is that…” Alex began to ask, but Astolf cut him off.
“As I said earlier, undead do not possess hearts. But for someone like me, having a heart—even one as cursed as this—grants power. Immense power.”
Astolf paused, glancing down at his own body as the purple veins flickered across him.
“It cannot bring me back to life, obviously,” he continued, his voice oddly satisfied, “but it can give me a strength that surpasses the limits of typical undead.”
Alex nodded slowly, still processing everything.
Even if he didn’t understand all the specifics, the result was clear—Astolf was much, much stronger now.
However, just as Astolf took a step forward, he suddenly staggered and dropped to one knee, groaning.
“Guh… this power… it’s a bit much right now,” he admitted, the purple cracks along his body flaring brighter for a second.
“Take a rest,” Alex said simply.
Without another word, Astolf’s form began to break apart into dark mist, flowing back into Alex’s body, returning to the [Undead Space] where he could recover safely.
And just like that, Alex was alone once more.
He let out a small breath, letting the quiet settle in.
Everything was finally wrapped up—the tower cleared, the guardian defeated, and Astolf empowered.
There was only one thing left to check.
Ding!
[You have received the “Token of Nightmares” as a reward of conquering the tower.]