HP - Shadow Monarch - Chapter 204 - Baran?

[Chapter Size: 2100 Words.] Third Person POV Demonic Tower. ... ... "Wh-why did you bring him here? Especially with an army?" The man in the

[Chapter Size: 2100 Words.]
Third Person POV

Demonic Tower.

...

...

"Wh-why did you bring him here? Especially with an army?"
The man in the main chair of the audience hall in that castle pointed at Severus, mainly at the shadows hidden at his feet, where monsters of all shapes were gathered—so powerful they could easily wipe them out.

Esil Radiru looked at her father, then at Severus, stunned.

"Yes, she brought me in through the front door. I could’ve just started destroying your walls and invaded the castle. I can go back outside, if you prefer."
Severus spoke, making his proposal.

The only response was silence as the man stared, swallowing hard.

"No, of course not!"
Obviously. Seeing the power of that human... of course they couldn’t challenge him in any way.

"Great. Now answer me one thing: why are you here? What are you doing?"
— Severus asked, wanting an answer from someone other than Esil, while everyone looked surprised by this question and the man in the chair fell into silent stillness.

"We... we..."
He stammered before twisting and rewinding, suffering the same effect as his daughter when Severus questioned her.

"No, of course not!"
He then repeated his previous line, while everyone who had heard the question returned to the same expression they had a moment before.

Severus sighed, knowing only he could perceive what was happening there.
Not even the demons seemed to understand something was deeply wrong with them.

"Anyway, I just need the pass for the next floor. I’ll let you live."
Severus said, and the man, with a bit of reluctance, accepted the offer, quickly handing him a glowing paper.

Severus, satisfied, began to leave, and Esil looked at him.

He no longer cared much about her or her clan, as long as that paper opened the portal.
It was very likely they would never see each other again...

As soon as he left the castle, Severus watched the paper shine brightly before a light expanded and a gate appeared.

Satisfied with that, he moved on to the eighty-first floor.

Severus no longer showed the mercy he had when he met Esil.
There, he didn’t even ask anything. The demons that faced him were much smarter than those from the previous 79 floors, even forming battle formations.

Even so, the shadow army quickly invaded the place, destroying everything until they found the main headquarters of the floor.
They destroyed the castle along with the noble in charge and took the pass by force.

From that moment on, he began advancing from floor to floor, using every kind of strategy to eliminate his enemies while his level increased more and more.

Sometimes, he still wanted to finish quickly, using devastating magic against the armies coming his way.
The floors were much larger now—city-sized, even as large as entire states—which made finding the passes to the next floor harder and caused him to take days to progress.

There was no food for him to eat, nor did he bother searching the demons’ kitchens, since he had a good supply and could even use magic to create some food.

He kept moving from floor to floor until reaching the later ones, where he encountered armies with at least tens of thousands of enemies advancing against him, while he had around three to four hundred shadows in return.

With that, Severus stopped using his magic and began advancing physically with his shadows, eliminating the enemies in open field with daggers in hand.
He fought tirelessly until he managed to destroy the enemies and obtain the passes directly on the battlefield, devastated by the fights.

All because he killed the main names of each place before they could even hide behind their walls.

He was, at last, on the 99th floor and would finally move on to the 100th, where they would face the monarch once and for all.
Was he strong enough to face the monarch? — he asked himself, but didn’t care. Everything up until that point had been, in a way, not that difficult. No demon had truly challenged him, so he advanced to Baran’s floor.

All he found was a devastated area, with the ground in flames, while a light appeared in the sky.
His gaze quickly turned to it—clouds with thunder began to expand, while a small bird started to appear, growing, until it revealed itself to be, at the very least, a form of the Wrym.

On top of it, there was someone riding—a powerful creature—it matched exactly the description he had received of Baran, but he was quite surprised by the strength of that creature, not expecting that.

"Baran...?"
He murmured, as he watched him pass overhead with the Wrym roaring and land on one of the ruins, while the monarch analyzed him as his enemy.

Severus only narrowed his eyes.
"No... That’s not Baran. Why is this happening here?"
Severus murmured.

The creature that was supposed to be Baran simply stared at him, eyes fixed on him.
It didn’t care to communicate. It only wanted to kill the intruder like any other demon.

In the next moment, portals began to appear.
Severus was surrounded, with demons emerging from them.

"Let’s end this once and for all."
He decided, while more demons—seemingly endless—kept coming out of the portals.

An aura exploded from him in the following moment, spreading around him as the ground trembled, the energy began to take form, while his shadows began to materialize around him.

Severus used all of them, from the strongest to the weakest, to fight the demons.

Cerberus in his shadow form had been weak initially, but had gained many levels over the floors by fighting alongside Snape and killing some demons, though he was still far below the others in absolute terms.

The other shadows were much stronger by now.
Either way, Severus stared at Bara.
"Go."
That was all he said.

In the next moment, all his soldiers charged forward as the demons advanced as well, while the demonic monarch simply watched—just as Severus did.

The clash between the armies began.
The shadows quickly gained the upper hand.
Igris, Glacius, and Voltaran, who had the greatest strength and speed, quickly went on a rampage, destroying their first enemies before they could even react.

Tank, Ouroboros, and Cerberus also charged with full force, pushing through enemy groups, being tank-type shadows.

Kargalgan remained in the rear and quickly began casting fire magic, spreading it across the area, eliminating enemies—and other mages that Severus had with him helped swiftly.

The shadows began to push the demons back, even though they numbered in the thousands and seemed endless—more and more poured from one of the portals, yet Severus’s shadows continued to advance across the terrain.

Baran—or at least a weak copy of him—finally seemed frustrated with the result of the two armies clashing.

He then began to raise his sword, allowing lightning to explode throughout the area.

Severus saw the same lightning being launched into the sky, with stabilized clouds, bolts striking down everywhere.

"This power... it’s just like mine..."
He said, not stopping his murmuring as he saw the attack unfold.

A lightning explosion erupted, devastating the entire battlefield.
Severus dodged alongside some shadows specialized in elemental resistance and speed, but most were not so lucky.

They were destroyed, turning into nothing but fragmented shadows, trying to regenerate by draining Severus’s mana.
‘You’re more troublesome than you look…’ Severus thought, before placing a dagger in his left hand and his wand in the right, quickly dashing toward where Baran stood atop the ruin.

He swiftly passed through the demons trying to stop him, but Severus was far too fast.
He moved through them like a blur, until he was finally close to the monarch, who opened his mouth and unleashed lightning in his direction.

Bolts of lightning shot toward Severus as he ran straight into the attack.
Snape’s body began to glow with electricity and, in an instant, he darted in another direction, dodging the strike. As he reappeared to the side, wrapped in sparks, he continued his path.

This was one of the abilities he had developed since he began climbing the floors: the ability to move alongside lightning, greatly increasing his speed—but also consuming a large amount of mana.

Regardless, Baran, seeing this, had the Wrym start flapping its wings and quickly tried to launch into the sky.
Severus still dashed upward before leaping from a higher point toward the Wrym, trying to gain altitude.

Baran quickly pointed at Severus as he was midair—Snape just smiled.
As the attack came at him, he simply vanished in the next moment with a flick of his wand, reappearing beside Baran, who reacted quickly with his own shadow teleportation.

Baran was fast, making a swift move to prevent Snape from striking him with his blade.
The daggers and the sword clashed, striking against each other.
Snape was surprised to see Baran emit lightning that immediately knocked him back.

At the same time, he didn’t waste a second.
Using the point where he had fallen to reach the creature’s head, he simply sliced through the Wrym’s neck—before vanishing again.

The headless Wrym began to fall, and Baran went with it.
Snape didn’t hesitate and reappeared above him again, switching his wand for another dagger.

He caught Baran by surprise with his movements, appearing at his side as the supposed monarch tried to defend against the first blade—but the second cut him quickly.

Baran tried to retaliate, but Snape defended easily, taking only another minor cut, as the daggers were much faster than his sword.

They kept falling as Snape continued slashing, until Baran decided to switch his large sword for two lightning daggers.

They both kept descending, while their blade fight raged through the air.
Lightning exploded around them, but Snape didn’t always need to dodge—he kept fighting with precision.

Baran realized that even with his attacks, he was starting to take damage.
His body began to bleed—the countless cuts were adding up.
He even lost one of his arms trying to block another bolt, but Snape vanished and reappeared, slicing the artery in his other arm with precise movement.

The monarch only saw his death approaching, as Snape unleashed multiple slashes while they were still falling, cutting through everything—until the supposed demonic monarch exploded with the surrounding rain of lightning, creating a crater in the middle of the area.

Snape emerged from the smoke after a while, and looked fine, while the demons began to vanish, still fighting against his shadows, which continued regenerating.

"Really... it wasn’t you."
Snape murmured, looking at the fallen, lifeless body. That wasn’t truly Baran.

"Anyway, it’s over... all this madness..."
Snape wondered, still not understanding what was going on there.

What were those portals? Why did they keep reappearing? Where did they come from?
Why was there a copy of Baran, so much weaker—when a true monarch would be far more powerful, and he hadn’t even struggled to deal with it in his current strength?

He always had these questions, ever since he started entering the portals within the paintings, but he had no answers.
In truth, he had no idea how any of it actually worked.

Either way, he gained two levels after defeating him, while beginning to receive a series of interesting items.

He now possessed two of Baran’s daggers, of the lightning element—far more powerful than the ones he had before—finally forcing him to retire his old goblin-metal daggers.
He wouldn’t miss the chance to use something better.

At the same time, he also received a sword that he didn’t think twice before throwing straight to Igris, who returned the goblin-metal sword.

The final item came next: a fragment of thunder, which could be added to his wand, increasing the power of the lightning element by 40%.

With that, Snape could now be powerful enough to disintegrate any opponent with a single move—even destroy dozens or hundreds of enemies with ease.
As long as he used the lightning element.

Snape then took a deep breath, the air still charged with electricity around him.
‘Now let’s get out of the tower.’ — he thought.
He needed to return to the outside world.
He didn’t know how much time had passed out there, while he had been here for at least two months, fighting nonstop.

At the same time, he received his reward for completing the tower, and a portal appeared.
Snape looked at it, satisfied, and stepped forward toward it—finally leaving that place.