"The Tree of Rotten Wisdom" (Second Stage)

The exploration of the upper area of the Pseudo-Castle had just begun. It required climbing stairs and performing precise jumps, avoiding the obstacles scattered through the environment.

Ayato would have had a significant advantage with his double jump, but a small detail kept him from fully utilizing it—beyond his own clumsy motor skills.

“I refuse to fall for the old stereotype that female magicians are clumsy!” Ayato muttered angrily, carrying Vera on his back as he focused on each jump.

“Sorry! I still need to learn levitation or teleportation,” Vera said, clinging to him to avoid falling.

The path was filled with traps: deadly rose spikes and small dragonflies making every jump tricky.

"I can't get too mad at you either, Vera... Because unlike Isolde, your warmth makes me feel less alone..." Ayato's words were meant to evoke a sense that at least this is more like training and moral support rather than a tedious escort mission.

Instead, what he receives from Vera...

Boom!

"What's wrong with you? You filthy pig!" Vera hits Ayato with one of her magic books, misinterpreting his phrase as something suggestive or double-meaning, given that she was so attached.

"That's what I get for being chivalrous to prudes!"

After navigating the final platforms, they reached the circular chamber at the top of the tree. Isolde was already there, smirking.

“Arguing again? That only slowed you down,” she mocked. “I’m always faster.”

“I’ve known worse crusade companions…” the vampire added, pacing as she sifted through textbooks, searching for information about the Candidates, Lone Demons, and Regents of the castles.

“You can turn into a bat, so obviously you’re ahead of us,” Ayato muttered.

They entered the Chamber of Rotten Thought—a grotesque mix of study and laboratory. Mutant plants grew in pots, books rotted on the shelves, and cages held living creatures like guinea pigs.

“Poor things…” Vera whispered, noticing a rabbit trapped in vines and logs, a doomed experiment attempting to mix it with a dove.

“What happens when knowledge becomes corrupted and turns into greed…” Isolde murmured, recalling a lesson Zeltha had once taught her. At first, she thought it an abstract phrase, but now the horror materialized before her eyes.

Ayato abruptly broke the introspective moment. “Yes, yes… You keep wandering off while I kill the next creature.”

Vera and Isolde’s attention was drawn to an altar at the center. A living grimoire lay chained by roots and mushrooms. Its letters burned red, pulsing like a heartbeat.

“This must be the core of the Pseudo-Castle,” Vera said, staring at the book that absorbed blood and souls as a catalyst.

"If that's what the Regent is guarding..." Isolde’s grip tightened on her weapon. "We can’t let it absorb anything else!"

Ayato shivered as the grimoire’s aura brushed against him. “We destroy this carnivorous book… without letting it devour us.”

"My my, I've made a discovery~"

All three turned toward a large, closed rose in bloom. 

Slowly, it opened, revealing a humanoid figure sitting like a throne-bound scholar. Its wrists and ankles were made of red roses, a white rose formed a coat-like structure, and a blue rose crowned its head, giving it an air of intellect and refinement.

Ayato, Vera, and Isolde exchanged tense glances, realizing that their next challenge was more than a book—it was alive, and it was waiting.

“So… you are the intruders disturbing my garden,” the humanoid said, his voice resonating with an intellectual and threatening tone, like a professor condemning his students to eternity. 

“Knowledge is not shared. It is consumed.”

Vera stepped back, preparing to conjure fire. “Does he… actually speak?!”

“Worse than speaking… he will devour our souls,” Ayato replied, clenching his fists as the grimoire’s energy pulsed in his chest.

“Ah… the Lone Demon,” he murmured in a voice as melodious as it was deadly. “You are the priority.”

Isolde grasped her sword, the edge gleaming with determination. “Then let’s do it quickly. No more hesitation.”

"I am Maxwelious Rossewise! The Infernal Tyrant of this castle, in that I will shape the world in my own way if I become the Dark Lord..." The Infernal Tyrant introduced himself, as green eyes fixed directly on Ayato, calculating his every heartbeat.

"Knowledge is power... and yours is insufficient!"

With a sweep of his flowery arm, Maxwelious launched a flurry of slashing petals, while tangling roots sprouted from the ground, seeking to ensnare Ayato first.

Each movement was precise, lethal, as if he knew Ayato's reflexes in advance.

"Careful, Ayato!" Vera shouted, dodging an attack that slashed near her shoulder. Her flames collided with a natural shield of petals that acted as an immediate response. "It can't be, not even fire can harm him!"

"I prepared in advance to deal with another Lone Demon who burned down my forest, whose demonic aura disappeared a few hours ago~," the intellectual humanoid plant boasted, boasting that it had prepared strategies to counter any fire user.

"Thank you very much, Tatsuya!" Ayato said sarcastically as he jumped, rolled, and dodged.

Maxwelious performed various moves toward the three, from slashing petals and tangling roots used for offensive, defensive, and support properties to regenerate his life whenever he could.

Ayato and Vera were attacked by books and creatures from the laboratory that were turned into magical projectiles.

Isolde's abilities and movements were petrified, as Maxwelious had analyzed her for too long.

"Vulnerable to ice," Isolde said in a low voice, but audible from a distance, as Vera ended up casting a freezing spell at the blue head.

The Tyrant groaned, its petals trembled, and a crack momentarily appeared in its defense. For the first time, a breach had been made.

Once healed from the petrification, Isolde slashed her sword repeatedly at the exposed body of the humanoid Rosebush.

"Good thinking... But it's the last strategy they'll ever use!"

With a roar that shook the roots of the lab, Maxwelious writhed, his arms and body stretching and transforming.

His roots merged into a dragon-like body made of vines, and his arms turned into multiple flower heads. 

The central head was a giant Venus flytrap, ready to devour everything in its path.

"This... is a hydra!" Ayato exclaimed, dodging one of the plant heads' bites.

Vera stepped back, throwing ice with surgical precision. Each icy attack slowed the monster's roots and temporarily froze the secondary heads.

Isolde ran through the rubble, slashing with her sword as she sliced ​​through vines and freed trapped small experiments, using them as a distraction.

"This should be a level 15 boss. Why are we suffering?" Ayato said as the central head attempted to devour Ayato, prioritizing its "Lone Demon" aura.

Every time he was able to dodge the bites and vines acting as the Hydra's makeshift arms, Ayato increased his determination each time he landed a successful blow despite his susceptibility.

While Maxwelious tried to prioritize Ayato, Vera and Isolde worked in perfect sync, using ice magic and brute force to keep the draconic plant under control.

The central Venus flytrap launched a bite directly at Ayato. He felt the impact of the bite, but took the opportunity to stab the creature's head.

Vera launched a cone of ice, freezing the head for a few critical seconds.

Isolde shouted as she cut the root supporting the more aggressive side head, freeing up space. "Now, Ayato!"

With a perfectly timed double jump, Ayato attacked Maxwelious's blue core, striking with all his might.

The hydra shrieked, its petals vibrating as it writhed, its secondary heads wobbling from the impact.

"We won't let it devour another soul!" Vera shouted, freezing the root that tried to trap Ayato.

Maxwelious fell back, roaring with fury.

Each head that fell weakened his form, but the Hell Tyrant was still dangerous.

Its attacks grew more erratic and deadly, reflecting the desperation of a monster struck in its intellectual pride.

The creature's tail destroyed a portion of the tree to let the moonlight illuminate the room.

"Full moon..." the three said in unison as Maxwelious launched a pulse of concentrated lunar energy from the central head, possibly his last resort, resulting in an instant kill if hit directly.

Finally, with one last combined blow: Ayato hit the central core.

Vera froze its main roots.

Isolde severed the connection between the secondary heads.

The hydra fell to the ground, its petals withered, collapsing into dust and leaves, and the laboratory fell into a heavy silence.

The three stared at each other, breathing heavily.

They had survived, but they knew that facing Maxwelious Rossewise wasn't just a matter of strength: it had been a battle of intelligence, coordination, and endurance.

Before dying, the Infernal Tyrant left an ambiguous message: "Knowledge... is not an end... but a prison... will you be the next to be devoured by it?"

Then the creature disintegrated, and the dark energy produced by its position as a Dark Lord Candidate was released and involuntarily absorbed by Ayato after defeating it.

Ayato bowed slightly, panting, the demonic affinity in his body growing. "I didn't expect it to be so... personal."

But a slight tremor from the chamber made the three turn around.

Given that the Pseudo-Castle was collapsing after the defeat of its Regent.

Meanwhile, Ayato and Vera escape by throwing themselves through the destroyed area on the creature's tail, quickly launching themselves down into the forest.

Isolde takes the grimoire that was freed from its bonds and takes it with her, transforming into a bat.

Both Vera and Ayato are in free fall as they notice the tree rotting and withering.

"I have an idea, Vera!" Ayato, still tired, tries to use the absorbed abilities of his recently defeated enemy to generate something that will help cushion their fall, despite the counterproductive nature of its effects.

"Really?!" Ayato said, as a bunch of giant mushrooms and fields of dandelions sprout from the forest floor, causing them both to fall.

Surprisingly, that makeshift garden did save their lives.

And also cushioning Isolde, who was plummeting due to the grimoire being too heavy for her bat form.

Once Isolde returns to her normal form, the three watch the sunrise rising from the forest, with a beautiful view while the Tree of Rotten Wisdom was collapsing before their eyes.