1. Garden of the Scarlet Rose

Finally, after nearly three hours of fighting, the three heroes arrived at the second last floor of the dungeon.

The door opened to a large garden, full of scarlet roses. Marble pillars towered into the sky, showing a starry sky despite being hundreds of meters underground.

The paladin of the group, a half-eyed dwarf stepped onto the cobblestone road and sniffed the air. He let out a deep grunt and signaled for his partners.

“Come on! I sense but one soul in this area.”

His two partners stepped through the door.

One was a brilliant elf mage. Her skin was brown and her hair was green, which gave her quite an exotic look.

The other was a lizardman. He was the largest of the trio, his size only elevated by the warbonnet on his head. His weapon of choosing was a musketeer gun.

He too could sense the smell of a lifeform.

“Ugh, what is this horrible stench?”

“That, my friend, is what a truly powerful demon smells like.” Said the dwarf before delving deeper into the garden.

The roses crept up on the marble pillars as if slowly corrupting them. Still, it was a controlled infestation. The flowers’ color and position all showed purpose and great care. Whoever lived on this floor of the dungeon showed great care for the plants.

The lizardman took notice of this. He tore off one of the most beautiful roses he could find and stepped before the elf girl.

“Huh?” The elf cocked her head. “What’s wrong, Girgamesh? Have you run out of ammo? Don’t worry, I’ll conjure you some more––“

“Anita!” The lizardman yelled awkwardly as he showed her the rose. “This is for you! Please, take it!”

The elf was surprised. Her cheeks turned red and she looked away while accepting the rose.

“You really should’ve waited after we’re done here, you know?”

“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t hide my emotions anymore!” The lizardman sobbed.

“W-Wait! Don’t cry! It’s fine, really!” She put the flower behind her ear. “I love it! Look!”

The lizard’s eyes glittered as he looked at the elf before her. Once again, and for the thousandth time today, he fell in love with her.

The dwarf just shook his head as he continued onwards.

“Kids these days, falling in love inside the arch-vampire’s realm…”

This part of the dungeon was much smaller. It took only a few minutes for the heroes to traverse the entire floor.

However, there was still one obstacle before the final boss.

A young, handsome man was next to the large exit door, watering the flowers. His skin was smooth, his hair shortly cut and the hazelnut brown flourishing in his eyes.

The heroes wasted no time getting into their battle stance. The paladin raised his hammer and cast an incantation, the musketeer reloaded his gun and the elf summoned a knife made from ice.

The man took notice of them but didn’t give much of a reaction.

“Hey, demon!” The paladin yelled. “Have you lost all hope that you don’t defend yourself?”

The demon answered without looking up from the plants.

“Wait your turn!”

The paladin was surprised. The demon’s nonchalant answer only fueled his rage.

“Alright, you asked for it…”

From his incantation, a holy hammer appeared. As he spun the weapon around, it shone with a golden light. He grunted heavily as he threw the massive hammer right at the demon.

“Take this!”

The man calmly observed the hammer as it flew at him. Then, just as it was about to touch his skin, he dodged with an unbelievable speed.

Fwoosh!

The hammer flew against the wall, smashing a large hole into it.

The demon let out a frustrated sigh while the paladin trembled in disbelief.

“He… dodged… the Hammer of Justice…”

The man walked up to a nearby table and placed the canteen next to the other garden equipment. Then, he adjusted his black butler clothes and tie so they would look perfectly symmetrical on both sides.

He pulled up his loose black gloves and reached into his pocket. A yellow stopwatch appeared from within, showing the time to the exact millisecond.

“Two milliseconds. Since last week, my time spent maintaining the flowers has grown by two milliseconds. Guess I’m growing old, huh?”

Those were some pretty strange words from someone who barely looked twenty years of age. Still, it was enough to strike fear in the heroes’ hearts.

Suddenly, the elf burst forward.

“You are lying! This whole spiel is just to intimidate us!”

The demon sighed again.

“Fine, whatever you wish to believe.”

He reached to his side and pulled forth a steel rapier half his size.

It was an elegant blade, perfect for a duelist. Everything about the weapon, even its knuckle guard had a domineering aura, demanding respect from all those in its reach.

The young man was quite a fearsome opponent. However, something was off about him.

He refused to move.

His weapon was aimed at the paladin’s throat and if he would’ve lunged forth at that moment, it would’ve been hard for the dwarf to defend himself.

But he didn’t.

“What are you waiting for, demon?” The dwarf raised his voice.

“My sole purpose is to defend the person behind this door. You can say whatever you want and insult me in any way you see fit. I don’t care, so long you don’t try harming the one I guard. In that case, I’ll give you more than just my attention.”

“What? Man, demons are getting weirder with every century. I liked you more when you were just bloodthirsty bastards. A suit doesn’t fit a monster like you!”

“Once again, I must warn you: I was willing to treat your first attack as a rookie mistake. I won’t be so generous with the next one.”

“Hah, what a babble! Come on, boys! Let’s see if this dog has any bite!”

The lizardman wasted no time and raised his gun.

“Die!”

A loud bang echoed throughout the garden and the bullet flew straight towards the demon’s head.

He moved his rapier and deflected the bullet with a clean swipe. The deadly ammunition flew into the sky where it disappeared with the stars.

The lizardman let out a quiet “Eek!” of fear and reached to reload his weapon.

At that moment, the demon came into motion.

“My turn!”

He rushed forward to attack the lizardman. He could’ve ended him right then and there, but the elf mage blocked his attack by summoning a barrier.

In an unlucky turn of events, the demon’s blade got caught inside the barrier.

“Now!”

The paladin jumped into action and launched his weapon into the demon’s knee. A loud snap followed as his leg broke into two halves.

Suddenly he could move his rapier free again. The barrier disappeared, only for the lizardman to hit the demon’s face with the butt of his gun.

“Take this!”

The wooden end of the weapon met him with the power of a high-speed baseball bat. His body was launched a few feet away, but he remained on his feet.

“Impressive!” The lizardman noted. “I never met anyone before who could remain conscious after this attack, yet he took it while staying afoot!”

The demon balanced himself on one leg. He reached down to his broken limb and snapped it back into place, all while remaining silent.

Just like that, he could use his leg again.

“What a beast!” The elf cried out. “You shattered his knee, yet in a mere second he was able to regenerate it back to efficiency!”

The dwarf grunted.

“It’s not like he isn’t feeling any pain. Just look at him! Even though he remained silent, there is a grimace of pain hiding on his lips! We just need to be more brutal than usual to defeat this opponent. Even a dog like him would break under enough pain!”

“You highly underestimate me.” The demon wiped the blood off the side of his head.

Shocking all, he burst forward from a completely calm stance, grabbing his rapier in the blink of an eye and launching it into the lizardman’s chest.

This action was so quick, so sudden, that the lizardman haven’t even noticed the man moved, much less his rapier piercing his heart.

“What?” He asked quietly, before screaming as the pain registered in his chest.

His two companions were too shocked to act and when the dwarf came into motion, it was already too late.

“You bastard!” He raised his hammer, but it was already too late.

The demon pulled away his blade and then launched his second attack, cutting the man’s throat.

For a split second, time froze.

The lizardman breathed his last as he looked over to the elf he loved. He tried to reach out, but his hand was slow and weak.

Before he knew it, he was on the ground, his life slowly draining away.

The elf screamed with tears while the dwarf lunged forward with a ferocious battle cry. He waved his hammer around the demon, casting incantations of holy light to burn him away.

Yet, the demon was fast. He dodged every one of his attacks and when he found the right opening, launched his foot into the dwarf’s stomach. The heavy armor on his chest broke and gave way to the devastating attack.

He fell to the ground, gasping for air. The demon wasted no time and cut his head.

It was a clean strike. So clean in fact that the dwarf had no idea why he couldn’t feel his body as he slowly died.

Now, only the elf remained.

She was beside the lizard’s corpse, caressing his head on her thighs. Heavy tears ran down her cheeks, falling onto the musketeer’s face.

As the light faded from his eyes, her tears only grew more.

The demon lowered his weapon. He saw that the woman’s grief made her incapable to fight. Thus, he sheathed his weapon and returned to the garden tools. He grabbed an empty wheelbarrow and pushed it beside the dwarf’s corpse.

The elf watched him in disbelief. The demon placed her companion’s corpse on the barrow as if it was a sack of manure. He then grabbed a shovel and raised the barrow, but not before saying:

“Don’t worry. Your friends’ bodies won’t be wasted. They will be perfect fertilizer for the plants.”

Disgust and hatred overcame the elf’s eyes, despite the demon showing no ill-intent with his words. Even more grotesque, he meant to reassure the woman her friends’ deaths won’t go in vain.

The elf rushed at him. The demon unsheathed his weapon and aimed so the elf would run into it, impaling herself.

And she did. She ran into the blade and didn’t stop, even when it appeared on the other side of her stomach.

However, her madness was only an act to get into range. Once the demon was close enough, she revealed the ice knife in her hand and launched it into his neck.

“Die!” The elf screamed.

The demon’s expression was that of surprise as he felt the blade in his throat. But unfortunately for the elf, his expression quickly changed into that of slight frustration.

“H-How did you…” The elf muttered before letting go of the blade. “I see… We never stood a chance, did we?”

The demon pulled out the rapier from the elf’s stomach. Her body waggled a few steps back before falling towards the roses.

The demon reached around her chest and stopped her fall. She looked up into the man’s eyes, only now seeing the young beauty in them.

“Why did you…”

“It would be a shame if you flattened the roses.” He said before throwing her corpse aside.

Once again, silence sat in the garden. The stars above shined brightly and the roses bloomed with the sweetest scent.

Only a demon remained, cleaning up the mess caused by his new fertilizer.