Debuff Master-Chapter 876

Verdandi sat on a lavishly designed throne and crossed her legs in a manner that lacked modesty yet exuded elegance, all while completely unaware that her father was watching her.

Her gaze swept across the arena with an air of arrogance and dominance before finally saying her first words.

“Sit down.”

Her first words weren't a greeting but a simple command. Unsurprisingly, everyone in the coliseum promptly took their seats at the command.

The chief chamberlain took a step forward and bellowed, “Now, a celebratory performance by the leader of the royal musicians, Gringore!”

Gringore, accompanied by his band, took to the stage and began performing.

He had not changed at all. He was still as handsome as ever, and his voice remained exceptional. However, his expression looked somber, and there was a good reason for that.

Gringore’s life was now nothing short of miserable. His official role as the royal scribe who chronicled the king’s every move had long been abolished, and he was forbidden from going on international tours like he used to.

Now, he was nothing more than a private jester whose sole purpose in life was to entertain the tyrant and the tyrant alone.

‘Keke! Serves him right! He used to scribble shit about me back then but look at him now. So, do you like it better now? See? You should’ve appreciated me while I was around,’ Siegfried thought with a wry smirk.

However, his humor was short-lived.

Why?

It was all because the match had begun, and he realized just how far Verdandi’s tyranny had become.

“Unleash the gladiators!”

The chief chamberlain’s voice boomed once again, and the gladiators appeared.

“...!”

Siegfried immediately recognized every single one of these so-called gladiators.

‘H-Haken?!’

The first to enter was Haken, the Sword Maestro and Shakiro’s first disciple. Following him were the other Weapon Maestros, who entered one by one until they were all lined up.

Shakiro’s disciples, the Weapon Maestros, were today’s gladiators.

‘T-This is insane!’

Siegfried was utterly stunned at Verdandi’s tyranny of turning her own father’s sword brothers into gladiators all for her own entertainment.

However, he had yet to see the worst of her tyranny.

“And now, the opponent these valiant gladiators will face today! The champion of the Coliseum of Bloodshed! MARANELLOOOO!”

To Siegfried’s horror, the champion was none other than Maranello, which was the monstrous form of Lamborghini.

“Mmooooo!” Maranello unleashed a beastly deafening roar that reverberated throughout the entire coliseum. He was adorned in dazzling armor and extravagant accessories that were truly befitting of a champion.

Waaaaah!

The crowd erupted into thunderous cheers, but there was not an ounce of genuine enthusiasm in their voices.

They had no choice. To remain silent meant risking being whisked away by the agents from the intelligence department, and they would be forced to enjoy a certain soup through their noses.

‘But how in the world did she tame that thing?’ Siegfried was baffled at how Verdandi managed to turn Maranello into a gladiator.

Of course, this wasn't the important thing right now.

Verdandi reached into her pocket and took out something small from a lavishly decorated case. She put the object between her lips and murmured, “Light.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The attendant quickly pulled out a lighter operated with magic stone and lit the object, which turned out to be a cigarette.

“Hoo...!”

A cloud thick of smoke escaped Verdandi’s lips.

But seeing her smoking was not the problem for Siegfried right now.

‘Oh my god... She turned Lamborghini into a gladiator and forced my brothers to fight him...?’ Siegfried clenched his fists, wanting nothing more than to storm into the coliseum and rescue the Weapon Maestros.

However, he knew that acting impulsively would jeopardize everything, so he needed to stick to the plan. Acting recklessly in an unknown dungeon was unwise, and this was especially true when the clear conditions were still shrouded in mystery.

‘This isn’t reality anyway. It’s just a dungeon, so I have to keep it together,’ he thought, reminding himself that this was merely a world created by the Eastern Great Rift.

Meanwhile, the match finally began.

“Your Majesty,” Michele bowed as he approached Verdandi, who was casually smoking and enjoying the spectacle.

“What do you want, you workaholic?” Verdandi asked, shooting a disdainful look that clearly showed her annoyance after being interrupted.

“I must take my leave to attend to unfinished work, sire.”

“Well, I guess you workaholics need to work or else you’d start having withdrawal symptoms. Get lost so I can relax and enjoy myself.”

“...”

“I said, get lost.”

Verdandi dismissed Michele with a wave of her hand, as if she were swatting an irritating fly away.

“I wish you a pleasant evening, sire.”

Once granted permission to leave, Michele swiftly left the Coliseum of Bloodshed and met up with Siegfried.

“You don’t look too pleased by what you had seen,” Michele said after noticing the look on Siegfried’s face.

“Would you be if you were in my shoes?” Siegfried retorted.

“Do you see now how dire things have become over the past twenty years?”

“Shut up, moron.”

Siegfried grabbed Michele by the scruff of his neck and soared into the sky.

Their destination was the royal palace.

It was now time to launch the coup.

***

On their way to the royal palace.

“Hey, Michele.”

“Yeah, what do you want?”

“What if I just revealed that I’m back to her?”

“Heh... Would you like to guess who decapitated your statue, Your Majesty?” Michele asked with a smirk.

“Hmm?”

“It was Her Highness the Princess.”

“...”

“She even publicly declared that she will kill you personally if you ever return.”

“H-Hiiiik!”

Who could have known that Verdandi would declare to kill her own father?

The situation had truly spiraled way out of control.

“But that is not all. The Proatine Kingdom is under the military’s control, with the princess at its helm. If you try playing father after being absent for twenty years, you will end up fighting the entire army without a doubt. The princess holds absolute command over the military that swore unwavering loyalty to her.”

“Haha... Hahaha...”

“So forget about having a heartfelt reunion with your daughter...”

“All right...” Siegfried grumbled in response and continued flying toward the royal palace.

Ten minutes later, Siegfried sent Michele ahead into the palace while he headed to a nearby forest to meet up with the Resistance.

“Ah...!”

“Y-Your Majesty!”

“Is it truly you, sire?”

The three thousand Resistance members gathered burst into tears of joy upon confirming Siegfried’s return.

“You returned!”

“Your Majesty! It is truly you!”

“Ahhh!”

Among the gathered Resistance members were some familiar faces. Ninetails, who had been expelled from her position as the director of intelligence and forced to go back to being a petty criminal. Cesc, who was forced to close down his chain of gyms and was now running a single Cesc’s Gym, which people barely visited.

Time had aged them all, and they were no longer the people Siegfried knew in their prime.

“It’s time to restore everything. Tonight, we will rewrite the past. We will undo these twenty years of hellish suffering and return things to the way they were. I promise you that we will erase these god-forsaken years,” Siegfried addressed the Resistance with a brief yet passionate speech.

The Resistance members silently wept in response after being moved to tears by his return.

“Let’s move.”

Leading the group, Siegfried guided them to a hidden passage leading to the royal palace.

‘Just a little longer...’

His gaze was directed to the towering structure at the center of the palace, the Tower of Eternity, where Brunhilde was supposedly imprisoned.

The group pressed on into the secret passage until they reached the palace’s basement. At the end of it, Michele was waiting for them.

Click!

Michele opened the gate for them.

“I spiked the guards’ snacks with a sedative, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to seize the palace,” he said nonchalantly.

“Good job,” Siegfried praised him.

Thanks to Michele’s efforts, the guards were sound asleep. This made it possible for Siegfried and the Resistance to advance swiftly toward the Tower of Eternity.

However, not all of the guards were incapacitated, as it was not feasible for Michele alone to put every guard in the palace to sleep.

The group soon encountered a group of patrolling guards.

“Halt! Who goes there?!”

“Intruders! Sound the alarm!”

The guards’ whistles pierced the quiet air, summoning reinforcements from every corner of the palace.

A fierce battle erupted.

Siegfried, Hamchi, and the three thousand Resistance members swiftly overpowered the guards and seized control of the palace.

While the Resistance members fought to secure the palace, Siegfried broke away and headed straight for the Tower of Eternity.

The tower stood intimidatingly high, making it an easy target to locate.

“Who goes there?!”

“No one may enter this tower!”

The knights guarding the tower, clad in armor emblazoned with the crest of the Royal Guards, glared at Siegfried with hostility.

“I am the rightful king of the Proatine Kingdom, Siegfried van Proa.”

With those words, Siegfried disposed of the knights standing in his way in the blink of an eye. He smashed through the iron gates and entered the Tower of Eternity without hesitation.

He was willing to do anything in order to rescue Brunhilde, and it did not matter whether this was reality or merely a fake world created by the Eastern Great Rift.

***

[Tower of Eternity: First Floor]

As soon as he stepped into the tower, a message popped up in front of his eyes, displaying his current location.

[Proatine Royal Palace: Tower of Eternity]

[A tower designed to halt the passage of time for the body.]

[There is no need for sustenance or hydration to maintain life within the tower, making it theoretically possible for one to live eternally.]

[However, no forms of energy, including mana, can be used within the tower, and flight abilities are disabled, too.]

The Tower of Eternity consisted of a circular staircase that went up from the first floor all the way to the second floor at the very top.

In other words, ninety-nine percent of the tower was technically just the staircase connecting the first floor to the second floor.

“So, anyone trapped here won’t age or die even after a million years?” Siegfried muttered in disbelief.

This was a punishment harsher than death itself.

What would it feel like to live forever, alone and unable to die?

The very thought was unimaginable...

Moreover, Brunhilde had already been trapped here for five years now.

There was no way anyone could ever imagine the amount of anguish and torment she had to have endured during those five years.

“Let’s go, Hamchi.”

“Kyuuu!”

Siegfried ran up the stairs as quickly as he could, but...

Kaaah!”

Kiki! Kikiki!

Grotesque monsters emerged and blocked Siegfried’s path.

[Chimera LP700-4]

[An artificial creature created from the Emerald Tablet, which contains the pinnacle of alchemical knowledge.]

[Type: Chimera]

[Level: 250]

Shockingly, the chimeras blocking Siegfried’s path had an uncanny resemblance to the chimeras created by Immortal Alchemist Acheron, who once led the Church of Osric.

The Emerald Tablet was a treasure stored securely within the Proatine Kingdom’s vault and was never once used in the real world–the reality within the game outside of this dungeon.

These chimeras were actually created using the Emerald Tablet?

It could only mean one thing, and that was...

“Verdandi mastered alchemy too?!”

This was the only conclusion Siegfried could draw.

Given the fact that the High Elves were the most intellectually advanced beings next to dragons, it was a plausible theory. High Elves possessed an innate talent to achieve remarkable accomplishments with minimal efforts in any field they were interested in.

‘She prepared such a scary trap...’

Facing Level 250 chimeras in a place where both mana and energies were restricted was a difficult battle even for Siegfried.

‘But it doesn’t matter!’

Siegfried had faith in his stats, his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp, and his abilities.

“Kill them all!”

“Kyuuu!”

With that, Siegfried and Hamchi carved their way through the chimeras and climbed up the staircase toward the second floor–rather, the top floor of the Tower of Eternity.

***

“Is that so?”

Verdandi received a report that the Resistance had infiltrated the royal palace and was wreaking havoc.

“Hold on a moment.”

Instead of immediately moving against them, she sank deeper into her throne while leisurely sipping whiskey, looking like she had all the time in the world.

“I’ll finish watching this match first. Then I’ll go.”

Her gaze was fixed on the arena at the center of the coliseum, where the monster, Maranello, was tearing the Weapon Maestros from limb to limb.