Regression: Reclaiming the End-Chapter 40: Into the 7th Floor

The crowd thickened the closer I got to the Rift site.

Ropes and barriers surrounded the main perimeter, guarded loosely by a mix of military presence and civilian volunteers. They didn’t stop anyone from entering—how could they? The system didn’t need human regulation.

’Or not yet’

Over the heads of the crowd, I saw the familiar red shimmer in the ground. The Crimson Rift pulsed faintly like a bleeding wound, the tear in space itself yawning in absolute silence. frёeωebɳovel.com

And just like always, people were gathered here. Selling, watching, recording.

A giant monitor played real-time feeds from drones or synced Challenger cams—those who were willing to sell their footage. Live commentaries blared out, showing progress on lower floors. third floor. fourth floors. A couple of teams on the fifth trying to clear it, but not the sixth yet.

Still, a few heads turned. Some people whispered. A camera panned my way briefly before jerking toward a more animated group of low-rank Challengers.

’Good. I didn’t want any attention.’

I just needed to get in, cleanly and quietly.

I stepped past the final threshold, the red shimmer crawling across my skin like static.

Then, without hesitation, I walked straight into the Crimson Rift.

The light faded the moment I stepped through the Rift.

Air, wet and buzzing with latent mana, pressed against my skin like static. The stone beneath my boots was slick—not from moisture, but from something thicker. The stench of spoiled blood rode on the wind.

Then the System chimed in.

-

[You have entered the 7th Floor of the Labyrinth.]

[ Quest Type: Extermination ]

[ Requirement: None ]

[ Objective: Eliminate the Trolls 20/20 ]

[You cannot exit this floor until the objective is complete.]

-

’Typical.’

I stepped forward, eyes adjusting to the gloom. Pillars of broken architecture jutted from the ground like gravestones, and thick black roots coiled around them. Fog draped the space in long shadows.

No sounds.

Not even breathing.

Then—

[ ERROR: Entity List Mismatch ]

[ Verifying Floor Parameters... ]

[ Recompiling Enemy Data... ]

[ Warning: Anomalous Entity Detected ]

[ Codename: Anomalous Troll – Hex-Eater ]

[ Classification: Rift-Born Aberration | Magic-Consuming Predator ]

[ Adaptive Threat Level: 3 ]

-

My breath caught.

This wasn’t just a mutation. The System had to rewrite the floor just to define it.

A low gurgle echoed ahead and I turned.

There, rising from the mist, was a shape that vaguely resembled a troll—if trolls were hollowed out and stitched back together with runes made of rot.

Its arms were disproportionate. Cracked. Glowing. Veins of mana burned across its flesh, but not in a radiant way—in a parasitic way. The glow pulsed like something alive was squirming beneath its skin.

And then it opened its mouth not to roar, but to inhale.

The moment it did, the air shimmered.

’Mana drain?!’

I ducked left just as the very essence of the fog was sucked into the beast’s core. Where the mana once lingered in the air—nothing. Void. Like the world blinked for a second and forgot how to breathe magic.

’A troll that feeds on mana. A Hex-Eater.’

"This is going to be a lil bit of a problem if broadcasted."

I braced, eyes narrowing. The Specter Fang set’s stealth wouldn’t last long against that thing.

And if there were supposed to be twenty of them...

The System had lied.

Or the Rift had rewritten the rules.

Either way, I was already trapped.

-

The Hex-Eater tilted its head sideways—like it was listening to something I couldn’t hear. The fog recoiled around it like dying threads of silk, consumed completely by the invisible vacuum in its chest.

Then, as if sensing the tension tightening in my grip, the System chimed again.

-

...Updating Objective...

[ ALERT: Floor Anomaly has overwritten standard parameters. ]

[ New Objective: Eliminate — [1/1] Cursed Entity ]

[ Target: Hex-Eater Troll | Rift-Born Aberration ]

[ Adaptive Threat Level: 3 ]

[ Exit will unlock upon confirmed kill. ]

-

’It’s rewriting itself in real time.’

My voice barely rose above a whisper.

The implication was loud enough. Twenty trolls had been reduced to one. Not because this thing was weaker, but because it had devoured the others.

Maybe not physically. But structurally. Conceptually.

The System had adapted the quest because the Rift could no longer consider the rest relevant.

There was only this.

One anomaly.

One kill.

One chance.

The Hex-Eater finally moved.

Its footstep left a smear of dissolved rock—flesh and mana burning away the stone like acid. Runes along its shoulders blinked in broken sequences, like someone had tried to tattoo logic into madness.

-

[ Warning: This entity is immune to Class-0 Mana Constructs. ]

[ Stealth Detected. Nullifying Passive Invisibility. ]

[ Magic Density within 30m: Rapidly Decreasing ]

-

My Specter Fang cloak evaporated mid-step—its enchantment visibly shredding into mana dust, consumed before it could even fail properly.

’So that’s how it works.’

It wasn’t just using magic. It was unmaking it.

A predator designed for spellcasters. An evolutionary answer to everything the Rift deemed excessive.

And I was wearing everything it wanted to eat.

I stood still.

Let the Hex-Eater stalk forward, its feet hissing across the stone as mana bled from the air in slow, visible pulses. My cloak’s shattered enchantment dissolved around me like ash caught in a vacuum. I felt naked—but not helpless.

The beast opened its jaws again—gaping like a furnace void, sucking the world’s magic in like a dying star.

And I smiled.

"So... you eat mana?"

It paused.

"Unmake it?"

The beast tilted its oversized head, runes along its arms flickering erratically, glitching in and out of stability like corrupted code trying to recalculate.

"Then choke on this."

[ Skill Activated: Blank Protocol ]

—Active Trigger: Erasure Pulse

The world cracked.

A snap like a glass filament breaking under cosmic pressure echoed outward—

and then the backlash came.

A pulse detonated from my chest—silent, seamless.

The Rift screamed.

Light shattered like glass. The glyphs burned off the troll’s body like paper under acid. Even the residual mana in the fog evaporated, pulled backward as reality reset itself for a heartbeat.

[ Reality Backlash Triggered. ]

[ All magical effects, enchantments, and status modifiers within 20m: NULLIFIED. ]

The Hex-Eater buckled.

It stumbled two steps back—arms flailing, the siphon effect around its chest snuffed out. Runes along its spine cracked. It groaned, gurgled, confused.

But I was already walking.