Spiral of Madness: Ascension of the Villainous Dragon Prince-Chapter 94 - 6th Regression First Day - Exploring The Dimensional Labyrinth [2]
Zorba, of course, hated it. He screamed in horror as they soared dozens of meters above the Salt Forest. Unlike the experienced Zorba from Louis’s previous life, this version had not yet grown accustomed to Louis’s presence, his antics, or his own emerging madness and determination.
He was still a little cowardly.
"L-Lord Louis, where are we going in such a hurry?!" Zorba asked. "Shouldn’t you rest? You were stabbed...!"
"That wound has already healed," Louis said, eyes focused ahead. "We’re heading to the deepest part of the First Layer. Defeat any Area Boss we find, then rush through the Dimensional Staircase to the Second Layer."
"T-The Second Layer?!" Zorba gasped. "That’s...!"
"Yes, the Desolate Empire," Louis nodded. "Every Layer of the Dimensional Labyrinth is a world once destroyed in catastrophe. The Forest of Hollow Salt is the same. It is speculated this was once part of a much larger world, completely turned to salt by a Curse."
Zorba’s eyes widened as he absorbed the new information.
"The Desolate Empire was once a great civilization spanning an entire world," Louis continued. "But through some tragedy, it fell. Ruins now stretch across what remains, absorbed by the Dimensional Labyrinth. It is home to the Desolate Lord and the Ruinous Empress—whom I intend to hunt."
The Desolate Lord and Ruinous Empress were two powerful Entities bordering on Grievance status due to their strength. They ruled the Second Layer.
Unlike rogue Grievances like the Gardener, Area Bosses had Souls and Origins rooted in their Layer. Unless their Souls were utterly destroyed or the Layer consumed by another Domain, Fragmented World, or Authority, they could regenerate—even after death—usually within weeks or months.
Thus, whenever the VPI explored the Labyrinth for resources, they first sent combat squads to eliminate Area Bosses before investigation teams entered a safer environment.
"Y-You want to hunt the two Area Bosses of the Second Layer alone?!" Zorba was stunned.
"Not alone," Louis shook his head. "You’re here, right Zorba? Also I have other friends..." He summoned Gungnir, pointed the spear forward, and launched it.
"Huh?!"
RUMBLE!
The golden spear thundered through the sky, piercing its target. An explosion of salt crystals erupted as Zorba watched a giant creature groan in agony, part of its body blown apart.
Louis’s Ashen Frost Blade carried them to the site: a towering statue over ten meters tall, depicting a naked, muscular man with a handsome face, carved entirely from salt rock—reminiscent of Greco-Roman deities or champions.
Three more wandered nearby, close to the entrance of the Central Zone of the First Layer, where these Entities dominated and rarely strayed from their territory.
"Do you know what these are, Zorba?" Louis asked. "They’re called Salt Statues. It is speculated they were the original inhabitants of the world this Layer came from. The Curse of Salt transformed them into immortal guardians of the Center, where the Area Boss and Dimensional Staircase are usually found."
"T-That’s enlightening, my lord, but isn’t this thing too far out of our league right now?"
"Level 2 Entities?" Louis raised an eyebrow. "Not at all."
RUMBLE!
The wounded Salt Statue swung its massive arm. The air pressure unleashed powerful shockwaves, shaking the forest below and whipping their long hair wildly.
Louis remained calm. He waved his hand. His spear returned instantly, piercing the statue’s chest and drawing its core to him.
Louis devoured the apple-sized core in three bites. The Salt Statue collapsed, slowly crumbling.
It still left a second core behind, struggling to recover—but not for long.
Louis pointed downward. Gungnir—now far more responsive and controllable from afar through his strengthened Soul Essence—pierced the statue’s head, retrieving the second core as the body crumbled into salt rocks.
"Eat this."
"Eh?"
Zorba received a large Fantasium Core—normally highly toxic and poisonous to most, but harmless to Sinners, especially Spiralwalkers like them, who could freely consume and drain such substances.
"Eat it."
Louis’s gaze sharpened. Zorba hesitated no longer. He bit into the crystal. It wasn’t as hard as expected, crunchy outside, soft and chewy inside. In four bites he finished it, feeling refreshed with more Fantasium flowing through him.
"Ah, I feel refreshed. I had no idea I could... well, no, I knew it from the beginning..." Zorba murmured, drawing on the memories to understand more.
"It’s good that you’re picking up the pace," Louis said. "Do you think you can use these statues as vessels for your Enslaved Souls?"
"I... don’t know. I’ve never tried before," Zorba admitted. "But this knowledge tells me it might be possible."
"I don’t have Souls on me right now, so you do it first," Louis said. "Otherwise, I would have tried it myself earlier."
"I see. Leave it to me, Lord Louis." Zorba leaped from the sword and landed on the soil. He pointed at the destroyed Salt Statue and infused three Enslaved Souls.
Slowly, the fragments began to reassemble, reforming the beautiful, muscular, naked figure of salt rock.
"Oh, it worked—and it’s most delightful to see!" Zorba marveled at his first non-human "zombie."
"I see. As I thought, it works," Louis nodded. "How many souls does one need?"
"Three," Zorba answered. "It’s strange, though. I can feel some kind of Soul Resonance from them. I believe I could collect their souls if I kill them."
"Is that so? Then they were indeed humans once," Louis said.
The Spiral of Desecrated Soul functioned on anything considered a "person" or "human"—even if later transformed into an Entity—as long as they originated as such. Their souls could be extracted and enslaved upon death by a user of the Spiral.
Louis immediately sensed a large soul being drawn toward him. The Salt Statue’s soul was three times larger than a human’s and rich in Soul Essence. For some reason, he felt an intense hunger to consume it.
"Wait, why?"
The thought shocked him. He had never been capable of eating souls before. Yet now, staring at this one, a ravenous hunger unlike anything he had felt before surged within him.
"I have to check what happened to me. My Soul was shattered into pieces, yet here I am... Whatever power governs my Regression repaired it fully, but something has definitely changed," Louis thought. "There are two new things: the Red Rose rooted in my Soul’s chest, and the Red Thread of Friendship connecting me to Mirai—now blazing with her Demonic Flames, carrying a strong, almost living Emotion..."
As two more Salt Statues rushed toward him, Louis sent Gungnir to handle one and left the other for Zorba. He then directed part of his consciousness inward to examine his Soul more closely.
"Huh."
Scanning revealed the red rose growing from the chest of his soul form, its roots deeply embedded in his Soul Essence. For a moment he feared it was a vestige of the Gardener—and it was—but like Handy, it had become a fully separate entity.
Further analysis showed the rose responded by opening its eye and staring back. Unlike the bizarre Gardener, it neither spoke nor attempted to. It simply existed. After a minute of study—while tremors from the battles below shook the ground—Louis discovered something crucial.
"It’s making my Soul stronger?"
The Red Rose’s roots constantly supplied power and slowly refined his Soul Essence. He hadn’t practiced yet, but this could accelerate any Soul-related Cultivation Methods. There might be other hidden abilities, but this was all he could detect so far.
"That hunger most likely comes from this thing latching onto my Soul. Can I remove it?"
