Chapter 16: The Descent
Sunlight cut through the heavy, fog-stained windows of the 40th floor. Ace inhaled sharply, his eyes snapping open.
There was no grogginess. The physical conditioning had worked its way through his body overnight. He pushed himself off the cold floor, standing up with a newfound, terrifying lightness. He felt two distinct, overwhelming currents of power swirling perfectly within his core: the heavy, suffocating spiritual pressure of reiryoku, and the volatile, violent hum of pure demonic energy.
The system UI materialized in sharp, golden text, projecting his new reality in direct, objective readouts.
> [HOST ENTITY UPDATE: MATRIX CORE INTEGRATION]
> Genetic/Spiritual Mutation Complete.
> Current Race/Origin: Demonic Spiritual Human Variant (Half-Demonic / Half-Shinigami)
> [MATRIX CORE CAPACITY: 2/3 POWER SOURCES LOCKED]
> Source 1: Reiryoku (Spiritual Pressure - Zangetsu Origin)
> Source 2: Demonic Energy (Son of Sparda - Ebony & Ivory Origin)
> Remaining Core Slots: 1
>
Ace read the readout, a predatory smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. His humanity was officially a technicality. He had locked in two of the ultimate power sources in fiction.
He looked around the Costume Department Storage Area. The racks were still lined with the fifty-two remaining physical cosplay props. In reality, they were just mundane foam and resin; without spending UP to refine them, they had zero base damage. But with his Arsenal Matrix completely awakened, his Genesis Gate ability was officially online.
Ace raised a hand toward the heavy steel racks.
"Store."
The room hummed. The space directly in front of the racks distorted, rippling outward like a stone dropped in a glowing crimson lake. Dozens of glowing, red circular portals opened in the air, directly mirroring the iconic Gate of Babylon. The physical props dissolved, pulled directly into his localized spatial dimension through the crimson ripples. He stored them to use as anchors.
He deliberately left Rebellion on his back and Ebony & Ivory at his lower spine. Walking into a fight with a massive demonic claymore strapped to his back was a stylistic choice he refused to compromise on.
> [DAILY OBJECTIVE]
> Objective Updated: Initiate Descent. Clear remaining structural levels (Floors 39-Basement).
>
Over the next several days, Ace settled into a grueling, bloody routine.
By day, he spent hours blitzing his way down through the lower floors, clearing the corporate offices room by room. The descent was a masterclass in his new abilities. He learned to finely modulate the demonic energy fueling his guns. By tightening the flow to the chambers, he fired high-velocity rounds that were virtually silent. He ghosted through floors 39 down to 30, dropping Tier 1 and Tier 2 zombies with suppressed, demonic headshots before they even knew he was there.
But the tower was evolving, throwing terrifying new variants at him.
On the 37th floor, he encountered Stalkers—emaciated variants with elongated, multi-jointed limbs that crawled along the ceiling panels. They dropped silently from above, forcing Ace to utilize his Arsenal Mage skills on the fly. He'd open a crimson ripple above his head, manifesting the blue-flamed katana Kurikara (Blue Exorcist) just long enough to incinerate the ambushing creatures before letting the blade shatter back into motes of light.
On the 34th floor, he fought a Weeping Siren, a variant that emitted a concussive sonic scream that shattered the office windows. Ace countered by projecting the Elucidator and Dark Repulser (Sword Art Online), utilizing the dual-wielding burst speed from the weapons' history to cross the room in a blur and execute a flawless Starburst Stream to dice the Siren before it could vocalize again.
On the 31st, a hulking, heavily-armored Brute shattered a concrete pillar with its fists. Ace didn't bother with swords; he simply drew Ebony, overcharged the chamber with a massive spike of Demonic Energy, and point-blanked it, blowing a hole clean through its carapace.
He was a one-man army, but the lower he went, the more an oppressive paranoia began to set in.
It started on Floor 38. A thick puddle of viscous, black sludge pooled near the elevator banks. It wasn't blood; it was oily, freezing cold, and seemed to absorb the ambient light. The next day, on Floor 35, the sludge was there again, smeared across a glass partition.
Ace had no idea what was waiting at the absolute bottom of the tower, but he knew the slime was following him. As he moved through the darkened cubicles of the 28th floor, the distinct, icy prickle of being hunted crawled up his spine. His thermal HUD picked up nothing, but out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw a cluster of pale, unblinking eyes staring at him from the shadows of an air duct. By the time he turned his head, there was only the frantic skittering sound of metal receding rapidly down the shaft, and a fresh drop of black sludge on the carpet. Something was studying him.
To prepare for whatever the hell was leaking that sludge, Ace spent his nights training heavily in the sprawling, multi-story Atrium on the 44th floor.
He aggressively tested his Genesis Gate. He quickly realized a massive limitation: manifestation ran entirely on his memory and lore knowledge. When he tried to manifest a magical girl wand to cast a barrage of spells, it just sputtered useless, harmless pink sparkles. He didn't know the lore; the system couldn't compute the magic.
So, he stuck to what he knew best, pushing his anime arsenal to its limits.
He successfully executed an Omnislash, opening six distinct red circular portals that fired glowing Buster Swords into the air, hovering around him before he chained them into a devastating, high-speed combo. He manifested the massive, fur-hilted Tessaiga, attempting the Wind Scar—the sheer kinetic force ripped a massive trench through the Atrium's marble floor. He even tested the crimson spear Gae Bolg (Fate/stay night), practicing throwing the cursed lance to feel its terrifying, causality-reversing weight.
But his most volatile experiment involved a pair of jagged, chain-linked blades.
He opened the red, rippling gates and drew out the Blades of Chaos. They erupted with a searing, fiery aura, the heavy chains wrapping securely around the forearms of his crimson coat. They dealt incredible, sweeping damage, carving molten scars into the Atrium's pillars. However, because his knowledge of the God of War universe was shallow compared to his other favorites, the blades were incredibly unruly. Controlling the fiery centrifugal force took immense concentration, nearly pulling him off his feet with every wild swing.
He needed a live target, and open space, to master them.