Congratulations!
You've slain the Demon Emperor!

 

I looked apathetically at the blue box floating in front of me. It wasn't the first time I saw it. It wouldn't be the last, either.

No, next time would be the last.

For good or ill.

 

Calculating points...

 

Corpses of individuals from all known races were around me. Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, fairies, titans, trolls, demihumans, demons... There were too many races to count. Too many corpses too. Tens of millions of them, completely covering the ground of the battlefield.

Blue light reflected on my pristine white and golden [Divine Armor of Alpha and Omega], which covered me from head to toe. The light came from thousands of pockets of blue [Hellfire], burning many of the corpses and spreading wildly. It would only stop when there was nothing but dust to burn or if I used a Legendary Tier Water Skill to quench it.

I wouldn't.

Some of the dead had fought for humankind, others, against. During my first travels to the past, I had gotten upset at the betrayal of some races and the choice of others to stand with the demons. I spent quite some resets trying to understand them and make them fight for humankind. It got to the point that I knew their history, politics and intrigues of all the major races better than themselves.

All of that for naught.

 

Calculating points... OK
You've accumulated 53,685,743,824 Tower Points!
Do you want to open the Winner's Shop?

 

"Yes," I replied immediately.

The more I waited, the more points would be automatically subtracted. A secret that almost cost me my first time travel as I rested and mourned for a while before opening the shop.

 

Contacting the gods...

 

That would take a while, and I had no wish to wait with the quartered corpse of the huge Demon Emperor. This was the second run I went for the [Formless Blade of Oblivion] build and just like the first time, I wasn't impressed. While it was cool having an invisible blade around me at all times, one capable of cutting through anything, it simply lacked power.

Killing everyone before I dealt with the Demon Emperor had taken far too long.

I turned and jumped towards one of the edges of the battlefield. My launch was so powerful I broke through the sound barrier and blew away the corpses I had been standing on. I flew faster than a torpedo. When I landed in a rocky area with no corpses, the ground sunk under my weight, web-like cracks appearing on it.

There, I sat, stored my helmet into my [Inventory] and took the [Dagger of Severing] from it. That was one of the nine [Fate Keys] required to leave the Tower through the backdoor. I had never found the ninth and final one.

I used some essence to make it float and started playing with it, resting its point on my gloved finger and rotating it while I reminisced about my failures.

 

Contacting the gods. OK

Winner's Shop
Total TP: 53,352,894,651
1. Go back in time with your memories intact (1 remaining) — 50,000,000,000 TP
2. Free your race — 100,000,000,000 TP

 

I sighed when I looked at the second option.

It was time I faced the harsh reality.

The Tower had bound time travels to me when I first took it, then limited how many times I could buy it. This was the 98th run already. Yet, I hadn't found a way to get enough TP to save humankind from eternal slavery, and I hadn't found the [Ninth Key].

I had failed.

Utterly.

One last run wouldn't change things.

My points had already decayed, even though it was the gods' fault for taking so long to open the shop. Typical. But I had about ten minutes before I lost too many points. I took the time to decide what to do.

I was tired.

Tired of doing the same things over and over again. Tired of searching for the [Keys]. Tired of looking for the most optimal path to beat the Demon Emperor.

As I tried distinct things to get more points, I beat the Tower at faster and slower paces at different runs. My average was eight years. I had been at it for over eight hundred years in total already.

I wanted no more of it.

I couldn't take any more of it.

Not when I knew there was no hope at the end of the road.

The first escape that came to mind was sleeping my sadness away on the First Floor, but that went against who I was. However, there was a second option, wasn't there? A juvenile one I had stopped contemplating on my first runs.

A way to have fun.

Not go batshit crazy. That was too stupid for me. But take the spotlight in a way I never had. Bask in glory, hoard all the titles and artifacts, build myself an empire to be remembered.

Yes. That would be humanity's last run. How about I united and led both humanity and the rest of the Tower towards a glorious ultimate battle?

I knew of a way to accomplish both personal glory and Tower unification. It was a suboptimal route; by hoarding more power than I needed instead of leaving some of it to some key people, it became much harder to kill the Demon Emperor.

But why care about killing the Demon Emperor at all? I just wanted my last run to be fun and the last battle to be memorable. I just wanted humanity to look back at it with pride while eternal slavery ate our souls away.

The biggest issue was that it would require me to risk my life in one or two situations before I met Sophie, and I absolutely had to kill her for her treason against humankind.

I would take the chance anyway, I decided. It was my most selfish decision since my first reset.

And if I survived- When I survived, I wouldn't kill her directly, oh no. I would find her and link our souls together to guaranteed she died with me.

So I could do whatever I want and rest in peace whenever death came.

So I could bring her with me just to see the look on her face as she believed she won, only to die when victory was within her grasp.

She deserved worse.

It all sounded great. Well, not all of it. I'd have to go the tyrant route to take swift control of humankind, to prevent it from going to even darker places, so we could all unite against the demons. But I could deal with both the burden of the deaths I'd cause and the hatred that would follow.

I smiled wildly.

When I first started climbing the Tower, in my youthful delusions, I dubbed myself Black Reaper. I never changed it because I saw no reason to.

Now, it would fit my last run like a glove.

'Purchase item number one,' I thought.

 

Are you sure you want to purchase this item?

1. Go back in time with your memories intact (1 remaining) — 50,000,000,000 TP

 

'Yes.'

And the world exploded in colors.