I walked into the floor properly and through my technique noticed something particularly surprising, there were no monsters. Not a single one anywhere in my techniques range and that was no small area. Topside my perception might be limited to my bodies senses but in the dungeon I could "see" for over a hundred meters in every direction without any extra effort. If I focused on it intentionally like I did for the fifty first floor I could cover dozens of miles in every direction. If my stats weren't so high so much information would likely drive me mad(more so at least) but thankfully my mind and perception through my technique grew at roughly the same rate.-
Anyways what i'm saying is that theres no hiding from me in the dungeon. If the dungeon knows you are within my range so do I. And this? This wasn't a case of hidden monsters but a sheer absence of them. As I pressed forward it didn't get better at all as there was simply nothing to be found. Even on the sixtieth floor where the frost had claimed more of the strange plants there were no monsters.-
That changed when I got to the edge of the "jungle" on this floor. There I both "saw" and actually saw a vast field of white "corpses". They were all like ash that crumbled at the slightest touch but oddly there was no stones among them to keep their forms. It confused the ever loving fuck out of me because monsters go "poof" when the stones are removed or get reabsorbed by the dungeon if they weren't, they DON'T leave bodies behind normally like this. I examined this "ash" carefully and honestly couldn't find any about it. It behaved like normal ash in the hands.-
Even under my technique it merely became solid "ash" when forced together like it was no longer made of the same stuff a normal monster would be. I collected a cube of this ash to give to Miach in hopes he might be able to find out more. After that I headed down the frozen steps to the sixty second floor. I had to keep my flames blazing around me like an cloak to shield me from the biting cold winds that were raging even in the stairway. My flames were being pressed however as this was no mere frost.-
If one puts stock into the legends this frost was known as Thalia's Ice Garden. Supposedly an ancient high elvish queen by the name of Celdia along with some unknown others reached this floor somehow and cast a ritual spell of some type that is so powerful the entire floor got covered by a nether cold that could freeze even a level seven solid in no time. Additionally it caused the memories of lifetimes long since past to pour through the minds of those frozen until they become guardsmen puppets with all their power.-
That ritual was apparently broken according to the Loki familia but it's remnant power still clung to the floor making it impossible for them to traverse.
'How cruel. What could possess someone to do something like this?' I wondered balefully as I stepped foot on the sixty second floor proper.
There in the air floated fragments of souls like points of vibrant and chilling light. I couldn't see what bound them here but it wasn't hard to guess. These fragments once belonged to people sacrificed for the ritual spell. These souls had lost all color, all sense of self from the long passage of time as they had been fueling the ritual magic with themselves.-
"No more. I release you from this fate! Hell fire!" I said firmly as I exploded out with the fullest extent of my flames.
The remnant magic fought back viciously as my flames passed across the floor burning away the binds holding these soul fragments and letting them dissipate. There would be no afterlife for these souls, not in their state. But even nonexistence was better than this. From the billowing snow and frost a jagged humanoid face with twisted snarling features and hollow empty eyes manifested as the remnant magic condensed to fight my flames fully while the soul fragments were squeezed for more power.-
I felt my very soul quake in pure apoplectic RAGE at this sight. I roared in fury and something in my mind just.... clicked. My black and blue flames rapidly began to shift as the miniscule points of white true hell fire in it grew and grew. When the balance of the flames tipped too far however and they became more white than black and blue everything changed. There was a loud "BOOM!" as the darker colors were erased by the true hell fire and I felt my cursed energy and soul change to match.-
It was like invisible chains snapping and I was liberated from a weight I never knew I was carrying. With the change came a sense of effortlessness with my flames. Like they were no longer a tool but a true part of who I was, of what I was. The jagged face screamed in unwillingness as my flames coiled around it and burned it away freeing the soul fragments within. Finally the magic remnant was burned away and my flames cleansed the floor of any trace of it's existence.-
I retracted my flames like I was breathing in or a tide returning to the sea, natural and without effort. My cursed energy was gone, drained to a merely flicker within me as I stood there blankly and absently. It was a state unlike anything I could describe as my soul and self changed. I wasn't unconscious but was so close to that state I couldn't discern reality anymore, it all blurred.