Six sets of footsteps rushed past the bloodied corpse of a greater Void Dragon. Several of its jet black scales and a few vials of blood had been stripped away, but the rest had been ignored. It wouldn’t have time to rot, since the dungeon would devour it for every last scrap of mana.

The hero’s party was pressed for time. Cracks were forming along the dungeon walls, the floor shook beneath their feet, and monsters were appearing chaotically left and right. The core was panicking, and the dungeon might collapse with them inside if they didn’t crush it soon.

It truly was a shame to have to destroy the core of a dungeon that had nearly reached Legendary class: the dungeon that the hero’s party had only been able to defeat with the subjugation of the Demon King already under their belts. Such a core could be used to power an entire kingdom if they brought it back, but it was just too dangerous for that.

Six figures from various races, with various builds and equipments, finally threw open a massive set of double doors. A valiant-looking man with blonde hair, blood-red armor, and a silver cape headed the group. He saw a crystalline structure, shaped like a polygon with an unfathomable number of sides. This was the core of a ten thousand floor dungeon. The amount of ether it was processing into mana was so massive and with such a rapid flow that it was nearly visible to the mortal hero’s eyes. He had to admit that the cacophony of colors and other sensations was one of the most beautiful things he had ever witnessed. The massive core room stretched fifty meters on all sides, and the core alone took up most of that volume. The color of the core could not be distinguished thanks to all the magical activity, but as it floated exposed, the walls of the dungeon seemed to tremble again in fear of death.

As far as the hero understood, a dungeon core, though intelligent, was not something that would casually communicate with people, so he spoke no words as he brought up his vibrant white broadsword. However, before he could launch an attack, deep cracks spread over the surface of the crystalline giant, cracks filled with abyssal darkness and an overwhelming premonition of the end. The core shattered by its own machinations, rather than let the hero and his companions have the achievement.

Because of this, the destruction of the dungeon was not put on hold as the invaders escaped, but rather, it was accelerated, and the hero’s party was forced to quickly beat a retreat. However, teleportation was not possible within a dungeon, unless the dungeon allowed it, and there were ten thousand flights of stairs between the hero’s party and the surface. They were not to be underestimated, being the group that defeated the Demon King, an invading Evil God from another world. But they were also not Gods themselves, nor were Gods able to save them from a dungeon they did not own. The hero, and his party, were crushed by the dungeon, after it had given its life to make that happen. It was an epic battle of mutual destruction which would become a great legend that all the world would hear.

***Archimedes’ POV***

I have sincerely learned my lesson. No matter how powerful you become, there will always be someone stronger. Even if the heroes hadn’t made short and easy work of every behemoth I put before them, or magically neutralized each loving trap I had set, someone else even stronger would have done so. I would have met my end no matter what, even if another Evil God from beyond the stars had to come here first.

I made a magnificent dungeon and taunted those with strength to come be defeated by it, and finally I was defeated instead.

What the hell was it all for? Thousands of years spent desperately growing myself, and the end has come to find me.

Why did I live the way I did? Was it simply for the sake of existing? Did I have no choice in the way I used my life? My motivating force, my goal to be the strongest, was an impossible dream from the start. Why had I lived? What was my purpose? Or does something like a dungeon have no purpose? Perhaps the only significance my life had was the effects I carved into the ones who adventured through me…

But I killed every last person who entered me, barring those who I sent off with treasures to attract more fools.

I may have truly lived for nothing. How… sad. I’m not happy with an ending like this. I don’t want to be killed by these humans.

To the people who showed me the worthlessness of my thousands of years in this world, thank you, now please die with me.

Archimedes reached into the spaces between the air, where a void was swirling, and drew out the ether like he always had. He gathered it into his crystalline body and swirled and agitated it until his violet body was overcome with the light of high-energy mana. He gathered more without stopping, using whatever seemed to be slipping out of his control to haphazardly summon monsters to slow the heroes down. The voice of the world became excited, inundating a part of his vision with warnings.

Warning! Approaching critical mana density threshold. Warning! Internal mana processing ability has become unstable. Warning! Dungeon structure has become unstable! Total collapse is imminent!

Ah, like I care about that. Rather, let the futile sum of my worthless life crumble and crush these people who defeated me.

Barely a moment later, the heroes threw open the doors to Archimedes’ core chamber. Their leader stood at the front and raised his sword. The core was in blinding pain by now, and he was fairly certain that the center of his body had already been liquidated or worse by the plasma-hot mana he was kneading from the ether. He was in no state of mind to give these people any final words. He felt that his end was approaching, and indeed, it came right on time.

Critical mana failure detected. Will to self-destruct confirmed. No...

Archimedes’ body was already drawing deep cracks, and the ethereal void could be seen within his body. These humans should feel blessed to see such a thing before they die. That being said, he was so close to death that he almost failed to notice the final faded message from the voice of the world.

In Archimedes’ thousands of years of life, he had never seen the voice of the world take such a personal tone. For it to be feeling sorry for such a worthless existence such as him, he felt quite happy. Honestly, he was grateful that his death didn’t have to be entirely depressing. That final bit of joy at the end almost made him happy to have lived, if only to see that he had evoked compassion in something so much grander than himself. It was almost relieving to have his body crumble into so many purple shards, and free his spirit of the depths of the earth.

How long did he float up and up through the darkness? How far had his bodiless spirit drifted? Archimedes wondered if anything at all would happen anymore, or if it would stay quiet and peaceful for eternity. It did indeed feel like quite a length of time passed as he wandered without direction. His heart had already settled by now; his mind wasn’t quite so angry, and his thoughts not quite so chaotic. Archimedes had relaxed after dazing about as a spirit for three years.

Almost hesitantly, the voice of the world reached out to him.

Would you like to live a meaningful life? Yes No

Truly? Was he being given a second chance? An opportunity to live as something less parasitic and worthless than a thinking cave in the mountainside was something Archimedes hadn’t hoped to encounter. Just imagine what sort of things he could create--things that wouldn’t vanish into particles of light when they were damaged or removed from his lair! Imagine the people he could impact and the adventures he could go on!

Yes! The answer was yes! What thinking creature wouldn’t want that?

Beginning reincarnation

This was decidedly the happiest Archimedes had ever been, even though he had already died and wasn’t yet born again. He stayed as still and patient as he could be while the mysterious forces of nature dug around for a place to put his soul into the world of the living. Archimedes felt his environment begin to change. He was phasing slowly into a more solid kind of darkness than the swirling emptiness where he had been. Dull sensations were beginning to return to him, and he waited eagerly for the moment where he could open his eyes as some flesh-and-blood creature upon the world.

Congratulations! You have been reincarnated. Please select an initial boon. Increase Creature Strength Increase Creature Wisdom Increase Creature Loyalty Decrease Creature Cost Bestow Mana Cores Increase Creation Speed You may place one free room. You may place one free corridor. Please select a starting monster. Goblin (F) Kobold (F) Slime (F) Wolfbat (F) Warning! Incomplete path to dungeon core. Creature creation has been disabled. Item creation has been disabled. Ether harvesting has been disabled. Please immediately complete the path.

...What sort of sick joke is this?