Chapter 50: Guardian of the Sixth Floor

"Hmmm... foolish humans... think they can get close without being seen?" A black slime with blue streaks mutters angrily as it roams the sixth floor of the palace.

He is Moros Protoplasmus, the [Original Mimic] and Apostle of the 6th Floor. His true form is a gigantic mass of black slime with dark-blue reflections, like a living ocean covered by countless golden eyes that slowly open and close. He normally uses random appearances or those of objects.

As such, "he" can have any appearance at any moment, lacking gender and with a complicated rationality. Most of the time, his mentality is on the same level as a 4-year-old child, but when he assumes a humanoid form, his intelligence rises to the level of a functional adult at a surprising speed, and the more stable the form, the faster his intelligence reaches a functional level.

And when he’s in his true form but angry, his intelligence drops to a level even lower than that of a baby, becoming just an irrational and dangerous slime.

The sixth floor he commands is a place completely covered with water on the floor. You can’t see the bottom of the water, as if it were an infinite abyss, yet you can’t enter the water, as if it were solid, so only the first few centimeters are actual water. Meanwhile, the whole place has a very large expanse, looking like a completely empty area with several doors scattered around. Each door leads to a random location in the palace, though most are traps.

Normally one would think this setting doesn’t favor his mimicry power, that is, if he couldn’t literally pretend to be the water on the floor, turning the whole place into a true danger, where the ground could be him anywhere.

"Nio... why won’t you let me out a little..." Moros, like a reflection, copies Nio’s appearance; her face fills with tears as she drags herself across the water floor.

"I want to explore too... I’m so hungry..." While dragging himself across the floor, Moros also uses his powers to observe everything around the palace within a radius of kilometers. His ability to see and detect threats is absurd, even while hidden on the sixth floor of the palace.

The reality is that he alone makes Azalea’s dragons and plants useless, but one can never be too safe, and that’s why Nio prefers to have both Azalea and the dragons, since Moros isn’t reliable considering his messed-up mind.

"Haaa... Nio... are you mad at me? I promise I won’t spy on you anymore... please..." In Moros’s lore, he was imprisoned on the sixth floor for a few millennia as punishment for various errors, some involving doing something against Nio. Of course, now this has become real.

So in Moros’s mind, he has been trapped for millennia in this empty place, without food, without visits, and without freedom, only able to observe the outside. That is why he copies Nio’s appearance and cries.

"I-I won’t try to devour anything anymore... I want to get out... it’s so... boring in here..." Moros’s form changes a little; his hair turns black and his eyes red, a sign of stress.

He looks at the water, seeing Nio’s reflection but with black hair and red eyes, and then punches the water.

"This isn’t fair!! Why... why am I the only one punished like this!! M-Melissa made mistakes too!! And she’s almost totally free!! She isn’t loyal like me..." The form turns back into a liquid that expands into a grotesque bubble of flesh hundreds of meters wide before bursting, forming a small lake of blood.

"..." He returns to Nio’s normal form, now covered in blood, like a small sign of revolt.

"Are you even listening to me? Nio, you haven’t forgotten me here, right?!... Nio!!!"

"Moros, stop screaming. It’s echoing through the whole palace because of your eyes." Moros quickly looks around, seeing the first visitor in "millennia," Azalea, who came down to this floor because Moros’s voice began to echo throughout the palace.

"A-A-Azalea!! Let me out!!! Please!!" Moros drags himself to Azalea, but this only makes Azalea give a look of disgust at Moros, who is using Nio’s form to drag himself pathetically across the floor.

"You know very well why you’re imprisoned on the sixth floor. Stop screaming. The common servants have started to complain and file reports because they can’t rest or focus on their duties since you won’t stop shouting and begging Nio to get you out of here."

"B-B-But I-I just want to get out!! Did Nio forget me here?! Why am I still being punished!! The others did worse things than me!! YOU!!! YOU ALREADY TRIED TO DRUG HER!! WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE PUNISHED LIKE THIS?" Moros gets angry, standing up and pointing at Azalea.

"...I don’t know. Stop talking like it’s my fault. I’m not responsible for what Nio thinks... besides, the mere fact that you defile Nio’s image like this makes it very clear how detestable you are. Stop using Nio’s appearance to crawl on the floor like a worm."

"...This is unfair... you know that." Moros’s rationality increases; his speech becomes more coherent and his tone shifts to something colder and more rational.

"Justice hardly matters, right? Just stop screaming, nothing more than that. Your function is to defend this floor with your life. Why do you want to get out so badly anyway? It’s not like all the others can leave. Most of us apostles are also bound to our floors."

"You leave! You have the freedom to roam from one to another. The others can also leave their floors if they want, even if they have to come back later. And your floors have things!! My floor is empty and only has doors. Do you think I’m happy living here?" The coherence between sentences increases as Nio’s form becomes more stable down to the smallest details; even Moros’s scent begins to match.

And not just that, even traits that should never be able to be copied begin to appear, like the general appearance and aspect of Nio’s magic.

"...Stop screaming and I will talk to Nio about your freedom. Can you do that?" When Azalea proposes this, Moros stays thoughtful for a few seconds.

"I suppose that works... but I’m watching you. If you don’t tell her... you’ll pay dearly for it the next time we meet." Moros’s body turns back into liquid, sinking into the water. His mimicry becomes so perfect that Azalea loses him completely, no longer knowing which part of the water is Moros’s body, to the point where she starts flying so as not to fall into a trap.

"Don’t worry, I’ll deliver your words to her. But whether she frees you or not matters little to me. If you start screaming again, then we’ll have problems."