Tower Dungeon 4
by Tsutomu Nihei
translated by Sam Malissa
translated by Sam Malissa
2026
The fourth volume of Tsutomu Nihei's Tower Dungeon is kind of an interlude from the rest of the story so far. We follow an all-new party of adventurers into the Dragon Tower, and only at the very end do they intersect with Yuva, Lilisen, and Enriquo.
The group comes together around Iscale, a scholar sent by the head of the royal guard, Minsabelle, who is the aunt of the kidnapped princess and is likely to be coronated by parliament if the rescue isn't successful soon. Minsabelle also sent the regular army, and Iscale's small group will meet up with them partway through the volume. His small band of adventurers self-selects on the boat ride over - they're all the people with unbearable sea-sickness, and Iscale has anti-nausea medicine.
Earlier in the series, we met a cat-woman, and now we meet a mouse-woman, the warrior Chufaree and her mouse-man bodyguard. Sargan is dwarf and a pyromancer like Lilicen. (Seeing Sargan's fire magic makes me think that Lilisen is unusually powerful.) Aridelia is a young woman in antique plate armor, and seems like she's anxious and in over her head most of the time. Iscale has a mute bodyguard and a magic diary that lets him communicate instantly with Minsabelle, and she keeps scolding him for treating it like an actual diary rather than as a way to send important memos. Iscale is also a member of the royal family, and thus has the ability to turn into a dragon... although he's physically very weak compared to the others we've seen.
Sargan actually came to the tower to kill Carache, the evil nobleman who previously attacked Yuva's little sister, but he agrees to travel with the others, who are all there to rescue the princess. They enter the tower and advance up the levels, then see the army arriving and wait for the soldiers to get up to them. But alas, the army is ambushed, and Iscale's group is helpless to save them!
The adventurers witness the entire army turned to stone and then broken to pieces by thee giant basilisk moths. The moths' coordinated attack could only happen if they were being remotely controlled by another intelligence, which means these are undead basilisks. After breaking the statues, the moths tear themselves apart, which returns stone to flesh. Then maggots rain down from the ceiling. We're told this is how necromancers, like the giant tentacled man who kidnapped the princess, create their undead servants. The maggots crawl into the massacre and turn the entire army into zombie soldiers.
This is really bad! Worse, as Iscale's group continues upstairs, they run into the evil dracomorph Carache, and he's a zombie too! We're told that undead dracomorphs become very strange, and he looks it - half man, half dragon, and it looks like his parts are just being held loosely in place by tentacles. Iscale's group is no match for this horror, but fortunately, this is when they cross paths with Yuva and his friends, who defeat the undead Carache and agree to work together with the new adventurers.
One thing we learn along the way, which only makes sense in light of the scene of the maggots animating the zombie soldiers (and even still has some implications I don't fully understand) is that Aridelia is some kind of sentient zombie. She's insistent that no one see her without her armor, but the mouse-lady Chufaree sees her bathing from a distance while the others are sleeping. Aridelia somehow lays her own maggots and then swallows them, which I guess is why she's self-aware and not being controlled by a necromancer? Chufaree misunderstands the glimpse she saw and believes that Aridelia is trans, but she supports her friend living as a woman. That's nice! But I wonder how Chufaree and the others will react if they realize Aridelia is undead?
The group comes together around Iscale, a scholar sent by the head of the royal guard, Minsabelle, who is the aunt of the kidnapped princess and is likely to be coronated by parliament if the rescue isn't successful soon. Minsabelle also sent the regular army, and Iscale's small group will meet up with them partway through the volume. His small band of adventurers self-selects on the boat ride over - they're all the people with unbearable sea-sickness, and Iscale has anti-nausea medicine.
Earlier in the series, we met a cat-woman, and now we meet a mouse-woman, the warrior Chufaree and her mouse-man bodyguard. Sargan is dwarf and a pyromancer like Lilicen. (Seeing Sargan's fire magic makes me think that Lilisen is unusually powerful.) Aridelia is a young woman in antique plate armor, and seems like she's anxious and in over her head most of the time. Iscale has a mute bodyguard and a magic diary that lets him communicate instantly with Minsabelle, and she keeps scolding him for treating it like an actual diary rather than as a way to send important memos. Iscale is also a member of the royal family, and thus has the ability to turn into a dragon... although he's physically very weak compared to the others we've seen.
Sargan actually came to the tower to kill Carache, the evil nobleman who previously attacked Yuva's little sister, but he agrees to travel with the others, who are all there to rescue the princess. They enter the tower and advance up the levels, then see the army arriving and wait for the soldiers to get up to them. But alas, the army is ambushed, and Iscale's group is helpless to save them!
The adventurers witness the entire army turned to stone and then broken to pieces by thee giant basilisk moths. The moths' coordinated attack could only happen if they were being remotely controlled by another intelligence, which means these are undead basilisks. After breaking the statues, the moths tear themselves apart, which returns stone to flesh. Then maggots rain down from the ceiling. We're told this is how necromancers, like the giant tentacled man who kidnapped the princess, create their undead servants. The maggots crawl into the massacre and turn the entire army into zombie soldiers.
This is really bad! Worse, as Iscale's group continues upstairs, they run into the evil dracomorph Carache, and he's a zombie too! We're told that undead dracomorphs become very strange, and he looks it - half man, half dragon, and it looks like his parts are just being held loosely in place by tentacles. Iscale's group is no match for this horror, but fortunately, this is when they cross paths with Yuva and his friends, who defeat the undead Carache and agree to work together with the new adventurers.
One thing we learn along the way, which only makes sense in light of the scene of the maggots animating the zombie soldiers (and even still has some implications I don't fully understand) is that Aridelia is some kind of sentient zombie. She's insistent that no one see her without her armor, but the mouse-lady Chufaree sees her bathing from a distance while the others are sleeping. Aridelia somehow lays her own maggots and then swallows them, which I guess is why she's self-aware and not being controlled by a necromancer? Chufaree misunderstands the glimpse she saw and believes that Aridelia is trans, but she supports her friend living as a woman. That's nice! But I wonder how Chufaree and the others will react if they realize Aridelia is undead?
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