Taken Alive

◈ Floor 25, Waiting Room ◈

"Dobby… where did Comet go?"

"Kkiik! Great Warrior take Comet away!"

"The Great Warrior took him?"

"Kkiik! Yes!"

"But what even happened to Comet?"

It wasn't something I could easily wrap my head around. I'd never seen Comet fight myself, but he was a Great Warrior of the Blue Dawn Wind all the same. Even if he couldn't draw on the goddess's full power, there was no way he'd fail to last even ten minutes.

Had the illusions of Standing Terror really been that devastating?

Those who wield the power of the wind cannot move freely before the power of Terror.

Then, out of nowhere, the words the Great Warrior had spoken earlier came back to me.

"Kkiik! Human! He suddenly stop moving! And then he lose!"

Just as I'd suspected—there was some kind of elemental mismatch at play.

But there was one more thing I couldn't understand.

Why take Comet alive instead of killing him?

From the heretics' point of view, Comet was the Great Warrior of the heathens. Killing him outright would have made far more sense than the risk and trouble of capture. And yet they'd carried him off.

Don't tell me they intend to use Comet as a human sacrifice?

The instant the thought crossed my mind, a cold weight settled in my stomach. This was no time to be standing around. I had to get Comet back, and I had to do it fast.

Ten minutes. That was all it had been.

Even with healing holy incantations, a Great Warrior who'd just lost an arm couldn't have gotten far. The time limit was thirty-six hours—more than enough to catch up.

After blasting lightning at the heretics clawing their way onto the roof, I hurriedly turned to Dobby.

"Direction! Which way did they go?"

"Kkiik! Not know! Human! He suddenly disappear!"

"Suddenly disappeared? Like he teleported or something?"

"Kkiik! Yes!"

Damn it all. This was a disaster. If the Great Warrior had teleported by some means, I had no way to follow him.

"Kkiik! But! Human! Something strange! He smile!"

"What? Comet smiled? While being dragged away?"

"Kkiik! Yes! He tell Dobby not to worry!"

I had no idea what was going on anymore. Why on earth had Comet smiled? A brave front to mask his fear—because he thought I'd avenge him? And telling Dobby not to worry… had he foreseen this somehow? Or maybe he'd simply wanted to leave us with a bright face at the very end.

The questions piled up, but no clear answer came. I turned my gaze to the notification window.

Even with Comet gone, the Tower's message remained unchanged. Which left exactly one thing for me to do: drive out the heretics here, and pray that the next floor's trial would give me a chance to save him.

"Strike down the heretics!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Standing Terror!"

The moment I finished sorting through my thoughts, the heretics' frenzied voices rose up from beneath the roof. Several of them were already squeezing their way up the shingles.

Focus on what I could do now.

I swung my axe savagely at the heretics climbing over the roof's edge, then leapt down below it.

The antique furniture I'd decorated the waiting room with during our previous stay greeted me as I walked in. But my mood didn't lift one bit.

It was because of Comet. And to make matters worse, the next floor was one where everyone participated at once.

Will I actually be given a trial to save Comet?

With a tangle of feelings in my chest, I stroked the head of Dobby, who was clutching my hand in a death grip. He was still visibly shaken from what had happened on Floor 24—hundreds of people hammering on a barrier in that sealed space. It could well have left a trauma on the young goblin.

I made my voice as gentle as I could.

"Dobby, go wash up first."

"Kkiik. Okay."

Dobby pried my hand off with visible effort and trudged into the bathroom. And then, without really thinking about it, I opened my status window. The moment it appeared, a short laugh escaped me before I could stop it. Even in the middle of all this mess, checking my status window was apparently already habit.

Well, fair enough. What's done is done. Worrying won't change anything. All I have to do is what I've always done.

I turned my eyes back to the status window.

Every stat had gone up by about two points—probably the reward for the hidden mission, "World of Terror." And the levels of Battle Focus and Indomitable had each risen by two as well. That, I suspected, was for overcoming the reversing illusions.

Fortunately, now that I was back in the waiting room, the curse of Standing Terror had been lifted, and my skill levels were displaying normally. Beyond that, nothing much had changed. Bellows was still sealed, and every other skill sat exactly where it had been.

There was nothing left to check, so I closed the window. Dobby had only just gone in to wash, so I had some time to spare.

I need to tell Ha Heijung about what happened on Floor 24…

I browsed the community, but the most recent post was from before we'd entered the floor. None of the other climbers seemed to have arrived yet. Just in case, I checked the climber rankings—even Ha Heijung was still on Floor 24.

Time remaining: 14 hours 56 minutes. I'd better rest while I could, at least until she arrived.

Pfft. A deep sigh escaped me the moment I finished reading Ha Heijung's message. So there was no way to save Comet, then?

The moment I asked in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠frustration, she replied without missing a beat.

So Ha Heijung had arrived at the same conclusion I had. Comet wasn't some ordinary believer—he was the goddess's Great Warrior. Which meant the real problem was that no one knew what the Great Warrior of Terror might do with Comet as his offering. Or how large in scale that "something" might be.

That was where the conversation with Ha Heijung ended, and the topic moved on to Floor 25 itself. On a normal day I'd have done some combat training, but I wasn't in the mood for it. So I lay in bed for over two hours straight.

Dobby slept next to me, breathing softly, but sleep wouldn't come. Instead, the events of Floor 24 kept replaying in my head.

My rational mind was already telling me not to dwell on it, of course. It couldn't be helped. Who could have imagined being dragged into a warped world for ten minutes straight? And the heretic Great Warrior's words had been far too shocking.

The world's god was Standing Terror from the very beginning!

Even now, tangled up with my guilt, that declaration kept echoing in my skull. The Tower had called Standing Terror a heretic. But what if that wasn't actually true? What if Standing Terror really was the world's original god?

Setting aside whether that god was evil, I couldn't say for certain whether driving out the god of an entire world was a righteous act. I knew I was thinking too deeply about it… but lying there motionless, the thoughts just chained together, one after another.

No. It won't be like that. The Tower of Trials has always sided with the sacrificed gods.

Buried and hidden inside hidden missions, sure—but Fenrike, Faraktus, Seraphim, the Shadow of the End. The Tower had set its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠climbers on the side of persecuted gods.

No—wait. I shouldn't trust the Tower that much.

It was a being that had dragged us here against our will in the first place, one that had forced unfair contracts on us. And since it had always taken the persecuted gods' side until now, maybe this time it was the reverse.

Damn it. What the hell does the Tower actually want?

Okay, enough. That's enough of that.

I'd sunk too deep into my own head. That was a bad sign. Comet's abduction was tragic, but it had already happened. I needed to get a grip.

Up to the 100th floor. There was no way I'd clear every single floor perfectly from here on out. There would definitely be things I'd come to regret. And each time that happened, I couldn't allow myself to sink into this swamp of thoughts.

Feeling guilty and lying around doing nothing are two separate things.

If I was going to feel guilty, I should do it while getting my own work done. Besides, Comet had smiled and told us not to worry. Like Ha Heijung said, maybe there was something to it.

The thought had barely formed before I was sitting up in bed. I put on the armor hanging on the display rack and took up my axe.

Nothing shakes off stray thoughts like a good fight.

After loosening up in place and checking that my armor was fitted properly, I headed for the training room. The first opponent I summoned was the heretic Great Warrior. That damned Terror illusion or whatever it was—I wanted to take it out on something, even if only here.

But the heretic Great Warrior in the training room never summoned his illusions. He fought using nothing but his plain holy incantations, and died with his neck cleaved by my axe.

That was pathetically easy.

Apparently he couldn't wield a god's power directly. Raising the difficulty probably wouldn't change that either.

So, going around in a full circle, I ended up back at the Factory Manager. How about raising the difficulty to Hard this time? That seemed like the best way to wipe my mind clean and lose myself in the fight.

The moment I paid the achievement points, the Manager materialized across from me in the training room. The atmosphere was unmistakably different from before. As the tension of combat flooded my body, I finally managed to shake off the stray thoughts.

I should draw the dagger this time.

I gripped the axe short in my right hand and drew the dagger with my left. I'd need to clash a few times first and get a feel for him. I planted my left foot lightly against the floor.

The first thing that caught my eye was the ramparts, engulfed in flame. Then came the other climbers, abruptly summoned into the chaos churning through the holy city's interior. For a long moment, everyone stood staring blankly into the air—no doubt rapidly reading through the Tower's message.

KRA-BOOM!

Then a massive boulder came hurtling from across the ramparts and smashed into the wall, huge bricks cascading down in a roaring collapse. That was the trigger. The climbers instantly sprang into motion.

"The Pope! Find the Pope!"