The Tenth
The Tenth
The storm of magic swelled larger by the moment.
A death trap no sane person would willingly step into.
But Hong Yeon-jun had to enter. His face twisted as if he had bitten into shit as he drew his blade.
"Tools, forward."
"Ah, fuck."
The faces of those who had to go ahead of Hong Yeon-jun soured even further.
"Are you really going in? Can't you see the injuries? If you go in, you'll really die."
"You think anyone wants to go in?"
"Agh."
They grumbled, but in the end, a tool cannot defy its master.
Reluctantly, they dragged up bodies that were little more than ragged scraps.
- Skreeee...!
'Hm?'
That was the moment. The storm receded.
No, that was an illusion. The slashes simply broadened their range, passing them by to reach the monsters surging in from all sides.
An opening?
That was not the intent. This was a cage. A net cast so that nothing could flee.
A net that made coming and going nearly impossible from inside or out.
Whatever it was, it had wanted them to enter too.
They spun around, aghast at the carnage that was grinding down even monsters worthy of 4th Rank.
Only then did their view clear, and they saw the one sustaining the slashes.
A visage that shone even within this hellscape of blood and shredded flesh.
"Hoh..."
Wasn't there a saying that roses grow thorns to protect their beauty?
As if in acknowledgment, a form shimmered behind the beautiful exterior, and cold sweat broke out unbidden.
Two pairs of translucent arms extending from the back were forming hand seals.
Every time the six wings beat, high-grade magic poured forth, enough to collapse a fortress without effort.
Circuits branched upward like limbs, mechanically dominating the entire space and sustaining the magical storm.
A killing machine, through and through. A form specialized in tearing, breaking, and slaughtering.
Even those who gripped weapons and had grown accustomed to slaughter felt themselves recoil.
- BOOM!
Yet, on the contrary, one being seemed satisfied by this. Hong Yeon-jun stepped forward with a hollow laugh.
"...The tables have turned. Now we're the rats caught in the trap."
Just moments ago, they had cornered the other side in a sudden trap. Now, they were the ones who had crawled into a mage's workshop.
At Hong Yeon-jun's self-deprecating remark, Lee Ha-yul gave a curt nod.
[Hong Yeon-jun, I want to ask you something.]
"Was the reason you didn't ask earlier because you planned to ask after gaining the upper hand?"
[Have you ever fallen into another world?]
At the sudden question, the heads of those who had been listening intently while on guard turned.
"......"
But Hong Yeon-jun showed no surprise. He gave no reaction at all, simply keeping his sword aimed.
[Have you ever been cursed? Ever been controlled by that bastard calling himself Hellfire? Who's the one squirming in your heart?]
- Screech...
A faint tension entered the hand gripping the sword. Hong Yeon-jun's face was expressionless.
Lee Ha-yul, who had been piercing through even the movement of blood with Observation, nodded at that reaction.
[Did you have circumstances you couldn't help?]
"...I wonder. Is there a point to you asking? If I have circumstances, will you let me go?"
[I already said the same thing to the lackeys behind you.]
The two hands released from the hand seals took hold of Purification.
[Come quietly, and I'll take it into consideration. If not—I'll try cutting off your limbs and restraining you.]
At the thoroughly menacing declaration, Hong Yeon-jun, who had kept his expression blank, let out a bitter smile.
"Haha, how merciful of you."
The conversation ended there. The tools, who had been recovering from their injuries, began to move. Lee Ha-yul frowned and sent a Sound Transmission.
- Senior, I'm sorry, but could you handle those ones? I'll support you.
The incoming Sound Transmission was filled with apology and worry. Because it conveyed the mindscape directly, there was no room for misunderstanding.
Daera let out a small laugh and conjured lightning in her hand.
"Don't worry. They're all just injured wrecks anyway."
- Thank you.
Saying that, Lee Ha-yul activated his magic. Enhancement magic of all kinds settled into Daera's body. Her eyes rounded at the vitality coursing through her entire being.
- I'll keep supplying mana too, so don't worry about your reserves.
"Whoa! With this much, I'm more than fine! Really, don't worry, Junior Disciple!"
Daera kicked off the ground. She put some distance between herself and the storm's interior and released lightning freely.
- Cracklecracklecrack!
KABOOM! Blue-white lightning streaked across the ground in waves.
Those who had been about to respond expecting pre-enhancement lightning flinched and were sent flying. That was how intense the lightning Daera poured out had become.
"What is that?! Why is the output like that?"
To say how much so—in instantaneous output, it was surpassing even Calamity Flame.
Hong Yeon-jun was daunted by the lightning flashing on one side, but he still raised his sword.
Flame dripped along the blade. A Calamity Flame blacker and more sullen than other fires.
As Hong Yeon-jun approached gripping the sword in both hands, Lee Ha-yul also drew a single blade.
- FWOOSH!
Lee Ha-yul's Calamity Flame blazed to life. The black expanse was dyed bright, and a strange warmth spread through it.
"It's very different from mine."
But Hong Yeon-jun felt only a sense of crisis. So he unleashed his Calamity Flame without probing.
Calamity Flame Expansion Ability
Flame Bloom
The sullen Calamity Flame erupted. He coiled it around his sword and swung wide. The barely controllable blaze carved through the air in the form of a slash.
Lee Ha-yul's action was the opposite. The Calamity Flame, flaring up in small tongues, gathered in his hand.
Compression, not diffusion. He extended forward the hand thickly laden with Calamity Flame. And when he finally released it, Calamity Flame shaped into spell formulas poured forth.
The sullen and disordered Calamity Flame split apart.
Bright and vivid Calamity Flame cleft the air. The attack grazed above Hong Yeon-jun as he urgently ducked low.
'Danger!'
A misjudgment.
The sword aura scattered, then became dozens of thorns that rained down over his head. Hong Yeon-jun kicked off the ground and scattered Calamity Flame thickly into the sky.
The Calamity Flames intertwined and burned each other away. He couldn't believe it.
Calamity Flame using Flame Bloom, and Calamity Flame not using the expansion ability, flared at roughly the same level. A clear gap in output from the very start.
Even more astonishing was that Calamity Flame could be manipulated with that much precision.
Before he knew it, the bright Calamity Flame spreading through all directions was pressing in. Hong Yeon-jun countered by scattering his own Calamity Flame in opposition.
'It's shrinking.'
Not much effect. His space, the domain his attribute governed, was contracting. Lee Ha-yul's Calamity Flame was occupying that ground.
At this rate, he would be burned to nothing. Clenching his teeth, Hong Yeon-jun snuffed out Flame Bloom.
Calamity Flame Expansion Ability
Flame Advance
Instead, he took the Calamity Flame he had been spreading in a desperate struggle and contained it within his body. BOOM! His body surged with power as he kicked off the ground.
Accelerating, Hong Yeon-jun rammed forward with a wave of Calamity Flame. TSSSSS! Before his thickly swollen aura could burn away entirely, he burst through the flames.
'Shi—'
Lee Ha-yul was waiting right where Hong Yeon-jun barely escaped to. Calamity Flame wreathed the fist pulled back.
The fist slammed into his raised forearm.
- KWAAANG!
His aura, already thinned, shattered to pieces. His body, hurled back violently, slammed into the dirt and tumbled end over end.
There was no time to lie sprawled on the ground, pathetic.
He hurled himself aside using his broken arm. A leg smashed into the spot his head had occupied. CRASH! The surrounding ground buckled and collapsed.
Before he could even take a breath, Lee Ha-yul, wreathed in Calamity Flame, closed in.
Hong Yeon-jun scraped mana up from the ground, restored his Calamity Flame and aura, and retaliated.
Close combat at point-blank range. Calamity Flame wrapped around their bodies as they worked their limbs.
'Kh...!'
He was being pushed back, as expected. Hong Yeon-jun's face twisted as his legs stumbled back pathetically.
'How am I supposed to recover with Sacred Flame...!'
Expansion Ability, Sacred Flame. The Calamity Flame's sole, self-regeneration ability, one almost entirely lacking in its otherwise offense-oriented arsenal.
But with all his Calamity Flame already poured into Flame Advance, he could not run Sacred Flame in parallel.
Attacks covered his entire field of vision. Six hands moved with infinite, unpredictable variation.
Any trick he attempted was seen through in an instant, and his defenses were pried open without delay. He retreated, gave ground, and was driven pathetically into a corner.
In truth, even holding on was a miracle.
- FWOOSH!
Lee Ha-yul's right hand stabbed forward repeatedly. A hand wreathed in Calamity Flame. If his aura was pierced and the Calamity Flame touched bare skin, he would truly pay in blood.
And so, in that very moment when his attention flickered toward the right hand—
Lee Ha-yul's left arm flashed. In superhuman battle, a gleam is nothing special, but this was different.
For an instant, he hallucinated that a sun had risen over the dark Reverse Side.
- CRACK!
'...Keok!'
By the time the illusion faded, his head had already been snapped to the side. A dazed, dizzying pain climbed from his dangling jaw, and he felt his consciousness flicker.
'Ah.'
A familiar sensation. Memories of the past surged to life—memories of getting beaten alongside Spada and running away together.
It was like a life flashing before his eyes. The replay of the past ended, and his awareness returned to the present.
Too late.
The two pairs of hands that had been empty now held blades. Their respective targets were his hands and legs. It seemed he really meant to cut off his limbs and take him.
Of course, Hong Yeon-jun might prefer that, but...
'This son of a bitch, I knew it wouldn't work—'
『Heh.』
As expected, permission was denied.
- Boom!
Along with a satisfied breath in my ear, a distant, searing heat engulfed my body.
[...!]
Lee Ha-yul, who had been about to sever Hong Yeon-jun's limbs, felt a sense of wrongness.
Hong Yeon-jun's body collapsed backward. The Calamity Flame contained within it leaked out.
'Calamity Flame?'
A question flickered in my mind. The question became certainty. It's different. Both Detection and Observation pointed toward certainty.
In a sensation as if time had stopped, Hong Yeon-jun's finger twitched.
Instinct screamed. Evade. I didn't resist it. The Sky Wing Feather fluttered, pushing my body backward at maximum speed.
- Shrrk!
[Kh.]
A sword on a bizarre trajectory slipped past my defense, narrowly grazing my arm.
Aura split like tofu. Blood sprayed from my forearm. Lee Ha-yul pulled back, grimacing.
- Krr, krrrgh...!
[Intense pain.]
My arm hurts. I'd grown accustomed to pain. Even so, my face twisted on its own, my body crumpling.
A dizzying, sharp agony seared through my brain.
- Fwoosh!
Flames clung to the stab wound. Though this body's fire resistance had been heightened to extremes once the Calamity Flame took root, the crimson blaze eating into my flesh still charred it black.
'This is...!'
Like a certain scar I had thought had vanished.
『Heh, haha. I knew you'd dodge.』
Hong Yeon-jun lurched upright. He chuckled, regripping his loosely held sword a few times.
That voice filled my eardrums, as if commanding me never to let it go. A weighty presence pressed thickly down upon the space.
- Screech...!
The fully expanded Foolish Straight Twin Wheels constricted.
The air grew scorching. A distant heat spread so intense that even ordinary fire resistance wouldn't allow one to breathe.
[...You.]
『Do I really need to introduce myself? You already know.』
Hong Yeon-jun swept his gaze over the blood and flesh clinging to the blade—
No.
『I'm called the Tower Master of Purgatory.』
The Tower Master of Purgatory, descended into Hong Yeon-jun's body, answered.
.
.
.
The Tower of Bitter Cold.
The Tower of the Dead.
The Tower of Purgatory.
External enemies that invade the world, already identified in the original work.
I knew I'd face them someday. So even as I held my fear, I'd vaguely imagined when that day might come.
『Pleased to meet you.』
I didn't know we'd meet so abruptly, here.
The surrounding air and ground dried and heated, flames spontaneously sprouting in the empty air.
Goosebumps prickled all over my skin from the alien presence.
'No.'
To be honest, I had considered it a faint, hypothetical possibility, but I didn't think it would actually happen.
- Thump! Thump! Thump!
My heart pounded roughly. My blood boiled.
With the Purgatory before me, the energy that sustained my body surged far more violently than I'd imagined possible.
That energy was steeped in intense hostility toward the Purgatory.
At any rate, thanks to that, it became easier to breathe.
First, I checked my right arm. The crimson flames clung to my flesh, burning it and fueling a piercing agony.
- Agh...!
Considering the enemy's identity, this was likely the fire of Purgatory, not just ordinary Calamity Flame.
I gritted my teeth and drew up the Calamity Flame. Fwoooosh! The frantically drawn Calamity Flame devoured the Purgatory fire.
The Purgatory fire, struggling tenaciously, finally died out within the Calamity Flame.
Where it had faded, a scar remained, as if burned black.
『Oh, so it does go out. How fascinating that my flames can be extinguished so easily.』
The Tower Master of Purgatory, who'd been watching me, opened his eyes wide.
I clenched my fist at his carefree demeanor.
"What the hell is that bastard now?! Junior Disciple! Are you alright?!"
- I'm fine! So don't look away!
I answered Senior Daera's shout while racking my brain.
'Should I try talking? Or just rush in?'
Senior Daera was in the middle of pressuring the three. Her unique ability's output was so monstrous that she was barely holding against the slumping, injury-riddled ones.
The monsters charging from the corners of the Reverse Side? We can still hold them back.
There's a slight margin.
I steadied my posture, observing the 'phenomenon of the Tower Master descending through a curse' as precisely as possible.
[How did you descend so soon?]
『Aha, so it's conversation.』
- Crack!
The skin of the Purgatory—of Hong Yeon-jun—split. The surrounding flesh burned black, and crimson flames flickered from within the fissures.
At my question, the Tower Master of Purgatory propped his chin in his hand, a smile spreading.
『As you can see, this isn't a normal Incarnation. I forced my way in, so the vessel is under severe strain, and I can't draw out my full power.』
Having been the one to ask, I furrowed my brow. An oddly compliant answer.
Not a normal procedure. In other words, it seemed that if I stalled for time, he would withdraw on his own.
[That's a surprisingly friendly answer from a bastard who tried to cut me the moment he saw me.]
『Of course. I've been so eagerly awaiting a fight with you, a simple chat doesn't bother me. But...』
The Tower Master of Purgatory rummaged through his robes.
『As expected, I don't have much leeway in this state. Not exactly suitable for a fight today. And there's also something I want to do.』
The hand that was rummaging came back out. In that hand was some sort of straw doll.
'Artifact.'
I'd already detected it through Observation. I tried to snatch it midway, but the Purgatory's descent foiled that.
I'd analyzed and understood its effect. A Vessel of Divine Descent that summons and manifests an entity based on the materials infused into it.
I thought that if the Purgatory were to descend, it would be through the Vessel of Divine Descent, but that guess was wrong.
『Wonder how this'll turn out.』
Showing a smirk, the Tower Master of Purgatory rubbed the straw doll against the edge of his sword.
And then, my flesh and blood clinging to the blade were absorbed into the straw doll.
[What?]
The shocking application made my jaw drop.
And that wasn't all.
The moment the guy ripped open the subspace pocket barely hanging from his waist, the monster byproducts that had filled the subspace came tumbling out in a heap.
It was the same monster Senior Daera had called the Copycat.
Gurgle! The mountain of byproducts all latched onto the straw doll.
[You son of a bitch!]
No analysis is needed. This was dangerous bullshit.
Just as I moved to smash the byproducts and the artifact to smithereens, the Tower Master of Purgatory rushed at me.
He was fast. His movement was so uncanny that the distance disappeared in an instant.
- Crash!
I blocked the sword with my hastily extended left arm.
『Just wait a moment. Aren't you curious what'll come out?』
To counter the Purgatory fire surging from the sword's edge, I detonated Calamity Flame head-on.
The Calamity Flame is getting pushed back. My fire is being devoured.
The heat rapidly closed in, my skin parching and burning.
[Fuck you.]
I spat in fury and yanked up a massive amount of mana.
Calamity Flame Expansion Ability.
Flame Bloom.
- Fwoooosh!
The Calamity Flame burned white-hot, forcing back the Purgatory fire. The Tower Master of Purgatory, letting out a sigh of admiration, fell back to avoid it.
[This...!]
But during that brief moment, the artifact had already activated.
The mountain of byproducts had been entirely absorbed into the straw doll.
And finally, from within the straw doll that had swelled to the size of a man, flesh, bone, and blood spilled out.
The materials, haphazardly poured forth, burrowed into and enveloped the straw doll, beginning to form a shape.
It was the shape of a person.
Jet-black hair. A long, gaunt body. An emaciated, pallid outer skin.
A face somehow familiar to me...
"...Ah."
Eyelids, thickening with a dark shadow, opened. The dark-red pupils within flinched as light struck them.
"Ah, urrrgh...!"
The man immediately grabbed his head with both hands. Crunch! His fingers dug into his skull. Crimson blood soaked through his hair and streamed down.
- Crrk! Crrunch!
The wounds weren't only where his fingers burrowed. Perfectly intact skin simply split and burst, blood spurting out.
Blood pooled on the floor. But the puddle that formed was deeper, wider, surpassing the blood the man himself had spilled.
"Ah, aaaaaaaaaahh—!"
The man screamed so fiercely it seemed his throat would tear. As if resonating with that cry, the pool of blood covering the floor trembled.
Immediately after.
- Shrrraaargh!!
Countless spikes erupted from the blood, filling the space.
* * *
[Savior Correction System: Evil Annihilation Progress]
[Main Quest 「Tower of Purgatory」 confirmed!]
[Entity 「Tower Master of Purgatory」 confirmed!]
[The System will assist the Savior with all its power!]
.
[A recorded entity is being embodied.]
[Incomplete Manifestation]
[Tenth Iteration十回次]
[Blood Spike血會針棘]