10th Iteration (1)
10th Iteration (1)
The perk the 10th Iteration chose was a Unique Ability called 'Blood Manipulation.'
There was nothing particularly unique about it. It was a common, plain ability. Unique Abilities called Blood Manipulation aren't hard to find.
Of course, once it grew, it was no longer ordinary.
A Unique Ability changes over a lifetime. Sometimes the changes are so subtle they're barely noticeable, but change is certain.
Then there are cases where the change is too drastic—cases where the Innate Talent itself deteriorates.
Unique Ability: True Blood.
The man screamed until his throat seemed to tear, and a fountain of blood erupted from the 10th Iteration's body, pooling on the ground.
I could predict what would come next. A warning prickled at the back of my neck, and I frantically beat my wings.
-Thud!
"Ah, Junior Disciple!"
As I pulled away from the self-mutilating 10th Iteration, I grabbed Senior Daera by the waist and dragged her further back.
Before long, the bubbling pool of blood exploded.
True Blood Expansion Ability
Piercing Thorns
Dark-red thorns erupted.
Like tree roots splitting apart, countless thorns of varying sizes branched out in every direction from the initial ones.
The speed was outrageous. In the blink of an eye, the thorns had already finished growing.
Senior Daera, held at my hip, inhaled sharply and scattered lightning.
Crackle! The thorns swallowed by lightning shattered.
It was only a fraction of them. The thorns that weren't erased closed in.
I joined in, unleashing slashes and Calamity Flame, and only then were the thorns trying to swallow us severed.
"Gah! What the hell is this?!"
Where before the landscape had been choked with boulders and flames, it was now a densely packed mass of dark-red thorns.
Senior Daera's jaw dropped at the sight, which was like peering into a thornbush.
-Crunch! Crunch!
A series of grisly sounds of tearing flesh echoed from within the thorns. It was the sound of monsters being caught in the area.
Regardless of Rank, the shredded viscera of countless monsters mingled with the thorns.
-Gurgle!
A ripple ran through the razor-sharp thorns, and they melted into a viscous goo. The sticky blood overflowed, becoming a dark-red sea.
"Ghhhk...!"
Standing in the middle of the Blood Sea, the 10th Iteration doubled over, retching up mouthfuls of blood.
A frame both tall and emaciated. As the blood climbed his gaunt, naked body, it coalesced into baggy garments.
True Blood Expansion Ability
Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood
A common domain-control technique for elemental abilities. But the range was too vast, and the activation far too fast.
[Ah, ah...]
My teeth chattered at the sea of blood that had spread in an instant. A Unique Ability manifested, and an Expansion Ability embodied. There was no room for doubt.
'He was really summoned?'
The 10th Iteration.
One branch of what my soulless body reached in the Observed World.
It was only observed—a part of a possibility. Strictly speaking, it was not reality.
And yet that thing—
It hadn't been arbitrarily embodied by a Tower. It had manifested directly into the world.
I couldn't understand it. How in the world could an artifact, even a top-grade one, do something like that?
Unable to control my frozen expression, I desperately tracked the 10th Iteration.
"Ghh, uh...! Aaaaaagh...!"
'It's incomplete.'
There was good news. The 10th Iteration wasn't in a normal state. It was far cruder than the iterations embodied inside the Tower.
Perhaps because of that, it also seemed to lack reason. If so, its combat capabilities would have degraded, which was a relief.
...I couldn't truly celebrate it.
This was the iteration that had fallen to an evil disposition after Baek A-rin's betrayal in the 8th Iteration.
The 9th Iteration had a heavily experimental bent. Its potential was extremely high, but it failed to land the first strike, interference came early, and it died before it could reach a satisfying level of growth.
The 10th Iteration grew satisfyingly strong. It reached a point where it could hunt a 3rd-Rank monster with relative safety.
This half-baked embodiment of the 10th Iteration was not at its prime.
Even so, the 10th Iteration was strong.
We're screwed.
What made it worse wasn't just that.
Beyond the Blood Sea, the Tower Master of Purgatory stood with a sword slung over his shoulder.
It was the Tower Master of Purgatory who had descended into Hong Yeon-jun's body.
"No, what the hell is that now...?! Junior Disciple?! Your arm...!"
Senior Daera, who had been glaring at the Blood Sea with a rigid expression, flinched in shock and pointed at my right arm.
A few burns, blackened by Hellfire, remained on it. They were nearly identical to the scars that had vanished before.
[It's just a minor wound. This much is fine.]
"That fucker...!"
Senior Daera glared beyond the Blood Sea, eyes promising violent murder. Crackle! Fierce sparks of lightning flew from her blue hair.
"...Junior Disciple. Let's pull back for now."
Despite her fury, Senior Daera hadn't lost her reason and made a cool-headed judgment.
"That mosquito-looking bastard and the Hellfire bastard... both of them are clearly not normal. I think it'll be dangerous if we fight like this."
She was right.
The Tower Master of Purgatory's combat strength alone was hard to estimate, and now the 10th Iteration was here.
Judging purely by combat strength, retreat was the correct choice.
[...Senior, please don't fall into the Blood Sea. Take the opposite side from me and burn the blood with your lightning.]
"What?"
As I shook out my numb right arm, Senior Daera stared at me in disbelief.
"Junior Disciple? No, you can't be serious. Are you really saying you're going to charge into that?"
[Yes.]
At my affirmation, Senior Daera's face twisted.
"Junior Disciple, I really don't think this is the right choice. Let's retreat first and aim for another time."
[We can't. There's no time, and no leeway.]
To make matters worse, the Reverse Side was already signaling the precursors of an Outbreak.
Above all, since the core had already recognized that I was right on its doorstep, it might initiate an Outbreak on its own before I could trigger one.
And if that happens? A severe Outbreak, without me mitigating the damage from the inside, would pour into the world.
Was that all?
'The 10th Iteration gets swept up along with it.'
That was something that absolutely must not happen.
The 10th Iteration was an evil-disposition iteration born after the 8th Iteration.
It kills people as needed, plundering materials and wealth. If it needs blood, it commits massacres to supply it.
Its abilities are especially suited for mass slaughter.
Furthermore, the Tower Master of Purgatory had descended right next to it.
If that bastard runs away, how much damage will occur later?
It was impossible to know.
So, I had to stop them here.
"Run aw—"
[Senior, please help me.]
Senior Daera's desperate attempt to persuade me was cut off.
[To stop that, I need your strength, Senior. From a distance, can you keep the Blood Sea in check and prevent it from expanding too far?]
"—Ugh, ggrrhh...!"
Senior Daera's face contorted with anguish and conflict.
[Please.]
"Ah! Seriously! Junior Disciple! Fine, I get it!"
After letting out a sound like a kettle boiling over, she finally yelled and raised her mana.
"But remember this! If something happens to you here, Junior Disciple, I'll get beaten to death by our master right alongside you!"
[Yes, thank you. Truly.]
Even as guilt washed over me for seemingly imposing my circumstances so heavily on my senior, I hurriedly nodded, afraid she might change her mind.
At heart, I wanted to send her outside immediately, but in the current situation, I didn't have the leeway to bore a hole in the Reverse Side's wall.
-Huuu...
Exhaling a deep breath, I ignited Calamity Flame.
* * *
The Tower Master of Purgatory, inhabiting Hong Yeon-jun's body, stared at the Blood Sea that had flooded the area in an instant.
Sssss! At the ghastly sight of a monster dissolving into blood within moments, the Tower Master of Purgatory shrugged.
『A dud, I see.』
The tenth one, was it? Strong in its own right, certainly, but it wasn't what the Tower Master of Purgatory desired.
What he desired was the eleventh one.
The Vajra Warrior, who not only exchanged blows with a virtual incarnation of himself but even momentarily pushed it back.
He hadn't experienced it firsthand—it was only information—yet as the Tower Master of Purgatory, he couldn't help but feel both astonishment and anticipation.
'What a shame.'
After spending so long making preparations, it turned out to be a dud. On top of that, it seemed he'd have to abandon the tool he'd laboriously obtained.
Of course, the tenth one was decently strong, so he'd get a degree of satisfaction, but it wouldn't measure up to his expectations.
'In the end, I'll have to place my hopes on the real one.'
Not a half-realized vessel or a record embodied in a false world, but the Lee Ha-yul who was alive and growing at this very moment.
'Seeing him in person, he's certainly satisfying. Beyond imagination.'
Recalling the figure of pure slaughter reflected in Hong Yeon-jun's eyes, the corners of his mouth lifted on their own.
He was already like this. Barely a year had passed, and this Created Being had risen this far.
If he waited just a little longer, he'd grow into an even more satisfying state.
The Tower Master of Purgatory turned to leave, looking forward to that time.
Hong Yeon-jun's body was an exceedingly rare vessel capable of Incarnation. Wrecking it here would cause problems later.
'If I'd waited a little more, I might have been able to choose a far better vessel... but then I probably wouldn't have made it in time—'
A presence closed in. His swung arm was deflected. Bang! His legs scraped against the ground as he was driven back.
The Tower Master of Purgatory tilted his head.
『What's this? You weren't just letting me go?』
[Who said anything about you crawling out of here on your own accord?]
『Given the situation, I naturally assumed so.』
The one who had rushed in was Lee Ha-yul, wreathed in Calamity Flame. The Tower Master of Purgatory shrugged and pointed at the Blood Sea.
『It's quiet now, but it'll rampage soon, I think. I'm short on leeway myself, but if I rampage alongside that thing, can you handle it?』
The Tower Master of Purgatory didn't know Lee Ha-yul's full combat strength.
What he'd witnessed through Hong Yeon-jun's eyes might not be his limit. Anyone could have a hidden trump card.
But by his estimation, Lee Ha-yul would struggle to handle both Hellfire and the tenth one at once.
[That's not for the likes of you to worry about.]
Whoosh...! The Calamity Flame flared up wildly and seeped into Lee Ha-yul's body.
'That's an expansion ability... Flame Advance, was it?'
A form that concentrates resources into physical ability instead of flames. A choice made for close-quarters combat against Hellfire, it seemed.
'What does he plan to do about the tenth one? That sea of blood can't be handled by magic and a lightning woman alone, can it?'
It was just as he harbored that question.
Fwoooosh! Calamity Flame blazed up from Lee Ha-yul's right arm. The Blood Sea, which had been creeping closer, evaporated in the abruptly soaring flames.
Did he release Flame Advance?
'No.'
That wasn't it. The Tower Master of Purgatory cut off that thought. Flame Advance was still maintained.
It was just—
Mana Affinity Expansion Ability
Homogenization — Calamity Flame — Flame Bloom
—that a different Calamity Flame had bloomed.
Crunch! The ground, melted by the combined influence of Calamity Flame and Hellfire, was crushed down below the base level.
In that instant, the Tower Master of Purgatory felt an intuition, and Lee Ha-yul's form vanished from his sight.
The Tower Master of Purgatory's eyes went wide. Instinct and accumulated skill. His body moved optimally according to those two concepts.
-KWA-BOOOOOM!
The sword shattered. The Hellfire was swallowed by Calamity Flame and burned away.
Through the wrecked fragments, a fist wreathed in Calamity Flame slammed into the Tower Master of Purgatory's cheek.