Chapter 671: The Tower Without a Ceiling and the Intermingling Humans - 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 671: The Tower Without a Ceiling and the Intermingling Humans - 2
That's right. Humans demand order. I don't deny that.
A wall to lean on. A roof that won't collapse. Sturdy pillars. They want to be protected by unchanging common sense.
But you see…
“Humans don't need order.”
I muttered, just loud enough for the Saintess to hear, then loosened my body. Time to make my move.
“I’ll stop the fight. Lankart, you handle the mercenaries. Shei-ssi, please stop the mages from fighting. You too, Senior Avant-garde.”
“And you?”
“I’ll take the paladins.”
There was no time to talk. I immediately rushed toward the paladins.
Paladins possess Combat Foresight. To put it simply, it’s a short, conditional foresight they receive through their Holy Power.
In a perilous moment where every move is aimed at taking a life, in an extremely tense situation, time can feel as if it’s slowing down. In that fleeting instant, the ‘Sky God’ connects with his followers and delivers a brief premonition. A momentary glimpse where intentions cross is as accurate as it is short.
This Combat Foresight is why paladins, despite their Qi Arts not being particularly advanced, boast an ironclad defense when they fight as a group.
I decided to use their Combat Foresight against them.
I took out my skewer. All I needed was a small opening, a bold move, and unmistakable killing intent. I glared at the paladin before me, aimed the skewer at his back, and genuinely resolved to kill him.
“Die.”
I was different now. Having regained some of my strength, I was more than capable of killing one defenseless human. I thrust the skewer toward the paladin’s back with all my might!
‘Combat Foresight! From behind? Oh, Sky God…!’
Sensing death approaching from behind, the paladin who had foreseen it reflexively turned. A premonition of death demanded an absolute reaction.
So he reacted? Okay, that’s enough.
I immediately withdrew my killing intent and played dumb. Like a pickpocket who’s just made eye contact, I casually averted my gaze, hummed a tune, and walked past the paladin.
The moment the paladin foresaw his death, I canceled the future that premonition had painted.
‘The premonition vanished!’
The paladin, who had been about to react to the vision, staggered as the killing intent suddenly disappeared.
‘The… the premonition changed…?! What’s happening?! Combat Foresight is never wrong!’
That’s the problem with foresight. A premonition that foretells an event that has not yet occurred is inherently uncertain. The moment it arrived, I withdrew my killing intent and deceived it.
The Sky God is quick with his premonitions, but slow with his corrections. Probably because he can't admit he was wrong.
I continued my premonition bluff. Every time I made a slight move toward them, the paladins flinched and stumbled in terror.
“Hah!”
“Hngh!”
“An ambush…!”
Some paladins counterattacked reflexively, but they were the type to substitute Holy Power for even Gam Qi Art. Honestly, it wasn't hard to dodge. With good handwork, I could even parry their cross-shaped greatswords bare-handed.
Just a few bluffs were enough to shatter their formation.
“Alright, alright. That’s enough fighting. Have you relieved your stress? Now, get some rest.”
“Grh…! Why are you doing this to us!”
“I have no choice if I want to stop the fighting. Don’t feel so wronged. I’ll restrain the other side, too. I’m a fair person, you see.”
As I stood before the paladin, a butterfly fluttered over to me. A butterfly? There weren’t even any flowers in this grassy field. Where did it come from?
“Butterflyyyy.”
“Whoa!”
I realized it a little too late. Dokjine’s blade cut through the air like a skewer. Even though I had dodged preemptively after seeing the butterfly in her hallucination, I felt the air split right next to my ear.
Dokjine, under the influence of the drug, had no clear killing intent or will of her own. She was simply swinging her blade as her hallucinations guided her. I was lucky I could perceive her visions with my mind-reading; a clumsy reaction would have gotten my head sliced off like that dead paladin.
The problem was that since she was lost in the drug, persuasion was impossible. I needed to stop this fight now, but how?
“Butterflies…”
Ah. Right.
Just before the fluttering butterfly reached me, I quickly slotted two cards together and threw them. Amidst the real, fluttering butterfly, the one I made of cards flew at high speed.
The card-butterfly, spinning as it flew, caught Dokjine’s eye. Swish. Though there was a ten-meter distance between her and the card, Dokjine’s blade shot out like lightning and sliced it perfectly in half.
What an incomprehensible principle. Better not to get involved with her. Fortunately, distracting her for a moment had bought me some time.
“To dodge an attack that even Combat Foresight couldn’t see…!”
“What in the world is he?”
Lankart had subdued Kuram and Cardinal Elton, while Shei had suppressed the mages from the Lower World with Chun-aeng. Avant-garde was in the middle of stopping the mages from the Floating Castle. The chaos hadn’t completely subsided, but we had reached a temporary lull.
Now was the time.
Time to establish my order.
“My, my. This is why you can’t deal with barbarians. The moment I turn my back to solve a problem, you all start brawling? This is a tower, not a colosseum.”
I mimicked the most arrogant and insolent mage I could. It was easy, since I could just use Lankart as my model.
I grabbed the back of my neck and glared at everyone, my face a mixture of contempt and irritation.
“Did you have fun killing each other? This is why you’re barbarians. I don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with repeating actions that yield no benefit whatsoever.”
Lankart and Shei were among the most powerful in this group. Excluding the hidden Blue Tower Master and Hilde, the two of them could take on all seventy people here.
Compared to them, I was as weak as a bug, but these people didn't know that. They thought I was their colleague, a mage who had practically solved the problems of this Babel all by himself.
Therefore, for now, I was their leader.
“I’ve said it repeatedly. I will honor the will of Saint Rene and share all knowledge gained in this tower with everyone. So let’s not fight, but cooperate and ascend together. Yet you couldn’t even endure for that short a time before showing your true nature. Hah. This won’t do. I’ll make a clear declaration right here.”
If this happened because there was no order, then I'll establish one for you. An order that everyone can accept.
“I will ascend this tower with only the innocent. The guilty cannot join us. You can either die a lonely death fighting each other in this tower, or you can rot in the Lower World and never return.”
A solemn declaration, as if I were an apostle of God.
The innocent shall be rewarded. It was a line straight out of the scriptures. At my words, the paladins cheered.
How could we take those who practiced demonic arts, used poison, disrespected God, and murdered people? They must be purged from this world. The holy relics could not be handed over to such villains.
As if my declaration was what should have happened all along, merely a little delayed. As if I owed them something, they puffed out their chests and directed their triumphant glares at Dokjine and Kuram's mercenaries.
But I aimed my skewer at them with a cold expression. The paladins’ faces fell, as if a transparent lid had been slammed shut over them.
“That applies to you as well, paladins of the Northern Church.”
Silence followed.
Was my response unexpected? How amusing. Why the betrayed expressions? Are you flustered because you placed some strange, unwarranted expectations on me?
You didn't really think order would only be on your side, did you?
“How can someone who has inflicted violence upon another be called innocent? Furthermore, from the moment we met, you slandered Kuram and Dokjine, urged for their deaths, and were the first to harbor killing intent toward them.”
“What is this outrageous nonsense?” Cardinal Elton roared. He was particularly incensed, realizing I was condemning his paladins in the name of faith itself.
“Those two practice demonic arts, use poison, and have broken the taboos! They have even committed countless murders on their way up this tower!”
“I have not seen these sins.”
“Even if one’s eyes are covered, the existence of light is self-evident! Do not feign ignorance. You know it as well! If they haven’t committed murder, what is that stench of blood, and where have all the mages they met on their way up the tower gone!”
“Shall I put it another way? I don’t particularly care. Are there only one or two people here who have sinned in the Lower World?”
I had no intention of making some grand statement like ‘all humans are sinners.’ I just shrugged and replied.
“How would I know? Whether you’re a vile petty thief, a swindler who lives off scams and gambling, or a murderer with blood on your hands. I may be more brilliant than all of you combined, but I don’t know your backgrounds or what sins you’ve committed. Therefore, I have no reason to change my judgment based on things you did before you met me.”
I’ve done all those things, so why wouldn’t anyone else? I’m an ordinary human, so others must have made at least as many mistakes as I have.
So let’s just be fair and turn a blind eye to what happened outside. Let’s only judge the sins committed here and now.
“Light and justice may be righteous, but the humans who receive them are flawed. No matter how much you shout about light and justice, all I see is a coward who, despite leading a large group, tried to launch a sneak attack.”
“How dare you speak such heresy…!”
Still, you have nothing to say, do you? Because it’s the truth. You may have upheld your beliefs, but you’re the one who destroyed the order of our group.
Finding Cardinal Elton’s predicament amusing, Kuram spoke with a placid smile.
“Hoh. I thought all you did was spout boring nonsense.”
“The same goes for you, Kuram. They hadn’t even acted yet, but you drugged someone right in front of them, had Dokjine kill people, and Dokjine herself committed murder. A crime for which even an immediate trip to hell would be insufficient.”
“I’ll give you that. As someone who’s already been to hell once, the thought of falling back in isn’t so scary.”
Kuram was a self-proclaimed villain. He and Dokjine, who used poison and drugs, modified their bodies with taboos, and had just killed three paladins, would fall to hell without any need for a conspiracy. The two of them didn't even try to persuade me.
Kuram and Dokjine, eliminated. I coldly turned my head and looked at the mages, now split into two groups and fighting amongst themselves.
“And you mages. You are even more malicious than those two groups. You, who pride yourselves on being learned, used the magic bestowed by Saint Rene to harm others with the full intent to kill.”
Now it’s your turn. Did you think your turn wouldn’t come?
The mages flinched as if hit by an unexpected ambush, then retorted.
“They attacked first! One of the chosen from the Floating Castle was injured!”
“You tried to cut in line first with your gravity magic!”
“It wasn’t all of us, and he failed and lost his life for it! You should be mourning, not blaming!”
“Why should we mourn? We’re glad! A coward died falling for his own trick!”
The mages began to fight with words instead of magic, as if I would side with whoever won the argument. Of course, I had no intention of siding with anyone.
“Hah? You hypocrites blinded by greed. You think you’re innocent just because you’re from the Floating Castle and participating in the Gateway? If you have a sin, it’s avarice.”
“The legacy of Saint Rene is a secret art coveted by all. It does not belong to the Lower World! We have a right to it!”
“This opportunity was created by House Celsius of the Lower World. If you wanted it, you should have created that opportunity yourselves. You lived comfortably in the Floating Castle, and now that an event has popped up in the Lower World, you come down to snatch the fruit of their labor? Have you no shame?”
My scathing criticism made the faces of the Floating Castle mages turn red. In contrast, the mages from the Lower World snickered in schadenfreude.
I don’t know why. You’re all the same.
“Still, you who came from the Floating Castle are slightly better. Greed is a virtue for a mage, after all. At least that's better than idiots who are not only greedy but also don't know their place and just blame others.”
The snickering stopped as if caught in their throats. The mages from the Lower World were still mages. They quickly realized who I was referring to.
“I don't understand what's so praiseworthy about being too stupid to ascend to the Floating Castle that you think you can argue about qualifications. Why do you speak so proudly of being too uneducated to use gravity magic? And despite all that, you resort to magical sneak attacks. You raise your voices only to slander others. You're just trash, steeped in an inferiority complex, who don't even know your own place.”
I unleashed a torrent of harsh criticism on the mages from the Lower World.
Even if they hadn’t yet ascended to the Floating Castle, these mages were considered geniuses in their own academies. Unaccustomed to such verbal abuse, they faltered.
One who came to his senses pointed a finger at me and demanded.
“Are you… are you saying that to us? To us, who were robbed of our rightful chance to climb the Gateway?”
“Yes. I’m talking to you. Is being left in the Lower World due to your lack of learning something to be proud of? You should be thinking about how to learn and become a mage worthy of ascending to the Floating Castle. Why are you so heated up about this competition?”
“The Gateway is an opportunity for the mages of the Lower World! We are the victims!”
“And the beneficiaries. The only reason you’ve made it this far with your lives intact is because of me. Otherwise, you would have failed to solve the problems and been eliminated or killed long ago.”
Aside from their bravado and the fact that they walked on their own two feet, the mages from the Lower World were just dead weight. The problems in Babel were related to spatial anomalies. Having never learned spatial magic, they couldn’t understand my solutions and merely followed along, offering no help whatsoever. Until they launched their sneak attack, I honestly hadn't even noticed they were there. Perhaps that was why they tried so hard to make their presence known.
This one is trash. That one is trash. There isn’t a single thing I like. My order has no need for them.
But, even so, my order is just. It simply has no need for humans. I declared before them all.
“Let me be clear. All of you are sinners.”