Chapter 674: The Ceilingless Tower and the Intermingling Humans - 5
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 674: The Ceilingless Tower and the Intermingling Humans - 5
He defied his combat precognition just once, and now he has a hole between his eyes. A pity.
Still, I didn't take his life. I carefully removed the skewer that had dug lightly into the space between his brows. The paladin remained still, trembling, until I pulled it out.
Anyone would have done the same. No one could muster any courage with a steel skewer lodged between their eyes. I patted the terrified man on the shoulder and spoke.
“I respect your rebellion in defying your revelation. I won’t take your life.”
I gave him a light shove, and he fell on his rear, consumed by fear.
His life was spared, but it was enough to instill a certain belief in them: that combat precognition was not infallible.
Now then. How long are you going to just watch? If you don't show yourself, I really will ascend to the next floor.
Static crackled, and the voice I had been waiting for echoed in my ear.
[Yes. I understand what you’re trying to show me. You mean to say that you aren’t the only one who makes an enemy of order. You wanted to prove that anyone can break that order for their own sake, didn’t you?]
It was a voice that chattered like a young girl’s, yet sounded detached from all worldly affairs. Hearing it directly in my ear was an indescribably strange sensation. Ruel, the Saintess of Light, was murmuring to me from some far-off place.
[Your argument is simple and clear. ‘Everyone must fight against the world with their own intentions!’ Even if their opponent is order itself. That’s why you engineered this tragedy, isn’t it? To make the paladins fight against you, and the mages attack you after finishing their cost-benefit analysis.]
Violence would have erupted one way or another. When we first reached the 7th floor, Kuram and Dokjine ambushed the paladins. Upon reaching the 9th floor, the paladins planned their own ambush to eliminate them. But those who have been ambushed know best how to do it themselves. Kuram sensed their plan and struck first.
It was all a foregone conclusion. The Blue Tower Master was wary of them, and Hilde intended to eliminate them here as well. And the other mages are pretending to go along with it, all while trying to be the first to ascend.
I merely drew out the public consensus a little more. The mages, the paladins—they all have their own goals. You can’t just ignore that.
[To have designed such a stage means you could have done the opposite, doesn’t it? You could have stopped them! You had the power and the ability. You could have prevented this catastrophe and ensured everyone reached a peaceful conclusion!]
Yes.
I could have.
I could have ordered Hilde not to lay a hand on them, persuaded the Blue Tower Master by appealing to our past connection. I could have used my influence to fix the outcome and establish an unshakable order, at least within the Tower of Babel.
[But that wasn’t what you wanted, was it? Because you believe resistance itself is human nature.]
But that is neither my job nor my desire.
Anyone should be able to stand against the rules. Even if I am the rule.
[I understand. But I don’t want to. Your argument ultimately boils down to the logic of power. If everyone fights with their own intentions, the entire world will be filled with conflict and war. I hate it. It’s too simple! Humans can’t possibly be such simple beings!]
It doesn’t matter if you deny it. It’s real, right before your eyes. Denying reality is nothing more than mental masturbation.
[And, putting all that aside. If what you say is true!]
Then you should come down too. Come and show me your will.
[Then it’s also my right to enforce peace with my power!]
Order, too, is a product of savagery, steeped in the logic of power!
Countless butterflies fluttered about. Cardinal Elton bit his lip and made the sign of the cross, the Blue Tower Master threw off her robe, and Hilde stabbed Kuram in the back.
The temperature on the 9th floor plummeted. The air and moisture froze, preserving the world like a taxidermy specimen. The blood flowing from Kuram’s back gave off the sharp scent of medicine. At the same time, the fluttering butterflies all dropped to the floor.
Seeing Kuram’s blood, Dokjine charged forward like a beast. Overcome with helplessness, Cardinal Elton made the sign of the cross and called out to someone.
“…Let there be light.”
And light burst forth from the artificial sun.
The world vanished. A light so brilliant erased the entire scene. For a moment, a white curtain enveloped the world, and I couldn't see a thing.
A moment after my vision returned,
“Ugh!”
An immense pressure crushed everyone.
Gravity? Air pressure? No, something invisible was pressing down. Unlike gravity or atmospheric pressure, this was a force pouring down solely from above. Like a cascading waterfall, but there was nothing to see.
I crouched, struggling to lift my head. Looking up, I saw nothing. Only the light pouring from the artificial sun filled my vision.
Nothing? But this force crushing me is real! There has to be something.
Panting, I tried moving my arm. The part of it hidden in my shadow still felt light. But the moment I tried to move it out of the shadow, I nearly collapsed to the ground.
It wasn't my body that was heavy. It was…
…the light?
[Lux Vis Mea. For light is power.]
After the delicate voice spoke, a great shadow fell over the meadow.
A girl with a halo of light behind her head was walking down slowly, treading on the light itself. She wore the serene smile of a saint, but her sparkling eyes held an endless curiosity. She looked like an angel seeing the human world for the first time. Anyone who didn't know better would have mistaken her for an angel and committed idolatry.
One of the five Tower Masters of the Floating Castle. A mage who had awakened her Unique Magic, a genius who had ascended the tower alone.
And at the same time, the saint from the Sanctum who was closest to the truth.
The White Tower Master, Ruel, the Saintess of Light.
“Always bow your heads in humility. The light illuminates the path before you, but dare to look upon it, and you shall be blinded.”
She was right. Just looking at her felt like my eyeballs would burst. It was like someone was blasting a powerful jet of water straight into my eyes.
I squinted hard, forcing myself to gaze at Ruel. Walking on air, she wore a flowing white dress. Backlit as she was, her silhouette seemed completely exposed, but with my own power, I could hardly dare to meet her eyes. It was as if a voice were saying, How dare an irreverent being profane an angel? I shall strike you blind.
It was the same for the others. Even Hilde, whose Qi Art was among the best, could only manage to look at her after focusing Qi into her eyes.
Hilde’s holy sword trembled. As a former member of the Crusaders, Hilde recognized her instantly.
“Saintess…?”
“Blank-Faced One. You once threw the world into chaos, but having repented and been saved by the light, you can no longer be called evil. You are still within Yuel’s foresight, so I shall hold back for now.”
Ruel flicked her finger lightly. Hilde, who had been about to ambush Kuram, was sent flying by an unprecedented force. Her body accelerated even more in the empty air. In an instant, Hilde was pushed to the very edge of the tower.
Kuram, who had been stabbed by Hilde, quickly tried to regain his footing. But in that moment, he felt a crushing pressure all over his body and was slammed to the floor. Realizing the source of this power, Kuram looked up.
“A Saintess? Why is a Saintess in a mage’s tower?”
“But you, Kuram. You have broken many Anathemas and committed sins by stealing and controlling the will of others with drugs. You are a great sinner, and it is a wonder you have lived this long.”
An ominous declaration. Kuram immediately drew upon his poison. His body, pickled in toxins, had poison flowing through it instead of Qi. Extreme poison was both his medicine and his strength. For an ordinary person, it was more than ten times a lethal dose, but for Kuram, it was nothing more than light doping.
“How curious. Setting aside why a Saintess is here… I wonder if you’ll make the same sound as a normal human when you die.”
Kuram’s body activated. His heart beat at twice its normal speed, and his muscles swelled, engorged with blood. Overcoming the pressure of the pouring light, Kuram stood up. He could see the face of the Saintess, floating arrogantly and beautifully above.
“Is your special, holy blood the same as any other human’s?”
Picking up a spear, Kuram altered his body’s structure. His long arms stretched as if they had several more joints, changing shape like a whip. Tensing all his muscles at once, Kuram threw the spear with immense force.
The spear, thrown with terrifying power, flew like a beam of light, poised to shoot down the angel descending from the sky.
Seeing the approaching spear, Ruel smiled brightly and pointed a finger at Kuram.
“Zap!”
A spear of light pierced him.
Light exploded. There was no way to react. In less than the blink of an eye, the light that shot from Ruel’s fingertip pierced through the spear, unleashing a burst of force that created a finger-sized hole in Kuram’s chest.
Sizzle. Blood burned from the blackened hole. By the time Kuram realized what had happened, the spear of light had already passed through his heart. His heart, beating half a moment too late, pumped blood out of the hole. Dark red blood trickled from the corner of Kuram’s mouth.
“Cough.”
React? There was no time for that. It was light. By the time you see it, it’s already too late.
Unique Magic, Lux Vis Mea (Light is my power).
A Unique Magic that grants physical force to light.
The extremely compressed light from the Saintess’s Unique Magic was sharper and more powerful than any spear. Even with Kuram’s drug-enhanced body, before the White Tower Master who was backed by an artificial sun, he was like a firefly in the daylight. Kuram tried to cover the hole in his body with a trembling hand, but it was no use.
Kuram groaned as his body refused to obey him.
“…My blood has been altered. The light.”
“Yes! Light has the property of ‘purification.’ Actually, it’s less purification and more like ‘transmutation’ of highly active substances like poison. You’re never supposed to expose medicine to direct sunlight unless you’re drying it, right?”
For Kuram, who used poison as his power, light was his natural enemy. The activity of his drug-based body weakened rapidly. His body had already reacted to the light and been ‘purified.’
Kuram fell to his knees with a thud. The light Ruel had brought with her penetrated his pale skin, already transmuting his entire body. The poison that had seeped into every part of him was being purified in an instant. Even the poison hidden deep inside—
“Kuraaaam!”
Dokjine rushed over at her comrade’s crisis. Deflecting the pouring light with her broad tachi, she quickly examined Kuram’s wound.
“…Damn. I never thought I’d die like this. Cough. Then again, maybe this is a fitting end for me.”
The wound was bad enough, but the light penetrating the hole in his body was also fatal. The medicine that should have been potent enough to make one’s head spin was losing its scent in real time. Dokjine tasted a drop of Kuram’s blood and cried out, her face twisting in despair.
“If you die, what about my happiness? Who’s going to make my happiness?!”
Even as her companion lay dying, the only thing on Dokjine’s mind was her drugs. Kuram laughed, dumbfounded. He wasn’t particularly disappointed. Dokjine had always been that broken, and he had approached her knowing that.
As long as he provided her with drugs, Dokjine was an excellent test subject, bodyguard, and toy. Without her, Kuram wouldn’t have been able to endure the boredom of Tantalus. And as long as she got her drugs, Dokjine would have panted eagerly for anyone.
They needed each other, but it was a twisted, warped relationship.
And now, that too was over.
“…You’re right. I can’t make it anymore.”
“You promised! You promised you’d make me drugs! Until one of us died!”
“Right. I did promise. So.”
Kuram dug his fingers into his own body. Ripping himself open and bleeding profusely, he pulled out a glistening, blood-soaked sac from deep within his chest.
It was a sac filled with an ominous purple liquid. The poison gland that had turned Kuram into a man of poison. It was because of this gland that Kuram could produce both drugs and poisons from his own body.
“This is more powerful than all the drugs you’ve ever taken combined. If you take this, you’ll probably die from shock. Even if your constitution allows you to survive, your body will never be satisfied by any other drug. You’ll spend the rest of your life searching for this high you’ll never find again…”
“Heh?”
“…That was too long an explanation. Simply put, it’s the greatest happiness. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
With those words, Kuram placed the poison gland in Dokjine’s mouth. With an ecstatic expression, Dokjine bit down. The taut skin burst, and the essence of the poison within flowed out. The deadly narcotic seeped into her body before it even went down her throat.
Dokjine’s eyes flew wide open. Her body trembled, as if even she couldn't handle it. As she convulsed, looking as if she might die at any moment, hundreds of millions of butterflies took flight around her like a dragon. The butterflies went beyond eroding reality and began to destroy it.
Watching the illusion erode reality, Ruel murmured.
“The Axiom. A principle a Qi practitioner forges by twisting the world through sheer force.”
Dokjine’s Axiom was Hallucinatory Somnambulism. It manifested the hallucinations she saw while high on drugs into reality. Dokjine leaped up, stepping on butterflies that should only exist in a hallucination. It looked as if she were dancing, rejoicing, and wailing all at once.
Riding and stepping on the butterflies, she ascended against the sky. She was so fast and agile that it seemed even light couldn't catch her. After firing several beams of light that all missed, Ruel let out a soft sigh.
“It’s not as fair and rational as a Unique Magic, but projecting that irrationality onto the world is what makes it so threatening.”
As Ruel grumbled, Dokjine’s shadow appeared faintly behind her. Was it teleportation? Or was the sight of her charging forward a hallucination? It was impossible to know what had happened. The only truth was that Dokjine was there.
The tachi blurred. Swung with the speed of light, it descended upon Ruel. The blade cleanly severed her neck without spilling a single drop of blood. Ruel’s head spun as it fell, a serene smile on her face.
Flash.
And Ruel’s mirage vanished.
“Heh, eh?”
It was an illusion made of light. Having lost her target, Dokjine looked around in mid-air. Even her Hallucinatory Somnambulism didn’t show her the way. It only made the fluttering butterflies fly about in confusion.
Dokjine’s Axiom was about superimposing hallucinations onto reality, not seeing through them. In fact, she was more susceptible to illusions than most. What she had seen was Ruel’s mirage, and thanks to her Unique Magic, it even had substance. In her drug-addled state, she couldn't have possibly noticed.
…Well, that’s all just an excuse, really. Even if it hadn’t been a mirage, Dokjine’s blade would never have reached her. That’s what I just read, anyway.
Because for a moment, Ruel had moved within a frozen world.
…Huh?
What was that? What was that thought I just read? Suddenly, Ruel’s thoughts came flooding in. For about nine seconds—nine seconds that didn’t exist for me—she had existed. I could read her thoughts as she observed Dokjine’s attack, created a mirage, and then lightly dodged!
But I never experienced that time!
Time stop? She can move within frozen time?
By what principle—no.
With this much power, why is she wasting time here?!
“The more power one has, the more one must be wary of it. If great power is wielded without restraint… this world will fall into chaos. Order will become meaningless. Everyone’s world will collapse.”
Walking lightly through the air, Ruel elegantly brought her hands together. A terrifying light flashed from between her palms. Countless prisms glittered around her body. The prisms, which bent the direction of light, took aim at Dokjine.
“Our power is for judgment alone. The light shall be your judge.”
Again, there was light.
It was too bright to watch. The pressure of the exploding light pushed against me, against everything here. I covered my eyes and curled into a ball, waiting for the disaster to pass.
The fluttering butterflies all sank at once. Finishing their final flight, their wings trembled pitifully as they staggered to the ground and vanished one by one.
Hundreds of millions, tens of thousands, thousands, hundreds. The number of butterflies dwindled. The butterflies that had existed in Dokjine’s illusion vanished rapidly, as if they had never been there at all.
Finally, when the last butterfly died and the light subsided, there was no trace of Dokjine left.
“With this, may today continue on, same as yesterday.”
Only Ruel’s brief eulogy remained to remember the end of the two villains.