Chapter 678: The Tower Without a Ceiling and the Intermingling Humans - 9
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 678: The Tower Without a Ceiling and the Intermingling Humans - 9
Avant-garde leaped in front of me, spreading her arms and chanting an incantation. She drew the moisture from the light-scorched grass, controlled it, imbued it with mana, and altered its properties. Her preparations complete, Avant-garde unleashed a strategy-level spell.
“Celsius Crystal. Great Ice Wall…!”
With the spell’s completion, a thick wall of ice crystals erupted from the earth. Its tightly packed crystalline structure scattered the light. The solid ice structure momentarily hid me from Ruel’s sight.
Seizing that brief opening, Avant-garde grabbed my hand and pulled.
“Hughes! Now’s our chance. Run… Aah!”
But it was only for a moment. A torrent of light burst from Ruel, striking the great ice wall.
Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, and a blinding white light exploded through them. The magically-forged wall shattered into a million pieces.
“A barrier designed to scatter light. Not a bad attempt, but it’s useless against light that possesses physical force. It’s like trying to scatter a waterfall. An arched structure would have been better, I think.”
“Ugh…”
Avant-garde tried to reconstruct the ice wall, but even that was futile. Ruel flicked her fingers, and seven beams of heat shot out, intercepting the ice and melting it. White steam rose from the boiling ice, but only for an instant. The cascade of light crushed the white vapor in a single blow.
Mist blocks light. In other words, it collides with it. Light with physical force easily pushes mist aside. Common sense and reason cannot stop a Unique Magic, for the logic of the world within a Unique Magic is different.
“Avant-garde, the only thing that can protect you is your own life. Step aside before I decide I have no choice but to kill you.”
In the face of such overwhelming power, neither mist nor ice was of any use. Having blown away even the mist, Ruel’s halo flared even brighter. Now, against the light of the halo behind her, her white skin was cast in shadow, appearing as dark as the night.
Avant-garde felt a primal fear, but she did not back down.
“White Tower Master… C-could you please spare Hughes?”
Ruel felt a flicker of curiosity.
“Spare him? That’s the most interesting word I’ve heard all day. Why should I?”
“But, if you’re here guarding the artificial sun, White Tower Master, then Hughes and the Shrine of the Divine won’t be able to ascend any further… Th-then there’s no need to kill him, is there?”
Avant-garde’s logic was simple. It was a plea for mercy, arguing that since she could do as she pleased anyway, she could also choose to do nothing.
Ruel smiled and nodded.
“Mercy is a virtue. And I have practiced it. I spoke with him, I asked him, and I waited for him to at least retract his savage logic. He was the one who refused my request.”
“Hughes is brilliant! He must know he can’t win, so he’ll stop now! If Hughes just behaves, if he climbs the tower and devotes himself to his studies, it will lead to the advancement of all humanity!”
“He could have. He himself refused.”
Ruel’s reply was curt.
“I don’t agree with his words, but I am flexible enough to respond to savage logic with the same. Savagery has a way of tainting other orders with its own barbarism. Therefore.”
Preparing another spell as she spoke, Ruel spread her arms. The ring of light behind her split in two, and from each ring, a beam of light shot out in a curving trajectory.
“Mirage Light.”
“Senior! Watch out!”
She heated the atmosphere with thermal magic, then used her Unique Magic to apply physical force to parts of the light, creating a curvature. It required a little preparation, but it allowed her to fire a straight beam of light in an arc.
It was originally a spell meant to confuse an opponent’s senses, but Ruel used it to fire a curving shot of light. The moment it was fired, the bent light struck Avant-garde in the side…
“Agh!”
However, while one might not see the light, everyone could read the flow of mana. Avant-garde had just managed to freeze the hem of her clothes, and the frozen fabric scattered the light. At the same time, my outstretched hand caught Avant-garde, who had staggered from the impact and was about to fall.
Ruel touched her cheek with a troubled expression.
“…That light just now had no aggression. It only held enough force to push Avant-garde aside. So would you please stop making that frightening face, Elisha Celsius?”
As she spoke, her halo flashed, and clusters of light began shooting out in every direction. It was ‘firelight’ containing immense heat. The light, beyond the red spectrum, burned the earth and air, scorching the plains. The beams collided with something in the air, causing sporadic explosions.
“Haaaah—.”
Boom, boom. Transparent crystals materialized in mid-air, blocking the light. Though nothing was visible, the moment a beam touched ‘something,’ it instantly exploded.
The heat rays that had so easily melted ice took a considerable amount of time to break these transparent crystals. They were qualitatively superior, but the real problem was their quantity.
Looking at the crystals created by the Unique Magic, Ruel spoke softly.
“Polarizing crystals. Quite well made. I was under the impression they were nearly impossible to create without a template. You seem to have found a solution?”
“I couldn’t just stand by while you were the problem. Oh, don’t be offended. I didn’t prepare this just because I was wary of you.”
She was mass-producing crystals that halved the intensity of light by crystallizing the moisture in the air, and the air itself. There were dozens, hundreds of them, and their numbers were growing in real time.
This was something only the Blue Tower Master, the head of the Crystal Tower that researched all manner of magical crystals and possessed a Unique Magic that could force the crystallization of matter, could do.
“Avant-garde is a student of the Crystal Tower. As its master, I have a duty to protect my students.”
The Blue Tower Master, Elisha Celsius, was so just and exceptional that the Sanctum had chosen her as a collaborator. They must have brought her here thinking she would surely help Ruel. And she did.
But Ruel was a saintess, and at the same time, a mage. And so, she failed to realize something.
That mages with different Spiritual Worlds can never be true friends.
‘The King of Humans stayed in the Blue Tower during his time in the Floating Castle. Through his interactions with her…’
As the White Tower Master, Ruel had chosen the Blue Tower Master as a ‘collaborator.’ But while Tower Masters could cooperate, they could never truly share a bond. It was always a relationship of mutual need.
Conversely, when that need disappeared, so did the cooperation.
I, who had entered the Crystal Tower as a temporary student, who had offered help under the guise of studying magic, who had earned her gratitude, shown my abilities, and shared a connection with her—I was a being who forced a re-evaluation of that ‘need.’
“Then take her away from Hughes. That is the easiest way to protect her.”
“I’ll give it a try. But, separate from that, I cannot condone an attack on my student. Even if it was just ‘an intention to push him away.’ I, for one, don’t appreciate it when people push me around.”
The Blue Tower Master smiled faintly and approached me. Her eyes reflected the image of me and Avant-garde huddled together.
Avant-garde is an excellent shield. She acts of her own volition, can use magic, and Ruel, being mindful of the Blue Tower Master, can’t easily attack her. It’s a waste to discard her so easily.
However.
“Senior Avant-garde. Go.”
Right now, I couldn’t afford to make an enemy of the Blue Tower Master as well. Light magic was a threat, but crystal magic was just as dangerous. It would be better to call Lankart and Shei.
Regretfully, I decided to discard the shield named Avant-garde. I gave her body a firm shove. A startled Avant-garde turned, but a transparent crystal created by the Blue Tower Master was already blocking the space between us.
“No, Hughes! Without me, you’ll—!”
“I have my own ways. Having you here will only make things more complicated, Senior.”
“Lies! You have no way of defeating the White Tower Master!”
No. This is the way.
I have to get you safely away from here so the Blue Tower Master will take my side.
The Blue Tower Master was a sentimental type, but she was still a mage. She wouldn't let her emotions cloud her rational judgment. Although she felt an attachment to me, there was more than enough reason to be wary of ‘me’—a member of the Shrine of the Divine who had hidden his identity.
But you’re different. You, in your innocence, are someone the Blue Tower Master must protect.
And if I protect you, the Blue Tower Master comes with the package.
“Hughes.”
The Blue Tower Master took a pair of crystal glasses from her pocket and put them on. Through the lenses, her eyes, glowing with a cold light, turned to me.
“What are the Divine to you?”
I took out my cards. Spades. From 10 down to 6, I showed her the Divine I had collected so far.
The Blue Tower Master wouldn’t know what they were. She would sense the strange mana swirling around them, but she wouldn’t realize which Divine they represented.
But she immediately understood my intention in showing them.
“Cards.”
I am the King of Humans, born after Year One. The Divine are proof that humans have changed from the humanity that existed before Year One.
The Divine are the knowledge that brought about an irreversible change in the human species. That knowledge completes ‘me.’
And they are cards I can use. In other words, power. Cards to be played when necessary, or simply held in my hand if not. The more, the better.
“What will you do with the Divine?”
“What do you think? I have to make a living, of course.”
“Make a living? Is that all?”
“I’ve already obtained five of the Divine. And I’m using all of them to live well and prosper, all by myself.”
Not all the world’s knowledge was created out of necessity. The Divine were a destination, fortunately reached by born geniuses who pursued them with an obsession bordering on madness. They are as special as the knowledge they discovered.
However, the reason knowledge has value is because it enriches human life. Because it adds one more thing to the list of what humans can do. Because it turns the impossible into the possible and allows us to claim victory against a harsh world. It is precious because it is necessary.
Most humans learn for that purpose. They may later delve into knowledge out of curiosity, competitiveness, a desire for fame, stubbornness, or obsession. But everyone first learns knowledge simply to use it.
I asked the Blue Tower Master in return.
“Weren't you the same, Blue Tower Master? For what purpose did you intend to use the knowledge you learned? Surely, you didn’t learn magic just to keep the knowledge of the Divine a secret, like the Saintess.”
You’ve been pondering it for a while now. So, what will it be?
“Elisha Celsius?”
Ruel, perhaps growing impatient, called the Blue Tower Master’s name from behind, but she didn’t answer. Instead, she recalled the time she first came to the Floating Castle.