Final Settlement

Everyone had assumed the same thing.

Randolph. Phantom. He had to be hiding somewhere among the Allied Forces, concealing his identity.

After all, Phantom was an extreme recluse — a man of absolute mystery. That very reputation had drawn a considerable number of people to join the alliance in the first place.

And yet.

"What was Main Quest 9 again?"

"You idiot. Climb the Tower of the War God!"

"So Randolph… Phantom wasn't here at all? He was in Pangenia?"

The murmuring only grew louder as time passed.

That Main Quest 9 was Climb the Tower of the War God was common knowledge among any player worth their salt. That Randolph had already pushed through Main Quest 8 was equally well known.

But no one had imagined that, with an invasion underway, Randolph would actually climb the Tower of the War God. They had all been certain he was somewhere among the Allied Forces.

"…He played us completely."

"But did he really climb the Tower? That score doesn't make any sense."

"Did he beat the Champion on the twentieth floor?"

"The Champion no one has challenged in a full year?"

"It's Randolph."

"No, even if he somehow beat the Champion, this score is…"

In five years, the Champion of the Tower of the War God had never changed. For the past year, the Champion had refused every challenge outright. The highest anyone had climbed was the nineteenth floor — and every player knew exactly what score that had earned.

Even if someone had defeated the Champion, the number staring them in the face right now defied all understanding.

"…"

Drakestar furrowed his brow without realizing it. His mood was thoroughly foul.

Master was dead. Gracia had been driven out. At last, he had claimed the protagonist's seat. The world was supposed to be his now.

Phantom?

That man had never intended to step into the light and become a hero — a protagonist. At best, Drakestar had expected him to skulk in the shadows, trailing along behind like MintChocoIsDelicious.

But this…

He didn't even participate?

He had shown zero interest in the alliance whatsoever. While everyone else scrambled over Earth's crisis, he had been off in Pangenia climbing the Tower of the War God alone.

Is he insane?

Did that make any sense? Or was the man not even from Earth to begin with? How could anyone calmly decide to climb a tower the moment the Second Invasion began — when a single mistake could kill his physical body on Earth and end everything for real?

He was not right in the head. A complete madman. Everyone else could barely even bring themselves to log into Pangenia, and yet climbing the Tower meant he had been ascending without rest, before and after the invasion hit.

Calling him "bold" didn't even begin to cover it.

There's no predicting where this one will go next. That much is certain.

…He had no choice but to admit it. If Randolph really had killed Master, that meant he had surpassed Master's skill as well. Seizing the Champion's seat by climbing the Tower was not impossible.

Still.

…Even so, this score is incomprehensible.

No — it had gone past incomprehensible. That number was impossible.

The Hall of Fame. Those who made it there had scores with certain upper limits. Some Main Quests had especially clear ceilings, and the Tower of the War God was the prime example. The floors were fixed. At best, the question was whether you beat the Champion or not. Even at its highest, a score around five hundred was the norm.

But that…

A bug. An error. Whatever it is, it doesn't make sense.

Drakestar forced himself to deny it. No matter how many times Randolph had broken through supposed limits before, nowhere had a ceiling as clear-cut as the Tower of the War God. Something had to be wrong.

And yet the score kept shimmering before his eyes.

Grit.

Drakestar ground ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his teeth. It felt as though the protagonist's seat — the gaze of the entire world — had been stolen from him. And at the most critical moment of all.

Every demon looked up at the sky at once.

In ages past, gazing at the heavens had been forbidden to them. No longer.

"Martial God Karas. Has that one reclaimed his divinity?"

One among them — Pride — sat in the heart of the battlefield and murmured softly. From atop a mountain of corpses, he looked up at the sky and smiled faintly.

"Is this a warning meant for me? Telling me not to get too bold?"

The divine beings of the towers. Deities were the natural counter to demons — the sole channel through which demons and their kind could be checked and contained. But now, with most divinities erased by Ruin, nothing on this continent remained that could stop them.

That was why the Demon Realm could invade other dimensions. That was why demons could play their games freely.

And yet.

"How did he return?"

Pride tilted his head. Martial God Karas had been fully restored — and the moment he revived, he had thundered a warning across the heavens. Announcing his return. Telling the wicked to be on guard.

Moreover…

Envy is dead.

One of the Seven Deadly Sins — the demon Envy — was dead. Had Karas done it? Only a true deity could kill a demon of the Seven Deadly Sins. A demigod could not. Given the timing, it was reasonable to conclude that Karas, having restored his divinity, had slain Envy.

Martial God Karas. If it was him, he was more than capable of killing Envy.

Envy had always preferred to travel alone — he had practically invited his own death. And among the deities, Martial God Karas had always been a formidable one. The mere fact that he had preserved his existence this long was remarkable. Most of the remaining divinities had lost their identities entirely, merging into their towers.

The demon Pride stroked his chin.

"So the Omen Clan was not wiped out after all."

Ruin had not annihilated that bloodline completely. Some of the clan had survived… and through them, Karas's tower had been restored. A curious turn of events.

"The Druids seem to have reappeared as well."

The elves were stirring. The connections binding every forest and every stretch of greenery felt unsettled. Pride was certain — a Druid who commanded the great forces of nature had emerged somewhere in the world.

Are the extinct races reappearing?

Hmm. What puzzled him was that the extinct races were resurfacing all at once. Every one of them had been among the first Ruin had prioritized for extinction. The Omen Clan. The Druids… and.

Those ones who ignore every law. Those ones he would have erased without fail.

In some ways more troublesome than the two races above, "those ones" seemed to have returned as well. He had personally confirmed that the laws had been broken in several dungeons and towers.

Divinities were recovering. Things long vanished were reappearing, one by one. But Martial God Karas alone could not halt their advance.

Pride shrugged.

A pity. I was going to turn Karas into a star, too.

He had planned to make a star of him and scatter the pieces among the humans. Still — not bad. Too easy would have been boring anyway.

In this twilight age, with the gods absent from their thrones, the demons had already grown as strong as they needed to be. Demons more powerful than ever before were everywhere. Naturally, Karas alone could not stop him.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and knights soon thronged around the mountain of corpses.

"King Friedrich! Victory is ours!"

"We have slaughtered every last barbarian!"

"Long live King Friedrich!"

"Long live!!!!!"

I descended ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Tower of the War God at an unhurried pace.

Still out of reach, as expected.

Martial God Karas. Having reclaimed his complete divinity, he had displayed martial prowess truly befitting a god. In my current state — still mid-growth — I could not defeat him. Perhaps once I was more complete.

Still, it wasn't bad.

I had poured everything into the fight and left with no regrets. How many experiences like this would I ever get? Even challenging him as Wilhelm would not have been easy.

— Caw!

A crow trotted along at my side. The Omen Clan had restored the tower in a single stroke — and that was far from their only ability.

When four of the Omen Clan gather, they can use the Black Sun again.

The authority that brought Absolute Death — the same power I had wielded as the Dreadful Omen. Even Baal would have perished to the Black Sun had he not revealed a Fragment of Ruin. What once required a host of crow sorcerers, the Omen Clan could accomplish with only four.

And beyond that—

…So the Omen Clan managing the tower possessed functions like these as well. A system in which a powerful administrator clan inherited even greater strength. Highly satisfactory.

Now all that remains is Main Quest 10. Time to go meet the Dragon God.

I smiled. The hardest part was over. Now came the most important business of all.

But first.

There was something I had to do before that. Perhaps the most important thing of all.

Namely—

Settlement.

The messages that had flooded in the moment I stepped out of the tower. I pulled them before my eyes once more.

Karas looked down at his own hand.

Having reclaimed his complete divinity, he had expected to defeat Randolph with ease. And indeed, he had won.

And yet.

"…My hand is trembling?"

His hand was shaking.

In a pure contest of martial force, Randolph should not have been his match. He should not even have been able to graze him. Randolph had shattered that expectation — that prejudice — completely.

He had never felt this way facing Wilhelm. Wilhelm had been complete; Randolph was not. And still, his hand trembled.

Why? From fear? But Randolph did not yet possess power enough to frighten him. Then what was making his hand shake?

Even Karas could not fathom the reason.

And that was not all. Karas brushed his chest. A long sword-wound was carved across it.

Something impossible had occurred. A wound — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inflicted upon a deity. Inside this very tower, no less.

A human who had wounded the Martial God after he reclaimed his divinity, within the Tower of the War God itself. No ordinary human, certainly — but even so, it was the first time such a thing had happened since he became master of the tower.

That terrifying potential, that capacity for growth, was enough to leave one speechless. Even in the midst of battle, he had grown sharper by the second. A monster of growth. No — one could call him a god and it would not be far off.

And so Karas found himself smiling faintly.

Truly… what an absurd creature.