God of Ill Omen, God of Calamity

It was a miracle!

Aron wept.

There was simply no other word for it.

As expected of one who holds the Goddess's favor…!

He had collapsed the tower. He had forced Sancha into motion. And yet Aron found himself far more moved by the miracle that had befallen him personally.

My holy power… has surpassed its limit.

A brilliant blaze of sacred light enveloped him — proof that he had broken through the ceiling of his own power. Two self-sacrificial rites. And then the Prayer of Adoration! He had merely offered his life in recitation, and yet such boundless grace had been poured upon him.

The Goddess's will has reached me!

She had answered his prayer. Overwhelmed by a feeling beyond description, Aron trembled from head to toe.

And for good reason. For well over a year, the Goddess Sect had been stagnant. No one had broken past their limits to claim a greater divinity. No child chosen by the Goddess had been born. They had all sensed it, quietly, in the backs of their minds — that the Goddess's protection no longer walked with the Goddess Sect.

Her favor simply moved elsewhere! It never vanished at all!

That was the truth. It had merely shifted — from the Goddess Sect to him, to Adrium's Hyun. And of that fact, in all the world, Aron alone was certain. Even the Pope would not know.

Which meant—

"More favor! More grace…!"

He would become His First Apostle and claim still greater favor.

The eighteenth floor. Though He had vanished without a trace, that was fine. Aron felt a fierce premonition that if he simply climbed higher, he would find Him again.

The tournament? The relationship between the Empire and the Goddess Sect? None of it mattered anymore. He had long since lost even the faintest interest in such things.

"I shall offer all glory unto Him!"

He would reach the summit and lay every honor at His feet alone. For that purpose and that purpose only, Aron began to climb the tower.

A wasteland.

Upon a harsh expanse where not a single blade of grass grew, two colossal crows rose like towers themselves.

—Pathetic wretch!

—Inadequate fool!

—Feeble weakling!

—That's you!

BOOM—!

Without warning the two giant crows slammed into each other and launched into a bare-knuckle brawl. The mere impact of their collision shook the world.

This place…

Watching the two crows, I could only tilt my head. After collapsing the seventeenth floor, I had fallen for so long that the concept of time itself had dissolved. And the place I had arrived at was neither the tower, nor Pangenia, nor even the Abyss — it was an entirely different world.

My certainty that it was a completely different world rested on something simple.

There are two suns.

I had never seen a world with two suns before. And the two suns looked nothing alike.

One is a black sun. The other is a sun red as blood.

The black sun, for some reason, looked familiar. Had I not once become the Dreadful Omen, summoned the Daoist Crows, and driven Baal to the brink of death? The sun that had been summoned alongside those Daoist Crows back then was precisely that black sun.

—Die!

—Die!

—Two suns cannot exist under the same sky!

—False child!

—I am the real one!

—Bullshit!

—Crow!

—Caw!

…What was this? Their dialogue sounded like pure stream-of-consciousness babble. But there was no way I could interrupt.

KRAAAAAAAAAANG—!

I had never witnessed a clash of such sheer mass. They were too large even to call giants. The colossal crows, their bodies stretching past the clouds, slammed into each other without rest, as if determined to kill.

Overwhelming.

Roughly half a day passed like that. When the suns set and dusk fell, the fighting stopped.

—I'll let you off for today!

—When the sun rises tomorrow, we fight again!

Then, as if long accustomed to the ritual, they turned their backs on each other. But they did not move. They simply stood there, backs turned, perfectly still.

"Hey."

Only then could I quietly approach the space between them. Both crows glanced back at me at the same time.

—What are you?

—So small.

—Looks like a tiny bean-bug.

—Isn't that a hippo?

Were they doing this on purpose? One thing was certain: neither of them seemed particularly intelligent. Letting their words wash past one ear, I asked,

"Where is this? Inside the Tower of the War God?"

—Tower of the War God? What's that?

—Is it food?

—Tasteless name.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

—Sounds delicious, though.

Neither of them knew the Tower of the War God. Meaning this place was an entirely separate location. I sighed and tried again.

"How do I get out of here?"

—You can't leave.

—Until our fight ends, no one can leave.

"Then finish the fight quickly and settle it."

—We'll fight when the sun rises tomorrow.

—It's night now.

Fight by day, rest by night. It seemed to be an unspoken rule between them.

There has to be a way out.

These two were clearly useless. I shrugged and set off to find an exit on my own. But before long I hit a wall.

…I'm back where I started.

No matter how far I walked, I returned to the place where the crows stood. Every direction led to the same result.

—The little cricket wanders well.

—That elephant-looking thing has good stamina.

The crows watched me with something like curiosity. Whenever their eyes met each other's, they whipped their heads away as if nothing had happened.

Then morning came again, and the suns rose.

—Die!

—Dieeee!

They threw themselves back into their frenzied combat. I shook my head and watched the fight.

Completely trapped.

Teleport and warp did not work. Logout and login failed. Even the Spear of Longinus was dead. I was sealed inside a perfect, self-contained otherworld.

And worse—

My body… is stiffening.

It felt as though paralysis was creeping back through me. My movements grew sluggish; my arms and legs would not extend as I willed. I was certain: if this continued, my body would soon stop functioning entirely. To resolve this and escape, I was going to need those two after all.

—I'll let you off for today.

—Look who's talking.

When night fell, the fighting stopped as if by magic. The only time normal conversation was possible. I slowly opened my mouth.

"How long have the two of you been fighting?"

—Eighty-seven thousand years?

—A hundred thirty thousand, you idiot.

—Actually, a hundred ninety thousand.

—Ah, right. Must be about a million years by now.

In short, they had been fighting for an uncountably long age — a span of time so vast that just hearing the numbers made the mind reel.

"Why are you fighting in the first place?"

—Because I'm stronger!

—Because I'm stronger!

They were competing over who was stronger. A statement of pure, unadulterated simplicity. To spend eons locked in combat for the sake of proving that single point? Now I was even more curious.

"What kind of gods are you two?"

Both of them possessed divine rank. And not ordinary divinity — the rank of Chief Gods. A Chief God was a central deity who held dominion over an entire world. Why beings of that caliber were bickering and thrashing each other here was beyond me.

At last the two crows spoke.

—I am the God of Ill Omen.

—I am the God of Calamity.

At least they answered direct questions well enough, I supposed. The God of Ill Omen and the God of Calamity…

Both of them are the races that manage the tower.

The Ill Omen Clan managed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the tower as a whole. The Calamity Clan regulated the tower's trials. Their abilities were entirely different.

Martial God Karas is of the Calamity Clan.

Strictly speaking, he was the king of the Calamity Clan. As for the Ill Omen Clan and their king — they had left behind stelae and been annihilated by Ruin. I had succeeded in reviving the Ill Omen Clan through Randolph's body, but I still had not found every stela.

And yet, even as the races that worshipped them as gods faced dire circumstances, these two were just endlessly fighting here.

"So you just need to settle who is stronger?"

—Of course.

—Beneath the heavens, only one sun may rise.

The God of Ill Omen who commanded the black sun. The God of Calamity who commanded the crimson sun. They were evenly matched. Neither could claim clear superiority.

After a moment's thought, I hit upon an idea.

"Teach me both of your techniques. Then I'll judge which of you holds the greater martial power."

—What is that mayfly saying?

—Our techniques can be learned only by our own clans.

—A non-crow itching to die, is it?

—No other beast can ever match the crow's supremacy.

Both of them snorted in contempt. Techniques that even their own clans struggled to learn. But I had already become a Corpse Crow once. And in Randolph's body, I had summoned the black sun. The one who inherited the Ill Omen King's will and earned Karas's recognition — that was me.

"Then why not just make me a crow?"

I threw the gamble. At this rate I would die here in isolation anyway. My limbs would lock up and my heart would stop.

Hearing my words, the God of Ill Omen and the God of Calamity blinked in unison.

—Caw?

—Caw?

Caw!

Caaaw!

The Calamity Clan crows were in an uproar. Allowing anyone into the gaps between floors was forbidden. Even looking into those places was an act that must never be done.

"C-caw…"

The Ill Omen Clan crow was equally flustered. Where had Lord Karas gone? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠To restore order to this situation, Martial God Karas was needed. But even at this stage, Karas was nowhere to be found.

Sensing something amiss in Randolph's summoning, he had headed for the thirtieth floor. After that, his whereabouts were unknown. The thirtieth floor — the tower's summit and the Champion's sanctuary — was a place even the crows were not permitted to look upon.

"Caw!"

There was no choice. The Ill Omen Clan crow clenched its fist, kindling the will to resolve this situation with its own power.

Caw!

Caaaw!

Hey, hey, will you be all right?! We'll help too!

The Calamity Clan crows and the Ill Omen Clan crow joined forces. With the two races that managed the tower united, no problem should have been beyond them.

The problem was that both sides were completely ignorant of what happened when a gap between floors opened. The more the Ill Omen Clan crow searched for the fissure, and the more the Calamity Clan crows adjusted the trials and thrashed the tower about—

…

……

C-caaaw!

Caw! Caw!

The crows shrieked in utter panic. Things had reached a point beyond any hope of salvage. In the end, the crows had no choice but to admit it.

They had, it seemed, thoroughly screwed everything up.

"……An update?"

"What the hell, all of a sudden?"

"What got updated in the Tower of the War God?"

"Eliminate… Randolph?"

Messages floated before people's eyes. Every Awakener could check the notices. But it was not only Awakeners who grasped the related content.

"A prophecy has descended!"

"The stars have spoken! Climb the Tower of the War God!"

"Guardians, let us ascend the tower!"

"Our Lord commands it. Climb the tower!"

…Countless beings across Pangenia, regardless of race, came to know — along with the reason they must climb the tower.

And among those who sought to ascend—

"Laktusha."

"Yes, my Lord Black King."

"Together with the dark elves and Ant King Fermon, climb the Tower of the War God, kill Randolph, and be certain to recover that."

"I receive your command."

—were Swordmaster Laktusha, who served the will of the southern ruler, the Black King, and his companions.