Appearance
At first, I found it strange.
Of all places for the Imperial Tournament to be held—why the Tower of the War God?
"Karas. Did you plan from the start to fix the tournament venue here?"
I opened my mouth slowly.
Karas still had no idea what the Throne of Light had manifested as. He couldn't even begin to guess what I was offering up, or what I intended to summon. He would simply assume I was thrashing about in desperation.
I meant to use that opening. First, I needed to grasp the cause of everything unfolding inside the tower.
Karas answered without expression.
"Am I obligated to answer you?"
"There's nothing else to do until the sun sets anyway. What deal did you strike with Raiga?"
"…You're an amusing one. Then let me ask first. What are you? What are you, that you could enter through the Rift?"
He wanted my identity. I could hardly answer that I was Park Hyunmyung from Earth.
"I am Hyun of Adrium."
"Hyun of Adrium? The one who entered the tournament?"
"Yes. The floors suddenly collapsed and I was sucked in here."
It wasn't a lie. Of course, I was the one who had collapsed the floors with Natural Disaster.
The moment I revealed myself as a tournament participant, Karas's expression turned subtle.
"A human sucked into the Rift and turned into one of the Ash Clan? As expected—the Chief Gods' whims have begun."
Karas shot a sidelong glance at the God of Dread and the God of Ash.
Yet the two Chief Gods' demeanor was strange.
—……
—……
They simply sat still. They almost looked flustered—the complete opposite of the chatter they'd been spouting until now.
Seated upon the Throne of Light, I shrugged and said,
"Well then, Karas. Your turn to answer."
Karas tilted his head. For someone meeting me for the first time, my manner toward the War God was remarkably natural.
"……Hmph. I made a deal with Raiga. To draw challengers to the reopened Tower of the War God."
"Was that even necessary?"
Even if he'd done nothing, throngs of warriors would have climbed the Tower of the War God on their own. Higher floors. Stronger champions and a stronger tower master. This place had nothing but elements that stirred the urge to challenge.
So why gather people so urgently?
"At first, I simply wanted as many as possible to climb the Tower of the War God. This place I cultivated and built myself—utterly transformed from what it once was."
Back when he had been possessed by the Demon of Jealousy. A pure wish that more people would climb and challenge the tower, now completely different from those days. Raising Randolph's glittering golden statue had been for the same reason. He had simply wanted to show the tower's changes as soon as possible. He had simply wanted to return to the radiant days of old.
……At first, that had truly been all.
"So your intentions have changed since then?"
But by now, that pure intent had been completely overturned.
The War God Karas opened his mouth.
"Randolph's appearance changed everything."
"……The problem is that Champion Randolph appeared?"
Karas nodded.
"Randolph was summoned to the tower's summit already in a rampage."
"……?"
Randolph, summoned while rampaging? Was it because of me? Because he had been summoned as an empty shell without a soul?
As I stared in bewilderment, Karas glared at the Chief Gods and spoke.
"After that, the Randolph summoned into the tower began to split."
He had split. His narrative, his existence, his countless "stories." Everything happening in the tower now stemmed from that.
"This is what the God of Dread did to make Randolph into a complete Dread King. And the God of Ash seems to have chosen you—not me—as the new Ash King."
"……What are you talking about?"
Wait. For an instant my mind tangled.
So the true culprits behind all of this weren't Karas, but those two Chief Gods. Their plan was to elevate Randolph and me as Dread King and Ash King, then leave only one of us standing. They must have begun that scheme the moment Randolph was summoned into the tower.
Karas scowled and poured out his fury—not at me, but at the Chief Gods.
"Not only that—those capricious Chief Gods decided to strip me of my right as king and expel me from the Tower of the War God. Now, of all times—when I have reclaimed everything! Just as when I was destroyed by Ruin, again……!"
Crack!
Karas clenched his fist until it nearly shattered.
No matter how much time passed, those Chief Gods never changed. When Ruin appeared and the twin goddesses—the Chief Gods of humanity—sacrificed themselves to save them, those two gods did nothing. They only fought each other. Then, and now. As if they cared nothing whether their own clans were massacred.
At last the God of Dread and the God of Ash spoke.
—Karas. You dismiss our conflict as foolishness.
—But do not worry. The hour of decision has finally drawn near.
—At last the perfect adversaries we have long desired have appeared!
—……All of this is Heaven's Mandate. To escape that self-righteous Heavenly Realm and Ruin.
The two had intended to summon Randolph—as the Dread King—to the tower's summit. Thus they meant to leave only one of us: me or Randolph.
But instead of Randolph, the War God Karas had been summoned.
—Karas. Did you devour the Dread King that Randolph possessed?
—A foolish act. Stripped of your right, you cannot contain the Dread King—cannot contain Randolph's existence.
—The Tower of the War God is no longer yours.
—A new Dread King and Ash King. Only the clash of these two perfect adversaries will decide our victory and defeat.
Just before Randolph split and was reborn as the Dread King, Karas had devoured the Dread King's essence that had manifested from him. Baal, the divinity linked to the Blade Dragon God, the Dreadful Omen, Eternal Randolph—all of them had been separated solely for the Dread King's manifestation.
Having seen through the two Chief Gods' scheme, Karas could only burn with rage.
"I barely rebuilt it. I barely returned. The Dread Clan and the Ash Clan both finally seized a chance to go back to how things were. And now, of all times……!"
—Even if you return, it is useless.
—You will be destroyed by Ruin anyway.
—You will lose every tower again.
—Rebuild, restore—still you will fall.
—That day is not far, Karas.
—The resurrection of Ruin.
—The birth of Ruin!
The God of Dread and the God of Ash were afraid. Afraid of the day Ruin would appear again. No matter how much they rebuilt and restored, as things stood they would only go extinct. Before that, they had to be reborn as more complete beings. Only then could they properly prosper their races and stop Ruin.
But Karas shook his head.
"Do you truly believe that if the two of you merge you will become more complete? Do you honestly think that, you cowardly Chief Gods!"
They were nothing but cowards. Even when they had been destroyed by Ruin, they had only shifted blame onto each other, claiming it could never have been stopped. Why else would the two Chief Gods fight? So the victor could devour the loser and become one? So they could be reborn as complete beings? As a stronger Chief God and clan that even Ruin could not touch?
……Without ever fighting. Without ever asking once!
While their clans died, the two Chief Gods had decided that on their own.
"If our Chief Gods had been the goddesses, I would have gladly accepted even the stripping of my right. But not you. You are not my gods……!"
The twin goddesses had thrown themselves forward even when defeat was certain. Though they perished, they alone prevented the world's complete destruction. Had they done nothing because defeat was assured, Pangenia would have fallen then and there.
Utterly different from those two cowards.
So he defied them.
"The Dread King and I shared the same thought. We swore that once we regained our power, we would no longer be shaken by your whims!"
That was why. Why he had blocked access to this place—the Rift. Why, when Randolph split, Karas had devoured the Dread King's essence. All of it was for this alone: so he would not be dragged along by the two Chief Gods. So he would not let their plan run its course.
……At the same time, Karas's razor-sharp gaze turned on me.
"Therefore you must die. Hyun of Adrium."
He shouted as if making a vow—louder still.
"To reclaim my place! To overturn those foolish Chief Gods' decision!"
Whoosh!
Karas's wings blazed even more brilliantly. The normalization of the abnormal. A declaration that he would restore everything to how it should be.
The true culprits behind this entire situation were indeed the two Chief Gods. But the one who had triggered it was me. My existence had brought about the two gods' endgame. Randolph and I—our perfectly opposing appearances had moved the Chief Gods.
…Darkness is coming.
I looked toward the distant horizon. Slowly, darkness was approaching. The sun was setting.
Trial of Ash (6)
⚔ Confrontation with War God Karas begins.
It was time to decide.
Now I understand why the Throne of Light was summoned with me.
Was this not the will of the Dread King—of Randolph? A final contingency sent to keep War God Karas from destroying himself. The fate of one who defied the Chief Gods was all too predictable. And this was the only breakthrough for every trial.
From the moment I climbed this tower, everything had already begun.
From the moment Randolph was summoned to the summit and I began to climb, this entire situation had been foreseen.
But—
I will not let it play out according to plan.
I would not be swept along by the scheme the God of Dread and the God of Ash had woven. They had brazenly pretended ignorance, but they had already designed everything. So that Randolph would become the Dread King. So that I would become the Ash King. Even if I had never used Natural Disaster, I would somehow have fallen into this Rift. And I would have continued the trials to become the Ash King. Until at last Randolph and I met, and one of us was annihilated.
I shifted my gaze to the two Chief Gods.
In the end, the ones who had brought all this chaos were those two cowards.
"It's about time we ended this."
"Hyun of Adrium. Have you still not abandoned hope?"
"Why should I abandon it?"
"……Do you believe you can defeat me?"
"Then do you believe I will lose?"
When I shot back with open defiance, Karas's eyes flashed. Even without comparing, even without clashing, the gap was obvious. A brat who could not even properly wield the power of Ash had no chance of defeating him, the War God. So where did this bottomless confidence come from?
"Arrogant."
"Hah—arrogant, is it? Then let me ask you the reverse. If defeat is certain and you give up, how are you any different from those cowards?"
"……!"
Karas's eyes wavered for an instant. An unwinnable fight. If he assumed he could not win and surrendered, he would be no different from the two Chief Gods. Without realizing it, Karas had been arguing their same logic. Since you cannot win anyway—give up!
"You are still a fool, War God Karas."
I looked him straight in the eye as I spoke. No matter what happened, I never abandoned hope. No matter what adversity came, no matter what incomprehensible trial crashed down, I had never given up.
At the same time, Karas's eyes as he looked at me began to tremble violently.
"You…… who are you?"
Karas had no choice but to ask again. He could not help but ask.
Since when? That presence, that existence—everything about him—
"You still don't know?"
……Because he seemed like an entirely different person.
Not Hyun of Adrium. That figure was like…… the one who overwhelmed all and made them follow by his mere existence. The one who broke through every adversity head-on and stood at the peak. Infinitely arrogant, yet that arrogance suited him more than anyone.
"I am your hope, you stupid crow."
—You stupid crow. I will save you.
……Because he was just like him.
"……Chaos."
Raiga assessed the situation in a single word. It was chaos itself. He had never seen greater confusion than this.
I'm sick of this.
Randolph. Everything entangled with him was beginning to sicken him. What kind of creature was he, that he could cause this much chaos? Nothing about him was normal; nothing was ordinary. Every development only made his head ache. If he were ever given another chance, it was a name he never wanted to be involved with again.
Still, being involved had one silver lining.
…I am not beguiled. I am not dominated.
That despair's powerful brainwashing did not work on him. Probably because he was already dominated by Eternal Randolph. If so, the answer was clear.
"Heh heh heh!"
"Kihihihi!"
Those driven mad by despair. But their power was real. Sharing despair and mana, they were surpassing their own limits.
"It seems they have no intention of leaving us alone."
"And by the way…… that's an enormous number."
The main forces and the others quickly grasped the situation. They would have to fight either way. It was simply a contest of which side survived.
Gulp.
A hair-trigger moment. Yet the scale was unprecedented. A war of this magnitude had never existed in Pangenia—a war of this scale, with so many factions tangled together.
And just as the vast forces on both sides were about to collide—
"……?!"
"What……?"
"Th-that can't be……?"
Everyone stopped. They had no choice. With disbelieving eyes, with gazes full of shock, they all looked toward one place.
At their center. In the middle where both sides' forces were about to clash.
Whoosh!
……Someone had appeared.
Together with radiant light. Clad in silver armor, a crimson cloak streaming behind him.
Wilhelm challenges Eternal Randolph.
……Because he had appeared.