Chapter 148
Chapter 148
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: One-Man Legion
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Kallias was utterly bewildered.
‘Why the hell is this guy here?’
The bastard had charged straight at him and thrust his spear, so Kallias had reflexively swung his hand.
He hadn’t even been holding a weapon during the climb up to this point—having mostly stood back with arms crossed, watching his knights pummel the puppets.
There had been no need to draw his sword.
“Guh….”
And yet, the one who had ambushed first was now groaning with his face smashed against the wall.
“Be grateful for the rest of your life that this is a holy site. Otherwise, the thing that hit you wouldn’t have been a slap—it would’ve been a blade.”
To be honest, he’d been a bit startled, so he’d infused his striking hand with intent.
It must hurt like hell.
‘Serves you right.’
Sudden, but not bad.
He knew it from that one exchange.
Luteon was no match for him.
Becoming a master meant breaking through the wall that loomed over everyone.
The world they saw was entirely different.
The way they used their muscles.
The way they controlled the position of their power through breathing—it was completely different.
The gap between one who had stepped into the transcendent realm and one who hadn’t was immense.
Not just in physical abilities, but in the size of their qi and the purity of their intent—it was like heaven and earth.
In other words, Kallias could no longer find anything noteworthy in Luteon.
He couldn’t kill him anyway, since it was a holy site.
If he took a life, the layer lords of the tower and the tower lord himself would emerge and turn hostile.
No need to earn their enmity. There’d be other chances anytime.
“Mind if I pass?”
“Of course.”
Even the layer lord showed him due respect.
“The tower lord is waiting for you.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
So he already knew.
Well, that’s what made him the tower lord.
Worthy of the title of saint.
Kallias headed straight to the next floor.
He paused briefly to glance at the fool plastered against the wall with a shocked expression, but felt no particular emotion.
Niol snorted at him, and Garcia jerked his chin toward the man.
The general-rank knights following behind then took turns stomping on Luteon as they passed.
“Let’s go.”
[Yes, my lord.]
[As you command.]
Leading the way were Supreme Generals Niol and Garcia, with the rest of the generals escorting Kallias, followed by the knights.
As layer lords tasked with granting enlightenment to the pilgrims ascending the tower—and occasionally suppressing their anguish and corruption—Kallias’s presence was intolerable.
But those knights as well.
‘They’re his power.’
More precisely, the power of the sword.
Yet the one wielding that sword was Kallias.
There would be no layer lord up to the 60th floor capable of stopping him.
But that power.
“From the 60th floor onward, we won’t tolerate it. If I may boldly suggest…”
The layer lord of the 40s couldn’t finish his words.
Kallias was already gone.
“That power won’t work on us.”
* * *
61st floor.
Only those who had shattered the wall of limits could surpass the 60th floor.
From there to the 66th, every floor had exactly one layer lord.
And their trials were solely duels.
A fledgling master who had just broken through their limits was rolling on the floor.
The master of the 61st floor.
The layer lord wielding a slender iron rod.
He had lost to Ovarna.
“I’ve… lost.”
Whoosh.
Ovarna twirled the rod back onto her back, a faint smile playing on her lips.
“You were better than last time.”
She pointed out his flawed habits and quirks, offering guidance on how to improve.
The challenger listened intently, absorbing the lessons to correct his bad habits.
It was their fourth bout already, and he hadn’t landed a single proper strike on her, but the challenger felt relieved.
Now he knew even more clearly what he lacked.
‘The Pilgrim’s Tower truly is magnificent.’
Even though their gods differed, even though their paths diverged, she gave advice without reservation.
The pilgrim grew stronger and gave thanks.
‘This is why the Empire spares no support for Agatodo.’
He was the Empire’s Spear.
The one positioned at the very bottom.
The Empire’s Spear bearing the number 13.
“It’ll be quite a while until next time.”
“Yes. By then, the war will probably be over.”
“I see.”
The layer lord gave a wry smile.
But that was a matter of the mundane world.
She cast it aside immediately.
They were pilgrims.
The affairs of the secular world held no interest.
All that mattered was their own power and their god.
Nothing more.
“Then.”
“Take care. It was a pleasure sparring with you.”
Spears and rods had long held poor relations between their nations.
Similar yet fundamentally different in their very concepts of weaponry.
A spear was a tool for killing people.
A rod was not.
It was a tool for subduing.
Thus, rods condemned spears as cruel, while spears rebuked rods as feeble hypocrisy.
In that way, the Empire and the land of rods, Rahul, had warred for ages.
But right here, right now.
In Agatodo, casting aside such mundane notions.
He felt genuine affection toward Ovarna, the master of the 61st floor.
“Please don’t fall to anyone else until I return.”
“Yes. I intend to.”
The pilgrim who would become the Empire’s Spear opened the door. To descend the tower.
But a man appeared through that door, looking down at him.
“Huh….”
Black hair and gray eyes.
A rare combination, and at a glance, an exceptionally handsome face.
‘A master like that….’
The world truly is vast.
Handsome and a master, no less.
Feeling an inexplicable sense of inferiority, he soon snorted at the man’s retreating back as he brushed past.
That haughty man would scream like a child, getting utterly thrashed before Ovarna’s rod.
Tempted to stick around and watch, he stayed put.
[Step aside.]
[Please step aside.]
A horde clad in black armor surged forward.
“???”
About fourteen, maybe?
The two at the front emanated auras nearly indistinguishable from masters, while the rest were powerhouses still two steps short.
‘What the hell?’
Had some nation invaded Agatodo? As he watched, their weapons varied wildly.
Swords and spears, of course, but also axes and even bows.
“You’re the one.”
The layer lord seemed to recognize him.
The man who had brought a large force of black knights soon looked at her and said.
“Trample.”
At that single word.
The black knights charged in unison.
“W-What?! Gang-up?! No, a group assault?!”
It went against the tower’s very purpose.
Had he ever seen such impropriety?!
The Empire’s Spear burned with rage.
Yet he didn’t dare intervene.
Out of respect for Layer Lord Ovarna.
Layer lords were strong.
From the 61st floor onward, their strength was on another level entirely.
They had to offer advice even to fellow masters, subdue without killing—their strength had to be absolute.
Pure power.
Thus, even against a dozen assailants, Ovarna didn’t falter easily.
Crack!!
Her rod slammed into the ground.
“I declare this place my sanctuary.”
Whooooom!!
The man bearing the number 13 witnessed something he’d never seen from Ovarna before—her intent!
A sanctuary.
‘The construction of intent, the manifestation of a world.’
That was a master’s sanctuary.
Not every master could achieve it.
Only when one’s inner intent fully manifested could they wield this authority beyond human limits!
That was sanctuary.
“To oppose a sanctuary.”
One’s opponent needed a sanctuary of their own.
As the sanctuary unfolded, the advancing black legion hesitated.
The two at the vanguard had master-level auras, yet amusingly, they showed no sign of deploying sanctuaries.
‘As expected of a layer lord.’
Even among masters, the presence or absence of a sanctuary was a world apart. With one unilaterally manifested, Ovarna’s victory seemed assured.
But then the man standing at the rear with arms crossed stepped forward, and the air shifted.
“I dye this land in ash.”
Two sanctuaries clashed.
Intents collided in midair, sparks flying as a storm raged.
“Awaken, Ashen Legion.”
Stab.
Thrusting the Iron Lord into the ground sent ripples like Titeo’s tears.
And soon, atop them, gray knights in black armor appeared.
Numbering nearly a thousand.
“D-Dragon?!”
Spatial constraints vanished; the area was now another world entirely.
A dragon clad in iron scales had appeared out of nowhere.
The Empire’s 13th Spear gaped as a nameless pilgrim stood atop that dragon’s head.
What in the world.
“One-man legion.”
Gulp.
He unwittingly staggered back.
The man’s entourage was enough to conquer the tower and then some.
“W-With this much…!”
Even Ovarna, whom he admired and respected without reservation, held her ground with dignity befitting a layer lord, enduring the thousand-strong army.
Her rod split into dozens, growing large and small in turns, felling them one by one.
“Urk!”
But in the end, she fell to sheer numbers.
Even she couldn’t withstand the might of the ash-wreathed legion.
The Ashen Legion.
Their lord hadn’t so much as lifted a finger.
Swoosh.
Atop the dragon, surveying the scene, his gaze flicked toward the Empire’s Spear.
Flinch.
He froze rigid after stumbling back.
But the man didn’t swing his sword at him.
Gang-up? After glancing at the fallen Ovarna, he dispelled his sanctuary and simply proceeded to the next floor.
“O-Ovarna!”
The huddled Ovarna was sobbing. To think the indomitable woman had been crushed to tears…
The man bit his lip as he helped Ovarna up.
‘That was… a sword.’
What the man held was clearly a sword.
Swords meant Carpe.
Only then did he recall the man’s black hair and gray eyes, remembering Carpe’s most renowned house.
‘Jerban…!’
A master from House Jerban.
What that signified was simple.
‘The Sword of Carpe.’
The sword he would one day have to face.
The Sword of Carpe terrified him.
* * *
【Ashen Legion Roster】
Supreme General ―
Grand General ―
Supreme Generals: 2
Generals: 14
Elite Knights: 312
Regular Knights: 861
No change in the numbers of Supreme Generals and Generals. But the regular and elite knights had clearly grown.
“Regular knights do grow steeply, as expected.”
From the 1st floor to the 61st.
He had actively utilized his legion.
Honestly, there was nothing more for him to gain here—it had been about their growth, and it had worked out well.
Thanks to that, 71 regular knights had evolved into elites.
Seeing their definite progress filled him with pride and satisfaction.
Kallias reviewed the battle with the 61st layer lord, then recalled most of the legion and took a brief rest.
Even without using Reincarnation, maintaining a sanctuary via remnants was exhausting.
It drained divine power, of course, but mental energy even more steeply—quite burdensome.
‘Still, I can handle this much.’
Manifesting intent was closely tied to the sword he wielded, so it was fine.
Moreover, deploying sanctuary with the Iron Lord boosted the knights’ power via remnant energy, making them stronger and tougher.
Supreme Generals became indistinguishable from masters, while generals down to knights saw overall stats double or even quadruple.
The reason such breakthroughs were possible was partly because Kallias knew the layer lords’ circumstances inside out.
‘61st floor: rod.
62nd: shield. 63rd: armor. 64th: thread. 65th: spear. 66th: sword.’
“Let’s quickly crush up to the 63rd.”
Shield and armor.
Tough bastards second to none—perfect for the knights’ growth.
Plus, the tower endlessly rewarded quests for each floor cleared.
He’d already collected eighteen goblin gold coins, along with assorted gear and weapons as rewards. Most went to the Ashen Legion knights.
Not just Supreme Generals and generals—even some elite knights were armed with tower loot.
The more floors he cleared.
The stronger Kallias grew.
Agatodo was a tree that gave without stint… no, a tower.
Kallias opened the next door.
“Why are you here?”
The 62nd floor’s layer lord was absent.
Serena sat there instead.