Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: The Tower Lord's Proposal
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“Serena. Why are you here?”
No way.
“Have you become a Layer Lord?”
With her skills, she should have been stuck somewhere around the 40th or 50th floor, not even close to Layer Lord status.
The Serena that Kallias had seen was on par with Luteon.
Yet here she was.
Which meant.
‘She deliberately deceived me.’
If so, did she approach me on purpose?
Was even following me, mistaking me for a dragon and calling me master, all a lie?
For some ulterior motive?
‘Is she not the Serena I knew?’
Kallias gripped his sword without realizing it, lost in serious contemplation.
The intent radiating from him made the surrounding air shimmer.
The moment they noticed the change, his escorts—the Upper Generals Niol and Garcia—placed hands on their sword hilts.
A clear sign of hostility.
Serena jumped in fright at the sight and waved her hands frantically.
“N-No, that’s not it. I was just... waiting here at the Tower Lord’s request! I’m loyal to my master!”
She dropped to her knees in a panic, pressing her forehead to the ground in prostration.
“Tower Lord?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, I see.”
It had been a misunderstanding.
Kallias felt a bit sheepish.
The Tower Lord would likely have known long ago that he was heading underground to meet Titeo.
She must have called Serena aside separately and had her wait for that reason.
“Lead the way.”
“Yes. This way...”
Serena sighed in relief, watching Kallias’s mood lighten considerably.
It was because his aura had changed even more in the short time they hadn’t seen each other.
As an elf sensitive to nature, she could detect the subtle shifts that others might miss.
‘Has he regained his original power?’
From Serena’s perspective, she could only assume as much.
Her gaze drifted to the bracelet on Kallias’s wrist.
‘An artifact made by Vivianrue.’
Even a dragon couldn’t fully conceal its aura while wearing it.
But it wasn’t perfect.
There were parts that couldn’t be hidden.
She wondered how a dragon that despised elves could carry Vivianrue’s artifact around, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
“Is the destination the top floor?”
“Yes.”
Kallias simply climbed the stairs, sinking deeper into the misunderstanding.
The Upper Generals Niol and Garcia had dismissed their summons long ago.
To conserve even a bit of holy power, just in case.
If it came to crossing blades with the Tower Lord.
‘Even the Upper Generals won’t be of any help.’
The Tower Lord was strong.
The reason she was Tower Lord came down to one thing.
Overwhelming force.
Even if it wasn’t a fight to the death, facing the Tower Lord meant staking everything.
“This way, please.”
They had already reached the door to the top floor.
Kallias opened it without hesitation.
What appeared before him was.
A brilliant blue sky.
A single pillar rising high into that sky.
And the figures standing before it.
“We’ve been waiting.”
At the center stood a middle-aged woman.
Faint wrinkles creased the corners of her smiling eyes, but her aura held no trace of decay.
Beside her was a man holding a small buckler and a spiked shield.
Another man clad in crimson full plate armor.
Then there was a man holding a live spider in his bare hand with no armor at all, and a spearman looking down at him with arrogant disdain.
Kallias spared the others only a single glance before fixing his eyes on the middle-aged woman.
Orville, the Tower Lord of this tower.
He looked only at her.
“Why have you gathered all the Layer Lords here?”
She was the master of the tower and guardian of the holy site.
Even Kallias had no choice but to show her respect.
Her existence deserved it.
As one who wielded the sword.
As one who served the gods, it was impossible not to revere her—a saint and Sword Pilgrim.
“We’re wary of you.”
Wary?
“You climbed to the 61st floor in a single day and empowered the Fallen Knights along the way.”
Kallias’s eyes darkened.
Fallen Knights.
The implication was clear.
‘They’re wary of the demon sword.’
To put it bluntly, they were on guard against him—for liberating and wielding the demon sword.
And they feared the growth of his power as its owner.
“The holy site must remain free of killing. What happens in the secular world matters little to us, but if power escapes the holy site and causes trouble, it naturally becomes a headache for us as well.”
In other words.
“Are you here to take my sword?”
Whoooosh.
Killing intent rained down from all directions.
The Layer Lords beside the Tower Lord tensed and aimed their weapons at Kallias.
“If we could, that would be ideal. But that’s not what I desire.”
Kallias didn’t retort immediately.
He simply held his killing intent steady and waited.
It wasn’t reckless.
He was confident he could kill one or two and escape if things went south.
He had the Ironclad Dragon—Beati—and an army of over a thousand.
Even without that, a surprise Ashen Bloom could kill or gravely wound at least one.
So it wasn’t reckless at all.
Moreover, they abhorred killing in the holy site above all else.
They feared most the shattering of the symbol of peace maintained for a millennium.
That was the tower’s devotees.
“Subduing you and seizing the sword wouldn’t be difficult. Your trinity is imbalanced, and your mind, body, and spirit are all misaligned.”
From the perspective of masters who had broken their limits, Kallias was like a newborn chick.
He had broken his limits, but on their level, his body, qi, and spirit were those of someone who had just barely crossed the wall.
To them.
To the Tower Lord, hailed as a saint, he was like a child.
However.
“We respect you. As a master who has grown into one of our own, you are the tower’s pride. And moreover.”
Tower Lord Orville looked bitterly at the sword in Kallias’s hand.
“You are one who has received the qualification of the Weeping Fallen.”
At her bitter expression and gaze, Kallias withdrew his killing intent.
He was a bit flustered too.
She was called a saint, but she didn’t possess a saint’s temperament.
A tyrant would be an apt description.
Eccentric, without doubt.
Even Carpe’s Pope, Felice, wouldn’t dare clash with her.
That was why he had been on guard.
‘She’s different.’
Why would she make such a face upon seeing Titeo, who had become a sword?
Kallias didn’t know the reason.
It piqued his interest.
“Do you know Titeo?”
“I do. How could I, who receives the Tower Lord’s secrets, not know?”
And on a personal level.
“I never received his acknowledgment.”
The acknowledgment of the Weeping Fallen.
She had once ventured into the tower’s depths as well.
“I wanted to save him. Though fallen, I sympathized with his convictions.”
Tower Lord Orville was a case where, upon becoming a saint, her senses expanded and her empathy grew with the widening world.
Thus, she could faintly feel Titeo’s sorrow from the depths.
His grief gradually ached in her heart, and she sought to redeem him. But he rejected Orville.
“He looked at me and said.”
I do not seek redemption.
‘That makes sense.’
Titeo hadn’t sealed himself away for that long time seeking salvation.
He had been waiting.
For a knight who could contain him and all his comrades. And for a hegemonic sword that would honorably avenge his comrades’ deaths, his own life.
“He wasn’t seeking salvation.”
Orville tore her eyes from the sword and looked straight at Kallias.
“What was he seeking, then?”
Titeo had witnessed his comrades’ deaths.
Gone was any thought of ending the war for peace; rage at his brothers-in-arms’ deaths filled him, and he desired his own end as well.
What could such a man want?
“Are you really asking out of curiosity?”
Kallias dropped the formal speech.
He scowled, displeased.
“You’re asking the obvious.”
He. Titeo.
“Was simply seeking an agent of vengeance.”
What he ultimately desired was revenge.
Slaughtering dragons and demons to soothe his comrades’ souls and restore honor to their deaths.
What else could that be but revenge?
Salvation for such a Titeo?
Ridiculous.
He was the man who rejected even Stella’s decision—the one he revered—out of resistance.
Salvation for him?
“Arrogant.”
It irritated him for no reason.
Titeo couldn’t be said to have handled the situation perfectly.
Blinded by revenge, he had fallen.
But since it began with his comrades’ deaths, Kallias understood and empathized with Titeo.
Dragons and demons had no choice but to fight Kallias anyway.
He had to battle the entire world, so he gladly took the sword.
Yet to offer such a man salvation?
After waiting a millennium for a successor to carry his will?
And from the tower’s master, hailed as a symbol of peace, no less.
Titeo could never accept her.
He had raged most at the twisted peace built on his comrades’ deaths.
“I understand why you summoned me.”
“Tell me.”
“You’re simply jealous of me. The demon sword’s danger? That’s just an excuse.”
She just wanted confirmation.
Of the choice he had denied her.
She wanted to see it with her own eyes.
That put Kallias at ease.
It made what he had to do all the clearer.
Whoooosh!
Kallias swung his sword diagonally downward, raising embers.
Three buds extended toward one, and a gray bud bloomed.
Ashen energy flowed from beside him, corrupting the surroundings.
Before long, at the tower’s pinnacle.
Ash fell like snow on the top floor.
Soon, everything turned ashen.
The sword was already wrapped in myriad mysteries, forming a blade aura.
Its momentum was astonishing.
It held firm against the intent of five masters, a sword worthy of slaying dragons and demons.
An intensity unbelievable for a novice who had just broken through the wall.
A domineering ashen sword that dyed its surroundings in its own hue.
“Ashen Knight.”
Facing his ferocious momentum, Orville drew her own sword as well.
A sturdy brown blade.
The sword of a saint and pilgrim was a wooden practice sword.
Kallias’s eyes sharpened further at the sight of her wooden sword.
Ash swirled around him.
“Ashen Bloom.”
Soon, the ash shot forth.
Through it surged Kallias’s sword, laden with hundreds of sword qi.
The surrounding Layer Lords recoiled and drew their weapons.
But she stepped forward.
Agatodo’s Tower Lord.
Orville.
“Halo of Light.”
KABOOOOOM!!
A deafening roar echoed, impossible for mere sword clash.
But it lasted only an instant.
“...!”
A master behind Orville widened his eyes.
No need for sacred realms. Clashing weapons once was enough to gauge the opponent.
A master no different from a chick.
But a dangerous man because he wielded a demon sword.
Orville’s reaction to crossing blades with him was nothing like they expected.
“Hahaha!”
Kallias frowned, while Orville burst into relieved laughter.
Her wooden sword shattered in her grip, and the sleeve on her forearm was torn to shreds.
The Layer Lords had threatened Kallias at her reaction, but they retreated when she raised a hand.
“From the will in that single strike, I see it. You’re just a pilgrim. No need for further concern.”
She spoke with utter certainty.
But Kallias didn’t care.
He asked immediately.
“How did you neutralize Ashen Bloom?”
“Curious?”
“Yes.”
He was.
In Kallias’s mind, Ashen Bloom was an unblockable sword even if anticipated.
Yet she had blocked it.
With mere scratches.
He had to know how, and refine it.
“Then grant me one request.”
Orville, who surely understood that, made Kallias a proposal.