The Trickster's Corruption
Loki, the God of Mischief.
He was the true identity of the Trickster.
The Seeker of Wisdom reveals their interest.
The One Who Brings Roaring Thunder stands on guard.
The Master of the Oasis laughs heartily.
More unfamiliar constellations have been showing up lately.
“You can say that again.”
Odin had always been watching me, so that was nothing new. The One Who Brings Roaring Thunder was Thor. The Master of the Oasis was Set. Both were S-rank constellations who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the God-Kings. On top of them, several other constellations were revealing their presence for the first time.
More and more beings are paying attention to you.
“Are they really paying attention to me?”
Loki was the most infamous ‘chaos seed’ even within the society of gods. Hermes, Set, and Manannan mac Lir were all well-known for stirring up trouble, yet if anyone were asked to name the greatest troublemaker across every divine realm, Loki’s name would come up without fail. He was also one of the three heads of Sinister, the gathering of evil-god constellations.
It was no ordinary proposal.
“I know.”
The offer stank of ulterior motives. Still, my decision didn’t take long.
“I accept.”
Schemes? Bring as many as you want. The Tower’s rules are absolute, even for constellations. Raising the difficulty requires expending divinity, and completely twisting the Tower’s laws with excessive interference is nearly impossible. When Baal descended directly during the tutorial, he received both enormous rewards and heavy penalties.
The restrictions were so severe that even God-King rank constellations hesitated to act within the Tower. There was one trick that could only be used on this particular floor, but…
What is it?
“Never mind.”
He probably hadn’t used that method. No way. No matter how much of a chaos-loving trickster Loki was, there were still lines even he wouldn’t cross.
The mission structure is changing due to a constellation’s intervention.
Team A can no longer awaken the sigils.
Additionally, all Team A players except Yu Jinho will not receive mission failure penalties.
By even providing insurance for the other players, he had removed any grounds for complaint.
His actions don’t quite match the title of Trickster.
“That’s exactly what makes him scary.”
When Loki caused an incident, he considered every single factor to maximize the fallout. He was a constellation who took chaos seriously. I wondered what kind of poison he had hidden inside that sweet-sounding offer.
“Goddess. Stand guard for me.”
It would take Team B quite a while to locate all the sigils. Since they had no competition, they would clear the traps as safely as possible. I’d have to wait at least an hour, so I might as well circulate the Asura Demon Spirit Heart Method.
* * *
“He’s not touching the sigils?”
“The arrogance of a lower dimension insect.”
“Then let us explore the castle at our leisure.”
“Indeed. There is no need to exert ourselves.”
“If we preserve our full strength and even turn the guardian knight into an ally, there is no way we can lose.”
Team B revealed intense emotions at the sudden mission change message. Joy at being able to win the mission easily. Competitive spirit to make Yu Jinho regret ignoring them. Various other feelings bloomed as well. Yet one player remained untouched by the wave of emotion.
The distorted characters. The name engraved upon the star was crushed and warped. A noisy static like radio interference brushed past my ears, yet the follower’s mind remained clear.
ia! ia! I shall carry out the command.
The Tower of Babel. A symbol of deception built by the Old Gods to reclaim their lost glory, now reduced to mere entertainment for the modern constellations. Therefore, it was the perfect stage to open the curtain on the great holy war.
Kilipso, a being from another dimension beyond the universe who worshipped the constellations of the outer cosmos, renewed his resolve once more.
“Found it. A sigil.”
“I never expected this mission to proceed so leisurely.”
“That arrogant human. He’ll regret this.”
The team members confirmed the sigil’s activation and returned to where they had come from. Kilipso glanced behind him, then opened his clenched fist.
◈ A mark of corruption carved from the remains of a saint who kept his faith until death.
◈ Enables communication with gods beyond the myriad stars and serves as a catalyst for various miracles.
A cross made of bone, thickly covered in writhing tentacles. It was dried and twisted as if baked under sunlight, yet its surface glistened with an unnatural sheen.
“This lowly servant beseeches you. Please accept this mark.”
Pressing his forehead to the ground and raising both hands toward the ceiling, he recited the prayer with solemn reverence. When he finished, Kilipso clenched the mark tightly in his palm.
Crack.
The shattered cross crumbled downward. Purple radiance leaked from the guardian knight’s sigil that had absorbed the powder.
Foreign substance is infiltrating the guardian knight’s sigil.
The Tower System has detected an anomaly. Removing the substance.
Removal imp￠∬∝￢…….
The system voice grew increasingly grotesque before falling into complete silence after ten seconds.
“ia! ia! Nyarlathotep th’ga, shamash shamesh, Nyarlathotep th’ga!”
Having completed his task, Kilipso turned away, pretending not to see the sigil now stained purple.
Two hours later, the other players had also found the sigils hidden throughout the castle.
Team B has located all the sigils.
The guardian knight is awakening.
All surviving players, move to the drill grounds.
Soon after, the players from both teams gathered at the drill grounds situated between the castle buildings. The grounds were roughly five times the size of a soccer field. A wide rectangular field split down the middle by a long line. At the center where one might expect a soccer ball stood a knight clad in full plate armor.
⊳ Protector of Glastheim Old Castle, the main figure of this mission.
⊳ A monster with specs equivalent to a 70th-floor boss.
⊳ Even for Yu Jinho, who has caused upsets since the promotion match, this is no easy opponent.
The guardian knight who had awakened from slumber stared silently at Team A. A monster with the strength of a 70th-floor boss. Even for me, who had caused waves since the promotion match, it was a powerful existence that could not be ignored.
“While the guardian knight keeps Yu Jinho occupied, we’ll eliminate the remaining trash.”
“He has slain a dragon alone before. Facing it solo will be difficult.”
“Which is why we must quickly dispose of these worms.”
“Ah. That makes sense.”
Team B, composed of various dimensional races. Every one of them possessed over 1,500 RP. If the guardian knight tied down my feet, they had more than enough power to wipe out Earth’s players within five minutes.
“Then…”
The guardian knight’s armor began to rattle and shake. Then, for the first time in Tower history, an anomaly occurred.
A different existence is overwriting the guardian knight.
Guardian Knight → Outer Knight.
The guardian knight’s body swelled. Bundles of purple tentacles forced their way through the gaps in the armor, completely erasing its original form.
“W-what is this?!”
“By the World Tree…”
The horrified voices of Team B’s players were drowned out by the mutated guardian knight’s roar.
“Uwooooooooh!”
* * *
Nyx’s voice carried a note of worry.
The being known as the guardian knight has become strange.
“Damn it.”
I clicked my tongue. This was exactly why you shouldn’t run your mouth carelessly. That bastard Loki had touched a taboo he should never have touched.
Taboo?
“Making contact with an entity from the outer cosmos.”
Are you referring to the constellation we encountered in the Dreamlands?
Yog-Sothoth, perhaps.
“There are quite a few outer gods besides him.”
Of course, only a handful of them were active enough to interfere with the multiverse on such a scale. Only about three candidates came to mind. I shook my head, clearing away the thoughts.
“What matters right now is the enemy before me.”
What a disturbing presence. It disrupts even the myriad phenomena.
The guardian knight had its own background setting. Saint Jerome. A holy knight who operated in the northern continent, defeating countless heretics and rising to the rank of ‘saint.’ He had witnessed innumerable heretical doctrines in his lifetime and never yielded even against the miracles created by fanatics who followed outer gods. His faith had been as solid as bedrock.
However—
Even after his life ended, the outer god’s miracle remained within his body.
“That’s how the setting goes.”
The reason the guardian knight slept, and why his corpse was stored inside the armor, was all to prevent the outer god’s corruption from spreading. The being inside that armor was not the actual saint. It was merely a fictional space created based on the legends of Saint Jerome.
Even so, because the mission was based on Saint Jerome’s legend, hidden elements existed.
“Uwooooooooh!”
The guardian knight—no, Saint Jerome, who had now fallen and become a thrall of the outer god—let out a roar. The tentacles that had forced their way through the armor’s joints swelled and intertwined with one another. They formed shapes like biological muscle, growing until the creature reached the size of an ogre.
The armor entangled with the tentacles no longer served as protection; it clung to the body so pitifully it could only be called decoration.
What are your chances of victory?
“Fifty-fifty.”
Then I shall join the fray as well.
“I’ll take the Outer Knight. You handle the children.”
Void Projection
Lexy, Ark, and Nidhogg were summoned in succession.
“Kyaaaaaooo!”
You called, Master?
Hmph. Work again?
The materialized Nyx climbed onto Lexy’s back, which had essentially become her personal seat.
“If it looks like you’re about to die, tell me immediately.”
The two subordinates had gained independent egos after obtaining physical bodies through the Shining Trapezohedron. While I could freely summon and dismiss them, once destroyed they would vanish forever, so I had to send them back if things grew dangerous.
Master, you no longer need to worry about our extinction.
Ark clacked his jawbone with confidence.
I have finally completed the Life Force Vessel. Your servant shall never face complete annihilation.
Oh. The signature item associated with liches—the Life Force Vessel, essentially an extra life. It seemed he had completed it. Then I only needed to watch out for Nidhogg.
Who in this world could possibly harm the dragon race?
Sigh. That dragon race talk of his never gets old.
With Nyx and the three subordinates, the frontline could be maintained.
“Then shall we have a sincere one-on-one conversation?”
The guardian knight—no, the thrall of the outer god wearing that shell—was calling me.
The Outer Knight has challenged you to a one-on-one duel.
The Shining Trapezohedron is reacting to the power of the void.
You cannot refuse the duel.
If you lose the one-on-one match, all void-related powers you possess will be taken away.
Haha. Now that’s one brutal penalty. It didn’t even give me the option to refuse. Only now did I become certain. The hidden element of the 66th floor that should have been revealed ten years later had appeared this early because of them.
This was not something Loki could have done alone. The Tower System was extremely wary of interference from outer gods. For such beings to impose a restriction that could strip a player’s power, and for the System to stay silent? It was you, Old Gods.
You were the ones who instigated Loki and set up this board.
“This is getting interesting.”
Yes. This was exactly your method.
“Uwooooooooh.”
The saint who had become a thrall of the outer god extended its arm. The stretched limb—no, the roughly one thousand tentacles that served as its arm—lengthened dramatically. The distance of dozens of meters became meaningless.
“Quite the aggressive greeting.”
Polar Night
Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword
Sword Aura
The Polar Night that surged from behind me split into ten branches. Each branch of darkness transformed into the shape of a sword. Enormous inner energy poured out from the True Cintamani, now functioning as a dual core, and wrapped around the blades.
Shuk-shuk-shuk!
Like peeling an apple.
The swords of darkness carved away the bundled tentacles. The spinning blades dismantled the tentacle arm that had stretched dozens of meters. The moment the tentacle bundle, no longer able to maintain the shape of a fist or arm, scattered while spraying blood—
The severed tentacles that had been scattering began to regenerate.