In the World I'm In (1)
The Colosseum.
The tectonic shifts in the Zero Mountains had birthed tens of thousands of battlegrounds.
Nam Cheolmin, analyst for the Giant Union, hauled his staggering body upright.
"Ugh……."
The elder dragon Yunak Seus, who had swallowed evil fruit. The moment the message appeared, the Giant Union's base camp had been obliterated root and stem.
At this point, only non-combatants and civilians remained in the base camp, so the damage was inevitably catastrophic.
He had no idea what was happening…….
But now, with everything reduced to a wasteland, even the reassurance of a safe lowland was no longer valid.
I need to arm myself.
Click—
Nam Cheolmin opened his inventory and equipped his shield. Then he scooped up the tablet PC lying on the ground.
Fortunately, it still worked. With shaking of that magnitude, debris must have flown everywhere.
"Please, please……."
Nam Cheolmin prayed fervently. May at least one of the drones flying over the mountains have survived intact.
Soon, color returned to his bitten lips.
"……We're saved!"
Out of 127 drones, just one. A survivor was filming the dust-shrouded Zero Mountains and transmitting the feed.
Nam Cheolmin quickly connected to the drone and took control. First things first…….
"Is Taemin safe?"
His neck felt bare. The shock had been so intense that the headset he'd been wearing had fallen off somewhere, out of sight.
Communication with Taemin—not to mention the entire Giant Union—was cut off.
Whoosh— The dust began to settle. The Zero Mountains started to reveal themselves.
Nam Cheolmin finally understood. Hadn't he been warned beforehand? Due to the tectonic shifts, the landscape of the Zero Mountains was no different from a colosseum.
"What the hell……?"
He'd equipped his gear purely out of hard-learned caution. The Zero Mountains' overflow. Not long ago, monsters from the highlands had washed down to the lowlands. It had nearly turned the area into a no-go zone for new players.
As an analyst, Nam Cheolmin hadn't overlooked the mountains' unpredictability. He'd geared up just in case.
But this was beyond imagination.
"All our plans are useless now……."
The wildly upheaved Zero Mountains had become a massive wall. It had scattered not just the Holy War Alliance forces, but all unaffiliated players as well.
That alone caused devastating losses in manpower. And then…….
"Damn it!"
The monsters of the Zero Mountains were mixing in. Without regard for highland or lowland habitats!
Players and monsters were far too close for comfort. What's more, the aftermath of the dragon fear had the monsters visibly agitated and excited.
Nam Cheolmin's mind spat out a grim estimate.
We can hold out.
Player levels had risen dramatically compared to before. And there were glimpses of Mage Tower mages scattered about. If those groups held strong, they might even aid others.
But.
"Our goal isn't just the Zero Mountains mobs……?"
Right. The Holy War Alliance's enemy wasn't the monsters of the Zero Mountains.
It was the elder dragon Yunak Seus, who had swallowed evil fruit.
Whirr— He maneuvered the drone higher to track Yunak Seus's movements.
At this rate, he could only pray the dragon wasn't unscathed.
No need to even consider breath attacks.
In this hellish melee, if Yunak Seus so much as rampaged a little, the Holy War Alliance—his allies—would suffer uncontrollable casualties from then on.
"Please……."
But perhaps miracles can't repeat because they're miracles?
"Goddamn it."
Yunak Seus was hale and hearty. Its white outer wings, emitting iridescent light from the crash, were torn to shreds. Yet the dragon skin—prouder in hardness than any mineral—showed no crash damage. Even wounds from magical bombardment seemed negligible on the surface.
In stark contrast.
Crunch!
The golem of elder mage Yugweed, which had gripped the dragon's ankle, had its magic heart crushed underfoot, reduced to mere rubble.
"!"
Nam Cheolmin hurriedly opened the messenger app. Who would check their smartphone in this chaos? Still, he had to reach out somehow. Get word to someone, anyone.
But his fingers froze.
The reason was simple. It had been captured on the tablet screen, on the drone camera.
"……Huh?"
A cat bounding through the air like it owned the place.
Of course, even Nam Cheolmin, ever on top of info, had no way of knowing about a cat whose true nature was obscure even in the Mage Tower.
"A named mob from the mountains?"
Or a boss? So at first, he assumed it was a Zero Mountains monster.
But no.
The community reactions updating in the corner of the tablet screen made him jump.
"Th-that cat blocked a breath attack?!"
He'd been too focused on the Holy War Alliance to witness it himself. So it was hard to believe. What the hell was that cat?
Not content with withstanding dragon breath, it was heading straight for the dragon on its own paws?
Thankfully, the mystery didn't last.
"!"
He sensed it from the confident voice. And…….
"……That light?"
From the light enveloping the cat's body.
The presence of their absent Commander-in-Chief!
It wasn't just Nam Cheolmin's delusion. The community reactions updated again.
Nam Cheolmin made his decision.
Scratch— The message erased. And a new one typed.
*
Mages don't believe in fate or miracles.
If such things existed, it wouldn't make sense that they themselves had survived this long.
In the Mage Tower. As they marched toward truth.
Countless had been crushed under the Tower's advance.
Yet neither miracles nor the goddess of fate had ever smiled on those trampled souls.
Thus, even the Tower Master knew.
It's not some candle flickering brightly before extinction.
There was a reason for the power surging within him now.
But he had no time to trace its source. And frankly, it didn't matter.
Groooar—!
His pupils blackened.
To confront that rampaging old dragon.
He'd gratefully accept any power offered.
His cat senses, already superior to a human's, sharpened further. The dragon fear was visible to the naked eye.
Pat— The Tower Master dodged the sonic wave and swiftly drew a magic circle with his tail.
Normally, in battle, he wouldn't bother with a circle.
A formal invocation with an inscribed circle vastly outpowered a chant alone, but battlefields offered no such luxury.
However.
Mutual trust matters.
Hadn't he witnessed the adventurer's potential in his chief mage?
—"It's a pattern! After two big attacks in a row, we get our damage window. No idea how long, though."
The Tower Master hadn't forgotten Skal's words.
Pattern. A big attack always leaves an opening.
His faith was rewarded.
『Meteor Strike』
Meteors began forming in the magic circle drawn by his tail. An ultra-high-tier spell even he needed to pour mana into.
In his current state, three or four was his limit, and even that would exhaust his mana.
Thanks to this mysterious light enveloping me?
His invocation flowed without hindrance.
Grrr— Yet the king of all beasts wasn't so easily felled.
A dragon fighting on primal instinct alone, shedding eons of dignity, was a whole different calamity.
Crack—!
As Meteor Strike closed in, Yunak Seus's maw gaped.
Crunch—!
It devoured the glowing red meteors with its vicious jaws.
The Tower Master's tail twitched.
"Body in tatters, but the teeth are still sharp, I see."
It made his praise for the cat's flesh ring hollow.
A dragon—what kind of body was that? Not only chewing magic, but dismantling it into mana. Preparing to fire dragon breath right away.
Swipe— The Tower Master scanned the Zero Mountains with feline eyes.
Adventurers and apprentice mages were scattered, battling the mountains' beasts. Even a splash of breath would doom them.
He had no choice but to take it again.
"What irony."
He stopped objectively assessing his state. The bottom was exposed long ago.
Now it hinged on his mental endurance and how long this unknown light lasted.
Groooaaar—!
The Tower Master twisted the breath's path again, focusing it on himself.
This time, it wasn't just singed fur and whiskers. Fur melted, tender skin blistered and peeled.
Then.
Thud-thud-thud—!
The sound of something leaping from the ground. Scaling the fortress the dragon had built. And charging at the dragon.
More precisely, they were.
The vanguard was a man even the Tower Master recognized. Lion Heart Knights of the Empire, Captain Harkon.
His sword aura sharpened on the brink of life and death. So intense it formed a brilliant blade aura, aimed at Yunak Seus's rear.
Three shadows rose around him.
Greatsword. Dual swords. Spear.
Three more with sharp sword auras, bloodied: Nam Taemin, Hisagi Kazuma, and Leoni Bellucci.
Charging at Yunak Seus.
The Tower Master chuckled.
"Reckless fools."
A monster that devoured ultra-high magic and converted it to its own mana. Beyond specs.
What could those tiny swords do?
His past self might have sneered: Brains of muscle, those sword-swingers.
But he didn't overlook it.
Their power to pierce the dragon's fortress and reach this point.
So the Tower Master charged too.
From conviction. No better chance with his body at its limit.
He gathered mana.
Twitch!
His body wouldn't obey. The full breath? Even borrowed power couldn't invoke now.
No choice. No teeth? Clash with gums.
He condensed mana into his flesh, abandoning interference and invocation.
"!"
His aura as a living mana bomb was impossible to ignore, even for Yunak Seus.
Of course, he expected little.
At best, knock off a few scales.
But his role was to draw eyes.
He trusted not himself, but Harkon leaping from behind, the three adventurers. Oh, and one more—the dragon knight atop his wyvern, awaiting his turn.
"Hey. Don't make me repeat myself, dragon."
So the Tower Master raised his tail. Fur bristling.
For the first time, he snarled ferociously.
"Have you forgotten? This is the dragon-cat showdown. Your opponent is me."
Did he seem pathetic, a nuisance? Yunak Seus raised a forepaw and swatted.
Kaboom—!
The title King of All Beasts wasn't limited to mana. Even without mana or flight, a dragon's physical prowess reigned supreme.
Whiiish—!
The Tower Master rocketed away at light speed.
Blood spewing, eyes unclosing. To confirm if their swords had pierced the dragon's back.
Damn.
At this speed…… I can't see a thing.
Instead, he glimpsed his form ten-odd seconds ahead.
At this velocity, even a normal rock would burst him open. In this ruined mountainscape, could they salvage even a bone fragment?
The Tower Master laughed again.
Compared to me, you're fortunate in death, Senior.
Regrets lingered. But no dwelling.
Better to pray at the end than brood.
May his death not be in vain.
……No, not a dog's death—a cat's.
The fleeting thought faded. His eyes closed.
Ten-odd seconds later, the Tower Master's body did collide with something.
However.
"……?"
His flesh didn't burst.
What he hit was too soft for rock. Nor was it the afterlife or a mother's embrace…….
The skin contact was too slick.
Yes, like being wrapped in luxurious silk…….
Slowly, the Tower Master opened his eyes.
And spoke.
"……Hey, Chief Mage. Didn't you despise cats?"
A mangy, bloodied cat.
That cat—the Tower Master—cradled unconcernedly by his chief mage.
Lee Hoyeol replied.
"Thou art correct. I still loathe cats."
His voice held no chill.
"Yet thou art a proud tiger."