Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Myriad Phenomena
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Thanks to Havel, they had smoothly broken through the Dark Zone.
Behind him trailed not only his own party but also other climbers who had stealthily joined them.
Those entranced by the light of Dawn had begun following along on a whim.
They too had suffered endlessly from the darkness.
So they had unconsciously been drawn to the light.
"Is everything alright?"
Pelleban glanced back and asked.
Aware of their own shamelessness, the followers didn't stick too close.
But their steady pursuit made it clear they'd tag along all the way to the final floor.
"You think guys who can't climb the hierarchy on their own power will be a problem for me?"
Havel replied indifferently.
"Fair point."
Pelleban gave a wry smile.
As he said, those behind could do nothing but follow.
They were little more than moths to a flame.
"The Tower only lets you advance to the next stage if you climb at your own level."
Dante nodded in agreement.
Swallowing the uneasy feeling that he himself might be included in that.
"If neither of you minds, then neither do I."
Pelleban readily went along with their words.
It wasn't his place to step in, after all.
As proof, the three trailing behind remained silent.
Or more accurately, they were still lost in awe of Havel's Dawn.
A long while later.
Havel and the others finally reached the top floor of the 5th hierarchy.
It had taken three whole days just to get this far.
Not only had it shattered all historical records of the Tower, it was at a level where those who hadn't witnessed it would call it a lie.
A little more time left.
'If only it times perfectly with clearing the hierarchy.'
That way, he'd know exactly what happened upon transcendence.
In the meantime, perhaps because Havel hadn't yet ignited Dawn.
Everyone struggled to adjust to the darkness that filled the surroundings once more.
Havel began walking through that pitch-black void.
"A true master always has subordinates to guard him."
He spoke while gazing into the fathomless depths ahead.
"Leave those guys to you all."
"Understood."
Dante's eyes flashed as he replied.
Having grown even stronger since the rabid dog incident, he now seemed quite reliable.
Havel left it to Dante and stomped the ground.
"It's here."
The moment those words ended, Havel shot into the darkness.
Within the jet-black gloom.
The endless darkness felt familiar to Havel.
Likely due to the darkness that had taken root in his own body.
Unlike the previous floor, he sprinted at full speed, leaving everyone behind.
Perhaps because of that, the darkness in his wake scattered like windblown mist.
'Running speed has improved dramatically.'
No doubt thanks to his steadily rising Agility.
The instant he broke through the floor at tremendous velocity.
Havel's steps finally began to slow.
It felt refreshing after a long full-throttle sprint.
Standing still, he looked down.
What reflected in his eyes was a sheer, bottomless cliff.
A place that evoked an abyssal chasm.
From below, darkness writhed and crawled upward.
Plop—.
A tumbling stone fell for ages.
But no sound came back.
Meaning this cliff was unimaginably deep.
"Made me climb so desperately, and now it's a cliff bottom, huh."
Muttering to himself, Havel stepped to the edge.
Normally, one might search for a way across.
But Havel sensed a distinct presence from below.
The true master was here.
So he'd come to pay a visit.
Havel began descending vertically along the cliff face.
Wind from below sent darkness surging upward.
As if trying to push him away.
'Scared, are we?'
Havel didn't hide his aura.
His overwhelming presence crushed the darkness in that moment.
The thing below had clearly recognized him.
Yet it was reacting by trying to shove him back.
All the Calamities he'd faced so far had never shown fear.
But this one was different.
It displayed emotional behavior akin to a human's terror.
'Now, I wonder if this one's capable of conversation.'
Interest gleamed in Havel's eyes.
If it could talk, he'd stick to the same method as with the Calamity Sorcerer.
'If not.'
The interrogation would simply be skipped.
Dawn began flowing from Havel's sword.
"Let's see if you can flee even after the darkness vanishes."
With that, Havel swung his blade.
Whoooosh!
Dawn devoured the darkness, stretching down into the abyss.
The pitch-black chasm, once filled with shadow, became nothing more than a sunlit cliff under Dawn's glow.
As Dawn extended far into the depths.
Boom!
It struck something and scattered in an instant.
Havel's eyebrow twitched at the sight.
Deep in the cliff's base lurked a massive, ink-black entity.
Within its body shimmered stars, as if girded by a galaxy.
Its sheer size was hard to fathom.
The darkness unwittingly evoked images of outer space.
Down in the abyss.
A colossal being filling its depths.
The ruler of the 5th hierarchy.
Myriad Phenomena.
It had revealed itself.
Facing that immense form, Havel twisted his sword.
It had just devoured his Dawn.
As if consuming the light itself.
'Bad matchup for me.'
Myriad Phenomena showed no damage from Dawn whatsoever.
A hollow laugh crossed Havel's lips.
He hadn't expected a Calamity that ate Dawn.
And Myriad Phenomena realized it too.
The creature began moving in earnest.
Having grasped its elemental advantage, it opted for offense.
Calamities beyond the 5th hierarchy were said to possess intelligence.
Fittingly sly and human-like.
Yet even in this disadvantage, Havel smiled.
"If you can devour light."
Dawn gathered anew atop his blade.
"I wonder what happens when I cram so much into that darkness it overflows."
He'd keep igniting Dawn until it filled the abyss.
Down in the abyss.
Bursts of light shot skyward, only to vanish repeatedly.
At the center was none other than Havel.
He dashed between midair and the cliff walls, swinging his sword relentlessly.
Each time, the encroaching black darkness tore apart.
But the shadows showed no sign of stopping.
As if begging for more light.
Like a flock of starving fledglings in pursuit.
"Truly the epitome of greed."
As if unable to endure its hunger any longer.
The darkness craved to swallow Havel's Dawn.
But Havel didn't let up.
As if daring it to eat its fill.
He poured out Dawn without pause.
Boom, crash, kaboom!
Incoming shadows shattered the cliff's outer walls, kicking up chaos.
As Havel leaped through the dust, darkness chased at his heels.
The shadows were growing.
The brighter the light, the stronger the darkness.
Proving it, the shadows kept intensifying.
Rumble rumble!
Myriad Phenomena, having swallowed more Dawn, swelled even larger.
Before long, it filled the entire abyss.
To the point where its form was now visible even from the cliff top.
Screeech, screeeeeeech—.
A strange sound echoed from Myriad Phenomena.
Havel realized it was laughter.
The thing was mocking him.
"Oh? Laughing now?"
Screeeeeeech—.
In that instant, Myriad Phenomena's body surged upward, filling the abyss.
Havel rode the momentum skyward along the cliff.
He flipped midair and landed on solid ground.
Then, a portion of Myriad Phenomena's body sloshed up between the cliffs.
Was there darkness deeper than darkness?
Darker than the Dark Zone's shadows, Myriad Phenomena exuded an even thicker void.
Thud, thud!
Its colossal legs emerged from the cliff, planting into the earth.
Dozens of them evoked a gigantic centipede crawling the floor.
Rearing its massive frame, it illuminated stars within.
Simultaneously, a enormous maw appeared beneath its belly.
Screeeeeeech—.
That was the source of the earlier laughter.
"Mocking me that you've got no limits, huh?"
In response, Myriad Phenomena's body writhed.
Shadows erupted from its entire form in all directions.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Wherever the shadow bullets struck, everything turned to void and vanished.
Naturally, they targeted Havel.
Myriad Phenomena coveted his Dawn too much.
It wanted him to ignite more to sate its endless hunger.
Havel raised his sword, staring it down.
"If you want it so bad, have more."
Dawn poured from him once again.
Myriad Phenomena devoured it frenziedly, like a demon possessed.
Its body kept expanding.
Soon reaching the hierarchy's ceiling.
Its size had grown absurdly.
Even the climbers who had entered floor 59 could feel its presence.
Panic erupted among them.
Something utterly monstrous had appeared on 59.
They had climbed to the 5th hierarchy themselves.
They knew full well how dangerous Myriad Phenomena's aura was.
As uproar swept floor 59.
Havel simply gazed up at Myriad Phenomena.
Hiss—.
It exhaled from its gaping maw.
The sound carried immense agony.
A first taste of fullness.
Yet Myriad Phenomena still craved Havel's Dawn.
At that moment, in its core.
Where starlight had filled the space, a white orb began forming.
So blindingly bright it devoured the surrounding stars.
Oblivious, Myriad Phenomena shrouded Havel in darkness.
Desperate not to lose a single ray of his light.
Even within that gloom, Havel remained unfazed.
With the same expression, sword in hand, he kept pouring Dawn.
And the light orb within Myriad Phenomena grew.
Once ignited, it ballooned in seconds.
Soon, light leaked from its entire body.
The light now outnumbered its darkness.
Realizing too late that light was overflowing its form, Myriad Phenomena panicked.
But it couldn't stop devouring the light.
"Intelligence sometimes amplifies the scale of desire."
Havel regarded it coolly.
"Know why countless humans fall to desire and repeat the same mistakes?"
Amid the unrelenting Dawn.
A chilling smile curved his lips.
"Because they have the intellect to imagine the pleasure desire brings."
Thus, the intelligent inevitably crumble to their cravings.
Myriad Phenomena was no different.
Devouring Havel's light would fill its belly and expand its form.
Condemned to eternal life in the abyss below.
It lacked the means to resist this temptation.
So it kept swallowing Dawn.
Right up until its body was on the verge of being wholly consumed by light.
Before the now skyscraping Myriad Phenomena.
Havel held his sword aloft.
"Looks like conversation's off the table."
Myriad Phenomena sensed danger.
But its body, stuffed with light, refused to move.
It could no longer bear its own weight.
Facing the sagging behemoth, Havel aimed Dawn.
Only then did its darkness recoil from the light.
"No point dragging this out, then."
Havel's eyes blazed fiercely.
Screeeeeeech—.
Myriad Phenomena thrashed.
Now scheming to flee back into the abyss.
But Havel had no intention of letting it.
He pointed his sword at the retreating mass.
"If I entertained you, at least say thanks for the meal."
In that instant, a single ray of Dawn shot from his blade tip.
Whoosh!
It pierced the darkness and seeped inside.
Screech, screeeeeeeech!
Myriad Phenomena's body boiled over.
And that was the end.
KABOOOOOM!
With a massive explosion, Myriad Phenomena shattered into pieces.