Floating Towers on the Black Sea
Do-yun kicked the scrap-metal wreckage with his foot, sending it plummeting down the elevator shaft.
The once merciless war machine that had slaughtered countless lives was cast into the pit like so much garbage.
"Ouch!"
Lily, who had been climbing up the elevator shaft from that direction, took a falling screw to the forehead and scowled.
"Why did you have to kick it this way?"
"Is that even a question?"
Throughout the entire brutal struggle against the Destroyer, Lily had offered no help whatsoever. She had simply stood and watched.
Yet she answered with brazen nonchalance, as if she could not fathom what the problem might be.
"I don't recall receiving permission from anyone to use skills, you know."
Dusting off her dirt-streaked robe as she finished climbing, Lily looked Do-yun straight in the eyes and added,
"If I had carelessly thrown magic around, would you really have just stood there?"
At that, Do-yun fell silent for a moment.
She was right. In the middle of a life-or-death fight, if magic had suddenly erupted from an unexpected direction, he would almost certainly have suspected her of trying to stab him in the back.
There was no trust between them, after all.
"Sophistry! Pure sophistry! If Doyun-nim had looked like he was going to lose to that scrap heap, she would have changed her attitude in a heartbeat!"
Ciel, who had been watching Do-yun with her heart in her throat the entire time, shouted at the top of her lungs. Taking full advantage of the fact that no one else could see her, she even jabbed an accusing finger right in front of Lily's face.
"What would you have done if it looked like I was about to lose to the Destroyer?"
"Is there any need to imagine something that never happened?"
Do-yun relayed Ciel's words in a deliberately probing tone, but Lily did not so much as blink.
"More importantly, it seems this station has reached the end of its lifespan."
A transparent attempt to change the subject. Do-yun let out a hollow laugh, yet he chose not to press her further.
Yeah. At least she hasn't betrayed me yet.
Do-yun had met a great many opportunists like Lily. They moved according to their own interests with absolute ruthlessness. When betrayal promised greater profit, they did not hesitate to plant a knife in your back. Conversely, when cooperation offered the larger gain, they could become surprisingly loyal.
Just never give them a situation where betrayal becomes the better option.
As long as Do-yun's usefulness remained, he could maintain a reasonably workable relationship with her.
"Is it impossible to fix this and get it running again?"
Do-yun asked, tapping the floor with his foot. He had even refrained from using Bash as much as possible during the fight to keep the damage to a minimum. Surely with a little careful work they could restore it.
"It's possible, but it would take a long time."
Lily, who could reasonably be called an expert on the subject, delivered a negative answer without a second's hesitation—sharp as a blade.
"Besides, there's not much left to the top. Walking will be faster."
Do-yun looked down with a touch of regret, then ultimately decided to follow her advice.
Hmm.
That left him with two possible routes. He could continue climbing the elevator shaft above, or he could slip through the hole the Destroyer's attack had torn open and head for the stairs.
"Can you light up the upper passage with magic?"
When Do-yun pointed a finger toward the shaft overhead, Lily gave a single shrug and gripped her staff.
Lily uses Fireball (F)
A fireball bloomed at the tip of her staff and shot upward. The light of the roaring flames flooded the passage, revealing devices packed densely into the walls.
Traps, at a glance. Ones the Destroyer had installed in advance.
Figures.
A robot that prized thoroughness would absolutely leave that kind of little surprise behind. Which left only one real choice.
Thud.
Do-yun stepped naturally toward the hole torn through the wall and slipped his body inside. Calling it a hole was almost an understatement—the diameter was so vast he did not even need to duck as he passed through.
Looking at it again, the destructive power is absurd.
If the radius had been tightened and the charge time shortened, or if the attack had been spread like a shotgun blast across multiple points, the outcome might have been different. But there was no chance the Destroyer had failed to consider something so simple. This method had simply been his best option.
"Ah."
Still half-lost in idle thoughts as he advanced, Do-yun came to a halt the moment the landscape beyond the hole unfolded before him.
— How exactly is the tower's background constructed?
— Is only the part we can see a virtual space generated like a game?
— Or is every portion a perfectly realized world, and we simply cannot perceive it?
Most stages of the tower took place within deliberately limited spaces. Walls of material no low-floor challenger could ever break through, or remote islands in the middle of an ocean that forced a single path forward. The curtain that had sealed the castle gate on the sixth floor had been one such confinement device.
Though it meant nothing to me.
And thanks to the Destroyer, Do-yun once again witnessed a secret the tower had been hiding.
Goooooo.
In the empty air, a familiar purple gate blazed with light. A vast blackish-red rift stretched across half the sky, as though the heavens themselves had been torn open. And the ground—what looked at first like a broad carpet of black tar was, on closer inspection, not mere contamination at all.
It writhed.
Every single mass was a living creature, endlessly devouring its neighbors. A hellscape given form. In a world that was the end times made flesh, only five towers—including the one on which Do-yun now stood—drifted like lonely islands upon that black sea.
"Hmph. Looks like the Red Tower and the Gold Tower couldn't hold out and collapsed after all."
Lily stepped up beside the still-dazed Do-yun. Her eyes, fixed on the fallen towers below, held a complicated emotion.
"Well? How do you like the ruined scenery of our world?"
She surveyed the black sea with the air of someone long familiar with it, then poked Do-yun lightly with her staff and gave a shrug.
"The end is pretty much the same everywhere, so maybe there's no point in asking."
As if she had already lost interest in the view, Lily took the lead and started up the stairs. Do-yun hesitated a moment, then followed, though his mind remained tangled in complicated thoughts.
Is Earth going to end up like this too?
It felt as though his breath had caught in his throat. How many people could look upon confirmed annihilation and remain unshaken? He wanted to pour a flood of questions onto Lily that very instant, yet he bit his lip and forced the urge down.
If I provoke her carelessly, she might simply close her mouth for good.
The complete absence of life in Lily's expression when she gazed upon the world outside the Magetower—Do-yun was not so foolish that he failed to understand what that meant. If he tried to force her to dredge up the records of her world's slow death, the tentative cooperative relationship they had built could shatter into open enmity on the spot.
And even if I did get answers, they wouldn't change much.
Whatever Lily might say, there was nothing Do-yun could do with the knowledge that would affect his original world. He needed at least a baseline of power before he could act on anything.
In the end, only one path remained open to him.
Climb the tower. And grow stronger.
Having steeled his resolve, Do-yun lifted his eyes with a deeper gaze. Before he realized it, an iron door engraved with intricate patterns blocked the way—proof that they had reached the summit.
"Shall I open it?"
Lily glanced at him. When he offered no reply, she flicked her staff with a casual whoosh.
Lily uses Telekinesis (F)
The door was large enough that even a grown man would have strained and grunted for a long time to move it, yet Lily opened it with a light gesture as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Clunk.
Beyond lay a long white corridor that felt exactly like a research laboratory.
"Let's split left and right for the search."
"I'll take the right."
"Good. If either of us finds any traces, we share."
Doors with nameplates were set at regular intervals along both sides of the corridor. Lily opened the nearest one and disappeared inside. Do-yun opened the door opposite, stepped through, and closed it behind him.
He checked the gap for any possible sound leakage, then let out a deep sigh and sank to the floor.
"Whew. I'm dying here."
Finding the Magetower Master's chamber—the hidden piece—was important, but he needed at least a short rest first. Massaging arms that ached from excessive mana use, Do-yun opened one eye and muttered in a low voice,
"So, Ciel. Still nothing you can tell me?"
The tiny angel who had been fidgeting and trembling ever since the vista outside jumped with a startled hic and waved her hands frantically.
"I-I didn't know either! They don't teach backgrounds this cruel at the Academy!"
She clearly worried that Do-yun, having learned his hometown was doomed to destruction, might take it out on her somehow.
"S-Seeing how hard I've worked for Doyun-nim all this time, if you could just let it slide a little…"
"Haha!"
Ciel rubbing her hands together and shaking like a leaf. Do-yun could not hold it in—he burst out laughing. Startled, Ciel's face crumpled into a full crying expression. She seemed to think he had finally lost his mind and gone mad. Deciding that even begging for mercy was useless, she pulled a pen from her pocket with a grim face and began scribbling something. At a glance the word "will" was visible among the text.
"It's fine. I don't hold any grudge against you."
Do-yun decided the teasing had gone far enough. Ciel was still edging into the corner as if she did not quite believe him, but his words were sincere.
"I already knew the world was going to end soon, anyway."
There was still no method to close the gates, and the monsters pouring through them only grew stronger with time. Even maintaining the status quo had long since become impossible. Everyone living in this era had, in some quiet corner of their hearts, already accepted annihilation. The scenery outside the Magetower had simply been a reconfirmation of that fact.
"More importantly, you ran away pretty cleanly earlier. Were the shadow attacks that scary?"
When Do-yun brought up the earlier incident and poked Ciel lightly with a finger, her face flushed red and she mumbled,
"Th-That was so I could warn Doyun-nim if some other enemy showed up…"
"For someone who was going to warn me, you sure never looked back."
After a few more rounds of gentle teasing and watching her flustered reactions, Do-yun rose with a noticeably lighter expression. He had rested enough. Time to locate the hidden piece.
"Actually, there's no need to even say 'go find' it."
Because the room that concealed the hidden piece was this very chamber from the start.
Do-yun walked over to the bookshelf that occupied an entire wall. Then he began pulling every blue-covered book halfway out.
"What are you doing?"
Ciel, who had been putting on a full sulking act after all the teasing, could no longer satisfy herself with furtive glances and finally asked the question. In the face of curiosity, the memory of a moment ago seemed to have melted away completely.
"You'll see."
How long did the repetitive work continue? The instant Do-yun gently drew out the final book, a clunking sound rose and a strange sensation swept through his entire body.
In the Tower of Trials they said this feeling just came and went, but…
Perhaps because he had brought Lily along, the reaction this time was different.
A legitimate mana user has been detected nearby.
Activating the stopped runes.
Watching the bookshelf begin to rumble and slide open of its own accord, Do-yun allowed the corners of his mouth to lift in a faint smile.