Absolute Zero
Silence settled over the corridor.
Nothing moved. No one opened their mouth. Absolute stillness reigned.
The Destroyer’s body, which had been roaring as it vented heat, fell quiet. The magic circles that had endlessly bloomed across the walls, heightening the sense of crisis with every pulse, no longer glowed.
In a world where living things, inanimate objects, and even mana itself had frozen solid, only the soft sound of the skill’s caster moving could be heard.
Step. Step.
The other challengers could do nothing but watch Do-yun, unable even to blink. The moment Absolute Zero activated, their bodies had been locked in place like specimens.
The image of Do-yun etched itself vividly into every mind present.
Hurry.
Yet inside, Do-yun felt only raw urgency.
Absolute Zero.
An SS-rank skill lived up to its name by stopping every flow around him—but the mana cost was just as monstrous.
Remaining Mana ― 0
Do-yun had not a single drop of mana left—not even enough for an F-rank skill. His mana pool was absurd for the seventh floor, yet nowhere near enough to shoulder the cost of an SS-rank skill.
If he had tried to power Absolute Zero with his own mana alone, he could never have held it for even a second.
This is closer to a miracle born from overlapping factors.
Thanks to the staff’s special effect, the other challengers’ mana had been mixed into the spell as well. Even Do-yun himself had no idea how much longer Absolute Zero would last.
He moved quickly, careful not to slip on the ice spreading across the floor—
“As expected, you’re impressive.”
A voice he could never ignore drifted from behind him.
He slowly turned his head. At the far end of the corridor stood a woman with familiar golden hair streaming around her.
Lily.
The very person who had twisted the situation into this mess. She watched him with a complicated look in her eyes.
Did she feel even a shred of guilt for betraying him?
“I never imagined you’d handle my master’s keepsake that well.”
Correction.
Lily’s gaze was fixed not on Do-yun, but on the staff in his hand.
Well, they had never truly trusted each other to begin with. Talking about betrayal felt almost pointless.
“Yeah. Your master’s weapon’s pretty sick.”
Do-yun deliberately shook the staff in a taunting tone while sizing her up, searching for any change.
Her mana density is far thicker than before.
He felt the difference immediately. Mana poured from her in streams simply from standing still; her body was saturated with it.
There was no need to wonder where it came from.
That blood-red magic circle, obviously.
The circle that looked like blood had clearly been designed to absorb life force. And where had all that life force gone?
Straight into the mage standing before him—the one who had created the circle.
Lily had spent her time converting every last drop of harvested life force into mana.
“Not going to attack?”
Yet she showed no sign of casting. Do-yun found it strange for a moment, then understood.
Absolute Zero.
Even the ambient mana in the air had frozen solid. Lily herself had not been a direct target of the skill, but she was clearly not free of its aftereffects. Any magic she cast now would lose power. She was waiting for Absolute Zero’s influence to fade.
Hmm.
Which meant it was better to chip away at her strength even a little while he still could.
Do-yun deliberately chose a sensitive topic and scraped at her emotions.
“From the looks of it, that master of yours was a black mage. Did he fall to corruption or something?”
A magic circle that absorbed life force. He had suspected it underground; seeing it again confirmed it. This was no ordinary magic.
“How many people did he turn into sacrifices? Thousands? Tens of thousands?”
“I don’t know either. All I have are the records my master left behind.”
Lily, who had maintained silence until now, finally broke. Her hand moved unconsciously toward the chest of her robe—toward the diary of her master she kept hidden inside.
“My master believed that a certain amount of sacrifice was acceptable for the greater good.”
“Bullshit. You think the people who got sacrificed felt the same way?”
“Even if no one understands, it doesn’t matter. In the end, at the final moment, everything will be as if it never happened.”
Do-yun frowned as he met the strange certainty in Lily’s eyes. He knew exactly what she meant.
“You’re saying you’ll reverse time?”
He asked in a tone of pure disbelief. Lily simply nodded, calm as if stating the obvious.
Do-yun recalled the notification he had seen on the zeroth floor.
It clearly said the first person to reach the summit of the Tower of Ascension would be granted one wish.
He found himself nodding unconsciously. A tower powerful enough to abduct people from countless worlds and force trials upon them—would reversing time really be difficult for something like that?
“I must climb the tower.”
Lily raised her staff, resolve hardening her expression. She had to climb it, if only to reverse her master’s sins.
“Which is why every challenger except me dies here. I alone will ascend the Tower of Ascension.”
With her arrogant declaration, mana began to gather. As if Absolute Zero’s binding were about to break, the mana drifting in the air trembled uneasily.
Every challenger who had entered the seventh floor. The mana drawn little by little from their life force radiated overwhelming power.
Can I do this?
The situation was anything but good. His mana was nearly empty, and he had already spent his trump card—Absolute Zero.
No. I have to.
Do-yun did not give up. Earth’s fate hung on him just as much. Recalling the vow he had made on the sixth floor, he looked up at empty air.
Remaining Mana ― 3
A speck of mana recovered during the brief conversation. He would have to use it to strike at a moment Lily would never expect, piercing a gap she never saw coming.
Even so, the gap felt like something willpower alone could never bridge—
“I’ve heard enough of your arrogance.”
It was not only Lily and Do-yun present. A low voice rolled through the corridor at the same time a massive axe flew straight for Lily’s neck.
Lily uses Shield (F)
Kaaang!
Sparks flew from a bluish barrier. The man who had swung the axe wore a cold smile.
“You think you can bring down me, Mandell of Slaughter, the strongest of the Bistamin Continent?”
Mandell recovered the axe that had been blocked by the shield and cracked his knuckles with a grin. Every time he moved his limbs, shards of ice that had covered his body clattered to the floor.
Even faced with that intimidating figure, Lily remained perfectly calm.
“Yes. I think it’s possible.”
Lily uses Ice Arrow (F)
A thin, sharp arrow of ice shot toward Mandell’s chest.
“You’re a hundred years too early, you arrogant mage!”
Mandell roared as he swatted the ice arrow aside with his axe. But that was only the beginning.
Lily uses Ice Arrow (F)
Lily uses Ice Arrow (F)
For a few exchanges Mandell still deflected the arrows with ease, but the playful look on his face gradually vanished. The magic Lily was firing showed no sign of ending.
Lily uses Ice Arrow (F)
Lily uses Ice Arrow (F)
Lily uses Ice Arrow (F)
The restrictions imposed by the Tower of Ascension were absolute. Even after siphoning life force from every challenger on the seventh floor, Lily could still only cast first-circle magic treated as F-rank.
But unlimited mana changed the equation completely.
Crrrack.
Hundreds of ice arrows fused into one mass. Calling it a mere clump of arrows no longer did it justice—it looked far too lethal.
“Try blocking this as well.”
Lily flicked her finger, and the ice mass—now far too large to be called an arrow—shot toward Mandell.
“Kh—!”
Mandell uses Gigantify (F)
Mandell thrust his enlarged axe forward like a shield, but the ice mass was heavier still.
KWA-AAAANG!
Countless ice arrows buried him. He was entombed in ice and turned into a frozen statue.
“D-Do-yun-nim? Let’s run!”
Ciel, already far away, waved frantically. But Do-yun did not move even after witnessing the spectacle.
Run? From what?
There was still a long distance left to the clear crystal. Magic would reach the back of his head long before he could get there. Better to dig a trap while the other challengers drew her attention.
Fortunately, a useful scene was already unfolding in his field of vision.
“Ha… haha! If you thought something like this would make me give up, you were sorely mistaken!”
A twin-tailed girl, teeth chattering, lips blue from the cold, was still jamming a wrench into the Destroyer’s chest plate.
“L-Lower temperatures actually improve cooling efficiency, you know? Thermodynamically speaking, this is close to a perfect situation!”
Angelina uses Overcharge (F)
Angelina uses Overload (F)
Steam rose from every part of the Destroyer. The internal core vomited wild heat, melting the frost that had settled on the outer armor.
Vrrrm.
With every rotation of the core, the light gathering at the Destroyer’s fingertips grew fiercer. Under normal circumstances the rampage would have shut the machine down in seconds. The lowered temperature created by Do-yun’s magic made the impossible possible.
That could work!
Even Lily might take serious damage from it. And because Angelina was on the opposite side, Lily had not noticed yet.
“What is this—?”
Lily finally realized and raised a shield just as a beam of overwhelming destructive force slammed into her.
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA!
The beam crashed down like a rampaging storm, hammering her shields one after another. The first shield shattered almost immediately. A second formed and broke. A third, a fourth, a fifth…
Lily poured nearly limitless mana into recreating shields, yet the point of impact kept being pushed back. In the end she had no choice but to retreat, step by step, just to maintain her defense.
Now!
Do-yun swung his sword at the back of her head.
Uses Afterglow (B)
Lily uses Shield (F)
A mana barrier bloomed as if it were the most natural thing in the world and stopped his blade. A sneer touched Lily’s face.
“Did you really think a coordinated attack would work?”
“Of course not.”
The instant he confirmed the sword had been blocked, Do-yun sprang backward. Only a crack of light remained where the blade had passed, glittering in front of Lily.
“What is this?”
Lily eyed the clearly deliberate crack with unease, but stopping the destruction beam still flying at her face was far more urgent. The moment she took one more step back to form a new shield—
Shunk.
A gleaming sword erupted from the crack left by Afterglow and pierced straight through Lily’s chest.
“Kh—!”
It was not a fatal wound. Afterglow’s power scaled with remaining mana, and Do-yun had almost none left. Yet it was more than enough to make her brow furrow in pain.
Ting.
A momentary calculation error tilted her shield’s angle by the slightest degree. The war machine’s destruction beam did not miss that fleeting gap.
PAGAGA-GAK!
Lily’s left arm exploded. Condensed mana and flesh sprayed like shrapnel. She stared down at the stump in disbelief. The staff slipped from her remaining fingers and clattered to the floor.
“Didn’t see that coming, did you?”
Do-yun murmured quietly as he watched. A skill he had not used even once since entering the seventh floor had played the decisive role at the critical moment.
He clenched his fist at the successful trap—then belatedly realized this was no time to celebrate.
Prickle.
Countless gazes stabbed into the back of his head. A cold sweat ran down his temple.
Remaining Mana ― 0
He had burned the last of his mana to land that final blow on Lily. Swallowing dryly, Do-yun looked back.
What filled his vision were the countless challengers who had just broken free of Absolute Zero’s binding—and every single one of them was staring straight at him.