Chapter 286
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 286
Chapter Title: Lesson 55. The Tower's Core - 6
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The cluster of talismans, which had gathered in midair and transformed into the shape of a dragon with scales bristling upside down, collided with the tidal wave while radiating an intense aura.
And then, as if truly alive, it opened its maw and tore a massive chunk out of the center, swallowing it whole!
―Impressive, my dear child... But everything will be different from when we met before!
The All-Seeing Observer let out an excited voice even before the full sorcery had fully manifested.
In the next instant, the black tidal wave exploded without giving them any chance to react.
True to Ban Yu-won's words that it specialized in barriers, the talisman cluster quickly formed a sturdy hexagonal barrier, shielding the group from the onslaught—but...
"Ah—it's corroding. The entire space...!"
"This isn't even a boss stage. What the hell."
The only ones unscathed were the group protected by the barrier and a tiny patch of ground under its influence.
The interior of this place, which had maintained its rich natural environment through long years of sorcerous protection, was now entirely dyed black.
If the All-Seeing Observer willed it, this land could instantly turn into a cursed tar pit harboring murderous intent, ready to devour the group.
Ban Yu-won breathed a sigh of relief that the sorcery had activated in time, but inwardly he marveled in shock at the Observer's ridiculously overwhelming display of power.
'Infinite Field Magic is straight-up broken, seriously.'
And from the epicenter of the explosion emerged a colossal slime-like feminine giant—
Ban Yu-won craned his neck to gaze up at the giant, which seemed several kilometers tall—so massive that calling it 'humanoid' felt absurd—and muttered,
"That day, humanity remembered..."
"So, when are you going to show us this sorcery thing?"
Dokgo Yeon, quick to spot his joking even in this dire situation, smacked his shoulder and demanded.
Ban Yu-won chuckled and raised his hand.
"It's already active. Swallowing part of the enemy's body was the trigger, and forming the sorcery array completed it. Now we just wait for it to finish."
"...Ah, that's it. How did you pull off such advanced sorcery in that brief window?"
What he pointed to was the hexagonal barrier spinning in midair.
Formed just before the tidal wave's explosion, its edges were outlined by talismans, while the interior was filled with others depicting the complex incantations from the sorcery tome. At its core were two key words: one was 'human,' the other 'exile.'
Not exiling humans.
Exiling everything that is not human.
"Exile, or repulsion. It's also used to ward off energies that aren't human. And depending on the magnitude of the energy infused into the sorcery—"
―Hm?
Perhaps because of its enormous size, it had been slow to notice the talisman-formed barrier... or sorcery array.
The giant belatedly spotted the array, which had blocked the tidal wave without losing its power, and swung down a house-sized palm to smash it.
But it couldn't connect; the array's dazzling light repelled it beforehand.
―Hmph, a mere fragment of a constellation dares to defy my holy light?
Ceron grumbled curtly.
Indeed. Many of the talismans forming the array now were holy light talismans that Ceron had crafted with utmost care.
The power to suppress constellations was unparalleled across the universe; not even an avatar of one could easily breach it.
It was a perfect harmony, as if prepared specifically for this moment.
"Great matchup. We perfected a sorcery that rejects everything non-human using holy light."
―Impossible—! I poured nearly ten percent of my power into this, how... how?!
As the array spun faster, the giant's body began to be pushed back bit by bit.
No, it was even starting to lift into the sky.
The black curse covering the ground broke into small fragments and rose skyward as well.
The motion defied gravity, sending chills down their spines while evoking a mystical awe.
Like reverse-playing footage of black rain falling.
It was the sight of all the Constellation's intrusions into this space being utterly negated.
"We weren't supposed to win by fighting?"
"Not now. Even repelling it is tough... Ah, Asha. Hit it with some preemptive stabs now. The weaker it gets, the easier it'll be to drive out."
"Got it. Lucelle, let's go!"
Ban Yu-won closed his eyes briefly, watching Asha and Lucelle take to the air and unleash fully charged attacks on the temporarily defenseless giant, then refocused on the sorcery.
'The caster's strong will, the quality of energy in the sorcery, the sorcerous meaning of the words forming it... It aligns with speechcraft, thankfully. Maybe at the pinnacle, ways to confront beings beyond humanity all converge similarly.'
The sorcery tome contained a vast array of spells, most solvable through his speechcraft or other authorities.
But its core incantations couldn't be achieved by merely activating a few concepts—one of which was this ongoing exile ritual.
This sorcery required extremely stringent preconditions: first, the target must be a distinctly alien entity separable from the caster.
Second, the target must be of a higher order than the caster.
In other words, this tome seemed crafted by humans who had waged war against higher-order foes in situations strikingly similar to theirs.
Probably from the martial world.
'No idea how it ended up here... but likely this dimension's humans knew of it and tried using it too. They mistimed it, and with constellations meddling everywhere, the sorcery ran rampant, dooming the world completely.'
Thinking back, it was almost funny.
This tome wasn't made to protect pure humans and their world?
Yet here it was embedded in a corner of the Tower, a space for nurturing transcendents.
—Of course, without recovering the tome's missing parts, it was premature to conclude, so he shelved the thought.
"Haaah!"
"Constellations are nothing! This is the power of dragons!"
One might think tiny two-meter humans charging a kilometers-tall foe was pointless, but as descendants of divine beasts and dragons, their aura-infused attacks visibly burst the tar, eroding its mass noticeably.
Ban Yu-won checked the array whirling fiercely in the sky, nodded, and shouted,
"Asha, Lucelle! Pull back now!"
"!!"
"Yep!"
Having followed Ban Yu-won's teaching to maximize DPS when the enemy couldn't move, they retreated swiftly to the ground.
―Wooooong
The barrier expanded, temporarily enveloping the world.
Golden energy whipped into a gale, scattering every trace of the Constellation's corruption from the land.
"Now get the hell back to where you came from!"
―Ah, my child... Your innocence is so endearing.
Yet even after losing its avatar and the sorcery tome it desired, the All-Seeing Observer's voice remained calmly composed.
―I'll concede defeat today and leave you a gift. Seeing you grow like this makes our next meeting all the more anticipated.
In the next moment, everything was swept away by the gale, vanishing without a trace.
Exaggeration aside, with the sky-obscuring giant gone, a pristine blue sky filled their vision, free of any curse remnants.
"Ah—."
"Hah, thought we were done for. We gotta complain to the Academy about this. That was way beyond student level! And it's been ages since we entered the Tower, only to deal with this right away!"
The apocalyptic doom that seemed poised to swallow the world receded in an instant, replaced by serene peace.
Lucelle blinked in disbelief, still processing the enemy's sudden vanishing, while Asha retracted her True Dragon Spear and grumbled.
Meanwhile, Ban Yu-won spotted something falling from where the giant had dissolved and frowned.
Suspicious that the black shape might be lingering curse residue, he looked closer—and realized it wasn't.
Letters.
Probably from the sorcery tome.
"The missing piece, huh."
He instinctively reached out, his authority activating naturally to draw the airborne string of characters into his body.
Sorcery 750, Ancient Language 251, Divine Stigma 150 absorbed. Time required to fully digest due to target's excessively high order.
Sorcery depth has reached 2,000. Divine Stigma depth has reached 300.
Absorbed a supplementary concept to previously absorbed ones. Understanding of higher concepts accelerates further.
With the massive divine stigma left by the All-Seeing Observer, plus ancient language and sorcery, a satisfying fullness settled in despite eating nothing.
Recovering part of the sorcery tome would accelerate digesting the unresolved concepts coalesced in his body.
'Sorcery depth hits 2,000 now... It synergizes well with my authorities, but I've gotten way stronger than a whole semester of magic overnight.'
His language-manipulating authority had grown, and he'd gained new combat techniques—results-wise, all good.
But something felt off: despite cleanly absorbing the concepts from what should have been the last sorcery tome fragments devoured by the Observer's avatar, the tome's concept didn't feel complete.
'Are the concepts I got incomplete? Well, we didn't kill it outright, just exiled it, so it might've taken some with it.'
Still, deciphering all the concepts it had gained from the tome would reveal the nature of the curse it wielded.
What exactly was he supposed to "know nothing" about? No clue why it whined that and bounced.
No, at least drop a hint if you're gonna say that.
Spouting nonsense like "you know nothing" to someone climbing the Tower just fine? Infuriating.
"Ah... shift."
As if defeating the avatar had been the condition, a shift activated just as he considered checking beyond the barrier for anything missed, transporting them to Eden.
He'd wanted to check traces of other constellations that had intruded, but recalling how the Observer had rampaged at the end, it had likely devoured every scrap, so he let it go.
"Huh? Wait. Eden?"
Ban Yu-won exclaimed in shock midway through accepting the changed surroundings.
Before entering that room, hadn't they been in Eden?
Clearing just one room sent them back to Eden? Then the space they'd been in was...
"Oh, yeah. Student ID says Room 210 here?"
Confirming the number on her Student ID, Asha replied. Ban Yu-won met her gaze and let out an exasperated sigh.
Praying the next room wouldn't be so absurd, he flopped onto the prepared bed.
But to cut to the chase, this expedition had propelled the group all the way to Room 250.