151. The Tower Changed (1)
Baek Jinwoo hurried into the laboratory. HunGyo had been telling the truth.
"It's real."
Before his eyes lay the fallen Dark Recorder (A-grade).
A bizarre lifeform with its entire body tangled together like black mist!
At the center of its body was a large hole, and the core that should have been there was gone.
What had happened?
No way.
Could this be why Rachel hadn't been able to return?
There are signs of quite a fierce battle.
"Really?"
Baek Jinwoo looked around.
It certainly seemed so.
There were traces of impacts all over the walls, and deep gouges and burn marks stained the floor in places.
—It seems about two weeks have passed since the battle ended.
"How do you know that?"
—Look here.
Swipe.
HunGyo brushed his fingertips over the dust piled on top of the Dark Recorder.
—It normally takes about two weeks for a dust layer this thick to form. Also, look at those burn marks over there. They must have been a deep black at first, but over time they faded into a light gray.
"Hoo."
This guy, HunGyo. I thought he was only good at training, but damn. Is he a detective?
"For now."
Baek Jinwoo looked at Lamba.
"Work hard on building stacks."
—O-Okay!
Realizing the atmosphere was unusual, Lamba swung her staff with enthusiasm.
"First, build up the stacks to a certain point, then we'll go outside the library."
Normally, he had no idea what the outside of the library looked like.
Whenever you cleared it, you were sent straight out of the Tower.
"Aso, HunGyo, Gale Slayer."
—Okay!
—Yes, my lord.
—Krurk....
"Search the area around here. Report immediately if you find anything."
Whoosh, whoosh!
At Baek Jinwoo's command, the three of them headed out of the laboratory.
"...."
He quietly closed his eyes.
Yeah.
No wonder it had all felt a little too easy until now.
'But well.'
Nothing would change.
With a full party of EX-grade endgame rune guys, there was no dungeon they couldn't clear.
—My lord!
Had about five minutes passed?
HunGyo came running over in a hurry.
—There's something outside!
"Really?"
Baek Jinwoo sprang to his feet.
As expected.
So there was another route?
"Lead the way."
—Yes!
Following HunGyo out of the giant library, he soon saw a window.
A crimson-stained sky.
Beneath it lay the ruins of a burned city, settled there like a giant shadow.
Collapsed buildings, debris scattered around them.
The walls were cracked wide open, and the pillars were charred by fire.
Judging from how the whole cityscape was visible, they seemed to be on a very high floor.
"Ah...."
Baek Jinwoo's mouth slowly fell open as he looked at the sight.
'This...'
There was no way he wouldn't recognize it.
It was the scenery of Floor 52 of the Tower of Trials, the place he had challenged countless times.
As you advanced while dealing with the monsters scattered throughout the area, a mid-boss-class demon would appear in the center of the city.
The Fallen Lord (A-grade).
The setting was that it had originally ruled this city, but had been corrupted by the power of Asmodeus.
'But.'
It was in exactly the same state as Floor 51.
The corpses of monsters were strewn about in the distance here and there....
And in the very center of the city...
"I'll go take a quick look."
Creak.
He opened the great doors of the library.
—My lord, I will accompany you.
"No, I'm just going to take a quick look. Only Gale Slayer, follow me."
Then he summoned the Celestial Wyvern and dropped down toward the city below.
—Kirurururu...!
Baek Jinwoo mounted it naturally and flew toward the center of the city.
—Krurk...!
Behind him followed Gale Slayer, carrying a scythe.
And then soon.
"Ah."
Baek Jinwoo could see it.
The mid-boss, the Fallen Lord (A-grade), dead with its Heart Core shattered in exactly the same way....
His head began to ache.
Let's think about this first.
A world where Floors 51 and 52 had already been cleared.
And then there would probably be the world of Floor 53, connected somewhere beyond this, right?
If that was the case....
There was a high possibility that Floors 51 through 60 were connected altogether.
The Tower of Trials had originally been structured so that an entirely new world unfolded every ten floors.
But then?
The fact that Floor 52 had already been cleared....
Suggested one important possibility.
The possibility that the Towers of Trials around the world could be connected to one another!
'Ah.'
His head felt heavier and heavier.
'Rachel, surely not... you.'
Are you here?Did you kill all of these guys?'
* * *
One month and two weeks after entering the Tower.
Kwagagagaga!
Rachel was located on Floor 53 of the Tower.
A ceiling stained with blood.
—Kyaaaaah....!
—Gwoooooooh!
This was a place littered with the corpses of countless warriors.
The souls of the warriors had died without finding rest, cursed by demons and wandering the battlefield in ghostly form.
"Haa, haa."
Rachel breathed heavily.
It was a good thing she had rested a bit on Floor 52. If she had kept fighting nonstop, she probably would have died from exhaustion.
In truth.
She had already been flustered from the very first Floor 51.
'It wasn't the Dark Recorder I knew.'
It had originally been strong even in Battle of Summoners, but in reality it was on a completely different level.
It felt about ten times stronger?
If she hadn't had her three S-grade summons, that place probably would have become her grave.
The same was true for Floor 52.
Every single monster there had been so horrifying....
Especially the mid-boss, the Fallen Lord. She had had to continue fighting it for an entire month.
When she finally destroyed that bastard's core, Rachel had briefly held onto hope.
Could she perhaps return to Earth now?
Could she tell God Ji-nu about all of this and work out a countermeasure together with him?
But no change came.
When she stepped into the heart of the Fallen Lord, this battlefield appeared.
Floor 53.
To clear this place, she had to kill all those souls....
"Archmage!"
At Rachel's cry, the white-haired old man raised his staff.
Archmage, 7 Circles - Radiance of Sanctum.
7-Circle wide-area magic, Radiance of Sanctum!
Temperature-based magic like Blizzard had no effect on them.
Against souls consumed by demons, this kind of holy magic was perfect.
Kwagagagagaga!
The Archmage drew a huge circle in the sky.
Swaaaaaaaaa.....!
A powerful light that purified evil spirits poured down across the battlefield like sunlight.
—Kyaaaaaah!
—Kkiiiiiiiaaah...!
But.
The souls were persistent and strong.
Even while writhing in pain, they did not stop charging.
Kheooooong!
White Tiger cried out from his wounds, and the Yellow Dragon had already grown smaller.
It was because it had already used its breath.
'Damn it.'
Now she didn't even have the strength to control them anymore.
Her arms, no, her whole body was trembling.
'This is too hard.'
Every muscle in her body was screaming.
Up to now, she had only slept about two hours a day at most. And even that had only been in brief snatches.
The exhaustion piling up.
Her eyes automatically closing whenever she let her guard down for even a moment.
At this rate, she felt like she was going to lose her mind.
She wanted to sleep, even if only for a little while.
But she couldn't stop.
The moment she gave up here, it would mean real death.
She would die without ever warning the world about the danger of the Tower of Trials, and her soul would have to wander forever.
Wouldn't she probably become one of those ghosts?
She hated even the thought of that.
"White Tiger! Hang in there just a little longer! Just until the Yellow Dragon recovers its strength...!"
Of course, it wasn't only S-grade summons that Rachel had.
She had also brought along all kinds of A-grade summons, but all of them had already been forcibly unsummoned.
"Archmage!"
Archmage, 3 Circles - Divine Aegis.
Holy Protection!
Boom!
A holy shield dropped down and concealed Rachel.
The good thing about this shield was that it could confuse the ghosts, and it also had a certain healing effect.
This spell was exactly why Rachel had been able to steal brief naps now and then.
'I want to sleep.'
Rachel's eyes closed.
This was dangerous.
The fact that her desire for sleep was overtaking her urge to survive was a very bad sign.
After all, "I want to rest" was usually the last thing people said when they had given up on life.
Gnash!
Rachel gritted her teeth.
Now, she didn't need anything else.
She just had to clear Floor 53, and before moving on to Floor 54....
She wanted to do nothing but sleep for an entire week.
And to do that?
She had to kill every last one of those ghosts!
—Kheooooong!
White Tiger cried out.
"Huhk!"
Rachel, whose eyes had been slowly closing, violently shook her head.
White Tiger came over, blood pouring from him, and rubbed his head against Rachel's waist.
Don't fall asleep. If you do, you'll really die.
Smack!
Rachel slapped her own cheek hard and forced herself back to her senses.
With the long nails she had grown over the long stretch of time, she pinched her thigh as hard as she could.
Drip.
Hard enough to draw blood.
"Don't worry."
Then she soothed White Tiger.
"I'm not going to die that easily."
Another two days passed.
She said that, but the situation was definitely dire. The number of ghosts wasn't decreasing.
The Archmage's mana had hit rock bottom.
She had brought 200 ultra-expensive mana potions, but even those were already gone.
—Kyaaaaaaaah!
The ghosts were growing smarter and smarter.
Now even Holy Protection no longer worked.
They no longer feared the shield and instead threw themselves against it, trying to break it.
'These disgusting bastards.'
Her eyes welled up with tears.
She could feel it. That she was getting closer and closer to death.
—Kheoooooong!
Blood burst from White Tiger's mouth.
No, he wasn't even White Tiger anymore. He was a Red Tiger now.
His entire body was drenched in blood, so was he more like a Blood Tiger?
'Is it over....?'
From the moment one entered the Tower of Trials, there was no way to resummon a summon that had been forcibly unsummoned.
Which meant—if White Tiger died, then there was no way she could clear Floor 54, even if she died and came back to life.
'This is the end.'
She had no mana left now.
The Archmage couldn't use his power anymore either.
Crack!
Even his staff snapped under the powerful vortex of ghosts.
It was terror itself.
'I should've come better prepared.'
Or maybe not?
Maybe even if she had prepared more, it still wouldn't have mattered?
It was when that thought crossed her mind.
—Kyaaaah!
—Kiiiiiiih!
The souls, which had been charging savagely, suddenly stopped attacking.
Fwoosh.
Fire rose from somewhere.
'Fire?'
The Archmage had no mana left now.
He couldn't even cast 2-Circle magic, let alone 3-Circle.
But.
That fire was no ordinary fire. Flames so hot they made the air itself burn covered the entire sky.
As if a Red Dragon had descended.
'What the hell is that now?'
—Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!
—Kkiaaaaaaaaaah!
The ghosts that had been so impossible to catch melted away from a single blast of those flames.
Fwoooooosh!
They died horribly within the widely spread inferno.
Thump, thump!
Her heart pounded violently.
For some reason, she felt like she had experienced those flames before.
And then.
She saw someone in the distance.
'No way.'
The source of those terrifying flames!
Over there was an incredibly cute red-haired girl.
A girl Rachel knew very well.
No, these days, there probably wasn't anyone in the world who didn't know that girl.
'Explosive Dragon.'
And there was only one player in the world who could control that Explosive Dragon.
'.....God Ji-nu?'
How was he here?
No way... had she already died?
Was she dreaming because she was dead?
Or had that damned Asmodeus cast some sort of illusion spell on her?
Still.
If this was a dream about God Ji-nu right before dying....
Then maybe that wouldn't be so bad...
Thinking that, thud!
Her consciousness snapped off. The strength left her body.
Thump!
As she was about to collapse, White Tiger caught her.
And then a shadow fell over them.
"Huh."
Baek Jinwoo let out a bitter sigh.
"So it really was true?"
It was true.
Rachel was here.
How the hell had things turned out like this?