171 - The Tower of Causality (11)
171 - The Tower of Causality (11)
TL/Editor: raei
Status: ongoing
Illustrations: none
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Episode 171, Chapter 45: The Tower of Causality (11)
The eyes of Magnus, the first hero, met Zion's.
Despite the flaming armor covering his entire body, the hero's eyes were calm and composed.
"Fortunately, I wasn't too late."
Magnus's low voice broke the silence as he observed Zion, who had inhabited Nadir Chrosicle's body.
"Annihilate this wicked demonic army completely!"Waaaaaah!
With a thunderous roar that shook heaven and earth, countless human forces appeared at the end of the gorge and began charging towards the monsters.
These were the reinforcements led by the hero.
Boom!
A massive collision ensued.
Simultaneously,
-I'll tear you bastards to shreds!
Apocalypsia, who had been screaming in pain from Magnus's strike and flames, rose with a roar of hatred and anger.
"Let's finish this one off before we catch up."
With those words, Magnus turned back towards the Dragon of the End and gripped his spear tightly.
The flames covering his armor moved to his spear, melting the surrounding air even more intensely.
-I'll crush you in one go.
Perhaps judging that the situation had completely turned against him?
As if intending to pour all his strength from the start, an authority of the end far different from before began to flow from Apocalypsia's entire body, then boom!
It transformed into tens of thousands of bullets and began firing.
Each bullet had enough power to erase one's very existence if it touched them.
Just as these bullets were about to hit Zion and Magnus, a knight's soul remains unwavering even in the abyss.
Red Star.
Whoosh!
A darkness deeper than night erupted from Zion's body.
Flames hotter than a fire opal burst forth from the hero's body, completely devouring the bullets of the end.
Then, swoosh!
As if they had planned it, both of their forms disappeared simultaneously and reappeared on either side of the Dragon of the End.
The sword strike and spear thrust followed immediately.
Apocalypsia reacted by deploying hundreds of barriers like before, but this time it didn't work.
Not only was his power split between two sides, but the force of the attacks was also completely different from earlier.
Crack!
The sword and spear shattered all the barriers in an instant, leaving massive wounds on the dragon's body.
-Argh!
The Dragon of the End let out a painful scream as secondary explosions of darkness and flame erupted from those wounds.
'I'll take out the one in bad shape first!'
Even in this situation, Apocalypsia made a cold judgment and created thousands of spears of the End (終焉) around Zion.
Just as all those spears were about to fire at Zion,
"You dare turn your back on me."
Boom!
Magnus's spear strike, falling like a meteor, hit the Dragon of the End's back.
Despite instinctively defending, Apocalypsia's massive body, larger than a mountain, tilted forward from the impact of a different dimension.
In the momentary gap this created, Zion's form vanished, and a split second later, the spears of the End crashed into the space where he had been.
Then, Zion's form reappeared right in front of the Dragon of the End, Moon Piercing Drill.
He plunged a strike that had gone through four amplifications from eclipse and partial eclipse overlaps directly into the dragon's body.
Crack!
With a terrifying shockwave, Apocalypsia's massive body, which had been tilting forward, was sent flying backward.
Before the Dragon of the End could recover from that impact and regain his posture, boom!
The hero's spear, thrust with perfect timing once again, pierced through all of the dragon's defenses and struck his temple.
Their combination attacks continued with such precision it was as if they had been practicing together for decades.
-Ugh... Uaaaah!
Endless screams erupted from Apocalypsia's mouth as critical wounds began to appear one after another on the dragon's body.
The tide of battle turned to one side in an instant.
The insane combination between the two heroes was impressive, but the main reason for the turning tide was the overwhelming power of the first hero.
An absolute strength that seemed to transcend not only the limits of the human species but of all mortals.
'It can't be helped.'
After all, Magnus Flare had already reached the pinnacle of the world in terms of power even before being chosen as a hero.
It was only natural for such a person to be this strong after being granted the destiny of a hero.
Finally, crunch!
Magnus's spear and Zion's sword, having shattered even the Dragon of the End's last desperate authority technique, plunged directly into the dragon's heart.
-How...
Apocalypsia's life ended before he could finish those words.
It was an unexpectedly anticlimactic end compared to his grand entrance.
Thud!
After briefly watching the Dragon of the End's massive body fall and disappear, Magnus turned his head towards Zion.
Was he about to offer words of encouragement for holding out until he arrived?
But the words that flowed from his mouth were far from encouragement.
"Who are you?"
These were strange words to say to a comrade he had known for years.
The hero's eyes, revealed beyond the fading flames, burned brightly as if piercing through to the essence of Zion inhabiting Nadir's body.
Of course, Zion had no reason to answer that question.
'There's no need to, anyway.'
Already,
-You have cleared the trial 'History of Destruction' beyond perfection.
-Additional points will be awarded accordingly.
As the Trial Helper's voice reached his ears, the entire world began to blur.
"I'll make good use of your armor."
A lazy voice flowed from Zion's mouth as he smiled at the hero.
"...What?"
Just as Magnus expressed his confusion,
-The trial is ending.
With those words, Zion's entire field of vision was enveloped in darkness.
Soon after, Zion reappeared in the empty space where he had chosen the history.
'Is it time to receive the reward now?'
With that thought, Zion waited for the Trial Helper's next words.
"What's this? I came to see who completed the trial I made to be impossible to break through, and..."
A young, clear voice, completely different from what he expected, reached Zion's ears.
"Emperor, it was you?"
As Zion turned his head, he saw a boy who looked to be in his early teens.
A beautiful boy with striking fiery red hair and eyes.
Zion knew at a glance that this boy was not a mortal being.
For one thing, no ordinary human could enter this place, and moreover, the boy exuded a transcendent aura similar to what Zion had felt when facing the God of Light before.
Additionally, there was only one deity who could appear at such a precise timing and speak to Zion like this.
'Loki.'
The God of Fire and Mischief, and the very creator of this secret trial.
"Then I can understand. As expected, someone from ...... is different in every way."
In the god's subsequent words, one word in the middle was inaudible, as if there was noise.
Instinctively sensing something from those words, Zion skipped all other questions and spoke.
"What do you mean by that? I'd like to hear more details."
Loki's eyes flickered for a moment at Zion's direct gaze and question, despite suddenly being confronted by a deity without even asking about their identity.
A mischievous smile spread across his face.
"Of course, you're curious about ......, right? I get it. It's related to the origin of your power. But as you can see, I can't tell you. There's a causality lock on the very word ....... So even if I keep saying ......, ......, you won't be able to hear it."
The God of Fire shrugged slightly after saying the noise-filled word several more times, as if there was nothing he could do.
"Maybe you'll naturally come to know when you complete the contract and win the bet."
In the end, it meant he couldn't say because of causality, just like with the God of Light before.
"Gods seem to be pretty useless."
"Hehe, you just figured that out? Don't bother asking any other questions. I don't have the causality to answer anyway. This time, I really just came to see what kind of freak perfectly cleared the trial I created."
Loki answered with a grin at Zion's words.
Normally, no deity would descend to the world for such a trivial reason, but it was possible for the God of Fire.
The god before him had a more unique personality and more volatile whims than any other deity.
"What about the trial's reward?"
Judging that there was nothing more to gain from further conversation, Zion shook his head inwardly and immediately changed the subject.
The reason Zion asked Loki about this was simple.
As mentioned earlier, Loki had created this trial itself, and he was also the owner of the divine artifact given as a reward.
"Hmm... It's quite a shame, but I promised, so I can't help it."
With a regretful expression, Loki lightly snapped his fingers.
-You have acquired 'Muspelheim' as a reward for the trial.
As the Trial Helper's voice reached his ears, a small red ring appeared floating in front of Zion.
A mythical-grade artifact called the pinnacle of all weapons and armor in the world.
The Heat Heaven Armor Muspelheim, the ring before his eyes, was at the very top even among such mythical-grade artifacts.
The strongest armor said to have been created by the Fire God Loki by burning an entire heaven.
It was his only divine artifact, and also the one used by Magnus Flare, the first hero he had just seen.
The goal Zion absolutely had to obtain in the Tower of Causality.
'With this, only one thing remains.'
With that thought, Zion was about to put the ring on his finger when,
"Oh, right."
Loki spoke up, snapping his fingers as if he had just remembered something.
"There's going to be one change from now on. It'll probably be good for you... Anyway, I'm counting on you."
With another mischievous smile, the Fire God's form vanished from that spot without a trace.
A departure as sudden as his appearance.
As Zion looked at the space where Loki had disappeared, a faint light of question appeared in his eyes.
-According to the contract with Muspelheim's owner, the content of the final 5th floor trial will be changed.
-Additional rewards will be granted.
An incomprehensible voice from the Trial Helper reached his ears.
-Synchronization with the Flame Heaven begins.
With that, whoosh!
Brilliant and majestic flames erupted from the Muspelheim on his hand and began to engulf Zion's entire body.
* * *
In front of the entrance leading to the final trial on the 5th floor of the Tower of Causality.
All surviving participants, including Hero Flosimar's group, had gathered there with tense expressions.
'Now only the last trial remains.'
The silver-haired woman thought as she looked at the massive iron door densely engraved with strange hieroglyphs.
Perhaps because she had saved most of the participants in the third floor's trial?
The woman, who had completed the fourth floor's trial without much difficulty, had eyes filled with tension like the other participants as she looked at the iron door before her.
The memory of nearly dying several times while breaking through this trial in her previous life remained vividly in her mind.
But the woman quickly shook off that tension.
She was much stronger now than she had been at this point in her previous life, and the surrounding situation was incomparably better.
She would probably be able to complete the final trial smoothly as well.
"What are we going to do? Are we going in now? We've already finished our preparations."
Rain, standing beside her, asked the woman.
Along with her words, the participants' gazes focused on the woman, as if asking for a decision.
On the way here, the woman had shown incredible achievements surpassing even the 'Twelve Seas', and as a result, the participants were implicitly following her lead.
'Has the secret trial not ended yet?'
The woman briefly closed her eyes deeply after scanning the participants, seemingly looking for someone who wasn't there, then opened them and spoke.
"We're going in right now."
With those words, tension tightened among the participants as they solidified their formation.
Feeling their movement, the woman lightly pushed the iron door in front of her.
Clank!
As if it had been waiting, the massive iron door began to split open on both sides.
-Entering the 5th floor, final trial.
Just as the scene inside the iron door began to form on the participants' retinas,
-The trial content has been changed.
-The trial difficulty has been adjusted to extreme.
-The 'Remnant of the Frost Queen Tainted by Evil' appears.
The completely unexpected voice of the Trial Helper,
-Hold out until the King of Fire arrives.
began to ring in the ears of the woman and everyone else in succession.
---
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