◈ Chapter 485. Fertilizer (1)
Yugwideu was dying. ‘……
It was quite a sight, while it lasted.’ The moment the influence of the two great monsters clashed.
A truly wondrous phenomenon occurred.
Even if one scoured every book in the Tower, would there be any record of it?
Suddenly, that worry crossed his mind.
The apprehension that the rampaging great monsters now were not merely one or two. If, somewhere on the Arcana continent, other great monsters were appearing and causing the same phenomenon he had witnessed…… ‘Selfishly speaking, I would have liked to give the Tower a heads-up.’ Of course, there was no way to do so, and…… ‘I am not qualified to do so, either.’ He was nothing more than a former Elder Mage, no longer affiliated with the Tower.
Yes, that Elder Mage.
The incompetent one who had failed to escape the shackles called paradox on the top floor of the Tower.
Acknowledging that fact put his mind at ease.
Yugwideu spoke with great effort.
“I am certain. Even without my help, you would be able to perceive this phenomenon. After all, unlike me, you are opening an era without precedent, are you not……?”
The Tower Master, Marcello. And the Chief.
Yugwideu did not doubt their abilities.
No, how could he doubt them?
He recalled their first meeting.
The swarm of flickering portal lights on the top floor of the Tower. ‘Truly, I thought they were extraordinary from the very beginning.’ And he was ashamed, unable to raise his head.
Even though three demon worshippers had been by his side.
The fact that he had failed to notice in the slightest.
However. ‘They say position makes the man.’ From the moment even Senios left the world.
Yugwideu—he could not afford to waver in the slightest. Yes, as befitting the name of the Gentle Giant. He had to hold the center and support the shaking Tower.
Kugugugung.
The moment he barely swallowed his breath.
A vibration felt from afar.
Only then did Yugwideu let out a sigh of relief.
“They fell together, did they? Thank goodness.”
An incomplete Prototype Rift created by the cataclysm in the field.
Yet even in the moment of being caught in the rift, Yugwideu did not lose focus. He forcibly moved a golem pushed to its limits, grabbed the ankles of the two great monsters, and dragged them together into the Prototype Rift.
He was paying the price for that force in full.
Yugwideu was pinned beneath the wretched fragments of the shattered golem, unable to resist in any way. The side effects of squeezing out mana from total mana exhaustion could not be ignored, either.
Quite some time had passed since being caught in the rift. His mana should have recovered even a trace by now, but Yugwideu’s mana did not recover in the slightest.
Even so, Yugwideu smiled.
“……
This would make you jealous, Senios.”
The eternal snow that never melts.
The Elder Mage Senios, who slept soundly in the Tower as befitting that epithet.
In the past, he had pitied your plight of becoming a spectacle…….
Kudeudeudeuk.
Between the fragments of the collapsed golem.
Yugwideu gazed at the golem’s core emitting light on its own.
It was not glowing with his own mana.
The golem’s core was attempting to fulfill an old contract.
“It seems I am to become a spectacle and then some—no different from the monsters. Well, if it were you, Senios, would you rather envy my position instead……?”
After all, you do have a mad streak despite your appearance.
Swoooo.
Yugwideu focused on the glowing core and the increasingly vivid presence of the great monsters. It seemed the battle was decided. The two great monsters dragged into the Prototype Rift like vengeful water spirits.
One of them was not in perfect condition due to its battle with him.
Surely, the imperfect one had breathed its last.
The gradually brightening light of the core.
“This side will soon be decided as well.”
So much time had passed; had it perhaps not forgotten?
He had hoped, just a little.
But that was unlikely.
Oried, the Earth Spirit King.
“You have received what you desired; now it is my turn to give.”
The Tower, Arcana’s greatest military force.
Overwhelming ability was necessary to rise to the seat of an Elder Mage. All Elder Mages throughout history were those who had once been recognized for their ability as Tower Master candidates or Chief Mages.
Yugwideu was no exception.
Why was he called the Gentle Giant?
It was because Yugwideu was an imitation of a giant, the one and only mage capable of manifesting golems.
So this is what they call your life flashing before your eyes, is it not.
The distant past.
The praise that had been showered upon him echoed in his ears.
—“A manifestation power beyond common sense, Adept Mage Yugwideu……! To think you can command an artificial summon of that size. Not even your master could manifest such a thing.”
—“You have already surpassed me, Yugwideu.”
—“A golem, indeed—it is no different from the legends. Of course, even if your magic were recorded in a thesis, there would be none who could not understand. But the output of the magical core that serves as its foundation is beyond common sense……”
The childhood days when he had not lost his innocence.
Yugwideu had received Oried’s favor.
No, to call it favor……
There had been a thorough transaction between them.
But Yugwideu did not think much of it.
“Thanks to it, I have lived a life that was not bad, Oried.”
As the Chief said, all things entail give and take.
Now, it was simply time for him to give himself to Oried.
Now, devour me.
“All of me, according to the contract.”
Kudeuk.
The magical core imbued with Oried’s power dug into Yugwideu’s chest.
At the same time, centered on Yugwideu’s body.
The shattered fragments of the golem began to gather.
Yugwideu intuited.
With this, Oried would surpass the limits of a spirit and be able to exert influence upon the Arcana continent. ‘I wonder what he will do with my flesh.’
You would never do something righteous, Oried.
If your intentions had been pure, you would not have proposed such a contract to me when I was barely five or six years old.
Because of that.
However, he was not worried for the Arcana continent.
True to being a paradoxical Elder Mage. It must be because he believed in ‘someone.’
‘……
One last request, then.’
Soon, Yugwideu’s consciousness completely fused with the magical core. A golem even more massive than those Yugwideu had manifested began to stir within the Prototype Rift.
With just a single finger.
Kwajik.
A great monster.
A golem so gigantic that it could crush two tangled great monsters was born. Such a change was bound to drastically accelerate the collapse of the rift. [※Warning: The Prototype Rift is collapsing.]
Yugwideu, now transformed into a single magical core.
The blazing inferno of magic.
Seemed to speak thus.
Please put a stop to this old man’s unsightly struggle, Chief.*
“……
Oried?”
It seemed there was something the Spirit Kings shared among themselves.
Now that I had grasped Oried’s intent through the system message.
Phoenix, the Fire Spirit King, also seemed to notice the ominous signs.
It was not only that.
“Forgive the suddenness, but I have something to report……!”
The World Tree’s permission fell through Haiel’s lips. Spirits who had revealed themselves on the Arcana continent not by escaping purity, but because the era of purity had opened, delivered the news.
“An anomaly has been detected on the Arcana continent.”
“State the coordinates.”
“According to Lord Aerial……!”
Aerial, the Wind Spirit King.
That must be why he is so well-informed.
The lesser spirit, Sylphid, received and relayed the specific location.
“To the vicinity where Elder Mage Yugwideu disappeared……!”
A pity, Oried.
At this moment, one could say any room for excuses had vanished.
I did not hesitate.
Following Sylphid’s guidance, I manifested a portal.
Haiel followed behind me, and Phoenix spoke.
“I wish to be of strength to you.”
[You have acquired command over the fire spirits under the Fire Spirit King, Phoenix.]
The implications of the flickering message were immense, but I did not fuss as usual. That was right. For the first time in a while, I, I Hoyeol, was of one mind with Granfel.
Yugwideu’s voice echoed in my ears.
—“Then, I entrust the Tower of the new era to you. Chief.”
Elder Mage Yugwideu.
Well, he felt like a peer to Marcello, who had also been a Chief.
He had been practically the Tower’s only superior and adult.
After all, the other two……. ‘Senios is one thing, but that cat Tower Master, really.’
Honestly, they were not very mature.
And so.
I focused on restraining the rampaging magic.
The emotion I feel now?
The moment I face Oried. Whether he had become the Earth Spirit King, whatever level he was, whatever circumstances he had—anyway. I was seriously worried I might manifest magic right off the bat.
However.
“My lord……!”
At Haiel’s voice, I felt as if struck in the back of the head.
A chill ran down my spine.
On the other side of the portal.
Spread across the target coordinates was.
A lump of stone whose size defied all monsters I had seen before.
Kugugugung.
The knowledge of magic I had drilled into my head was telling me.
No, it was no common rock.
It was a golem.
A colossus powered by magic.
That is why I could be certain.
“Is that you, Yugwideu.”
In this era, there was no one but Elder Mage Yugwideu, known as the Gentle Giant, who could manifest a colossus that could be called a golem. It was understandable that Haiel, who rarely flustered, trailed off.
All because of its truly gigantic form.
All that could be seen at a glance.
Was but a single arm of the golem.
Jureuk.
Blue blood was flowing between the golem’s fingers.
Those who explained the situation in my stead.
Were the chatty wind spirits.
“……
If it is blue blood?”
“Surely, the blood of the giants!”
“Vella’s Giant God Soldier has fallen……!!”
Vella’s Giant God Soldier.
Given the circumstances, it must be the great monster that had encountered Yugwideu.
It must have pushed Yugwideu to his limits.
Enough to entangle him in a Prototype Rift.
Yet to Yugwideu, who had become a Fusion Entity.
It no longer seemed to pose any threat.
The meaning of those words was simple.
[The ‘Fusion Entity, Yugwideu’ has appeared on the Arcana continent.]
That Yugwideu had been reborn as a threat to the Arcana continent.
And the fact that such a Yugwideu had been unleashed meant.
That the Prototype Rift had collapsed.
‘A Collapsed Rift…….’
I had faced them many times.
Especially when the high-ranking Demon Lords began to exert their influence in earnest.
Collapsed Rifts had appeared one after another in reality.
But this was different from those.
More than anything, I now knew the intent behind them.
Raymon Sean.
That bastard’s dark ulterior motives.
Raymon Sean desired the fusion of reality and the Arcana continent.
He wanted to destroy the boundary between reality and the Arcana continent.
That was precisely the [『The Bizarre』] he pursued.
I asked myself.
‘Where did I grasp that intent?’
Inside the Prototype Rift.
To be exact, inside the stage within it.
I had confirmed it from the scenery of reality spread out there.
That was precisely why my hair stood on end. Perhaps that collapsed Prototype Rift was connected to both the 『Arcana Continent』 and [Reality].
Then Oried’s choice made sense as well.
If Raymon Sean had intended this development? Just as he had cornered the Shadow God, there might have been a reason that forced Oried into this very choice.
That conjecture.
“Claudis. It is not visible.”
The phoenix ceased its wingbeats and landed beside me.
“Half of its body is not visible.”
Phoenix’s words confirmed it.
The Fusion Entity that had appeared on the Arcana continent was exactly half.
Then, where was the other half of the Fusion Entity?
Damn it all.
It had appeared in reality..
Republic of Korea.
The capital.
Seoul.
The senior office of the Tower.
“……
Why on earth was I entrusted with acting Chief duties?”
Benji William, who had been tearing his hair out at his desk.
Suddenly, a colossal shadow was cast across his vision.
The sunlight that had illuminated the window had completely vanished.
In that instant, a calculation flashed through Benji’s mind.
The height of the Tower.
The size of the unidentified obstacle……
Gugugugung.
And an impact great enough to make the Tower tremble, albeit slightly.
A decision was made.
Benji picked up a quill with an unprecedentedly serious expression.
──────A message from Acting Chief Benji William.
From this hour forth, all Tower personnel are granted permission to leave the Tower.
Swiftly eliminate the threat that has descended upon the world of adventurers.──────