Chapter 139
'He has become faster than before.'
Has he grown that much in such a short time?
Come to think of it, while moving to the Holy Land, whenever he wasn't using Baekjeolhwa against those who attacked, he always used Divine Arts.
As if he wasn't accustomed to it.
'Don't tell me when he used it on me, he had just learned it?'
The unfolding of the spell formation and the expansion of the domain had grown astonishingly.
The most remarkable thing was the speed.
Even if the power of Divine Arts is low, it is by no means an easy discipline to learn.
Rather, Divine Arts are more difficult than weapon techniques.
The Divine Arts that Serena knew were not originally this powerful.
And they were not something that could be deployed without any conditions.
Divine Arts require a price.
It is common knowledge that a relic containing divinity or a divine weapon is necessary.
But Kalias is different.
Him too.
'Is it because he is a dragon? Or is it because he possesses demonic power?'
Serena could not know.
She only had a premonition that Kalias's gradually growing Divine Arts would harbor even greater power.
"Master."
Kalias's steps walking through the darkness were unhindered.
But Serena had to ask.
She had no choice but to ask.
The path they were walking was the 1st floor.
They should obviously be going up to the 2nd floor, yet Kalias was going down.
He was going down endlessly continuing stairs, descending further and further.
"Tell me."
"Weren't we supposed to go up?"
Halt.
Kalias's steps stopped.
Naturally, Serena's steps following him down the stairs also stopped.
"The Tower of the Holy Land. It is safe to say that Agathod exists for the growth of pilgrims. From the 1st to the 10th floor, it is a kind of training that amplifies ki perception through the restriction of sight and hearing."
The footsteps descending the stairs resumed, and Kalias's calm and firm voice echoed through the underground.
"If you break through the master of the 10th floor, from the 11th floor onward, everything related to ki is forbidden. It is training to cultivate the body."
The 30th floor is ki and body.
The 40th floor is mind, the 50th floor is mind, ki, and body.
And the 60th floor exists for transcendence.
Up to the 66th floor can be considered the advanced course of transcendence.
It is a place where one can train smoothly.
That is why it is called a Holy Land, and why pilgrims want to climb it even if they have to spend their entire fortune.
Knowing all of this in such detail, why is he descending instead of climbing?
Serena was puzzled.
'How does he know all this so详细ly? Moreover, this underground passage...'
How does he know about this too?
The more she knew, the more curious she became about this man.
"Then why..."
"You're asking why I'm not climbing up."
"Yes."
"I have no money."
"...Pardon?"
* * *
"So this is the Holy Land..."
A blue-eyed young man with flowing blonde hair.
Luteon's blue eyes took in the Sahara Holy Land.
Red desert.
Sunlight pouring down.
There stood a black spire towering above.
A tower that looked like it would fall but didn't.
Agathod.
The symbol of the Dragon-Demon War.
Humanity's great achievement.
"Hey, Luteon."
A voice broke through Luteon's thoughts as he was feeling profound emotion from it.
"Yes, Imperial Princess."
"Is this right?"
Imperial Princess and Duchess.
Behind Luteon, they were following.
The Duchess was merely intrigued, while the Imperial Princess scrunched her face in annoyance.
"What do you mean?"
"Killing is impossible in the Holy Land anyway, so is it really right to chase him all the way here?"
They chased Kalias.
But they crossed the border and came to the Holy Land, where killing is forbidden.
It was a long-standing tradition.
It was something the Imperial Princess of the Empire should not break, and it was no different from disgracing the ancestors who created peace.
Furthermore, if they committed murder, the floor masters of Agathod would swarm them, so it was absolutely something they must not do.
"Killing is not permitted, but other things are allowed."
Killing is forbidden in the Holy Land.
However, quietly kidnapping someone wouldn't be much of a problem.
The Sahara Holy Land was precisely where sparring frequently occurred.
Besides.
"I came of my own will. What purpose does it serve to ask me when you insisted on following, Imperial Princess?"
"...."
To be honest, the Imperial Princess didn't like Luteon. Or rather, he just had terrible luck.
If he had originally mentioned that the bastard had a flight artifact, they wouldn't have lost him so futilely.
'Even though he's pretending he didn't know.'
The bastard probably knew.
He must have schemed such a thing because he wanted to fight a duel alone and win.
Anyway, thinking he was a guy with a guilty conscience, the Imperial Princess was picking unnecessary fights with Luteon.
In the first place, people who genuinely treated Luteon, a former turncoat...
Would be the Saintess at best.
'Insolent bastard.'
How many people could speak so stiff-necked to the Imperial Princess of the Empire?
When he wasn't even one who had become the Empire's spear.
The Imperial Princess clicked her tongue.
"I can't return without even seeing his face once after coming all this way."
"Right. I want to see him again too. I had no idea the bird of the night sky would be him. I want to fly in the sky together later too..."
The Imperial Princess, who had shut the Duchess's mouth, chased after Luteon who was pressing forward ignoring her.
"Was there a pilgrim who entered here?"
"Dozens enter every day. How would I remember?"
"He was with a woman."
"Then I remember. They entered a few hours ago and haven't come out, so I reckon they've probably broken through about the 3rd floor."
3rd floor.
Luteon and the Imperial Princess immediately headed for the tower. Since that guy had climbed it.
They thought they naturally had to climb the tower too and catch up.
It was also their competitive spirit.
"Shall we go in?"
"Yes. If that guy went, there's no reason I can't."
Creak.
Luteon's footsteps heading into the tower stopped in the deep darkness.
[Welcome, challenger.]
The tower's voice began to be heard.
[The trial begins.]
Simultaneously with the puppets moving.
Luteon's spear breathed fire.
Kwaaaaang!!
Leaving behind the puplets swept away in a single blow, he immediately ascended to the 2nd floor.
'I will definitely climb faster than that guy.'
Only then would he be able to sleep with his legs stretched out.
* * *
"Hmm."
At the top of the tower.
A woman who had been sitting in meditation feeling all things in the world opened her eyes.
"That kind of guy is a first."
There are many who climb the tower.
Agathod is originally that kind of place.
Climb and climb to transcend limits.
Therefore, having climbed the entire tower.
Going back down is in accordance with nature.
Even the sun floating in that sky becomes the moon as time passes.
If you reach the top, you descend again.
However, it would not be above ground.
That is the fate of one who has climbed the tower.
"I never thought a greenhorn who hasn't even climbed the tower would go underground."
A place where even transcenders have difficulty enduring.
A place where not even a handful of light reaches, called hell, someone who hasn't even reached the lower floors of the tower is descending.
Is this also the will of God?
Or the will of the tower?
"Wailing Corruption. You'll relieve your boredom after a long time."
Holding a subtle question.
The woman at the top.
One of the saints of the Valterus Cult.
Orbiere closed her eyes again.
* * *
Damp and dark underground stairs.
Kalias was still conversing with Serena.
"I have no money."
"...Pardon?"
Challenging the floors does not cost anything. However, upon being defeated by the floor master, one loses a great deal.
'It's a setting to maintain the tower.'
The tower's administrators also need money.
An astronomical amount of money is needed to manage and maintain the floors.
Thus, they fleece the challengers.
And Kalias had no money.
Rather than having no money, he had no Holy Stones.
Of course, if he sold just a few of the things he possessed, he could exchange them for many Holy Stones, but Kalias didn't want to do that.
Originally, all of them were items with uses, so he couldn't dispose of them carelessly.
Excluding the artifacts Kalias was using, most of the things he had on hand weren't worth much even if sold.
The spear of an Imperial knight or the mace of a Principality.
And the leather or horns of demonic beasts, etc.
Most of them had ambiguous values for selling.
'Excluding that...'
There were
'There were also Goblin Gold Coins.'
But these couldn't be sold.
Same for
'
As for
Same for
When [Constitution] Fusion Bone fully absorbs dragon power.
He thought he would be able to absorb the dragon power sleeping within the
Besides, that wasn't a dragon with only a part mixed in like Bibi, but the bone of a real dragon.
It was something difficult to obtain even if he tried now, so naturally he couldn't sell it.
"Of course, that's the surface-level reason."
He meant it was a secondary reason.
Halt.
"Serena."
"Yes."
"You go up."
"Huh? Why suddenly..."
"It's better for you to go up now. Climbing Agathod is for pilgrims."
The wooden puppets become more threatening the higher you go, but they don't carry weapons.
Even if you get a bit battered, the risk of death is low in Agathod.
Of course, that's the story when heading upward.
"Below here, you could die."
But the underground of the tower is different.
If above ground is Normal and Hard.
The underground has [Hell] difficulty.
It's not that you might die if you make a mistake.
One slip and you die.
Agathod, consisting of 66 floors in total, has a secret floor that no one knows about.
66 floors above ground. 6 floors underground.
Six hundred sixty-six.
666 is a number meaning corruption.
That's right.
What lies at the end of this underground is the one who occupied the lowest seat among the 666 corrupted.
One who is corrupted yet not corrupted.
The weakest among the 666 corrupted.
Yet the strongest of the corrupted.
He is a corruption that mourns death.
"Therefore, from here on, I will go alone."
Kalias's resolute declaration.
Thus, Serena couldn't readily turn her steps around.
"But..."
She hesitated.
He looked too precarious as he descended. Although he was steeling his resolve, hesitation momentarily flickered in his eyes.
For some reason, she wanted to follow.
Because he looked so anxious.
However.
"It's too early for you."
At Kalias's firm words, Serena couldn't say anything.
"...."
"The further down you go, the more your head will ache. The headaches will intensify, and you won't be able to distinguish between enemy and ally. After that, you'll lose yourself and wander the path."
The further underground one goes, the more various mental attacks are laid out.
It's impossible for Serena who, unlike himself, doesn't have a mental attack immunity artifact.
"I understand. Please, return safely."
Watching Serena go back up, Kalias descended the stairs.
Many thoughts crossed his mind.
He realizes anew.
And regrets anew.
But the regret soon solidifies into resolve.
Splash.
A floor full of moisture touched his feet.
The stairs that seemed like they would continue endlessly were now gone.
What loomed before him was a giant door. Bas-reliefs depicting dragons and demons, and humans positioned between them were carved into it.
Estimating the years of the door made a thousand years ago, he brought his hand to it.
Kwung.
Kwuuuuung.
With just a light touch, the giant door opened on its own as if it had been waiting for him.
Flash.
Kalias's eyes, instantly pulled into the door, held an intense light.
Rubbing his stinging eyes and opening them again.
He felt that the world had changed.
"This is... Ugh!"
Someone grabbed him by the collar.
And roughly lifted him up, shouting.
"Hey! Titeo! You stupid bastard! Get a hold of yourself right now!! I said get a hold of yourself!!"
Slap!
The strong force slapping his cheek brought Kalias to his senses.
Along with the desperate cry of the knight waking him.
Kwaaaang!!
Multiple explosions were heard simultaneously, and mounds of dirt flew everywhere.
'A battlefield.'
The place he stood was a battlefield.
A battlefield of dragons, demons, and humans.
The middle of the Dragon-Demon War.
He was a single knight holding a sword.
He had become Titeo.
Titeo before he wailed.