Chapter 278: Seventy-Third Floor, The Furnace’s Conspiracy (2)

[Dismantle the conspiracy attempting to consume the world. Time remaining: 34 hours 16 minutes.]

“Holy shit.”

The curse had slipped unbidden from my lips. I hadn’t even realized I had sworn until I heard it aloud, but the fortress’s sheer presence was staggering. It looked like five mid-sized apartment complexes had been fused into one monstrous behemoth.

The mechanical fortress, roughly the size of a small mountain, was tearing across the wasteland. Each titanic leg slammed into the ground with a thunderous roar, the weight sending small shockwaves through the ground.

For a moment, I considered infusing my axe with some lightning and Aura before launching it, but quickly shook my head.

It is too far away.

Such an attack wouldn’t be efficient. The amount of mana it would take for the attack even to be moderately effective far outweighed the benefits.

My attention would be better spent elsewhere, so I scanned the surroundings.

The oxen, spooked by the overwhelming pressure, had slowed and were breaking formation. Members on our side had forgotten all about handling the oxen and were gaping at the behemoth, slack-jawed.

“Wh-what is that?!”

“It’s a monster!”

“W-what the—”

In the midst of the chaos, I even heard some individuals suggesting a retreat, although no one listened to them. Some were so paralyzed by fear that their words couldn’t even make it past their tongues.

Even those like Tunyak, who were capable of wielding the goddess’s power, looked stunned and somewhat helpless.

We needed something to break the tension and to snap them out of this paralysis.

I looked at Tunyak. He, too, was frozen with his mouth agape, stunned by the sight.

You idiot.

I almost swore at him aloud, but even I was slightly shaken. For the natives, who had never seen anything like this, it had to be nothing short of unreal.

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, a divine beast’s cry echoed out over the panic.

“Whooooonnng—!”

The long, resonant, sacred cry cut cleanly through the fear. The atmosphere shifted as people turned toward the sound.

Everyone blinked as if waking from a trance, their eyes regaining focus, before closing their gaping mouths. I immediately knew that this was the moment.

Now that they had grounded themselves in reality, we had to reignite their will to fight, even in the face of the impossible.

“Pull yourselves together! This is the final desperate act of an evil god that tried to kill the goddess!”

Well, I wasn’t actually sure if Endless Furnace qualified as an “evil god,” but to them, it wasn’t entirely wrong—Endless Furnace had tried to usurp Master of the Five Carriage Wheels’s dominion.

My mana-infused shout managed to snap the others out of their panic. People finally began steering their oxen again, and the formation slowly fell back into place.

Tunyak wasted no time. “Get a grip, you bastards! For Master of the Five Carriage Wheels!”

I smirked despite myself.

Says the guy who was frozen a second ago, mouth wide open.

“For Master of the Five Carriage Wheels!” the natives shouted, shaking off their fear as they echoed him.

Tunyak took a moment to eye the mechanical fortress, then glanced around to check the positions of the strike teams. “Unit One, take the left flank! Unit Two, right! Unit Three, circle around and draw their attention!”

“Understood!”

“I’ll issue further orders depending on the situation!”

As soon as he finished, he turned his war chariot and headed my way. “Kwon! I’m counting on you! You’ll move on your own, right?”

I gave him a brief smile. “Don’t worry.”

The mechanical fortress on the horizon continued closing in.

If I wanted to give Tunyak and the others even the slightest edge, I needed to take the lead. I had to show them it could be done.

I turned and grabbed Doppy by the back of the neck without warning.

“Gyahk!”

he yelped, startled.

There wasn’t enough time to check if he was okay, though.

“Ride with Tunyak,” I told him quietly.

It was a tense moment, but Doppy, sharp as always, didn’t argue and nodded. “Got it!”

I guided the divine beast up alongside Tunyak’s chariot.

“Tunyak! Watch Doppy for me!”

Before he could answer, I tossed Doppy over. Even though the two of us were moving fast, the handoff went cleanly. Once I saw Tunyak catch him, I turned and yanked the reins.

“Let’s go!”

Whoooong—

With a short cry, the divine beast lowered its long head and kicked off the ground. It leaned forward, becoming more streamlined against the wind. Its speed surged instantly.

We overtook Tunyak’s chariot in an instant and shot into the lead.

I glanced back, half-worried Tunyak would try to follow. Thankfully, he had caught on. He watched me with a calm, steady gaze.

“I am counting on you.”

He hadn’t said it out loud, but his eyes had. I nodded slightly in his direction before turning around.

Thud, thud.

The divine beast picked up its pace, and the distance between Tunyak and me widened quickly. Of course, that meant the mechanical fortress was rapidly coming into range.

“Ah—”

I took a quick breath and balanced my axe in my grip.

***

Not long later, I initiated the first clash—well, calling it a clash would be a bit of a stretch; I had just infused my axe with lightning and swung once. The blazing blue current sliced through the dark crimson dusk that settled over the wasteland.

For a moment, the scene felt dreamlike, but I didn’t have the time to linger. Narrowing my eyes, I tracked the arc of the lightning.

Something is off.

The aura radiating from the mechanical fortress was anything but ordinary. Despite being entirely mechanical, it gave off an eerie sense of life.

The divine energy that originated from Endless Furnace had felt the same. Although this wasn’t the faint divine presence I had felt before, it was still overwhelming. It was potent enough to be sensed from kilometers away.

As I drew close, the pressure from the divine energy only pressed in more on me, heavy and unrelenting. It was clear Endless Furnace was putting everything on the line to battle for control over this world, just like Master of the Five Carriage Wheels.

Boom!

While I was still piecing my thoughts together, the lightning struck.

However, rather than breaking through, it dissipated in a flash of light, powerless and ineffective.

Not even a scratch.

I frowned.

The distance wasn’t the problem.

It felt eerily similar to how my lightning hadn’t fully affected the divine beast while it was corrupted. The fortress wasn’t just tough—a shield formed from divine energy surrounded it.

I hadn’t faced such pure and concentrated divine energy before, so I didn’t have a clear solution in mind.

Apostles have used it against me, sure, but never to this extent. Never this aggressively.

It reminded me of Blue Dawn Breeze and Burning Truth. This time, however, it was like I was battling Endless Furnace themself—real and manifest.

Hmm.

It wasn’t something I could run from.

I will have to get closer and trigger Savior. That is my best bet for now.

Maybe the fortress had a core, a weak spot. Although its exterior was probably tough, the inside could be vulnerable.

Perhaps Tunyak or Fenrike would cast divine buffs on me, as well. There could even be something hidden in the system messages that I hadn’t noticed yet.

One way or another, I had to press forward. I needed to prepare for the worst.

A clear solution wouldn’t necessarily present itself for a while. Until then, my role was to face the fortress head-on and to buy time for Tunyak and the others to analyze its attacks.

By the time my thoughts had settled, I was less than eight hundred meters away.

Huh?

That was when the fortress made its move. Dozens of crimson lights blinked to life near the top of the massive construct. I instantly recognized them. They were mana beams like the one Sogorong’s Mechanical Eye had fired.

I yanked the reins hard in an attempt to veer away. I worried that I had reacted too late, but thankfully, the divine beast moved a heartbeat faster, as if it had anticipated the attack all along.

Ziiing, BOOM!

The first beam punched through the ground where I had just been.

It didn’t stop there. More followed in rapid bursts, streaking through the sky in the dozens. There wasn’t much room to evade, so I jerked the reins back and forth in tight, erratic movements.

I considered using Flash Strike, but my mount was called a divine beast for a reason. It moved precisely and perfectly matched my movements, as if it could read my thoughts.

“

Heh.

”

Beams continued to tear through the air from every direction. The wasteland erupted, soil exploding skyward in violent sprays.

Despite the chaos, I laughed recklessly. Dodging those seemingly random beams had made me feel like I had been dropped into a bullet hell game.

Of course, that didn’t mean the assault had let up. The divine beast kept racing forward, dodging and weaving on its own.

Its dependability allowed me to think about Tunyak and the strike squad charging in from behind.

At this rate, they are going to get slaughtered before they can even get close. How many of them possess the skills to avoid those beams?

With how indiscriminate the fortress’s attacks were, the more people there were, the harder it would be to dodge. Maybe Tunyak could block the beams using divine energy, but I wasn’t confident.

The disparity between Master of the Five Carriage Wheels’s divine power and the energy radiating from Endless Furnace’s fortress was overwhelming.

Still, Tunyak was watching the situation, so I trusted he would come up with a solution.

Either hang back or spread out.

In any case, I wasn’t close enough to issue orders, and I wasn’t their commander. What I could do, however, was reveal as many of the fortress’s attack patterns as possible to those behind me.

Four hundred meters.

Along with the strengthening pressure from the divine power, I heard a strange noise. A harsh, metallic clatter rang out as the fortress began to shift.

Panels opened along its surface. From narrow hatches, strange objects emerged: dozens of mechanical flying units, almost like drones.

They weren’t here just to look impressive—they were ready for combat.

What, are they going to start firing too?

A curse slipped through my lips.

Seriously, what is this? A goddamn carrier? I get that this is the seventy-third floor, but come on. What the hell are they doing?

The sprawling mechanical fortress made me wonder more and more as I drew closer.

Can I actually destroy it?

The machines flying overhead locked onto me.

Ratatatatatata!

Dozens of them opened fire in unison. The bullets didn’t seem particularly powerful; they looked like they were banking on sheer volume.

I maneuvered the divine beast, weaving between streams of gunfire, but there were just too many.

Launching a burst of lightning from my axe, I deflected most of the bullets, then enveloped myself in a thick mana barrier.

Rounds pelted the barrier, creating dull impacts.

Thunk, thunk, thunk—

I raised my axe again and hurled another bolt of lightning skyward. The wide arc of energy struck true, detonating multiple drones.

First, I need to stop that thing from moving.

My attention shifted to its legs.

Eight of them.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

I would have to take the risk and go for them. If I could destroy just two or three on one side, it could be enough to bring the whole thing to a halt.

Although I wasn’t sure if I could pierce through the divine power shielding it, every trial in this tower was meant to be overcome, so I had to try.

As I dodged beams and cut down drones, the distance narrowed even more.

Then, a system message appeared.

[Quinthavaren]

- A mechanical beast.

- Apostle of Endless Furnace.

- Continuously produces powerful and autonomous war machines.

- Endless Furnace has partially manifested in it, causing it to become significantly more durable and dangerous than usual, as it is protected by divine energy.

I read the message and couldn’t help but gape.

That fortress is an apostle?

From the description, it didn’t sound like it had been made by modifying a living creature.

Then again, this was a god I was talking about. Maybe they really had given life to a machine and turned it into an apostle.

That wasn’t the real issue, however.

The god has partially descended.

“Shit.”

I was close enough to trigger the description, and the divine pressure bearing down on me intensified sharply.

My breathing grew shallow. It felt like something massive was squeezing me from all sides—like the world itself was shrinking me down.

I circulated mana through my entire body, trying to shake off the pressure.

Then, something began to pulse from deep within my chest.

***

「Invisible message: The divine energy of the fifth-class god ‘Paraktus’ that Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok absorbed has reacted to the circumstances.」

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has awakened divine energy, unlocking a new skill. Divine Power is now lvl 1.」