Chapter 325: Seventy-Eighth Floor, Tribal War (5)

[Navigate the conflict between both factions and survive. Time remaining: 227 hours 38 minutes.]

Only the ancient mechs and I could move in this world where everything felt utterly still. However, our speeds were on completely different levels.

Lightning cleaved through the darkness, and Soulbound pulsed with light, radiating both divinity and crackling energy. In a flash, I reached the nearest machine.

The first strike.

I aimed for the nearest mech’s waist. Powerfully pulling my arm back as if I were about to hit a golf ball, I finished the stroke with a hefty upward strike. My opponent reacted far too slowly, and its arm swung meaninglessly at the spot I had just occupied—my strike had already landed.

Srrk—

My axe didn’t crash harshly into the suit this time. It simply passed cleanly through with a neat slicing sound, and it split in two from waist to shoulder.

The red divinity inside of it burst into view, raging out of control and only seconds from blowing apart. The glow expanded, fast and erratic yet strangely slow, like a fireball swelling underwater.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

I turned away without watching it finish.

Thirty meters to the next machine.

Even though my entire self had been accelerated by Flash Strike, reaching that distance took less than a breath. Maybe a third of a breath. For this mech, I didn’t try to outmaneuver it and just swung my axe horizontally.

Lightning surged, bright blue and gold, as my divinity flared in a burst of white light with a similarly golden core. Bathed in the overlapping sources of light, the dark axe traced a wide half-moon through the air. Another machine fell apart.

I moved again.

Thud.

A heavy tremor rolled through the air. The first machine had begun to explode, and its thrashing divinity sent shockwaves across the field.

That didn’t cause me to hesitate in the slightest, however, and I kept swinging.

Three. Four. Five. Six.

My movements continued ceaselessly, just like I had committed to from the start. Each strike flowed into the next fluidly, almost as if they were a single attack.

One machine after another fell beneath my blade.

With just twenty percent of my divine energy, I had already cut down nine machines.

When the first one began to explode, I caught a faint flicker of red somewhere in the distance—a clear warning that beams were coming, fired by three of the farthest machines.

The distance gave them a clearer view of my movements than the rest, but it didn’t matter. I was operating on Flash Strike time. Even if they fired an attack, dodging it wouldn’t be a problem.

The real concern lay behind me—the climbers.

Block it or deflect it.

Could I actually deflect something like that? The question barely took shape before I shook it off. I couldn’t hesitate now. If deflecting it would be safer than blocking, then that was the answer.

I wasn’t about to wait patiently for the strike to land, though. There were still plenty of machines to eliminate.

Without a second thought, I rode a burst of lightning and tore through the air.

Ten. Eleven. Twelve.

I brought down three more before the beams finally fired. Even with Flash Strike, they surged forward with alarming speed. Not quite as blistering as before, but still sharp enough to keep me on alert.

Angelina had briefly gone over the fundamentals of deflection. While she had never trained me to counter beam attacks or objects imbued with divine energy, the underlying technique wasn’t all that different. I chose to rely on those basics.

Channeling divine energy and mana into Soulbound, I created a smooth surface around it that caused it to gleam with a razor-sharp luster. The timing of each beam varied depending on each machine’s position, so I adjusted my grip, rotating my wrist as I brought the axe into position.

The flat of the blade caught the first beam cleanly, and I layered my divine energy over it.

Clang.

Exactly as I had hoped, the beam bounced off in the direction I had intended. Since the first deflection had been a success, the second and third followed just as smoothly.

I didn’t bother watching them land and just charged ahead. All of the machines were within range of my senses, and I could feel them clearly, even if they were behind me.

Thirteen. Fourteen

.

By the time I cut through the sixteenth machine, I could sense the three beams I had deflected crashing into others. My kill count rose to nineteen.

Already halfway there, basically.

I carved through the air and centered myself. I still had more than enough divine power and mana to deal with the remaining twenty.

Suddenly, I felt a strange sensation. Whether it came from the blown-up suits or those on the verge of detonation, residual traces of divinity lingered in the air—and within me.

Now, that lingering power had begun to move at a terrifying speed.

The sensation was strangely familiar.

Where was it?

It wasn’t something I felt often, which made it easier to trace.

The twenty-fourth floor?

Yes. It had happened when I had encountered the Stagnant Terror. Just like back then, my vision flipped before I even had time to react. The stormy scenery had been replaced by a crimson world, streaked with a faint violet haze.

The crimson wasn’t the color of blood, however, and it danced and shone more like a flame.

I scanned my surroundings as frustration built within me, but didn’t spot any defining structures. Though I was disoriented, a god had obviously tampered with the divinity present on the battlefield and pulled me here.

It pissed me off. I had been in the middle of a battle, dragged here without my consent, and now they refused to even show themselves.

Still, I didn’t let my anger take over. This wasn’t the same situation as the twenty-fourth floor. I had gained Divine Power, and I was stronger now.

Instead of stewing in frustration, I focused on the world around me. That lingering divine energy within the machines had pulled me in, and this space had been built from those scraps of power.

Maybe that was why.

If I want to leave, I can.

I would probably have to burn through some more of my divinity than I would have liked, but it would be manageable. It would leave me with just enough left to finish off the remaining twenty weapons.

I let out a quiet sigh. A few seconds had already passed since my arrival, but there was still no sign of the god that had brought me here.

Are they only trying to trap me?

Dwelling on it would be pointless. If that was their intent, then I had no reason to stay. I raised my axe.

“I’d prefer it if you stopped there.”

The voice had come from my right. I twisted on instinct, keeping my axe steady since there was no telling how this would unfold.

A man entered my view, hair tinted a dark, violet hue, although his eyes burned red. Even without asking, I could definitely tell he was a god.

“No need to be so tense. I don’t intend to attack.”

Instead of responding, I stared intently at him, on guard.

“Do you know how difficult it is to create a Corrupted World Tree?”

I didn’t like where this was going. “What kind of bullshit is that?”

Dragging me into this realm out of nowhere, then asking me to back off? Now he is talking about a Corrupted World Tree? Utterly self-serving.

Naturally, my words hadn’t come out kindly.

The god’s brow twitched in mild irritation. “I’ve been creating a Corrupted World Tree in this space. If you don’t interfere, I should succeed.”

“And what does that have to do with me?”

“I’m asking you not to get in the way.”

Stunned by his audacity, I didn’t respond.

On what grounds? Why should I care?

The man continued, “I don’t expect you to comply uncompensated. Conquering trials is your right, after all.”

“And?”

“Let’s make a deal. I’ll offer a reward.”

Are all gods this shameless?

I searched through my memories and mentally listed a few who weren’t.

Fenrike, Paraktus, and Master of the Five Carriage Wheels.

A few of them seemed strange, sure, but this one felt different. I had assumed that a high-ranked god would be responsible for the events on this planet. That arrogance had likely been a product of misplaced confidence.

A deal, huh.

I didn’t desire to hear him out.

Climbing the tower had taught me that gods couldn’t harm me directly. Stagnant Terror hadn’t, and neither had Endless Furnace. Even as their apostles died, they couldn’t touch me.

A trial was just a trial. Unless the god was the trial, they didn’t have the room to interfere.

Like Burning Truth, they could deceive and mislead climbers, but not harm them. That was probably why he was trying to strike a bargain in the first place.

A grin tugged at my lips. “Go fuck yourself.”

The god didn’t reply, but his slightly widened eyes and parted lips betrayed his surprise.

What a lunatic. Does he really think I would jump at the chance to negotiate?

The man quickly composed himself. “Kwon Su-Hyeok.”

“That’s right. Kwon Su-Hyeok, that’s my name. I’m not here to make deals with you.” I made my stance perfectly clear.

Unless he was an idiot, he would get the message.

He clenched his jaw. “There will come a day when you’ll pay for your arrogance.”

Now he is threatening me?

If this had happened on an earlier trial, I would have been shaken. By this floor, however, I had found the clarity I had been seeking.

Hostility from different gods was something I would deal with in the future. Plenty of gods had already marked themselves as my enemies, and I just had to keep climbing and get stronger. That was all.

The important point was that they couldn’t lay a finger on me at this very moment. Even in this wretched Tower of Ordeal, that single truth remained absolute.

“Arrogance? No, confidence.”

I didn’t like him, and I liked the talk of a Corrupted World Tree even less. I had no idea what that truly meant, but the notion of destroying an entire world just to obtain a single object was something I simply couldn’t comprehend.

The god, still withholding his name, bit down on his words and glowered at me.

I had no intention of prolonging the conversation, and there was no reason to.

I raised my axe. Divine energy surged through the weapon as I cleaved the air, and the crimson-violet realm split apart.

Outside, time remained frozen. It wasn’t because of Flash Strike, but rather the lingering aftermath of this unknown god’s divinity.

Before stepping through, I glanced back at him.

My lips curled into a grin as I flipped him off. “Fuck off, you moron.”

“I’ll be waiting at the top.”

I wasn’t intimidated in the slightest. That was the kind of line villains threw out when their defeat was all but guaranteed.

Without missing a beat, I replied, “Yeah, do that.”

His face contorted. Even though I had burned through a decent amount of divine energy, it felt oddly satisfying. A jolt of catharsis ran through me.

The instant I stepped forward, the crimson-tinted world vanished without a trace.

Flash Strike still remained in effect, but since I had wasted too much time on that useless bastard, my divinity was running low, and my mana reserves were nearly dry.

I threw myself back into the current of lightning and channeled my still lingering fury into my axe. The ancient machines began to fall one after another.

It was becoming more difficult to push through, but I gritted my teeth and kept swinging. My mana circuits were overheating, and I felt like I was burning.

Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine!

My axe cleaved cleanly through the final machine.

Though I had taken a strange detour midway, the entire battle had unfolded in a matter of seconds. Aside from the few that had self-destructed, I had felled all thirty-nine suits. At that moment, I released Flash Strike.

Lightning tore across the sky.

Rumble— Boom!

Thunder exploded like a storm, and blinding light illuminated the heavens. There was a fleeting moment of darkness, then dozens of machines exploded midair.

Bang! KA-BOOM!

It was a spectacular chain of detonations. Standing at the epicenter, I felt the blistering heat. It didn’t bother me, however. It felt like a grand fireworks display.

The thirty-nine blazes scorched the air ruthlessly. Seemingly waiting for the flames to die out, the battlefield remained utterly silent.

Phew.

To be honest, I was at my limit. That freak dragging me away had drained more stamina than I anticipated. My divinity was nearly depleted, and my mana had already bottomed out.

Regardless, if I wanted to carry this through to the end, I couldn’t afford to stop here.

I drew together the last remnants of my strength.

Rumble, Boom!

A massive bolt of lightning struck me. I turned to face the tribal alliance. “Those who dare to assault Euros’s Flower Forest shall face divine retribution.”

Honestly, I felt a little ridiculous saying it.

Despite that, I let my voice, laced with mana, ring out across the battlefield. The climbers behind me overheard it as well.

Ugh, how am I supposed to look them in the eye later?

I cringed internally but had no choice. It had to be done.

Contrary to my expectations, a chorus of wild cheers erupted from behind.

“

Woooooah—!

”

“Holy shit! Kwon Su-Hyeok!”

“Kwon Su-Hyeok! Kwon Su-Hyeok!”

A faint smile tugged at my lips. Though my mood was rising higher than my expression would imply, it was simply because I had nothing left to give.

Mana depletion was already setting in. I had poured out everything I had.

Considering that a god had tried to stop me, I doubted there was anything more awaiting me on this floor.

The tribespeople before me collapsed to the ground in postures of deep supplication.

“O-oh divine one of Euros’s Flower Forest!”

“Forgive us... please, forgive us...!”

Barely giving them a glance, I turned away. With the remaining lightning wrapped around my frame, I soared into the sky.

Moments later, I cloaked myself in shadow and used the Necklace of Accord to teleport to Ha Hee-Jeong. As soon as I arrived, I practically collapsed into her.

“

Huh?

”

Startled, she hesitated for a moment as she was unable to see me at first, but quickly gathered herself. Her arms wrapped around me, and I felt warm and comfortable.

***

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has prevented the World Tree from being corrupted before its birth, completing the hidden mission ‘Secrets of the Flower Forest.’ All stats increased by 5.」

「Invisible message: By completing the hidden mission ‘Secrets of the Flower Forest,’ Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has diverted the tower from its original path. The seventy-ninth floor of the Tower of Ordeal has changed.」

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok will be granted additional rewards after the World Tree is born.」