Chapter 399: Eighty-Eighth Floor, the Factory of Decay (2)

[Destroy the factory. Time remaining: 23 hours 35 minutes.]

The Apostle of Decay stood atop the factory under the deep violet sky, gazing down at the battlefield as if simply observing us.

It lasted only a fleeting instant, but it felt as if a hush had fallen across the battlefield. Every climber froze in place mid-motion.

A surge of hostile energy sent chills down the backs of their necks.

Rumble, KA-BOOM!

As if in response, a bolt of lightning crashed from the heavens, splitting the sky with a deafening roar. The sound snapped the climbers out of their daze.

Of course, Su-Hyeok would react quickest.

Ha Hee-Jeong, who had been about to shout to jolt them back to their senses, seized the moment. “Keep moving! Don’t stop!”

Alexei and Turen immediately came back to their senses and slammed their feet into the ground.

“Advance!”

Reinvigorated, the climbers surged forward once more.

As she kept a sharp eye on the battlefield, Ha Hee-Jeong cast a glance toward the Apostle of Decay. It was an unnatural creature, something grotesque.

Can that thing even be called alive?

That was the first thought that crossed her mind upon seeing it. It had two legs and arms, but even calling it a monster didn’t feel quite right.

It had dark green flesh that was tinged a purple—so dark that it could be confused as black—that bubbled with constant decay. Its skin was endlessly rotting, regenerating, and rotting again.

Even its eyes were boiling over, to the point that she wondered if it could see anything at all.

From a distance, it looked as if millions of tiny insects were squirming just beneath its skin. In the simplest terms, it was living decay.

It is revolting. Makes me want to burn it to ash.

Ha Hee-Jeong felt a visceral, instinctive revulsion and a powerful urge to destroy it. Its very existence radiated discomfort.

That was only heightened by the sheer intensity of its presence. Not quite at the level of Endless Furnace, but substantial for an apostle.

She began to wonder whether Kwon Su-Hyeok would even be able to assist them at all.

I will have to take this more seriously.

Lightning continued to fall, and the climbers pressed on. Despite that, the Apostle of Decay didn’t move. It remained perfectly still, watching Kwon Su-Hyeok with eerie silence.

Then, it slowly raised a hand to the sky. Violet divinity surged upward, and in that moment, the lightning that had filled the sky above the factory ceased.

Kwon Su-Hyeok narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on the apostle, and the apostle returned the stare. He didn’t particularly like that it was just standing there.

***

What is this? What is with the smug act?

It was honestly a bit absurd. The thing had an impressive aura, but it wasn’t nearly strong enough to be acting so arrogantly.

Is it insane?

I briefly considered whether it had lost its sense of reason, overwhelmed by the power it had absorbed.

That is probably it.

If this was all it amounted to, even after absorbing divinity, then it had to have been far weaker than me before sacrificing the source of this factory. It had become drunk on its own strength.

Hmph. Maybe the trial is limiting its ability to communicate with its god?

If I were Glorious Decay, watching this scene from above, I would have been furious by now.

A smirk crept onto my face.

Well, fine by me.

The path to the factory was already cleared. Troops would start pouring out soon, but for now, that didn’t matter.

I kicked off the ground, transforming once more into lightning.

Acceleration.

As the wind roared past me, the corpses of fallen beasts streaked by, entering and passing my peripheral vision like blurry fragments.

I had already slain the strongest apostle. If that one couldn’t even dodge one of my strikes, the others wouldn’t fare any better.

Already in the face of one, I cleaved it vertically in half. Then, tensing the muscles in my thigh, I changed direction sharply.

One more.

A precise burst of Aura later, and the two apostles crumpled almost simultaneously. Rotting green blood sprayed high into the air.

Still playing it cool?

The Apostle of Decay remained suspended above.

What exactly is it trying to do? Is it waiting for me to come?

I released my lightning form and glanced back. The climbers were staring at me in stunned silence.

‘

Seriously? Was it really that easy?

’

They didn’t say it aloud, but their dazed faces said enough. I had obliterated two apostles in a single strike, and that was all it took.

Unfazed, I locked eyes with Ha Hee-Jeong. “Hee-Jeong! Go inside!”

“Got it!”

“I’m leaving the rest to you!”

“Don’t worry!”

Even before I heard her reply, I turned away. The factory gate loomed just ahead, and I fired off another blast of lightning.

The monsters rushing toward me crumbled beneath the strike, clearing an open space as they fell. However, the Apostle of Decay remained rooted in the same spot.

A creeping sense of unease began to settle in my chest. This wasn’t just arrogance. Perhaps it was in the process of growing stronger as well.

No way, is it transforming?

It wasn’t displaying any visible signs of that, but the longer it remained still, the more unsettled I felt.

I couldn’t claim to know everything. Like many, I never understood why comic book villains tended to stand idly by while the protagonist underwent a dramatic transformation.

Yet, it suddenly occurred to me. I was on the verge of committing that same absurd mistake.

Feeling a surge of urgency, I kicked off the ground. As I soared upward, the apostle finally moved.

Guess it isn’t transforming.

It twisted and raised its massive greatsword, taking a battle stance. Apparently, it really had just been watching me this entire time. What gave it that kind of confidence, I couldn’t say.

The oppressive tension I had felt earlier began to ease just slightly.

Regardless, with how much momentum I had from my leap, I had the advantage. If this were a gunfight, the high ground would be helpful, but this wasn’t that kind of battle.

As I brought my axe to my right, it let out a guttural, beast-like growl and crouched. The next moment, it launched itself forward. The distance between us vanished in an instant, and our weapons collided mid-air.

Clang!

A veritable explosion of metal occurred as we clashed. The shockwave from the impact rippled out in all directions.

My axe almost flew out of my hands, so I tightened my grip around it.

My strike had so much force behind it that it pushed the bastard’s greatsword slightly back. I didn’t let the moment slip.

Digging in with both hands, I shoved it away.

There is no telling what the aftermath of our battle will look like.

We were directly above the climbers, so I would have to force the apostle back to keep them safe.

It thrust its nearly three-meter-long greatsword at me. I twisted my wrist, guiding my blade to intercept. The sword glanced off Souldbound’s blade, and in the same breath, I drove the head of my axe straight at its chest.

The axe wasn’t as long or sharp as a blade, but the force behind my strike was more than enough to be destructive. Sensing the danger, it pulled back at the waist and narrowly dodged.

Separate from our physical clash, two distinct divine energies writhed in the surrounding air, locked in a fierce struggle of their own.

What the fuck did it consume to end up like this?

When it came to total divinity, it matched or even exceeded me—that didn’t fully surprise me, though. What I did find absurd, however, was that it was far weaker than I.

I deflected the incoming slash with a gentle parry, causing the greatsword to slip along Soulbound and lose its potency.

It wasn’t a matter of strength, just skill. Off balance, it sliced uselessly through the air.

“

Oh

, Glorious Decay!” it cried out.

However, just because it shouted didn’t mean the opening I had created would vanish. Using my axe as a point to pivot on, I spun. The heel of my left foot, carried by the force of the turn, struck the apostle’s shoulder squarely.

Thud.

For a brief moment, the boiling rot clung to my foot, but it couldn’t pierce through my divinity.

The apostle flew toward the ground and crashed into the top of a factory.

Boom!

It smashed through the roof, driven deep inside by the force.

What the hell? Why is this motherfucker so weak?

Honestly, when Glorious Decay had tried to stop me earlier, I had figured the trial wouldn’t be much of a problem. If the apostle were strong enough to defeat me, they wouldn’t have shown up in person.

Therefore, I was a little surprised when I saw the bastard had consumed something. Its strength had exceeded my expectations, at least outwardly.

Then it turned out to be even weaker than expected.

Despite having a presence overwhelming enough to make me tense, in the end, it had only borrowed some strength. Its divinity surpassed mine, but it had no idea how to wield it. It honestly felt like I was fighting a rookie.

Actually, maybe I am just too strong.

Thinking about it that way made it easier to accept—although it was probably just the truth. Perhaps I was still overthinking everything, even after reaching this level.

Either way, though the fight was anticlimactic, it wasn’t a bad thing. If anything, it was better this way.

The battle against Endless Furnace had taught me a lot, but that had mostly been through mental simulations. In real combat, I had only won because I had wounded it with the divine horn—and resurrected.

The apostle will be kind of fun to toy with. Well, maybe that isn’t the best way to put it.

As a sparring partner, however, it was more than sufficient. I had been itching to move a bit anyway.

Grinning, I shot down toward the crumbling factory. A glance to the side confirmed that the Forces of Decay were swarming toward the climbers.

Ha Hee-Jeong’s wall of fire had carved a path through the battlefield, but there were simply too many of them.

I extended my divinity to the heavens once again.

Boom!

Lightning rampaged throughout the battlefield.

***

Turen was nearly at a loss for words.

Just minutes earlier, he had thought nothing could scare him, not even an army of millions. Reality had proved him wrong. The true Apostle of Decay’s aura had plunged both him and the other climbers into pure terror.

Even after Kwon Su-Hyeok had snapped them out of it, the fear lingered.

Sure, Kwon Su-Hyeok was holding off the apostle, but the other six thousand of them still had to face off millions of decaying monsters.

Or so they thought.

It turned out that they were very wrong. In less than five exchanges—and not even thirty seconds—Kwon Su-Hyeok had already sent the Apostle of Decay flying and crashing into the factory.

Moreover, the lightning had shielded them the whole time.

While the climbers, their backs against the factory’s outer wall, fought desperately to hold the line, Kwon Su-Hyeok was on a different battlefield entirely. He had even destroyed part of the factory by throwing the apostle into it.

This is insane. Is he just playing around with an apostle?

Turen was dumbfounded. He even felt ashamed of how much he had worried earlier.

Even now, lightning continued to rain down in their defense. Ha Hee-Jeong’s firestorms were still cutting through enemy lines.

Naturally, one question took root in every climber’s mind.

Wouldn’t he have handled this even more easily without us?

Still, even calling it easy was underselling what they felt. Clearly, Kwon Su-Hyeok was deliberately giving them all a chance to fight. He could have killed the apostle long ago, but instead, he offered minimal help as he toyed with it.

So far, not a single climber has died. The priests were healing the injured on the spot.

It was insane.

Turen couldn’t stop a dry laugh from slipping through his lips.

Fine. If you are going to do this for us, I will make the most of it.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

He thrust his crescent-bladed spear forward.

Time passed.

Boom!

The Apostle of Decay, who had been flying around the distant factory ruins, suddenly came crashing down in front of the climbers.

They flinched in alarm, but its mangled appearance and Kwon Su-Hyeok rapidly appearing behind it put their fears to rest.

***

Damn it. I sent it the wrong way.

I had been aiming to hit it into a nearby building, but in a final act of defiance, the apostle had swung its greatsword, messing up my blow. It ended up flying toward the climbers instead.

I rushed over in surprise, but the bastard didn’t even seem capable of standing back up.

To be honest, it hadn’t even been worthy of a sparring match. Defeating it took too little effort. I felt ridiculous for even worrying.

Even if I shouldn’t get arrogant, something had definitely changed after I had killed Endless Furnace. That, and the battles I simulated within my mind.

The Apostle of Decay, still grotesque and rotting, now lay in an even more wretched state on the ground.

“You... you bastard...!” Its eyes boiled with hatred, which was disgusting to look at.

I wanted to admonish it for its arrogance, to inform it that this was the natural result of getting drunk on borrowed power, but I held back. The climbers were watching, and impressions always mattered.

Instead of saying anything, I simply brought my divinity-infused axe down.

Crunch.

The sound of flesh splitting and bones shattering was chilling.

That was the end. For all its showy arrival, its death had been utterly pathetic.

Glorious Decay’s divinity hovered in the air, and I refined it before absorbing it.

When I looked ahead, over six thousand climbers were staring at me, mouths agape. Ha Hee-Jeong was among them.

Honestly, since it hadn’t been a particularly challenging fight, all those stares made me feel a little awkward.

It wasn’t anything that impressive.

Ha Hee-Jeong, who had been eyeing me with a complicated expression, raised her hand and loudly called out, “All climbers! Focus on offense and advance! Advance!”

“Advance!”

***

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has slain the Factory Overseer of a High-Rank Colonized Planet. All stats increased by 2.」

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has earned a substantial degree of trust from the Koshark, Turina, and Subren climbers.」

「Invisible message: The selection process leading up to the ninety-first floor of the Tower of Ordeal has changed.」