Chapter 303: The Gray Spider (2)

Blood spurted out.

The Gray Spider looked down at the corpse indifferently. When she raised her head and looked around, she saw someone particularly delicate shaking like an aspen tree. It was funny.

The Gray Spider smiled. “Are you trembling?”

“

Hic, ah... Eek...

”

“Why are you trembling?”

The Gray Spider waved her hand. As if caught by an invisible hand, the person was instantly pulled right in front of her.

“

Hieeeeeek!

”

“You said you’re a god. A god shouldn’t tremble. If you tremble, you look like a human, not a god. The species that served you as gods would be disappointed if they saw you now.” The Gray Spider tilted her head slightly left. “

Ah

, I guess they can’t be too disappointed since they’re all dead.”

“P-please spare me! Don’t kill me! Spare me!”

“Yeah, I like that. Some words never get old, no matter how many times you hear them. Like when someone begs to be spared at the end of their life. You can hear every word I say right now, correct? You’re probably concentrating with all your might on what I’m saying, wondering if I’ll spare or kill you.” The Gray Spider tilted her head to the right this time. “You could have done that earlier.”

Blood spurted out.

“

Aaaah!!!!

”

“Hey. I heard from your colleague that there’s another world where your gods live. Maybe I should call that place heaven. I want to go there to play. Can you tell me how to get there secretly?”

“

Ah, ugh, argh!

Aaaah

, spare me. Please don’t kill me...!”

The Gray Spider tapped the tip of the person’s nose she had in front of her. “Don’t cry. I already told you a way out.”

The person was at a loss for a moment.

“Come on.”

“Send... Send me back...”

A pool of pure white light enveloped the person.

The Gray Spider smiled. “So that’s how it works?”

That day, a Tower burned down. The massacre was easy. The gods had left their expedition to a small number of warriors. Except for a few of them, they couldn’t use auras and weren’t skilled in magic. Boring. It spoiled the Gray Spider’s fun. Destroying the five species that the gods ruled had been more difficult than this.

She heard footsteps behind her, so she turned around. A blond-haired girl was staring at the Gray Spider, her hands clasped behind her. The girl said, “This is unprecedented. The subjugated species rebelled and destroyed the ruling species.”

“Who are you?” the Gray Spider asked.

“I’m the Mirage-Walking Princess. Just call me Princess.”

“I didn’t ask for your name.”

“Well, I’m kind of like a guide for those people.”

The princess raised her finger and pointed down the mountain. The city was burning like a kiln. A magic wall of earth surrounded the city’s outskirts, and within the wall, all life burnt.

“But they all died or will soon meet a worse fate. Well, I guess there’s nothing that can be done about it.” The princess smiled brightly. “Congratulations! From now on, your species is the ruler of this Tower! This is an unexpected situation, but it’s not like you broke the rules, either. Your species participated fairly on the fortieth floor’s stage. Now that you’re the only surviving species, you’re qualified to go up to the fiftieth floor.”

The Gray Spider was silent. It wasn’t that she was panicking. Too much information was coming in at once, and it took some time to process it. By combining the information she had obtained while slaughtering the gods and what the princess had just mentioned, the Gray Spider was able to uncover the truth without difficulty.

However, there was one question that she couldn’t figure out on my own, so she asked, “Besides us, are there any other species that serve the gods?”

“Yeah.”

“Those who climb the floors, do they all go to the fiftieth floor like this? Make the others serve them as gods and treat them as lesser beings?”

“It doesn’t have to be that way, but they all do.”

“So, all the people who reached the fiftieth floor were treated as gods?”

“Yeah, at least for now.”

A smile appeared on the Gray Spider’s lips. “Thank you.”

“Why?”

“I got a reason not to die just now.”

***

The Spiders and I knew we were each other’s formidable enemies the moment our eyes met.

“All of you, even though it’s been decades since we last worked together, don’t tell me that you’ve rusted so much that you can’t kill a single kid who recently came up to the fiftieth floor.”

“I’m too old to fight just on intuition. Let’s all switch to Aura Telepathy and exchange tactics.”

“I’m sorry, but that won’t work.”

“Why?”

“That guy, the Death King dude, is listening to our conversation right now.”

The Spiders chattered as they charged forward. They were all using their auras to communicate quickly. Before their pitch-black cloaks could flutter even once, the Spiders had exchanged countless thoughts.

To the north of the city, I sensed dozens of Spiders casting spells. A group in the east had jumped over the wall. Perhaps they were using a stealth spell to circle and ambush me from behind.

“Really? That means he’s not a complete beginner. I sped up the transmission just now.”

“Speed it up even more. That kid is following us with his eyes.”

“More?”

“More.”

“Stop.”

“How about now? If I compress Aura Transmission even more, there will be some among us who can’t hear.”

“It’s no use. He’s still listening to us,”

one of the Spiders muttered coldly.

It seemed that this particular Spider had temporarily assumed command. If not as a commander, then at least as a sentry.

“And he’s doing it with ease. He’s using aura more quickly than us.”

“Ugh, that’s ridiculous!”

“He’s not doing anything except just... standing there. Are you sure he’s not just pretending to listen?”

“No. He’s standing still...”

I smiled.

Got you.

“I transfer the command to the Bonethorn Marchioness!”

the sentry Spider shouted.

I abandoned a piece of my memories, unleashed my aura, and fired it toward the direction where her voice came from.

Boooooooom!

The location where she had been hiding was cut down. It was a shabby, three-story apartment balcony that no one would have noticed. I could distinctly sense the Spiders holding their breath.

“Attention. I’m the Bonethorn Marchioness,”

a different Spider announced in a dry tone, very clearly suppressing her rage against me.

“I’m the one in command now. I’ll prohibit any Spiders below the rank of viscount to use Aura Transmission.”

“Fuck. You’re crazy.”

“Agreed.”

“Did he just kill Serena in one blow?”

“She’s not dead. Though I don’t know if that is good news or not.”

“Oh, please. Don’t tell me he’s going easy on us. I suddenly don’t feel like fighting anymore.”

“Phase the communication.”

“You idiots! Phase Aura Transmission into two stages! It doesn’t matter if only a viscount or higher can understand it, so speed it up! Each captain can relay the orders to their unit afterward!”

“Ready.”

“I’ll take that order. Falling Skys, get ready for bombing.”

“Speed it up! More! More!”

“He’s no joke! Brace yourselves!”

“Wait a minute. Everyone, hold on. The blow just now was that of the Constellation Murderer’s—”

Found you.

The first sentry had handed over command to a Spider that was the furthest away from me, probably because she thought they would be able to hold out a little longer that way. However, that was exactly why it was easy to read their move. I immediately focused my attention on the northern part of the city after taking down the sentry.

A dry voice had come from nearby and pretended to be the commander, prohibiting the usage of Aura Transmission or telling people to get ready for bombing. It was a feint. The voice didn’t belong to the Bonethorn Marchioness.

Well, maybe she was actually the Bonethorn Marchioness, but she wasn’t the commander-in-chief. The true commander was the one who had been giving short, concise instructions like “Agreed,” “Phase the communication,” and “Ready.”

It was a pretty elaborate feint, probably something they had agreed on before the battle began, though I wasn’t fooled.

“Warning!”

I swung my arm, firing my charged aura strike. This attack was stronger than the previous one. The sword strike tore through the sky and the city’s north wall, cutting down a short Spider who had been lying in wait within the walls. Just before she was rendered incapacitated, she chose to shout for her comrades, instead of trying to retreat with a sliver of hope.

“The target is at the level of the Constellation Murderer! Warning! The target—”

The voice then stopped, enveloping the Spider Web in silence. Some gritted their teeth. Others clicked their tongues or spat. However, no one uttered a word. Not a single person. Thousands of elite Spiders fell silent, as if they had never chattered to distract me in the first place.

The fight continued.

“Good choice. Even if you have a commander, they’ll just get sniped, so it would be better for you guys to attack me separately. Well, that makes the strategy of gathering thousands of people together lose its meaning. Anyhow, it’s not entirely accurate to say that I’m at the Constellation Murderer’s level.”

A bombardment of magic from the Spiders to the north struck me. I watched the blue magic cannon beams falling and dodged them with precise steps.

Boom! Boooooom!

“I’m stronger than him.”

The attack unit that had been circling the outskirts of the city was now behind me. The group had a total of twenty-four people. It seemed like they were a unit specializing in assassination. They swung their swords, their lower faces covered with masks. Although it didn’t reach the level of formula art, the formation was remarkably close to perfection.

I swung the holy sword in homage to them. “What a pity. If I was at the same level before I got to the fortieth floor, this would have killed me.”

The Demonic Heaven Arts.

First Form:

Starvation Death.

The surroundings became chaotic in an instant as ghostly hands rose from my shadow. They grabbed the Spiders by their wrists, ankles, and necks and threw them to the ground, muffling their breaths.

“

Ugh!

”

“I’ve heard a lot about you guys,” I said.

The shadow hands didn’t stop there. Hundreds of them spread in all directions, climbing up the outer walls of the building and seeping into the cracks of the windows.

“

Ah.

”

“

Ugh?

”

“This is ridicul—”

The Spiders that had been lying low inside the buildings were knocked out one by one. Everything was on fire.

“Witches,” I said. “In any world, there is a shared stage that has to be cleared to reach the fiftieth floor. There, Hunters have to become gods and rule over their own species. You, witches, were a species that originated from the fortieth-floor world. In short, Hunters ruled over you.”

A Spider in the radius of my Demonic Heaven repelled the hands that had extended from the shadows five times; she was strong.

She shouted,

“We were wrong! We misjudged! He didn’t involve the Constellations because he needed their power to defeat us! It’s the other way around. He wanted to lure all of us together, and then, damn it! Then we’d limit our attack range because we’re worried about each other getting hurt!”

“But the Hunters who ruled you made a mistake.”

Thump.

Her fifth counterattack didn’t lead to a sixth. One of the shadow hands struck the back of her neck and pressed her acupoint, making the Spider fall into a deep sleep.

“Fuck! Does staying silent even do anything?”

“Their mistake is that they chose to sacrifice your species. Treat the other five species with care, but turn the witches into scapegoats. They’ll be the ones to receive people’s wrath and condemnation for the gods.”

“She’s right! We’ll get attacked even if we stay quiet!”

“Outnumber him!”

“That may have been a good strategy, but they didn’t consider the possibility that you would grow so strong that you could wipe out the five species and even the Hunters themselves, who were revered as gods.”

“He’s a monster...”

“Bomb! Bomb!! Bomb him first and then charge!”

“Falling Skies

!

”

The web trembled. The Spiders uttered a sentence as I muttered five. We were both on an accelerated time flow, but there was an unbridgeable gap between us.

“Wipe out that crazy bastard!”

It turned out that the Falling Skies were the witches who fell from the sky. They fell with special magic wrapped all over their bodies. I couldn’t tell whether this was a suicide attack or not, so I decided to deal with them first.

“What—”

I kicked the ground and jumped straight into the air. My eyes met those of the Falling Skies. They were right in front of me, close enough for me to see their trembling eyebrows. I knocked out the first Spider by touching her forehead.

Demonic Heaven Arts.

Third Form:

Drowning Death.

There were a total of seven people in the Falling Sky unit, and I swallowed them all with the torrent of my aura. It was their mistake to lose their cool for even a second at the sight of their leader being knocked out. All the unit members lost consciousness and fell helplessly to the ground.

I was the one who made it to the ground first to catch the Falling Skies one by one and place them gently on the ground. They were already unconscious and groaned, as if they were suffering from a nightmare.

“You always have to consider all possibilities, even the possibility that someone you thought was nothing might be stronger than you.” I brushed the dust off my hands. “Isn’t that right, guys? We all make the same mistakes. We all live, make mistakes, and learn from one another. If possible, we try to correct our shortcomings. I think that’s how life should be. I’m sure we can help each other.”

Aura fire came from hundreds of directions, moving like waving hands.

Someone muttered, “Death King... is the Great Demon King...”

“That’s a fabricated rumor, you know,” I said with an awkward smile.