Chapter 391: The Time He Waited And Took (4)

From the moment he was forged, he was a sword.

“

Oh!

It’s done!”

“He’s finally forged!”

Many people didn’t remember the moment they were brought into the world. Only after time had grown enough to the point where they could endure their soul, real consciousness arose within them. This continuous flow of consciousness created memories. For him, the lengths of his existence and memories were the same.

“It’s finally done!”

“The great protector has been created!”

“We have finally made him!”

Those around him, who had been whole from the start, called him...

“The Sword of Beginning!”

He looked at the people around him.

“

Ooh!

”

“O Sword of Beginning!”

The people before him looked poor. Their thin fingers proved that all they had held in life had fallen away like sand. Those trembling fingers, like many strands of seaweed swaying in the ocean depths, grasped his sleeves.

The poor people spoke to him.

“Our sorrow.”

“Our pain.”

“Our disappointment.”

“Our despair.”

“Our agony.”

“The oppression we’re under.”

“Our hunger.”

“Our thirst.”

“Please recognize them!”

“Please take responsibility!”

They cried out in unison, “Please save us!”

He stared at them, then turned his head away. The people behind him were weak. Their trembling legs showed how hard their journeys had been and how much they feared the paths they still had to walk. One by one, they kneeled before him.

“Our future.”

“Our fear.”

“Our hope.”

“Our longing.”

“Our waiting.”

“Our regret.”

“Our terror.”

“Our wishes.”

“Please feel them!”

“Please bear them!”

“Please take responsibility!”

The weak cried out together, “Please lead us!”

In this cave, light had never entered since the Great First Strike. Where only festering darkness rotted and lingered, many people had gathered. Wherever he turned, he saw crowds begging him the same things over and over.

From the moment he was forged, he was a perfect sword. This meant that his targets and reason to fight had already been prepared.

He was the protagonist of this world.

The one who oversaw the ritual stepped forward and said, “This world exists solely for you. All humans but you are mere phantoms. Scarecrows. Empty shells.”

The leader didn’t seem poor or weak. In fact, he seemed strong.

“If there is a reason others exist in this world, it’s solely to be defeated by you. To prove that you are right.”

He pointed to the poor.

“To be saved by you.”

He pointed to the weak.

“To be protected by you.”

He pointed outside the cave, then back to himself.

“To be surpassed by you.”

The Sword of Beginning felt that the man was telling the truth.

Is that so?

He understood.

In this wide world, am I the only one who is special?

He was alone.

***

Twilight fell. The shadows left by the sun slowly eroded. The darkness spread like stars fixed to the sky, each taking its rightful spot. Eventually, it would all turn black, but one spider was now dying in the twilight that was still taking root.

Beside the shaking spider, thin fingers trembled. They belonged to a pale, slender woman. Greenish blue veins were visible on the back of her hand. Those veins went up her thin wrist, reaching the long arm that was like a winter branch.

Buried in the dirt and gasping for breath, the Gray Spider was dying. The river of bad blood that the Magic Tower had dug, the grudges she had gathered, and the endless challenges defeated her, the woman who had once been the empress of the fiftieth floor.

Beside the dying Gray Spider, someone said, “We won. Finally, we’ve won.”

The Gray Spider knew whose voice it was. It didn’t matter that it was dark. Even though she had nearly lost her sight and hearing, she still knew. Despite the many people gathered around her to watch her die, she could tell precisely who was speaking. She knew everyone standing around her.

“You monster!”

The man who had just spat out those words was named Rodrick. He was a werewolf from the White Wolf Realm who had lost his parents and siblings to the Magic Tower she once led.

For decorations, the mages of the Magic Tower frequently used Moonring Stones, which were found deep in the hearts and brains of werewolves. The more the werewolves were starved, the more vivid the Moonring Stones’ color became. Thus, the Magic Tower’s standard protocol of harvesting Moonring Stones was to chain werewolves and starve them to death.

“You demon...”

The sobbing woman’s name was Yi Chunlin, and she came from the Dragonflower Realm. Her species, called Dilik, resembled trees rather than humans. The species was a very rare case among the forms of sentient life. Their power grew without limits, and the invasions they had led on other worlds had inflated their egos.

The Magic Tower’s mages believed that the Diliks’ rarity made them valuable. Many of the known mages planted Diliks in pots and tended to them, trimming the Diliks’ limbs to suit their taste. Once a year, they bore tasty fruit that increased the consumer’s mana, so it was considered a delicacy.

“

I

wanted to kill her.”

The Gray Spider also knew the name of the one who muttered these words.

“I’m the one who had the right to kill her.”

She also knew where the person baring her teeth had come from.

“I.”

“Only I.”

“I alone.”

Each and every one of them had reasons to wish for her death. The Gray Spider was the queen of the Magic Tower. Everything that the Magic Tower had done was her responsibility. She wasn’t exactly innocent, either. Her hands were red, bloody red, after spilling too much unnecessary blood.

“I was first.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I was before you in the order of challenges.”

“Why couldn’t she hold out until it was my turn...”

Growling swirled around the Gray Spider. The trembling web woven from words and breath of hatred stung and cut her flesh.

Someone stepped forward.

“Enough.”

The Gray Spider also knew who that was. The person who had wished for her death more than any other was the same who had defeated her just now.

“What?”

“Do you think winning the challenge gives you the right to tell us what to do here?”

“Don’t tell me you pity this monster.”

People bared their teeth. To those stripped of their skin by the Magic Tower and forced to expose their flesh, anything felt like a harsh wind.

The last challenger calmly answered, “We didn’t come here to fight each other.”

The crowd fell silent because they felt that her calmness was fragile, like a card tower on ice.

Suppressing her emotions, the challenger looked down at the Gray Spider. “You’re dying, aren’t you?”

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The Gray Spider’s lips parted weakly. Instead of words, only a gurgle of blood-tinged foam escaped her mouth before she closed it. That didn’t matter to the challenger since she wasn’t interested in the Gray Spider’s answer. No, she was actually interested a lot, but she was suppressing her intrigue.

“I hope you just die like this.” The challenger crouched and added in a whisper, “I beg you. Don’t show any resolve or determination to overcome this moment. Don’t struggle or try to leave last words. Just die like this. I won’t give you a dramatic death.”

Her words carried a curse.

“There won’t be a coffin or a grave for you to be buried in. No one will know the date of your death, so no one will commemorate your death anniversary. Die in your loneliness. I wish your death will simply fade into nothing.”

Silence followed. No one spoke. The rest agreed with the challenger and felt the same bone-chilling hatred. Just as the Gray Spider couldn’t forgive her gods, they couldn’t forgive her either. That was all there was to it, and some things in the world just ended like that. The Gray Spider knew this, too. She was the one who knew this the best.

“I.” The Gray Spider coughed. “I, I...”

She stretched out her thin hand. The crowd tensed. Even the last challenger, who had been spouting curses, flinched and reached for her weapon.

They were all mistaken. The Gray Spider merely reached for the night sky. Her fingers, curled like hooks, grasped the starry sky once before letting go.

Thump.

Her hand fell, and that was the end of it. The Gray Spider couldn’t even open her mouth as she was no longer alive.

“Is she dead?”

“She’s dead.”

Some approached and poked the Gray Spider’s body with the tips of their weapons. When there was still no response, a sigh of relief spread through the crowd, but the moment was brief. That relief soon turned to doubt. Whispers began again.

“What was she trying to say?”

“She probably wanted to go out with a cocky remark.”

“No, she was going to pathetically beg for her life.”

“Maybe she was going to apologize.”

“Or...”

In the dark field, the whispers spread fast like wildfire.

The last challenger shouted, “Stop!”

The people froze, their words halting on their lips.

“Don’t discuss that,” the last challenger said through clenched teeth.

It was as if she were putting out the last flame of a forest fire.

“Don’t try to understand what she meant or try to deliver her words to others. To harm an enemy, you should know them. Understanding your enemy will allow you to kill them. Trying to understand the Gray Spider while fighting her is enough. Now that she’s dead, there’s no need to do that anymore,” the last challenger said firmly. “Just forget it.”

The others nodded.

“She’s right,” someone chimed in.

Another person added, “Being forgotten is the rightful hell she belongs in.”

As the last challenger had proposed, they decided to forget the Gray Spider’s existence. However... everyone knew that would be impossible. In the end, her death had left a deep scar on those gathered here, just as her life had.

“Damn it...”

This frustrated and enraged the last challenger so much that she had no choice but to turn away, her jaw still clenched. The Gray Spider’s body was left in the field, unclaimed, but she wasn’t left alone.

A quiet announcement echoed.

[One of the Nine Keys has been forged.]

[The one who faced the greatest turning point in fate because of you doesn’t resent you, even though she met her end because of it.]

[The ninety-fourth floor has been cleared.]

The one who heard the announcement quietly looked down at the Gray Spider’s corpse. A soul didn’t rise from her shell, nor did the soul recognize him or the Sword Emperor beside him. Just as before her death, the Gray Spider didn’t receive forgiveness and didn’t make up with her victims.

Yet.

It didn’t happen yet. The one who heard the announcement knew the day would come someday, no matter how long it would take. For that to happen, he would help them. He had known for a long time that this was his calling, given the role he had chosen.

[Entering the ninety-fifth floor.]

To do so, he would have to climb the Tower.