Booom! There was a huge explosion, and the tower shook wildly. After shoving all the remaining robed figures to the corners of hell, Zich’s party was climbing up when they felt it.
“Something huge is happening.”
“What? Are you scared? You get scared pretty easily for someone who claims to be the master of a magical tower.”
“I’m cautious, not scared. You should differentiate between recklessness and bravery, but I suppose an immature elf who aged for nothing wouldn’t know this.”
Fortunately, the party members’ will to fight hadn’t dwindled yet. In the first place, Zich wouldn’t have brought people who were scared just by things like this all the way to this place. But what was happening was certainly worrisome.
“What could it be?” While being carried on Leona's back, Lubella looked up. However, all she saw were cracks in the ceiling and rocks—she couldn’t exactly see what was happening.
“It’s meaningless to guess right now. We need to go up and assess the situation there. There’s a part of me that thinks that it could be Glen Zenard,” Zich said.
“That man?” He was the bastard who had played around with the betrayers inside the Karuwiman headquarters and used the title of Honorary Knight to cover up his dirty deeds. Evidently, Lubella didn’t have a good impression of the man. No, considering how she used to have faith in Glen as a previous Karuwiman Honorary Knight, she now felt more hostile toward him than toward most Bellid followers.
“Why is that man here?” she asked.
“Ultel captured him. He was tortured and locked in the upper floors of this tower.”
“Good for him.”
“Yes, it sure is nice, but if this power really belongs to him, we need to prepare ourselves.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve been prepared since I accepted my title as the Saintess.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Then let’s continue our way up.”
Zich’s party passed over the corpses of robed figures lying on the ground and climbed the staircase. Many steps later, Walwiss and Leona talked while looking up at the ceiling.
“The mana has disappeared.”
“Then, has everything been solved?”
“I don’t think it’d be that easy. I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Til replied.
“A mercenary’s intuition is a scary thing, especially from a skilled mercenary.” Walwiss also appeared to not think positively of the situation, and after hearing Til’s thoughts, he felt as if his thoughts had been confirmed.
“Let’s continue to climb up,” Zich said.
The party members were about to climb the stairs again when the tower shook violently. Booom! They heard a loud explosion.
“As I thought, it doesn’t seem like the situation will progress that easily.” Walwiss clicked his tongue. Explosions continued, and the tower continued to shake accordingly. Every time this happened, they sensed an enormous amount of mana.
“Let’s move quickly.”
“Quickly? Aren’t we already going...” Leona trailed off after Zich took action.
Bam! Estellade’s light struck the ceiling. A giant pillar of light shot up and penetrated the ceiling, leaving a huge hole. A blue sky peeked through the hole.
Leona’s lips were still parted when Zich stated, “It’s a shortcut.”
“...Yes, it really is a shortcut.” It was one that could lead them right through the ceiling of the tower.
“There was no need for us to take the stairs,” Walwiss joked, but there was no power in his voice. Even though he had given up now, the sight of a wide hole in the center of a magical tower that could be the hotspot for research filled him with great lament. Still, the team continued to go up through the shortcut that Zich made. Zich, Til, and Leona swiftly jumped up. Lubella was still on Leona’s back.
“Why didn’t you make this shortcut before?” Lubella asked while glancing at the hole they passed through. It had been a while since the mana coming to this tower broke off, and they were able to destroy this tower. If Zich had made such a shortcut before, they could’ve caught Ultel earlier.
“I wanted Ultel to suffer.”
“Specifically, how, sir?”
“It’s obvious why that guy went up the tower. It’s to fix the teleportation circle somehow, but that won’t get fixed no matter what.” Since the World Tree’s mana had been cut off to this side of the island, there was no way Ultel could fix it now.
“That guy wouldn’t give up hope. He would try all sorts of methods to try to fix the circle.”
“So, in short, he’s going to do all he can out of hope and despair in the end?”
“Yes, doesn’t that please you?”
“Very much so!”
As expected, the two met eye-to-eye in the matter of tormenting Ultel. After going up several more stairs, Zich’s party reached an outer wall that was mostly crushed and had a giant hole through it. Through it, they saw the bright blue sky and the lake’s clear waters. When they looked down, they saw the monsters and the undead crushed under the tower’s remains. The tower’s remains had flown quite far away, and there were even monsters that had dropped into the waters. From a glance, one could tell that a great power had struck the tower’s outer walls with a single blow.
“That must be the result of the explosion we heard earlier.” Walwiss carefully observed the traces of destruction. “It doesn’t seem like magic or a weapon was used to carve it out. The attacker just expelled mana out to break apart this section of the wall.”
“How strong do you think this person is?”
“No matter how wise of a mage I am, I can’t assess my opponent’s level with just this. Can you tell?”
“There are no elf skills that allow that either.”
“Well, that only means we have to face this opponent in person.”
They still had some floors to cover. The fewer staircases they had left, the closer they were to this mysterious opponent. Yet, what they discovered first wasn’t the owner behind the massive mana.
“Kurh, kkkugrrrrrrgh....!” With a repressed groan, the man was crawling on the ground. No, it wasn’t even repressed. He could not even raise his voice because the pain was too intense.
“...You really turned into a bug,” Lubella said, coldly watching the groaning man. Ultel collapsed onto the floor, and as he crawled desperately across the ground, he appeared exactly like a bug.
His lower body was gone. The intestines protruding from his abdomen had been dragged along and painted the floor red. Anyone could see that he wasn’t going to last long. Rather, the fact that he was still breathing even in this condition showed how strong his vitality was. However, even this would soon end. No matter how strong and great he was, a human couldn’t recover from an injury like that. Lubella would be able to treat him, but there was no way she would give him such a blessing. Thus, the only thing left for Ultel was death.
Zich approached him. When he saw a foot in front of him, Ultel looked up. Ultel’s eyes became cloudy as blood flowed out of his mouth. However, when he realized that the person in front of him was Zich, some light came back to his eyes.
“Zi...ch...”
“Yeah, it’s your friend, Zich.” Zich squatted next to Ultel. His gaze moved towards Ultel’s missing lower body. “Oh my, it looks painful. Are you okay?”
“Aghhhhhhh!” Ultel screamed as Zich pressed down on his wound with a concerned expression. His screams were incomparable to the strained groans he had made before.
“But you’re still healthy. You still have the energy to scream like this.” Then Zich hit Ultel’s wound as if he was rebuking a child for pretending to be injured, and he put enormous strength into his hand.
“Aughhhhhhhahhhhhhhhhh!” Naturally, Ultel screamed again to the point that his throat could rip.
“Huh? You weren’t faking it? This is really worrisome. Where does it hurt? Is it here? Or over here? Or here?”
“S-stop... Arghhhhhhhh!”
Zich’s hands were instantly covered with blood. Ultel struggled to stop Zich, but it was useless. Zich toyed with Ultel for a while and then called out to Lubella. “Saintess, would you be able to cure this guy?”
“What? Why? Even God Karuna, who embraces all living beings in the world, ordered us to kill Bellu and the Bellids by trampling over them on sight, not to show our grace and kindness to them.”
“Of course, I’m not asking you to fully heal him. I also don’t want to keep seeing his face, but since he’s literally seconds away from death, would you be able to let him live for a little longer?”
“Well, if that’s the case...” Lubella stretched out her staff towards Ultel. A soft and warm holy energy flowed around the staff. However, her expression was exactly like a person forced to stretch out her hand to catch a bug that had infiltrated her home. When Lubella’s holy energy reached Ultel, his expression became calmer and more comfortable. However, the difference was minimal. Even if he was treated, Lubella’s treatment was equivalent to pouring only a bucket of water on a blazing fire. However, this was enough to extend Ultel’s life for a little longer as Zich intended.
“Huff! Huff! Huff!” Ultel gasped for breath as it became slightly easier to breathe.
“Who attacked you?” Zich asked bluntly. “Was it Glen Zenard?”
“...!”
“I’m right, aren’t I?” Zich confirmed his suspicion as he saw fury and hatred flash across Ultel’s face. “Geez, you really are pathetic. How can you be defeated by Glen Zenard of all people?”
“You punk...you think...you’re any different?!”
“Yes, we’re different. Very much.” Zich’s expression did not change in the slightest, even with Ultel’s vicious voice. “At least I don’t crawl around like a bug, spilling my guts like you. Ah, should I not say like a bug since you really became a bug?”
“You also got... Aghhhhh!”
Zich pressed down on his wound as Ultel tried to mention what happened to Zich in his previous timeline. He trusted his current party members, but there was no need for them to know about regression as well. “Like you said, he’s beaten me before. However, I’m well and alive right now like this. The last person standing wins in the end, and you’re on the ground like this. There will be no next time.”
“You bastard...you’ll meet the same end as me.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not like you?”
“He-hehe! You don't know...what state...Glen Zenard is currently in.”
“Yeah, I was curious about that. Why don’t you spill the tea? How did he gain such an enormous amount of mana when he was basically on the brink of death?”
“You think...I’d tell you?!”
“Hey, don’t be so stingy like that when we are such good friends.”
“Aghhhhhhhh!” Ultel spazzed as Zich pressed on his wound again.
“Damn, I didn’t think you had any faith in the slightest, but as the Bellid pope, you’re good at mimicking a fish. What do you think, Saintess? Doesn’t this remind you of the past?”
“Are you talking about when we first met? Come to think of it, that guy was also good at mimicking a fish.”
Zich and Lubella reminisced about a fond memory in the past while a human covered in blood was struggling with intense pain.
“Hey, let’s talk about Glen Zenard again. Ah, you don’t have to worry about the time. We still have time left, at least until Glen Zenard makes his move.” Zich looked up. He felt a presence above him, but it wasn’t moving at all.
“Heh, hee...! As soon as he locks you in as his target...your life...will be over.”
“I told you, didn’t I? I’m not like you. When will you finally understand?”
“No matter how great you are...you can’t fight...against the power of the...last emperor of Clowon...”
The last emperor of the Clowon Empire—unexpected and concerning words came out of Ultel’s mouth.
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