173. Tower of Trials, 60th Floor (3)
Inside the giant armor.
Asmodeus’ true body. One hit! It melts away from just a single blow.
“W-wow, wh... what...”
Rachel’s jaw dropped open.
If no one else, she definitely knew.
Just how horrifying a boss that guy called Asmodeus was.
Even without the barrier, it had such absurd defense that you would have to beat on it all day to kill it...
And that got taken out in one hit?
“Hey, isn’t Explosive Dragon seriously broken?”
Even Aila, watching that scene from atop the wyvern, was stunned.
A monster on top of another monster.
'With that gentle, innocent-looking face, how could she.'
She could use such a ridiculous technique?!
“Huh.”
Baek Jinwoo was just as shocked.
Back in the old game, Asmodeus might have been finished off with Aso.
But the current Asmodeus was on a whole different level.
The current Asmodeus was a full ten times stronger than back then.
—Uuumm.
HunGyo was frozen with his thumb raised.
—Whoa, what is thaaaat.
—Kruk...
—Gwor?
All the summons looked at Explosive Dragon with eyes full of admiration.
'Seriously.'
Looks like her stacks really piled up like crazy in this war.
By feeling alone, that skill, Ruination, was beyond even Ruination Dragon Breath.
Above S-rank was EX-rank.
And if there was something above even that, it felt like that would be Explosive Dragon Sorcerer.
—Why is everyone staring at me like that? It’s making me uncomfortable.
That absurdly broken Explosive Dragon hid behind Baek Jinwoo and timidly peeked her head out.
“C-cough.”
—She is truly unbalanced.
—It makes no sense.
In order, Rachel, HunGyo, and Aso shook their heads.
And then.
Gooooooo...!
Around the fallen Ruination, the scattered remains of Asmodeus flew upward.
The demon army he had summoned also vanished like smoke.
[The 60th floor boss, ‘Asmodeus (S-rank)’, has been defeated.]
Wow!
Finally!
Since entering the 51st floor, that message had appeared for the first time.
[Congratulations!]
[You have conquered the 60th floor of the Tower of Trials!]
Then did that mean they could leave now?
Baek Jinwoo too.
Rachel too.
It was just as both of them stared into the empty air with expectant eyes.
Pajijik!
With small sparks crackling through his vision, the surrounding space began to disappear.
The Paladins, the demon realm. The soldiers, the wreckage.
Everything was erased, and only one thing...
Only Aila Lunares remained.
[A privilege exists.]
A privilege?
What was that supposed to mean?
[An S-rank summon awakened in the Tower of Trials may choose a player.]
[Aila Lunares, ‘Champion’ (S-rank), please choose a player.]
“What is this?”
Rachel looked at Baek Jinwoo with a bewildered expression.
“How would I know?”
He too lightly shook his head.
It was his first time seeing an awakening too. And his first time seeing a case like this.
Choose a player?
Step.
Aila, with her silver hair, softly walked over and stopped in front of Baek Jinwoo.
“Baek Jinwoo.”
“Huh?”
Once he started thinking of her as a summon rather than a Champion, informal speech came out naturally.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to protect the Holy Kingdom that had been headed for ruin.”
Thud.
At the same time, she lowered her head and knelt.
“As I promised, I will offer my soul to you.”
The kingdom had disappeared anyway.
There was nowhere to return to.
Just as HunGyo had said, now was the time to seek her own happiness.
Aila thought it would be nice if that place was by Baek Jinwoo’s side.
“......!”
Just as he was wondering what exactly she meant.
[‘Champion’ (S-rank) chooses player ‘Baek Jinwoo’.]
[Will you accept?]
[Y/N]
So.
The privilege was that he got one free S-rank summon?
“Hey, why don’t I get...!”
Rachel cried out enviously, but what could be done?
Aila had already chosen Baek Jinwoo.
“Of course it’s Yes.”
Baek Jinwoo nodded.
Paaat!
At the same time light burst forth.
[Player ‘Baek Jinwoo’ has acquired summon ‘Champion’ (S-rank)!]
After Thunderbird.
This was the moment he obtained yet another S-rank summon.
* * *
“What the hell are you all doing?!”
An American ranker.
Kobe Pochettino shouted.
“Kobe.”
Xenos spoke in a cold voice.
“Don’t waste your emotions pointlessly.”
“......Y-yes!”
“Look at their eyes. They’ve already made up their minds. You there, Britain.”
Whoosh!
Xenos turned his head and looked toward Bale.
“Yes, Lord Xenos.”
Gareth Bale swallowed nervously and answered.
Sandy McKiver was beside him as well.
“What are you two going to do?”
“Judging by their expressions, it doesn’t seem like they’re going to let us go peacefully either.”
“Will you fight with us?”
“Of course. I’m still ranked 8th in the world, after all. I should be of some help.”
“Good.”
And so began the 4 versus 12 battle.
The two from Britain and the two from America were one team.
The others, two from Taiwan and ten from Russia, were the other team.
* * *
The fight did not last long.
The enemy had two members of the Five Emperors.
No matter how strong Xenos was, he could not overcome the momentum of Moscowman and Baekcheon.
In the end, after clashing, they decided to flee.
They ran with all their strength, and then.
“C-cough! Lord Xenos.”
Crunch!
One of someone’s summons had come so far as to bite into Gareth Bale’s torso.
The barrier around him was already gone.
All of his summons had been reverse-summoned.
“You m-must... survive. Survive and... when Rachel noona returns, tell her. Tell her to clean this up.”
Xenos was irritated.
His throat felt clogged and heavy, as if he had eaten sweet potatoes.
Why hadn’t he realized it?
This place was the wild.
A wild where the moment you showed even the slightest opening, anyone was ready to drag you down.
It was just that, for the past four years...
The absolute powerhouse Rachel had been holding things together, so it had been peaceful.
“......Veskov.”
Crunch.
Xenos ground his teeth.
Praying for the peace of Bale, who was dying helplessly, he quickly moved on.
Once he went outside the palace, the sight was even more absurd.
As if they had dragged in all the Russian rankers, countless summons had surrounded the palace.
“There is nowhere for you to run, Xenos.”
Step, step.
Veskov walked out leisurely with a chilling smile.
To Xenos, there seemed to be no hope left.
'How should I cook him up?'
Just as Veskov was rolling his eyes.
“Lord Veskov.”
A subordinate-looking man approached and whispered in his ear.
“They say Shusuke is ready.”
“Really?”
He nodded and gave a signal with his eyes.
At that, two of the Russian national team members pulled out.
Xenos was already as good as finished anyway. There was no need to maintain full force any longer.
'However.'
Korea.
'They’ll have to pay the price for daring not to answer my summons.'
Was it Yoo Jia?
He had heard.
That she was an incredible businesswoman and intellectual who had supported God Ji-nu in every possible way.
‘God Ji-nu’
Even in the game.
And now, even in reality, there was a being trying to stand above his head.
Moscowman could not allow it.
The one and only Emperor of this world.
That had to be himself.
* * *
Late in the dead of night.
Swoosh.
A single wyvern was flying over South Korea.
Takahashi Shusuke.
And the two Russian national representatives supporting him.
They were called Dmitri Tarasov and Iosif Zasulich.
Respectively, they ranked 3rd and 4th in Russia.
Naturally, they were also world-ranker-level heavyweights.
“We just need to go that way.”
When Shusuke pointed toward Geomdansan in the distance, one of the Russian national representatives asked,
“Can the three of us really beat all the Korean national representatives?”
“Of course.”
Shusuke nodded.
“I’m ranked 22nd, and you two are 25th and 44th, right? Compared to that, the strongest one in Korea right now is Hong Ari, and even then she’s only 28th. To be honest, Tarasov, just you and I alone would be enough to deal with them.”
“But Gi Jaehyuk and Kang Jihoe are there too, aren’t they? Oh Sunyoung is strong too.”
“They still can’t match us.”
Gi Jaehyuk, 35th.
Kang Jihoe, 40th.
Oh Sunyoung, 47th.
The gap between them and rankers in the 20s was enormous.
“And did you forget? Our objective isn’t to wipe them all out, it’s just to kidnap Yoo Jia and bring her back.”
“Understood.”
“While Tarasov and I stir things up, you secretly snatch her, Zasulich. Got it?”
“I said I got it.”
“You guys are so prickly.”
Shusuke shook his head.
He felt this every time, but those Russian bastards just seemed rough by nature.
Sssshaaaaak!
The wyvern sliced through the clouds and rapidly headed toward Geomdansan.
* * *
“Today’s the day, right?”
Fwoosh!
Hong Ari asked as she stroked the blazing Phoenix.
And beside her, surprisingly enough, was Yoo Jia.
After work.
All the guild members were out at the training grounds wearing comfortable clothes.
“You really didn’t have to do all this.”
Yoo Jia felt sorry.
The guild members kept saying they felt uneasy and wanted to stay with her...
“You all already trained so hard during working hours. And now because of me, you can’t even rest properly.”
“No.”
Step.
Hwang Juwon approached.
“We actually like this better. Lately it hasn’t even felt like we’ve really been training without HunGyo around... maybe if we spend a bit more time, we’ll improve somehow.”
Even just from that, it was clear how much the guild members cared about Yoo Jia.
Russia definitely wanted Yoo Jia to come.
But she had refused.
And Hwang Juwon had suggested that the Russian side might try something, and proposed that they stay together for the time being.
Of course, she had never left Yoobaek City...
They were doing a training camp at the training grounds.
“And isn’t it good for building teamwork with the new recruits too?”
“That’s true.”
Han Yuna, Seo Yiyoon, Jeong Siu, Kang Daehyuk.
She had grown fairly close to them too.
In particular, Hwang Juwon seemed to have completely settled into a coaching role, generously passing on everything he had learned and taking care of them.
'Truly worthy of being the Guild Advisor.'
Yoo Jia nodded.
Even if his personal skill had fallen behind, could someone like him really be cast aside?
Hwang Juwon kept proving it.
Why he needed to remain with SKY.
And not long after.
“Vice Guild Master?”
Someone came running from outside.
It was Jeong Siu, the Data Machine.
At the moment, he had been standing watch!
“Yes, what is it?”
“We’ve spotted an unidentified flying object outside. I think you should take a look.”
A flying object?
“It’s not a fighter jet, it looks like a summon. Look over there.”
At his words, everyone got up from their spots one by one.
It still looked small for now, but it was a shape they had seen many times before.
“...A Celestial Wyvern?”
There was no way they wouldn’t recognize it. Baek Jinwoo rode one every day.
“Really?”
Yoo Jia too sprang to her feet and narrowed her eyes as she stared.
No way.
Had Baek Jinwoo really come out of the Tower?
That couldn’t be.
If that had happened, the headquarters would already be in an uproar, and word would have reached here too.
Which meant...
'Seriously.'
Just like Hwang Juwon had said?
Were those bastards really going to resort to force?
“They’re approaching!”
“Yoobaek prohibits unauthorized summons from entering. Everyone, prepare for battle.”
At Hong Ari’s command.
SKY made their battle preparations.
* * *
“What’s going on?”
Tarasov frowned.
In the distance.
Summons were being brought out one after another, and over fifty of them appeared to be rising into the air.
“...Did the information leak?”
Even Shusuke was flustered.
There was no way.
This operation was top secret among top secret.
No one knew except the Russian national representatives and himself. Not even Yoshida Hikaru knew, and that said it all.
“Damn it, whatever.”
He muttered.
“Let’s just crush every last one of them.”
For daring to humiliate him during the friendly match. He would properly repay them this time.
Sssshaaaaaak!
The wyvern folded its wings and began low-altitude flight.
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