I got into school for nothing - 371
I got into school for nothing (371)
Lesson 73. The True Form of the Tower of Babel - 1
Each time the Tower of Babel is overcome by a challenger, it combines the components of the worlds it has absorbed to create spaces of higher difficulty, governed by the Tower's rules.
As this process repeats, spaces that were once parts of other worlds become fully integrated into the Tower, and the Tower can then combine the concepts it gained from them in an optimal way to give birth to something entirely new.
Ultimately, the space where this hatched into existence was Earth.
But Ban Yuwon had overcome countless resistances and severed all routes for the Tower to acquire new concepts, even breaking the connection between the Tower and Earth.
—You have truly committed a terrible act, child.
With input and output now impossible, the Tower, within which countless undigested concepts were trapped and swirling like a maelstrom, was, at this very moment, nothing short of an anomaly.
—We underestimated you too much. Everyone did. Who could have known you would cause a dimensional severance—!
From the moment Team Rebellion entered the Tower, the Observer of All Things' voice had been echoing in their ears.
She, who wished to maintain the Tower indefinitely, might not have cared much about the Tower's severance from Earth itself.
Her fury was likely due to the fact that all pathways for the Tower to acquire new concepts had been completely severed.
—If this is the case, then I truly have no choice but to make you a Constellation. You must become a Constellation and clean up the mess you've made yourself!
“Ha, let's get started then.”
Where had the party ended their Tower exploration last time?
In truth, it didn't really matter.
As soon as they entered the Tower, they were flung into complete darkness, utterly devoid of light, and were even isolated one by one, confined within cells made of black iron bars.
—Climbers cannot make contact with those who entered the Tower with them.
To add insult to injury, a rule was declared stating that they could absolutely not make contact with others.
While contemplating whether to use his Authority to touch the iron bars, Ban Yuwon repeatedly pondered the situation.
‘Is the plan to separate us and kill us one by one? But no matter how high the Observer of All Things' authority, she wouldn't be able to force such a thoroughly unreasonable situation solely upon the climbers.’
The Tower was nearly omnipotent, yet it couldn't unilaterally corner climbers and take their lives.
While it was possible to increase difficulty when a Constellation interfered, that was only the difficulty within a defined stage; it didn't mean the framework of the game could be completely shattered.
If so, rather than immediately breaking the bars and confronting the Tower's ‘trick’ head-on, it would be better to observe the situation first......
“Ah, Master.”
“Rucell!”
Just then, Rucell, who was released from her iron cage first, plummeted downwards as if sliding, then at some point rolled on the floor, rose, and took her stance.
Though everything was black, making it impossible to distinguish details, it was certain that there was a floor there.
—Grrrr......
Above her, as she looked around, the shadow of a colossal, truly enormous beast soon fell.
The beast, so massive that its exact form couldn't be discerned, stood on all fours, and the acid mixed in its breath burned the air, spreading poison in all directions.
The power leaking from it affected the space, which had been nothing but darkness, and tree trunks covered in green leaves erupted through the floor.
All of it radiated mana that pressed down on Rucell.
—I have waited for you for a long time.
“Ruler of the Forest......!”
Instinctively realizing the identity of the one looking down at her, Rucell bared her teeth and snarled.
The Constellation with whom her family had a deep, long-standing feud since her father Kanid's time, the Ruler of the Forest, had appeared even larger than when it had descended upon her home planet previously!
Ban Yuwon stared at it, dumbfounded, and muttered.
“What is this, an all-star game? Are all the Constellations we've met so far going to pop out one after another?”
—Child, you still wouldn't know the power of a Constellation that has received support from the Tower and fully blossomed its potential.
To the Observer of All Things, who seemed to be changing the subject as if hit where it hurt, Ban Yuwon scoffed and replied.
“What are you talking about? I've already hunted one.”
—A Constellation is strongest when connected to the Tower.
It seemed to be pointing out that when Ban Yuwon had hunted the Follower of Ten Thousand Kalpas, that Constellation had been free from the Tower's shackles.
Perhaps the Observer of All Things was right, but......
“Rucell, do you need help?”
“No, Master.”
Rucell lowered her stance, gazing at her enemy, and extended long, lightning-forged claws from her hands.
Behind her, nine luxuriant tails unfurled, and the triangular beast ears atop her head twitched, crackling with sparks.
“I'll do this alone. Master, but this is—.”
‘Is this its true form?’
At Rucell's voice, laden with multiple meanings, even her adversary, the Ruler of the Forest, the Observer of All Things, who had finally revealed her true nature as the ‘Tower's administrator’ and unleashed the Constellation into this space, and even Asha and Aire were stirred.
Ban Yuwon replied calmly.
“It's its true form. Just as the Observer of All Things said, it's connected to the Tower and receiving support—but that's probably also the restraint preventing it from leaving the Tower.”
“So if I kill it now?”
“It will die completely. It will be annihilated.”
“Thank you for telling me, Master.”
Heh heh, Rucell gave a soft laugh and instantly swelled her body.
The fully awakened blood of a Divine Beast rapidly circulated throughout her body, temporarily elevating her to a higher domain.
An engine befitting her sublimated body—her Wildness Furnace furiously pumped, further accelerating the flow of energy within her.
Over the course of just under three years, her unique Authority, perfectly internalized while climbing the Tower with Ban Yuwon, and the Wildness that had accumulated steadily over that long period, now fiercely blazing, were bestowing immense power upon her entire body, a power that wouldn't lose out even to a Constellation revealing its true form.
—That—is the power I gave you—!
The Constellation, realizing the activation of the Wildness Furnace, raged furiously.
Rucell, who had by now swelled to a size similar to the beast, raised her eyes and glared coldly at it.
Her pink eyes, imbued with Wildness, blazed fiercely.
“No, it's the power Master gave me.”
Sacred flames overlaid her sharp claws, which had once only contained lightning.
If lightning was the power she had gained and mastered in the Tower, then these flames were the power of the Divine Beast she had awakened from her bloodline.
The two powers merged, forming an entirely new attribute—though this itself had been possible before, the quality contained within it was on an entirely different level than before.
Everyone belonging to Team Rebellion possessed a means to harm transcendent beings in some way, and among them, Rucell's potential lay precisely in this.
“The power to kill you.”
—Let's see if you can say such words even while crushed beneath me—!
Unable to endure Rucell's provocation, the Ruler of the Forest finally moved first.
While Asha and Aire simply watched, entranced by the colossal beast battle unfolding before them, Ban Yuwon fiercely wielded his Giwon Sword, reading the flow of concepts centered around the monster.
What he focused on, in particular, was the principle by which a Constellation could manifest as its true form within the Tower.
If only he could figure that out, he would surely be able to achieve his long-cherished desire.
—Give up.
The viscous whisper of a woman reached his ears.
—I have already sealed it deep within the Tower. Thanks to the severing of the thread that originally connected it to the outside of the Tower...... Yes, thanks to your entry into this Tower, I was able to easily imprison it.
Ban Yuwon ground his teeth.
—Don't you feel it too? The voice that once whispered so lovingly in your ear will no longer be heard. You won't even feel the link that connected you to it. Yes, that is the Tower's power. Since it connected you and that child, severing it again wouldn't be a difficult task, would it?
At present, he couldn't refute those words.
The connection with Dokgo Yeon, which had been clearly felt until he entered the Tower, he too realized was completely severed.
But, clearly, the evidence of his connection to Dokgo Yeon remained within his body.
‘If I can understand the Tower's final hidden secret.’
There's no way he couldn't accomplish it.
Hadn't he, for three years during his solo explorations, received personal lessons as the Tower's administrator?
Let's consider this the final lesson.
Since he had learned how to sever, he could surely learn how to connect.
—Kuaaaahhhhhh!
At that moment, the Ruler of the Forest let out a terrible shriek.
Unable to withstand Rucell's immense power, amplified by the Wildness Furnace, it was a scream uttered as its abdomen was pierced by claws wreathed in flame and lightning.
Rucell didn't stop there; she repeatedly slashed with the claws on both hands, tearing out its intestines, severing its forelegs, and ripping off the horns that grew from its head.
“I thank you, for connecting me and Master.”
—You—are mine, Kuwoooogh!
Rucell, who had thrust her claws into the maw of the stalker and pervert who had obsessed over her since before her birth, preventing it from speaking further, held its jaw with her other hand and smiled gently.
“You can die now.”
Then she exerted force with both hands and fiercely pulled it up and down.
Crrrack, the colossal beast's body was torn precisely in two, splitting along its gaping maw.
While it seemed to have certainly grown stronger thanks to its connection with the Tower, Rucell had also grown stronger by being connected to someone, so it was a natural outcome.
—This can't be......
“From now on, it'll be even more surprising.”
Not long after, the deceased Constellation transformed into the beast-kin form it must have had before becoming a Constellation, and then began to scatter into clusters of light, attempting to vanish.
However, Rucell, as Ban Yuwon's vassal, skillfully wielded his Authority—and instead of letting the concepts emanating from it return to the Tower, she absorbed them all herself.
The concept of a Constellation whose name was the Ruler of the Forest, yet stood at the pinnacle of all wild beast types.
It boasted a perfect compatibility with Rucell, a Divine Beast, enough to allow her to leap another step forward.
“Kyaaaahhh—!”
Rucell, who had unleashed a shriek close to a monstrous roar, unable to control her instincts, only belatedly came to her senses and looked up, checking Ban Yuwon's reaction, but he, already accustomed to seeing her wild side, simply congratulated her with applause.
Relieved, Ban Yuwon, who had been quietly watching Rucell collect the concepts and return to her original form, posed a question to the empty air.
“So, who's next? Asha? Aire?”
—Truly different, how could such Authority be bestowed upon a mere vassal......
Perhaps it was so shocking that Rucell had managed to wield even a part of Ban Yuwon's Authority, that the Observer of All Things, who had been muttering such words without even knowing to whom she was speaking, soon seemed to snap out of it and shouted, gritting her teeth.
—How many Constellations do you think are in this Tower? And how many undigested materials remain? I will entertain you until you die of exhaustion, so you should choose well when to surrender. Because the more resources you exhaust, the harder it will be for you later!
The space changed its form again.
Perhaps she deemed it pointless to keep them isolated if they could all wield Ban Yuwon's Authority anyway; the bars that had confined them had vanished, and the rule preventing them from touching each other was also deleted.
“Master!”
“Yuwonnnn!”
“Yuwon.”
Watching his team members rush towards him and embrace him as if they had planned it beforehand, he wondered if he had indulged them too much until now, and as he was reflecting a little.
—Now it's time to return the Authority you stole from me.
—With interest, of course......
—Ha, pardon me, but. Harassing others isn't my hobby, but I can't die like this.
—You will regret not having contracted with me.
Simultaneously, four presences began to be felt, seizing control of the space.
Since one-on-one wasn't working, was the idea to go four-on-four?
And if they overcame this, then probably......
A smile played on Ban Yuwon's lips.
“Yes, this is how the Tower should be. I would have been disappointed if you had just cowered and surrendered because I was scary.”
—The ‘Chain Room’ has begun.
Having been so excited earlier, the Observer of All Things now seemed calm again, and whispered quietly into his ear.
Chain Room.
A linked quest where the clear conditions lead to the next room's攻略, gradually ‘increasing in difficulty’, ultimately making them face the consequences of the ‘snowball’ they had rolled so far.
‘So the beginning is four Constellations, in their true forms.’
In any sense, this would be the Tower of Babel's final Chain Room, Ban Yuwon mused, and then simply laughed.
Crrrack, it sounded as if cracks were forming on the monolith inscribed with the names of the Constellations.
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