I Got into School for Nothing - Chapter 374
I Got into School for Nothing (374)
Lesson 73. The True Form of the Tower of Babel - 4
While the Tower Lord's lingering will held Ban Yuwon captive, even taking Ban Juseok as a hostage, he vaguely anticipated what the Observer of All Things might be doing.
The Observer of All Things knew from the start that the Tower Lord's lingering will alone couldn't overcome Ban Yuwon. It had left the will and Ban Juseok as a diversion, bringing forth the strongest card it could play.
And those were the True Dragons.
“As expected—we've been saving our strength for this very moment.”
“Hehe, it's the first time I've felt this useful to Yuwon!”
Aire and Asha stepped forward, laughing as if they had somewhat anticipated this.
Stella, who was just as seasoned in fighting transcendent beings as they were, also snorted, scoffing as she rose into the sky.
—You—have—committed—an unforgivable—act—!
The Observer of All Things' voice, echoing from afar, sounded as if it had been put through an echo chamber.
But when combined with the terrifying effect of the sky tearing apart with a tremendous *crackle*, it became truly frightening.
“Are our mom and dad there?”
As Aire murmured this, looking at the True Dragons appearing after shattering the room's boundary, Ban Yuwon replied, expanding the range of Downpour.
“Well, maybe. Should we look for them?”
“Yes, please. If they're there—I'd like to kill them myself, rather than let anyone else.”
Truly, the way True Dragons think is inscrutable.
However, whether fortunately or unfortunately, Aire's parents were not found.
Perhaps they had sacrificed themselves in the process of concealing Aire's existence and reforming her abilities.
Ban Yuwon was relieved that he wouldn't have to witness such a heinous act.
—KWOOOAAAH—!
“Come forth, Yong-a!”
As soon as she heard her parents weren't present, Aire transformed into her True Dragon form with a relieved expression. Asha, meanwhile, plunged her True Dragon Sword into the earth, summoning and merging with the ultimate weapon for slaying True Dragons, the Mech Gold Dragon, in a magnificent pose.
As the two, whose bodies had swollen to nearly identical sizes, ascended into the sky, Stella, soaring after them, paused and looked down at Ban Yuwon, asking.
“How long will it take, Yuwon?”
“It'll probably be soon. It seems far more intense than the prototype—and its performance is better too.”
To Stella, who was looking at him with a worried expression, Ban Yuwon waved, signaling her to go fight. He then fed a Candy of Life to the unconscious Ban Juseok, laid him in a safe spot, and turned to Rucell, who was plucking a few strands of her tail fur to erect a barrier.
“Will you protect me for a bit, Rucell? I really need to focus now.”
“Anything for you, Master.”
—Do you think—a mere creature like you—can stop me—!
Hundreds, thousands of eyes emerged in the air, flying towards Ban Yuwon and Rucell with hostile intent.
Asha, Aire, and Stella, meanwhile, were completely preoccupied with fending off the True Dragons that had appeared after utterly demolishing the room's boundary.
Ban Yuwon quickly controlled the conceptual flow of the area, making the eyes explode, but he couldn't stop the endless stream of new ones.
—I can't—let the Tower be ruined—by your hands—any longer—! I'll restore everything to normal, exactly as my Master first created it!
“I'll stop them, Master.”
Rucell, in her Divine Beast form, conjured fierce, sparking fox-fire to resist the eyes.
A woman, appearing within a particularly massive eye, glared and shrieked.
—I've already fully analyzed—your paltry abilities—!
“Ah, Mandogan.”
If she received the ancestor's eyes, then that would naturally be the case.
However, whether it was due to diminished performance from having only one eye, or if Rucell's abilities, having fully devoured and grown from the Ruler of the Forest, now surpassed the Observer of All Things' 'analysis,' more than half of the countless eyes filling the surroundings failed to evade Rucell's fox-fire and were incinerated.
—Just—! Just a mere beast from a lowly E-grade dimension—!
“You're bringing that up now, of all times?”
A smile played on Rucell's lips as she moved deftly despite her massive size, obliterating the eyes all around her.
Her claws elongated, slashing through the air, and countless fox-fires born from their trajectory spread in all directions, engulfing the Observer of All Things' true body.
—This level of power—can't inflict even the slightest damage on my existence—! I am—I am connected to this Tower—! I am the Tower itself—!
“I expected as much. Of course, with the Chancellor integrated with the Floating Island, why would you be any different?”
This time, it wasn't Rucell but Ban Yuwon who answered her voice.
In that brief moment, the Observer of All Things witnessed the change Ban Yuwon was enacting and gasped in horror.
This room, forged by consolidating several S-grade dimensions.
In this space, which could no longer even be called a mere room due to the Observer of All Things' interference.
A gigantic monolith was seen rising from the cracking earthen floor within it.
—No—! No—! NOOOOO—!
Foreseeing a terrible end, the Observer of All Things shrieked, activating every authority granted to it to try and stop it.
But it couldn't.
Because the True Dragons, the very energy source that moved the Tower and caused changes, were now all active.
And even the True Dragons, mobilized at the cost of draining the Tower's power, weren't performing as effectively as expected.
—KWAARGH—!
—This—this cannot be—! How can a True Dragon attack—another True Dragon—!
—Against two incomplete—mere half-breeds, not even the Tower Lord, we're being—!
—That tiny wench—! She's wielding—a starlight different from ours—!
Had it not been for the sheer coincidence of these three, specifically chosen and optimized to fight True Dragons in this universe, stepping forward, it might not have come to this. But as a result, they couldn't even get close to Ban Yuwon, the very object of their vengeful desires!
—They are not half-breeds.
Aire, whose mana had become vaster than anyone else's since her awakening, opened her mouth, her two sky-blue eyes glinting coldly.
Perhaps it was due to abandoning Starlight Magic; as a counterbalance, her magical power had swelled even more, now containing the pure essence of elemental force.
The True Dragons, witnessing the pure and immense magical power gathering in her mouth, were reminded of the True Dragon's breath that had once shattered a star.
“I'm coming too!”
Furthermore, the Yongabyeong that Asha had assimilated with—
—breathed out a breath attack imbued with the full power of the True Dragon Sword.
Astonishingly, the twin breath attacks unleashed by the two simultaneously, their energies shared through Ban Yuwon's 'Resonance'—a connection they both held with him—swelled in scale in an instant, finally transforming into a catastrophe powerful enough to obliterate the world.
“Wouldn't it be a shame to leave me out, don't you think?”
To this, Stella, who was practically treated as Ban Yuwon's familiar unlike the other two, added her strength.
The star-shattering power of Starlight Magic was infused into it, amplifying it. The combined might of the three converged into a single destructive force, poised to sweep away all the True Dragons who had once been masters of that very power!
“Go forth, ultimate harbinger of destruction—!”
—KWAAANG—!
Before he could even finish uttering the cool incantation he'd recently seen in a comic, the concentrated breath attack, combining the trio's power, struck the True Dragons.
Of course, the True Dragons also tried to fend off their attacks by manifesting Starlight Magic or unleashing their own breath attacks—but True Dragons were fundamentally creatures of extreme selfishness.
They had never properly coordinated their strength in their lives, and that was precisely why they had been pathetically overwhelmed by the Tower Lord and trapped within the Tower.
—KEEEAAH—!
—This, this can't be—! This—this can't beeeeeee—!
Unlike the Rebellion members, who had learned to unite and harmonize their strength under one man, the True Dragons' defenses, which canceled each other out or even turned negative when their powers overlapped, were torn to shreds—and ultimately, an unstoppable destruction engulfed them.
—KAAAARGH—!
“Ah.”
The moment the massive True Dragons were swept away by the breath attack, tearing like paper.
Asha, who had reverted to her original form after the Yongabyeong's summoning was released immediately after firing the breath, suddenly let out an exclamation of awe.
This was because she felt an unprecedented vitality coursing through her body, and her internal magical power amplifying two, even three-fold.
“So that's it... It seems my ancestor possessed an Authority that grew stronger the more True Dragons he killed.”
The reason she realized this only now was that this was the first time Asha had truly killed a True Dragon and felt the power flowing through her blood.
No, perhaps it wasn't the first time.
Recalling the moment she had dramatically powered up, Asha narrowed her eyes.
Yes, that moment when she had first reclaimed her true identity since birth and gained the right to atone to Ban Yuwon.
Even then, she had... though with Ban Yuwon's help, she had completely killed her ancestor and awakened her full power, hadn't she?
“What the.”
As the True Dragons died one by one from the breath attack she had created with Aire and Stella, Asha felt the power surging within her and couldn't help but chuckle.
“In the end, my ancestor was just another selfish True Dragon.”
There were no profound ideals or noble sacrifices for others.
Whatever reasons they cited, they were all just excuses.
In the end, that bastard betrayed his own kind and sided with the Tower Lord, cooperating with him, all for the sake of becoming stronger!
As a relieved Asha continued to chuckle, Aire, who had expended all her power and reverted from her True Dragon form, looked at her with a strange gaze.
“What's wrong, Asha?”
“Nothing. All my questions have finally been answered.”
Asha couldn't hide her smile, even as she thought to herself that this was hardly the expression one should wear at the moment all her kin, except for herself and Aire, had been annihilated.
“Then let's go help Yuwon, Yuwon— Ah.”
At that moment, as the trio, who had utterly annihilated the Observer of All Things' secret weapon, turned around confidently.
They, too, spotted the monolith rising from the ground.
And the flow of a certain energy overflowing from within it.
“Surely, that's...”
“It seems so.”
The moment Aire closed and opened her eyes.
The colossal monolith was seen splitting into two.
—KYAAAAAAAAAAH—!
The Observer of All Things let out a horrifying scream.
—You! You have ruined everything! Master, my Master—!
However, Ban Yuwon had no intention whatsoever of maintaining this accursed Constellation system.
A system that scouted vulnerable dimensions, manipulated people to make those dimensions follow the Tower's will, caused disparate concepts to mix, severed the edges of dimensions to incorporate them into the Tower, and ultimately devoured entire ruined dimensions.
With countless worlds like these, he could never tolerate a system that sought to sacrifice everything else for the sake of just one.
And most importantly.
“Give me back my woman, you damn bastards—!”
—Just for one woman—!
The Tower shook as if it would collapse at any moment.
Hundreds of Constellations, held captive to maintain the Tower's balance, were simultaneously freed. With the True Dragons, the energy source that kept the Tower operational, also annihilated, the Tower, the system, and the Union Net were on the verge of disconnecting.
—No—! No, no, no, no, no, no—!!
“Yes, it will!”
A massive sword manifested in the air.
It was not some ultimate weapon of Clarent.
It was Downpour, Ban Yuwon's Authority-amplifying device, which had instantly converged to transform into the shape of a colossal sword.
“Our Tower of Babel will temporarily cease operations for system maintenance to provide better service to our valued customers!”
*CRUNCH*.
Downpour, impaling the monolith and splitting it in half, spewed forth countless concepts.
Ban Yuwon drew Requiem and Myeol-yeom, throwing them into Downpour.
With his Authority, which manipulated and dominated all concepts, temporarily reaching the heavens' peak, he was finally able to merge all his swords into one.
—KWAAANG—!
The power held within the three swords resonated, ultimately shattering the monolith into fragments.
“The system will be unavailable until the update is complete, so please wait a moment—!”
The Authority that Mira had imbued into Downpour for the last time.
Changeling activated.
No longer a production factory that devoured and digested other dimensions, forcing students to 'ruminate' on them.
But one that would proactively detect the catastrophic waves that distorted mana and created monsters, isolating them within the Tower, truly fulfilling a mission befitting the administrator of this dimension.
It was an update akin to a cataclysm.
Shedding the Tower's old operational methods, Ban Yuwon's newly conceived system began to activate.
“But you, you're getting a life sentence.”
—What—!
The Observer of All Things, losing all its power and collapsing to its knees the moment the monolith shattered and the old system went down.
Ban Yuwon teleported to it, seized its neck, and then hurled it towards his beloved sword, now merged into one and glowing brilliantly.
“From now on, you'll continuously monitor dimensions. Your job is to detect infection waves and capture them, imprisoning them within the Tower.”
—But that, that's like the Tower's dregs—.
However, the Observer of All Things' words could not continue.
Because it was likewise absorbed by the sword, which was embedded in the monolith, absorbing and reconstructing the old system, and was reborn as a part of the system itself.
“Master!”
“Not yet. Not yet.”
Ban Yuwon stopped Rucell from approaching, took out a Candy of Life, and bit into it.
He squeezed out the surging vitality and magical power within him, manifesting his Authority once more.
“Hoo.”
He recalled the Observer of All Things summoning Constellations.
He recalled the Tower's lingering will creating monsters.
He recalled her existence, which was surely connected to him.
Her, who, now freed from the Tower after the monolith shattered—would surely want to return to his side at this very moment!
—Come to me.
And then he stretched out his hand.
No longer needed for the newly completed Tower.
But for him, needed more than anything, more than anyone.
He called her name.
“Yeon, come to me.”
As if waiting for that call, a cluster of light gathered in the air.
In an instant, a sleek bodily outline formed, and power, far stronger than when they parted, was drawn in from all directions and gathered.
Someone, naturally donning black martial robes that covered her body, landed lightly on the ground and immediately pouted, grumbling.
“What is this?”
“Hah-ha.”
Ban Yuwon couldn't help but laugh at her voice, which wasn't the slightly alien tone from her Constellation contract, but her own voice, speaking directly into his ear.
“You told me to use my power. I wanted to be with you, even if it was just like that. But you've solved almost everything with the Sect Leader's power you learned after we parted ways, so what was the point of my contract with you then...”
“I couldn't help it, could I? There were quite a few things I couldn't just kill.”
And then, he added, pulling her into an embrace.
“Thanks to that, I could get you back like this.”
“That's true, but...”
Dokgo Yeon nodded with a somewhat regretful expression, yet embraced Ban Yuwon back.
Then she whispered into his ear.
“Can you change your eyes like mine?”
“Of course. Want to see?”
“I can even make them disappear now.”
“But that's your charming point, what would you do if you got rid of it?”
“Do you know the phrase 'beauty-sealing artifact'?”
“Why did your knowledge of modern trends increase while you were trapped in the Tower?”
“Just look at my changed eyes once, then... you might... fall for me, you know?”
“I already told you, I've already fallen for you.”
As the two whispered intimately, still embracing each other, Aire, Asha, and Stella, who had landed on the ground after completing the monumental task of annihilating the True Dragons, looked on with distaste.
“Hey, look at them.”
“Just let them be for a moment.”
Rucell chuckled softly, stopping them.
“They've reunited after a long time, and besides—”
The Divine Beast ears protruding from her head twitched.
She sensed that the commotion outside the Tower had quieted down.
“It seems the external situation has also been well-resolved.”
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