WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 673: A Tower Without a Ceiling and Intermingling Humans - 9

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Avant-garde leaped in front of me, spread her arms, and began casting a spell. She drew moisture from the grass pressed flat beneath the light, controlled it, infused it with mana, and altered its properties. With her preparations complete, Avant-garde finished a tactical-grade spell.

"Celsius Crystal. Great Ice Wall...!"

A thick wall of crystalline ice rose from the ground with the spell's completion. Its densely layered structure scattered the light. The sturdy ice structure briefly hid me from Ruel's sight.

Seizing that brief opening, Avant-garde grabbed my hand and pulled.

"Hughes! Now! Run... Aah!"

But it only lasted a moment. Light pouring from Ruel struck the Great Ice Wall.

Cracks spread across the wall, and pure white light exploded through them. The mana-made wall shattered into fragments.

"A barrier designed to scatter light. It wasn't a bad attempt, but it won't work against light with physical force. It's like trying to scatter a crashing waterfall. An arched structure would have been better."

"Ugh..."

Avant-garde tried to rebuild the wall, but even that did not go as planned. When Ruel flicked her fingers, seven heat rays intercepted the ice and melted it. White steam rose from the boiling ice.

It did not last long. The pouring light instantly crushed the white vapor.

Water mist blocks light. In other words, it is struck by light. Light with physical force can easily push water mist aside. Common sense and reason cannot stop innate arcane, because the world's logic is different within innate arcane.

"Avant-garde. The only thing protecting you is your life. Retreat before I decide I have no choice but to kill you."

Before overwhelming power, neither water mist nor ice was of any use. Ruel's halo, having blown away even the mist, shone more brightly. Her white skin now looked almost dark beneath the shadow cast by the halo behind her head.

Avant-garde felt instinctive fear. Still, she did not retreat.

"White Tower Master... Could you please spare Hughes?"

Ruel's curiosity was briefly piqued.

"Spare him? That's the most interesting word I've heard today. Why should I?"

"But if you're guarding the artificial sun, Hughes and the Temple of the Demon God won't be able to go any higher... Then, then you don't need to kill Hughes, do you?"

Avant-garde's logic was simple. Since she could stop them whenever she wished, was there not any reason to spare me?

Ruel smiled and nodded.

"Mercy is a virtue. I have practiced virtue as well. I spoke with him, questioned him, and waited for him to at least retract his barbaric logic. He was the one who refused my request."

"Hughes is incredibly smart! He must know he can't win, so he'll stop now! If Hughes just behaves himself and climbs the tower to focus on his studies, it will lead to humanity's progress!"

"He could have done that. He refused it himself."

Ruel answered curtly.

"I don't agree with his words, but I am flexible enough to answer barbaric logic with the same logic. Barbarism has a way of staining other orders with barbarism as well. So..."

As she spoke, Ruel prepared a spell and spread her arms. The ring of light split in two, and beams extended from each ring in rounded arcs.

"Mirage Light."

"Senior! Watch out!"

The spell heated the air with heat rays, then used innate arcane to apply the physical force of light at specific points and create curvature. It required a little preparation, but it allowed straight light to be fired in curves.

It was originally a spell that confused an opponent's senses, but Ruel used it to fire light in an arc. The curved light struck Avant-garde in the side the instant it was released...

"Aah!"

But even if the light itself could not be read, everyone could read the flow of mana. Avant-garde barely managed to freeze the hem of her robes, and the frozen fabric scattered the light. At the same time, my outstretched hand caught her as she staggered from the impact and nearly fell.

Ruel covered her cheek with a troubled expression.

"...That light had no hostility in it at all. It only contained enough force to push Avant-garde away. So could you stop looking so frightening, Elisha Celsius?"

At the same time, the halo flashed, and clusters of light began firing beams in every direction. ‘Firelight’ carrying tremendous heat. Light beyond the red end of the spectrum burned the ground and air, heating the grassland. The beams collided with something in midair, causing scattered explosions.

"Haaah..."

Boom, boom.

Transparent crystals blocked the light in midair. Nothing could be seen, yet the instant the light struck something, it exploded.

Even the heat rays that had easily melted ice took a long time to break those transparent crystals. Their quality was exceptional, but the real problem was their sheer number.

Looking at the crystals formed through innate arcane, Ruel spoke quietly.

"Polarized crystals. They're quite well-made. I understood it was nearly impossible to make them without a mold. It seems you've found a solution?"

"I couldn't just sit by with a problem like you. Ah, don't take it personally. I didn't prepare this because I was wary of you."

She crystallized the moisture in the air, as well as the air itself, mass-producing crystals that weakened light by half. There were dozens, then hundreds, and their numbers were still increasing in real time.

Only the Cyan Tower Master, who headed the Crystal Tower that studied every kind of magical crystal and possessed innate arcane capable of forcing matter to crystallize, could do this.

"Avant-garde is a disciple of the Crystal Tower. As its master, I have a duty to protect my disciple."

Elisha Celsius, the Cyan Tower Master, was righteous and capable enough that the Sanctum had chosen her as an ally. They must have brought her here believing she would help Ruel.

And she had.

But Ruel was both a Holy Maiden and a mage. That was why she did not realize it.

Mages with different inner visions could never truly be friends.

'The King of Humanity stayed at the Cyan Tower when he was in the floating castle. Through her exchanges with him...'

As the White Tower Master, Ruel had chosen the Cyan Tower Master as an ally. Tower Masters could cooperate, but they could not truly form friendships. Their cooperation was little more than helping one another out of mutual need.

Once that need disappeared, so did the cooperation.

I had entered the Crystal Tower as a temporary disciple, pretended to study magic, helped them and put them in my debt, showed them my abilities, and built affection. I was someone who made them reconsider that need.

"Then take her away from Hughes's side. That is the easiest way to protect her."

"I'll try. But regardless of that, I can't allow you to attack my disciple. Even if you only intended to push her away. I don't like it when someone shoves me around as they please."

The Cyan Tower Master smiled faintly and approached me. In her eyes, Avant-garde and I were huddled together.

Avant-garde was an excellent shield. She moved of her own accord, could use magic, and Ruel, mindful of the Cyan Tower Master, could not easily attack her. It would be a shame to discard her so readily.

But...

"Senior Avant-garde. Go."

I could not turn even the Cyan Tower Master into an enemy right now. Light magic was dangerous, but crystal magic was just as dangerous. It would be better to call Lankart and Shei over.

Regretfully, I decided to discard the shield called Avant-garde. I shoved her away rather hard. Avant-garde turned in surprise, but a transparent crystal the Cyan Tower Master had made already blocked the space between us.

"No, Hughes! Without me...!"

"I have my own methods. It'll only become more troublesome if you stay here."

"You're lying! You have no way to beat the White Tower Master!"

No. This was the way.

I had to get you somewhere safe so the Cyan Tower Master would take my side.

The Cyan Tower Master was the sentimental type, but she was still a mage. She would not let emotion cloud her rational judgment. She felt affection for me, but I had hidden my identity, and there was more than enough reason to be wary of me, a former member of the Temple of the Demon God.

But you were different. You were innocent, someone the Cyan Tower Master had to protect.

And if I protected you, the Cyan Tower Master would come along too.

"Hughes."

The Cyan Tower Master took crystal glasses from within her robes and put them on. Her eyes, gleaming coldly behind the lenses, turned toward me.

"What are Demon Gods to you?"

I took out my cards. Spades. I showed her the Demon Gods I had gathered so far, from ten to six.

The Cyan Tower Master would not know what they were. She would know that strange mana surrounded them, but she could not know which Demon Gods they were.

Still, she immediately understood why I had taken out the cards.

"Cards."

I was the King of Humanity, newly born after Year One. Demon Gods were proof that humans had changed from the humanity that existed before Year One.

Demon Gods were knowledge that had brought irreversible change to the human species. That knowledge completed me.

And they were cards I could use. In other words, power. I could play them when necessary or simply keep them in my hand. The more I had, even by one, the better.

"What will you do with Demon Gods?"

"What else would I do? I have to make a living."

"Make a living? Is that all?"

"I've already acquired five Demon Gods. And I use every one of them to live well by myself."

Not all knowledge in the world was born of necessity. A Demon God was an endpoint reached when a born genius became consumed by an obsession bordering on madness and, through luck, arrived somewhere at last. They were as special as the knowledge they discovered.

But knowledge has value because it enriches human lives. Because it expands what humans can do. Because it turns the impossible into the possible and allows humanity to claim victory over harsh nature. It is valuable because it is needed.

Most people learn knowledge for that reason. They might later pursue it out of curiosity, competitiveness, ambition, stubbornness, or obsession. Still, everyone first learns knowledge simply to use it.

I asked the Cyan Tower Master in return.

"Didn't you do the same? What did you intend to use the knowledge you learned for? Surely you didn't learn magic just to keep the knowledge of Demon Gods secret like the Holy Maiden did."

You'd been thinking about it for a while now. So? What did you decide?

"Elisha Celsius?"

Perhaps growing impatient, Ruel called the Cyan Tower Master's name from behind her, but the Cyan Tower Master did not answer. Instead, she recalled the time she had first come to the floating castle.

Footnotes:

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