Chapter 168
I looked at Teach with a flustered expression.
What, was he going to kill the parrot all of a sudden? And faster than me?
"Wasn't that your beloved bird?"
"That's right. I raised it for a really long time."
Teach clicked his tongue.
He was holding a compass in his hand, too.
A compass pointing at the parrot, just like mine.
"But I'm not an idiot.... If you act suspiciously in a place this creepy, I can't just let it slide. Was that too presumptuous?"
"No, good job. I was about to shoot it anyway."
I nodded in satisfaction and approached the altar.
The parrot lying on the floor didn't move at all.
It seemed to have died instantly, with a perfect hole drilled through its body.
Sticky blood was oozing out, soaking the marble floor.
"Is that it?"
It felt like I had taken it out before something could appear.
But the clear notification still hadn't shown up.
Besides, looking at the compass, the needle was still pointing at the parrot's corpse.
"Hmm?"
Then it happened.
Black smoke began rising from the parrot's corpse.
The smoke started to clump together, giving off a sticky, cloying feel.
"An undead of some kind?"
I didn't know what it was, but it was nothing good.
And there was no reason to leave it alone.
It definitely seemed like killing it beforehand was the right call.
I reached out without hesitation.
Golden light flickered at my fingertips. It meant the power of faith was there.
I poured the power of faith, especially effective against undead, into a sand bullet and fired.
Bang!
[Grr.... These filthy bastards....]
A shriek-like voice came from within the smoke.
The black shape scattered widely.
But it didn't disappear completely.
It stubbornly gathered again, returning to the size of a fingernail.
Just as I was about to blast even that away,
the fingernail-sized thing made a small slash through the air.
Screech-!
Something tore. It was an unpleasant sound, like chalk scraping a blackboard.
Right after that, space split open.
A tiny black crack in midair.
A single finger crawled out from that gap.
"That's...."
It wasn't a human hand.
Each joint of the finger was grotesquely twisted, and even the pinky and ring finger had been transformed into tentacles like octopus legs.
That grotesque finger pointed at me.
The creature pronounced judgment.
[Return to me.]
A voice so cracked and full of static shook the temple.
For a moment, I felt my heart turn cold.
It felt as if a corpse had brushed past my heart.
Even a layman could tell something had just been activated.
"...Nothing happened?"
But nothing happened to my body.
Seeing that even the death-warding charm I had worried about showed no sign of activating, it seemed it really had no effect.
It was right after I relaxed and was about to blast it away.
Bang - !
The sound of a balloon popping came from beside me.
At the same time, something hot splattered across my face.
The stench of blood wafted over me.
I slowly turned my head.
"...Huh?"
Teach was gone.
On the floor, blood and flesh were splattered everywhere like a water balloon bursting.
It was easy to tell that that blood belonged to Teach.
The robe and wand I had given him were still intact, lying on the floor.
"What, is this...."
Just as I was barely trying to steady my mind.
The explosions didn't stop.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
With a chain of blasts, the sailors exploded one by one.
They couldn't even scream, and went off in order.
Because I had been watching from the very start this time, I could see exactly how they died.
Their bodies bulging like balloons before bursting.
A massacre scene—the first I'd seen since climbing the tower.
It didn't feel real at all.
"Uh......"
I stood frozen in place, mouth hanging open.
My mind went blank.
"They all died...?"
In an instant?
There was no way.
No matter that this was the Tower, and no matter that they were its residents.
To be wiped out within a few seconds right before my eyes?
What came first wasn't anger, but confusion.
Turn back time? Go outside the tower first?
Or should I clear the floor and then try re-entering?
If it wasn't a boss floor, you could clear it repeatedly up to five times.
Come to think of it, I had never re-entered after meeting people inside the tower, so I didn't know what would actually happen.
Looking at other floors where monsters had appeared, there was a chance it would start over from the moment I first entered the 49th Floor.
Of course, there was also a very good chance it wouldn't. Maybe the dead wouldn't come back.
Everything was uncertain.
What was the best move right now.
Various options flashed through my mind and disappeared.
Even then, time didn't wait for me.
Crackle!
Black lightning bolts surged up from the corpses.
The lightning rushed toward the monster's hand, tearing the space wider and wider.
[At last....]
At last, he slowly stepped out through the crack.
A hulking figure in a splendid but worn priest's robe.
He had his head hidden beneath a large robe, but I saw what was underneath.
Countless tentacles writhed within.
His head was that of a giant octopus.
Unlike a normal octopus, its single eye was glowing ominously.
"That's...."
Only then did I realize what the forearm tattoo I'd been seeing all along was depicting.
The thick line crossing the circle was that octopus's single eye.
The creature spoke with its mouthless face.
[Because of your pointless struggle, I only managed to recover thirty percent of my power....]
Its voice was laced with annoyance.
The high priest glared at me, his disgusting tentacles writhing between the torn priest's robes.
[You're quick on the uptake, and you really kept getting in my way. Thanks to you, I could only descend in an incomplete state.]
I bit my lip and asked him.
"...Why was it only everyone but me who died?"
[I merely collected the price.]
"Collected?"
[When this city sank long ago, my body as the high priest was shattered to pieces and scattered. My soul was also torn out and trapped inside this insignificant creature.]
The high priest slowly stepped forward and picked up the parrot's corpse.
Crunch.
In his hand, the parrot was crushed like a piece of fruit.
[That tattoo was a vessel for gathering my scattered fragments. The creatures you killed were my very power.]
The creature turned its tentacle hand and pointed outside—the remains of the fish-men and golems strewn about where we had broken through.
[I merely reclaimed that power for myself. In the process, I also collected tax as a bonus.]
"Tax?"
[You tasted the joy of becoming stronger by borrowing my power, so of course you should pay the price, shouldn't you?]
Only then did I understand what had happened.
Just like hunters, the sailors who got stronger by killing enemies weren't leveling up.
They were merely gathering his scattered power and borrowing it.
I got chills from that vicious system.
[It really was a long span of time. Until I got here... And yet you went and interfered with the resurrection. At this rate, I can't serve the god. I can't bring Him back.]
The single eye gleamed.
[In that case, I shall sacrifice you and perform the ritual again. Today, the god shall be revived.]
The high priest raised his tentacle arm. In that hand was a dagger with a wavy blade.
The black lightning drawn out of the corpses just moments ago gathered into the dagger.
[Come, Tenth Finger.]
The high priest swung the dagger. The moment one bolt of lightning vanished, space tore open.
Rustle.
What burst from that gap was an extremely thin tentacle.
About the thickness of a finger.
But I couldn't relax at all.
That thin finger was overflowing with an indescribably eerie, ferocious energy.
The sudden slaughter of my allies.
Rage and confusion swirled inside me.
But for now, getting away from the threat in front of me came first.
It wouldn't be too late to sort everything out after subduing this thing.
I hurriedly formed a thick wall of sand.
But the moment the tentacle touched the wall, I realized this defense didn't mean much.
The sand collapsed in an instant.
As if the magic had been dispelled.
"Damn it...!"
I could move the ground. Fortunately, the floor was all marble.
With the World Tree Staff, I could control it even with my eyes closed.
Tspat!
I quickly shifted my position.
After moving to his blind spot, I immediately fired sand bullets imbued with divine power.
Sand grains fired at such tight intervals that they couldn't be dodged.
[Seventh Finger.]
The creature swung the dagger again.
This time, a much thicker tentacle appeared.
It coiled like a snake, wrapping around the high priest.
Pabababam!
When the sand bullets hit head-on, its surface melted away.
"One more time...."
[My turn. Ninth Finger.]
Another thin tentacle burst out after tearing space once more.
I tried attacking that tentacle with the same divine power, but I couldn't stop it at all.
The sand grains once again collapsed to the floor in vain.
I moved the ground again to evade the attack.
"Damn...."
The tenth tentacle he had first summoned still hadn't disappeared.
In total, two hands kept chasing me relentlessly.
The hands of death were slowly, but surely, drawing near.
"Then I'll strike first from this side...."
I created a giant blade of sand.
So it would draw his attention at once.
[Eighth Finger.]
A wall of giant tentacles blocked the blade.
Unlike before, the tentacle did not melt.
After blocking the attack, the wall of tentacles slowly parted, and he reappeared to meet my eyes.
Exactly as I'd intended.
[- !]
An invisible spear pierced his chest.
At the same time, the wall of tentacles crumbled heavily.
What emerged before him was the invisible Chohogi.
It didn't seem to have divine power, so it couldn't do any meaningful damage, but the real attack had been prepared separately anyway.
[What a crude trick.... Do you think such a simple attack will work?]
"It's not over yet."
I had been waiting for this opening.
The moment I raised my hand, a giant blade fell from the ceiling.
An invisible blade imbued with divinity.
It was an attack I'd been buying time to prepare perfectly since earlier.
[What...!]
Only then did he notice my attack.
Was he going to use that defensive tentacle again?
No, he couldn't.
[You coward...!]
Instead of using the magic he'd been using until now, the high priest tried to dodge by moving his own body.
Just as I'd expected.
"Looks like the same effect can only be summoned twice after all."
The finger naming convention.
And numbers that had never repeated even once.
The tentacle numbers with the same effect formed a linked set, like 10 and 9.
It was the conclusion my intuition had drawn.
It was a strange feeling.
I was definitely angry right now.
An intense emotion I'd never felt before.
And yet, my head was colder than ever, working faster than ever.
Only to kill the enemy before my eyes.
Crack!
The sword that fell from the sky split him in half.