Chapter 596

Kukukukuku!

The air shudders.

Among the highest-ranked senior species in the Trial Tower are dragons.

Their strongest skill is [Breath].

Normally, just being faced with it would inflict status ailments and make one’s whole body tremble.

Of course, that only applies to ordinary residents. For Tulcha, who reigns over the 50th floor, a [Breath] was no real threat.

Her green flames were hundreds of times hotter and more powerful than the ones others wielded.

But….

Why was this different?

The [Breath] facing her now felt unlike a normal dragon’s.

Two blazing swords were growing larger and larger.

Tulcha’s gaze turned to Goguma.

At first glance it looked like a type of black dragon. A very young one, barely out of hatchling stage.

“Not a… normal dragon?” Tulcha rumbled.

To be honest, she hadn’t paid much attention to the lower tiers until now.

No matter how much the bugs flailed, they were just bugs.

A river would never climb a waterfall — she had been sure of that.

But that prejudice shattered at this moment.

A chill ran through her.

A strange, alien sensation she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Instinct sent a warning.

Those swords are dangerous.

Fwoosh!

The swords absorbed the gathered mana in the empty space and suddenly took perfect form.

Above them, the plague vortex Kang Jinhyuk had copied created lanes for the flames to spread.

There was a look of absolute confidence, and a build-up that raised the odds by using his own skills.

All of that pricked Tulcha’s pride.

“You’re brazenly parading someone else’s power around. If you think that preparing like this lets you dare oppose me….”

Tulcha’s maw split open.

Wuuuuung!

Countless plagues compressed into a circular form.

“You’re making a colossal mistake!”

It wasn’t for nothing that many exalted beings and residents knelt before the 50th floor.

No matter how much you prepared and how much you tried to raise probabilities, impossible possibilities always converge to zero.

“Well, I’ll give you the difference in skill and strength.” Kang Jinhyuk nodded as he watched Tulcha’s [Breath].

True enough, winning in a straight-up clash against a primeval being was out of the question.

But—

Isn’t that what allies are for, to make up for that gap?

“In my experience, you can’t beat a team with a solo act.”

Even if not in Azathoth’s palace, given all the many restrictions currently clinging to them, it was worth a try.

Kwah kwah kwah kwah kwah kwah kwah!

The first sword sliced the air.

Kwaaaaang!

Tulcha’s [Breath] and the [Sword of Judgment] collided at a single point.

A storm beyond imagination swept through.

For just over a second they seemed comparable, but the power difference was obvious.

Tulcha’s [Breath] overwhelmed Goguma’s innate domain and forced it back.

At that moment—

Kwah kwah kwah kwah!

Kang Jinhyuk’s sword cut the air.

The second [Breath] was smaller in power and size, but it was much faster than Goguma’s sword.

“Foolish! Speed alone, with less than half the power… huh?”

Tulcha’s sneer instantly distorted.

The [Sword of Judgment] had not been aimed at her at all.

Plffft!

The blade lodged in the ground.

Red flames spread along the earth in the blink of an eye.

At the same time:

[The Zodiac of the Twelve Houses ‘Sagittarius’ awakens!]

[A 7-star Barrier ‘Blue Discharge’ is activated!]

[A 3-star Barrier ‘Mana Crystallization’ is activated!]

[A 2-star Barrier ‘Target Lock’ is activated!]

[A 5-star Barrier….]

What had been planned from the start was not a power-on-power duel but to strike at the opponent’s blind spot.

All the elaborate layers laid out were merely a deception.

Wuuuuung!

Barriers upon barriers triggered irregularly, and blue lines wound together in a complex lattice.

The vast mana supplied through the [Sword of Judgment] dramatically amplified every barrier’s effect.

Dozens of arrows targeted Tulcha’s back.

Having poured mana into using her [Breath], Tulcha had no choice but to leave her rear exposed to the incoming volleys.

“But… if you do something like this, you won’t survive either.”

Goguma’s [Breath] alone could only hold out for a few more seconds.

Even if you catch the enemy off guard, it’s useless if the attackers themselves die.

But Kang Jinhyuk had long since prepared for that.

A so-called ancient-species shield.

He put the sturdy Goguma at the front as a shield and crouched tightly behind him.

“Mogiiii?”

“Sorry, Guma. I’ll give you a lot of tasty mana stones later.”

[Limited Innate Domain ‘Primeval Sagittarius’ is activated!]

A 12-star great confluence and the power gained from Tulcha fused into one.

Kwah kwah kwah kwah thunk!

A dazzling festival of purple starlight.

The raining arrows connected line to line and formed a spectacular tableau.

At the same time—

“Mogiiii!”

Goguma’s plaintive cry as the living shield echoed.

—

A massive storm swept through.

Where the primeval being and Kang Jinhyuk’s innate domain detonated together, the surrounding area was transformed into an entirely different place.

A space where no living thing could hope to survive.

From that place, a woman stood alone, smoke rising from her entire body.

Fshk! Fshk fshk….

Blood spurted like a fountain from where the arrows had embedded.

For the first time, Tulcha — who had never reacted to any attack — bore a proper wound.

Violet smoke seeped from the opening.

She summoned hordes of tentacles to offset the assault, but the impact was beyond imagination.

[172 constraints are still active.]

[A new constraint will be added in 1 minute.]

If she had fought on the 50th floor without any restrictions, such arrows would never have even nicked her.

But this was the lower tier, where she couldn’t fully manifest her power or true form.

Moreover, the longer one stayed on the lower floors, the more shackles piled on painfully.

“Ugh….”

An unfamiliar groan escaped Tulcha’s mouth.

Wounds and blood.

Pain was an alien sensation to a primeval being.

Just then—

“Wow. You are tough. You can take that and still stand?”

A familiar voice cut through the smoke.

Kang Jinhyuk stood unharmed behind the Goguma shield, eyes wide with admiration — a sight that made Tulcha’s teeth grind.

Wuuuuung!

A pair of rings rose along Tulcha’s palms.

They resembled windmills; green whirlwinds spun at high speed.

“I’ve seen something like that. Isn’t it those chakrams Indians use?”

A thrown weapon that freely changes its orbit.

Hard to handle, hard to predict.

But having faced similar kinds hundreds of times, it wasn’t a major threat.

Click!

Kang Jinhyuk re-summoned his other weapons and switched back to two daggers.

“The chakrams I wield are nothing like that. You can look forward to it.”

“The ones that boast like that usually turn out empty. Like soggy corn, even.”

“You’ll know whether it’s hollow when I slice you open.”

Vwoooooom!

The chakram in Tulcha’s left hand vanished along the air.

Kwang!

Tulcha stamped the ground.

The gust became a gale as she charged.

Closing distance at incredible speed, she swung the green ring.

Kaka-kaka-kak!

When Kang Jinhyuk tried to block it with a tilted dagger, a brilliant flame erupted.

The rapidly spinning chakram chewed at the blade.

Her hand withdrew naturally and an opening formed in her body.

At that moment, the other chakram she had thrown earlier targeted Kang Jinhyuk’s thigh.

Kwah kwah kwah kwah!

He barely avoided a fatal blow but failed to evade completely.

Blood spurted high.

Though the wound was shallow, the pain was severe.

“Ugh…!”

Kang Jinhyuk gritted his teeth.

The wound, now glowing green, did not heal easily even with the blessing of the stars and mandala.

‘Even with constraints like these, their lineage advantage doesn’t change. Bloodlines really are immovable.’

He had certainly grown dazzlingly.

Yet the ranks held by 50th-floor beings were a different dimension.

Life-or-death tension.

‘Fun.’

Kang Jinhyuk’s mouth twitched.

A thrill he could never feel fighting ‘middling’ deities.

The intoxicating, addictive game of walking the razor’s edge between life and death.

“…Smiling despite that wound. You must be crazy.”

Of course Tulcha could not understand Kang Jinhyuk’s actions.

For the lithe Kang Jinhyuk, having his leg struck was a grievous loss.

“Well, I’m at a slight disadvantage, but I’m not the only one with a handicap.”

“…You. You even know about the ‘constraints’?”

“If I didn’t, do you think I’d be crazy enough to do a one-on-one with you?”

“From the Necronomicon… you know way too much. Is there a traitor among us? Or did those damned Great Old Gods move? I don’t know. Never mind. I’ll catch you and torture you for a long, long time.”

“You seem curious, but sorry — you’ll never know that answer.”

Kang Jinhyuk dropped the dagger he’d been holding onto the ground.

Thunk!

The dagger’s mana triggered another barrier along the earth.

“How trite. Planning to rain another volley of arrows?”

Sagittarius was fairly strong, but that was all.

With control over the plague chakram and not letting her guard down this time, it posed no great threat.

She was sure she would not allow even a single attack.

“No, not that. I prepared something a little special.”

What the [System Manipulation] had changed was not only mana values.

It had altered the concept of time.

Though it looked as if only a few minutes had passed between them, in truth much more time had flowed.

And that amount of time meant….

“No way….”

Tulcha’s pupils trembled.

At the same time:

[Constraint added!]

[Constraint added!]

[Constraint added….]

Shackles and chains of different colors bound Tulcha’s body.

The thick restraints clinging to her all looked ominous.

“From the start I never thought I could fight you fair and square and win.”

Even mimicking his ‘prime self’, he could not reach the stats and items accumulated over eleven years.

Then….

Only thing he can do is…

Pull the opponent down.

From the lofty throne.

Into the same mud.