Chapter 141

Hearing that the magic core was ominous, I couldn’t help but massage my temples.

The magic core is indeed the core of a magic tower, as its name suggests. Even if everything else in the tower, including the forbidden magic, is intact, a defective magic core renders the entire tower useless.

‘So, it seems the tower Cnemon was supposed to inherit turned out to be a false offer.’

“When did this start?”

The time between Carisia and me had refined our communication to the point where such truncated sentences were easily understood. After briefly frowning, Carisia replied with a date that didn’t align with what I had expected.

“About three days ago?”

It was an extremely ambiguous period. I believed that the unsettling atmosphere began right after my battle with the mental parasite. At the very least, it should have been around the time the Theistic Order announced their pursuit.

Three days ago was after I mediated between Blasphemia and the Theistic Order, and also some time after the priests confirmed they no longer detected any traces of the parasite.

Thinking rationally, it was highly probable that the judges preparing the final test boundary made a mistake, causing the magical impurity.

Or perhaps the continuous use of city magic network power to maintain the barrier reduced the output of the magic core.

But I had a certain conviction.

One shouldn’t use the term ‘rational thinking’ lightly.

When did Blasphemia in the Golden Desert ever think irrationally? They tried to kill Carisia and me using the most rational strategies and ended up disappearing due to an extradimensional storm from beyond rationality.

Even the Wizard King, after dividing his inheritance and ascending, wouldn’t have foreseen his disciples betraying him so cleanly.

In my opinion, ‘rational thinking’ is a luxury one can only afford after everything has settled down appropriately.

Thus, what I needed now was irrational thinking suited for an irrational situation.

“If it’s so ominous, why don’t you go check it out?”

“Isn’t the master room of the Amimone Magic Tower sealed until the selection ceremony ends?”

Carisia’s words carried another implication: Are you prepared to knock out all the sealing magicians and erase the seal magic with a laser beam before barging in?

Of course, I wasn’t ready for that. Unlike Carisia, who occasionally exuded a bellicose attitude hinting at returning to her Baegmun identity, I believed that battles should involve as few people as possible.

“Haha. For Ortes, the secretary general of Hydra Corp, there are no doors that open.”

So naturally, my solution would be through ‘conversation’.

“But how about if it’s L13, the secret inspector of Blasphemia?”

I contacted Niobe, the Blasphemia supervisor of Algus City.

***

While Ortes chanted peculiar slogans—”Hahaha! Power! Unlimited power!”—Carisia prepared to infiltrate the master room following Ortes.

Being Ortes entering the master room under the guise of a “check” as a secret inspector, and Carisia, the sponsor of the tower master candidate Cnemon, accompanying him, were not things that could be placed on the same level.

The visible-light spectrum camouflage magic enveloped Carisia’s body, rendering her completely transparent without any subtle distortions or refractions that might give away her presence.

Niobe met Ortes at a secluded location upon receiving his contact.

“This feels risky, even though it’s coming from you…”

Though Niobe expressed hesitation, the fact that she started her sentence with “even though” meant we were halfway to success. It signified her trust in Ortes’s claim that “there seems to be an issue with the magic core.”

“Senior, can’t we just delay this by half a day? By then, the tower master selection will be over, and you can enter as a sponsor without any issues.”

“It might already be too late. In normal circumstances, we should have used a straightforward approach, but extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, don’t they?”

Carisia noticed a complex light in Niobe’s eyes—a mixture of trust, admiration, and goodwill. Though it wasn’t particularly pleasant for Carisia, she acknowledged that the feelings harbored by this Blasphemia agent were helping matters progress smoothly—for now.

Niobe contemplated, resting her chin on her thumb and index finger. Carisia realized the plan had been accepted from the look of her contemplation.

Anyone deliberating in front of Ortes inevitably gets persuaded.

“Our side won’t object since it’s your task, but other Panoptes agents can only divert attention for an hour.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll finish before then.”

Ortes winked.

To Niobe, it seemed like a slick gesture, but Carisia understood the deeper meaning behind it.

Ortes was getting ready to open his eyes.

***

“Huh?”

In front of the Amimone Magic Tower, Ortes, who was preparing to sneak in unnoticed, let out an astonished sound.

The tower exploded.

More accurately, it appeared destroyed to others. However, to Ortes, the shattered fragments of the tower hadn’t physically “destroyed.”

Space warped. All sorts of experimental tools and equipment inside the tower became visible, the outer facade carved into the heavens above.

It was akin to projecting hundreds of videos showing both the interior and exterior of the tower onto the celestial sphere of Algus City. Then these images began to break apart further—walls into bricks, bricks into sand.

As space fragmented more and more, the phrase “assembly is the reverse of disassembly” came to Ortes’s mind.

However, it was questionable whether the reassembled form of this fragmented space would resemble a “tower”—perhaps more likely a “monstrosity.”

“Niobe! Call Blasphemia! Something magical is being cast inside, so applying external magic might counteract it!”

Ortes’s spontaneous response had some utility. Every magic relies on the principle of controlling and manipulating mana according to one’s will. Injecting impurities into the spell formula could cause the magic to fail or at least reduce its effectiveness by half.

Therefore, Ortes’s words were both instructions to Niobe and a request directed towards Carisia, who was hiding nearby.

Carisia thought,

“He didn’t specify how to apply the mana.”

True to her nature, she favored simple and direct methods.

Had Ortes seen inside Carisia’s thoughts, he might have labeled her approach as brutish.

“Huh?”

The same word escaped him unconsciously when witnessing the tower’s explosion. Unbeknownst to Ortes, Nastiorn, observing from the shadows, also expressed his astonishment with the same word.

The sky warped, similar to the spatial distortion caused by a mental parasite assimilating the tower into its body.

However, it was clear that this distortion wasn’t caused by the parasite.

Though there was no magical evidence, Nastiorn was certain.

Because it had begun burning the Amimone Magic Tower.

The circular segments of the distorted sky acted like convex lenses, concentrating light onto a single point until it was excessively bright, almost enough to scorch the eyes of anyone looking.

At the moment the light reached a critical threshold, the focal point shifted—not towards the empty space in front of the spatial lens, but towards the Amimone Magic Tower.

A beam of light scorched the sky of Algus City.

***

I was told to add mana—not destroy.

Instead of grabbing my throbbing head, I observed how the magic tower reacted to the mana injection—what Ten Towers calls a beam attack. Although the rate of decomposition slowed significantly, the process continued steadily.

This indicated that the tower was receiving additional mana from somewhere. Naturally, I looked down at the ground, where the mana conduits buried underground collected stray mana from the air and supplied it to the tower.

Of course, the mana conduits were still feeding mana to the tower.

Although Carisia’s Death Beam bought us some time, at this rate, her mana would run out first.

Blasphemia operatives led by Niobe arrived. Thanks to Carisia’s physical suppression of the parasite’s mutation, we gained some extra time.

We must make the best use of this respite. What moves can we execute through Blasphemia now? Which one would be the most effective?

The question crystallized simultaneously with my judgment.

The boundary prepared for the tower master selection.

If we set up a high-level boundary around the Amimone Magic Tower, effectively isolating the inside from the outside, the connection between the mana conduits and the magic core would be severed. The mana required for the parasite’s metamorphosis would naturally deplete.

Then at least we could save the foundation of the Amimone Magic Tower. We can’t tell Cnemon upon his return, “Sorry, but the tower disappeared.”

I shouted to Niobe,

“Everyone, over here!”

Niobe nodded vigorously in response.

“All units, attack the Amimone Magic Tower undergoing extraneous mutation!”

Hey.