Chapter 136
Chapter 136. The Divine Light Spire
The moment the topic of rewards came up, Norspelskard guided him down to a vast, deep warehouse beneath the Eternal Fortress.
“This world will one day witness a transformation. The very moment of Creation.”
“The time when a new universe is born?”
“I don’t know when that will be. But the giant ancestors built this supply depot to feed and arm giant soldiers for that uncertain moment of Creation that might come in a few years.”
"I heard the species is disappearing."
"At least not in the Frost Dragon Mountains. They receive the power of Creation directly. Now, we have arrived. That over there is the supply depot."
A massive iron door built for giants. Back when Lui was made king in the Kingdom of Frangia, Yul had seen human siege warfare—it was about the same size as those gates.
Norspelskard forced the supply depot open and showed him inside.
“To withstand the strength of giants, ordinary techniques won’t suffice. So we use weapons woven from stars.”
“That’s a metaphor, right?”
“Hm? What do you mean by metaphor? We literally weave stars. The ones up there.”
Yul pressed his forehead. Right. At this point, he couldn’t tell what was what anymore.
The Flat Earth theory was true here, the Moon approached the planet and then left whenever it pleased, and perhaps the stars were just decorations hanging in the sky.
“So what do you do with those stars?”
"Occasionally, stars fall from the sky. This happens when a great hero of the Eures Keynes Realm dies, or when something grand perishes."
“…And then?”
“Then a weaver picks up the fallen star, unravels it thread by thread, and reforges it into a new weapon. That’s what we call a ‘Starfall Weapon.’”
“So the weapons stored in this depot are Starfall Weapons?”
“That’s right. I’ll give you one of the older weapons stored here. It should suit you well.”
He pointed to an inverted triangular pyramid emitting a divine light, hanging further inside.
It looked to be roughly 5 meters in size. A long chain was attached to its tip. Covered in various engravings, it almost looked like an ornament.
“It’s called the Divine Light Spire. A large blunt weapon that synchronizes with the user’s soul and evolves. It’s no ordinary treasure.”
“Synchronizes with the soul, huh….”
“If you form a contract with the Divine Light Spire, it will synchronize with your soul and unlock additional abilities.”
Like the branch of the World Tree, it carried divinity. However, perhaps because it hadn’t awakened, it was still in a weak state.
“If you’re willing to hand over something like this, the task can’t be ordinary.”
“There are two tasks. First, you must search for the stars that fell when the World Tree died. Because of White Crux’s attack, the World Tree and its last kin were completely annihilated. This is the aftermath.”
“What do I do with the World Tree’s star if I find it?”
“Keep it if you want. Do whatever you like with it. Just make sure it doesn’t fall into White Crux’s hands.”
“Easy enough. And the second?”
“At the northernmost tip lies the Sacred Land. Do not cross its boundary. On the opposite side of this place that encircles the Arctic, that is where the Weaver of Stars resides. The Akaneinum Observatory. You must deliver this item there."
What Yul received was a perfectly spherical crystal orb, about the size of a human forearm.
“It’s an exploration tool I borrowed from the weaver a long time ago to search for a path to the Sacred Land. But I still haven’t returned it.”
“Why not go yourself or send your subordinates?”
“My subordinates aren’t reliable. Even the hunters from Yungdheim I recruited this time aren’t suited for this kind of task. There are countless mystical beings along the way, it could easily be taken from them.”
To Yul, the two tasks were simple. But for Norspelskard, who had to remain at the Eternal Fortress to keep White Crux in check, they were difficult problems that required careful consideration.
He couldn’t leave his post, and finding someone of comparable strength whom he could trust wasn’t easy.
That was why he had abruptly handed over even a Starfall Weapon.
* * *
Yul stayed at Norspelskard’s fortress for a while before finally leaving.
He had a feeling that if he didn’t start moving soon, he wouldn’t make it to the meeting place he had promised with Lucian in time.
First, he would search for the place where the World Tree’s star had fallen.
For that purpose, Norspelskard assigned him a hunter from Yungdheim.
“My name is Bjorn Eiriksson. I have been ordered by Lord Norspelskard to escort you. I have seen the place where the star fell."
“Good. Lead the way immediately.”
He was taller than most northerners, standing at about 3 meters. When asked, he said the men in his village in Yungdheim were all around that height.
“This way.”
As they headed toward the place where the World Tree’s star had fallen, they found a bronze colossus that looked as if someone had made it.
And that ‘star’ was lodged precisely in the eye of the bronze colossus.
“To think a star would get stuck in a guardian statue made by giants….”
“Can I just take that star?”
“You probably won’t be able to take it so easily. The bronze colossus might start moving.”
“…?”
Before Yul could even question it, the bronze colossus moved and crushed something wandering near its feet.
“A gnoll hunter going after the star.”
A gnoll hunter had carefully approached the bronze colossus, only to be crushed to death.
That wasn’t all. Around them, all sorts of strange non-human species had gathered, all aiming for the star.
“What exactly is that star for them to act like this?”
“Lord Norspelskard called it a crystallization of karma.”
“Ah.”
Now that he thought about it, it did resemble the golden karma crystal he had seen when he was with Kaiman.
‘Then does that mean when a certain existence remains in Eures Keynes Realm, karma accumulates and manifests as a star?’
He didn’t know the exact mechanism, but if that was the case, he could understand why those creatures were so desperate.
Karma could be used as currency, and if one used it personally, they could become stronger.
“Do you know anything about that colossus?”
“It’s a guardian statue created by the ancient giants. It moves autonomously and repels nearby enemies. After the giants outside the Eternal Fortress declined, it has likely been operating automatically.”
“So I just destroy it and pull out the eye?”
“Lord Norspelskard probably won’t mind.”
“Well, he did say I could take the star. Hmm.”
Yul narrowed his eyes slightly. The itch he had been feeling lately was a sign that his third Demon Eye was about to awaken.
And according to the notebook he received from his future self, some Demon Eyes could be awakened intentionally.
‘But not yet.’
With an enemy right in front of him, he needed to focus. Yul returned to his true form.
The moment he did, the bronze colossus turned its gaze toward him.
-OOOHHH! You cowardly and cunning member of the Deep King Tribe! No one shall lay a hand on Kalos’s storehouse!!
-I don't give a damn about any storehouse.
-WOOOOOOO!!
Without further words, a massive fist swung toward him. Yul lightly dodged, and a giant pine tree growing nearby was completely shattered, leaving a deep crater.
-You vile Deep King Tribe! Die!
Yul decided to test the weapon he had just received.
Generous as he was, Norspelskard had given him the Divine Light Spire upfront.
An inverted triangular pyramid. At a glance, it looked like the symbol of the Illuminati, and its tip could extend in length through a chain of magic power.
Yul grasped it with Telekinesis and lifted it into the air.
Holding something with Telekinesis as if gripping it with his hands had become manageable with his growing proficiency.
‘Like this… if I lift it like a mace and spin it….’
The bronze colossus, having regained its posture, approached again to attack Yul.
Yul hurled a rotating strike of the Divine Light Spire at the colossus.
KWA-AAAAAAAAAAAANG!
A deafening explosion, like a bomb going off. The chest of the massive colossus caved in and was pushed backward.
‘Oh, this is fun.’
Yul switched the magic chain of the Divine Light Spire vertically, built up centrifugal force twice, and brought it down.
The massive star embedded in the colossus’s head popped out with a dull thud.
‘Perfect.’
Though it was just a test run, the Divine Light Spire had shown satisfying attack power so far.
He was still using it without forming a contract, but once it synchronized with his soul later… who knew?
At that moment, small figures that had been hiding quietly burst out all at once.
Humans, mole-rats, cyclopes, and even beastfolk with deer antlers.
“The star!”
“It’s mine!”
“It’s miiiiine!!”
The small fry aiming for the star hurled arrows and harpoons toward Yul.
After grabbing the one charging fastest toward the star with Telekinesis and throwing it away, Yul flew faster than anyone else toward the star and snatched it with his mouth.
‘It’s nothing special, yet they’re going crazy over it.’
Then, floating in the air, he looked down at the surroundings with a dignified air.
-If you want to die, keep coming.
“…….”
In the forest, now filled with silence, one deserter appeared, and then all of them began to flee.
Yul looked at the fallen bronze colossus. Whatever it had been guarding, it now seemed completely deactivated.
-Hm. That settles it, then?
The hunter Bjorn stood there, watching the scene with a stunned expression.
“Overwhelming power….”
Since he couldn’t perceive magic signals anyway, Yul lifted Norspelskard’s guide with Telekinesis.
“W-wait—what?!”
Yul glanced at him, then looked elsewhere.
Seeing Yul’s six massive eyes, Bjorn seemed tense, but he didn’t forget his duty.
“Th-then I will guide you to the path leading to the Weaver of Stars. That way.”
Holding him aloft, Yul flew while looking toward the Sacred Land.
‘Completely white.’
Throughout Eures Keynes Realm, there were plants that survived the cold through magic and mythical creatures that fed on them. But the area they called the Sacred Land was entirely painted white beyond a certain boundary, with nothing visible at all.
That must be the true polar Arctic.
And instinctively, he realized that the boundary could not be crossed. It was a line only chosen Transcendent beings could pass.
Carrying Bjorn, Yul moved along that sacred boundary. Even after traveling quite a distance, Bjorn endured reasonably well.
‘He’s holding up well.’
Even though Yul was shielding him from the wind, enduring this cold still spoke of the toughness of a northerner. He must be used to traversing ice and snow as a hunter.
After passing six massive ice peaks and crossing a bizarre region where liquefied metal rained down, Bjorn soon pointed toward something in the distance that looked like a massive white spine.
The structure looked even more grotesque as it was embedded vertically into the ground, as if it were growing out of it.
By now, Bjorn was trembling violently. They had covered a journey of several months in just a few hours.
“That’s it! That is the Akaneinum Observatory!”
Despite trembling, Bjorn pointed accurately at the destination.
At the very tip of the spine-like structure, there was some kind of building.
As they rapidly approached, a massive being spoke to them from afar.
-Who are you?
-A deliveryman?
-A deliveryman? No, why is that a question?
Instead of answering, Yul showed the exhausted Bjorn and the item he had received from Norspelskard.
The being inside seemed to understand and speak.
-I see. So that’s how it turned out. In any case, you are invited. Come in.