Chapter 150 : Foresight
Chapter 150: Foresight
‘Subordinate?’
It meant belonging somewhere.
It meant that the tower had come to belong to Berje’s tower.
Why?
Because Vivian Blunt, the owner of the tower, had become a subordinate of Berje Deias?
‘Absorption?’
A tower absorbed another tower?
Was something like that even possible?
As if bewitched without realizing it, Berje nodded. The tower’s system recognized that as affirmation.
And then.
[In accordance with the will of the superior entity - Berje Deias -, the tower of - Vivian Blunt - is absorbed into the tower of - Berje Deias - to which it has been subordinated.]
The anomaly began.
─────!
The tower began to shake.
“W-What is this! Berje, what did you do!”
It was a different level of intensity than before. So powerful that it felt as if the tower might collapse. Vivian struggled to steady herself.
All throughout the tower, people fell and tumbled one after another.
“...Right. What did I even do?”
Berje muttered blankly. In contrast to the violently shaking surroundings, Berje and the throne he sat upon were calm. Like the eye of a storm, unaffected by all vibrations and impacts, the tower’s status kept appearing before him.
[2%]
[33%]
[57%]
As the numbers rose rapidly, the shaking of the tower grew even more violent.
“What is this! What the hell is this! What did you do!”
“I don’t know either.”
“It says my authority over the tower is being extinguished!”
“Ah, so that’s how the notice appears for you.”
‘But if the tower is absorbed, what happens to the original tower?’
The question lasted only a moment.
[100%]
[Absorption complete.]
[The tower of - Vivian Blunt - has been absorbed into the tower of - Berje Deias -.]
[The qualification of ownership of the tower of - Vivian Blunt - has been extinguished.]
“Demon King! Just what in the world has happened?!”
“Gordon?”
That place—
It was no longer the Tower of Lust.
---
“To make the Lust Demon King a subordinate.”
Berje shared everything with him, his adjutant.
When he first heard it, he could hardly believe it. But there was no way Berje would tell a baseless lie.
‘He said the Lust Demon King is currently cornered.’
He had heard that chaos had broken out after she took the blame for the dwarves Berje had kidnapped.
‘No matter how you look at it....’
To abandon all pride as a Demon King and willingly claim subordination to another Demon King.
Of course, he understood. Life was precious to anyone. But at the very least, shouldn’t a Demon King show composure even in the face of death? Gordon thought.
That was the ideal Demon King he envisioned.
A supreme Demon King who proudly confronted countless humans coveting the tower and annihilated them all.
‘Though the Demon King is already far removed from that image.’
Instead of the Demon King himself, the Four Heavenly Kings and hundreds of mana cannons would greet the humans.
And now, to avoid even meeting them, he was trying to construct a bridge.
‘I’ve changed a lot too.’
If it had been when he first descended, he would have grabbed the Demon King by the collar and shouted about what nonsense this was. In just a little over a year, such a short span of time, he had become far too accustomed and adapted.
To the damned dimension called Arein, and to a Demon King named Berje who had thrown The Demon King’s Standard to the dogs.
In place of the absent Demon King, Gordon inspected the tower. The place requiring the most attention was the first floor.
Materials for building the bridge of the tower had begun to pile up, and dwarves were overflowing there.
“Now, think about it, everyone!”
There, a hero named Roger was passionately persuading his kin.
He affixed a massive blueprint he had drawn himself to one side of the wall. Before it, he also floated a crystal orb that projected the design as a hologram.
The dwarves who had been freed from their ice statues gathered closely in front of it and listened intently.
“What was the size of the golems you were making in the Berfht Kingdom? 15 meters? 13 meters? No. It was a mere 10 meters!”
On the other hand, do you see this blueprint?
“His Majesty the Demon King of Dark Flame does not make things so petty. A full 22 meters. One single leg alone is 22 meters. And there are eight of them!”
“The core will be replaced with the core of the magic tower. If we make it function properly and fuse it well, the authority of the tower will connect far more naturally.”
“If that is all, then we can make it. A super-giant golem that no one has ever imagined, let alone created! We can see it! That golem striding across the snowy mountains!”
“If your heart does not race even after seeing this, then you have no qualification to call yourself a dwarf craftsman!”
Roger exhaled a rough snort through his nose. Most of the craftsmen agreed with his words.
They had been kidnapped, this place was the Demon King’s tower, and they had been told to build a golem out of the blue, so they were certainly flustered. But at their core, they were craftsmen mad about making things.
The newer, more novel, and more extraordinary it was, the better.
“It certainly is impressive.”
“A moving golem where the tower itself walks, with eight 22-meter legs attached. My hands are itching.”
“But is that even possible?”
“If the tower replaces the core, what exactly is impossible? Honestly, with our current technology, we could make something up to around 50 meters. The only reason we stop at 10 meters is because there’s no core to operate it.”
“True. If only the core problem were solved....”
“Frankly, I want to take apart that tower that’s supposedly acting as the core.”
“I feel the same.”
The craftsmen fell into hushed discussion. There was no one who did not grow excited after seeing the blueprint and hearing Roger’s ambition.
However, there was one greatest obstacle.
“No matter what, working for a Demon King is....”
“Aren’t we proud dwarves? How can we make a golem for a Demon King?”
“I want to make the golem, but I don’t want to be branded a traitor who betrayed our race.”
“When I think about that golem attacking our homeland, it’s a bit....”
Resistance to helping a Demon King.
And anxiety that the golem they created might trample their own country and race.
“You need not worry about that part.”
“What do you mean?”
“First, the Demon King has said that he has no intention of attacking the Berfht Kingdom first.”
This was something arranged in advance to persuade the dwarf craftsmen.
“Wait, if you say ‘first,’ doesn’t that mean he will attack if trouble arises?”
One dwarf raised an objection. The word ‘first’ carried many implications.
“If you get hit first and just take it, would that make you a sucker, or a Demon King?”
“...That’s true as well.”
“That’s true as well? You think that’s something we can just let slide?”
“The Demon King has given one more firm assurance. At the very least, until he has thoroughly conquered the humans, he will not invade the Berfht Kingdom. He swore this upon the First Demon Emperor and The Demon King’s Standard, so you may trust it. If you wish, I will also stake my own interference power as a hero.”
“Hmm, if it’s to that extent.”
One by one, the dwarves—who knew what the First Demon Emperor and The Demon King’s Standard meant to the demon race, and what it meant for a hero to stake interference power—began to accept it.
“And second. You are, after all, ‘kidnapped’ and cooperating ‘inevitably.’ Who would dare condemn those who struggle desperately just to live?”
“That won’t work. In the end, those harmed by golems made by our hands will curse us and try to kill us.”
“What if someone were to testify that it truly was an unavoidable situation? Someone authoritative, whom anyone could accept.”
“Is there such a person?”
“Isn’t she standing right before your eyes?”
“Your Highness the Princess...?”
The craftsmen nodded once more.
The words of Louise Berfht, born from the king’s and crown prince’s love and familial affection, carried that much weight.
“And there is one more thing.”
“One more?”
“This was close to a threat, but he said that anyone who refused to cooperate would all be thrown into the underground prison. And that they would never be released.”
If—
Roger lowered his voice, setting the mood.
“If you refuse and are imprisoned, and then the bridge is completed, what do you think will happen? What if the tower then flees, avoiding the Empire and Hilderan?”
“...That’s horrific.”
“If the premise that the tower can serve as the core is correct, then it can move sufficiently. It’s not entirely wrong.”
“To rot in prison for the rest of our lives?”
“That’s right. You would be forced to do nothing and remain still for the rest of your lives!”
“...Good heavens!”
Watching the scene, which was like a play, Gordon became convinced.
That everything would probably proceed according to the Demon King’s plan.
It was then.
[The tower of the subordinate entity - Vivian Blunt - has been subordinated to the tower of the superior entity - Berje Deias -.]
Gordon was the adjutant, and the temporary owner of the tower in the Demon King’s absence. Because of that, he could use the tower’s system.
‘The tower has been subordinated?’
But the contents of the notice were hard to believe.
He had never heard of such a thing. Did it even make sense for a tower to subordinate another tower?
But the anomaly did not end there.
[Absorption.]
[The superior entity - Berje Deias - absorbs the tower of the subordinated subordinate entity - Vivian Blunt -.]
‘It’s absorbing a tower?’
[7%.]
[25%]
[33%]
The tower began to shake.
Strange numbers filled his vision.
Uuugh!
What is wrong with this!
The tower is shaking!
Screams echoed throughout the entire tower. Gordon hastily corrected his unsteady posture and rushed up to the 5th floor.
The moment he threw himself onto the throne to control the tower, he was bounced away.
[The towers are in the process of merging.]
[Until completion, those who are not the owner of the tower may not sit.]
“What...?”
At that moment.
“...!”
He felt as if his body were being compressed by a bizarre sensation of floating.
[100%]
[Absorption has been completed.]
[The tower of - Vivian Blunt - has become a part of the tower of - Berje Deias -.]
[The authority of the tower is strengthened.]
“...Huh?”
Gordon drew in a ragged breath and clenched his fist.
Power had returned. More precisely, the interference power that had been pressing down on him had partially eased.
And by quite a lot.
It was a sense of liberation on a level similar to when Berje had deliberately poured millions of Demonic Points into releasing interference power.
‘What is this?’
It was then. Someone appeared on the empty throne where no one had been before.
The source of all this chaos, Berje Deias.
“Demon King! What in the world has happened?!”
“Gordon?”
“What, where is this place?”
“...Demon King Vivian?”
But Berje was not the only one who appeared on the 5th floor. No, to begin with, it was not even the 5th floor anymore.
---
Berje first grasped the situation of the tower.
The height, which had been no more than five floors, had become ten floors, and Vivian had come to Berje’s tower together with her subordinates.
‘The towers merged. And in the process, everyone who had been in Vivian’s tower was transferred to my tower.’
If that was the case, then it was correct to assume that Vivian’s tower had been absorbed and had completely disappeared.
‘And that wasn’t the end of it.’
The greatest change was the interference power. The interference power that had bound them weakened. No additional Demonic Points had been consumed.
Only the efficiency had increased. By nearly double.
‘This is insane.’
The message stating that the authority of the tower had been strengthened came to mind. The functions of two towers had merged into one, producing efficiency beyond their sum.
“...I understand now. So when Demon King Vivian became your subordinate, Demon King, the towers merged into one.”
“Right.”
“To think the tower possessed such authority....”
“I found out for the first time as well.”
“Either way, there’s nothing bad about this from our perspective.”
As the towers merged, the tower itself was strengthened and its efficiency increased.
Considering the plan to turn the tower into a golem and move it using Demonic Points, it could not have been better.
“Then what happened to Demon King Vivian’s tower?”
“It disappeared, I suppose.”
“...Then won’t humans find that strange?”
A tower that had been standing perfectly fine vanished overnight.
“...As for that, I have a good idea.”
“A good idea, you say?”
“We spread a rumor. That some hero secretly defeated the Lust Demon King.”
“Would anyone believe that? There was no official hero’s march or assault unit, so for that to have happened is....”
“Even if they don’t fully believe it, they’ll have no choice but to think it sounds plausible.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I threw Vivian’s horn into the magic tower.”
Although he had not known things would turn out this way when he did it.
“With the tower gone and the Demon King’s byproduct circulating around, wouldn’t it be harder to believe she’s alive?”
“...Pardon?”