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Chapter 374: The Story After (6). [Side Story 6]

Kuguguguguung!

A storm rages.

It grinds down the earth and the air, blowing everything away.

Among them was the Tower Master.

The barrier he barely unfolded shattered and broke apart.

The bones of his fingers were ground away by the storm.

[Keuuuugh!]

[Oh-ho. You endure, do you.]

The Serpent’s eyes glimmered with interest.

[Not bad. Worth something. What do you say? Even now, will you not come under me as my slave? You shall be the glorious first slave of mine.]

[…Nonsense.]

‘Damn Ketal.’

He’d claimed he could at least fight on par with a legendary monster.

All lies.

The difference was overwhelming.

The Serpent chuckled.

[Then it is a pity. Be my prey.]

The Serpent shook its body.

Storms rose and swept.

The Tower Master quickly pulled out artifacts.

Artifacts he had secretly stockpiled after the war.

Enough in value to buy a third of the Mage Tower.

Kagagagagak!

Those artifacts were shredded in an instant.

Half of them destroyed just to block one storm.

[Dam…n it!]

The Tower Master cursed.

It was not a simple storm.

Every phenomenon stirred by the Serpent’s movements carried alien authority.

The Serpent moved its head, opening its jaws to swallow him.

He barely escaped using teleportation.

[Quick, aren’t you. Space leap. A bothersome power.]

[…]

If the Tower Master had skin, he would be drenched in cold sweat.

He was a lich.

An immortal being.

As long as his life vessel wasn’t destroyed, he could not die.

But the opponent was a being of alien Forbidden Lands.

If consumed, could he truly resurrect?

Even now, his essence was being damaged by the storm.

‘…Ketal. Can he come?’

He doubted it.

Ketal was on the other side of the continent.

Even if someone nearby noticed and sent word, it would take a day.

‘So this is my grave?’

To have survived that war only to die here—it was maddening.

But—

The Tower Master’s eyes flickered with flames.

[I will not go quietly.]

Kuguguguung!

The storm raged.

His fingers moved intricately, and before him a coordinate grid of black lines unfolded.

Kiiiiiing!

The storm collided with the grid.

[Oh?]

For the first time, the Serpent let out surprise.

Its storm was being blocked.

[A curious power.]

[Barely managed it… Thought I was dead.]

The Tower Master grumbled as he shook his hand.

He had experimented much with Ketal.

What intrigued him most was the laws of Ketal’s world.

Gravity, strong force, weak force, electromagnetism.

That order, complete with four laws, was perfect.

Results precise, no errors.

The exact opposite of this world, full of mysteries and mistakes.

To him, those values were beautiful.

His long-dead thirst for knowledge was revived.

Since then, he had sought to produce fixed values with magic.

The result now appeared.

[My own magic. A third world.]

[Good! Struggle as you like!]

Kugugugung!

The Serpent swung its body, storms hurling torn earth like meteors.

Not mere mass—alien authority infused.

None of the Tower Master’s magic so far could block it.

[Hoo…]

He steadied himself, snapping his fingers.

The coordinate grids spread around him.

The Serpent’s authority struck them.

Kuguguguung!

The grids held.

Unshaken.

As if fixed into the world itself.

[Oh-ho.]

The Serpent’s gaze gleamed.

Somehow those grids grasped the world itself—fixing values perfectly, cutting off all interference.

[Your power resembles mine.]

[Glory, hearing that from one of creation itself. Then—take this.]

The Tower Master pointed.

Fixing coordinates, cutting off all intervention.

Not only for defense.

[Coordinate Intervention.]

Crack!

The grid overlapped the Serpent’s body.

Explosion erupted.

Vast, piercing the heavens, visible from the cosmos.

[Kruuuugh!]

Artifacts shielding him shattered in seconds.

He hastily raised grids to protect himself.

Rumble…

When it subsided, he groaned at the sight.

[More than expected.]

Where once mountains stood, now a massive hole.

Like scooped ice cream, clean and round.

Not a lake but large enough for a river.

[Collapse from fixed and variable values colliding…]

When fixed coordinates overlapped unfixed existence—this was the answer.

[Hoo…]

He lowered his hand.

Surely the Serpent could not be unharmed.

At least wounded. In that gap, he must summon Ketal.

But then—

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Shhhhaa!

From the pit, the Serpent rose.

He hastily raised grids.

Kwaaaang!

Collision thundered.

His eyes widened.

The absolute fixed-value grid—was cracking.

[Kya! Ha! Ha! Ha!]

The Serpent laughed.

Clouds scattered.

[For a mere mortal to meddle with immutability—that deserves praise! But still mortal! Did you think to harm me?!]

[…Impossible!]

The Tower Master cried in denial.

No wound.

Not even where the grid intervened.

‘But Bayern said he scarred the Rat!’

The northern king Bayern—he had fought the Rat, another legendary beast, and scarred it.

And the Tower Master was three steps above Bayern.

Moreover, this new magic was a supreme mystery only just grasped.

Yet the Serpent was flawless!

[I am the Serpent, from the beginning of creation. I was promised Immutability!]

The Rat—corruption.

The Bear—endless strength.

The Serpent—eternal immutability.

That was its authority. Its narrow pupils locked on him.

[You, mortal, learned immutability. Praise indeed. But only that! Between you and me is an unbridgeable gulf! So die!]

The Serpent lunged.

He was too late to respond.

[Ah.]

Death.

To be eaten here.

Senses sharpened—mana, world, self—everything spiked like needles.

Time slowed.

His mind expanded.

Facing death, he saw truth.

The Tower Master raised his hand.

Claaang!

[Kruuugh!]

The Serpent’s head recoiled, groaning in pain.

[What?]

Its gaze disbelieving.

Before the Tower Master, space fractured.

Not mere division, but more fundamental.

The Serpent muttered:

[Fragmentation?]

[Aah…]

The Tower Master groaned.

At the brink of death, he touched truth.

[World Fragmentation.]

Shatter!

The world itself splintered, trapping the Serpent.

It thrashed—

Claang!

Impossible.

The fragmented world held it.

Its eyes flared.

[You!]

[Exile.]

Crack!

The fragmented world collapsed.

What remained was emptiness.

A void devouring even light.

[Haaah!]

The Tower Master gasped, collapsing.

Bones rattled.

Mana drained, near death.

Yet he laughed.

[Ha, haha…]

He had cut and sealed the world itself.

Space, time, dimension, value—fixed completely.

Ruling the world itself—only then could one wield such magic.

Theoretical [Eleven Class].

He had reached it, if only briefly.

[Never thought, at my age, fear of death would bring this.]

Temporary.

True ascension far away—perhaps never.

But he had seen the answer.

Not impossible.

Enough.

[Hoo…]

He steadied, ready to return and record.

But—

Crack.

The black void fractured.

At first, illusion?

But the cracks spread.

His eyes shook.

[…No way!]

Kaaaang!

The seal broke.

The exiled world returned, mangled.

And within—the Serpent.

[How… dare…!]

Its voice thundered with rage.

[How dare a mortal wound me—my immutability!]

On its brow—

A wound.

Tiny, like a scratch.

The Tower Master was stunned.

All his revelation amounted to only that.

[Then I shall crush you!]

The Serpent’s head descended.

He could not move.

With all his mana gone, even twitching a finger was impossible.

He closed his eyes.

At least he had touched a higher realm.

He had no regrets.

Kuuuung!

Shockwaves rippled.

He opened his eyes faintly.

His fiery pupils shook.

[Ketal?]

[Krrrk!]

[You’ve suffered much, Tower Master.]

Ketal stood before him, pressing the Serpent’s head down.

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