Chapter 159: Chapter 159 - Despair
Before moving further up, Lucien stilled himself. He had to know how the battlefield outside was faring.
Closing his eyes, he extended his will outward. At once, he could feel the connections with his pets.
Just then... Seiryu and Byakko’s voices resonated in his mind.
Lucien had known they could communicate but hearing their voices directly struck with unusual clarity.
They directly told him what he wanted to hear even without him asking.
To summarize their words....
The legions of patrolling monsters were returning in force.
But Midas and Augustus had already stepped forward. They intercepted the onslaught with terrifying might. Their clash with the tide of returning monsters shook the earth itself.
On the other side, the battlefield roared like a living storm.
The clash of titans filled the skies. The Golddusts and Silvermines with the last descendant of Copperrock. Their magic exchange rung like thunder. Together they carved arcs of magic across the battlefield, holding their own in midair.
Cielius’s duel with Ashreth split the heavens themselves. Each strike threatened to tear open reality.
Behind Cielius was the Assassin’s Guild Chief. His soul has been freed from the bleak chains Lucien had shattered. And the Magic Tower Master fought beside them.
Their guilt lingered. It’s a wound that bled even as they fought for both had slain those significant to them under Ashreth’s control. And yet, they wielded that guilt as steel, refusing to falter again.
Every blow sent violent shockwaves rolling over the armies below.
There, Clara’s forces held strong. Buffs rippled through the ranks like waves of golden light. They fortified weary soldiers and they kept morale unshaken.
Still... bodies fell. Blood soaked the earth. Even with the Life Slime and Death Slime working relentlessly, healing and mending as only they could, death was not something that could be denied.
But despite the mounting casualties, the will of the army did not break. If anything, the flames of conviction only burned higher.
The war had just reached its peak.
...
Lucien exhaled. ’They’ll endure. I don’t need to worry.’
His gaze shifted upward.
The hollow center of the Obsidian Tower loomed like a colossal throat. The pull of the fragment grew stronger with every heartbeat.
Lucien’s form blurred.
Skywalk.
He ascended in bursts. Each step exploded the air beneath his feet. Monsters surged to block him. But they died without ceremony.
Divine light severed limbs. Morphis drank their blood with merciless accuracy.
Yet even as he moved, Lucien caught glimpses of the tower’s inner workings.
There seemed to be countless facilities within the Obsidian Tower. Lucien had no idea what lay inside.
But he did not linger. Destroying them one by one would cost time he could not spare.
If he seized the fragment or the core that sustained this entire construct... then all of it would collapse anyway.
His ascent accelerated.
Until—
He stopped.
The air grew heavy. The pulse of power above shook the marrow in his bones.
At last, he reached it.
The summit.
Before him stretched a chamber vast and ancient.
Lucien froze.
His chest tightened as the chamber stretched before him.
The fragment pulsed at its heart. Each beat was like a god’s drum echoing through the marrow of the Obsidian Tower. The black walls quivered with veins of molten crimson, feeding the spire with unfathomable power.
Lucien’s instincts shrieked. It’s a primal warning he had failed to notice until his eyes locked onto the truth.
At a deeper part of the chamber, three silhouettes waited. They stood with an ease that bent the air around them as if the Tower itself bowed in submission to their presence.
Their forms were monstrous yet eerily regal. They look like beings that did not simply live in the world but ruled it.
Lucien’s breath caught. His chest tightened.
"No way... I thought there’s only one of them..."
The silence that followed was suffocating. The chamber itself seemed to hold its breath.
A Magus Goblin. It was shrouded in black runes that pulsed like veins of fire.
A Winged Goblin. Its bleak wings looks like they were forged from obsidian.
A Giant Goblin. It’s a hulking monstrosity whose every step cracked the stone beneath its feet.
Three Monster Lords. Three calamities.
Lucien’s throat dried.
His fingers twitched against Morphis’s hilt but his body screamed in betrayal. His very instinct told him the truth...
He could not win. Not here. Not against them.
Every outcome his mind painted ended the same way. His body shattered. His blood spilled. His light extinguished.
There was no other choice.
Retreat.
He needed time. Time to think. To plan. To become stronger.
Lucien spun on his heel. His breath was ragged and his face was drained of all color.
For the first time... he felt true fear. Not the cold calculation of danger but raw, suffocating dread.
Even in the Mural World, he had never felt it like this.
His weak human body could barely withstand the weight of their existence. Facing them here, stripped every ounce of bravado from him.
But before he could even take a step—
BOOM.
The chamber quaked.
A voice, deep as the abyss, reverberated through the obsidian walls.
"Since you’ve come this far, why don’t you enter?"
Lucien’s vision bent. His body snapped forward. Reality folded like paper. In the blink of an eye, he was no longer outside the chamber but within. He was trapped beneath the gaze of these monsters who had leveled kingdoms.
Their eyes seared into him, dissecting his very existence.
The Magus Goblin’s lips curled into something between a smile and a sneer.
"Oh-ho... how fortunate. We needn’t scour the realms for the inheritance. It walked into our chamber willingly. Years of searching was spared in a single moment."
The Winged Goblin’s voice rumbled. Each of its word reverberated like thunder against the obsidian walls.
"A fragile shell... yet it carries a fragment within. Humans truly are fascinating. Do you think this one could be molded into a vessel for our Primordial God?"
Then the Giant Goblin spoke. Its voice was not a sound but a cacophony. It’s like countless whispers tangled into one discordant chorus.
"Caution. I may lack cunning but even I remember. It was a human who cast us down before. We should end him now, tear the fragment free and then march upon the lesser worlds."
They spoke of him not as an equal. Not even as an enemy. To them, Lucien was merely a specimen on a slab.
Lucien’s rage burned in his chest.
But before it could ignite into action, the Magus Goblin lifted a single finger.
"Down."
The word was command and command became law. The floor buckled as gravity crushed Lucien to his knees.
His bones groaned and his veins threatened to burst.
He snarled as his divine energy sparked... but it guttered out as the pressure doubled... tripled... until the chamber itself seemed to conspire against him.
His thoughts blurred.
’I can’t... I can’t win.’
The Winged Goblin’s claw lashed out. Lucien was wrenched upward. His body snapped like a ragdoll against unseen currents.
Before he could cry out, a shadow danced.
The Goblin Giant drifted forward. Its massive form moved with an unnatural grace. Before Lucien could react, its claws clamped around his arms.
And then it pulled.
Shhhhk—
Agony exploded through him. His mouth opened in a scream but no sound escaped. The Magus Goblin’s spell had already stolen his voice.
Blood hissed against the floor, only to be swallowed by the Tower itself as though feeding on his suffering.
Lucien’s vision wavered.
Just then—
Thrum.
The fragment of the Origin Core pulsed violently within his chest as though it refused to let him collapse. A surge of raw energy coursed through him, keeping him from slipping into darkness.
And then the unexpected happened.
The Goblin Giant hurled his severed arms back toward him.
They should have been nothing but broken flesh but an unseen force seized them. Bone and sinew crawled like living wires, reattaching with horrifying speed. In mere moments, his arms were whole again.
Yet Lucien felt no triumph. Only despair.
Because they weren’t fighting him. They were playing with him.
He was prey. He was nothing.
Their voices echoed through the chamber like judgment from gods.
The Winged Goblin’s eyes gleamed. "Hah. The fragment chose you. Not forced, not stolen. It clings to your soul. This is rare! But you are still too weak to bear it."
The Magus Goblin leaned forward. His voice dripped with command. "Human. I will grant you a choice. Kneel. Become the vessel for our god. Serve and be spared."
The Giant Goblin rumbled as miasma leaked from its maw. "No. Better to corrupt him. Break him. Humans are more cunning than goblins. Their will is sharper than blades."
Lucien’s lips pressed shut. He said nothing. Because he knew the truth...
Whether he submitted or resisted, it would not matter. His end was certain.
His teeth sank into his lip until blood splattered down his chin. The smallest act of defiance.
The Goblins noticed. The Giant moved.
Its claws twitched and from its fingertips rolled an ocean of miasma. The black tide surged over Lucien, swallowing him whole.
"—GHHHHAAAAAA!"
Pain unlike any wound tore through him. His divine energy was being drowned, stripped away and devoured. His veins blackened and his body burned from the inside out.
His very being was unraveling.
The other two Goblins watched in silence. They did not stop the Giant.
Lucien’s vision swam. His breath came ragged. He could no longer feel his own divine energy... only the fire of corruption consuming him.
Darkness crept at the edge of his sight. And with it, visions. Nightmares.
’Is this... karma. If it is, then fuck karma.’
His consciousness began to sink. The end loomed.
But then—
Something stirred.
From the depths of his bond, a whisper surged. The will of his slimes.
They poured their intent into him. They were bright and unyielding.
And in that instant... Lucien understood.
A grin cut across his face.
"...Slime Beast Mode."
His body warped. His flesh dissolved into translucence. His form bended into something inhuman.
His divine core shone within a body of living fluid. He was no longer bound by flesh and blood. He was an enigma.
The miasma clawing at him screamed and dissipated. It had nothing to corrupt. Nothing to cling to.
For slime could never be corrupted.
Lucien rose. His new form gleamed with otherworldly luster.
At this moment, he felt that he was... eternal.