Chapter 554: Companions
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
The Black Tower was another name that the scholars’ generation had given to this eighth hidden Sky Tower. The meaning behind this was that they wanted this tower to remain well concealed in the darkness, even from the G.o.ds, so that the Haletdam generation’s culture could be preserved.
And now, the Sky Tower became the only city of the Revived. This city was currently under development.
From a certain standpoint, my Holy Light explosion from a while back had actually been a good deed. Since the mountain ranges in this area had been completely flattened, that made it much easier for the Revived to build their city and expand out of the tower.
After clearing out all the rubble, a line was drawn on the plains to mark the construction area. Wooden houses were gradually erected, followed by some walls, and then some people were brought here from the Mist Alliance to immigrate into the Revived’s new city, creating the foundation for this new city.
The first ten underground levels of the Black Tower were also opened up. Several hundred of the best engineers in the Mist Alliance would soon be arriving. In this new and basic city, they would learn all of the knowledge here as quickly as possible in order to improve the Mist Alliance’s magical engineering technology.
Technology, market, and labor were all present here. Perhaps this city would become one of the Mist Alliance’s leading cities for technological innovation in just a short few years.
Since I was already half retired from my Mist Alliance leaders.h.i.+p duties, being able to help the Mist Alliance like this was actually an unexpected surprise.
That Dimensional Door in the Black Tower, which was connected to the lower planes, would also save me a lot of trouble. At the very least, it would be a great help in the next adventure that we were about to start.
“Has the full list of who’s going been determined yet?”
“I’ve already sent out all the invitations to everyone. I don’t know how many of them will be arriving, since the Chaos Abyss is far too dangerous… Even True G.o.ds might find themselves dying at any time down there.”
Since we were intending on heading down into the Chaos Abyss, casually going there for a vacation wouldn’t be wise at all.
Considering my poor reputation, and how I was known for going down into the lower planes to slay Demon Lords in the past, if news about this leaked, it was quite possible that Demon Lords would ally with each other and wait to ambush me the moment I arrived.
Although I had already prepared misinformation for information control, it was still possible that we would all be forced to run for our lives the moment that we arrived. And even if we were lucky enough not to meet any “old acquaintances,” the Chaos Abyss was an abnormal place where n.o.body would know what might happen in the next instant. Only by having a sufficient amount of strength would you be able to guarantee your safety down there.
Perhaps Saint ranks would be considered amazing in the mortal plane, but Saint ranks would be absolutely useless in the Chaos Abyss with countless demons. That was why I sent out some invitations, hoping to summon some of my companions to my side for my planned trip to the Chaos Abyss.
“There’s only one law in the Chaos Abyss: the strong prey on the weak. Not only are those who aren’t strong enough unnecessary to bring along, they’ll even become a burden. As for the powerful, the more, the better.”
“Then why did you reject having Amelia and Reyne come along? Both of them should be more than powerful enough.”
“That’s enough, Harloys. Of course you know why I rejected them. That’s because…”
While I was being all serious, the silly cat suddenly transformed into her Gold Elf form and started twiddling her fingers shyly with her head lowered.
“Even if you chose me in the end, and even if I am the only victor, don’t say things so directly! You’ll make me embarra.s.sed!”
“…Reyne has demon blood in her, so that will be all sorts of trouble down there. And, she’s the Queen of the Mist Kingdom, so she can’t leave…”
I decided to completely ignore Harloys who was having fun with her own performance. Ignoring her would be the best choice as recently she had been crazier and crazier.
Amelia and Reyne had both wanted to come with me, but neither of them were good choices for joining my party.
“…As for Amelia, she’s the creator and Mother G.o.ddess to all the wood spirits. If Amelia becomes corrupted, that will be the equivalent of corrupting the entire wood spirit species. If she goes down into the Chaos Abyss and is discovered, it’s likely that even Demon Princes and above will personally come visit. In that case, she’ll become more trouble than help.”
Although the Chaos Abyss had basically no limits on power level, to the point where it would actually be quite easy for any True G.o.d to personally descend there, no Order G.o.d would ever send their true body down to the Chaos Abyss unless they were suicidal.
In the past, an Order True G.o.d had previously been foolish enough to personally descend to the Chaos Abyss in his true body rather than in an incarnation. What happened after that was… well, various things. He then became a Chaos Evil G.o.d in the end. The Chaos Abyss was just such a twisted place.
Corruption or becoming fallen wasn’t only about twisting the personality. There were fundamental differences between positive and negative energy. Chaos was capable of distorting any normal life form’s intelligence and physical body. In the Chaos Abyss, distortion and chaos were the only most common dimensional laws. Even an Order G.o.d could become completely corrupted down there.
“So in the end, I’m the only one who can accompany you down to the Chaos Abyss? So this is like our newlywed honeymoon vacation? Touring the River Styx while enjoying the local inferno scenery and being welcomed by demons, enjoying the excitement of battling and running away? You truly do have such strange tastes.”
“Stop exaggerating. Aren’t Adam and Margaret coming along with us?”
“So, we’ll be on a double date vacation?”
I was rendered speechless. Was it really that the spring mating season was affecting her mind? Could I please have a normal conversation with my pet cat?
As I glared at her, she then pretended to be all serious again while opening up an ancient scroll that caught my attention.
This scroll was a map of the Chaos Abyss’s various dimensions. Countless locations were marked on it already. This was what Harloys had been working on recently.
Currently marked was the 77th level of the Chaos Abyss. Like most dimensions in the Chaos Abyss, this level was ruled by a demon that n.o.body had ever heard of. Although this demon’s direct boss was Sophocles the Deceiver, it should be easy enough to pa.s.s through due to being able to control the Dimensional Door.
“That’s because n.o.body would ever imagine that residents of the mortal plane will voluntarily go down to the Chaos Abyss.”
………
In the pitch-black night, two travelers were journeying despite the darkness. Although an astonis.h.i.+ngly powerful wind was blowing away the rocks on the roadside, the wind was unable to even budge either of the two’s capes or impede their progress.
“Ha, Roland actually invited us to help him. He must have no other recourse left.”
Adam’s fiery red hair and booming laughter was still the same as always. The moment that he received Roland’s letter, Adam immediately set out despite laughing at Roland for requesting his help.
“…I’m rather interested where we’re heading to next. Are you certain that we shouldn’t ask someone for directions?”
“Ha, my instinct tells me that we’re not far away.”
“Instinct? We’re not far from our destination? Haha.”
Margaret chuckled coldly as a group of seals and penguins ran down an ice mountain behind her. Adam and Margaret had been traveling through an icy tundra for three days already.
Blizzards, hailstorms, freezing winds, and avalanches kept occurring here. These natural disasters that would endanger any ordinary person were nothing more than fun additions to these two SemiG.o.ds’ journey.
How did they arrive here? Margaret had no idea… Originally, the two of them had been traveling around the world aimlessly, and after Adam received Roland’s letter, Margaret simply followed the idiot before her who had so much fun trying to find his way. Adam traveled from one mountain to another, following his instinct’s guidance all the way. After approximately two weeks, they now traveled to this icy location by foot.
No matter where it was that Roland wanted them to meet him at, it definitely wasn’t this location. Margaret looked all around her and saw nothing except for ice mountains, ice rivers, and all sorts of cold-loving creatures.
“Well, I suppose that it doesn’t matter. Since he wrote the letter to Adam rather than me, that means it’s not very urgent. I can just treat this as a vacation.”
Margaret took a look at her compa.s.s, calculating that their current location was in the farthest north of the continent. She then used her tools to calculate lat.i.tude and longitude, confirming that they were currently in the Gibser Islands in the far north. This was a place even further north than the Northlands, near the edge of the world.
A certain red-headed individual’s sense of direction had surpa.s.sed all understanding. This was the equivalent of wanting to go fis.h.i.+ng on the ocean but traveling into s.p.a.ce instead.
Although Margaret calculated their location and learned that they were as far away from Roland’s meeting location as they could be, she suddenly became interested in this location.
“…At this time of year, we should be able to see the Aurora Borealis here. I can watch the Aurora together with Adam, and we can count stars together… That sounds so romantic. And, we might as well go even farther north since we’re all the way out here already. I can even perform some experiments that require such an extremely cold climate.”
Margaret had her own ideas as she made up her mind to go even farther north. It would seem that Adam and Margaret would arrive far later than Roland expected.
Perhaps, by the time that Adam finally admitted that he needed to ask for directions, he would only be able to take them from polar bears and penguins.
“Look at that big white guy over there. Is he a local resident? Nice, is he waving that ice block to welcome us? How pa.s.sionate of him. Should we stay at his place tonight?”
“…Those are Snow and Frost Great Demons. They’re highly skilled at throwing ice spears and ice blocks. It looks like we’re already surrounded. I suppose that they want to have us for dinner. Alright, we can stay at their place tonight. I hope that they’ll have something we can take a hot bath with.”
Meanwhile, in the Underground’s Dragon City, Roland’s letter had already arrived, but the person it was intended for hadn’t read it yet. That was because the master of this Dragon City was currently in a deep sleep.
As for when that person would wake up? Considering how ridiculously long dragons could sleep, that would depend only on luck.
Meanwhile, one of Roland’s companions who hadn’t been invited was excitedly on her way. However, it was likely that Roland really wouldn’t want to see her.
At any rate, although Roland had decided to summon his companions, the ones he was hoping for to come weren’t coming, while the ones he didn’t invite were on their way. Roland would have to wait for quite a long while if he wanted to set out with his intended party.