Chapter 1390: 148. Abandoned Sea of Stars

"So this is the thirty-fourth floor?"

Muen crouched down and ran a hand over the conglomeration beneath his feet.

It clearly felt metallic to the touch, and there was even a faint trace of magical power within it. Yet not far away lay a mass of some unknown rotting substance, giving off a distinct foul odor.

Muen moved a little farther away from it, only to suddenly sense something dart past his foot with a whoosh. When he focused his eyes, he saw a strangely shaped multi-legged insect. Half of its body gleamed with metallic luster, while the other half was covered in gray-black bone armor. It was sprawled over the rotting mass, feasting voraciously, occasionally letting out a shriek like metal scraping against metal.

"This... isn't quite what I imagined."

"What did you imagine?"

"As the most mysterious place in the Origin Tower, even if it wasn't covered in magical arrays everywhere, I thought it would at least look a little more... proper."

Muen lightly leaped upward.

Here, it really did feel as though they had entered the depths of the cosmos. His body felt unbelievably light, and with almost no effort, he landed on another nearby island.

This one looked like an ordinary island.

Muen bent down and scooped up a handful of fine sand. To his surprise, he could faintly sense the moisture and scent of the sea within it.

"Think this place is strange?"

Peles floated out of Ariel's ring again. This time, she was wearing sunglasses and a straw hat with a distinctly tropical flair.

"Mm... I think it's strange too."

"Huh?"

That unexpected answer left Muen stunned for a moment.

He had thought she would say...

It's always been like this.

Peles smiled. "That is what I should say, technically. But compared to what I remember, this place really has changed quite a lot. I can't exactly lie through my teeth and pretend otherwise, can I?"

"Why do I suddenly have a really bad feeling about this..."

Ariel rubbed her arms.

"Teacher, you didn't trick us into coming here, did you?"

"Am I the kind of irresponsible teacher who would trick her own disciple?" Peles said, slightly displeased. "Even if one certain disciple of mine really has °• N ?? v ?? l i g h t •° been becoming more and more disobedient lately..."

"You're the one who started trying to steal—"

"All right, all right!"

Muen hurriedly stepped between them and cut off the topic.

If he let this continue, the atmosphere was going to become dangerous again...

Strange.

He had not even done anything guilty, so why did he still keep getting dragged into these terrifying romantic battlefields?

He only wanted to be a good man!

"Let's get back to the point. Senior Peles, what you're saying is..."

"A lot of things here really are different, but that kind of difference is perfectly normal."

"The essence of this place is a sea of stars evolved from one of the Origin Tower's three great cores. It was created in imitation of that mysterious sea of stars every mage dreams of reaching, yet no one even knows whether it truly exists."

"Remember? I told you earlier."

"This place... is very large."

Peles raised a hand and pointed toward the distant horizon.

"Since it's called a sea of stars, while it obviously isn't truly as infinite as the real thing, it's still vast enough that finding its boundaries is extremely difficult."

"Is that so..."

Muen nodded in admiration, while black flames ignited within his eyes as he looked into the distance.

But even with the vision granted by the black flames, just as Peles had said, there was no boundary to be found at all.

"Wow... They really spared no expense."

Back when he had been outside, he had even thought the Origin Tower was rather small and cute.

Sorry.

Apparently, all the enormous parts were hidden in places outsiders could not see.

"Then what's going on with these strange 'islands'? Senior Peles, you said before that you didn't have... hm?"

Muen suddenly turned his head, his attention caught by something.

He listened carefully.

It was... crying.

"Sniff... Daddy... Daddy, where are you..."

"A child?"

The crying was eerie and sorrowful, clearly the voice of a little girl.

Muen's figure flashed, and he appeared on the other side of the beach.

At the edge of the island, at the far end of the sand, a little girl was crouching with her back to him.

The crying was coming from her.

"Sniff... Daddy, where are you... Did you really abandon me... sniff..."

"Why would there be a little girl here?"

Muen frowned in confusion.

At that moment, Ariel arrived with Peles.

Peles merely lifted her chin toward the girl.

Muen temporarily suppressed his doubts and approached from behind. Then he reached out and gently placed a hand on the child's shoulder.

"Little girl, what are you doing here? Did you get separated from your family?"

Clack.

The instant Muen finished speaking, a rapid burst of metallic grinding directly assaulted his eardrums.

The little girl abruptly turned around and stared fixedly at him.

But what appeared before Muen was no longer the innocence and cuteness of a little girl.

Instead...

It was an incomparably hideous face.

Half of the girl's face still retained traces of cuteness.

But the skin on the other half had completely rotted away, leaving behind a cold face constructed from some kind of mechanical structure.

Metal components meshed together.

Artificial muscle tissue contracted and relaxed layer by layer.

Crimson light flowed through it, while the same half-metal, half-flesh insects Muen had seen earlier crawled through the hollow gaps around her eye socket, gnawing at the little flesh that remained.

"I fucking knew it..."

The corner of Muen's mouth twitched.

The little girl tilted her head.

Her voice contained no emotion whatsoever.

"Incorrect... So you're Mother?"

"Mother, Mother, Mother... I finally found you... Please don't abandon me!"

Clack, clack!

The metallic grinding sound suddenly intensified.

Several long, slender structures resembling spider limbs unfolded from the girl's back.

Just as Muen was about to exert force with his hand, crimson waves of light resonated across those limbs.

A powerful wave of dizziness immediately struck him.

"Mother... stay with me!"

The little girl opened her arms and lunged toward Muen...

And at that very moment...

"Get lost! One homewrecker is already enough trouble. We don't take unwanted baggage here!"

A brilliant red flash overwhelmed the crimson waves.

The unsheathed Heavenfire greatsword descended like divine punishment and cleaved the little girl cleanly in half!

Muen let out a long breath.

With a turn of his palm, he withdrew the black flames gathered there.

"Thanks."

"Hehe... Serving Miss Muse is only natural."

Ariel gave the greatsword a stylish swing, then placed a hand over her chest and bowed.

"..."

This girl...

When facing Miss Muse, even her behavior had become gentlemanly.

"So, Senior Peles, what exactly was that..."

Muen decided to ignore Ariel for the moment.

Otherwise, if their positions accidentally reversed, that would be troublesome.

"That was a magical puppet."

"I figured that much out."

Muen reached into the little girl's chest.

With a pinch of his fingers, he pulled out an exquisite magical-stone core.

The cries from the "little girl" just now had not come from any genuine emotion.

They had been some kind of preset response inside the magical-stone core...

What awful taste.

"Probably something one of the old freaks threw in here. The Origin Tower has no shortage of twisted old monsters like that."

Peles leisurely looked around.

In the distance, an enormous object slowly drifted past.

Mechanical arms extended from within it, collecting various objects around it...

Then crushing and devouring them.

Closer by, several torrents of magical power flashed past with a roar, vaguely forming the enormous silhouette of some creature before dispersing back into raw magic farther away.

And when their attention returned to the ground beneath them, the originally white sand suddenly began flowing on its own.

As though blood were gradually seeping through it, the beach slowly turned crimson...

"Intruders... die—gah!"

Some horrifying creation was just beginning to rise from beneath the beach amid the crimson glow, apparently intending to give the group a grand surprise...

Only for the exceedingly gentlemanly Ariel to immediately smash it straight back underground with a single swing of her sword.

"So... everything here was made by the mages in the Tower?"

Muen stared blankly.

"Some mages actually throw their creations in here?"

"Smart."

Peles snapped her fingers.

"To be more precise, not just anyone has the right to throw things in here. Only genuine Truth-Rank Grand Sorcerers are qualified to discard their failed creations in this place."

"So... this is actually a garbage dump?"

"A garbage dump where, for hundreds of years, the Truth-Rank Grand Sorcerers of the entire Origin Tower have been dumping the creations they no longer wanted?"

"Exactly."

"Once you reach that level, you're bound to conduct some terrifying research and create some terrifying things. Some of them simply aren't suitable to be thrown away outside, so they can only be discarded here."

"Why do they have to be thrown away at all? Can't something this dangerous just be destroyed?"

Muen thought back to what had just happened.

Something that could affect even his current self was clearly no ordinary creation.

If he had come here when he was only Fourth or Fifth Rank, then that little girl alone probably could have chased him all over the place.

"Why not destroy them?"

Peles's expression became meaningful.

"Because..."

"Hm?"

Muen sensed something and looked down again.

"Mother..."

A battered little hand suddenly grabbed the hem of his skirt.

The little girl, now reduced to half a body, struggled to raise her head.

With hollow eyes containing no pupils, only red light, she once again stared fixedly at him.

"Mother... Father... I won't break any more plates..."

"I won't ruin the coffee anymore..."

"I won't secretly damage the other experimental subjects anymore..."

"Please don't abandon me again..."

"Please don't..."

"Please don't..."

"...What?"

Muen was genuinely shocked.

He had clearly removed the core.

Which meant...

What she had said before, and what she was saying now...

None of it had been preset into the core?

It was...

"Do you understand now?"

Peles folded her arms and looked at the little girl.

Her voice softened.

"Destroying something is easy."

"But not every mage can bring themselves to do it..."

"Not even those old and experienced Grand Sorcerers who have long since grown accustomed to life and death."

"..."

Muen said nothing more.

Nor did he do anything unnecessary.

He simply and gently freed the hem of his skirt from the little hand, then placed the core back where it had been.

"Let's go."

"How much farther is the Tower Master's office?"

"Not far. My teleportation array saved us a great deal of time."

"Does everyone who wants to go there have to pass through this place?"

"Of course not. The dedicated teleportation array takes people directly to the door. Only people like us, taking an unconventional route, would ever have to come through somewhere like this."

"I see."

Muen lightly stepped down.

His entire body immediately lifted into the air, flying in the direction Peles indicated.

Like a small house glowing with lamplight in the darkness of night, that radiance was so warm, so reassuring, and yet also so...

Blurred.

Impossible to grasp.

"We're here," Peles said.

"Our destination."