I Conquered the Tower with the EX-Class Character That I Raised - Chapter 70

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 70
Fall from grace.
What a wonderfully warming word.
It typically refers to the event where a mediocre ‘righteous one’ evolves into an extraordinarily powerful villain and ‘wicked one’.
‘For it to be truly delicious, Chul-soo would need to possess a protagonist-grade narrative….’
An ordinary Kim Chul-soo could never have such a thing.
Lost Honor has no concept of a second class advancement.
There are only six sub-classes and a pinnacle.
But uniquely, only the tenth tier—’Holy’—possesses something resembling a second class advancement.
That is precisely the fall from grace.
‘Betraying the light is such a cliché.’
Suppose a Frost Mage falls from grace.
So what? It hardly matters.
But suppose a Priest who reveres the light falls from grace.
A Priest who embodied righteousness itself plunges into darkness?
It’s magnificent. Captivating.
There’s something that stirs the sensibilities of a middle school second-year student.
‘Clichés exist as clichés for a reason.’
After all, even angels fall from grace, do they not?
Fallen angel. The name alone is already magnificent.
For this reason, the tenth tier has exactly three classes.
And there are three classes exclusive to the fallen.
Each possesses one pinnacle.
‘There’s even a ‘true pinnacle’ that unlocks when you reach both peaks.’
In this world, the clergy borrow divine power from the goddess Gaia.
But mischievous ones who don’t desire such ‘righteous and proper power’ exist in every age and every world.
These adorable troublemakers slip free from Gaia’s grasp and crave ‘inferior yet formidable power’….
When that happens, they choose to borrow strength from an ‘evil deity’!
In other words, they fall from grace.
But not everyone who abandons the holy becomes stronger.
‘If that were the case, everyone would fall from grace.’
One must excel at the ‘evil deity lottery’.
Evil deities… come in staggering variety.
Most are pathetic wretches who’ve incurred Gaia’s wrath and flee in hiding….
But there is one.
‘The real deal.’
That is the one I summoned by offering all my precious fallen materials.
‘Madness-Consumed Heavens’.
* * *
CRASH—!
A deafening roar that split the eardrums accompanied the ceiling of the Hall tearing away like paper.
The shockwave alone shattered every window within the Hall into glittering fragments.
[…W-what is that.]
Even Chul-soo, who had been full of bluster, fell silent.
And for good reason.
The malevolent deity that had burst through the ceiling was, depending on one’s perspective, genuinely grotesque to behold.
Three massive tentacles stretched outward, and from those tentacles sprouted countless writhing branches.
Embedded among them was a colossal yellow eye.
An ominous aura radiating from its entire form.
It possessed a bizarre, repulsive appearance that transcended mere descriptions of hideousness.
Yet, being a game and all, there were aspects that had been stylized in a rather charming way…
It was the sort of creature that someone might actually find cute.
I was that someone.
‘It’s actually kind of adorable, this thing.’
[It has been quite some time… ‘Great Nebula’…]
The Madness-Consumed Heavens recognized Nebula and offered a greeting.
One of its tentacles extended, and with a cautious, delicate touch, it gently poked my character before recoiling in apparent fear.
Even as the supreme sovereign of malevolent deities, it instinctively felt wary before Nebula’s overwhelming presence.
When Nebula had cultivated the Tier 10 classes and fallen, it had summoned this creature as well.
[Still… such an unsettling presence. Do you still harbor no desire to become a malevolent deity?]
Ding—
[Corruption Quest]
A sinister Quest window appeared against a pitch-black background, its text written in dripping red blood.
[Proposal from the Fallen Divinity ‘Madness-Consumed Heavens’]
[Become the King of Malevolent Deities]
“Nonsense.”
Naturally, I refused.
There wasn’t even a decent reward for it.
More importantly, accepting this would mean leaving my world.
‘I nearly made a terrible mistake trying it carelessly back then.’
I had no intention of abandoning my carefully nurtured Void Knight Nebula and starting a new game in some bizarre dimension.
[What a pity…]
The Madness-Consumed Heavens mimicked a human gesture of regret, stroking its large eye with a tentacle, before turning its attention to Chul-soo and extending another tentacle toward him.
[Is this creature your ‘successor’? Hehehehe… Among the things I can bestow, I shall grant the finest gift…]
From the tentacle surged a deathly black divine power of malevolence—’Anti-Divinity’.
The Madness-Consumed Heavens lightly touched the area around Chul-soo’s heart with that tentacle.
[…Eh?]
Before Chul-soo’s frozen voice could fully escape, the figure within the monitor was completely engulfed in writhing black light.
* * *
Chul-soo could not discern whether this was reality or something else entirely.
A knight clad in magnificent armor—navy-tinged steel that seemed to have been forged from starlight itself—arrived in my grasp at a place that was…
A cavern where all manner of abominable things one feared to witness even in nightmares congregated.
Chul-soo barely suppressed the scream clawing at his throat.
He didn’t want to appear a coward in the eyes of his friend watching from that sky above.
Yet refraining from screaming didn’t make this spectacle any less terrifying.
Gulp.
Swallowing dry saliva repeatedly, wiping the sweat pooling in his palms onto his pants…
Chul-soo squeezed his eyes shut.
But such resolve proved futile—Chul-soo found himself unable to suppress a scream at the sight of the grotesque offerings surrounding his body.
A heart larger than any watermelon, spurting black blood and pulsing of its own accord.
A golden rotten apple oozing putrid discharge and cackling wickedly…
A blood-red inverted cross spewing unidentifiable bone fragments with nauseating bursts—such things placed mere inches from one’s face would make anyone scream.
But this infernal tableau had one final, crowning horror….
The cavern’s ceiling tore open, and ‘it’ appeared abruptly!
A black mass so abhorrent it defied description writhed against the sky above.
‘What is it, what is it… what on earth is that thing!!!’
Toward Chul-soo, frozen in place—unable to scream or lose consciousness—the ‘black mass’ extended its tentacles…
The moment it touched his chest.
[Corruption Quest]
An eerie Quest window materialized against a pitch-black background, its letters dripping red blood.
[Proposal from the Fallen Divine: Madness-Consumed Heavens]
[Become the First Apostle of the Evil God]
‘…Apostle of an evil god?!’
He had no desire to become the Apostle of such a monstrosity!!
Chul-soo thrashed violently.
Then what could be called the mouth of the ‘black thing’ split open with a sickening sound.
[Hehehehe]
And laughter echoed from a distant place…
He felt a heavy gaze—as if observing an ant from a great height.
Squelch!
From the ‘sticky thing’ touching his chest, appendages resembling human arms sprouted forth.
Each arm bore a mouth at its end.
The ‘mouth’ spoke.
“Why do you refuse?”
A grotesque voice, fragmented and disjointed…
Would such a sound emerge if someone forcibly blew air through human vocal cords?
The adjacent arm bore an ‘ear,’ tilted toward the mouth as if to hear Chul-soo’s response.
A sight that threatened to shatter his sanity…
“I… I have no desire to become an Apostle of an evil god.”
“I will grant you power.”
“I have no need for such wicked power!”
Chul-soo clenched his teeth.
“Heh heh.”
The mouth twisted into a grotesque smile.
Then it practiced its voice with “ah, ah” before speaking.
“You are insignificant and weak. Because the divinity dwelling within you is equally insignificant and worthless.”
The bizarre, stuttering voice from moments before vanished entirely, replaced by an eerily alien tone that flowed with unsettling fluency.
“The power I grant is different. You are the successor chosen by the great Nebula. I shall bestow upon you an anti-divinity befitting that station.”
“….”
When Chul-soo offered no response and merely widened his eyes in disgust, the mouth continued with a mocking sneer.
“Do you still condemn my power as wicked? How foolish. This power cannot be understood through human concepts of good and evil. If divinity is light, then anti-divinity is darkness. Is there good and evil in light and darkness themselves?”
The mouth continued its twisted grin.
Mocking, or perhaps instructing.
“I simply exist. I am not evil. I am darkness.”
“But you said you had fallen!”
“Indeed. I was once among the brightest stars shining in that sky, but to resist the approaching threat, I chose to abandon my light and sink into the world’s shadow—perhaps even deeper still. Is that evil?”
“Falling is….”
“My goal differs not from that of the sovereign Gaia, who seeks to protect this world. In positive, in negative. Sometimes in light, sometimes in darkness. Each fulfills their appointed role….”
Chul-soo found himself at a loss for words.
“If I accept this, what becomes of me?”
“You shall be my first Apostle… revered as none other, precious and extraordinary. Every evil that exists in this space shall kneel beneath your feet.”
Chul-soo turned his gaze away from the altar to observe the countless monsters arrayed before it.
“Those things… are they not monsters?”
“Pitiful beings cast out and abandoned by the mainstream.”
After a moment of contemplation, Chul-soo steeled his resolve.
Kim Chul-soo was merely an ordinary human.
He had no desire to become something special through power forcibly thrust upon him, nor any wish to reign as an idol over those monsters.
He simply wished to remain an ordinary “human, Kim Chul-soo” until the very end.
“I refuse.”
The mouth twisted into a grin.
“Y o u r o p i n i o n i s u n n e e d e d.”
Crack!
The mouth lunged forward and tore into Chul-soo’s throat.
“Aaagh!”
Sharp fangs pierced through his skin and sank deep.
Glug, glug.
He felt his blood draining rapidly along the fangs.
And into the emptiness left behind, an alien power began to flow.
That power coursed through Chul-soo’s veins.
“!”
Wherever the power reached, Chul-soo felt an immense force surging forth.
The moment the power that had entered through his neck finally touched his heart.
Thump!
His heart pounded violently.
“Ahhhhh!”
Jet-black divine power erupted from every inch of Chul-soo’s body.
In that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of omnipotence.
Power, power, power!
More power!
[Will you become an Apostle of Fallen Divinity?]
[1. Yes] [2. No]
My frail B-rank body boiled with such intensity that it seemed capable of tearing the world apart at any moment.
“Ahhh….”
If I just closed my eyes and reached for that [Yes], I would never have to bleed helplessly again.
I could even protect that pathetic brother of mine with my own hands—the one crumpled in a corner of a room, spewing strange mist.
[Y e s, a c c e p t i t]
The evil god whispered like a serpent in my ear.
In that instant.
A System Message from Earth appeared before Chul-soo’s eyes.
The format and colors were familiar, but the content was something I had never seen before.
[Inverse Divine Power (EX) from the Fallen Divinity ‘(No Data)’ is being infused.]
[Unique Trait: The Most Ordinary Existence (B) resists.]
[All external factors are forcibly recalibrated to match the owner’s rank.]
‘The Most Ordinary Existence?’
A man more ordinary than anyone else.
Could there be a name that pierces through the very essence of the human known as Kim Chul-soo so perfectly?
Simultaneously.
Crack!
Screeeech!
The tentacles that had been gnawing at Chul-soo were forcibly severed by an invisible hand.
The evil god in the sky let out a scream that made the heavens ring.
[The capacity of EX-rank Inverse Divine Power is forcibly downgraded and compressed to B-rank.]
“…Huh?”
The blood vessels that had been about to burst suddenly calmed in an instant.
The mind that had been consumed by omnipotence returned to its usual state.
Black divine power was still pouring from my entire body, yet not a single tentacle or horn sprouted from Chul-soo’s form.
I remained exactly as I had always been—an ordinary and solid young man named Kim Chul-soo.
[…W-what have you done?]
The massive evil god covering the heavens, its great eye trembled with shock.
The mighty power of the evil god it had bestowed had been pathetically reduced and contained by nothing more than a human’s meager ‘trait’.
It was a maddening resistance that refused to waver before any external threat, stubbornly clinging to the state of ‘normalcy’ no matter what.
But Chul-soo had no time to pay attention to the evil god’s reaction.
System Messages cascaded across my vision one after another.
[Awakened ability evolves.]
[Awakened ability: Reversal Divinity (B)]
[Current ability: B] (No change)
[Latent ability: B] (No change)
“What… is this?”
* * *
“Did a B-rank trait just devour an EX-rank trait?”
My heart thundered against my ribs as I stared at the monitor.
Not only did it deflect the corruption event, but this B-rank ability was cleanly consuming only the essence of the evil god itself.
Yet my astonishment didn’t end there.
Even with ten years of experience as a veteran player, I was witnessing something I’d never seen before!
Chul-soo appeared to be accepting the power granted by the evil god, but then suddenly a golden radiance so brilliant it flooded the entire monitor with white light descended upon the very center of Heresy Hall.
“What is this now?”
And then the ‘Descent’ message appeared on the Lost Honor alert!
[The divinity ‘Multitude of the Nameless’ of ‘Earth’ gazes down upon the world…]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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