Chapter 71.2 – Protagonist: What are you looking at?

“Your Highness, we have finally met again.” Rachel finished her salute and noticed Xiu’s bandages. “You’re injured…”

“It’s almost healed.” Xiu glanced at the dead Banshee. “What’s your relationship with that Banshee?”

“We were working with each other. She lured the other tower climbers out then we killed them.” Rachel added: “When a tower climber dies, everything they damaged will be restored to their original condition and the undead will return to life and go back to their cities.”

So that’s how it is. With more and more tower climbers undergoing the trials, this simulation will soon be strained. This mechanic not only reduces the number of competitors, it can also clear a big piece of the map that had been occupied by other tower climbers.

Hearing Rachel say that the cities would be restored, Du Ze suddenly feared that once they saw that this was just an illusion created by the tower, they would feel numb when they invaded the realistic-looking cities. After returning to the Chaos Continent, will the tower climbers who have endured all this still look at real people the same way?

The Tower of God was slowly transforming the minds of the tower climbers. According to “Mixed Blood,” the tower climbers are being carefully carved into the shape that the tower wants. The Demons gave away their mercy, received destruction; The Undead gave away their kindness, received deathlessness – In the beginning, the God of Creation told the eight races: “As long as you pay a price and give me something of yourself, you can trade a gift for it.”

Du Ze stood frozen in place. Why didn’t he realize this earlier? The dead god of light isn’t the ultimate BOSS. The only person who can pose a threat to Xiu now is the extremely mysterious God of Creation – the creator of this world, the one who was there when “Mixed Blood” began and the one who will be there when “Mixed Blood” ends. Du Ze thought of the murals that he saw at the Time and Space Corridor then thought of the Tower of God that was slowly, step by step, executing its plan. He curled his hands into fists.

Building the Tower of God, setting these rules, inducing Xiu to destroy the world… is it you, the God of Creation?

“Are you feeling unwell?”

Du Ze snapped back to his senses and looked up into Xiu’s eyes. This man always stares at Du Ze so intently that he notices even the slightest trace of discomfort.

“Do you know … the God of Creation?”

Xiu was a little surprised by the sudden change in topic but he still seriously replied: “I’ve only heard a few legends. What’s the matter?”

Due to the invisible force, Du Ze could not tell Xiu everything he had guessed. He could only say vaguely: “… Nothing, I was just a little curious about him.”

Xiu grasped the back of Du Ze’s neck in a comforting manner then went to Rachel to find out what happened to her team. After their separation, Rachel and the others entered the door of light and, unlike Du Ze and the others, found themselves in a huge steel city. The streets were full of machinery and mechanical puppets. Hearing Rachel’s description, Du Ze felt that it was similar to the Gnome Ruins that he and Xiu had been to.

“There were a lot of circular plazas and each plaza required a mechanical part to activate. Those parts could be found in the bodies of six-star mechanical puppets. We spent half a month activating the plazas. In the center plaza we met the gnome god. The final part we needed was in his seven-star mechanical puppet. After some casualties, we were able to activate the final square,” said Rachel.

Du Ze looked at Rachel’s Thunder Regiment team. It was originally a six-man team and but now there were only three of them left.

After activating the final square, an eight-star mechanical puppet appeared. Rachel took a deep breath before she continued; even after all this time her heart still raced when she thought of that event: “That city was a huge mechanical puppet that we had activated. A portal appeared at the same time so we fled while the mechanical puppet pursued us. We returned to the hall.”

Just listening to Rachel’s story was frightening enough for Du Ze. The place they went to was clearly a copy of the Gnome Ruins.

“We did not wait for your Highness in Hall. We decided to enter the light door again to look for you.” Rachel gave her ticket to Xiu. “Luckily, we really did meet you here again.”

Rachel’s black flame melted into Xiu’s black flame. Rachel’s undead army was added to Xiu’s and his total number of undead soldiers rose to 1.1 million.

The skeleton mage went to Xiu and this time it did not call him Lord General. It said respectfully: [Lord Field Marshal, His Majesty Louis is very pleased. He will personally commend your performance.]

The skeleton mage raised his staff and all the undead turned into black dust that swirled together before transforming into a huge black doorway. There was a multicolored veil over the doorway; it seems to be a portal to where Lich Louis was presently located.

****! Is it time for the BOSS to appear? Du Ze looked at Xiu who was beside him. The Moe Lord’s injury hasn’t healed yet.

As the undead all turned to black dust, the undead shroud above them began to scatter a little. The sunlight shone down on the black doorway which emitted a sizzling sound as it gradually began to melt due to the sun’s corrosive effect. It seemed that if they hesitated too long, the portal would collapse.

Give me a break, tower!

“Let’s go.”

Du Ze was pulled into the portal by Xiu. He became dizzy and his vision darkened. When he regained his sight, they were in a hall made of bones with a dark red carpet –like the color of blood– extending in both directions. The hall was illuminated by a dark blue light from will-o’-the-wisps. Du Ze looked down at the carpet and followed it with his eyes until he saw, at the very end, a withered-looking person sitting on a chair made of bones. He was wearing a black robe and his skin was very dry; he looked like a corpse.

Du Ze could tell from just one glance that it was a Lich. Some silly, cute person thought that this is the standard appearance of a Lich. Ah wait, the Moe Lord’s Lich form was so handsome that he didn’t even recognize him as a Lich at first

The Lich sitting on the bone chair should be the famous god of death, Louis. When he saw Du Ze and the others, the two soul flames in the Lich’s eyes lit up. Xiu was on his guard and automatically took out Qian Bian, protectively pushing Du Ze behind him.

Louis soul flames jumped up a bit when he saw Qian Bian in Xiu’s hands. His hoarse voice echoed in the gloomy hall when he spoke: “I thought that I had lost my Magic Codex.”

Louis shifted his gaze from Qian Bian to Xiu: “The fact that you can use it tells me that you and I are related. I can smell my breath in you.”

Xiu smiled mysteriously; it was clear as to who was mocking whom.

“Did you ever experimented on a gnome?”

“… You’re his descendant?” Louis rattled out a laugh: “That’s so funny. In that form, that person could still have offspring.”

Louis stood up from the bone seat and walked down the steps.

“I’ve done a lot of experiments. The half undead gnome was one of my most satisfying creations,” he said. “However, due to my negligence, that person ran away after one of my experiments exploded.”

Louis stopped before he reached the perimeter of the crowd and his deep-set eyes stared at Xiu: “But now that I have met you, I can make up for that disappointment a little bit.”

A huge death scythe appeared in Louis’ hand and the undead said in a hoarse voice: “Give me your body.”

Muir turned into a black dragon to block Louis’ attack. Louis rattled a laugh then summoned a bone dragon to knock back the black dragon. Old John and the others were kept busy fighting the undead that Louis summoned. Xiu’s eyes narrowed. His undead form was that of a Lich and none knew better than him how difficult it was to fight one. So long as his life box was not destroyed, a Lich is immortal.

“Boom-”

A purple arc jumped to Louis. It was not very strong since Xiu just wanted to capture the Lich. However, the moment the lightning hit Louis, it was as though he had pricked a balloon with a needle. With a “pop” sound, the Lich exploded into black powder. Xiu took Du Ze in his arms and wrapped both of them up with his wings. The powder fell on his wings then melted like snow, bringing with it a coldness that penetrated down to the center of his bones.

It was already too late for Xiu to retreat. His entire body was frozen. Something seeped into his body and slowly began to spread until it reached his head; even his thoughts seemed to be frozen.

[Your body is mine.]

Xiu heard Louis’ voice ringing in his mind before he lost consciousness.