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Chapter 487: Outer Celestial, Ubbo-Sathla (7)

Metatron nodded. “I’m honestly starting to wonder if they’re related by blood.”

“Right?” I knew I wasn’t the only one...” Baal suddenly looked at the dome ceiling. “What do you think?”

A shiver went down Chang-Sun’s spine as shadows amassed in the ceiling and turned into a rabbit with rows upon rows of teeth, like a shark. They then emitted a considerable amount of <Darkness> and cold energy.

『Hohohoho! What an interesting sight. It’s very difficult to find someone who resembles our father,』the rabbit said in a middle-aged man’s nasal voice.

He seemed to be trying to be adorable on purpose. Chang-Sun would have usually hated it, but he couldn’t care about it right now.

‘An Outer Celestial? Elder Celestials and an Outer Celestial... What in the world is going on here?’

Elder Celestials were one of the most supreme beings in Eros, and Outer Celestials held a similar position in Nyx. They were like mirror opposites of each other. Nevertheless, Metatron and Baal were not only hanging out with an Outer Celestial but also didn’t seem to be on bad terms with him.

This situation disproved Chang-Sun’s previous hypothesis that the fight between <Supreme Light> and <Dull Darkness> was still ongoing. Considering he could faintly sense the presence of several other enormous beings, the man seemed to be an actual Outer Celestial, not a traitor of Nyx.

Woooosh―!

The Divine Classes of everyone in this place were comparable to Mephistopheles’.

‘... They’re the Eight Gods of Disorder. They’ve been staying here, not in Nyx.’

The Eight Gods of Disorder were said to be ruling over Nyx on behalf of <Dull Darkness>, who had been in slumber for so long now. Still, this was Chang-Sun’s first time meeting them in person.

‘This place... is a trap,” he finally concluded.

It was the only sensible explanation he could think of. Just like Heoju of <Purple Star Astrology>, many Star Signs were going after R’lyeh for their pursuit of strength. Nothing could have tempted them as much as taking over the body of <Dull Darkness>, which would grant them absolute power.

These people likely set this trap based on that information. For rulers of Eros and Nyx, Star Signs were problems. Since they always ran off to the Imaginary Plane whenever they sensed the rulers coming, the rulers using R’lyeh as a tasty bait to lure them out made a lot of sense.

Chang-Sun chuckled dryly. ‘Not even the Zodiacs would stand a chance against a bunch of Elder Celestials and the Eight Gods of Disorder.’

Although the scale of this inescapable trap was beyond anyone’s imagination, the bait was still tempting enough to take the risk at least once. It made Chang-Sun realize that everything would have been fine even if he let Heoju and Munseong get to R’lyeh. Now, he was no longer sure why he had even tried so hard to take the two down.

‘Thanatos must have known about this. Why didn’t he give me a heads-up? Was he worried the information would leak?’

Although he couldn’t get an answer to that right now, this situation had at least made one thing certain.

‘Even if I did nothing, all the Star Signs would have eventually been taken down.’

However, since there was no knowing how long that would take, they still needed hunters like Chang-Sun.

‘<First Star> is also the teacher of <Dull Darkness>, so I understand why they’d set a trap this big.’

Little by little, Chang-Sun felt the fog in his mind clear up.

『Judging from the look on your face, you must have found out why this place has been built. Hohohoho! Your sharp judgment is just like Master’s—no, Father’s. It makes me want to tease you.』

‘... What’s with his voice? I know the Outer Celestials’ personalities differ in all sorts of ways, but still...’

After silently grumbling about the Outer Celestial who was licking their lips with their long tongue, Chang-Sun turned to Metatron and Baal.

“Since all subordinates of <Supreme Light> and <Dull Darkness> are here, I believe you people have already confirmed that I’m not lying about my identity. How about you free me of these now?”

Clink, clink!

Chang-Sun shook his chains. After staring at him for a moment, Metatron and Baal exchanged glances.

* * *

“So this is them being considerate...” Chang-Sun grumbled to himself, clearly still annoyed.

Although he could go outside the building free from his shackles, he still had a cangue around his neck.

“I’ll admit that you have all sorts of stuff on you, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a Star Sign. We will have to discuss how to deal with you further among ourselves, so go sightseeing or something for now. I’m sure you’d find a lot of things here quite interesting,” Baal said, kicking Chang-Sun out.

It didn’t take long for Chang-Sun to understand what Baal had meant. Upon exiting the building, on the vast plain that stretched along the horizon, he could see a tower so tall and wide that he couldn’t even tell its exact size. It looked out of place here, where R’lyeh was asleep. Depending on the angle, its appearance seemed to change.

“Is it... a [Ruyi Jingu Bang]?”

Chang-Sun wasn’t sure at first, but as time went on, he became more and more certain. It looked and felt just like the gate that he had entered to get here.

Seeing such a large [Ruyi Jingu Bang] made him chuckle. There was certainly something different about an Emperor’s great relic.

Chang-Sun tapped the ground with his foot. “That means R’lyeh is sleeping beneath us.”

He laughed dumbfoundedly. They had obviously stabbed a [Ruyi Jingu Bang] of this size into the ground to stop R’lyeh from ascending.

The image of the Apocalypse Dragon, who was so enormous that he made Tiamat look like a small dot, crossed his mind. Aside from <Dull Darkness>, whose body was R’lyeh itself, <Supreme Light> put such a being to sleep. It was hard to think of them as the same kind of beings.

Chang-Sun began to wonder what was inside the [Ruyi Jingu Bang]. Since Baal had told him that there were a lot of things here that would catch his attention, he assumed that he was free to enter the huge tower. Hence, he slowly made his way over.

‘If it serves as a prison, Ubbo-Sathla is likely in there too.’

The vast field appeared to have been home to a lot of people for quite some time already. Many groups of buildings, presumed to be villages, were all over it. One such group was made of nothing but accommodations. Some also seemed to be specifically for blacksmiths or merchants. The traces of energy all over the area clearly belonged to people with great martial prowess.

Observing them made Chang-Sun wonder about the history of the tower, the plain, and the people of this place. He decided to ask Metatron or Baal about it later.

After a while, he finally reached his destination. A message window popped up in front of him.

[Will you enter the Tower?]

When he nodded, he was transported to a prison far bigger than it looked on the outside.

[You are now on Floor 1.]

The first floor had an extremely high ceiling and innumerable ten-square-meter prison cells lined up along its curved walls.

“Hmm?”

“Hey, someone new just entered.”

The prisoners inside the cells seemed bound by the same shackles that Chang-Sun had been in when he arrived.

“Wh-what?”

“A person...?”

“The first in a hundred and ten thousand years! Hahahaha!”

“Idiot. We already had a newcomer earlier.”

“Ah, you’re right! We’ve got two newcomers, then. That’s awesome! Hey, newbie! Look over here! Over here!”

Thump, thump, thump!

The prisoners who had been staring into the empty air cheered as soon as they saw Chang-Sun. Some of them even ran around and pounded on their prison bars. Considering they had an energy that was similar to his and Bel-Marduk’s, he concluded that they all had a <Star Fragment> of their own.

‘They’re all... Star Signs. There are so many of them.’

However, what surprised him the most was the fact that they numbered at least in the thousands. The ceaseless creation of new Worldlines meant an equally infinite supply of <Star Fragments>, allowing many beings to become Star Signs. Nevertheless, he still didn’t expect so many to be lured out to R’lyeh.

“He’s kind of strange, though.”

“Why?”

“Is he really a newcomer? He’s not accompanied by a warden.”

“Can’t you tell by his cangue? He’s a prisoner!”

“Hey! Newbie! Come here. Here!”

“No, over here! Look over here!”

Based on what he had seen so far, it seemed that the higher the floor the prisoner was on, the higher their Divine Class and the longer their prison sentence. Since the ones on the first floor already appeared to be quite skilled, he couldn’t help but wonder who was locked up on the highest floor.

“Hey! Over here!”

Paying no attention to the commotion that the prisoners were raising, Chang-Sun searched for Ubbo-Sathla. If he was right about the stronger prisoners being locked on the higher floors, then she would be on one of the top floors.

Slowly climbing up the spiral staircase, he eventually sensed her energy on the seventy-first floor.

‘Ubbo-Sathla is said to be comparable to the Eight Gods of Disorder. How can she be there?’

Although she had created multiple avatars, she was still Ubbo-Sathla. Chang-Sun couldn’t even begin to fathom now what kind of prisoners were locked up on the floors above.

Thump, thump, thump!

“He really doesn’t have a warden with him!”

“He’s alone? Seriously?”

“Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Come here! Open this door right now!!!”

“No, no. Open mine first, please. Get me out of here, and I’ll help you with anything you need!”

“I-I’ll grant all your wishes! What do you want? Money? Jewels? Power? I’ll make all your desires come true if you save me first!”

Having realized that Chang-Sun was a free man, the prisoners could no longer sit still. Many of them made him unbelievable offers like giving him their power or Divine Classes, while some were a bit more specific, like helping him with anything he wanted.

Pretending not to see them, he finally reached Ubbo-Sathla’s solitary cell.

“Newbie! Do you know the other newcomer?”

“I-I’m close with her! If you open this...!”

Behind the prison bars, Chang-Sun could see Ubbo-Sathla shackled in her human form. Her shoulders were drooping.

“Ubbo-Sathla,” he called.

Seemingly ignoring him on purpose, Ubbo-Sathla didn’t respond. Although he had no way of knowing what happened while they were apart, the strong enmity she had for him had vanished. Right now, she looked more like a lifeless doll.

He continued, “I’m here to kill you.”

Clink!

Ubbo-Sathla slowly looked up.