Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 185 - The Augury Tower (12)

185: The Augury Tower (12)

185: The Augury Tower (12)

Holding the Holy Sword in the air, I swiftly brought it down upon the metal ankh, shattering the relic in a single swing.

Realising immediately that there was no notification, I tilted my head and looked around for a moment, confused.

“…Don’t tell me.”

‘Did it not work…?’

Just before panic could fully set in, however, a tremendous noise resounded, resembling the call of a whale and seeming to shake the atmosphere itself as even the pyramid beneath my feet trembled.

“…?!”

Instinctively covering my ears, which had become considerably more sensitive ever since acquiring Heightened Senses, I hurriedly turned my head to oversee the endless desert.

Like before, it was moving.

However, now…

‘…It’s all flowing to the base of the pyramid…?’

Continuous tidal waves of sand rushed towards the base of the structure I crowned, causing a constant sound of roaring to fill the air like that of a waterfall, and alongside it, a faint rumble that reached all the way up here through the limestone blocks.

Waiting for a while like that, eventually, I noticed something appear in the distance.

Something black along the desert sand, growing gradually bigger and bigger.

‘What the hell…’

Soon, I realised I was wrong.

‘Is that…?’

It wasn’t “something that grew bigger and bigger”.

In fact, it wasn’t “something” at all.

“…”

It seemed to be, quite literally, nothing.

As the desert slowly drained itself into the base of the pyramid, a void of nothingness that existed beyond the edge of the world that made up this Floor revealed itself, swallowing up the space that had just recently been filled with an infinite amount of sand.

“…”

It was impossible to tell which was the truth―was the entire Floor being consumed by that void, attempting to leave absolutely nothing behind, or did the desert simply shrink itself enough for the Floor boundary to contract?

Before I was able to come to a firm conclusion, the sound of roaring water abruptly ceased, along with the faint rumbling.

All around the base of the pyramid, and stretching endlessly outward in every direction, there was nothing.

Just a ceaseless expanse of sheer darkness.

“…”

There were many things I wanted to say, curses I wanted to mutter, but the absurdity was such that I hesitated.

The desert―the world of the Sixth Floor itself was gone.

Devoured.

And then, and only then, did a notification belatedly appear.

[Floor Cleared]

“…Fu…”

Letting out an almost silent exhale, I sighed and sat down atop the pyramid, my back leaning against the altar.

[Obtained Lesser Health Potion (x1)]

‘…Is this a scam?

Whatever…’

Quickly dismissing the pitiful reward notification and depositing the potion right into Storage, I took an hour or so to return to Earth and quickly clean out all the sand from the Draconic Shadow and on my own body before returning to the Tower.

Unfortunately, recalling and summoning items to and from Storage didn’t clean them, so I had to go through that annoying process, but well, it didn’t take nearly as long as I expected it to, considering just how much sand had been dumped on me like a torrential downpour when I landed on the side of the pyramid, not to mention all the sand that was being carried by the wind.

‘I guess that’s why Automatic Cleansing is useful…

Gets rid of blood and annoying shit like this…’

On Earth, I was also able to look at the time, of course, and realised I had already spent almost two weeks clearing the Tower.

In that time, it wasn’t clear to me how far John Pierce had cleared, but I didn’t doubt his progress wasn’t going to slow down anytime soon.

‘If my own rate of progress isn’t fast enough as I am now, I might have to clear more Contracts before continuing…’

Naturally coming to such a conclusion, I looked at the date and realised Ella’s birthday was coming up―on the 30th of May to be precise, which was just over three weeks away.

Seeing that, I made the decision to clear as far as I could at least until then before taking a proper break.

In any case, after a short while, I returned; keen not to waste anymore time, I ascended immediately to the Seventh Floor.

[Floor 7]

A stark difference to the Sixth Floor, the Seventh was one that could in fact be said to be the other side of the same coin.

‘Oh…

Good thing I have the Blessing here too, huh?’

To put it simply, the Seventh Floor was a vast, snowy tundra.

I couldn’t see more than a few metres in front of me due to the thick snowstorm, but fortunately, the cold was the least of my problems.

Pulling up the hood on the Draconic Shadow, I equipped the Villain’s Vizard and turned to read the Objective notification that appeared.

[Objective: Survive until you reach shelter]

“…Survive?”

‘Again?’

Letting out a small groan, I scratched the back of my head.

Since it used the same language as the last Floor, I imagined it meant there would be swarms of enemies coming after me this time too.

The only problem was, this time there was no time limit, meaning I couldn’t simply wait it out.

‘Well…

I guess it could be a good thing if I don’t have to waste as much time waiting, but at the same time, if I can’t “reach shelter” as it puts it, then it might take forever…’

The more time passed, the more enemies would likely hunt me.

If I had to deal with all of them, it would be a huge waste of time, and obviously a pain.

“I guess I should just go as fast as I can, then…”

Taking a moment to ponder which direction I should head in, part of me didn’t think it even mattered when I couldn’t tell which way was what anyway, but in the end, I left it down to simple logic.

‘I’ll just go forward from the spot I spawned in.

I have nothing else to go off.’

Who knew, maybe there was a reason it spawned me there, facing that exact direction for some reason…

Or maybe not, but it was worth a try when there were no other options.

Thinking that, I nodded to myself and took a step forward.

Rumble~!

At that moment, the whole earth shook.