Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 165: Riftborn

Vale turned into a point of light and entered the Tower, but unlike Leojan’s Tower, where he directly entered a room, he was transported into a place of deep darkness known as the core of Vale’s Tower.

He couldn’t see anything, but what did he need sight for when he could see what the Tower saw? He could see all around him. He was Vale Athrimir, and he was the Chained Artifact, Vale’s Tower!

With a little conscious thought, he could directly use the power of the Tower. And besides, unlike the other enchanted ones, this one could directly take essence from the environment to help supplement its host.

This is the power of a Chained Artifact!

The only downside was that Vale had to be aware of his own core. If he depleted it and relied on the Tower to provide essence, his body might break down, and his consciousness would fuse with the Tower while his core would get absorbed by the Chained Artifact’s core.

He must not use more than his own core! Also, after a major attack, the Tower might go into cooldown mode, rendering it unable to amplify his attacks.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of metal hitting the ground and felt a presence enter the room with him. It was Leojan, but not as he remembered.

The man’s body seemed to have been broken down and then rearranged with green glue. Only his head wasn’t held together by the sticky green liquid. Eyes filled entirely with green turned to Vale, and Leojan grinned.

"Found you, Vale."

The voice that came out wasn’t Leojan’s. It was a throaty female voice, teasing and playful at the same time.

Vale acted without waiting. The Tower flared, and then a sword arc, almost the same size as the Tower, shot out. It blazed forward and slammed into Leojan and the wall, creating an explosion that shook the ground and cracked parts of the stone floor. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The enchantment woven into the room reacted, and the space began to constrict.

’...Not good... the defensive magic is about to do something...’

Without waiting, the Tower shot forward like an arrow and passed through the broken wall to the outside. It flew out of the fortress compound and took to the air, but then the Tower suddenly jerked to a stop and fell.

Vale tried to twist, but the Tower was frozen as if it were made of flesh. It whirled, and the ground rushed toward him faster than he wanted.

He struggled to think of a solution when suddenly he remembered one of the Tower’s powers. It might be frozen, but its powers were still very much active!

The Tower vanished from the air and appeared low to the ground, slamming into the forest floor with a thud, kicking up dust and debris.

Inside, Vale winced. He didn’t feel pain, but he could sense the Tower gathering essence to mend itself.

"Aww! How can you kill your companion like that? Aren’t you guys friends?" a sickly sweet voice said.

Vale focused and saw the monster standing atop a behemoth of moving flesh. She was shaped like a short woman, dressed in scanty clothing that left nothing to the imagination, her cleavage practically spilling out.

She had a green horn jutting from her head, and her eyes were black holes filled with squirming green liquid. A Riftborn Titan.

Vale understood the trouble he was in. Those monsters could be as powerful as a Master Knight or even more. Some were slightly stronger than an Errant Knight, depending on their age and inherent strength.

But what made them truly terrifying was their intelligence. They were as smart as humans, some even more so.

’...Please let this one be weaker than the average Errant Knight...’

The behemoth she stood on was made of chopped Minotaur flesh, held together by sticky green liquid, creating a walking mass that shook the ground with each step.

The Minotaurs’ heads were fused into the chest and neck area, their green eyes locked onto Vale.

Vale’s voice rumbled from the Tower. "You killed him first. What I gave him was mercy."

As he spoke, he was also thinking how to escape. He understood how he had been locked in place. It must have been the roars from the Minotaur heads.

"How cold! But don’t you care about his body? I know you humans are always so sentimental about that." She was getting closer with each step.

"What is a body without a soul?" Vale replied.

He couldn’t move but he could teleport! The Tower lit up, the cracks flared with heat and fire, sending shimmering waves that charred his surroundings.

The Tower vanished and reappeared much closer to the monster and its abominable mount.

"Dominion!"

The fire around the Tower dulled to a deep red before blasting outward in a rippling wave of heat and light, blanketing everything within forty meters.

The land turned to smoking ash instantly. Trees and monster bodies melted in the intense heat, and the shockwave blew the ashes away, leaving the ground looking like a desert around the Tower.

But as the attack struck, the green monster, Vale had taken to calling her that in his mind, created a flood of green liquid, covering herself and her mount in a dome.

The surface of the green liquid boiled and smoked, charring black from the heat, but the attack didn’t penetrate as he had hoped.

Vale scowled. "Why can’t they just all die?"

He sent the aftershock of Dominion at her. The remaining light that had gathered above the battlements of the Tower shot forward, a concentrated beam of red light and heat.

Boom!

The attack slammed into the shield, pausing briefly before it drilled through, melting a hole into the sticky green. The Minotaur mouths howled in pain, and the shield crumbled.

The behemoth of fused monsters began to collapse.

Vale realized two things at once: he could move the Tower again, and his essence was down to a quarter of his core.

And a third, the green monster wasn’t dead.

Without waiting, he teleported a few meters away and shot into the air again, ignoring the howl he heard behind him.