novelraw Chapter 325: Episode 325
Chapter 325: Episode 325
The surrounding mages murmured in awe as they cautiously approached.
The massive dragon’s head resting on the gleaming floor of the Sky Castle could only mean one thing.
"He defeated the Führer all by himself...!"
"The Tower Master has won!"
I forced myself to show enough composure to offer a reassuring wave to the cheering staff.
"Yusin!" Bora yelled, sprinting over.
I casually patted the Führer’s jagged horn and looked her way.
"Have the engineering team extract the mana stones from this thing. With a yield this size, we could power the Sky Castle for years."
"That is absolutely not what’s important right now!" she scolded, immediately crowding my space as her eyes frantically inspected every inch of my body. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Of course no—oof!"
"Just drink this first." She ruthlessly shoved an uncapped Blue Elixir against my lips. As I choked the bitter liquid down, her sharp eyes zeroed in on an ugly, bruised wound hidden beneath the tears in my tactical suit.
With brutally swift movements, she yanked the torn fabric aside and practically dumped a Red Elixir straight over the bleeding injury.
I was awkwardly scratching the side of my head in embarrassment when she shot me a razor-sharp glare.
"Hurry up and finish drinking that. You still need to choke down two more bottles!"
"A-Alright, calm down."
"Great work, Tower Master," a voice called out.
Jeong Seojin touched down onto the deck nearby, his armor completely drenched in dark monster blood, a grim testament to just how fiercely the vanguard had fought.
Without so much as a backward glance, he casually raised his gun and pulled the trigger. With a deafening BANG!, a swooping Harpy’s face exploded into mist, its headless corpse dropping out of the sky and slamming onto the deck. A squad of nearby hunters immediately rushed in to finish off the remaining stragglers with their hunting devices.
"Yeah," I nodded. "You did a hell of a job out there too."
"I’ll give you the current status report of the battlefield." Seojin smoothly swapped out his empty magazine, holstered the heavy weapon at his waist, and stood at attention.
"Over ninety percent of the Fiend vanguard the Führer brought with him have been successfully annihilated, and the monster offensive has significantly diminished as a result. The android Adams and the Sky Castle hunter squadrons were our top contributors. Total eliminated hostile count currently sits at roughly two hundred thousand. At our current pace, we will reach our final destination in exactly four hours. However... having taken the brunt of the Führer’s breath attack, the Helios suffered catastrophic structural damage. It will be incredibly difficult to deploy her again for the remainder of this operation."
I nodded slowly. We had lost the Helios, yes, but we had utterly crushed the Fiends’ maximum fighting force in a brutal, head-on collision. It was an undeniably incredible strategic achievement.
"And lastly," Seojin murmured, his eyes drifting nervously toward the sky. "We have less than a minute left."
My gaze, along with Bora’s and Yerin’s, slowly turned upward.
[8,101,354,871 : 7,000,000,000]
[00:00:49]
"I’m scared," Yerin whispered, hugging her arms. "What on earth is going to happen?"
"Nobody knows," I replied grimly.
High above the thick plumes of gunpowder smoke belching from the fortress turrets, the glowing digital numbers hovering in the sky were ticking down rapidly.
There was absolutely no way to stop the countdown. All any of us could do was stand there in silence and watch it approach its horrifying conclusion.
In the end...
[00:00:00]
The countdown hit zero.
The timer vanished, but the upper row of numbers suddenly shifted.
[8,101,354,755 > 7,000,000,000]
A deeply ominous premonition washed over me, chilling my blood. I immediately tapped my earpiece, pinging Phil’s frequency.
"This is the Commander-in-Chief speaking. Director, do you copy?"
Was he too caught up in the chaos? There was nothing but dead static on the line.
I turned off the comm link and looked at my department managers. "I don’t know what the hell is happening down on the surface right now, but we stick to the plan and do what we can. We’re pushing for the New Continent at absolute maximum speed."
"Yes, sir!" they chorused.
Watching my team quickly disperse to carry out their orders, I popped the cap off a third elixir and grimly chugged it down.
Please be safe, Yeon-ah.
*
Portland, United States.
"We are broadcasting live from a truly historic scene!"
Reporters and camera crews from all over the country had braved the immense danger to flock to the perimeter of the site.
It was a monumental moment. At long last, America’s poster boy hunter, Official Rank 2 Hines, had officially become the first person in the world to successfully clear a Tower of Judgment after eleven grueling attempts.
Although cynical media outlets and global netizens ruthlessly mocked the achievement as a "Pyrrhic victory" or "a purely delusional win," the US government and Hines had collectively decided to focus solely on the undeniable fact that they had conquered a Tower. In doing so, they had managed to salvage at least a fraction of their rapidly crumbling national prestige.
"The Tower is disappearing!" someone in the crowd screamed.
The moment the 9th-floor boss monster was slain, the colossal structure of the Tower of Judgment fractured into thousands of glowing geometric pieces, dissolving and scattering into the wind.
Framed perfectly against the cinematic backdrop of the crumbling gray spire, a sleek mana helicopter approached, its dark silhouette cutting through the pouring sunlight.
"Wooooo!"
"It’s Hines! Hines is back!"
The helicopter hovered low, and a solitary man leaped from the open cabin door.
He hit the ground hard enough to crack the asphalt, creating a small impact crater before slowly picking himself up. His armor was heavily dented, his entire body drenched in monster blood, and his face drawn with sheer exhaustion. Yet, despite it all, the corners of his mouth were tugged upward into a triumphant smirk.
Deafening cheers erupted from the barricades at his dramatic appearance.
"Hines! Hines! Hines!" the crowd chanted.
Hines’s smirk widened. He raised a hand, waving charismatically to his adoring public. The American press corps violently rushed the perimeter, practically shoving their fuzzy microphones straight into his face.
"Congratulations on your victory, hunter Hines!"
"You’ve just succeeded in completing the world’s very first Tower of Judgment raid! Please, can you give us your thoughts?!"
Graciously accepting a microphone from one of the breathless reporters, Hines cleared his throat. "Yes, ahem. Listen, clearing the Tower of Judgment wasn’t something I accomplished all on my own. It was entirely thanks to the Department of Defense who believed in me, the great citizens of this nation who constantly supported me, and... my brave comrades who followed me to the very end, crossing the threshold of death time and time again."
Hines paused his speech right there, letting a heavy silence settle over the broadcast. Slowly, he turned his head, his eyes glistening with unshed tears as he made a highly practiced show of gathering his turbulent emotions. Soft, sympathetic gasps rippled through the gathered crowd.
A female reporter seized the opening, eagerly pushing her microphone forward. "We heard you have a very special attachment to the city of Portland, sir!"
"I do," Hines nodded solemnly. "Portland is the city where I was born and raised. The moment I heard a tower had dropped here, I went straight to the Secretary without a single moment’s hesitation and practically begged to be deployed. It was the honor of my life to protect Portland. And I think I can confidently say... Portland is finally safe."
Deafening, patriotic cheers erupted from the masses.
"Official Rank 1 Hines!" a man in the back screamed.
The tense crowd immediately burst into a sea of relieved laughter at the particularly loud, enthusiastic shout.
Hines waved his hands in a display of flustered modesty, playing the humble hero to perfection, though he completely failed to hide the incredibly pleased, egotistical smile tugging at his lips.
"Since it’s been brought up, I simply have to ask!" another journalist yelled over the din. "The record of clearing the world’s very first Tower of Judgment is an undeniably historic milestone! It’s a feat truly worthy of going down in legend! Are you perhaps expecting a promotion to Official Rank 1 as a reward for this, hunter Hines?"
"Hahahaha! Well now, that certainly puts me on the spot."
While the majority of the reporters remained hyper-focused on interviewing their newly minted savior, a few stragglers who had been pushed to the back of the violent media scuffle had their heavy cameras pointed up at the sky instead of at Hines.
[8,101,354,871 : 7,000,000,000]
[00:00:30]
There were exactly thirty seconds left on the global countdown clock.
"I didn’t risk my life clearing the Tower of Judgment for a shiny promotion to Rank 1," Hines declared humbly to the cameras. "I simply stayed true to my assigned duty to the American people and did my absolute best. I firmly believe that if you work hard and do the right thing, the results will naturally follow."
[00:00:20]
"Many international critics have condemned the localized raid on the Tower of Judgment as being horribly inefficient and selfish. What are your thoughts on that controversy?"
Adopting a deeply serious expression, Hines tightened his grip on the mic. "Every human life is equally precious. And yes, I know what they say. I know well enough that the Alliance’s unified raid team, aiming to save the entire globe, technically holds more overall prestige. But does that mean outright abandoning the people of Portland was truly the right moral choice? A hunter’s job, above all else, is to save people. I couldn’t just walk away and ignore the innocent families shivering in the dark bunkers right below this very city."
[00:00:10]
Just then, a cynical reporter near the front of the pack openly grimaced. "If everyone’s life is equally precious to you, then what about the dozens of hunters who were needlessly sacrificed during this reckless, ego-driven tower raid—"
"Incredible words! hunter Hines! You are truly fitting of the title of America’s undisputed greatest hero!" another reporter shouted, easily drowning out his peer’s sharp protest.
Hines smoothly ignored the criticism, flashing his pearly whites as he continued his monologue.
"Even if I were to go back in time, I would make the exact same choice! To protect the city of Portland and the United States of America, I would willingly climb that hellish tower hundreds of times over—"
"Aaah!"
"W-What the hell is that?!"
The ground violently convulsed as if a massive, high-magnitude earthquake had just struck the faultline. People stumbled and collapsed screaming into the dirt, expensive camera equipment tumbling and shattering across the pavement. The devastating shockwave that followed possessed enough sheer kinetic force to flip heavy broadcast vans straight onto their roofs.
Scrambling up from the asphalt, the reporters looked around in absolute shock, their eyes widening in sheer, unadulterated terror.
"N-No way..."
A brand-new, towering gray spire had suddenly materialized right out of thin air, looming directly in the middle of downtown Portland.
"...Did another one just drop?" someone whispered.
A heavy, suffocating silence violently descended over the previously jubilant crowd.
It was unmistakably another Tower of Judgment.
Dozens of terrified gazes naturally drifted away from the monolith and back toward Hines.
The great American hero was currently staring blankly up at the impossible structure, looking exactly like a man whose very soul had just violently evacuated his mortal body.
"H-hunter Hines..." The same female reporter cautiously thrust her trembling microphone forward. "Will you... um, are you going to clear that tower over there, too?"
Hines was too stunned to speak.
At those naive words, Hines slowly turned his neck to look down at the woman.
Was this what people meant when they said looks could kill? Utterly paralyzed by the sheer, unhinged malice swimming in the Rank 2 hunter’s eyes, the female reporter’s lips began to tremble violently.
Hines snapped his gaze away, staring off into the middle distance as his jaw twitched. Before long, the reporters realized they were all holding their breath, waiting on pins and needles for their savior’s heroic answer.
Belatedly, the fog seemed to lift from Hines’s eyes, and he finally registered the dozens of flashing camera lenses boxing him in from every conceivable angle.
"Ah... um. Yes. Yes! Of course I will clear it!" he stammered, his voice cracking slightly before he forced a shaky bravado. "D-Didn’t I literally just say that?! To protect Portland, I would gladly do it as many times—"
This time, another massive Tower of Judgment slammed directly into the nearby Willamette River. The impact caused the waters to overflow violently, instantly flooding the downtown streets and spraying a torrent of displaced river water all the way up to the rooftops of the surrounding high-rises.
The crowd fell into a dead silence.
No one dared to utter a single word.
Hines’s knees simply gave out. He collapsed onto the wet pavement, staring blankly ahead like a completely broken man who had just watched his entire world end.
*