Ch-360. **So you’ve finally appeared.**
—
What is a *tower*?
In the dictionary, it is a structure built high upward.
A place that exists solely to be climbed.
But in Pangaenia, a *tower* is a place that bestows trials.
The administrator of a tower imposes trials upon challengers, and the challengers overcome them, surpassing their limits.
And yet, a question naturally arises.
What benefit does the tower’s administrator gain from this structure?
If they merely grant trials and rewards, then surely they gain nothing themselves.
So how is it that so many *towers* have taken root throughout Pangaenia?
—“A tower is a god. A tower is everything. And a tower is one.”
The King of Omen said that.
That towers are gods.
That they are one, and that they are everything.
And so he left me a request—no, a plea—to rebuild the Omen Clan and show the world that the clan still stood strong.
Back then, I couldn’t understand those words.
I thought they were nothing more than some cryptic phrase that pierced through the world.
“*A tower is the mirror that expresses my entire existence.*”
……Only after erecting the **Tower of Ruin** did I finally realize that those words were not vague riddles.
A tower is me.
It is proof of my existence in this world.
A god plants a tower upon the wretched earth and roots their existence there.
Thus, a tower serves as a medium connecting mortals and immortals.
And the more challengers there are, the stronger the tower becomes—and the stronger the tower grows, the more the god can express themselves.
Stronger trials.
Greater rewards.
A mightier divine authority with which to engrave one’s *existence*.
In short, the status of a tower is the status of its god.
Just as the Tower of the War God expanded when Karas, the War God, reclaimed his complete divinity.
Then—
*The Tower of Ruin.*
Just how great is the stature of the Tower of Ruin that I have raised?
Tremble—tremble—tremble!
The Outer God inhabiting Sonora’s body shook violently.
“Ruin is supposed to no longer exist in this world…!”
Ruin.
Even to Outer Gods, that name was synonymous with fear.
Ruin was an irresistible monster that destroyed worlds and erased even gods.
And yet—it should not exist.
Had it not already cleansed Pangaenia once before?
That being which sank countless lands into the Abyss—
“Don’t tell me already…? It’s not time yet…!”
…There was no way it should appear again.
Even if it did, not now.
It was far too soon.
Then did that mean the *Ruin* before its eyes was a fake?
But a false Ruin could never erect the true Tower of Ruin.
It was real.
“Did *He* truly lend power to Ruin…?”
There was far too much that made no sense.
*He*, who stood at the absolute opposite extreme of the heavens, had engraved His authority into Ruin’s left arm.
Ruin was a heavenly weapon—there could be no alignment of wills between them.
This had never happened before.
No—*He* had always maintained the stance of an observer!
“Something… has gone wrong.”
Events were diverging from the original plan.
From the beginning, the appearance of Ruin had not been part of it.
Pangaenia was a world once destroyed by the heavens.
Yet it was also the world that had failed to be completely annihilated.
For Ruin to manifest again, the civilization level would have to reach a certain threshold—but present-day Pangenia had not even reached half the level of the ancient civilization.
That was why Pangaenia was the perfect land for Outer Gods to grow their power.
No high-ranking chief gods.
No chance of Ruin appearing.
And yet the land was saturated with divine authority.
No interference.
No natural enemies.
This place was paradise for Outer Gods.
……And yet, Ruin—something that should not exist—stood right before them.
In that instant, the Outer God’s eyes widened dramatically.
“You… were you waiting for us?”
There was no other explanation.
Ruin had been quietly waiting for the appearance of the Outer Gods.
To the heavens, Outer Gods were thorns in their eyes.
So if Ruin had deliberately preserved the world, waiting for Outer Gods to appear—
And if *He* had joined in that intention—
Gulp.
The Outer God looked up at the Tower of Ruin rising high from beneath the earth.
Regardless of the truth, Ruin and the tower had appeared.
And that meant—
It had to be climbed.
If the trials were not overcome within the allotted time, then it would be *they* who would be devoured by Ruin.
*
*
A magnificent temple stood upon a vast expanse of land.
The Earth God Church.
An unprecedented crowd gathered around it.
“O Earth God—!”
“Praise the Earth God!”
They were all followers of the Earth God Church.
Already, tens of thousands had assembled.
With the constant influx of people, there was barely any room to stand.
And the reason they had gathered was simple.
Swoosh!
Sssssss—
A gigantic being standing upright on two legs, bearing the face of a dog and wielding a staff inlaid with a crimson gem.
A monster twice the size of the Earth God Church’s temple!
That was the one revered as the *Earth God*.
The Earth God had revived, and all followers of the Earth God Church across the land had gathered.
His dignity and divine authority were more than sufficient to be called a god.
However—
“‘The Tower of Ruin’…?”
The Earth God tilted his head.
He had sensed the appearance of the Tower of Ruin in the holy city of Adrium far away.
And not just him.
Across the continent, the eyes of revived *gods* turned toward Adrium.
—Ruin…
—Why now?
Something that should never appear—something that *could not* appear—had manifested.
As if it had been waiting for their revival.
And then—
“…At last.”
…The Demon King.
The one who had stolen Wilhelm’s body and absorbed all of his power.
“At last you have appeared, Ruin.”
From within the darkness, two eyes gleamed.
*
*
The Tower of Ruin rose without warning.
If it was not conquered within forty-eight hours, the Goddess’s power would decline.
“Climb the tower!”
“Protect our Goddess!”
The brainwashed followers of the Goddess rushed into the tower.
And the Outer God desperately lent her strength as well.
But upon seeing the first gatekeeper, they were forced into despair.
“What is that bird…?!”
“An eagle?”
“It—it’s too strong!”
A nameless eagle.
To enter the tower, one had to avoid the gaze of that absurd monster.
And even if one barely managed to enter—
“R-run!”
“Aaaargh!”
Inside awaited the perfected embodiment of curses—*Lilith*.
Lilith had created a hundred *curse dolls* and placed them throughout the tower.
The curse dolls, identical in appearance to Lilith herself, inflicted utter despair upon intruders and blocked anyone from climbing further.
It was an absolute wall.
Not a single person managed to surpass Lilith’s barrier, even after an entire day.
“Aren’t you the sacred *Knights of the Round Table*?”
“Why won’t you help us climb the Tower of Ruin?”
At last, after repeated failures, they began blaming the Knights of the Round Table.
But Abeloff, the vice-captain, merely shrugged.
Just a day ago, had these people not been attacking them?
“The Round Table does not move without the captain’s orders.”
And there had been no orders from their captain, Park Hyeonmyung.
Besides, no matter how brainwashed they were, it had been the Pope’s own will to accept an Outer God.
“You useless wretches—!”
Unable to endure it any longer, the *Outer God* stepped in personally.
Wearing the guise of the Goddess, she began climbing the tower herself.
But—
“Out of my way! You think dolls can stop me?!”
Even after enduring three hours against the nameless eagle and finally entering, the Outer God still could not overcome the Wall of Wailing created by Lilith.
The Outer God wearing the Goddess’s authority was powerful.
Yet no matter how many dolls she destroyed, more kept appearing.
Like an endless nightmare.
“Grrr…!”
Crunch!
The Outer God ground her teeth.
There was no time left.
If this, too, was a trial, then there must be a way to clear it.
Just as it had been possible to enter without killing the nameless eagle.
If only she could avoid Lilith’s gaze while climbing—
—*Go on, crawl up like a dog.*
That was when it happened.
A single sentence suddenly flashed through the Outer God’s mind.
*Crawl?*
Perhaps… that was the answer.
Lilith appeared everywhere.
Hiding made no difference.
But she couldn’t possibly be watching *everything* in the tower.
Creep. Creep.
The Outer God pressed herself flat against the ground and began crawling upward.
And like a lie, Lilith’s pursuit vanished.
……No.
That wasn’t it.
It hadn’t vanished.
After crawling for some time—
“Wow.”
Before the Outer God—
“A godlike dog?”
……Lilith’s true body appeared—not a doll.
And she was smiling, purely.
*
*
The Primordial Doll.
Lilith, the first human.
She had once been nothing more than a soulless doll, existing solely to serve an evil god.
Then, a soul took root within her.
When Lilith first became aware of the world, she needed more information.
Everything was unfamiliar and awkward.
But that was fine.
If it meant reaching her master, she was willing to learn the entire world.
At an unimaginable speed, Lilith learned everything.
Without being taught, she came to understand naturally.
She moved her body, learned language, and etched curses into herself.
Half a day to grasp the structure of the body and the language her master used.
In just one day, she mastered every curse the evil god had wielded.
*Not enough. I want to know more.*
The presence of a soul is proven through learning.
The desire to know.
The desire to grow stronger.
None of these arise of one’s own will without a soul.
Though she had existed since the beginning, Lilith—without a soul—had merely been a puppet of the evil god, scattering curses.
She had been used as the evil god’s strongest weapon, devoid of will.
But now—
With a soul, with self and will—
Lilith felt thirst.
For her master’s love.
For the same greed her master possessed.
The hundred dolls were merely tools for learning.
A single body had limits.
The dolls gathered information through contact with the outside world, and as Lilith absorbed that information, she grew stronger in real time.
Lilith analyzed everything about those who climbed the tower.
Their techniques.
Their abilities.
Naturally, that included the *Outer God*.
Even a god was nothing more than a subject of learning to Lilith.
By destroying countless dolls, the Outer God had only allowed Lilith to learn more about her.
“Ta-ra-shi.”
“…!!!”
In an instant, the Outer God’s eyes shook violently.
They were filled with sheer disbelief.
“H-how do you know my name?!”
Impossible.
Even Ruin could not uncover the name of an Outer God hidden within a vessel.
And yet—she had learned it merely by looking!
“There is nothing left for me to learn from you.”
Of course, that was Tará-shi’s misunderstanding.
Lilith hadn’t learned it by looking—she had learned it through the dolls.
More importantly, the reason the Outer God had been able to crawl this far wasn’t simply because it was the correct method to climb the tower.
It was because Lilith truly had nothing left to learn from her.
She had learned everything.
Understood all principles.
She examined everything, from beginning to end—
……And still, it was far from enough to challenge the authority of Ruin.
Far from enough to reach her master—the great and exalted one.
“This can’t be! I am the Goddess!”
The Outer God resisted desperately.
But to Lilith, who had already learned everything, it was all meaningless.
Lilith’s authority—*The Book of Principles*—contained everything she had discerned about her opponent.
And any power she had already understood could not affect Lilith.
It could not reach her.
The only one who could reach her—
Was her master alone.
