Conquering the Tower Even Regressors Couldn't-Chapter 367: Eighty-Fourth Floor, The Corpse of the Dead God (1)

Chapter 367: Eighty-Fourth Floor, The Corpse of the Dead God (1)

Truth be told, this wasn’t the first time the navigator had questioned someone’s sanity.

Just a few months prior—during the submersible crew recruitment—he had shouted something similar at someone who had come to see him.

As a navigator with a well-established reputation, he had naturally been considered a prime candidate. However, he lost his cool as soon as he heard he was supposed to navigate a vessel designed to dive into molten lava.

It sounded ridiculous. He genuinely assumed the person trying to recruit him was a fraud.

Of course, he hadn’t used those exact words back then.

“You are fucking insane.”

He had phrased it more politely this time, thanks to a sliver of unconscious restraint that had stepped in at the last moment.

Anyway, the navigator had been reminded of that memory because what he had felt then and now were starkly different.

The moment he registered what he had just said, he froze. It wasn’t out of regret, but because of one thought.

Is it truly all right to say that?

The man standing before him was a mage. Even Remtal approached him with a measure of caution. Compared to how the navigator had nearly punched the recruiter, the contrast in his response now was undeniable.

Contrary to the navigator’s worry, though, Kwon Su-Hyeok responded with composed indifference, “No. I’m not crazy.”

That alone was enough to ease the navigator’s tension.

At his side, Remtal’s gaze narrowed.

The navigator promptly dipped his head and attempted to make amends. “O-of course. I didn’t mean it that way. I misspoke. It’s simply such an incomprehensible situation.”

“I understand.” Kwon Su-Hyeok offered him a faint smile.

He didn’t really take offense, but the navigator felt boundless gratitude all the same.

Before the silence could grow too awkward, Remtal interjected, “You’re really going down there?”

“Yes. There’s no alternative. Something about the lava is off. I suspect those four missing submersibles may have been destroyed by something down there.”

The change of topic gave the navigator a momentary sense of relief, only for unease to creep back in.

The four that vanished were destroyed by lava?

A thought suddenly struck him. If mages were real, then surely there wasn’t just one.

“Could another mage have done something to the lava?”

“No. I don’t think so. To me, it feels like an ancient force. Something left over from before the old world collapsed.”

Unable to grasp the full meaning, the navigator simply nodded with a dazed look. “I-I see.”

Next to him, Remtal muttered under his breath with a grave expression, “An ancient force... Then this may become more difficult than we anticipated. Are you certain about this? I’m sorry to keep asking.”

“Don’t worry. Whether I die failing to stop another Great Explosion or die down here, it makes no difference. That said, I’m not going to die in lava,” Kwon Su-Hyeok responded flatly and turned sharply on his heel.

To the navigator, that motion signaled the end of the conversation. It seemed Remtal felt the same, as he asked no further questions.

Kwon Su-Hyeok had been here before with Remtal, and now moved with practiced ease as he opened the hatch to the metal sphere. He removed the bomb stored inside, stowed it in a container, and climbed into the sphere, settling into position.

Though curled into a fetal posture like a child in the womb, he didn’t appear vulnerable in the least.

“As soon as you launch me, head to the surface. I’ll follow shortly after. If I don’t return within the hour by chance, just leave me.” With that, Kwon Su-Hyeok shut the hatch.

After a short pause, Remtal muttered quietly into the air, “Understood.”

To activate the ejection system, they needed to exit the missile room.

For about two seconds, Remtal and the navigator stood motionless, then slowly turned away. The silence between them felt unusually heavy.

Just before stepping out of the chamber, the navigator glanced back. It was a purely reflexive gesture.

His gaze landed on the lone metal sphere resting atop the ejection system. He couldn’t see inside, but he could clearly picture the mage curled within it, waiting.

Good heavens.

In that moment, he realized just how noble and how profoundly selfless Kwon Su-Hyeok’s actions truly were. He had been too overwhelmed by the shock of encountering a mage to consider anything else.

This man was casting himself into the Sea of Lava—not just to save not them, but perhaps the world itself.

Even though there wasn’t necessarily a trench below them, he didn’t boast or try to take credit. He simply moved with composure.

He had claimed he wasn’t in danger, but descending into lava without protection could never be called safe.

Of course, Kwon Su-Hyeok was doing all of this for the sake of a hidden mission, but the navigator didn’t know that.

And to think... I, and everyone else, mocked him.

The navigator thought back to what had happened earlier. Regret washed over him, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

He wasn’t the only one who had done so. He wanted to personally rough up the researchers and crew who had grumbled, cast sidelong glances, and muttered complaints.

He looked toward Remtal. He couldn’t be sure if Remtal shared his thoughts, but there was anger flickering behind the man’s otherwise unreadable expression. His pace quickened.

In less than thirty seconds, the navigator realized that Remtal was thinking the same thing he was.

Kicking open the door to the control room, Remtal roughly shouted. “You motherfuckers!”

***

I remained curled up inside the metal sphere, idly passing the time.

Before long, Remtal would enter the control room, and not long after, launch the sphere. While I was down below, he would inform the others that I was a mage. We had agreed upon this plan from the start.

By the time I return from lava, they will all know I am not just another ordinary person.

Since I had no patience for being bothered, we decided that Remtal would break the news in my absence. If we had mentioned anything earlier, I would have been inundated with questions.

How much longer will this take?

The cramped position was beginning to wear on me. I shifted within the sphere, uncomfortable but resigned.

Well, it is built to carry a bomb, not a person.

It was fortunate that I fit at all. The sphere had been designed to be large enough to house only a payload powerful enough to blast through whatever blocked the trench.

Now that I was descending into the sea myself, the truth was clear. Divine energy had melted the missing submersibles. Perhaps one or two had genuinely run aground, but that wasn’t likely.

They probably dived in, unaware that the lava was infused with divine energy.

By the time they realized something was wrong, it would have been too late. They probably died mid-ascent, engulfed by molten waves.

In a way, it was sad.

The remains I had discovered most likely belonged to a god this world had once worshipped. People dying while trying to save their world, only to be consumed by the divine light of the very being they had once revered, carried a tragic weight.

Clunk—

The sphere shifted, interrupting my thoughts. A moment later, the hatch beneath me opened, and the chamber dropped into the launch compartment.

Almost time.

Moments later, another clunk echoed above as the upper hatch sealed shut. With pressure building, launch was imminent.

This space wasn’t designed with humans in mind, so I doubted there would be any safeguards. The moment of release would bring a jarring impact.

The pain wouldn’t be unbearable, but smashing my head against metal was not something I cared to experience. I enveloped myself in mana to soften the impact, and just as I did, I felt the pressure reach a breaking point.

Thunk—

With a dull thud, the sphere launched, but not with tremendous force. That wasn’t what it was intended to do. The device was built to fall into the molten sea and eventually melt, triggering an explosion.

The sphere tilted downward.

My trajectory looks good.

The horn, still floating beside me, continued to point directly below me. Its angle had shifted slightly, but not to a worrying extent. Once I exited the sphere, I could adjust my course.

Thankfully, the horn continued to follow me.

I had tried placing it back into my mimic, but it wouldn’t go. Since then, I had simply carried it with me. Whether it possessed a will of its own or not, it responded to my movements and trailed after me.

The sphere descended steadily into the lava. Unlike the submersible, the heat pressed vividly against its thinning shell.

As I waited for the right moment, I used mana to repel the encroaching heat.

I need to hold out as long as possible.

The divine energy in the lava now was far more potent than the area I had retrieved the horn from. Until the sphere completely disintegrated, it was safer to stay within it.

Time passed as the sphere continued its descent deeper and deeper. Bit by bit, its structure began to soften.

Several minutes later, a hole appeared on one side, and it collapsed swiftly. I didn’t delay even a second and surged outward by unleashing both mana and divinity.

Faster than expected.

After breaking through the sphere, I plunged downward.

The molten sea, thick with divine energy, pressed in from all sides. Beside my shoulder, the horn kept pace while its tilt shifted ever so slightly with every change in direction.

I moved according to the path it indicated.

Shhhhk—

The lava split in a violent rush.

Just like last time, I couldn’t sense any indication of what I was looking for. I pushed my concentration to its limits to sharpen my senses.

Time lost its shape, and I couldn’t tell how long I had been falling.

Despite that, I could feel my barriers—one of divinity, the other of mana—unraveling. It was far worse than when I found the horn.

This isn’t looking good. Should I abandon the hidden mission and retreat?

As that thought flickered in my mind, the horn at my shoulder suddenly surged forward. The lava ahead of me tore open with explosive force.

The horn wasn’t just forging a path. It felt as if it and something up ahead were pulling each other in, drawn by a shared gravity.

The divine lava receded.

It was the opening I had been waiting for. I followed the horn with terrifying speed and descended straight after it. At the end of that path, bluish-gold light flashed brilliantly.

Whooosh!

A radiant burst of divine light exploded from the horn. In an instant, it blasted the surrounding lava outward into a wide circle.

At the ocean floor, there it was.

A corpse! Oh my gosh.

Even in fragments, the corpse’s scale was overwhelming. Only the head, chest, and left arm remained, as the right arm and lower torso were gone.

Still, it was over five meters long. It was like staring up at a giant.

The horn ceased all motion as if it had exhausted the last of its power.

Instinctively, I knew what I had to do.

I reached for it, and my palm flared with pain the moment I touched it. Gripping it tightly, I brought it to the body.

At once, the corpse began to crumble. Shards of bluish-gold light scattered like dust and glinted in the lava. They spiraled outward and encircled me. Then, they slowly seeped into the horn.

Divinity surged within it. The burning in my hand intensified, but I couldn’t stop now. The instant the body vanished, the surrounding lava surged in to take its place.

I shot upward without hesitation, taking advantage of what had just occurred.

Raising the horn, I propelled myself vertically, straight through the path it had previously carved.

Even now, the horn’s raw power pulsed through my palm, and the pain sharpened.

I don’t know what to make of this.

The horn clearly had a will of its own. It didn’t seem to reject me, but the pain was unmistakable.

I remembered something Seo Ho-Su had once said. Some divine relics inflicted pain or mental strain upon their wielder in order to unleash their power.

Is this one of them?

The lava spiraled around me in wide arcs. I could tell that I was nearing the surface.

Tilting sharply to the right to avoid the submersible, I shot through the lava sea and broke the surface.

Splaasssh—

The molten waves erupted upward and spiraled like a fiery waterspout.

Amid the blazing spray, my vision cleared. Standing atop the submersible, Remtal, the navigator, and several others were clearly waiting for me.

Did they gather after hearing I was a mage?

Their eyes were wide with astonishment, each reacting in their own way.

“He’s back!”

“Holy shit!”

“H-he really is a mage!”

Flying in the air above them, I gave them a smile.

I had long since let go of any romantic ideas about becoming a mage, but even so, being called one didn’t feel all that bad.