Magic Monopoly: Reborn as the Sole Magic Tower Master-Chapter 249: Episode

An explosion erupted from the second floor, and Sham crashed to the ground, feathers embedded all over her body. Everyone snapped their heads up.

“Impressive.”

Albert walked out through the hole in the wall, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. “To think you had prepared such a show.”

He placed his palm against a nearby wall. From his hand, a blue line flashed out across the surface, like veins spreading through flesh.

“Whoa!”

“Urgh!”

The surroundings shook violently. Everyone crouched low or grabbed onto whatever they could reach. The Sky Castle had begun to move.

Yusin activated his earpiece. “Samia. Get ready.”

“Understood.”

If it came down to it, he was prepared to drop the Tower straight onto the Sky Castle and sink it.

Just then, Sham, her body riddled with feathers, staggered to her feet.

Each time she yanked a feather out, it dented the floor with a loud crunch as it fell.

“Surrender, Castle Lord,” she said in a low voice. “Even you cannot win a four-on-one fight.”

The Tower, the Ghost Corps, the Holy Knights, and the Lion Fleet were all inside the Sky Castle. Their leaders were gathered in one place. No matter how strong an officially recognized Rank 1 might be, this situation seemed unwinnable.

“We shall see.” Albert’s wings swelled, blazing with a blinding light. “You never know who has won until the very end.”

His spread wings wrapped around his body, sealing him in completely until he resembled a giant, crouched egg.

“What is he doing?”

“Whatever it is, we can’t just stand here and watch,” Marcello said, gripping his cross. “I shall deliver divine punishment.”

A massive cross appeared above Albert’s body. With an unearthly crash, a dazzling spray of light scattered in every direction.

Sparks flew with a deafening sizzle where the cross met Albert’s wings, but they did not pierce through.

“Move.” Sham lowered her stance. Her back hardened, transforming into a carapace that rapidly multiplied into dozens of gun ports. In moments, she had become a walking fortress, a three-tiered carapace bristling with cannons.

<Wild Battery>

More than seventy cannons fired at once, torrents of water slamming into Albert’s cocooned body. Marcello’s cross hammered him from above while Sham’s firepower pounded him from the front, yet the shell formed by his wings remained intact.

“Get ready, Marie. We’re up next.”

“Okay.”

Yusin and Marie prepared themselves.

As time passed, the power of the cross and the water barrage began to wane. At that moment, Albert’s wings suddenly snapped open.

“!”

A green gale exploded outward, radiating from Albert at its center. The force was overwhelming. The sheer pressure shoved Yusin backward. He hastily focused mana into his feet, using magic to anchor himself to the floor. Marie wrapped Soul Aura around her body to dampen the impact.

“Damn it...!”

The surrounding hunters were blown out of the Sky Castle. Sham, unable to withstand the weight of her own carapace, was also knocked outside. The gale shattered every window and tore down the walls. Before long, the once-beautiful fortress had been stripped down to bare steel beams. Most of the hunters from the four factions that had seized control of the castle were blown away. Only a handful managed to endure the wind pressure.

’Shit!’ Yusin’s expression darkened as he grasped the Sky Castle Lord’s strategy.

Once everyone had been blown away, the only ones who could board the Sky Castle, now floating high in the air, were the Icarus hunters with their wings. One by one, winged hunters filled the sky. Their overwhelming numerical advantage had flipped in an instant.

“You thought you had me cornered?” Albert’s voice rang out. “The moment you crawled into my stronghold, the outcome was already decided.”

Yusin’s face hardened. He raised a hand to his earpiece and spoke in a low voice. “Samia. How are the Tower Transportation preparations?”

– Preparations are complete, but there is a problem.

Her voice came through the line.

– The Tower Transportation works by designating warp coordinates and summoning the Tower to that location. It takes about three minutes for the Tower to fully manifest.

“Yes, I know.”

– And right now, the Sky Castle is deliberately changing its speed and direction as it flies.

“Ah...”

Back when they had dropped the Tower on the Sky Castle over the Republic of Malta, its position had been fixed, which made things easy. Vertical movement wasn’t a big deal; they could just summon the Tower at those coordinates and let it fall.

The problem was that the Sky Castle was now moving horizontally as well. Even if they set coordinates here, at its current speed, it would likely just fly right past the spot before the Tower arrived. If its direction were constant, they could calculate its speed and drop the Tower accordingly, but Albert was deliberately changing both.

’He’s definitely wary of the Tower Transportation. He’s not going to fall for it twice, huh?’

That left only two solutions. Either defeat Albert, who was currently piloting the Sky Castle, or push him so hard that he could no longer spare any attention to control its flight.

“Attack.”

At Albert’s command, every Sky Castle hunter unfurled their wings and charged.

VROOOOM!

A blade sliced past, shearing off a few strands of Yusin’s hair. He tilted his head lightly to dodge, then stepped forward and twisted his waist.

CLANG!

His gauntleted fist slammed squarely into the enemy’s face.

“You bastard!” A Sky Castle hunter hovering above leveled his gun at Yusin.

Yusin quickly raised a shield, blocking the incoming bullets, then thrust his palm toward the man.

“?”

He clenched his fist. The space behind the hunter’s wings exploded, and the man plummeted.

“The Tower Master is over there!”

“Who knows what trick he’ll pull next! Take him down first!”

But taking out one or two of them was meaningless. As hunters kept pouring down from the sky, Marie touched her earpiece. “Come in.”

CRACK!

The air split like shattering glass. While the battlefield was in chaos, the sky itself broke apart, and a transparent ship charged straight toward the Sky Castle.

’So that’s the Ghost Ship!’ Yusin’s lips curled upward. Waiting for the perfect moment to enter had been the right call.

With a deafening crunch, the Ghost Ship rammed into the Sky Castle, making the ground quake violently. Hunters of the Ghost Corps leaped from the deck, each taking up their assigned positions.

– Fire.

Cannons rose from the Ghost Ship and unleashed a furious barrage, turning the surroundings into a wasteland. The spectral hunters shot down incoming enemies with long-range attacks. Wherever their Soul Aura touched, the Icarus wings melted like wax.

“Kim Yusin! He’s running!” Marie shouted.

As the battle evened out, Albert was heading upstairs. The earlier gale had destroyed the walls and windows, leaving only skeletal beams, but the top floor alone remained intact. It looked unusually sturdy.

“We’ll leave this to the Ghost Corps and hurry,” Marcello said, clutching his cross pendant. A wave of white light swept out, and the Sky Castle hunters in front of them dropped like rain.

’As expected of an Arch Bishop.’

Marcello, Han Yoonjeong, Sham, Marie. The firepower of these officially recognized Rank 2s who ruled the World Guild was on another level. They were called the next generation of Rank 1s, and in truth, they were the closest to that realm. Even within the same Rank 2 category, the difference in ability was huge. Yusin had been confident when he faced the Night Walker, but could he really defeat people like these? For now, he was simply grateful they were on his side.

“Let’s go, hunter Kim Yusin.”

“Right.”

Even against a Rank 1, with two top-tier Rank 2s and himself on their side, they had a real shot. Feeling his confidence rise, Yusin headed up.

Cutting down the Sky Castle hunters who rushed them, Yusin’s group reached the top floor. The walls and floor here seemed to be made of a different material altogether.

’This must be the core area that powers the Sky Castle. No wonder it’s so solid,’ Yusin thought.

-This material... it’s Adamantium.

Ea’s voice echoed in his mind.

’That’s the insanely tough ore from the mana mines, right?’

-Yes. I am surprised the Sky Castle possesses the technology to process this mineral.

Sensing the ominous atmosphere, Yusin kept walking. Before long, he spotted Albert. Despite everything, he was sitting in a chair, calmly drinking tea.

“Wait.” Albert raised a hand to stop them. “Let me finish this first.”

“...”

’This tea-addicted bastard...’ 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Yusin let out a small sigh. “Your entire plan has been foiled. The antidote is already being distributed worldwide. Give up now and submit to arrest.”

“I told you. This operation is only the beginning.” Albert took another sip of tea. “The Sky Castle is currently heading toward Karachi in Pakistan and Delhi in India.”

“?”

“Some of the most populous cities in the world. I will personally drop warheads filled with the Telos infection compound on them.”

The color drained from everyone’s faces.

“Hunters might survive, but ordinary people with no resistance to magic will not. If there are warheads left over, I suppose I could drop a few on Shanghai, Seoul, and Tokyo on the way. That would be acceptable.”

“Why are you going this far?” Marie shouted, unable to hold back. “This is nothing but one-sided slaughter! Do you really believe this is for humanity’s sake?”

“It is pointless, Marie,” Marcello interjected. “He has already gone astray. It is more accurate to think of him as a demon in all but name.”

“...” Albert took another sip of tea, a strange smile on his lips, then looked at Yusin. “And what do you think, Tower Master?”

All eyes turned to Yusin. He scratched his eyebrow and let out a dry chuckle. “I know someone just like you.”

“?”

“Someone who tried to shoulder everything alone and ended up ruining an entire world. He really regretted it, suffered for it. But do you know what was strange? Even after he wrecked the world with his own unilateral decisions, he still couldn’t let go of his obsession.” Yusin shrugged. “He kept saying, I wasn’t wrong. It was the variables. What if this had gone that way instead? Even when he knew his grand project had crashed and burned, he refused to bend.”

He thought of the man who had taught him dark magic and smiled faintly.

“People’s hearts are funny things. Deep down, they know. They know it’s evil, insane, and doomed to fail. But they still can’t let go. They do whatever they want anyway. Why is that, really?”

Albert’s expression turned icy, but Yusin went on. “Call it pathological stubbornness? I don’t know. There’s no answer. Once a person gets into that state, the truth stops mattering. They only believe what they want to believe and only see what they want to see.”

“How amusing, Tower Master.” Albert set his teacup down. “What kind of process do you think I went through to reach my current conclusion? For a span of time you cannot even begin to imagine, I have contemplated, calculated, and agonized while stripping away my humanity and emotions. There is only one path left for humanity to survive, and this is it.”

“The amount of thinking doesn’t matter. All that thinking just piles up more justifications and excuses for your claims. The only thing that’s certain is this: humanity has to stand together and fight. We need people who fight, and we need people who don’t. They build society and keep the economy running, and because of them, we hunters can maintain our way of life and find both the hope and the reason to fight.”

“Maintaining a way of life is no longer important. Humanity itself now stands on the brink of life and death.”

Yusin pressed his fingers hard into his temples. He could feel that there was no longer any room for dialogue. He had tried twice, and he believed that was more than enough effort.

Albert drained the rest of his tea and set the cup down. Then he shoved the cart. It rolled forward and bumped lightly against the wall.

“I have kept you waiting long enough.” Albert rose from his seat, eyes flashing. “It is simple. If you believe I am unreasonable, then stop me before the Sky Castle reaches Pakistan.”

Yusin activated Devastar on his right leg, planted his foot on the floor, and lowered his stance. “I was planning on it anyway.”

* * *