Chapter 104: Babel (4)
Zzip. Zziiik.
The man’s clothes rip apart as he grows bigger.
Those were some high-quality leather clothes for this era, yet they tore apart so easily. Hmm…
The man’s height has now soared past three meters. He looks less like a human and more like a beast or a monster.
To top it off, black fur is starting to sprout all over him. Is he turning into a gorilla or something? Hmm…
“Whoa. Hoo… This power. This magic. And I haven’t even absorbed it all yet, but I’m this strong. Hah. I think I get why monsters are so powerful. With this kind of power, it’s no wonder they’re strong…!”
The man is progressively shedding his humanity. Horns and a tail sprout from him, and his teeth grow larger.
Once his transformation wraps up, he’s reborn as something that can’t even be called human anymore.
“Kkkk, kkkk. Kwooooaaarrrrrr!!!”
He roars like a beast. The sheer volume cracks the walls and smashes the gem-filled boxes around him.
“Kkk. Kheuh. It’s all good. If I manage to take all this for myself, I’ll become a god! Yes! Babel! Babel shall be my name! I will construct a tower that reaches the heavens, and with godlike power, I’ll become the god of magic! And then, I will unleash divine punishment on the humans who chased us mages away!”
This man is halfway to losing his sanity and spouting utter nonsense.
Oh, how sad. He’s basically gone bonkers.
“Hoo. Hoo… If I become a god, I’ll take you as my companion, and you’ll become a new god as well. I’ll grant you the honor of being the queen of the gods, surpassing the lofty life goddess who just looks down from above and doesn’t lift a finger to help!”
Hmm. Hmmmm…
Guess I have no choice but to kill you.
“You’ll become a new god too! You and I! We’ll be the new gods ruling this world!”
“I can’t take any more of this nonsense.”
I just rolled my eyes.
“Why deny me the power to become a new god? Why refuse to accept this glorious honor?!”
“Well, because you’re too dumb to even understand what’s right in front of you, and you think you’ll become a god.”
“What…?”
A smug grin spread across my face.
“Open your eyes wide and take a good look at what’s before you.”
“What?”
I started to release the power I had been hiding. The power within this body. The magic. The presence. Even the faith I had gathered as a god of life.
I only let a bit out, and bam! The top of the tower cracked and exploded, showering shards of gemstones everywhere.
“Kkkk!”
“What’s wrong? You stumbling around there?”
I took a step forward.
“The god you’ve always dreamed of being is right in front of you. Open those eyes wide and take a good look. This is the god you wanted to be.”
“Kreeeuh… Kaaaah!!!”
The former man collapses to the ground, merging with it.
You wanted to be a god, and you can’t even handle this? Foolish, foolish, totally foolish.
Kooow!
The floor cracks and begins to cave in. Hmm. Did you build your tower a bit shoddily? It’s collapsing from just this.
Well, I was planning to knock it down anyway.
At least the humans still inside the tower are innocent.
[Humans in the Tower of Babel, evacuate the tower immediately.]
I amplified my soft voice and made it spread.
A voice strong enough to reach all the people in Babel, let alone just this tower.
Ah, the hero will probably hear it too. Hmm… Well, that’s not really my concern.
The hero might need to confront what he’s up against up close.
[The fool at the top of this tower aimed to be a god, sought divine treasures, and attempted to steal what belongs to the gods to fulfill his desires.]
The floor begins to give way. It collapses down, and the layers beneath crack open too.
One by one, the support pillars of the tower start to fracture and break apart.
The rumble grows louder and louder.
[All that remains will be a dismal ruin.]
I can feel the mages in the tower hurriedly fleeing. They scatter like ants.
What pathetic creatures. They don’t even know what they’re caught up in.
I’m starting to grow weary of all this.
“Kraaah! Aaaah!!!”
The man’s body, collapsing with the floor, starts to change. Something sprouts from his shoulder blades.
Arms? Nah, although something claw-like is there, they aren’t arms.
What spreads out are wings. They look like bat wings.
“Krek. Kreuuh! Just you wait! Just you wait!!! You will be cursed! Cursed! God!!! Cursed!!!”
Foolish, indeed.
Oh, so foolish.
Who’s cursing whom? Has he been so consumed by darkness that he can’t think anymore?
So, I just couldn’t stand by any longer.
I slowly clenched my fist and slammed it down.
In the same motion.
Boom!
A massive beam of light came down, physically smashing the man trying to use his wings to escape.
That wasn’t enough, so the beam began to smash down the tower.
Crushed under overwhelming power, the once-soaring tower collapsed.
The hollow dream of someone who sought to become a god crumbled alongside it.
Everything shall turn to ruins.
And this will be known as the wrath of God.
Thus, the Tower of Babel came crashing down.
———————
“What on earth happened here?”
The hero arrived at the ruins of the tower, now vacated by all the people.
“Ah, you made it.”
“It’s not ‘You made it,’ what kind of absurdity occurs that smashes this tall tower to bits?”
“Well, let’s just say it’s the result of a foolish human nurturing delusions and coveting divine items.”
At my words, the hero’s face twisted in confusion.
“Then what’s that? That… a monster? But it looks human!”
“Didn’t I mention? A foolish human nursed a foolish dream and coveted divine treasures.”
The hero, having slightly grasped the situation from my explanation, began to look grim.
“A human…? That thing?”
“Yep. A human.”
Technically, he used to be human.
“How can a human transform into something resembling a monster?!”
“Hey, that’s just how it is.”
I had never seen a human morph like this until now.
Most monsters aren’t humanoid. It’s likely because humans have the will and personality that repel the shards of darkness.
Yet, to intentionally absorb those shards of darkness and make them one’s own…
Wait a second. If this guy could pull this off… could similar things happen in other places?
For example, elves or dwarves… or lizardmen? Nah, those guys wouldn’t have enough magic power to do that anyway.
Regardless… there’s no telling another incident like this won’t happen again. Hmm.
I should keep a closer eye on things.
“Grrrr…”
“Shocking, isn’t it? He’s still alive.”
“Right?! I swung at him with the intent to kill, and he’s still breathing!”
Despite being slammed hard enough for tower debris to pile around him, the man was still standing.
Most likely, the shards of darkness he absorbed are keeping him alive.
“So, you want to stab that thing with your sword?”
“Me? That … thing?”
“Yeah. Since he’s gathered so many shards of darkness, we have to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Originally, I aimed to gather those shards of darkness and hand them over. But now they’re all in one body, so we have to make do.
“Kwahaak!!!”
“Oh, he’s up.”
“No, not ‘he’s up’! Why are you so unfazed by this?!”
“Because our hero is here, and there’s practically nothing to worry about, right?”
I flashed a grin, making the hero wear an expression of exasperation.
“No, you can’t just toss this onto me all of a sudden!”
The battered, blackened man rises and launches toward me. But his charge bounces off the hero’s blade.
“I swung with all my might, and you actually stood your ground?!”
“Kwahaah!!!”
“Clearly, all of his sanity has evaporated. He’s completely consumed by the immense shards of darkness.”
“We’re not in a position to be observing this calmly!!!”
The hero yells, distressed. Ugh, for someone who should have gained experience, why does he sound like he’s about to lose it?
“It’s not that different from a monster; he just happens to retain a humanoid shape.”
“But he was once human!”
“So what? He forsook his humanity through foolish choices. Hmm… Since he’s not human anymore, I guess I should call him something else.”
“Something else…?”
After a moment’s thought, I declared,
“That being shall henceforth be known as a demon.”
“A demon…?”
“It originally had intelligence but fell to corruption absorbed by darkness. The name demon fits him perfectly.”
“Kwahaak!!!”
What a racket.
I snapped my fingers lightly, and my magic shaped into swords, piercing through the man’s limbs and wings, pinning him to the ground.
Just like an insect pinned for display. The blackened man is now stuck to the ground, unable to move.
Hmm. Since this is the first case of its kind, I should investigate it in detail.
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