Chapter 147: Altain’s Rebellion

“…So, I’ve lost.”

The conquest of the Sixth Floor.

Altain had achieved an Unfathomable difficulty clear, while Leon had successfully conquered the Mythic difficulty.

To Nepas, this was nothing short of a humiliation.

It was inevitable, given that he had chosen to strip away his personality and emotions for the sake of immediate results.

At first, it seemed to be effective.

By dominating the third through fifth floors, he had stayed one step ahead of Leon.

But that lead lasted only for a fleeting moment.

The Sixth Floor.

There, Leon had proven he was on a different level by conquering a completely unexpected Mythic difficulty.

Was it just a one-time thing?

No.

Between Unfathomable and Mythic, there was a difference of two levels.

Whatever had occurred, Leon had undergone a change, and he now surpassed the current Altain.

Nepas knew.

They had chosen the long game.

Just like Kim Si-won in the past, they had chosen the long journey without separating their emotions or personalities.

And yet, he had lost.

To call it a single defeat would be an understatement; the gap was far too vast.

“It seems… you are a failure as well.”

Surprisingly, he spoke of Altain being a failure right to his face, with complete nonchalance.

“It is a pity. But do not worry. Your failure will serve as excellent data for the final completion.”

There was only one outcome for a failed work.

Disposal.

And Nepas took action toward that end.

“Stop”

He was a thorough individual.

Even if it was an experimental subject he had created himself, he had prepared a device that made it impossible for them to refuse his orders.

Altain’s movements ceased.

To be precise, it would be correct to say the device implanted inside him had activated.

By placing a mechanism deep within his being that could not defy his words, Nepas had made it so Altain could not move at all.

And then.

-Step

Approaching him, Nepas reached out his hand.

-Splash!

His body began to spread out wide like a net — the unique absorption process of a Slime was about to unfold.

“I am not the failure.” To his surprise, Altain, who should have been unable to move or speak, spoke calmly.

No, it wasn’t just his mouth.

“You are the failure.”

Just as Nepas had mentioned a failure, Altain mentioned one as well.

-Shring.

He swung a sword that had never been seen before.

And then.

-Slice!

Nepas’s body — a body that could not be cut by any metal — was split apart.

-Sizzle!

The severed portion fell to the ground, emitting a powerful acidic aura.

“What…?!” Nepas shrank by the size of the piece that had been cut off.

That was a characteristic of a Slime.

Even if the body was split in half, as long as a fragment remained, life could be maintained.

That was also the definitive method Nepas used to divide his life into multiple parts.

However, that did not make the current situation any less shocking.

No, in the first place.

“…How are you able to move?”

He had implanted his command deep within Altain.

It was something only Nepas, his creator, could know.

But how?

How on earth could he defy that command and move?

“Leon and countless other experimental subjects before me were classified as failures by you and abandoned.”

Altain knew.

He knew that countless test subjects, including Leon who came before him, had been born and then disposed of by Nepas.

Therefore, he had guessed that he would also be slated for disposal.

Perfection was something that drew closer as experiments repeated and time passed.

He knew that as part of that process, Nepas would discard him at any moment.

Of course, Nepas had boasted about him being the perfect species, but Altain knew better than anyone that such a thing was impossible.

So, he had prepared diligently.

He prepared to escape from the grasp of Nepas, who would eventually issue the order for his disposal.

And that was.

“You do not know the Tower. You do not know what rewards and abilities exist there.”

The only place Nepas’s knowledge could not reach.

That was the Tower.

This Tower was beyond the scope of Nepas’s perception, and Altain was well aware of that fact.

Therefore, he knew it was the only way to deceive him and create a variable.

He had revealed the rewards he gained from the first and second floors.

However, he had hidden some of the rewards obtained by passing the Weird difficulty on the third through fifth floors.

Naturally, Nepas, who had never experienced the Weird difficulty and lacked information about the Tower, did not know exactly what Altain was hiding.

And what Altain had been hiding.

It was none other than.

“…Mistilteinn?!”

One of the demonic weapons that Demon King Ingram had bestowed upon the Demonic Beast Legion Commanders.

But this was no demonic weapon.

It was a divine-slaying weapon born through the authority of the Tower.

Furthermore, it was in the form of a sword, not a spear.

As mentioned before, Mistilteinn appears in many forms.

It could be a treasure kept by a Dragon.

It could be a weapon used by a god.

Or it could be something crafted from the fang of a Demon King.

This was a type obtained by passing the fifth floor, capable of being used in a single battle.

And its power was enough to easily slice through Nepas’s nearly immortal body.

“If I am a failure… then you, who made that failure, are also a failure. So here, let us see who the better failure is.”

Perhaps the Altain of the past would never have dreamed of such a rebellion.

But by removing his emotions and personality, he had transformed into a being that thought only of himself.

It was almost as if.

“Kim Si-won. Yes, it is like looking at Kim Si-won.”

The one who betrayed humans, betrayed the Demon Clan, and betrayed the gods just to find a way to live.

That obsession for survival alone was close to madness.

Nepas laughed as he smelled the same scent of madness from Altain that he had from Kim Si-won.

“A failure, but an evolving failure?”

The moment he realized that Nepas smiled, “Hahahaha!”

It wasn’t a faint smile, but a burst of mad laughter.

***

Altain watched that sight with emotionless eyes.

‘Had he gone mad in the face of death?’

“I am truly delighted. To think I have finally completed the failure-that-is-not-a-failure I wanted to create so badly in the past!”

Nepas held a sense of respect for Kim Si-won.

Despite being a mere human, his obsession and madness to survive through any means.

At one time, he had thought that was the most ideal species.

Therefore, he had even tried to create a species that resembled him.

However, an obsession and madness like Kim Si-won’s weren’t things that could be made just by trying.

Thus, he had judged it impossible to create a species resembling him and had stopped, yet a being similar to him had been born unexpectedly.

***

“But not yet.”

This was not yet the finished product.

Kim Si-won continued to survive through that obsession, persistence, and madness.

He had evolved over more than 1,000 years to finally stand at the pinnacle.

And the mountain Altain had to overcome was.

-Vwoom!

His entire body transformed into the shape of weapons.

These were the countless divine weapons Nepas had absorbed.

After absorbing them, he had gained the authority to fully utilize these weapons.

“Surpass me. That is the only way you will live.”

At Nepas’s words.

“That was my intention.”

Altain desired life.

Not as a being that could be disposed of at any time, but as a being that could continue to live his life.

For that endless life.

-Flash!

Concentrating his energy into Mistilteinn, he rushed toward Nepas.

It was a fierce struggle to seize his own life.

“Thud”

Something fell from the body.

It was one of the divine weapons Nepas had absorbed.

Hundreds, thousands of divine weapons were dormant within his body.

But now, there were no divine weapons remaining in his body.

“Haha…”

Altain.

Because all the divine weapons had been sliced away by his attacks.

“Indeed, it is truly the Tower. To think it would possess a divine weapon with such powerful authority that I did not anticipate!”

He had collected divine weapons from various dimensions and timelines, including the Gritia Continent.

But the Tower had created a powerful weapon that even Nepas, who had traveled through time, had not expected.

Mistilteinn.

It was far more powerful than the ones possessed by the Demon King or the Dragons, and it possessed abilities closer to the original.

Furthermore.

“Since when have you been hiding your true strength?”

Altain’s skill was beyond what Nepas had calculated.

His power, which Nepas thought would be one or two levels below his own, was equal.

Therefore, the structure was such that Altain, who possessed the even more powerful artifact Mistilteinn, was bound to win.

“While climbing to the fifth floor with my life on the line, I had a realization.”

“Do you mean you’ve been preparing for this since then?”

“I have.”

“Thorough indeed. Well, I suppose you wouldn’t have been able to deceive me without that much meticulousness.”

Having removed his emotions and personality, Altain had been preparing for this moment since then.

He had left enough strength in reserve to resist the moment Nepas would eventually order his disposal.

If that power had been revealed, Nepas would have plotted another scheme to keep him trapped.

But he had deceived Nepas for the sake of his life, and it had worked perfectly.

-Drip.

His body was slowly liquefying.

All the divine weapons had been cut away, and the core — the source of a Slime’s life — had been pierced.

The Mistilteinn embedded in his chest was a divine-slaying weapon.

No matter how many time travels and safety measures Nepas had surrounded himself with, he could not resist it.

“So. What do you plan to do now? What can you possibly do against them without my help?”

His destruction was certain.

Of course, that did not mean the complete annihilation of Nepas.

Only the part of Nepas present here would disappear.

His clones and his ego would grow in any part of the world.

Therefore, he did not cling to this death.

He was simply curious.

What Altain, who had caused all this, intended to achieve in the future.

What he was planning, and what he would move forward for.

‘If that answer is not satisfactory, you will surely die.’

He would use the clones of Nepas spread throughout the world to ensure the man’s death.

That was why he asked.

“To find life, I will kill you, and I will kill Leon and Kim Si-won as well. And I intend to tell everyone why I live.”

Altain.

His goal was a reason for existence.

He would kill every being that stood in the way of this world and prove the reason why he must live, the reason why he survived.

And.

“I will rise to the pinnacle and look down upon everyone.”

It was the exact same goal Kim Si-won had once sought to achieve.

“And for that.”

-Step.

Altain took a step forward.

“Stab!”

He sank his fangs into Nepas’s neck.

“Ugh!” In that moment, Nepas could feel it.

The fact that his power, his very existence, was being absorbed by Altain.

Blood-sucking.

By strengthening that authority through his own unique method, Altain had learned a way to absorb the power, authority, and existence of his opponent, much like a Slime.

“Hahahahaha!” He laughed at that fact.

A failure?

Yes, of course, it was a failure.

But an uncontrollable failure sometimes surpasses the finished product.

“Go on then, run wild to your heart’s content!”

And Nepas thought it wouldn’t be so bad to watch a world ruled by the failure he had created.