While Arlon continued his journey through the Tower, events outside were unfolding.
It had been two months since he entered.
Two months since he sent his ssage to the group chat—just three simple words: Hunt the Demons.
It had sounded like an order. And in a way, it was. But the people in that group weren't just his subordinates.
They were the mbers of the Gars guild, plus Maria, Evan, and Carn.
June, of course, was still excluded.
But unlike in Arlon's last tiline, there had been a change.
Now, Maria, Evan, and Carn weren't just allies. They were officially part of the Gars guild.
And the Gars guild itself had changed as well.
It was no longer just a collection of top players. It had beco a true guild—one that people no longer spoke about as individuals but as a force.
Eight of the top ten players in the world were now in the Gars guild.
The remaining two?
One of them was Arlon himself.
The other was a complete unknown—an unfamiliar na sitting at rank ten.
The forums were constantly buzzing with discussions about the Gars guild. Every week, they did sothing that shook the world.
Their biggest accomplishnts in the past two months were:
They had slain two Demons.
And they had defended three different starting towns from full-scale Keldar invasions—and won.
Arlon didn't know any of this.
Inside the Tower, he was completely disconnected from the outside world. But out here, the battle had already begun.
No, it would be more accurate to say that war had begun.
The Keldars had moved.
Their forces had launched attacks on multiple starting towns, turning them into battlegrounds.
Players were no longer just fighting to survive. They were fighting in an all-out war.
But the Gars were there.
Thanks to them, only two Demons remained alive.
Demon Number One.
Demon Number Three.
And those two had survived for one reason—because Arlon had warned them in advance.
The Gars knew not to engage. Not yet.
But that didn't an they stood by and did nothing.
Whenever a battle broke out, they were there.
Fighting. Defending Trion.
Cooperating with Zephyrion and Trion's military.
They thought they were protecting the world.
They thought they were fighting the real war.
But what they didn't know was…
The real threat hadn't even arrived yet.
---
Arlon didn't stop moving.
He kept heading in the sa direction.
Ti passed.
A month.
Then a little more.
At last, he reached a point where the sound was barely audible.
But, unfortunately for him.
He still couldn't understand it. The speech was in a language he didn't know.
No, it wasn't speech. It was more like the screeching of the monsters inside the Tower.
But this was his only lead.
So, he moved forward.
Three more months passed.
The sound grew louder.
It was as if soone was talking beside him now.
At first, it was discomforting. The constant voice in his ears made his instincts flare, but there was nothing there.
After a day, he got used to it.
He continued.
More ti passed.
Three more months.
The voice was even clearer now.
Louder.
It was as if soone with a strong voice was speaking directly into his ears.
But because the change had been so gradual, it didn't bother him as much as he expected.
Then, after almost a full year of moving, he saw it.
Sothing in the distance.
A house?
No, maybe a spaceship?
Or… was it just a pile of junk?
Arlon narrowed his eyes.
He couldn't tell.
It didn't match anything familiar to him. But it could be a ho. A shelter. Maybe even a structure from another world.
So, he moved toward it.
That's when he noticed sothing strange.
Two things.
First, even now, his detection spells picked up nothing.
No structure. No presence. Nothing.
The house—or whatever it was—shouldn't exist.
Second, the mont he reached the ho, exactly a year after he had started walking—which was another weird thing.
The sound stopped.
Silence.
Pure silence.
For the first ti in a year, his ears were free of the constant voice.
He exhaled, realizing only now how much of a burden it had been.
The endless whisper, the presence always at his side—
It had been torture.
Now that it was gone, the relief washed over him.
But that wasn't important right now.
He turned back to the structure in front of him.
Instead of walking in, he knocked on the door.
It was physical. Real. Solid beneath his knuckles.
Yet, for so reason, he still couldn't detect it.
He waited.
Then, a sound ca. The sound of footsteps.
Sothing approached from inside.
Then the door creaked open.
What stood on the other side was... a monster.
One just like the ones in the Tower.
And then, the sound returned.
But this ti, it was coming from the monster.
Arlon jumped back, imdiately taking a battle stance.
The monster in front of him raised a hand.
It was shaking.
A greeting? A sign of peace?
Maybe.
On Earth, it would an the monster didn't want to fight. But Arlon wasn't an idiot.
If he accepted sothing so simple from an enemy he couldn't even detect, he might as well walk straight into a trap.
So, he didn't stop.
He moved.
His sword was already in his hands, pulled from his inventory in a blink.
Then, he cast Haste.
His body surged with speed.
At the sa ti, he cast Slow—on the ground beneath him.
He had learned sothing new. Even though he still couldn't slow his enemies directly during combat, he had found ways to use the spell creatively.
By slowing the dirt, he increased the friction beneath his feet. His footing beca firr, preventing even the slightest slip.
And that was just the start.
With his footing secured, he activated Ironbound Surge.
A technique from his past life. One he had created but never perfected.
That flaw had been fixed long ago.
By manipulating his body weight dynamically, he could make himself nearly weightless when his feet touched the ground—then suddenly increase his weight mid-jump.
The shift created massive montum, turning him into an unstoppable force.
And now, with ti magic enhancing it further, it was truly perfected.
Less friction. More controlled movent. Even greater force.
The skill had always been tanky, built for heavy impacts. But it wasn't sothing he used often. Not unless it was absolutely necessary.
This ti, it was.
He moved at a speed that would have been impossible for him just a few Tower years ago.
The air split around him.
In the next instant, he reached the monster.
Then, he activated Night Rend.
A technique he had developed before Floor 50.
A fusion of Dark magic, Mana Surge, and his Slash skill—enhanced with extre cutting force and speed.
He wasn't going to hold back.
Against a monster he couldn't detect, going all out was the only choice.
His blade struck.
And then—
Aetherion's Edge shattered...
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