The tower's tentacles were so thick they resembled cathedral bell towers, emitting a faint flesh-pink through the utter darkness. Their surfaces emanated a soft glow similar to human skin. They crashed heavily to the ground, scattering leaves and dust in all directions.
The robust trees bow down gently, like wheat stalks in the wind.
Shadow Wolf Ben, originally watching the excitement nearby, was now bristling all its fur. It jumped into Teest's shadow with its butt still sticking out. After several kicks, it managed to wedge itself in.
In Teest's ear, the soft jingle of coins hitting the ground had disappeared. He watched the colossal creature before him, and the smile disappeared from his face for a moment.
"Stronghold 'Lost Tower'." He rolled the words around on his tongue.
Initially, Nol told the couple that he would give them an "excellent stronghold". Teest thought it would be some hidden cave, a vast underground relic, or even—a wicked thought crosses his mind—a naïve fairy-tale fortress similar to Nol.
What was before him resembled a "monster" more than a "stronghold".
Teest had never heard of such a thing in the Black Forest. It was too tall and too bizarre. Adventurers exploring the Black Forest couldn't have missed it.
The ground rumbled, but Nol stood still. The high tower was moving slowly behind him. The heavy tentacles almost brushed against the back of Nol's head, but he didn't even dodge.
"What you see now is the safest stronghold in the world," Nol introduced with a smile.
The Lost Tower.
The only system guild base in "Tahe World".
Initially, most Players would rent houses in the towns. When various guilds flourish, "Tahe" would offer some distinctive system bases for large guilds to choose from.
A walking tower, a floating library, a town submerged underwater, a tomb filled with luminescent mushrooms… Everyone excitedly planned for a long time.
To ensure compatibility with subsequent updates, the development team decided to create a sample case to observe possible bugs or loopholes.
Unlike other facilities, the Lost Tower wasn't designed "for Players to discover"—
As undisclosed content, it was hidden in the code by the system. Only certified internal personnel could summon it through specific commands.
However, there was no such thing as "subsequent updates" in this world. Under the system's shielding, the Lost Tower had wandered in the Black Forest for more than two hundred years, following its program settings.
Before, Nol never thought of using it as a weapon. He had to admit, this world had given him too many inspirations about "destruction"—
Although the Lost Tower was just a prototype, its design had no deficiencies and possessed all the functionalities a stronghold should have.
For instance, obeying a specific master.
Nol raised his magic staff, and bizarre, chaotic characters rose from the flames. The test key used by the development team was reproduced verbatim by him and flew towards the advancing giant tower.
Compared to the giant black tower, these characters seemed like dust in the sunlight. But the moment the first character touched the tower door, the giant tower stopped, as if an invisible wall had appeared before it.
It calmed down and gently lay on the ground.
The patterns on the heavy stone door lit up one by one, slowly opening with a soft green light. The vertical tower body, the writhing tentacles, and the thinner ends intertwined below the gate, weaving into a strange staircase.
Meanwhile, a small blue light appeared in the center of the stone door. It lightly flew to Nol and formed a small black key.
Nol strung the key together with the wedding ring on his chest. He stepped on the stairs, causing the tentacle skin to depress as if flesh had been stepped on.
Nol seems unaffected. He reached out to Teest with a gesture, like inviting him to dance.
"Alright, let's go," he said.
By now, Teest certainly knew what Nol planned to do.
He intended to get all the succubi into this impregnable tower, then would command the giant tower to go meet the queen. Even if they encountered the Demon King's minions, this giant tower would forcibly carve out a bloody path. Thanks to Teest, the queen would surely stay far away—not honestly scared into scurrying around by this thing.
They were about to complete this heir selection with great fanfare.
Nol once said he wanted to destroy more things. Admittedly, he really excelled at "destruction". Teest really liked this bloody plan, but he didn't like Nol's expression right now.
At this moment, Nol looked very calm—not the kind of resolute and steady calm, but the kind of dullness that came with semi-resignation.
Teest grabbed Nol's hand and stepped on the tentacle steps. This thing felt no different from human flesh underfoot. Teest was barefoot and could feel the subtle temperature of the tentacles beneath his feet.
"How do you plan to convince the succubi to enter the tower?" Teest asked seemingly casually.
Objectively speaking, this tower was quite frightening, much like the kind of weird forbidden land from which there was no return.
"I will invite them in," Nol said. "If they are unwilling, we have the ability to forcibly bring them in—once you rightfully become the crown prince, we can get 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'."
Teest raised his eyebrows. "What about the part of 'saving the succubi tribe'?"
"I will cure the queen, send the succubi to a safer place, and they can figure out the way forward." Nol spoke slowly. "Breaking through the monster encirclement is probably enough to meet the 'saving' standard… We'll see how it goes then."
"Hahaha!" Teest suddenly burst into laughter.
A slight crack finally appeared on Nol's somewhat numb expression. "Did I say something funny?"
"Sorry, honey. You just resemble a little boy I've seen—when you heard about Queen Hyacinth's suicide, your expression was exactly the same as when he heard news of his puppy's death."
"Just now, you were like him right after attending the puppy's funeral," he said gleefully. "His parents bought him two more puppies, and he just turned his head away, with an 'I will never care about puppies again' look."
"It's unexpected. I thought you were the type to give love recklessly. It turns out you are also afraid of the 'bad ending' after investing emotions."
"You can't say that. Before his 'bad ending', at least he and his puppy will have beautiful memories," Nol responded quietly, letting go of Teest's hand.
This world had hardly given him any positive feedback.
The novice village was destroyed without anyone knowing, the secret room in Whitebird City was full of skeletons, the Night of the Hunt dungeon trapped hundreds of innocents, the succubi living in the open world were tortured by hunger, not to mention his compatriots… In more remote corners, only more diverse pains were waiting for him.
Seeing the plight of the succubi, Nol found his feelings becoming more and more dull. Yes, your situation is miserable, and I will help you.
That was it.
Properly giving up on empathy could avoid a considerable part of the pain.
Currently, the only thing he couldn't give up was the truth about "Hyacinth and Decoste" from those years. He must get that jewelry set to see what message Queen Hyacinth had left.
He didn't know what he was looking for in an established tragedy. Maybe he just needed… to cut off the last illusion.
Nol was the first to step into the dark gate of the black tower. His figure disappeared in the darkness.
…..
Those alien Demon King's minions were running in the mist. No, to be more accurate, they were fleeing.
Large tentacles rose and fell. Under absolute weight, all spirits and dreams were crushed into powder. The monsters emitted vague and sharp cries while their weird arms were crushed into bone and flesh paste, mixed with fallen leaves on the ground. Black blood splattered everywhere, faintly visible under the light purple mist.
The smell of blood in the forest was so strong that it was suffocating.
Nol was sitting on the steps at the entrance of the black tower, overlooking the crushed monsters.
Numerous twisted palms stretch out between the tentacles, all grabbing towards Nol, who was closest, trying to tear something off. The owner of one arm was almost successful. Its hand was about to touch the corner of Nol's robe when it was crushed by two thick tentacles.
The earth trembled as the giant tower moved forward. Behind it, a long and wide trail of black bloodstains was dragged, like God casually drawing on this land.
Anakin and Solo were hiding behind a tentacle, silently watching everything.
Half a day ago.
At that time, Anakin still had some beautiful fantasies.
Look, the Mad Monk and that Nol want to rescue the succubi! This is a positive phenomenon. They are still on the side of "justice".
Then she saw the monster-like black tower rumbling over.
At that time, Solo immediately grabbed Anakin, and the two climbed to a high place, just about ready to flee.
Just kidding with assisting in this rescue quest. To face such a thing, they would die immediately!
The succubus lair was wrapped in a forest and looked like a city without walls and no suburban edges from the outside. The largest building in the center housed the royal court, surrounded by clusters of small settlements.
From a high place, the lair looked like cream decoration hugging a strawberry.
The succubi had no idea what kind of monster was coming. They summoned men, women, old and young, surrounding this "decoration", desperately erecting magical defenses. However, those protective arrays shattered like thin sugar sheets. The black tower casually stopped in front of the royal court without slowing down.
Nol, holding his staff, walked down the steps formed by crossed tentacles.
This time, the Mad Monk didn't walk with him. That person was sitting at the top of the steps, looking down at Nol's back. He had one leg raised while his palm supported his cheek, pondering something.
"I will take you to meet the queen, and then I will take you away from here." Nol stopped in front of the crowd, his voice sounding like a sigh. "If you want to survive, follow me."
Anakin on the platform choked a bit. How can someone make helping sound so much like a threat?
Solo opened his mouth wide, fascinated by the solemn tower in front of him.
For this soft and dreamy environment, it was too dark and hard. But it… it really was too cool. Where did that NPC get it? It's simply a moving fortress!
'This guy must be a mainline NPC,' he thought. 'The covenant was worth signing.'
Below, the "NPC event" continued.
"I still hope you two can bring the queen back." Succubus Doni bowed slightly, watching the towering black tower with extreme caution. "Your request is somewhat sudden. We may not be able to comply—as you see, most succubi are very weak. It's unsuitable for them to leave their residence."
Nol looks at Doni almost tiredly.
Anakin can feel Nol's abundant and stable magical power, but he was indeed emitting a strong sense of fatigue—his state was like a flickering ember.
"So you don't want to leave," Nol concluded. "I understand."
"Thank you for your understandi…"
"I should make a touching speech, reason with you, and try to win your trust. Then, after your thousands of people discuss back and forth for who knows how long, wait for an uncertain result."
Nol interrupted Doni with a somewhat scary, mild tone. "But that requires too many people to communicate. It takes too long, and I'm too tired."
Saying that, he tapped the ground with the end of his staff.
What followed was like a nightmare.
Countless tentacles shot out. They quickly wrap up the nearest succubus and shove them straight into the tower. The monster-like tentacles twisted and turned as the succubi scattered and flee, but in front of those tentacles, they were weak like mice stared at by pythons.
Every time an attack spell was directed at Nol, it was always interrupted by a conveniently placed golden thread. If what was coming were arrows or poison needles, they were directly knocked down by the Mad Monk's magic.
There was only one kind of magic the Mad Monk ignored.
Enchantment spells hit Nol like rain, but Nol had no reaction. Amidst the chaos, the cries and calls for help from the succubi were coming one after another. In the sharp screams, there was a moment when Nol seemed to want to turn his head to look in the direction of Teest.
In the end, he just stood there, with a bit more sorrow on his face.
Anakin didn't know how to describe the scene in front of her… The young man she once thought was kind and gentle was now manipulating this race like playing with toys. The exquisite and beautiful succubus lair was like a playhouse in front of him.
Friends and family were taken away, and the resistance of the succubi was getting weaker and weaker. In the blink of an eye, most of the succubi have been stuffed into the towering black tower.
Some succubi ran faster and hid themselves in the hidden corners of the lair. But the black-haired magician seemed to be able to see souls. With a point of the burning blue fire staff, the tentacles dragged them out accurately from their hiding places.
Even sleeping children were gently wrapped by the tentacles and sent deep into the black tower. In just one short hour, the succubus lair had become a completely empty city.
After all this, Nol lifted his head and looked in the direction where the two Players were hiding. The tentacles of the black tower were gently dancing behind him.
Anakin clenched her teeth and grabbed Solo, revealing themselves voluntarily.
…However, they didn't dare to enter the tower. They could only watch as the dark tower rolled in a certain direction like a bulldozer. Just as Anakin's sense of smell was about to be numbed by the smell of blood, the dark tower finally slowed down its speed.
They saw the Mad Monk stepping on tentacles and easily jumping up, holding two emaciated figures in his hands—one with a drooping head, unconscious. The other one was cursing, unexpectedly wearing an old man's shirt.
Nol moved the corners of his mouth slightly and turned to walk towards the gate. The Mad Monk carried the two, humming a tune and following behind, with the succubus's tail swaying lightly.
It seemed he noticed the gazes of the two Players. He slowed down a bit and showed a smile to the two who were peeking.
[It's still a long way from the end,] he silently mouthed.