Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 189 - The Augury Tower (16)

189: The Augury Tower (16)

189: The Augury Tower (16)

[Floor 9]

“Huh– woaaaaahh…?!”

[Objective: Survive the fall]

Before I knew it, I was flying through the air…

or rather, falling.

“Oh, fuck!

Stoooooop…!”

Utterly helpless, I fell endlessly through the blue sky.

There was no land beneath me, only a sea of white clouds.

For a moment, or perhaps a few, my heart surely stopped beating.

I wasn’t sure how fast I was falling, nor how far I had until I had to worry about hitting something, but it certainly didn’t feel like I had much time.

Doing all I could at least to slow my descent by a fraction, I spread my limbs out and lied flat in the air like I recalled seeing professional skydivers do on T.V.

in the past.

That seemed to work a little, but not nearly as much as I had hoped.

‘Crazy bullshit…!

How is anyone supposed to do this…?!’

Continuing to fall, I grit my teeth behind the Villain’s Vizard, the cogs in my brain turning at lightspeed to come up with something, anything at all to save me.

“!”

And then, I got it.

Hurriedly summoning material from Storage, a large, embroidered blanket entered my hands.

Clutching tightly onto it and stretching it out in my hands, I let it unfold in the air before me, swiftly filling up with air above my head and actively decelerating my descent.

The expensive blanket, which turned out to be one of the ones I took from Lucretia’s residence in Drakon-Rasa, was thankfully made out of material durable enough to endure the force of being dragged through the air at such dangerous speeds, and unexpectedly, served as an even more useful parachute than I had hoped.

From there on, I descended gently enough to not be nearly as concerned, and as the sea of clouds beneath grew closer and closer, I let out a deep sigh, soon making contact with the fluffy white surface and sinking down to my knees.

“Huh…?

It’s solid…?”

Apprehensive about letting go of the makeshift parachute just yet, I held it in one hand and gingerly patted the clouds around me, feeling them doughy and bouncy, yet firm enough to use a fair amount of force on without piercing right through.

Seeing that gave me enough confidence to at least deposit the blanket into Storage, knowing comfortably that I could take it out again if I ever needed it.

Then, placing both hands on the clouds that engulfed my calves and feet, I pushed, soon pulling myself up and out.

‘If it’s like this, maybe I would’ve been fine even without it…’

The closest thing I could compare it to was soft snow, but although I wasn’t certain if it was true that you could fall from such a height into snow and survive, I began to imagine that, just maybe, that was the case here.

In that case, maybe I was going to be fine from the beginning, and the Objective was just a little scare…

“…”

Quickly dismissing such thoughts, I turned my attention to the notifications that appeared.

[Objective Complete]

[New Objective: Make the sun shine once again]

[Time Limit: 12 Hours]

“What…?”

‘Make the sun shine…?’

Not comprehending the Objective given to me, I slowly scratched the back of my head.

First the fall, now this―the Ninth Floor was quickly becoming my least favourite so far.

It was, frankly speaking, complete nonsense…

but, considering the Time Limit, I thought it must be something I could do fairly quickly, though I wasn’t sure how, or even just where to begin.

This place was already plenty bright even without a sun visible anywhere in the bright blue sky.

How was I even supposed to make a sun, which wasn’t here, shine, anyway?

‘So useless…’

Sighing, I rubbed my temples for a moment when, all of a sudden, I noticed something emerge from the clouds a short distance away.

“…?”

It was a cloud.

A small one, no larger than a wolf, a large dog or perhaps a big cat, but a cloud indeed.

If there was something to note about the cloud, it was that it was a little grey, ever-so-slightly darker than the perfectly white sea of clouds at my feet, and only barely noticeable despite the few shades of difference because of that.

Pausing upon seeing the tiny cloud, at least in comparison to regular clouds I’d see in the sky, I wondered if this was something that might be a clue to clearing the Floor.

Walking over, I kept a curious eye on the cloud when at that moment, it turned to face me, floating at roughly the same level as my head above the cloud sea.

Staring at it, I watched as a face began to carve itself into the side of the cloud, and then, as two arms protruded from its sides.

“…”

The face was relatively simple, consisting of not much more than two eyes and a mouth, but it did also have a pair of eyebrows carved in at the top, and from the way they were positioned, it certainly seemed like the cloud was frowning.

“…I’ve seen this enemy before…”

Muttering to myself, there were a few seconds where nothing happened after the cloud’s face was fully formed, when all of a sudden, I noticed a yellow glow begin to form in one of its hands, clenched into a fist.

‘Hm…?’

In an instant, I summoned the Holy Sword, blocking a bolt of lightning that flashed my way before I even realised it.

Thereafter, I didn’t wait any longer―stepping forward, I slashed through the cloud with the Holy Sword, slicing it effortlessly in half like cotton candy.

Immediately, it disintegrated and fell to the cloud sea below, seemingly melting into the surface and dyeing a sizable blotch of the white clouds as the same light grey the cloud was.

Watching that sight, my eyes narrowed.

“…I think I’m beginning to understand now.”

Nodding slightly to nobody in particular, I sensed new presences emerging, turning around to see more clouds rising from the sea, each one subtly darker in tone than the last, and as if to match that, slightly bigger than each that preceded.

Glimpsing sparks of gold beginning to cook within their fists, I raised the Holy Sword before me.

‘Bring it on.’

Glancing at the Time Limit notification to the side, I had a feeling I’d be here for a while.