Tower of God - Climbing the Tower as/with Mordred (fanfic)

Seeing how the first round ended, the various Regulars in the cells began reacting.

Serene said, "Damn, he took out that monstrous lizard from the game without having to fight her! But it's a good thing. Things will be easier with her gone."

At the side, Laure yawned lazily and expressionlessly spoke up, "Yawn. Not at all... I'm sure that guy in armor isn't any weaker than the lizard. He might be the most dangerous Regular here. I would normally consider coming out on the second or third round, but it's better to wait and see."

"Why would you want to come out on the second round?! Are you stupid? It's obviously best to wait until the end!"

Laure looked at her with pity. "Stupid girl… I don't even care about explaining."

"Who are you calling stupid?!"

In another cell, Endorsi faintly smirked as she saw Anak's grumbling and unhappy expression. 'Silly lizard got tricked… But it's good she's out.'

Ever since she noticed the daughter of Anak with the Green April, she wanted to stay on this floor and have a chat with her.

"Um, Miss Endorsi?"

"Hm?" Endorsi turned toward one of her teammates as her name was called.

The person that called her was a blonde short girl with freckles, wearing a cloak and a hood just like her. She previously introduced herself as Rachel.

Rachel said, "I don't care about winning this game anymore."

"What?" Endorsi was surprised when she heard this.

"The person sitting on the throne is someone I know. It might not be right for me to ask you this, but I would like to help him win this game and go up…" Rachel said what she was asked to by the Guide.

"That… Well, that's fine with me. I suddenly don't care about winning either. I can help out." Endorsi smiled playfully.

In the arena, Anak sent Isaac a cold look as the latter began retreating, "Just so you know, I'm only backing off because of the rules. Don't think for a second that I'm afraid of you after that last attack."

Isaac looked at her and replied indifferently, "Sure."

"Hn." Anak snorted, turned around and began walking away expressionlessly while gripping her weapon tightly.

Hatsu also retreated from the arena expressionlessly, not even having a chance to draw his sword once.

Shibisu let out a helpless sigh and began to drag his body back to the arena.

Along the way, Shibisu looked back at Isaac, Khun and Bam that now all occupied the throne. 'Damn, they tricked us... But they seem like nice guys. I hope they'll win.'

Just as Shibisu was wondering this, he heard one of the Regulars inside the cells call out to them, "Anak Jahad… you fake."

'Hm?' Shibisu looked over indifferently and saw a hooded brown-haired girl looking toward Anak.

He didn't think much of it, but Anak actually reacted to the provocation.

'This bitch...' Anak gnashed her teeth and in the next moment suddenly leaped away before either Shibisu or Hatus could react. 'I'm out of the game, so I'll lose the chance in case she goes up. I'll kill her right here!'

After landing in front of one of the rooms, Anak blew away the gate by igniting her weapon.

At that time Isaac had already reached the throne and noticed the commotion with Khun.

But instead of confronting the person behind the gate, Anak surprisingly suddenly turned to look back, looking toward the throne. In particular, she looked straight at Isaac who was still holding the wrapped-up Black March.

During the moment that Anak destroyed the gate with her weapon, there was a resonance between the two weapons that he also felt. Isaac frowned. 'Did she notice?'

"Just what do you think you're doing, you fake? Did it anger you so much to have the truth pointed out?" Endorsi said cheekly toward Anak.

But Anak didn't even turn to look at her as she spoke; after blowing up the gate, she suddenly turned away.

'Ignoring me!…'

Endorsi called out again, "Hey, you!"

Anak looked back expressionlessly at the Jahad Princess and coldly said, "One day I'll kill you. You just wait."

After leaving these words behind, Anak leaped away again.

Endorsi was confused. "Just what was that?"

As she looked over, she saw Anak land in front of the throne and in front of the boy that Rachel asked her to help.

She frowned. After making up her mind, she also moved out through the blown open gate. After all, she was asked to help.

In the meantime, Anak appeared in front of Isaac. Anak coldly told him, "Give me that weapon."

Hearing this, Isaac's eyes turned cold. In the manhwa Bam lost his weapon to Anak, but Isaac certainly couldn't just give her the Black March here in order to 'follow the plot'. This would be betraying Yuri's expectations.

Khun pulled out a knife from his suitcase and raised it against Anak. "What the hell are you doing? The round is over and you're out of the game! You're no longer allowed to attack us!"

Anak ignored him as she continued looking at Isaac. "Hey, armored guy. Where did you get that weapon?"

'Isaac's needle? Why is she so interested in it?' Khun looked at the black needle wrapped in a white cloth that Bam held in his left hand. 

He was aware that Isaac had two weapons - a thin needle and a broad long sword. He didn't find it strange before. It's normal for Fishermen to use a variety of weapons.

The strange thing was that Isaac had never stored away his needle in an Arms Inventory and had always held it close while it was wrapped in a cloth, but he didn't think much of it.

Isaac said nothing.

Anak continued, "It's fine if you don't want to tell me. Anyway, that weapon shouldn't be in the hands of anybody other than a Princess of Jahad. You don't have the right to have it."

"Oh, and you do? Because you're a Princess of Jahad?" Another person spoke up in a sarcastic tone.

Anak looked over and saw that it was the Princess of Jahad from before. She frowned. "You get lost, this has nothing to do with you."

"Does it really? Aren't you going to kill me? Besides, it seems like something fun is going on here." Endorsi smirked, then looked at the black needle in Bam's hands. "So what is that weapon?"

Anak frowned. She grabbed her weapon and turned toward Endorsi. "Fine. Since you're asking for it, I'll kill you first."

"Oh?" Endorsi summoned a floating circular shield.

"Anaaak! We lost the game! What are you doing?!" Shibisu called out toward Anak as he also reached the throne with Hatsu.

But Shibisu was ignored by Anak completely as she raised the Green April. "Ignition! Die!"

But just as Green April began growing and splitting up, someone appeared behind Anak and grabbed it, restraining the ignition.

Isaac saw that it was Lero Ro.

Seeing this, Endorsi smirked. She was honestly startled when Anak ignited the Green April, but as expected, the Ranker wouldn't allow the test rules to be broken and have Regulars kill each other outside of the game.

[He teleported here to stop the fight. What a pity,] Mordred commented.

"Hey! What are you…?" Confused and annoyed as her weapon was grabbed, Anak looked up only to see the blonde Ranker's face from below.

"No one will be killing anyone… Anak Jahad. You lost the game, so go back to your room, Anak Jahad." Lero Ro let go of the Green April, causing Anak to tumble forward. "I won't let you behave like this anymore."

"A-Anak! Stop! He's angry!" Shibisu shouted in desperation as he got straight in Anak's face.

Anak expressionlessly leaned away from Shibisu as her eyes turned colder; she knew about the unimaginable gap between Regulars and Rankers. She let out a breath and said helplessly, "I got it. I'm done."

Anak looked toward Bam, then toward Isaac one more time, before turning to leave. 'With that woman here, they're not going to win this game anyway. Later, I'll kill them and take the Black March. After that, I'll find and kill that woman.'

As Anak began leaving, Lero Ro turned toward Endorsi. "You, as well, Miss Endorsi. Please go back to your room."

"Yes! I only want to ask one question." Endorsi turned toward Isaac with a playful smile. Slightly leaning forward, she pointed at the black needle and asked him, "What is that weapon?"

"... It's the Black March," Isaac said honestly.

"The Black March?" Endorsi was flabbergasted.

She was not the only one, because Khun was shocked as well. 'This needle? Was it the infamous Black March?! Why is it in Isaac's hands?!'

Isaac continued, "Yes. Because of certain reasons, it ended up here, but it will soon return to its rightful owner."

"Aha, I see. Haha. Now everything makes sense!" Endorsi smiled at Isaac, looking at him for a while with a curious expression, before finally slightly turning away. "Well, I need to go back now. Good luck with the game!"

As Endorsi began leaving, Isaac noticed Anak looking quite angry. 'I guess she didn't want Endorsi to know about the Black March. Well, that's too bad.'

"Since this matter is over, let's resume the game… Regulars," Lero Ro said.

"I'm sorry, Sir Isaac… because of me, you had some trouble…" Bam told Isaac apologetically after Lero Ro left.

Isaac faintly smiled. "No worries. I promised Yuri to keep the Black March safe anyway."

Khun asked, "By the way, Isaac, I get it that you have the Black March for some reason, but how is Bam involved in this?"

"Well, originally the Black March ended up with Bam. After that, Yuri Jahad asked me to take care of it until she can retrieve it in case I encounter Bam in the Test Floor," Isaac explained.

"I see. So you luckily ended up in the same testing area and met Bam during the first test. That's really lucky," said Khun.

"Yes, very lucky."

…

{The second round of the Crown Game will begin shortly!}

{I'll start counting… now!}

{Teams that want to join should press the buzzer before the count is over!}

{One!}

As the countdown started, in one of the rooms Rak began to impatiently hit the floor with his spear. "Go, go, go! We should go out on this round! No more waiting!!!"

A masked female with a staff replied, "Not yet."

"Don't tell me what to do, black turtle!!!" Rak glared at her, then stepped closer toward the buzzer.

"Alligator. You want a chance of beating that guy in armor, right? Then follow the plan. We'll come out at the end," the female spoke indifferently.

"Hmmmmmm… Fine!"

Rak stopped himself.

Truth be told, he had no confidence in winning against Isaac. In that case he might also follow the plan of that black sneaky turtle.

The Great Rak will appear at the end to shock everyone with one brilliant feat! This also fit his style.

…

{Five!}

{The second round starts now!}

As the next round began, Isaac looked out to search for enemies.

At that time, a single team walked out.

"One team walked out? And it looks like they're weak too," Khun said indifferently.

Isaac narrowed his eyes as he observed the other team.

That one team included a muscular four-eyed bald man, a one-eyed swordsman with small black wings and a young man with a bob-haircut wielding a broad knife that resembled a meat cleaver.

"I'll take care of this," Isaac said.