History wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Nothing like this ever happened in the history books.

This mage tower was supposed to be destroyed by Aether, the hero of the Rockrat Clan. He was meant to break through the encirclement, carve a bloody path out of the battlefield, and, driven by his obsession to save his people, drag his battered body forward and blow up the mage tower. That feat was supposed to reverse what should have been a completely one-sided battle.

That was how it should’ve gone.

That was how it had to go.

But what happened went far beyond Noah’s expectations.

Why did the mage tower blow up on its own?

It exploded for no reason, with no warning at all. Sudden flames swallowed it whole, and in the end, before everyone’s stunned eyes, it collapsed into a stretch of charred ruins.

And this trial still hadn’t ended.

“President... did we clear the trial?”

Pascal was the first to snap out of it. She couldn’t make sense of the situation, so she could only ask Noah.

“Obviously not.” Noah’s expression turned grave. “When a trial ends, you either get sent out of The Spire, or directly to the next floor. But we’re still here.”

Shirley didn’t understand what was going on either, but she still tried her best to think it through.

After a brief silence, she offered a rather novel idea. “Could it be... that we’re already on the sixth floor?”

It was a decent guess.

But it was clearly wrong.

A bead of cold sweat slid down Noah’s forehead as he shook his head. “According to the Climber’s Handbook, the sixth floor is a memory of Aether studying under an ancient elven swordsman. It has nothing to do with this battlefield.”

Something was off.

Very off.

The mage tower had already been burned down. Fine, let’s say it suddenly lost its mind and self-immolated. Since it had already turned into a pile of broken stone and shattered brick, then this trial should’ve ended.

The handbook was very clear about it.

[Once the mage tower is destroyed, the trial is complete.]

The key point was that the mage tower had to be destroyed. It never said the climbers had to do it themselves.

There was even a related record in the Climber’s Handbook. In one attempt, someone had guided a griffin into smashing the mage tower’s core, turning it into a case of teammates killing each other.

In the end, The Spire still judged the trial a success and sent them out of the ancient battlefield on the fifth floor.

“Could it be that it wasn’t completely destroyed?” Pascal offered another possibility.

“I don’t think so.” Noah stared into the distance. “It’s already in that state. If it wasn’t burned to ashes, it should’ve been smashed into dust.”

“If that’s the case, then why...?”

Pascal couldn’t understand it.

Shirley understood it even less.

Scorching heat waves rolled across the battlefield. The air was thick with the smell of burning and blood, drifting in from afar and stirring Noah’s clothes and hair.

Anyone standing on this battlefield should’ve been able to feel that deadly heat.

And yet Noah felt as if an invisible, icy hand had touched his back in amusement, sliding down his spine and driving that chill deep into his body, all the way into his heart.

His instincts were warning him.

This place was dangerous.

The sooner they left, the better.

Noah had always believed that intuition was what remained when thought moved too fast and skipped the language module. It could see through the fog, but the brain couldn’t organize the logic quickly enough.

So he chose to trust his instincts. He swiftly summoned the guild certificate and began retreat procedures without hesitation.

“Trial complete!”

This ancient battlefield gave him a very bad feeling.

The mage tower’s sudden collapse, the NPCs who felt no different from real people, and this overwhelming sense that everything here ran completely against history... all of it was setting off Noah’s danger alarms.

They could always come back for the trial later. There was no need to force it now.

What he needed first was to figure out what was happening. Only then could he think about clearing the fifth floor.

The white light of teleportation... never appeared.

Noah frowned. He summoned the guild certificate again and again, repeating that the trial was over several more times.

The dark, gloomy sky pressed lower and lower. The black clouds hung over the Hiddel Plains like the shadow of a god.

A biting, desolate wind swept past Noah.

The white light still didn’t appear.

The silent dead stillness declared one fact to Noah—

They couldn’t end the trial.

...

...

Calm down. Calm down.

Think about what Kirigaya Kazuto would do.

A fishy, salty scent hid in the wind as it blew against Noah’s face.

He quickly suppressed his panic, put away the guild certificate, and asked Pascal with a straight face, “Can the content of a trial inside The Spire ever change?”

“That’s impossible.”

Pascal clenched the gem at her chest, her face full of unease. “Not just the Aether Spire. The trials in all Spires have never changed. They remain exactly the same, existing as the memories of a Mediator.”

“Then I guess we just broke the record.”

Noah forced out a smile.

He wanted Shirley and Pascal to calm down too. The more unknown the situation, the more they needed to think clearly.

Shirley didn’t really understand what had happened, but she could tell Pascal was panicking.

So she started panicking too. Hugging Pascal around the waist, she asked in a small voice, “Did the plan go wrong?”

“Yes.” Noah had no idea how to explain it to Shirley, so he could only reach out and rub her head. “The battlefield has changed beyond recognition. Our original plan’s been completely thrown off...”

“Then what do we do?”

Shirley looked at Noah and placed all her hope in the president.

She was an obedient girl of the Avianwing Clan, and her logic was very simple and direct.

The president doesn’t look panicked.

So the president must have a solution.

So just listen to the president!

Under Shirley’s hopeful gaze, Noah, who had just barely calmed down, started feeling flustered again.

He only looked absurdly calm on the surface.

Inside, he was already cursing up a storm.

The handbook never said the mage tower could self-destruct.

It also never said the trial content could change.

This trial had run smoothly for over nine hundred years, so why did Noah have to be the one to run into it today?

Not earlier, not later. It just had to bug out the moment he came in, huh?

And now look at them.

The bug had them stuck here. They had no idea how to complete the trial, and for the moment, they couldn’t leave either.

Noah really couldn’t make sense of it. He muttered to himself, “How the hell did history suddenly change?”

“History does not change.”

Aelia suddenly appeared beside Noah and corrected him.

Noah turned around. First came surprise at Aelia’s return, then a guarded look.

From the very beginning, Noah had felt that Aelia acted far too much like a real person. Not only could she respond smoothly, she could even adjust Noah’s tactics based on the situation.

Now that the mage tower had burned down for no reason, he had to wonder—

Could Aelia also undergo some change that went against history?

“What’s wrong?” Aelia, meanwhile, seemed completely confused by Noah’s sudden shift in attitude. She tilted her head, her eyes still as clear as ever. “Also, why did you suddenly say something strange about... history changing?”

After saying that, she noticed Noah wasn’t responding. Then, as if remembering something, she suddenly smacked her forehead.

“Oh, right.” Aelia explained, “The mage tower suddenly exploded. I thought you might have more tactics to assign after that, so I came back... but you seem really surprised?”

The corner of Noah’s eye twitched. “A once-in-a-thousand-years bug. Who wouldn’t be surprised?”

Aelia didn’t understand. “What?”

“Nothing.” Noah waved it off, then studied Aelia for a few more seconds. Only after confirming she showed no hostility did he voice the doubt in his heart. “Do you know what caused the mage tower explosion?”

“No idea at all.”

Aelia shook her head. “It suddenly caught fire. It looked like it was hit by high-tier magic... but our army doesn’t have any scholars capable of using high-tier magic. Honestly, I thought it was your doing.”

Noah lowered his gaze and fell into thought. “If it wasn’t you, then what the hell happened...?”

Aelia blinked, completely unable to understand what Noah was worried about.

The explosion of the mage tower was clearly tremendous good news.

After witnessing it, the Rockrat Clan warriors on the battlefield all surged with unprecedented fighting spirit. Their morale soared. They pulled back the front line that had been at a disadvantage and began pressing harder and harder against the human side, whose momentum was already faltering.

More and more Rockrat Clan soldiers rushed past Noah. From the gently raised hills in the rear, war horns sounded. Their deep notes stirred the soldiers’ battle spirit once more. Across the battlefield, the Rockrat army suddenly bore down in force and gradually gained the upper hand.

They soon entered the enemy catapults’ firing range, and brutal boulders came crashing down.

One squad of Rockrat soldiers was smashed into bloody pulp on the spot. A bloodstained sword was flung away by the impact, spun a few times on the ground, and was picked up by another surviving Rockrat, who roared and charged on without fear.

With morale blazing high, the Rockrat Clan brandished blades of courage. They split open enemy armor, severed enemy heads, and bathed themselves in blood, using it to wash away the pain and humiliation of centuries of enslavement and contempt.

The scales of war began to tip toward the Rockrat Clan.

The army of the Grand Duchy of Alvia was driven back again and again, retreating like a wounded soldier, staggering in disarray.

Aelia watched it all with clenched fists and said to Noah, “The goddess of fortune walks with us... Lord Aether, it’s almost over.”

No one longed for the end of this war more than she did.

She wanted the Rockrat Clan to gain the power to negotiate and demand human rights from the duchy.

At the same time, she also hoped her fellow humans would surrender soon, so they could avoid needless suffering.

Then a crisp series of chimes interrupted her thoughts.

Aelia turned in surprise and found that the source of the sound was a gemstone necklace.

Pascal stared in shock at the gem floating up from her chest and pointed at it. “President, look... it’s floating!”

“This weird shit just keeps getting weirder.” Noah had wanted to try grabbing the gem, but considering its special nature, his outstretched hand froze in midair. Only after confirming Pascal showed no abnormalities did he ask, “Has it ever floated before?”

“Never.” Pascal thought for a few seconds, then suddenly realized something. “It’s light. It sensed Holy Light, and a very special kind of Holy Light...”

Noah glanced at this walking humanoid Holy Light bomb. “More special than you?”

“Yes!”

As if remembering something, Pascal bit her lower lip. “Do you remember the news from this morning?”

Noah hadn’t expected her to bring that up. “The news about the two churches going to war?”

“Yes. Aren’t you curious?” Pascal’s voice turned low. “The Southern Third Church and the Northern First Church went to war... so where did the Second Church go?”

Noah said nothing. He simply looked at Pascal, signaling for her to continue.

Pascal said seriously, “The Second Church was destroyed long ago. The reason was that they blasphemed against the Divine Lord and stole one of the sources of the Divine Lord’s power from the temple of Kale the God of Holy Light—the Sacred Flame.”

At those words, Shirley was still confused, but Noah already understood.

The gem on Pascal’s chest was a Divine Relic, directly tied to Kale.

If the Sacred Flame was one of Kale’s sources of power, then of course it could trigger a reaction from the gem.

Gathering her courage, Pascal suddenly grabbed the floating gem. Then that special sensation flowed into her body, and in an instant, she understood everything happening on the battlefield.

She slowly raised her head and looked at Noah in fear.

“They’re here...”

Pascal spoke with a trembling voice.

“The Church of the Sacred Flame is here.”

...

...

Inside the ruins of the mage tower, the wildly burning flames suddenly froze.

The flames cheered and danced, like frenzied sprites. The instant some call reached them, they broke away from the rubble and charred corpses, surging toward a single direction.

A dazzling golden blaze roared to life. Then the chanting began, long and sacred.

“O great and supreme Divine Lord Kariel, may Your radiance shine across the world.”

Four white-robed priests stood within the golden fire. Each held a heavy tome in both hands, murmuring as they skillfully and devoutly recited prayers to the Holy Light.

“Your power and existence are eternal.”

“Your radiance and holiness endure through all ages.”

“Your love and mercy are selfless.”

“Please bestow Your flames, and cleanse this battlefield of blood and suffering.”

“My Lord Kale, please love the people of this world.”

The golden flames twisted wildly, then coiled around one another, rapidly drawing the fire together. Amid the sacred prayers, they grew purer and purer, until they finally formed a massive flaming fist and smashed down mercilessly onto the Hidel Plains.

The world ignited in an instant.

The holy fire ran rampant, burning every living thing within a thousand meters into drifting ash.

The towering inferno spread outward like a roaring, howling evil spirit. The terrifying heat burned even griffins down to bare skeletons. That crimson, searing tide kept advancing, from south to north, swallowing the entire plain. Nowhere was spared.

Noah stared at the rolling golden flames in the distance. Shocked, one thought rose in his mind.

You call this loving the people?

Before he could think of a solution, a figure had already rushed out first.

It was Pascal.