The corpse was undressed and all of its armor was put into a small pile for later cleaning. That left the mummified corpse in the coffin, which enabled the Spartan to go ahead and close the lid once more, before turning back and looking at the Crusader. The man was still stuck in his moment of weakness, as he was now sitting on the ground without a single word, staring at the coffin with misery.

He was getting a little worried at this point, but there was ultimately nothing that he could realistically do. What was he to do, slap the Crusader in that metal helmet to get him back to reality? No, such moments of despair needed to be sorted out personally, and intervening would only cause issues down the line. Best to let him recover on his own for a while, at least unless he became unresponsive. Then, and only then, would he go through and try to wake the man up.

With that done, it was time for one last thing: to test his new abilities here and now. The acquisition of the new soul should prove to give him something usable with his divinity, perhaps being able to find the master of the tower once and for all.

So, he went ahead and sat down next to the coffin. He knew overusing his divinity would result in his collapse, and being propped up against something should help with that. Being comfortable would only suit him further, and he allowed himself to lean back and sigh.

Then, he activated his domain. His mind opened and this time he was able to get every last scrap of information needed. He got the entirety of the tower again, but this time he was able to get all the little, intricate details he missed from before. There was a pause in his thought process as everything began to make sense now, with the way all of it was framed.

Yes, this was the work of supernatural powers, the work of one person’s divine capabilities. The way the energy flowed from each different room to support its stability, regardless of the fact that such architecture was impossible. The power all surged throughout the floor and the walls to maintain it completely, with the air supercharged with the energy to prevent the entire structure from collapsing.

Which meant that they all lead back to a singular source. These lines all lead towards the very center of the structure, all of it converging into a gigantic room that was connected to a large and giant hallway. This time, he wasn’t able to get in all the necessary details to get a good reading of the area. All the opposing supernatural energy acted as a means to blur and block his scouting, disabling him from getting a path into the place. But he had enough information to go off of and the destination in hand.

The pathways were made, and he had a mental image of which hallways and corridors to go down to reach the necessary area. This was it. They had everything in their hands to finally move forward. With that all done and obtained, he deactivated his divinity and stood up with ease.

He took a deep breath and found that he had no exhaustion at all. All of that effort was done without much problem at all. In fact, he’d even say that it was similar to having a little stroll. A bit of a workout, but ultimately nothing that would put him in danger of collapsing or fainting. No, he was at a point where he was nigh unstoppable now. Whatever this tower boss threw at him could not even be a danger anymore. What could they do to him now?

The monsters were a joke. The soldiers that were dangerous once upon a time could now be taken down by himself without taking a single injury. Hell, he bet that he could use his divinity to simply take them all down with a single strike. No, there was nothing that could stop him now, absolutely no dangers that could come in front of him to stop his march.

He started to move towards the tower boss, before stopping and looking back at the Crusader. The man was still laying on the ground, and he hadn’t moved his head at all. The only sign that he was still alive was the fact that he was breathing lightly here and there.

He sighed and started to move towards the man before stopping. Actually, what was the point to having the Crusader around him now? The man had been a useful ally for some time, but that didn’t mean he was capable now. Looking at him in this current state, he was nothing more than a pathetic wreck that honestly couldn’t even lift his sword anymore. All he had done was say some harsh words about his God, and here he was now, a defeated mess.

Personally speaking, he didn’t even know if he could break the man out of his stupor, nor did he even want to. Why waste the breath to do something like that when he could march on forward and secure even more power for himself? Yes, the Crusader had saved his life here and there, but he had returned the favor himself. This was different from every single one of those earlier moments.

He wasn’t good with talking. He didn’t think he could even encourage the man. This was something that he had no expertise, no right to talk. One did not talk a man into defeat and then attempt to reverse that action. Here, this was something he had to do for himself.

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Whether he got up and followed or stayed in misery was up to the man himself. Besides, if he truly did fail to get back up, then he could probably meet that God of his that he was so into. He had no reason to come in.

I do have to admit, though, of all the things I expected to break the man, the idea that his God was dead was not one I expected. He had pushed through all the horrors of this land, and the thing that broke him was the idea that all of his actions wasn’t being ordained by his god? How ridiculous. Perhaps if he had some thought, he could recognize that his actions were more important than the thoughts of some random God.

It was the same thing with him and the Fates. He respected the Gods and the things they did to ensure that the world worked as required, ensuring that Greece would stay safe from all the dangerous invaders that would come. Yet, that did not mean he lived for their approval. He was not some clingy child that ranted and raved when he did not get what he desired, he was a man that understood what his role in the world was.

In any case, the man himself needed to sort this situation out himself. This was a fight that he had to go through. In any case, he did have to inform the man of his intent.

“I’m going to defeat the tower boss. Whether you stay here and allow yourself to wither away is up to you.”

With that, he turned around and left, not looking back to see if the man was following him. He began to navigate through the maze itself, using the preprepared path to the giant hallway. There weren’t many monsters in his way thanks to his stealth, but those that did try to come at him proved nothing more than nuisances in his path. None of them posed a threat anymore.

The lizards with the flaming circle were weak. The giant fire sphere was threatening, which had made him use his divinity all those times. But now he could easily pierce through their skull with enhanced speed or merely throwing his spear to break through their barrier. All that flame proved to be lackluster in defense as the only thing they achieved was keeping others away with heat and threats of burning to death, something he did not worry about any longer.

The hulks were simple enough to deal with. Their strikes, which caused cracks in the ground, had become so weak that he could easily parry them with his shield. Something that didn’t even occur due to the lackluster speed, which meant all he had to do was sidestep their attacks and pierce their necks. The shimmer they had that acted as a means of defense that slowed down any attacks, but that meant nothing with his enhanced abilities. In fact, the scales that needed a bit more effort to push through, making all of his attacks take care of these freaks with just a slight bit of effort.

The horse monsters were stupidly easy to take care of. All he had to do was time their charge and strike to take care of them. Heck, even when they had the lizard riding on top of them, that proved nothing more than a simple step and strike to take care of. They were nothing more than a simple tactic to take care of, and even they weren’t capable of dealing with counter-charges, making the fights end in seconds.

Lastly, the spiked arm monsters. Those were a joke. All he had to do was point and stab in their direction once, and they were taken care of without any problem. There wasn’t anything else he could say about them, they didn’t have any special abilities to speak of.

With all those obstacles and walkways, he had to admit one thing: the march forward was rather annoying. He had to go upstairs, downstairs, straight, left, right, all random locations. However, eventually he was able to get to a point where he had managed to get himself into the giant hallway he had seen earlier, the one that obfuscated his view.

He had to admit that of all things he expected from this place, he did not expect to see such a sight. Glass windows of all colors ordained the walls that had sunlight shine through all of them to create a rainbow cacophony of colors that scattered across the area. Multiple benches were set up throughout the length that contained stone statues that were sitting down with their heads down and their hands clasped together. All of these started to lead towards a gigantic platform that led up to a huge door with a titan guarding the entrance. One that had a helmet full of spikes that seemed to pierce into the head of this beast with the way the pointy ends came out from underneath.

The dangerous monster itself seemed to have four arms, each of them equipped with a weapon of some sort. A shield tall enough to cover up the half of its body, a double-headed battleaxe that had a blue shimmer surrounding its blade, a green trident that had yellow lines going through the handle, and a ballista that had a rounded arrow loaded in. The monster did not seem to react to his appearance as it stayed in place, sitting down with its knees crossed while staring down at the ground. Blood dripped down the spike ends that turned to dust before it could even hit the ground, which continued to stain the black armor that was ordained all over its body.

Though, that wasn’t the armor and weapons wasn’t the problem. After all, the giant titan seemed to be placed behind a blue shimmering field that blocked off the hallway from the entrance to the giant room. No, the issue came with the soldiers that were present in the hallway, all of which were conveniently placed behind some benches with their spike arms ready to fire. Each of them all seemed to shake intensely upon seeing him as they gnashed their teeth together.

The Spartan couldn’t help but groan as he looked at the total thirty soldiers that blocked his path. Without many complaints, he hefted his spear and shield as they launched their first salvo.

Time to deal with this minor obstacle before getting into the main battle.