If Lin followed this rule, Lin Yiyan and Alice were now in the worst situation of watching the sun sink into the horizon at an altitude of 500 meters above the ground. In other words, Lin Yiyan's repeated chanting of the divine technique had depleted the surrounding resources to the point where it was impossible to generate the awls necessary for climbing.

“System Call! Generate Metalic Element!” Lin Yiyan straightened his palm and approached the faint afterglow, but the silvery particles floating on his palm turned into smoke and disappeared with a sigh.

Two meters below Lin Yiyan, who sighed, Alice also said in a tired voice, "...... Item generation spell consumes a lot of space power. Now that Sauls is down, there should only be one ...... an hour - how high have we climbed now? ”

"That...... I think I've almost climbed the 85th floor. ”

"There's still a long way to go until the 95th floor." Lin Yiyan stared at the purple sky that was about to disappear with fascination, nodded and said, "Ahhh......h Either way, if it's completely darkened, the climb is dangerous. But...... Even if you have to sleep in the open, you can't rest at all in this position......"

In the worst-case scenario, we can only rest with our bodies in chains, but if we don't continue to make awls, the existing awls will disappear in ten minutes, and we will fall into a situation where we have to rely on the swords of the two to support us. However, the sword's destiny had reached the point where it was questionable whether it could be maintained until the morning.

I have to hurry up to find out if there is a place where I can hang the chains, Lin Yiyan, who refused to give up, looked up at the wall above his head, at this time-

"Hmm......" On the wall at a height of no more than eight meters, there seemed to be some shadows with complex shapes arranged at equal intervals protruding. By sunset, the fog surrounding the tower had lifted, revealing what was behind it.

"Hey, there...... Can you see anything? Lin Yiyan pointed there and shouted. Alice, who was at her feet, also raised her face to look up. She narrowed her blue pupils, tilted her neck slightly, and said, "Indeed...... Got something like a stone statue? But why ...... at such a high place Obviously, no one can see it. ”

"Whatever, as long as you can climb up and sit on it and rest. Well, but it's still eight meters away...... Eight Mel. At least three...... Iron rods will do......"

"Three-branch...... Is it? Alice looked like she was thinking for a moment, and quickly looked up again and said, "I see." Stayed for the sake of the critical moment...... Now is the time. ”

Before she could finish her sentence, she leaned her back against the wall and removed the handarmor of her left hand. She stared at the armor that glowed with a faint golden glow and began to chant commands. At the end of the chanting of the technique, which was several times smoother than Lin Yiyan, a strong flash suddenly appeared, and the hand armor had turned into three awls. I don't know if Alice's object shape change technique is more economical than the matter generation technique, and it can be effective even if the surrounding resources are about to be exhausted.

"Please use this." She tried her best to stretch out her right hand holding the important props to Lin Yiyan, who was two meters above. Lin Yiyan stood on the foothold, bent down and took the awl cautiously.

"Thanks, great help."

"No matter what, if you still need it, there is still this armor in ......" Lin Yiyan glanced at the beautiful breastplate covering Alice's upper body, and shook his head, "No...... I'll leave it to the end. I don't know what else I need after that......"

After Lin Yiyan stood up, he inserted two of the three awls into his belt, and held the other tightly with his right hand.

"Yo!" The golden awl, which was driven into the crack in the stone along with the trumpet, was firmly fixed in the gap and erected in a completely different strength than the iron cone made of steel. Climbed to it with a vertical climb that he was almost used to, and then pulled Alice up with a harness.

After repeating the same procedure again, it was already possible to see something mysterious at a distance of up to four meters in the faint darkness of the night. Sure enough, it was a stone statue. Like the walls surrounding the tower, narrow terraces extend to the left and right, on top of which several large stone statues stand.

However, it is not the holy figure of goddesses or angels that can be seen everywhere inside the tower. Although it is in the shape of a human being, the posture of bending the legs and folding the arms on the knees has nothing to do with the sacred. The limbs are full of rough muscles, and the back has sharp wings like knives.

Then, the head of the stone statue - only the word alien can describe it. On the front end, which is curved long and protruding in front, there is a carved round mouth, and the head looks like a leech.

"Uh...... I always feel that there is an uncomfortable feeling......" Lin Yiyan blurted out.

"Ah......h That, that's ...... Dark Territory's ......" Alice took a breath -

Almost at the same time, the head of the stone statue crouching directly above me gurgled and turned, and its round mouth like a lamprey opened and closed repeatedly. It doesn't seem to be a simple stone sculpture – it's a living thing.

If this were the mission scenario set in a real-world VRMMO game, of course the stone statues would have attacked.

But in this situation, is it the bad taste of the screenwriter who wrote the script of the event, or is it the behavior of a layman? Because we, as players, are standing on an awl that protrudes no more than 40 centimeters from the wall, and we can't move a single step.

Defeat - the word "must fail" flashed frequently in his mind, and Lin Yiyan pursed his lips and interrupted his thinking. If you fall here, don't expect anyone there to rescue you. You must use your brains and avoid the crisis with your own strength, if you can't do this, Lin Yiyan and Alice will die.

At the same time as Lin Yiyan made up his mind, the winged stone statue trembled, and the whole body changed color. The grayish-white body resembles a wall stone, and from the tail it turns dark black. Without waiting for Black Wing to make a loud crackling sound and stretch out, he put his hand on the hilt of the sword in his abdomen, and while staring at the winged monster turned into a stone statue, he shouted to Alice two meters below, "It seems that you can only fight here, take care not to fall!" ”

But Lin Yiyan didn't hear the integration knight's response quickly. Glancing down, I saw a look of astonishment on Alice's face, which had surfaced a miserable white face in the evening. "How is it possible, why is there such a thing" - the muttering sound vaguely reached Lin Yiyan's ears with the updraft.

Why would the Integrative Knight, who knew the Congregational Church well, be shocked here? Although it was only hearsay, the High Priest Administrator was cautious to the point of paranoia. If making the airspace above the tower flightless wasn't reassuring to her, it wouldn't surprise her to send guards to repel the invading rats who forced their way on.

The guard, head by head, resembles a gargoyle often seen in real-world games, grabbing the edge of the terrace with its hooked claws and spitting air out of its circular mouth. After the first one to start moving, Lin Yiyan was shocked to find that the bodies of the gargoyles on the left and right also began to change color. If they were densely packed along the outer walls on four walls, it would not be surprising that there were more than a hundred of them.

"Damn...... Lin Yiyan cursed as he reversed his body and set up his sword with his back against the wall, but even this action was already shaking a lot. In any case, there is only one iron rod to stand on. Lin Yiyan didn't even have time to think about what to do, so he heard the sound of flapping wings from his head. Looking up, a gargoyle floating in the dark blue air, with round eyes on both sides of the slender head, was glaring at Lin Yiyan.

The monster is bigger than you think. It's about two meters from the top of the head to the toes. In addition, from the back of the waist, a tail as long as the body protruded.

"Poof!!" Staring desperately at the gargoyle that emits a sound like steam coming out of a valve, it quickly reverses and descends. Luckily, it doesn't have long-range attacks, so it's going to be one of the four limbs with hooks. Left or right, up or down -

"-Wow!!"

Shout! Flying like a whip was a dagger-sharp tail. For this completely unexpected situation, Lin Yiyan twisted his head away while wailing. The sharp tail at the front slightly brushed the left side of Lin Yiyan's face, finally avoiding a direct hit.

However, this chaotic action made Lin Yiyan lose his balance, and his body on the wedge slanted slightly. Aiming at Lin Yiyan, who was trying to stabilize his body desperately, the tail of the gargoyle hovering in front of him continued to stab. He supported his body with his left hand, and he was going to use his sword with his right hand to defend his tail, but he had already done his best to defend it like a shield. There was really no surplus to swing the sword and cut off the gargoyle's tail.

"Hmm......" Lin Yiyan made a judgment that this was no longer a reluctant situation, and in an instant, he let go of his left hand from the wall and took out an awl clipped to his belt. Imagine the movement of the sword-throwing skill that you practiced in the SAO era, aim at the center of the gargoyle's body and throw it.

It didn't take much effort, but the awl made of Alice's handmail probably had a high priority, and the spear that drew a faint golden trail pierced deep into the gargoyle's lower abdomen.

"Poof!" Spat out a little bit of black blood from the round mouth, and the gargoyle flapped its wings in an irregular motion and flew up. It did damage, but it wasn't enough to fight it back. The gargoyle stared at Lin Yiyan deadly, and there was anger in the dark single eye that was quite similar to the compound eye of an insect.

Although he knew that it was not this time, Lin Yiyan still unconsciously thought - was it the program that made that alien monster move? Or, is it an artificial Fluct Light like the people under orld?

"Poof!!" The strange scream that sounded again blew Lin Yiyan's thoughts away. Two more gargoyles flew up from the terrace, aiming at the gap in this side and flying in a circular trajectory.

"Alice! Draw your sword, it's over there, too! Lin Yiyan shouted as he peeked at his feet, but the integration knight didn't seem to have recovered from the unexplained vacillation. If you are hit in this state, you will either be stabbed by the tail or you will fall from your footing.

Do you want to force your way up to the terrace four meters above during the time the gargoyle is watching? However, only one awl remained from the belt. Asking the angry gargoyle to return the awl stuck in his stomach would be useless.

The three aliens, startled by the strange sound that erupted from this side, soon let out an extraordinarily sharp shout as if they were ready to attack again. As a last resort - all you have to do is take off your lifebelt and jump on the enemy attacking Alice.

Thinking like this, Lin Yiyan's left hand touched the lock on his waist. Then, Lin Yiyan suddenly opened his eyes. The chain is about 5 meters long, and the distance of the terrace above is only four meters-

Alice...... Alice!! Lin Yiyan withdrew the sword from its scabbard and shouted in as loud a voice as possible. The integration knight's body shook slightly, and his blue eyes finally looked over to this side.

"Hold on to the chains!!" Alice brows with surprise at "what the hell are you going to do". Lin Yiyan grabbed the chain that tied her with both hands. With a grunt, Alice's body floated from its footing.

"Wait...... Do you ...... say?"

"After the two of them survive, you can ask me to apologize!!" I took a deep breath and used all my strength—I pulled up the knight who was hanging from the chains—no, I threw it into the air. With her long golden hair and pure white skirt swaying in the wind, Alice drew a semicircular trajectory and flew up.

"Ahh With a girlish scream, the integration knight flew between the gargoyles and landed on the terrace four meters above. Maybe it's more appropriate to use the word "shot" to describe it. At the end of the mournful sound, the noble female knight made a sound that did not match it, such as "coo" or "poof", and it was better to think that she had not heard it.

Because of the reaction force thrown indiscriminately, Lin Yiyan's body fell from his foothold. If Alice didn't stand on the terrace, the two of them would be in a free fall. Although he was frightened at the moment of falling, the integration knight still responded to Lin Yiyan's expectations, quickly stood up on the narrow terrace, held the chains in both hands, stepped on the terrace to stop Lin Yiyan's fall, and then-

"You...... This, this, this!! With a shout of rage, Alice tugged at her chains in one gulp.

Lin Yiyan slashed through the air like Alice, and although he couldn't breathe when his back collided with the marble wall, he felt better than anything else when he was crawling on this reliable terrace. Although she wanted to sleep forever on the long-lost level, Alice kicked Lin Yiyan in the abdomen, and Lin Yiyan had to be forced to stand up.

"What...... What the hell are you thinking, you idiot!! ”

"I can't help it! That's all there is to it...... Wait, we'll talk about it later, they're coming! Lin Yiyan drew his sword again, turning the tip of the sword towards the three gargoyles who were rising rapidly. Taking advantage of the time he had before rushing into the real battle, he swept his eyes and confirmed the surrounding terrain.

The terrace climbed up with a circus-like climbing stunt was only about a meter wide as it had been seen. There are no ornaments, only plain marble slabs that stand vertically on the outer walls of the tower. No, there are actually no scaffoldings above and below, which is a practical item for gargoyles to use in line up.

Although there was a slight expectation for this terrace, which even Alice didn't know, there were no openings like doors or windows on the façade behind it. In the far corner, there was only a large line of xenomorph statues with stones on their backs, expressionless. When it was reconfirmed, Lin Yicai was very scared of this amount. Fortunately, there are only three that are flying up with Lin Yiyan and Alice as the target.

After finally gaining a foothold, her mood relaxed, and Alice pulled the sword of Kaneki out of its scabbard. However, as if there were still doubts in my mind, her hoarse voice reached my ears, "...... You can't go wrong...... Why...... ...... here."

The gargoyles, who had risen to the same height as the terrace, seemed to be wary of the two swords, and did not fly over immediately. Lin Yiyan watched the movements of the monsters shaking in the air, and asked Alice, "I seem to have noticed something just now." Do you know anything about that monster? ”

“…… Well, I know. Alice immediately replied in the affirmative, which surprised Lin Yiyan. Those are evil monsters crafted and manipulated by the dark warlocks of the Dark Territory. Following their example, we call those Minion. In sacred language, it means a minion or a servant. ”

“Minion…… From the outside, it is not difficult to understand that it is a product of Dark Territory...... But why would something like that line the walls of the holiest place in the human world? ”

"I want to know that too!" After squeezing out the words in a low voice, Alice bit her lip, "...... I don't need to say it, I know it's impossible...... Escaping the eyes of the Knights of Integration, Minion crossed the Ending Mountains to the distant capital of Central, and even invaded as high as the Central Cathedral...... You can't even think of such a thing, let alone ......"

"Not to mention, which high-ranking power holder within the church deliberately placed it here...... Is such a thing even more unlikely? ......" For Lin Yiyan, who subconsciously made up for her halfway stop, although Alice cast a vicious gaze, she did not refute. Returning his gaze to me hovering over the three gargoyles hovering in the air, I continued to ask her, "I have one more question...... Do those Minions have an IQ? Can you speak? ”

Alice, who also turned her gaze to the front, quickly shook her head, "It's not a creature like the goblins or orcs who live in the Dark Country, it's just a soulless demon made out of clods of earth by the sorcerers who believe in the dark god Bekuta...... Only a few simple commands of the master can be understood. ”

“…… That's right. Lin Yiyan found that Alice didn't seem to notice it, and was slightly relieved.

Although I know that it is not too much to think about this problem in the future, I still hesitate to destroy the Fluct Light, which is homogeneous to humans.