Chapter 1: The Cursed Hero’s Rampage

The Holy City of Adrateio, a sovereign state located within the borders of the Principality of Amnesphia and the heart of the Holy Church, the world’s most dominant religion, was currently embroiled in a panic the likes of which it had never seen before. And this was true of not only Adrateio. The same was also true of Amnesphia, the superpower nation that dominated the continent’s north.

The reason was plain and simple: The Tower, the half-destroyed structure that had been floating high up in the sky for the past millennium, was suddenly coming down. Someone or something had gone and finished what the Evil Dragon had left undone, removing the “half” from “half-destroyed.”

Adrateio had been founded on the land where parts of the Tower had fallen the first time. Since then, the generations of high-ranking believers allowed to live in the city had gotten used to the rest of it floating overhead. No matter how abnormal the sight was, and no matter how massive the Tower was, seeing it every day had turned it into the ordinary. The ability to assimilate new threats or changes in one’s environment into everyday life was something all living beings did, sometimes even being key to the survival or prosperity of an entire race, and humans were a prominent example of that.

But at the moment, that normalcy was falling apart. It wasn’t like the residents of Adrateio or Amnesphia had any right to complain, of course. They were not keeping the threat of the Tower at bay through any effort of their own. They had simply believed that because it had been at bay yesterday, it would continue to be so tomorrow and onward. There wasn’t anything they could do about it even if they wanted to, though presumably the Tower had been created by humans in the past. It was a structure of mind-boggling size that was exploding into countless pieces while falling from an incredibly high altitude. Though the scene gave the odd impression that it was unfolding in slow motion due to its sheer scale, the debris was careening toward the earth, captive to the inescapable force of gravity. If those pieces were to land, the kinetic energy released would easily erase every trace of civilization in the area.

The distinctions of age, wealth, status, and authority faded to insignificance in that moment. The gaze of every single person was drawn to the sudden explosion in the sky, and the same sense of powerlessness washed over them as their jaws dropped in unison. Then their survival instincts kicked in, spurring them to action despite their knowledge of how futile it was