Leon’s eyes gleamed with excitement as he watched through both sets of eyes simultaneously.

Please work. Please let this be simple and straightforward.

However, after a few seconds that stretched into agonizing minutes, absolutely nothing happened beyond the continuous humming. No transformation, no unlocking, no change whatsoever to either the clone’s body or the gate’s status.

Then a system message appeared in golden text before his vision:

[Ascension Tower Awakening Criteria Not Met]

[Access Denied]

Leon could feel through their shared consciousness that his clone had experienced absolutely nothing harmful—just a simple, clean rejection.

So the clone isn’t sufficient for whatever evaluation this requires. And it seems completely safe to try with my real body. This is some sort of power assessment, not an attack mechanism.

Leon immediately sent the clone back to the Pyrrhan realm. The dimensional rift could open at variable, unpredictable intervals as he’d experienced during previous monster waves, so he couldn’t afford to take any risks—even when only a couple of hours had passed since the previous festival ended.

Better safe than sorry. Keep monitoring for emergencies out there.

Now Leon stepped forward himself with determined purpose and placed his actual hand on the gate of the Ascension Tower—the structure that would become the very foundation of his dimensional realm’s future growth system.

I don’t have any causality left at all. I’ve spent almost everything on this gamble. It absolutely has to work.

The moment his palm touched the outlined handprint—

HUMMM! GLOW!

The same phenomenon occurred as before. Energy flowed through the connection; the gate vibrated with power.

Then system messages appeared in rapid succession:

[Ascension Tower Awakening Criteria Not Met]

[Access Denied]

[Insufficient Power Level]

[Access Denied]

Leon’s mind screamed internally with rage and disbelief.

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!

He’d invested everything—his entire accumulated fortune—and it wasn’t working at all!

Fucking hell! I was absolutely sure that if I went all out, I’d already surpassed Archon Vyrra’s power level easily. But even this strength isn’t enough for the tower to recognize me?!

Just how insanely powerful did he need to become to awaken this tower for his dimension?

As if responding directly to his desperate, furious thoughts, another message appeared—this time with a distinctly different format, which he didn’t focus much on before.

The system notification carried the tower’s logo prominently displayed behind it, indicating the Ascension Tower itself was somehow sending him messages directly through the system interface.

So this treasure is even more technologically advanced than I realized. It can communicate through the cosmic system. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve been completely scammed!

Leon couldn’t help the fury rising in his chest. He’d paid one hundred million causality for something he literally couldn’t even use, no matter how theoretically powerful it might be once activated!

He couldn’t help but want to scream at the unfairness of it all. The treasure’s actual worth would be far beyond his imagination once functional, but what good was that if he couldn’t access it?

Because he saw it—a progress bar showing his current power level evaluation in devastating detail:

[Current Power Level: 0.001% of Required Threshold]

[Awakening Requires: 100% Completion]

"FOR FUCK’S SAKE!"

The words exploded from him in genuine, uncontrolled fury.

So he needed to reach 100% completion of some absurd power threshold to awaken this tower? Even with his absolutely absurd cheat abilities, his SSS-class, his Divinordial race, and his incredible talent, this would take hundreds of years at minimum!

Maybe thousands of years if the scaling was exponential!

I’ve been scammed! Completely, utterly, catastrophically scammed!

Those last few hundred thousand causality he had remaining after this purchase—completely wasted now. All of it. Every plan, every preparation—rendered worthless.

Leon was absolutely fuming with rage and crushing frustration.

But one thing was crystal clear from the system messages: once the gate finally opened after meeting the criteria, the tower would absorb the orb permanently as its power source, and then it would finally awaken to full operational functionality.

It’s completely futile. Knowing the exact power level requirement doesn’t help at all when it’s impossibly, ridiculously high.

But Leon couldn’t stop himself despite knowing intellectually it was pointless.

Frustration and anger boiled over completely. He couldn’t contain it anymore.

He channeled absolutely everything he had—his holy energy obeyed his command, drawing on every reserve. His entire body brimmed with golden-white divine power, glowing like a miniature sun.

GLOW! CRACKLE! BOOM!

Then he punched the gate with absolutely everything he possessed.

BOOM!

Not once. Again and again and again, he struck the completely unyielding surface with increasing fury and resentment.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Each strike carried his full strength, his full techniques, his full power—and accomplished absolutely nothing against the tower’s defenses.

Far away across the dimensional realm, every single citizen suddenly felt their Lord’s overwhelming presence radiating across impossible distances—his divine power washing over them like a tsunami.

But that wasn’t the only reason they reacted so dramatically.

The sheer pressure from that distant location, even kilometers away, forced most of them involuntarily to their knees. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

People collapsed everywhere, some crying out in shock, others in reverent awe and worship.

Among them were those who’d already become Leon’s fanatical followers—people whose faith he had inadvertently cultivated simply by saving their lives during the integration.

Seraphine, instead of discouraging their growing worship, had quietly encouraged it, seeing value in their devotion.

Only Loriel remained standing initially among the civilians. Her faith lay elsewhere, directed toward the concept of Life itself rather than any individual. She wasn’t alone in her resistance—beside her stood a massive wolf and a muscularly built giant with hollowed, haunted eyes.

But even they eventually knelt not because of the pressure, leaving only Loriel—the Saintess of Life—standing upright while everyone else around her prostrated themselves.

The wolf, because of her true companion, is bound to her through a deep connection.

The giant muscular creature with hollow eyes, because seeing his daughter kneel, was her only reason for continued existence in this world.

As also the memory of the time their previous suffering flashed in his hollow eyes.

Meanwhile, Seraphine was hastily making her way toward the source of the commotion at maximum speed.

Leon!

Genuine worry filled her heart completely. Something must have gone wrong during the tower’s construction process for him to be releasing such overwhelming power.

What happened? Is he hurt? Is he in danger?

She traveled at her absolute limits, pushing her aerial flight technique far beyond what she’d normally risk.

Back at the tower, Leon continued using everything he had—not just holy energy, but every technique, every skill, every single ounce of power he could channel.

BOOM! CRACK! BOOM! CRACK!

He unleashed his most powerful attacks. Combined elemental strikes. Spatial techniques. Everything.

But the gate wouldn’t budge. Not even slightly. Not even a microscopic crack appeared. The tower stood completely unmoved despite his absolutely devastating assault.

He punched and struck relentlessly until his hands started bleeding profusely from repeated impacts against the impossibly hard surface.

Finally, he stopped—not because he accepted it was futile and pointless, but because he’d exhausted himself completely.

All the causality... all the preparation... for absolutely nothing.

He had to grind harder now, find other solutions. Hundreds or thousands of years before this tower awakened? Completely unacceptable. He’d have to find some other way to help his people grow stronger. He’d have to somehow earn more causality, even though he was completely broke.

It’s heartbreaking. But it’s reality. I have to accept it and move forward.

Leon stood there, breathing heavily, blood dripping steadily from his torn knuckles onto the grass.

Then suddenly, completely without warning, a new message appeared before his eyes—a golden transparent screen with the tower logo prominently displayed behind the entire message:

[Secondary Method Activated]

[Bloodline Evaluation in Progress...]

A loading bar began filling slowly, percentage ticking upward.

Leon’s heart started pounding violently in his chest.

What? All hope isn’t completely lost?!

But he didn’t allow himself much faith or optimism. Knowing the previous criteria’s absolute impossibility, this secondary method would probably prove equally unreachable.

Still, he stood there watching, waiting with clenched fists and racing heartbeat, unable to look away.

Please. Please let this work somehow.

The loading bar continued its agonizingly slow progression, percentage ticking upward gradually while Leon stood completely frozen in desperate anticipation.

____

Hey everyone, sorry for disappearing for a while without posting a Chapter. Things got a bit busy on my side, but I really appreciate you all sticking around and waiting.

Thanks for your patience and support. New Chapters will be coming soon!