pancakeswitch

The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns Chapter 314: Floor 3

Added 2025-05-02 18:45:32 +0000 UTC

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“Alright, family, we’re here!” I said as I glanced at the notifications flashing angrily in front of us.

It was already the next day, and I had brought my family to climb the Tower together. Not everyone came, though—no, that would be too much. Only my wives, my children, my sister, Juan, Merneith, and, lastly, Peperina joined us, as she had never climbed the Tower before and decided to tag along.

Actually, never mind—we were indeed a gigantic team. The Tower was once angrier because I had infiltrated a lot of people onto the second floor of the Tower, people who had yet to undergo any Awakening Ritual or whatever.

[ERROR: UNABLE TO DETECT PLAYER ID ON ALL THOSE WHO HAVE FORCEFULLY ENTERED THE TOWER: FLOOR 2.]

[DUE TO A SEVERE VIOLATION OF THE TOWER RULES AND REGULATIONS, COMPLETE ELIMINATION OF INTRUDERS HAS BEGUN.]

[SUMMONING TOWER GUARDIAN…]

“Mommy, what’s going on? What are those messages?” Orion asked me curiously.

“It says we’re not welcome… Do we need to do some trial first? Why?” Athena chimed in.

“It’s a stupid thing they force people to go through,” I said. “Surely, the Tower won’t send another tasty Guardian for me to take down, right?”

The skies trembled for a moment, as if something was about to come out and attack us, but in the end, silence fell, and absolutely nothing happened.

[The {Tower Master} has decided that those closely related to you, such as family members, are allowed to enter the Tower without undergoing any Trial or Awakening.]

“Oh wow, thank you, Tower Master! You’re so nice!”

As I clapped happily, I nodded back to my family.

“Looks like the kids and Merneith can enter without any issues!” I said cheerfully. “It helps that they share my system, so I guess the Tower didn’t even need to bother with it.”

“Cool!” Rainbow Eyes exclaimed. “So we can climb and visit other worlds now?!”

“Yeah, I think we can!” Kalana nodded.

“Looks like it’s finally time to step further into the Tower,” Mursha said. “At long last, I’m quite curious about what’s on Floor 3.”

“I remember there was this friend we have, Seth, right?” Urbosa asked. “Didn’t he go to some sort of Floor as well? One that had a lot of mountains.”

“Ah, yeah, from what I remember, he went to Floor 4? Yeah, Floor 4,” I nodded. “He went there to prepare for something, so we might as well check on him. I think he wanted to see someone from his previous life that he missed and possibly grow stronger.”

“He’s still kind of a mysterious guy…” Merkite said.

“But he helped us save this world, right?” Mursha looked around. “And without his hindsight, it would have been impossible to free the Divine Spirit Beast Gods.”

“Indeed,” I nodded. “I hope we can meet him again. There’s something we must talk about, and I still remember how he said that an invasion of Divine Beasts would come to Earth from Floor 80, where ‘Olympus’ is located.”

As I nodded, we stepped forward. A staircase that led to the skies was waiting for us. We climbed it, and after just a few steps, space and time around us rapidly twisted, distorting and warping reality until, as if nothing had happened, we landed in another world entirely.

“Aahh, it’s cold in here…” Bloodclaw trembled lightly, looking around with a confused expression. I quickly enveloped her with my warm aura to keep her alright.

“It’s cold, yeah…” Merneith nodded. “But I still feel a connection with Ra even now. His warmth can extend through my Golden Bloodline’s Aura.”

“Is everyone else feeling alright?” I asked.

“Yeah, sis, no problem here,” my sister said, winking at me. “This place is… a frozen forest of sorts?”

“Yeah! So much snow!” Kalana said, running around.

As the kids started playing with the snow and throwing snowballs at one another, we analyzed our surroundings.

Indeed, it was frozen here. There seemed to be a large pine tree forest, which was barely surviving against the extreme cold of this place.

However, it wasn’t really anything compared to the cold on the surface of Pluto or the Ice Giants, for example.

But it was still cold, and it had a different type of “coldness” than the one naturally created by nature or the universe.

It was… magical, imbued with particles of mana and divine power, making it much chillier and capable of piercing through magical defenses.

Although, thanks to our Auras, we were able to withstand the cold without freezing instantly.

The sky was cloudy, and a constant snowstorm raged, with snow and ice falling endlessly from the skies.

And yet, despite how desolate this place felt, it was… oddly soothing.

[Welcome to Floor 3.]

[To gain the qualifications to pass Floor 3, please walk toward the nearest town and slay at least 30 Ice Beasts for the inhabitants.]

“Quite simple compared to the previous floor,” I said while rubbing my chin. “From what I remember… was there a god of ice I fought back then? Yes, it was… an Ant Queen with Frost Powers? Wait… Hm, I did get something from her.”

As I thought about it, I channeled her divinity fragment and her skill, but I couldn’t glean much information from them.

“What’s wrong?” Mursha asked.

“I believe this is a world that’s… being usurped by another god,” I said. “And I think that very god got beaten by me, so it might be somewhere, barely alive.”

“Really?” Mursha wondered. “Wait, you did fight a bunch of them back then…”

“They were a lot,” I nodded. “Most of them were probably from these worlds we’ll enter… Come on, let’s go. I’ll analyze the world while we move to the nearby town.”

As we flew through the skies, I scanned the world using my Venerable Aura, encompassing the entirety of it with my power.

The scan worked well, as it gave me several insights into how this world was. It was a small planet, around half the size of Earth.

And indeed, there was a snowstorm across the entire globe. Another thing: there was only one continent, the one we were flying above.

And…

There were indeed Divinity Signals. One felt weakened, slumbering; another was also slumbering but sealed.

I think I can already guess what’s going on here, but first, let’s meet some of the locals.

“Mom, is that a town?” Athena asked me.

“Oh? Yes, it should be…” I said.

The “town” in question was a huge anthill covered by snow and ice crystals rising from the ground, with a hole leading to an underground cave.

There were two people in front of the cave, guarding it. They resembled giant blue ants clad in frozen ice crystal armor and seemed quite fierce.

“Hello! We come from Floor 2,” I said with a gentle smile. “The system told me to meet the locals and slay Ice Beasts.”

“Been a while since the last one came…”