Chapter 90.1 – Protagonist: I have special customs clearance skills.
The legendary Ninth Layer is the place that is closest to god. Du Ze didn’t know what the Ninth Layer of Heaven in the Divine Comedy1 was really like, but the place they went to was very strange.
It was a space full of light. There were two huge white stones suspended in the sky. Because the light elements were everywhere, all objects – including the stones – had no shadows. It gave people a feeling of emptiness. The size of the two white stone slabs was difficult to describe. The sides of both slabs had identical gold patterns . If he had to describe what they looked like, Du Ze felt that if they were vertical rather than horizontal, then they would look like an enormous … door?
Beneath the white stones there was an extremely magnificent and elegant building. The spiral staircase in front of them was luxuriously Baroque in design. The angel who had brought Du Ze and Xiu to this place pointed to the staircase and said: “We are going to walk up there.”
Du Ze’s expression cracked. The spiral staircase was at least hundreds of floors tall! Are your wings just for decorations?!
“Why not fly up?” asked Enoch.
“Fly if you can.” The angel glanced contemptuously at the thief then took the lead in climbing the stairs.
After the angel said that, they found out that in this place, flying was definitely impossible. In fact, don’t even mention flying – even jumping was not allowed. It was as though there was an invisible hand pressing down on their shoulders, forcing them to stay on the ground. Whenever anyone tried to leave the ground, they were be pinned down and unable to move. Xiu’s spatial magic was also unusable. This kind of prohibition seemed to be part of the Tower’s rules so they could only obediently follow the angel in climbing up the stairs.
One after the other they climbed and climbed, continuously circling around. Du Ze collapsed on the 20th floor so Xiu took him in his arms and carried him all the way up. A silly, cute person was sad when he discovered that the Moe Lord seemed to have formed an embarrassing habit of taking him in his arms like this, but what was worse was that Du Ze was already used to the Moe Lord’s princess carry.
What “moral integrity”? It’s been lost and forgotten.
Xiu suddenly stopped in the middle of climbing and stared at the spiral staircase’s central column. His penetrating gaze seemed to see something inside.
“What’s in there?”
The angel stopped then tapped on the central column with this staff. The white wall of the column became transparent, showing everyone what was inside. Alice and Violet covered their mouths with their hands in shock when they saw the giant imprisoned inside. The giant was as tall as the spiral staircase – no, it looked like the staircase was actually built around the giant. He was bound by thick chains and his bent arm supported the platform at the top of the staircase, motionless.
The angel put down his staff and the wall became a little less transparent. “As my lord saw, it was just a Titan.”
****! It’s a Titan! In “Mixed Blood,” Titans are demigods born from the union of two gods. Unexpectedly, it was placed here as a prop. Du Ze didn’t know how to react to this. Right before the wall became completely opaque, he thought he saw the Titan lift his eyebrows slightly and for a moment his sad eyes seemed to plead for help.
Nestled in Xiu’s embrace, Du Ze wondered if this was some sort of flag or just a background detail.
They continued climbing until they came to the end of the spiral staircase. Du Ze was finally put down by Xiu and stood in front of a circular altar. Here, the two huge stone slabs in the sky were very close to them. It was only when they stood at the top of the spiral staircase that they discovered how big it was. It even blocked Du Ze’s view of the sky.
