Vol.3 Ch.155: Showdown 4

Showdown 4: This is the hundred and fifty-fifth chapter of Volume 3 of Tower of God. It follows the showdown between Khun and Traumerei, which is done as a chess match. Meanwhile, Baam and his companions escape through the Gate.

Synopsis
There is only two minutes left until the Gate opens, so Khun Aguero Agnis makes a short greeting to Lo Po Bia Traumerei, who is in his room sitting on a large ball that appears to be the Shinwonryu - All Creatures. However, Khun refuses to bow to Traumerei since he is there as a representative of Baam and is there to negotiate on equal terms. While talking with Traumerei, Khun is sending a message to Baam over the Pocket about Khun's plan to distract Traumerei while Baam escapes in the gate, with Khun sending a similar message to Androssi Zahard as well. Traumerei says he does not care about situation outside, but he will accept Khun's proposal to negotiate since Khun represents Baam at the moment, but Traumerei threatens that if Khun says anything that would displease him then he will throw Khun into the giant aquarium on the Lo Po Bia Family Mothership. Khun agrees and cuts right to the chase, which is that every participant in the Marriage Tournament is opposed to the marriage so no winner can be decided, so Khun suggest a Showdown with Traumerei where if Khun wins they will all be let go and if they lose Baam will marry according to Traumerei's wishes. Traumerei declines the proposition and since Traumerei feels Khun has wasted his time with a bunch of nonsense he intends to throw Khun into the aquarium.

Khun cuts exclaims "Wait!" before he explains the content of the showdown, which is blitz chess with 5 seconds per move and if Traumerei beats Khun before the gate closes then he will win. According to the history books it was written that Traumerei was better at chess than even the strategist Po Bidau Gustang, which is the reason Khun thinks Traumerei will accept the showdown. However, Traumerei is not entirely convinced as he does not see why he should give the insignificant creature known as Khun the honor of playing against him, since Traumerei gets nothing in return. Khun says that they have something to offer, so Khun starts explaining that there is a traitor inside the Lo Po Bia Family who will open a gate for them in a moment before letting it stay open for 3 minutes and khun adds that the traitor likely works with FUG and the Po Bidau Family. Traumerei asks why Khun is revealing this to him, which Khun answers that he does not like being taken advantaged of by the traitor and says they will help Traumerei catch the traitor if he wins and retract any complaints about the marriage. Khun goes over the details of the showdown once more with Traumerei before making the offer again, which Traumerei agrees to this time, but not without any conditions of his own. Traumerei stands up for the first time since the beginning of the conversation and says that he will catch the traitor regardless of the outcome of the showdown and if Khun interfere the process the outcome of the showdown is nullified. Khun agrees to Traumerei's conditions and for their chess match they will be using Khun's chess set, which has an aquatic theme, with the pawns being sea turtes, the rooks being octopuses, the knights being seahorses, the bishops being stingrays, the queens being sharks, and the kings being whales. The game starts.

Meanwhile, Baam has just incapacitated Lo Po Bia Holan and sent him flying into some rubble, which peaks Lo Po Bia Shilial Zahard's interest as Holan was the strongest Hatchling, so Baam might be even more useful than she initially thought. Baam tells Ha Yuri Zahard that they need to leave since the gate is soon ready, which confuses Yuri since she is not familiar with the escape plan, but Baam just repeats his statement and runs towards the gate with Rak Wraithraiser in tow. Shilial notes that there is only 30 seconds until the gate opens, so they will need The Serpent Master's help with escaping past Po Bidau Tiara's monstrous form, so the serpent master takes the lead while Shilial, Lo Po Bia Lilial Zahard and Dravy follows.

Back to the chess match, the events unfolding in the lobby is displayed on a Lighthouse providing both players with a reference point for the amount of time left. Khun asks Traumerei to explain his reason for engaging in war with the Po Bidau family, but Traumerei only answers that it is impossible, which Khun picks up on that Traumerei is not able to stop the war even if he wanted to, so it was not the Lo Po Bia Family that started this conflict. Khun tries to taunt Traumerei with Lilial and Shilial being opposed to the marriage and them being in danger, so he should just let them stay unmarried, but Traumerei remains silent. Khun continues by asking why Traumerei want to make Baam his heir so bad that he is willing to marry off on of Zahard's Princesses, but Traumerei shuts Khun down by calling his questions foolish and telling Khun that you are supposed to be quiet during chess matches. Khun disregards the comments and mentions that Gustang also wants Baam, which notably interests Traumerei, so Khun continues by mentioning that Gustang claimed the known history is a bunch of lies and that Khun saw a strange book at the Ark of Knowledge that mentioned someone called Icarus. Traumerei looks at Khun for the first time and says that he does not remember. Khun looks at the game and notice that even when he plays as defensively as possible, Traumerei is still able to break through it so Khun is going to lose soon.

Back to the hall of gates, Baam, Yuri, and Rak are running towards the gate, while the serpent master wraps itself around the monstrous Tiara, while Shilial, Lilial, and Dravy run towards the gate from a different direction than Baam's group. Tiara does not intend to lose her chance at catching Baam, so she tries to fight against the serpent master, but she thinks to herself that he is pretty strong and she wonders who he is. The gate opens and a Warp fleet appears at the entrance, so all the regulars make a break for the Floating Ship since they would not survive the Warp without it. Baam hesitates since Androssi and Khun have not arrived yet, but Rak reminds him that they will come later, so Baam reluctantly agrees and goes into the ship. While the regulars get onboard the ship Yuri tells them that she will buy time for them by delaying Tiara, since she can survive the warp without the warp fleet. Lastly, she asks the serpent master to go and leave it to her, since this is her fight, so the serpent master leaves alongside the regulars on the warp fleet. Yuri blocks the path against Tiara and does a final attack before jumping backwards into the gate, before the jaws of Tiara engulfs the entire gate and clamps down. Tiara is annoyed that Yuri escaped, so she considers whether to follow her or not, but after sensing the presence of Traumerei she decides to abort the mission and leaves. Outside the Viridis Parus Hotel Tiara meets up with Po Bidau Matte Ha before leaving to find a method of escape.

Back to the chess match, Traumerei makes the last move putting Khun in checkmate by pinning the king against the back row with his queen, so Traumerei says that it is over and despite Khun being a Regular it was disappointing nonetheless. Traumerei sees on the lighthouse that the gate is still open, so he says that the marriage will be done immediately and he looks forward to seeing the resentment on Baam's face from Khun failing him, since the only thing losers deserve is disappointment. However, when Traumerei exits his room he sees that the gate is closed and no one is there, which Traumerei finds confusing since that was not what was shown on the livefeed. Khun exits the room as well and explains that the gate closed prior to him losing the match, since Khun lied about when the gate opened and had a two minute delay on the livefeed, which meant he only needed to delay for about 4 minutes and not 6 minutes. Khun declares that he might have lost the match, but he won the showdown since he managed to delay Traumerei enough. However, Traumerei calls Khun a fool for thinking he won the showdown, since Traumerei included the condition that he will track down the traitor no matter the result of the showdown and the result of the showdown will be nullified if Khun interfered in any way. Traumerei reveals that he already knew about the traitor and his plan, with several Branch Family Heads being sent to capture them including Baam and all other conspirators. So, if Khun does nothing Baam will be captured and if Khun interferes then the showdown is nullified and Traumerei can do what he wants, "Checkmate". Traumerei explains that he played along with Khun's little game since he enjoys watching other struggle against his unstoppable will and likes watching the despair that this causes. Khun thinks to himself that Traumerei is the most twisted person he has met.