That's one way to reach the top.
And it implies that the exit of the tower is the top as well.
Perhaps that's why no one has reached the top, for when manage to through some trick they do it to leave the tower. Thus no one would be aware.
"This is the top of Tower? Really?" I asked with suspicion. "So do I get a reward for it?"
"To reach this place is already its own reward, is it not? For here lies the gateway to infinite possibility. To touch the source, or seek what lies beyond. But you already knew that, did you not? I have been observing you since you traversed a Harmonic Corridor to arrive here." As it spoke, the spirit gained greater definition and detail.
"Harmonic Corridor?"
"The corridors that carry the energies of creation and chaos and other things between the myriad worlds or planes, whatever you wish to call them, within our sea of the infinite primordial chaos. The rolling lanes of shadow cast by the branches of the great tree that binds our system of reality. You may know them by another name, but it is the current you used to get to my Tower across the infinite chaos with the aid of your spirit device."
There was a moment of silence while I processed the fact that apparently the Builder knew more about how I planeshifted than I did. Had he been a traveler too? Had Hwa Ryun's story been more than just myth?
"I've yet to meet anyone else who knew of such things," I said. "I had thought that my method of travel might be unique."
"In a way, it is. You are the first whom I've met in countless eons who found a path to the Lesser Gate, and then used it to successfully access the corridors and travel the planes. After all, that was not their intended purpose, indeed, this system of creation has many protections in place to prevent such a thing, to protect these seeds of creation from those who would prey on them. To confine each plane's denizens to their own worlds, to prevent interference from powerful Outsiders, and to keep out the terrible things lurking in the chaos that would consume all of creation if given the chance."
"By protections, you mean similar to the force that started suppressing me in the Tower?"
"Correct. Those are the protections against entities and concepts foreign to a world's natural order. But there are also protections that prevent entities significant to a world from being removed. There are protections for the inner workings of the system itself, to prevent unauthorized access. Though the latter two stop most travelers before they can reach another plane, not to mention the Chaos itself which is very difficult to survive." The Builder's will paused for a moment, before looking me up and down, as if trying to discern something about me. "And that is what makes you, and that device of yours, quite a curiosity. Tell me, would you say that you were insignificant in your original homeworld? In terms of spiritual power, presence, and history?"
"I'm not entirely sure what you mean. It's not as if nobody would miss me, and I can't predict the future so I wouldn't know if I would have been important or not. Why do you ask?"
"As I said, there are protections to prevent significant entities from being removed from a plane. The greater their spiritual presence and history, which is usually tied to mystical power too, the greater the ties that bind them, and the more aggressively those protections will seek to stop their removal. This is the primary reason that travelers are so rare. Those who are insignificant will never find their way here. Those powerful enough to do so are generally more significant, and so bound tighter and unable to leave. For example, the most common type of being that can find a path to the Lesser Gate are those beings often worshipped by lesser beings as gods—but that very worship, their great power and long history, their divine authorities given by the world, the mantles they've accepted, all these ties bind them. But when I look at your soul, I see traces of multiple different planes, and almost none of your current powers, material substance, spirit companions, and items, appear to have any history with the plane that possesses the greatest claim on your soul. Even the spirit device you use to control your travel spell does not appear to be from the same origin."
That was an impressive amount he'd managed to glean about me. Thus far the Builder's will seemed relatively friendly and could be a great source of information that I was unlikely to get anywhere else, so I decided to cautiously keep the conversation going.
"I suppose if you put it that way, then yes, I was insignificant in my home world. I had no powers of any kind back then."
The spirit nodded. "I thought as much. You did not create that device, did you? But perhaps that is why you have avoided greater reprisals, to the point where this was the first time you encountered the Anti-Outsider protections. You were beneath the notice of the planar protections when you first left your home world, and remained largely unnoticed by the planes you intruded upon, until now."
"I've met a Beast before though. Some sort of impossibly powerful thing that tried to kill me when I was leaving another plane, in this same place at the edge of reality," I gestured around us.
"Ah yes. You must have taken something significant with you, perhaps the element spirit seed in your body. It is impressive that you survived the encounter intact at your current level of strength."
"Intact might not be the right description…but I guess I got better," I said mournfully, thinking of how close I came to death and the loss of Agate.
"Then you are fortunate, and you are in a unique position of opportunity. You have become like a virus or parasite that has taken on properties from multiple hosts and rendered each individual plane's standard immune system incapable of responding quickly or effectively. The analogy is quite crude, but that is essentially what you have done by combining the concepts of multiple planes and gaining spiritual weight and history with them before you became significant enough to trigger stronger defenses."
"Is that so? If I'm like a virus, is that not something you should be concerned about?"
It chuckled deeply. "I could hardly condemn you for doing something similar to my original self. Envy, perhaps, if I did not already succeed so long ago, because this is the ambition of many lesser beings. There are many primordial gods, the ones that participated in the creation of this system, who regretted their sacrifice and grew to resent the shackles they placed upon themselves. Most are dead in all the ways that matter by now, having become part of their world's systems rather than independently conscious beings, who would despise or envy us, but that should not deter you."
"I see…you seem to know a lot about these systems, could I trouble you for some advice?"
"It would be more enjoyable for you to discover them yourself, but I may consider humoring you a little bit. I assume you want to know how to mitigate and avoid triggering the planar defenses in the future?"
"Yes, exactly. And what would happen to me if I stayed?"
"It is nothing to be alarmed about at the level you were subject to. These defenses are not intelligent. It will first suppress you, and you will be unable to siphon more creation dust while suppressed but it should have no significant consequences if you do not commit further violations of the natural order—doing that which is not normally possible in that plane. But if you do, or do anything that is a particularly severe violation, it will trigger a process of fully expelling you out of the creation zone, which may take several days or weeks.
"Did I even do anything that was a violation in the Tower?"
The spirit shrugged. "The act of siphoning creation dust is always a low level violation, so it is only a matter of time until the planar defenses notice you. But sometimes it will trigger from a large working of magic or large expenditure of mana. As a whole, magic—the kind that deals with spells and not the manipulation of Shinsoo—is quite rare in the Tower. Especially when the magic is enacted without any contract with a demon or divine entity. Your particular brand of magic is outside of the regular rules of the Tower."
That made some sense. I vaguely recalled there was a rule like that for magic in the Tower of God. And I could think of a few other settings where magic was exclusively sourced from contracts with higher dimensional beings. So despite the effect of my magic not being anything special, the way I had accomplished it was against the natural order on this plane.
"I see. And how do I mitigate it after it happens?"
"As I said, you are analogous to a virus. How can you trick or otherwise convince the host plane that you belong? There are a number of ways, but I will tell you two that should be convenient to you. The first is to do the same thing you did when you first arrived to merge yourself back into the plane using some creation dust. This should reset the 'flag' on you, so to speak. But be warned, if you do this too many times the plane will learn from it, and get better at identifying you, or create 'antibodies'—counteragents to kill you, instead of merely expelling you."
"Oh, that's easier than I'd thought. It sounds like that means I could just go back to the Tower right now if I use some 'creation dust', then? I don't even have to leave and come back."
"A quick and easy solution to be sure, but if I were you, I would consider the use of creation dust to be a large drawback and only use it sparingly. After all, it is quite a precious and rare resource, unless you have some other way to get it besides siphoning from the excess that floats around the Lesser Gate."
"What do you mean? What's wrong with my current method? By creation dust, you're talking about Primordial Grain, right?"
He gave me a long look that seemed to express disbelief.
"I mean, it's just a matter of time to collect it, right? It isn't actually limited, or is it?" I asked, confused. "Besides the fact that I can only store a limited amount."
"How should I say this…? It is not technically limited, but there is only ever a small amount of excess in a plane, if any at all. One might imagine it as a nutrient that the body of the plane occasionally leaks out in significant enough quantities that it is not reabsorbed and instead accumulates outside the Lesser Gate. But once you siphon all the excess, it could take anywhere from years to decades, maybe even longer, for more to leak. I'm sure you can imagine the consequences if you run out and cannot find new pastures or get marked for expulsion by the planar defenses."
"Oh. Oh. Hold on a second, I need to check something."
I sent orders to Agate to give me a report on the grain gathering operation since we'd entered the Tower. It had gathered 1 unit in the first week, then stopped because Agate had added a condition for the program to stop running after reaching 8 units, because we'd believed that was the cap after being unable to siphon more on FoZ.
Then I ordered it to resume the spell. And it seemed to be working just fine.
Shit. That wasn't a cap on my storage after all, FoZ had simply run out of excess grain, and it'd started re-absorbing too fast for me to siphon it.
This…this changed everything. If primordial grain, or creation dust, wasn't unlimited, then I could be forced to go to new planes for a chance to collect more, or worse, get stuck if I ran out. At least with the bionanites my lifespan wasn't biologically limited as far as I knew, but it was still troubling if I wound up in that situation. After all, it would be foolish to assume that my soul or any other vital part of me was immune to the passage of time.
"Now you understand. Fortunately there are planes which frequently leak excess and generate it quite quickly. This is one of them, due to the conditions of the surrounding Chaos and the unique properties of the Tower. It normally takes only a few weeks to months here to leak enough for you to use."
"But if merely siphoning the dust could cause me to be flagged, doesn't that still mean that if I get flagged before I manage to take a full unit, I'd be losing grain still?"
"Yes, but there is a second method to mitigate the defenses, which allows you to continue siphoning, albeit likely at a slower rate. I call it a threshold invitation. This is when you find a summoner—a magical contractor—native to the plane who shall serve as a host inviting you into the threshold, to act on their behalf. Be warned that offering such a contract itself shall draw the immediate attention of the planar defenses, but it will be restrained, so long as you willingly accept restrictions upon yourself, and you truly are acting on behalf of the host. For the contract to succeed, the host must have free will and strong desires to fulfill, they need to be aware that they are making this invitation, and sustain your right to exist in the plane with mana supplied to you through a mystic bond. It may be helpful to think of them as both your sponsor and advocate, and it is their willpower and resistance against the world's corrective force that grants you sanctuary."
"Can anybody serve as a host?"
"Only those with sufficiently strong desires in their soul and a certain pride or resentment, a deep seated belief that the world is wrong and it is their prerogative to correct it by committing another wrong—by summoning an abomination against the natural order. They also need to have a minimum of mystic power and mental fortitude, to impose their belief on reality—much like any other working of magic. If they're not able to supply you with enough energy, you will find it difficult to act, because you need to use their energy to pay for the use of any of your unnatural abilities and counter the corrective force. But with the right host, this method will grant you almost unfettered access to your powers for as long as the contract lasts, albeit at the cost of only using it at the host's behest."
"Hmm…I could work with that, but finding a good host sounds like it could be quite a pain. And you say they have to be aware that they're making the invitation—you mean they need to know I'm from another plane?"
"As long as they know you are foreign to their concept of 'world' and 'natural reality' and that you need a willing invitation from them to avoid being removed. It does not matter if they think you are a demon from hell, a long dead spirit, an eldritch god, an imaginary creature, or plane traveler. Just that you do not belong, and they are inviting you past the world's natural protections against such beings. There are planes where such invitations are commonly used for entities that exist in different dimensions or otherwise outside the material world yet within the same creation zone governed by a single Lesser Gate, but the same ritual principles can be used on planar level Outsiders like yourself. You happen to have the advantage of being able to initially enter the plane unnoticed without an invitation, which makes this much more convenient for you, instead of waiting for a summoner to stumble across a ritual with the barest relation to you that you can hijack and answer."
I could think of a number of stories where something similar to what the Builder spirit described was used for summoning actual demons and evil gods and other terrible things into reality. Funny how I claimed to be such a god on Familiar of Zero, and now it turned out that I really would have to act in a similar manner in the future.
I spoke to the Builder a bit more, to deepen my understanding of what he'd told me, and learned how to perform a contract ritual for a threshold invitation.
The drawbacks were clear, but from what the Builder had described, a qualifying contract didn't require me to be subject to absolute obedience or any magical enforcement by the summoner.
A powerful and strong-willed host who knew and supported exactly what I was doing, commanding with clear explicit orders would grant me more access to my powers in defiance of the world to fulfill them. A host who gave broad orders and left it to me to decide how to fulfill them would grant more limited access, but still enough to keep siphoning grain at least, even if at a slower rate. And a host who I made into a puppet would provide little to no protection from the planar defenses.
The contract could also be extended to any subcontracted spiritual entities I commanded, such as Agate, Derf and the water spirits.
Once I learned how to perform such a ritual from him, I deliberated over whether I ought to return to Worm at all, given these new revelations. At some point I'd have to test and confirm whether the grain on Worm would also run out, but I had no idea how long it would take to get to that point, or if it already ran out and I'd be wasting a trip to find out.
In general, I'd have to make the most out of each trip instead of doing short re-supply runs unless I had an important strategic reason for it, and I planned to come back before the final test on the second floor, so it did feel like a bit of a waste to spend two units of grain for a roundtrip like that.
If I didn't leave now, I'd have to find a host in the Tower, but neither the Builder nor the Guardians were qualified, the former because he was not quite inside the threshold, and the latter because they lacked the strong desires qualification or any interest in forming that sort of mana bond with me.
The number of candidates that remained, who I could trust with the knowledge that I was an abnormality even more strange than an Irregular, who was strong enough to actually let me use a significant degree of power, and who would not be difficult to work with…could be counted on one hand.
The Builder spirit spoke again and drew me from my thoughts. "If you are still planning to leave this plane, I have an offer for you before you go. I am interested in collecting curiosities from other planes—powerful, unusual or unique items, especially of the mystic kind. Or things with interesting history behind them. If you bring anything of interest to me, I can trade you creation dust from my own stores. For example, your wand is something I could trade for."
"That's a bit of a tall order, don't you think? Obviously I can't trade the one I'm using to get around, and I have no idea where I'd get something quite as powerful or unique."
"Not that one, though it is indeed of interest to me if you ever acquire another. I mean the wand that carries a trace of Chaos in it and Blue affinity."
"You mean this?" I pulled out the wand I'd made with Louise's blood. That was certainly an interesting descriptor for the Void element.
"Yes. I can offer you 1 unit of creation dust for it."
"I don't know about that…seems a little low."
"That is all I will trade for it, seeing as creation dust is far more valuable, objectively speaking. I have no use for the wand besides as a novelty to collect. I would trade more for your water element spirit seed or sword with the artificial spirit."
"Hold your horses, I am not up for trade," Derflinger suddenly said, after presumably pretending to be asleep.
"Hence my offer for just the wand. You can easily replace that, can you not?" The Builder spirit asked. "It is obvious that you crafted it yourself."
"Unfortunately, I actually can't. This is from the plane where I encountered the Beast, and I can't risk returning there any time soon. I've got no other sources of blood that could imbue what you call the Blue affinity, especially at such quality."
"Unfortunate indeed. Then if you craft another stable wand that carries both Chaos and a pure primary affinity, I will offer you the same one unit for each unique combination."
"What do you mean by pure primary affinity?"
"Any basic affinity of similar strength that serves as the wand's primary affinity. By basic or pure primary I mean a foundational standard affinity in any mana differentiated magic system which is not a mixture of more basic affinities within its own system. Such as the five prime colors of the old Walkers, the four plus zero material elements, the five phases of twofold manifest, among countless others.
"What if I got a chaos wand mixed with a non-standard affinity? Or a higher order affinity?"
"You will have to bring it to me for evaluation, though non-standard affinities are not likely to be of interest, unless they are sufficiently pure. A higher order affinity may be of interest if it maintains a pure symmetry of primaries. It is the quality of balanced symmetry of chaos and purity that is interesting from an artistic view. The wand you have there is quite weak and barely stable, should you make a superior one I may consider offering more."
I thought about it some more, then made up my mind, about the trade, and about where to go next.
"Artistic view, huh? I'll keep that in mind," I said. "As for the wand, I think I'll keep it for now. As valuable as creation dust may be, my inability to replace the wand makes it more important to me right now, while my need for creation dust is not too urgent at this point. Thanks for teaching me how to safely get more before making the offer though. I will remember your help and your sincerity. I can't say that I have many principles but reciprocity is one I do abide by. It's just good business to seek mutually beneficial partners, after all. So I'll spend some effort looking for potential curiosities to bring to you whenever I come back here. Though, I wonder, would you consider trading for other things too? More knowledge, for example?"
"Perhaps. Feel free to ask me when you have something to trade, and I may consider it."
"Great. I'll be on my way then."
"Before that, you need a way to ensure you can find this plane and return here."
"I have a way, I leave behind a beacon for the spell, and it'll let me target this plane from any other."
"I believe you are mistaken. Your anchors–and your spell–are unreliable, in multiple ways. You will learn in time that the only consistent law of all creation and chaos is that there are no absolutes, nothing is perfect, and everything has flaws. But an experimental spell, cast with a device you did not create, using concepts you do not understand–there can hardly be anything less reliable than that. But that is another long topic for another day. For now, why don't you check the one you left behind in the Tower again?"
I soon found myself bewildered, then concerned. The Waypoint had disappeared. What? I hadn't even left the plane yet!
Oh damn. Suddenly I remembered, there was an important condition to these Waypoints. They needed a large and stable gravitational source to remain anchored to. Did the Tower even have such a gravitational source? It was literally a Tower, not a planet, despite how large the floors were, and it wasn't necessarily built on a planet. The gravitation was…I have no idea how that worked. Shinsoo actually became denser the higher we went, instead of the other way around if gravity was the cause of the pressure.
"I see you've noticed the problem. Your spell does not seem to be compatible with the structure of this plane. Fortunately for you, I can be your anchor instead. Simply cast the spell and I will capture your beacon. Whenever you come back here, I can send you back to your last position in the Tower or Headon."
"You're a lifesaver. Thanks, let's do it."
So I set up another Waypoint with him, and then finally went on my way.
Yes, this is exactly the part I struggled with and revised many times. A lot of things behind the scenes that still haven't been explained yet as well, since I didn't want to shove it all into one chapter. The difficulty was in balancing what I wanted to achieve with a realistic take on why planar travel can exist with multiple methods yet there are so few travelers and the planes are mostly free to develop on their own without out-of-context powers wrecking everything, while establishing some mechanisms that allow for plot engagement with each plane and meaningful progress for MC that doesn't blow out of proportion.
Very good job, I am glad you took the time to get this all figured out. If you had pushed ahead without addressing this stuff the story would absolutely have suffered from it and would have probably needed whole chapters scrapped and whole sections rewritten to comply. Those kinds of revisions have killed several otherwise good stories.
It is curious how those who can get to the top of the tower will get passage to other worlds if by this moment they should become enormously powerful and too significant for their home world to let them go easily, and when they move to other worlds they will immediately be regarded as a threat because of their power.
Having left a Waypoint at Earth-Refuge moon base, this time I went directly there instead of the old M2 moon base.
In the end, I chose to spend the grain for the trip because I needed to test whether the corrective force even truly existed on other planes, and experiment with the threshold invitation ritual itself, with people I knew I could trust before I tried it with others.
Experimenting with Shinsoo, collecting some things I thought the Builder might be interested in, and refueling Derf were all secondary objectives.
I'd have liked to test whether Worm was a high frequency leak place for grain as well, but I couldn't stay long enough to do that. I already confirmed that there was still more grain here to siphon, but whether it was enough for a full unit was an open question.
But when I checked in with Enduring Witness, I was surprised to learn that only three days had passed in Worm despite nearly a month passing in Tower of God. It was only June 21.
Why was there such a huge time disparity this time? If ToG's time was still running at the same speed differential, I'd only have less than 36 hours to do everything before it was time for the final test, since it was in two weeks of Tower time.
I quickly prioritized my objectives in terms of both efficiency and importance, then set out.
First I went to M2 to see the copy of Offensive Bias that was in charge of rebuilding it and ordered it to check for any Simurgh flesh still lying around the base ruins. Taylor was back in school, so I decided not to bother her, and then I told Offensive Bias to use his Hydra identity on behalf of CRUCIBLE to try arranging a purchase of a Cauldron vial from Accord for a reasonable price.
Next, I opened a portal to Earth M2B, arriving at the HQ lounge, taking a seat and waiting for Enduring Witness to call for Amelia and Paige.
Amelia came through a portal, arriving first. Then Paige walked over from her soundproofed singing room that was right next to the main control center. After a quick greeting we all sat down on the couches while Enduring Witness brought some snacks and food.
"So did something happen for you to be back so soon?" Amelia asked. "It's only been a few days, I thought you were planning to be away for at least a few weeks again?"
"Actually, it's been more than a month for me. I'm not sure why time flowed so differently in the new world I went to, but I won't be able to stay long if time is running much faster over there."
"A whole month? How was it?"
"Worthwhile, I'd say. It was a very different sort of world—it was inside of a tower filled with a substance called Shinsoo…"
I gave them a basic summary of what happened during my adventures there. Meeting Headon, the tests I went through and how the Tower works, training and taking lessons, and then the fight against a Ranker. But left out the details of who I'd teamed up with and the conspiracy.
"…Derf put up a good fight, and taunted the Ranker until he broke the rules of the test and our team won. Just from that fight alone, I could tell that the people who earned the title of Ranker after reaching the highest floor discovered, really might as well be gods compared to Regulars, let alone your baseline human. Quant wasn't anywhere near the strongest, but I could easily imagine him fighting an Endbringer solo, at least for a while anyways, like Lung did."
"Wow, and there's supposed to be thousands of these Rankers?" Paige asked. "It would be amazing if we could get any on our side to fight against Scion, or even the Endbringers."
"That's right, and they live for a very, very long time. I don't know if they even have a limited lifespan, as long as they're in the Tower and have Shinsoo. It's a miraculous substance, almost like liquid mana, but with unique properties of its own."
"Did you bring any Shinsoo back with you?" Amelia asked.
"Of course I did, it's all in my body though. It can't seem to maintain pressure when exposed to normal air, and just evaporates instantly. I also brought biological samples from the first creature I fought."
Amelia got up and came over to me. "May I?" She asked, reaching a hand towards mine.
I nodded, and she held my hand to observe the changes in my body.
Then she sighed. "I can see even less of your biology now. And what I can see, it's not making any sense. I haven't even figured out anything useful from the magical blood you brought back last time yet," said Amelia.. "I tried all sorts of tests with Enduring Witness already but it just seems to be completely normal."
"Can't say I'm surprised. I'm pretty sure now that magic is just something that exists outside of the natural physical laws. And many things don't work the same way, or not at all, on different worlds. In fact, I learned something very important at the end of my time in the Tower—it's not just magic that gets suppressed, but anything foreign to its common sense, including planeshifters like me, who bring strange powers with them. This is, in fact, the reason I came back—because I started getting suppressed."
"What does that mean, exactly? What happens if you get suppressed?" Amelia asked.
Then I told them about meeting the Builder's will, the process of getting flagged, and the two methods of stopping it.
It was a complicated topic and their lack of familiarity with magic made some things difficult to explain, but eventually they got the gist of what I needed their help for–the threshold invitation ritual contract.
"So…you need us to 'summon' you into our world, in order for you to have permission to use other strange powers? And it'd be a continuous bond between the host and agent…kind of like how our shards work with us? Except we give you the energy, and you're the one that uses your powers to fulfill our orders," said Amelia.
I nodded.
"But we don't have magic of our own…so will that even work?" Asked Paige.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out."
"Okay, sure. We should get Taylor to try too though, doing a magic ritual sounds like something she'd be into," said Amelia.
"You're probably right. I'll go get her after school ends."
"You're kidding. She really went back to school?" Amelia asked with disbelief. having been cut off from contact with Earth Bet since no open portal was kept to the secret worlds. "I couldn't imagine doing that after everything if I were her."
"Oh she did. Probably still trying to keep her civilian life separate from the cape business. Her dad can't be too happy about her missing so many classes while you guys were hiding after the Simurgh fight either."
"School might seem bad when you're there but once you're out for a long time you might miss it. Some people say it's the best time of our lives. I wouldn't go that far but it doesn't seem like such a bad idea to go, even if she won't pursue a normal career," said Paige.
"Yeah but it's Taylor we're talking about. Her school life was terrible. Even if her bullies are gone now, it's just…such a shitty place to go back to, you know? I don't get it."
Paige looked lost. "She was being bullied? I never would have guessed. It's hard to imagine her as a victim of any sort, she's so intense and commanding."
"Oh wait, you don't know. I guess she never told you and it never came up before, huh? Yes, it was extremely awful. They almost killed her and caused her trigger, even," said Amelia.
"What…what did they do?" Paige asked.
"I really shouldn't say without her permission. But every cape's trigger is the worst day of their life, after usually already having shitty lives. You probably hadn't met many capes while you were a rogue, but you should be able to get an idea of it if you think about your own trigger. Come to think of it, you have a really strong Master power too, so I imagine you might have even had similar triggers too, since that's apparently how the shards figure out what powers to give out, according to what Kaleidus told us."
Paige looked distinctly uncomfortable.
Amelia hadn't noticed and went on, looking up as if reliving a memory. "My own trigger was when my sister got shot and I was desperate to save her. And so I don't really mind talking about it, because she was saved and everything was fine after. But most other capes I've heard about aren't that lucky, the powers weren't nearly as helpful, and there's usually lasting trauma there."
"Umm…I…" Paige muttered awkwardly. I stayed silent and just listened, wondering if Amelia would realize why on her own. I was quite sure I'd mentioned that Paige was a vial cape when I'd rescued her, but apparently Amelia forgot about it.
Amelia saw Paige's discomfort but misinterpreted it. "Oh, you don't have to tell me yours just because I told you mine. Don't worry about it. We've gone off topic anyways." She turned back to me.
I waved a hand. "Oh I don't mind. In fact, it might even be helpful to talk about these things. In a way, shard triggers are quite similar. One of the requirements for the ritual is that the host must believe that the world is wrong—or has wronged them, and have a great desire to correct it. You've both suffered grave injustices in life before. You might need to draw on those old feelings."
"I don't know about that. A lot has changed since, my feelings about my trigger just don't really register anymore," said Amelia. "It would probably be easier to think of something else…maybe you should try it with Paige first? Because I'm not sure I feel strongly enough about anything right now. I feel like I've kind of…come to terms with it all?"
"Won't know until we try," I said. "The summoner has to call for me, and if it works, I'll feel the summons and be able to answer and sense whether a bond can be created. So both of you should do the ritual."
O O O
We set up some summoning rooms where the girls could draw magic circles and perform the relevant sacrifices and ceremonies. One for each of them so that they could have some privacy, the feelings they'd be drawing upon might be intensely personal after all.
The ceremony itself wasn't really necessary, but like all magic, it wasn't so much the exact process but the ritualism, symbolism, and self-hypnosis that made the magic happen. One could draw upon symbols with meanings and links to other things, or histories, icons or idols that strengthened the ritual, but in the end it was more of an art than science.
The very act of performing a lengthy ritual could help make the spell more effective, and for them who had no mana or spiritual powers of their own, we needed to go the extra mile.
I waited in the same room as Amelia while sending Agate to Paige, though in regular wand form for 'sense projection', not as Agatetron.
"These lines are completely embarrassing!" Amelia said, reading over the suggestions I transmitted to her own visor HUD. "And He Who Sees Beyond? Prince of Duality? Why not just use your name, or Polychromic?"
"You can use your own lines if you prefer, whatever works," I said. "I suggest the titles because I might not want to use the same name in other planes. But it's probably a good idea to establish a personal history with some titles I can use, to make future rituals easier to answer if another summoner uses the same titles for me, especially if they don't know much about me. They probably won't always be already a close friend or teammate like you."
"Fine. Okay. I'll get started," she said, and started preparing the props and motions.
Meanwhile, Paige was already walking around the circle she'd drawn, incense lit, candles arranged, and chanting in a low voice.
"One soul aggrieved to yearn. One flame to light the way. One circle to open the door. One soul aggrieved to yearn…"
After pacing three times, she lit a single candle with a lighter, and repeated the chant.
She dropped to her knees and held up her hands. "…and one call to the great beyond! I call upon the great lord who gave me life anew, who holds my heart and my sins! Please come to me, O' Lord whose spirit rests in me! I call upon He Who Sees Beyond, Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite! By my summons I invite you into the threshold, Lightbearer Who Carries the Stars!"
"…" I observed the ritual closely and there was definitely something there, but it was too weak, even when I was right there and actively trying to reach out with my own mana to make the connection. Paige maintained her posture for a while, until I told her it didn't work.
What followed with Amelia went similarly, though her chant omitted the invocation of the contract Paige previously formed with me in the Birdcage.
We tried again with different variations and not much success, until I left to pick up Taylor.
As Amelia suspected, Taylor was quite enthusiastic about participating in a ritual after we explained the situation to her.
Unfortunately, that enthusiasm did not translate into any more success than the other two.
There were two probable causes—one was their lack of personal magic and mana, or any other spiritual energy source, and the other was their 'willpower', or the strength of the desires in their souls.
We worked into the late night, trying to solve each issue. The first, by using some animal sacrifices, to add to the power of the ritual, and the second, by having the girls practice eliciting strong emotions while doing the ritual.
All of us needed only a few hours of sleep thanks to Amelia's augments, but eventually we took a break anyways, gathering at the lounge again.
"So why do you think it's not working? Is it just because we don't have any magic of our own?" Amelia asked. "Or is the whole ritual a dud?"
"No, I can feel the ritual trying to create a connection, it's just not strong enough. The animal sacrifices helped a bit, and more might be better, but I don't think that's all. If you were trying to summon me when I didn't know you or I wasn't already here, that would probably be more of a problem. But either way, I think it should be possible to establish the summoning connection initially—even if the contract couldn't be completed or sustained because you don't have the energy. As it stands, the problem seems to be with establishing the connection at all, so I think our issue might be more on the emotional side of things."
"You mean we don't want it enough?" asked Taylor.
"That, or a lack of belief and self-hypnosis. Magic only works if you can convince yourself it's possible, after all," I said.
"I think I've seen enough magic to believe that it's possible by now, even if in a scientific way. Just based on the evidence," said Taylor.
"Maybe it's because we've gotten over most of our issues by now? Like I mean, everything has been going great since I met you. I don't feel like I have much to be angry at the world about anymore," said Amelia.
"What about the fact that the world might end within ten years?" asked Taylor. 'Isn't that something to be angry about?"
"That didn't stop you from going back to school and acting as if everything is normal," said Amelia.
"I haven't forgotten about it or anything, it's just, it isn't something we can do anything about in the short-term. And there isn't much heroing to do in Brockton Bay either, Hydra and the Coil clone have everything covered," said Taylor.
"But it wasn't enough for your rituals either, was it?" Amelia asked, to which Taylor shook her head.
"Could be something subconscious holding us back?" Paige suggested.
"What do you mean?" asked Taylor.
"Because we know we're just experimenting?" Paige said hesitantly.
"That could be a contributing factor," I said with a nod. "Or maybe something else entirely…I have a few more ideas we can try."
We brainstormed a while, then continued again with some different adjustments.
To stop potential interference between the rituals, we started doing them one after the other instead of separately in different rooms.
Then Paige used her Master power to amplify the Amelia and Taylor's emotions, but that too didn't work—in fact, it had the opposite effect, and the connections got even weaker. I could guess at why that might be, the host was supposed to have free will, and the desire was supposed to come from their soul. What exactly that meant was unclear, but temporary emotions caused by external forces evidently made the whole process worse. So perhaps rather than "emotion" as measured by activity in the brain, it really was something deeper within the soul.
It that sense, I wondered if it was incorrect to separate the concept of mystic or spiritual power of the ritual and the host from the strong desires component. That maybe these two were closely linked—that the "strength" of the soul's desire was also affected by their possession or lack of some form of spiritual energy.
We even tried a group summoning ritual, but that also failed, despite increasing the power of the ritual itself. The call was clear enough for me to answer, but the mess of different intent between them made it impossible to offer a contract to them as a group, nor did any of them individually qualify.
"We should take another break first, longer this time. You all look exhausted," I declared, after the failed group summoning.
All of them had immediately sat down on the ground after the ritual failed, panting. It seemed that repeatedly attempting the magic had drained their energy despite the failures.
O O O
While the team ate and took naps, I did some simple experiments with Shinsoo.
I had carried with me several sealed live cell pouches of Shinsoo within the Armoriont, and a bottle of "water" which was actually just some liquid Shinsoo from the Regulars' cafeteria, and a few bottles of gaseous Shinsoo contained in non-living containers.
When I unsealed a pouch, the Shinsoo dissipated almost instantly. It had already been in a gaseous state when I had collected it in the Tower from the air, so this was not a surprise. What did come as a surprise, was the fact that the water spirits were unable to recollect it. It seemed to just disappear into nothing, rather than actually dispersing into the air. Similarly, it disappeared from my own mana sense. But it was impossible to determine if it truly did disappear or if it merely evaporated to such a low concentration that it couldn't be sensed anymore.
Still, the fact that it remained stable while sealed was a good sign, that it could be potentially studied, and that it was only the transition from keeping it contained to a low pressure open air environment that caused it to disappear.
I tried again, but this time asking the water spirits to maintain control of the Shinsoo, and when they drew it out, it did not dissipate.
The liquid "water" I got instead stayed normal upon release, but incredibly, the mana signature they emitted disappeared as soon as I opened a bottle.
It was at that point that I realized something very strange was going on, which reminded me of a particular physics phenomenon, the observer effect.
I set out to test this by going to the Earth Refuge moon base where I'd kept some sensitive scientific equipment for exactly this purpose.
And when I placed the still sealed but transparent Shinsoo bottles under an electron microscope, the same thing happened. The mana signature disappeared from my senses immediately when I looked at it through the microscope, and what I saw appeared to be completely normal water molecules.
So it wasn't really the phase transition from a pressurized to depressurized state, but perhaps the Shinsoo which held magic potential to be anything, actually became ordinary water once "observed" or interacted with anything that was from this world and not the Tower.
I therefore repeated this experiment, but with the water spirits controlling the Shinsoo and placing that under the electron microscope.
An even more peculiar result occurred: I was unable to see any molecules at all. It took me some time to figure out exactly what I was seeing, but eventually I concluded that in this "controlled" state, the Shinsoo was acting as a form of pure energy, and it did not have any particles. This was true whether I used the gaseous form or the liquid water form, the deciding factor was whether or not the water spirits were in control of it or not.
The instant that control was released, it seemed to "become real", and observable.
Unfortunately I couldn't attempt the iconic double-slit experiment or any of its variations because the water spirits controlling it rendered it meaningless. Even if it functioned as a "wave" or non-particle, it's path was technically well-defined simply because it was being continuously controlled, whereas an interference pattern could only happen as a result of free moving waves after the beam was initially fired. It would be more probably more accurate to say that this was some form of third "semi-magical" state, in which energy somehow had a physical form yet was not comprised of matter-particles, yet not totally undetectable through direct physical observation like mana was—a sort of "magical-physical" duality.
But I confirmed that so long as there was an active intent controlling the Shinsoo, it retained its original properties.
Within my own body at least, the Shinsoo circulation that the water spirits did and my own absorption of Shinsoo at the cellular level seemed to work as normal—placing my own living tissue under the electron microscope yielded a similar "semi-magical" result, where the Shinsoo itself could not be directly perceived yet blurred the image of cell molecules.
Of course, there was also the possibility that the particles were so small as to be at the subatomic level or lower and my instruments were incapable of perceiving them, but ultimately from a practical perspective, what mattered was knowing how to store and use it.
And it confirmed the strategic value of working with Shinsoo—it was something that I could continue to use in planes other than Tower of God, and that it could have lasting effects on my body's base capabilities. On top of its ability to act as a store of mana, even if converting it was pretty slow.
Now what about Shinsoo based items and technology?
I had with me the common Needles, Hooks, and Reels that we were given during the Fishermen classes. But there wasn't really anything special about these things, they were controlled by the user via Shinsoo rather than having magical properties of their own.
The one thing that had special properties of its own was the Rank F Arms Inventory that became available for purchase using Points for Fishermen that passed the Position Test, which I'd bought shortly before I left the Tower.
It was basically a single flat strip panel lined with holes that served as a weapon rack, but it had several features that were similar to a Pocket. It could float in Shinsoo, turn invisible, and compress its size along with all of the weapons carried on it.
The behavior of these properties was quite intriguing in a Shinsoo-less environment. Normally, the low-purity Suspendium of the Arms Inventory meant that it couldn't fully float on its own and needed the user to help manipulate it with Shinsoo. But contrary to the intuitive behavior of buoyancy—the higher the density of the Shinsoo, the harder it was for the same quality of Suspendium to float. This was because, despite gravity seemingly attracting things to the ground, Shinsoo density went in the opposite direction, such that the pressure increased the higher you went.
And now in a Shinsoo-less environment, it reverted to a more intuitive behavior. The Arms Inventory managed to float fine by itself on actual water, but fell down extremely slowly in open air as if it were in a low gravity environment, although it couldn't be controlled since there was no Shinsoo around.
On the other hand, the ability to turn invisible and compress itself did not work without Shinsoo. They did work when I got the water spirits to submerge the Arms Inventory in a bubble of Shinsoo though.
That compression feature seemed like it could be very useful if I acquired better storage items. These experiments seemed to suggest that as long as I had Shinsoo available, all Shinsoo-based items would work normally, and I had long wanted a mobile inventory system that worked on other planes.
With my experiments done, I went to refuel Derflinger by going to the Armoriont farm I left on Earth Refuge.
I had asked Amelia last time to make a super organism I could use for draining purposes, but that turned out to be quite ineffective. In order to do the drain, the organism had to have a close enough connection to me to be considered a part of me. It was possible to sacrifice other living things as part of rituals, but I couldn't extract their mana to myself that way. And it was not as simple as converting glucose or fats, either—the process of draining afflicted the living cells and tissues that were being drained, it was not conventional sort of energy conversion process. That meant that cells were broken down or killed mysteriously as their microscopic spiritual energy was taken.
But because the energy was from the spirit and not just a purely physical thing, its level of complex sentience and spiritual connection to the primary host mattered a lot. The larger the body of the symbiote, such as the chimera titan which the Armoriont could meld into and control, the less it fit into the concept of "me" and so the less useful they were.
When draining the Armoriont farm, I had to limit each Armoriont's size, and re-sync up with them one by one to drain them.
It was incredibly boring and tedious work, and made more difficult by the fact that both me and the Armoriont I'd taken with me to the Tower had apparently diverged significantly from the ones I'd left in the farm, and I'd similarly found it more difficult to magically subsume the older ones.
I could've had my Shinsoo improved Armoriont split new copies, but I suspected that would actually not be a good idea since each copy would dilute the Shinsoo-enhanced properties as any biomass they consumed here wouldn't have any Shinsoo. Refilling Derf was not really such a high priority issue that I'd consider sacrificing the potential enhancements that Shinsoo could provide over the long-term.
So now it took a little longer per Armoriont to drain them, and I couldn't even do all 256 each hour.
Last time I'd spent a little over 2 full days of doing this mind-numbing work to refill Derflinger back from empty. This time Derf was missing about thirty percent of his reserves, and after the first hour I'd estimated that it might take a day and a half just to refill the thirty percent, at 440 MP per hour if I kept up this pace.
Unfortunately, I didn't have anywhere near that much time. After all the ritual testing with the team, I'd had maybe 22 hours left if I wanted to get back to the Tower in time for the final test. What's more, the time tradeoff wasn't necessarily worth it, because even though I could get MP faster here relative to my personal time, what actually mattered was how fast I recovered relative to the Tower time.
Because I could also instead spend a longer amount of personal time in the Tower and recover MP through Agate and converting Shinsoo with the water spirits. And Derf himself could probably use the practice himself, to absorb mana from getting hit with Shinsoo attacks or from the environment, even if we wound up recovering MP at an overall slower pace.
"What do you think, Derf? This is boring as hell, want to refill back at the Tower instead? If we have any extra time once we finish with the invitation spell testing, we can go back early instead of doing more of this," I asked him.
"Sounds good to me. I don't even really care if I'm full on mana or not. I've got some ideas I want to try with Shinsoo, got some inspiration from our last fight with that Ranker guy, I feel like there might be a way for me to use it, just not like the Wave Controllers we learned about."
We continued for a while since the team was still resting, but since Derf was awake I talked to him about the Builder and the ritual we were trying to test.
"If the issue is really just that they have no mana of their own, that's going to make things a lot more difficult for me, on similar planes where people don't have magic. Could there be any other reason we haven't thought of?"
"What about the things that are connected to them? You said they might have magic, right?" said Derf. "That's why you want to try trading the vials that give powers?"
"You mean offering a contract to a shard instead?" I asked. "That might be possible but I don't think it's a good idea, even if I could do it somehow."
"No, I mean, they're connected to your teammates, aren't they? Mentally and probably spiritually. So what if that's causing problems, because what they want aren't the same thing? Like how the group ritual failed because of their willpower was mixing. I remember my maker complaining about something like that for her spirit magic, because the spirits hated Brimir for being…well, you know, the same reason other planes hate us now, haha."
"Damn, you're right. That could be it. I bet none of them want their hosts to get any help from anything else," I said. "Their whole purpose is to make their hosts use their own powers as much as possible and encourage them to get into bad situations. We'll have to try doing the ritual outside of their range then."
"We could also try to give them some magic power directly during the ritual."
"A mana transfer? Like if they imbibed my blood?"
"Yeah, or if they let me Boost them," said Derf.
"An outside influence like that might make it worse though, we saw that when we tried to use Paige's power."
"I don't take over their minds though, it's just sharing some energy. Though you might be right still, if the magic is tainted by another source, it could disrupt things. Even things like blood carry spiritual residue from the original owner," said Derf.
"But worth a try, anyways, if moving them outside the shard range isn't enough."
O O O
A couple of hours later, I set out with Amelia on the AAPV into space beyond the moon. It was still the only one we had as the facilities for making another AAPV were still being reconstructed and wouldn't be ready on the M2 base for several more days at the earliest, and even longer at the secret worlds.
There was not much space to begin with and the lack of artificial gravity made the ritual setup extra complicated, so we had decided to do this one by one, rather than having the whole team come along.
Then Amelia did the ritual. At the end of her chant, the magic fizzled out again. She sighed.
"Sorry, I think this just isn't going to work with me," she said. "The shards might be part of it, but I don't think I'm the right person to be your host even if every other condition was there."
"Why do you think so?"
"Isn't it obvious? You know what I really want, Kaleidus. There isn't anything specific I want you to do for me."
"I thought that would make you the best choice. If your wish is for me to stay here," I said. "I'd be fulfilling the contract just by being here."
"Yeah but I know you won't stay for long, even if this contract works. And I don't want to hold you back from leaving either," said Amelia. "Isn't that what a contract with me would really mean? For me to order you to stay with me."
"You do realize that if I can't get an invitation here, it'll be hard to even visit? I could avoid using any foreign powers and stay under the radar, but that's not a sure thing. Without a contract, even if I were able to reset the suppression a few times, eventually I might reach the point of not being able to come back at all."
"But that isn't happening today, and if that does happen, what I really want is for you to take me with you. What's so great about staying in a world that's doomed to end sooner or later?"
"I don't know if that's something I can even do, I've recently learned that I know very little about the way I travel, and everything is too risky to test, because bad assumptions probably mean we die," I said honestly, thinking of the fact that I'd still been too afraid to test whether I could bring anyone with me. And it wasn't just the possibility of facing another Beast, but the fact that my spell had never actually been tested with two souls riding in the unformed creation bubbles. If something went wrong and the bubble broke down or I lost control of it mid-transit, there was no evacuation plan, nor could there be any. And it wasn't like I could just test with a random expendable person, because I was also in the bubble and at risk.
"But I suppose you're right, either way, whether it's to figure out how to defeat Scion or how to bring others with me, I can't find the answers here."
She nodded, but remained silent, and we headed back to the moon base.
Once we got back, she announced that she was heading back planet-side, and asked Enduring Witness to make a portal for her. When Taylor and Paige looked confused, I waved them off.
O O O
"You're my last hope, Taylor," I said to her once we blasted off into space. "We need to make this count."
"What do you mean? Couldn't we just keep trying with more adjustments? What happened with Amelia?"
"She doesn't have the right mindset to make this work, unfortunately. It isn't her fault, but we can't do anything about it. I believe you're the only one that can muster the necessary will to form a contract with me, because only you have something you need my help to achieve," I said.
"What about Paige? I'm sure she'd keep trying no matter what," said Taylor. "She's very dedicated."
"But it is a different kind of dedication from yours, and I suspect that it will never work with her either. To her, the ritual is a way to help me, because I asked for it. But it doesn't work unless she wants it for herself. I'm not sure if she even has any wishes of her own. She'll listen to whatever I say, but this contract needs her to be willing to command," I said. "To believe that she has the right to force the world to listen to her."
"Alright. Is there anything you think I should focus on?"
"It's up to you, really. Whatever you think is unfair about the world, that needs to change. That you need my help for. Feel free to take some time to think about it if you need to. The ritual will be better for it."
"There are lots of things. Scion and the Endbringers, obviously. And for my dad to let me fight. To keep him safe. For the city to get better. I want my best friend back, even though that's stupid, I just can't help it. When I went back to Winslow it was so strange, not seeing Emma and the trio. Somehow I got used to them being there. It was almost…worse that there was nobody to bother me anymore, and everyone else seems to have forgotten all about them, about me, and what they did to me. Like everything I went through didn't even matter."
I kept silent, but nodded, encouraging her to continue.
"I don't know what I expected. Apologies? From the school, or maybe from all the people who stood by and did nothing. The teachers who failed to do their jobs? They could barely meet my eyes, and all the other girls that hung out with Emma, they all got off with a slap on the wrist. They just went on to target other people. Nothing changed, and I still have no friends, nor do I want any of them to be my friend. It really isn't fair, is it? The police got the proof they needed, the bullies were punished, I won, damn it…so why doesn't it feel like I won anything? Where is my happy ending?" She said bitterly.
"Instead, I missed a month of classes after we risked our lives to fight the Simurgh and had to hide in another world, and I can't even really explain why, so it's just truancy. Or maybe they think I'm just a traumatized victim, a lost cause, a problem that will just go away soon if they ignore it, because people fall by the wayside and this is just normal in the Bay? Now the year's almost over and I might actually fail some of my classes. I wish I could say that I'm happy that they're processing a transfer to Arcadia for next term, but I don't want to have to repeat a year just to catch up. And who knows if Arcadia will even be much better, I still won't have any friends there."
"Do you want Amelia and Paige to go back to Brockton Bay with you?" I asked.
"I can handle it, summer's about to start anyways, so I won't have to deal with it much longer. But we were talking about the things I'm not happy about, so there it is. But it isn't so much about me, as it is the fact that everything will just happen all over again, to somebody else. There will be another trio, and another Taylor. How many capes trigger every year? How many others never trigger, never get any help, and never get their comeuppance?"
"Far too many. This world is locked in a constant cycle of endless misery, a struggle between good and evil with only temporary victories," I said. "Powers and Endbringers have only magnified what has always been there, tilting the scales towards complete destruction."
"Exactly. That's what's wrong with the world, and that's why our team exists, right? To push the scales back. To make the world a better place. It isn't any one thing or enemy to defeat, but to do what we can to make things right," said Taylor, nodding to herself, then held a hand out towards the magic circle.
"That's why we need you with us. We need all the help we can get, all the powers you can bring to the table, no matter where they come from."
She lit the first candle.
"One soul aggrieved to yearn. One flame to light the way. One circle to open the door…"
Something seemed different this time as the chant was repeated. I felt the air become heavy with an unknown pressure.
She poured a vial of my blood out onto the circle, and instead of floating in the zero-g environment,, it actually slowly fell towards the circle as if being drawn in.
"By my summons, I invite you into the threshold, Lightbearer Who Carries the Stars. I call upon He Who Sees Beyond, to help me find the answer. I beseech the Prince of Duality, to bring the scales back into balance! Thrice I invoke your name, so answer my call, and form a contract with me!"
Then she cut herself and let her own blood fall into the circle as well.
The magic circle alighted. Then the chain of candles around the circle lit by themselves.
I felt the connection reach out, and I responded with my own mana. There was a tug on me, and I let it take hold, even metaphorically grabbing it back and pulling myself towards it, then I suddenly found myself inside the circle.
There was an invisible presence of some sort, that seemed to fix its gaze upon me, blanketing the area in a pulse that gave a feeling of scorching my mana. The plane's corrective force, I assumed, its attention having been drawn by my reaction to the ritual.
"Who dares to call upon Erkshminialhhathrr? A mere human?" I said imperiously.
"The Queen of Bugs greets the mighty Prince, may your light that eclipses novas vividly echo until the end of time."
"I'm surprised Amelia remembered precisely enough to tell you even the supposed translation, and that you also remembered."
"We thought you might do something like that again, so we had to be ready for it," she said with a grin.
"Very well, I offer you a contract. As my host, you will become my anchor in this world, and your energy will sustain me. In exchange, I will carry out your commands and use my powers on your behalf, according to the energy you provide me. The contract shall end if either of us wish for it. Do you accept?"
"Yes."
The bond fully formed, and then that smothering presence vanished.
It's nice that even such seemingly small things are given so much time, it shows well the complexity and variability of magic.
And of course, I am always happy when shards are given more screen time, showing that it is not just a tool for gaining power, but active participants in the events taking place
It seemed that the contract bond was too much of a strain for a person that had no magic of their own. I minimized my draw on her energy, but there was still quite a bit of passive upkeep to maintain my immunity to the corrective force. Aside from the actual cost of any powers I was using, the bond had to pay to block the plane's corrective force, the cost being higher the more power I used and the greater the distortion. Agate was always technically active and consumed quite a lot of mana, so that probably contributed to the strain, even when I was not doing anything else.
Taylor only woke up after Amelia made some brain bugs for her down at the M2B HQ, similar to the type that she used in Brockton Bay to process bug senses.
But she still felt weak and exhausted, even a little dizzy. All the symptoms of mental and physical fatigue were there, but she had been able to offload some of her mental faculties to the brain bugs.
As a temporary measure, I gave her a blood transfusion, which contained my mana and some refined Shinsoo, which restored her to a decent shape.
"I don't think I'll be able to use much of my powers like this, it would be too dangerous for you," I said to her while Amelia was monitoring her vitals and suppressing an immune response to the blood. "But at least it worked."
Taylor nodded weakly.
"I probably shouldn't stay any longer, because just being here is draining your energy. I will hopefully find some way to mitigate the effects on you if we ever need to really rely on the contract," I said. The next time I showed up in Worm, the suppression would have reset and it should be easy to just renew the contract at will if neither of us had broken it.
The main objectives of testing whether the corrective force actually existed on other planes, and whether the ritual itself was a valid defense against it, had been cleared. The test was a success, and additionally showed that the warnings that the Builder gave me were true too. The instant that the contract was formed, the corrective force's attention came to me. And a weak host without enough magic power of their own made for a bad host, since they'd need alternative means to support me, especially if I wanted to use more of my powers.
For now, the only alternative means I knew of was transferring fluids that contained mana, such as my blood which we used to help Taylor. But that was terribly inefficient and giving out my own blood was not something I wanted to be in the habit of doing. Living sacrifices helped the ritual itself but there was no way to transfer that power to the host for continued upkeep. There would probably be methods out there in other magic worlds, but I'd have to find them.
But this meant that in worlds like Worm where magic users and mystical forces were non-existent or extremely rare, I would be better served just doing as I did before and keeping under the notice of the planar corrective force for as long as I could instead of trying to get an invitation right away. As long as I avoided the use of higher end powers–no, even if I did incur the attention of the corrective force, I could assume that as the Builder told me, I wouldn't even necessarily be kicked out in a short period, so it was probably feasible to do whatever I wanted to do on those worlds then leave. After all, there were few reasons to stay for a prolonged period on any one plane, especially after its creation dust supply ran out. Unless there was something special about that plane, like being a continuous source of more creation dust, or having some opportunity to grow my personal power–the type of power I could bring around with me anywhere I went and was universally usable in most planes. And it just so happened that a world without mystical forces was probably not one where I'd be able to grow my personal power that much.
So in the grand scheme of things, a method to make use of non-magical hosts was less interesting from the perspective of merely using this ritual, compared to whatever implications such methods might have for enhancing the magical power of such persons. Because of course, I also lacked much in the way of internally sourced power still, relying on primarily external sources to generate mana, like the hack of draining the Armoriont as if it were my own lifeforce.
After we were sure that Taylor was fine, I thanked everyone for their help, then I dropped Taylor off in Brockton Bay, and went to check in with Offensive Bias.
Accord had refused to sell any vials to us for just cash, and instead demanded an unspecified future favor plus variable cash prices that he would only quote if we specified what strength and type of power we wanted.
Well, I shelved that for now since I didn't want to get entangled or obligate CRUCIBLE to anything at the moment, nor did I have the time to look into alternative sources. I could try and contact Cauldron directly next time, though I suspected that they might also ask for a favor.
But Bias did manage to find twelve pieces of Simurgh flesh of various sizes scattered around the ruins of the old M2 base. Most of those areas we had left untouched and opted to rebuild over a hundred kilometers away, because of the risk that the Simurgh had left hidden traps for us, and because some tactical nukes had been detonated, irradiating the area. However, since the rebuild was going smoothly, Offensive Bias was able to spare some droids and drones to carefully scavenge the area for my request.
Some pieces had feathers still, suggesting that these were from the wings. Others it was impossible to tell where it came from, just lumps of uniformly pale flesh. The largest of which seemed to be an entire section of wing over two meters long and half a meter wide.
Despite extraordinary density of the material, it apparently weighed only about as much as organic flesh did for the same volume.
"Is it just me, or does that look crystalline?" Derf asked while we examined it.
"It is. It's some sort of living crystal material, I think. Based on the fact that biotinkers can work with it. The shards are also said to be crystalline in nature too."
"Can we make a sword out of it before we leave?" asked Derf.
"I'll ask Amelia to see if she can reshape it, but if she can't then we're probably out of luck," I said.
"Hmmm…" Derflinger said. "Touch me to that big long piece."
I obliged.
"I think I can actually just transfer directly into this thing," said Derf. "It seems to qualify as a weapon as it is already? And it doesn't seem really alive either…at least not in a way that would stop me from moving in..."
"I can't really swing this around though. And didn't you say swords were the best shape for you?"
The wing piece seemed to have been sliced off cleanly near the base, with many feathers still protruding from it. There was no good place to grip it though to use as a weapon.
"Yeah but there's something really odd about this thing, like it has parts that are there but aren't at the same time," said Derf.
"That would be the dimensional warping effects, I assume," I said.
"I want to at least try it out. It shouldn't take long, and I'll get back after," said Derf.
"I thought you needed at least a day to move vessels?"
"Nah that's only when I have no energy. I've got loads right now so this should be fast. And keep me tight against it, that'll make it much faster than if I have to jump over. Ten minutes, tops," said Derf.
"Well, in that case, here you go," I said, putting the Armoriont nanocrystal sword flat against the Simurgh flesh.
I waited patiently while Derf moved over, and true to his words he finished in nine minutes.
"Whuuah…this is really weird. I'm not sure what's going in here, but I feel stretched," said Derf.
"Did you bring over all your mana? I can't seem to feel any from the sword anymore," I said.
"Most, used up a bit to move, but there's enough room in here for all of it. Give me a few more minutes though, all of me is in here, but I'm not all over this thing yet," he said.
While he did so, I used some of my own mana to analyze the different pieces of flesh. The information I got was not very clear, but I had the sense that the surface protruding feathers were harder than steel, and most of the other pieces were actually softer.
"Ooooo…"
Comparatively speaking, the Armoriont's cellulose nanocrystals were actually quite a lot stronger in terms of hardness, but they lacked the same material density. These crystals instead just compressed in on themselves without any clear molecular pattern.
"Aaaaaa…"
The piece that Derflinger now occupied was simultaneously the largest and had the densest parts close to what appeared to be the base side of the wing. No other pieces had any parts that indicated it came from an organ of any sort, or even muscle rather than skin.
"Ehhh?" Derflinger made a surprised noise.
Suddenly the whole wing began to compress, feathers slowly retracting into the wing base.
"Huaaa!!! I…can…transform!" Derflinger shouted.
"What is going on?" I asked.
"This crystal is like a single living thing with no cells, and it's both dead and alive. Dead enough for me to take it over, but alive enough to reconfigure itself using the energy I'm giving to it," said Derf.
"That's wild." I said, while watching the process of the flesh slowly morphing into an undefined blob. It seemed to speed up as Derf learned to how to manipulate it. "Can you create more of it?"
"No idea how. Maybe I can integrate the other pieces though. Quick, bring them over," said Derf.
I did as he asked, but held back a few smaller pieces since I was still planning to bring some to the Builder.
"Sweet, it's working," said Derf, as he absorbed the rest of the pieces into the blob. "It burns a lot of energy to control this though."
"Do you really need to turn into a sword? I remember we talked about this before. If you could transform, wouldn't it be better to turn into armor?"
"What are you saying Partner? The great Derflinger will always be a sword!"
As if to emphasize the point, he quickly condensed then stretched horizontally into a pole, before flattening a blade out of one end, and a thicker round section on the other hand to be the handle, as a simple guardless sword in the eastern single-edge straight saber shape that he had back in Halkegenia before he moved to the Armoriont-grown sword.
As the original Simurgh flesh, the sword was pure white, but much thinner and sleeker than Derf's previous forms. I had the notion that it seemed somewhat reminiscent of what an elven sword would look like, light, graceful, and elegant. The end of the hilt curved and widened a bit to hold the hand, and the handle itself was just long enough for two hands but the overall size of the sword suggested it was intended primarily for one-handed use.
"You can add a crossguard and grip to me yourself. I'm balancing the weight so we don't need a separate pommel," said Derflinger.
With a little bit of work, I repurposed the guard of the old Armoriont sword and installed a smaller one onto the Endbringer sword.
And then we had the bright idea to turn the entire Armoriont blade into a hollow sheath which still looked like a larger sword body, and fit onto the new guard but could be unhooked and slid off at will.
So now it looked mostly like the original sword, with a bit of adjusted coloring so that it was no longer fully transparent, hiding the real sword inside.
But since it was all connected, Derf could still channel his powers through the outer layer, so I could use it normally, or unleash his true form and bring despair to our opponents.
After the whole process, Derf had spent nearly all of the MP we had gathered earlier from the Armoriont farm, but the rate of consumption was still potentially tolerable if used in combat.
Overall, I couldn't be dissatisfied with it, even though we'd used up all the densest pieces of the Endbringer flesh, so I had little hope that the remaining pieces would be worth anything with the Builder. They were probably better used this way anyway though, since I had no urgency to acquire more creation dust now that I had confirmed that the threshold invitation worked.
Afterwards, I took it back to Earth M2B and gave a piece of the Simurgh flesh to Amelia to study, along with the White Steel Eel sample from the Tower. That left me with two small pieces to show the Builder.
When I finally left, I counted nineteen hours that had passed while I was in Worm.
O O O
"Hmm…" The Builder's spirit examined the piece of Simurgh flesh I'd offered. "A living crystal, although rare, is not unheard of. That it seems to have a natural dimensional folding property is curious, but not altogether unheard of either for natural magical species. It is the fact that it appears to be artificially designed that makes it more interesting, if only as testament to the ingenuity of whichever race designed it. But this piece does not contain enough material to really showcase the true potential of this lifeform. I'll offer you one unit of creation dust for this, if only for your effort. If you bring me denser pieces I will trade you a higher quantity."
I considered the offer for a moment. It was more than I'd hoped, and gave me additional insight into what types of things the Builder liked. I had the option now of acquiring more Endbringer flesh to trade him, although it was a tough call as to whether that would be better used to enhance Derflinger's sword instead, or for me to experiment upon myself.
For now, there was something else I was interested in. "If you don't mind, I'd like to trade you for the answer to a question instead. Last time you mentioned that the Beacons of my spell are unreliable in multiple ways. Can you explain how?"
"I would say that the analysis you want is more valuable than one unit of creation dust, and that is already stretching the value of this," he gestured to the Simurgh flesh. "However, on this question I will humor you because I would rather you did not die or get lost from some foolish mistake."
Then he held out his other hand, and manifested a hologram of sorts.
"Listen carefully. The first flaw is that your anchors have no interaction with reality, which means they have no ties to it either and are not themselves anchored to the creation zone."
An opaque white rectangular prism appeared, denoting the creation zone. Two multicolored balls of light hovered just above and touching it, inside a translucent layer that seemed to have dark murky waves going through it. Then the white prism shot a beam of light at one ball, dispelling it. The other ball was seemingly shoved by a violent wave and destabilized, then disappeared.
"While this makes them less noticeable to the plane's corrective force, they are still easily erased with enough time, or eroded by random Chaos fluctuations outside of the plane. The second flaw you are already aware of—although I do not know the specific calculations behind it, it clearly uses some frame of reference that is artificial, using assumptions about the creation zone that are not consistently true."
The prism changed shape from rectangular to spherical to a curved helix.
"But the greatest flaw is less specific to the anchors rather than the way the spell works as a whole."
Then he created an image of lines connecting a series of white colored nodes, on a chaotically moving background of static.
"The Harmonic Corridors are not always available to every plane, and their flows are not always at the same intensity. This has many implications. You may find that your Beacon cannot pull you strongly enough in the right direction, causing you to land elsewhere."
A strong light emitted from one of the nodes, signaling the Beacon, while a blue dot exited from another. A line connecting them flashed, and the blue dot moved, but then the line was overrun by smaller black dots and shook, before the blue dot fell onto a different line at an intersection, towards a different node.
Then he showed a side by side comparison of four enlarged columns of greyish energy.
"The flows might be too turbulent to traverse at all, or the concentration of creation or chaos energies is too high. You must be careful to observe and adjust, or avoid it altogether. When there is too much creation energy, you need more creation dust to keep control of yourself. When there is too much chaos, you should condense the bubble and add creation dust to reinforce it."
One column turned white, one stayed grey, one a mix of red and black, and the last a violently shaking mix of white, red, and black. The grey one had one dot denoting a single unit of grain at the top, and a small bubble of light representing the bubble I traveled in. The white column's bubble was brighter, and had two smaller dots attached. The black and red column had a smaller but equally bright bubble as the white, with two smaller dots attached. The last one had no bubble displayed, but instead showed a ghostly face with a stretched and warped screaming expression.
"Finally—you must never attempt to bring another independent soul, or any uncooperative spirits, with you. The integrity of your bubble depends on the synchronization of your soul with it, and a uniform intent to control it. Interference from another soul that is incapable of sublimating its consciousness with yours will cause it to collapse."
Then there was a miniature version of me, linked to two other lights, and they started to move around in perfect formation, together inside a bubble. A third light appeared, linked to me, but it moved out of formation with the rest of the group and the bubble. The bubble then collapsed and everything burst.
"Now I have more than answered your question. I have told you how to handle different conditions of the Corridors, but you will have to figure out how to improve your anchoring method yourself. In this plane, it is not necessary because I am here, but you already have a hint as to how one might go about accomplishing it—I did speak at length to you about the concept of ties and bonds to the world last time."
There was a lot to go through here, but it really answered some of my long standing questions since I first got the Kaleidostick, and helped me understand the limits of my planeshifting.
I thanked him for his help, and got back inside the unformed creation bubble I was still controlling and rode here in, then asked the Builder to send me back into the Tower to see Headon.
At the First Floor, there were no strange remarks from Headon this time. He merely welcomed me back and then handed me the Pocket again, before wishing me luck and teleporting me back to the Second Floor.
I checked my Pocket. To my great shock, less than two days had passed in the Tower. What was going on here? When I had been in the Tower last, time moved so fast relative to Worm, but when I was on Worm, the time here didn't seem to move anywhere near as fast?
I racked my brain and could not think of anything that would account for this. Was this just complete randomness or was there actually something affecting the way that time flowed? But I could not do anything about it now, it was just something I might need to ask the Builder the next time I had something worthwhile to trade, I supposed.
It was at least convenient for me that I now had an extra week more than I thought I would before the final test, which meant I could try to fill up Derf some more.
Then I saw a series of messages from Androssi asking me where I was, threatening to bust down my door if I didn't show up for training, and then finally telling me where to find her—she'd agreed to help Baam with training for a bit because we were going to participate in his test, same as she did in canon.
There was a message from Baam, saying that he'd heard from Androssi I was sick after the last test and that he wished me a fast recovery.
A message from Hwa Ryun, telling me that she would not participate in the final test and would be leaving the Regulars' dorms, so I would have to contact her via Pocket if I needed anything. She would still be around, though I'd missed their strategy session, so the strategy for the final test would be explained to me by Rachel.
The last was a message from Rachel, asking me to visit so she could tell me the strategy for the final test.
O O O
I leaned back against the wall arms crossed, while Rachel sat on her bed, and explained the Guardian's test. It seemed to be the exact same one that they used in canon, with an ecosystem of strange aquatic and amphibious organisms that we'd have to navigate and fight to keep everything away from Rachel and Baam who'd be taking a route through the inside of an ultra large fish called the Dolphin Madame.
"…it might be possible for us to win the test normally, but we can't do that for a couple of reasons. One, Baam already announced that he's an Irregular and if we win that way, the whole Tower will know that an Irregular is climbing. When they come for us, they'll kill everyone on the team, whether they know we're Irregulars or not."
"But wasn't that also part of the plan? To intentionally push Baam into revealing his status, according to what Hwa Ryun and Yu Hansung told us before? That's why you let yourself get temporarily crippled," I said.
"It is. But that was their plan, not mine. This is the only way we can have a non-standard test from the Guardian, which is what they need to do the next part, and achieve their goal in all this, the reason they're helping us," she said.
"Oh, so they finally told you? What do they want?" I asked.
"They are part of an organization called FUG, and whose goal is to overthrow the ruling power of the Tower. In order to do that, they need to kill Zahard. But a long time ago, Zahard made a contract with the Guardians of the Tower that gives him Immortality and makes it impossible for a Regular to kill him, because Regulars receive their permission to use Shinsoo from the Guardians."
"So they need an Irregular," I said. "One of us."
She nodded. "Yes, but Baam is the one with the best potential, so they want him."
"How do they figure that? Why not you or me?"
She laughed. "Me? I don't have that kind of potential. But it's not like they're just going to forget us either. They want to train Baam up to become one of their Slayers to kill Zahard, but we don't need to be a Slayer to be useful to them, and it'll be easier to move around if people don't know that we're Irregulars or with FUG."
"I see. Why should we work with them though, if nobody knows that we're Irregulars? Aside from them blackmailing us about revealing that little secret, that is," I said.
"We don't have to, but they've proven that they can be useful, haven't they? With information and other resources. They can't blackmail us either, because like I said, they don't want anyone to know about us. Even if Baam is the most promising, they would be idiots to discard other options, and they really don't have many to choose from. Irregulars are so rare that they can't afford to lose us," said Rachel. "If they really did that, we could just find other supporters within FUG besides them."
This time it was my turn to nod. "Good, so you realized that. I wondered if you might have felt compelled to work for them."
"I might be weak but I'm not stupid. They need me, even if it's just as a hidden dagger to hold in reserve."
"Are you actually going to try and kill Zahard?"
She shrugged. "I might think about it eventually. For now, I just want to climb and I'll make use of FUG if it helps me."
"Fair enough. Back to the test though, so they want Baam—I assume there is a plan to make him disappear then?"
"Exactly. Because Baam and I are the only ones that would be in the bubble that needs to go through the Dolphin Madame, nobody else will see what happens with us. And then we can take advantage of the other victory condition Baam asked the Guardian for to perfectly fake his death and leave no doubts. If he dies during the test, all other Regulars that participated will pass. So I'll push him out of the bubble, and if we still pass then he must have died, and it won't matter if they can't find a body after our sponsors grab him."
"But if he doesn't actually die, how would the Regulars pass? Wouldn't everyone just fail because the condition wasn't met, and you didn't both exit safely? And if he does die, how is our FUG faction going to recruit him? Don't they need him alive?"
She smirked. "That's exactly how we're going to trick everyone. I didn't die in the Hide and Seek test, so I still have my one-time revive from Headon. I'll use that on Baam instead, so he'll die to meet the pass condition, and then he'll revive and FUG can take him. But just in case, I also made another secret deal with the second Floor Guardian myself—if Baam falls out of the bubble, and I return alone, even if Baam doesn't die, everyone will also pass. So no matter what, as long as Baam falls from the bubble, everyone will pass, and the test director will tell them that it's because Baam died, and nobody can dispute it."
"I see. You sure you can pull it off though? Baam can be surprisingly strong."
"I'll have help. There's going to be a member of RED—that's the Royal Enforcement Division—secretly interfering in the test, who's going to send the Bull to kill Baam. Baam will definitely have a hard time with that, so I'll just push him out once he's injured or distracted."
"The Royal Enforcement Division?" I asked. "Why would they help you? What if the Bull kills you too?"
"Yu Hansung already found and made a deal with him to kill just Baam, in exchange for helping him get to Anak Zahard, who's a fake princess, and retrieve the Thirteen Month Series weapons. He told the RED that the Guardian considers it part of Baam's test, so that will be allowed, but Regulars other than Baam and his target Anak Zahard are off limits. So he won't risk angering the Guardian by killing me, because I'm supposed to be just a Regular. Actually, it's you that should be careful. The Guide thinks that the RED is going to try and kill you too anyways," said Rachel, face turning into a frown at the end.
"Oh? What for?"
That wasn't entirely unexpected, given that I thought Yuga might have concluded I was an Irregular after the barrier absorption in class, but it was still surprising that Hwa Ryun thought he would come after me, after encouraging me to show that power anyways.
But then, Rachel's explanation went in a completely different direction.
"The RED is actually the Wave Controller instructor, Yuga, but his real name is Lo Po Bia Ren. Apparently, The Lightbearer instructor Lero Ro has been spreading a conspiracy theory among the instructors that you're a Ranker smuggled in to help princess Androssi, and if he actually believes that, then you wouldn't be a Regular that's off limits, and it'd be a good chance to damage the competition in the War of the Princesses, to help the Lo Po Bia family princesses who are still Regulars."
"…" Lero Ro, seriously? Now I understood how Yu Hansung felt about him. The idiot was too damn nosy for his own good and had no sense of self-preservation. What if I really was secretly a Ranker with an organization behind me, that would silence him?
Rachel looked worried at my silence. "Do you think you can handle him?"
I shook my head. "I can't be certain, I don't know how powerful he is. And even if I could, I don't think it would be wise to have a battle of that scale during the test. Unlike with Quant, he won't be restricted, and he's a Wave Controller."
Although I acted as if I might have a chance, I knew I was outclassed here. There was no way I could win or "handle" an elite Ranker assassin at this point, but if it was just a matter of surviving, it was not that bad, given that I could flee to the Ring of Deterrence in the worst case, I'd just need to buy a minimum of ten seconds. That was a long time in a high level battle, but I had a number of tricks up my sleeve that should give even Rankers pause for a while.
The real question was this: Should I simply try to avoid him entirely and stay away from Androssi and the Green April, but risk Lo Po Bia Ren finding me by my lonesome? Or stick close to the fighting where Yuri Zahard would show up eventually and save us?
Rachel frowned even more deeply.
O O O
[Mini-Interlude]
Rachel looked down after her teammate left and seemed to think for a while. "Then…just in case, if he's really in trouble…I'll have to rely on you…"
A tremendously large and tall shadow slid into view beside her bed. A deep chuckling noise echoing through metal could be heard.
O O O
Very Long A/N:
There are important revelations here, and here are some notes about potential changes from the canon, which includes spoilers for ToG:
In the webtoon, Lero Ro actually knew that Rachel was an Irregular, but in this story when he checked their status it had already been tampered with. In the original timeline, Rachel was weak and insignificant aside from being able to command Akryung, so nobody would pay much attention to her. Yu Hansung knew that Quant already saw her status during the survival test, so he didn't tamper with it immediately; instead, he probably dealt with it later on; Lero Ro found out when he checked on them after the Crown game, curious about why the boy with a dangerous talent defended her.
Here, MC absorbing Lero Ro's barrier was secretly seen by Yu Hansung, and alarmed him because he is a genius Wave Controller, and like Yuga, he immediately understood the implications. He acted immediately to tamper with the records, then swore Quant to secrecy under the guise of covering up his mistake in the survival test.
In regards to Rachel's motivations and knowing that Baam would survive—there is some conflicting evidence, but this is also my interpretation of the available evidence, combining what we know from the anime and the webtoon—especially the contradiction that MC pointed out with regards to the Guardian's pass condition. Rachel's special revive is only in the anime and possibly not webtoon canon, but many things make sense this way.
Initially, when Headon made the deal with FUG, the Irregular he sent was Rachel, not Baam, and Rachel was given the perfect tool to fake her death. But whether because Hwa Ryun and Yu Hansung recognized Baam from the prophecy, or they saw his potential with Shinsoo, they wanted him and not Rachel, thus leading Rachel to negotiate a deal where she'd help fake his death instead in exchange for helping her climb. This guarantees that FUG would continue to help her beyond the initial deal with Headon, because she knows that the lure of chasing her is the only way for FUG to motivate Baam into climbing. She didn't mention this to MC because that quid pro quo only applies to her and not the MC.
We also see her getting upset at Hwaryun on the Hell Train later, because Hwaryun told her she would make Rachel the heroine but ended up staying with Baam instead. Rachel didn't get the help she expected from Hwaryun, so she started to work with other factions in FUG instead. So this part is somewhat odd, because if they weren't helping her anymore, why bother leading Baam up still? Why do other factions in FUG support her? Are they even different factions, or can she also get into contact with the higher ups among Arlen's supporters?
The strongest evidence we see that Rachel is deliberately leading Baam up the Tower, and knew that he was alive, came when she privately told Yura about Baam being a clingy guy chasing her up the Tower, before anybody else knew that Baam was alive. In fact, the ??? who told Emile that Baam was alive was very likely to be her as well because of the way Emile answered Khun's question about who told her. Emile didn't say that she didn't know who it was. Instead, she actually refused to answer, by joking that it would cost one dollar, and immediately after…Khun is caught in a trap set by Rachel with Cassano and Xia Xia to lure Baam into killing Khun as Jyu Viole Grace. And Rachel is the only person who is known to be able to control/has Emile's loyalty in that way. All this happened before Rachel confronted Baam and asked him why isn't he dead, indicating that her question was more rhetorical, to make him think she prefers him to be dead. Finally, much later she reveals her knowledge of Arlen in order to keep Baam chasing once he decided not to chase her anymore.
In Season 1, chapter 1, there is a panel in which Rachel is shown to be smirking after Baam says "I'll follow you until I die!" This same sequence of panels is shown in chapter 76, as the epilogue after Baam "dies", except there are some subtle but major differences. The panels were completely redrawn, angles different, rather than copy/pasted. The first set has brighter light yet sharper contrast and Baam's facial expressions are wilder, more frantic. The second set is darker and Baam looks more tragic. By context, it is clear that the first was Baam's POV, while the second was Rachel's. She even says that she is "sick of living in this dark world", while Baam thought of Rachel as his only light, which is why the brightness changes.
Finally, we see that Baam was carrying a butcher's knife while chasing Rachel through the tunnel. Where did he get this knife, when there was nothing but rocks in that place where he was born? Obviously, the answer is Rachel. The same person who gave him clothes and taught him everything he knew.
In 313 Rachel says to Baam: "You really are glowing. You've always told me I was like a shining star to you… But I knew. You're the one destined to shine like a star someday, not me. I was just destined to look at you shining from a place in the dark forever. I was afraid of that 'destiny'"
She was always aware of his destiny, and of Arlen. She knows that he possesses the destiny (probably of killing Zahard, hence teaching him about the knife), but for whatever reason she wants to play that role herself instead (she anticipated confronting Zahard herself on the Hidden floor, but decided she needed her companions first), even though it might be necessary for her to lead him down that destiny (perhaps so she can usurp it at the very end).
To me, this shows that there is actually some other personal motivation for Rachel to lead Baam up the Tower, but that is not something she will reveal or hint to MC. Thus, she only describes the basic deal she made with FUG.
If it turns out wrong then this is just AU. It'll be too late to change it by the time ToG comes close to revealing the truth.
A/N: Posted the wrong chapter just now, deleted that post.
45 – She is Not a Friend
I walked into the empty classroom where Androssi and Baam were training. The chairs had all been stacked up near the front so it became a wide open space. They'd both changed attire since the Hide and Seek test, with Baam swapping his sweatsuit for a simple blue shirt and black shorts, while Androssi wore an open shoulder white top with orange sport shorts underneath.
Baam fell to the ground in a heap as he tried to dodge Androssi swinging a needle at him and lost his footing.
Androssi turned to me as I approached. "Finally. Where the heck have you been, Axion? Don't tell me you just stayed in your room for two whole days?! I wondered if you were even alive."
"Sorry, I had some issues to deal with. Quant really did a number on me and Derf," I said.
"We should sue him for damages," said Androssi jokingly. There was nowhere to file a lawsuit around here.
Baam got up. "I'm glad you're all better now, Mr. Axion!"
"Thanks, but that's a little premature. It turns out I have a more serious problem that isn't really Quant's fault. We should talk later, Androssi," I said.
Androssi smiled facetiously. "Oh, now you want to talk? After ignoring me when I was right at your door? I even brought you food to pay you back for before, you jerk!"
I had brought her food myself after Baam's attempt to bring her food resulted in it getting spoiled as they fought over it, so she must have tried to return the favor when I was the one apparently injured.
"Didn't you get my message? I said I would be in seclusion, not that I'd be in my room," I said. "But thanks, I appreciate the thought."
"Didn't you get my messages? Why didn't you answer?" She asked, now in a deep scowl.
"I didn't have my Pocket with me, that's what seclusion means," I said.
She didn't look like she believed me, so I added, "I'm really sorry, I should have explained more, but the circumstances were dire. I didn't know if I would be capable of returning alive at all, and I didn't want to worry you, nor could I really explain it properly because I didn't understand what was happening to me either."
There was a long silence, but Androssi's expression softened a bit, but crossed her arms, still frowning. "Didn't you think that I might be more worried that you seemed to be sick and then stopped answering at all? I had to find out from the stupid red head that you didn't just die in your sleep! How did she know, huh?"
"I didn't stay in contact with her either," I said, hands raised in a gesture of innocence. "Come on, she probably just knew because she's a Guide. I had no contact with anyone here while in seclusion, and I didn't tell her any more than I told you."
"Grrr…" Androssi growled and looked away pouting. "You're not getting off so easily with that excuse."
Then Baam spoke up. "You shouldn't stay angry at your friends, Ms. Androssi. We should be happy that he's safe and came back to us."
"Thanks Baam," I said. "How have you been? Anything happen while I was away?"
"There was a funeral for Hoh, and it was very sad. I don't understand why he did that to himself, but I am starting to understand his feelings. It hurts to lose a friend like that, and he lost everyone he knew. I don't like this feeling, I don't want to feel that way about any other friend of mine, or for anyone else to feel this way. I don't want anyone else to leave me," he said, clutching a hand towards his chest as if in physical pain.
"That's why I've got to work hard and make sure it won't happen again. Even though I don't know why everyone wants to go up the Tower or what's so great about the stars, I'll become strong and help Rachel and everyone else climb if that will make them happy," said Baam, now cheerful. "Miss Androssi has been kind enough to help me."
"I'm just doing it because we're going to be taking the test together," said Androssi. "I never agreed to be your teammate after."
"You big softie, not so evil now, are you?" I asked with a smirk, firing back her comment to me when I returned Hong Chunhwa's sword and alluding to the way she described herself to Baam back in the Hide and Seek test.
"Oh shut up. We'll talk but you better explain it properly," she said to me.
"Of course," I said, nodding.
"Will you also help me get stronger, Mr. Axion? You and Miss Androssi are the strongest on our team," Baam said.
"I can help a little, but I'll be pretty busy with training myself too," I said.
"Really? But you're already so strong, you even fought against Mr. Quant," said Baam.
"Can't get complacent, there's always someone stronger."
After that I took turns with Androssi doing some simple sparring with Baam.
O O O
"Okay, so let's talk," said Androssi, after we went to my room. She glanced around first, seeing that nothing was out of place, then placed one hand against her side. "Where did you go if you weren't in your room? We're not allowed to leave the test area."
"It's quite complicated, the short answer is that I went to see Headon. As for the long answer, I'll have to explain some things we talked about last time first…" I trailed off, then made a gesture, and the water spirits made the stealth bubble, though this time it was a little more subtle. Instead of doing it their normal way with magic, I got them to do it with a layer of Shinsoo. Rather than being a conceptual defense against scrying, it was just a soundproofed field around us.
"You're an Irregular too, right?" Androssi asked before I could say anything.
"Yes. How did you figure it out?"
"From the very beginning, you and Rachel felt different. Then we found out Baam's an Irregular, and he knew Rachel before entering the Tower, so obviously she is one too. Last time we talked about this, you were concerned about discrimination against the circumstances of your birth and hostile forces offended by your existence. So it makes sense. You're one of the Irregulars that the people in the Tower hate. Or rather, that Zahard's empire hates," said Androssi. "One Irregular is already incredible, but three at once? I can hardly believe it."
I nodded. "So now you know who my enemies are. I don't have any particular grudge against your father's empire myself—in fact, I couldn't care less about the politics of the Tower, but it's something that I'm forced to face because of my status."
"So did you ask for a different test?"
"No, I went to Headon, not the second floor Guardian, though Headon claims he's the one that designed the test anyway—I went for a different reason. Remember he gave me this Pocket in exchange for helping Rachel. It was on loan so I wanted to give it back to him because I needed to deal with my issue before continuing the task he assigned. You can ask him yourself if you want, to confirm I'm telling the truth, I really didn't have my Pocket," I said.
"I'm not going to ask Headon for something so petty, that's way too weird," said Androssi. "So I'll believe you. But then, what was the issue you needed to deal with?"
Before I went to find her, I'd already thought for a considerable length of time how I should proceed in the Tower, given my new circumstances. And so, I had already prepared what to reveal.
"The answer to that might be quite shocking, and a bit difficult to explain. First, you should understand that not all Irregulars come from the same place, and aside from opening the door to the Tower by ourselves, we're nothing alike at all. But all Irregulars are chosen by the Tower itself. For what purpose, I don't know, but that is how the door opens. I, however, am unique, in that I do not merely come from outside of the Tower, but from outside of this plane of existence."
"I don't understand," said Androssi, looking confused. "What's a plane of existence?"
That was a bit inconvenient. She had no modern scientific frame of reference to understand what I was talking about.
"What do you think the Outside of the Tower is like?" I asked.
She shrugged. "I don't know anything about it, other than that it's where the Irregulars come from. Same with Zahard and the Ten Warriors in the beginning. I think I've heard before that it might be a place without Shinsoo, but no idea how that would work."
"I don't know much about it either—not because I was trapped somewhere like Baam, but because I come from somewhere outside of even that. But you can think of this analogy. Each Floor is ruled by a Guardian, right? They decide what the Floor is like, who can use Shinsoo, that sort of thing," I said.
"Sure."
"Now the Tower itself is like a Floor, of a bigger world. Ruled by something above all of the Guardians, with me so far? The Guardians set the rules of their own Floors, but there are rules even they have to follow, and someone or something set the rules of the Tower itself. Still with me?"
She nodded. "Some people say there's a god that is higher than all of them."
"Right, exactly. Now if we go beyond the Tower, there's a world out there, and you might imagine that the Tower is just like a physical tower in that world. I don't know if that's how it works, but the point is that there is a bigger world that we're in, and I don't know if it has something like a god either, but that world does have its own set of rules, which applies both Outside and inside of the Tower. It might help if you imagine the world Outside as just a bigger Tower, and this Tower is just one Floor in it."
Androssi scrunched her eyebrows. "So the plane of existence is supposed to be the bigger Tower."
"That's right."
"And you're from outside of that," she said slowly. I nodded in response. "So why is that important?" She asked, still looking confused.
"Because of the rules I just mentioned. I was chosen by the Tower, but I do not belong in this world, this plane of existence, at all. I am someone that should not exist, with powers that break the rules of the world and am rejected by it in return. Or to put it another way, I am something that should only be in books and fantasies, not something that belongs in this reality, analogous to an imaginary demon that stepped out of the pages of a story to become real, and reality finally noticed that this wasn't supposed to happen. That isn't really what I am, but the end result is similar."
Finally, a look of understanding came over her. "So that's what happened. You were getting rejected by the world?"
"Exactly. I used too much power in the fight against Quant, and the world—it noticed me. It tried to suppress me. Tried to make me less real—erase me because I shouldn't exist."
"So when you were gone, it was because you got erased?" Androssi asked with shock.
"No, no. I didn't let it get to that point—I escaped first and shifted out of this reality to a different plane of existence, to figure out a solution before coming back."
"Okay…I wasn't expecting all that…" She said with a short sigh, brushing some hair aside. "But thanks for explaining it. In summary, you had some Irregular problems, went off to do Irregular things, and now you're all better?"
"You could say that, though what I used was only a temporary measure. The world will notice me again eventually, especially if I get into that sort of high level fight again," I said.
"The way you're saying it makes me think you're expecting another fight against a Ranker? But Quant was just being an idiot, that isn't going to happen on every Floor," said Androssi, tilting her head, hand back at her waist.
"Yes, that brings me to the next critical topic. I found out what Hwa Ryun was warning us about. There really is an RED Ranker coming to kill Anak Zahard and retrieve the Green April and the Black March. In fact, he's already here undercover, and he's going to do it during the final test. It's Yuga, the Wave Controller Instructor, whose real name is Lo Po Bia Ren," I said.
Androssi's face turned sharp. "You're serious?"
I took off my visor and hung it around my neck, to look her in the eyes.
"I am. But that's not all. Just like you did initially, Lero Ro thinks I'm an undercover Ranker too. But worse yet, he thinks I was smuggled in as your retainer, and may have convinced Ren of this as well. The Lo Po Bia family has princesses of their own, and there's a good chance he'll try to kill me too to get rid of your perceived resource. And I don't think I can win that fight, even if I were at my best."
"But that's—he can't just—it's too soon!" She exclaimed.
Then there was a long silence as I sat down on the bed and just looked at her gravely. After a while, she grabbed the chair beside the desk and slumped into it.
"Hah…I was just starting to have some fun with these tests too…" She said with a dramatic sigh. "What are we going to do?"
"Same here, Princess. It was good while it lasted. Nice knowing ya," said Derflinger,
"What's that supposed to mean? You guys are just giving up?" Androssi asked, looking at the sword which stuck out of its sheath.
"Naw, who says we need to fight at all? That guy's just coming for the Green April and that other princess. We got nothing to do with that business, no need to risk our lives. Nosiree! We're just a pair of wandering travelers that met an impoverished princess and gave her a gift. We'll clear up the misunderstanding with the good officer and be on our way, right Partner?" Derf asked with a jovial tone.
Androssi looked unimpressed. "Very funny, buster. Do you really think it'll be that easy to 'clear up the misunderstanding'?"
"What's got your panties in a twist? It's just a dumb weapon, it can't even talk like I can. What's the big deal if you have to give it up? As for us, all we gotta do is stage a falling out with you and make the fight look convincing," said Derf.
Androssi's face was as if she swallowed a sour grape. "Don't tell me that really is your plan?" Then turned to me.
"Back me up here, Partner. We ain't fighting that guy, right? I'm too young to die!"
"You're six thousand years old Derf, and I've had a good run too. Maybe it's time to face the music," I said, patting the sword in its sheath lightly.
"Noooo, throw me away first then!" said Derf. "This holy sword can't be lost in these fetid waters!"
"I understand, sacred Excalibur. I'll return you to the Lady of the Lake, according to the ancient promise," I said solemnly.
"Good. I will remember you always, Partner. They will sing your stories long after your passing," said Derf, then he returned to his sheath.
There was a long silence, while Androssi seemed to be in a state of disbelief.
"You're messing with me," she said, finally. "There's no way you're planning to just roll over and die. If you were that scared, couldn't you just—I don't know—go to another plane of existence again? Or just ask for a different test from the Guardian by yourself?"
"That would mean abandoning you to face Ren alone," I said.
She paused at that, then bit her lip as if struggling to make a decision. Then she looked away and growled out. "I'll be fine. I'm a Princess, so he won't dare to kill me."
"Not even by accident?" I asked, curious.
She stood up. "Besides, your sword is right, you have nothing to do with me. We only teamed up for the tests, and it was going to end after this Floor anyways. So what if we have to end it a little early?"
"I know what you're doing, Androssi, but I'm not going to abandon you. We may not have done a friend list assignment, but that doesn't mean we aren't friends. There's no need for you to face this alone," I said.
"Shut up. I'm perfectly fine with being alone, in fact, I prefer it that way. I was just using you. And now you're of no use to me anyway, if you can't even fight at your best," she said coldly, walking to the door.
As her hands reached the knob, I spoke again. "What if there was a way?"
"A way for…?" She asked, hands still on the knob, back facing me.
"For me to be able to fight without restraints. The world can't suppress me if there is somebody to act as my anchor. A host who will form a contract with me, to summon me into this world to battle on her behalf."
She whipped around and put both her hands at the waist. "What? Why didn't you just say that to begin with?! Let's just do that then!"
"It's not that simple though. There is a cost to the host. They have to supply me with energy to maintain the anchor, and even more if I use certain abilities which the world rejects. Not just anyone is suitable to be a host either. They need to be strong enough to handle it, and the will to force the world to bend for them in the pursuit of their deepest desires."
She scoffed, "Like that'll be a problem for me. I'm a princess of Zahard. Do you have any idea what that means? Zahard's blood is too powerful, so no woman can bear a child for him. That's why he adopts princesses instead. Achievements, beauty, loyalty—all of that matters, but the most important qualification is the potential to accept Zahard's blood. I was strong already, but it's that blood which makes me even more durable than a Ranker."
Without gesturing, I bid the water spirits to shift the soundproof field into the conceptual anti-scrying bubble.
"You would be completely right—if we had met before you received Zahard's blood. But that very blood is now an obstacle," I said.
Suddenly she tensed, letting her hands fall, wariness obvious in her tone. "What…what do you mean?"
"As I said, the host must have the will to force the world to bend for them. They need to want something so much, or to believe that there is something deeply wrong with the world, that only by committing an even greater wrong, inviting a being like me, can the balance be restored and their wish fulfilled. It is pride, resentment, even arrogance—an absolute will to defy the order of things," I said.
"And by accepting Zahard's blood…I've accepted the order of things? Made myself a part of that order, just another shoe in his display cabinet," she said, eyes widening as the truth dawned on her, voice almost a whisper. "Have I become satisfied with my food after sitting at the dining table of the highest palace?"
"In a way, yes," I said, nodding. "But not only that. Although I don't know for sure, I suspect that if you truly did receive Zahard's blood—physically receive it in your body—then it may well have an influence on you. A second will, which could interfere with yours and cause the contract to fail."
There was a long silence, but soon the princess turned resolute.
"No, I can definitely do it. I waited a very long time after becoming a princess before I started to climb…but I'm here now after Headon chose me, after I obtained the right to climb the Tower for myself. I didn't really become a mindless shoe, that's just a metaphor. I chose to become a princess because I wanted the benefits that came with it. And if the point is to restore balance, why can't it be the other way around too? If I like the way I am and I want to keep what I have while getting more things I want, why shouldn't I be able to do that? If I can't qualify as a host because of something so stupid then there's clearly something wrong with the world and I'll defy that rule!" she declared confidently, then paused a bit to catch her breath.
"And, while on this Floor, I smelled a new kind of food that I'd never tasted before, that's still out of my reach even though it's in my sight. It doesn't look appealing at all, but I want to know why the people that tasted it look so happy. So there is something that I want, that I'll force the world to bend if I have to."
"I do see the logic in what you're saying. That might work," I said and nodded, though inwardly I was surprised that she'd made a decision so quickly. I had thought she might ask for time to think about it, as she did when we discussed my offer to team up.
"As for Zahard's blood, you wouldn't have brought this up if you didn't think it was possible. I just have to make sure that blood understands who's in control here, right? I'll do whatever I want, and daddy's not going to stop me, it's my blood now. There's no rule against princesses doing this, whatever this is supposed to be, anyways, I'm sure."
"Are you familiar with the concept of spells?" I asked.
"No. I've heard of people that don't have talent with Shinsoo using them though. Is that what we're doing?"
"Yes. But I also suspect that Zahard's blood serves as the medium for a spell on your body, one that binds you to his will. So in order to find a way around it, you need to know a few things about how spells work. In this world, they are governed by at least three important rules—or so says Hwa Ryun. The caster must not violate the rules of the spell once they are set. The spell requires the assistance of a powerful medium or a divine being. And the rank of a spell is determined by the power of the being or medium who helped with the spell," I said. "Based on the last rule, a spell can be broken by a higher rank spell."
"But if Zahard's blood was the medium, doesn't that mean we need something stronger than Zahard to break the spell?" She asked.
"Well, not necessarily. We only need something stronger than the amount of blood that's in you. And that's only if we used the rules of this world. There are other rules of magic that can be used—while I don't know if they'd work for anyone else here, I am a being that is outside of the normal rules of the world. My magic is therefore capable of drawing on foreign concepts. And one of the higher concepts of magic is that the strength of a spell can be understood as the strength of its Mystery. Just as the third rule says, a greater Mystery can overwhelm a weaker one. But the medium of a Mystery is not necessarily any singular being which the spell invokes. It is, in fact, the collective belief of every being that observes the spell, or has ever cast or participated in it, and even the world itself—as well as whatever particular vessel is used to anchor the spell. It is like a debate between all, of what is true and should be permitted. The one who empowers the spell is merely the loudest arguing voice with the largest force behind them, who imposes their will upon the rest. That does not mean that everyone else agrees, however, even if they win the argument for a time. And when there is a sufficiently strong argument or evidence against the truth of the Mystery, it can be interfered with, if not outright unraveled."
"I think I'm lost. What exactly can we do with that?"
"It's quite simple, actually. First, we need a spell of relatively close rank to counter the blood spell. Conveniently, there is such a spell we can use—the Thirteen Month Series weapons are enchanted with a spell so powerful that not even the Guardians can break them. And Zahard probably had a hand in them as well," I said.
"But that's only an 'equal' rank of spell, right? It wouldn't break it, there's no way it'd be that easy."
"Of course, which is why we then create interference with it by adding some additional firepower. You see, if Zahard's blood was meant to bind you to his will, then we need a piece of evidence that his will can be broken, that it has been broken, in spite of his blood, and we shall invoke that story and the spiritual imprint left by those who defied him to empower our spell."
"Evidence that his will has been broken? You mean…Anak Zahard," said Androssi.
"You catch on fast. Yes, that's exactly it. And conveniently, the same Thirteen Month Series weapon you have now, with the highest Rank of Spell on it, is a symbol of the one who defied Zahard's will, breaking the rules that govern Princesses. Even the act of taking that weapon was a great violation, and the Green April probably tasted the blood of those loyal to Zahard. It's the perfect catalyst, all we need are the right rituals to draw on the weight of its history. As its current wielder, you need only imitate its former wielder, sympathize with her experience, and reproduce the events of the past, culminating in the reenactment of its Mystery."
"Isn't that asking a bit much? I don't understand the original Anak Zahard at all, I barely knew her. How can I imitate or sympathize with her, let alone reproduce anything that happened before?" Androssi asked.
"It's just a ritual, you don't have to replicate everything. Just three symbolic actions that underpin her story are enough, one to close each of Zahard's eyes, and because three is a magically powerful number," I said. "So think, you know her story and the rules of princesses better than me, what were her most important acts of defiance? And are there three that you can imitate?"
"The most important ones would be taking a lover, getting pregnant, then having the child and refusing to give it up, all of which is forbidden," she said, a slight flush beginning to climb up her face. "But I'm not doing any of that just for some ritual! Unlike Anak, I like being a princess so I'm not about to start breaking the rules. This is just a…a strategy to deal with the RED in case he's corrupt. That's all."
"Of course, there's no need to do the actual violations she committed, but are there related actions which are symbolic of them? Just holding the Green April is probably good enough to be one, so you really only need two more."
For a moment she just sat there thinking.
After a while, her eyes lit up.
"…chicken pie. I need to eat chicken pie," said Androssi. "That's what Anak told me. Her mother ran away with the palace chef because she loved the chicken pie he made for her. So you need to make chicken pie for me to eat."
"Okay, that doesn't sound too hard. I'll see if I can borrow the kitchens around here. Just one more then," I said. "Well, I do have an idea that should add a lot of power to the ritual, but it can't be done now. We would have to do the ritual in multiple parts, and activate the final leg at the right time. Let me explain how we can set it all up…"
She listened attentively as I described the plan. In the meantime, before the contract was complete, I would simply focus on developing other abilities during training. It wasn't like I had many powerful foreign abilities to begin with anyways, and with the flag having been reset, I didn't have to get an invitation right away. We could wait until the conditions were fully aligned to create the best bond.
O O O
A/N: The last post was the wrong chapter in the sequence. 46 is coming later after more editing time.
"The most important ones would be taking a lover, getting pregnant, then having the child and refusing to give it up, all of which is forbidden," she said, (...)
"…chicken pie. I need to eat chicken pie," said Androssi. "That's what Anak told me. Her mother ran away with the palace chef because she loved the chicken pie he made for her. So you need to make chicken pie for me to eat."
"Okay, that doesn't sound too hard. I'll see if I can borrow the kitchens around here. Just one more then," I said.
Well if having a lover, and then a child is that significant then the hilarious solution would be to make her a creampie for dessert.
Pretty sure a creampie is an integral part of having a child
"I'm not going to ask Headon for something so petty, that's way too weird," said Androssi. "So I'll believe you. But then, what was the issue you needed to deal with?"
Surprised that he went with Androssi to be his anchor. Isn't he worried that him breaking or twisted Zahard's princess spell will have devastating effects on her? I mean yes he doesn't have many to chose from and I'm happy that he has decided to try to be longer in ToG universe but I am just worried.
Surprised that he will not try to convince Lero Ro to about his status as an irregular. A hidden ranker makes it so that rankers can try to kill him in a straight combat, but an irregular makes it so that everyone and everything will try to make you join their organization and if not that have regulars or accidents happen to kill him. I guess in this situation its just to pick your poison.
Thanks for the chapter. I'm grateful for your work.
Surprised that he went with Androssi to be his anchor. Isn't he worried that him breaking or twisted Zahard's princess spell will have devastating effects on her? I mean yes he doesn't have many to chose from and I'm happy that he has decided to try to be longer in ToG universe but I am just worried.
Surprised that he will not try to convince Lero Ro to about his status as an irregular. A hidden ranker makes it so that rankers can try to kill him in a straight combat, but an irregular makes it so that everyone and everything will try to make you join their organization and if not that have regulars or accidents happen to kill him. I guess in this situation its just to pick your poison.
Thanks for the chapter. I'm grateful for your work.
Side effects on Androssi are certainly a valid concern. It's something is only indirectly explained in a much later chapter when MC talks about the inheritance of mystical powers. But it's sort of also been hinted at throughout the story so it's not really a spoiler. Basically, there are two known parts to Zahard's blood, one is the "power", and the other is "the spell". These are not actually definitively tied to the other. It should be evident from the fact that Anak was born with some of her mother's power that it is inheritable, even if Zahard didn't want such a thing to happen, it's not merely a product of a continuous buff spell. The spell is something hidden to the princesses, which enforces certain limitations. But it doesn't seem to have much impact on the princesses normally...because the OG Anak Zahard had no difficulty breaking the "rules" without doing anything special. What exactly does it do? Well MC happens to have the metaknowledge from way down the line, which may be a spoiler so:
The Data Zahard in the Hidden Floor was able to paralyze Androssi and Maschenny just by appearing. The real Zahard might be able to do more, but it doesn't seem to be something that necessarily reacts automatically without Zahard's own presence, given Anak's precedent.
So MC thinks this is enough to interfere with the "will" to form a contract with him on a subconscious level, but there isn't any particular reason yet to think it would have other major effects on her at this point.
The beam of Shinsoo crashed into Derflinger and was split, diverting it in two different directions.
"Not quite," said Derf. "Again, please."
Hwa Ryun powered up another beam and sent it at Derf, with much the same result.
"Urgh. I'm sure I can do it, but I'm missing something here," said Derf, who was stabbed into the ground by himself.
I was submerged with only my head above water, beside Hwa Ryun who sat on the ledge of this rock platform, focused on my own Shinsoo senses.
"You were right, she easily mustered up the will needed for an invitation, though I still would have preferred you," I said. "Zahard's blood just makes everything too complicated."
"I already told you, I'm not a good choice. I'll be busy, and you're better off with her if you're going to be doing the tests together," Hwa Ryun said.
We were out on the main part of the floor, after Yu Hansung agreed to smuggle us out for our secret training outside the massive floating island that was the test area where the dorms and classrooms were. Hwa Ryun led the way to a spot that had small pools of dense liquid Shinsoo hidden underneath some rocky cliffs and outcroppings.
"Why not make a contract with me anyways? There isn't anything stopping me from having more than one host."
"Do you know how similar you are to Zahard? You cover your eyes, you wear a red cape, you dress like an adventurer and you call yourself one too. Aside from your black hair, it would be easy for somebody who hasn't seen Zahard's face close up to mistake you for him. It's distasteful to copy him, especially when it comes to women."
Did she mean the way he set up Princesses without any intention of marrying any of them, or the way that he refused to accept Arlen's rejection? Both seemed applicable in this situation.
"I'm not copying him. It's a common archetype. The hero goes on an adventure, undertakes many difficult quests and trials, and eventually saves the world. Given the way the Tower is set up, it seems almost made for adventurers," I said.
"If you know that already, then you should know what archetype I'm supposed to be, so hurry up and stop bothering me," While her words were unfriendly, she said so with a slight smile.
The Mysterious Woman was the obvious archetype, but it could also be the Damsel Errant, a rarer archetype who just points the main character towards the plot and normally isn't a love interest.
Another beam hit Derf. "…Could've sworn I felt something that time!"
"But conventionally the heroine is always the most beautiful female character," I said.
"No, it should be the first one introduced," said Hwa Ryun.
"That can just be used as a red herring though," I said.
"Wouldn't that better fit me?"
"I'm sure that your hair is natural and was never silver," I said.
"You don't know that for sure," she said. "And when did you ever learn about silver dwarves?"
"I've no idea what you're talking about. I was just referring to the silver hue that herrings have before they're cooked red," I said. "What's a silver dwarf?"
The next beam of Shinsoo suddenly hit me in the face, but it didn't hurt, merely sending me tilting into the water, and I let myself stay under to concentrate on my training as Hwa Ryun was indirectly telling me to do.
Ever since I'd done the experiments with Shinsoo on Worm, both Derf and I had been mulling over why we couldn't control it. For Derf's part, he also couldn't absorb Shinsoo attacks like he could with FoZ spells.
Yuga thought that I had a potentially unique Shinsoo Quality, but when I thought about it again, I wondered if that was really true.
The most interesting property that the experiments had revealed was that Shinsoo might not be composed of particles, but neither was it purely energy or purely spiritual. But it could take any number of forms, even convertible directly to mana, which was a purely spiritual state.
So why was it that when Yuga instructed me to imagine the smallest grain of sand, instead of a ball of water gathering, it had a reaction for me?
Putting together the fact that I was capable of interacting with the Shinsoo on some level, manipulating it as if it were an ultra dense form of mana, I began to consider alternative hypotheses.
After speaking with the Builder, I had learned that there were many magic systems, each with their own "basic" affinities, which did not really make sense if there was a consistent underlying, more fundamental system, in the way that compounds were explained by molecules, molecules were explained by atoms, then atoms were explained by even more fundamental particles and forces.
Instead, it seemed to be that magic was inherently subjective or malleable—relative to the user.
On some level, this also made sense since I doubted that the concept of magic circuits was universally applicable. There were obviously superior forms of magical spiritual organs out there, even in Fate itself. So perhaps there was a different sort of problem at play—where I had imposed upon myself the concepts of circuits from Fate, and this had rendered it difficult to just manipulate Shinsoo directly, without routing it through my circuits refining the Shinsoo as if it were mana.
That, in turn, made it difficult to conceptualize Shinsoo as a freeform particle-less substance. There was perhaps a subconscious failure to comprehend how something could behave like physical matter yet be controllable in a spiritual manner, but not mana. So I could either manifest Shinsoo as a particle—leading to the result Yuga witnessed which couldn't be controlled spiritually or do anything useful, or I could manifest it as mana—leading to my use of it as such via my circuits.
But what organ did I have that could simply control Shinsoo directly? This was actually the same conundrum I'd faced initially before I created my artificial circuit. Was I truly lacking something, or was there a way to grant it to myself?
How did people from the Outside become capable of using Shinsoo, when Shinsoo didn't exist Outside? They too should not have had any special organs, yet they could do it, as if just being in the Tower granted that ability. And wasn't Shinsoo itself miraculous, capable of doing anything? The effects it had on the body were inexplicable from a biological point of view. What made Rankers so inhumanly powerful could only be explained by Mystery rather than science. And if Shinsoo could bring the body to that level, why couldn't it also change the soul?
The obvious answer was that it could. After all, Shinsoo could even create life. It could make things akin to souls, such as Ignition Weapons.
With everything that I'd learned from Agate, from the Builder, from my own experiments, I reached the conclusion that it came down to a matter of how to impose—or rather, accept—upon myself the concept of being able to use Shinsoo.
When I first created my artificial circuit with Agate's help, it was not just something I imagined and made possible by trying. It wasn't as easy as knowing that a spell or magic system existed, so I should be able to do it. I couldn't just draw inspiration from various other works of fiction to create new powers for myself.
Otherwise, any random person on Earth who tried to imagine themselves gaining circuits might have succeeded, but it didn't work that way. The circuit only became possible because Agate was there. Agate brought with her the concepts of Fate, and that spell that irrevocably linked my soul with her in the supposed "attunement" process allowed me to impose them on myself.
So here in the Tower, I should be able to access its concepts too, by being an Irregular who'd entered the Tower. The only problem was that there wasn't a particular method to gain it—it just happened naturally, except for getting the contract with a Guardian, but I'd already done that.
If I was right, then rather than seeking a method of gaining Shinsoo control—wouldn't the answer actually be to remove the influence of a competing concept?
And so it was that I turned off my artificial circuit and even closed off my telepathic link to the Kaleidostick, sending it into hibernation. The bond could not be severed, and the circuit could not be erased, nor would I want to. But I tried to clear my mind of them completely, like doing a reverse-hypnotism to shut myself off from it all.
When I removed even the nerves that connected me to the FoZ blood circuits, and immersed myself into nothing but the sensation of Shinsoo and the soft unintelligible whispers of the water spirits who seemed to be more comfortable here than even in FoZ, I fell into a deep trance that I experienced only once before when I communed with the water spirits for the first time and let them take me through the water cycle.
O O O
A long time later, I opened to see two familiar eyes that glimmered like rubies looking at me upside down, my head held in her lap between her hands, with the lower half of my body still submerged in a large lake.
"If you look at me so intently, Hwa Ryun, I might get the wrong idea," I said. Her long red hair fell on the sides of my face, giving even the air a red hue like an aura that surrounded us.
"Legend has it that Enryu was an Irregular with a power so great, whose mastery of Shinsoo was so incomprehensible, that those who saw him up close and survived became enlightened, with strange abilities that altered the way they saw the world. So there are some people who take any chance they can get to catch a glimpse of an Irregular, hoping that they too will receive new eyes."
"Your eyes are beautiful as they are. I'm not sure if getting new ones would be better," I said.
She smiled and moved one hand to cover her right eye. "If I ever see Enryu, then I'll cover this eye to thank you for changing my fate."
"Really? You'd do that for me? Did you somehow get a strange power in that eye from watching me?" I asked. So she had been able to see how things were supposed to end after the Crown game after all. It was true then, that powerful Guides could see their own fate, even if she couldn't see the paths that Irregulars took.
"This is still a training montage, so we can't hide an important plot device in here," she said.
"Normally they don't have much character development either," I said.
"Of course they can. The hero is inspired by a mentor and obtains a new power through hard work," she said.
There was a whoosh in the air. "It's true Partner, you missed everything! After the mistress inspired me, I worked hard and finally did it! Since I can move around by myself now, you should become my sidekick. It's time for Derflinger to be the hero of this story!"
"No way. You really did it before me?" I asked, getting up and looking at the floating sword.
"Bow down before the great Derflinger! Hahaha!" Derf flew around and started showing off his new skills, slashing like somebody was wielding him.
"What the fuck. How did you get so good so fast? Weren't you just working on absorbing mana from Shinsoo attacks?" I asked.
"Kid, I'm a six-thousand year old hidden master. I'll give you some tips if you ask nicely and call me grandpa."
I looked back at Hwa Ryun who seemed highly amused. "What did you teach him?"
"I didn't teach him anything. I'm just moving him with Shinsoo right now to make it look like he's moving on his own," Hwa Ryun said.
"Got you!" Derflinger shouted gleefully.
I facepalmed.
O O O
Baam ducked and barely dodged my punch, and then the follow up kick too.
Androssi flashed to my side when I was still outstretched. Her speed had gotten even faster ever since she learned to use Shinsoo bursts and I couldn't react in time, though I could've dodged with a Burstshift of my own. I didn't though, because I was still keeping a lid on all my magic to focus exclusively on Shinsoo, not even using Reinforcement.
The Armoriont opened up a pore and sprayed goo in her direction.
"Yuck, what the heck is that?!" She backtracked before the goo landed on her.
A beam of Shinsoo from Baam hit her from the side and sent her sprawling. Baam was smiling happily with his hands still shaped into an open ball.
I rushed towards Baam, who was jolted into action and turned towards me.
Suddenly I froze, unable to move while Baam had a concentrated look on his face.
"Ah!" A red needle flew at him and he fell backwards trying to dodge it too quickly.
Then I was released, but Androssi slammed into me first.
"My win again," she announced while Baam and I were laying on the ground. "That was good, Baam, you're getting better."
Baam rubbed his head with a big smile.
O O O
I set down the tray of chicken pie in front of her.
Androssi took an eager bite, then put a hand to her mouth, before spitting it out. "You expect me to eat this? It's terrible! There's too much salt and the chicken is overcooked! Do it again properly! "
"Sorry, sorry, it's the first time I've done it," I said while tasting it myself. It wasn't that bad…though it admittedly wasn't very good either.
I took it away and then fed the remainder to the Armoriont before heading back to the kitchen, while thinking to myself that the challenge was unfairly difficult with the tools at hand.
Just like the coffee strips that Yu Hansung showed Rachel during their first meeting, the cooking tools and machines they used in the kitchens also needed fine Shinsoo control or other weird quirks. They were normally used by the Rankers or their bots, and on this floor there were no Regular residential areas, so he couldn't get access to the basic versions for normal people without leaving the Inner Tower..
O O O
"The main difference between a Lighthouse and the Observers that Scouts use is the way that Lighthouses exert control over a field of Shinsoo. They emit light and can change the flows of Shinsoo rather than just collecting data, and usually can't collect visual data without other upgrades," said Rachel, now sitting in her new wheelchair, while holding a yellow Lighthouse in her hands while another one floated in front of her. The one in her hands was the main Lighthouse body, while the other one was a Cube, a node.
I observed the flow of Shinsoo closely as she demonstrated.
"For example, my control of Shinsoo isn't good enough yet to levitate with this chair that Lero Ro got me. I can move on the ground in any direction, but floating is too hard because the chair is so heavy. But if I do this…" She said while spinning the floating Lighthouse around a bit.
The Shinsoo flows around her shifted, increasing in density below her while seemingly getting tied to the one in her hands.
Then she lifted her Lighthouse, and the chair moved with it. She started floating in the air.
"Fascinating," I said.
"I can do the same sitting on the Lighthouse itself too," she said, decompressing her Lighthouse and then sliding over to sit on it.
"So it's possible for a Lighthouse to enhance Shinsoo control…" I said, contemplating.
"There should be other items that can do it too. Lots of Regulars without talent have to resort to using items like that," said Rachel.
"But how does it get secured? The Lighthouse itself is controlled by Shinsoo isn't it? Couldn't somebody else take control of it?" I asked.
"Every person has a unique flow of Shinsoo. It's not really a physical flow, but that's what they call it. When you get a Lighthouse, you have to lock it to your own flow of Shinsoo. It's not impossible for a skilled Lightbearer to hack into someone else's Lighthouse, but it's pretty hard unless they're way stronger," said Rachel.
"Is that so? Do you mind if I try something for a moment? I'm going to do the same thing I did on Lero Ro's barrier, but with your Lighthouse," I said.
"Sure, go ahead," said Rachel, looking curious as well.
So I did, and the water spirits tried to take control of the Shinsoo. Rachel and her Lighthouse fell to the ground, but the Lighthouse itself didn't move.
"You took away the Shinsoo my Lighthouse was controlling outside, but not the Shinsoo inside of it, or the Lighthouse itself," Rachel said. "Give me a moment, then try that again when I give the signal. I want to try something too."
I nodded, and watched as her Lighthouses started glowing much brighter as she floated back up. The whole room was lit up in a yellow haze.
"Do it again," said Rachel.
I did, but this time the water spirits were confused. To their mind, there was apparently no water to seize control of. I insisted that they try, and there was a bit of turbulence around Rachel's Lighthouse, but she managed to stay afloat.
"Looks like your technique works best on Shinsoo in its rawest forms," said Rachel. "That's what I expected, since the more complex the 'flow', the harder it is to interfere with. That's why it's hard to hack into someone else's Lighthouse."
The light died down and she returned to her chair.
O O O
[Interlude]
Hwa Ryun swung Derf around while fighting her own floating dual bladed staff.
Axion flowed through the water in the lake with the waves as schools of fish passed by.
A huge Shinheuh found its prey and ate a group of fish before they could get away.
The Shinheuh turned to look at the humanoid floating around without a care.
It opened its gaping maw to swallow its new prey whole.
The water suddenly carried the humanoid away and its teeth caught naught but lake water.
The Shinheuh narrowed its eyes and swam after the humanoid.
O O O
Androssi sat lounging around balancing a needle on her finger while Baam went through a series of martial arts poses.
Axion, who was wearing an apron, brought another tray of chicken pie and set it down at a table, preparing plates for them both.
The two of them stopped and went over, and Androssi ordered Baam to taste the pie first.
Baam did so, and looked queasy, but forced a smile and gave a thumbs up to Axion.
Androssi smacked him behind the head and scolded him for being too nice.
O O O
Axion held Rachel's hand as she got up unsteadily from the bed and began to walk. After she found her balance, Axion let go and she continued forward with a slight limp.
Then the two of them unpacked the Lighthouse he bought while Rachel began pointing to and explaining each part.
The gray Lighthouse whirred to life and turned a silver color as Axion followed her instructions to set it up.
O O O
Androssi tasted the pie carefully and blanched before swallowing it accidentally.
Baam cheered and clapped, then Androssi grabbed a piece and forced it down his throat while he choked.
When she turned to Axion with a dangerous smile, he slowly backed away.
O O O
The shadow of the Shinheuh moved around the edge of the lake, preparing for the right moment to jump onto the surface and continue the pursuit of its prey.
Hwa Ryun struck a pose on a high platform and then shouted "Ignite!"
Shinsoo erupted from Derflinger and wisps of energy rolled off it as if it really were an Ignition weapon.
Axion's Lighthouse floated above him as he concentrated with his hands held together as if trying to fire a beam.
Instead of forming an actual Baang, water gathered from Shinsoo in the air and created a small volatile orb between his hands.
It fired a stream of water towards Hwa Ryun, and Derf was raised to intercept.
When the water struck the sword, it broke apart into smaller and smaller droplets. The Shinsoo radiating from the blade seemed to boil the water away, until it was small enough to absorb and went into the sword.
Hwa Ryun moved the sword back and Shinsoo swirled around her and seemed to flood into Derflinger, then when she swung it down, Shinsoo was released in a large burst of light towards Axion.
The water spirits formed a rotating orb that expanded in front of Axion before bursting into a large circular shield of water.
The blast from Derflinger crashed into the shield and exploded.
When the light died down, the ground was cracked and scorched, but Axion was unharmed.
The Shinheuh stopped cowering underneath the rocky edge of the lake and swam off.
Hwa Ryun threw Derflinger over and Axion reached out with a hand, the sword swerving into his grip.
"After many days of grueling training, removing distractions and returning to his roots, the hero awakens his true power, just in time to face the villain," Hwa Ryun narrated towards the fake sky. "Will it be enough? Stay tuned until next time, on 'A Retired Evil Overlord's Otherworld Adventures'."
I had my magic circuits reactivated and Agate brought out of hibernation, while my new Shinsoo manipulation abilities were no longer suppressed by my magic.
I was no miraculous talent like Baam, and so I couldn't really form a proper Baang yet, but I was now able to manipulate Shinsoo in its pure liquid form. According to Hwaryun, only those blessed by the Tower or were Irregulars could manipulate the purest of Shinsoo, so it wasn't a bad thing. She judged that I might be able to form a Baang eventually with enough practice, and starting with raw high density Shinsoo manipulation would be beneficial down the line.
From my perspective, it was already an enormous difference, because I could now control more Shinsoo items than just the Pocket, such as Lighthouse and Arms Inventory, and use Shinsoo internally for physical enhancement.
It also let me channel Shinsoo into Derflinger to restore his reserves, and he'd similarly learned how to use Shinsoo inside of his own body and to absorb incoming attacks, albeit it was much less effective defensively than his ability to almost instantaneously absorb even large FoZ spells.
The attacks I could form externally with Shinsoo amounted to basic water manipulation, which was pretty much useless in real combat. But the water spirits were obviously much better at it, and it was their preferred way of using Shinsoo, compared to making Baangs.
Yu Hansung had gathered the Regulars to explain the test, then gave us a few hours to prepare. Of course, I already knew the details because Rachel had told me beforehand.
I hadn't remembered all of it from canon, but the test was surprisingly large scale in terms of the area we had to cover. It would take place at a wine-glass like hole which was underneath a relatively soft but deep layer of earth. That hole would fill up with water in the morning. The middle of it opened up to where the Dolphin Madame, or Queen of the Goby Dolphins would be, waiting to feed.
The smaller Goby dolphins would create an underwater net with Shinsoo and herd fish towards the Queen to eat. The Shinsoo bubble that Baam and Rachel were in would be sent through a side tunnel into the water, and then be attracted to the net and they'd get eaten by the Queen, but the bubble was made such that it would survive the digestion tract and come out the other end.
While this was happening, some goblin-like creatures called Thieves would bring huge worms with very long and stretched throats and mouths to burrow holes into the water and suck up the fish from the net, competing for the food. There would also be "Dogs", or striped earthpigs that were another group of creatures that would try to eat the herding dolphins above ground directly.
Then there was the bull, which was a dangerous predator too powerful for most Regulars, that would try to eat anything, including people.
The rest of the team's job was to keep the dolphin herders safe so that Baam and Rachel would be carried by the net to the Queen.
I listened to Khun Aguero Agnis and Ship Leesoo analyze the challenge. They quickly determined that the ecosystem was normally in balance so it wasn't like we really needed to protect the herders. The Thieves would fight the Dogs because they needed the herders to keep herding fish so their worms could suck them up. But if the worms caught the bubble before it got to the Queen, then the test was failed. So the strategy was to have the Scouts look for the Thieves, then get the Spearbearers to attack from afar while hidden and focus only on the worms.
The Bull was the major threat to everything, so Khun concluded, "Let's use our own wildcards. Among the Fishermen, Axion, Androssi, and Anak should be the strongest, so they're best suited to fighting the Bull."
I raised my hand.
O O O
[Interlude]
"Hm? What is it, Axion?" Khun asked, seeing the strongest Regular politely raising his hand the way he was known to do.
'Don't tell me he doesn't want to chase the Bull? I figured Androssi and Anak would refuse, but they left after their argument earlier so they can't object. What do I say if Axion refuses?' Khun thought to himself with a sweat. 'Nobody will listen to me over him. But doesn't he realize this is the best plan?'
"It's a good plan, but I'd like to propose a minor adjustment. You should all be aware by now that Fisherman isn't my preferred position in battle. But now that we're working as a team, it would be more efficient for me to take up my true position."
Khun shared a look with Ship, who looked equally confused as he himself was.
"And that would be…?"
"Lightbearer," Axion said, turning a silver Light Cube visible behind him with a gesture, then smirked very slowly and deliberately. "I didn't bother switching positions since there were more passing spots for Fishermen, but I'm far more used to being a commander than a frontline fighter."
Khun's mouth fell open, much like the looks of shock on all the other Regulars' faces.
'I know his game now…damn, he's like me! He probably just likes giving out orders!' Khun thought as he grimaced.
Axion continued. "But don't worry, I'm not asking you to defer to me, since you're doing a good job of things. I'm just suggesting that I help with the coordination, since you probably can't control enough Cubes for everyone by yourself, am I right? And Rachel can't help as a Lightbearer during this test. With me as a supporting Lightbearer, we can cover more ground. And I have some tricks that should make dealing with the worms and Dogs easier."
"The Bull is still the bigger threat though. If we can split up the princesses, it might help us find it faster, but what if they can't handle it on their own?" Ship asked. "Or if the Bull attacks someone else first?"
"Then I'll go back them up, since I'm the fastest, and I'm my own Lightbearer, so I'm also the best at navigating through any dark places to find them," said Axion.
"I guess that's for the best then," said Ship.
"Are you really a Lightbearer? Why haven't you used any Lighthouses before?" Khun asked with a skeptical expression. "You sure you can handle it?"
"How do you think I was able to find my way around in the Hide and Seek game and know exactly where Androssi was after she destroyed Rachel's Cubes?" Axion asked. "Or did you guys not see that part in the observation room? Hong, you were there when Androssi destroyed the Cubes weren't you?"
"Tch, don't remind me, you guys are the worst teammates," said Hong Chunhwa.
"Hey, don't blame me, I didn't tell her to betray you guys," Axion said. "Didn't I give you back your sword? You ought to be grateful."
Hong grumbled but made no further protest.
"Damn, you must be really good if nobody noticed your Lighthouse the whole time," said Khun.
"No, I wasn't using these," said Axion while pointing to his Cube. "I just got this recently. I have a different special item that I can use as a Lighthouse, but it doesn't work with other Lighthouses. I'll use these for this test though, so we can hook up the data connection between us."
Khun nodded. "Alright, that's that then. I think whoever wants to leave can go get ready. I'll stay a bit to think some more about our strategy."
"I'll also stay," said Ship.
"As will I," said Axion.
Everyone else left, and then it was just Khun, Ship, and Axion.
For a few minutes, each seemed to be in their own thoughts.
"Hmm…I'm trying to remember…but I think I've read in a book about these striped earthpigs before," said Ship.
"Really? Anything useful?" Asked Khun.
"I think they're known for digging tunnels that damage farmers' fields. There are a lot of crop fields nearby as well. Remember the survival test?"
"Oh yeah…tunnels huh?"
"If the worms are able to dig through the surface to get to the water, that whole area is probably soft enough for tunnels," said Axion.
"I was just thinking that," said Khun. "And since this is an ecosystem that's been running for a long time, those Dogs probably already have a system of tunnels. And if we mess with those…"
"…then we could lead the Dogs right to the Thieves," Ship concluded. "But we'd need a way to map it out. That won't be easy though since the tunnels would make it out of range from Observers."
Khun held a finger to his chin, tapping it. "I think I might have an idea for that."
"You do?"
"I found out that girl Sunwoo is an Anima, she's got a Shinheuh that should be able to do it, I'll just have to think of a way to convince her," said Khun.
"Passing the test together isn't a good enough reason?" Ship asked.
"Nope, she's too selfish. Just like this guy and our resident princesses," said Khun, pointing a thumb at Axion.
"When did I ever give the impression that I'm selfish?" Axion asked, seemingly offended.
"How about when you helped steal the Black March?" Khun retorted.
"And then I gave it to Androssi, and I even convinced her to trade it back to Baam," Axion said.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Anyways, I'll take care of convincing Sunwoo," said Khun. "If her Shinheuh can do it, then it should make the test a lot easier."
"Are you thinking of trading her your bag?" Axion asked.
"How did you know?!" Khun asked, looking suspiciously at Axion.
"I also had my eye on that bag, so I noticed her drooling over it," said Axion, who smirked.
"Well you can't both have it, and we're gonna need her help," said Khun.
"I can make you a better offer. First of all, that special item I mentioned? It won't be out of range in the tunnels so I can map it out for us too, probably faster than she can. Second, Sunwoo owes me a favor after I returned Hong's Narumada back to him, remember? Even if she doesn't want to do it, I'll get 'her knight' to scold her for being dishonorable. If both of us work together, mapping the tunnels should be a breeze," said Axion.
"I don't mind trading you Manbarondenna instead, but are you sure you can convince her like that?" Khun asked. The bag wasn't worth that much to him, and it was mostly a gimmick that would only be useful on lower floors, and he had lots of other treasures. He was more concerned with making sure they got past this test, and he had to take every chance to stack the odds in their favor, it being an Irregular test that was probably much harder than normal.
"I'll give it a try first, and if it doesn't work you can make your offer. But I'm sure I can convince her, because she probably doesn't even want your bag for its features, it's just because it looks expensive. I can just offer her this," said Axion, reaching into his cloak and rummaging around a bit before pulling something out.
"A literal gold bar?" Ship's eyes bugged out. "What kind of cliché is this? You were secretly a rich bastard too?"
"Okay, you got a deal," said Khun. "If you convince her yourself then I'll give you Manbarondenna."
O O O
Hong sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, he's right Sunwoo, I do owe him."
"But I don't want to!" Sunwoo complained.
"How about if I throw this in?" Axion showed the gold bar.
Sunwoo's face changed immediately, her eyes lit up. "Hah…? G-g-gold?!"
Axion pulled it back quickly before the girl could swipe it. "Only if you do it though, and I'll give it to you after."
"Okay, okay, I'll do it!"
O O O
"Huh? Mr. Axion?" Baam opened his door to see Axion in the hall.
"I wanted to talk to you Baam. The strategy discussion is over, and everyone's getting ready," said Axion.
Baam led him inside. "That's good to hear. Do you think it will go well?"
"I think we're as ready as we can be, all that's left is to do our best," said Axion. "But there is something I'm worried about."
Baam looked concerned. "What's that?"
"That somebody might interfere with the test. Similar to what happened with Hoh last time. I'm concerned that somebody might use the test as an opportunity to attack and achieve a different objective than the test," said Axion.
Baam gasped. "But I'll be right with Rachel this time. I'll keep her safe."
"The target might not be her this time, and I don't think it'll be a Regular. Did you ever notice anything strange about our Wave Controller Instructor Yuga?"
"Instructor Yuga? No, he was really kind to me…are you saying he might do something? But why?"
"Haven't you wondered why he hides under a costume and never shows his face?"
"I guess that is a little strange…but he doesn't seem like a bad person? Maybe he just has his reasons," said Baam.
"Hwa Ryun told me…she overheard him talking in secret. His real name isn't Yuga, it's Lo Po Bia Ren—and he's a member of the Royal Enforcement Division. His true goal is to retrieve the Black March and Green April, and to kill Anak Zahard," said Axion.
"What? But I don't understand, why would he do that? Isn't Anak a princess?"
"It's complicated, but she's not a real princess. Her mother was, remember what Androssi said before? Princesses of Zahard aren't allowed to date anyone. They're definitely not allowed to have children. So the king wants her dead. But it gets worse. The Bia family has their own princess, and Ren might try to get rid of the competition—that means even Androssi, who's a real princess—and steal the Thirteen Month Series weapons for his family's princess while he's at it. So he isn't going to care that Ms. Yuri gave you permission to hold the Black March."
"That's terrible…the king doesn't sound very nice, and I can't believe Ren would do that," said Baam, now looking quite worried. "But what should we do? We can't let him hurt our friends."
"You just focus on protecting yourself and Rachel. I'll do what I can to stop him, but you should lend me the Black March for this test. Besides, as long as you're holding on to it, you become a target for him too, and you don't want to put Rachel in danger, right?"
"No, you're right. Here, please take care of it, I still have to return it to Ms. Yuri later," Baam said and then handed over the Black March without a second thought.
"Don't worry, I will. And if I see Ms. Yuri I'll return it to her myself," said Axion.
"Thank you. Good luck, and please stay safe Mr. Axion."
"You too Baam, you too."
O O O
[Kaleidus]
I heard an angry earful from the Black March as I made my way through the halls. But she couldn't stop me, and it was necessary.
Not only would Baam holding onto the Black March pose a problem for Rachel's plan if he killed the Bull too fast, I needed to get it from him to ensure my own safety.
The point wasn't to use it as a weapon, but to keep it as a lure for Yuri Zahard.
I had no idea how Yuri tracked down the Black March to the fight with Yuga in the first place, and while it was possible she randomly found her way through after getting lost in the darkness, I wasn't going to rely on canon proceeding the same way if the Black March was missing from the scene.
Which meant that I had to make sure the Black March appeared in the same place, so that Yuri could get there to save our asses.
O O O
Two Lighthouses floated slightly in the air beside each other, one blue, one silver, above a high cliff.
I sat in my own Lighthouse, with a communications line with Khun's Lighthouse open, while my cubes invisibly followed Androssi and Anak.
Agate was mapping out the tunnels at high speed together with Sunwoo's Shinheuh, while I typed and drew on my input panels quickly, transmitting the data to Khun. We might be able to finish the tunnel routing and collapse plan before the herders even moved at this rate.
It would be nice to get Manbarondenna as a storage item after the test was over, but my main reason for offering to be a Lightbearer was also for my own safety. I didn't want to meet Ren alone too early, after all. It would be hard for Ren to assassinate me while I was out in the open like this, yet I'd know where Androssi would be so I could quickly get over once Ren showed up.
"Hatsu says the thieves have started moving. How's the mapping going, Axion?"
"Just wrapping up. And…done," I said.
"Great. Okay, I'll get those two to send in Laure," Khun said. "No sign of the Bull yet?"
"Not yet. I'm not letting the princesses get too far from Ship though, just in case," I said.
"Probably a good precaution, Ship will be in trouble if the Bull finds him first," said Khun.
The area that we were operating in was large but still a distance easily crossed by Agate flying at top speed because it could phase through all obstacles. It was much harder for a person to get around.
So after the mapping was done, I sent the Kaleidostick to follow Androssi around instead.
Eventually Khun's voice came back with an urgent tone. "The Bull is attacking Ship!"
"On it, sending them in" I said, then ordered Anak and Androssi to move.
This was also my cue, so I exited the Lighthouse, compressed it back down, then started moving there myself.
Once Anak and Androssi arrived on the scene together, I put the Lighthouse away. It was quite a pain to manage the other Cubes like this, nor could I just hook it up to Offensive Bias to delegate it, because the panels and controls could only be managed with Shinsoo. I could probably set it up so that Offensive Bias could use the small robot to interact with the controls eventually, but that was beyond my capabilities for now.
But with the two princesses together, I could keep track of them with Agate instead, so I told them I'd be turning off my Cubes because I was heading over on foot. They didn't need the light right now anyways.
I took my time getting there though, wary of getting ambushed on the way.
So I watched as the princesses 'fought' the Bull. Anak offered a bet for the Green April, which Androssi refused. The two of them fought each other in between saving Ship from the Bull, until Androssi seemingly defeated the Bull accidentally.
There was a short break in the fighting while Androssi gloated, then her fight with Anak resumed. Finally, the Bull sneak attacked both of them before running away.
Anak and Androssi began to chase it further into the darkness of the undercliff caverns.
That should be the beginning of the lure. I began moving closer, but still keeping a large distance away.
"Stay calm, Ship, I'm on my way, and don't go off on your own," I said, transmitting the message through the Pocket via Khun's network.
A while later, I caught up with Ship.
"Are you still tracking them?" He asked me.
"I've got Androssi in sight still, but Anak separated from her somewhere along the way," I said.
"Damn, those two are so immature," he said. "But they're strong, so they should be fine."
"You jinxed it. Androssi's in trouble," I said.
"What? But she defeated the Bull so easily before! She didn't even have to use the Green April," said Ship.
"What's happening?" Khun's voice came through Ship's Pocket.
"I think the Bull was just pretending earlier. Not good, it just caught Androssi! Something's wrong, this was a trap, it must be the assassin!"
"What? What assassin?"
I rushed away before they could get another word in.
O O O
[Interlude]
"Did you find them yet, Ship?"
"No, not yet, damn it...!" Ship panted. "Stupid princesses! And that damn bastard, he must know something. What do you think he meant by an assassin?"
"To be honest, I've been thinking there's something off about this test. It wouldn't surprise me if there really was an assassin here. But who's the target? If they're trying to kill Androssi Zahard it would probably be a Ranker."
"A Ranker? Seriously? Damn, why didn't he tell us anything before rushing off?"
Ship climbed up a wall of rock, then slipped and fell.
"Arghh!!"
"What? What happened?!"
"N-nothing, I'm fine. Aw, my back," he grumbled, getting back up.
"So like I was saying, it's probably a Ranker. Or more specifically—I think it's one of the test supervisors. But we can't do anything about it now since we're on our own for this test, and there's no way to contact that damn coffee machine. We just have to trust that they're strong enough to handle it," said Khun.
"I have a bad feeling about this," said Ship.
O O O
"Da…damn…" Anak cursed while lying face down on the ground in a pool of her own blood. "If I had the Green April…" She muttered.
"Oh, you think you could win if you had the Green April?" Ren asked. "Why don't you give it a try then, mutt?"
"Huh? Witch?!" Anak looked up to see the Bull coming into view, Androssi being wrapped by its tail, head down and unconscious. "Y-you've been controlling the Bull?"
"That's right," said Ren. "This test was engineered to kill you. This test, the supervisors, this entire floor, and everything in this Tower are your enemies. Because you are the enemy of Zahard."
The Bull threw Androssi down to the ground, and the Green April clattered away, where Ren picked it up with an extended tongue and dropped it in front of Anak. "Now, what can you do, even if I give this to you?"
Anak forced herself up and grabbed the Green April. "Ignite!"
The ignition weapon blasted forth, but a small blue shield panel blocked and redirected it before it reached Ren.
"W-what?"
She dodged a blast of Shinsoo from Ren's cannon weapon, and then attacked with the Green April several more times, only to be blocked and then kicked down into the ground, losing her grip.
Ren's tongue picked up the Green April. "Hehehe. It's useless to fight back, mutt. I am the one who killed your mother, after all, did you really think you stood a chance against me?"
"Y-you b-bastard!" Anak growled out, but stayed on the ground.
"Now…let the show begin. Ms. Androssi, wake up, wake up!" Ren went to gently push the unconscious princess.
"Ah…argh…shut up! How many times have I told you not to wake me up?!" Androssi subconsciously roared and smacked Ren away.
Then she rubbed her head and looked around, before seeing Anak bleeding on the ground and Yuga in costume, before realizing what was going on.
"You…!"
"W-witch, that fluff ball is the enemy!" Anak warned Androssi.
Ren wobbled back. "Sorry for the late introduction, Ms. Androssi. I am Ren, a member of the Royal Enforcement Division No. 67."
"So you came to kill the lizard," said Androssi.
"But before that, I wanted to confirm something as a teacher…I was wondering if you were helping that fake go up the Tower?"
"N-no way…! Why would I do that?" Androssi said with a nonchalant face.
"But then, why did you eliminate other rivals in the previous test?"
"T-that's…"
"You don't have to explain it to me, you can just prove it with your actions! All you need to do is kill that fake right here, right now," said Ren.
"I…" Androssi looked at the lizard, who stared back at her.
"Why are you hesitating?" Ren pressed.
"I would love to do that, but we still need her for the test," said Androssi.
"Don't worry, I'll take the Bull with me when I leave, then you won't need her anymore, correct?"
Androssi tried to give another excuse before Ren cut her off. "Princess Androssi…are you siding with a girl who wants vengeance on the family of Zahard? If Zahard found out about this…you have less of a chance to receive a Thirteen Month weapon in the future."
Ren flicked the Green April back to her. "But, you were able to take the Green April from the fake on your own during the previous tests. So how about you show me that you're worthy of holding a Thirteen Month Series, a weapon powerful enough to control the destiny of the Tower?"
Androssi looked at the Green April in her hands then walked over to Anak. The green skinned princess's eyes widened in fear as the other princess loomed over her.
Ren began to giggle uncontrollably seeing this sight.
"Don't blame me lizard…" said Androssi.
In her mind, she thought back to the friend list, to the meals surrounded by friendly faces,
I like being alone. It feels worse to be with someone. They bother you…and make you nervous…
I was just using you. And now you're of no use to me…
She thought of Baam who told her she wasn't alone anymore, and then to Axion who made her chicken pie.
"…in the end, I just…belong to a different place," she said darkly, gripping the Green April tightly.
"D-don't tell me…w-witch…!" Anak stared with shock as Androssi raised the weapon's hook to her throat with a resolute expression.
"Ignite!" Androssi shouted, and a scream followed, blood splattering.
O O O
Ship heard the scream echoing through the caverns. "No! What's going on?! Fuck!! You heard that, Khun?!"
"I did, that was Anak, wasn't it?! I'll send Hatsu over for support!"
"Anak, please be alright!"
O O O
Ren laughed uproariously, then noticed something was wrong. "Hm?"
Upon taking a closer look when the smoke cleared, Anak was on her back, eyes wide and staring at Androssi, but she appeared alive and well.
"…weapon of the sinner held, food of the lover eaten, blood of the daughter saved…shut, shut, shut…"
"H-have you gone mad, witch?!" Anak asked, watching the blood drip from the Green April after she made a small cut on her own forearm.
The other princess paid her no attention, seemingly focused on muttering quietly and drawing something on the ground with a needle, using Anak's blood which had pooled before.
"What are you doing, princess Androssi?" Ren asked, perplexed.
"…I hereby swear, my heart shall be my own and my sins to bear alone! O great Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite, whose Aspects are many and myriad, I present you the proof of my sincerity and an offering to He Who Sees beyond! If you would answer this will and reason, then I shall become your anchor!"
"Is this a Spell…?" Ren watched morbidly as the bloody circle lit up the cavern in an unholy red light.
"Thus I summon you under the sigil of the Dreambreaker, and invite you to the realm of the waking! Cross the threshold, come forth as the Demon of Chromatic Calamity and rebalance the scales!"
The blood that dripped from the Green April and Androssi's own forearm burned away, the cut on her skin having clotted and sealed already.
"Oh my, where did you learn such forbidden arts, princess?" Ren asked.
Then he felt the Shinsoo flows recoil away from the circle which had been drawn. Smoke erupted, and a silhouette with glowing red lights for eyes appeared kneeling, holding the wounded left hand of the princess.
The silhouette was wreathed in shadows, but there was something familiar about it.
"Your offering is accepted, and so I have come. If you agree to this contract, henceforth, you shall be my anchor, and I shall carry out your will. So long as you sustain my existence, I, the Chromatic Calamity, will wreak havoc on your enemies," a deep and ringing voice echoed through the caverns as the silhouette kissed the back of the princess's hand.
"I accept," said Androssi..
"I must say, this is quite unexpected. Did you really summon a demon, princess?" Ren asked.
The silhouette gave way to reveal Axion, who stood up, and his voice went back to normal. "Hello again, instructor Yuga."
"What?" Ren started to laugh uncontrollably again. "Mr. Axion? You two went through all that trouble just for a mere teleportation? You almost had me concerned for a moment."
Axion laughed as well. "Glad you got a good laugh out of it, Instructor. But I'm afraid this student must be impolite today."
"Please, go ahead. You saved me the trouble of hunting you down, you know? Although it was very funny, I shall be sure to report this to Zahard. It will be my pleasure to eliminate you and your princess as a competition to the Bia family princesses," Ren said, and meant it.
"Did you really believe Lero Ro's foolish theory?" Axion asked with a scoff.
Ren didn't, of course. Lero Ro, the fool, thought a Ranker could be smuggled past Headon into the Regular tests? It was utterly droll. The best that the princess's family could have done would be to mix up the cohorts and get the princess together with a particularly strong Regular with powerful items—that was much more likely.
"Oh, are you saying you're not here as princess Androssi's retainer, even after that display?"
"You seem to have some knowledge of Spells. Haven't you realized yet what the purpose of that Spell was?" Axion asked.
"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage there, Mr. Axion. My knowledge of these forbidden arts is quite lacking. Perhaps the student shall teach the teacher a little today?" said Ren.
"It's simple, really. All spells contract with a powerful medium—a demon or god, to empower them. But such beings are not like the Administrators, they don't offer tests and they do not give contracts freely. So why do they not simply act directly themselves, instead giving power to contracted Sorcerers?"
"Hmm…an interesting question. Without knowing more about them, I would guess that there is some force preventing them from acting directly?"
"Correct. Just as there are rules restricting Rankers from acting freely, there are rules of the world itself that restrict the influence of beings which are 'imaginary' from unduly influencing the real world. It is only through the willing contract of a Sorcerer that we may act—and even then it is extraordinarily difficult to manifest even a minuscule fraction of our true selves and power."
"I see, so the purpose of that Spell was for your contractor to unlock more of your power?"
"Now you understand. Through some miraculous circumstances, I was summoned directly into the real world when my previous summoner used his own body as a vessel…and then I took it over, allowing me the freedom to move about on my own. After meeting the princess, it soon became clear that she had the potential to be a far superior summoner, but such a connection cannot be forged easily—it is only in a time of great distress, powerful emotions, and in the presence of suitable sacrifices that it can be forged."
"And this was one such situation, I see," said Ren. "But what do you intend to do now?"
"As I said, a suitable sacrifice is required…the ritual is not yet fully complete. The true reason that Androssi summoned me now is precisely because it would be a pity if such a high quality sacrifice was just executed without being used properly…"
"Hm? You mean…"
Axion unsheathed his crystal sword and turned to Anak, who realized his intent and backed away fearfully. "Y-you two are really going to…?!"
"Like I said, don't blame me lizard. It's nothing personal," said Androssi, smirking evilly before taking a lick of the blood on the Green April.
"You really were a witch…!" Anak spat hatefully.
Ren clapped and laughed again. "Wonderful, wonderful! I am surprised yet again!"
"Now, Mr. Lo Po Bia Ren, do you still intend to eliminate us as 'competition', or will you allow me to proceed with the sacrifice?" Axion asked.
"Hmm, that is quite a dilemma I have been placed in. If I allow you to proceed, then according to what you have told me, you might become considerably more dangerous. But I cannot just kill you unless you have committed a crime against Zahard, what shall I do?" Ren asked loudly.
Ren paced as if thinking, while the other three waited tensely.
Anak's eyes darted around, before making a dash for escape, but Androssi extended Green April to pin her down.
"I have decided!" Ren said suddenly. "Yes…please go ahead with the sacrifice."
"I see, thank you then, Mr. Ren," said Axion.
Then he grabbed Anak by the throat with one hand, choking her, as Androssi retracted Green April. He dragged the struggling green princess to the bloody circle that had been drawn earlier.
He gestured to Androssi, who caged her down again against the circle.
"No! You monsters!" Anak shouted when Axion finally released his grip on her throat. "Let me go!"
Axion raised his sword. "Ignite!" A flash of light and then energy began rolling off the sword in wisps.
"Mmfufukukuku…I will enjoy devouring you, girl!" The sword said with a dark chuckle.
Then Axion began to chant in an incomprehensible language. The air suddenly turned heavy with a strange presence.
"Hmm? This feeling…it's just like that time," Ren said, thinking about when Axion absorbed his Shinsoo barrier.
Shinsoo rapidly converged on their location, turning the air dense. Liquid Shinsoo began to form out of the air and formed a half sphere of water that submerged Anak.
"Stop, stop!" Anak shouted desperately. "You can't do this!"
Axion's chanting grew more frantic and he began waving his sword in strange motions along with his other hand.
The blood on the ground that hadn't been burned away during the initial summoning ritual lifted up and began to form intricate symbols and arcane characters that swirled around the sphere of Shinsoo, while some went to Axion's hand.
Then Axion himself floated into the air.
"…What the hell is going on here?!" Ship came onto the scene, looking shocked. "What are you guys doing to Anak?"
"…" Axion turned to look at the Regular.
Then the Bull's tail grabbed Ship and choked him. He struggled wildly but was completely overpowered.
"Please continue, I will ensure there are no interruptions," said Ren.
Axion turned his attention back to Anak and then resumed chanting.
Ren continued watching curiously.
The chanting continued, and changed periodically in rhythm.
Ren ate a snack and then sat down.
Ship gave up and panted while looking faint.
Axion continued chanting.
'…where the fuck is Yuri?!' Axion thought to himself. 'Wasn't she supposed to arrive with Ship?'
"How long is this ritual supposed to take?" Ren asked.
Axion didn't say anything and kept chanting, raising his voice to a higher level.
"You wouldn't happen to be stalling, would you, Mr. Axion?" Ren asked.
Anak stopped struggling in the water, finally realizing that something was up.
"You can't rush these things, Mr. Ren," said Androssi. "It's a very delicate process."
"I'm not sure what you were stalling for, but I'm afraid there is no help coming your way. Now let us end this farce, hehehe…" said Ren.
Ren's beam cannon reappeared beside him and fired towards Anak's head.
'This is long past the point where Yuri Zahard should have arrived…it wouldn't be strange if the timing was a bit off though, considering the weeks it took for her group to travel here,' thought Axion. 'I can escape to the Ring of Deterrence in ten seconds, but desertion would mean losing the goodwill I have with Androssi and most of the main characters, or even risk some of their deaths. That would be inconvenient for my future plans in the Tower, but if it gets too dangerous…'
The chanting, swirling Shinsoo, and symbols in the air all abruptly stopped, and Androssi pulled on the hook of the Green April dragging Anak away from the beam.
Ren rushed towards Androssi.
Androssi dropped Anak and barely raised the Green April up in time to block his kick.
'For now, I should fight a little while assuming Yuri is just late. Given the way Ren toyed with Androssi and Anak, he probably won't try to end this efficiently either, so I can keep stalling,' thought Axion. 'And the human body's typical vital points aren't actually fatal for me. Unless he goes for my head, I can probably survive long enough to escape.'
Axion swung down at Ren at the same time and unleashed a blast of Shinsoo.
A small blue panel appeared to block the blast from Derflinger while Ren's kick hit Androssi and sent her crashing through a stalagmite.
Another blast of Shinsoo was fired from the cannon and Axion was forced to jump back to dodge.
Large segments of the Green April swept forth, which Ren danced around.
Anak scrambled away quickly despite her wounds.
Ren jumped towards Anak, only for Androssi to catch his leg in a reel string, and then a blast of Shinsoo from Derflinger hit him.
Androssi got to Anak and grabbed her wrist before running the opposite direction from where Ren was hit and sent flying.
"Can you still fight, Anak?" Axion asked.
"She won't be much help, too heavily wounded," said Androssi, shaking her head.
"Shut up witch, I'm fine!" Anak growled.
"Get Ship and get out of here, I'll hold him back!" Axion shouted.
"Yes, save me!" Ship yelled, waving his arms.
Androssi swept the Green April towards the Bull, but it ducked and dodged, then threw Ship over them all, screaming profanities as he arced through the air.
Ren tore through the air passing by Ship even as the Bull attacked Androssi and Anak.
"I can't let you leave with that fake!" Ren said loudly.
Axion flew up to intercept, but then a huge yellow snake-like creature burst from the ground and closed its mouth over him whole.
"Axion!!" Androssi shouted, before the distraction cost her a hit from the Bull's spear, sending her flying away, but instead of being allowed to land, the curved cannon appeared in her path and fired a beam directly into her back. "Uhk!"
The Green April clattered away as Androssi was driven into a newly created ditch on the ground.
Ren kicked Anak down, then kicked her a few more times for good measure, until she was too dizzy to move.
"Anak! Stop that you bastard!" Ship yelled, trying to crawl over. "Weren't you supposed to be the Wave Controller instructor?! Are you the assassin?!"
The undercover RED ignored him, then picked up the Green April from the ground and slurped it into his costume's mouth.
"Well then, since the princess won't kill the fake, looks like I'll just have to do the job myself. But rest assured, Ms. Androssi Zahard, the King will hear of this, and know that you tried to protect her," said Ren.
"Damn you…!" Androssi growled out, pushing her chest off the ground but seemed to have difficulty getting the rest of the way up.
The snake made a pained cry, and then a beam of energy cleaved through its skin, revealing Axion who was covered in viscous liquids but otherwise fine.
"But first, even though I can't kill you as a princess of Zahard, I can definitely kill this retainer of yours for this heinous crime," Ren said.
Whether Axion really was a retainer, hired help, or just a newly acquired teammate did not really matter to the Bia family agent. It was a fact that the princess was benefiting from it, so that was a good enough reason for Ren to act. Killing him was perhaps excessive, since it might incur the wrath of the Guardian. The consequence of interfering with Regulars like this against the rules of the Tower was not insignificant, but it wasn't intolerable either. That was why he'd been sent to eliminate the fake princess after all, even before Yu Hansung told him the Guardian permitted it.
Even for the Zahard Empire, the rules of the Tower were absolute for everyone. But as a member of RED, Ren was familiar with some loopholes that could be exploited. For example a Ranker could sneak into the Inner Tower where Regular tests took place with the help of a Guide or by getting a job as a test administrator. And if they wanted to interfere with Regulars, they could do so by accepting certain Shinsoo restrictions on themselves, either through a temporary contract with the Guardian or voluntarily by using less Shinsoo. If they limited their Shinsoo manipulation so that it was not much higher than the target, it was not considered as grave a violation because the battle was "fair".
The same "fairness" principle applied to abuses of power by stronger beings in the Tower to all other weaker beings even outside of the Inner Tower. In the Middle Area or Outer Tower, the Guardians might still intervene, depending on its mood and personality, if a Ranker or more powerful being started fights or massacres near Regulars and other inhabitants of the Tower. All territory on a Floor was ruled by the Guardian after all, so they had full authority over which fights were allowed to happen. This especially applied if Rankers tried to host events for Regulars in the Middle Area or ambushed Regulars while they were traveling between Floors.
But the most important point was whether or not a Guardian actually warned him or interceded. If they did so directly, then it was an absolute order, and the penalty could be instant death and further punishment to all those involved in his mission were he to try and defy it still.
Otherwise it was an implicit sort of permission…that whatever was happening could be important to the destiny of the Tower.
And that was exactly what was happening here. Ren had been interfering and there had been no direct warning from the Guardian to stop, so he could keep pushing it until a warning came.
"Now, why don't you entertain me properly, Mr. Axion? Show me that mysterious power you used to fight against Quant," said Ren. The more power that Axion used, the more that Ren himself could use in response.
'I was right…he's still playing with us,' thought Axion. 'Well, if he wants entertainment, fine by me. If he's curious to see my power, then I can drag this out and either wait for Yuri to get here or find an opportunity.'
"I think you've got it backwards, Ren, a lowly Ranker like you, killing me? Don't make me laugh," Axion said arrogantly. Axion's golden armor began to vibrate, wiggle, and move while he talked. Black patterns crawled up his face alongside red circuit lines, then his armor began to grow up his face as well.
"I was not stalling in the hopes of anyone coming to help us. I was merely checking to see if anybody was watching, and whether the Guardian permitted this as part of the test," said Axion, as he took off his visor and put it away into his Pocket.
'Nothing happens without the approval of the Guardian, so there's a possibility that it's intentionally making me fight this battle and Yuri might not be able to interfere at all. I can't win a straight fight, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. A princess has more durability than an average Ranker, and I was clearly able to hurt Quant before when he wasn't using Shinsoo. That means, no matter how skilled or powerful Ren's offensive capabilities are, if I can get a single chance to land a killing blow, then I can win.'
A dark red and purple aura began to emit from Axion's body as the Kaleidostick hidden in the back of his armor glowed. 'Time to look like a demon,' he thought to himself.
The surface of Axion's armor smoothed out into a single contiguous piece before growing jagged edges, the color changed to a primarily dark red and black crystalline texture, with some parts of it a highly reflective kaleidoscopic gradient.
"Is that so? And why would that matter?"
"That's right, little RED. Since I have confirmed that the Guardian does consider this part of the test, then the Zahard family cannot object if I use you, a Ranker from one of the Ten Great Families, as the sacrifice!" Axion's voice warped again at the end as the armor covered his entire head, turning his head towards Androssi.
He tore away his capes, throwing them aside to the ground with a thud, revealing that there had been large folded wings underneath. 'These wings are too slow and their extra mass makes the Omniflight spell more difficult and expensive,' he thought to himself. 'I need to go all out and focus on peak performance.'
"I see…" Ren said, then giggled. "Well then, in that case…by all means! Come!"
"By your leave, summoner?" Axion asked, turning his head towards Androssi.
"Take him down!" Androssi shouted back.
"Boost ten!"
Axion's body lit up in a yellow aura, then burst towards Ren.
"Impressive!" Ren said while barely dodging and firing beams of Shinsoo from his cannon that Axion dodged as well. "I can see how you were able to keep up with Quant!"
After a fast exchange of slashes and beams of Shinsoo, the blue shield panel blocked the next slash, and the mouth of the costume opened to reveal a dark shadowy figure charging up a Shinsoo beam in its mouth at point blank range.
Axion was unable to react in time and was blown away into a wall.
"But it's not enough! Can you do any better against an opponent who is free to use Shinsoo?" Ren asked.
When Axion got up a portion of his armor was burned away at the chest underneath the right shoulder, revealing a strange mix of dark red blood and some other brown-green liquid underneath.
"All that boasting for nothing," said Anak with a huff.
"No way…" Ship said.
"Not bad…looks like we can take this up another level, Derflinger," said Axion, flexing his shoulder as if testing it, showing that it was fine despite the apparent injury.
"You got it, Partner!"
"Ignition: Stage Two," Axion said, while holding the blade of his sword with his left hand.
"A second Ignition? I've never heard of such a thing," said Ren, watching curiously and allowing his opponent to finish powering up.
"Yes! I knew we could count on you, Axion!" Ship cheered.
"Tch! Probably just another trick," said Anak.
The whole light teal crystalline blade seemed to come off, revealing a much thinner pure white blade underneath, creating a sharp contrast against Axion's darker color scheme.
Ren sweatdropped. "All you did was pull off the outer layer."
"See?" Anak said to Ship. "Just a trick. We're all going to die."
"Don't let me down, damn it!" Ship shouted.
Androssi slowly got up while nobody was looking her way, and inched away towards a hiding spot behind a stalagmite.
"The outer layer was a seal," said Axion, with a chuckle. "Now we can release the true power. Derflinger, Ignite!"
'It might just be a layer, but it has its own advantages and disadvantages. With the layer on, Derf has to project his power through a secondary medium, which makes the Aura and Beams above level 6 unusable, in exchange for better defense and absorption as attacks are refracted through the outer crystal before they can damage the inside. That doesn't make a difference against a Ranker of Ren's level, though, if I can't react fast enough to block his attacks and even if I did, his attacks are probably intense enough to blow through the crystal anyways,' Axion thought, while his Armoriont slowly began to regenerate and recover the skin that was exposed.
"Awwww yeaaah!" Derflinger shouted as the sword grew much brighter, then Axion's body lit up again.
Axion charged forward again.
The blue panel came up to block as he slashed, while the cannon flipped around and opened fire from behind him.
'Thanks to the Endbringer crystals being alive, Derf has a bit more fine control, so now I can retain control while he Boosts me—I won't have the benefit of his skill, but it does mean I can coordinate my own Burstshift in close combat!'
He disappeared in a sudden burst of speed before the Shinsoo beam hit him, then reappeared behind Ren, who still managed to move his shield panel back in the way as he turned around.
The sword collided with the panel, but this time it cracked.
"…!" Ren jumped away.
Derflinger broke through the panel, before Axion flashed to Ren again.
A large wave of Shinsoo shoved Axion aside before he could reach his target as Ren fired another Shinsoo blast out of his mouth. It barely missed as Axion shifted away.
Both fighters landed back on the ground with a wary look at the other.
"It might be dangerous even for me if I were to be hit by that…" Ren remarked.
"He's really fighting on par with a Ranker!" Ship exclaimed. "I knew we could count on him!"
'Derf's capacity is limited…even though the Endbringer crystal improved it and the efficiency of the higher levels, I'll only be able to use the strongest Slash Beam once, since I'm using Boost as well. The Slash Beam condensed into a Sword Aura can't be powered down without losing twenty percent of the unreleased Slash Beam's energy either…' Axion considered carefully and stayed silent. 'But at least I've confirmed the level 8 intensity should be enough to be a threat to him, which means…'
"Derf, get ready. It looks like we'll have to put everything on the line and go all out just like that time."
"Let's do it. I'm ready."
Then Ren giggled in a mad frenzy. "This excitement…I can barely hold them back anymore!"
Suddenly a huge swarm of giant Shinheuh burst out of his mouth.
"Ahhh!" Ship screamed as the Shinheuh swarm covered everything in sight. But fortunately for him and Anak, they did not seem to be interested in killing them now, instead heading for Axion.
Androssi took from her Arms Inventory the Black March, which Axion had given her before the test started, and joined the fray.
A frenzy of hacking, roaring, biting, and spurting blood followed.
Axion tore through several big fish initially, but they seemed to shrug off the wounds and eventually began to tear off pieces of his armor. Androssi fared a little worse offensively, and her clothes were torn apart easily but her skin did not bleed.
Ship and Anak tried to escape in the confusion but were stopped by Ren who then tied them up and strapped to a stalagmite each, forced to watch.
'These are too strong and there's too many, I have no choice!' Axion thought while pinned down by a few Shinheuh, his body bleeding in many parts now. Androssi was similarly being eaten by two different fish trying to rip her apart and failing even though she yelped in pain.
A much larger dark purple aura burst out of Axion's body, leaking from underneath the armor and mixing with the yellow aura of Derflinger's boost.
Shinsoo surged into a great torrent and blew the Shinheuh around Axion away.
Axion held his free hand up and a swirling ball of Shinsoo gathered in it, which quickly turned into a vortex of violent water.
"This pressure…yes, show me that special power of yours, Axion!" Ren said.
The water spirits' unintelligible whispers became audible across the whole cavern as everything was caught up in its giant vortex.
"Incredible!" Ren felt himself getting pushed by the massive waves, but stood his ground. His Shinhueh however, were dragged into the cyclone and started smashing into each other and the walls and stalagmites.
Androssi was freed but caught in the cyclone as well, and she dug the Black March into a wall as she flew.
"Sovereign of the Deep: Great Vortex!" Axion shouted the name of the technique as the cyclone reached a crescendo and exploded violently, blasting everything away.
Ship screamed again as he and Anak were also blown away together with the rock that had been ripped out of the ground, though they were still tied up.
Ren had created a bright barrier of energetic Shinsoo to shield himself, but many of his Shinheuh were ripped apart and flung away, flopping uselessly in their death throes.
However, not all of them died, some got back up and floated in a formation to surround Axion again, or in front of Ren. These Shinheuh were not fish, but strange creatures that had no clear analog from Earth that Axion could recognize.
Axion stood, looking battered, but his wounds were already healing visibly, although the armor seemed to have difficulty repairing itself as the damage suffered had been too large. It began to instead condense itself over his vital organs around his chest and neck.
"Summoner, leave this area!" Axion shouted to the princess, who picked herself up after the vortex broke apart the rock the Black March was hanging on to.
"Damn it!" She cursed before running and shouting back. "You better come back alive!"
"Bravo! What a show. Now, I believe it's my turn…" Ren said.
Axion did not give him the opportunity to finish, however, as he disappeared again with his sword raised.
Ren reacted immediately and his Shinheuh got in the way, while two Baangs appeared in the air.
Another giant snake with multiple tendrils for limbs ripped out of the ground just as Androssi was getting away and dragged her back. "Arghh!"
"Not so fast, princess! I can't let you leave so soon, especially after you did me the favor of bringing me the Black March…hehehe!" Ren said. "This is perfect, now I can retrieve two of the Thirteen Month Weapons in the same place!"
Axion began to shift quickly all over the place as the Shinheuh attacked alongside Ren's lances of energized Shinsoo beams.
Another Baang appeared in the air around Ren and the lances fired more rapidly. Axion began to leave pulses of water every time he appeared, pushing back the Shinheuh and barely blocking the beams of Shinsoo coming his way.
"Don't get cocky, Instructor, you're not the only one who can use more Baangs!" Axion shouted before he flashed away. Then three Baangs formed around him as well, and they began to fire back at the incoming Shinsoo beams.
"Hahaha! Excellent! Show me more!!" Ren shouted happily, before adding one more Baang to outnumber Axion again.
The big snake went to Ship and Anak to pick them up as well, now keeping all three of the Regulars tied up.
"You were really going to just leave us, weren't you, witch?!" Anak said angrily.
"It's not like I could've saved you! Might as well go get reinforcements," said Androssi.
"Please, can you two stop fighting already, at a time like this!" Ship yelled.
"What else is there to do? We're useless in this battle," said Anak.
"We can think of something! Anything!" Ship said.
"He could kill us at any time," Anak said. "That bastard just wants us to watch Axion die."
"Axion is going to win!" Androssi exclaimed.
The trio watched as both combatants increased the number of Baangs as if in competition with each other, to five, then six, then eight, then ten, and beams of light destroyed everything around them.
The cavern shook and seemed like it was starting to collapse, huge broken rock parts and debris began to fall everywhere, but the structure held for the moment.
"You're far more interesting than I'd ever expected, Mr. Axion! But it seems I have another lesson to teach you! Increasing the number of Baangs isn't always better, because the more Baangs you create, the lower the Soo per Baang!" Ren said. "Allow me to demonstrate!"
Suddenly he reduced the number of Baangs and created a much more powerful Baang instead, which unleashed an energy wave that blasted through all of the incoming beams from Axion, then hit him.
A barrier held back the beam and split it around him and upwards, but the beam kept going and pushed him downwards, tilting backwards into the ground, until the barrier failed and he was engulfed.
The beam kept going and a huge hole through the cavern walls behind Axion and causing a major collapse in that section.
"No!!" Androssi and Ship both shouted.
When the light died down, Axion was lying on the ground on his back unmoving, Derflinger was no longer lit up and lying a few meters away from him.
Ninety percent of his armor was destroyed, leaving his limbs' skinned completely exposed and scorched.
Ren made his way over slowly, and there was no response from Axion. "Is that it, then, Mr. Axion? I suppose it's time to put an end to this show."
"Get up, Axion!" Androssi yelled. "Come on!"
The Regulars watched with terror as Ren picked up Axion's sword and there was still no movement from its owner.
"Another Ignition Weapon retrieved, although not one of the Thirteen Months, this is quite an interesting find!" Ren said while marveled at the sword for a moment after raising it into the air in front of him. "Your name was Derflinger, wasn't it?"
"Yes sir, you remembered," said Derflinger.
"Of course, you were my most unique student after all," said Ren.
"What are you going to do with me?" Derflinger asked.
"Hmm…well, I don't have any obligation to hand you over to anyone since you're not one of the Thirteen Months series. And I must admit I've wanted an Ignition Weapon of my own for some time…they are quite rare after all. Even a member of one of the Ten Great Families like me couldn't get one after all this time," said Ren.
"Oh, you'd like to wield me?"
"That's correct. What do you say, my student? There is much that I can teach you still, I'm sure, hehehe," said Ren.
"Ohoho, a mighty wielder like you would surely bring out much more potential from me!" Derflinger said cheerfully.
"Then, how about I use you to kill your previous owner? As the proof of our new partnership," said Ren.
"You know exactly how this works, hahaha!" Derflinger said.
"Derflinger, what are you saying? You've decided to betray me?" Axion asked, finally pushing himself up a little.
"This was always the deal, my dear partner. Whoever kills my owner has the right to wield me next and absorb their strength! For six thousand years I have passed from great warriors who each exceeded the last, consuming the blood and soul of each fallen wielder. This is my destiny…to be wielded by the greatest of them all!" Derflinger declared.
"Damn you…!" Axion cursed, sitting up with one hand supporting and pushing himself backwards.
Ren giggled again and stepped forward.
"Go ahead then…my new master, strike him down so that I may drink his blood and soul!" Derflinger said darkly, then glowing with a bright light.
"You were planning to sacrifice me for your ritual, weren't you Mr. Axion? It seems that you shall become my sacrifice instead!" Ren said.
Deep in the caverns, a large shadowy figure stood within a hidden crevice, two glowing yellow eyes narrowed behind a red mask, its body tensing as if preparing to move.
Then Ren stabbed down through Axion's chest and out the other end.
"Urghkk…" Axion's body began to glow together with the sword and then he started to scream. "Ahhh! NOOoooo!!"
"Yes, that's it…I can feel my strength growing, hahahhaa!" Derflinger laughed, and Ren laughed with him.
The sword grew increasingly bright, and seemed to enlarge as well. Even the handle where Ren was holding extended.
The huge armored figure in shadow lifted its hand.
"Axion!!" Androssi shouted, eyes wide.
Ship and Anak watched with horror at the scene.
Suddenly Derflinger's blade retracted into itself, then grew a new blade edge out the other end from the handle towards Ren.
"Huh?" Ren said as he noticed something was wrong.
He moved backwards to dodge.
Simultaneously, a Shinsoo pulse reached Ren, reversing the flow in Ren's body and causing him to freeze for a fraction of a second, preventing an instant retreat. "Wha—"
Light burst from Derflinger's new blade point into Ren cleaving into his costume before engulfing him completely, and then tore into the cavern ceiling and blasted straight through.
"Sword Beam: Level Ten," Axion declared with a smirk.
O O O
Headon opened his eyes with a smirk revealing his wide row of spiked teeth. "Congratulations, Mr. Axion. Now, you have passed the true test of courage. Just like the boy who let himself be eaten by the eel, and the girl who allowed herself to be stabbed by the traitorous teammate, every Irregular that enters the Tower must bet their lives to face the challenge of their own destiny and walk the path that proves themselves greater!"
He chuckled slowly and opened his arms wide as if speaking to a captive audience. "Yes…the revered all-consuming monster…the ordinary fate-stealing thief…and the covetous many-faced teacher…you are the ones who can change the destiny of the Tower!"
Finally, he laughed, the sound reverberating, echoing, through the whole chamber.
I even thought for a while that Derflinger's betrayal was true, it could be written too well into his story. Also, the geis "to always be in the hands of the strongest, and to feed on the previous owner" was well suited to his spirit nature, revealing his entire non-human origin.
'There's something strange about this attack…! What Quality is this? My Shinsoo Resistance is only partially effective against it?' Ren thought to himself.
The light cleaved into Ren's costume before engulfing him completely, and then tore into the cavern ceiling and blasted straight through.
"Sword Beam: Level Ten," Axion declared with a smirk.
'This isn't Shinsoo at all!' Ren finally realized as the attack tore into his body. 'I should have…reinforced…defenses…instead of trying to dodge…!'
O O O
A huge diagonal pillar of light burst through the ground and continued into the sky.
"What…what the fuck!?" Parakewl shouted and then screamed shrilly with a terrified face as the angry beam of energy went straight towards him and Rak who was grabbing him, and Laure who was helping them float in the air.
"…!" Laure's face turned shocked as he quickly moved them away from the devastating attack, landing on the cliff head, next to Hong Chunwa, Sunwoo, and Alexai Amigochez who was their other spearbearer that hadn't jumped down to save Parakewl.
"What's happening over there…?" Hong asked, also shocked.
"Doesn't that kinda look like Mr. Axion's Ignition Weapon's attack, but just a lot bigger?" Sunwoo asked.
"He almost killed me!" Parakewl shouted. "The hell is that garbage doing?! Was the Bull that hard to kill?!"
"Guys, there's been intruders in the test," Khun's voice reached them through a cube.
"What do you mean, intruders?" Hong asked.
"There's a Ranker here that hacked into my Lighthouse, and he just gave some control back to me. I'm not sure what's going on…but it sounds like there was another Ranker that ambushed our princesses, and then Axion fought him. The guy that hacked my Lighthouse seems to be on a different team with a princess of their own, and she came down to find something, but then stopped to watch the fight…" said Khun.
"I'm confused…so there's more than one group of intruders?" Sunwoo asked.
"Why are they interfering with our test?! Where are the supervising turtles?!" Rak asked angrily. "And are the super turtle and the princess turtles alright?!"
"I don't know…I lost contact with Ship a while ago too," said Khun. "I think Axion won though, and the Ranker princess found what she was looking for."
O O O
Axion pulled Derflinger out of his chest and stood back up with a grunt, one hand covering the wound, but apparently wasn't too bothered by the piercing of his heart. "Nice work, Derf," he said.
"Same to you, Partner. Heh, what a dumbass. As if I would just take a new wielder like that," said Derflinger, while transforming back to his normal elven sword design with a single blade.
Ren's costume was sliced halfway up and through to the back, revealing the small round-headed shadowy humanoid creature inside which was similarly sliced in half from its waist up to the right shoulder, green blood pooling on the ground.
"Idiot doesn't even know how to use magic and he wants to claim for himself the legendary Derflinger, the sword made by the right hand of God?" Derf said with a sneering tone.
Axion slowly ambled over, as if he was too exhausted and injured to move, to the corpse of a nearby fish Shinheuh that Ren had used. All of the scattered pieces of armor still on his body, with a particularly large portion from his back, except the part still covering his waist, fell off onto the corpse, combined, and then began to slowly devour the flesh.
"What…what the hell?" Ship asked, eyes wide staring at the results of the battle. "So he was faking it the whole time?! He actually…won?"
Androssi breathed out a sigh of relief. "Now get over here and help us get rid of this thing!" She shouted.
Anak stayed silent, but her eyes were similarly wide like Ship.
O O O
"Princess, you can retrieve the Black March now, the Guardian finally gave permission," said Evan Edrok, while sitting across from Yu Hansung, who was enjoying his coffee.
"Sorry it took so long to get an answer…but you know how it is…the Guardians do whatever they want, and we can only follow their orders," said Yu Hansung with a bright closed eye smile.
'…He's annoying,' Evan thought to himself.
O O O
Suddenly the snake creature that wrapped them up fell to the ground, dead, and their restraints were unwrapped
"That was impressive," said Yuri Zahard, strolling out of the shadows from behind them. "Looks like our first impressions were wrong, Evan, he really was holding back his real power back then."
"Huh?" Ship he got up, shocked. "Wait, who are you? You know Axion?"
Yuri ignored him, then Androssi cut in. "Were you here the whole time?! Why didn't you do anything sooner?!"
"Hello, little sister," Yuri said.
"L—little sister?!" Ship's face changed as realization set in.
"I'm just passing through, looking for this, and for a certain someone," Yuri explained, before going to pick up the Black March that had dropped on the ground with Androssi. "You should know him, sister, you were wielding the weapon I lent to him after all."
A weak and croaking voice came out of the apparently not quite dead Ranker.
"That person you're looking for…could it be the Irregular, Baam?"
There was a look of surprise on Yuri's face.
"I sent the Bull. Sorry…it's a waste of his talents, but we can't let the Irregular…stay alive…hehehe…that boy won't be able to come back alive, princess. Even killing me won't stop it…you may have noticed…this is one of the skins that I use…my real body is already far away…" Ren continued to speak. "See you again…mutt…and you as well…my talentless student…hehehe…"
The corpse suddenly disappeared into smoke, leaving only an empty costume and the Green April behind.
"Evan…I can't stand this anymore…I'll finish this absurd game and rip this whole stage apart," Yuri said with a furious expression.
"My Lady, stop!" Evan's voice appeared seemingly from nowhere, through some sort of invisible communication device.
"Stop what? This test didn't make any sense from the beginning. I only held back so far because the Guardian was supposedly running this, but now we've got permission, don't we?"
"That's enough…princess. You have retrieved the Black March, and that's all you were permitted to do. Any more interference, and Baam will automatically fail the test. These are the Guardian's orders," said the voice of Yu Hansung.
"Lady, he's right! The test is still being carried out as the Guardian planned! The twisted assassin…our intervention…and the Bull…it's all part of the test! If Axion had lost, then our intervention would be permitted to kill the intruder…but our role ended with the furball's death! Now it's up to Baam to finish it!"
"…" Yuri turned to look at the Regulars sprawled around her, before honing in on Androssi again. "Hey sister, do you think Baam can pass the test?"
"Baam will survive…because he's tasted Axion's chicken pie…he'll regret it if he isn't there to taste the next batch!" Androssi said with a smirk.
"What? Axion really made him chicken pie?" Anak asked. "Are those two lovers?"
Ship choked and spat. "What? They were gay all along?"
Yuri looked shocked speechless, unable to follow the train of logic, until Androssi spoke again.
"Baam promised me he'd eat it with me again next time! I won't be the only one to suffer that poison!"
Anak, Ship, Yuri, and Axion all sweatdropped.
Yuri gave one last suspicious look at Androssi and Axion, then shook her head and muttered. "Kids…" Then she turned to Ship instead. "Hey, sweatsuit, catch." She threw him a small shiny object.
Ship looked at the wing tree badge in his hands with awe. It was the symbol of Wolhaiksong, an organization led by the famous Irregular Urek Mazino and his friend Baek Ryun, and the wing tree commemorated the founding of the organization, the fulfillment of Mazino's promise to give wings to the forest that Baek Ryun refused to leave.
"When Baam comes back, sweatsuit, give that to him." Yuri turned to the other Irregular whom she'd seen on the first floor. "Sorry Axion, my teammate ate his words twice but he only had the one badge to lose, or I'd give you one too. But, since Baam did it first, I have to give it to him. But both of you should come to the 77th Floor when you become Rankers. Urek Mazino is waiting." Then she turned back to Ship. "Pass that message on to Baam, got it?"
Ship looked confused for a moment, then nodded. "Huh, oh, yes!"
'Why is she giving this to me to pass on? And why does Urek Mazino want to meet them? Could it be…that Axion is also an Irregular?' Ship thought.
Finally, Yuri made her way towards Ren's corpse.
Axion spoke up then. "You should've come and said hi when I was with Headon, princess. It's rude to spy on people, you know?"
Yuri gave him an unapologetic smirk while roaming her eyes over his mostly exposed skin that was also largely healed and back to a normal color. "Sorry, I was in a hurry. But don't worry, I'll keep watching you…don't disappoint me, and climb quickly, little trickster."
"That's not reassuring…" Axion said.
Yuri laughed before picking up the Green April. "I'll be taking this too," she said.
"Wait, why? Give that back to me!" Anak shouted.
"Why you? It's mine! I won that fair and square in the Crown game!" Androssi shouted.
"It's too heavy for you, either of you," said Yuri as she walked back through their group. "When you're ready for it, come see me with Baam and Axion."
"No!!" Anak yelled.
Androssi pouted but didn't say anything further. She knew that a princess who was still a Regular wouldn't be allowed to hold onto a Thirteen Month Series weapon that they hadn't been awarded by the order of Zahard himself.
"Guide the way, Evan," Yuri ordered. "Yes, my lady!" Came the response.
Ship stopped Anak from trying to chase after her.
Axion walked around, looking for various things. He found his crystal sheath blade, and then sheathed Derflinger. Next he recovered his discarded cape and wings that had seemingly survived mostly intact. These he put back over himself, at which point it wrapped around him and began to slowly morph, the cape changing color into his default crystalline light teal armor with silvery edges, though the coverage was light due to its comparative lack of mass.
Androssi went up to him. "Are you really okay? You took some bad hits."
"Don't worry, I'm already mostly healed," said Axion.
Androssi watched as Axion retrieved a vial from his Pocket and then sucked up the green blood on the ground into the vial with Shinsoo manipulation, before putting it back into the Pocket.
"What are you going to do with that?" Androssi asked.
"I collect samples of all sorts of things. Most of the time it'll be useless, so I don't expect anything, but sometimes I'll find a use for it. I'm going to collect some from the rest of these Shinheuh as well," said Axion.
He glanced around the battlefield which was littered with corpses. "I wish I had something to store all the corpses intact, but these are much too large. Even a single one wouldn't fit in my Lighthouse. I wonder what Ren used to store them while they were alive."
"It's called a Bowl," said Androssi. "But to store this many, of this size, it would have to be a pretty high level Bowl."
"But, where is it now? Where's the rest of the loot supposed to be?" Axion asked, rummaging around the costume for anything else that might still be there. "And there was that cannon too."
"Maybe he took it with them before leaving that skin behind," said Androssi.
"But the Green April dropped out," said Axion.
"You might have destroyed his stuff with your big attack as well," said Androssi, shrugging. "Obviously the Green April would survive something like that. If items like that get destroyed while they're in compressed mode, they tend to just disintegrate. Actually…I think this sheep costume is the Bowl."
"Ah…fuck!" Axion stared at the ruined costume in his hands.
"That cannon…might still be around somewhere, probably invisible," said Androssi, reaching her hands out and trying to feel for it with her Shinsoo senses as well. "I don't think he actually put it away at any point."
She bumped into something, and then felt it up, before it turned visible again. "Here it is," she said with a grin, holding it towards Axion.
"Nice!" Axion took the cannon and observed it for a bit, before putting it into his Lighthouse to figure out how to use later, and then did the same with the ruined costume.
"Khun? Yeah, we're okay," said Ship. "Thank god. My heart can't handle so many scares. You won't believe what happened…"
"I heard everything, actually. A member of Yuri Zahard's team hacked into my Lighthouse and was using it earlier to communicate with the rest of them," came Khun's voice. "He just left and I got full control back. The rest of the test is going well. Just take a rest, you guys, we'll keep the worm hunt going."
"Alright," said Ship.
Anak lay down flat on the ground.
Androssi found a spot to sit down.
Only Axion stayed active, going around collecting samples from the rest of the Shinheuh.
Ship looked at each of his teammates, then went to Androssi while limping. "Hey, are you okay? You were pretty hurt too, right?"
"I'm exhausted right now, and I feel like my guts are going to fall out. But I'm fine."
Ship looked skeptically at her clothes which were shredded in a few places and the self-inflicted wound on her arm. "Does that really mean you're fine?"
"How about up there?"
"They don't need us, Khun and the rest are handling it," said Ship.
"Hm…" Androssi looked at Anak.
"I think she's just upset about the Green April," said Ship. "Now there's no way to get it back until she's a Ranker. Do you think Baam's ok?"
"Don't know…probably not," said Androssi.
"What, that's not what you said earlier!"
"Baam can definitely stop the Bull. The problem is that he doesn't have any way to hurt it while it's stopped," said Androssi. "Even if he manages to make a second Baang, it's just too strong to be hurt by his attacks."
"Shit…"
"Maybe if he had the Black March, things might be different…" said Androssi with a tremendously sad expression.
"Why did he give it to you?" Ship asked, confused.
"Axion received a tipoff about Yuga before the test, as somebody who might have connections to another family with competing princesses, which meant that he'd go after both of the Thirteen Month Series and us. So he asked Baam to lend the Black March, so that he wouldn't be a target and Ren's attention would be focused on just Anak and me as the princesses, and Axion, whom he thought was a retainer from my family," said Androssi.
"Damn…but he went after him anyway, just because he's an Irregular…" Ship said. Androssi looked away. "Shit, I didn't mean it like that, that's not your fault, you couldn't have known!"
"Actually, I did think about that possibility as well. Unfortunately, if he had the Black March, the situation might be even worse," said Axion, walking over.
"What? What do you mean?" Ship asked.
"Do you remember why Yuri wasn't allowed to interfere earlier?" Axion asked.
"…because the Guardian considers the Bull to be a part of the test. The same way it considered Ren to be a part of the test for you…right?" Ship asked. 'Because he's an Irregular too,' Ship added in his mind.
"Exactly. By your expression, you've probably figured it out, huh? The Guardian intentionally set up the test like this, with the difficulty matched to the challenger's capabilities. This must be why taking tests directly from the Guardian is considered extremely difficult," said Axion.
"Ah…so if Baam had the Black March with him, whatever went after him would probably be even stronger!" Ship said, understanding dawning on his face.
"Precisely. If we really think about it, why did Ren leave and only send the Bull? Wasn't it because Yuri showed up and he heard that Yuri was also looking for Baam, and he knew he couldn't defeat a High Ranker like her? I doubt that Yuri found the Black March with us by pure chance—she must have some way to track it. So if she hadn't shown up here and revealed her intention, would Ren really have just left like that? In my opinion, he probably would have gone after Baam next after failing his mission here. If he retrieves at least one Thirteen Month Weapon, his failure might not be as humiliating and his punishment not as bad, right?"
"Shit, you're right…!" Ship said, then he seemed to think of something. "Wait, who was it that gave you the tipoff about that guy?"
"The warning came from Hwa Ryun," Axion said easily. "She's a Guide, so she has good instincts when it comes to things like this."
"That redhead? A Guide? She didn't take the test with us…" Ship noted.
Axion shrugged. "I've been told that Guides can go anywhere they want, even if they don't take the tests. It seems that she doesn't care about it. Maybe she didn't want to get involved in such a dangerous test."
"She was smart…this is all so crazy…" Ship said with a sigh. "I really hope we never have to take one of these Guardian tests again."
O O O
Evan Edrok stopped and turned with surprise as a red headed girl in pink robes passed him by without giving him a glance.
"Come here in ten seconds or you'll die, you mushroom!" Yuri's voice urged Evan on, and he rushed away.
Hwa Ryun walked into the test director's office and closed the door.
Yu Hansung put his coffee down as she approached.
"I didn't actually expect him to win that fight," Hansung said. "Though it seems he still needed a little help at the end."
Hwa Ryun sat down opposite him and touched the coffee cup that Evan had used, looking at it as if there was something deeply interesting about it.
"He could have won even without the Ghost," said Hwaryun.
Hansung looked curiously at her. "So you knew he could walk this path. I thought you couldn't see the paths of Irregulars?"
Hwa Ryun placed the coffee cup back down, then got a new one for herself, which Hansung poured for her. "I didn't know for sure until the last chapter was written." However, Yu Hansung only heard and saw her mouth move for the first five words of her response.
"But isn't this rather inconvenient? A Regular defeating a Ranker in a serious battle on the Floor of Tests won't go unnoticed," said Hansung. "It's unprecedented. Nobody would believe that he's just a Regular…and after all the trouble I went to hide his status."
The Guide drank a slow sip. "The ones who look into him will come across Lero Ro's theory first. Lo Po Bia Ren will report the 'truth' that the princess is dabbling into the forbidden art of Spells, contracting a demon possessing the body of a Regular."
"So they will be feared and hated, but as long as he is with the princess, the response from the Zahard Family will be limited. She will lose favor with Zahard for this and helping the fake, but the consequences will not be severe. The Green April was an item that needed to be retrieved at all costs, but by themselves they would not be worth the effort of breaking the rules of the Tower by sending more Rankers to interfere with them while they still are Regulars," Hansung deduced.
Hwaryun nodded with a slight smile.
O O O
A great lance of Shinsoo pierced through the mouth of the Bull into its head. It fell into the depths of the water as the bubble continued rising.
Baam panted, and held his bloody hand, but there was a smile on his face. "I did it…"
He turned around and looked over the headboard. "Rachel…wherever you want to go…I'll take you there."
"Baam…" Rachel said, looking at him with awe.
Baam reached out his hand with a smile, and Rachel reached out her own.
Suddenly Rachel moved up to a full standing position before he could react and pushed Baam hard.
The boy's face was uncomprehending as he fell backwards out of the bubble.
"Sorry Baam…but you should stay here," said Rachel, her hair covering her eyes.
'Why…? Rachel?' Baam continued falling further into the depths.
O O O
Rak, Sunwoo, and Hong approached the Dolphin Madame.
"Damn, why are they coming out through some butthole looking place?" Rak said.
The orifice wiggled then burst with green liquid and ejected Rachel with it onto the ground.
"Why…is there only one turtle?" Rak asked. "Hey female…where is the other one?"
"Baam…the Bull attacked suddenly…he tried to protect me and…he fell…"
Khun listened to Rak's voice with shock from his Lighthouse. "Do you mean…that the turtle's dead?! Hey…say something…what happened to my prey?!"
O O O
It was a somber mood when Khun broke the silence.
"Didn't the test director say that all Regulars should be here? How come this is it?" He demanded, referring to the absence of the two princesses, Axion, Rak, and Laure.
"Um…Khun…" Sunwoo stood up to answer. "Androssi and Rak are…"
"I know, they never participate in stuff like this," said Khun.
"Hey, how can you say it like that? Think of how they feel!" Sunwoo protested.
"I'm sorry, I'm not in the mood to understand anyone else," said Khun, leaning his forehead against his palm as his hand was propped up on his knee.
"Stop you guys…what's important is the future," said Ship. "Geez…what…should we do…" He faced down and held his head.
"Um…sorry, but…did we pass the test?" Parakewl asked.
"Does that matter, filth?" Hatsu asked.
"Of course, that's the most important question!" Parakewl said.
Hatsu looked like he was about to give him a piece of his mind when Axion suddenly walked in and sat down. The room went silent.
His armor and cape fully restored, though his armor was still in the default smooth teal texture rather than the golden dragonscale design. "Where is everyone else?" He asked, glancing around.
Khun clicked his tongue.
Sunwoo opened her mouth, then decided against it, sighing before sitting down.
Ship answered instead. "Probably shutting themselves in their own rooms. I don't blame them…"
Axion nodded, then walked to Rachel. "You alright?" But she was completely unresponsive.
Axion went back and sat beside Ship.
Then Lero Ro walked into the Regulars' waiting room.
"Regulars. You have all passed," he announced.
"What? How is that possible, weren't Baam and Rachel both supposed to return?" Hatsu asked.
"Before the test, Baam asked the Guardian for a favor. If he died during the test, he wanted the rest of you to go up to the next floor, no matter the results."
"Wait…that means…" Khun said, with a disbelieving face.
"Yes, I'm sorry to tell you, Baam is dead. We looked everywhere after the wineglass emptied out, but couldn't find him. There's very little chance that he's alive," said Lero Ro.
Rachel fainted back into her chair.
O O O
The Regulars who were in the waiting room had gathered in a medical room with Rachel who was unconscious.
Hatsu proposed that they were all in debt to Baam, and then said that they should help Rachel climb. Hong agreed as a knight, and Ship agreed as well. Soon almost everyone agreed, even Parakewl who was just following the crowd, and then Ship asked Khun who had stayed silent.
"I can't leave it like this…I'll make his dream come true and bring her to the top," said Khun.
"And what about you, Axion?" said Ship, turning to Axion who leaned against the wall beside the door with his arms crossed.
All of the Regulars waited for his answer with baited breath as he continued to remain silent.
Parakewl suddenly realized that he may have agreed too soon. 'Wait, if he's not helping then…'
"Sorry, Androssi and I already have other plans," said Axion.
There was a deep silence.
"What…? But weren't you two Rachel's first teammates?" Ship asked, confused and shocked.
"We were, but we can't climb with her the way she is now," said Axion, turning to the door and putting his hand on the knob.
"Really? That's it? She's dead weight now so you're tossing her aside?" Hatsu asked angrily.
Hong looked disdainfully at Axion. "You guys really are the worst."
Then Axion spoke quietly again without turning around. "The name of the assassin who sent the Bull…is Lo Po Bia Ren, and he's a member of the Royal Enforcement Division. The Irregular with incredible talent is dead, and Yuri Zahard retrieved the Thirteen Month weapons, but Ren is still alive, and so are we. We barely survived this first battle but the war of the princesses and the games of the Tower's great powers will continue. They'll come for us again, I don't know when or how, but they will come, and it will only get more dangerous the higher we go."
"Huh? Wait, what exactly happened down there? Nobody explained it to me," Sunwoo said. "What's this about a war?"
"Leesoo," said Axion, tilting his head back to look at the Regular who saw their battle, ignoring the other comments. "Androssi and I are going up together, and we'll take Anak too if she wants to come," said Axion. "But our enemies are not yours or Rachel's. If you truly want to protect what Baam wanted to protect and carry his dream up rather than endanger it…then you need to be ready to fight his enemies too! Do you think this team is ready for something like that? Do you think you are worthy of carrying the badge Yuri entrusted to you in his stead too?"
"I…understand." Ship Leesoo clenched his fist and put a hand into his jacket pocket which held the badge.
Then Axion opened the door and left.
"What badge is he talking about? What's going on, Leesoo?" Hatsu asked.
"I'll explain it in a bit, Hatsu…but Axion is right. There's no way any of us are ready to fight those kinds of enemies, we'd just be putting Rachel in danger if we tried to bring her with the princesses. I was there and saw it…but I was completely useless. I'm only alive because that sick bastard was playing with us, and wanted us to watch him kill us one by one," said Leesoo through gritted teeth.
There was a long and uncomfortable silence, then Parakewl laughed and pointed at the rest of the Regulars in the room. "Looks like you garbage were all tossed aside!"
"…" Everyone gave him unimpressed looks.
"And you think you're strong enough to climb with them?" Hatsu asked.
"Of course I'm going to go with Mr. Axion right now!" Parakewl said then moved towards the door.
"Settle down idiot, didn't you complain earlier about him almost killing you by accident?" Khun said with a sneer. "You think you'll survive next time without us to pull you out of the way?"
Parakewl stopped and hesitated with a sweat before he reached the knob. "Th-that's…!"
"What's wrong? Why aren't you going after him? Nobody wants you anyways, you scum," said Hatsu.
Parakewl looked back at the unfriendly or apathetic faces surrounding him, then he shut the door and stepped back.
"Hah! As if I'd go with that trash who doesn't care about his teammates!" Parakewl said with scorn.
"I think I misjudged him. He's actually much, much better than the likes of you," said Hatsu.
"Way better," said Khun with a nod. "He hasn't betrayed anyone yet."
"I jumped to conclusions as well," said Hong. "But that man has an honor of his own. Unlike you."
"Yeah, you have no right to talk about him, you stupid, ugly bully!" Sunwoo said to Parakewl. "Go away!"
"Wh-what?!" Parakewl squawked. "What would you do without me, huh?!"
"Guys, just ignore him. I'll explain about what happened down there, and then I'll go tell everyone who isn't here about our plan to help Rachel," said Leesoo.
Everyone tuned Parakewl out and listened to Leesoo.
