The army of enemy Denizens and beasts stretched on farther than the eye could see, covering the horizon on every side of Queen Alastea’s castle. A sight that should strike fear into any warrior’s heart. The ranks of the Endless Horde held Denizens of all sort and manner—some that looked no different to those soldiers standing within the castle. Humans, elves, and men who looked like demons—even lizard men were among them.
There were other races, too. Ones that weren’t contained within the walls. Men and women who looked to be dwarves, carrying wicked-looking axes and hammers, each standing no taller than five feet, the men’s beards swaying in the wind. Bestial, humanoid Denizens that looked like orcs, sharp tusks jutting out from either side of their jaws. Their skin was the grey of a dull, overcast sky, and their fangs looked jagged and sharp, jutting out from the top of their mouths to sit over their bottom lips.
Xavier Collins stepped up to the parapet atop the castle’s battlements on its forward wall. He wore his dark, Shrouded Robes, his hood down, and he knew his silver eyes would be visible for anyone to see. Perhaps those eyes of his were the reason Queen Alastea, with her hair such a dark brown it looked black, wearing a silver glowing gown, staff gripped in a long-fingered hand, golden crown resting atop her head, looked at him differently than she did the others.
Or perhaps it was because he, unlike the other members of his party, had his aura under control—a perfect balance struck within his Spirit Core—showing him to be someone of far greater aptitude and power than any ordinary level 14 Denizen.
His party stood at his back. Howard, a former cop and current Shield Sentinel, his sword sheathed at his side and his large tower shield still within his Storage Ring. Justin, a swordsman, once an Olympic fencer before all this mess, now an Airborne Duellist with the ability to fly, and all while still being only sixteen. And Siobhan, the red-headed Irishwoman who’d migrated to the states but still had a hint of her old accent, wearing Mage robes and gripping her staff loosely. She was a Divine Beacon, and the only support class among them, able to heal them and teleport them wherever they needed to go, among other things.
Though his party were formidable, especially considering they were each only level 11, they would not be fighting by Xavier’s side. He didn’t need them to. Xavier summoned Soultaker, the staff-scythe he’d carried since attaining the epic class of Soul Reaper, into his hand. The black, arm-length metal blade reflected the sun’s light. Queen Alastea’s gaze turned to the blade with a curious expression.
It was strange, meeting the woman again. Xavier and his party had been on this floor once already—the fifth floor of the Tower of Champions—and had faced the first four waves of the Endless Horde. Though he supposed saying they destroyed them, not merely faced them, would be a more apt description of what had happened. He had spoken to the queen. Seen her awe of him after he’d fought in that first wave. They’d spent over four hours in this place, and left it less than an hour ago.
And yet the woman didn’t recognise him at all.
“What you ask…” Queen Alastea trailed off. She did not look like a woman who was often lost for words. Her adviser, tall, old and the image of a scholar with his pointed grey beard, inspected Xavier and his party closely but did not say a word. Queen Alastea cleared her throat, straightened, full of poise. “Your status as Champions of the Void earns you many freedoms, but asking me and my soldiers to stand down against the Endless Horde, when it is our people we wish to protect, flies in the face of wisdom.”
Xavier smiled. “I assure you, Queen Alastea, once you see what I can do it should lessen your fears.” He rested a hand on the parapet, looking out at the horde once more. “There will be time for your people to create a portal and escape through it. I will not let a single enemy in these first five waves reach the moat, let alone the top of the battlements.”
He didn’t plan on the enemies in the latter waves reaching the battlements either, though he still couldn’t help but wonder just how many he would be able to endure.
Queen Alastea blinked. “I hope this confidence you have placed in your prowess is something you are able to prove, Champion.”
“Xavier,” he said. “My name is Xavier.”
He hadn’t introduced himself the first time he and his party had been on this floor, not that the queen would have remembered that anyway. At the best of times, Xavier wasn’t much of a social animal—which, honestly, was quite the understatement. But they intended to spend a lot longer here this time around, and if their plan of gaining a good rapport with the queen were to work, he would have to make an effort to break out of his shell.
This woman. This castle. He was sure that it would have information about the Greater Universe that Xavier and his party had not been able to access. Coming from a newly integrated world, they were highly constrained by all the things they didn’t know.
Spending time on this floor could change everything—besides, they would have to spend a long time on this floor anyway, if he were going to have a chance at reaching the top spot on the ladder.
I will reach the top spot. It won’t be a game of chance. I will face every wave until I have nothing left in me. Until I can no longer endure another single enemy.
It wasn’t about winning. Well… it wasn’t only about winning.
He needed to gain the record for this floor if he were going to get the most out of it he could. The title for being number 1 was simply better than the titles beneath it. And he would need every title he could get if he was going to protect Earth from the invasion that was no doubt already underway.
He looked over the notification for the floor once more, as he knew the first wave of the Endless Horde were about to charge.
Welcome to the Fifth Floor of the Tower of Champions.
The Fifth Floor of the Tower of Champions is a test of how much you can endure.
Time is frozen on this floor. Outside of this instance, entering this floor will always take a single hour, whether a Champion leaves the floor within one minute or one year.
This castle will soon be under siege from both Denizens and beasts, experiencing increasing waves of difficulty. Unlike other floors, a record on this floor is not based on how quickly it can be cleared, but rather how many waves of enemies one survives.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Each wave has a floor boss, or “wave boss,” and once you have cleared the first five waves—a feat that takes no less than five hours—this floor will be considered cleared.
Know this: the castle will fall. You cannot protect it forever.
The waves are never ending.
It was that last line that excited Xavier the most. It also sent a small shudder up his spine. He didn’t think it was of fear, for he didn’t feel afraid. Perhaps it was simply anticipation.
Xavier had faced more than one challenge since the System had integrated Earth. He’d nearly been killed by goblins, pumas, and a humanoid rat-beast that stood on two legs and called itself a king. He’d faced the challenge of clearing the last floor as quickly and efficiently as possible. But right now he felt powerful beyond what the Tower of Champions could have expected of him.
The challenges the tower threw at him weren’t life threatening, not anymore—they were about achieving the best possible time. Not once, on the last two floors, had he worried for his life. It wasn’t as though he wanted to be in danger, but he yearned for that sense of adventure. That thrill of the fight.
And there was a pit in his stomach, one that hungered for every single soul among the ranks of the Endless Horde.
This would challenge him. This would push his level and his limits higher than anything else he’d faced since the integration of Earth. This would prepare him for the armies that would be invading his world even as he stood upon those battlements.
War drums beat outside the walls. A horn was blown. Denizens smashed their weapons on their shields. And the first wave of the Endless Horde whipped back their heads and roared. The first wave were comprised of level 10 enemies. Wolven. Wolf-like beasts the size of horses, twin horns jutting from either side of their heads. They looked ferocious. Formidable. Yet their auras were dull.
They were like ants facing off against a bear.
Xavier’s soulkeeping was at capacity. He held 200 souls within him—200 souls he was ready to unleash upon the enemy. At first, he’d intended to spend this wave practising Soul Block, a spell he’d been neglecting, but seeing the look on Queen Alastea’s face, the sheer doubt in her brown eyes, he knew he needed to make a show out of this. Display his prowess so she did not doubt his strength.
That would get her onside faster than blundering around out there letting wolf-like beasts attack him with their slobbering maws.
Standing at the parapet he took a deep breath—somewhat regretting it as the wind turned, bringing with it a whole army’s worth of sweat—and focused. There were at least three thousand enemies in this first wave. He doubted he could take them all out with the number of souls he held in a single casting.
Why don’t I just see what I can do.
He stepped up atop the parapet wall, casting Spiritual Trifecta upon himself, and Spirit Infusion upon his staff-scythe. Xavier and his weapon were both overtaken by a silvery glow, each spell enhancing the power of his magic. He gazed around at the oncoming wave without a hint of worry on his face; he launched his attack, casting Soul Strike infused with every single one of the souls in his reserve.
Two hundred bolts of lightning shot forth from his staff. The pure white bolts arced high in the sky, the ones directed at the enemies coming at the castle from the back—as the Endless Horde encircled the walls from every side—shooting straight over the tall towers. He could sense the auras of the enemies back there even if he couldn’t see them from where he stood, his aura-sight piercing through the castle’s thick stone.
Apparitions sprang to life, taking the avatars of Denizens and beasts he’d used to fill his reserves, their souls coming back to life one last time before they were extinguished in this attack.
Massive Wolven and formidable-looking elven and human warriors and mages—souls he’d harvested from the fourth wave—materialised at the end of the bolts of lightning, taking translucent form long enough to charge through the enemy beasts, causing massive amounts of soul damage.
As he watched, he realised the spell he’d cast had actually been overkill. A single soul could have perhaps taken down twenty of these beasts.
The entire wave died in one spell.
Remaining on the wall, Xavier reaped the souls of the three thousand enemies he’d just killed. Each soul he harvested that he didn’t need for his reserve, he instantly consumed with Soul Harden. He pushed away all of the different kill notifications, focusing only on the last two bits of text that popped into his vision.
Soul Harvest has taken a step forward on the path!
Soul Harvest is now a Rank 7 spell.
One cannot walk backward on the path.
Soul Harden has taken a step forward on the path!
Soul Harden is now a Rank 7 spell.
One cannot walk backward on the path.
Oh, this floor… this is gonna be good.
He didn’t gain a level from all of those kills—he needed sixteen million Mastery Points before reaching level 15—but that didn’t matter. He would get there soon enough. Besides, he’d just added another 10 spots to his soulkeeping threshold. That was enough for him for now.
Xavier tried not to smirk. He wanted to look humble. He lowered Soultaker and stepped back off the wall, walking over to Queen Alastea. The woman’s eyes were wide as she looked over the parapet at the thousands of dead. The last time he’d been on this floor, he hadn’t stuck around to see how she might react to his use of soul magic.
“You… you are indeed all you say you are, Champion of the Void.” Queen Alastea paused. “Xavier.” She gave a small, stiff bow of the head.
Xavier smiled. “Well, now that you’ve seen what I can do, and it will still be almost an hour before the next wave… you don’t happen to have a library in that castle of yours, do you?”
Queen Alastea blinked, looking a little confused. “I, ah.” It was the most flustered he’d seen her. In fact, before this moment he couldn’t have imagined what the queen would even look like flustered. “Yes, we do.” She looked to her adviser. “Kalren, would you show these Champions to the library in the castle’s leftmost tower?”
Kalren raised a curious eyebrow. He was staring so intently at Xavier as to look almost creepy. He glanced at the queen and lowered his head. “Certainly, Your Majesty.” He stepped forward, motioning a hand to the battlement’s switchback stairs. “This way.”
Xavier grinned as he followed the adviser. Yes, it was facing the waves of the Endless Horde, and the challenge that the latter waves would provide that excited him most about this floor. But going to a library in what was basically a fantasy world? Discovering secrets the System had kept from their newly integrated planet?
That… that was a damned close second.
As Xavier and his party followed the old man to the library, Xavier felt something. A prickle on the back of his neck. He frowned, trying to examine what it was he was feeling. It was… it was similar to what he’d felt before, at the end of the previous floor. That presence that had appeared and made him feel like nothing more than a speck of dust. An ant staring up at a mountain.
But this presence was different. More subtle. Once again, he knew it wasn’t the System that was looking at him.
This, far more than the sight of the Endless Horde, made Xavier feel a hint of fear, because he couldn’t deny it any longer—the things he was doing in the tower were gaining attention from far, far outside of it. He was being watched. Watched by entities more powerful than he could yet imagine.
And who knew if those entities had good intentions.
By the time they reached the double doors up the castle’s steps, the presence was gone. Looking at the other members of his party, it was clear they hadn’t felt it.
Xavier sighed to himself. Another thing to add to the list of worries I can’t deal with yet.
The queen’s adviser, Kalren, let them through the castle’s large doors—past all the realm’s citizens that were huddling in fear inside, waiting for the portal to be opened so it could get them out of this place—and up a set of stairs that curled around a tower, until finally they reached the castle’s library. When Kalren opened the library’s doors, Xavier held in a gasp.
There were more books within the castle’s walls than he’d ever hoped of finding.
This floor might just end up being their secret weapon.