“So… That creature isn’t attacking us. Are you certain that it’s an enemy?” Kyrion’s form had solidified much during his sprint up to the tower, where most of his body had an outer layer resembling skin hidden under the new clothes.

“That monster is siphoning away at my mothers soul. As far as i’m concerned it deserves death. You also don’t have long before my power destroys your body as it isn’t strong enough to handle my power.”

“Ok, ok. Sheesh, so I need to kill it.” Kyrion rolled his eyes and hopped forward, maintaining his combat stance.

“Yous haves entered rings, now we…” The monster began speaking.

Kyrion pushed power into his feet and smiled as he shot forward like a rocket. His knee was powered by white flames hitting the bug-like creature in the jaw. An explosion passed through the creature’s neck, blasting a hole through it.

A tree trunk-sized fist moving faster than he could see knocked Kyrion away with the force of a cannonball, causing him to fall near the edge of the building, his body skittering as he tried to find a handheld.

Unluckily for Kyrion, he couldn’t grasp the edge and had begun to fall. He tried to create a platform of solidified air out of habit, but nothing happened, his body getting away by the second. Finally, he had the idea to use the white flames to propel himself back upwards.

A steady pulse of white flames shot out from Kyrion’s feet, causing him to hover and float upward. Slowly and steadily arriving back on the top of the tower. “You. Hit. Hard.”

The insect creature’s head had fully restored itself when Kyrion returned. His body seemed weaker where he had gotten hit, and he knew another direct hit would be this world’s equivalent of lethal.

“You know. Healing your wounds like that isn’t very sportsmanlike.” Kyrion tsked as he brought an elbow down on a leg, and the shell cracked slightly.

“Like I should compete with my food.” The creature punched quickly, aiming to take Kyrion’s head off. The shockwave resulted in a chain reaction of blasts that flew downwards.

” That almost sounded normal.” Kyrion clapped loudly from behind the creature.

The creature winced at the strange, loud sound. The wave briefly knocked it off balance.

Kyrion followed the clap up by dashing flowered concentrated white flames over his arms and slid underneath his opponent. Cutting it up from its underbelly caused green ichor to coat the roof.

Still, the wounds closed momentarily. The creature appeared no worse for wear as it let loose another cannonball-like punch.

Kyrion barely managed to evade the wave of force as part of the tower was crushed and fell to the ground far below.

“Is that what it’s like to fight me? Regeneration and absurd physical strength.This is some sick joke isn’t it. Which deity did I curse to get such treatment? Actually don’t answer that.” Kyrion tossed a large rock up and down while he observed his opponent.

“Mortal. You will be my next meal.”

“Would you believe me if I said eating me is bad for your health? Everything that’s tried has ended up dead, one way or another.” Kyrion tossed a chunk of the missing tower into the air.

“I’m gonna cut out your tongue.” The creature closed the distance in the time it took to breathe. Appearing in front of Kyrion with its massive frame.

“Oh that’s a first.” Kyrion danced around the creature and landed a powerful kick to its side, its body skittering off the edge as it slipped on the now missing area.

The creature fell while yelling. “Do you think you can beat Bealquilla so easily!”

Kyrion walked to the edge as the creature began to unfurl winglike appendages with a mischievous glint. “Yes. Yes I do.”

“You stupid mortal! I am a being of…Mortal? You’re mad!”

“I prefer the term stupid from enemies and innovative…” Kyrion swan dived off the tower towards the creature, unfurling its wings. Flames gathered around Kyrion’s form and began to compress as his body blurred.

The shrimp creature slapped its tail mid-air through a forced spin in an attempt to slam Kyrion into the ground.

The tailstrike missed the skin of the young man’s teeth. Kyrion propelled himself into the creature’s torso with a headbutt, his body propelled with enough fire to make it seem like the sun was falling from the sky.

The explosion caused the tower to tilt ever so slightly and pushed Squallia further away.

Unbeknownst to Kyrion; however, that display of power had used up everything he had stored from other creatures here in one attack at first, and he was hungry. “From my allies!”

The Bealsqullia wrapped its tail around Kyrion’s jaw to tear his head from his neck. It, however, failed in a way it hadn’t expected.

Kyrion struggled to get free as his spectral teeth came down, biting through the creature’s carapace and into the sweet, succulent lobster-like meat. The power that flowed into Kyrion filled his soul in a way he rarely felt.

The creature squealed in pain as it yelled in consternation and tried to shake the smaller mortal free. “You bit me!”

Kyrion chewed and swallowed as he held onto the creature’s tail. “Don’t threaten others with what you don’t want yourself. Also, are you the last of your kind?”

“I strongest of kind. This tower belong to us!”

“Good… I’m gonna have fun eating you to extinction.” Kyrion couldn’t help drooling a bit.

“You’re insane.” The prey animal tried to throw a punch.

Kyrion raised the lower end of the Sqalia, interposing its dense shell between himself and the creature. The blow, however, tore the bottom half off of the beast. “And you’re delicious. Second best thing I’ve eaten. I’ll be sure to keep two of your ilk for breeding. You won’t die out because I got hungry.”

“Decedent. I love the way you think.” Said the voice in his eye.

Kyrion had pulled the meat from the shell and began consuming it as his power rapidly increased, yet his injuries hadn’t healed.

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“You’re eating me in front of me! Stop eating me! You damned monster!” The creature said as the duo continued falling, seemingly forgetting that they were currently in mid-air.

The Squalia eventually unfurled its wings and found that it was much lighter now. Flying about was much more manageable. Instead of fighting the apex predator that found him, it fled for the first time in centuries.

Having been filled satisfactorily enough, Kyrion threw out chain-shaped flames that latched around the creature’s arms, connecting the two. In moments, he understood that these flames were made of the soul of his foe and tethered it to him temporarily.

“Get over here!” Rotating his body to the right, Kyrion slammed Sqallia into the tower. The building shook more as its large frame was driven into it over and over again while heat cooked it from the inside.

“This is torture! You’re supposed to be a hero!”

“When did I go and say I was a hero?” Kyrion stopped his onslaught and eyed the creature skeptically.

“If you weren’t a hero, why would you be trying to rescue the goddess?”

“What goddess?” Kyrion noticed the creature squirming and let it think he was distracted.

“Almira. Can’t you recognize the goddess?”

“She isn’t my goddess. Frankly I’m a bit done with divinity. I am looking for someone though.”

“Not your goddess? Why would you climb to the top of the tower then?”

“I needed to save a priestess.” Kyrion slowly pooled the power in his body.

“A priestess would only be on the first ten floors.”

“Is that so? I’ll just take my leave then.” Kyrion seemed to relax, his grasp on the creature’s body slipping as he prepared to leave it.

The Squallia saw the opening and struck, turning its body swiftly as it prepared a blow capable of sending Kyrion’s head back to the serpent.

That was when Kyrion’s trap went off, and the creature’s core imploded, its body shrinking to the size of a core and leaving no more meat for the young man to eat. However, he absorbed quite a bit more energy from the creature.

“Guess I could hold onto this.” Kyrion placed the creature’s core in his bag and smiled in satisfaction. Then, for some reason unbeknownst to him, he exploded.

----------------------------------------

“Owwww…Why does my stomach feel like it’s on fire? Like something is trying to claw its way out.”

“What did you eat?” The serpent asked curiously.

“Some Squalia thing on the tower.”

“You mean in the tower of Gehenna Squalia are on floor forty and above.”

“No, on top.”

“Ah, you must have gotten soul sickness, and it ended with the creature killing you.”

“No. I exploded. I guess this is because I don’t have much durability. One hit from that thing almost tore my torso from the rest of me.”

“You survived a blow from the guardian of the tower as you are now? Ridiculous.”

“No..No. I had this outfit on when I did it. Not sure what happened to it though.”

“Did someone teach you how to do that?”

Kyrion coughed and pounded on his chest as it continued to burn. The number 114 appeared on his right hand. He then pulled out a vial of purple liquid, which he had consumed. The burning in his chest settled as his body solidified slightly.

“Where did you find that vial?”

“One question at a time please. Also no one taught me how to make it. I just saw a few things made from the strange energy and took it into myself.”

“I.E. He borrowed power from me, and it tore him to shreds. He shouldn’t have been quipping.

“I see. You absorbed too much soul force at once, and your body wasn’t ready for it while borrowing someone else’s power. Which led to your self-destructive behavior due to overload. It’s a shame that the Squalia you fought will probably absorb it before you.

“Bee Squalia comes back when he dies too? I’m a go eat him again.”

“You killed it. You killed the guardian of the Tower of Gehenna. Without the aid of a priestess to reinforce your soul? You climbed up the tower.”

“I had to beat it to get to the priestess.”

“The priestess was on floor eight. What possessed…Right realm memory loss. There is another pool on the first floor of the tower. Use it to restore your mind before deciding to climb the tower again. The longer you spend without touching the waters of this realm the more you will forget that which matters to you.”

“How did you get past all those enemies anyway. There are over ten thousand monsters in that tower.”

“Easy, I climbed outside.” Kyrion watched as the serpent as it made the look. The look most adults did when he did something stupid, and it worked out when it shouldn’t have, somewhere between a mix of pride in his success and bemusement in the path he made to get there. The look amused young Kyrion, and he made it a sport to get one of his teachers to give him that look.

“What did I do to deserve a decedent like you?” The serpent sighed.

“What did you do to become a serpent?” Kyrion asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Fair enough.” The serpent didn’t elaborate as he shut both eyes and shook his head.

“Fine. I’ll be back in a bit.” Kyrion ran forward, past the bandit ambush, through the swamp, over the absurdly long tongue, and eventually stopped right in front of the tower of Gehenna.

“What are you doing back here? First you kill us, then you disgrace the tower. We should gut you now.”

“I mean. You could, or. Hear me out. You can let me climb the tower again.”

“Bealsquilla won’t make the same mistake again. Fueling your ascent to the top of the tower..”

“No. I don’t think Bealsquilla will be doing too much anytime soon.”

“What?”

“Ding dong the shrimp is dead. Now I’ll be going through you. Either move, or die.”

The two furry servants pointed their weapons at him. “Prove it.”

Kyrion withdrew the pulsating core from his bag with a smirk.

“You defeated the boss of the tower. You are now the boss. No one in this tower will defy you save the other bosses without proof of victory.”

“Cool, cool, can I go in now?” Kyrion returned the core to his bag.

“Y-yes sir!” The two warriors bowed, and Kyrion walked in unhindered.

The inside of the tower was bizarre. Despite how large it was on the outside, the area he entered was much larger. The creatures walking about seemed almost as confused as he was. Humanoids of many shapes and sizes walked about. Some had fur, others had horns, many had both, and their skin colors were just as diverse.

“What is this place?”

“The tower of Gehenna. This is where devils, fiends, seraphim, and other outcast races are dumped.”

“Fiends?” Kyrion eyed a creature with the lower half of a slug, its head white and perfectly circular. It had no eyes or visible nose and mouth.

Kyrion walked over with a speed he usually reserved for fights and poked the white circle. The sphere opened up, and two pink eye stalks poked up as it looked around before locking onto Kyrion.

The creature attempted to blast Kyrion at point-blank range, but it couldn’t lock onto him for some odd reason. As though something was forcing it to forget he was there.

“Interesting to see that in action.” Kyrion returned to his guides.

“Why didn’t that creature try to shoot you?”

“Maybe it knows better.” Kyrion leaned on solid air as though it were a wall.

“How would that work?”

“Who knows. All I know is that I need to get to a lake and then climb to the tenth floor.” Kyrion lied.

“Is that so?”

“It is.” Kyrion put his hands on his hips.

“How someone like you beat Bealsquilla is something I wouldn’t understand.”

“Meh, had I had all my usual power he would have been easy.” Kyrion caught a whiff of water and followed a trail to the lake that the serpent whispered. Upon resting there, he felt it link to the river where the serpent lived. He could feel that he could travel to and fro with some effort.