Chapter 70

“6 seconds.”

The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. The wall in front of me had bowed under the weight of my helmet. The sheet of steel was flexible, barely holding against the force of my head. The tower was 300 feet tall, and despite the city's use of Order fields to enable high-tech construction, physics dictated it needed to be heavier at the bottom and lighter at the top. How thin was the sheet of steel before me? If it wobbled under the touch of my helmet, it must be very light.

“5 seconds.”

A thought formed. It might breach the rules, though it had not been explicitly stated. The Choosing seemed to operate on a basis of few explicit rules, with the rest being up to the contestants to figure out. What did it matter? In a few heartbeats, my time in the Choosing would be over. I had to act, and this was worth a try as much as anything else. And, in fact, there was nothing else.

I drew my sword, executing a series of CUTs, creating an opening in the wall of the corridor. The thin steel yielded easily to the glowing sharpness of my blade, and soon I had carved a hole large enough to climb through.

“4 seconds.”

I took a deep breath. I stepped up and through the hole in the wall, my feet lifting above the level of the light line as I disappeared into the innards of the tower. There was a booming stutter, Mario's voice caught between announcing 3 seconds and trying to process what I had just done. There was more stammering and then silence.

I imagined the debate that would ensue, Mario raging that I had violated the spirit of the contest, Baltizar advocating for me, pointing out that the Choosing was also a test of ingenuity, which I was certainly displaying. I wondered about the Bishop. Would he risk the anger of the crowd again? Would he risk being obviously against the people's champion for a second time? Would he bear the humiliation of ejecting me for this move only to have the Oracle contradict him once more? Whatever they decided was beyond my power to affect now. What I could affect was my elevation.

Inside the tower, it was pitch black, but my SIGHT activated, providing low-level illumination, enough to let me see my way. I was in the cavity between the outer wall of the tower that faced the crowd and the inner shell that formed the walls of the various corridors between levels. Fine metal tubes made a latticework between the various structures. Below me, I could see tanks of accelerant attached to tubes and devices creating the blue flames in the corridor. Further down, I could see gears and electric motors turning, probably controlling the appearing and disappearing platforms I had climbed, and pipes carrying water for the waterfall.

The protruding tubes were smooth. Their spacing was generally quite wide and certainly erratic. Their polished surface was definitely not designed to make for sure grips or easy climbing. I cursed the designers of the tower. Why wasn't there an access ladder? How had they assembled this tower of torture without such elements? I looked over the arrangement of pipes. A climber without a suit could theoretically have made the climb. For one with the strength of the Griid-suit, such as me, it shouldn't be that great a challenge. It was more the prospect of hanging from each precarious point with such a terrible fall below me that gave me pause.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

SIGHT let me see clearly in the near blackness. Small blades of light pierced the interior at points where external panels met. The crisis crossed beams and tubes made an almost spider-web like arrangement above me. I sighed, reaching up and taking hold of a tube, bracing my foot to another, and started to climb.

At least I was ascending, getting further from the rising light line. The climb surprised me in its ease as I continued. There were no beams being fired at me. The steel under my hand was more than strong enough to bare my weight, and, as it turned out, a new handhold was never far from the last.

But a new troubled thought arrived before long. I couldn't see the light line anymore. If I emerged too late, I might find myself hopelessly far below the line and get myself ejected. If I climbed too high, too fast, then I might emerge to the outside in a position exposing myself terribly to one of the others.

I tried to do the math. The first level had been the climbing pipes: 12 minutes. The next level had been the netting with the fiends: 24 minutes. The next level was the platforms: 36 minutes. Then the water level made 48 minutes. My God, had I really been rushing at this for almost an hour? I had been here for maybe a minute or two, so something like 50 minutes in total had elapsed. The problem was I had no idea how far I was ascending now, how far ahead of the light line I could be. The priests probably couldn't measure it either, but I would have to emerge somewhere. There would surely be an obstacle of some sort along the way preventing me from climbing all the way to the safe zone without having to exit. If I emerged far below the light line, then the priests would have no problem claiming I had failed and could have me eliminated. Equally, if I emerged too soon, then I was as good as gone. Lance would focus on me, Gideon could easily defeat me as I was now, and Katya or Lauren would make quick work of me if they decided to.

I said to the voice, "Can you time how long I am climbing?"

The voice said, "I can time you from now."

"Good enough," I said. Then I asked, "Can you measure my rate of climb, how many feet I'm going up?"

The voice said, "Sadly, no."

I kept moving upward, climbing easily. I tried to make a guess of the distance between each rung, to keep a count of the number of rungs I was climbing. All the while, I kept flexing attributes. It was a juggle to keep the numbers in my mind and flex, and the numbers were rough estimates. I could possibly use them to delay my emergence, but I would need to exit in advance of any estimate to avoid the fatal error of defeating myself by emerging below the level of the light line.

Whatever happened, as long as I managed to emerge above the light line, I would skip several levels of the tower. I could see the path above me extended a long way, and I would likely emerge somewhere above level 7, maybe much higher. When I next exited the tower, I would be entering the final fray, a showdown with my nemesis, a chaotic battle that I would be hard-pressed to survive.