After the flash of light faded, the first thing he saw was the scenery of the sky filled of clouds and his shadow. He didn’t have time to scream before he hit the watery surface. With a splat, Kihet landed face first. The ripples caused by the impact travelled impressively far as the girl who brought him here landed perfectly without disturbing the water.

He felt his neck bent the wrong way and heard a very bad noise thought to be a very important bone snapped. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the pain quickly subsided as he looked at his reflection from the ground’s mirror polished surface.

“Argh, dammit. What just happened-.” Before he finished his question, he was picked up. His face was suddenly pulled into something soft, and his voice was muffled by fabric. “Mmph!”

In the material plane, he would be suffocating while being crushed. He tried to wriggle himself away from being held, but to no avail the person’s strength was surprisingly strong for such a lean frame.

“Sorry to interrupt your reunion, but we have to go!” A prominent voice shouted. “Watch your flank! Seventeen more on your right!”

“Woah, thanks! They’re swarming us like crazy!”

“All more the reason to leave now.” A third voice bellowed as a hand moved underneath and scooped them into the air. “Hang on!”

Finally, Kihet was let go. The winds brushed against his unkept hair. Light shined into his eyes, making his vision hazy as it took a second for him to adjust. It was then three silhouettes came into view, but he found himself drawn to the closest one holding him up.

Kneeling in front of him was a familiar and a more beautiful face than he remembered. The paleness which she constantly tried to hide was genuinely gone as if she was cured. Both her platinum hair and snow white skin glowed like a divine messenger from the heavens and not a sign of any sickness was showing.

“Lemi…? Am I in the Beyond…?” He asked.

The dolly eyes gazed upon Kihet for a moment before a hand suddenly smacked him across his face and stunned him. The slap had weight and it hurt as he felt his cheek swelling.

And there it was. He made a grave mistake of meeting the girl’s eyes. Although she may have the most innocent face, she also owned the most frightening one. Her angelic smile vanished in that split second when her gaze turned so cold it could freeze a soul. The mood around was suddenly sullied by a demonic aura that would make any ordinary person quake in fear.

“Have you snapped out of it?”

“Y-yea, I have…”

“Good!” The adorable smile replaced the fiendish expression in a blink of an eye. She was the only person from Kihet’s village who could inflict this much horror onto him in this short amount of time. “It’s been a while, Kihet. What do you have to say for yourself and the sorry state I found you in?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted.”

“And what about mine?”

Listening to another voice, Kihet peered over Lemi’s shoulder to find the voice interrupted their reunion. There he saw a Devil folk dressed in fancy golden lined armor who bore a very close resemblance to Kenji. The one beside him was a giant wearing something less dazzling, standing proud with a brimming smile.

“Shiba, Alam?!”

“Hey, don’t tell me you forgot this old man here that’s carrying the four of you.”

Kihet’s eyes were already as wide as they could be after noticing Shibata and Alam. After looking up at the titan’s face, his mind shut down to process the return of one of his first friend not from his village.

“K-Kridas?! What’s going on? Is this the Beyond or are all of you wraiths?”

“No. This isn’t the beyond and we’re not wraiths. Calm down. You’re not going to get hurt anymore.”

“I’d like to correct that. Lemi, please step aside.” Shibata cracked his knuckles as his bold stride brought him up to Kihet. “Apologies in advance, Kihet. This must be done.” Without warning, Shibata threw a punch into Kihet’s face and sent him rolling towards Kridas’ thumb.

“Oi! You didn’t have to go that hard!” Alam exclaimed.

“Because that was well deserved.” Shibata frowned. “Kihet, I found out you were the one who seduced my dear sister! It’s no use lying! The Saint explained everything to me!”

“Elenora… she’s here?”

“She told us to get you.” Lemi shifted herself to the front while Alam pulled Shibata away shouting in the back. “I trust you didn’t do anything to anyone else other than Sorah?”

“You of all the people should know.”

“I was only teasing you.”

“W-with a scalpel pointed at me?”

“Oh my. My apologies, it’s a habit towards cheaters I must fix.” Lemi sheathed the tiny blade back into her toolbelt. Her face turned towards the cerulean tower now in view. “Let’s talk more when we get there. You must have so many questions, but so do we.”

“There’s a tower here?!”

“Relax.” Kridas said. “This one’s keeping everyone safe from those monsters.”

Kihet was skeptical, but then there was a settlement with a complete wall surrounding the base of the Tower. It was quiet up until he phased through a barrier surrounding base of the tower. He was assailed with foreign noises and colorful lights unlike anything from his world dazzling him. The city behind the wall was a civilization built upon the same concept as the piece of machinery from a book he used to read.

A tall building stuck out like a sore thumb had handles that slowly turned. Here and there, cables were found connected to other buildings and spread like a web throughout buildings. One story tall cabins and little boxes with wheels followed the path like ants moving on roads.

The guards above the walls were on high alert and waved to Kridas upon his return. It was also a signal which Kridas set Kihet, Lemi, Shibata and Alam down before reverting to his original size.

“You can use [Wars Blood] at will?”

“Not quite. Gigantifying tires me out and I can only use it once every long rest.” Kridas adjusted his chest plate. “Anyway, mission accomplished. Lemi, would you mind bringing Kihet to see the Saint?”

“I was going to even if I wasn’t asked. Where are you three going?”

“Alam and I will head back out there and collect more stars we saw that landed before Kihet.” That earned Kridas a complaint from Alam making a “Seriously?” face.

“And I shall be returning to the Guild. Who knows what troubles have stirred up in my absence.” Shibata answered. “Kihet, find me once you are dismissed. We must talk.”

“Look, if it’s about Lily, I’m sorry.”

“So, you did seduce her!”

“I didn’t! She died because of me!”

What kind of face was Shibata making? Knowing how much the late prince dotted on his beloved sister, Shibata was probably angry. Ashamed, Kihet couldn’t tell since his eyes were glued towards the ground.

After quiet pause, he heard a sigh. “You should discuss with the Saint about that. The moment you passed over here, stars stopped dropping.”

“What do you mean? Stars? Do you mean souls?”

“I only know as much as you do.” Shibata answered. “But I’m hopeful Tomoe isn’t what you claim her to be. Listen. The thing I want to talk about is Eizan, but there’s something more important to discuss before that.”

Not only did Kihet’s blood boiled upon hearing Eizan, but everyone around him adopted the same expression. Lemi, Shibata, Alam and Kridas were all casualties resulted from Eizan’s affiliation with the Towers. Kihet could sense the air around them turned stale and heavy. No one in the past decade came close to forgive the filthy traitor.

“Got it. I’ll meet you there. Lemi, can you lead me to see Elenora?”

“Yup.” She waved her hand, summoning a carriage passing by.

It had two lights at the front, shining at Kihet’s face. The two story tall structure on wheels travelled on rails and it had a horn connected to the cables above. It parked near edge of the sidewalk and chuffed as a cloud of steam billowed from the exhaust pipe. Kihet put up his guard when the doors automatically sprung open.

“I was like that too.” Lemi smiled. “Things are different here and I can vouch that it won’t bite.”

Lemi excitedly hopped into the cabin and climbed up the stairs to score a seat closest to the front. Kihet had no choice but to follow her lead and saw this moving structure accommodated for many passengers, but they were the only customers. He sat next to his friend and watched the scene from the second floor of the strange turning building. There was a strange mechanical noise clicking before the carriage moved without the need of a creature. The ride was smoother than any cart he rode on.

“What is this place?”

“I don’t know.” Lemi bluntly answered. “But, it’s peaceful and Elenora said this place filled with her treasured memories.”

“So, it’s a city from the time of the Acolytes. It looks very different.”

Although flagstone paved roads were common nowadays, the town’s architecture was built in a specific masonry style. Grand buildings like the cathedral were cavernous, had ribbed vaults, pointed arches and buttresses. What caught his attention were transparent crystal clear and clean glass panes each building had. Kihet never saw anything as remotely clean. Transparent glass from the material world were often stained with smudges of burnt marks and tinted yellow.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Not only the buildings, but through different streets he saw posts lit up not with magic crystals, but with a light burning brightly within containers. The era of the Acolytes were supposed to exist way before his kind and yet, Kihet found it odd how technologically here more advanced than the present.

“Curious?”

“Yeah. There’s so many things I haven’t seen like this cabin. It’s moving on its own.”

“Hehe.” Lemi couldn’t help but let a chuckle slip between her lips after seeing Kihet’s face glued to the window like a child. “It’s good to see that part of you is still here. So. What’s happened out there?”

“I died.”

“Don’t be like that. Technically, you’re not dead. Your soul may have left your body, but not in the same way as everyone here.”

“Please explain. I’m not getting any of this.”

“Look here.”

Lemi pointed to the top of her head and through dim lighting, Kihet saw something floating under the shade of the cabin. It looked to be some kind of tail that reminded him of Elenora’s soul form when they first met.

“So are you like a ghost?”

“Am I? I bet I could scare Sorah if she saw me like this.” Her smile faded as she brought up a name of a friend. “Speaking of which, have you found the others?”

“I got news of Vol and Elius. Haven’t met them, but I found Draigh and Megith. Draigh’s still fighting the battle where I got killed and Megith’s helping Vivrus trying to find leads of Malth’s whereabouts.”

“It’s good to hear about them. And Sorah?”

“Sanctuary has a barrier. I can’t get past it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Kihet. It must be hard on you, but let’s clear one thing at a time. Elenora said she knew you would somehow find your way here.”

“So, this was all planned? She knew I’d die?”

“If it was, I hope there’d be a positive outcome. Oh, we’re here.”

There was a fifteen meter tall wall constructed around the base. Through the gates, he saw numerous long wide tubes pointed into the air at an angle. They were fixed by unknown machinery controlled with gears and cogs spinning from steam exhausted from its pipes.

As soon as Lemi led Kihet out of the moving building, he saw the base of the Cerulean Tower standing in front of them. It had been a while since he visited the Tower near his village. Even though from one glance, he knew this Tower wasn’t hostile but couldn’t shake this feeling of uneasiness that something more sinister waited at the top.

He gazed upon the Tower from top to bottom and finally saw the person who owed him answers standing at the entrance, greeting him. Black hair, large emerald eyes. From his perspective, Elenora continued to used Lily’s appearance in front of Kihet as he wondered why Shiba haven’t mentioned something about it. He concluded the others could see her actually appearance, but he couldn’t.

“Oracle, I’m delighted to see you’ve safely made your way here.”

“Yeah. No shit.”

A chill ran down his spine and he knew Lemi was exerting malicious pressure towards him. He saw something sharp creeping into the corner of his view.

“Kihet, when did you become such a foul mouth?”

“Erk… I mean. Lemi, please put that scalpel away.”

Lemi tucked it away then slightly bent her knees and held the hems of her dress, curtsied to Elenora.

Kihet never got to see this side of Lemi, but as expected, she was really like a noble’s daughter with her perfected etiquette when not threatening him.

“I have brought him as you demanded. Also, I’d like to report I saw him.”

“I see. It’s just as •••••• predicted. Good work.”

“Shall I leave the two of you alone to talk?”

“You may stay if you wish.”

“I believe you’ve already informed me of everything. I shall take my leave. Kihet, I’ll be waiting by the library down the street and to the right. Once you’re done, please meet me there. I’d like to visit Shibata with you.”

“Oh. I’ll see you there.”

Once Lemi stepped past the gate, Elenora broke the silence. “I believe you two rode the tram here. How was the experience?”

“Those box things with only wheels? It’s smoother than I thought. Also, Shibata and Lemi said something about me actually not being dead. Is that true?”

There was a brief pause from both parties as the large doors behind Elenora slowly opened and invited them. After they pass through the entrance at a safe distance, the creaking behind him gradually grew louder and louder until it ended with an echoing bang. The doors were shut tight.

In front of him was a carpeted ground extending down the path. The hallway was filled with various colors from the light shining through colored glass. Each piece was set like a puzzle, arranged into the seven World Trees and underneath them, were altars with only Xu’s lit.

The atmosphere here was too holy. Neither of them didn’t want to break this silence until they stepped into the next chamber.

“Generally, that means this realm is your last chance.”

“What about Lily?”

“The girl with you is very much still alive. Ever since your soul has dropped in here, time in the material world has paused. It is caused by a failsafe contained in the Oracle’s mark. Its effect will stop depending on if you survive here or not.”

“I don’t know if you’re lying or not, but I don’t have a choice to see it for myself. That means nothing will happen to Lily until I somehow get back.” Hearing that, Kihet was slightly relieved. “So, this is a Tower, right? Why is it different than the others?”

“This one ‘defies’ the corruption.”

Kihet thought it was weird for Elenora to empathize on the word defy. If he recalled, one of the Acolytes she mentioned held the Crest of Defiance. “An Acolyte is here?”

“Yes! In fact, the most reliable one at that!” A bright smile full of glee formed on Elenora’s face.

Many times, he saw the same smile from Lily and yet whenever he looked at her, his mind was always at ease. But this wasn’t Lily. He reminded himself this was Elenora borrowing Lily’s appearance to talk to him easier.

“I’d like the two of you to meet but he’s unavailable right now.”

“Are you sure he won’t attack me?”

“Not unless you provoked him. Trust me. He’s even stronger than the four deities. If you made yourself his enemy your world may very well become a wasteland.”

Kihet had doubts about Elenora’s exaggerated claims but kept his comment to himself. “I met with your relative. The Acolyte from Vivirus. He left a message and after that, you haven’t contacted me. I have a lot of answers I want. Mainly, about a friend’s curse.”

“Care to elaborate? I do have some knowledge of the types of curses.”

“My friend seems to be inflicted with a curse to stay immortal like the Acolyte. There seems to be some sort of connection between the two and he wants to remove it.”

“I have one known method. If you defeat •••••, it will be surely removed. Your friend would befall the same fate depending on how long he lived.”

“So, he could die.” Kihet mourned for Aten, but if the Dragonfly were to follow through to accept his death, he couldn’t say much about it. “I’ll have to find a way to break it to him. Is there any other way?”

“I’m sorry, Oracle. I would need time to search for it, but that may be your only method to free your friend.”

“Right. There might be ways around that, but thanks for letting me know. Maybe a friend of mine can find out if I can see him.” He then changed the topic. “Anyways, I was told to destroy the Sanctums and to help his master. Care to explain those terms to me?”

“The ‘Master’ is the Acolyte of this tower. As for Sanctums, •••••• vaguely explained it to me once. I believe they were shards, broken fragments that hold unfathomable magical powers the Creator possess. However, they cannot be normally found in the material world.”

“Is there any chance I can find one here or in this tower?”

“What brought this on?”

“Do you remember the person with the scarred eye I mentioned? I met with him, and he told he can use one to get me back.”

“That sounds plausible, but it’s not within my knowledge. You’ll have to wait slightly longer before you can talk with ••••••. He may know.” Her hand gently rose, and her fingers uncurled to present a teleportation glyph at the end of the room. “You shall have most of your answers through here.”

The place Kihet and Elenora teleported could see the layout of the settlement from an eagle eye view. Kihet saw they were on an invisible platform wondering if anyone below could see them.

He was correct about the cables of how they spread throughout the town to guide the trams. For how they worked, it was far beyond his capabilities to understand and try to replicate it.

“How is the view?”

“It’s not what I imagined the city of your time to be.” Kihet muttered to himself to which Elenora delightfully smiled.

As Kihet glanced upwards, his face suddenly turned pale.

At the edge of the world, he saw broken fragments of a gargantuan humanoid statue. Though he couldn’t describe the alien features of it, the half-shattered face had blood dripping down onto the mirror lake. There were parts of its body all around. A finger was found on one side and a piece of a leg on the other.

“W-what are those?”

“If I were to say that is the Creator’s grave, would you believe me?”

Kihet was aware the Creator was slain, but to see its remnants added more weight to the hollow words he was told. The Creator was the apex, the alpha and omega, the divine entity that created and destroyed. To see it perverted by monsters put a huge hole in Kihet’s soul.

The almighty creator of his world was put to rest and the Tower monsters moved like parasites and scaled it at a snail’s pace.

“Are they absorbing it?”

“That is the source of their numbers. They feed on the corpse of the Creator’s sorrow to multiply themselves.”

“Are they going to attack?”

“Soon, Oracle. Which is why I called upon the aid of your friends and similar people to gather as many lost souls as they can. It is difficult to comprehend the enemy’s intentions, but we believe this Tower also serves as a gateway.”

“So that’s how they get to the material plane.”

“No. This tower is a gate to the Beyond. There, many more souls will be consumed and act as a catalyst to further the destruction.”

“It’s like the whole thing’s a demon god.”

“That is why we’re preparing our defenses the best we can.” Elenora declared. “The barrier alone around the city is in no position to protect us against the enemy forever. We must fortify this city hold out until the Acolyte here has arrived.”

“How many fighters do we even have?”

“Sadly, not many. Everyone down there is all the help we can get.”

By his rough estimation of all the people within his view, there must be less than five thousand souls. Most of them didn’t look like they held a weapon from all their life and only a quarter of the population were enlisted as soldiers or adventurers.

“They may not look like it, but when the time comes you can count on them to stand beside you.”

“Even if they don’t know who I am?”

“Be it men, women and children, they were all souls who didn’t give into despair. I’ve interviewed each individual and each person living here has chosen to fight. No amount of praying will bring us a miracle, but we can still make use of what little hope remains to overcome this.” Elenora pointed at Kihet. “That is, if you find yourself the will to live.”

There was a different air around Elenora. He had thought of her to be incompetent and useless due to her unable to interfere in the material plane. Her actions here gave him a better impression.

“Who are you, really?”

“I suppose a reintroduction is in order.”

Elenora whispered a few words as her body became covered in light. In front of him, she slightly bowed and her hair changed from black to honeyed color. Her hairstyle went from straight to long curly. Her sunset colored eyes locked onto Kihet as her projection of Lily ended. She wore a plated breastplate over her white robes covering her supple figure.

She looked to be the frail type to cast spells, but she carried no staff or magic crystals. She didn’t have a sword or any noticeable weapon except the design of her oversized gauntlets curved over her fists. Her nails just poked into view as she pinched her dress, revealing her armored leggings and performed a curtsy.

“My name is Elenora Crosslex, the traveling saint of the Hero’s party. I specialize in support magic and martial arts. Please to meet you, Oracle.”

She was the pinnacle of elegance and beauty rivaling Lemi. Though Kihet overcame the charming aura exuded from Elenora’s looks, he couldn’t help but stare since she revealed she was a human.

Enuis like Kihet were very much humanlike, but the difference was their ears and absence of tails.

“This is what you look like?”

“Yup! How do I look?”

“A little more than I expected.”

“Is that a good or bad thing?”

“Dunno. At least I don’t feel the need to be hostile towards you.” Kihet turned his face to look at the rest of the tower. “So, this Acolyte. Can you tell me more about him?”

“I’m allowed to share one thing.” Elenora secretly looked around as if there were people around to eavesdrop. “If you find yourself unable to proceed with the conversation, tell him everything you do will help shorten his time here to meet her.”

“Her?”

“You don’t need to know who, but I must warn you it will only work once. The second time you bring it up, you might endanger yourself. Anymore and he will surely mark you as an enemy.”

“I think he should be the last person to help.”

“••••••, I mean, the Acolyte of Defiance will surely have a method in mind. Trust me.”

“Not like I have a choice.” Kihet sighed. “How long until I can meet him?”

“Eight day cycles. We will be attacked in three days. We’ll have to hold out the swarm until then.” Elenora answered. “You best search for the Guildmaster and Vice Guildmaster as they have taken charge of this operation.”

“Can you bring me to Lemi before I go there?”

“I take it you’ve made your decision?”

“Either that, or I’ll be seeing a scalpel in front of my face.”

“Excellent! Once you arrive at the guild, you may even find a surprise I’ve left for you.” Elenora smiled eagerly. For some reason, Elenora’s expression was a bit mischievous. She was hiding something that Kihet couldn’t detect any malicious scheming, but that of a little prank she plotted.