Chapter 10
Location, The Royal Palace of the Empire of Jahad. 134th Floor.
Inside the most sacred and secure area of the tower, a ritual was taking place. In the first time in 200 years, a Princess was selected.
Arie Aria Pandora.
A girl who has not even reached her 100th year…in fact, she was only 13 years of age; 12 when she outcompeted and won the title of Princess for herself against all odds.
The prodigy, the Arie’s Hope, the new princess, was brought up through the Middle Area and to Jahad’s Palace to conduct the ritual to create the Princess. In the center of the tower, the young girl kneeled.
Kneeled in the throne room of the King of the Tower. To call this place a room was an understatement of its majesty. ‘Hall’ wasn’t enough to measure its length and ‘majestic’ wasn’t enough to describe its divineness.
Glasslike gold covered the heaven reaching walls and pillars while the purest of Suspendium glowed blue from above. Below their feet was a pitch black and gold mosaics spanning the entire length…but a wide red carpet was laid out from the entrance to the throne itself.
On the throne sat the King of the Tower. The most famous and greatest being to reside inside, the living god, the one King. Jahad, King of the Jahad Empire, the immortal, the first pioneer, the Greatest of the Great Warriors, and thousands of titles which graced his name.
Jahad is extremely tall (240cm) and muscular for a human. His naturally messy yet combed golden hair, his intricate black armor, his red cape draped across his entire self gave him the aura of a King. Where his eyes should be was pure radiating light; both golden irises but one with a red dot and the other blue. On his left ear was his symbol, The Three Red Eyes.
(AN: The three red eyes represents Jahad and his Empire. It is composes of 3 connected eyes in the form of a Pyramid; 1 above, two below. Under the three eyes are three red dots. Very few people are allowed to hold and wear this symbol.)
Perhaps with the exception of The Riddle or The Red Tower, Jahad was undeniably the one omnipotent and omniscient being. Having conquered fate and controlling it to his whims.
Jahad sat on his golden throne looking at the tiny figure who was kneeling before him. Behind the girl stood a familiar figure, Jahad’s friend, and another being whom the tower worshipped as a god. Arie Hon, the head of the Arie family, and the greatest of the 10 stood behind his kneeling daughter. Jahad and Arie shared no words but the journey that they have shared together didn’t need any. One look at each other and they understood.
Very few things surprised or even interested the King anymore but the arrival of his old friend was out of expected. Even he, the King, could directly order the original 10.
Choosing a Princess was a delicate and crucial process but for Arie Hon himself to come as well…this one was different.
Jahad had heard of the selection process of the Arie family and it was the most brutal of any families. To leave all candidates to rip each other to death until only the strongest remained. Still, there were very few Arie princesses despite their superior strength and blood.
But this one…
After being chosen as the Arie family’s representative, Pandora was brought to the 134th floor to compete against the other families’ representatives. Another brutal competition began as the candidates battled for supremacy. 1 week was all it took for little Pandora to drain the lives of all 49 candidates besides herself. Emerging as the sole survivor, it was unanimously agreed…and the only remaining choice for her to become the new princess.
Her clothes still torn and blood stained, dripping crimson tears, she was kneeling in the King’s presence ready to become the new princess.
To the side of the King stood the spokesman of the King. In a scholar’s suit, the old man rolled out a scroll as he read.
“To become the Princess of the King. To be his arms and legs, to carry his mighty name across the tower. There is no greater honor…and yet the challenges that will follow will surpass any that you have known thus far.”
The old man breathed again before continuing.
“To become a Princess is to enter another competition. Against each other as you climb and reach the top…and once again. Miss Arie, you are aware of why the Jahad’s Princess system was adopted into the tower, don’t you?”
A soft voice reached their ears. “Yes…”
“Then I shall recite the oath in which you must obey.” The old man coughed as he rolled down his scroll further. “Do you, Arie Aria Pandora, pledge yourself to the One True King of the tower, Jahad, to serve him for eternity?”
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“I do”
“Do you, Arie Aria Pandora, pledge to turn your back on on the company of men, to keep eternal maidenhood until you have complete the Princesses’ ambition?”
“I do”
“Do you, Arie Aria Pandora, accept the blood of Jahad and how power to grant you strength and eternal youth?”
“I do”
“Very well. Receiving the blood and power of the King, you shall become a princess. Climb the tower, collect the 13 months…and you shall have completed the task no princess has ever done.”
At this, the King stood up from his throne, golden light surrounding him, as he slowly descended the stairs to where Pandora was kneeling. When he was a mere few steps away from the new princess, a red sigil formed underneath her as sorcery roared to life. Humming…awaiting a new princess of the tower. The first in centuries.
“Raise your head”
She raised her head and saw the face of the King for the first time.
“From now on, you are to take on my name. As my daughter, you are now an official Princess of my Empire…Arie Aria Pandora Jahad. Take my symbol and wear it with pride.”
His hand rested on her head, covering it whole due to her petiteness, as the ritual began. Unseen by anyone but felt by the two, blood seeped from the king’s skin and into Pandora…but this was no painless ritual.
The King’s blood having found themselves in a new bloodstream began taking over the body as it burned its way through her body. It began from her forehead where the blood was injected…and Pandora felt indescribable pain.
Pain as if a hot rod of steel had been pressed upon her forehead before it began drilling inwards. Burning and melting anything in its path…but the blood of the King continued to be injected into her. She felt the liquid fire destroy everything within her body as it rebuilt…changed her into something more than human.
It made its way down as it burned…destroyed…melted…every bloodstream, every cell, and every drop of shinsu inside her. As the blood reached her heart, it pumped it in pain, in agony until she could not hold it inside her any longer.
Pandora screamed…she screamed but the pain did not reside one bit. She thrashed, moved, and tried to escape the pain but she found herself immovable. A force beyond her own was pushing her down completely, unable to even life a finger.
As the fire roasted her insides, her tears fell…it flowed down as she was once again…powerless.
Pandora realized that she had stopped breathing and her sight was beginning to dim…perhaps that might take the pain away. As her eyes rolled up, she gave herself up to the peaceful darkness.
… …
Not a single muscle moved on Jahad’s face. Not a single movement on the lips, a twitch on his brows, not movement betrayed the King’s true emotions.
A Monster has been born
‘A monster like himself, the ten warriors, the two others, Mazino…no…this one was far worse’ thought the King.
There was a reason why Jahad did not have children. His dark secret was well kept…but the other truth was no less true than the secret he kept hidden from the Tower. No woman could handle his blood, his power; no matter whom she slept with, the potency of his power simply killed them before the child could be conceived.
‘Not that I want a heir’ thought the King.
But the unconscious child slumped in front of him frightened Jahad. This child…who was not even stronger than a measly ranker had taken in more power, more blood, and shinsu than anyone had ever done.
Nearly a thousand Princesses in the history of the tower and less than a hundred still lived today. Of all the thousand, almost all of them rejected the blood after a mere drop or two…and yet that was enough to strengthen them to be called a ‘species beyond humanity’.
Then there were the ‘talented ones’, prodigies from the 10 Great Families. Khun Maschenny, brought before him some thousands of years ago as well as that young ‘Ha Yuri’ family girl 200 years ago were like so. They had taken in a syringe-full worth of blood before their body began to strain from excess power.
Finally there were the ones who reached the toes of what it meant to be an irregular. Power which should not be possible for those who were born and raised within the tower. Arie Hon’s daughter…Arie Hagipherone, His favorite and most loyal daughter Adori…and that Eurasia child that he had imprisoned thousands of years ago.
But this one…she had broken all of them. Even in unconsciousness she continued to drain his blood and power into her small body, a fragile and weak body. It was as if there was something inside of her which stored an infinite amount of strength.
‘Like me…’ thought the King
With his infinite regeneration he would never run out of blood but…but this child had already drained an entire cycle of his blood. An amount in which even Adori or Anne Eurasia had failed to do.
No…
She was more. This little monster was draining more than just his blood, his power. It was his shinsu, his mind, his will, his knowledge, his everything…and even the core he had within hi—
ENOUGH!
The King, panting, took his hand off of the new princess’s forehead as he backed away, stumbling slightly from what he had almost lost. Almost lost to a girl who was no more than a mere 13 years old…an infant. A regular.
The said girl was now in her father’s arms, carried, as her head was pressed against his chest. Still unconscious from the ritual, from the pain…now she looked peaceful as she rested in her father’s arms.
The father, Arie Hon, had a look he had never shown before…or even himself made before. For all the years he had lived inside the tower, it was evident that they were different.
The Irregulars of the tower…they were Whale among plankton, Sharks among goldfish. Simply…not the same. He had created a family out of his lust in his youthful days. Out of the female fishes in his bowl called ‘family’ came children…but they simply weren’t. They weren’t his children, they were merely fish carrying his blood.
There were moments of astonishment and amusement when he heard a fish achieving feats he had thought impossible, but in the end…fish was fish. Vermin remained vermin.
And yet Pandora was different from the moment of her birth. An unexplainable sense of love, care, thought…paternal love. Still, as the family head he could not act out his desires to spoil her, pamper her, coddle her, and love her as fathers would do in fear that his powerless daughter would put more of a target on her back than she already was. He knew that his family, especially those devolved fishes (branch families) would spare nothing to kill her.
For the first time…he and his daughter was alone (Jahad didn’t matter). Without any eyes to watch for, his hugged his unconscious daughter close. Proud of her as a father. Not proud of a pet, a fish. The little girl he was holding was his, his flesh and blood.
Jahad could not believe the scene he was seeing. Arie Hon showing…love? Adoration? The King knew that the swordsman was capable of friendship as they have climbed the tower together but love was a first. The sight of his once-companion looking at the little monster with eyes which could only be explained with affection scared him.
The girl…that monster was a liability. A Threat. A threat to his rule…his eternal empire. He had done everything to remain in eternal power. The contract with the administrators, eliminating every trace of them from history and relics, shutting off the entire 43rd floor…damning millions, killing uncountable billions more,…and that girl is the greatest risk.
‘I can’t have that risk’ Was it fear? Was it worry? It didn’t matter.
As he strode forward intending to kill the child in his friend’s arms…he saw the eye of the child and everything fell into place. Unexplainable love and affection for the child filled him as he looked at her…as if the world’s center shifted…shifted and put this child at the center.
The hand he raised intending to choke the child to eternal rest instead was gently laid on her forehead as he muttered his blessings.
‘Rise, Be reborn as my daughter, Pandora. Carry my name further across the tower as my daughter’ The King mused.
(AN: Incase any readers did not understand how Jahad’s behavior changed so rapidly. It was due to 2 things.
1. Blessing of Aphrodite. (Natural Charm for the strong = Protection instincts (pledge to protecc)
2. Imperfect & Incomplete blessing of Tyche (Search it up yourselves readers)
3. Survival instinct of Hybris (Pride) and Himeros (Lust). Whether Pandora proved herself worthy or not, they were about to die. Respective, specific, powers will be revealed later on in the story.
As well as the fact he felt the same sort of connection of ‘species’ as Hon felt with Pandora. All three combined pushed Jahad over the edge. Irregulars recognize irregulars…subtly.)