Early in that morning just before the sun came out, the Flynosa’s monarics that were stationed to guard the Hontila tower had just started waking up when one of the early bird monaric found out something weird with the tower.

In the base of the tower, dozens of faint lines of symbols started to appear. It started below the ground and climb towards the base of the tower. It was hard to see at first but unmistakable faint yellow dots were lining up and circling the tower as if they're fireflies controlled to shape like symbols.

The monaric thought his eyes were just playing tricks with him. He has been stationed in the tower for three months, since its abnormal behavior three months ago, where its moat suddenly dried up. The whole kingdom was alarmed by it but it only prompted the king to send an expedition to see what had happened to the tower.

The monaric, just like the other monarics stationed with him, expected that they only have to stay there for a week at most. The paperoes would do their board magics, then they would return back to the capital after. But it has been three months now, and even the paperoes have already given up about the mystery of the Hontila Tower.

The King visited in person the first day but even his okalams, a band of powerful and expert paperoes where lost for the reason why the moat dried up.

There used to be higher ranked paperoes at the start but they had already came back to the capital after week of fruitless search. They, like the rest of them, were also stumped of what’s happening with the tower. Only those who were in lower in ranks were left to supervise the tower but they already gave up months ago. They thought the reason why the moat's water dried up were cause by a natural phenomenon, a hole could have sucked all the water in it, but they hadn't seen any holes yet. They were now just lounging around and complained every time they had the chance.

The monaric just wished last night for the tower to show some changes so that he could go back home to his two cosinas, whom one he had married just when he was sent to the tower. It might be that his desperation and utter boredom of doing almost nothing, in this god forsaken place in the middle of nowhere, had led him to hallucinate.

He pinched himself thinking he was still dreaming. It was not the first time he had dreamed for the tower to change. Once, he even dreamed he had become a tower. But unlike his dreams, the bright yellow lines on the base of the tower only intensified more, enough for him to realize that he was not dreaming and this was true.

He sprinted, or more like stumbled, towards the makeshift tent of the paperoes, while shouting in joyous alarm to the whole camp.

The rest of the monarics that were already out of their bed came out to look for the commotion, and were also alarmed after seeing the tower lighting up.

The monaric ignored the other monarics, who were now clamoring among themselves on what to do, and directly entered the paperoes’ tent. He saw that despite the commotion that was happening outside, the paperoes were still in their bed, deep asleep.

“Wake up! Wake up!” he shouted at them.

Most of them were woken up by his shout but he was impatient and decided to grab one by their clothes, disregarding ranks, and dragged the poor papero out of his bed.

The poor papero was disconcerted of what was happening. He was just sleeping well when one moment later he was staring at the tower. He was about to blow in anger when he noticed the glowing lines in the tower’s base. He did not care about the monaric anymore and scrambled to his feet to call for his comrades.

Two hours later, from bottom to top, the tower had now glowed so brightly with different symbols glowing in it.

The thrilled paperoes had tried to understand what was happening with the tower but they did not know how to. In fact they were just there for formality sake. With regards to examining towers, sadly no one in their paperoes ranks were expert of that. So they just waited there, recording with their notes what was happening to the tower, noting each detail.

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Suddenly, the yellow lines of light in the tower burst and changed into red, blinding everyone who was looking directly at it.

The red light was still blaring when the bell-less tower suddenly clang like there was a giant bell inside it. The clanging was so loud that it reached for miles.

Those who were near the tower, as well as those residents of the small town around it dropped to the ground unconscious.

There were some who were able to stay conscious from the first clang. But by the second clang, some passed out and by the third clang, those who were able to stay awake also got unconscious.

The bell continued to ring for nine times then it stopped. Then the light of the tower vanished as if it was not there in the first place.

At the same time, at the other towers spaced out in the different corners of the world. Tower guardians were woken up from their slumber after hearing a faint sound of bells clanging.

It was faint but it was there. Some of the guardians were confused while some had shocked expressions on their faces. The towers were never meant to ring unless for a specific reason, a very special reason. They were all in disbelief but if one of the tower's bells rang then It could only mean one thing.

A god just either descended or was just born in this world.

With grim realization, it also meant that a war was coming. A war that the world was yet to be prepared for.

Pretty started to gain consciousness since the time she heard some women talk. A part of her brain was not yet fully conscious but she was able to register that someone was near her and they were talking in a language she could not understand.

It felt somehow familiar, like a dialect of a language she had learned before but with her drowsy and weak disposition, she could not put much brain power to figure out where she heard it.

All throughout the women talking over her, she had gone in and out of consciousness. She wanted to open her eyes but her head was throbbing badly and she felt so weak all over her body.

It went like that for some time, till she hadn’t heard anyone talking anymore. Following her instincts, she let herself be taken by the arms of sleep.

She was jolted awake a few minutes later when she felt herself being lifted by someone’s arms and then without warning, dropped harshly into a hard narrow surface.

Her upper body hit head first on something like a wooden floor while her lower body dangled into thin air. A tiny moan came out of her mouth but it was drowned by the loud noise of the street.

Someone got hold of her legs then forcefully pushed it inside the confined space, making her body curled inside

She next felt the ground shake and moved and her mind was able to comprehend that she was in a vehicle of some sort. Evident from the unmistakable squeaking of wheels right below her.

She tried to straighten her thoughts but it was jumbled already and the rocking movement of the vehicle did not help. It rocked so badly that she bumped her head a few times on the wooden floor and slammed her head on the walls beside her head every time they turned into a new direction.

The ride was so rough that even if she passed out a few times the whole ride, she would then be woken up by the pain of her head and and the force of her body slamming into something. It was torture and even if it was only for a few minutes, she felt like it was hours before the thing she was on stopped moving.

Then without any warning, she felt the vehicle she was on tilted and her body was sliding down. Then she toppled out of it and air slapped at her face as she found herself falling down into nothingness.

The panic had yet to sink when she fell into something hard, the impact jarring her whole body. She did not even feel the whole brunt of the pain as she passed out again.

The lotaric man clapped his hand out of dust and looked one last time at the body he just dumped in a huge pit where the Kokko yolat threw their garbage.

He whistled a tune and then went back his way with his wheelbarrow, hoping there were no other bodies to dispose of today.

It was hours later when Pretty woke up from her unconscious state.

A pile of smelly rotten fruit and vegetables had now stacked up on her and a random rat was gnawing on her wounded hands.

She was blanking out for a while, trying to think what happened to her or where she was, but she could not articulate anything with sense, except for the rancid smell that was invading her senses.

She opened her eyes and found she could do it. She looked around her and all she could see was piles of stuff she could not recognize at first. Something was also on top of her and there was something that was gnawing on her hands.

She looked at it and absentmindedly whisked the rat away. The rat then scuttled away and stopped a few meters from her

She tried to wiggle herself from the things that were stacked on her but she found herself unable to.

She could feel the wetness as it was soaking the clothes she was wearing. She checked what it was and found pieces of rotten fruit and rotten looking yellow and violent vegetables oozing with juices with maggots and worms in it.

The image disgusted her too much that it jolted her back to her senses. She heaved reflexively and the urge to vomit came over her but she held it in and immediately crawled her way out from disgusting things stacked on her.

She was able to crawl a few paces away, discarding the garbage on her in the process but it took a lot of energy from her.

She laid there breathing hard, questioning what’s happening to her, with no energy to move.