A metallic plate was levitating above the ground, on it Inero-ie sat and uncharacteristically, had his eyes opened and fixed on the three pairs of eyes that he could stare directly into due to the levitating plate. As he stared at them, the ever-present noises that accompanied him at every moment, especially noisy whenever he stepped inside the settlement, those noises were suddenly gone, he was all alone, a moment of respite that he seldom got.
Three pairs of eyes were frozen, just like the remains of the other dead bodies that were buried in these massive columns of ice that stretched as high as the height of the settlement itself.
The eyes were frozen, their pupils dilated. Maybe they had felt fear at their last moments, maybe not. He did not know. Still, he gazed at them, eyes fixed on them, unlike his mind which was wandering, busy thinking about other things. A struggle brewing inside him, a struggle between the promise he had made, the oath he had taken, and the desire that he had been keeping repressed. Cycle upon cycle had passed, tens of cycles since their deaths. He had kept his promise for so long, despite a deep desire to do otherwise.
He was tired. So tired. Tired of keeping all these promises. Tired of doing his best to claw his way even in the most desperate of situations. Tired of keeping the gawing voices at bay, voices that wanted to reduce him to a lunatic. Tired of constant wandering through the dead wastelands. Tired of the limits he had forcefully imposed upon himself. Tired of the chains with which he had locked himself. He was tired.
As the scales inside his mind wavered, the internal conflict reaching a peak, the scale finally tipped. But this time the result was different. He could no longer endure anymore. Maybe the flood of emotions that had been released after meeting the White Snake this time was the cause. Maybe it was due to something else. All that mattered was that he had chosen to pursue his desire this time.
Outside nothing appeared to have changed about Inero-ie, he just kept staring at those dead eyes, eyes of the dead that had been frozen long ago. Inero-ie kept staring at those dead eyes, eyes that belonged to people he no longer remembered.
***
Steadily but not slowly, Inero-ie made his way up the column constructed out of ice with hardness greater than steel which was then further enhanced by the protective formation that made it more robust and durable.
The way he climbed was different from outside where he would manipulate the ice to create holding, do so in here send an alert.
Once more his arm moved up, and his plam had been Melded with the ice along with the darkness allowing the palm to be stuck to the ice and climb without any problem other than the consumption that Melding caused. Even that was taken care of by placing a refined core inside his mouth and sucking Qi from it.
Despite having climbed hundreds of meters, the ceiling was nowhere near. The thick darkness made it impossible to see and he did not use the Threads to ascertain the distance. There was no need to.
Once he had climbed up a bit more than a kilometer, he finally stopped. Above was the ceiling.
Threads passed through the tens of meters thick metallic alloy while he embraced the massive columns of ice. The metallic alloy was filled with formation, making the already strong alloy even stronger, thereby allowing it to bear millions of tons of weight without caving in. Threads passed through the alloy until they found they were inside a hallowed cavity.
A moment later something massive and fast passed through that area, the high-speed cargo train. The train was gone the next moment but Inero-ie did not move, silently staying there. Soon more cargo trains passed and each time he noted the interval. He remained there, guessing the time it would take for the next cargo train to arrive in the area where his Threads he spread. With each iteration, his guess came closer and closer until he could accurately guess the arrival time of the cargo trains.
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Once more the train passed and just as its end left his Thread, he jumped.
It took longer. Too much for his liking and the voices, feeling his vulnerability, tried to rip his sanity apart. He could feel them clawing at his mind. Sensing that he would soon be out of this state, he barced himself.
***
He stood inside a massive rectangular space that was used exclusively by the cargo trains. There was no air inside and the whole surface was filled with formations that levitated the trains, removing the friction and allowing them to move at such speeds that they could circle the whole track in seconds. These formations were interesting, but he had no time to spend on them as he had only a brief moment to jump.
While he was absorbing the Qi from the Refined Core at full speed, putting pressure on the Qi circuits, his Threads bypassed another thick layer of metal above, finally emerging on the other side. Just like below, there was a massive column of ice right above too.
Inero-ie jumped. The Qi quickly burned, almost instantly used up, causing another wave of indescribable discomfort to spread through his being. This forced him to absorb the Qi at an even higher speed and though he could feel that his circuits had reached the limit, he could not stop. He did not have the mental capacity to strengthen them with the maddening whispers constantly attempting to claw at his sanity.
Once again the unending moments were gone he had successfully crossed to the 1st Layer without any detection.
***
Inero-ie took out the Refined Core from his mouth and placed it back in the storage. It was almost completely used up. He moved despite the weakness filling his entire body.
Threads spread making him aware of his surroundings. There was no one here, so he sat down for some time to recover from exhaustion. After some time had passed he sensed some people moving in his direction so he stood up, starting the climb once more.
Unlike the Ground Layer, the remains on the upper Layers had people looking after them, who paid to make sure the remains of their dead would remain buried inside the tower and not be sent to the Grave Tower at the Ground Layer. Once the remains were sent there, they would be scheduled to be transferred to the external graveyards.
This was also why there were so few people in the Grave Tower of the Ground Layer. If there still had been people who cared for them, it was unlikely they would have allowed the last few remains of their bodies to be sent outside where they would almost certainly be ravaged by the monsters.
***
Another Refined Core was tightly bitten by Inero-ie’s teeth and he rapidly absorbed the Qi stored within before jumping once more. At a steady pace, he kept moving further up, and as he did so, he had to start taking into consideration where he would appear on the next floor because the number of people visiting the Grave Tower had increased.
It was a precaution in case he lost control over Melding because otherwise there was no way for the people to detect him. Still, considering his worsening condition with each jump, he remained cautious. This was because despite taking rest after each jump, though he could recover physically, he could not heal from the mental exhaustion now that he was inside the settlement and the voices louder because of it.
This was despite him maintaining the void in his mental landscape, removing from it all thoughts and emotions. Inside the settlement though, even this could barely save him from its effects but the jumps had given the maddening voices a chance.
***
Physically and mentally drained and exhausted, Inero-ie finally jumped to the top Layer. Even the Grave Tower in this place appeared like a paradise, completely different from those down below but he did not have the capacity to observe this place. Still, when his Threads spread through the surroundings, he noted one thing, complete bodies were buried here unlike a few specific body parts below. The amount that had to be spent on this was not something he cared to calculate but it was bound to be astronomical.
After finding a secluded spot, he started to recover. Both his body and mind were fully exhausted at this moment. Despite resting after each jump, these consecutive jumps had taken a toll on his body, a toll that was different from overloading his core. Each jump had almost completely absorbed the Qi within his body and the effects of such rash action had been strengthened after doing it multiple times.
A Refined Core was in Inero-ie’s hands and from it, he slowly absorbed the Qi. As the Qi cycles through his circuits, it was like water had passed through barren lands, revitalizing his circuits.