Chapter 259
The Heaven (I)
Cain stared intently at the spinning, sapphire-dyed vortex. Ever so often, a person would hike up the small trail, glance at him, nod, and venture into the spinning portal. It was the entrance to the ninth floor, perched halfway up a frosted mountain decorated in tall, jagged rocks and dead trees. It would likely be a deadly trek for ‘normal’ people, but was, at worst, a slight bore for everyone who actually walked up.
While others were making their preparations in the city, Cain climbed all the way up to the eight floor since his preparations would begin on the ninth floor. Taking a deep breath, he crossed the short distance and walked through. Space around him bent unnaturally immediately as he felt a nauseating sensation swell over him. Grinding his teeth, he cursed out his body; it’s been so long since he’d taken a teleporter that his body had forgotten the sensation.
A few seconds later, he was spat out on the other end, barely staying on his feet as he stumbled forward. Frigid winds immediately belted against him, causing him to shudder as he stood up, stabilizing. Sighing, a familiar sight-- one that the first time he saw left him reeling-- appeared in front of him. Lined like a sport’s squad, there were nearly twenty people-- all who entered before Cain-- standing to the side, staring wide-eyed at the scene, their jaws agape.
Up front, floating in the midst of roaring ‘waters’, was a megalithic structure, a marble-white citadel. Winged spires stood far up like masts of a ship, arches hand-carved in breathtaking motifs spreading from one end to another, towers like spears pointing toward the high skies, and beautiful, physics-defying bridges extending from one part of the citadel onto the next.
The entire structure appeared immeasurable and, unlike the City of Mirrors, was homogeneous in its make. Only white marble existed, with silver highlights at the edges. Statues stood everywhere, some as short as an average man, and some as tall as forty feet. It was a sight beyond sights, the reality beyond reality, something that humans, even twenty-five years into the future, would be unable to replicate. The Ninth Floor-- by most dubbed as the literal Heaven-- would for all of Cain’s previous lifetime remain a mystery.
The citadel itself, despite how enormous it was, was actually empty-- there were neither people nor beasts living in it... just specific challenges. Furthermore, it could not be lived in-- unless a person kept taking challenges every single day, they’d be immediately booted off the floor and barred entrance for a whole week.
For however many questions remained unanswered about the Tower by the twenty-five years mark, not a single one was ever answered about the Heaven. However, for most, this actually was the Heaven-- in many of the challenges, winged angels would be centerpieces. It was physically impossible to stain the stone, and the citadel’s appearance would never change-- no matter what. However, what made this specific floor special is very simple-- everyone was equally weak and strong on it.
Right now, Cain was equalized down to level 10, with his stats corresponding an average person’s. All of his skills were downgraded to, at most, ‘C-’ in their grading, while all of the item effects were nullified. Or, well, were supposed to be nullified-- Cain frowned when he realized that the Ring was resisting the floor’s pressure. As such, his stats danced up and down, but even if the ring was working, it wasn’t particularly helpful in this situation since it didn’t provide raw stats but rather percentages. And even 100% of 10 was still just 20.
Facing back forward, he sighed yet again; despite having seen this sight many times before, it still awoke something primal within him-- a feeling akin to awe and worship wrapped into one. The Ninth Floor held some significance, he was certain; not even the highest floor humanity ever reached was as mysterious as this place. A solitary citadel floating the waves that were actually made up entirely of Mana-- almost the only place in the Tower where Mana’s density was so large that it became visible to the naked eye, frothing like the waves belting against the shore’s cliffs.
The citadel itself, despite appearing uniform, was sectioned; each section held nine trials, and each section was connected to others via a bridge. The entire structure actually orbited a central area, all spires and towers slightly angled toward it. There, at the center, was the floor’s final challenge. It actually had nothing to do with strength or such-- it was a simple, chess match against a faceless figure. In fact, a complete recording of the clearing actually existed in Cain’s previous life.
The man who cleared the floor was Edmund Frost, at the time the highest-leveled Conqueror and likely the very first superstar-tier one. However, after he won the match, he actually retired and nobody heard from him since. Despite the existence of the recording, the audio was corrupted and nobody knew what-- if anything-- was said.
This, coupled with the floor’s natural mystique, further added to the fantasy and to the mystery of the citadel... and even its purpose.
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Cain, just like everyone else, actually had no answers. It was one of the few things in regards to the Tower that he was on equal footing with the rest of the world. The strangest part was that there were no other floors like this one anywhere else-- not in any of the other six Towers. This place was that unique. It became quite a tourist’s spot in the future, until, twenty-three years since the Tower’s inception... it became inaccessible. By any means.
The portal from the Eight Floor would lead directly to the Ninth, and none of the Dimensional Talismans or any such items worked. It was like the place simply never existed.
Shaking himself awake, he glanced at the still-awed mass of people, re-calibrating. He spotted the individual sections and began mapping them out. He was unfamiliar with the vast majority of the trials since by the time he began the climb, the Ninth Floor was actually considered useless since it gated people’s strength for what were considered as minimal rewards. As such, the party would largely have to go in blind.
He did know some basics, though: the limited strength, where most trials orbited either skillful usage of the most basic abilities, or the trial itself was entirely smarts-based rather than strength-based. As for the rewards, just like everything else with this floor, it was... strange. Though it was ‘well understood’ that the rewards for trials weren’t great, nobody has ever actually publicized one directly.
Even when some trials gained public’s attention when the recording was leaked, the rewards themselves always stayed hidden. As for why, Cain suspected one of two things: either the rewards were actually good and large corporations were farming the living shit out of trials while keeping others away, or the rewards themselves demanded to be hidden by the virtue of accepting them.
For the time being, however, it was irrelevant. Gathering himself, Cain let the Mana guide him-- others haven’t realized it yet, but they weren’t actually standing on anything corporeal, but rather were floating by the virtue of Mana. As such, he didn’t need to exert much effort to fling himself forward and land on what was called the ‘Bridge of Purification’ -- it was a bridge extending from the citadel, outbound, toward the portal but never connecting with anything, as though it was unfinished.
Landing, he was once again awed by the sheer scale-- the bridge was at least half a mile across, possibly even more, slanted at a slight angle, descending toward the beautiful, breathtaking citadel. The closer he was to it, the more his heart danced and writhed. It was inexplicable, but even he wasn’t immune to it.
“That was quick,” a voice spoke up abruptly, causing Cain to casually turn to the side and stare at the seeming nothing some twenty feet to his left. “Oh? You can see me?”
“You just spoke,” Cain replied. “I’d long since have died if I was incapable of figuring out where you were.”
“But you already knew where I was.”
“I knew you were somewhere,” Cain said. “But that somewhere spans a lot of feet.”
“...” following a momentary silence, a figure emerged from the shadows. From the stature, Cain determined it was a man, likely in his mid to late thirties, though he’d completely hidden his features with a black mask. “Most others just keep standing there like sheep for days on end. Yet, you barely stopped for a few minutes.”
“What can I say,” Cain shrugged. “I’m not easily impressed.”
“Who are you?”
“If you aren’t like them,” Cain said. “Why aren’t you stepping into this place to explore?”
“... there’s nobody there.”
“Hm? There aren’t any other people?” Cain played along, frowning. “How? From what I’ve heard, hundreds have stepped in.”
“No, there are other people,” the man shook his head. “There’s... nobody else. No Tower-natives. The entire place is a ghost town.”
“Huh...”
“Your mellow reactions to weird things really make me wanna stab you in that stupid mouth of yours.”
“As I said,” Cain chuckled gently. “I’m not easily impressed. Let’s go.”
“Huh?”
“It’ll be more fun with company, no?” he added, slowly stepping forward.
“Hey, wait! Aren’t you curious?! Hey, wait-wait! Fine, ugh. I’ll come along!”
“What’s your name?” Cain asked.
“What’s it to you?”
“A’right. What should I call you?”
“... Shade.”
“I’m not gonna call you that.”
“Why?”
“’cause I’m not thirteen. Oh? Your friends?” Cain quizzed, glancing at the man. The latter looked at him for a moment, appearing to not understand. “There’s like ten Assassins hidden in front of us, all of them with their weapons drawn.”
“What?!” the man growled lowly, tossing his focus onto the front and quickly spotting the hidden Mana signatures. “Lather...”
“Uh... you’re... you’re excited to meet them?”
“No, not lather, Lather. He’s my ex-boss of sorts.”
“Oh. You defected from the group?”
“Something like that.”
“Why?”
“Reasons.”
“What reasons?”
“You ask a lot of questions,” the man said.
“I’m curious.”
“Curiosity killed the cat.”
“Good thing I ain’t a cat, then,” Cain chuckled. “By the way, did you realize it yet?”
“Realize what?”
“Your strength,” Cain elaborated. “It should be quite beaten.”
“Hm?” the man fell silent for a moment as he inspected himself. A look of horror appeared in his gaze as he began to shake. “W-what... what is this?! How did they do this?! I can barely draw out any Mana!”
“Relax,” Cain said calmly. “It’s not them. It’s the floor.” creating a few skills on the spot, Cain cast them and quickly incapacitated the ten hidden men. Infernal arms flew out from beneath his feet in concert with an accompanying, frontal-cone-shaped Mind attack, temporarily confusing the ten men while the infernal arms wrapped around their bodies, dragging them all out of stealth and, before they could even understand what was happening, right in front of Cain and the man. “Eh? Why do they all look like they’re forty but... I dunno... I wouldn’t---aaah,” Cain suddenly recalled something as a faint smile crept up on his face.
“...?” the man stepped back hurriedly as Cain glanced at him; the former couldn’t believe what his eyes just witnessed-- a single Elementalist defeated ten Assassins within a single blink of an eye. Who the hell is this dude?!
“You must be Ethan,” Cain said suddenly, recalling a specific man and a specific group of people from his past life. “Let me ask you a question, Ethan.”
“H-huh?”
“Would you like to be adopted?”