Episode 25

1

There was no counterattack, no unexpected surprise. My sword pierces the woman's torso and sinks into her chest to the heart. I feel it clearly. This strange creature controls destinies and is used to doing as she pleases with the poor bastards who wander through this Tower.

But I have ripped my fate from her hands, and then I ripped out her damned heart.

The bestial triumph sets my blood on fire. No, it was already aflame, but now it accelerates even more if possible.

With a single blow.

With a single blow, I have killed this thing!

With my own hands, I earned it! I have written my destiny! With my own hands!

—You are the first to defeat me in a very, very long time.

Those were not very satisfying last words, but I would settle for them. I couldn't wait to see her tremble when she knew that sooner or later she would return. Someone had erased the third boss from the first floor. If only I knew how, I could have watched her collapse, break her inside and out. For that reason alone, I regret not knowing that information.

Oh well, I would have time for that when I conquered the Tower. If it was a complete conquest, even the Floor Bosses would be under my control, eh? Not bad. Not bad at all.

I remove the sword from her body. The woman falls at my feet and begins to disappear as if she were disintegrating. Disgusting. I had been curious to know exactly what her lower half was, but now I think it was fortunate.

Surely it was something repulsive like her rotten, inhuman soul and her dark tricks that manipulate fate.

If I was the only person who could resist her powers, then, in a way, wasn't I the only person with free will?

Well, I definitely felt free hahaha!

I focus my attention on the elven specter. The woman had said his name, but I don't remember because I couldn't care less. Why do I need to remember it when all I want from that idiot is to split him from crotch to chin?

And see if a ghost could bleed!

Hahahahahahahaahahahahhahahahahiii!!!

The elf launches at me dispassionately, says nothing.

—You appeared as a pair, but I suppose you're not that close. Maybe you're thankful I got rid of her, that she's not here to bark orders at you. Ehhhhhhhhhh?

He did not rise to the bait. Well, it doesn't matter. I didn't need that to win, it was just a whim. That's right. Techniques, stratagems—those were just things invented by humans to compensate for their weaknesses.

I have no weaknesses, I am simply superior.

I'm not even going to bother checking the Skill I might have gained after defeating that bitch. Why would I need a new skill to defeat an enemy I had already defeated? He had backed off, admitting the woman was right, that he couldn't beat me. He had defeated himself.

A symbolic resistance. The symbolic resistance of a pathetic creature.

How could he even dream of stopping me?

Our swords crossed a half dozen times. My strikes had not a hint of the technique or experience I had bled so much to learn. I simply swung the sword like a club to beat him down.

I got no result from that way and soon got bored, well, I never had what you would call patience. So I broke the deadlock with the tentacles. Two tentacles, attacking from below and slamming him against the ceiling.

Some pieces of the ceiling trembled, became dislodged, fell.

Just as pieces of the floor immediately flew up afterward when I crushed him against the ground and dragged him here and there as if I were trying to use him as a mop.

So I laughed.

I couldn't help but laugh.

Wasn't it fucking hilarious? So much effort, so many dreams, so much fear. But in the end, it wasn't so much.

My sword is the key to the future, and these hands will never tremble.

Whoever stands in my way.

—What's up, what's up, huh, what's up, can't you escaaaaape?!

Mad laughter escaped my throat over and over. I didn't even know the meaning of holding back.

I had the weird feeling that my feet weren't touching the ground. And then I looked down and was glad I hadn't said it out loud, because it wasn't just a feeling. Unconsciously I had used half a dozen tentacles to support myself on the ground... and raise my body a few inches above.

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Now I towered over the elven specter like a great beast from the darkness of this Tower, and the corridor seemed too small for me.

I smashed him through one of the walls, raising a large cloud of dust and closing the hole with the fallen debris. Part of me wondered how long it would take for the floor to collapse as it had before. The rest of me, the most part, understood that it was over.

As soon as I killed that bitch, those kinds of tricks had ended forever.

It hadn't been bad luck, but a trap set with her ability to manipulate fate. She might not be completely dead, but the point is that she would let me pass. I had proven that I deserved to pass and she would no longer be a problem.

Soon the elf would not be either.

The elf emerges from the cloud of dust with a certain resignation. From the beginning, he knew it was a fight he couldn't win, but I guess he felt he had no choice. How many people had he killed over the years, defending the Tower? How many people had defeated him?

Well, I really don't care.

A hundred, a thousand, millions. The point is that I would be the one to end all this.

I would be the one to succeed where so many others had failed.

We clashed in the middle and almost with that alone I pushed him back into the cloud of smoke, because yes, it still hadn't cleared.

Then, of all things, he pulls out a hammer from somewhere. A hammer? Yes, and the forge turned out to be the floor. The impact of the blow created a shockwave that sent me flying far away, through and against a wall, but the elf didn't give me a moment's rest, he chased me keeping the pace without problems.

As I flew, I grabbed several pieces of the wall and threw them at him...

What he didn't dodge he cut in the air.

He was a persistent bastard, even though he had no chance of defeating me, I felt that at least he should try to fulfill his duty. Just that, exactly. He was doing something he saw as an obligation.

For him, it wasn't a fight to the death, so he wasn't putting his heart into it.

He could be "someone", with his own hopes and dreams, a human intelligence. But, acting this way, he might as well have been an automaton for all that mattered.

So, actually, the outcome of the fight had been decided even before we crossed swords.

How boring. Especially because that didn't mean he was going to just drop dead. Although it was nothing more than... a formality, I would have to perform his last myself. I manage to wrap him in tentacles amid his flurry of powerless attacks. I lift him above my head and pull in all directions to tear him apart. The elf twists, struggles to free himself, and groans in pain. All in vain. He doesn't bleed. That's to be expected for a ghost, I suppose, but it also makes it boring. Very boring. I'm already tired of this game.

"I thought you would be the chosen one, our savior," the elf growls through clenched teeth. "But now I see that you're like all the others, or even worse. There is a darkness in you. Are you even the same person I have been watching until now?"

"How about you go fuck yourself, eh?"

I split him in half and throw his pieces to the ground, where they bounce like rubber toys. There's something more grotesque in that simplicity than if he had died agonizingly and bleeding out.

I stagger forward, feeling the headache transform more into a fever. (like a wildfire) I bring my hands to my head, clench tightly, digging my nails in.

Peering between my fingers, I see the ghost disappear—forever. For me, it is forever.

"Caim? Come here, let me..."

I turn my head and shift all my attention to…

2

Caim was suspended in the air with his own tentacles, his back to her, until he turned his head. Only one of his eyes was visible between the fingers that covered his face and the hair that fell like a curtain in front of them.

And...

He had always had a fire in his eyes. That was the only thing that had allowed him to survive and come so far.

However, she could think of no other way to describe it. That single eye burned like a bonfire in the middle of the darkest night, and in that glow, there was something...

Different.

She didn't want to admit it, not even in her thoughts, but it was as if he no longer recognized her. Not anymore.

Crunch, crunch. Those sounds came from the bone of the horns extending once again. It was the least of concerns in this situation, but she couldn't help noticing. She had never seen anyone with such large horns. Until recently, she hadn't known they could grow in the first place.

So...

Victoria made a foolish move. Swallowing hard, she took a step back, as if she had something to fear.

“Caim?”

Yonah's voice hung in the air.

Caim did not relax his tentacles, did not come down. He did not stop looking as if he still had not dealt with all his enemies. Instead, he threw his head back, letting out a beastly roar. How many times had she heard the heavy breathing of wolves at night, being pursued? How many times had she seen their breath, cold as death, floating in the air?

She felt a chill.

Then, when

(she didn’t think things could get worse)

she convinced herself it was nothing, he howled.

Could that sound really come from a human throat?

Caim turned his back and leaped, breaking through the ceiling with chilling ease. The pile of rubble marked the spot from where he had jumped. That, and a bit of light from some torch seeping through the hole.

Victoria and Yonah remained where they were, not knowing what to do or say, trembling. And staring at that hole. Just that and nothing more.

Until the howling ceased or they could no longer hear it.

In any case, only then did they feel they could breathe again.

3

He was hungry.

He was very hungry, cold, and the only thing that could warm him was the blood of his enemies. Caim moved quickly through the corridors, clinging to the walls and ceiling with his tentacles, demolishing everything in his path without a second thought. Indeed, he wasn’t focusing on this; he was just doing it naturally as he passed.

It was dark, or so his more human senses and basic logic told him (he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a damn torch), but it was no problem. Somehow, he could see as if he had escaped the Tower and was bathing in the sunlight.

Wildly free.

It wasn’t true... not yet.

But all in due time.

Now, food. Food!

There should have been monsters everywhere, but it was as if the world had been specifically designed to annoy him or as if they were hiding from him, terrified, because it had also been a long time since he had seen any of them either.

But that couldn't last forever.

He would devour until he was satiated and become as strong as he needed to be to fulfill his destiny.

He swore by...

By whom and for what?

Episode 25