Episode 8: Open the Doors of the Tower of Dreams That Suddenly Rises (8)

10

"Do you know? For someone without a lung, you sure gave quite a speech just now," Victoria said as she carefully examined him up close, her hands, wrapped in a faint blue glow, tracing over his chest to make sure everything was alright.

Caim gave her an unimpressed look. "What? It's true. I'm not sure if you even paused to take a breath with the lung you had left."

"Yeah, I got it. A moment ago I only had one lung. And now I have one and a half, more or less."

"More like a quarter, but I still have quite a bit left. But we'll go with that because it sounds better."

"Whatever."

He took a deep breath, trying to relax. By the way, he was sitting on the floor to make it easier for her to work, and they hadn't moved in about ten minutes. Maybe less, since he was an impatient guy and every passing second felt like a wasted second, even though he couldn't continue in this state.

"Blame yourself for being so good," Victoria said. "You didn't just puncture his lung, you destroyed it. You could have held back a little since you knew you weren't going to deliver the killing blow anyway."

"Yeah. That's not my forte, as you can see. I'm just glad I didn't die."

"If you had died, we wouldn't have let you rest in peace anyway. Especially her," she added, nodding her head towards Yonah, of course. She was the only other person around here. For now, at least. For now.

"How many times have you told me that recently?"

"As many times as necessary," she replied simply, matter-of-factly.

There was nothing he could say to that, so he kept his mouth shut. She had every right to worry that he had gone too far. The damage must have been so severe that he didn't even have the energy or stomach to be angry with himself, even though he had plenty of reasons.

Of course, he had done it for her and Yonah, but that wasn't an excuse. He understood that, but it wasn't easy to change his own nature. He wasn't sure if people could change. Or whatever he was, in any case.

It was good that he was convinced he was good. That he didn't see this as a redemption mission, when he couldn't even believe in such a thing.

Believing they would succeed, though entirely possible, was becoming difficult at times.

"By the way, did you gain any new abilities? It would be very useful if you could reflect damage or become invisible. Or both, although that would be too convenient to be true."

"I'll take a look."

He did just that, and he discovered that Victoria hadn't been pessimistic enough. One of the boxes contained only his abilities, while the other contained his statistics and experience points and all that.

In the skills box, only [Human Spider] was still there.

"Nothing. I understand not getting anything for defeating the living armors. To be fair, the collapse and those tentacles did most of the work for us. But this... I guess it doesn't work on other human beings."

"Could be. Don't jump to conclusions," said Yonah. "Remember, you have something previously unknown."

Such a big unknown could be frustrating, but it could also be his 'weapon' to forge a bright future. At least he had to believe that. He had to, or sooner or later he wouldn't be able to keep going. It was a journey without knowing the destination, how much they would have to endure to see the end.

"Yeah, maybe. Maybe it's something else. Having to worry only if I get hit several times in quick succession would be great, or invisibility, but I guess I have to give up on that."

"It can never be that easy," said Victoria.

"Never, no. But... things have improved a lot since I met you guys," he smiled. "Thanks. I know I say it a lot, but it's never enough."

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"Don't get sentimental. Seriously, don't. That's bad news in what is basically a suicide mission. And... I'm done."

Caim stood up. No pain, no effort.

As good as new, more or less.

"Perfect."

They had already wasted enough time.

They had defeated the giant spider, they had defeated Aiden, but they still had a long way to go. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, he thought. If only it were a thousand miles. If only he knew how many, in the first place.

What lay beyond? And what awaited them on the second floor of the Tower?

It didn't matter.

If he let fear control him at this stage of the journey, that is, when they had just really begun, he wouldn't stand a chance. And he didn't have another option anyway. Because of the horns on his head, he had no choice but to keep going.

The same anonymous corridors with identical bricks and marble pillars, occasionally illuminated by torches that drew circles of light in the murky darkness where anything could come at them, imagination wasn't even the limit. Surely the secrets of the Tower and the enemies they would encounter there would surpass their imagination by far, sooner rather than later.

There wasn't a single window. It was a practically claustrophobic place.

In the end, they reached another door.

On the other side...

"Are we close to the second floor?"

What lay on the other side was a winding staircase. At least, that was all their eyes could see for now.

"I'll go first."

He thought Victoria and Yonah would protest. And they did, but only with their looks. They let him go first.

It's not like he hadn't expected it and hadn't brought it upon himself by insisting on going first, but Caim was the first to encounter trouble. The first thing he noticed was something closing around his neck like a bear trap.

Choking him, crushing him against the wall.

He could have thrown it off, they had advanced enough that the fall would have had a chance of killing him (no matter how small), but he didn't do that.

He checked with his own eyes that it had grabbed him exactly.

An iron gauntlet coming out of a hole in the wall. Another living armor or another opportunistic human being waiting for the perfect moment to ambush what they saw as easy prey? Either way...

He grabbed that hand.

He couldn't shout to his companions to stay there, not to interfere. But seeing that, they stopped. And they watched as Caim pulled his attacker, dragging it through the wall. He felt the debris hit the back of his spine. What annoyed him the most, to be honest, was the dust that messed up his hair.

He threw the living armor or whatever it was into the void.

When it hit the ground, its nature became evident. The armor shattered, its extremities and head separating, and a disgusting creature crawled out from within. But it didn't get very far. What it left behind wasn't just saliva, but its own blood.

As soon as it died...

Ability Unlocked: [Parasite]

Caim grinned from ear to ear.

So that's what it was. That's what it was all about. It was that simple:

He simply hadn't killed enough living armors to gain a new ability. Gaining experience points and getting stronger was exciting, of course, but suddenly being able to do completely different things, things, well, superhuman, that was another story.

Yeah. Superhuman, not inhuman.

Better to think of it that way.

Touching the box with a finger, he made the text scroll down to the description of the ability. They were like the pages of any book, but arranged in a way that flowed continuously, instead of side by side.

"The power to remotely take control of armor, as well as other objects and beings."

Parasite was a somewhat unpleasant name, but he supposed it fit the function. And it was expected. He had defeated a few of those, well, parasites, so he had obtained his main ability. Just like with the giant spider, with the so-called Abyssal Broodmother.

He would have to experiment, test the limits of that ability. But all in good time.

For now, it suited him perfectly.

Since more armors appeared. From above, descending upon them firmly armed with blades, swords, spears, and maces. In formation, because the stairs were narrow, but very numerous.

More or less like in the room they had left behind, because just as many armors emerged from somewhere and started climbing the stairs. They were trapped, it was too risky to jump. But this wasn't a very good place to stand still either. To stand and fight.

"What a convenient moment," said Yonah.

Even so, the unlocking of his ability had been more than timely. He didn't think he could just control all those armors at once, but having one would be enough to help him turn the tables. That's all he needed.

"That's life. At least I don't need much space to cast spells, but these narrow stairs, without a railing..."

Yeah.

There was no need to say it, but he supposed that saying it out loud was still different from just thinking it, in a way. Caim pressed himself closer to the wall. Ironically, like the armor that ambushed him and had held him in its attempt to strangle him.

The lack of a railing hadn't really registered until now.

I mean, he wasn't blind.

But the fact that if he fell, it was over, there was nothing to hold onto, well. It wasn't very pleasant.

"Yeah. I've noticed," Yonah replied in the only way one could respond to that. It was impossible not to notice the tension in her voice as well.

"Oh, yeah. You don't like heights."

"No one likes it when the height is enough to kill you."

Caim shared that opinion.

If things came to that, then it wasn't that you were afraid of heights, it was that you had common sense. Anyone would be afraid of falling and killing themselves on an instinctive and natural level.

After all, humans didn't have a damn pair of wings.

Or horns, whispered a malicious inner voice, even though his thoughts had nothing to do with it at all. He grimaced.

The army of armors continued to advance relentlessly from both sides.

Closing the, well, with such narrow stairs there was no circle possible.

Closing in on them, let's say.

A steel wall that could crush them like insects.

Open the Doors of the Tower of Dreams That Suddenly Rises (8): FIN