He was to late, the man had failed to protect what was most dear to him. Twenty-seven of them all at once. He had dedicated six years making those kids feel like they had a place to belong. Each one of them had reminded him of his old self in one way or another. Some of them were refugees from a war or had been abused by parents, while others were accidentally entered one of the many tower entrances. Jin, who was still in his previous body back then, had taught them how to become strong and trained them to survive. When he had found them on the first ten floors of the tower their ages ranged between twelve and seventeen, and all of them were in a traumatized state from the things they had witnessed inside.

A strong wind rushed from the exit and made all the ashes of man and plant fly away. The man’s mind went blank, he had lost it. There were to many emotions that hit him at once which made him lose the ability to think rationally. Betrayal, rage and sorrow, all of these factors took over as he looked away from the place where his self-formed family had been cremated alive. His neural system was unable to handle the overdose and went into a numb state.

The present Jin who was watching as a ghost felt all of the pain once again, having to watch his own memories. There wasn’t a single second where he hadn’t hoped that he could erase his mind and start over. The demon with six horns had noticed that one of the targets had survived his wide range attack and started to prepare for a new one. The horns on the thing’s head indicated that it was a low-ranked constellation. Little red balls of concentrated energy started to gather around the demon and began to light up. Mana bullets, the most basic attack which gets stronger the more you concentrate it. When they were charged up with enough mana the demon shot them at his opponent, thinking he survived the last attack with luck. The man unsheathed his two blades, swiftly slicing through the attack without a moment’s hesitation. An eerie silence settled in the room, a chilling void following the nullification of the attack.

The demon, witnessing the unexplainable, took a hesitant step backward, fixated on the unconscious human before him. Despite the man’s lifeless state, his body continued to move unnaturally. The demon could feel that the man wasn’t awake yet he still defended against the attacks with ease. The once-deep blue pupils of the man morphed into an unsettling shade of gray as his black armor ruptured, revealing a disgusting mutation. Gray scales started to replace human skin, four additional arms sprouted out of his torso, and a jester’s cap made of bones emerged atop his mutating head. After all spots of skin were covered in scales his face started to change. The resulting monstrosity defied the laws of nature, standing at a towering height that dwarfed two average males. A twisted smile formed on the creature’s face, its corners extending almost to where its ears had been.

With a maniacal laugh, it declared, “HAHAHA, a delicious prey we have here. Don’t mind if I take a bite out of your soul, you little demon.” In an undefinable blur, the gray monster lunged at the demon, without the it being able to follow leaving him in confusion. Behind the demon, the monster materialized, pulling out one of its horns with brutal force. The demon screamed in agony, attempting to retaliate, but his opponent had already vanished. “Hmm… delicious; this bone is quite good. But you have six right? That means I can still take five more. HEHEHE. They will be perfect to improve my body. HEHEHE,” the creature taunted, enjoying the gruesome spectacle.

The demon’s attention snapped to the horrifying creature licking its horn, in that fraction of a second the entity had already moved several meters leaving the demon in pure horror of what would come next. Before the demon could react, the jester-shaped monster appeared, seizing him by the neck. With brutal force, the demon was slammed against the wall, immobilized by one of the monster’s six arms. Its head twisted in unnatural ways studying its opponent. The remaining hands moved towards the demon’s head, each action dripping with malicious intent. “You demons in this place are pretty weak.” he sounded almost disappointed. One by one, the jester mercilessly plucked out the demon’s horns, reveling in the suffering it caused. Limbs were torn off, beginning with fingers and progressing upward.

Finally, the demon, on the brink of death, was released, only for the jester to thrust all six hands into its mouth. “Bye bye, HEHEHE, you were an amazing toy!” The jester unleashed a crazed giggle before tearing the opponent’s face apart from every direction, concluding the horrifying spectacle. Jin who was still watching his memory threw up watching the scene. It disgusted him seeing how the monster that resided inside his body ripped apart its enemy with joy in his two gray eyes.

Jin always tried to forget about it, tried to exterminate the thing. He hated every second of the memory, it was disgusting. That monster who he had named the jester had been there ever since the day of that memory. Jin didn’t know what it was and when it took control. The thing was insanely strong and on par with constellations which terrified Jin. The jester only took over seven times after the memory and each time he destroyed and consumed its enemies. Jin knew he was able to communicate with the thing but he had always been too scared of it. The jester started to eat the flesh of the demon with loud munching sounds. He had six hands yet he didn’t use any to eat.

Slowly the surroundings started to fade and Jin got aback in the cave with the enormous heart. The rhythms of the beat pounding through the cave halls. “I see that you’re a capable individual. I just watched all of your memories since you entered the tower and concluded that you’re worthy of your name. I… also saw the thing inside of you, a truly fascinating species that I’ve never seen before. It had an incomprehensible amount of mana yet it could demolish a low ranked constellation with its bare strength. The thing isn’t linked to your body but your soul, it’s weird that it’s still inside of you after you shaped your own soul. That thing is probably a centurion, a challenger of the high tower. I know that you don’t understand what I’m saying but it would be a bit to much for your weak brain to comprehend.

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I’ll just tell you that completing the tower like the one that’ll appear in your world is just a tutorial to the climb of gods. Now before I sent you back to reality I want to tell you three things. One, that entity inside of you is recovering from something and that’s why it’s inside your soul. Two, the tower you’ll have to faze in a few years will be multiple times worse if you’d compare it to the easy-difficulty one. The first floor will probably be like the twentieth in the previous one. The gap will keep growing so prepare well. Third, NEVER try to summon that jester thing unless there’s no allies nearby, it will kill every living thing and collect their limbs to regenerate. It’s a martial art called essence extract, it’s insanely dangerous to train and only one in a million constellations are able to handle it. i don’t know what he is and where he came from but watch out for it. By the way because of the jester I won’t be able to support your soul, he counts as your mentor or guide so you’ll have to gift me to an ally when you find one. Now fuck off and let me sleep.”

The surroundings started to fade once again and Jin woke up from the dream. He slowly opened his eyes and noticed that tears were welling up in them. His legs were numb again, the body he was in truly wasn’t prepared for the tower. Jin tested out if the tower system was still operating with all of its functions. A thought came up in Jin’s mind, the puzzle pieces started to link up. the energy that was inside his left eye which he found before was the exact same as the jester gave off. A shiver went down his spine because this confirmed what the dragon’s heart had told him, the jester was still with him.

His thoughts were disturbed by the speakers in his room making an announcement. The person talking seemed to be a young woman. “The twenty four hours have passed, everyone who is still inside the school territory is now an official student. To all of the students, please train yourself to the best extents in the next month. I will tell you a few things about the assessment test that will happen. All of you will be up against a tutor, some are strong, some are weak. One of the most important things while climbing the tower is gathering information. What I’m indicating at is that you should pick the tutor you’re best up again, study their weaknesses and strengths. all of the students who defeat a tutor within a week of the start of the test will be allowed to go to the second stage. In this part the remaining contestants will have to go up against monsters in a virtual world. The top 128 will be put in a tournament with seven rounds with one victor. That’s all there is to be told at this moment, you guys will receive more information as time goes. Tomorrow we’ll have the weapon ceremony, all of you will get to choose a weapon and will be informed about the items and artifacts that will appear in the tower. Now get up and get to work, the moment you slack of the others will become better than you.” The speech ended the exact moment a person walked inside.

A girl with long blond hair, bright green eyes and and a beautiful face. “Where the fuck is this? Fuck, I got lost AGAIN? Holy shit my orientation is worse than grandma’s.” She looked inside the room and spotted Jin looking at her with confusion. “Can I help you?” he said. The girl, clearly surprised by his presence started analyzing the boy in the hospital bed. She let out a deep sigh and began talking again “I don’t know, you look like you also don’t know where the training grounds are. What even are you? What is this building? Is this still part of the school?” the speed at which the girl had asked these questions left Jin dizzy. He finally processed the questions and slowly started to answer them: “I’m a student like you, this building is the school’s hospital and yes, it’s part of the school.” The girl was surprised that he actually was able to talk, she had expected him to be to sick to answer. Her expression darkened a bit struggling to get the words off her tongue “M-may I ask why you’re here, not that I care.” She looked like she was embarrassed about Jin hearing her cuss while she was entering the room. Jin simply told her about the plane crash as if it was the most normal case in the world. Their conversation continued for a while but Jin stopped her by telling her the location of the training grounds and telling her she shouldn’t waste her time. She had left after waving him goodbye, still not knowing each others names.

The encounter reminded Jin how long it had been since he had had any human interactions. Before he had reincarnated himself by creating an artificial soul he hadn’t spoken to humans for a year. After the day the jester came outside for the first time he had locked himself in the tower, clearing it without any thoughts about the outside world. It was a dark period, hate had lingered in his mind like a ravaging beast for months. He cleared all of the remaining twenty five floors within that short period. Jin always lost consciousness while the jester took over, and after he was done with killing every living thing and consuming them Jin woke up. From the bottom of his heart Jin wished it ended there. Badly enough every night after he had lost control, his dream was like a short movie of what the jester had done in that time. Eating, boiling, ripping apart, burning, freezing, intoxicating, the jester didn’t know when to stop, having fun torturing ally and enemy. All of a sudden Jin remembered the words the jester had said to a dying constellation while he had taken control.

“In the shadows I tread, a monster’s embrace,

A twisted dance with the dead, a sinister grace.

I find pleasure in the art of ending breath,

A dark sonnet sung, a dance with their death.

Serrated whispers echo in my mind,

A symphony of screams, a thrill I find.

Death, my lover, in the shadows she weaves,

In the killing fields, my existence heaves.

Each life extinguished is a note in my rhyme,

A hopeless struggle, an art form the sublime.

I sip on despair, a venomous wine,

In the throes of the air, my madness entwined.

The world, my canvas, painted in red,

A sadistic poet, where the wicked are led.

With every demise, a savage thrill,

In the art of killing, I find my skill.

So dance with death, in the pale moonlight,

In my ballad of what’s left, where lives takes flight.

A deranged minstrel, in carnage immersed,

My twisted pleasure in every life I’ll burst.

A deep sigh escaped the jester’s smiling mouth before he finished his rhyme.

In the shadows I tread, what have I done? Poison I have fed. Now they’re all gone.”

Once again the jester had made Jin terrified.