Chapter 17
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*** Tower of the Immortal - Floor No. 172 - The Drunken Ghamanian***
Ahhh! What a nice glass of poison
I telepathically put down the glass and handed it to the bartender with a sigh, it was probably my last drinking night.
Ever since that man entered the tower six months ago, all that followed is death, every few days he appears out of nowhere, kills everyone, and disappear again into the next floor, if not for the touched ones, he would have reached the top by now.
I wonder if I plead to the immortal, would he even look at me? I’m a lowly single element controller after all.
The man was already spotted on the 171st floor a few days ago, and it’s a matter of time before he reaches us here, I really wished to leave the tower and go back to my family, but we simply were under strict orders not to attempt to leave the tower, the punishment was death.
Even if someone attempted to flee the genocide.
“Do you think we can take him out?” I asked the armored soldier next to me, sipping juice with a long straw through a hole in his helmet.
“No” he simply waved me away. He probably also has a family he won’t ever see them again, there was a high chance we were both going to die soon, I thought I wouldn’t hurt to start a conversation, even if my status as a controller is much higher than a footman like him.
“I have a wife and two daughters, you have kids?” I said as I spread my arm, showing him a holographic image of my two little daughters.
“The little one with orange hair is Buth, she’s just 52 years old, the older one is Tathana, 78 still in college
“They’re cute, and no, I don’t have any kids”
“Wife? Wives?”
“No”
What a repulsive person, at least someone to talk to.
I checked out his tag and saw that there was a human under the armor, his name was Noobslayer, an unconventional name for a human.
“You even have anyone you care about then?” I grew tired of him, but he was the only one around and I really wanted someone to talk to, I really didn’t want to die completely alone.
He stopped sipping his juice, motionless like he’s drowning in thoughts, then he finally spoke after a while, it was kind of surprising to me, the man suddenly opened up.
“A kind giant with a hot temper. A quiet, beautiful woman with a dark past I still don’t know about, an egoistic young man, a dragon, a bitchy computer and a Lol- ARGH! sorry!”
The man startled me with his nonsense, maybe he wasn’t right in the head? I brushed off his blabbering.
“You said we can’t take on the Intruder, Why’s that? They already were able to wound him a few floors down, some squads were even able to successfully dismember him sometimes, problem is that he shows up later without a scratch like he was completely healed.
Look! a squad of touched elites is walking over there” I tried reopening a conversation with him again, I really did not want to die totally alone, I needed at least someone to share the burden with me.
“Yea, what about them? They’re just some mind controlled Norans” The soldier nonchalantly stated as he burped, filling the inside of his helmet with moist, something that soldiers are trained to suppress since they were cadets.
Something’s wrong with this soldier I thought as I saw the touched squad approach us, they also sensed something wrong with him.
“You there, soldier, ID number” Questioned one of the touched one raising a palm, ready to unleash energy at any moment, I backed off a few steps in case what whirled in my head was true.
The soldier’s ID is usually imprinted on his wrist, so the soldier took off his gauntlet, and hell broke loose.
Seven fingers? That’s no human.
The man’s helmet disappeared, revealing a strange, sighing face with a bald head and eyes that instantly started glowing like a plasma rifle charging up, this was clearly not a human.
He waved his hand, and everything near the touched ones disappeared aside from them, I jumped back further away from him, but I doubted that I was going keep my life.
It was him all along, is he a genetically modified weapon sent by another empire?
The Touched ones started resisting as if they stood inside a hurricane, casting through the immense pressure the man’s putting on the entire floor with just a wave.
And resistance they were, the pressure of the man was so immense nearly everything started disintegrating, but the touched ones were relentless, two of them started pushing away the pressure and slowly walk up to the man, their hand weaving cosmic power.
One of them finally unleashed a wind blade at the man of which, to my utter surprise, cut the man’s cheek. A smile of satisfied defiance on the touched one who cut him up.
“Fine!” the man hissed in annoyance, and the glow in his eyes went more intense.
My eyes started to shut down, I dropped on my knees searching for air, the man powered up his pressure a tenfold, raising his palm at the touched ones, and the looks on the faces changed a moment after.
“Bye”
ARGH!AHAHHHHHHHHHH Muffled screams came out of their usually shut mouths, I rarely saw them do any kind of expressions like they lost it after being touched by the immortal.
Their skin started to peel, followed by their muscles, their blood blackened and turned to smoke, their bones turned to ashes, and then they were… nothing.
By then, my mental resistance gave up, and my eyes saw nothing but black, but...
When they opened again the entire floor was nothing but a wasteland on a metallic floor, a sole figure standing by a crushed wall, gazing upon the cube cities over the horizon.
His body is full of cuts and bruises that were healing slowly regenerating, a missing ear that was also forming like something was molding it again.
I tried to stand up, but my legs said otherwise. He sensed me and looked back, signaling my spine to start shivering like I was naked in a winter wasteland, I was afraid like I never was before.
“Come here!” he quietly ordered, making me scurry to him in a panicked crawl.
“Y-Yes!”
The glow in his eyes wasn’t present, but his eyes were nothing like normal, full of colored circles and strange shapes like I was looking into a kaleidoscope.
“Buth & Tathana you said” the man calmly stated, making me forget how powerful the entity before me was.
“If you ever lay-” I spat in anger as I remembered the faces of the most precious beings in my life.
“Dude shut the fuck up” he cut me off with furrowed brows, “like hell I’m gonna start killing kids so chill the fuck up. Now, do you want to see them again or should I just crush your blue heart out, I’m really good at this you know?” the man, no, this wasn’t just a man, it was something I couldn’t really explain.
He grinned devilishly as he asked the question, a question I thought I would regret, but in fact, I couldn’t care anymore.
I told him everything I knew, and with a nod that didn’t suit someone with this power, grabbed me by my robe’s collar and threw me out of the tower with a toss so powerful only a gigantic creature should have, I found myself falling down and fixed my posture as I activated my flight control, the image of myself hugging my daughters back home is the only thing that filled my mind, whatever price I paid back then to the man, wasn’t enough for a moment with them.
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Adam POV
So, the maximum is fourteen minutes now I thought as I scratched my newly formed ear, the old one was cut by a wind blade thrown by one of these fucking black Noran, who seem to be resistant to me to a degree.
But damn, this mode really takes a toll on me, my head’s throbbing with pain, I really should be careful about how long I should use it.
Was it a good idea to let that Noran go like that? I didn’t know, but what I knew that he gave me a lot of information about the tower, the black Noran they call the touched ones, and the thing at the top of the tower that turn Noran into these mindless killing machines, the one they called the Immortal, and the one who probably spoke to me from the lips of the suicidal Noran who gave Eve the visions.
Man, I miss them already My face twisted in a frown, I wanted to go back to everyone as soon as possible, but what Eve showed me could not be ignored, it was something that I, and only I had to do.
And so, as soon as my wounds were healed by the machines in my blood, I ventured to off to the next floor thinking about the newer approach other than going head on, or the failed infiltration I did on this floor.
Noobslayer, what was I thinking? a chuckle left my mouth as I told Cordi to change my tag name.
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And so, the tall tower shook, day after day, month after month as the intruder, the man dubbed death by the tower residents, moved up into the tower, leaving a trail of nothing but death.
A few months passed, thirteen months since the tower doors surrendered to him, and Adam was finally standing in front of double doors leading to the one who owned this tower, the immortal.
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Adam POV
So, this is it, the final boss, I reached out to the door which opened up even before I touch it, whoever was inside wanted me in.
I stepped forward in slow, cautious steps before the doors behind me slammed shut, the atmosphere turned funny, like I was moved to an entirely new place outside the tower.
A room the size of a football stadium, ending with a marble throne that could fit an elephant, reflective dark floor made of some luxurious material that was used for the walls as well. The walls itself was nothing more than the same as the floor, except the thousands upon thousands of holovisions displaying countless images of people operating, like a direction room within a TV station.
My ears picked up a subtle movement behind me, so I tried to go into the Tranquil mode that was the sole reason I’m standing here now, but to my shock, it didn’t come, I couldn’t activate it at all.
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“You know, this place is so special, they made it especially to suppress your power, it failed every time” an otherworldly snicker echoed behind me, I didn’t have to turn around to see what was behind, in fact, I was frozen stuff from what I saw, it was something that was beyond my wildest expectations.
“Every time they created something to block you, you always waved it away like it was a speck of dust, you were the most powerful entity in the universe after all, hehe” His voice came down like a hammer pinning nails in my feet, I couldn’t even turn around to face him, the shock was gluing every muscle in my legs to the ground, but he kept going anyway.
“If it were the old you, you would have made this whole cube disappear in a blink of an eye, but now, you, and your stupid cycle are as weak as a newborn
To be honest, the downside is that I can’t use my powers either. Ironic, isn't it?”
I finally managed to turn around to face him, wondering if what I was seeing before me was a dream or reality.
A giant, a human giant like the ones from my dreams, elongated head and large eyes, the difference was that he was completely black, his skin, his eyes, even his teeth was black, chains coming out of his wide chest like the black creatures from my dreams, like a hybrid between the giant humans that calls themselves Numen as far as I remember, and the black ones that nearly ended the universe.
I kept staring at his friendly, toothy smile as another figure came out from his shadow, a woman with long, disheveled ashen hair, pale as death, unmoving like a charred, dead tree, her eyes and mouth were sewn with black thread, giving her the look of a monster from a horror movie.
“Allow me to introduce you, this is Lyona, my Tractus” his black pupils moved to her as he ordered, “Lyona, introduce yourself!”
The woman lunged at me with a blue, I couldn't even see her trail, my heart nearly stopped if not for the machines regulating it. I felt an insane amount of psychic energy coming out my way, energy like the ones stupid enough to use at me, but in terms of power, it was multiplied by … infinity.
I was certain this was the end, that man before me was unlike anything I saw or felt before, it couldn’t compare to the power I felt when I met that being a year ago, but still it was so powerful my tranquil form would pale before even his regular breath.
Then she, then she materialized before my eyes, clashing with the incoming monster of a woman, making the man raise an eyebrow that accompanied a twisted grin.
“What an honor, yes, an honor indeed, the Queen herself, the mother of Tractus, Lady Eve has graced my unworthy eyes with her appearance, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAAAAAAAY!” the man howled, spreading his arms in a mad pose of ecstasy, leaving me dumbfounded at the crazy sight before my eyes.
A mood shift suddenly appeared on his face, instantly turning him serious, then again, his lips curled up, something was very wrong with this man’s emotions and facial expressions.
“Tell me Lady Eve, wait! why am I calling you lady?” the man held his head in a pose of slight pain or forgetfulness “No matter, you must be happy you finally found him after millions of years of searching, eh?
How many people did you kill in the process? … Thousands? Millions? Billions? Please enlighten us, hell, they even gave you a sweet nice, suitable name, eh? CANCER?! HAHAHAHAHA” Echoed the crazed man, the girl didn’t pay him much attention, busy with her energy battle with the stitched scary woman he called Lyona, a battle she was clearly losing.
“So small, so … weak, both of you” the man mused “how does it feel, one day the universe is playing in your palm, and some day … this” his index kept swaying between me and Eve, who clearly was agonized by the blind Lyona, indicated by a red bloodline under her nose.
The man was clearly Toying with us.
“But I have to commend you though, you already found some of your… Sins, fascinating indeed” he started scratching his jaw.
“The angry brute, the arrogant little shit elemental lord, the obsessive dog that has been following you around for a while now, AND THAT GODDAMN FARSEER WITH HER DAMNED ENDLESS BLACK HOLE OF A STOMACH” The volume of his voice started to rise to a roar, yet under a second it went to back to a near whisper. Also, What dog was he speaking about?
“Speaking of which” he took out a glass orb the size of a tennis ball. “Looking for this?” he flung the ball around his large palm, skillfully twirling it between his long fingers.
I looked at Eve and she was almost overpowered by the other woman, blood seeping from her mouth, nose, ears, and eyes, the man gave her a glance and nodded with a “Humph!”
I felt blood rush into my head at her, anger swelling across my body, engulfing me entirely.
“Now, that incomplete empress that you have in that small head of yours, would you be so kind to let me pea-:
“SHUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTT THEEEEEEEEEE FUCKKKKKKKKK UPPPPPPPPPPP” I roared uncontrollably at him, all that filled my mind is that I have to kill that woman torturing her, and in order to do that, I have to end that giant human. No, he wasn’t even human anymore, he was just like the countless black Noran I’ve killed over the past months, a puppet to the dark ones.
I didn’t even think for a second, finding myself lunging at him with full speed, cutting the distance between us in mere seconds, yet, his evil grin just kept widening.
“Straight to the point as always, then, shall we begin? Lord Primus” shoving back the ball into his pocket and spreading his arms as if he was going for a bear hug, the man welcomed me with open arms and excited eyes like a long-lost friend.
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[Warning! Host severe blood loss]
[Warning! Critical bone damage.]
[Warning! Host critical condition]
[Allocating power to Yocto machines…]
[Warning!]
[Warning!!]
[Warning!!!]
[……..]
…..
Wh- What was that? I thought while barely trying keeping myself conscious, I have no idea what the man did.
what was that movement? Martial art? Oojin?
No, that was… I don’t know, I don’t know what he did, subtle movements, like a mix with a punch a karate chop, it’s like he punched me a thousand time in less than a single second.
“Whoops!” the man cocked his head, dodging the bloody cough of a nearly dead me, it all ended so fast, I couldn’t even scratch him.
I floated in the air thanks to his fingers pressing my throat, lifting me several feet above ground, slowly choking the life out of me, but the man didn’t want it to end so fast, he was having fun.
“Oh oh, look. Look over there Primus, it’s almost over, there, look!” he turned my head with a subtle movement, showing me a grounded Eve, on her back, motionless, her black eyes staring at me. The other woman was riding above her, her hand on my Eve’s chest, spreading blackness across her petite body”
“Nooooh!” I barely wheezed, my blood boiling at the sight, and at my powerlessness.
“Soon, she’ll be one of us, I wonder how happy they’ll be when I turn in the mother of all Tractuses herself, what A BEAUUUUUUUUTIFUL DAAAAAAAAAAYYY” He roared as if he was singing, I mustered all the power I have in my arm into a punch, taking the opportunity of his mad distraction, but….
[Warning! Limb loss – Location: Left arm]
The next thing I saw was my arm in his other hand, twitching in an uncontrolled spasm, the fist still closed as if it longed to punch his pitch-black face.
“Hah! Nice try, My Lord” he chuckled sarcastically “I think it’s time to end this little game. To be honest, I expected more of the great Primus, even on a weak cycle like this. well then, enjoy the nothingness” This grip tightened, cruising my throat, but he instantly loosened it as if he wanted to enjoy for a few more moments.
“I forgot to tell you, I’ve already dispatched a message to your friends, they’re coming here to get you, haha. Honestly, I sent an entire fleet to take out that damned ship, but I never expected it to grow so fast like that, but I have personally prepared a present for it as soon as it reach the Cube’s borders, kehehehe
Ah ah ah, yeah yeah, stupid me, I also forgot, if you reaaaaaaaaaaaallllllyyy want to know what will happen to your Sins, hehehe” His madness multiplied with every passing second, his eyes moving as if he was having an orgasm while torturing me like that.
“First off, I will kill the brute, he’s useless to us, and we already have a grip on that shitty planet full of little Asuras, hehe, and… and, and, and, and the seer, ooooh the seer. first off, I will put the poison u somehow removed back into her, with a greater dose, watch her wither before my eyes. yes, yes yessss, hahahaha. Oh yea, and the half breed, I will turn him into a slave after I turn him, yesss, Norans are really easy to turn, weak minded they are, yes, yes, Hahahahaha
Oh, and that Empress, I already figured out a way into the network, after I get her out of your brain, I will trans- Ouch!”
He found my foot in his face, waking him up for his lucid dreams, his eyes widened in disbelief, like never expected the kick in the first place.
“I’m gonna fuck you up badly” I gurgled, I don’t know why I said that, I don’t know if my body moved on its own, or from where I got the strength to hit him, all I knew is that I never hated anyone in my life like this man before me, tossing my separated arm away and feeling his nose for the few drops of blood my kick successfully drew.
He lifted me up to his eye level, his expression calmer than a desert under the moonlight.
“And how exactly are you going to do that?” It wasn’t his voice alone anymore, it was a mix of a thousand voices, his hand left his nose and clenched back into a closed fist.
*BOOM*
[Warning, Organ loss – Location: Right Eye]
[Warning, Brain damage detected]
“Primus? Tell us ...How?”
*BOOM*
[Warning! Severe Bone shattering detected, Location: Facial skull - Damage: 59%]
[Warning! Organ loss – Location: Left Eye]
[Warning! Brain damage detected]
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
“How? Just how?”
[Warning! Bone mass lost- Location - Face]
[Warning! Muscle mass lost- Location - Face]
[Warning! Skin mass lost- Location - Face]
[Warning! Severe Brain damage detected]
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
[IMM&^##@))@#]
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
[Warn&*#$ .. S*$#_-(%]
“YOU HAVE NOTHING, YOU HAVE NOTHING, WE TAKE ALL, YOU HAVE NOTHING?”
“HOW?”
“What do you have?”
“WHAT DO YOU HAVE?”
“WHAT DO YOU HAVE?”
“WHAT DO YOU HAVE?”
[Emergency level four quick reset complete. Measuring brain damage...]
[Brain damage scan complete- Damage: 98%]
[....]
[Computing….]
[Chance of Being acquired by identified unknown entry: 100%]
[Running countermeasures....]
[Initiating termination protocol…]
[Interface Print: “Sorry Adam, I can’t let them take me, have to go back to my empire]
[Self-destruct sequence activated. Counting down…]
“YOU HAVE… NOTHING!”
“NOW, FALL!”
I felt his grip letting me go. Well, I didn’t feel a thing, I couldn’t see, hear, smell, think. I thought he cut off my head, yet I still feel my body falling, as if he I was falling down from the moon, falling and falling for eternity, he couldn’t have thrown me out of the tower, he said he needed to open my head to take out Cordi, or empress as he called her.
Suddenly images hit me, the image of Eve lying down with an open fish eye, the other being sewn by the girl that killed her, the image of the man toying with Mahaar’s corpse, the image of a black, mindless Saido, Ryola tormented by the unbearable pain of the poison, the shackled Zao, dead, a huge ion cannot tearing out my Pantharax, and the Man holding a piece of metal with some of my brain matter still clung into it, looking at it with his disgusting grin.
But…
There was nothing I could do, even if every inch of my soul was burning with rage that could end worlds, the man was too much for me, so I kept falling.
And falling.
And falling.
And then I stopped, something was holding me up, preventing me from hitting the ground, I couldn’t see, but I felt it, I felt it to the core of my entirety, I knew what was holding my fall
[CRITICAL WARNING!]
In the darkness, I turned my head that I already knew it wasn’t there, I looked with my eyes that I already knew I didn’t have anymore, and I gazed upon what stopped my fall, trying to push me back up.
A trunk, a paw, a jaw, a tusk, teeth, claws, jaws, horns, tails, snouts, mouths, leaves, roots, talons, an endless stream of life touching my back and pushing as hard as it can, looking at me with eyes, antennas, barks, noses, telling me that I have them, I still have that, I have it all, it was always beside me, supporting me, giving me life, filling my lungs with its air, feeding me with its wealth, carrying me as if was its one and only king, it was, after all...
“Home”
....
…
…
…
“Oooh? Are you still alive? What did you say? WHAT DID YO-”
[Warning! Shutdown sequence forcefully canceled]
[Warning! Incomparable DNA strands activated]
[CRITICAL WARNING!]
[INCOMING, UNCONTROLLED MUTATION, CLASSIFICATION: ??????]
[Warning! Unidentified cells detected.]
[Averting power to Yocto Machi-]
[Error! Yocto Machines not found]
[Scanning unidentified DNA…]
[CRITICAL WARNING! UNCONTROLLED MUTATION EMINENT, TOTAL SHUTDOWN ADVISED]
[Shutting down in 9...]
[8…]
[7…]
[6…]
[Scan complete. Printing DNA strand identification results]
[5…]
[Spinosaurus aegyptiacus]
[Allosaurus]
[Mammuthus]
[4…]
[Carcharodon megalodon]
[Gigantopithecus]
[3…]
[Titanoboa]
[Liopleurodon]
[Mosasaurus]
[2…]
[Ankylosaurs]
[Stegosaurus]
[Quetzalcoatlus]
[Pterosaurs]
[1…]
[Gorgonops]
[Megatherium]
[Tyrannosaurus rex]
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