Chapter 153 – Floor 14: Part 3

“So, enough chit-chat, hurry up and disable the barrier.” Arthur urged Mathew impatiently, gesturing to the glowing symbols and runes on the ground that ringed him. Instead of complying, Mathew slowly walked around the chamber with his arms folded and carefully studied the Apostle and the runes.

“No, not until you answer my questions. You can start by explaining how you ended up trapped here.” Mathew instructed, and Arthur let out a disgruntled huff.

“What does it matter?! You’ve been ordered to release me. Do it, and we can move on to more important things.” Arthur exclaimed. The Apostle began to pace in the small area that had been left to him inside his prison as he continued to curse and argue.

Mathew was unperturbed. He was willing to wait as long as necessary to receive the answer. He wasn’t going to release an Apostle without understanding what had happened. He took out a small folding chair from his inventory, a simple wooden item that had cost a single unit of Aether, and sat down.

“Fine! Gods damn it all, you’re a stubborn one. No wonder Righteous Subjugation took an interest in you.” Arthur muttered. He stopped pacing and faced Mathew once more.

“You saw the Tower outside? That’s why I’m here.” Arthur explained.

“To destroy it?” Mathew asked, and Arthur shook his head angrily.

“No, you dunce! To build it! This tower was going to be a focal point, a way to connect this Earth to the infinite other versions of it! A new doorway for the Tower of Avarice!” Arthur exclaimed as he threw up his hands into the air.

“I don’t understand. Since when did the Tower of Avarice require a focal point? It usually just ‘appears’ in a new world.” Mathew argued, and Arthur chuckled.

“I don’t understand!” Arthur mocked, and Mathew began to suspect that the long period of isolation had affected the Apostle mentally. He didn’t look like someone who had spent centuries or more in a single place, trapped behind an invisible wall.

That was another question that Mathew had for later.

“Of course you don’t understand, so I’ll keep it simple! Your Earth, my Earth, and most other people in the Tower’s Earth have something in common. All the gods share them!” Arthur shouted as if this was a grand reveal.

When he realized that Mathew had no idea of the significance of his statement, he sighed and continued.

“Alright, so. Everyone gets a piece of the pie! Belief in the gods, or fear of them, generates Aether. The Tower arrives and announces that the gods can create miracles and grant wishes. Boom! The process starts and can never be stopped. The world generates Aether, and all the gods get a portion of it. Do you want more? Then get a champion to represent you in the Tower and have them visit worlds in your Demesne. More work they do for you? The more Aether you get.” Arthur clarified.

“Okay. But that still doesn’t explain why you needed to build a Tower on this world.” Mathew countered. Arthur looked at Mathew like he was a simpleton.

“I thought that was obvious. This world is pristine!” Arthur hissed out the word.

“Pristine?” Mathew frowned, still not grasping the reason for Arthur’s involvement in this world.

“Pristine! Untouched! Unspoiled! A Perfect Peach, Perfect for Plucking!” Arthur shouted out, laughing and twirling as he did so. When he saw that Mathew still had no response to his words, he stopped, and his expression grew cold and severe.

Arthur’s eyes widened in surprise as if he had just had a profound realization.

“Wait, don’t tell me… it’s not that you’re too dense to understand; it’s that you’re a child! How old are you anyway?! Less than a century, no doubt about that. What floor are you currently on!?” Arthur asked impatiently.

“14” Mathew replied, and Arthur stepped backward from the barrier in shock.

“14? Lord Righteous above, has our demesne fallen so far that we need to rely on a tenderfooted newbie to rescue your apostle?” Arthur muttered.

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“I take it you are currently on a much higher Floor than I am?” Mathew asked. He ignored the jab about his Floor. He had thought that Arthur had access to his Floor notifications, but it was more likely that he only had the ability to input new messages through some power of Righteous Subjugation or possibly communicate with his deity and have it do it.

“52. I’ve spent more years than I can count in the Tower. A thousand? Five thousand? Ten? And now I’m relying on you to release me….how long have you taken to climb to this Floor?” Arthur inquired.

“I don’t know. Decades.” Mathew replied with a shrug, not really knowing the answer.

“Decades. Of course you don’t know anything.” Arthur sighed and slowly sank down onto the ground. He spoke to himself almost silently, his lips moving, but Mathew couldn’t hear what he was saying. After a few minutes, Arthur looked back up and spoke aloud. His tone was different, and he looked saner.

“I apologize. I realize I may have been too excited about finally being free. I didn’t even ask you your name or how much time has passed in Anglia since I’ve come to this island.” Arthur said.

“Mathew. And I’m not sure, a thousand years or so.” Mathew replied. Arthur nodded, not seeming to be surprised by that answer.

“Time work’s different for us; I’ve no doubt that even someone as young as you has noticed. We don’t age, no matter how many years pass. It starts to lose its meaning after a while, especially when you get to the higher Floors where the tasks can take a significant amount of time.” Arthur explained, and Mathew nodded.

“I noticed.”

“Well, time flows differently on this island as well. A thousand years or so outside? It’s been less than a decade for me. Still, a few years trapped in this box is far too long. So, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll explain why I’m here, and you let me out. Deal?” Arthur asked. The Apostle waited until Mathew agreed before continuing his explanation.

“How many gods have you met on your journey through the Tower?” Arthur asked before angrily shaking his head.

“Don’t answer that! At your Floor, you probably haven’t met any. Okay, better question. How many gods are you aware of?” Arthur inquired, and Mathew had to think for a moment or two before replying.

“A dozen or two? Why, how many are there?” Mathew asked; it was something he had been curious about for a while. He chose to ignore the fact that time worked differently on the island and that the ship might not be waiting for him when he left.

“How many stars are there in the sky? In every sky across the infinite multiverse?” Arthur asked, not expecting an answer to his rhetorical question. Arthur shrugged indifferently.

“Too many to count, or, in our case, to care about. No, what really matters is this. If Aether is the single most important resource to the gods, could there ever be enough to satisfy them? Especially if they need to work together and split it evenly with every new world the Tower touches?” Arthur questioned, and Mathew began to connect the dots.

“They look for new worlds to claim before the others catch on? That’s what it means for a world to be ‘Pristine?’” Mathew asked, and Arthur flashed a smile at him.

“Now you’re catching on! You bet! Just send an apostle or two out into the multiverse, spreading your divine name to the masses, and, when the world is ready, build a Tower to connect it to the others. Only, this Tower is a bit different; it belongs only to you. Or, in most cases, your Demesne.” Arthur paused and thought for a moment.

“Why bother connecting it at all? Why not just hoard all the Aether yourself? Why do the gods need a Tower in the first place?” Mathew inquired, and Arthur snapped his fingers happily.

“Ahh, good question! It’s easy enough to fling a person to a world but harder to haul all that sweet, glorious loot back. Plus, no world stays ‘Pristine’ for long. If one god found it, more are bound to follow. Better to build a Tower and control how the rewards are divvied up before the others come demanding their fair share.”

“Or, worse still, fight you for it. Wars are as common to the gods as they are to us mortals. Still, some worlds remain hidden and secret for a long time.” Arthur explained, and Mathew held up a hand to stop him before he continued.

“That’s interesting and everything, but it doesn’t explain why you are here. In this room below a dead island in the middle of nowhere, trapped in a magical jail.” Mathew questioned, and this time Arthur flashed a look of hatred. It wasn’t directed at Mathew; the ‘Buzz’ still didn’t react at all, possibly because it knew Arthur was trapped.

“Righteous Subjugation and another god, Incidental Termination, found this world at the same time. The deal was that they would split the discovery between their demesnes after the Tower was built. You won’t know this, but Righteous Subjugation is a big shot amongst the gods. Their demesnes are roughly equal, and none of the other gods would contest if they split the Aether amongst the two groups.”

“I was sent here with another Apostle. Called himself ‘Merlin’ once we found that we were in medieval England. He thought it was hilarious.” Arthur spat onto the floor before he continued.

“Anyway, our job was to build enough belief amongst the populace to fuel the Tower’s construction. Drive back the Demi-Beasts, found a religion that worshipped the gods of both our demesnes, that sort of thing. Job done, we picked a place with high concentrations of Aether.”

“You can guess the rest.” Arthur finished, gesturing vaguely at the glowing runes and symbols.

“Right, where is he now?” Mathew asked.

“Probably gone. Used the incomplete Tower to bring Incidental Termination the Aether and destroyed the connection afterwards. But you’re here now, so the Tower of Avarice is linked to this world and whatever gains are being divided.” Arthur once again shrugged, but Mathew could see the hatred for Merlin on his face.

“Done is done; now, get me the hell out of here!”