Unconquered Tower

SIXTY-THREE (EPILOGUE?)

The chamberlain of the Thirteenth Tower limped through the heart of the infirmary. Seventy-nine mana intensive machines worked in harmony keeping the sole patient inside of the infirmary alive. Stasis fields hummed as the tower master’s slumbering form rested inside a moment frozen in time.

“I knew I’d find you here,” Hana’s voice reached him and he turned to see his great-great-granddaughter marching up to him, her eyes narrowed in anger. He waved at her as he turned to look at his master. The wounds that lined his still form still boiled with infection, but there was less now than there had been. Another century or two and his master would rise healthy.

“Hana, are you not watching your little village?” he asked. It had been days since he’d spoken, not since he’d talked to that little human. The one who had asked questions instead of taking an item. A strange one, but all of his bloodline were strange.

“A hobgoblin! On the first day! What are you doing?” Hana hissed as she came to a halt next to him. She was taller than him, he noticed even if her aura was thinner. Physically stronger now, but nowhere near the master he was with their bloodline and his own mana cultivation.

“The A.I of the tower is quite specific in its calculations. We’ve unleashed more powerful rewards, they must suffer greater challenges,” the chamberlain said. He even managed to not curse the A.I as he did so.

“That thing is half insane!” Hana objected. The chamberlain sighed and rubbed at his eyes as the artificial intelligence spun to life in a wave of golden light. It took the master’s form, as it should, but in miniature, hardly taller than they were.

“It is not my fault!” The A.I said. While holding the master’s form, it held none of the gravitas their master had. It sounded like a whiny teenager as it crossed its four arms across its wide chest.

“We know. The prisoner has been difficult,” the chamberlain soothed the A.I. Hana just glared at it, her foot tapping the ground at nearly supersonic speeds.

“I released many powerful skills to the climbers and some of them even took them! I have to match the difficulty with the power I offer. It is a LAW,” the A.I complained.

“We know. We are all frustrated by our inability to deal with the corruption. That a single thread of it managed to reach the first level is disturbing,” the chamberlain admitted.

“All of the tenth and ninth floor are beyond my reach, now. It’s starting to work on the eighth, too. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it back, it feasts on the mana we collect, just as you do,” the A.I said. Hana gasped next to him, turning to look at him as if he’d betrayed her.

“You have not informed the rest of the den of this!” She shouted.

“The elders know and it is our decision not to spread panic. We can not leave without lifting the quarantine protocol. There is nothing we can do,” the chamberlain said. He was tired. An exhaustion that wore on his soul as he looked upon his master. He’d been young when they’d started their expeditions. Only reaching his maturity when the prisoner had been captured. When the master had been injured.

He was old now. Mana cultivation could extend a life well-beyond what it was originally slated for, but his had stalled. All of theirs had stalled as the denser mana density at the upper levels had been consumed by the prisoner or the master as they both tried to heal themselves.

It frustrated him to no end that the prisoner was recovering faster.

“Will this class be strong enough?” Hana asked turning to the A.I. It was their gamble, their only hope. To produce a climber strong enough to destroy the weakened prisoner. So many restrictions had been laid upon those who could enter so they could be rewarded lavishly and none had managed to do it so far. The gatekeeper between the seventh and eighth floors was too powerful for them to defeat.

“They are growing well, but it is too early to tell. Several of the base skills needed to grow at the estimated rate have been taken,” the A.I said.

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“Yes, and your hobgoblin nearly killed one!” Hana said, glaring at the A.I.

“The boy?” The chamberlain asked. Hana was always fascinated by them. Those suicidal crusaders who entered as if drawn by magic. He’d have to investigate one day when he wasn’t so occupied by the corruption spreading through the tower.

“Roan. He took Learn. And your hobgoblin nearly split him in half after he wiped out a squad of ogres by himself. Their healer was able to stabilize him with some of the Life Fungus he’d acquired. He’ll be fine, but it was close. How many remain now after the first night?” She asked the A.I.

“Total survivors across all instances of the second level total at forty-six thousand.”

“How many entered this time?” Hana whispered.

“One-hundred-forty-two thousand.”

“We are butchers beyond any reason. When we lift quarantine we shall be purged by the tower masters,” Hana cried, her legs folding as she fell to the ground.

“No one is coerced into entering,” the chamberlain said. His eyes had never left his master’s massive form, even as his soul ached from the amount of skilled blood. Nearly a hundred thousand dead in a level and a bit.

“If the prisoner escapes this world will be consumed. If our master could not kill that creature, none of the others can either,” the chamberlain said.

“It is weakened. One of the other masters would be able to cleanse it!” Hana argued back, but it was a tired argument. Their master would live and rise eventually. If another tower master entered and saw their master in his weakened state. Then they would all die and be consumed. Such was the way of the greater universe.

“Is it worth it? How many have we killed?” Hana said.

“We’ve saved those we can,” the A.I fought back. The chamberlain nodded but he knew it was a pittance compared to the oceans of blood they’d shed.

“Men and women locked in stasis chambers just waiting for the corruption to pierce their containment? A clean death would have been preferable,” Hana said as she rose and dusted her clothes off.

“Once our master rises he shall deal with the corruption and I, and the other elders, shall present ourselves for judgment,” the chamberlain said. It was more of a prayer now than a promise. Something he’d repeated so many times they’d taken on a ritual feel.

“That is your problem. You wait for our master to rise rather than working to raise up a new champion. I will see to our newest crop and we are no longer going to let this slaughter go, ancestor. We shall help them within the confines of our Laws,” Hana said looking at the A.I.

“I am bound tighter than you can imagine little one. I wish to be free as well as you, but I have to follow the Laws,” the A.I spoke in a quiet, pleading tone. Something the master would never have done.

“I know. We are all prisoners in this tower,” Hana said as she bounded away in a blur of speed.

“His prognosis?” the chamberlain asked after Hana disappeared.

“Corruption has been purified in sixty-two percent of the master’s body. Organs have been healed where possible. If stasis was removed he would die within forty-two seconds.”

“Improvement, no matter how small, is improvement,” the chamberlain said to himself. He looked up, past the wards, enchantments, and enriched metals that formed the tower. Into the lost depths of the ninth and tenth floors, into the prison cell where the prisoner hid. Even contained as it was, the corruption spread.

“What is the odds of someone emerging powerful enough to kill the prisoner?”

“Zero percent,” the A.I said instantly.

“Containing the prisoner?” The Chamberlain pleaded.

“Twelve percent. There are currently nine subjects that show growth in line with projections to clear the seventh floor and enter the eighth. When the tendril was destroyed in instance seven of level one, we saw a reduction of corruption by point zero five in our systems. Even if they fail, clearing the infected levels will allow me to reassert myself and gain control over lost systems. We could speed the master's recovery,” the A.I said.

“What can we do to speed up the nine current subjects?”

“More opportunities and greater skills, items, and cultivation,” The A.I answered.

“But it will require even more challenges? Deadly ones that they are hardly surviving now?”

“Yes. I can not break my Laws.”

“Do it,” the Chamberlain ordered as he turned his back to his healing master. There was always work to do and if this newest crop of climbers could continue, then maybe there’d be light at the end of the tunnel. He just had to prepare the proper challenges for them.