Unconquered Tower

FORTY-EIGHT

“We need to find this caravan as fast as possible,” Roan said, standing from Amir’s corpse. He’d searched the body thoroughly and pulled more spatial treasures than he would have thought possible off of the man.

“Roan’s right. Alright folks, enough sightseeing, it’s time to start this level!” Taoya yelled. The group of onlookers flinched and tightened their grips on their weapons, but nobody moved.

“Amir fucked these people up, Taoya. You’re going to have to take charge,” Roan said.

“Me? You killed him, you get to deal with the fallout,” Taoya shot back. Taoya made sure to stay away from the man’s corpse, as if it was toxic. Roan rolled his eyes, but the big man seemed sure of himself, walking away from their confrontation and down towards the crowd who parted without word.

“My name’s Roan. I’m not a mind-fucking asshole. I do want to complete this level to the best of our ability, so let’s get a move on!” Roan had to yell to be heard by everyone. There had to be several hundred people gathered around this open instance area, but not a single person moved.

Silence stretched between them, Roan standing over a corpse and the corpse’s victims staring back at him. Roan hadn’t expected applause, but this was getting into creepy territory.

“You guys did hate him, right?” Roan muttered under his breath. That stirred someone, a thin woman near the front. Her tired eyes met his and there was a fire in them.

“We all hated him. But he got us through the last level without any losses,” she whispered.

“He did? The egomaniac who talked like a cartoon villain?” Roan asked, turning to look at Amir’s corpse.

“Not in the beginning, but by the time we found the villages. He made every member of the horde obey his commands.” Roan felt a chill at the thought. Amir’s ability had been powerful, he’d felt it and fought to shrug off the man’s suggestions. But to break the minds and control all of the hostile mobs?

“What else did he do?” Roan asked. The woman flinched. The entire crowd flinched.

“That’s what I thought. You have weapons and probably some money. Stick with me and Taoya. I can’t promise safety, but whatever else Amir did, we don’t do, got it?” Roan had seen men like Amir before. Not those who the ability to infiltrate minds, but those who took every iota of power they could and wielded it like a bludgeon. When their time it was almost always violent.

“I’m Melissa. I was the leader of our instance on the first level,” the woman whispered. She stepped forward and Roan could see the former lithe grace of an athlete in her movements.

“It was the skeletons. He couldn’t dominate their minds since there was no mind to break. I…I thought he was a helpful guy, keeping everyone’s spirits up,” Melissa began.

“No, I don’t want to hear a damn origin story.” Roan kept that thought locked tight as he listened to what Melissa had to say. Amir had wormed his way into their instance’s leadership group by being helpful. The first level had been cleared by Melissa and a group of college trained fighters, rather than the sect groups that had dominated Roan’s instance.

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It was on the second level that he had revealed who he was once he found minions he could break himself. Then the horrors had unfolded. Amir didn’t need to directly control them, just a handful of commands embedded in their minds was enough for most people.

Those who had been in leadership, like Melissa, he had shown to enjoy breaking. Roan kept a stony face, but whatever tinges of guilt he had felt about killing Amir disappeared.

Melissa finished speaking, silent tears streaking down her face. Roan looked at the crowd and saw them stirring, most of them looking down at their feet. If Roan could, he’d bring Amir back to life and let the group beat him to death.

“I’m sorry you all went through that. Just…fuck, uhhh, just stay behind me and Taoya and we’ll try to keep you alive,” Roan said, moving quickly away from the crowd and toward Taoya.

“Why the hell did you let this guy live?” Roan hissed.

“Let him? Roan, he was likely the most powerful scion in the Tower. His family is massively rich, they have dozens of subordinate families supporting them. Aside from the most powerful climbers, nobody messed with them.”

“Oh, so if we survive, this is going to be a problem?” Roan said. A plume of dust was faintly visible in the distance and Roan led the group toward it. Behind him and Taoya, everyone followed.

“If we survive and leave, then yeah. If he was telling the truth then not only do we have to worry about his family, we also have to deal with the sect elders who ordered the mission. To pay for one of the Khousa scions to enter the tower they would have to have given them a king’s ransom. Always did wonder why Amir would join us,” Taoya said, voice trailing off.

“What about the whole, let me reveal my evil plans to everyone? Is that normal in your world?” Roan asked. Most of the ganglords who ruled the streets just acted, they didn’t talk about what they were doing.

“No. Amir liked for people to know and not do anything about it. Suggestions to not speak of him or what he’s done. It was just another level of his torture. Didn’t realize he’d killed Gideon though.”

“Who was Gideon?” Roan asked. Taoya sighed and glanced over his shoulder. Roan followed suit and saw that people had begun to talk to each other. He thought it was a good sign, but he wasn’t a trauma therapist.

“Gideon was the one who started all of this. The Pact. He’s the one who spent time studying mana currents, the ley lines, and weather patterns. It was him who taught us, convinced us. He was a good man who had the potential to be great.”

“And Amir killed him.”

“No. Well, apparently he did, but we all thought it was an inter-sect rivalry. Gideon was powerful. He had a weather related bloodline, was able to, without a core mind you, summon a storm.”

“Powerful guy. Who got to him?”

“A lower-level member of another sect. Knifed him in the ribs when we were leaving a tournament. He was tired but had just won the tournament and managed to get the last of us to agree to the Pact. And then he was dead.”

“And you all stayed in the Pact?”

“Yeah. He died just days before the Tower opened. By then it was momentum that carried us in here. Darren stepped up in a big way taking leadership the way he has. He was always close with Gideon. I think he blames himself for Gideon’s death. The way his bloodline works he should have seen an assassin coming.”

“Why didn’t he?” Roan asked.

“We had just finished a tournament and had exhausted himself fighting. He was too weak and didn’t sense the killer until it was over.” Taoya shrugged but Roan found it suspicious.

“Is it me or is that dust plume getting closer?” Roan asked, changing the subject. The dust plume was getting closer at an alarming rate.

“Yeah. Think it’s going to be a fight or is it the caravan we’re supposed to be escorting?” Taoya wondered.

“Who knows, maybe it’s both,” Roan said, unlimbering his polearm.