Chapter 80: Ascension (2)
"That was excessive."
Tobias chuckled through her mouth before brushing dust from her sleeve with careful fingers. "I disagree."
"You buried the entire camp..."
His eyes moved across the flattened encampment with mild approval. "They were using poor construction materials." He nudged a broken stake with the toe of her boot. "It would have collapsed eventually."
"Not all at once." Misha drifted closer and peered into the crater. "And probably not with everyone still inside."
Tobias hummed as though considering the criticism. Then he raised one hand toward her chin and paused. "My beard is gone."
He rubbed her chin again, perhaps hoping it had merely been hiding.
Misha stared blankly at him. "That is what concerns you right now?"
"A man becomes accustomed to certain things." He gave her chin one last thoughtful stroke. "You should grow one."
Her expression remained flat for another second. Then a helpless smile broke through. "I’ll buy a fake beard and wear it whenever you possess me."
Tobias’ eyes brightened. "A fine solution." He nodded with complete seriousness. "I’d like something long and dignified."
"I was thinking cheap and badly glued on." She folded her arms. "Maybe slightly crooked."
"That would damage your reputation, lass."
"..." When he put it that way, it would.
Tobias laughed. The sound came from her throat, but it still belonged entirely to him, warm and rough around the edges.
Her smile faded. She stared at her own face. The old man was really inside her now.
"Gramps..." Her voice softened.
His smile faded at the edges. For one second, neither of them looked toward the portal that had opened nearby. He stared at the crater for another second before he turned away. "We don’t have enough time."
Misha’s chest tightened, she hated how gently he said it, as though he already knew exactly what she wanted to ask and had decided not to make her say it, just like the others.
This time, she did not argue. She only floated beside him as he walked toward the portal.
===
Floor Four lasted less than three minutes.
The scouts never reached their alarms.
Tobias placed one of Misha’s hands against the ground.
Through the possession link, she felt the floor answer him. The sensation spread across her awareness, footsteps hollow spaces beneath the soil, and the three crude towers positioned across the forest.
Misha stared. The information would have overwhelmed her if she had been controlling her body herself. Tobias accepted it as easily as someone listening to rain against a roof.
"There." He curled her fingers into a fist then three stone pillars erupted beneath the signal towers at the same time.
Wood shattered, then warning bells rang once before being crushed between the rising slabs of rock. Then, silence returned.
Misha floated beside her body with her mouth slightly open.
"It certainly feels good to be young again." Tobias stretched her arms over her shoulders.
Hearing those words come from her mouth felt personally insulting.
"You destroyed three towers without moving." She looked at him in disbelief. "I don’t think youth was the important factor."
"It helped." Tobias examined her hands again, flexing each finger as though considering whether he should keep them.
「 〔 FLOOR QUEST COMPLETE 〕
Destroy Signal Tower (3 / 3) 」
Misha looked toward the crushed towers beyond the trees. The first time she cleared this floor, she struggled badly enough that Olivia eventually handled it.
Now the scouts had not even understood they were under attack.
Being alone should have made the climb harder. Instead, Soul Inventory made solitude feel almost unfair.
The thought left a bitter taste. This power existed because the people inside it had died.
Calling it convenient felt cruel.
===
The Death Maze on the Floor Five never managed to move.
Its walls tried but stone groaned around Tobias. The massive stone sphere rolled forward for three seconds but when Tobias merely glanced over his shoulder, the spiky sphere sank into the ground as though swallowed by mud.
Misha floated alongside her body while he walked calmly with her arms behind through the maze.
He simply followed the tremors moving through the walls until they reached the portal.
"That thing nearly crushed us last time."
He studied the walls around him. "It’s poorly made."
"That is easy for the Earth Warden to say." She pouted as she crossed her arms.
"The balance is wrong." Tobias ran one hand along the maze as it trembled. "The mechanisms rely too heavily on surface movement."
Misha stared at him in disbelief. "Are you criticizing the craftsmanship of a death maze?"
"If someone intends to kill people with architecture, they should take pride in the work," he calmly said before stepping in the portal.
「 〔 FLOOR QUEST COMPLETE 〕
Escape the Maze 」
Misha looked back at the maze. It gave one last unhappy groan behind them. She almost felt sorry for it.
===
Floor Six was even shorter.
「 〔FLOOR QUEST〕
Cleanse the Corrupted Altars (0/12)
Failure Condition: Death ]
「 〔WARNING〕
Hostile entities will continuously emerge until the altars are purified. 」
Corrupted figures crawled from the blackened earth the moment the quest began. Their limbs emerged first, bent at wrong angles. Faces without eyes pushed through the soil while dark fluid ran from their mouths.
Misha grimaced as she floated closer to her body. "I forgot how unpleasant this floor was."
Tobias watched one of the creatures drag itself free.
"You forgot that?" He sounded faintly amused.
"I was busy being terrified the first time so the details kinda blurred together."
Tobias did not wait for them to finish forming. He bent down and placed both palms against the ground, the floor answered him.
Enormous hands closed around the ghouls and dragged them screaming beneath the earth. The soil folded over them.
Twelve boulders tore free from the ground and rose into the air around Misha’s body.
Tobias extended one hand and the boulders shot across the field. Each struck an altar at nearly the same moment.
「 〔 FLOOR QUEST COMPLETE 〕
Cleanse the Corrupted Altars (12/12) 」
Ignoring the reward windows and level-up notifications flashing at the edge of her vision, Misha could only stare in awe. Even separated from her body, her soul trembled faintly as though the shock had reached somewhere deeper than flesh.
Tobias flexed her fingers once. Her body had grown stronger, although it still could not match the soul possessing it, but his movements no longer strained it quite as badly. The difference was small, yet noticeable.
A timer flashed in front of them.
「 Possession Time Remaining: 00:00:32 」
Misha turned toward her body. "We have 32 seconds left."
"That’s long enough." Tobias began walking again.
Misha glanced at him. "For what?"
"To reach the next floor." He stepped through the portal without slowing down.
===
The empty village appeared around them. It was just as quiet as Misha remembered it.
Abandoned houses lined the narrow road, some doors hung open. No birds called from the rooftops and no wind moved between the buildings.
Tobias stopped beside one of the stone walls. "Get some rest, young lady. You’ll need it for the next quest."
Misha moved closer to her body. "You could stay for the last few seconds."
She tried to make it sound casual but for a moment, she saw his real expression beneath her own features, fond and a little sad. Then he closed her eyes.
「 〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕
Cancer Constellation Soul has reached the maximum possession duration.
Ending Possession...」
Misha dropped back into her body. Her knees nearly gave out but she caught herself against the stone wall with one hand and waited for dizziness to settle.
Tobias had done the fighting but her body had carried the strain of his possession.
「 Cancer Chamber entering cooldown.
Cooldown Remaining: 35:00:00 」
Another notice appeared.
「〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕
Preparation Phase Initiated.
Time Remaining: 00:20:00
The first wave will begin when the preparation period ends.」
King landed beside her then he looked at her shaking legs. [Your rest period is regrettably short so use them properly nya.]
Misha lowered herself beside the wall. "I was planning to stare dramatically into the distance."
[Hmp your priorities remain appalling nya.] King sat with his tails wrapped around his paws.
"I thought you appreciated dramatic entrances." She opened her storage.
[Only when I am the one making them nya.] King raised his chin. [Drama performed by lesser beings is usually all noise.]
"Of course." She pulled out an Advanced Stamina Potion, one that belonged to her rather than from the pouch with the supplies Sebastian had given her.
「 〔ITEM EFFECT〕
<Advanced Stamina Potion>
Endurance Recovery +15%
Fatigue Reduction +10%
Duration: 5 Hours 」
Cool energy spread through her chest and limbs, easing the shaking in her muscles. The relief was not immediate, but the tightness gradually loosened.
After that came water and a preserved meal from the Faust Provision Pouch.
By the time the timer reached eight minutes, she could stand without her legs protesting.
"Status," she said, eager to see what had changed in her Status Window.
「 〔STATUS WINDOW〕
Tower Name: Misha Apocalypse
Name: Misha Reyes
Level: 19 (EXP: 97 | 4475 )
Rank: ☆☆☆☆
Class: Soulbinder
Affiliation: Tower of Hellfire
—
<TITLE>
The One Acknowledged By the Tower
Siegebreaker
—
<ATTRIBUTES>
Strength .... 34 (D)
Agility ... 38 (C-)
Vitality ..... 27 (D)
Endurance .... 25 (D)
Perception .... 34 (D)
—
<TRAITS>
Analytical Thinking (Lv. 7) [42%]
Calm Under Pressure (Lv. 7) [18%]
Sleep Deprivation Resistance (Lv. 4) [36%]
Steady Hands (Lv. 5) [21%]
—
<SKILLS>
Weapon Mastery
Soul Inventory
—
<EQUIPMENT>
Hearthkeeper’s Cloak
Twinfang
Dreamweaver
—
<INVENTORY>
Tower Coins: 6,250
Starfall x1
Stormpiercer x1
Faust Provision Pouch x1
Tracker’s Compass x2
Goblin Ear x350
Goblin Leathers x164
Warg Fang x38
Corrupted Insignia x62
Hobgoblin Hide x30
Hobgoblin Commander’s Insignia x17
Goblin King’s Core x1
Goblin King’s Bloodstone x1
Mana Shard x52
Cracked Enhancement Stone x27
Wayfinder Fragment x15
Minor Healing Potion x29
Minor Stamina Potion x32
Teleportation Rune (I) x2
Teleportation Rune (II) x1 」
Misha focused on her level. She stared at the number for a moment. She had climbed much faster than she expected. Nyxie had torn through the goblins and Tobias had crossed four floors as though the Tower’s early trials were just badly arranged chores for him.
She had barely broken a sweat. Her body had suffered the strain, certainly, but she had not fought for those levels herself.
[You appear displeased nya.]
"It’s not enough." She dismissed the window with a wave of her hand. "Nyxie and Gramps did the hard work."
King’s eyes narrowed slightly. [Their strength belongs to your Skill. Your inability to appreciate your own advantages is becoming tedious nya.]
She secured Twinfang at her sides. "They’re not advantages." Her hand stopped over one dagger. "They’re people. I’m not going to look at my skill and pretend that part doesn’t matter."
King went quiet for a moment before he answered, [Guilt that produces nothing is merely vanity wearing a mournful face nyauh.]
Misha looked at him. The words stung.
"I hate when you sound wise." She began walking toward the gate.
[Wisdom is among my lesser qualities nya nya.] King floated after her, his expression smug. [My magnificence simply makes it appear more impressive.]
She released a quiet breath. "Right, right."
Misha expected to find the village gate empty since most Rankers from Genesis were still dealing with the aftermath of the siege. Anyone sensible would have taken time to recover before climbing again. As for those who fled to the portal in panic just to escape Genesis? She had no idea what had happened to them.
Voices reached her before she reached the gate. Three of them.