Chapter Three: Top of the Tower

I reached for her with a curse on my lips, but I was going to be too slow. Years of muscle memory tried to take over, but I was trying to use skills I no longer had. The blade leapt out, long and curved, and hit her full force on the side, just below her breasts. I felt a pull from my mana, and then suddenly she was slamming into me. I cradled her as we fell to the floor.

She wheezed, eyes wide in fear and pain. I caught a flicker of black, but I didn’t think anything of it. I held her with one arm while the other searched for where the blade had cut into her ready to activate [Shadow Stitching] the second I felt blood. She clung to me desperately as she struggled to fill her lungs. Her entire body shook, but I could still find no injury. Her skin was cool and smooth under my palm, and before I even realized what I was doing it had slid under her shirt in its search for the cut I knew had to be there.

“It’s alright, it’s alright, just breathe,” I told her over and over. I felt her ribs under my palm just before I hit the swell of her breast. Just small enough to fit in my palm, it wasn’t until my thumb brushed against the nub that I even realized where my hand was. It must have hit her more in the back. I reached around, my hand never breaking contact, but I made it all the way to her spine without finding so much as a nick.

Finally, with a violent gasp, she managed to take a breath. She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead into my shoulder. “It hurts! Gods, it hurts!” Her breaths came quick and ragged. “How bad is it? Am I gonna die?”I struggled to get my heartbeat under control. There was no blood, which meant she was alright. Bruised and winded, but alive. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. I’d felt weak against the blightwolves, but seeing that blade coming at her and not being able to do anything? I’d felt powerless. It had ripped open old wounds and left me on the edge of panic.

“You’re alright,” I told her. “You’re fine.” With a more level head, I checked again. Her clothes weren’t even torn, and there was still no blood.

She kept her death grip on his arm. “Don’t lie. Please don’t lie. I don’t want to die, Ren. Not now.”

“Hey, look at me.” I put my palm to her cheek and gently turned her face towards me. “Rhallani, look at me.” She did. “You’re fine. Look.” I brushed my hand against her side where a bruise was already starting to form and she shuddered. Then I held it up for her. “No blood, see? You’re alright.”

She started to calm down and I helped her sit up. Before I realized where she was, she was sitting in my lap. Her hands clung to my shirt so hard I wouldn’t have been able to remove her even if I’d wanted to. “How?” she breathed.

“One of your skills?”

But she shook her head. “Can’t be. I’m a true scholar. I don’t have any offensive or defensive skills.” I detected a faint trace of bitterness, but I filed it away to unpack later.

If that were the case, I could see how a book full of mythic classes might appeal to her. But if it wasn’t her skills, then it could only have been mine. That wasn’t possible. [Shadow Stitching] was one of very few non-offensive Shadowborn skills that could affect others, and I knew I hadn’t used it. I checked my status and skills in case I’d missed something. I was five mana short. That could only mean I’d activated my shadow manipulation, but I hadn’t directed my shadows to attack.

Before, I’d never been able to use my shadows to defend someone else. My class was, through and through, a completely selfish class. At least that’s how I always understood it. Even now though, the only thing that made sense was I’d somehow used my skill to protect her.

“I think I activated a skill,” I told her. “I didn’t know it could work on others, but—”

I couldn’t get another word out before she threw her arms around me and buried her face in the crook of my neck. “That’s twice now you’ve saved me.”

Her trembling was starting to fade, so I began rubbing small circles on the small of her back. “And I’ll do it again if I have to, but I think I’d rather you not almost die again.”

She laughed. It was a beautiful and melodic sound that made warmth bloom in my chest. “I agree.” She pulled away, but still made no move to get off my lap. Now that my adrenaline was starting to come down and he was sure she was alright, her position was going to cause a very specific problem very soon.

Rhallani bit her lip, then her face went crimson and she jumped to her feet. She quickly went to inspect the wall where the blade had nearly killed her. I made sure to be right behind her, ready to throw another shadow defense if I needed to.

“I knew it!” she exclaimed. “That trap should never have triggered! There isn’t a trigger on that one, it’s manual! Oh!”

“What? What is it?”

She beamed at me. “I leveled up! It seems I uncovered a secret of the tower.” Then her smile faded. “And if I’m right, that means there’s something here that’s capable of activating traps without us needing to trigger them.”

Well shit. That was bad. “Traps are one thing. I’m not sure I want to tangle with whatever the evil wizard left behind to guard his crap.”

Just like that she was back to chewing on her lip. “You know more about this stuff than me. If that’s what you think is best, then we should go.”

I put a hand on her shoulder. “You did amazing to get us this far. You don’t need some book of classes.” I didn’t want to mention that I knew more than my fair share about rare classes just yet, but maybe in the future I could help her get a class she deserved.

She smiled gratefully at me, then turned towards the stairs. She barely made it a step before there was a loud grinding noise. Immediately, I pulled her into my chest and wrapped both arms around her. Even if I could defend her, I’d rather take the hits myself.

It proved unnecessary. Nothing came at us, but a trap had definitely been activated. Where the stairs had been now stood a stone wall. It was magical, so there was a possibility that my blade could destroy it, but it was also a possibility that the curse would run rampant and send us tumbling to our deaths considering we were in a magical tower.

“I don’t think the guardian wants us to leave,” she said into my chest.

I glared down at her, but she made no move to escape my grasp. “You stay right behind me unless I say otherwise. You might know traps, but this is my domain. You do what I say, the moment I say it. Alright?”

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she was pushing herself into me. “Yes, sir,” she said. Her eyes were definitely glowing this time, and I found I didn’t mind being called “sir” just this once.

“Let me see those spectacles.” She handed them over without complaint. I put them on and immediately my sight was overloaded with information. I saw the currents of magic as they flowed through the room. It was a single hallway that had a single door at the end. There were more traps, but disarming them wasn’t an option anymore. It was my turn to break some runes.

I looked back at her, and she suppressed a giggle. I’m guessing I don’t exactly pull of the spectacles, but that was a problem for later. “Stay here, I’ll make this quick.”

I earned another gasp from her when I summoned my cursed blade. If these traps were able to be triggered manually, that meant they weren’t solely dead-man sigils. This close to the wizard’s trove, the traps wouldn’t be overly destructive. I left the clasp in place and wielded the blade, scabbard and all.

Health: [168/200]

Mana: [72/90]

Considering I’d been stabbed not too long ago, I was doing pretty alright. I hefted the sword and began clearing traps. The first was another blade, but it snapped when it came into contact with mine. There was a force trap, but the scabbard reflected the force back enough to crack the wall. Just like with the blightwolves, it seemed evil indestructible sword was the ultimate cheat. By the time I’d reached the end of the hallway, I’d only suffered a single real attack. A firebolt had caught my shoulder, but thanks to my insane resilience I’d barely felt it. I turned back to Rhallani with a grin.

She practically ran through the path I’d created as soon as I gave her the go ahead. “Where did that come from?” she demanded. “How does it work? Is it indestructible? Who made it?” She began to circle around me, her eyes wide as saucers. Her gaze was locked solely on the blade. “I’ve never seen a sword like that before! What are those symbols on the sheathe? I don’t even recognize the language!”

“Whoa, Rhallani!” I said with a laugh. “Take a breath!”

She was flush and practically vibrating with excitement. “You didn’t tell me you were hiding something that amazing! Can I see the blade?” She reached towards it.

“No!” I said a little too quickly. She recoiled in alarm and I felt her fear spike. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to snap.” I hefted the blade with both hands and lowered it so she could look closer. “Don’t touch it. It’s cursed, but due to some special circumstances I can wield it safely.”

She put her hands behind her back and leaned as close to the scabbard as she could without touching it, giving me a very clear view down her shirt. One that made me recall vividly the moment where I’d had her breast in my hand. This girl was going to be the death of me.

“I’ll explain more eventually, but right now I think we should focus on getting out of here.”

She straightened and ran her hands through her hair. “Right, right, right. No, you’re right. But I can look at it later? Not touch, of course, but look?”

I laughed and ruffled her hair. “Sure, it’s a promise. We just need to make sure we don’t die first.”

She paled a little, but nodded. “Then by all means, what are we waiting for?”

The second I saw the room on the other side of the door I knew we were in for some shit. It was a circular room that must have taken up damn near the entire tower. There were only two doors. One behind us and one directly across from it. On either side of the far door stood two golden suits of armor as tall as I was, either one wielding a greatsword that was probably as tall as Rhallani.

“Think those are the guardians?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No, those are golems. They’re not sentient. Without their master, they’re probably inert.” She stepped closer and grabbed the hem of my shirt. “Whatever the guardian is, it’s something else.”

“Do you see any traps?”

Rhallani searched the room with the spectacles I’d returned. “No. There’s magic everywhere, but I don’t seen any concentrated enough to be runework.” She squinted at the golems. “And those two are definitely inert.” There was a hint of barely contained excitement in her voice.

I chuckled. “Assuming they don’t try to kill us, I’ll make sure you get a chance to take a closer look.”

She made a happy squeal and pressed into my back. “Thank you, thank you!”

No traps and no sign of whatever nasty guarded the place. “Let’s head towards the door and see what happens. Stay close.”

She nodded, but she was still pressed up against me. Any closer and we’d need to start removing clothes. A tantalizing prospect for after we face mortal peril. Thankfully, she didn’t seem as distracted as me. Her eyes never stopped roving the room even as they crossed the floor. “Do you think you’ll use your cursed sword?”

It was hard to keep my eyes from being drawn back to the golems. On one hand, they were much too obvious to be the threat. On the other, I’d been wrong before. “Not if I can help it. At my current strength, I can only wield it for about ten seconds before it starts devouring my soul.”

Her fingers gripped my shirt tighter. “Am I weird for wanting to examine the sword even more now?”

I patted her head without looking at her. “Very much so, but it’s adorable.”

She hummed. It was around the halfway point that I felt the unmistakable sensation of being watched. “The guardian sees us.”

“Then why isn’t it attacking?”

“I don’t know. Lets just keep moving.”

My hand rested on the hilt of my new sword the entire time, but we reached the golems without anything happening. I looked at the door, then at Rhallani. The plea was obvious in her eyes. “Oh, go on then. But make it quick.”

She wrapped me in a quick hug, then darted off to the nearer of the two golems while I watched the room closely. This time she made no move to repress her ramblings while she poked and prodded the golem. It stood a little taller than me, which meant it dwarfed Rhallani. Up close it looked like little more than a set of tarnished plate armor wrapped around stone, but I’d fought golems before. Enemies that felt no pain and knew no fear were a real pain in the ass to deal with.

“I was right,” she babbled excitedly, “they’re intact, but completely inert. I’ve never even read about golems this complex outside of skills!” She ran her hands along the breastplate. “It looks like they’re designed to be directed with a control crest, but there isn’t one paired. I’ll bet they were bound directly to their master.”She bounced to the other one, but her face fell. “Oh, this one’s broken.” She touched it on the navel. “It’s core is completely shattered.” She sounded crestfallen.

I ruffled her hair in response, and she smiled softly. “Come on,” I told her, “let’s see if we can’t bait out a guardian.”

I reached for the handle with a questioning look, and she nodded. I grabbed it, expecting something nasty to jump out at me, but the room remained peaceful. I twisted and pulled, but the door simply opened anticlimactically. On the other side was a study that looked exactly like I expected a wizard’s study to look. Books as far as I could see, a small bed shoved in the corner like an afterthought, and shelves and shelves of jars, gems, and items that could have been either worthless curiosities or deadly artifacts.

I was almost too slow to catch the blur that was Rhallani. She tried to race past me, her eyes wide as saucers, but I caught her by the arm. She looked up at me, her eyes pleading, but I raised a brow. “Traps?”

She pouted, but gave the room a good once over. “I don’t think so. I’ll be careful, I promise. Can I go now? Please?”

I released her, and she began flitting around the room like a juiced up butterfly. “There’s so much stuff! There’s no way I’ll be able to carry it all! Damn it! I wish Pierce hadn’t made me leave my pack outside. I don’t know what I want to take and what I want to leave!”

I cleared my throat. When she looked at me, I held up my hand. Shadows washed over it, collecting into a bag-shaped lump before they melted away leaving her pack in my grasp. “This one?”

Her squeal reached a pitch I didn’t think was possible just before she slammed into me, wrapping me in a rib-crushing hug with surprising strength. “You’re amazing!” Then she snatched the bag and practically dumped it on the floor.

While she shoved aside the useless things like food and bandages, I began to walk around the room. I pulled a book off the seriously overloaded shelf, but when I opened it the pages were blank. A second and third book proved to be the same. If I had to guess, whoever owned this tower had a very “if I can’t have it, nobody can” outlook on life. He wouldn’t be the first I’d met.

I fucking hated wizards.

I was annoyed, but mainly I felt bad for Rhallani. She was still pouring over the contents of the wizard’s desk, but she’d be devastated to learn that all the knowledge in the tower was lost. I trailed a hand across the wordless spines, but paused when I reached one that still had letters on it. They were in a language I didn’t recognize, but when I opened it I knew I was looking at some form of magic manual. I could feel the traces of magic engraved into every page.

So he could only wipe the nonmagical books then. Made sense. While Rhallani was talking to herself excitedly about some bracer she’d found I looked around at all the books. I found two more that still had titles on the spines. One was a very old leather-bound book filled with simple magic of a past era. Simple runes that could be activated simply by putting mana into them, regardless of class. This tome seemed to have an archive of them that had some interesting sounding effects. Effects much stronger than I’d thought simple runes were capable of. Rhallani would probably love this one.

The third wasn’t a book at all. It was hollowed out, and inside rested a gemstone shaped like a star. I’d come across one or two in the past, so I recognized the keystone immediately. My curiosity piqued, I took a lap around the study to see if I could find its home. Rhallani had just moved onto the book shelf when I found the star shaped depression in the corner of the bed’s headboard.

I’d never been one to leave a question unanswered if I could help it, so I slotted the gem. The mattress hardened, and I found a seam under the pillow. When I opened it, I found a large, hand-bound tome. When I opened it and read the first page, my blood ran cold.

The Ultimate Compendium of Classes by Valethar Karn.

The world slammed to a stop. The ground wobbled underneath me and my gut felt like someone had just planted a boot in it. The pages were handwritten, and when I flipped to the back I could tell it was unfinished. “Rhallani?” I asked, keeping the book from view.

She pulled her nose out of the book of runes I’d left out for her with a wide smile. “Yes?”

I kept my face free of emotion. I didn’t want to frighten her with what I was feeling right now. Not with how skittish she’d been so far. “You never mentioned the name of the wizard who owned this tower.”

She frowned. “I didn’t? Oh, it was a man named Valethar Karn. He was a genius. According to the correspondence I found between him and the last king of Amesseria, he was widely considered the authority on classes.”

I dreaded the answer, but I had to ask. “And how long ago did you say he died?”

“Well, the last time anyone saw him was just a few years before the Abyssal King was defeated, so I guess nearly thirty-five years ago. Have you heard of him?”

My back was still to her, so she couldn’t see the book I had in my hand. I flipped to the section that talked about mythic classes, already knowing what I’d find. My own class and its abilities—the first fifteen levels or so, at least—were chronicled on the page. I knew Valethar Karn, alright. I’d killed him the day I escaped the laboratory he’d used to create me. That had been a few months before the Chosen’s party had stumbled across me and I’d joined up to help save the world.

Thirty years. Allura had put me to sleep for thirty fucking years. There wasn’t anyone who would have missed me, but the fact that the world had turned for three decades while I’d slept made me angrier than I was willing to admit, and I wasn’t sure why.

I heard Rhallani’s footsteps behind me. I wasn’t ready to talk about this right now, so I banished the book to my pocket space before she saw it and shut the secret compartment. I felt her tentative touch at my shoulder and turned, trying to hide my turmoil. Now I knew why I’d recognized the taint in the land so quickly. It was identical to the taint where I’d spent most of my life. This tower was another home to the man who’d taken everything from me.

“I wish you’d have told me his name sooner. Karn was not a good person. We should go.”

Whatever she saw on my face made her shrink. I felt bad, but my current expression was the best I could manage under the circumstances. I needed to be away from this tower. I wanted to burn it to the ground. “Right. I’ll grab my things, then.”

I wanted to tell her to leave it all. Nothing good could come from anything that man had touched, but I repressed the urge. We’d come all this way, and I couldn’t tell her to toss what she’d found without telling her why. There were many reasons why I couldn’t do that, chief among them being there was no way to reveal my past with Karn to her without mentioning the fact that a goddess had hidden me away for thirty fucking years.

My tone was enough to impart a sense of urgency, because she had her pack filled to the brim in minutes. I thought about offering my storage to her, but the thought of having anything more than his book bound to me made my skin crawl and my voice die in my throat. “Lets go. Stick close, and we should be able to follow the path we used to get up here.”

Her only response was a nod, so I opened the door to the large circular room. In my brief emotional distress, I’d managed to forget that we still hadn’t seen the guardian that protected the tower. I saw it now, and I almost laughed. Even after divine intervention, it seemed my former master was still poised to take the things I cared about from me.

Some form of wraith I’d never seen floated in the center of the room, and flanking it were nearly two dozen humanoid figures. Their skin was sickly pale, their eyes were completely colorless, and they had angry veins of black that spiderwebbed across their bodies and over their clothes. They all carried decrepit weapons that glowed darkly. As I stood there in the doorway, frozen, the wraith lifted a single, long-fingered, black hand and pointed at me. Then its minions surged forward as one.

My first action was to kick Rhallani back into the study, then slam the door shut before she could protest. I grabbed the broken golem and yanked it down in front of the door to block it, then turned and drew my sword just as the first of the thralls hit me. I felt her fear spike through the door, but I ignored it.

Allura could take my skills, but she couldn’t take the years I’d spent swinging a sword. I blocked the first strike, hacked into the torso of the attacker, used my shadows to attack two more, then kicked a fourth in the chest hard enough to send him sprawling into the thralls behind him. I needed to lead them away from Rhallani. I was still only level six, so I had no illusions that I could take on this many foes. That didn’t mean I planned to go down without a fight.

Time became a blur. I swung, ducked, blocked, hacked, stabbed, and rolled. The thralls faded away. All that I saw was the weapons. They managed to land a few blows, but the attacks were relatively weak. The real danger came from whatever magic was imbued in the blades, but my resilience cut that damage down significantly. I managed to slip through the throng and edge my way around the corner of the room. The thralls came at me in twos and threes, but I’d almost never fought a fair fight in my life, and all of them I’d been on the shit side of. Hell, it had been seven of us against an army once or twice. I was no stranger to fighting multiple foes at once.

I kept on the move, twisting and hacking and putting the thralls in each other’s way. They were slow and clumsy, but numerous. Worse, any blows I landed hardly seemed to bother them at all. A handful I might have been able to manage, but this many was impossible at my current level.

Then the wraith decided to join the fray. It swooped down and lurched into the golem I’d thrown in front of the door. The runes etched into the armor glowed red and black cracks began to spread across the armor. It stood with jerky movements, then hefted its sword.

The thralls gave me space as the wraith advanced, and just then Rhallani burst through the door. She took one look at the situation and her eyes widened. I felt her fear spike, and I silently pleaded for her to get back inside. The wraith never even looked in her direction, and neither did the thralls. Rather than doing what any sensible non-combat class would and hiding in the study until the fighting was done, she jumped behind the second golem.

That was the last I saw of her before the wraith pressed me. It didn’t fight with any particular skill, but it had a reach advantage and the insane strength of a construct. Blocking a strike felt like I was getting hit by a battering ram, and under its armor was only stone. I landed a few blows, but my blade bounced off harmlessly. Stone golems—especially those wrapped in fucking plate armor—were best fought with blunt weapons or magic. I had neither of those outside of my relatively weak shadow attacks. I had one option, and it was a really shitty one.

I retreated under the wraith’s onslaught until my back hit the door we’d come from, but then it paused. It seemed to be waiting for something, but I had no clue what. Then it tilted its head and the thralls began walking towards the golem Rhallani was hiding behind.

“Rhallani!” I called. “Get out of there!”

As it turned out, I’d underestimated my little scholar. No sooner had I shouted than the golem she hid behind lit up. Cobalt blue runes glowed, and it surged forward. It moved with precision, unlike the wraith-possessed golem I now fought, and bowled into the thralls. Rhallani backed away, a glowing bracer wrapped around her arm, and directed the golem. It smacked the thralls around with ease, but it was having the same problems I was. One blade wouldn’t be able to protect her from the horde for very long.

Before I could even think about helping her, I needed to take care of the wraith in front of me. I struck it with my shadows, but they barely scratched the enchanted plate. It lunged forward, assaulting me with a barrage of heavy blows that made my arms go numb below the shoulders. The final strike, a particularly jarring one that curved upward a hair’s breadth from my throat, knocked the blade from my tingling fingers. It leveled its blade at me, but didn’t move to finish the job. Meanwhile, Rhallani was cornered behind her golem while the thralls surged forward in a wave of flesh.

Fuck it. I’d really hoped not to do this with Rhallani in the room, but I summoned the cursed blade. With the indestructible scabbard I could probably take the wraith on, but not fast enough to be able to protect my new friend and ally. It was time for the last resort. I could feel the eagerness of the blade in my hands.

Knowing I had no other option, I undid the latch, and the whispers began.

Ten seconds. That was all I could bank on before I started to lose myself to the hate and the rage. Crimson tendrils of raw power unfurled from the blade. Immediately I felt a ripple go through the thralls. Not quite fear, but something more akin to anticipation. The colors in the room deepened, and I could make out each and every individual rune etched into the wraith and the golem. My senses exploded. I could make out all the detail in the room, from the nicks in the armor of the wraith in front of me to the hammering heartbeat of Rhallani. I dropped the scabbard and wrapped both hands around the hilt.

One. The wraith lunged forward, but I parried its attack with ease and brought the blade down on its sword. The force behind the blow drove the tip into the stone below.

Two. I stabbed into the wraith’s shoulder and crimson energy erupted across the length of my sword. It ripped into the golem, tearing its enchantments to shreds and sending it crashing to the floor.

Three. The thralls charged me all as one, forgetting about Rhallani completely.

Four. I cleaved through them in a blur of crimson. This time, when I struck them, they stayed down.

Five. The crimson began to wrap around my arm. I could feel it digging into my flesh and burning the core of my being. It pulled me in, demanding I submit, but I pulled back.

Six. I was faster now than I was before. I wove through the thralls until Rhallani and her golem were at my back.

Seven. I thrust my hand out and my shadows, infused with the raw crimson energy that coursed through me, rushed forward in a wall of destruction that claimed another six thralls.

Eight. Despite the fates of their allies, the remaining thralls threw themselves at me with a fervor I hadn’t seen in them before.

Nine. My arms felt like molten lead. Heavy and on fire. Even as I cleaved through the final thrall, they trembled. A red hot pain was beginning to form in my sternum. I was running out of strength to resist the blade’s pull.

Ten. The wraith, now free of the golem, leapt at me. I swung the blade and cut it neatly in two. As it died, I felt a rush of emotion come from the creature. Gratitude.

I tried to step towards the scabbard, but my body gave out. I fell to a knee, then I felt my face hit the stone. The pain that had started in my sternum began to spread. It was like I was being burned from the inside out. Devoured. Annihilated. The crimson tendrils worked further up my arms, caressing me and lulling me into the blade’s fiery embrace.

I felt the blade lift, then the sensation of steel sliding on steel. The crimson withered. The whispers vanished. The heat faded, but the pain remained. Someone rolled me over. I felt hands on either side of my face. Something hot and wet hit my cheek. Tears. Someone was yelling something. I couldn’t make it out. Something else called to me, and my exhaustion answered. I was vaguely aware of Rhallani’s face above me, but it seemed miles away. As if I was looking at her through a tunnel.

I smiled and tried to tell her that everything was fine, but the words never quite made it past my lips. She got further and further away as the pain faded to nothingness, and then unconsciousness took me.