Tower Apocalypse 4: A LitRPG Isekai Fantasy Adventure Series, page 1
Contents
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PREVIOUSLY ON: TOWER APOCALYPSE
CHAPTER 1: DREAMS OF PARFANEL
CHAPTER 2: RECOVERY
CHAPTER 3: HOLDING COURT
CHAPTER 4: DAMN THE SYSTEM
CHAPTER 5: THE BLESSING
CHAPTER 6: DIVINE RIGHT
CHAPTER 7: ALLIANCE QUEST
CHAPTER 8: ELDRTICH MONSTROSITIES
CHAPTER 9: TWISTED CORRUPTION
CHAPTER 10: DRAIN THE LAKE
CHAPTER 11: REBUILDING AND DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 12: NEW LOOT BOXES
CHAPTER 13: NEW PORTAL
CHAPTER 14: THE LEATHER GAUNTLET
CHAPTER 15: DARK DEALINGS
CHAPTER 16: NEW GEAR
CHAPTER 17: SIGONDA
CHAPTER 18: THE TOWER AGAIN
CHAPTER 19: SQUARE BY SQUARE
CHAPTER 20: BEAST BOSS
CHAPTER 21: A NEW ENEMY
CHAPTER 22: PLOTTING THE AMBUSH
CHAPTER 23: WHO CARES ABOUT HONOR?
CHAPTER 24: SLAUGHTERED
CHAPTER 25: THE SACRIFICE
CHAPTER 26: THE DIVINE SKILL
CHAPTER 27: SABOTAGED
CHAPTER 28: THE IMAGE OF FREEDOM
CHAPTER 29: TRAINING WITH TANG
CHAPTER 30: ESCAPE PATH
CHAPTER 31: THE FLAPPARI
CHAPTER 32: HEXMANCER DUEL
CHAPTER 33: THE RITUAL
CHAPTER 34: INHERITANCE
CHAPTER 35: BLOODLINE BINDING
CHAPTER 36: FINAL PREPARATIONS
CHAPTER 37: PARFANEL AGAIN
CHAPTER 38: REBELLION
CHAPTER 39: BACK TO THE VILLAGE
CHAPTER 40: ONE LAST CHANCE
CHAPTER 41: HUMANITY’S ARMY
CHAPTER 42: TURNING THE TIDE
CHAPTER 43: DECOYS
CHAPTER 44: THE PORTAL
CHAPTER 45: THE DEMIGOD’S VENGEANCE
CHAPTER 46: ONE LAST RITUAL
CHAPTER 47: DEVIN VS LUPARIA
CHAPTER 48: GAME MASTER
EPILOGUE: PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
THE LITRPG COMMUNITY
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COPYRIGHT © 2023 BY
Cassius Lange
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or literary publication.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
This is a work of fiction. All names, places, characters, and incidences are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual people, alive or dead, events or locations, is completely coincidental.
ISBN:
Amazon KINDLE
1st Edition – 2023
PREVIOUSLY ON: TOWER APOCALYPSE
Alongside 99,999 other humans, Devin Cain was brought to Gaea, a mysterious futuristic planet where humans had to battle against other species with extinction on the line.
Devin quickly jumped out to an early lead, taming two powerful summons—Reinhardt the skeleton lord and Shai the skeletal wyrm.
Not only that, he built a strong and reliable squad of comrades—Ben the tank, Rhino the shapeshifter, Jenny and Hermina the long-ranged snipers, Elisa the healer. Despite the dangerous circumstances, he also fell in love with Emma the mage after a whirlwind romance.
Together, Devin and the other humans slowly gained strength and influence, forging strong alliances across the other key human factions.
United as one, humanity clashed against two rival races—the dwergar and the darkling—at the World Boss battle, finally emerging victorious after forging an alliance with the honorable dwergar. At the end, Devin was even able to re-animate the World Boss as a new summon, Tiamat the Brood Mother.
But the darkling were still lurking and there were many other loose-ends left on Gaea. After befriending Carnilia the darkling princess, Devin and his friends re-entered the tower. It was a mad climb, a desperate attempt to gain as much power as possible to finally overcome the mighty darkling.
Devin and his companions went through countless strange adventures, battling on odd worlds from a tourism office to an ever-shifting maze. Devin gained new skills and learned more about the mysterious “force” that animated everything on Gaea. Humanity finished their Archon's Trial, with five of the strongest humans gaining new buffs and mighty auras meant to led armies.
But the greatest prize was found on the abandoned fifth floor.
A strange white node of energy, calling itself the Fragment of the Demigod, embedded itself in Devin’s chest. He gained new powers far beyond any other human, even Verdunn, the mysterious final town owner, an arrogant man utterly obsessed with training.
With their newfound strength, the humanity-dwergar alliance was able to overcome the darkling. But the penalty was extinction. All the darkling—even Carnilia—were eliminated.
As for the Fragment of the Demigod…
The presence that runs Gaea has noticed an abnormality.
Devin must keep his newfound strength a secret as forces converge around him. With the Demigods’ grip tightening around him, maybe humanity’s only chance is escape.
CHAPTER 1: DREAMS OF PARFANEL
Booming.
That was the first thing I noticed. A strange booming that thrummed through my ears and permeated through my entire body.
“What the hell is this,” I muttered.
My very soul felt like it was going to pop out of my body…
But then I frowned, understanding what was happening. I recognized this feeling. The “noise” wasn’t coming through my ears. This wasn’t a sound at all, it was my body reacting to an influx of energy.
I glanced above me and winced.
A machine flew high above our heads, casting an enormous shadow. It was sleek, silver, and had no visible form of propulsion, rather streaking through the air as if propelled by some kind of invisible energy.
It was one of the Demigod’s strange spacecraft, the ones that used energy cannons and were powered by pure force, the strange energy of Gaea that was so futuristic it seemed outright magical.
The machine flew low, cutting straight through the treeline like a knife through hot butter. The leaves and branches didn’t even have time to burn and were instantly obliterated as soon as they made contact with the bizarre craft, dissolving into complete nothingness.
An eerie whir passed through the air, and then a panel opened on the sleek craft.
It was one of the ship’s beam cannons, which blasted out pure unvarnished force.
I instinctively raised my hands to protect myself—even though I knew deep down that it was utterly useless.
All four of my arms rose up.
Wait.
Four arms?
I took a closer look and realized that my arms weren’t covered by human skin. The arms were leathery and thick. Though they were a vaguely peachy color, the texture looked like it belonged to an elephant. The skin was a little rougher, harder, and seemed more durable than human skin.
A voice shrieked in terror, startling me from my observation.
“Run, son, run! What are you doing? You can’t fight it!”
I turned and saw a familiar face. It was unusually stern and lined with wisdom, but this time, the expression was warped in terror. His eyes flared wide as he stared past me, toward the immensely powerful machine that neither of us could possibly understand.
It was the guard from Prahna, the one I’d met outside the gate during the siege—Parfanel’s father.
And he’d called me son—that meant I had to be Parfanel?
Before I had time for any other thoughts or realizations, the white light lanced over us, and I was completely obliterated. It was a direct hit, directed right at my body, and all I felt was a vague feeling of wrongness and hotness—like my body shouldn’t be at this heat—and then I was just gone.
But my soul remained.
I could feel my consciousness, and though I didn’t have a body, I could feel the darkness swirling around me.
I took time to gather my thoughts, and then I realized something very important.
Even though I was dreaming as Parfanel, I wasn’t actually Parfanel. I was still myself—Devin Cain. I was probably lying in bed, at the penthouse apartment in the suite at my village on Gaea, resting next to my girlfriend Emma after our impossibly hard fight against the darkling race.
The whole thing reminded me a little of the movie Inception. I remembered my friend Jenny liking it to the point we watched it two or three times in theaters when it came out. I thought it was just fine though—I didn’t really get the ending, and the visual effects weren’t my thing.
The one idea I did love was how people woke up after dying in a dream.
I didn’t know if that was really true, since I’d always slept like a rock, even when I was a kid, and I never remembered my dreams.
But it was true here.
I knew this was a dream, and if I wanted to, I could force myself to get up.
But I chose not to.
Something told me that this dream would give me additional information. I could feel the Fragment of the Demigod, the strange shard of Parfanel’s power that I absorbed, heating in my chest, almost like it—rather than the System or the Demigods—was the thing showing me this dream. Based on what Luparia told me and my own deductions, the fragment was a piece of Parfanel, and maybe this vision was our way out of this mess.
My body formed around me again.
I expected to see a strange mass of swirling energy. All of the Demigods had enormous glowing white bodies made of pure force that floated high in the sky. Their bodies buzzed and fizzled, almost like they were made of tiny little white motes rather than being fully formed… things.
But instead, I saw flesh.
Leathery skin formed around me, and I was back inside Parfanel’s four-armed body. Now that I knew what to expect, I realized that I was also much smaller than my typical human body. The last time I’d seen Parfanel’s actual body, he was just a kid, maybe a bit behind being a teenager. As a result, I was about five feet tall, about a foot shorter than usual.
My body felt weirdly small. I’d been in Parfanel’s body earlier too, but now I was hyper-conscious of my surroundings. That changed everything…
Despite my small size, I was stuck and cramped. I was stuck inside something, with a strange sickly green liquid floating around me. Judging by the clouded-up glass, it was some kind of pod, or maybe a container.
Then I felt a twist in my stomach, and I was violently jerked away.
More light flooded my body, and my whole stomach lurched. I wanted to throw up. It felt like my guts were being pulled in one direction and my brain was being thrown in the opposite.
I hadn’t felt this feeling for a few weeks now, not since receiving the fragment, but now I was in Parfanel’s body—his original body, without the advantages of being a Demigod.
I blinked, and then found myself in the starting area.
All around me were terrified and confused four-armed humanoids, which Parfanel’s mind instinctively told me were called “Prahnites.” Whether the city we’d found here was named after them, or if the city was named after their home planet, I didn’t know.
At this point, I receded in the back of Parfanel’s mind, almost like an invisible presence. I knew I could step forward and take control of his body, but I had absolutely no interest in doing so. I just wanted to stay and see how things played out.
Just based on the context, I knew he was competing in the great game.
Now, Parfanel was a Demigod, and his people, the Prahnites, were nothing more than NPCs living on the first five floors of the tower, trapped in a setting that reenacted his past. But what exactly was the relationship between the NPCs and the “player species” like us, the darkling, and the dwergar? And on top of that, how exactly had Parfanel become a Demigod?
There was a loud whooshing noise, and then a new Demigod loomed over us. The Demigod looked just like the others—a huge white figure without any distinguishing features, like a marionette at a store but thousands of times larger.
The other Prahnites started screaming and shouting, waving their four arms all over the place. A few ducked for cover, and still more hid behind their parents or even lovers.
Parfanel was one of the few people just cooly staring up. I had to give him credit. Even though he was just a young kid, he showed much more courage than the other members of his species. It felt like an age ago since I was brought to Gaea, but I’d been just as freaked out as everybody else.
This new Demigod wasn’t Parfanel—obviously—but neither was she Luparia.
“Welcome. My name is Baalitha, and I’m in charge of the first five floors of the Tower of Oblivion,” she said, speaking slowly and formally. “I hope you enjoy your time on Gaea.”
She spoke with a strange rumbling voice, much deeper than the average human woman’s, but I could instinctively tell that she was female. There was just something about the Demigods that communicated their gender right away, despite the fact that they had essentially indistinguishable bodies. Maybe it had something to do with their force.
She then gave the same speech to Parfanel that he had given to us—twenty percent of the people brought here were the dregs of their society, twenty percent were public servants, and the final sixty percent were ordinary people. Of course, Parfanel’s society had a very different distribution than Earth’s. Their tech level was much lower, so their dregs were thieves slinking in the forest while their public servants were village chiefs or local teachers and guardsmen.
After the explanation, the scene shifted.
The Demigod vanished, and the Prahnites were split into a number of different tutorial areas. On one end were a bunch of normal white tiles—the safe zone. On the other side were the black tiles. Ravenous beasts, the same ones we’d fought on our first day here—goblins, rabid hounds, and worms, roamed there.
Parfanel and the other Prahnites hurried to the weapons rack, fighting over them to try and get the best items. Parfanel was just a kid, so he was brushed aside by bigger and stronger men.
I could sense him trying to find his parents and family, but I could tell, from my spot in the back of his mind, that he wasn’t looking for his family out of concern. No, Parfanel had already adapted to this dog-eat-dog world. He was looking for protection.
In the end, Parfanel chose a set of four brass knuckles.
He fought through the tutorial and went on to become a martial artist class, a close-combat expert who manipulated force to empower his fists with fire. It reminded me a little of our friend Tang’s poison build, but the different elements led to different results. Whereas Tang tried to slowly wear his opponents down, Parfanel overwhelmed his opponents in a literal blaze of glory.
Despite his small size, Parfanel’s fiery punches made him one of the strongest Prahnites on Gaea.
I quickly discovered that the average Prahnite was very peaceful, even more so than the average human, and they obviously struggled to adapt. Many were killed by monsters, and still more were gutted and looted by their own kind.
Parfanel’s brutality set him apart from the rest, and he soon gathered a group of powerful individuals around him. His thugs used their power to dominate others, forcing them to serve under him, all while he led things from the shadows.
Since he was just a little boy, nobody suspected him, but he was very smart, incredibly manipulative, and willing to do whatever it took to take care of number one. With skill and guile, Parfanel was able to comfortably claim the largest plot of land in the initial “Plotting the Land” mission, and he built a village that he ruled with an iron fist.
It reminded me of Roman, the man who’d tried to seize control of humanity in our first week on Gaea.
Fucking hell.
I’d always known that Parfanel was a sneaky bastard.
My personal distaste almost made me lose my cool. I didn’t know what would happen, but I wanted to act instead of just sitting and watching.
But then Parfanel made it to the second floor of the tower, and I was too curious to comment as we saw scenes of Baalitha’s world. Her original people looked like gorgons from Earth—they had snakes for hair and all of them were women. However, they were much taller than the average human, being eight feet tall. Not only that, their skin was scaly, and their arms were snakes too. They looked like big boa constrictors. Their massive scaly feet ended in a hooked toe, just like the dinosaur deinonychus.
Their people lived underground, in giant tunneled cities that looked a little like sewers.
Since their technology was far greater than Parfanel’s, he stared with wonder at everything around him as they slowly made their way forward. Although Parfanel preferred leading from the rear, he was always careful to take the greatest share of the loot, and he soon became miles stronger than everybody else in his meager party. Fully grown men were scrapping and bowing before this young boy.
