Tower Ascendant: A LitRPG Adventure (Realm Grinder Book 3), page 10
“Then what can you tell me about the monster directly beneath the Tower?” John asked. “Bayard said that it’s been encased in half a mile of solid diamond.”
At that, Adornal chuckled and shook his head. “Half a mile? They really are scared of her.”
“So it’s a person?” John pressed.
“Be patient, John Mavren.” Adornal chuckled, which hurt John’s gut even more than before. “In a manner of speaking, yes. I mean… I cannot confirm anything I say, but I’ve long since known that when this Tower came to Earth, one of us managed to escape. The fact that any humans survived long enough to enter the Tower is proof enough that she was contained somehow, and I’ve long since wondered what would do it. Half a mile of solid diamond, you said?”
“A sphere. The monster is at the center.” John nodded.
“So a quarter mile is all that stands between herself and freedom.” Adornal sighed, then shook his head. “What I can tell you, John Mavren, is that such an impressive prison as that will not be nearly enough to contain her, not for long. A decade, maybe even a century, but she’ll break through it, and when she does, Earth will be burned to a cinder.”
“What would it take to keep her held? For good?”
“Death, perhaps, would be a prison strong enough.” Adornal shrugged. “Even that, though, may not be enough. She’s a tricky one.”
“What can you tell me about her?”
Adornal looked up, where a vortex was starting to form in the clouds. He chuckled and waved his hand, and it slowly went away.
“I can tell you nothing that will help you defeat her, save that her name is Lilith. Before her escape, she was the second-most powerful Bloodskin, bowing only to Anderal the Reaver, our sire and patron. Now that she’s been trapped in a diamond for a few thousand years?” Adornal laughed. “Skills become heroic when placed under duress for long amounts of time. Enora’s heat resistance became heroic because she was exposed to intense heat for months on end. She’ll easily be the most powerful mortal being in the entire universe. Not even the guardians will be able to contain her, if she does manage to break free.”
John grimaced, but nodded. “Do you know of any way to defeat her? Any weakness, any hidden vulnerability.”
Adornal sighed deeply. “You test me, John Mavren, trying to turn me against my own people.” He drummed his fingers along the stone, then shrugged. “I was never close to her. That said, Adethtra the Meek was the opposite. The favored granddaughter, so to speak. They did everything together, from what I remember, and it was commonly assumed that Lilith would attempt to make Adethtra the matriarch of the family when the time came for herself and Anderal to step aside.”
“Then she’s not going to be an easy nut to crack.”
“I imagine that, generally speaking, the word easy rarely enters your vocabulary.” Adornal stood up, and the two chairs sank back into the ground. “Unless you can access Adethtra easily, I would not spend much time chasing that particular route. The Twin Dragons will be a far more imminent threat to your existence. Get rid of them first, and then you’ll have plenty of time to deal with Lilith.”
John nodded and started to turn away, then paused. “Can I ask you something?”
“Moreover and above what you’ve already done?” Adornal snorted. “Go ahead. What more damage could be done?”
“Are you on my side?” John stepped forward. “Earlier in this conversation, you said that Kilnital would be hard to win over to my side. Are you on my side?”
With that, Adornal let out a long, annoyed-sounding sigh. When he finished, he turned around and crossed his arms.
“I don’t know, John Mavren.” He walked forward slowly, until he stood only a few feet away. John had to crane his neck to look up at the monster’s helmet. “Whose side am I on? A year ago, I would have answered quickly and simple. I’m on the side of the Bloodskins. I seek only to destroy humans, to make them suffer in the same way that we do. To die, to be reborn, and to die again, in the most painful ways that the guardians allow me to inflict.”
Adornal paused, and it was a long moment before he spoke again.
“Many times have I fought you, John Mavren. Many times have our blades crossed. You’ve wielded different weapons, you’ve traveled with different people, you’ve used different skills. You’ve always been one of the ones I hated most. Everyone else I recognize, I’ve slain at least once. You… never. Never once have I landed a fatal blow upon you, never once have I seen you drop to the ground, cold and lifeless. Because of that, you stand as the greatest paradox I believe I’ve ever met.”
John raised an eyebrow. “How do you mean?”
“You are full of life, life undying, untouchable by any of us in this Tower, and yet you carry with you the stench of death. You may live, but everyone and everything around you perishes. The two… they are not equal. Only one of them may win out in the end.” Adornal didn’t answer again for a long moment. “Whose side am I on now? I don’t know, except for this. You’ve allowed me to touch my daughter again. However remote, however tenuous the connection, you’ve allowed me to interact with her for the first time in ten thousand years. If, John Mavren, you are on the side of death, then we do not stand united. If all you wish is to find a way to destroy us all, permanently, no regeneration, no respawn, then we are not on the same side.” Adornal shook his head. “I have no wish to die, and I wish the same for none of my family. On the other hand, if you choose the side of life, if you wish to watch this Tower crumble and the destruction of Earth to come to an end, then perhaps we stand united after all. I wish to see my daughter again. I wish to see my wife. I wish to see them all.”
John snorted. “You think that after everything we’ve been through, humans and Bloodskins will just be able to live side by side?”
“I harbor no such hopes, John Mavren, and neither do you.” Adornal sighed and turned away. “What I want is to come out of this alive. Right now… Right now, you’re the only hope I see of that.”
With that, he vanished in a cloud of dust and ash, and John was left alone on the plain once more. As the wind whipped around him, he turned and started walking away, pulling out a teleporter crystal as he did so. He was just about to activate it when a group, even larger than before, appeared around him. They were just as shocked to see him as he was, and they all spun and pointed weapons at him.
“You were with him!” one of the warriors screamed. “You’re in league with him.”
“You have caterpillars for brains if you think that!” someone else chimed in. “Tell them, John!”
John bit his lip, then looked back at the plain. “I’m not in league with him, no.”
It was true enough. Humans and Bloodskins would never be able to live side by side, not after so long in the Tower. If, somehow, all the exterior threats were defeated, and the Bloodskins somehow managed to get out of the Tower, it would be a war. Human versus Bloodskin, right down to the last man. If that happened, John wasn’t going to hesitate to stand with his own people, no matter what bonds he may or may not have formed with the monsters out of necessity.
For now, he had a name: Adethtra. Farida and Enora were still helping with cleanup around the city, which meant it was time for a visit with the Spellbooks.
CHAPTER 13
[Now Entering: Spellbook Headquarters]
[Floor 0: Quarry]
[Power: SSS+++]
[Will: SSS+++]
[Skill: SSS+++]
[Level: 100]
John materialized in the grandly attired office with a flash. Kitira looked up from a cup of tea at her desk, and smiled softly at him. As per usual, she seemed unfazed by his coming and going, and she slowly rose. The desk was piled so high with books and notes that he couldn’t even begin to see what she was working on, while the bookshelves all around him had been thrown into such a state of disorder that they almost hurt to look at. Books were piled sideways, even backwards, and were intermixed with stacks of notes that seemed written by both Paul and Kitira. A few attendants were busily working at a side table, though they stepped back respectively.
“John! It’s good to see you.” Kitira held out her cup of tea. “Would you like something to drink?”
John let out a long breath, then shook his head. “Not right now.”
“Of course.” Kitira waved a hand, and several chairs slid into place in the middle of the room. She took a seat in one of them, and John sat down in the other. “I do apologize. I know it looks like I’m slacking, but I assure you, I just got back from Beggar’s End, and I’m afraid I’m quite winded.”
“We all have to take a bit of rest at some point.” John flashed a small smile. “How are things going?”
“So far, everything’s progressing well enough.” Kitira shrugged. “It’s only been a day since the quake, but already, we’ve restored around five percent of the city’s collapsed infrastructure. I think that number would be higher, but I’ve tasked most of my novices with producing and distributing pamphlets inviting the civilians to enter the Tower, as you asked.”
“Good.” John puffed out his cheeks. “Any opposition on that front?”
“Nothing violent.” Kitira shook her head. “We’ve had our fair share of doors slammed in our faces, but the chaos of the Deathmasks has passed.”
“That’s good, at least.” John sighed and leaned back in his chair. It was soft, and as he still hadn’t had a chance to slow down since the battle, he was quite tempted to just sink into slumber. For that matter, he hadn’t really even had a chance to get cleaned up, though the time he spent walking around had caused most of the dried gunk to chip away. “Well, I don’t mean to sound rude, but I do have a purpose in coming here.”
“Perhaps once the world is safe, we can have a cup of tea without there being an ulterior motive.” Kitira smiled sadly. “What can I do for you?”
“I have a name. Adethtra the Meek.” John folded his hands. “It’s a name I’ve heard before. I’m pretty sure Paul mentioned her once, but I can’t remember exactly what he said.”
“It doesn’t found familiar to me, but then, Paul has a lot of notes.” Kitira sighed. “Do you remember a context?”
“The Bloodskin Dynasty,” John answered. “For that matter, I think he first told me about her all the way back when he first mentioned the dynasty.”
“Curious.” Kitira snapped her fingers, and a number of scrolls and piles of parchment rose into the air and began to swirl around the two of them. John let his eyes wander over the slowly spinning documents, but nothing seemed to catch his attention. Kitira’s own eyes darted back and forth rapidly, scanning each and every document. As she finished, the papers fluttered back to their resting locations, and more took their place in the air. Finally, after a long moment, she snapped her fingers.
“There! Adethtra the Meek.” The other papers fluttered to the ground, forgotten, as a small roll of paper fell into Kitira’s hands. She spread it out across her lap, then frowned. “Here we go. It says… She’s a Level SS-, so nothing to sniff at, and she’s located on Floor 1.”
“Now that, I can access.” John chuckled and started to stand up. “It’s been awhile since I paid a visit to Floor 1. It’ll be fun to go back.”
“John?” Kitira rolled the paper back up. “Forgive me for being so bold, but I imagine that this Adethtra quest is somewhat of a secondary goal?”
John bit his lip, then nodded. “Yes.”
“Then, perhaps, would it not be better to continue on your current trek upward? Enora mentioned to me your goal of hitting Floor 70. That’s a long way, and if the Twin Dragons were to turn around and come back toward us, we wouldn’t have long.”
“Yeah, but…” John’s hands balled into fists. “If she’s on Floor 1, that’s not really a detour.”
“But you don’t know where on Floor 1.” Kitira pointed out. “You’ve been over the land before, and from what Enora told me, at that point, you guys were actually spending a decent amount of time exploring things, trying to level yourselves up. You went into a lot of the dungeons there. For that matter, I can tell you that my own Spellbooks have spent a great deal of time training on Floor 1. Once they pass it, it serves as an excellent training ground for testing out different magical attacks on animals they know they can defeat. My people have been all over that land, we’ve combed it from top to bottom, and I’ve never encountered this Adethtra before.”
“Then we just need to look harder,” John bit out.
“Let me take care of that.” Kitira reached out and put a hand on his arm. “Let me see if Paul’s notes have anything in them. Let me see if my people can find anything. Don’t waste your time right now, John. You’re too important.”
John groaned and lowered his head into his hands, but nodded. “Fine. I’ll do it your way. Just promise me that you can find something for me, and quickly.”
“I will.” Kitira frowned, then snapped her fingers. A scroll rose off her desk and flew over to her hand, which she unrolled. “Here. If you really want to do something for me that won’t take long, allow me to send you on a brief fetch quest. There’s a package of Paul’s notes on Floor 24 that none of my people have been able to locate. If you could bring it back, it could be helpful in this instance.” She rolled the scroll back up and tossed it into the air. It floated back to her desk, and she folded her hands. “It contains a detailed map of the first three floors, at least according to the index that he made.”
John let out a long breath, then nodded and stood. “I’ll get right on it. Where’s the package?”
Kitira handed him a small slip of paper, then rose as well. “These are the instructions. We’ll see if you have better luck than my other searchers. Just promise me that you won’t spend too much time worrying about it if you can’t figure it out, alright?”
John nodded, but they both knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to bash his way through anything they came across. He stood there for a moment, and Kitira reached out and took his hand.
“I want you to know something, John,” she whispered softly. “Paul… Paul was an incredible man. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t miss him. I can still see him walking around, laughing and joking and staring intently at old pages as he tried to decipher old codes and such.” She paused, then continued. “Paul believed in you. Even in his most hopeless moments, even when he was bordering on despair, he always kept his eyes fixed on you. He truly believed that you were the only thing, the only person, who could save the world. In the end, that caused his death, because he didn’t want to trouble you with having to protect him. I haven’t forgiven him for that, I hope you know that fact, but… I don’t know. He believed in you, John, and so do I.”
“Thanks.” John smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. “I just hope I can live up to it.” He straightened up a bit, then nodded outward. “Can you teleport me to Enora?”
“With pleasure.”
A moment later, light swirled around him, and he felt the plush floor of the Spellbook headquarters replaced by the cold stone of the streets of Beggar’s End. Enora stood tall, near one of the gates of the city, directing workers. Civilians and Awakened alike worked side by side, clearing out debris and wreckage. A large pile of bodies lay nearby, which were all being placed in a mass grave just inside the city walls. A few Awakened seemed to be trying to use their skills to identify the bodies, most of which were unrecognizable.
“John.” Enora turned and brightened. “You’re here.”
“I am.” John nodded, slowly walking forward. The sun was high in the sky, the brilliant rays belaying the dismal mood of the city. “Tell me how I can help.”
Soon, John was working right alongside the wearied laborers. In particular, he used his Ultimate Muscle form to pull a large chunk of airplane wreckage off the battlefield and into a courtyard of the city, so the mages could begin working either to repair the damage, or strip it for parts elsewhere. The corpses of the monsters were all heaved into an enormous pit, where Farida was busy cremating them as fast as they could bring them to her. As the hours ticked by, John continued laboring until he was ready to drop, and then, as they sun started to set, pulled Enora and Farida aside.
“How are you two feeling?” he muttered softly.
Both of them had deep bags under their eyes, but they kept themselves upright.
“Like I got hit by a mountain and haven’t had an ounce of sleep since,” Farida muttered softly. “Which isn’t that far from the truth.”
Enora nodded as well. “If you have any sort of grand quest for us, I think I may need to pass, at least for now.”
John bit his lip, then nodded. “I do have a bit of a quest, but it’s nothing I can’t do myself.” He glanced back up at the imposing bulk of the Tower. “I mostly just wanted to check in with you guys, make sure you were okay. And, of course, make a public appearance so the guilds don’t get itchy again.”
They all chuckled a bit at that, and John crossed his arms. “Head back to my mansion. Get cleaned up, get a good night’s sleep, and then teleport back up to Floor 55. I’ll catch up with you there.”
“And where are you going?” Enora frowned.
John let out a long breath. All his body wanted to do was crash, and sleep for a longer amount of time than he knew would be prudent. “I’m going to have a cup of tea.”
CHAPTER 14
[Now Entering: The Library of Knowledge]
[Floor 24: The Tower of Tormund]
[Power: SSS+++]
[Will: SSS+++]
[Skill: SSS+++]
[Level: 100]
John materialized in the middle of the library with a flash, and took a deep breath. The floor was small, and almost entirely empty, though he did see a young Spellbook perusing one of the shelves down near the far end of the room. Overhead, the deep blue ceiling sparkled with golden-painted stars. He looked up and blinked in surprise. Tormund had painted on constellation lines since the last time John had been there. Interesting.
