Chapter 405

Arthur rolled out, as the morning light finally began to filter into the clearing. He still wandered, a little, how they managed to make suns so familiar. A giant light in the sky, an interdimensional pocket that rotated around its own sun. Maybe just a small opening, so that it was their own star in play, but filtered through magic.

No one knew, though like everything else, there were numerous theories. Many of them adjusted again and again or competing for dominance as more information flowed in from new levels.

End of the day, the Towers continued to be manifest mysteries that in twenty years, no one had managed to find an answer too. It didn’t help that even the most powerful and successful Climbers were only on Advanced Towers – two levels above his own. That there was only two other Tower types after that – the Master and Final – or Legendary – Towers was little comfort.

After all, that single Legendary Tower, in the middle of the Antarctic Circle was massive. Reaching so high and disappearing into a secondary dimension that no one even understood, no matter how many drones or planes or blimps were sent.

Musings of all the state of the world was not particularly useful, beyond the minor advantage of giving him something to think about while he crept back to his room. He had not filled his dantian with Tower energy, having to split some time off to pull energy from the monster cores he never let out of his sight. But it had taken only a couple of hours to fill up near full, before he switched to refining. His biggest slowdown being the need to heal.

He could have waited a little longer, but just like he was healing, so was Tun Rahman. And if he was right, and his little trap had injured the other, he wanted to end this fight now, when he still had the advantage.

Anyway, worse case scenario, he figured he could run away. First things first, he wanted his spear. Then, he’d find the man and – hopefully – launch a surprise attack, dropping a REED on their head or something, just so that he could add to his advantages.

Which was why he’d crept out, along the edge to his window, Shadow Sense unfurled.

It was only because he had his secondary sense working, that allowed him to ‘see’ within the room without actually poking his head out, that he dodged the attack.

Even so, as he threw himself down and sideways, the explosion of the side of the wall that tore it apart and sent massive splinters and broken pieces flying through the air, expanding energy and balls of power along with it had Arthur wincing. His ears rung from the noise, his aura registering movement moments later coming from within.

No time to deal with his surprise, he pushed off with an arm and shoulder to throw himself sideways.

Moments later, a series of explosions appeared, the ground kicked up as thrown darts or magical attacks landed where he was. He hit the ground again, rolling through a bush that slowed him down and diverted his course, forcing him to scramble backwards and onto his hands and knees for a second.

A body, flying through the air, shifting course from where it had been hovering right outside of his exploded window crashed into the ground, its spear slamming into the earth. Another small explosion of dirt and bushes, followed by a pained grunt.

The figure folded over onto one knee, even as Arthur managed to stand and back off further; on the full retreat as he swapped out Shadow Sense and began his various full body techniques. Two, one for Yin Aura, the other for Heavenly Sage’s Mischief.

Wishing he could get a third up…

He reached for his kris, pulling it out.

Blinked as he caught a look at his opponent for the first time. Surprise had him staring at the other, as his opponent tugged his spear out and then, staring at the broken shaft, the remaining tip and a third of its length shattered from its own attack, the man – the creature – discarded it.

“What are you…?” Arthur whispered.

Tun Rahman looked up, or the being that had masqueraded as Tun Rahman. Ghost, perhaps. For he no longer had a full body, seeming to grow indistinct and blue-white. It glowed, as it stood there, seeming to shift a little as it stalked forward, dragging forth an all too real looking kris.

"Hantu apa?" Arthur growled, when Tun Rahman drifted forwards. He wished he knew more Malaysian folklore, but by the time he'd grown up, a lot of it had drifted to the side, forgotten in the rush to modernity. Then, the Towers came and what was real and authentic and what the Tower had decided was good enough had begun to mix itself up. Western stories and concepts coming to the fore, mixing with their own lore, such that sometimes it felt like everything was a hodgepodge.

And while Arthur liked the fusion concept in his meals, he wasn't so sure about hybrid monsters. 

They just caused headaches.

"Were you always like this?" Arthur asked, trying again to get the creature to speak. He kept retreating onto the open ground, finding firm footing as he figured bad or weird ground was going to be more a deterrent for him than the ghost. And ghost, it was.

"Traitors. Kita mesti bunuh semua orang pengkhianat." 

The words were intoned, whispered outwards but without any real passion involved. It made Arthur frown, for it was this passionless recrimination that made him shiver, more than the way the figure drifted forward now.

As though all semblance at being human had been wiped away, now it was just an NPC taking action, a badly programmed one too. A part of him wondered, if Tun Rahman ever had been a person. Or was just a construct of the Tower.

If this was what fate awaited the Second Chancers, as they kept failing, over and over again. Forced to take different roles, forced to take action for the Tower, having their true will stripped away. Already, they could not speak freely, could not act like they wished.

How much of them had been taken apart, as they were tested, over and over again. What, if any, of them really was them.

What, if any, of him was really him?

That realization nearly cost him his hand, as the ghost of Tun Rahman darted forward at the last moment, crossing the ground and swiping with its kris. Only a last moment shift of his hand, a turning of the blade forward managed to achieve a block.

Then, there was no more time, as he was forced to do battle with the ghost.