Weapons of Mass Destruction

I continue down the hallway. Even though it seems old and neglected, judging by the thick layers of dust, the floor, walls, ceiling, and ornamentation show not a single sign of wear. As if they had been perfectly preserved.

On one side of the hallway, there are doors leading into rooms beyond, each in a different color. Greens, blues, yellows, reds, they all mix in a way that comes together in a surprisingly appealing fashion. The other side is lined with windows, enough to cover the entire wall, though they’re dirty and covered in sand. The fine gray sand is everywhere, piling in drifts throughout the hallway, and collecting on the windowsills, inside and out mounding against the glass, and resting against them. Really a lot of it.

I don’t check any of the rooms. Instead, I head toward the mana signature I sensed the moment I appeared here, the same one that immediately located me and shines like a beacon even now, guiding my way.

Eventually, the hallway opens up, and eventually, a passage opens in the wall of windows, and I enter a garden filled with bone white trees cleaned of leaves. Each one is beautifully shaped, and I can’t resist the urge to touch them, feeling a sense of comfort and warmth emanating from their bark.

Even here though, the fine gray sand covers every surface, piled against the trees, on benches, and gathered in the corners.

I look up at the sky locked away behind a pale blue barrier. The sky is dark and full of beautiful stars, but it’s also scattered with debris. The moon beneath us has largely shattered into pieces, each one the size of a continent back on Earth, now orbiting what little remains of the original core of the moon. And here we are as well, protected by the pale blue, dome-like translucent barrier shining weakly in the sky, sheltering all that’s left from the void of space and drifting debris.

For the first time since arriving here, I allow kinetic energy to flow, boosting myself into the air. From my elevated position, I find myself looking over a barrier that stretches across a region the size of a truly massive city. Everything inside has been protected, while everything beyond it is a wasteland of ruin, with massive craters filled with the debris of broken cities.

I land back on the ground and head toward the white tower near the barrier’s edge, which is also near the edge of the “rock” we are on. The barrier extends just enough to protect the tower; a single step beyond it would take you into outer space, the highest and never-ending jump one could make.

The tower door is made of a sort of stone that almost seems to glow in the darkness against gray sand. It opens, and I enter. There is no dust inside; it’s well lit and well maintained. But it’s silent. There are no other living beings I can detect save the signature lying in wait at the top of the tower.

Around the midpoint of the tower, the stairway ends, leading through a wall. I go there, only to find that the stairs continue, but they do so outside the tower, spiraling around as they climb. So I keep walking.

There is no railing, and a strong wind pushes my body. My mana dissipates, and I cannot use it. My kinetic energy is gone, my heart continues beating but it fails to generate any. The thermal energy that was healing my body vanishes, and I start feeling colder. And then the mana prosthesis on my damaged right arm disappears too, leaving me with a mess of bones, and the odd muscle and tendon.

The higher I climb, the more difficult it becomes. My body, deprived of its usual resources and buffeted by the wind, feels each gust threatening to knock me off the stairway, which is only wide enough for one person.

I stop for a moment, bracing against the wall as the wind blows into my face, my hair swirling wildly. I feel my clothes stretch and the cold begins to permeate through my body. The pain I’d been ignoring with my skills returns in stronger and stronger waves and the body that felt so light before now feels weighted, harder to move. My senses are so limited. I’m so slow.

Even so, I place my left hand over my chest, feeling my heart pound like a frightened little bird. I look down and realize how high I’ve climbed, the white tower extending below me. Before me, near the open air, is the barrier, which seems so weak against the endless darkness filled with stars.

I wonder if I jumped, would I pass through the barrier? Or would it stop me? And is it a prison for the man I’m going to meet, or protecting what remains of this moon? And if I fell, would my mana return before I hit the ground?

With these thoughts and many more, I continue my trek. Each step takes seconds, my left hand touching the side of the tower. Feeling the cold, rough stone against my fingertips, and the gaps between the white blocks that make up its structure, and a strange vibration I can barely perceive.

Step after step.

Eventually, I reach the point where the stairs take me back inside the tower. Only after I step in does some of the tension leave my body. My mana and my primordial energies gradually return, bringing my skills back as well, filling me with the power to which I’ve grown accustomed to.

At another time, I would be furious that everything was blocked so easily. I’ve worked hard to ensure this would never happen, and this situation will push me to work even harder. But at the same time, I understand: the man I’m heading toward is just that powerful.

Maybe not the strongest, but certainly one of the oldest Absolutes.

Warden of the Parallax Eyes, Kyralon.

POV Maya Jones

Ever since Nat ran away, things have gone to shit. It happened right after Serabeth returned, apparently failing to kill him—judging by the fact that the number of Beyond attendees didn’t decrease. The fact he isn’t talking likely means he ran to Beyond.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He really is hard to kill, that guy...

Damn, I’d like to have seen him just once after he was forced to run away. Knowing that guy, he must be so pissed off. He’s the type who is confident to the point of hubris, calm to the point of creepy, and petty to the point of scary.

I know his kind; people like him tend to climb high up there, and I plan to ride that wave as his future “knight.” Knowing Nat, he’s the type who wouldn’t mind even if I were to slack off for years and simply collect my wage in the form of items, training, and other benefits—it’d probably even be a while before he asked me to do anything really annoying. That’s my ideal employer.

Tess likes to call me shameless and asks if I have no pride, with my willingness to take on a younger guy as my boss. But she’s still young; she’ll understand as she gets older.

So don’t die on me, you asshole even if you do have the most punchable face on the 6th… no, 7th floor!

I lower the effect of my [Focus] for a bit to keep myself from getting caught up in my own bravado, letting more of my natural fear seep in, and only then do I reactivate it, albeit at a lower level.

[Focus - lvl 44 > Focus - lvl 45]

For a moment I wonder what level his [Focus] is, but after thinking about it I decide I don’t want to know. Knowing him, he’s probably broken past the level 50 bottleneck. What a monster. He was really born for that skill.

It’s at this point that Tess passes by, and I step aside so she can head off to Nat’s room to loot it. Meanwhile, I continue packing my things as well.

Tomorrow is the day we leave.

We aren’t running away though, we’re acting on Serabeth’s orders, they’re sending all non-essential personnel away. Apparently, we’ve already drawn too much attention, so we’re leaving on foot rather than using teleportation.

Personally, I blame Nathaniel’s black crown for permanently ruining a large part of the camp’s defenses, to the point where the Champion himself had to intervene. Interestingly enough, he didn’t waste energy trying to destroy it, opting instead to simply flick it away, sending it miles and miles off. People seem to do that pretty often with Nathaniel’s black mana, choosing to just get rid of it and make it someone else’s problem. The same way people tend to handle Nat.

But that’s enough of that. I take control of my thoughts again and [Focus], suppressing a more targeted range of my emotions.

Like everyone else, I continue my preparations until Lily passes by. I notice the expression on her face so I jump at her, pull her into a hug from behind, and whisper, “It will be fine. He will be fine. We’ll all be ok.”

I feel her body tense up, but when she looks at me, she’s smiling. “It will be. Because I’m here.”

I let her go and reply. “You’re wrath, not pride.”

“It will be fine because I’ll destroy anything in our way?”

“Much better! Now, while Tess is busy robbing Nathaniel’s room, let’s go check on Sophie and the twins. Izzy said they’re planning on trying something scary with Blackie and Ardenyx.”

POV Myrra

“Little kitten, how have you progressed with the mind defense technique I showed you?”

"I think I'm doing well. It's hard to tell without someone actively trying to take over my mind."

We’re both standing at the top of the hill, looking over the bank of a lake. Hundreds of towers pierce the sky down there. But Lady Lissandra seems to be looking somewhere beyond the city instead.

She sits down, motions for me to do the same, then opens her hand. And like I’ve done many times before, I put mine into hers. Then she brings out one of the last pieces of the heart I took from the man she ordered me to kill when we met Nathaniel.

As before, my body starts to itch and a high-frequency ringing fills my ears. It hurts, but it’s something I can endure.

“I’m bored, Lady Lissandra,” I complain.

“Train.”

"I'm doing that, but I'm tired of all this training."

"Then keep training until you're not tired of it anymore."

I groan, my tail twisting in annoyance as well. At this point, I really wouldn’t mind stepping into a city full of mind mages. I bet I could find some interesting things to do there. Fun people to observe, maybe even someone interesting to bully.

“Are we going to kill someone again?” I ask her.

“We’ll be testing your mind defense training in the city while I take over that shoddy Framework they made.”

“Do I want to know what you’re planning to do with it? Actually… just tell me, please. I’m too curious.”

“You lynthari make for hopeless students, little kitten. Your attention span is too short.”

“I’m not sorry.”

"Of course, you’re not. Once we secure your status and before we leave this floor, I will take some time to level up."

“A bit?”

"Yes. I will reshape their Framework, the Spatial Locks, and the prison they connect to in a particularly intriguing way."

“I always worry when you say something will be ‘intriguing’, Lady Lissandra.”

She ignores me, her eyes fixed on the empty space above the city. “I’ll use it to power my [Singularity]. That should be enough to deal a considerable amount of damage to this Astral Prison. Remaining at level 100 forever is not an option, and this will pave the way for an intriguing Primary Class upgrade.”

Lady Lissandra’s fingers tighten around the shard of the heart, the faint pulse within it radiating an unsettling energy. She tilts her head, her gaze never leaving that invisible point above the city. For a moment, I think she’s done speaking, but then her voice comes, calm and deliberate.

“Little kitten, tell me, what would you do if there were no rules? No boundaries?”

The question catches me off guard, and I blink at her, my ears twitching. “I… don’t know. Why?”

“Because that’s where you need to exist. Not within the lines someone else has drawn for you but beyond them.”

Her words sink in, cold and sharp, but I can’t quite form a response. The way she speaks, as if the world itself is little more than a puzzle she’s already solved.

She finally turns to me, her pale eyes gleaming with a quiet intensity. “Do you want to play in a city full of mind mages, little kitten?”

I swallow, my tail curling tighter under a sudden wave of fear. “Y-yes.”

Her smile is faint and chilling. “Good. Let’s begin.”