Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

To make matters worse, instead of giving an explanation, the cat man remained frozen in his deep bowing pose, his ears twitching slightly as if expecting a wave of wild applause. But the sheer absurdity of the situation had numbed everyone into a heavy, awkward silence.

Uhtred simply stared. Diya blinked, looking thoroughly dazed.

It was only after the silence stretched thin that Zara started to clap first. She brought her hands together in a slow, unbothered clap that seemed to break everyone from their stunned trance.

Uhtred let out a low breath and followed her lead, clapping his hands together, and Diya joined in a second later.

Like a chain reaction, the confused applause rippled outward. The citizens of the Capitol watching from all over the city began to clap with wildly varying expressions — some baffled, some amused, others completely dumbfounded. Across the rest of the planet, the billions watching through the hovering screens also began to clap.

Only then did the cat man gleefully lift his head, placing his long top hat neatly back over his feline ears.

”Hahaha!”

He let out a hearty, high-pitched laugh and leapt straight into the air, hovering effortlessly. His small figure began whizzing around rapidly mid-air, floating like a crimson streak. The giant screens in the sky tracked his every movement, panning and tilting to keep his animated face centered for the global audience.

”Thank you! Thank you, inhabitants of Planet Earth!” he called out brightly, waving a white paw as if he hadn’t just stood there waiting for their praise. ”You are far too kind!”

He brought his flight to a sudden halt, hovering in place, and cleared his throat dramatically with a small ahem.

”Allow me to formally introduce myself! I am Handler Roy!” he announced proudly, sweeping his arm wide. ”And as you can clearly see, I am an alien to you humans on Earth!”

He paused, letting the statement hang in the air, before leaning toward the camera lens with a playful wink.

”Now, now! You do not need to worry,” he joked, waving his paw dismissively. ”I am not here to take over your planet!”

He burst into a loud, self-amused laugh, slapping his knee as if he had just delivered the funniest joke ever.

But once again, complete silence met his laughter. Not a single person in the Capitol, nor across the planet, joined in. They only looked at him, wondering exactly what sort of crazy being they’d gotten as a handler.

Undeterred by the complete lack of reaction, Handler Roy smoothed down his red tuxedo coat, utterly unmindful of the silence, and continued naturally.

”Right then! Moving along!” he purred. ”I have been officially appointed as the Handler for Planet Earth! I shall be overseeing the ten individuals who will represent your planet in the trial of the Illustrious Tower of Wonders!”

He puffed out his chest, his tone shifting into a slightly more formal cadence, though his tail continued to flick rhythmically behind his coat.

”Now, pay close attention to this next part, for I shall say it very clearly!” Handler Roy cleared his throat again. ”This trial... is not compulsory. For those who are selected, you may choose to decline if you wish! You are under no obligation to participate!”

He hovered a bit closer to the ground of the city, his eyes sweeping over the crowd.

”Why, you ask? Because this trial is not a System creation!”

”The Tower is not a construct created by the System! It is marvelous! Illustrious! A tower of wonder and unspeakable mysteries! But its origins did not come from the System. No one knows where or when it appeared, or who created it! All that is known is that whoever did was powerful enough to make the System give this trial out to every single newly integrated world after their first year!”

”Still, the System does not force anyone into this trial! I must make this vehemently, undeniably clear! You have a choice!”

He seemed intent on repeating the disclaimer a dozen more times, gesturing wildly, as if it were a strict legal necessity he needed to get off his chest.

”We’ve all heard you,” Uhtred spoke out with a sigh, his voice cutting the Handler’s repetitive words off. ”Will you please move on?”

Handler Roy paused mid-motion, turning his head in the air to look down at Uhtred from where he was hovering. A wide, toothy smile split his feline face.

”Oho! Impatient, aren’t we?” he purred happily, doing a quick mid-air backflip. ”Well then! Let me begin by selecting my ten champions for Planet Earth!!!”

”Huzzah!!!” he shouted, sweeping his paw wide across the sky as if performing a grand magic trick.

In the direction he waved his hand, seven separate pillars of light flashed down, and seven individuals suddenly appeared, hovering in the sky atop invisible platforms. Surprised and confused shouts broke out from them as they looked around, pulled from various corners of the globe by some unknown spatial mechanism.

Handler Roy soared into the air around them, announcing them spectacularly for the entire world to hear:

”First! The free-flying Nordic lady of Ice — White Raven!”

All the screens hovering in the air across every territory focused instantly on a dark-haired, pale-skinned woman. She looked silent and cold, her sharp eyes immediately inspecting the hovering invisible platform that seemed to be holding her weight in the air, along with the other ascenders who had suddenly appeared alongside her.

As whatever cameras were projecting to the global screens focused on her, despite not being able to see them directly, she felt a sudden weight of attention and immediately, she raised an arm to shield her face from the projection.

The excited handler zoomed past her to the next person.

”The dastardly handsome descendant of the kingdom of Persia — Hassan Al-Malik!”

Unlike White Raven, Hassan Al-Malik relished the spotlight the moment it shone on him.

Despite not knowing exactly what was going on or how he had been transported here, he still smiled coolly and waved at the invisible cameras, striking the hearts of many ladies watching across the world with his charm.

Handler Roy grew even more gleeful, practically purring as if he had just found a key personality who was going to make his job significantly easier.

He zipped over to the third person...