Tower of Endless: Death Granted Entry

Samuel explained one last time to Moon, who had finally finished stripping everything he had on including the pendant.

He placed them outside at the side below the platform, before returning to the center again.

Now naked, he sat cross-legged on the stone.

After a life of beatings and countless deaths, this meant nothing.

Fate Alert didn’t warn him of anything threatening either.

Though the cold stone pressed against his bare skin as he adjusted slightly. It felt more unpleasant than he thought it would.

He brought his shoulders down, exhaling slowly.

Moon nodded. ”I’m ready.” He shut his eyes tightly.

Samuel took a step back. His index finger pointed at where Moon sat, and every single arcane circle followed.

”We’re starting with shockwave,” Samuel announced.

Each circle produced a sound, like rapid explosions, aiming at Moon, and this time, his body did feel them, but no echo was drawn yet.

Watching the scene, Samuel seemed to have expected that much.

”Shockwave will remain. Lightning Pulse will be added,” Samuel added.

Moon had no idea what he was speaking about, but it was rather assuring that he was explaining, though once he thought about his character more, it wasn’t very reassuring.

But even that didn’t matter. For now, his main focus should be unleashing his echo.

Around Moon, another set of circles started producing sounds that buzzed threateningly, and with it came another set of attacks aimed at him.

He felt the urge to walk away from the attacks, to defend or take cover, but he kept trying his best to suppress his natural impulses.

These attacks were gradually becoming more painful, but not to the point of drawing his voice.

He wasn’t sure if it was thanks to Pain Tolerance he saw on his status window a while ago, or if it was just not powerful enough to threaten him.

”No new attributes will be introduced. Power will start increasing gradually.”

The sounds got slightly louder.

And so did the damage inflicted on Moon.

Gradually, the damage was increasing and accumulating.

A few burn marks started appearing.

Some bruises followed, accumulating on his arms and chest.

Yet that was not enough to draw out the sensation he was seeking, nor ignite his echo to defend him.

He wasn’t sure if the problem was indeed his constitution or his lifestyle.

Maybe he had a lifetime of beatings, and that beating no longer felt like a threat.

But at some point.

Ding

Fate Alert

30% → 30%

He opened his eyes ajar, looking absentmindedly for a moment.

’Is it the Tower’s way of saying you’re getting beaten so badly but don’t worry, you won’t die?’ he thought absentmindedly before shutting his eyes again.

But disregarding everything, he had to commend Samuel’s ability to control this chaotic mess. He was never once hit where it would be visible or take too long to recover.

Not a single attack was aimed at his face, head, neck, or spine. Not a strand of his hair was cut or scorched.

The attacks kept raining, and some spots started bleeding as well.

”Flame Coil will be added, lowest output,” Samuel announced.

This attack wasn’t loud, but it manifested suddenly.

As the name suggested, Flame Coil was a ring of flames that tightly coiled around the body without stopping.

The flame was obviously hot, but not scorching. It was painful, but not damaging.

But not for long.

”Increasing output gradually.”

The moment Samuel announced it, the heat increased, along with the force of the coil squeezing him.

The other attacks didn’t cease, but they started to become more rapid, aggressive, and damaging.

Moon gritted his teeth. Now it really was painful. Scorch marks started appearing on his chest and arms.

Ding

Fate Alert

30% → 30.1%

It was starting to feel threatening, only over a long period of time, but for now, it wasn’t.

And the more it increased, the more it felt like a pain he had recently experienced.

The burning he suffered on the way through the rift, being transported from the first trial to the second floor.

The pain that scorched his neck, the one from his slave mark.

The day he found his freedom but felt threatened by becoming a slave again.

The more the burning increased, the more he was lost in that sensation, the joy he felt, and the fear of having that stripped away.

The threatening sensation that nearly devoured everything. The binding of the coil didn’t let him run or escape.

He couldn’t keep his eyes closed, and when they were open, fear and panic were the only things to be seen in them.

He kept trying to break free, tried to stand, fight back against the scorch, but failed. Moon was not going back to being a nameless number.

Teacher Samuel didn’t let him break free. He just watched and restrained him. He had already made his decision, and there was no going back.

He tightened his restraints further, stripping him of any way to move.

And this very action ignited the existential fear that had taken root long ago in his heart. It started to bloom.

But unlike that time during his ascension, today the threat was not as powerful or suppressive.

It was just flames.

Flames growing stronger, threatening to brand him again.

And he couldn’t allow that to happen.

Without warning, a formless wave started creeping out, spreading from his body outward.

Attempting to block the flames from branding his body.

But it was way weaker than the flames. Way too weak.

But he soon realized there was more. He could draw more than this.

So more echo started protecting him.

But that wasn’t everything.

A small blackness started to taint his formless wave of echo, giving it color like a drop of ink spreading.

It grew bigger, blocking the flames successfully.

Only then.

Snap.

Teacher Samuel snapped his finger, turning everything, the raging assault against Moon, into nothing, deactivating every arcane circle in an instant.

What was left was Moon, looking at himself, at the blackness that felt suffocating and foreign, but also was his very own.

”This is... death echo,” he exclaimed.

It was his first time seeing it, but it was obvious.

Teacher Samuel watched for a long moment before he started speaking.

”This doesn’t look like a 7,” Samuel commented before adding, ”the problem was not your constitution. Your body doesn’t block your echo senses.”

Samuel explained slowly, in a very uncharacteristic way.

”Your sense of danger is sharp, but just danger was not enough.”

Samuel added, ”You have accepted danger as part of normality, and have adapted to live with it. Being harmed, even getting close to death by a hair’s breadth, that was normality. You have accepted this aspect of your life completely, that it was fine if you get killed.

”But deep down, you still had one thing that felt more threatening than death. Something you would rather die than experience again.”

Moon listened in silence.

He was right.

He was right to a frightening degree.

What he had seen, what he went through during his life till the trial, made death more desirable.

Death was his lesser evil.

Something he would gladly take, but not suffer existing as someone’s property.

”As for this—”