Tower of Endless: Death Granted Entry

Moon kept reading the logs over and over without pause... His eyes darter left and right continuously.

There was that one single line, a line that nearly blew his mind.

Involuntarily, his frozen face started moving again, but it didn’t move much past wide open eyes and mouth.

[User must find a way to seal either Death Energy or complete energy output.]

His hand, trying to stop his mind from exploding, sought out his head, holding it from both sides firmly.

”I’m cooked!” he shrieked.

’So this is the end result no matter what I did.’ His mind tried to wrap around this, for this was the only absolute truth.

He must find a way to seal it regardless of the timing, and timing was not flexible either... It was rather vague.

His deadline was after energy had finally caught up with whatever mentality was, if he understood correctly.

And that would naturally happen the moment he passed the second trial, unless he doesn’t take the trial.

According to Uon’s lectures, Personal Echo capacity increases naturally as part of the ascension process, but in some rare cases, ascenders can increase their capacity during the trial itself or by intensive training.

Yet, the other part of the equation remained a mystery.

’What the hell is this mentality thing?’

Uon never mentioned it, nor did the blue window hold anything hinting at what mentality could be or even giving it a parameter.

What does it even do other than hinder energy, or rather, Echo?

Save for the fact that the crimson only had Physicality, but the blue had Strength, Stamina, and Agility, each independently.

What does that 4 mean at all?

And that insights section... what the fuck are insights into existence? What existence... wasn’t it a battle?

”It was a damn long ass battle, brutal and bloody... what existence are you talking about?”

But right now, that was not very important... He tried to focus again on the problem and stop his mind from drifting to every single source of anxiety his eyes could detect.

He thought again. Uon mentioned a stat called Intelligence that’s only available for registered arcanists. He said that Intelligence was related to fine Echo Control.

But then again, his eyes fell on a line.

Energy Control F.

He punched the wall, ”F... for fuck this stupid shit.” frustration was not containable.

He knew very well that someone who couldn’t properly retract his echo had no way of having an intelligence value at all even, it was probably absolute zero.

Everything seemed impossible for him entirely.

What was he supposed to seal it with?

How does a slave till last week like him find someone to seal it?

His eyes fell on his clothes he loved so much, then on Liquid Mountain, the blade he cherished from the bottom of his heart.

”Shouldn’t you have given me a seal instead...” he shouted at the window.

He felt an urge to burn his clothes down, this useless shit...

He cursed.

Cursed everything all over again.

”Hey kid, who are you cursing at?” The door dragged open, and a familiar voice came through.

What entered first was a round shape, before the owner of this roundness made an appearance. It was Chef Ed.

Behind him, Samuel was walking as slowly as ever, same face unchanged.

Once both were inside, Samuel waved his hand, and the entrance dragged itself closed again.

Moon snapped back. ”Everything. In this shit situation I found myself in, I can’t find a single thing not worth cursing at.”

Ed leaned forward at the smaller Moon. ”Fuck this shit.” He cursed with him.

He said it briefly without another word, but he did the same thing Samuel did.

He tried to test the Death Echo engulfing Moon’s body. He extended his finger to touch it, and the same thing happened.

It avoided his hands.

Then he decided to try something different that Samuel’s attempt. He released a small amount of his Echo on his finger and slowly aimed at Moon’s hand.

His Echo had a weird cutting quality that felt like he was already holding a blade....

Or rather, Moon felt this thing was more threatening, more unhinged that any knife or blade he has ever seen.

That very blade was antagonizing whoever looked at it, glaring back with sharpness instead of gaze.

Moon Echo reacted instantly to the incoming threat.

It started started moving like a wave, from all over his body gathering as one, defending him from the incoming cutting blade like Echo.

It was obvious that Ed’s Echo was not only finely controlled, but also felt like an entirely different quality to Moon’s.

Yet, that still was not the decisive factor in this battle.

Moon’s ghastly echo kept flowing back and forth, gathering and dispersing maintaining the defense like it had a mind of it’s own... But Ed was not done yet.

His other hand, without a trace of Echo moved.

Smack~

”Ouch”

Bashing Moon’s head without the slightest attempt of resistance.

Ed’s eyebrows went up, ”This is weird,” He commented.

His thoughts seemed to be in sync with Samuel’s,

This blackness felt, smelled, and looked exactly like Death Echo, but for some reason it behaved differently.

”How weird?” Moon asked.

”Like... completely different.”

”What exactly is different?” Moon was on the verge of cursing.

Ed thought for a moment. ”It’s been a very long while since I came across this thing, but usually it would try to invade my body. If someone is weak, they could die instantly before realizing what exactly was happening...”

”Would they turn into undead?”

”Not necessarily, they just die... it’s rare to see even an undead born that way.”

Moon’s mind raced. It could produce undead, but rarely... not from weak ones.

”What if it was someone strong?”

”Brat, listen well... Death Echo gathers en masse in nature. Your flimsy amount is at most the level of an average zombie. It won’t hurt anything,” Ed retorted. ”Death Echo can at most make life hard for strong ones... so don’t overestimate this shit.”

Moon didn’t know if Ed was messing with him or just irrelevantly attacking him. He growled. ”How did this happen to me?”

”Like hell if I know... Samuel was the one playing with these undead assholes. If he doesn’t know, there’s no way in hell I would.”

Throbbing veins nearly bulged on Moon’s temples, on the small part exposed behind his long hair. He looked at Samuel unknowingly eyes pleading ’Why did you bring him?’

Though, no answer came.

’Should I curse this pig’s entire bloodline, or slap the shit out of him?’ Moon thought, but dismissed the idea as soon as it came.

He would lose any help he might receive, and at worst, he could turn into a bloody smear on the wall.

He wasn’t in that trial zone, he couldn’t revive anymore... He can die now once for all.

These two were strong. That much he was sure of.

He released a pent-up breath. ”Is there any way my situation could be replicated?”

”Not that I heard of. Not naturally at least.”

”FUCK DAMMIT.”

”Or artificially either... it’s just impossible.”

Random screams and curses

”Noisy brat.”